year ending

 

Tuesday night our team was ready and waiting when the quiz started.  We made good progress, including getting a perfect score on three of the eight rounds, finishing with a respectable 84 points.  Alas, our rivals at the next table came in with a score of 85 points!   So near and yet so far.   
Oh well, there's another couple of weeks until the Christmas break, so watch this space.
*
Wednesday the last of three days of ferrying stuff to K's place.  I am glad for his sake that we got it done, but I'm grateful that there isn't any more stuff to shift.  Always happy to help a friend in need, but there are limits.  Checked my road map to remind me how to get to Royal Yacht Club for Mission Group's Christmas lunch tomorrow.
*
Lunch at Wrest Point on Friday to celebrate Helena and Julie joint-birthday.  Half a dozen of us dined in the Boardwalk room, then sat outside enjoying the sunny afternoon, admiring the view of the river and talking.  A pleasant time to meet up with old friends and discuss old times.
*
Friday night I finished writing up the quiz questions for the next day.  Saturday lunch time we all gathered at the Croquet Club and enjoyed a two-course lunch in the open-air with the annual Christmas quiz at half-time.  I kept it fairly simple, just 12 true-or-false questions about the Christmas season.  And I advised players "If you don't know the answer, have a guess. You've got a 50% chance  of being right."
*
BATTLE OF THE WORLDS [1961]  available on You Tube.
A stray planet, on a collision course with Earth, instead slows and takes orbit around our blue marble. After careful examination - and a few near-fatal accidents in space - what seems like a dead planet suddenly launches a fleet of flying attack saucers. Professor Benson and his team, along with the space fleet, must figure out how to destroy the invaders. In the end, the frustrated professor is forced to weigh the sacrifices that are required to save the citizens of Earth from certain doom.  
These Italian space opera movies always look stylish, though the scripts sometimes don't hang together too well.  Claude Rains, as Professor Benson, seems to be channeling the character he played in THE LOST WORLD, Professor Challenger.  Indeed, I have seen the American trailer and it even (ahem) declares "See Claude Rains in his most challenging role" !
*
I didn't check my e-mails on Saturday night, so I missed an update from the church office.   I thought I was reading from the book of Matthew, but when the minister introduced me, he said I'd be reading from chapter 9 of Isaiah.  I looked calm as I walked up to the lectern, but inwardly I was anxious to open my Bible and see what I was about to do a "cold read" from. I opened the Bible and scanned the passage while I announced the passage I'd be reading, then launched into reading aloud from the Old Testament.    I was lucky - there were almost no complicated names on that page and I got through without any visible problems.
A friend nodded to me afterwards and said "Good reading this morning."   I responded with "You have no idea!"
*
Watched the "mockbuster" movie BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES, made by Asylum studios to cash in on the release of the Columbia movie BATTLE: LOS ANGELES.  Lots of running and shooting doesn't compensate for the confusing plot.  Strange to see Nia Peeples as a Xena-style swordswoman who comes to the aid of the heroes.
*
Monday and Wednesday I spent the days relaxing, with no calls on my time to make me leave the house. Tuesday I got in one game of croquet at lunchtime,  then out to the final quiz night of the year. We shared a good dinner, paid for by the prize money from the last twelve months,  then ended up being narrowly nudged into second place by the people at the next table who won by a single point.

*
Thursday I was having a quiet day at home, watching the weather to see if we could fit in our last game of Bocce for the season.  Unfortunately friends descended on me and quizzed me about how my feet were going.  When I finally showed them, they were very concerned and insisted on calling a friend who runs a "foot nurse" service. There went my chances of getting to Bocce but I did finish the day with a nice pedicure.
*
I must remember to check these things before I sit down and tune in a movie on You Tube.   Tonight I started watching the movie THE EYE CREATURES thinking it was the American title for the well-regarded British movie THE TROLLENBERG TERROR.  Alas it's not;  I was thinking of THE CRAWLING EYE.   This one was a really dire flick about a couple who run over an alien invader on their way back from Lover's Lane and (surprise) nobody believes them.   I don't think I've ever said this before, but there's not a single thing of interest in the whole movie.
*
A columnist in the WASHINGTON POST mused on Richard Whateley’s satirical pamphlet, published in 1819, “Historic Doubts Relative to Napoleon Buonaparte.” In it, this future archbishop proves that there’s no way to be absolutely sure that Napoleon, who was then still alive, wasn’t actually a myth. Whately’s intent was subtly religious: He wanted to mock those who questioned the evidence for Christ’s existence.  
[Today we'd probably call this a work of "alternative history"!]
*
They have some dumb things on-line trying to get you interested in watching You Tube videos.  One trumpeted "Lucille Ball's grand-daughter looks just like her!"  -  what a surprise.  Another asked "Why was the coffin closed at JFK's funeral?"  -  well, it could be something to do with him being shot in the head.
*
Have never seen any Mexican horror T, though I know there are some, so WORLD OF THE VAMPIRES (1960) was something new to me.   Filmed in black and white, it used the old plot of the vampire count who seeks revenge on the family whose ancestors wiped out his family.  The twist is that the family have a guest, a music expert who has just returned from Transylvania, where he discovered which musical notes repel vampires.   This is actually quite an interesting little movie.
*
The Light Programme radio show has now moved to https://www.mixcloud.com/The_Light_Programme/
I'd been wondering what had happened to them, since their website seemed up to date.

Busy Busy !

 

