I stayed the night up in Bendigo with my Aunt Elaine at Pa's house. I arrived in Bendigo and went straight to the Hospice. When I walked into the room, excuse me, "The Max Hartmann Wing" as signed on the door, Pa appeared to be asleep. I snuck in, kissed my Aunt and looked around and Pa was smirking looking up at me. He said, "I knew it was you honey, I could smell your sandalwood scent." You see, if you were to visit my Pa, you may think he is sleeping, but he is just resting his eyes :) He wears the most lovely candy striped cotton PJ's, with a breast pocket to place his wallet. See, that means he is still in control, and that makes him happy. He is a proud man my Pa. He has not got very much energy at the moment, but he made himself sit up to have a shave yesterday morning before us "girls"came waltzing in. The nurse came through to check his medication infusion was running to time, and she said "This is not the Max Hartmann wing, it is a harem!" We all laughed out loud. We invited her to join the harem, she reddened and laughed with us some more. The staff at the Hospice are gorgeous. I commented this to Pa, he looked at me and said "I am sure you too are a lovely caring nurse Carolyn". Awww, I loved that! My Aunt and I sat and held his hands side by side, silently but intently. He had his legs crossed on the bed, eyes shut but smiling. Just serene. I could see Pa's aura, it is only just there, it is not as energetic/vibrant as it used to be. Understandable, he is just existing with all this love being his food. I cannot fathom how some people go on without so much love. But, in my experience they have and they do. So sad for them. We left Bendigo at about one pm. Aunt Elaine was going home to Mt Gambier. Pa kept asking her to go home to be with her husband, she had been staying in Bendigo for three weeks now. Whilst Aunt Elaine was torn in two she knew that it was upsetting Pa that his lovely daughter may not go home to her hubby, and may end up staying another two weeks, give or take. So I drove her safely to Southern Cross Station. She booked her first class train ticket, then bus ticket to Mt Gambier (SA). We walked from one end of the station, and people who know this station would know how long the station is, to the other end to book in her luggage. To which the luggage guy informed us that there would be no train to Warnambool from Southern Cross, it was coach to Geelong, train to Warnambool, coach to Mt Gambier. So they, in fact, would not be handling her luggage until Geelong. My Aunt would have to wait three hours for her coach to leave. I looked at the handler and explained our predicament, he was most accommodating to hold onto her luggage until she would return to pick it up to catch her coach. We then trotted all the way back, less her luggage, to the ticket booth to ask why she had paid for first class train tickets when it was in fact coaches replacing trains to Geelong. The ticket guy said he was not aware, he called the luggage guy, who confirmed such, and well, there was no refund. Hrumph, lol. We just started to laugh. Aunt Elaine and I know that there are bigger fish to fry in the World and we were not going to sook out any more. So, with that, we jumped in the lift, went up to the Food court mezzanine, and ordered something to eat and drink. It took us a few hours to drive from Bendigo to Melbourne, and Aunt Elaine was not going to get home to Mt Gambier until 1am, Melbourne time. So we just relaxed. We sat at a window seat with our food and coffee, overlooking all the V/Line trains coming in to Southern Cross Station. We chatted alot. We spoke about anything and everything. Aside from her being my Aunt, you just don't realise that she is 72 years old, you would think she is just a girlfriend of similar age, with alot more experience in life :) We spoke about the trains below and how magical it would be to step back in time to the old K class Steam Engines my Pa (her Dad) worked on many years before. I said that we would be going to the Hurstbridge Watlle Festival this year and riding the steam engine.... just lovely. As my Aunt said, she used to take that mode of transport as a child and loved it, except in Winter time when the cold draught would freeze the balls off of a brass monkey, lol. On Wednesday we are heading off to our beloved Grampians region with the kids for Easter. We will call in past Bendigo to see my Pa again. I look forward to that day with anticipation.