One funeral and a wake

This afternoon we are attending Haddon's funeral. Joan helped write the eulogy and Dennis, who is brave enough to read it, made a few additions and changes. It is a good farewell tribute. There will be a wake held in Marg and Haddon's backyard.

Joan has had another setback with her chemotherapy. The Xeloda has once again caused nasty side effects…this time the Hands and Feet Syndrome where capillaries in the extremities burst and cause considerable pain. She stopped taking Xeloda this morning and this evening the oncologist is to ring and discuss the next move.

In recent months Joan has thought that she should have a new car….a red one! Her first car was a red Fiat 500 Bambino and she reckons her last car should be a red one too.

We looked at several brands around the $20k price…Mazda2, Hyundai i20, and lastly the Ford Fiesta. We 'drove past' several other brands which didn't appeal. We were waiting for the release of the i20 and when it arrived this week, we were a little disappointed. The Mazda is quality but rather large for a small car. When we took the Ford for a drive we were sold. For $21k drive away it is loaded with features the others cannot match….too many to list here, but one nice one is voice command which controls all the electronics. Tell it to start the radio and it asks for a location…'720 ABC' and hey presto ABC starts. Same with Bluetooth phone, CD and iPod.

Anyway, we signed up and made a deposit to buy a red Fiesta with a wait period of 5-6 weeks. Then they told us that there is only one red one here and it has been sold. I took the man aside an explained about Joan's condition. They agreed to refund the deposit if we aren't completely satisfied. This morning Joan is still very keen on the Fiesta and is thinking a silver one might be OK if we have to wait months to see a red one delivered from Europe. Of course we don't know the wait time on a silver car either at this stage. Waiting for a call from the salesman.