November nearly gone

Its been all good news on the elbow after leaving Dad with a promise to return for his 90th b'day in 18 months.I drove up to Woolongong and saw the surgeon and he was very happy with the Xrays, so gave me a referral to Lismore Base Hospital. Called in and saw my aunt June and Alex in Sydney and the next day I drove up to Ballina where my good friend Liz offered to put me up for a month while I completed my preparations for my trip and recovered from the broken elbow.So this month has been a mixture of just about every human emotion imaginable, dealing with family issues, last minute 'have to do's', fun nights out,weekends at the flat,swimming and exercise for the elbow, inoculations and elbow inspections,etc etc. Just need the credit cards and travel insurance and I'm on my way!!!!!Some bad news from NZ about Mum who is all set to celebrate her 90 th b'day just after Xmas. She has cracked a bone in her hip while having a fall in the garden and now has to spend the time up to X'mas in hospital healing that crack. What a way to avoid all the pre X'mas work!!!! Seriously we all hope she makes a great recovery for the onslaught of family visitors from NZ and Australia.This last weekend we took Sam up to Brisbane in an attempt to run some Aussie Titles qualifiers but didn't get those times and then called in and saw my good friends Bruce and Loretta and Brian and Sue. Bruce is having a big struggle with cancer and it was good to see him still full of fight. Then we went overseas-----to Straddie ha ha----and said goodbye to Jan and Bruce, Sean Lisa and Jamella and Satchi. Couple of things going on with the Moreton Bay Reserch Centre having an open day and then the Oyster Festival on the Sunday. Nice weather for swimming but no waves, so good for me but not Liz and all the other surfers out there.Back to the mainland now for the last week of dotting the I's and crossing the T's and then I'm off on the trip