Oct 28
Friday agenda:
1. inject 5 micrograms of exenatide subcutaneously
2. visit favorite coffee shop - eggs benedict
3. Pharmacist
4. Salvo store and City Mission shop
5. Newsagent
6. Supermarket
7. return home and rest before dinner
8. can't be bothered with TV, listen to old radio series before bed.
*
I filled a new prescription for my diabetes medication and the pharmacist ran through possible side effects and told me to take it an hour before meals.  For a couple of days, that's just what I did.  Then something started niggling in the back of my mind and I did a Google search.  Sure enough, it told me to take the drug  "2 times a day at any time within the 60–minute period before the morning and evening meals (or before the 2 main meals of the day, about 6 hours or more apart)".  So I did not need to wait sixty minutes till I could eat breakfast in the morning.
*
I went to the meeting at the church hall today and everyone laughed at me.   I don't know who thought of having a comedy segment in the middle of the monthly meeting, but it must have seemed like a good idea to somebody.  (I don't recall hearing of any other Presbyterian stand-up comics;  would it be better for my career if I converted to Judaism?)
*
What a week.  You know there are things you do every week, things you do once a fortnight, monthly things, quarterly things and once-a-year things?  Well, by some freak of the calendar they all coincided in the same week!  I had appointments, meetings, dinners and lunches every day.  By the time I got to the end of the week I didn't know if I was coming or going.  I felt like a Christmas tree salesman on December 24th.
Friday I had hoped to rest up for a bit,  only to receive a note on my door saying the RSPCA wanted to talk to me about my goat.  I phoned them and left a message asking them to ring me back, then waited apprehensively.  When they did ring back, they said they'd had a complaint my goat was looking thin.  Fortunately we were able to resolve the matter with no trouble after I sent them some recent pictures of the goat I had on my phone!
*
Nov 11th
After hearing this morning's radio interview with the Director of Public Health, I made sure to buy a new packet of masks before going to do the weekend shopping.  Cooler, with showers.  Stores beginning to clog up with Christmas stuff.  Puzzled by the reindeer around the Christmas tree in Coles;  when did reindeer grow manes like a lion?
Went home and had afternoon tea while listening to a 1944 episode of The Lone Ranger.
*
Nov12th
Saturday Keith and I went out to the South Hobart tip shop.  Keith happy because he found a book he'd  been looking  for since I-don't-know-when.
Watched a movie on You Tube after dinner.  What a difference nine years makes.  In 2013 when 500mph STORM was made, it was just another disaster movie. Looking at it now, the scenes of storms, floods and fires are uncomfortably like last week's news broadcasts.
*
A friend commented "I like your new glasses. They must have been expensive."  No, I explained, because I sold so much of their product when I was in the hotel business, one of the big breweries said they'd chip in for the cost of them.  "You mean...."    Yes, it was a Foster Grant.
*
Set out for church early but traffic was light and despite light rain I was there early.  Read from Matthew chapter 20 at the Communion Service without difficulty (aside from a tickle in my throat in the last paragraph).  Drove out to what used to be Animal Tucker Box;  the new owners started by repainting the outside, now they've re-organized the inside.  Home for lunch and debated whether or not to take a nap until it was too late to do so.  More light rain.
Served up dinner and watched another You Tube movie The Deadly Mantis from 1957;  not bad at all, with a semi-documentary opening reel about North America's radar network which is attacked by ... well, you can probably guess.
*
Here's a thought provoking quote:
"A movie is a novel turned inside out. A novel directly describes the invisible inner motives and emotions of characters and leaves [the reader] to formulate a mental picture of the physical world. A movie...depicts the visible and implies the unseen. Adapting a book to a screenplay thereby calls for a very difficult inversion: The explicit must be made implicit, and the invisible visible."
~101 Things I Learned in Film School. Neil Landau w/Matthew Frederick
*
Thursday I kept busy.  Downloaded some stuff from the Internet before lunch, then went out and  stocked up on my prescription drugs.  Spent two  hours clearing up the front porch so the electricity company can install a new power board tomorrow, then went out and played Bocce for two hours.  By the time I got home and ate dinner, I was ready for bed.
Friday was a madhouse on the roads.  Was there something going on I didn't know about?  If I hadn't known better, I would have thought it was Christmas Eve out there or that the Rolling Stones were performing in the next suburb.  I helped Keith move some stuff to his house and managed to fight my way through the traffic and got home eventually.  Saw OTR guru Ian Grieve in passing at favorite coffee shop. Our friendly neighborhood goatherd dropped in to see Mr Snuggles and share a cup of tea.    No sign of the electricians;  not that surprised - at least I hadn't been at home waiting for them.
*
29 Nov :  Spent nearly all day Tuesday out in the sun driving Keith around.  He's finishing up at the place he's been working for years and there was a lot of stuff to be moved.  We made two trips today, and two more tomorrow should finish it off.  I feel a little guilty that all I can do is the driving;  carrying stuff up and down stairs is beyond me these days but I do what I can.  Got home at 5 o'clock and drank a can of watermelon & pineapple energy drink.

The Color... Purple??

 

