All is now pretty good. I had a left knee replacement in October, and I am only now starting to appreciate the operation. I had been in considerable pain and was limping all the time.
It has been quite an ordeal. I had expected it to be painful, but it seemed to go on for so long that one felt one was becoming a whinger!
The anaesthetic must have been marvellous, because one minute I was sitting on the edge of the operating table chatting nervously, the next I was in recovery, having had the operation. The attention was good and I felt I was coping well.

Sometimes the computer seems to go crazy.

Somewhere on my website, I had my e-mail address. My old address at Hotmail is now inaccessible, and I have a new one of: doreenwendtweir@gmail.com

Please feel free to contact me on this address if you are experiencing any difficulty in placing an order or similar.

Even I could not find this on my website. Doreen

INSIGHT

When I accepted an invitation to be part of the forum on the SBS program ‘Insight’, I thought it was just a matter of flying to Sydney, playing my part in the taping of the program, returning to my hotel and coming home the next day. No so.

The subject matter being discussed by the forum is whether sex involving seniors is a taboo topic, especially for the young (and more). Because I have written the book ‘Sex in Your Seventies’, it was presumed that I would have an opinion on this. And I certainly do.

I was delighted to be asked to express my views!

Here's a write-up about a guest speech that I gave in late November at a Probus Club meeting ...

It's sex and the senior moment for 84-year-old author Doreen Wendt-Weir

LET'S TALK ABOUT YOU-KNOW-WHAT: Doreen Wendt-Weir, 84, came up with the idea for her book Sex in Your Seventies while listening to uni students talk about sex. Picture: Luke Marsden Source: The Courier-Mail

DOREEN Wendt-Weir is just like any other sweet 84-year-old lady who enjoys sitting in her garden, assuming all those other sweet elderly ladies write and talk about sex for seniors.

My middle-aged, beautiful daughter is quite prim and prissy. She is also reserved and timid in the workplace. She works two days a week from home, typing medical reports, and is very happy in her job. She always tries to do what is asked of her, and does not like to upset anyone. She does not make waves.

When these women, quite a few of them, sign out for the day, they are required to do so on the computer, with a few words of farewell to the other co-workers.

SHE’S OURS!

I had committed the unpardonable sin. I had left my husband. My three young daughters had elected to go with me. And we were castigated...by all of my relatives, but not by my neighbours and friends.

Times were tough economically, but the hardest part for us was the isolation from my family, my father and two sisters. My aunt was in ‘no man’s land’, she was not taking sides. I was quite desolate, despite my feeling that I had done what was best, but I tried not to communicate this to my children.

The Privet Tree

I must not forget. He cut down the privet tree. For me. For no other reason. Just for me. I must not forget.

I knew that the privet in flower was affecting my health. It was notorious for doing so, for causing sore throats, allergies, aches and pains, for a multitude of ailments. And it was growing just a few metres from our verandah, but in our neighbour’s yard, just over the border.

I KNEW HOW BRIDGET FELT...

I knew how she felt. I had felt like it once, when I was about six. Over seventy years ago.

Our family had been on a rare outing in those depression days. We had motored from the dairy farm at Buccan to Beenleigh, (where I had been born in a nursing home), to attend the local Agricultural Show. I, along with Marty and Joan, had been given the huge sum of one shilling each (ten cents) to spend. There was no doubt about what I was going to do with mine.