http://www.yelp.com.au/biz/huxtaburger-collingwood-3

The first two nights in Melbourne Caroline and Matthew stayed with Matthew’s family in Boronia, while Peter and I had some quiet time with Martin in Essendon. During these couple of days Martin and Peter went out a few times to some near by shops. I was happy to stay home and give my sore knee a good rest. I went around the house a bit though taking some pictures. Martin did some beautiful home cooking. He also played a few games of Scrabble with us.

Occasionally we watched a bit of television. However I had set my mind to it that I would not open up any of my blogs, that is I planned not to touch any computer until I would get home to Dapto. Instead I wrote notes in my notebook that Secret Santa had provided me with. A very good pen came with the notebook. This made writing into the notebook a pleasant and rewarding task. I told myself that I wanted to find out how I would fare with my writing if all of a sudden there was no electricity for instance. Well, I just would have to get used to handwriting again. Of course, I am still able to do a bit of handwriting. I can do it if I have to. And it can be enjoyable for a while. Do I prefer typing for most of my writing? I would have to say ‘yes’ to this!

Since I suffered in Melbourne still quite a bit from soreness in my knee and leg I looked up a lot about arthritis in a little booklet that I had with me. I copied many notes about what it said about arthritis. My notebook is full about these notes now. I have to come back to them one day. The most important bit in that booklet seems to me to be the advice to try and loose weight. So, for some weeks now I try to get used to eating less overall, but to eat vegetables as often as possible. This eating a bit less seems already to improve my well being. I do not have this chronic pain in my knee anymore. So, I am happy to say that I do not need a walking stick any more!  I am hopeful now that my walking will soon be back to normal.

After lunch on Saturday, the 27th of December 2014,  Caroline and Matthew came to Essendon to stay with Martin, Peter and me. The five of us went on a lot of outings. I never had to walk far. Whenever I had to walk a bit I used my walking stick and I walked very, very slowly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essendon_railway_station

On the following Monday, the 29th, Caroline and Matthew went by train from Essendon Station to meet some friends for lunch. Peter drove Martin and me to an outside swimming pool on that Monday where Martin did swim some laps and I did some gentle exercises in the water to make my knee feel a bit better. And bingo, these exercises in the water did make me feel good!

The top three pictures show our different outings the five of us did on three different nights in Melbourne:
Maylasian Food Restaurant, where we had an excellent dinner,
MESSINA Ice-Cream and Haxtaburgers.