Continuing my explorations down the rabbit-hole of You Tube movie sites, I came across one that had an old black & white movie that was marked as being colorized.  I took a peep at it, and indeed it was in color  --  the color purple.  The whole film had apparently been tinted purple, and the blacks and whites were now dark and light shades of purple.  I don't think this is what most people mean by "colorized" !
*
September 1st is the first day of spring in Australia.  As often happens, it decided to drizzle.  I am feeling a little run down, so walking back from the meeting at the church hall to the bus stop seemed a long way, even if it all downhill.  Stopped off for my periodicals in the mall, and had tea & scones at Beaujangles.  
Expensive detour though JB Hi-Fi even with their 20% off sale.  A boxed set of the DVDs of MURDER CALL, one of my favorite Australian shows from the 1990s, DVD of the new movie EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE, and the Blu Ray of Goddard's BREATHLESS (with lots of bonus features for we Nouvelle Vague fans).
Agonized for five minutes over whether to write "I was the only one on the bus wearing a mask" or "I was the only one wearing a mask on the bus";  decided in the end not to mention it at all.
*
Thursday I had nothing planned aside from pottering around at home, but Keith phoned and said "Let's meet for lunch". After a couple of hours dining and op-shopping, I called in at K-Mart where things were disappointing.  When I asked for a refill for my diabetes injections, the pharmacist just said "We are out of stock."  When I tried my new credit card in the coffee machine, it responded "Try another card" which is all it ever says to me.  Went home and made a coffee gratis - that'll show them!
*
For years people have been saying that social media is bad for you because it makes you feel inferior after comparing yourself with the wonderful time all your friends seem to be having.  All I can say is you must have a different lot of friends to mine.  I have a lot of Facebook friends who are having a tough time.  In fact over the years I've had several people comment "You have such an interesting life", a compliment I'm at a loss to know to respond to  ("Yes I do" or "No I don't"?)
*
I knew this would happen someday, now that I'm no longer wearing my glasses all the time I'm out of bed.  I watched a gripping disaster movie FLOOD on You Tube last night, then when I got ready to retire I realized I didn't know where my glasses were.  I looked in a few places, then decided it might be easier in the daylight.  So the next day I got down on my hands and knees and crawled around the chair I'd been sitting in during the movie.  After a couple of minutes, I spotted them next to the chair and muttered "Eureka!".  A relief, since a replacement set would not only have been expensive but would have meant a two-week wait.
*
This comment from Ted of California on a New York Times story about AM radio gave me a wry chuckle on this day 9 years ago:  
"One of the two classical-music radio stations in Los Angeles is on AM.
It used to be on FM, but the owner (an individual, not a media conglomerate) switched the FM frequency to country music. That was after the media conglomerate that had operated the one country music station in Los Angeles decided that they could better serve shareholders with yet another automated Top-40 station that could offer advertisers a more desirable demographic. Faced with declining revenues from the classical station, the individual owner figured that country music could be sufficiently profitable for him, even if it's not profitable enough to satisfy a media conglomerate's bean counters. He figured right.
Strangely, the relocated classical station is doing well enough to remain on the air, despite the very inadequate sound quality. I only recently realized how that's possible, when I went to a concert of a local semi-professional orchestra. The large hall was filled with gray-haired patrons, whose whistling hearing aids randomly added notes the composers never wrote.
That is also the audience for classical-music radio. And hearing aids, by design, have an even more limited frequency response than AM radio. So the AM signal carrying pleasantly listenable programming probably sounds just fine to its intended audience."
*
Sept 18 - I left for church the usual time this Sunday but I had so many supplies to deliver to the church kitchen that they were half way through the first hymn before I slipped into my pew.  During morning tea, I went over to one of the girls from the music group and told her I appreciated her singing in that morning's service.  I could have added "And you're very pretty" but I didn't think she would appreciate a guy 50 years her senior hitting on her.
On the way home from church, I stopped off at the pharmacy to see if they had any new stocks of my diabetic injections.  Nope, they didn't.  That makes three weeks I haven't been able to source my medication;  no wonder my blood glucose level is up.
I had coffee and a croissant in the cafe and a distraught individual shambled up to my table and said "I have mental health problems and I'm very upset but nobody here will talk to me.  Can I talk to you?"  I shrugged and said "Sure, sit down."  I listened to his problems for a while and asked him if he was seeing a doctor;  he said he was and he'd been prescribed Escitalopram.  I think he was a bit surprised when I nodded and said "Yeah, I take that once a day myself."  He looked a bit calmer when he left.
*
Sept 20th
Tuesday was a bit tiring.  I had to go out for my blood test before my doctor's appointment next week, and have an empty stomach.  By the time I drove around trying to find a parking spot near the pathology lab, and waited while the technician looked up my records because she couldn't read the doctor's handwriting, and drove home again,  I felt exhausted.
Some food and rest made me feel fit enough to see if there was anybody at the Croquet Club.  There was but they left just after Terry and I arrived, so we had one game then departed to our respective homes.  
More rest, which meant I was almost late in leaving for the quiz night.   Whew.
*
Sept 27th
A few things on this Tuesday, so it was a good thing I slept a bit better.  Started off the day with my first appointment for months with my psychologist.  She reassured me that the stressed feelings I've been having lately are just a normal response to some nervous tension.  Then on to the Croquet Club where one of the members took pity on me and stayed on to have a game with me - which I lost 7-3.
After a quick lunch, attended the funeral service for one of the grand old men of croquet, Maurice Woodmansee.  To put it in a modern perspective, he was the Yoda of Tasmanian croquet.  I still hear his instructions in my head when I prepare to hit the ball towards the hoop.
Quiz night tonight and the four of us were unfortunately unable to make it a hat trick.  Even with some inspired guesses from June, we ended up coming third, beaten by a team of newcomers who had never played before.
Then home for a 42 minute phone call from Keith about books and autographs he was hunting on the Internet.  After which I was ready to go to bed.
*
October 4th
On NPR this morning an American radio newsman sounded shocked that interest rates may go up to 7%.  Back when we were in the hotel business fifty years ago we were paying up around 17%.  At the risk of sounding like a a grumpy old man, may I just quote the old saying "Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it."
*
Keith looked a bit gloomy when we met for lunch last week.  He seemed preoccupied and distracted, though he did cheer up a bit when I brought the conversation round to one of his favorite subjects (old westerns).  In retrospect, he may just have been undercaffeinated; I noticed he had two cups of coffee with his lunch and when we emerged from the Salvo store later he muttered something about it was a shame the coffee shop was closed.
*
Tuesday I was too busy for croquet.  Mick and Helena said they'd meet me for lunch and we had a filling if not overly healthy meal down the road from my place.  Then we separated so they could visit the tip shop and I could go out to Glenorchy to pick up some stuff and call in to get some feed at Animal Tucker Box.  After that I visited my pharmacy for the first of my twice-a-week visits;  no, they didn't have any of my diabetes injectables.  It's now being reported as being out of stock till next year!   😕
I returned home only to have Mick & Hedlena turn up five minutes later.  Helena showed me the things she had bought, then started tidying up my back room.  At one point I had to wrest the groceries I'd bought this afternoon from her grasp.
Managed to send them home about 6.15, leaving me just enough time to feed the goat and high-tail it for the quiz night.  
I think I will have an early night.
*
Is it old age or just lack of concentration?  Whatever I'm up to, I always seem to be thinking about something else unrelated to what I'm actually doing at that moment.....
triangulation of quantitative data (factor-analyzed items) and qualitative data (semistructured questions) reveals that they are orthogonal and independent in nature.
*
Woke up early on October 11th so I made a cup of coffee and went back to bed to listen to the morning news round-up on the radio.  It was a Tuesday but there was nothing happening at the Croquet Club so I went into Moonah for lunch and a haircut  (now that winter has finished I do not need so much insulation).  I didn't have time for a nap before I went out and this evening consumed an energy drink, a cup of coffee and a gin & tonic.  No wonder I felt a little befuddled by the time I got home.
The postman delivered three issues of The New Yorker today; I must do something about catching up on my reading tomorrow.
I was a bit late getting to bed because Keith phoned and we talked about books for 68 minutes...
*
I felt tired Wednesday morning and spent the day at home.  In fact after lunch I nodded off in my armchair for a bit  (what I need is an app for my laptop that tells me how long it has been since I used it, so I will know how long I've been dozing).  With the days drawing out, I can't get away with not feeding the animals in the evening;  they are still wide awake and ready for a snack.
Had dinner and watched a series 2 episode of MY LIFE IS MURDER, planning on an early night.
*
Sounds in the Mall today:
1. Police siren
2. Running feet
3. Crash into fence
4. voice [stern] "Stay where you are."
5. voice [whining] "I didn't do nothing."
6. soft footsteps as I walk away minding my own business.
*
The only calls I get on my house phone are scammers and people wanting me to give them money.  This week I got a call from a woman with a very familiar voice.  "Hello this is Helen Murphy calling from the Fund Raising Centre.  I hope you're well?"  I replied "I'm find thanks, but weren't you Ann Fitzgerald last month?"  There was a moment of silence and I took the opportunity to hang up.

 

Onward and (maybe) upward

 

 I nearly always play croquet after lunch on a Tuesday, but one day was just too cold.  The following week I was asked out to lunch unexpectedly.  The following week I finally got out on the lawn, mallet in hand.  I lost, but they say that taking part is the important thing, not winning.

