Friday, December 24, 2021

Season's Greetings

 


 

 It's Christmas Eve  --  again?  The year seems to have flown by, not helped by my effectively losing two m0nths out of the year while I had my cataract surgery.  That made the year feel shorter (for me anyway).  I have become used to my new glasses, though I have yet to make a dent in the To Be Read pile that built up while I was having problems reading much at all.

Neither have I done anything about the garden.  My friendly local goatherd brought down one of the goats I had last summer (Mr Snuggles) and he's been useful in the backyard.  One day I was looking at a head-high stand of weeds in the back garden and thought we'd probably have to get in there and slash them.  Two mornings later I went out to feed the livestock and the weeds had been reduced to a bare row of stalks.  Well done Mr Snuggles.

I seem to have lost a little weight this year.  A combination of changing some of my medications, and spending several weeks doing a lot of walking while I wasn't able to drive.  One of my friends actually told me she thought I was losing too much weight,  but I'll believe that when I get rid of this spare tire.

Living without any cats took a bit of getting used to this year.  I was asked if I would get another cat, but at my time of life it's a question that takes some considering.  Would it be fair to either of us if I took in one or more felines?  The jury is still out on that one.

We have been a bit spoiled in Tasmania by less stringent Covid precautions  --  being an island has its advantages.  It was only this month that masks were made mandatory again after the borders were re-opened to travel (even though 90% of adults are vaccinated in this state).   I was at the supermarket early today for a couple of last minute items and the car park was filled with people wearing dark glasses and masks;  it looked like the annual meeting of the Witness Protection Scheme.

Nevertheless,  I feel grateful for the support given by family, friends and the wider community over this last two years.  I extend to all my very best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year  --  surely 2022 must be better !

Monday, December 20, 2021

"Don’t hurry, don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.”– Walter Hagen

 


Nov 5th
Today would have been my sister's wedding anniversary.  This is a story I don't think I've told before.  When Julie was planning her wedding she was wondering what to do about decorating her hair.  I happened to mention that I always liked her look when she came in from feeding her animals with bits of elderflower blossom through her hair.  She seized on the idea and the wedding was scheduled for a time when they would be in flower.  I think of this every time I see the elderflowers in my back yard blooming.  They are in flower now, and I remember Julie every time I walk by them.  

Nov 16th
Well, things turned out OK today.  The weather stayed fine enough for us to get in two games of croquet today, and in the first game both I and Gina (my opponent) were playing extremely well.  I lost on the tie-breaker but we were both exhilarated because we had made so many great shots.  
Then at the Tuesday night quiz, we started off well and scored a consistent 7/10 or 8/10 for every round except the last one.  This resulted in us winning the night for the first time in months.    
Not bad.  Not bad at all.

Nov 17th
The Bocce Club has been pretty lucky the last few weeks but it couldn't last.  It was drizzling when I went out to buy drugs this afternoon, and by the time I got back from the pharmacy it had progressed to light rain.  Stayed home and settled in to wait for Doctor Who "Flux" on ABC television.

Nov 22nd
For the last three months I have been wondering when we'd get any more episodes of the weekly radio show One Nostalgic Weekend.  Wonder no more!  Twelve hours ago, WON posted thirteen episodes on-line at Mixcloud.  That's a lot of listening to catch up with.  (You could probably get through them in about 24 hours of non-stop listening  -- shades of Jack Bauer.)

Nov 28th
Listening to "The Mystery of Edelweiss Lodge", a Sherlock Holmes radio play,  I found myself in the unusual position of spotting the murderer for the wrong reason.  The murder had been committed using cyanide, and one of the characters had a background as a gold prospector.  Knowing that cyanide was used in gold mining, I immediately suspected him.  Alas, it turned out that while he was the murderer, his life as a prospector was only a cover story.  Holmes would have shaken his head at my ham-fisted attempt at deduction.

Dec 7th
I thought of the famous PUNCH cartoon "I keep thinking it's Tuesday" when I woke up this morning and was convinced for some time it was Sunday morning.  I eventually sorted myself out and arrived at the Croquet Club punctually for my Tuesday afternoon game.  Weather was a bit on-and-off but I was surprised when I arrived home just before it hailed for ten minutes.  It wasn't too bad, but it was enough to scare the goose out of the driveway and under the carport.

Dec 12th
After a busy few days, finished up the week at church this morning.  Communion service after a spirited sermon by Alistair, who drew on his legal background to expound on a passage from Psalm 146.  A guest speaker told us movingly about the important role foster parents can have in the life of a child.  Later I purchased some Christmas cards designed by one of our members, raising money for foreign aid (fresh water for two villages: one in India and the other in Ethiopia, Bible teaching material in Timor Leste and a new classroom for Orbus, Malawi).  I am sorry to hear that the evening service is being put on hold for the duration.  I didn't attend it myself, but I know that years ago it was a gathering place for the younger members of the congregation.
*
Who says soap operas are a waste of time?  I was at a quiz night last week and one of the questions was "What name is used in England for the board name Americans call CLUE?"  I had to smile, because just that afternoon I had been listening to an episode of The Archers and three of the main characters had been playing CLUEDO.  One point for us.
*
At the final quiz night for the year, we did better than expected.  There were nine teams, and we came in second with 83 points, just a point behind Walt Quizney.  Noteworthy quizzing from Minerva's Disciples who got a perfect score on one of their double points rounds.   And since we were eating up our prize money from this year, I ordered a Porterhouse Steak, something that I would never do normally  (and very good it was too).
*
  SKYWAVE AUDIO THEATRE March 13 2021
My Favorite Husband  - The Quiz Show 3/18/1949
Boston Blackie - Sam Fisher’s Past 3/13/1947
Fort Laramie - Hattie Pelfrey 3/11/1956
Escape - The Log of the Evening Star 3/14/1948
Suspense - Narrative about Clarence 3/16/1944

The Weird Circle - The Specter of Tappington 3/11/1944
Lots of great listening here;  I had never heard any of these episodes before.


Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Cup Day dining

 I saw Noel Coward's play "Blithe Spirit" again recently.  I had forgotten that the name of the [spoilers] dead wife who comes back to life is Elvira.  Some of her dialogue would fit well with "our Elvira" too.  I wonder if the Coward estate would be interested in licensing a production where Elvira plays Elvira ??
*
So the nurse comes in and says to the patient "Your insurance doesn't cover the cost of a general anaesthetic.  These are your two options:  I can hit you over the head with this wooden paddle or you can sniff this old medicine bottle. Which would you prefer?"
The patient frowns and says "Can I have both?"
"No, it's an Ether/Oar choice," she replies. :)
*
Oct 26th
This morning one of those tiresome survey-takers phoned and wanted to ask me questions about charities.  While she worked through her list of questions, delivered with almost inhuman cheerfulness, I started to wonder how easy it would be to program a computer with every possible answer I might give.  Were those pauses after every question her noting down my response or was it the system switching to a new pathway?  Finally I asked her if she was a human being or an AI.  She laughed and said "You think I'm a machine?  No, I'm not."
But of course that's just what they would say, isn't it?
*
Warm and sunny at the Croquet Club this afternoon.  I had wondered last night if it would rain on us,  but the sun beat down on us all day.  It took us three hours to play two games but our team triumphed, winning 7-5 and 7-3.  I muffed a couple of shots at the start but got my eye in later.  As Rod Serling would have said "There is a Twilight Zone that lies between the knowledge of what to do and the ability to do it..."
*
Tuesday night quiz we finished in 6th place I think, one point ahead of Minerva’s disciples on 68. Jambag won again with 80 points.
The following evening we were in fifth place with 78 points, while Barnstoneworth course) won with an eye-watering 99/110
But it was worth going if only for the slow-cooked lamb from the Beltana which was truly memorable.  (And the cute girl sitting on the other side of the restaurant, a feast for my new eyes  -  but I fear I might have received a negative answer if I had asked "Do you think fifty years is too great an age difference when dating?")

Oct 29th
The River Derwent at Macquarie Plains is currently at 1.75 metres and rising. The River Derwent at Macquarie Plains is expected to exceed the minor flood level (4.00 m) early Saturday morning. The river level is likely to peak near the moderate flood level (5.00 metres) late Saturday morning.
Minor flooding is likely along the River Derwent around New Norfolk.
The River Derwent at New Norfolk is currently at 0.88 metres and steady. The River Derwent at New Norfolk may exceed the minor flood level (2.00 m) late Saturday morning. The river level is likely to peak near 2.10 metres early Saturday afternoon with the high tide.

