Songs are in, books are out

 A further hiccup in the calendar.  The annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race has been cancelled for the first time after a fresh outbreak of Covid19 in Sydney.  Sigh.

November 24th
Monday was Espresso Day in some parts of the world, but that's no excuse for the amount of coffee I consumed on Tuesday morning and lunchtime.  Blergh!  It was also the 57th birthday of Doctor Who --  it confirms how old I am that I remember seeing the very first episode when it was broadcast on our old black-and-white television set.
I got out to the Croquet Club on Tuesday and played two games.  We had a couple of new people trying out the sport and they weren't too bad.  Hope to see them back again.
The evening saw another quiz night, where we didn't do so badly.  We got a perfect score on the opening round where you had to match the novel with its opening paragraph.  Money for jam!   At the climax, we came in second, our best result for months.  (A big thank-you to Minerva's Disciples, our friendly rivals at the next table who helped us over the line.)

Finished the audiobook of ON THE ROAD, read by David Carradine.  Certainly it's abridged, but a memorable experience being able to sit behind the wheel and listen to Jack Kerouac's prose flow over you from the car stereo.  Driving across town while listening to the protagonist making his way down into Mexico was almost like being there.  
 
25th November
Warm and windy -- it hit 32C at 2 o'clock -- so a perfect day for putting out some washing on the clothesline.  The poultry were nowhere to be seen, staying in the shade till dinner time.  
The cat complains whenever I go out and leave him.  Today I was home all day and he still complained.  "Cat, you are a mass of perplexity," I told him.  I don't think that's actually a word, but he doesn't know that.

26th November
A bit cooler and more pleasant on Thursday.  Tomorrow is exactly four weeks to Christmas -- I had a dream a few weeks ago in which I was back at the hotel again and it was Christmas eve.  But my conscious mind kept trying to butt in and say it couldn't be that time of year yet, so I was aware of two different tracks my mind was running on!  I don't often exerience that, although now and again I am aware that I'm dreaming.
The goats are still thriving in the backyard.  They have plenty of greenery to eat, but that doesn't stop them from being keen on breakfast.  I usually give them a couple of slices of bread as well, though you have to be careful;  if your attention strays while you're feeding them, you may suddenly find your fingers are disappearing into the goat's mouth  (fortunately they have small mouths).

28th November
Saturday the traditional day for doing the op shops.  The Hobart Tip Shop is still closed after the fire, but the Hobart City Mission have opened a new "super store" near me.  Much larger than any of their previous sites.  I am not very good at searching bookshelves these days, but look what turned up  -  a couple of vintage Thorne Smith novels, still bearing the stickers from the venerable Fullers Bookshop.

Saturday night I seldom go out, but I made an exception this week for Nadira's concert at the Moonah Arts Centre.  I remember seeing her when she first appeared there in 2015, singing all the great old standards.  In a less PC world, she probably would have been described as "the little lady with the big voice" !
She came over and gave me a hug at interval.  I asked if she'd changed her green hair because it would have clashed with her red dress?  She grinned but didn't answer.

29th November.   After the Sunday morning church service,  some of us went down to South Hobart for lunch.  I always like going to the Cascade Hotel because it's the only place I know that reliably has Lamb's Fry & Bacon on the menu.  The modern generation just won't eat liver, along with kidneys and several other things.
When I got home, I sort out some things that had gone missing from when a friend had "tidied up", then lay down for a nap.  Woken an hour later by a text message from a different friend, who sent a photo of the Union Jack motif toilet he's buying for his flat.  Shiver my timbers.

December 1st, the first day of summer;  Tuesday was unsettled, but I managed to get in two games at the Croquet Club despite windy weather.  [Last night I put a brick against the back door but even that didn't stop it blowing open overnight.]  At least we were indoors for the quiz night.
We were missing Rose, but the rest of the team were ready for the game and we did pretty well. At the finish we came in at second place, so not so bad. Only another couple of weeks to go for the year -- possible to get it to the number one spot before the holidays maybe??  

Thursday 2nd December
Thursday was the annual Christmas lunch for the Friends Of Mission group.  The only time of year when you'll see Presbyterians wearing funny paper hats in public.  I had thought of going to the Bocce Club that evening, but was so tired when I got home took a nap instead. Woke at 7.30 and wasn't sure at first if it was a.m. or p.m. - till I noticed I was still fully dressed!

At the FOM luncheon there were a couple of displays for various missionary and refugee groups, and I solved the problem of what to get someone who has everything.  I paid for a donation that will buy a goat for a third-world family and they gave me a card to give to the donor.  I look forward to seeing her face when I tell her Christmas Day "I've bought you a goat."

Friday was a day wasted.  I was expecting Mick to come by to move the goats, but the hours ticked by with no sign of him.  About 6:15pm Helena rang to say he'd be round tomorrow morning.  "What have you been doing today?" she asked. I bit my lip and said nothing!

Saturday 5th December was the annual Christmas lunch at the Croquet Club.  Quite a few members turned up for a big lunch, a few drinks, a game of croquet and of course the annual Christmas quiz.  Last year there were complaints about too many Biblical questions (Hey, folks, it's a Christmas quiz!), this year I collaborated with June to produce a more acceptable set of twenty questions.   I think it went over all right, and June cheekily wrote a 20th question which was about an abstruse point of croquet law!
Our timing was pretty good.  It started to drizzle just as we finished the croquet game.  My team didn't do so well, but maybe I would have played better if I'd been sober and not using a borrowed mallet.  Or maybe not.

6th December
The Sunday morning service at St John's was the annual Sunday School celebration, which proceeded almost as normal - the people giving out the prizes were using hand sanitiser, and the minister didn't shake hands with the recipients.
 
But things weren't the same as the past.  Ten years we had snapped away with our cameras and probably posted the pictures for all to see.  But that was then and this is now.  Our minister had sent out an e-mail saying "This Sunday at our 10am gathering we will be participating in our annual Sunday School Celebration. I am looking forward to the teachers, helpers, and students sharing with us about the things they have learnt about God this year. Please note that, because our children will be participating in the gathering, we will NOT be livestreaming this Sunday morning. An edited version of the gathering, with the Sunday School celebration taken out, will be uploaded onto our Youtube channel on Tuesday of next week."
On the way home from church, I stopped to buy a newspaper.  While I was in the shop, I felt a gentle tap from behind.  Looking behind me I found a small boy looking up at me.  "I saw you in church," he said.
"Ah," I replied, "Were you one of the children getting a prize?"   He nodded shyly then scampered off in search of his mother.  Even in this paranoid century we can admire the innocent goodwill of children.

Sunday evening took an unexpected turn.  I was lying down reading and after a while I began to feel cold.  Checking the  weather bureau's site I noticed the outside temperature was fine, but the "feels like" ambient temperature had gone down to 6 degrees centigrade.  Got up and closed all the doors and dug out the old green jumper that I wear in midwinter.  Not what I expected from the first week of summer.

7th December
Broadcasting in the digital era  --  one of the good things about the Internet is that radio and television shows can be posted on-line so if you missed it live you can use a "catch up" site to listen or watch it.   But of course broadcasting companies are staffed by human beings, and while a big organization like ABC or NPR can have their stuff on-line in a matter of minutes, not everyone is able to do this.  Today I noticed that one small semi-professional radio station in New York had posted in one day on their Mixcloud page two episodes of the weekly show In The Mood, three episodes of the weekly show Radio Roots, and six episodes of the weekly show One Nostalgic Weekend!

Made my way to the Croquet Club on Tuesday, finding my way through an eye-opening amount of northbound traffic on the roads.  Can it be the Christmas rush already?  Played two games despite the cloudy and breezy conditions.  Only half a dozen of us there today.
However at the Quiz Night that evening, we had a full table indeed  --  even Derren showed up for the first time in months.  We did all right, though the results were a bit confusing;  there were twelve teams, but so many tied that there were only six positions.  I think we were either fourth or fifth.  