Friday was a bit of a madhouse.  I had to be in town in the morning for a committee meeting;  this went all right and I was sent off with some leftover home-made scones for lunch.  On the way home, I detoured through the JB Hi Fi shop to look for a couple of movies I wanted;  I didn't find them, but I was pleased to spot the boxed set of television serials based on John Wyndham's novel CHOCKY for ten dollars less than I'd seen it on-line.
Taking the bus home was a bit of a drama.  The bus left late because police had to be called to remove a woman who was abusing the driver.  When we did start off, the bus turned onto the highway instead of taking the road through the suburbs and I realized I must be on the wrong bus.  After some thought, I waited till we got to a bus stop on the same latitude as my home, got off and started on a 45-minute walk through the back streets to my house.  
Spent an hour on hold with my bank so I could straighten out some irregularities with my credit card  (I googled a transaction I didn't remember, and it took me to a page with 300 complaints about the merchant!)
In the evening, my friendly local goatherd came round and we spent two hours after dark in the backyard rounding up the roosters, who were the subject of a noise complaint to City Hall.  I think we got them all, because it was unusually quiet when I woke up the next morning.
*
Feeding the chickens this morning, I noticed a woman and her little girl watching the hens pecking about.  I had to bring in the rubbish bin, so I ambled down the driveway and bade them a good morning.  The mother sighed and said "I'd love to have chickens, but I can't where I live at the moment."  "That's a shame," I said, "once every family had chickens in their back garden."  I waved goodbye as they went on their way and the little girl gave me a big smile.  I was reminded of something my sister Julie said about how sad it was that some city children grew up with no animals around at all.
*
Sunday was wet and windy, so I motored into town cautiously, driving to the conditions.  This had the usual effect  -  cars behind me who decided I was driving too slowly so they overtook me and zoomed off.  But I'm used to that.
The Sunday before, I was worried about other stuff.  It was my turn to stand at the lectern and read from the Bible, and I was down to read the whole first chapter of Samuel.  Not only is that a large chunk of text, but there are several unusual names in the first paragraph.  I started off all right, but halfway through I lost my place in the middle of a sentence and couldn't find it again;  A couple of people in the congregation were starting to look concerned, so I skipped to the start of the next paragraph and carried on.
Over morning tea, a woman approached me and commended my clear reading of Samuel.  But, she said, as a GP she had been worried for a second that I might have been having a mini-stroke.  I replied "Well, if you'd known I was recovering from a head injury, you would have been REALLY worried."
*
The doorbell rang at 7 a.m. and the phone rang at 11 p.m.  Nobody there either time.  Sometimes it's like living in a haunted house.
The meeting I was going to on Wednesday afternoon was cancelled.  So what did I do with all that extra time?  Fooled around with the laptop and drank too much coffee of course.  In the evening there were just two of us at the quiz night, but we did fairly well  --  at the beginning we solved the puzzle question on the first clue, and got a perfect score in the first round.  Unfortunately we didn't keep up that standard, especially in the Sports and Music rounds!  Still, an entertaining evening out.

Imaginary conversation:
"I'm not eating that, it's going green."
"You did order the Pesto Parmagiana, didn't you sir?"
*
Friday was a nice day but I spent most of my time resting up from the day before. Thursday had been one of those "perfect storm" days when everything happened on the same day.  It started straight after breakfast, when my friendly local goatherd stopped by to check on the goat.  Then I drove down to South Hobart for a morning tea with friends from church;  I'd never been to the Rivulet Cafe but it's a nice modern place with (of course) a view of the Hobart Rivulet.  Took a couple of minutes trying to get pictures of the ducks paddling around in the rivulet.
Not long after I returned home, got a call to meet visiting friends for lunch.  Grant doesn't get down to Tasmania often, so it was good to see him and meet his wife Cheryl.  Following that, I went around the bookshops with Keith, who took pleasure in showing me a couple of desirable items he'd picked up for two dollars a throw this morning.  I'm trying not to buy books these days myself, but I was happy for him.
Then I had about sixty minutes before I had to leave for the theatre.  Just time for a hasty meal before my lift arrived. I met Helena at the Playhouse and we saw the comedy 39 STEPS in which four actors play dozens of characters in a high-energy spoof of the Hitchcock movie.  Some clever stagecraft meant the pace never slowed down and the audience (mostly from the older age group) seemed to enjoy it a lot.
I returned home and sat down on my bed.  Looking at my watch I realised I'd been on the go for twelve hours, not something I'm used to these days.  Either a feast or a famine, eh?
*
Haiku for the TV serial of WAR OF THE WORLDS 20/08/2020
Robots a-scuttling
as a world goes to ruin.
The blind see again.
*
Free and easy?  Well...
I noticed one of my tyres was getting down a bit so I thought, no problem I'll just stop off and get some air while I'm out.  Nope.  First station I stopped at had a big Out Of Order sign on the air & water.  I traveled on to another station, but their air hose was missing altogether.  Third time lucky, at the United station in North Hobart I was able to inflate the tyre back to normal pressure.  I was so grateful I went into the office and bought coffee and a sandwich just to thank them for having a function air pump.  (And I noticed another car was waiting to use the pump after me - air may be free but it's not always easy to find)
*.
In 2020 there was an arts project in Huonville where your three-line poems were stencilled onto walls of buildings:
See those words on walls
a community haiku
for all Huon eyes
*
Clear weather, which means a fine afternoon but a cold morning.  No croquet again this week, but made it to two quiz nights. We went from the sublime to the ridiculous  -  Tuesday we finished second, the closest we've come to winning this winter, but Wednesday night we came second-last!  I will admit that the latter was the first time I've ever scored 2/10 in the TV and cinema round.
*
The following Tuesday, it seemed a bit wet for croquet so I went out for lunch with the goatherd and his partner.  Later she persuaded me to remove my shirt so she could rub arnica onto my shoulder after my fall in the garden yesterday.  Fortunately I haven't mowed the grass this month so it was a relatively soft landing.

Got ready for the quiz night.  There were five of us there tonight and we finished second out of nine teams.  Second week running - not bad.
*
I've been scouting around the various channels on You Tube and I've found several that offer a lot of old B-movies from the post-war period.  So far I've watched THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE, THE GIANT GILA MONSTER, THE NIGHT THE WORLD EXPLODED and EARTH vs THE FLYING SAUCERS.  These are actually better than you might think from the titles.  The last mentioned one is a triumph of special effects by the great Ray Harryhausen  --  if you came to it cold you'd find it hard to believe it was made in 1957!
*
I posted this on Facebook back in 2012 when I was younger and sadder:
Sometimes on a wet afternoon you leave the TV and the radio switched off and think.
You think about the past and the future.  The people you knew.  The people you never met but you felt you knew them.   The things you wish you'd done and the things you wish you hadn't.   The things that you know now that you'll never do.  
I guess that's life, in all its richness and heartache.  But every day we get a new 24 hours, to do with as we wish...

Wash the blood off my scarf

I've been a bit slow to write about this because I didn't want to worry people.  But a lot of you will realize something is up when I do not turn up for church tomorrow.  The fact is that when I left the quiz night on Wednesday I had a bad fall trying to walk up the hill to the car park.  Fortunately one of the other people leaving the venue was a nurse and she gave me first aid while an ambulance was summoned.
After a few hours in the ER at the Royal Hobart Hospital, they patched me up and gave me a bed for the night, letting me go home the next afternoon.
I'm not in any pain, but the left side of my face is like a jigsaw puzzle where they glued me back together. Oh, and I had a spectacular black eye the next day.  I don't think I'll ever forget the moment my head hit the asphalt -- I thought for a second somebody had hit me on the side of the head with a cricket bat.
So if you don't see me around for a week, you'll understand why.
*
Recuperation day 6. Can't remember the last time I spent the day in bed, but as my Quaker friends would say I felt a leading to it.  A selection of snacks on the bedside table, listening to the radio, reading my e-mails, dozing off every now and again.  As necessary go out and visit the bathroom and/or make a hot drink.  My left eye is coming good and I can now look in the mirror and see myself in 3D - not that this is a pleasant view at the moment.  I no longer feel like I am wearing a Phantom-of-the-Opera mask over the left side of my face.

