Catching up with Lady Bear and Maldon

Last week I successfully ventured to my home country, this week it is back to Maldon where I lived when my own family was young, raised them, and ran a business from there.

Lady Bear still lives there I wanted to catch with her to and make sure she was OK.

Again, this area is severely ravished by drought and it can be quite distressing to go there.

I was also hoping to catch up with old friends and share the excitment of having Eric on board, though I am sure they already knew and were excited already by my good fortune.

No bloods today, having done it yesterday and seen the professor. No need to do them again until Monday though Eric has been struggling a bit and things are not quite as they ought to be.

Sometimes when you get a kidney transplant you get any passengers that come with it. Often it is a virus that the original host's immune system was coping with. Because my immune system is knocked down to a level where it won't reject the new kidney (Eric) the virus can become rampant. This means adjusting the anti-rejection drugs to try to allow my body to overcome the virus or if this fails a heavy duty treatment to kill the virus, but with a risk of damaging the new kidney. So it's steady as we go.

Anyway, I have the weekend off so to Maldon I go.

Anglican Church at the Maldon where Lady Bear was doing the flowers
[Photo: Frans the Fiddler]

I called in and found that Lady Bear was at the church. This one of my favourite places as it has an amazing building with a very unusual roof for an Australia church.

Lady Bear is on the restoration committee as time has taken it's toll and they need the odd $100,000 to replace it as original.

The old tramways bus where I stayed
[Photo: Og Bear]

I load all my stuff into the old tramways bus that serves as a guest quarters in the front garden.

On the way to the church I come across Greg and Leonie at their brack-a-brack shop in Main Street opposite the historic Maldon Bakery.

The beautiful window in Maldon's iconic Church of England
[Photo: Og Bear]

Lady Bear finishing doing the flowers at the Church of England
[Photo: Og Bear]

Lady Bear is finishing the flowers at the church when I arrive and I take the opportunity to take some photos of the church with Lady Bear in it.

Then I go up to see an old friend Duncan with his wife Thanh. They are well and young Sophie and Remy are growing up as young Australians fast.

Cherrys is a must so while eating the huge double served cone of their ice cream I wander down to the black smith's shop which is now owned by the neighbour who lives opposite Lady Bear's house. It was good to see the delapidated building being restored and with a coat of fresh paint.

Dinner at Lady Bear's, watch the Australian Rules Football on the telly, then retiring to the bus for a good nights sleep.

Breakfast the next morning then off for a long morning walk. Central Goldfields Railway/Castlemaine Maldon Railway (CMR) is only several hundred metres from Lady Bear's taking the scenic route.

The beautifully restored CMR Tambo parlor car
[Photo: Og Bear]

The J Class oil burner ready to haul the classic cars to Castlemaine and back
[Photo: Og Bear]

The CMR sunday morning service ready to depart to Castlemaine
[Photo: Og Bear]

There is a restored J Class I haven't seen before and some classic cars including the beautifully restored Tambo parlor car with outdoor observation area immediately behind the loco. It was a joy to behold as she steamed up and pulled out of the station for the return trip to Castlemaine through the Muckleford Forest.

I ran into Greg again opening up the old market shop front around the corner from his other shop.

I spotted my old solicitor and friend, Peter at Mandy's shop. With his fine moustache he looked well for his age.

It was amazing as all those who I had thought of I ran into and this got even more amazing at lunch time.

I was supposed to meet Lady Bear for lunch, but some church business had called her away so I thought I would try fish and chips from the new owners of the chip shop. It didn't look much, but the food was good.

Then to my absolute surprise Denise, who I had gone to university with, and hadn't seen for about 15 years walked down the street. I couldn't believe it as I had flicked over her name in my address book and had seriously thought about going up to Bendigo to catch up with her.

It has been a big walk and day so when I spotted Bernie he gave me a lift home. I was buggered. Thanks Bernie.

After a rest Lady Bear got home so we went back down to Main Street to buy her an early birthday present that I had spotted earlier at Kay's shop. Then we went down to Beatons and tried on a pullover that I had spotted for myself on the morning walk. The risky colour, "chilli" turned out to be the one that looked right so a grabbed it.

With my birthday coming up too, Lady Bear wanted to take me out to dinner. We decided Castlemaine was the go on a sunday night and we ended up at the Simpatico Mexican Restaurant. I have passed by it for many years of it's checkered history including years of renovations then rebuilding after a serious fire, but this was the first time I had been there.

The chef said anyone who had the 4 course meal like we did could come back anytime! Mind you I think we lived to regret it and next time 2 or 3 will be enough.

We decided to stay in Lady Bear's B&B cottage this time, but I didn't feel well and I had a restless night with only about 3 hours sleep before dawn.

Lady Bear's Stuart Mill B&B where we stayed
[Photo: Christina Fitzgerald]

Back to Geelong on Monday morning for bloods and appointment and into the normal routine for the rest of the short week leading up to the Apollo Bay Music Festival the coming long weekend.

[Og Bear]

For more photos go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/OgBear/CatchingUpWithLadyBearAndMaldon#

For a slideshow go to:
https://picasaweb.google.com/OgBear/CatchingUpWithLadyBearAndMaldon#slideshow/