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.