9th December
A day off on Wednesday, in the sense that after a busy couple of weeks I didn't have any appointments on my calendar.  There was stuff I could have been doing, but I decided not to.  So what did I do?
The day began with my trundling around feeding the goats, the chickens and the cat.  After that I could serve up my own breakfast.  After my morning coffee, listened to ABC's local radio station then Richard Fiedler's always-interesting "Conversations" programme.
Had a nap before a late lunch, listened to the UK radio show "Sunday Tea Dance",  I looked at the day's Facebook entries and downloaded some e-books from the Internet.  The cat lazed about on the table outside the back door, enjoying the mild weather.  Read Martin Lindstrom's monograph "Travel Truth and Lies Unmasked" which concluded with a dismayingly long list of precautions you'd need to take to be completely safe from the Coronavirus!
Had a couple of phone calls, then heated up a quiche for my evening meal.  Ate while listening to the US radio show "Make Believe Ballroom". Fed the animals, let the cat out for a while, then went to bed after listening to the late night news on the radio.
Didn't leave the house, didn't turn the television on.  A self-sufficient day.

10th December
Coffee anyone?   I always used to say that K-Mart missed a bet when they started opening 24/7  --  if they had a coffee machine, they would have had a captive audience am9ng late-night and early-morning shoppers.  When Coles (next door to K-Mart) renovated, they installed a superduper coffee machine the size of a small car, and I felt vindicated.  I didn't foresee what would come next.  When I went into Coles this afternoon, I felt there was something different.  Then it hit me -- all the shopping trolleys were now equipped with cup holders!
 We can now consume coffee while we do our supermarket shopping.  I don't know if this is a good or bad thing

Thursday I wasn't sure what exactly I was doing.  The plans to meet with one friend fell through, but another trio of friends arrived for a long-delayed clean-up in my driveway  -- fortunately tonight was rubbish night, so it will all be cleared away tomorrow morning.  In between I went out for cat food in the morning, and played two games at the Bocce Club in the late afternoon.
Sat down to my evening meal at 9.30pm!

11th December
Keith got a lift out to New Town so we visited the  Salvation Army and had lunch at the Green Store.  While we were in the Salvo shop I picked up a movie I'd never seen before, a movie from Finland.  Keith looked at it appraisingly and said "After you've watched it, if you decide not to keep it could you pass it on to me?"
"So I shouldn't add it to my collection of Finnish movies?"
"You have a collection of Finnish movies??" said Keith in surprise.
"Well, I would have if I kept this one," I replied.    Laughter.

12th December
Goatherd work took up a bit of the morning then I had a quick lunch before going out.  Took two slices of low-GI bread and some low-fat margarine, then added some plant-based Deli Slices and a few bean sprouts.  "O Brave New World that has such snacks in it" I thought, recalling the days when your product was sold on what was in it,  not what wasn't in it!

It's Make-Believe Ballroom Time
Put all your cares away
All the bands are here to bring a cheer your way
It's Make-Believe Ballroom Time
And free to everyone
It's no time to fret
Your dial is set for fun
Just close your eyes and visualize in your solitude
Your favorite bands are on the stands
And Mr. Miller puts you in the mood
It's Make-Believe Ballroom Time
The hour of sweet romance
here's your make-believe ballroom
Come on, children, let's dance, let's dance!
https://www.spreaker.com/user/superstitions/mbbr111620

December 14th
No, I told the cat, you're not going out yet.  It hit 33C at lunchtime (about 91 in the old scale) and I would like it to go below 30 before I open the back door.  It's all right for him, he can walk around naked all afternoon...  I did let him out about 4 p.m. when it had gone down to 28C.
Got the electric fan out in the evening and left it running all night in my bedroom, but I still tossed and turned a lot.

December 15th
Slept badly after yesterday's scorching weather.  It was 28C when I went outside to feed the animals at breakfast but it did ease off after that, falling steadily (e.g. 13C at 9pm).  Felt pretty run down, but did get over to play two games at the Croquet Club and felt refreshed by the cool winds blowing across the grounds.   Felt a lot better;  went home and napped for half an hour then took a shower before going out to the last Quiz Night for the year.
Tonight we seemed to be scoring seven points per round more often than not, our total was 77 and Caroline  brought out a cake to celebrate her 70th birthday.  So we finished seventh, you ask?  No, though I had half expected it.  We came third.  And a thank-you to our pals at the Minerva's Disciples table who helped celebrate Caroline's birthday.

December 17th
Another lunch for the gang, this time down at the Boardwalk restaurant at Wrest Point Casino.  The crowd ate and drank, exchanged memories and stories of days gone by and traded greetings for Christmas and the New Year.  I had the grilled salmon and the cheesecake, washed down with cider and coffee, then went home to rest for a while.

December 19th
I was out two afternoons running this week with Keith.  We turned up at the Salvation Army two store two days in a row, which surprised even the staff who've known us for a long time. (One of them commented "I love the banter between you two while you're looking through a table of stuff.")  Keith had a good look through the CDs and came out with a set of the TSO's Beethoven albums and an almost complete set of the Ring Cycle [Wagner, not Tolkien].   Apart from that, we made a trip down to Kookaburra Books in Battery Point, who sadly are shutting up shop on Christmas Eve after many years at that location.  To paraphrase John Donne, I feel that every bookshop that closes somehow diminishes me and what used to be called the clerisy.  I did take the opportunity to buy some Leslie Charteris novels I did not have in hardcover, and at least one of his books I had never seen before.

December 20th
Right up till a few days ago, St John's had been preparing for a difficult time staging their annual Christmas Carols service.  But at the last moment the state regulations were eased and we were allowed to fill the church to the 75% level.  It was great hearing so many voices belting out the old favorites,  though I felt uneasy when the woman in the seat behind me starting coughing halfway through (my first impulse was to get up and run, but that seemed an over-reaction).   Thanks to the organist, the pianist, the guitarist and the clarinetists who accompanied us.

The heat is on the road

 The gradual opening-up of borders between Australian states has hit a snag with an outbreak of Covid19 in the South Australian capital Adelaide.  Hopes of being home for Christmas now seem to be up in the air.

November 17th
Another up and down day, weather clearing up a bit.  Goatherd duties prevented me from getting to croquet again, but I was free for the quiz night (though it does seem odd arriving there in broad daylight).  We settled in for a good evening of quizzing, though I always forget the Quizmaster is seated so close to our table until one of my comments ends up as an aside in her compering.
There were ten teams this week, and we didn't do so badly, scoring 74 points to finish in fourth place (again).
I don't think my goulash was good value for money, working on the amount of meat present to the price charged.  Have you ever tried to eat gravy with a fork?  That's what it felt like by the end of the meal.

I picked up a Jack Kerouac audiobook some time ago, and finally got round to putting it on a flashdrive.  Now that I've plugged it into my car stereo, I can listen to it on the road.  {snicker}

November 19th
100 days since there was a case of Coronavirus in Tasmania.  The local paper's comment:  "Looking back on our battle with COVID-19 it’s important to reflect just how far we’ve come.  In light of the South Australian outbreak, it also reminds us just how quickly the situation can change."

Wasted a lot of time yesterday and today trying to work out why I can't get photos from my iPhone onto my laptop (again).  I must have changed something but I can't work out what.

Some work done on maintenance of the goat enclosure (not by me).  Everything seems to have worked out fine apart from the two hens who are on the wrong side of the wire and haven't yet worked out they could flutter over the fence if they really tried.