Nov 2nd
First Tuesday in November:  Melbourne Cup day "the race that stops a nation".  We joined a room full of folks at the Black Buffalo Hotel for lunch and some entertainment before the big race at 3 o'clock.  My horse was unfortunately scratched early  -  he didn't make it to the starting gate, much less the finish line.
One amusing incident took place at the lunch table.  My friend Mick is a meat and potatoes man -- literally!  He told the waiter he wanted no other vegetables with his meal.  His food arrived while he was getting some drinks and I noticed big serves of cauliflower and broccoli on his plate.  I hastily transferred the broccoli to my plate and the cauli to our mutual friend Adrian's plate.  Mick returned a moment later while we were calmly tucking into our vegetables and he was none the wiser!

Nov 3rd
The Tuesday Night quiz was a non-event because we didn't have enough people to field a team.  Wednesday we had a team, but after a good start (got 9 points on the puzzle question and a perfect score on the food & drink round) we crashed and burned in the second half, finishing 9th in a 10-horse race.  Oh well, surely we cannot do any worse next week ...  can we?

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Spring has sprung

 Even the Banksia Rose thinks Spring has arrived.


 

Sunday 2nd October

Welcome
Opening Verses
1. Rejoice 51 Holy, Holy Holy - Organ
Prayer of Confession
2. Rejoice 251 I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say - Organ
Community News
Prayer Meeting
Friends of Mission: Speaker Geoff Powell of Barnabas Fund
Kids Talk - James

Pastoral Prayer - Jasmin
3. Holy Spirit Living Breath of God - piano
Bible Reading -  Isaiah 32 & Luke 7:18-35 - Michael
Sermon: Hope and Despair for Planet Earth - Alistair
4. Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me - piano
Closing Verses
5. The Steadfast Love of the Lord - piano

After church, 50th anniversary concert of the Theatre Organ Society's local branch today.  A good crowd turned up to the Collegiate school hall to see the Wurlitzer being played, to welcome guests including Chris Waterhouse, to watch awards being presented and to hear messages from people overseas like Nigel Ogden and Simon Gledhill.  I was sorry to hear that Alan Rider has passed away  -- his long-running radio show Theatre Organ Showcase was a useful outlet for promoting TOSA for many years.


Oct 5th
Tuesday the Croquet Club wasn't quite as busy in the afternoon, possibly due to an indifferent weather forecast;  in spite of that I spent most of the day in a short sleeve shirt.  First time I remember playing on a lawn 15 minutes after it had been mowed though.
Went in to pick up some office supplies that I hadn't been able to get when I was off the road for two months.  There are some things you just can't carry home on the bus.
The quiz night this week wasn't a great success.  The puzzle question was particularly elusive, and some of the other rounds were mediocre [1/10 for music for example].  We finished up with 68 points, one point more than our friendly rivals at the Minerva's Disciple table.  The Jambag team romped home yet again with 89 points.

Oct 14th
Took Helena to the Playhouse to see the Noel Coward classic Blithe Spirit.  It is many years since I saw it, and I was surprised I had forgotten nearly all of the third act.   Good cast included Petr Divis, the son of my old GP.
Just as well we didn't leave it any later  --  the next day the state government announced a three-day lockdown to control a Covid scare.

Oct 19th
I've never played croquet wearing a mask before, but there was no way of getting out of it this week.  At first I felt like an astronaut playing the game on Mars, my sunglasses kept threatening to fog up because of the breath from under the mask.  Not so bad though  -  won the first game comfortably (7-2) and lost the second on a tie-breaker (6-7).
Contestants were a bit thin on the ground at the Tuesday night quiz, probably because people didn't want to mask up for a whole evening. Walt Quizney won with 78 points, while we finished in fifth place with 70  (did I mention there were only six teams?).

Oct 21st
The Hobart Show holiday is notoriously unpredictable and often turns out to be wet or miserable.  But once again this year it was warm and sunny.  I sat out on the patio and ate lunch while browsing through the latest issues of The Phantom comic book.

Oct 22nd
Met up with Keith on Friday for a visit to the Salvo store and lunch across the road.  We walked in to be told they had just announced the mandatory masking period was over  -- made eating lunch a lot more fun.  Keith tells me that as part of his spring cleaning phase last week he was reading three books a day to try and reduce his To-be-read pile.  I don't know how he does it.
When I got home,  I had a cup of coffee and looked through some of the stuff Keith had passed on to me,  including a 1962 edition of the children's annual KNOCK OUT  (not a pristine copy, but some interesting strips and stories, inluding one of my personal favorites Battler Britton).   

Monday, October 18, 2021

New eyes, old thoughts


 

Saturday Sept 11th

My first try at typing with my "new eyes"  --  last week was difficult, this week seems to be mostly guesswork.  Just as well I learned to touch type as a teenage student.   It will be a few weeks before I can get new prescription lenses.
*
Home again after my recuperative trip to the seaside.  The last day we went for a stroll along the beach and I commented  "What a pretty little creek emptying into the sea," to be told it was actually a storm drain outlet.  In the evening I met up with an old school friend and we caught up over dinner before he gave me a lift back to my house (where all was quiet except the goose who came out looking for supper).
*
Today's date reminds me of that evening twenty years ago when we were settling in at the day's end.  My mother was already in bed and I said goodnight to my sister Julie.  I walked into my roo and flicked the radio on to see what was on the late show.  A moment later I appeared in the door of Julie's room and said "There's something happening in New York.  I'm going to switch the TV on."  From memory, that was just before the second plane hit the towers.  The rest, as they say, is history.  The next morning, as I walked down the front path to pick up the morning paper, a light plane flew overhead.   I flinched.  
*
Nightmares aren't my thing, but now and again I have an odd dream.  Saturday I woke up from a strange one, filled with elements that could have come from a B-grade horror movie.  I'll spare you the details except for one exchange I recall:
"Think it's safe to look in the refrigerator?"
"Probably not..."

The dream I had the following night was much better.  A picaresque spy thriller that even included cameo appearances by two of my friends as themselves.
*
I was asleep when the phone rang.  As I reached for it,  my eye fell on the clock and I thought "Who could be phoning me at 4.30 a.m.?"  Just for a second I had forgotten I was taking an afternoon nap and it was actually 4.30 p.m. !
*
Walking back into town after church on Sunday morning, I wasn't thinking about much except where I was going to eat lunch before going home.  Then I thought the woman walking up the street looked familiar.  While my brain was dredging up the memory, I heard a voice "Mee-kal!" and the woman threw her arms around me.  "Isobel!  Great to see you again," I said.  It was only the second time I'd seen her this year, and that time she'd been driving east and I'd been walking west so it had been a very short conversation.  We chatted for a while, then I walked on, this time with a spring in my step.  Sometimes it's a nice thing to live in a small city.
*
Tuesday 14th Sept
Out this morning to walk to the Sunderland Street clinic for my quarterly blood test.  Walked back to the Croquet Club and played for two hours, then walked home.  Rested while doing some research for tonight, then walked to the Quiz Night.  No wonder I've lost 5kg this month.
(We didn't do so badly at the quiz, coming third with 81 points  --  those braniacs at the Diamond Set Stickpin table came first again.)  June said to me she thought my handwriting had improved since my eye operation;  I told her that since I couldn't see what I was writing, it was all down to muscle memory.

Wednesday night quiz was a perfect storm  --  but I mean that in a good way.  We solved the puzzle question on the first clue [10 points], got a perfect score on our bonus round [20 points] and romped through the first half of the evening ahead of the pack.   At the end we won with 97 points, our best score ever  --  we even beat Barnstoneworth and Don Quizote (yay!).  😁

Saturday 17th Sept
  I went out for lunch, meeting Keith Curtis at his favorite restaurant  (which just happens to be across the road from the Salvo's op shop).  Between the food, fellowship and fossicking, it was an entertaining afternoon and the walking there and back was good exercise in the fresh air.  Felt much better this evening than I did when I got up today, eating roast beef while I listened to a Sherlock Holmes radio play "The Two Watsons" by M.J. Elliot.
https://harrynile.com/product/the-two-watsons/ly
Steve Ashley's podcast was especially interesting to me this week, since it featured the music of Jelani Eddington who visited Hobart some years ago.  After he performed on our Wurlitzer, I chatted with him and asked him if he thought Cole Porter and George Gershwin would have been surprised to know they were still being heard in the 21st century.  He shook his head and said "Their music is timeless."
https://www.hotpipes.eu/half-hour-broadcast-333/

Sunday 19th Sept
After the morning service at church, we stayed on for lunch.  Something we haven't been able to do for a long time.  Fortunately the state Covid regulations allow us to have up to 64 people in the church hall, so we had more than enough room.  And as usual with a Presbyterian function there was food to spare!
I came home and slept for two hours afterwards. Got up for a light dinner, then tuned in ABC-TV to watch the final episode of THE NEWSREADER and a show about the giant armadillo narrated by David Attenborough (or was it a profile of David Attenborough narrated by a giant armadillo?  I must be tired).

