Hospice

I have been putting off phoning a friend who is dying in a Queensland hospice. I wrote him a letter, but not had the courage to speak with him until today. Other colleagues from my Papua New Guinea teaching days assured me that he is in good spirits and enjoys a chat.

When I rang him he was indeed in good spirits and told me of his daily visitors and phone calls from all over Australia. He mentioned that he had intended to visit W.A. again this September, but wont be able to make it. He has made a list of contacts for his friends to ring upon his departure. Very organised is Bob. I will ring weekly for a short chat.

Our son, under the influence of 'medication' gave a front guard a bit of a scrape on Joan's car. I took it to our tame panelbeater to get a 'cashy' done. He quoted me $350 folding money for the job. I figured I would make an insurance claim and only pay the $100 excess. It turns out that after a previous dingle the insurance company upped the excess to $400, so we went ahead with the 'cashy' and all is as new again. Might look into changing companies.
A before and after
My 'upside down' tomatoes are doing well. I planted two varieties; cherry tomatoes and some Grosse Lisse. The cherry tomatoes are growing much faster than the Grosse Lisse. Go small people! My brother wants to know how to cook an upside-down tomato.??

Another group of Papua New Guinea colleagues is returning to PNG for a look see in a couple of weeks. PNG is an expensive place to visit and Port Moresby, the capital, has the reputation of being the most dangerous city in the world. See here. Haven't they heard of Baghdad? I declined an offer to accompany them as they were to spend some time in the highlands. I was mostly on the coast when I/we taught there and the highlands is also 'wild west' country with lots of AK47s and holdups, rape and murders are common place. Not for me.