This post was meant to have been posted on Saturday, unfortunately I left it a bit late and things have changed since this post was written.

After a very drawn out trip to Melbourne we finally arrived at the hospital a bit after 5pm on Thursday. We wouldn't have wanted to have left it any later given that the hospital was kicking Linda (formerly referred to as Maria) out the next morning.

It wasn't visiting hours at the hospital when we arrived, so we met Linda and Andrew (formerly referred to as Quinn) downstairs and congratulated the new parents.

We then headed to the neonatal ward where William was.  This area wasn't bound by the strict visiting hours like the rest of the hospital.  However the area has to be strict in other regards: only two people are allowed in at a time, no children under the age of 12 are permitted and hands must be thoroughly washed at the entrance.

Here is the little fella.  Little William was locked away in his little humidicrib  and they don't call it a humidicrib for nothing, the temperature inside it was just over 35C and the humidity was  around about 80% - that degree of humidity would leave me down and out.

William was doing very well as he was breathing quite well on his own, except for some oxygen.  He had been tried on some breast milk but he wasn't tolerating it, so he was taken off it for a while.  Apparently they are trying it again today.

Hubby was surprised at how small William was, Ben actually thought William was bigger than he thought he would be. I had a fair idea of how big William would be as I had worked in the neonatal ward about 20 years ago at the Royal Women's Hospital, but this is the first time I have had one of our little tackers in a neonatal ward, so naturally it was a special feeling.

This photo gives a good idea of just how small he is.  He is small, but very cute.  He even managed to open his eyes slightly when we were there.

It was then time to say goodbye to baby William and head off down to the regular wards for a while and spend some time with Linda and Andrew and a few of their other visitors.

But after visiting hours were finished we couldn't resist the urge and had to go back down and see William once again.  Then we really did have to say goodbye to William and his parents and head home to our country town three hours away.  It was a late night, we got home at about midnight and were stuffed, but naturally it was well worth the effort to see our new little man.

As far as what William will be calling us, I got to choose from either Grandma or Nanna.  I always referred to my grandmother as Nanna, so we will be known as Nanna and Pa.  Linda's parents are Italian and so to avoid confusion and also to keep a family tradition alive, Linda's parents will be called Nona and Nono.  I am very happy they have decided to go with the Italian names as it was something I suggested even before Andrew and Linda were married, I like the idea of keeping some family heritage alive from generation to generation.

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I had to put this one in as Andrew loves this action shot.  Rather different to TV births which are a lot cleaner.   If you can handle the sight of blood feel free to look at the larger pic.

All photos were taken by proud Dad - Andrew.

ANZAC Day – 25 April – is probably Australia's most important national occasion. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they soon took in that name endures to this day.

Why is this day special to Australians?

When war broke out in 1914 Australia had been a federal commonwealth for only 14 years. The new national government was eager to establish its reputation among the nations of the world. In 1915 Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of the allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula to open the way to the Black Sea for the allied navies. The plan was to capture Constantinople (now Istanbul), the capital of the Ottoman Empire and an ally of Germany. They landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Turkish defenders. What had been planned as a bold stroke to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915 the allied forces were evacuated after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. Over 8,000 Australian soldiers were killed. News of the landing at Gallipoli made a profound impact on Australians at home and 25 April quickly became the day on which Australians remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in war.

Although the Gallipoli campaign failed in its military objectives of capturing Constantinople and knocking Turkey out of the war, the Australian and New Zealand actions during the campaign bequeathed an intangible but powerful legacy. The creation of what became known as the "ANZAC legend" became an important part of the national identity of both nations. This shaped the ways they viewed both their past and future.

What does it mean today?

