I almost wish I still lived in Marsfield

I spent the day with my almost 97 year old grandmother today. She's kind of amazing, still in very good health for her age, mentally sharp as a tack (regularly beats the socks off my mum playing scrabble) and always has something new and unexpected to tell me when I visit.

I was telling her that my good friend Ariane popped out a baby girl this morning (welcome to the world Elissa!) and so we got to talking about names and how so many of the names from her generation are no longer being used. Among other names, she mentioned Isabelle, which is one of the few that are still in use and I said we knew a number of Isabelles. And my very proper grandmother confessed to me that she and her friends used to tease Isabelles by saying "Is a bell necessary on a bike?". Hidden depths! LOL

We went down to the dining room for lunch and sat at Grandma's usual table with Betty and Jack. Betty was full of the news that Maxine McKew was going to be coming to the retirement village to talk to the residents. They'll be a tough audience I imagine! Next was the possibility being discussed in the media that John Howard may lose his seat to Maxine. I took great glee in clasping my hands in supplication and intoning "Oh dear god - please!" to the ceiling. All three looked at me in horror. "Oh, no! It would be terrible!" said Betty. I grinned, unrepentant, and assured them that it would be wonderful. Grandma shook her head in resignation and Betty said "Never mind, we'll still talk to you." Then we switched to talking about the Melbourne Cup :)

We used to live in Bennelong, it would almost be worth still being squished into a teeny townhouse just to have the pleasure of voting for Maxine. Almost, but not quite. I shall resign myself to placing my ineffectual vote against Ruddock instead.