Weather a bit uncertain.  Didn't see the sun till 6 p.m.   I was worried that it might rain at the Bocce Club but we got through three games without any trouble.  Then I arrived home and found I'd somehow left the cat locked out for two hours.  Boy, did he give me a talking to !

20th November
Friday I had a phone call from Keith that he was heading out to my part of town and we met up for lunch at the Green Store (conveniently opposite the Salvo store).  I had been studying ON THE ROAD recently, so while I sat there listening to Keith talk about cats I had a feeling of deja vu, as though I was Jack Kerouac sitting opposite Neal Cassady.
We trawled through the Salvation Army, our main hunting ground this week since the fire at the Hobart Tip Shop, then I gave Keith a lift back to his place before I went home.  

On Saturday I had arranged to meet Keith early so we could make a detour to his storage unit to get the bookcase out of the back seat of my car.  I've never seen one of these self-storage buildings first hand, so I was intrigued to see how neatly it was set up, with corridors leading off in all directions and a lift ready to move heavy items from one floor to another.  (I was glad we didn't have to carry the bookcase up the stairs!)
We called in at some other places to drop stuff off, including a stop at JB Hi-Fi (more DVDs!) and the Mall newsagency who were holding for me this year's BEANO and DANDY annuals.  
We had coffee and discussed various things.  At one point Keith inclined his head and said "I defer to your superior wisdom."   I looked at him and said "Now that is a first!"
It was hot in the car driving around today, and I felt like Jack Kerouac driving across the Mexican desert in today's chapter of ON THE ROAD.  When I got home, I had an iced coffee and a sandwich and lay down for an hour.  I might have made it two hours except I knew I had to get up and feed the goats.

21st November
The more things change the more they stay the same.  In tonight's episode of VICTORIA, some private pictures of the royal family were leaked to the press, and a specialist had to be called in to treat the emotional problems of the Queen's son.
Except ... the pictures in question were pencil sketches made by Victoria and Albert, and the young prince was examined by a phrenologist !

22nd November
The last few days I've been battling with my iPhone to try and get it to talk to my laptop.  I even bought a new lightning cable the other day, thinking that might be the problem, but didn't help.  I was so annoyed by my constant failures that I actually had trouble getting to sleep last night, something that never happens these days.  But I may have found a solution --  a friend recommended a gadget called the SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive, which has a lightning cable on one end and a USB connection on the other.  This may solve my picture problems.

The downside of quizzing, the upside of art

November 10th  -  Tuesday was warm and sunny.  I went over to the Croquet Club but they were still finishing up the competition games, pushing the time I could play into the warmest part of the afternoon.  Give it a miss, I decided.  Went out to the feed store and bought some wheat. 

Conditions comfortable at the weekly pub quiz.  I had a haloumi salad before the quiz kicked off.  Ten tables of people playing. Five of us in the team tonight, and we had most subjects covered.  Got a good score in both our bonus rounds, and got 9/10 in Geography which is rare lately.  We scored 88 in the end,  not bad but we came in third.  The winners, making only their second appearance at this venue, scored a startling 99 points!

November 11th

32C is pretty h0t for Tasmania  --  that is about 90 degrees in the old money.  I didn't have to go out today. so I didn't.  I stayed in my bedroom for most of the afternoon, one of the coolest rooms in the house.  (The cat spent most of his time on the table outside the back door, but at least he wasn't in the direct sun.  He's beginning to learn.)

I spent most of the afternoon fixing problems with my old laptop.  It turned out the reason I could no longer transfer pictures from my iPhone to my PC was that I had turned off iTunes.  Who knew?  I also updated two of the programmes I use for downloading stuff from the net.  Thanks to Media Human, Ashampoo and Free Video Downloader.  

November 12th

Not so hot, cloudy and windy most of the day.  

Had a telephone consult with my diabetes specialist.  He quizzed me about how I was going and I tapdanced around the answers.  I have to see him face-to-face in February, so I had better get my act together by then.

Once again I missed out on going to the Bocce Club after the goatherds arrived at lunch time and spent the afternoon tending to the goats and tossing out some garden clutter.  Next week we may move the fencing so they can move on to the third quadrant of the back yard.  Bleating is much less disturbing than roosters crowing. 

[zeaxanthin lutein  -  check on where I can find these.]

November 13th

Someone gave me a copy of a big thick book 1001 MOVIES YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE.  When I have a spare couple of days I should go through it and see which ones I have seen. 

A lot of people would be surprised at how many famous films I have never seen.  Not just obscure art-house cult classics, but movies that are part of the century's popular culture.  Often people have looked askance, saying "You've never seen the movie --- ------??"   Maybe I should make a list of the movies I haven't seen.

Today I planned to either do some work at home or go to the annual Friday The Thirteenth day at the Croquet Club.  You won't be surprised I ended up doing neither, just had lunch at home while listening to The World Today on ABC radio.  I'd just finished my second cup of coffee when Keith phoned and said he was going to the Salvation Army store, did I want to meet up.  I duly gathered up a handful of shopping bags and toddled off, like Watson responding to a telegram from Sherlock Holmes. 

When I got to the Salvo's, Keith was delving into a trolley of donated DVDs, checking the disc was in the box and arranging the boxes in neat piles.  The staff looked on indulgently, watching him do half their work for them.  We stayed till closing time, Keith running a keen eye over his selections to see whether he really needed them or just wanted   -  a problem many of us have.

My results:  Books 1, DVD 7.

November 14th

Saturdays can be a bit exhausting for me nowadays.  Up at the usual time to feed the animals and let the cat out.  After breakfast drove round to pick up Keith and we spent most of the afternoon in South Hobart going to op shops.  After lunch we were walking back to the car when we stopped to look in the window of a craft shop.  Keith was taken with a small status of a sleeping Quoll and announced his intention of buying it.  He turned to me, adding "This is all your fault, of course."  I replied mildly that all I had done was agree with his comment about the workmanship involved in creating it.

After finally getting Keith back to his place, returned home where the cat gave his opinion of me going out and leaving him alone for seven hours.  He settled down after I fed him, whereupon I served up my own dinner and watched VICTORIA on television.   Books 10, CD 3, DVD 12.

November 15th

Sunday morning it seemed cooler when I set off for church.  Later it clouded over and began to drizzle by the time I came home.  At church, which is approaching the maximum numbers allowed during the pandemic, all went smoothly.  The organist played all our favorite hymns and David Jones returned to the pulpit to give an illuminating sermon based on the book of Isaiah.  

If Julie and Gene had been sharing my pew. it would have been just like the old days.  

After two cups of coffee I felt ready to face the Apocalypse.  Or at least the "Plastic Apocalypso", the new exhibition from Liz Barsham. 

I went up the stairs to the Betty Nolan gallery and lost myself in the wonders of art for a while.  I hadn't been able to get here last week for the opening, but I noticed several pieces already had the red "sold" sticker.  Apparently the painting "Underground Music" [pictured] was so popular they could have sold it four times over.

November 16th

Thunder at breakfast time warned that Monday might be an unsettled day.  Fed the goats between showers this morning  -- they didn't seem worried.  The goose seemed to have retreated deeper into the shrubbery where we cut a path yesterday, so maybe he's older and wiser.

Sunday the day of rest (not)

 November started off really busy.  The only day I didn't have something going on was a Friday and I'm afraid I just stayed home and rested up.   Sunday for example was non-stop.  

I started off with the morning service at church, the first time we've had communion since the pandemic started, meaning the ushers were wearing gloves and handing out stuff using tongs.
 

Then to Sunday lunch at Edith's where I was seated next to Princess Mary's lawyer who had some amusing stories about working for the Royals.
 

Had to drive straight home from lunch, where Mick and Helena had arrived to look over the goat enclosure.  Mick attacked some of the foliage with his sickle to make it easier for the goats to get at it. 