Australians recognise 25 April as an occasion of national commemoration. Commemorative services are held at dawn – the time of the original landing – across the nation. Later in the day, ex-servicemen and women meet and join in marches through the major cities and many smaller centres. Commemorative ceremonies are held at war memorials around the country. It is a day when Australians reflect on the many different meanings of war. (Source)

Today we honour and remember those who have served in the following conflicts:

 

Boer War 1899 -1902

 

China (Boxer Rebellion), 1900–01

 

World War 1 1914–1918

 

World War 2 1939–1945

 

British Commonwealth Occupation Force 1946–51

 

Korean War, 1950–53

 

Malayan Emergency 1950–1960

 

Vietnam War 1962–1975

 

Indonesian Confrontation 1963–1966

 

First Gulf War 1991

 

Afghanistan & Iraq 2001–present

 

Peace operations 1947–present

 

 

 

May those troops currently deployed come home swiftly and safely. 

 

Lest we forget.

Some photos from my vault:

In 1998 I was a Venturer Scout (Scouts aged 14 to 17) leader and we took our Venturers down to the ANZAC Day Pde in Melbourne, so that the venturers could help carry the banners for the older diggers.  It was a 3 hours drive down to Melbourne and we had to be up at some ungodly hour in the morning to get down there.  But it was worth the journey.

Today I managed to watch the Parade on TV and I did see the banner our boys carried 10 years ago.  The venturers carried the banner for the Royal Australian Survey Corps.

The Royal Australian Survey Corps began in July 1915 at the Australian Survey Corps. The prefix 'Royal' was added to the title in 1936. The Royal Australian Survey Corps provided charts and maps for training and military operations of the Australian Defence Force. The Corps was disbanded in 1996 and was absorbed into the main section of the Australian Defence Force.

Well our son and daughter in-law have been married for a month now and I am finally getting around to writing the final chapter in the wedding saga.

I will try and keep this as brief as possible.

For those of you who have been keeping track of this 'exciting' tale you will know that the period leading up to the blessed event was not an easy journey.  You will also remember that I had a problem with being on the bridal table and feeling like I would be sticking out like a sore thumb and daughter in-law to be, would not be talked out of the idea so we did end up on the bridal table.  The result - I am very happy and proud to say that it was an honour and a privilege to be on the bridal table.  It was rather embarrassing at first, as we were announced into the room with all eyes staring at us, but at least we were the second couple to enter the reception hall, as the bride's parents were announced first.  After feeling rather disappointed with the wedding ceremony itself due to feeling like we weren't a part of it, the fact that we were on the bridal table and that the night itself was a fantastic night, well and truly made up for the disappointment of the ceremony.

A great night was had by all.  The groom got through the night with his bout of bronchitis by taking 'cough mixture shots' throughout the night.  The father of the bride survived his pneumonia and I believe he has made a fully recovery and didn't need to be re-admitted to hospital.  Of course his arm is still pinned and plated and he is still recovering from his accident.

The bride got no sleep on the wedding night :)

Sorry too much information :0

She would have gladly moved into another room if she could have, as her new husband coughed the entire night, hence no sleep :)

The happy couple put their honeymoon off for a week due to father of the bride's pneumonia and groom's bronchitis.

Now my intention was not to write about the honeymoon, but I am afraid that I really need to, as seriously the poor couple really had a horrendous run of bad luck leading up to the wedding, so why should the honeymoon be any different.

Unbelievable!

They headed to South Australia and were booked into a beautiful studio apartment with a spa, a view, queen size bed and all of the modern conveniences one would expect.  They were travelling from Melbourne and their destination was about 8 hours drive away.  When they got to their accommodation venue the reception office was close it shut at 4pm????????  When they finally found some one to check them in, they were told that the place had over booked - Grrrrrrrrrr.  But not too worry, they would be upgraded to a two bedroom unit.  Well it appears that what we would call an upgrade, is not what the owners of this 'accommodation place' would call an upgrade.  It was a two bedroom joint which looked like it hadn't had a thing done to it for 20 years, the bed was only a double size bed and as my son put it, the appliances looked like they came from the Reject Shop and would be lucky to cost about $8AU per item.  The remote control TV, did not have a remote and the TV reception was not the best and it had two 'bunny ears' on top of the TV for an aerial which needed to be continually adjusted to get some type of a television experience.

They were so glad to get home to their brand new queen size bed. 

They are now happily married and back at work.

The end!

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So there you have it.  There are a few other photos in the album if you are interested.

