Marie has died

Marie died peacefully early Monday morning, 21 January. We thought we had a bit more time, but things deteriorated quite quickly in the last two weeks. Right to the end Marie showed amazing courage, humour and concern for those around her.

The funeral will be in Hobart this Friday afternoon.

Universal Theory of Everything - lost sock subset

Somewhere in this vast laundromat of life is a lost sock waiting to be reunited with each one that I own. You would have thought it takes time to generate the lost sock flock; but nooooo....three weeks in Hobart and I already have a collection. Something sinister is going on. Does the UTE cover this phenomena?

On a slightly lighter note, Lucy has taught me the rudiments of origami boxing - my first creation....

December update

Well we are pretty well settled into Hobart. As you can see from the latest album, not only are we doing some serious sight-seeing, we are also entertaining guests and setting up our own spaces. Looking forward to the new year when we can start getting productive again.

Marie has restarted the chemo program here. There was a bit of a hiccup when she needed a break because the blood tests weren't quite right, but we are back on track again. The new oncologist and chemo unit here at the Royal Hobart are just fantastic, so we are all feeling really confident. Their professionalism, approach to induction, information sharing and advice is quite remarkable.

On the road to Hobart via Melbourne. Marie and Max flew over leaving Marty to trundle over via road.
Thiagi, Lucy, Marie and Marty do day trip to Russell Falls

You can see more photos in The December album

Crippled Max

The plan was that I would take Dot down to Brighton where she would try out Marie's wheelchair (for future reference). We went out to the end of the jetty and then on up the beach. By now Max had completely run out of puff, so it was out with Dot and in with Max. The scary thing is that he was completely relaxed about the whole episode.

Summertown and a visit by the Kathy and Jim

Kathy and Jim came for their Wednesday night "bring your own take-away" on Thursday night. An evening of some very fine food, even finer wines, and superb company followed. As you can see, the girls got some attention (and after that the boys did their communion thing outside)




Sunday morning Marie, Marty and Dot visited the Wallaces at their Summertown eyrie. It was a gorgeous morning of inhaling their garden, netting cherry trees and picking mulberries (while Max stalked the lamb and chickens). Somewhere I have photos of three of us trying to put a huge net over part of the orchard with wildly varying degrees of competence. Put them up later.


Tina does the ladder stuff while Dot and Marie stay earth-bound

Another view from my rambles through the forest. Apart from this apparition, their are various other bits of furniture scattered through the scrub - more later.

Two encounters on the Max walk

Something that did not survive the encounter with a dog


Looking across the gully towards Happy Valley and the south coast

There have been developments

On Friday week Marie and I are moving to Hobart for a while to reconnect with family and friends there. On Thursday Marie started a new course of chemotherapy to deal with a resurgence of the tumors and will continue the treatment in Hobart. Her oncologist has a close colleague there who will be happy to take over the treatment which is likely to continue for about four months. In the meantime we have had Marie's mum Dot staying with us and enjoying the delights of Adelaide. Before that, sister Jen spent some time here helping out. Marie flies over on the Friday and I will follow in the car via road and ferry. Over Christmas we will be having a visit from Thiagi and Lucy who are coming over from Bloomington. Indiana.

Life has been fairly full on in the meantime. The men's coffee club met last Friday week,



Che's team won their soccer match (Che is second from left)


and V and I had a great night at the Gov listening to Joe Camilleri and the Black Sorrows. The treat was that we also had Colin Hay on the same night.

And today.... well what an adventure. Went into town to do business, decided to have lunch at the art gallery and ended up having a wonderful afternoon with an old friend who I have not seen for years. Two old blokes reminiscing about life, the world and many other things. In the meantime I discovered some wonderful old paintings not noticed before and a book called Urban Toys which talks about the part stories play in our urban lives and the things that can add joy to cities.