From Melbourne (Mum) : 7.4.83

From Melbourne

7.4.83

Dear Alan,

                                It is a little while since I have written but nothing much has happened and I have been feeling tired and not so good but seem better now.

                The most unexpected thing that has happened is that Footscray won last week at the football. Nobody picked them to win but they won by a few goals. That is the best thing about barracking for Footscray you never know what is going to happen.

                We spent most of Easter at Trentham. We were going to continue with cleaning up all the rubbish that has showed up now that all the blackberries have been burnt but we had visitors on Saturday @ Sunday and on Monday it rained. Audrey and Joe came up Saturday. We just talked and had a walk – not very far as Joe has a bad knee. Sunday Eddie, Marilyn @ Elaine @ David came. We went into the forest and do you know the fire was still smoldering in some parts. David put his hand near the smoke to feel the heat. That is 5 1/2 weeks since the fire. The rain on Monday would have put it out now.

                There has been rain all over Victoria and most of Eastern Australia. There is talk that the drought has broken but we still need more. The countryside is beginning to look green but there is no water lying around yet. It still soaks straight into the ground and none has flowed into the reservoirs yet.

                After Easter Beverley some of her belongings to a house in St Kilda to share with three other people. I don’t know how she is going to get on but she wanted to leave home and it wasn’t going to matter what we said. She hasn’t been home since she shifted so I don’t know how she feels about it. 

                 Pamela was home for Easter and Lois was around some of the time. Pamela and Lois have gone out tonight to a lecture by a English children’s author who is in Melbourne on a tour.

                I haven’t seen Anne since Christmas. She goes to another church now and we seem to have been scrubbed which is a pity.

                There has been a change in the Dental Health Service in Victoria. All children are going to be inspected now when they start school. I don’t know whether this will be more work for Dentists or Dental Therapists. I thought the government has stopped training Dental Therapists but hey keep changing their mind.    If all children have fixed in primary school this should mean their second teeth are better placed and should last longer which in the long term is more work for dentists. There hasn’t been much in the papers about Sth Africa lately. There is more news everywhere in the world.

                                                                                Love from mum.