One chapter ends and now it is onto a new chapter..........................

Well we eventually arrived at the 1st destination for the official photos.  First stop was Footscray Park.  It was very cold and the ground was very wet, so the dresses were getting quite wet and dirty around ground level.

The first photos were of the bride/groom with the bride's parents.  For those of you who may not have read an earlier episode of "The Wedding" the father of the bride (Michael) had pneumonia and should have been in hospital.  He had also had a work accident about 5 weeks before the wedding and was still recovering from two broken ribs, a broken nose and a broken arm in three places - which required extensive surgery.  So once those photos were taken Michael went back to one of cars and tried to stay warm.

Then it was our turn to have some family photos taken.  Sorry I haven't got any of them yet so you can't see me, you will see one of me that is quite blurry when I release the reception photos.  The problem with being the "photographer" in the family is that I miss out quite often on getting into many photos.  I am not one that likes to have my photo taken, however I do realise that for family history's sake I do need to be in some of them.

The videographer had to help me rearrange my wilting flower that I had struggled to pin onto my outfit.  I was so happy to get rid of that flower arrangement.

I took a few photos over the official photographer's shoulder and some of my own.  Then we decided to leave them to it.  After Footscray Park they were supposedly heading to Docklands, but the limo driver quite correctly thought that was a silly idea because of the football traffic, so they headed onto Williamstown Beach.

We drove Michael to his house so that he could rest before the reception and we got stuck in some very slow moving traffic.  Once we dropped him off we then we headed back to our motel and rested for 45 minutes and then off to the reception which thankfully was only a 5 minute drive away.  For those of you who may know Melbourne this is an idea of the driving we did on this day.  We stayed at Fawkner, drove to Melton South (45minutes) to meet the groomsmen, then to Maidstone for the wedding (40mins), to Footscray Park (15 minutes), to St Albans (30minutes) then back to Fawkner (30 minutes).  Thank God for the "Ring Road Fwy"

Okay time for some more photos.

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Yes another chapter to "The Wedding".  Hey it is not everyday your son gets married, so I have to milk it for all it is worth.

Okay I have a confession to make, but I always try to be honest even when it comes to weddings.  I have to admit that I was rather disappointed in the wedding ceremony, but on the bright side the reception made up for it.

So why was the mother of the groom so disappointed, well if you are interested I shall tell you.

I actually love weddings and I am usually one of those people who cry at weddings.  I was armed with a small packet of tissues and I never had to use them - so that is how disappointing the ceremony was, I didn't cry!

The flower girl was my granddaughter and her mother (my daughter in-law - Xena) had to sit in the pew on the bride's side of the church just behind where Ursula (flower girl) would be sitting for some of the ceremony.  Xena didn't want to be sitting alone so she wanted me to sit with her and I did, but it meant that we were at the far end of the pew away from the isle and Maria's parents were also sitting in the same pew but right on the isle.  Because of where we were sitting we weren't able to see the bride and groom where they sat for most of the service, they sat on a twin seat well to the side of the centre of the church over on the groom's side of the church (where I should have been).  Once it was time to say their vows, once again it was difficult to see them or hear them.  Then when it was time to sign the register at the end of the service, well we didn't get to see that at all, in fact the only people who would have seen it was the priest, the bride and groom, the attendants and the photographer and the videographer.  Everyone else in the church got to see the backs of the photographer and the videographer, there was no opportunity to take our own photos or see the signing actually taking place.  I will be honest, I did not feel a part of the ceremony at all.  During the service the priest said, "I wonder what wedding's would be like without photos and videos to remind us of the day, that is why we have the rings to remind us of the day and the vows that were taken on the day."  I think you know what I was also thinking by the end of the ceremony, "Yes if we didn't have photographers and videographers we might have actually seen some of the ceremony!"  The other issue was that because we were stuck well away from the isle, when the service was over and the happy couple were walking down the isle, there was no opportunity for me to congratulate them.  Anyway I am not speaking at of school so to speak, as they do know of my disappointment.  Okay enough personal bitching, lets get on with the event.