This morning I fed the poultry in my pyjamas.  How they got in there I'll never know!
(You need to be a Marxist to appreciate that joke.)

Tuesday evening I ventured out to the quiz night.  The other members of the team surveyed me thoughtfully and muttered things like "Well, you certainly did a job on yourself."  When the quizmaster read out the scores halfway through, she commented our team might have done better but one of us had suffered a head injury!  There were eight teams and in the end we finished fifth with 78 points;  the winners were the Dawdlers who belied their name by coming home with 84 points.  But we did win a bottle of wine for solving the puzzle question and I got 9/10 for the Art & Literature round.  So not too bad.

I came home and made a cup of Nerada Detox tea. A blend of Dandelion, Lemon Verbena and Milk Thistle with a dash of Senna and Nettle.
*
July 11th I went to the eye clinic for a follow-up exam.  An orbital fracture sounds like something you worry about at NASA but my doctor doesn't seem to be worried about it.  I had lunch in town then went home and took a nap;  I didn't plan it, it just sort of happened.
In the evening, I got a big tray of snacks and drinks and settled down in front of the laptop to watch the first Garrison Keillor show any of us have seen in years.  Thanks to the Mandolin site for streaming it.
*
Temperature in my house in winter seems to sit on 40 F during winter according to my old thermometer, which I think is 4.5 C -- but then I live in Tasmania.
*
Watched two movies on-line.  

ANGELS OF TERROR (1971) was the last of the long-running series of Edgar Wallace movies made in Germany.  Karin Dor was no longer starring, but Uschi Glas makes an acceptable substitute.  An Australian woman arrives in London to search for her sister who she finds is involved with a drug ring. The gang itself is under attack from an unknown rival, who is methodically assassinating them one by one.
FOR A GOOD TIME, CALL... (2012) adult comedy about a girl in New York who discovers her room-mate is running a phone-sex business.  After her initial revulsion, she is tempted to take over the business and (as they say in the classics) hilarity ensues.  This is actually quite funny and both Ari Graynor and Lauren Miller Rogen are fun to watch.  An independent movie that had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

Caprine Collission

 

 

Tuesday 24th May
No quiz for me tonight.  Seventh day of isolation.  Weirdly, the last week has seemed like a never-ending  Saturday afternoon to me.  No beginning or end, just a long middle.  Hard to believe the world is going on as usual outside my front gate.  At least I'm saving a fortune in petrol  -- which reminds me I should st

art the car tomorrow to make sure it hasn't carked it while I've been in quarantine.     
*
I don't contribute to many of the on-line fundraisers like Kickstarter and Gofundme, but now and again I do succumb to temptation.   Earlier this year I pledged a few bucks to a project that was bringing back into print new and old stories from August Derleth's famous Sherlock clone Solar Pons.  Today I received via email THE NOVELLAS OF SOLAR PONS and a  handful of new volumes like THE PAPERS OF SOLAR PONS and THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SOLAR PONS  (not forgetting THE NECRONOMICON OF SOLAR PONS !).   Enough e-books to keep  me busy for months to come.       *
Numerology isn't something that usually interests me.  But it's hard not to be startled by this week's quiz night results.  I went to two quiz nights in two days.  Both times we came second in the final results, and both times we won a bottle of wine for solving the puzzle question on the second clue.  Something felt strange about all that.
*      
The new survey is out for radio listening in Hobart.  As expected, the two big commercial FM stations are battling for the younger audience, but if you look at the numbers you will notice that the ABC picks up more and more listeners as the ages go up.  By the time we get to the final column (65 and over) the public broadcaster scores an unbeatable 39.5% and only one of the commercial stations scores more than 1% !    
*
There are certain landmarks that show the progress of the seasons from summer to winter.  First week you start wearing a jacket outside.  First time you put on a beanie inside and outside.  First time you get out the Ugg Boots (June 3rd this year).  Next will be the first time you go searching for those gloves you wore last winter.
*     
June 7th was a Tuesday.  After checking the apparent temperature outside (2.5C)  I was glad I didn't have to be out early.    Dressed warmly before I went out to play croquet  --  the weather forecast made it sound as though I needed to be prepared for rain, snow or hail but actually there was enough sunshine for one game.
And I was happy to be able to buy some Ozempic on the way home, after the pharmacist scrutinised my prescription to make sure I was a diabetic and not some hipster wanting to lose a few pounds before they tried out their new swimwear for next summer.
It is also cheering to get a reminder in the mail for your overdue water bill when you know you paid it last week!  

At the quiz night our numbers were down, so the folk at the Minerva's Disciples table adopted Caroline and I.  But even our combined brainpower wasn't enough to defeat the unstoppable Jambag table and we finished second (again).   And the Wednesday night quiz ... second again???
*
Routine visit to my GP.  Signed my form for the Transport Department, gave me my flu shot and asked "Are you still taking the Ozempic injections?"  "When I can get it," I replied.  He gave a wry laugh.     
*
The winter weather is setting in.  Last night the wind was gusting and kept blowing my bedroom open.  "How can I keep that closed?" I said to myself.
And a little voice in my head said "Put a box of books against it."
I said "Where can I find a box of books in my house?"
And the little voice laughed and laughed....   
*
We didn't do so well in the Wednesday night quiz, coming in fifth out of nine teams.  But I was amused at the puzzle question they gave us tonight.  The question was about a painting, and the first few lines of the clue were a vague description of it, followed by a passing mention that the artist had once been featured in a DOCTOR WHO story.  The result  --  five teams answered correctly after the first clue !  Including us, needless to say.  ☺
*
I knew this would happen one day.  I don't know the technical names, but I've noticed there are two sorts of goats -- ones whose horns grow backwards from their heads and ones whose horns grow sideways.  My goat is the latter, so I'm always careful not to put my head down next to him.  But ... a few minutes ago he was standing at the fence, waiting for his afternoon feed.  As I leaned over to put the hay in his trough, he swung his head sideways and the tip of his horn whacked into my glasses, driving them into my cheek.  Ouch!
What I fear is that it will leave a mark visible beneath my spectacles and if someone asks what happens, I'll have to relate the whole unlikely story.  
Come to think of it, I am having trouble typing this.   Could I have concussion??
*
My old laptop has been getting slower and slower - I think I've used it every day since the pandemic began - so I finally got round to setting up the new laptop I bought last year.  It's been sitting in a box in the corner of my room, while I kept thinking "I must get round to that" every few weeks.  One of the first things it did when I got it running was to update itself from Windows 10 to Windows 11.  A bit different to what I'm used to, but I seem to have figured out most things.  I suspect that I am having less trouble than a friend if mine will - he dropped his laptop and broke it, but one of his family has obtained a new laptop and is sending it to him.  The only stumbling block for him may be that his old machine was still running on Windows 7.
*
We have had a few cold days this winter but not as bad as some years.  Usually by the shortest day I am shivering and complaining about the rains, mud and snow.  The other day I went to the Croquet Club and by the time we got into the second game it was bright and sunny, motivating me to discard my scarf and beanie for the rest of the game.
Some years at this time the grass is very thin and anemic, while the lawn we were playing on this week was like a very large piece of green carpet.
*
So true.  "Nothing is as it was."
Linda Mottram on ABC Radio's THIS WEEK June 25th.

