[Magdalen] Not drowning, just over the other side of the bigger pond

[Lesley de Voil]

Hi all,
Well, this has been a pleasant New Year's Gift!
 It's been lovely, catching up with you, so here's my contribution:
I've now joined the ranks of the retired, which is just as well, for my
hearing (for a musician) has  significantly deteriorated. I have always had
poor hearing in one ear, with tinnitus as well, and now it's both. Thanks
to the wonders of technology, my good side aid sends some signal to the
worse one, so that I can now differentiate direction of sound, sort of. At
least it hasn't affected my ability to garden - and it's needed here on the
Darling Downs, where we have a relatively cool mountain climate, at a
sub-tropical latitude. I live with my daughter, two dogs, two cats,  and
assorted chickens. My granddaughter has moved to Sydney, where she is doing
a PhD in Climate Science. She returned home on Christmas Eve straight after
a trip to USA where she presented at a conference at Princeton, then spent
a few days in Washington. She has another trip lined up for Hawaii in
March. We have her home for another week now, before she drives back to
UNSW.
I've been very quiet since retirement, although exercise classes with the
Physio are. my highlight of the week. It's now about five years since I
damaged my other knee, and I've realised that instead of waiting for it to
be painfree, I'm better off looking after the rest of my muscles as much as
possible.
With two friends, we have a mission to keep the wheels of the economy
moving by meeting for Saturday or Sunday lunch at various local
establishments. Toowoomba has  grown from a quiet country town to something
more cosmopolitan - there are a number of Middle Eastern restaurants to
choose from, as well as one or two that promote native Australian foods,
which is a big change for this conservative town.
I don't  drive nearly as much as I used to, my other commitment for some
years was to drive to Brisbane weekly to see my old mentor, who ended his
days in a nursing home earlier last year. However, I still do the trip to
enjoy some madrigal-singing every few weeks.


Lesley de Voil
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