December 25th .....

This time of the year brings out the best and the worst in people. The last fortnight has shown us just how pleasant and helpful people can be, but also how rude and offensive others are. No doubt, the stresses of Christmas: the expense, the busyness, the expectations, all make it a difficult time, but it will be great to get past January 1st and get on with a more realistic life.

We flew to Sydney on the 21st, picked up a hire car and drove down to Wollongong. Our original plan was to drive straight up to Mudgee but it’s a good five-hour drive and we didn’t get the car until 6pm so it put on too much pressure. Instead, we decided to have a night in Wollongong and drive to Mudgee in daylight. We hired the car from Redspot this time; I’m fed up with trying to compare the prices from the major companies and there is always some item I don’t know about until the final bill comes in. Redspot quote an all-inclusive price, with no insurance excess so you know what the final cost will be before you start.

We picked up a nearly-new Commodore which gave Marilyn plenty of room for her leg and headed for Sandy and Janet’s for dinner, before driving to Warilla to stay with our friend, Robyn. She had been at a Christmas Party and didn’t get home until about 9.30 so it all fitted in very well.

Next morning, Marilyn wanted to go to the crematorium to put flowers on her mother’s plaque. It’s been a family tradition to visit the placements on Christmas Day so it was good that she was able to represent the family on this task. My father and niece are there too, and Marilyn’s grandparents, aunts and uncles, and her brother-in-law’s family as well, so there were quite a number of small bunches needed.


This task completed, we called into Macdonald’s for coffee and cakes to take to Mum and Uncle Archie at the nursing home. It’s too difficult to take them both out for morning tea (we can’t get both the wheelchair and walking frame in the car) so we bring in the little delights which they miss.

Sadly, Mum was very sleepy and kept dropping off so she didn’t get to enjoy the occasion. Uncle Archie, though, was in good form and really got stuck in to the sweet treats. I suspect he doesn’t always go to breakfast so he was probably hungry.

We got away before lunch and headed up the road. The section between Wollongong and Penrith is pretty quick but once we hit the Blue Mountains, the traffic slowed down. There’s a lot of roadworks going on, which will be terrific in the long run, but keeps the traffic to a crawl in the meantime.

After Lithgow, we get on to the narrow road to Mudgee. It’s quite a reasonable road but slow in parts. However, we arrived in plenty of time to visit Bill’s nursing home and pick up the keys to Anne and Alan’s house.

Bill seemed fine and was very pleased to see us. The difference between The Links in Wollongong and the Mudgee Nursing Home is very marked. At the Links, the staff are few and far-between and often there is no-one on the floor. In Mudgee, there are always many staff around. Even on Christmas Day, the ‘skeleton staff’ was six people plus the cleaner and laundry lady who were on for four hours in the morning.

Mudgee is very green; they’ve had a lot of rain and it shows. The sheep on Alan’s property are healthy and very heavy with wool. Apparently, they’re due for shearing but it probably won’t happen until the new year. The sheep are in the habit of sleeping outside the gate to the house enclosure so the ground there is covered with sheep manure and the smell is appalling. I think we’re city people at heart.

The property, Saxby Downs, is about 20 minutes out of town. When Marilyn decided we would bring Bill out for a visit, we rang the local Maxi Taxi who picked him up and brought him out. The driver, Amy, said it wasn’t worth her while driving back to town so stayed and had afternoon tea with us and then took Bill home, with no extra charge. It could only happen in the country.

The house is beautiful with stunning views. It has been renovated to accommodate three families and guests so there is plenty of room.


Christmas Lunch at the nursing home was great. They set Bill and Marilyn and I in a separate room with another resident, Heather, and her mother. The five of us were served separately. The meal was very tasty: ham and turkey, roast vegetables, and Christmas pudding and custard for dessert. We missed the wine but you can’t have everything.

It was an unusual Christmas but enjoyable, none-the-less.