Quarantined !

I guess it had to happen sooner or later.

Yesterday they were 1,075 new cases of Covid in Tasmania.  1,076 if you count me.   

All last week I was sneezing and snuffling, then at the weekend I grew progressively more tired  --  the sort of feeling where you spend ten hours in bed but don't feel rested.  A friend convinced me I should use that Rapid Antigen Test kit I bought last month, so I got it out, read the instructions and tried it.  You know what it said, I think.

The Public Healthline told me I'd have to isolate for seven days.  If I didn't feel better by then, give it another three days.  I didn't think that would bother me, but there's a big difference between "Monday, stayed home all day" and "Monday, had to stay home all day."

Ironically, on Saturday density and capacity limits were removed from all settings and premises, including events, shops, cafes, restaurants and lifts.    Not that this will concern me for now!   

*. 

Saturday - fourth day of isolation.  After a few days of feeling "blah", I started to feel a bit better Saturday morning, as though a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.  I no longer felt like crawling back into bed every couple of hours.  It was fine and sunny so I actually ate lunch in the backyard after I voted by phone.  That went off without any problems, helped perhaps by the fact I'd done my homework the day before and had my preferences written down in advance.  (And the candidate I voted for got elected, so that was good.)

*

The day after the election. Mr Albanese went out for coffee Sunday morning and was mobbed by the press, not surprisingly.  What I noticed was he had his dog with him.  When was the last time we had a Prime Minister who appeared in public with  his dog?  I can't remember one.  It somehow makes the new PM seem more human and relatable.

*

 Last week's quiz nights ranged from good to mediocre. A lot depended on the human factor, it seems.  For Tuesday night, we were invited to join Minerva's Disciples at the next table (2+3=5).  We did pretty well and finished in second place..  It was a good night.

Wednesday night saw the return of the Barnstoneworth team after a long absence.  They were always unbeatable last year, and they ran right over the top of everyone this week.  Wherever they've been lately, they've kept in practice;  we came second-last.

*

A haiku to my EFTPOS card:

 Those glowing letters 

 bring an end to your shopping

 "Insufficient Funds."

*

Every time I accidentally see some of the Montreal comedy festival on television I can't believe how awful it is.  The presenter comes out every few minutes and swears at the audience.  And they laugh, even when he tells them how ignorant and stupid Canadians are.  I guess I'm not in the target audience.  My ideas about humor and comedy were laid down in the 1950s and 1960s.  

* 

These shorter days are messing with my head.  Sunday afternoon after being out for lunch I thought I'd lie down and read for a while.  I nodded off and when I woke up it was dark outside.  My watch said it was 5:30 but it took me some time to work out if it was Sunday evening or Monday morning. In the end I realized I had only been asleep for an hour, not twelve hours.  So I made something for dinner, watched some TV while I ate and went off to bed.  

*

Sadly, last week we said goodbye to Apollo, the last of the geese.  The gaggle from Julie's house have long since been rehoused at a farm up past New Norfolk, but Apollo had grown up here so I gave him a home until he got so old he'd obviously come to the end of his life.  I shall miss him.  It took a few days to get used to not hearing him whuffling in the distance when I go out to feed the chickens in the morning.  Goodby goosie  😔

water, water everywhere

 

March 13th

Drove down to Sandy Bay for an hour involving sexual immorality, lust, greed and filthy language.  Next week we plan to study the rest of chapter 3 of St. Paul's letter to the Colossians.

*

March 20th Tuesday I went out and played (badly) one game of croquet.  In the evening, there were only two of us on the team at the quiz night. Even fortified with alcohol and pain-killers we fared badly on some rounds, adequately on others, and finished in fourth place.  (The winners, as usual, were Jambag with 91/110)  But we won a bottle of wine for solving the puzzle question on the second clue.  One team member who was sick at home asked how we did it and (channeling Joe Friday) I told her "I just played a hunch. It was just a hunch. I played my luck; sometimes a hunch pays off, sometimes it doesn't, I was just lucky, I just played a hunch."  She replied "Your hunches are the stuff of legend."   I rather like that;  I might get Anita to put it on my tombstone.

*

I spent most of Wednesday resting at home but it didn't help my performance at the quiz night.  Not only did we fail to finish in the money, I scored 2/10 for the TV & Cinema round  --  possibly my worst score in memory.  I think the problem may be that more and more questions are things like "Name the Marvel super-hero that this actor will be starring as later this year on Disney+."  I am flummoxed.

*

Two months till the solstice but Thursday morning I could feel the first sting of winter in the morning air.  The sun broke through just as I was feeding the chickens so maybe it wasn't so bad for the rest if the day.  Bought more feed for the poultry this week.  I notice they seem to be using twice as much water as they did last year;  I suspect I'm watering a lot of birds and small mammals without knowing it.  As long as this doesn't include rats  -  rats can bugger off.

*

I seem to be drinking more coffee this year too.  Not that it does much good.  Yesterday I had several cups of  coffee and still dozed off twice during the day, once before lunch and once after lunch.  I keep promising myself I'll go back to having afternoon naps.  Maybe I should actually do it.

*

This year I kept running out of space on my laptop hard drive.  With one thing and another I have accumulated a lot of radio show downloads on my laptop, so I buckled down to move all my 2021 downloads onto my external drive.  It took me a while.  I had 133 GB.  Yikes!

*

Played two games of croquet on a fine Tuesday afternoon then had a rest before going out to the quiz night.  Caroline and I represented the team at this week's quiz and we started off the evening by winning a bottle of champagne for solving the puzzle question after the first clue.  The quiz master looked a little surprised when she looked at our answer sheet and said "That's right."  Things took an unexpected turn when a waiter appeared at our table with a piece of cake and said "Is this your birthday?"  Following this, the whole restaurant sang "Happy Birthday to you".  I have a good idea who was responsible for this. 

The end of the evening saw us finish third, with our friendly rivals Minerva's Disciples actually beating us to come in second.

