Living the good life in your eighties has consequences!

My wife Lesley are both 87. We are very, very grateful that we are still mobile, we are still driving, enjoy reading, music and watching sport, have most of our mental faculties, keep in touch with a wide circle of friends and enjoy many social occasions with friends and family. 

I would like to say that we are pain free. However, by the time your reach 87 years, aches and pains have been your constant companions on the journey for several years. The only 87 year olds who are pain free have already embraced the Great Alternative to Life.

 During the year, we happily met up with family and friends, went to musical concerts and movie theatres, dined in restaurants and cafes on a regular basis. These activities were spaced out so that we could recover our strength and stamina between social occasions

A month ago, however, we  over did the social interaction bit. It end quite badly. It was the weekend of November 15-17. At 12 -30pm on Friday, November 15th we attended a Test Match Luncheon at the Celtic Club. We felt this was a great way to get into the swing of things for the upcoming Ashes Test Match at Optus Stadium starting the following Friday. The luncheon was especially enjoyable because the guest speaker was former Australian cricket captain and outstanding batsman, Kim Hughes. Kim   was a  student of mine at Graylands Teachers College when I lectured there in Maths and Science Education  in 1972/3. Kim did a wonderful job in his role as guest speaker and we had a very pleasant catch up with him after the lunch, which finished at about 3-00pm.

At 5-00pm Lesley and I returned to the Celtic Club for a special family event. It weas to celebrate the lives of David and Jacqui Pougher who had both died of brain cancer within the last year or so. David was the youngest son of our late brother in law, Dr John Pougher. David and Jacqui had been living and working in Santa Barbara when they both became ill. David's older brother, Bill and wife Catherine,ive in England. They were in Perth for the Test Match and so the Pougher family took the opportunity of their visit to hold this celebration to the memory of a much loved couple. It was a wonderful evening which concluded at about 10-00pm.

Early on Saturday morning, Lesley and I set off for Donnybrook. We had been invited to attend the official opening of the newly refurbished Donnybrook Tennis Clubrooms and the opening o the 2025/6 tennis season. Lesley is a former Ladies Champion of the club and we were both members and involved in the building of the original tennis clubrooms 45 years earlier in 1980.

We still have many friends in Donnybrook but the opening  was a wonderful opportunity to meet up with many people we had not seen in many years. Naturally there as a lot of hugging and kissing as old friends tend to do when meeting after along time. We  stayed overnight on the Saturday with two of our very good friends. Before that, however, we  enjoyed a pleasant dinner in town with our hosts and three other longtime time Donnybrook friends.

Sunday morning we visited some Donnybrook friends and set off back for Perth at about 1-00pm. On the following Monday, Lesley and I both felt very tired and carried a few extra aches in our shoulders and back. We put all of this down to our very hectic three days of standing, socialising and driving.

It was COVID!