20th Sept
Monday morning I went out for a walk.  This being Springtime in Tasmania, I took a hat in case it rained, dark glasses in case it was sunny, boots in case it was muddy, a scarf in case it was windy and my walking stick in case I got the wobbles.

In the afternoon I was testing out my stop-gap magnifying glasses and read most of an issue of the PEOPLE'S FRIEND magazine.  Unfortunately that included part 1 of a three part serial, so I spent quite a while sorting through the piles of unread magazines from this year.  Did I locate the issues I needed?  Yes, in the end.

Tuesday 21st Sept
Tried to catch up on some paperwork on the laptop, then walked over to the Croquet Club.   14 there this afternoon and I think about the same in the morning games.  I played reasonably well in my two games, though my new eyes have not improved my standard of play that much.  Walked home and rested up for a couple of hours for the quiz night.
We didn't do badly.  The puzzle question took us a while, but we did get perfect scores for two of the other rounds.  At 89 points, I thought we had a chance, but we came third and Jambag romped home again with a score of 95.

Friday 24th Sept
Cold, wet and windy for the equinox.  I think the ambient temperature was down around zero when the man from the Auto Club replaced my battery this afternoon.  With that, and the form my doctor signed yesterday, I can finally get back on the road.  
In the evening, sat inside where it was warm and dry, eating dinner and watching the DVD of MURDER CALL, one of my favorite cop shows of the 1990s.  (It gave rise to a catchphrase in our family "Look out, she's having a Lucy Bell moment"!)

Saturday 25th Sept
After lunch, cautiously took the car out for a spin.  Until I checked the calendar, hadn't realized it was two months since I'd been behimd the wheel!  It was actually a bit difficult to get back into the way of it;  when you've been driving for fifty years, it becomes almost automatic, and having to think about what you're doing takes a bit of effort.  By the time I got home, I felt a bit more comfortable, though I won't be driving in traffic for some time yet.

LAXDALE HALL [1953]  Raymond Huntley leads a parliamentary delegation sent to a remote community in the Scottish Highlands where the residents are protesting at their poor links with the outside world  -- the more things change, the more they stay the same, eh? I don't usually get a chance to watch old movies on a Saturday afternoon,  but I commend 9Gem for giving me a chance to see this charming old flick based on an Eric Linklater novel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laxdale_Hall
*
Sunday some of us went out to lunch in Bellerive after church. A little surprised to find that one of our group had a connection to the Wednesday quiz night  --  her son is part of the Barnstoneworth team who keep beating us every week.  Yeah, I know, it's a small world.
*
I've always been intrigued by authors who collaborate. How does that work?  Do they take turns at the typewriter or do they talk through the story in detail before they write it down?  Well, I now know about one writing team.  A book of the old Sherlock Holmes radio scripts co-written 7 5 years ago by Denis Green and Anthony Boucher for Mutual’s weekly radio program  -- Throughout their Holmes broadcast collaboration, Green would pen most of the dialogue while Boucher would write the plots and the twist endings.  [THE LOST ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES by Ken Greenwald]

Tuesday I fitted in one game of croquet  -- it was helpful not having to walk to and from the club.  The quiz night that evening came to naught, because for once we couldn't get enough people to make up a team.  I stayed home doing a bit of writing and reading, which is still a bit difficult because the cheap glasses I am using at the moment give me little flexibility, I am anchored to exactly the same distance all the time I use them. (It can be positively dangerous if you use them while you're standing up, because if you look down the floor isn't in focus!)

The Wednesday night quiz was a bit better, at least we had three on the team.  Got off to a good start, solving the puzzle question on the first clue  for ten points.  (Thanks to my abundant store of Hollywood trivia.)  We faltered in some of the later rounds, scoring 4/10 in both music and television.  We finished in third place, defeated by (of course) Barnstoneworth.
*
I saw two consecutive items on the TV news last week.  The first one said that the size and number of crocodiles in the north of Australia had increased dramatically.  The second said that the Tasmanian cricket team had left Queensland abruptly.  There didn't seem to be a link between the two stories but you can't help wondering ...
*
I seem to be tired most days these last few weeks. In the morning I lie there, telling myself it's time to get up.  Maybe I should try and take an afternoon nap whenever possible.  I don't want to go back to those days a couple of years ago when I used to doze off after breakfast and not wake until lunch.  Being a septuagenarian is no excuse for nodding off all the time when you're at home alone.

 

Friday, October 01, 2021

eyes of the beholder

 


Thursday 2nd September was an interesting if tiring day.  Rose at dawn for an 8 a.m. doctor's appointment,  attended the monthly meeting at the church hall at lunchtime,  went out to see the Agatha Christie play THE STRANGER at The Playhouse in the evening and finished the day hunting a rogue rooster in the dark in the backyard. Put out the week's trash.  Then a phone call from Keith Curtis.
 I'll go to bed now, I thought.
*
Friday 3rd Sept
Woke up still feeling tired from Thursday's busy activities.  I was just finishing my second coffee when some friends arrived to take me to the supermarket.  But first -- lunch.  Agreeing on a venue took quite a bit of time, involving a lot of driving around, discussion and phoning.  We finally ended up at the Carlyle Hotel, which was a good choice because the spacious dining room meant we were able to enjoy our meal without worrying about what people at other tables were discussing.
*
A friend asked me how I was doing in the between-eyes period.  Could I read?  Watch TV?
Well, it's a bit difficult for me to read at the moment, but I can do it if I concentrate.  Typing is not easy because my eyes tell me that the letters on the left side of the keyboard are a different distance to the ones of the right hand side  --  even touch typists have their limitations.  Television is fine, everything more than a yard away is in focus, but if I'm reading captions or subtitles I often have to close one eye to stop seeing them double.  After Wednesday I will have both eyes the same so at least I won't be seeing double anymore and it will be a lot easier to walk down steps!
*
Sunday 5th Sept
Even without the rooster, I woke up early on Sunday morning and got ready for church.  Helped that I didn't have to carry supplies for the kitchen with me this month when I got on the bus.  The preacher gave a considered sermon on the subject of the two cities on the plain, mentioning fire and brimstone without dwelling on it.  I had lunch in town, then took the bus home, went to bed and slept for four and a half hours (That ties in nicely with something I once read that said we sleep in multiples of 45 minute cycles.)
Made something to eat and watched THE NEWSREADER on ABC TV, a history of the 1980s from the viewpoint of television reporters.  It's not NEWSFRONT, but it has extra appeal because I recall all those things happening.
*
Tuesday 7th Sept
Croquet was a bit of a mess for me today.  I got there on time for the first afternoon game, but because of the windy weather and my increasingly unreliable eyesight, I lost 7-2 and decided to go home at half time.  I sat out on the patio, poured myself a cold drink and read some of the new Harley Quinn collection that kicks off a new partwork for comics fans.
In the evening, the Tuesday night quiz team was down to three of us, and we did notably not-so-good in a couple of rounds (music 3/10, sport 2/10).  There were 13 teams playing - unlucky for some! - and  we finished 8th with 64 points, beaten by Minerva's Disciples with 70.  The winners were Walt Quizney who scored 81.  Just wait till next week when I have both eyes working!
*
I find it a little unsettling at the milestone tomorrow brings.  All my life I have been near-sighted, but that ends tomorrow morning with my second cataract operation.  I suspect it may take me a long time to stop trying to read small print by holding it close to my eyes!  Once the eyes settle down, I can go back to the optometrist and get a new set of prescription glasses;  till then, reading or writing,  e-mailing or texting, will rely on a pair of $5 magnifying glasses from the discount store.

Monday, September 13, 2021

snow



Tuesday 17th Aug
Looked out my front door after two or three days of rain and was surprised to see snow-capped Mount Wellington towering above the city against a blue sky with a few white clouds.  The sunny afternoon brought out twenty of us to play croquet and I won 7-5 and lost 5-7... so not too bad.  
Likewise the quiz night went pretty well.  We scored 88 points and came in second,  behind Jambag (again) with their 94 point score.  If I were the stewards, I think I'd have them swabbed.  And congrats to Minerva's Disciples who came in third,  thanks to answering the puzzle question in the first round and getting a perfect score on a double-points round.

