Sunday, March 3

Lunch at the Carrick Hotel yesterday was great.  We kept it low-key so there were just 6 of us but Marilyn had organised a cake for the occasion.  It was tall - three layers covered in icing - and the top was decorated with bobbins, reels of cotton, scissors, etc , all made with icing.  It was created by a Filipina friend who is married to a fellow who was Principal of Giant Steps after me.

The food is always great there and I was brave enough to try Venison and Duck sausages: not bad but I probably wouldn't have them again.

Robyn flies home this afternoon.  It's always nice to have people but we look forward to having the place to ourselves again.  We have a comfortable routine, not too much conversation, no arguments about what to watch on TV, and so on.  I wonder if we're becoming set in our ways in our old age.

Saturday, March 2

Our friend, Robyn is staying with us at the moment. Her 80th birthday is next month and we won't be able to be in Wollongong to help her celebrate so she has come to Tassie instead.  We're taking her out to lunch today and there will be a birthday cake and everything.  The situation is complicated by the fact that today is Marilyn's actual birthday but, of course, she is determined not to overshadow Robyn's celebration and we will acknowledge Marilyn at a later time.

It's a bit cooler today so there's a lot of discussion about appropriate clothes to wear to the lunch.

Yesterday was my regular Poetry and Writing classes.  This term, the Poetry class has reduced itself to just 7 and that includes the old-fashioned pedantic ones who believed that good poetry begins and end with Wordsworth.  I offered a poem yesterday called The Caveman's Lament and it went down like a lead balloon.

The Writing group has grown to 18! When reading our stories, our rule is 'no more than 800 words' but a couple of newbies are pushing the boundaries.  If I were the boss, I'd ring a bell when I thought they had talked enough but everyone else is too polite. I don't know where it will end but my enjoyment of the classes is being sorely tested.