Grandma

Gran died a few months ago. She'd been sick for a long time so it wasn't a surprise but it was still very sad and we miss her a lot. This has been the first Christmas without her. When I was going through some of the camcorder film I found various clips of Gran. This is a compilation.

Gran and her Gorbo toy - Gorbo was a lovely cat who used to belong to Dave and I but when we moved overseas, Gran adopted him. She missed him dreadfully when she had to give him to Dad to look after when she moved into the nursing home, so this was the next best thing.



Gran and her sister Aunty Evelyn - at Ken and Espie's house, cuddling and posing for photographs in their lounge.



Visiting Gran at Sims Lodge - with Mum, Dave and I. Gran is quite lively here, walking around and talking, albeit somewhat gingerly. I especially like how she attacked Mum in the beginning with a barrage of kisses!



Gran in Queenscliff - this was in June 2004, the time I rushed back to Australia for a 4 day visit as Mum told me Gran was ill! It turned out that she rallied and was so well on one of the days I visited her that I got to take her outside for a short wheel around the local shops. This was the last time I was with Gran when she was awake and lively. At the end of this we went to a teashop and everyone - including Gran - enjoyed some tea and cake.

visiting Melbourne (Jan 2003)

In the days after Christmas Dave and I caught up with friends and family in Melbourne. At some of the gatherings people filmed. Much of it isn't great footage but it brought back memories so thought I'd upload it for posterity.

Sam's alpacas - we spent New Year's Eve with friends on their property in Deniliquin. They breed alpacas, who are wonderful creatures - so inquisitive and cute but quite bizarre looking too in an Australian setting. Especially so at this time of year where they looked so scrawny from only recently being sheared! Notice too that they all look like they're wearing legwarmers... this is because they don't shear below their knee as it helps to give them some protection against snake bite.



Horse riding with Dad - This is only a very short clip as Mum filmed it while we were just saddling up. I remember we went galloping up a dirt road in the forest and trekking along some overgrown parts you had to duck to avoid trees.



Trip on Puffing Billy - Puffing Billy is a lovely steam train that goes up through the hills past Belgrave. Most Melbourne schoolkids have fond memories of school excursions to ride on it. It's a lovely way to spend a few hours. I have especially good memories of it as we hired Puffing Billy for our wedding; we took all the guests up into the hills for the day and had a lovely late night ride back. Anyway, this is some snippets from a trip I took with Dave and Pete one afternoon.



BBQ at Pete's house - In the evening after going on Puffing Billy we went to Pete's house in Belgrave. Mum and Dad came over and we had a BBQ in the front garden. Dad did some filming and commentary including lots of Tummothy, our cat who Pete was looking after.



Garden at Upwey - This is some rough film of the backyard of a house Dave & I bought a few years ago, so we'd have somewhere to live if we needed to return to Melbourne suburbia. The house looks a lot more dilapidated than it really is, but the reason I fell in love with it is because of the garden. It is wonderful, nearly 3/4 of an acre with lots of established trees including enormous rhododendrons and treeferns. Because the garden is so nice one of Dave's friends Wayne (who maintains gardens for a living) looks after it so we don't have to rely on the tenants. On this trip back Dave helped Wayne clear out some blackberries that had run riot in the bottom of the garden. I went along to help too as this was the first (and only) chance I've ever had to spend any time there.



Gran at Sim's Lodge - this was the last time I saw Gran when she was living at Sims Lodge. This was a nursing home for people in the early stages of dementia and it really felt like a home. Families were encouraged to come and go as much as they wanted, so Gran usually had at least 1 or 2 visitors every weekend (it was 3 hours drive away from where everyone else lived, but it was the best nursing home Mum found and in the area Gran had spent the past 30-odd years). Gran was quite frail but still able to talk and move around on her own. It was a lovely visit.

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Evening BBQ at Dave's parents - they have a lovely patio area where we've spent many happy evenings. This film is from fairly late on in the night and the big event was the arrival of "Poss", the possum who came down to eat scraps left out for him!

Christmas with the family (Dec 2002)

This is pretty special as it was the last time we got to spend Christmas all together. Dave and I had flown back to Australia and we'd all arranged to stay at a hotel near Gran's nursing home so she could be with us for the grand "present unwrapping" session! This year I think was also the first that both Dave and Paul had been in attendance (Paul had been before but we were overseas). The next day Gran came with us to Uncle Ken & Aunt Espy's for the traditional family BBQ, and Aunt Evelyn (Gran's elder sister) was there too. This is the last time I saw Aunty and Gran together.

There's a couple of clips:

First, Dad and Dave having a Christmas morning walk on the beach opposite the hotel with the dogs - Angie, Dally (the dalmation) and Bonz, also known as Boofhead as he has the largest head of any dog I've ever seen!



Second, Dad and Pete went to pick up Gran and bring her to the hotel. We'd rented a self-catering apartment so we had a big loungeroom where we set up the tree. Dad was master of ceremonies in giving out presents (we rotate it each year) and Dave amused himself by filming the entire thing. I'm sparing you the fullblown 2 hour version; this is just the half hour edited highlights. It was actually pretty funny to listen back to all the wisecracks, Dave especially had a lot of fun teasing Dad.



Finally, this is at Ken and Espie's house where they hosted the traditional BBQ. It was in their garage as that was the only place we could all fit that was out of the sun! I remember it being a very hot day so we all ate lots of cold desserts like Aunty's specialty trifle. There's a lovely bit at the end where you see Gran and Aunty Evelyn having a hug on the sofa.