2021 begins

 

 A new year.
"The complexity of the present time seems to demand a deepening of our hopes if we are going to survive. Turbulence is born in the gap where conscious living has been excluded. We can no longer afford to live with illusion."

-- Martindale Underhill

January 5th Tuesday
Before my weekly game at the Croquet Club,  I drove to Lenah Valley for coffee with Ian Grieve (and his sister and her husband).  Not only were we able to have a good long chat, but Ian had brought me something I had long yearned for.  A replacement for my long-ago lost Argonauts Club badge.  Holding it in my hands, I felt complete again after forty years.

After croquet on such a sunny afternoon, I had to let the car find its own way home.  The steering wheel was too hot to touch. (The official maximum was only 21C,  about 70F, but the sun was beating down so strongly that we were really hoping for some windy or cloudy conditions)
 

Mick the goatherd and his partner dropped in.  She hadn't seen the white goat for a while and was surprised at how much condition he'd put on.  "Look at Fluffy, he must be having a growth spurt."
I wasn't surprised.  When I take their breakfast out in the morning he always races to the fence so he'll be as close as possible when I get there.

10th January Sunday
Raised an eyebrow when Alistair began his sermon this morning with a dismissive comment about the novels of Jane Austen.  Later I mentioned it to him --  "It's a matter of our pride and prejudices I suppose."  "Yes," he replied, "or maybe of sense and sensibility."   Advantage Alistair.
 
11th January Monday
The Groat Escape?  Went outside Monday morning to feed the livestock and was surprised when one of the goats came trotting over to meet me.  "Why aren't you in your pen?" I asked, but he didn't reply.  Fortunately the goatherd dropped in to check on them, and he just picked him up and lifted him over the fence, something I wouldn't have tried  -- partly because of the weight and partly because of those six-inch horns on top of his head.
In the afternoon I braved the 35 degree weather to see my GP and take part in what I call The Annual Festival Of Medical Paperwork.  A pleasant young woman filled in the forms, updated my information, then weighed and measured me.
From there, went out for my first haircut of the year, then dinner with friends.  We've been watching some episodes of MONK recently, and this is the first time I've actually worked out how the murder was committed.

12th January Tuesday
Tuesday it was cooler and things were getting back to normal ...  well, sort of.   I played croquet in the afternoon, but it was a bit different to usual.  Our first game went on for so long they had to ask us to finish because the lawn was needed for another game, so we went straight into the second game and ended up playing for three hours straight.  I think my neck got slightly sunburnt.  
I had a chance to rest up for a little while, then out to the first quiz night for the year.  The tables had been shuffled around and we ended up over on the side.  After we finished in first place wih a decisive victory, someone said "We should stay over here.  This could be a lucky table!"  We shall see.  

13th January Wednesday
Committee meeting at the church hall this morning.  Nice and cool inside but when I got in the car, which had been sitting in the sun, it was rather warm
Stopped in at Coles supermarket on the way home and was pleasantly surprised to see issue #1883 of THE PHANTOM in the magazine rack next to the latest NEW SCIENTIST.  So now you can get Flybuy points for following the Ghost Who Walks.

14th January Thursday
Storm warning!  Late going to bed last night, so still half-awake when a thunderstorm passed over Hobart.  Terrific crashes of thunder followed by a few minutes of heavy rain.  May have gone on longer than that, but I was asleep.
Thursday morning and afternoon I was undecided about this evening's Bocce Club meeting, since dry weather is essential for playing the game.  But it worked out all right in the end and we were able to play two games before sundown.  The future, however, is less clear and this may be the final year for the club, at least in its present form.

Reading Emily Thompson's CLOCKWORK TWIST - Book One "Waking", the start of a series of "steampunk" e-books.  So far it is quite captivating, with its reclusive hero persuaded to make the long journey to the Himalayas in a steam-powered airship crewed by not-quite-pirates.  His objective is the legendary Clockwork Princess.

Movie Moments - SWORDFISH [2001]  Hugh Jackman is the meat in the sandwich between the FBI and a master criminal.  Convoluted Action/Caper story moves along at high speed.  LIMITLESS [2011] Bradley Cooper becomes a genius thanks to a new pill  obviously he's never read FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON.  Surprisingly involving thriller.

15th January
Off to Friday lunch in Sandy Bay, celebrating both Michelle's birthday and a flying visit from Mariandl, now a Queensland resident.  A dozen of us gathered in the restaurant of the Doctor Syntax hotel and had an enjoyable time.  Photos in due time.  

15th January
Saturday  I picked up Keith and we dropped in to the new City Mission shop before we had lunch.  After Keith had done a sweep through the book department, we were sitting on a couch while he looked through his haul.  A man passing glanced at us and said "I thought you guys were usually at the Salvo store on a Saturday."  I looked back at him and said calmly "We felt like a change today."   He nodded and went on about his business.


18th January
Monday morning on ABC Radio's AM program, a fascinating sound grab from America:
Former Secretary of Homeland Jeh Johnson on Sunday said that 4 years ago, the United States engaged in a very dangerous experiment by electing someone who was utterly unqualified for office, who has no moral or legal compass and frankly had impulses towards fascism and autocracy. Johnson further said, "My hope is that as time passes Americans will realise this was a failed experiment and we should never try it again."

19th January
Tuesday morning I spent a lot of time downloading programmes from 920 New York - they don't update their Mixcloud page every week, so it's either a feast or a famine for me.  After lunch over to the Croquet Club;  sunny with a breeze, good weather for a game.  My first game was not so bad, the second one was not too good.  There's always next week.
There were about a dozen teams at the Quiz Night this week, but we did pretty well  (for one thing there wasn't a music round this week!).  We had 87 points by the end of the evening and we were listening intently as the results were read out  ---  but as they say in the movies about gunfighters, there'll always be someone faster than you.  We came second.  Not so bad really.