Next was a trip to Pat & Ian's house to pick up a chaise lounge they wanted to get rid of.  We weren't certain it would fit on the top of Mick's van but he was right, it did.  After that, Helena opened the champagne and we sat around for an hour while Mick entertained Pat and Ian with a selection of bush yarns.
 

About here I started to run out of steam, and when I got away I came home and went to sleep for an hour or two.  When I woke up, the only thing that stopped me from going back to bed and staying there was I hadn't had dinner yet!

Hectic days ahead

 Australia this year finds itself in the unusual position of having a negative population growth.  For the first time since 1946, more people are leaving Australia than arriving.  Or, to be more accurate, fewer people are able to travel to Australia -- reports suggest there are thousands still stranded abroad.

9:33 PM 6/10/2020

Weather much better today then the weekend  (it could hardly be worse -- one day I tried to let the cat out but when he saw what it looked like, he turned and ran back into the house!).  Long phone call from Helena, then played croquet for three hours.  Long phone call from Keith, then time for the quiz night.

Antananarivo is the capital of which island nation?  Five of the team there for this week's quiz night.  We did a little better with the puzzle question, thanks to us working out it was the Swiss Army Knife.  Competition fierce again;  we finished fifth with 70 points, while the winners had 90 points out of a possible maximum of 110.  (And I was applauded by my team for picking Antananarivo as the capital of Madagascar -- it was a lucky guess.)

1:45 PM 8/10/2020
Wednesday was a fine Spring day, so sunny and pleasant that the cat spent most of the afternoon frolicking outside.  At one point he meowed at me until I took my coffee outside and sat in the back yard with him for a while.   
Alas, the last 24 hours the media have been full of severe weather warnings and the Bocce Club have postponed the first game of the new season till next week.  The chickens are already sheltering under the carport and I don't expect to see the cat outside this afternoon.
If the weather this evening is as bad as predicted, it could be a good night to stay in and start on that DVD boxed set of all 195 episodes of LAW AND ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT.

10:14 PM 11/10/2020
Saturday night I meant to get to bed early, but it didn't work out that way.  At the time I should have been settled down in bed, I was still wide awake.  I couldn't understand it.  I was always careful about my caffeine consumption, never drinking coffee after sundown...
I'd forgotten about Daylight Saving hadn't I?

11:53 PM 13/10/2020
On paper, Tuesday sounds like a downer.  I played croquet and lost both games (7-3 and 7-2), then I spent an hour preparing for tonight's quiz night at which we finished in fourth place.
But I had a pleasant afternoon playing sport in the fresh air and sunshine, and enjoyed taking part in the quiz after a tasty fettucine.  In fact we might have had a perfect round in one category if I hadn't forgotten how many Narnia novels there were. And I made people laugh several times. So all in all, it wasn't such a bad day.

5:59 PM 15/10/2020
Thursday there was a going away party for Mariandl at Kaye's lovely home.  Everyone had a good time then I went home and took a nap to recover from that big lunch.

4:59 PM 16/10/2020
The laptop was being temperamental,  but I had stuff to do today so I wasn't home to battle with it.  Now that the church kitchen has started up again, I had a page-long shopping list to stock up with stuff.  I visited the refurbished Coles Supermarket and did a bit of sticky-beaking while I filled up four shopping bags full of supplies.
So it seemed a good idea to drive in and drop them off in the church hall, otherwise I would have had to take them out of the car Saturday m0rning and replace them Saturday evening.  After I did that, visited newsagent, pharmacist and bought some more cat food.  I tried to go to Officeworks too, but after driving around their car park for five minutes I gave up.
At least with daylight saving there was plenty of time to let the cat out for a bit of fresh air and sunbathing while I sat down with a coffee.

8:42 PM 17/10/2020
This Saturday was not as hectic as last time.  Instead of visiting four different op shops, confined our activity to just one -- thankfully one of those that had not removed all the chairs from the book department.   [B6 C4 D16]  
Keith and I had a leisurely lunch at the coffee shop across the road, and Keith entertained me by recounting the plot of one of his unpublished novels .  He also gave exhaustive details of a film script he'd written, which an agent had suggested he re-write to take place in San Fransisco rather than Sydney.   (When he dies, his executor could probably put together a sizeable volume under the title "The Uncollected stories of Keith Curtis").
Afterwards, I called in at Officeworks looking for something to store my CDs in.  That's an hour of my life I'll never get back.

2:35 PM 18/10/2020
Yes, it's nice that we are able to be back in church but there are differences on a Sunday morning.   When I started going to St John's some 25 years ago, I usually sat down the front because that's where the vacant pews were.  Now, with social distancing rules, we only have half as many seats in use and I often end up in the   back row.   And since we no longer use hymnbooks or printed Orders of Service, the words are projected on a big screen at the front  -- which always reminds me that I need to have my eyes tested and get new glasses.  At least we are now able to get a hot drink after the service, which is nice.
We are supposed to be resuming communion services soon, but I don't know the details of how that's going to work.  Ushers in Hazmat suits dispensing single-use glasses maybe?  We shall see.

10:30 PM 19/10/2020
Monday made for a lot of running about.  I slept well, which was a good thing because the cat woke up at 6.15 this morning. Between breakfast and morning tea I went out to the Salvo store to pick up a book Keith had changed his mind about buying.  After lunch, down to Kingston for a committee meeting.  Back home in time to gather together some stuff I had to take with me when I had dinner at some friends' place.  Between that and a couple of long phone calls, I think that's enough for the day.

7:51 PM 24/10/2020
Saturday was a long afternoon..  Left home at 10 a.m., returned at 6 p.m.
Went round the usual places and dined at the Green Store cafe.  Traffic a little light, probably because a lot of people added the Show Day holiday to make a long weekend for themselves.  Went home to feed the animals and received a big welcome from the cat and the goats.
Keith received a parcel of stuff from overseas including an item that he gifted to me --  an autographed photograph of Caroline Munro.  Does he know me or what?

The time changes and the winds rise

 10:55 PM 24/09/2020
Thursday I had time to do some stuff in Moonah and New Town.  It was a bittersweet afternoon because two local businesses are closing tomorrow and it brought back a lot of memories.  The New Town Newsagency had been a regular shopping destination for most of the 35 years I've lived in the northern suburbs  --  I remember buying the Sunday papers from Sydney when they had those big lift-out comics sections.  And the Magnolia coffee shop in Moonah was a place I'd visited every week for the last decade, a real central point for the community.  But after tomorrow, they will be no more.

4:55 PM 26/09/2020
Saturday out op-shopping and lunch as usual.  Keith sighed "When I started THE THREE BODY PROBLEM, I didn't realize it was a trilogy."
 "So now you have a three book problem," I said.
He stared at me across the table.  "Well, you're quick, I'll give you that."

2:03 PM 27/09/2020
Driving in to church Sunday morning, I often count the number of dogs I pass;  it was a game my sister and I used to play.  What I wasn't prepared for was what I saw when I stopped at a traffic light in North Hobart.  I was waiting for the light to change when I heard a loud noise coming from the other side of the road.  Glancing over my shoulder, I was startled to see a dog running down the footpath towing a table behind it!  
Apparently it had been tied to a table at one of the sidewalk restaurants when for some reason it had taken fright.  Its owner was running down the street trying to catch up with either the dog or the plastic table.  Traffic came to a standstill as drivers watched the chase.  At least one driver abandoned her car in the middle of the street to try and help catch the panicked pooch  -- nobody honked their horn, I think they were all watching the pursuit.
Eventually I noticed the light had changed and I drove off, relieved to see the owner had caught up with his dog before it reached the corner.  Who knows what might have happened had it run out into the intersection??