The bride was beautiful and I love her dearly and my son could not have picked a better bride to match him.  I am very sure that they will be happy together.

Poor Quinn he really was suffering with his bronchitis poor lad, when it came time to say the vows he started to have a coughing fit before he had even spoken a word.  The priest had to go out the back and find a glass of water for him before he could proceed.  Anyway the bits that I did actually get to see showed a very happy groom and you can see it in his eyes, in one of the rare photos I was able to take during the service.

Son Leigh had to give a Bible reading and at one point he stumbled on the words.  I found out later that he was trying not to laugh.  Apparently during the Holy Communion son Ben nearly broke out laughing, when Maria had her sip from the communion goblet she tipped it in such a way that it made it look like she was taking a huge swig of the contents, but in reality there was hardly anything in the large goblet and she needed to nearly tip it vertical to drink the contents.

When it was time to leave the church we all filed out after them and it just started to lightly rain, so we all waited for the shower to pass and it did after a few minutes.  Then a few photos of the bridal party and parents were taken on the steps of the church.

Then we all discovered why the bride had to be on time!  As we were all filing out of the church two stretch limos turned up just to one side of the main church doorway and their contents were the groom and his men for the next wedding!  So we felt like we were all getting pushed out of the way and there was virtually no time for people to mingle and congratulate the newly weds.  No time for photos outside the church.  So it was a quick dash to get the bridal party into their cars and we had to go with them to the official photo location so that family photos could be taken.

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Thursday 16th August 2007
This is the day we headed for Melbourne.

Hubby took son Ben (everyone is getting a name from now on instead of a letter that represents their name) to school so that he could attend morning classes.  While Hubby was dropping Ben off, it was my job to get the dogs organised to go to the boarding kennel.  First step grab their vaccination certificates and I just looked at them to make sure they were ..... in ...... order.

 "OH NO!!! Houston we have a bloody big problem!" 

The kennel cough vaccination had expired for both dogs!  How did I let that slip by?????? I was sure that they were fully vaccinated until October/November.  Oh shit I have screwed up.  Okay what to do, what to do?????  Calm down Chezza, just CALM DOWN.  All I wanted to do was sit on the kitchen floor with my head between my knees and stay there, but I realised that this was not going to solve my current dilemma.

Okay battle stations we need a plan of attack.  First step phone the dog kennel and see what can be done, no answer on their main phone and no answer on the mobile phone - great!  Next step leave a message on their main answering machine.  Okay lets try the Vet and see what they have to say, I got onto the receptionist/nurse and she wasn't sure if the kennel would accept the dogs, but they may be prepared to have them confined to one area.  If needs be we could get the dogs vaccinated this morning but it probably wouldn't solve the issue.  Still no answer back from the kennel.  I figured that if worse came to worse I was sure our neighbour would feed our dogs while we were away.

Hubby arrives home to my announcement.  To be honest I think he was quite pleased that I had made a mistake. 

Still no phone call from the kennel, well I couldn't wait any longer so I tried their mobile again, yes finally a human voice.  So I sheepishly told her my woeful tale.  She was sure that the dogs wouldn't be able to stay if they got the live vaccine up the nostrils, but she thought that there may be an injectable form of the vaccination which may help.  So she phoned our vet to discuss the situation.  Tick Tock went the clock as I waited and waited for a reply.

The phone rang, not her.  The phone rang again, still not her, by the way that phone kept ringing all morning until we left for Melbourne, at one point I took it off the hook for half an hour.  The phone rang and Hubby answered and it was the kennel lady and she said to Hubby, "I have good news", so he handed the phone over to me.

She checked her records and according to her records the dogs were fully vaccinated until mid November, she rang the vet and according to her records the dogs were fully vaccinated until mid November.  Yes the dogs were fully vaccinated until mid November, the vet had started using a new vaccination for kennel cough and the corresponding sticker which gets put onto the vaccination cards is a smaller sticker and it just has in very small print KC5 and the sticker is so small that it was hidden under the stickers for all of the other vaccinations.  The old sticker used to be a big sticker which said, "Broncoshield." 