"Let me close by reminding you that there’s no time for denial, despondency, or disinterest. This is a time that demands urgent actions from each of us"  -  Scott Pakin

It's Yule time again?

 20th December
Sunday evening, sitting in my neighbor's lounge room, sipping champagne and watching the children and dogs playing in the garden, I  experienced a wistful feeling.   I thought back to decades past and similar experiences in my own family.  I sighed and took another sip from my glass.

The picture below is one I saw in an op shop a couple of days earlier.  I stopped to look at it because it conjured up the long gone times at Julie's house.  Every night when we fed the animals, the geese would come trailing down the hill from the top paddock, marching in single file like a delegation of aldermen entering a civic reception.

Apollo, the last survivor of Julie's flock of geese, is a living refutation of the old song "Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat."  As he ages, he is less active and his feathers are getting thinner.  At one stage in the winter we actually contemplated what you might call Goothanasia, but he seems to have staged a comeback in the summer.  He is up and walking around a lot more, and I was pleasantly surprised one day when he came over to meet me at the back door as I came out with their breakfast.  Will he still be here next Christmas?  Who knows.  But for the time being I'm happy just to still have him around.

22nd December
Maybe it was because of the Summer Solstice, maybe it was because my watch had stopped, but Tuesday felt like time was out of joint.  My usual routine no longer applied.  It was too wet for croquet this afternoon (I got damp just checking the mailbox) and the quiz night is in recess for the Christmas break.  I had no reason to leave the house so stayed home and allowed the hours to tick over quietly.   The radio seemed to have gone into the "silly season" and I have not turned on the television in a couple of weeks. The phone rang once;  it was a wrong number.  I sat around in silence, thinking, sipping coffee and gazing into space.

23rd December
Our friend Mick the goatherd called in this morning and cut a bit of feed for the goats in the garden.  As he was getting ready to leave, he struck up a conversation with an elderly couple who happened to be passing. As it turned out, they were quite familiar with my household -- they said they admired my cat and asked after the geese.
After dinner tonight, I put on the TV for a change and ended up watching ABC all evening.  Unexpectedly I found myself watching Nigella Lawson's Christmas special, and started feeling hungry in spite of having just eaten.  I'd love some of that black bread with smoked salmon, followed by a few of those Olliebollen.

24th December
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.  John X, who's doing the morning show on ABC radio in Hobart, played Eartha Kitt's song "Santa Baby" on the air.  He was surprised to receive a text from one listener thanking him for playing it, because he had friends from New York staying with him and they were astounded because they had never heard of Eartha Kitt!  John X was incredulous, recalling when he'd seen her in a play on Broadway in 2003 and the audience had applauded for a full minute whenever she walked on stage.  It confirms my suspicions that many of the modern audience only know current entertainers  -- to them, an "old movie" is one they saw ten years ago.

We spent part of the morning gathering up greenery and throwing it into the goats' enclosure.  "Consider this your Christmas dinner a day early," I told them as they romped around in it.  I thought of going out to the shops in case I needed anything, but decided to avoid the crowds.  After lunch, I had short lie-down, then went settled down in my chair outside the back door to read for a while.  Every few minutes, two of the chickens would sidle up next to me and stare at me, obviously wondering how long it was till dinner.  Eventually I put down the whodunit I was halfway through, got a bucket of wheat and took them out in the yard.   

Christmas movies getting you down?  Tired of the same old films being repeated every couple of years, over and over?  Well, here's one you may not have seen.  EMMET OTTER'S JUGBAND CHRISTMAS is on 7.30pm on Christmas Day on NITV  -  Channel 34 in Australia I think.

25th December
 Memories tend to surface at this time of the year.  I remember many years ago, the late John Foyster sent me a home-made Christmas card.  Nothing fancy.  On the front was a drawing of the star in the sky over Bethlehem.  Inside were just five words:
WISE MEN STILL SEEK HIM.

Christmas Day schedule has not changed:

1. Church
2. Lunch with relatives
3. Nap
4. Queen's Christmas Message

28th December
Finished Helen McCloy's DANCE OF DEATH [1938].  An intriguing whodunit, with some interesting observations about high society in the Manhattan of the late 1930s, where you had to appear to have money whether you had it or not.  Think Henry James but with a corpse in a snowdrift.  And, surprisingly, you may learn something about psychiatry and chemistry.   I hadn't known till today that McCloy was married to mystery writer Brett Halliday and they had a daughter Chloe. From a genetic point of view, it would be interesting to know if Chloe ever did any creative work?

29th December
Tuesday was cool with a few clouds. Spent some time before lunch burning folders off my laptop to CD;  what can I say, I'm a traditionalist.  I went over and played one game of croquet then returned home to meet the goatherds for afternoon tea.  One of them moaned about boring movies he'd seen including THE ENGLISH PATIENT.  "There's an episode of SEINFELD about that," I observed.  He went on to tell a story about a misadventure with a suede jacket.  "That's also a SEINFELD episode," I muttered, unsurprised at the connection between art and life.

30th December Wednesday
A quiet day at home.  Fed the livestock before breakfast, then listened to the Eloquence CD of "Best of Brahms" while I did some backing-up from my hard drive before I had my morning coffee.  (Slightly difficult because the cat seems to believe that I should be paying more attention to him to make up for the time I spent going out to Christmas functions.)  Lunch outside while listening to "The World Today" on ABC radio then went out to buy some feed for the goats.  Home in time for a pre-dinner nap.  

In the evening,  Keith Curtis phoned and we talked for 65 minutes.  The cat thought this was great because I was just about to put him down when the phone rang, meaning he had another full hour snoozing in my lap before he was disturbed.