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.
😰
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