 Wed 18th Aug
Tired after yesterday and didn't feel that well this morning.  A bit better after lunch, managed to fill out the medical forms for next week before I went out to buy drugs.  After I got from the pharmacy, rested up for a little while before going out to the Wednesday night quiz.  There were ten teams there, but since our old rivals Barnstoneworth were absent we got third place even though we only made 46 points.
Still having trouble getting my blood sugar down.  I had a bowl of soup at 8 pm and had nothing to eat the rest of the night, but thirteen hours later my BGL reading was still 10.2 which is a bit disappointing since I've been getting more exercise while I haven't been driving.  :(

Thursday 19th Aug
Sleepy in the afternoons;  makes me wonder if I will even need sedation for my procedure next week !
Tussles with trying to log into one of my accounts  ("Either the user name of the password is incorrect") then took a walk down to the shops.  On the way I noticed two places with what looked like Christmas lights in their windows, though August is a bit early for the Yuletide decorations.  On a related topic, I see that Coles are now selling what they label "Not Cross Buns", presumably a reaction to the backlash in some quarters about them selling Hot Cross Buns in January in recent years.

Friday 20th Aug
On local radio's morning show this week,  Leon Compton asked his listeners whether they still read comics (or graphic novels).
I was pleased to hear the first caller was a proud Carl Barks fan who is still reading Uncle Scrooge at the age of 66.  What I thought was that we are not breeding a new generation of comics readers.  When I was growing up in the 1960s every newsagency had big racks of comics, all types and categories.  Kids bought them avidly and traded them wit their friends.  But now if you look a.round, all you will find are The Phantom and The Simpsons usually. Comics are something expensive that you buy in a specialty shop.  As an experiment a couple of years ago I asked the counter staff in several shops why they didn't stock comic books;  most of them were baffled by the question, though one replied he didn't know if distributors still handled them.   The 21st century only seems to see comic books as seed material for blockbuster movies.  

I may have mentioned this a while back,  but "the cloud" can be a mixed blessing.  One of the New York internet radio stations 920 WON puts its programs up on Mixcloud so you can listen back to anything you missed.  And that's a good thing, we'd all agree on that.  But they're only a small operation, I surmise, and they can't always spare the time to post things promptly.  This was obvious last month when in one day they posted ten episodes of their weekly program "One Nostalgic Weekend."  That's twenty hours of listening made available in one fell swoop!

Tuesday 24th Aug
Cold night followed by a fine and sunny day brought the croquet players out in big numbers today.  We've had to start having both morning and afternoon games, the demand has been so high. In the evening, another big turn out for the quiz night with twelve teams taking part;  we worked hard on the answers and scraped into third place


Friday 27th Aug
Back from two days staying with friends at the beach after my first cataract procedure.  No pain and a vast improvement in vision in the right eye.  Even the eyedrops get easier with My hosts were very attentive and even their dog made me welcome  -- if I was in my bedroom with the door closed he'd come along and woof because he wanted to come in.
I thought I had come through it pretty well, but when I got home this afternoon I suddenly felt really tired and had to lie down for an hour before I could summon up the energy to do anything at all.  The list of things I need to do next week and next month doesn't help.

Favorite radio show title of the wee --How the west was strung - WDCB

Sunday 29th Aus
After church walked back into the city for lunch before taking the bus home.  In the mall I passed a man walking a large shaggy German Shepherd.  "What a beautiful dog," I said and held my hand out for the dog to sniff.  He whuffled for a second, then began licking the back of my hand.  "He doesn't usually do that" said the surprised owner.
Ha!  I could have told him some stories about my sister.  One time she was on Bondi Beach and someone went past with a German Shepherd.  Suddenly the dog stopped and put its head on Julie's lap.  "I didn't do anything," declared Julie to her boyfriend.  He just sighed and said "I know."   :)

Monday 30th Aug
Tasmanian author wins prize for Best Crime Novel for Children.  The award went to A CLUE FOR CLARA by Liam Tanner.  The detective is a chicken...(Somewhere my sister Julie is smiling.)

Tuesday 31sr Aug
Last day of winter and it was very windy at croquet club  (my sister always said to beware the equinoctial gales).  In spite of that, enough people there to use three lawns.  I won 7-5 and lost 4-7, which isn't bad for someone who was seeing double if he forgot to close one eye while hitting the ball.   My  cap blew off for the second time this month but at least I managed to retrieve this one from where  it landed against the boundary fence. It will be interesting to see how I go in two weeks time after I've had my other cataract done.  Watch out!

Nine teams at quiz night.  The three of us applied ourselves to the challenge and ended up in fourth place with 62 points -- there was a three-way tie for third, something I haven't seen before.  The winners were Diamond Set Stickpin with 91 points.  I wasn't too disappointed with our score  --  we got 8/10 for TV/Cinema and 7/10 for Art/Literature.  I was amused when the final question showed a photo from the THUNDERBIRDS television series while the theme tune was played  --  "Name this British TV show."  Did anyone not get that  I wonder.

Thursday, August 19, 2021

beware the eyes of winter


Tuesday 3rd August  
Another busy day at the Croquet Club, with 19 playing this afternoon.   I had two games, losing 6-7 and 2-7.  The trend continued at the Tuesday quiz night, where we had trouble answering the puzzle question till the sixth round, and difficulties with most of the regular rounds.  We  ended up in seventh place with 77 points.  Kate the quizmaster was disappointed before the start because they'd moved our table away from its prime position next to her;  we were disappointed at the end when the scores were given out.  We must do better next week;  we couldn't do worse, surely!
Wednesday night we started off with a bang, solving the puzzle question on the first clue -- we were  in third place at half-time.   We didn't quite keep up the pace in the second half and our 79 points only got us into sixth place.  Those brainiacs at the Don Quizote table romped home with 98 points out of a possible 110.

Friday 6th August
Cataract surgery in three weeks.  The strange thing is that now I have accepted my eye problems, I feel that suddenly my sight is much worse than it was last month.  Maybe my mind has been suppressing my problems until I accepted them.  I remember that many years ago my sister Julie was told she should wear glasses.  She got glasses but seldom wore them, almost as though she overcame it by willpower.  She did make an exception for live theatre, where she would use a pair of fold-up binocuars that I think were made for sports fans to carry in their pockets.


Monday 9th August
I don't get into the city that often this year, so today after I'd taken care of a couple of errands I took a stroll around.  (I had hoped to find the new Teresa Ashby paperback but no luck)  It was surprising how many of the shops in the central block were now closing at 3 pm  --  when I was a youngs,ter the whole city centre was open till 6 o'clock.  But that was a long time ago.
Tonight's MARPLE episode on TV was "Towards Zero", which I didn't bother watching all the way through.  I recall seeing it at the Playhouse Theatre in 1971.  And I have seen the television version more recently than that.

Tuesday 10th August
Croquet goes from strength to strength lately.  This afternoon we had 24 players which meant we had the maximum number of people on the three lawns  (unless we brought out the third color balls, something that rarely happens).  That's the biggest crowd I can remember seeing on a Tuesday.  
By the time I walked to the club, played croquet for two hours then walked home,  I decided I needed to rest for a while before this evening's quiz.
When I felt able to walk as far as the pub quiz, I set off at a steady pace and actually arrived before the team members who were driving there.  We set our minds to the questions, and managed to work out most of them, although the puzzle question demonstrated how little we knew about Madagascar.  Our 75 points put us in fourth place, while those perennial prizewinners Jam Bag romped in with 90 points.  (And thanks to Caroline for giving me a lift home.)
The Wednesday night quiz, however, saw us sneak into second place with 81 points, behind those brain-boxes next door at the Barnstoneworth table who hit the front with 91 points.   

I'm still shaking my head over the question about best-sellers by living authors;  who would have thought Danielle Steele had sold more books than J.K. Rowling?

Wednesday 11th August
Wet and windy this afternoon.  I had been thinking of checking out newsgents in the northern suburbs to see if I could. find that new novel by Teresa Ashby.  Instead I stayed home and did some serious googling.  I ended up finding the book was available from a web site in the UK, though it cost me three times what I would have paid if I had just walked into a shop and picked it up from the shelf.  There's a cloud to every silver lining.  

According to philosopher Alain de Botton, the news of our times is predominantly an agent of confusion, envy, purposeless excitement and needless terror.
We're still among the first generations ever to have had access to news on the current scale and we're struggling to make sense of the deluge of information.
In a wiser, more mature society, we'd still engage with the news on a daily basis; but we'd have clearer and more ambitious ideas about what we needed it for.   

 Amen to that.  Similar ideas seem to have been on the mind of radio presenter Sabra Lane at the ABC. After a long time with AM (thirty minutes of bad news every weekday morning) she has branched out to publish a weekly newsletter The Bright Side which will give the public constructive and edifying news items and links.  About time somebody did this.
 