10:40 AM 28/09/2020
Sunday afternoon I was having a relaxing cup of coffee in the garden while I looked through the Sunday paper.  Suddenly I became aware of noises coming from out by the side door.   A couple of thumps, and the sound of water -- the sort of thing you'd hear if a drainpipe had come apart during a storm.  When I investigated I discovered that the goose was splashing about in the baby's bath I had left out in case he wanted to use it.  Every couple of minutes he would pause, lean over and take a drink out of the water dish that visiting dogs use.  
I always said that geese were intelligent creatures -- this one knows not to drink his own bathwater for example.

01/10/2020
Thursday the Friends Of Mission group were able to have their first meeting in the church hall since the pandemic began.  25 of us gathered for afternoon tea before David Jones gave a talk on his time in Malaysia early this year.  I took a photo but the light was low since David was about to give his Powerpoint presentation.
And the good news was that Dorothy didn't get the memo about there being no trade table this month, so she brought along her usual selection of home-made cakes to sell.  Dorothy, we've missed you!

1:59 PM 2/10/2020
"The page has become unresponsive..."   :(
For the last month the Internet has been slowing down for me.  Facebook in particular has become more and more difficult to use.  It seems there are three options:  Facebook is overloaded,  my Internet provider is low on bandwidth, or my laptop is on its last legs.  A fourth option, of course, is that the person at the keyboard is incompetent, but we won't go there.

3/10/2020

Weather a bit wild and  windy this week.  One evening I tried to sleep despite the sound of rubbish bins blowing around in the driveway. The doors that were closed blew open and the doors that were open slammed shut.  Perhaps the extra sunlight we get next week will make things a bit more settled  (Daylight Saving starts tonight in Australia).

 

Spring dawns

 As global pandemic deaths reach the one million mark, we are thankful that our lives in Tasmania are relatively normal.   Our neighbors in Victoria, however, are not doing as well and the borders between the states remain closed.  The business sector are agitating for re-opening, but the government has made public health a priority.  The example of Europe and the USA remain in our minds.   😢

10:41 PM 1/09/2020

First day of Spring and a fine and sunny afternoon.  After breakfast, a friend dropped in for a cup of tea - his dog barks whenever he tries to drive past my place without stopping!

Pleasant afternoon at the Croquet Club;  only played one game but it was a close-run thing and we only lost on the final hoop.

And the Innquizitive quiz night was even more energetically contested.  We scored 78 points, which wasn't bad, but some of the other eight teams were very good and we came in third in the end.  The winning team scored an eye-watering 93 points.  😮

5:14 PM 3/09/2020

My sister Julie always used to say cats were easier to manage in the winter than in the summer.  I agree with her  --  all through the winter my cat has been happy to spend as much time as possible under his blanket, but today is the third day of spring and he spent a lot of the morning wandering around the house meowing until he went out the back door to spend some time sunbathing in the garden.

07/9/2020

Doing a little tidying-up, I came across a shopping bag of purchases from the preCovid era.  Brought back a few memories.  Keith and I were out one afternoon and he suggested calling in to one of the shopping centres where he'd heard a music shop were having a sale that day.  As we walked in the door, they announced that all CDs were now $2 each, regardless of what price was on the label.  Well, you can imagine how this galvanised us into action!  At the end of the day, I think I left with at least twenty discs.  Eric Coates, Freddy Gardner,Victor Herber, Emmerich Kalman, Albert Ketelby, Louis Levy, Mantovani, Ivor Novello, Ronnie Ronaldo, Sigmund Romberg, Victor Sylvester, Lawrence Tibbet and several compilation albums.

Now to find time to listen to them!

4:34 PM 18/09/2020

A doctor's appointment took me in to the city Thursday afternoon and it was quite pleasant wandering around the CBD in the sun, with just a refreshing cool breeze hanging around the intersections.  I had to make a couple of detours, but actually enjoyed the exercise as I criss-crossed the town centre.  Stopped for coffee then picked up my UK and US magazines from the newsagent.  October issue of ANALOG now on sale, which was good to see.  

10:22 AM 21/09/2020

Sunday and Adrian drove me down to Kingston so we could have lunch at a friend's place.  We ate and looked at some old photographs from Julie's collection, some of which I'll be posting here later on.  That was the good news. 

The bad news was that our route south took us into the worst gridlock I've seen in years in Davey Street.  Insufficient signage meant that hundreds of drivers were unaware that roadworks at the top of Davey Street meant that half the road was closed.  Cars were almost stationary, moving along a foot at a time, meaning it took almost an hour to travel from the CDB to the Southern Outlet.  Not an edifying experience.

12:27 PM 21/09/2020

As some of you may know, the last few years I've been taking a collection of different drugs to treat my diabetes.  This week I'm starting a new prescription, which replaces two of my existing drugs Jariance and Metformin  --  not surprisingly, the new drug is named Jardiamet.  I have read the enclosed leaflet which tells you in great detail all the side-effects you may suffer (in quite small print).  I am wondering if this will affect my sleep (i.e. every time I get up to go to the bathroom it wakes the cat!) but that remains to be seen.  Stay tuned.

The Internet has been so slow this last couple of weeks.  It takes me a long time to read through my e-mails,  and one day three files I wanted from an OTR site gave me only "download has failed" notifications.  As for Facebook, I feel as though my laptop is sending FB messages saying "I want to post a comment", only to get back an answer "Yeah, we'll think about it and get back to you later." 

9:49 PM 22/09/2020

Played two games of croquet and lost both.  However, as I pointed out, after the third hoop I had scored twice as many points as my opponent had  --  can't argue the maths!

In the evening, we had a full team at the quiz night and got off to a good start -- by half-time we were tied for first place.  Alas, we faltered in the second half and ended up in third place by the final round.  As Mark mused, it only takes a few bad questions to slow you down and keep you from victory.  Still, third is better than fourth.

The future belongs to ... me?

 11:30 PM 3/08/2020
Things that made me roll my eyes last week:
1. The authors of a new book about tensions in the Royal family who say they've interviewed hundreds of people while writing their book.  I'm assuming this didn't include anybody who is actually part of the Royal family?
2. The Australian lawyer who had a falling-out with a Facebook group made up of female barristers and solicitors and sent them a message saying he'd sue them all and ruin their careers.  Even lawyers seem incapable of understanding you don't put stuff like that on-line  --  it can go all round the world and stay on the Internet somewhere forever.  Just don't do it.
3. And Donald Trump .... well, enough said.

THE SHARE-OUT (1962) - Mike's movie moment
Another concise little Edgar Wallace thriller.  Corporate crooks blackmail people into selling property at a cut price, but thieves will inevitably fall out.  Richard Vernon is one of the baddies, Bernard Lee is (of course) the man from Scotland Yard, and William Russell takes the lead as a shady private eye who keeps us guessing.  60 minutes of no-nonsense entertainment.

2:15 PM 12/08/2020
OK, this week was fairly busy.  Out and about after church on Sunday, then on Monday out with friends for lunch and drove around with them for a while, then out to dinner.  Tuesday afternoon there were 14 of us at the Croquet Club,  then four of us at the Quiz Night  --  coincidentally, lost both on a tie-breaker!  Wednesday doctor's appointment on-line  (still feels a bit unnatural to me but it is what it is). A bit quieter for the next couple of days, then Saturday the usual round of lunch and op-shopping.  

2:05 PM 14/08/2020
As we get closer to Spring, the weather becomes erattic from day to day.  One day this week it was so pleasant outside that the cat went out in the afternoon for a walk around the backyard.  The following day it was so dark and drizzly he didn't want to go outside at all. [The goose seems to have settled in under the carport as his permanent bedroom, in spite of being officially classed as waterfowl.]  At least wet days aren't as cold as recent weeks  --  one morning I was making breakfast and couldn't butter my toast because the cloud of steam above the plate kept fogging up my glasses.

