Friday, August 30, 2019

I have decided to join the Launceston School for Seniors which offers courses in a whole range of topics.  It seems there are over 500 enrolled in their courses at the moment so it's a pretty dynamic concern and covers things like Mahjong, Model making, French and History.  I've been writing a bit and wanted to learn some techniques so I've enrolled in Creative Writing Co-op. which meets each Friday morning, starting on October 4th.

We'll be away on Registration Day so I sent them an email to express my interest and was delighted to receive a 'phone call back from their secretary whom, it turns out, we knew well when we were living at Grammar.       She surprised me by saying that she often checks my now-defunct blog to see whether I have written anything recently.  So, to thank Vicki for expediting my enrolment in the group, I've dusted off the blog just one more time.

We're quite busy at the moment because Nera's family are visiting from the Philippines. First two sisters came with 2 of Nera's nephews and stayed for a month.  Now her mother is here with one of the sisters and their plan is to have a three-month holiday.  Jamie and Nera will go back to the Philippines with them in December to celebrate the marriage of the youngest sister, Keisha May.   

Nera, of course, is working full-time so Jamie takes a lot of the responsibility of looking after them during week-days.  He occasionally brings them out to Dilston to have lunch and spend a couple of hours with us for a change of scene.  Nera's mother is struggling with the cold weather but it's still a great adventure for her.

Marilyn and I have been doing a couple of days a week volunteering at the local Salvo's shop but I'm finding it difficult to do some of the tasks required and I'm afraid I'll have to give it up.  My knees won't take long periods of standing and my back struggles with bending tasks, so I'm a bit of a write-off.  My mind is still active, though, and I still enjoy working on the computer.

We visited an old gentleman in Deloraine recently.  He's 93 and has been a wood craftsman all his life.  In his living room, apart from his collection of craft, he had a stack of exercise books in which he was writing in long hand.  He explained that he was writing his memoirs as a series of stories or anecdotes.  He'd given some early bits to someone to type them up but she'd lost them, so he was having to re-write - at 93!

Marilyn suggested, if I wanted to do something similar, I should get started before it was too late.  I hadn't really thought about it but have taken it on board and joining the Creative Writing group is part of that project.  How hard can it be?