Sunday 15th August  
A wild morning.  I set off for church on Sunday morning, hoping the gale-force winds would ease off but nope.  When I got halfway up Macquarie Street, I could hardly make any progress walking into the wind.  One particularly strong gust blew off my good waterproof cap and sent it cartwheeling down the street;  I hope whoever finds it gives it a good home.  Fortunately a passing good samaritan stopped and insisted on giving me a lift.  In a typical Hobart circumstance,  it turns out her mother is the friend of a friend!
After a birthday lunch for a friend from church, someone gave me a lift home and I stayed in the rest of the day, listening to non-stop rain and wind outside.  Spring is coming, but not yet.

Tuesday, August 03, 2021

In Memory Still Green

 Word for today is Semaglutide. Tuesday I started on a different medication for my diabetes, the first injectable drug I've used in years.  The difference is that this is a once-a-week dose so I don't need to worry about injecting myself in restaurants before dinner.  (It sounds unbelievable but you do get used to doing it.).  I shall be interested to see what the effect on my blood glucose levels is over the first week.   Semaglutide is sold under the trade name Ozempic, a made-up word that at least you can pronounce.

Didn't really expect there to be many people at the Croquet Club today -- the weather forecast said there might be snow down to 500m tonight -- but there were ten of us there and the conditions were better than I expected.  It rained on us for five minutes during the first game, but by the end of the second game we could actually see our shadows.  And I was playing much better than I have recently  --  we won 7-2 and lost 5-7.  So there , Ms Optometrist !

Four of us at the Tuesday night quiz and we didn't do so bad.  We put our heads together and came up with some answers to questions we initially thought we didn't know.  There was a bit of muttering about "Which Australian capital is known as The Emerald City", but I insisted it was Sydney because I had seen David Williamson's play of the same name.  86 points put us into third place, while Jambag won with 92 points.    Watch out next week !

Tuesday night was the last time I'll be behind the wheel for quite a while.  My doctor sent me to the optometrist and she sent me to the eye specialist.  I have a cataract in my right eye and there's one developing in my left eye.  The car isn't up on blocks but it might as well be;  legally I can only drive it up and down the driveway.   Not much of a surprise, I've been aware for a while that the vision in my right eye was deteriorating.  Mind you, I can still hit a croquet ball through the hoop from ten feet away but that may be muscle memory rather than keen vision.
But it will mean quite an alteration to my routine.  I don't see the eye surgeon for another two weeks, so who knows when I'll be able to have the operation?

July 22nd
The Friday Lunch Club, for various reasons, met on a Thursday this month.  Eight of us got together at the Black Buffalo Hotel for lunch, champagne and gossip.  I was the only man present this month, but that didn't worry me.  A choice of seven ladies to chat to?  Nothing wrong with that.

Walking back to North Hobart to catch the bus home,  I stopped at the State Cinema's coffee shop for some afternoon tea.  Looking at the film posters, I thought "Why don't I go to the movies?".  I haven't been to the cinema for about 18 months, so I bought a ticket for BLACK WIDOW.
An intense spy drama rather than a superhero movie, but with enough explosions and battles in the final reel to satisfy the younger audiences.  Not having seen any of the MCU spin-offs, I was surprised when a certain well-known actress turned up in the post-credits scene reprising her role as ...  sorry, spoilers.  And I was amused by a throwaway line referring to the Crimson Dynamo, who I remember reading about in Marvel Comics back in 1963.

And thanks to my brother-in-law Gene who posted on Facebook reminding us all that it was four years since we lost my sister Julie.  I knew her for her whole life, from when she was a newborn in her crib to when she was lying there quiet and pale on her deathbed.  She still comes to me in dreams and until I awake, it seems quite natural that she should be with me.
 
July 23rd
Having your driving licence suspended would be as bad as lockdown for many people.  But it can actually be a way of lowering stress.  Friday I fed the poultry and had breakfast, then checked my e-mail.  Hotmail is so slow on my laptop that it's hard not to close your eyes for a while when you are waiting for each page to load.  Did I actually go to sleep -- who knows.
After lunch I took a twenty minute walk to the nearest convenience store, at the local servo.  Picked up a few bits and pieces, bread milk newspaper, then strolled home.  It was close to dusk and the evening rush was starting.   I watched them streaming past and wasn't sorry not to be on the road.

July 25th
I sat there watching the seagull use the pedestrian crossing.  After leaving church, I had to go through the middle of the city so I stopped for a salmon brioche at the Jamaica Mist restaurant.  I had a few minutes before the next bus home so I sat there and watched a seagull walking back and forth, glaring at the people at the bus stop every now and then.  I assume he was disgruntled because nobody was eating.

July 26th  💥
TRIGGER WARNING.   You probably don't need to read this bit.  Just scroll on past, or go to another page.

Maybe it's just a bad case of Mondayitis.  I spent the day at home alone.  My dinner with friends was cancelled when she was carted off in an ambulance.  Nothing in the post but bills.  The high point of the day was getting to watch the 1965 movie THE FACE OF FU MANCHU on afternoon television.    But it was more than that.

In the back of my mind, sitting there like a smoke alarm about to go off, was the significance of today's date.  Four years ago I sat by my sister Julie's death bed and watched her breathe her last.  It took a long time;  her brain had given up but her body took a while to get the idea.  Her husband and her best friend were there.  I don't think any of us coped too well at that moment.

It was a day I never thought would come.  She was three years younger than me, and I always assumed that I would die before she did.  I just hoped that it would be quick and she wouldn't be saddled with any unnecessary grief.   How little we know about what the future holds for us.

After a while I realized I wasn't doing so well, and my doctor referred me to somebody who helped me get through it.  I'm mostly okay now,  but sometimes it just catches up with you.

And that's the way it was,  July 26th 2021.



Julie in the garden, summer of 2014

Tuesday July 27th some supportive friends invited me up to their farm for the day.  Peace and quiet, with the goats and chickens wandering about as we arrived.  No Internet, no mobile phone service, just cups of tea with freshly made cakes and some Roger Miller songs on the old record player.

Arrived home just in time for the Tuesday night quiz.  There were eleven teams this week and we came in fifth, scoring 72 points  -- not that far behind the winners, Walt Quizney with 86.  I think it's the first time we've finished behind our friendly rivals at the next table, Minerva's Disciples.  (We may have done better if our answers for Sports and Music weren't mostly guesswork!)  We did well at the Wednesday night quiz, ending up with 87 points  --  just enough to come in third behind our old foes Barnstoneworth and Don Quizote (92 points).  Some muttering at our table along the lines of "How do they do it??"

After a struggle I managed to answer a question about the currency of Albania at the quiz.  Afterwards one of the team asked if I knew the answer was the Lek, or did I guess it.  I replied "Oh I knew it, but it took me a long time to dredge it up from the lowest deck of my memory banks."

Saturday, July 17, 2021

Bye Bye Billy Goat



Good fences make good neighbors is an old saying.  I was reminded of it on returning home on Monday afternoon to be greeted by an irate visitor.  It seems the goats had figured out how to get through the fence and had eaten his mother-in-law's cabbages.  He was quite worked up so I let him rant and rave, agreeing with everything he demanded.
So the next morning our friendly local goatherd turned up with his van.  I don't know about you, but I had never seen anybody hold a goat down with one  hand while he tied their legs up with the other.  The goats were a bit startled by all this, but apparently they settled down during the drive back to the farm.  Once there, they were mostly interested in rubbing noses through the fence with the female goats.  I think they'll be all right.

 The start of the week was a bit crazy.  I saw the goats off to begin with.  Other things included the authorities want my doctor to certify I'm fit to drive, my health plan has to be reviewed, I need to get my flu shot as well as my second Covid jab, they won't re-insure my car till I fix the door where I drove into the gatepost,  I didn't make it to croquet this week, I spent $250 at the hardware store, we came last at the Tuesday night quiz, an acquaintance is dying of cancer and I lost a tooth.  Apart from that, all was calm and peaceful.

On the road again!  Thursday I had an invitation to go up the country, which seemed a reasonable way to have a break from the events of the week.  It was a nice change to get out in the open air on a fine sunny winter afternoon, driving up the Derwent Valley.  Coffee at New Norfolk and a stop at the Bushy Park market to buy a couple of books.  Then on into the bush, passing kookaburras and  wallabies, not to mention sheep, cattle, horses and (of course) goats.
We visited my two goats, but I wasn't that surprised when they ignore me in favor of watching the female goats on the other side of the fence.  What would you do if you had to choose between a slice of bread and the company of the opposite sex?

Tuesday 13th July
Took the bus into the city for a doctor's appointment.  Part of the downtown area was cordoned off because of the fire that seriously damaged the 200-year-old Brunswick Hotel.  I hadn't thought about it being a problem for the bus system until I went to catch the bus home and found a sign telling me the bus stop had been moved.  I ended up walking up to North Hobart before I could get a bus.

