Monday, August 29th …..

I’m off to the doctor this afternoon to have my hip checked. It’s really no better than it was when I first complained three weeks ago so it’s time to have it looked at. It’s held me back a bit and I haven’t been able to do some of the things I had on my list. This morning I moved some stuff from the back verandah into the shed and then I had to sit down to recover. Not much fun!

Because of this, we’ve seen quite a bit of TV. We watched a three-part series called Above Suspicion, based on some Lynda La Plante novels and it was fantastic. We always like Silent Witness and this was in the same league. Now we’re watching the second series of Ashes to Ashes and becoming very involved in that. It’s a bit over the top but that’s OK.

The rugby match on Saturday night was magic. I like Rugby, especially when Australia plays the All Blacks, but to see such a good Australian win is out of this world.

Yesterday we were invited to a barbecue to welcome our friend Siaren’s husband to Australia. Siaren is the Filipina Occupational Therapist we brought to Tasmania in 2005. She was married in the Philippines in September last year (we were at their wedding) and it has taken her this long to get his visa to join her in Tasmania. We decided I would put together a platter of good Australian fruit as our contribution to the meal. It looked terrific but the grapes came from the US, the dates from Mexico, the apricots from Turkey, and the kiwi fruit from New Zealand. Oh well, at least the macadamia nuts were Australian.

Siaren had invited some of their Filipino friends who all arrived with their Australian husbands, which I thought was good, until the men all left to go to the football! So I sat there, the only man in the house apart from the guest-of-honour. Only in Australia! Our other Filipina Occupational Therapist, Shiela, was there and she is very pregnant. Of the 5 specialists we brought out to Australia, three are living in Tasmania, one is in Singapore, and only one has returned to Manila. And that’s how it is in the modern Philippines. Their best and brightest are living elsewhere. A bit like Tasmania, in fact!