My feet hurt

 March 3rd Wednesday
Another busy day.   As soon as I finished lunch, jumped into the car and drove to Sandy Bay for the fortnightly meeting of the Connect Group.  After many and varied discussions,  came home with just enough time to change and get off to the book launch this evening.  
 

Arrived just in time to hear the speech made by the Tolkien of Tasmania, the Jack Vance of Van Diemen's Land, the one and only Cary J. Lenehan.  The book was Gathering The Strands, book 5 of his Warriors Of Vhast series.
Cary spoke about his books, their past, their future and took questions from the audience before signing copies of his novels.  Intriguingly, when asked what were his biggest influences, he named Rider Haggard and the great Russian writers  --  he said he read War And Peace three times before he started High School!

Haiku for nuclear test 03 October 1952:
Earth moves and skies split.
The planet groans and shudders
at Monte Bello.
I wrote this between rounds at the monthly pub quiz at the New Sydney Hotel in 2014, inspired by one of the questions in a previous round (much to the interest of my team mates). My brother-in-law David was involved in the nuclear test in a small way when he was in the Navy.

Listened to a couple of radio westerns.  One was 'Hopalong Cassidy'. February 07, 1949. Program #31, "The Shell Game".  This was a lively story, with Hoppy tangling with smugglers on the New York docks while visiting Manhattan.  The only disappointment was there was no actress credited for the raucous-voiced lady who played California's old flame.  Could have been Virginia Gregg.

March 4th Thursday
My feet hurt.  Spent the afternoon at FOM AGM (the Annual General Meeting of Friends Of Mission), walking to and from the bus stop.  Then in the evening played three games at the Bocce Club.  After a few busy days this week, I was happy just to sit down  with a cup of coffee and the radio.  (A segment about monster movies, followed later by a discussion of minimalism  --  anybody who knows me will guess that I know more about the former than the latter).  As part of the first segment, they had a competition where you had to identify the sound of four different monsters roaring!  After a few minutes they changed the rules so you won a prize if you identified just one.  Anybody who could have identified all four would qualify as a movie super-Nerd.
(The monster roars incidentally were from Godzilla, Gamera, Predator and Jurassic Park.)

8th March Monday
Last week was tiring, and by the weekend I did not feel up to doing much at all.  Keith kindly released me from the usual activities on Friday and Saturday and I spent most of Saturday dozing and napping (which pleased the cat).  My energy levels were severely depleted this month and I had been depending on cups of coffee first thing in the morning to get me moving for the day.  But there's only so far you can rely on caffeine.

9th March Tuesday
Croquet can be a funny old game.  This afternoon I was playing Rod, a former president of the club.  Readers with long memories may recall that I have beaten him only once in the 13 years I've been playing the game.  The first game he kept on scoring again and again;  I think we were up to the ninth hoop before I scored.  He beat me 6-1.  We went out again and played a second game;  this time I beat him 6-1.  A funny old game indeed.

The quiz night this week hit a new high point for the team.  I can't remember us ever scoring 90 points before --  as I've noted in the past, the maximum possible score would be 110 points.  We won the evening by one point (the runners-up must have been over excited;  they went home and left their prize voucher on the table, from which it was retrieved by the staff).  I suspect this may be our last win for a time as our sports expert is going to be absent for six months, which will inevitably bring our scores down a lot.  Kudos to June and Caroline for their expert work in the first round about correct spelling.

March 10th Wednesday
Some people keep telling me I lead an exciting life.    Well, maybe...
Today I thought I had an appointment in the afternoon, but I'd mistaken the date.  So I went home, did some laundry, finished the book I started reading last month and listened to some music. The end.

Talking with a friend about my plans for the week brought a reaction:  "A psychologist?  You'd be better off coming up the bush with us.  A trip into the country will make you feel better.  I'd change my plans if I were you."   I can see his point of view, but I think I shall keep my appointment..