Easy Reader

I'm enjoying this book.

It is easy to read. The language is not overly academic. It is not set at intellectuals. It is warmhearted. It is honest. Chapters are introduced with an interesting photograph. The writing varies from narratives to jottings.

A bit like a blog really.

Let's do coffee...

When he said he was returning to Oz for a holiday, I suggested hopefully that he might make time to meet for coffee with a fellow Oz blogger and he kindly did exactly that. We met yesterday at the Tropicana where I bored the poor man silly with talk about me.

I'm envious that he is living in New York and hopefully he'll continue with his blog and pictures of life there so that I can feed my envy for a while longer.

Nice meeting you, Ian.

Gratitude

Thanks for all the messages following the death of my mother.

I was quite touched also by the number of calls from friends and associates, some of whom I had lost contact with for many years.

The funeral was today and my mother is now at peace.

I'm holding up well apart from sleepless nights over the weekend since Mum's death and am looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight (fingers crossed). Next stop, the wide excision surgery on Wednesday after which I hopefully can return to happier and more mundane missives related to my life and interests.

I'm also looking forward to catching up on my blog reading.

Chocolate overdose

One of the nice things about volunteering is the generosity of employers, workmates and others who show appreciation for our efforts with end of year gifts.

This year at both the hospital and the nursing home I have received an embarrassing amount of gifts. I've even received a gift from an inpatient simply because she felt I put her at ease on her admission; that is, just for doing my job. The gifts include several hampers of goodies and far too many chocolates, the latter testing my sweet tooth addiction to the limit.

I'm sharing the chocolates around and trying not to get too big a head in awareness (to paraphrase Sally Field) that 'they appreciate me, the really appreciate me'.