I have a bad habit of answering questions honestly.  When I gave my doctor the form to say I was competent to drive, he asked me if I had any trouble driving and I told him I didn't like driving at night because I was dazzled by the headlights.  Then he asked me to read the eye chart.  Now I can't get the form signed until I get new glasses.  

Sometimes I think my endocrinologist and my GP are conspiring to keep me guessing.   Every couple of years they tweak my prescription drugs so that I have to change the routine I've gotten used to.  I suspect they want to keep me off-balance !

Another busy afternoon at the Croquet Club with 18 people playing.  I was partnered with one newcomer and in the space of one game he made four hoops and I didn't get any.   At half-time I got a phone call from the fencing contractor;  they will start putting in the posts for the new fence this afternoon and finish them off on Friday.  Should make the neighbors happy.

Tuesday I wondered why I was feeling the cold in the late afternoon.  It took me a while to remember that I'd put on a short sleeved shirt this morning so I could get my flu shot with minimum disrobing.  Doh!

There were nine teams at the Tuesday night quiz.  Started off all right and ended up scoring 69 points, which put us in fourth place.  The winners got a score of 81.  And a shout-out to our compatriots at the Minerva's Disciples table who won a bottle of wine for being the first to solve the puzzle question  --  it took us till Round 5 to get it.

Wednesday 14th July
Another appointment in the city, this time with my optometrist.   I had been putting off getting my eyes tested because I guessed what the results would be. (Yes, cataracts.)  This was my first brush with optical coherence tomography (OCT).  I took the bus again, since I didn't think I'd be able to drive after having those eye drops.  At least this time I detoured to a bus stop where the suburban service was still running.
The old codger in the next seat was muttering to himself, asking me how I'd feel about a nice glass of beer.  I confessed I wasn't a beer drinker but admitted I had served a few in my time.  He asked which hotel I had worked at, and I told him.  His eyes widened and he said disbelievingly "You're not Baden O'Brien are you?"   No, I replied, he was my father.  "You used to have dark hair back then," he said.    So we had a nice chat about old hotels till we got to my stop.

Never think that people aren't listening when you're rabbiting on.  After church on Sunday some of us went over the river to the Shoreline for lunch and a catch-up.  Somebody asked me what I was doing in the evening and I said that all I was going to do was rest in the afternoon, have dinner and watch the re-make of MYSTERIOUS ISLAND on television.
To my surprise, a couple of days later I received a text that read as follows:  "Hi Michael, thanks for letting us know about the movie mysterious island, it turned out we had to mind the grandchildren and we let them watch it which they truly enjoyed."

Kaye Appleyard died July 4th according to a phone call from the Public Trustee.  I hadn't seen much of her during the pandemic but I had known her for about 50 years.  She could be prickly at the best of times -- she once said that the only two people she trusted were her brother and me --  and I suspect she was somewhere on the autism spectrum.  SF fans from the 1970s may have encountered her at conventions.

Went out for lunch with Keith on Friday and then across to the Salvation Army store, where to my surprise I wound up spending more than he did ($80 against $73). I warned him this would be the last weekend for some time I would be able to drive around town  -  my appointment with the eye specialist isn't till next month, so who knows when I'll be operated on, let alone when I'll be back behind the wheel.    😞

Wednesday, July 07, 2021

Winter draws on

  

Saturday 19th June 2021
"Stop me before I buy again!"  Saturday afternoon was a blur of op-shops, pharmacies and restaurants.  At one point I abandoned my dignity to crawl along the floor on my hands and knees in front of the display of DVD movies in the Salvation Army store, so I could inspect the lowest shelves.  I did find a few rare items, and did manage to get to my feet again afterwards.  
At least I wasn't as bad as Keith, who went home with ten bags full of books for himself and his friends.

Listened to "The Final Game", a fan-made Doctor Who serial made by Moonlight Audio Theater.  It's about the final confrontation between the third doctor and his foe The Master.  Some of the acting from the female companions is a bit so-so but the two leads do a perfect imitation of Jon Pertwee and Roger Delgado.  

Sunday morning I noticed an extra table set up in the church hall.  All was explained when we went out for morning tea.  St John's was catering for all ages --  coffee for the grown-ups and Lego for the youngsters.

Tuesday 22nd June
Winter Solstice.  I always seem to be playing croquet on this, the deepest darkest part of winter.  I suffered through the first game, wishing I'd remembered my gloves and wondering whether I should go home at intermission.  By the time the second game came round, the sun had broken through and we actually had shadows, so I stayed on.  Lost both games but it was an interesting experience.
You could say the same about the quiz night.  We didn't do too badly (even getting a perfect score for the Cinema & TV round) and made a quite respectable 80 points. That was enough to get us fourth place, while the team titled Diamond Set Stickpin stormed home with 97 points.  I was slightly distracted trying to get through on the phone seeking information about a friend who had been rushed to hospital.  But all was well in the end.

Wednesday night quiz  --  we must be improving a little because we didn't lose by as much as we usually do!  At the halfway mark we were in second place, and we finished with 74 points in fifth place after scoring 8/10 in  most rounds.  The winners Multiplay scored 82 points, which wouldn't have won most Wednesdays.   Watch out, next week!
 
A musical safari into the Great American Songbook!  



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  --  this is her first post-pandemic show there.  As usual she came over and gave me a hug at interval --  you might say that was against the social distancing rules, but since she only comes up to my sternum there was a minimal risk to public health.  Her voice is so clear that even my aging ears can follow all the words of every song.

Sunday morning in church went off all right, but sad news about our sister church in Mount Stuart closing its doors, and our assistant minister moving nterstate later this year for family reasons.  Sorry to hear that.

Old radio shows last week:
JOHNNY DOLLAR, GUNSMOKE, DRAGNET, THE WHISTLER, JACK BENNY, JOHN STEELE, GUIDING LIGHT, HALLS OF IVY, INNER SANCTUM and THE ARCHERS.

The Covid situation continues to be unpredictable.  Health scares in several different places across Australia, and New South Wales in particular must be feeling unloved.  Not only have 200 police officers been deployed to watch over the NSW/Victoria border, but a hotel in Canberra told 50 travellers from Sydney that they could stay the night but they'd have to go home the next day.

Monday 28th June
Spent the afternoon inside, keeping warm and working on my radio show collection.  Catalogued a lot of folders and then backed them up to the external hard drive.  While I was doing this, in between nodding off in my armchair, listened to episodes of "Maigret" and "Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" from my drama collection.

If you are friends with Keith Curtis, you learn to speak up when you have a chance, otherwise you won't get a word in edgeways.  But this evening I was speechless when Keith rang.  "I was looking at some DVDs today," he began, "are you interested in a complete run of LAW & ORDER?"  There was a moment of silence before I asked weakly if it was a boxed set.  "No, separate packs for each of the twenty seasons.  Are you interested?"  I gurgled something that he took as an affirmative and quoted me a price.  "Yes," I said.  "I haven't checked the condition of the discs yet."  I told him that anyone who went to the trouble of collecting the entire run of the show would probably treat the discs with the appropriate care.   Good Lord, that is 456 episodes.  

HAIKU FOR SUE NEILL-FRASER
"Twenty six years jail,
convicted by conjecture?
A bizarre verdict!"

Friday, June 18, 2021

 


Winter approaches.  Being warned, the goose seeks shelter.

Tuesday 8th June
Playing croquet is difficult at this time of year.  This afternoon I took my scarf in case it was windy, my sunglasses in case it was too bright, and my fishermen's cap in case it rained.  I also stashed my heavy raincoat in the back of the car.  As it turned out,  I'd just finished my last game when a flock of Black Cockatoos flew overhead, a reliable sign that rain was coming.  My opponent was just congratulating me on the long roquet I'd made on the eleenth hoop when they started to squark.
"We've finished just in time" I observed, and indeed I drove home in the rain.

Tuesday night quiz night went off all right.  There were a few potholes in the road, but we did pretty well  --  it helped that there were questions about Orson Welles' THE THIRD MAN and even a couple of music questions that I knew.  The winners scored 84 points, with us treading on their coat-tails with 80 points to win second prize.  And as usual there was a question each about US Presidents, South American geography and the Periodic Table  (there always is).

Wednesday 9th June
As a coffee addict,  I was initially pleased when Coles in New Town installed a coffee machine.  But after a couple of months I found that I either received half a cup of dirty water or (since cash is not an option), I was trapped in an endless circle of "TAP - TRY ANOTHER CARD - TAP - TRY ANOTHER CARD - TAP etc etc etc".  It always ends with me walking away, vowing never to come back to it again.  But after another few weeks I am always tempted....  😕

Thursday 10th June
BEEP What's that?  BEEP  Oh, it's the smoke detector.  BEEP BEEP It needs a new battery. BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP....  Bloody hell.