1:53 PM 15/08/2020
Muldoon asked why they were doing so much work putting in those concrete buildings behind the car park in Argyle Street.  I told him "I don't know for sure, but I suspect the City Council are putting in a bunker where they'll retreat when Hobart traffic finally becomes permanently gridlocked."

2:03 PM 16/08/2020
After a couple of months, we were finally allowed to resume going to church on a Sunday.  It's a bit strange having every
second pew closed off for social distancing, and of course there's the ubiquitous bottle of hand-sanitiser at the front door.  Last week a friend gave me a lift down south past Kettering where half a dozen of us met for lunch, the first time since the pandemic hit.  This week I took to the stage to read from the Bible for the first time in months.  I thought I had prepared myself, but I hadn't counted on the new lightweight lectern which wobbled alarmingly every time I touched it!

1:36 PM 19/08/2020
Lateley I've been watching some ten year old episodes of NCIS on television.  Some of them I remember seeing, some I don't.  One I didn't recall was "Gone", episode 8 of the tenth season from 2012.  In this story, Agent Gibbs seeks information from an old contact Miranda Pennebaker (played by Alex Kingston)  --  you have to wonder if the scriptwriter had been watching her in DOCTOR WHO, because her character speaks and behaves in an almost identical manner to Professor River Song.  If she had called Gibbs "Sweetie" just once I would have marked this down as an unofficial cross-over with The Doctor !

9:57 PM 19/08/2020
This afternoon at home.  Ring-Ring Ring-Ring.  "Hello?"
"Hi this is Lucy from Tree Services.  I'm just phoning to see if you received our account."
"Oh yes.  I had rather a lot of bills this month so I'm paying them in alphabetical order.  You should get your money next week."
"What...?"
"Thank you for calling.  Goodbye."  Click.

5:23 PM 20/08/2020
Met Keith for coffee on Thusday afternoon then gave him a lift to pick up some artwork he wanted to buy.  While I waited for him in the car, I took advantage of the spare moment to write two Haiku poems.  Stay tuned.

See those words on walls:
A community haiku
For all Huon eyes.
-- Haiku for Huonville 2020

Robots a-scuttling
As a world goes to ruin,
The blind see again.
-- Haiku for War Of The Worlds
  5:23pm 20/08/2020


6:21 PM 25/08/2020
Agenda for Tuesday:
01 Feed poultry
02 Breakfast, feed cat
03 Check e-mails and Facebook
04 Croquet Club
05 Coffee and supermarket
06 Pay Taswater bill
07 Chicken Dinner
08 Quiz Night


4:47 PM 27/08/2020
A sunny afternoon and I spent the lunch hour at the table outside the back door enjoying the fine weather.  Even my hairless cat ventured outdoors for a few minutes.  I listened to a recent episode of the radio serial THE ARCHERS without a lot of enjoyment  --  the BBC reaction to the Coronavirus was to convert the show into a series of monologues and soliloquies.
A shower of rain came over about 4:30 and when I went out to feed the poultry I found a lot of them had taken refuge under the carport, disapproving of the first signs of wet weather.
I'll sort of miss THE WAR OF THE WORLDS on Thursday nights.  I know a lot of people found it boring or uninvolving, but it's the only television I've seen for a long time that's really drawn me in.  Not a straight adaptation of the novel, but I found it compulsive viewing.   

2:44 PM 28/08/2020
Some people apparenty report unsettling dreams during the pandemic.  Not usually a problem for me, but some of my dreams are stranger than others.  For example, this week I dreamed I visited a friend in an aged-care facility -- quite understandable since I have not seen her since the virus scare began.  But last night I had a dream in which I could only sleep on the left hand edge of my bed because the rest of the space was taken up with $500,000 in cash!  What's more, I have a vague recollection that it was originally a million dollars but I had to split with somebody.  

What ^has^ my subconscious been up to overnight??

 

1:28 PM 30/08/2020
It's nice to be back in church on Sunday mornings, even with the social distancing and hand sanitising rules.  But I can't help thinking back to the old days -- printing up the weekly bulletin, bringing in supplies for morning tea, and counting up the collection after the service.  All gone now, gone with the wind, swept away by the stormy blast of the pandemic.  Our old routines are gone, we need to get used to whatever lies ahead for us.  
😰

Such stuff as dreams are made of ... (Yikes!)

 Friends stopped in, some with wings and some without.

10:31 PM 20/07/2020
Bought three albums of Harry Nile stories from the classic radio store, and finished downloading them at last -- last year I didn't download my stuff in time and it was a real hassle.  I've got HOUR OF MY DEATH (1994), PAID IN FULL (2007) and SILENT WITNESS (2006).  Now to find three months to listen to them all.

11:15 AM 21/07/2020
In Australia years ago, bestsellers used to be determined by surveying a dozen bookshops in a big city and extrapolating their sales.  So a new novel that was in high demand would get a good spot on the bestseller list.  It was a bit like television survey figures.  Then computerised cash registers and bar codes came along, and for the first tine you could know *exactly* how many copies had been sold of every title.  I think the first week the new system came in, critics were surprised to see the best selling volume was something like THE BIG BOOK OF STAIN REMOVAL TIPS.

A few days ago I was wondering if I was drinking too much coffee this winter.  I may have found a solution.  Going through the crockery, I found a mug that is 20% larger than the one I've been using.  That means I can have more than one mug of coffee without making a second one.  So I can have four of these instead of six of the other size  Problem solved..

Kerensky, the last Prime Minister of pre-Soviet Russia, fled to the US and married an Australian heiress.  A recent profile notes that "The couple later lived in a farmhouse near the New York-Connecticut border, living a social life and entertaining friends with croquet."  
(Hey, you need something to keep your mind off things when you know that both Hitler and Stalin want you dead.)

24/07/2020
Browsing through the DVDs in the op shop, I was momentarily transfixed by one movie whose leading lady rejoiced in the wonderful name of Shonda Whipple.  I thought this was such a great name that I was tempted to write a story featuring her, but I believe she's still alive and with my luck she would sue me.

FLAT 2  (1962)  --  Mike's Movie Moment
A victim's boyfriend sneaks into a blackmailer's flat to sort him out, but another man's already there.  Neither of them realise the crook is already dead.  Then Scotland Yard arrive.  John Le Mesurier, Jack Watling and Bernard Archard star  and there's some nice crisp black-and-white photography in this Edgar Wallace B-movie.

3:16 PM 29/07/2020
Last weekend it was three years since my sister Julie died.  Doesn't seem possible.  Is that twelve months since the second anniversary?  Sunday afternoon I drove Ian & Pat out to the cemetary so we could put some flowers on her graveyard and reflect on her passing.  Flights of white cockatoos wheeled overhead as we stood there in the winter sunshine, talking over our memories.  In the evening, I dug out a packet of Russian Caravan tea I came across in the kitchen recently;  it was one of Julie's favorites, so I made a pot and raised a cup of tea to her memory.  
As they'd say in Esperanto, "Ripozi pace, Julie."

1:51 PM 30/07/2020
The "to do" list for Tuesday

• Doctor's appointment  -- still can't get used to consulting my GP by phone, what happens if I want to ask "what's causing my hand to look like this, Doc?"
• Croquet club -- have to say I didn't realize how much I'd missed playing until we'd had a couple of weeks back.  Although I didn't plan on spending an hour and a quarter on the first game, it just worked out that way.
• Quiz night wasn't bad either, though we didn't finish in the money.  It was fun just being there, in spite of the questions we got wrong.  Asked to say which element was named after Ernest Rutherford, I wrote down "ruthenium"  --  not right.  Our table is just next to the quiz-master, who continues to be amused by the banter and discussions in our team.

