Hi there, at last some exciting news, Trev and Edie are engaged, they told me this afternoon, wedding date yet to be decided. I told Lukie this was the best news as I now would get another grandson although I was prepared to share him with his other grandparents. His grin was from ear to ear.

I am well pleased with their engagement, Trev needs to have a wife, a job, a mortgage etc. He is in his mid-thirties as is Edie so they will be fine together. I will never be able to repay him though for what he has done for Ray, he has been just brilliant the past couple of years. He has been my emergency back-stop and even moved back to two doors over to support us when Ray was back to having falls again.

Ray is in respite to give me a break. I hate to do it in a way as I miss him and he misses home but for my sanity and well being it has to be done. I am sleeping right through the night and wake up ready to face the day. I have only done ONE load of laundry in four days, not a load every day. The house is cleaned and stays cleaned, the beds are changed, clean and dry.

The spring clean is not going well. I am bad at sorting boxes, as I don’t really want to throw anything away. I admit it – I am a pack rat. I have sorted clothes, packed away winter clothes, reviewed summer clothes and have given some to charity too. I need to do a lot more of this and then I will be ready to wash walls, re-curtain windows etc. Well that is the theory anyway. It seems as if I am not going to get the bathroom renovated at this stage as my tradesman has hurt his back…sigh.

Mum is locked down in her dementia nursing unit with a gastro bug going through the place so I have been unable to see her. I feel sorry about that as this would have been an ideal time to spend some extra time with her. I make such wonderful plans but they rarely come to fruition. I guess that joins me to the majority of the human race.

Joy comes in all kinds of forms so I will continue to look for it every day. There is so much in our local area to appreciate, not the bugs who just ate off my coriander, or the ones that attacked my lettuces but the parrots hanging upside down in the grevillias (bottle brush) when I look out my back door are certainly a delight. And the brush turkey was back in my back yard briefly yesterday scratching up the garden rubbish I had neatly piled up. I will have to attack that job again tomorrow.

I have been talking to a lot of people, since Ray has been away I have had more time for phone calls so am using that time to catch up with some of the old friends I haven’t spoken to for a while. These are ones who never contact us but I like them so want to keep in touch. One day we might get together again, who knows? We have the long distances to cover, for instance the cousin I caught up with while Shirley was in Cairns is still 1700 miles away but one day I might take a trip back there to see her again.

I am going away for a few days next week so I will miss my chat but I am sure the people who come on regularly will do just fine without me. They are all so supportive of me and each other that it has made my job as a chat host such a pleasure.

In the meantime I had better go on with the spring cleaning. Was that a dust bunny I just saw running under that bed?