Cool and cloudy all day.  Not sorry to have a day without any appointments.  I have been eating out ten days in the last two weeks, and not only is it getting expensive but I'm learning to hate the sight of chips with my meals.  I have eaten more chips the last fortnight than I have in the rest of this year!

Tuned in to listen to the radio interview with the retiring Governor of Tasmania, Her Excellency the Hon. Professor Kate Warner AC.  I had been hoping that they'd ask her what the high point of her time at Government House had been and she would reply "Being taught croquet by Michael O'Brien.  I should have recommended him for a medal."  Alas ...

Hobart Rep announced its next production – The Stranger by Agatha Christie  – is well underway with a brilliant cast featuring some of Hobart’s most experienced and talented actors. Unlike many ‘Agatha Christie’ plays which use her novels as the basis for a stage adaptation, the script for The Stranger was actually written by the Queen of Crime herself. After laying hidden for almost 100 years, it was absolutely marvellous to discover that Hobart Rep will stage only the second or third known production of her original script. Now that is something to look forward to!
The Stranger opens on Friday, 27 August and should keep you guessing right up to the final breath!

Saturday 12th June
Friday Keith planned to go out in the afternoon.  He said to me "Will you be all right?"  I said that I would be OK as long as I didn't have to drive after dark, in the rain, or in peak-hour traffic.  So of course that was what we ended up doing.  My new driving glasses are good in traffic but useless in poorly-lit side streets.  I think I gave Keith a couple of new grey hairs by the time I got him home.

After yesterday,  I had a day to myself on Saturday and stayed home resting up.  It rained for a while so it's not so cold.    In the evening, I rehearsed for my Sunday reading at church, the start of chapter 4 of 1st Corinthians.  It's not a long passage, and if I were more adventurous I would try memorising it and doing it without the Bible in front of me.  Maybe not.  The church elders might take a dim view of it if I started ad-libbing in the middle of the reading.

Tuesday 15th June
Wet grass was probably not good for my health.  Neither did it help my croquet game.  Lost two games (7-2 and 7-6) but I managed to make a couple of good shots and all practice is good for your game.
The quiz night went off all right  -  we got 8/10 for music thanks to Rose.  The quizmaster apologized for the number of sports questions sprinkled throughout the evening, but we struggled through most of them.  I think we even had a perfect round for Pot Luck, which is often a bit hit and miss.  We ended up third, so not so bad.

Thursday 17th June
Looking at a newly published e-book of pulp stories,  I was distracted by an e-book of H.G. Wells' novel THE WORLD SET FREE.  I wondered why they were asking five dollars for a public-domain book you can download for free on the Internet.  Maybe they had some extra features,  I thought, so I had a look at the free sample.  Well !  What I found was a text I did not recognize.  I read TWST many years ago and the book is still on my shelf.  But what I read felt like somebody had found a copy of the book in another language and run it through Google Translate to produce an English=language version.  That grinding noise you can hear is Wells turning in his grave.

Watched the DVD of THE BIRDS.  Not one of my favorite Hitchcock movies, but I haven't seen it since the time I watched it as a teenager on a small black and white TV.  Viewing it on a modern large screen certainly makes it a different experience, but I still have reservations about the script  -- to me it feels like two movies in one, the first a brittle romantic drama about family dynamics, the second a horror movie that foreshadows many later ecological chillers.  That said, it is still a Hitchcock movie ! 

Thought for the day:
~~The temporal differential we call wakefulness is the cosmic interaction of subatomic particles operating in the quantum field, representing a fundamental universal constant that we can only speculate upon as wave form frequencies. ~~

Tuesday, June 08, 2021

Banking on change

 25th May
Stayed in Monday, then went out Tuesday afternoon to the Croquet Club.  14 of us there.  Played two games, won one, lost one.  I tried practicing for a few minutes beforehand, but the result was I played badly at the end of the first game and the start of the second game.  Go figure.  The Tuesday evening Quiz Night was no world-beater either.  I guessed that from the two rounds which were about prizefighting and video games  --  not our strong points.  We came 7th out of the eleven teams. 

*** 
Thursday 27th May
Out early to get to a doctor's appointment.  My endocrinologist was not happy with my blood test and started muttering about changing my medication.  Vaguely amused when he quizzed me about all the different sorts of medication I'd been on over the years -- I guess it was quicker than delving into the thick file he had on his desk.  Eat less, take more exercise and see me in four months.
He probably wouldn't have approved of me lunching at Pizza Hut with friends, but at least I did walk there and back.
(When I got home I sat down in my armchair to rest for a minute and went to sleep.  Happens a lot this year.)

Infrequent visits to the central business district mean that I often notice changes in the city when I do go in.  Mostly these are minor things, like shops that have become Vegetarian Tea Rooms, but sometimes they are major changes.  All my life the massive Commonwealh Bank building has stood at a city intersection a few blocks from where I grew up. So it gave me a pang of regret to notice that the bank has now moved to a generic shopfront location up the street and its previous headquarters now has a For Lease sign on its frontage.  I wonder what will happen to the decorative frieze in the ground floor's main room.

 

Proust's novel SWANN'S WAY finally wore me down with its long introspective final chapters.  I am giving it a rest while I read CAT WITH A VESTED INTEREST a Sherlock Holmes story by Lyn McConchie.

Saturday 29th May

The coldest morning we've had so far this winter.  When I went out to feed the animals this morning the temperature was 4C  --  but the "feels like" ambient temperature was minus one!  At least the sun was shining when it came time to be out and about.  It's been a while between visits to the City Mission warehouse and they had added a lot of books and movies to their stock since last time.  I even picked up a framed poster for QUATERMASS II: ENEMY FROM SPACE which was the first science-fiction movie I ever saw (back around 1962).

Monday 30th May
36 hours since the first Covid jab.  I seem to be in the group that has no side-effects, unlike some of my friends.  So far so good.   Second jab in twelve weeks.

Tuesday 1st June
Croquet Club had about 14 playing today.  Cloudy but the sun broke through for a few minutes.  I was playing Rod in a singles game.  He beat me of course  -- I have won a game against him a few years ago but I think that was the first and last time that will happen.

Quiz night was a struggle.  We weren't the only team who thought the questions were harder than other nights.  There were ten teams and I think we came in 8th place with 58 points. The puzzle question certainly had us puzzled  --  it turned out the eccentric psychiatrist we had to identify was none other than Hannibal Lecter.  And we would have scored two more points except the picture they showed us was from an animated movie in which the classical monster the Hydra only had one head!  (My sister Julie would have been indignant  --  she always said there weren't enough questions about classical mythology.)

Wednesday 2nd June
It's a mixed blessing.  The benefit I get from visiting my psychologist has to be balanced against the stress of driving to and from her office across the river.  This month the trip back was more stressful than getting there.  The highway seemed full of buses, trucks and vans that blew their horns at me for various reasons, and the wait to get from the river road onto the highway seemed to take a long time.  When I got home I turned off the ignition, took a deep breath and just sat there for a moment.

Sunday, May 23, 2021

Autumn --- and a Fall

 


Sunday, after church I had coffee in the church hall and bought a few jars of homemade jam.  As I walked back to the car a breeze came up and started blowing Autumn leaves around.  They are a problem for gardeners and streetsweepers I guess, but I don't mind them.  In fact I like them as a visible reminder of the change of seasons.

Tuesday 11th May

Croquet on Tuesday afternoon this week must have been a record for this year.  We had 18 people playing today, the most for quite a while.  As usual I played a very mediocre game in the first round, then after the coffee break I improved a bit.

You could say more or less the same about the Quiz Night too.  We kept up a reasonable standard through most of the rounds (aside from only scoring four points in Pot Luck) and ended up in a tie for third with 82 points among the nine teams playing.  The winners powered home with a startling 97 points, the sort of score you get across the river.


Recently I was asked to  lunch at Edith's place, a function attended by about twenty people to celebrate Gill's birthday.  I was not expecting to find myself the centre of attention, but that's what happened when I disappeared in the middle of the meal.

I went to stand up, pushing my chair backwards.  What I didn't notice was that the rear legs got caught on the carpet and when I went to step back I vanished under the table -- still seated in the chair but horizontal rather than vertical.  Fortunately Alistair was at the next table and quickly helped me to my feet, but I spent the next hour reassuring other guests that I hadn't been hurt.  (And since this was a Presbyterian function, I had had nothing stronger than orange juice!)


Keith Curtis has longer legs than I do, so I was a few minutes behind him when we went into the Salvation Army store.  He was standing by the DVD shelf and said "Do you want these?", handing me the entire four seasons of BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES, both seasons of BATMAN BEYOND and the first two seasons of SUPERMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES.  Whoo !   (Now to find season 3 of BATMAN BEYOND,  SEASON 3 of SUPERMAN.)