Oh deary me what a kerfuffle.

I think the rest of the trip to Melbourne went very well. Just after 10pm we went to bed and the mobile phone rang and it went to message bank.  The message was from eldest son Leigh who was the best man, he was having writer's block.  We decided to let him have writer's block as it was too late at night and we knew he would sort it out and he did.

Friday 17th August 2007
Quinn's last day of freedom - if you could call it a day of freedom.

Okay this was to be basically a day of rest for me, I ended up having one hours rest for the day and wasn't feeling too well as the day wore on.

Quinn and Maria (Groom and Bride) had a big busy day ahead of them, they had a lot to do in not much time.  I heard from Quinn at about 10am and was told that they would meet us at the reception venue at about 2.30 to 3pm for us to help set up the venue and also set up our wishing well.   We were all going to meet at their house at about 6.30pm for a rehearsal.

11.15am and Quinn is on the phone totally stressed out.  He was at Sunshine Hospital's A&E with Maria and Maria's father Michael.  Michael had been running a temperature of 40C all week and would not go to the doctor until on the day before his daughter's wedding he had no choice because he was becoming so ill.  Quinn had not done a thing as far as getting anything done for the wedding.  While on the phone Maria's sister Suzie and mother Anna arrived and Quinn figured it was a good time to leave and get things happening, but Maria didn't want to leave until her father had been seen by a doctor.  So I just told him, you just have to go without her if she won't leave. Anyway she did leave - she had no choice really as it was her wedding the next day.  Michael was admitted to hospital with pneumonia and was placed on IV antibiotics and was told that if he checked himself out it was at his own risk.  He checked himself out that night with oral antibiotics and was told to see his regular GP on Monday.  So far he has survived and he saw his regular GP on Tuesday and is improving.  But he was not a well man for the wedding.

Quinn was not well either, he too was on antibiotics for bronchitis, so he was continually coughing his lungs out.

My parent's arrived in Melbourne at about 2.30pm and were staying at the same motel as us.

We met Quinn and Maria at the reception venue at about 5pm and helped set up what needed to be set up.  We decided not to head to their place afterwards for the rehearsal as it was just too much travelling.  But we discovered that Ben was meant to be over at Quinn's the next day by 10.30am for video footage of the groomsmen getting dressed for the big day, that was not in our plans.  Luckily Hubby's sister offered to take him over, it was a 45 minute drive over to Quinns and it would have made it too big a day for me if we had of gone over there that early.  But at least it wasn't as bad as the bridesmaids, they had to be over at Maria's parents house by 6am which meant our daughter Kalyn had to be out of bed at 4.30am.  I did wake up at 4.30am and thought of her and then went back to sleep.

Saturday 18th August 2007
The wedding day.

We got to Quinn's place at about midday to find all of the men not even dressed in their finery, eating hamburgers and sausages, drinking a bit of alcohol and not a care in the world.  I had been given strict instructions by Maria that I had to make sure that Quinn got to the church on time.  Okay boys, the wedding starts at 2pm, there is road works all along our route, I want you to aim to be at the church half an hour before the wedding so we need to leave at 12.45pm.  Thankfully one of the groomsmen agreed with me and another conceded after the wedding that I had made the right call.  Who would have thought it would be so difficult getting grown men organised and out the door on time.

I was given a rose to wear, which didn't want to sit properly, I just got it sorted out and Quinn told me he has given me the wrong one, mine should have two rose buds not just one.  Arggghhhh it was too heavy for my outfit and I was fighting with that twin set of rose buds right up until before the reception when it was "sadly" wilting and I just had to discard it.

Okay we left Quinn's house at 1pm and when I say, "we" I mean Hubby and I, the boys were stuffing around with their cars and in the end I just said, "let's go, hopefully we will meet them there - I give up!"

The boys got to the church at about 1.35pm and luckily it wasn't too much later, as Quinn had the booklets for the order of service that needed to be handed out to the guests as they arrived.  He also needed to be wired up to a microphone.

The bride arrived on time.  We found out later she had to arrive on time ....................................

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