*

The following night,  we had a complete team at the Wednesday quiz night for the first time this year, I think.  I wasn't much use in the puzzle question (which was about elements) because I got myself mixed up between Platinum and Palladium, and Lisa eventually came up with the correct answer.  But I did get to give a sardonic chuckle when the last question in the movie round asked what was the actual meaning of Rosebud in CITIZEN KANE's ending;  I said "This will separate the men from the boys in movie trivia!" 

I think we came fourth out of seven teams, with 78 points, nothing to be ashamed of.

*

May 3rd - Tuesday was a peculiar sort of afternoon.  I went over to the Croquet Club and played a couple of games;  during the second one, we were followed around the lawn by a ride-on mower that cut the grass on whichever part of the lawn we weren't actually playing on.  A little distracting. 

When I came home, I found a note from the RSPCA telling me my goose couldn't walk.  Well, sometimes he can and sometimes he can't.  I left them a message and sent them a photo I took last month of the goose standing on his own two feet.

Just before I left for the Quiz Night, I received a text message from the water company telling me there were urgent repairs being done in my street and they hoped to have the water turned on again by 10.30 tonight.   That explained the mass of lights at the end of my street when I drove off.

The quiz was quite normal though.  We came in third with 70 points, behind Walt Quizney who won with 80 points.  Jambag?  They were taking the night off apparently.

At least there were two issues of THE NEW YORKER in the mailbox today.

*

May 5th.  Thursday was proof that sometimes the weather bureau gets it right.  For about 24 hours they'd been issuing warnings about severe weather conditions Thursday night and Friday.  Coming back from the monthly meeting in the church hall, it started to drizzle before I caught the bus home.  By the time I reached my house it was raining lightly.  Then it got heavier.  I moved all the stuff in the back room off the ground just in case. 

After dinner it was coming down pretty hard.  I put on my raincoat and went out to check on the drain in the driveway, which was slow to get rid of the water.  I got one of the hoses and with some trouble set up a siphon to take away some of the lake that was rapidly forming.  Felt tired after half an hour on my hands and knees in the rain with my head in the gully trap and had to rest for a while before I went to bed.  

Then I was woken three hours later by a tremendous display of thunder and lightning.  The rain poured down, but there was nothing I could do except pull the covers over my head and hope the siphon kept running.

The next morning the rain had almost stopped and I warily opened the back door, bracing myself for a lake lapping at the back steps.  Praise be, the water was not even enough to fill a small pond.  There were plenty of signs where the water had been, though.  It's a good thing that years ago I changed from cardboard cartons to plastic crates for storing my stuff.  (Friends dropped in that afternoon and were horrified by the water damage;  I guess I had been preparing for the worst, so it didn't seem so bad to me)

*

Tuesday the plumber came bright and early to flush out the blocked drains.  Second time in 25 years we've had to do this, so I guess we can't complain.  And since it was fine and sunny today I went over to play croquet in the afternoon.  Usually I can get through a game in an hour, but not today  --  it took us an incredible 45 minutes just to get past hoop #3.  I thought of going home after we finally got hoop #12, but in the end I stayed for another (more normal) game.

Ironically the people in one suburb are without water because of a burst water-main, while the rest of the city are drying out carpets and repairing storm damage.  There's never a happy medium !

I'm spinning around, move out of my way

 

The Nerines that my mother planted many years ago came out into flower last week. They keep such a low profile during the rest of the year I almost forget they are there, but every year I think of her when they suddenly erupt into colour.

*

8th March

Tuesday the usual stuff.  After lunch, went to the Croquet Club and played a couple of games.  Lost both but made some good shots in the second game so I wasn't unhappy.  Read the latest issue of New Scientist weekly while transferring 6GB of old radio shows off my laptop -- anything to avoid the dreaded message "Download failed; disk full".

Not a lot at the quiz tonight.  We came second with 79 points, while Jambag romped home with 95/110.  And we (ahem) won the bottle of wine for guessing the puzzle question on the first clue.

18 March

Why am I suddenly experiencing dizzy spells again?  Friday I came back from a Morning Tea in Sandy Bay feeling fine.  I had a bit of a nap after lunch and when I got up, the room seemed to be spinning a bit.  I walked around the bed to put something away and I just went down (ka-thump!).   No injuries but the plastic crate I landed on will never be the same again.

First attack of vertigo I've had for years.  Let's not go down that path again!

*

Haiku for the feline: 

Cats are like the clouds,

Ever changing and graceful, 

No two quite alike. 

Dedicated to Olivia, who sat on my knee until I finished writing this.

*

Not all crime involves computers even in 2022. 

In Tasmania the newly-elected Mayor of New Norfolk was notified that somebody had stolen the 300 plants the Council had used to decorate the entrance to the township.  Meanwhile over in Melbourne, thieves scaled the Mission To Seafarers building and made off with the copper weather-vane that had graced the roof for a hundred years.  😒

*

SUNRISE OVER THE CROQUET LAWN, 

A HAIKU [2017]

Ready for the game

Blue, red, black and yellow orbs; 

The white hoops await.

*

After church, I was talking to a friend who used to be a nurse.  I told her about my vertigo and she said "Before you get up in the morning, sit on the edge of your bed, take a deep breath and wiggle your toes."  OK, I haven't heard that one before.  Maybe I'll try it  -- heck, you don't even need a prescription.

*

Felt really tired when I got home.  I made some lunch, read the Sunday comics in the paper then went back to bed.  I must have slept for two or three hours.  I woke up in the middle of a very involved dream -- I was back in the 1970s and I was trying to watch a movie on TV with one eye while trying to arbitrate in a disagreement between my mother and sister.  In the background,  Julie's pets were running around while a selection of pots and pans were cooking on the stove.  

I got up and made myself a strong cup of coffee.

*

Only played one game of croquet on Tuesday.  The warm sunny weather was a bit much for me and when I left the club I took refuge in the air-conditioned comfort of the local supermarket for a while before I went home.  I answered some messages about a book someone was trying to sell me, then went out to the quiz night.

Not our greatest result, which wasn't surprising.  The only round we had a really good score in was the final one of the night.  The puzzle question was about an American football star so none of the clues meant anything to us (who knew Tom Brady was married to a supermodel who makes more than he does?).  From memory, we came seventh and our friendly rivals Minerva's Disciples came fifth.

Jambag won again, but from next week they'll be handicapped five points for every time they win.  There is still hope for us! 

*

Wednesday I stayed in during the day.  I took a nap after lunch, but it didn't help much because I woke up abruptly thinking "What day is it?  Is it morning or evening?  Where am I supposed to be?"  I calmed down after a bit, had a late lunch and did some work on the laptop.  In the evening, went out to the Wednesday night pub quiz.  The first round was remarkable because every team got a perfect score - fairly simple questions about recipes.  After that things didn't go so well and there were a lot of questions where we thought we knew the answers but didn't.  And the round about movie theme music was cancelled because the sound system was on the blink!  So we ended up in fourth place. 