Wednesday 18th May 

That was a bit tiring.  I started out the day doing a pratfall when I walked out the back door to greet a friend who was bringing over some hay.  Not concentrating on where my feet were going, I sat down hard on my backside.  But, as they say in the classics, nothing was damaged but my dignity. 

Then drove to Sandy Bay and back for the afternoon Bible study, taking care to choose a nice well-padded armchair. 

In the evening I was invited next door for a seafood dinner and the screening of ANNA KARENINA starring Keira Knightey. Salmon with Pink Eye potatoes and home-grown tomatoes.  The DVD looked spectacular, but two hours of Tolstoy left me a bit overwhelmed  (maybe if would have been more comprehensible if I'd had the courage to ask them to turn on the captions).


Thursday 19th May 

I felt really tired and sluggish this morning.  No breakfast as I had to fast before my quarterly blood test.  While I was serving up toast and coffee afterwards, Keith phoned to ask me to lunch and a trip to the  Salvation Army store;  fortunately I had time for two cups of coffee before I had to meet him.  And by a turn of good luck it was discount day for Senior Citizens at the Salvo store.  I think both of us  easily qualified.


 2009 haiku to his EFTPOS card

Those glowing letters 

bring an end to your shopping 

"Insufficient Funds."

Saturday, May 08, 2021


Sunday 11th April
Alternating sunny and showers, the usual indicator that it is snowing somewhere.
Nick is back from Sydney Bible College and preached at this morning's service.  While they have certainly trained him to preach an effective sermon, I was a little surprised that it also includes a Powerpoint display, something I hadn't seen for a long time.  I usually prefer to concentrate on the words of the sermon rather than being distracted by illustrative pictures flashed up on the wall behind the person preaching.

Tuesday 13th April
The Three Musketeers assembled for the pub quiz tonight.  We did fairly well  [got the puzzle question on the second clue] but there were eleven teams playing and we ended up in fifth place with 77 points. The winners Jam Bag scored 92 points.   Minerva's Disciples came in tenth place.  No sports round though there were a few sports questions here and there.

Wednesday 14th April
For reasons too tedious to enumerate,  some of the quiz team have started going across the river to the Beltana Hotel's quiz night.  I was invited to join them tonight, so thought I would give it a go.
Suze gave me a lift over, probably aware that I didn't like driving at night outside my own suburb.  Noisier than my favorite venue, and a very competitive crowd  --  I once worked out that the maximum score possible in this quiz was 110 points, and there were teams regularly scoring over 90 points!  It made our 75 points look quite slack.
I was amused when we arrived and a car drove in just after us, stopped and seemed to be waiting for us.  It turned out to  be Kate, the quiz-master at the Tuesday night quiz.  She was filling in for the Wednesday night MC and was a bit surprised to see us there.  "At least you'll have a couple of familiar faces in the audience," I told her reassuringly.

Thursday 15th April
Slept a bit better last night.   During the last few days I had been waking up every couple of hours then going back to sleep.  Not only was it difficult to wake up when it was time to get out of bed, but  had little bits of two or three dreams all mixed up in my head.  A bit distracting.

One of my neighbors asked if I could get her a DVD of the movie of ANNA KARENINA, and I'd located a copy in a store in Queensland.  It was on sale, so the movie actually cost less than the postage.   It arrived yesterday.  Having to go to the pharmacy,  I called in at the Salvation Army store on the way and what should I find but a copy of the 1948 version with Vivien Leigh.  So now my neighbors can have a choice of color or black & white!

20th April
Tuesday there was a string of things to be done.  Appointment with my psychologist in the morning;  I keep forgetting this is a consultation not a conversation and go off on a tangent discussing various topics.   After lunch I had to see my GP about my physical health and got rained on while walking up to his office, not an  ideal situation  --  but he said I didn't need any more antibiotics, just let nature take its course.  And I have to wait till I am healthy before I get this year's flu shot.

This week's quiz night there were ten teams in the running, and [despite my having an Irish Coffee for stimulation] we finished just out of the money in third place despite getting a perfect score on a bonus round for Art & Literature.  The winners came home with 92 points as against our score of 82

Last week I participated in three quiz nights in four days.  A personal best  -  or worst, I'm not sure.  The third quiz was the annual Alliance Francaise fund-raiser, which presents some difficulties in that the questions are all in French and our table has to wait for them to be translated for us  (although I took a look at the question sheet and it was surprising how many of them I could sort of read --  my schoolboy French lessons were about fifty years ago).   The big question as we got closer to the end was whether we could drag ourselves across the finishing line in front of the French-speaking tables.  As it turned out ...  we could.   We came home with some badges commemorating our win and a cheese bowl for each of us  (how French).

Thursday 22nd April
Long lunch at the Crescent  --  in at 12.30, out at 3 p.m.   A lot of Michele's friends were there, leaving me as the only male with six ladies  :)  We had a great lunch with lots of bubbly and conversation.  And the restaurant was so warm and comfortable that my cold completely dried up for a couple of hours.  Someone started discussing politics at one point but Michele quickly quashed it;  "I think we'll talk about something else now."
Strange but true, there were two of us there who celebrate our birthday on Sunday.

Sunday 25th April
Traffic unusually heavy after church, probably due to Anzac Day commemorations.  Lunch for  my birthday lacked a couple of the guests due to various circumstances but we had a pleasant meal, including a hug from Marcella  (those of you who know Marcella will probably agree that's as good as any birthday present).  Then afternoon tea with lashings of cake and chocolate brownies.
While I was debating whether or not to have a nap later, I dozed off in my armchair and might still be there if I hadn't received a text message from a well-wisher about 7 pm.

Wednesday 28th April
Leon Compton's morning show on ABC radio came from just around the corner in Main Road, Moonah.  Resisted the temptation to get up and take a look.
Fine and sunny again, somewhat surprisingly.  I ate lunch in the garden while listening to the RNIB webcast of SUNSET MELODIES.  The sort of idyllic experience that winter will soon put an end to!

I'd almost swear the quiz questions are harder over the river.  Tonight we came 6th out of 9 teams with 70 points.  The winners powered home with 89 points.   However we did get 9/10 in music which was amazing for us!

My Kindle tells me I am 60% through SWANN'S WAY.   Only 6.4 books to go.

Friday 30th April

Keith is busy tomorrow so we had a look at the Salvo store today instead of Saturday.  The only problem was that when I dropped Keith off back at his place it was right on the Friday evening rush hour.  I sat by the side of the highway for 45 minutes before I could get into the traffic.  Checked Facebook on my phone, listened to the weather forecast on the car radio, watched helicopters landing on the hospital's helipad.  

I don't mind being behind the wheel except after dark, when it's raining, at rush hour, going uphill or down dale.  Or when I'm being blinded by other people's headlights.

Listened to the radio play "The Castle of Otranto" based on the book by Horace Walpole first published in 1764. Generally regarded as the first gothic novel, it merged medievalism and terror in a style that has endured ever since.  To a modern listener the story seems to have an over-abundance of ghosts, curses and other such melodrama.  The romantic complications of the two young princesses are more intriguing in their semi-Shakespearean style.

Tuesday May 4th.  


V for Victory today.  
At the Croquet Club this afternoon they announced that this year the New Town Club had won two out of the three divisions in the Hobart Pennant championship.  First time this century I think.   Then this evening our team at the quiz night in Moonah had our first win for months, squeaking into first place by a single point.  Just as well we got the puzzle question on the first clue, bringing us an extra ten points.


Wednesday May 5th
Traffic a bit heavy when I drove down to Sandy Bay for the Connect Group meeting.  I might have been on time except I wasted ten minutes looking for my Bible.  The goatherd called in just after I reached home, muttering about the traffic on the bridge.
Fortunately I wasn't driving when we drove across the river to the quiz this evening.   Things weren't as noisy as last week and we did pretty well, though we finished fifth.  And the mushroom fettuccine was delicious.

Thursday May 6th

Nostalgia is inescapable when you get to my age.  Walking back to the bus stop after the monthly meeting in the church hall,  I noticed that the Dome Restaurant in the mall has closed.  That's a shame,  I thought, remembering all the times I had eaten there, alone or with family and friends.  The memory that was most vivid was the strange "whispering gallery" phenomenon when you went to the washroom downstairs.  By some quirk of architecture, the sounds from the upper floor of the restaurant were funneled down into the lower level.  This meant that when you came out of the washroom, there was a momentary disconnect between what you saw (a room full of empty tables) and what you heard (the hubbub of a room filled with people eating and talking);  very Twilight Zone feeling.