PAV, PAV & PAV

SATURDAY 26th FEBRUARY

  Another early start to get down Chatswood way to see Nick play basketball.  On the way we bumped into (not literally) Pav on the way to a job.  We eventually found the school in question, it was in the middle of a plush residential area, and we got there just before Jane and Nick.  We were all late as the game had started!  The school was located in a former private home and was in a beautiful setting.  Nick came on with the first change of personnel and seemed much more alert than last week and had one particularly good dribble down the left wing and put in a shot but it wasn't high enough.  He lacks the upper body strength to get the ball high enough unless he is close to the net.  Anyway Arden won 16-12 so a second victory on the

                                Robert and Narni in the background during the team talk.

trot.  On the way back we got slightly lost but eventually emerged in Lane Cove, where lo and behold Pav was motoring along the road.  Robert waved him down and they stopped to have a chat.  Apparently Leslie's mother had gone to New Zealand with her best mate from Canada and they flew back to Sydney half an hour before the earthquake unleashed it's torrent of destruction on the town.

  When we got back I took Reilly for his walk in the park.  It was a gorgeous day, again not a cloud in the

sky.  After I got back in, I found Robert watering the back garden with the new adaptor he had bought for the hose.  He suggested we give Reilly a wash.  After spraying Reilly a couple of times with the jet spray (he ran hell for leather each time), I went and got the strawberry shampoo from the bathroom and held Reilly by the collar as Robert doused him, and then applied the shampoo.  Finally he was rinsed down, smelling of (I was going to say "roses") of strawberries.  I took a chair out into the garden in the hope that he would lie beside me in the sun and dry quickly.  He had other designs, racing around the garden like a demented dervish.  All in all it got him dry fairly quickly!

  I had received the two plates of photos and captions from the publishers but found a number of mistakes like a picture of me labelled "The Marshall of the Sejm unveiling a plaque to General Bor-Komorowski".  Hopefully with the corrections I sent, we will finally get there and progress with the publishing of the book.  Thank heavens for the internet as without that this process would have taken weeks if not months instead of days.

  The evening meal was a barbie cooked by Robert that included jacket potatoes, corn on the cob and pork chops.

Pav and Leslie arrived with immaculate timming just as the meal was cooked.  Leslie had to adjourn to the garden to deal with an apparent problem with their 14 year old daughter and attempts with some boys to buy alcohol at a bottle shop. Leslie then imparted her good news, having inherited £15,000 from an aunt in Glasgow.  We had a very pleasant meal accompanied by wine and beer, and then adjourned outside into the summerhouse for a few more libations.  After the Pav's left we started discussing my onward trip to Chile.  Jeannette said she'd love to go to Chile, so I suggested that maybe she would like to come with me.  She seemed taken with the idea but then said that meant she would have to take out Australian nationality to get a passport.  (She is the only member of her family who so far has remained Chilean).  The problem with getting a Chilean passport is that the bulk of her relevant documents were destroyed in a house fire some years ago.  However she has two options for a passport, and Robert was very encouraging urging her to go.  A Spanish speaking travelling companion with relatives in the country sounds ideal to me, so I will do all in my power to persuade her to go.