Yeah, there were only five teams.

*

So I had to send out this message #sigh#

DO NOT OPEN ANY YOU TUBE LINK SUPPOSEDLY SENT BY ME.  My Facebook friends list has been hacked and somebody is sending out "look what I found" messages which require you to give your FB password.  In a word:  DON'T !

*

Back in the days of black-and-white television there were two series titled SPACE PATROL, one on each side of the Atlantic.  I remember the British series created by Roberta Leigh, was a puppet show unlike the live action American show.  It was surprisingly sophisticated for a children's program and I remember it fondly.  So I was intrigued to discover that someone has colorized a few episodes of it and put them on You Tube.  The colour makes the rather smudgy recordings a bit more distinct and helps us enjoy the adventures of Larry Dart and his gyroscope-shaped space ship. 

youtube.com/watch?v=F_GHB0z83vM

*

The meaning of words changes over the years.  Glancing at a catalog this week, I noticed a page of "gaming essentials" featuring high-tech computer equipment. A century ago this would probably have been a page of roulette wheels, cards and poker chips.  (And let's not think about what the "Jack Adapter" might have been....)

*

The modern world has some small advantages.  My room is at the back of the house, so whenever somebody brings a parcel to the front door and rings the bell,  they're always taking it back to the truck by the time I get there.  This week I got a text to alert me that a package I'd ordered would be delivered that day between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.  It was a nice morning, so before lunch I dragged one of my chairs out into the driveway and sat out in the sun.  I had my little transistor radio and sat there listening to the 'Conversations' show (hard to believe that Hanna Gadsby was already a successful stand-up comedian before she was diagnosed as being autistic).

Half an hour later I saw the postal van drive up to my house.  I had time to get down the driveway and appear on the footpath while the driver was still getting my item out of his vehicle.  Much more satisfactory than all that running for the front door, hoping to get there before they drive off.

*

August Derleth may have died in 1971 but he obviously still has plenty of fans.  One publisher last year successfully ran a crowd funding campaign to reprint his Solar Pons stories, loving imitations of Sherlock Holmes he began writing in 1929.  This year they started another campaign to fund a follow-up volume THE NOVELLAS OF SOLAR PONS.  There are 17 days to go and they are already over-subscribed 800%.  Zowie !    😲

Going to hell in a handbasket?

 

I saw him get out but how did he get in there?

Every now and again I read the Bible from the lectern at my local church.  Invariably I have people telling me afterwards how well I did.  I tell you this not so you know what a fine fellow I am, but because I wondered last time whether it might be related to my interest in vintage radio.  As a member of the last pre-television generation,  I have always been a fan of "the wireless" and I wonder if my mind is more strongly focussed on the human voice and what it can do.  I'm not saying I think "I'll read this in William Conrad's voice" or "What would Orson Welles do with this?".   But maybe I'm a little more open to reading a piece of text and deciding where to put the emphasis and how to mould the text into more effective vocal pieces.

And I enjoy it.

*

February 22nd was a Tuesday, so for me that means croquet and quizzes.  The first game at the Croquet Club I started off mediocre then improved.  After the coffee break, my second game was ... not good.  (How do you spell abysmal?)  At one stage I couldn't hit the ball straight, even after my fellow players gave me a second and then a third try at it!

Rested for an hour before I went out to the quiz night and it seemed to help a bit.  Everybody was baffled by the puzzle question this week and round after round went by with nobody identifying the who-am-I person.  Finally, something rang a bell in the clue about having a pet ocelot and my wife being his manager.  "Salvador Dali," I wrote down.  "Correct!" said the quiz master, handing me a bottle of wine for being the first person to solve the puzzle.

We came in at second place with 75 points.  The winners, as usual, were the folk at the next table who sail under the name Jambag.

*

I knew this was going to happen.  I went out to check the mail box and there were a dozen copies of the weekly magazine THE NEW YORKER from last year.  Had been wondering when they were going to turn up.

*

Haiku for a pussycat: 

Eyes shut, body still;

The true meaning of "cat nap"

Plain for all to see.

*

Pleased to notice I seem to be regaining control of my handwriting.  At the end of last year, I noticed that it was getting pretty bad.  I debated whether it was due to old age, lack of practice or the first signs of some degenerative disease.  Not that I'm a hypochondriac, you understand!

*

Haiku for an organist:

Racing finger work

and flying feet producing

the thunder of pipes.

*

Saturday was a truly autumnal day (the end of February in Australia signals the transition from Summer to Autumn);  dark and damp most of the day.  I woke up early, and had my morning coffee listening to the morning news show on ABC radio  --  half devoted to the Queensland floods, the other half to the war in Ukraine.  Not a cheery start to the day.  

After venturing out into the mud to feed the animals,  I made lunch and listened to the podcast of last week's This American Life, which interviewed three people personally affected by climate change.  By this time I was feeling so pessimistic I sent money to the first two charities I saw who were sending aid to Ukraine and felt a tad better.

*

Haiku for a nuclear test 03 October 1952:

Earth moves and skies split. 

The planet groans and shudders 

at Monte Bello. 

*

Maybe after 2022 things will get better.  I hope so.

Computer writes short story

Can machines write fiction?  I put in some names and adjectives into a Fiction Generator.  This is what I got:

 Understanding Steven Willis
A Short Story

Steven Willis had always loved calm Hobart with its obedient, odd op shops. It was a place where he felt pleased.

He was an understanding, courageous, Gin drinker with chubby hands and tall eyes. His friends saw him as a regurgitated, resonant recluse. Once, he had even helped a scrawny cat recover from a flying accident. That's the sort of man he was.

Steven walked over to the window and reflected on his quiet surroundings. The sunny teased like rummaging rats.

Then he saw something in the distance, or rather someone. It was the figure of Keith Curtis. Keith was a tight-fisted collector with old hands and bearded eyes.

Steven gulped. He was not prepared for Keith.

As Steven stepped outside and Keith came closer, he could see the successful smile on his face.

Keith gazed with the affection of 2656 clumsy handsome horses. He said, in hushed tones, "I love you and I want assistance."

Steven looked back, even more ecstatic and still fingering the pristine backpack. "Keith, take it easy," he replied.

They looked at each other with uncertain feelings, like two cheerful, clear cockatoos searching at a very splendid book sale, which had K-Pop music playing in the background and two generous uncles researching to the beat.

Suddenly, Keith lunged forward and tried to punch Steven in the face. Quickly, Steven grabbed the pristine backpack and brought it down on Keith's skull.

Keith's old hands trembled and his bearded eyes wobbled. He looked acquisitive, his emotions raw like a salty, selfish sunglasses.

Then he let out an agonizing groan and collapsed onto the ground. Moments later Keith Curtis was dead.

Steven Willis went back inside and made himself a nice drink of Gin.
THE END
 

Not exactly War and Peace, is it?