12:30 PM 31/07/2020
https://www.nosleeplessnights.com/false-awakening/
I'm not often troubled by nightmares or bad dreams, but I had an odd experience the other night.  I woke, got up and started going about my day, then found myself back in bed and realized it had only been a dream.  So I got up -- then found myself back in bed.  And again, and again.  I even said to myself "This is crazy.  That kind of thing only happens in the movies.  When I finally did wake up for real, I felt exhausted.
A little research told me this is called "false awakening"  --  there's even a name for what happened to me, it's called "nested dreams", dreams within dreams.  
It wasn't that upsetting.  I don't know what caused it, maybe I was under more stress than I realized.  I'm just happy if it's a one-off.

Tiring times in Tasmania

 6:14 PM 1/06/2020

Much discussion in the weekend press about the effects of the Coronavirus lockdown.  Stress, depression, insomnia, etc.  Recent discussions with a friend suggest that old-school science fiction fans might not be feeling the effects as much as other people.  Remember these were people who went through a phase where their main social outlet was reading fanzines and writing letters.  In those days, fans went through long spells between having anybody to talk to about their interests.  And if a fan is  stuck at home for days or weeks, he can always entertain himself by cataloguing his collection or re-shelving the books in his library in a different order.  
He or she might even emerge from lockdown with a vaguely disappointed "Over already?  I thought I would have got more done in my time at home."

2:12 PM 3/06/2020

Muldoon has never shown much interest in American politics so I should have been wary when he raised the subject.  "Even back in the Nixon era", he said, "an unpopular president had the benefit of an experienced foreign policy adviser like Henry Kissinger.  I've been trying to work out who the modern equivalent would be..."  (About there I realized where he was going, but it was too late to stop him.)
"... I wonder who's Kissinger now?"

1:17 PM 8/06/2020

Things that made me do a double take last week - seriously.
On the air, the TV newsman covering Vatican City who said "The Pope went into the chapel to pray to a higher power."  The customer at the coffee shop who wanted a cappucino with no froth. People who still can't pronounce the word "nuclear."  

9:58 PM 11/06/2020

This week we saw the lifting of some restrictions - it's almost three weeks since we had a new case of the virus in Tasmania.  I was able to go out and play croquet on a fine winter afternoon, though maybe I should have turned down the invitation to play a third game.  I was even able to stop at my favorite coffee shop on the way home.
But the winter is starting to bite.  Thursday I woke up and wondered why my fingers felt swollen.  It took me a few minutes to recognize the symptoms of chill-blains  --  haven't had a bad case for years.  I usually rely on the Gingko Biloba tablets to keep my circulation up.
And the evening was ominous.  I came home from the shops and checked the temperature -- it was 5 degrees at the Weather Bureau, but the "feels like" was only 1 degree.  My breath looked like a volcanic cloud as I went back and forth bringing in the groceries (we were right down to the last of the cat food, so staying home wasn't an option!).  
Listened to some episodes of THE ARCHERS podcast.   I am nearly to the end of the stories from the pre-Covid19 era, the next batch will be the "new look" episodes where both the actors and the characters will be facing lockdown.  :(
 
4:02 PM 23/06/2020
Monday was a really strange day.
 I was woken up at 3 a.m. when the smoke alarm had a tantrum and I had to get up and take the battery out.  Cast a wary eye around the house then went back to bed.
When I did get up later it was raining outside and I dug out my heavy boots for the first time since last winter.  Walking out into the back yard to feed the chickens, I had to detour around a four-foot long pool of water that wasn't there last night.
Then when I walked into the house, a fuse blew when I switched on the lights in the back of the house.
There was a meeting scheduled for 2 p.m. today down at Dynnyrne.  I don't enjoy driving in the rain, but I felt I had to make an effort -- I ended up steering with my right hand while I tried to clear condensation of the windscreen with a cloth in my left hand.   (Furthest I've been from home for a couple of months!)
Driving home wasn't too bad, until I pulled over to  let an ambulance pass me in Macquaie Street.  I sat there for a while before I decided there was no way I could get back into rush-hour traffic at twilight in the rain.  I wound up walking to the nearest restaurant and enjoying a hot bowl of soup before I managed to drive home, arriving at 7 p.m.
I fed the poultry but the goose didn't like the muddy conditions in the yard.  He got out and I found him comfortably curled up on the front lawn the next morning.
And it wasn't even Friday the 13th !!

11:34 PM 24/06/2020
Wednesday I went out to a meeting after lunch.  Then drove from Sandy Bay to Derwent Park for dinner with some friends.  Keith phoned and we talked about Saturday.  Message came in regarding the re-launch of the quiz team next week.  E-mails from Bocce Club and Croquet Club about their activities.
I'm beginning to miss the lockdown already.

5:27 PM 30/06/2020
One thing about last week's wet weather, it kept us from shivering.  One rainy day, the temperature hovered around 12C all day.  Even when it cleared up,  Sunday and Monday it was mild enough for me to let the cat out into the backyard in the middle of the day.  (He's not so keen about going out at night since he discovered the goose is sleeping under the table in the carport.)    Monday I stayed in, so a good time to pay some bills on-line;  during lockdown it was easy to push these things to the bottom of the "to do" list since every day felt like a long weekend.  But comes the time of reckoning.

Tuesday I went out for a couple of games of croquet.  I hadn't played for two weeks because of the weather, but strangely it seemed to help rather than hamper the standard of my play.  And it was nice to see a few familiar faces that hadn't been around for a while.  Speaking of which, tonight sees the resumption of the weekly quiz night, which has been in suspension for the last few months.  Let's see how rusty (or not) everyone is when the questions start flying.

Keith phoned.  Apparently he has a crisis. (Crisis On Infinite Earths that is!)

And so to bed...

Lockdown eases a little

.

.

 ‎Tuesday, ‎19 ‎May ‎2020

Like many people, I usually leave a radio switched on for my chickens, playing softly as a sort of "white noise"  --  if you remember the TV show PIE IN THE SKY you will have seen it there.  Yesterday on a whim I changed the station from a talk station to one that plays only classical music.  Tuesday night I gave the poultry their supper, and turned to leave.
But I was surprised to see that the goose was standing underneath the radio, not moving and apparently staring into space.  He looked for all the world as though he was listening to the Trio Nordica play Elfrida Andrée's Piano Trio in C minor.
This was unexpected.  I had been given to understand that geese had a large brain to go with their large bodies, but nobody had said anything about them being able to listen to music.  A google search was uninformative.  Watch this space.

‎Friday, ‎22 ‎May ‎2020

The rubbish skip arrived yesterday, so after lunch I got out the broom and shovel and filled one of the bins with stuff from outside the back door where the poultry had been fossicking around.  I went out to buy more plastic crates for storage (and some cat food).  Then spent a while emptying 14 sacks of rubbish into the skip.  Still plenty of room.  The radio reports strange lights seen in the sky;  if they're aliens, they are welcome to take as much of my rubbish as they like.  I wonder what they'd deduce about our world from my garbage?

‎Sunday, ‎24 ‎May ‎2020

Saturday was a day for working away on the stuff at the back of the house.  A friend told me "You can't let your life be run by the chickens", and maybe it was time to clear out all the stuff that Julie had at the back door for looking after her poultry.  The cages, the lights, the bric-a-brac that had been hanging round for a decade or more  --  time to let it all go.  Out with all of that, in with a table and chairs.  On with the tablecloth.  Close the door to the chooks who had been used to sleeping in there.  I let the cat out and he meowed in surprise at the change before him.  "I know how you feel," I told him, "It's a bit strange to me too."

