ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE!

Showing the brighter side, this is a pic taken by Rotarian Lynne Cooper at a recent Strathdale Rotary Club meeting where I was guest speaker. Pictured with me are my friend/support worker Roberta Exell (left) and Rotarian Helen Steele.

After all the 'doom and gloom' of my recent blogs, I have been waiting patiently for things to improve. Guess what? They haven't! But my patience has been rewarded by a friend requesting this blog title ("Always Look on the Bright Side of Life") on my radio program a couple of weeks ago. For those who don't know it, the song was written and sung on the movie, Monty Python's "Life of Brian" by Eric Idle. After hearing it, I had to agree it was good advice, regardless of how I had been feeling.

The only other 'upside/downside event' in my extremely quiet and dull existence was the brief episode of a dating site contact with a lady who turned out to be in the United Kingdom. Upon checking out her profile (which informed me she was 57 with a four year old daughter -???), she revealed her younger sister had put her profile on the website and "must have made a mistake with her age" which was, in fact, THIRTY! Thinking once my age was revealed that would be the end of that, I gave her my birthdate (yes, the honest one!) and was surprised when she told me my age was 'just a number' to her and "it's what is in your heart that matters most".

Still convinced that any kind of association with a lady so far away in the U.K. was doomed to failure from the outset, I was further surprised when - three days later - she told me she was about to book her flight out to meet me and would be arriving, with her daughter, in Australia the following week! She assumed they would be moving in with me... then came the inevitable question - could I help her out with her air fares!!! I hastily did a backflip and informed her that a guy like me who lives off his disability pension couldn't possibly pay upfront for flight tickets from England, regardless of the fact that I would relish the thought of welcoming a 30 year-old lady into my life.

And that, my friends, was the end of that!

Since then, my days "off" dialysis (Mondays, Wednesdays, Sundays and Mondays) have seen me sitting at my computer, eating and watching TV on my own with no visitors other than my support workers (I have to wonder where all my friends have gone?). The only breaks from this regular routine have been my Friday afternoon radio programs and when I attended a recent afternoon concert at the Bendigo Club which featured artists from this years Tamworth Country Music Festival. I also have a cards night with friends once every month or so.

In closing this blog, I must say thanks to both Joy G. and Hank for your comments on my last blog. Both very much appreciated - and yes, thankfully, my knees are almost back to 'normal'.