Heavenly Beverley : Riding the Rollercoaster

I'm sitting at my desk in the East End Gallery on an absolutely glorious Thursday afternoon. The change of season is accelerating with much cooler nights and fine sunny days interspersed with the best start to the winter rainfall Beverley has seen in years.

Nobody is here at present and I'm revelling in the quiet and a chance to catch up with writing. This week has been all about flying. By the seat of my pants.

Last Friday, our French backpackers, Bas and Pas, announced they would be leaving for their "Voyage en Australie" the next day. We waved them farewell in their newly purchased $3000 Landcruiser the following morning. Saturday and Sunday passed in the Gallery as per usual.

Monday was relatively stress-free. I had a chance to connect with Facebook, attend to such much-needed housework and a mountain of dirty washing. The ironing pile stared beseechingly at me. I purposely ignored it. I knew that the End was Nigh and I was going to have to tackle the ironing sooner or later. I dreaded the Beginning as I had let the ironing stack up a tad. Like nearly erupting off the laundry bench.

Tuesday was another antibiotic infusion for Michael. We shouted ourselves lunch in York and enjoyed fabulous Roast Pumpkin Soup and Turkish bread at the Terrace Cafe. I headed for the dreaded supermarket to pick up some essentials after we'd eaten. Then home to continue attacking the mammoth pile of ironing. I set a Massaman curry cooking on the stove. Lub-dub, lub-dub. I wanted the curry to slowly simmer for more than two hours on the stove. There was now no excuse to not start the ironing. Bollocks.

Wednesday was a day in the Big Smoke, I hadn't slept well and we left early in order to have a rendezvous with Minister for Social Services, Christian Porter. The aim of this meeting was to save the Swan Friendship Cafe.

Fortunately, Joe Sorgiovanni was there with figures from the Cafe, its Strategic Plan and other useful documents. Minister Porter was courteous and polite. Just not warm. He reminded me why I have no desire to enter politics. I do not have the hide of a rhino or the utterly focused mind. However, he did offer welcome advice, suggestions and information. I was still relieved to escape back into the sunshine.

We went grocery shopping, bought emergency medicinal supplies of vino, procured some metal rod at Midallia Steel for our firescreen and headed up the hill to visit Lucky on our way out of Perth.

Michael's dad is 89 and is becoming frailer. This is a frustration both to him and to us. Formerly a very active man, Lucky feels he is being let down by his body. And he is increasingly dependent on other people and his doctor. At the moment, he is not particularly well. We are looking forward to having Lucky to stay for a few days when he is feeling a bit better.

Bas and Pas texted us from Shark Bay. We thought their Landcruiser had suffered a catastrophic failure. They asked us about coming back to get the Sigma. Which we had already sold to Brett and Larissa. After they spoke to Ryan, we discovered the issue was the amount of fuel the car was using. Which was to do with the age of the vehicle and the kilometres they were covering.

After all this, I was drained and exhausted. I was asleep by nine o'clock. Ten beautiful hours of sleep followed I felt alive this morning. What a change. Suddenly I was able to cope with the world again.

This day has flown. We launched our Artists' Group. Four extremely enthusiastic artists came and played together in our Artists' Space at the rear of the Giftshop. The brief was to BYO all their equipment, so we had easels and table easels and paints and brushes all flying around. I supplied the tea and coffee and some cupcakes. The conversation and laughter flowed as if they'd known each other forever. We are so looking forward to next Thursday.

Six hours after I started this post, I am winding it up. I am about to retire to our bed, ready for tomorrow. I am tired.

No wonder this year is disappearing so quickly!