‎Tuesday, ‎26 ‎May ‎2020

2 degrees when I got up today.  Cat stayed in bed.
After lunch, went over to the croquet club.  It was a welcome feel of old times to see eight of us out on the lawns, familiar faces in a familiar setting.  The grass seemed to be smooth and welcoming, perhaps because there had been few feet troubling its surface for months and I enjoyed being out in the fresh air, the bright autumn sun beaming down on us.

‎Saturday, ‎30 ‎May ‎2020

This was the first weekend since the Coronavirus lockdown that the Salvation Army store has been opened.  I went in to take a look - when three customers left, another three were allowed to enter.  Hand sanitizer provided at the door.  The staff were happy to see their regulars again, and things felt more like the "old normal" as I suppose we should call it now.
Bought ten movies and three books;  if you average it out over the last couple of months, that's really very moderate.

Sunday, 31 May 2020

Felt excessively weary when I woke up on Sunday.  May have been a bit late taking my meds yesterday.  I did tune in to hear the on-line sermon from St John's, then went out to buy a paper.  My local shop was out of the SUNDAY AGE, so I decided to keep going and drove out to Glenorchy.  The shopping centre there was half full of people, but not enough of them to cause me unease.  Half the shops were open, but the closed and dark cinema brooding over the parking lot reminded you of the current world situation.
That was the furthest I've been from home in weeks.
.

I got them low-down lockdown blues

 Today is May first,
And from all on the planet
Comes the cry "M'Aidez!"
     
    -- Haiku for May 1, 2020


‎Friday, ‎1 ‎May ‎2020

Things going along quietly as usual (with the exception of the day I caught my foot in the extension cord and nearly yanked the power point off the wall).  The weather was halfway decent, so I took a tray out into the garden.
While I was eating, I was reading on my Kindle, having decided to dip into REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST during the month of isolation.  I was only part of the way through the first chapter when I felt a presence.  I looked down and the goose was standing next to my right foot.  He stared at me until I gave him a bit of bread from my sandwich.
Afterwards, the wind was a little cool.  Before I went out for an afternoon walk, I put on my wool scarf which has been hanging on the hatrack since last winter.  I suspect Proust would have made at least one chapter out of today.

‎Sunday, ‎3 ‎May ‎2020

Went out briefly to get groceries, particularly cat food.  When I came home, I spent five minutes sneezing.  Since I don't know a virus with a 15-minute incubation period, I'd say it was the cold night air rather than the pandemic that was to blame.
While I was out, picked up the latest NEW SCIENTIST.  The cover story this week is "How to protect your mental health in the time of Coronavirus."  Thought maybe I should read that.

‎Monday, ‎4 ‎May ‎2020

The weather, with its usual unpredictability, swung round so that we had a nice sunny afternoon -- quite a contrast to the windy and gloomy weekend.  I quite enjoyed my 20-minute walk after lunch, strolling along musing on the chapter of Proust I had been reading while I ate in the garden.
As usual I sauntered across the old railway bridge, my thoughts turning back to the year we had a mouse plague at my house.  Julie had purchased a humane mouse trap, and nearly every morning there would be one or two mice alive in it.  So each day I w0uld walk down to the railway line and release them there, bidding them to hop a freight out of town.  (How many mice did I exile in this fashion?  Don't know, I stopped counting at 60.)
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‎Tuesday, ‎5 ‎May ‎2020

A fine and settled day.  I lazed away some of the morning in bed till I had to stir myself to accept a delivery of essential supplies.  A late lunch in the sun, while the cat wandered around my feet.  Then out for my afternoon walk, zig-zagging around the district so as not to endlessly walk the same streets as previous days.
At sunset, spent a while with Marcel Proust, whose words have a pleasant effect on the mind, filling it with a nostalgic longing for impossible journeys through the realms of time. (His words, not mine!)
In the evening, watched THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY: A COPPER'S TALE, a riveting 2013 docu-drama about the police squad that tracked down the train robbers.  Very good on the atmosphere of 1963 England.

When from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, but with more vitality, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection.   (SWANN'S WAY, chapter 1)


FLIGHTPLAN (2005) -- Mike's movie moment
Good looking thriller set on a transatlantic jet starring Jodie Foster.  The plot keeps the audience guessing to the end.  The film-makers, consciously or unconsciously, use as their template Alfred Hitchcock's pre-war film of THE LADY VANISHES.

Saturday I had to go out to fill a prescription and noticed there seemed to be a lot more traffic on the road.  Guys, the announcement yesterday said that they would be easing restrictions soon, not that they'd already done it !
Call from the office of my endocrinologist.  My appointment this month will be on the phone rather than in person.  I had been half-expecting that.
A friend has been trying to recover some stuff that she wrote years ago and is stored on a floppy disc.  We tried everything I could think of, but this morning we discovered why we couldn't read the data  --  the files were created on a Mac.  Reading it on a Mac was simple.  The one thing we never thought of.
The BOLD television channel has done it again - this time they skipped the whole of the fifth season of NCIS NEW ORLEANS.  Not one of my favorites. but it's not really a great way to treat your audience.

‎Tuesday, ‎12 ‎May ‎2020

Tuesday I thought I'd slip out and get my quarterly blood test done.  It should only take about twenty minutes, I thought.  And I would have been right, except for the fact the place where I usually go was closed for the duration of the pandemic.  A sign on their door referred me to an alternative site at Calvary Hospital, and I spent a good 45 minutes going around the hospital searching for the right office before I found it.
Once I got home again, I kept busy sorting out some old boxes from the laundry.  Mostly junk and clutter, unless you were agog at 10-year-old news magazines, but I did find a couple of gems.  One was an old greeting card addressed to me and still containing some birthday money - ca$h !  The other was an old sepia photo of Julie's house from way back;  I knew the photo, but I hadn't realized it was in that box of bric-a-brac.
When I showed the photo to a friend she took a picture of it with her phone.  Then she zoomed in on it to see the details better and discovered there were two women on the side verandah that I had never seen before.  Isn't modern technology wonderful?

THE MAN AT THE CARLTON TOWER (1961) Mike's movie moment
A brisk little B-movie based on an Edgar Wallace novel, starring Lee Montague and Maxine Audley.   An ex-policeman sets out to track down one of the cleverest crooks in London.  One of the supporting characters is played by Nyree Dawn Porter, who would become a global star just a few years later in THE FORSYTE SAGA.

‎Wednesday, ‎13 ‎May ‎2020

After clearing out the laundry yesterday, a stumbling block to doing that big load of washing I had planned for today.  What did I do with all my clothes pegs?  A quick trip to the supermarket before I could hang out my stuff to dry.
Read another chapter of Proust.  I hadn't had a chance to read any the rest of this week -- I need to be in the right mood to tackle those long sentences.
Later, did my homework for this evening's on-line Bible study.  I'm sort of used to this now but it did seem strange at first. Before I go to bed I need to complete the menu for the next three weeks of home-delivered meals.  I know, First World problem.

‎Friday, ‎15 ‎May ‎2020

I had to stay home Friday waiting for a delivery -- not exactly a novel thing nowadays.  It was a nice sunny day so after I ate lunch in the garden I went for a short walk down the street.  When I got to the corner, it was so pleasant that instead of turning for home straightaway I just leaned up against a wall and basked in the sun for a while like a lizard on a rock.
At home I was happily settled down soaking in the ambient music from last week's Hearts Of Space podcast, until Keith rang  --  he wanted to let me know he had the copy of the Miss Fisher movie (CRYPT OF TEARS) that I wanted.  He also said that he'd found the Blu-Ray player he bought a couple of months ago -- it was behind a pile of books (no surprise there).
I'm now 20% of the way through SWANN'S WAY, the first of the Proust series.  I have learned to love those long, long sentences and the way he devotes thousands of wordsike  to describing his weekly visit to church and its architecture as seen from various angles.