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."

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.

Farewell my feline friend

 March 30th Tuesday

A fine Autumn afternoon.  I went over to the Croquet Club but found only the top lawn was available or play during the pennant matches.  Rather than try and find a spot with the games that had already started, I found a comfortable chair and read a detective story on the Kindle App on  my phone.  Fitted in one game later in the afternoon sun.

Five of us at the quiz night.  We got off to a flying start, scoring 10/10 for the first round, and answering the puzzle question from the first clue.  Great work Caroline and Suze..
I won't say we kept up that standard of play for the whole evening, but we finished in second place with 79 points, so we were happy.  So were our friendly rivals Minerva's Disciples who came in fifth out of the ten teams this week.

This month's old-time radio listening:
BLACK MUSEUM, MR & MRS BLANDINGS,  THE SAINT, MR KEEN TRACER OF LOST PERSONS, DRAGNET, GRAND CENTRAL STATION, HOPALONG CASSIDY, FRONTIER TOWN, SUSPENSE, THINK, JOHNNY DOLLAR, THE WHISTLER, X MINUS ONE etc etc.

Saturday April 3rd  💓
Sad news on Easter Saturday.  I had just been talking with my neighbors yesterday about our cats, and I had mentioned that I didn't know if I would get another one after Nelson.  Little could I have imagined that Saturday morning he would suddenly be taken ill and have to be rushed to the Vet.  She said it was a blood clot caused by heart disease, and cats seldom survived it.  There was no option but to put him to sleep on the spot.
He wasn't a young cat, but he never seemed old  --  he was always like a very large kitten.  Julie had three cats when she died and he was the last of them to cross the Rainbow Bridge .  Everyone who knew him will miss him.  Many thanks to the After Hours Emergency Vet Centre.

Sunday April 4th
Losing my cat didn’t seem to affect me as much as I thought it might after the first day, maybe I have been subconsciously preparing for this day  --  look at the way I casually mentioned it while I was discussing cats on Friday.
However I do feel a bit overwhelmed tonight because I had two calls from friends about my health and that damn cough of mine.  One warned me I should do something, because a girlfriend of hers was in serious condition in hospital with something similar.  The other phoned to alert me to a newspaper story about a virus called RSV, which he said I should get checked for.  They also advised me not to visit any of my elderly friends until I saw a doctor.
And of course since it is Easter that puts it back to Tuesday, sigh.
And it isn’t even Friday the 13th.

Monday April 5th
After hitting a low point Sunday night.  I stayed home resting all day Monday.  Did not go out and had no visitors, sort of a one=man lockdown.  Tuesday I felt a little better and my cough was notably reduced.  Spent the morning consuming Vitamin C washed down with draughts of green tea and lemon.  Decided not to phone the Respiratory Clinic for help, waiting to see if I can shake it off with another day at home.   So far, so good.

Thursday April 5th
Beginning fourth day of solitary confinement.  Supplies are starting to get low,  I am hoping to replenish when I go out to the clinic this afternoon.  Friends were insistent that I needed medical advice and I had to agree.  The cough is much better than last week, but still there.
I had not seen another human being since Sunday, then this morning one of the women from down the street turned up at my door with a trolley;  she said that she knew I had chickens, and she had brought me a spare sack of chick crumble that her hens weren't interested in.   We had a bit of a chat and I showed her the goats.  The inevitable question:  "Do you still have your cat."  Sigh.

Got out to the clinic this afternoon and was taken inside by staff swathed in ultra-hygiene outfits.  "Put this mask on, then we'll sanitise your hands and take you to see the doctor.  Don't cross the red line in the middle of the room."  She listened to my chest and suggested it sounded a bit bronchial.  She gave me some antibiotics and steroids.  (I was amused when I looked at them  --  they're the same sort we used to give our cats and dogs years ago!)

My biggest problem with finding the Respiratory Clinic was that they'd moved into the building previously used by the After Hours Doctor Service.  Most of the signage was still there from the previous tenant, and the new signs were small and inconspicuous.  Well, they certainly were for me.

 Sat down for a cup of coffee when I got home,  but had to rush outside  -  retrieving my goats who had worked out how to get through the gate into the driveway. They were happily bleating away as they ran down to the footpath and back again, hooves clattering rat-a-tat rat-a-tat.  The billy goats not-so-gruff?

You sily goose

 Dear Neighbor,
You may have noticed a lot of the greenery at the front of the house has been removed.  A working bee has cut down a lot of the shrubs and vines that had grown over the front of the building, moved it out the back and fed it to the goats (who needs a rubbish skip?).   
Of course we did manage to cut the phone line while we were doing it, but a roll of insulating tape was all we needed to get back on line.
One thing I hadn't expected was that one of the hens nesting in the driveway turned out not to be broody after all.  Sunday morning I discovered she had hatched out seven chicks.  I tried to move them, but she wasn't having any of it and I had to drive around them on my way out to church.   Another effort in the afternoon persuaded her to move only as far as the front of the house,  where she now resides.   So if you see a proud mother and her offspring when you walk past, you will know the story behind them.   

 

March 15 Monday
A quiet day, with no appointments to keep or people to meet.  After lunch I sat down and typed a 1500-word short story.  Nothing significant, just a bit of fan fiction I had been plotting in my mind before I slept each night.  All that was left was the physical act of entering it into my word processor.

Tuesday I could tell that Summer was on its way out.  Not only had my cough returned last night, but today there was an icy wind blowing across the garden when I opened the back door.  Before breakfast I dug out my thick green jumper from last winter and put it on so I could feed the animals without shivering.  But by the time I went to the Croquet Club after lunch, I put on my  broad-brimmed hat to keep the sun out of my eyes.  Welcome Autumn!

The quiz night this week was almost Standing Room Only, with 14 teams competing.  Despite the absence of Mark and Caroline, we had a few good rounds, scoring 76 points.  We came in sixth, with the winners racking up 89 points in a very close finish.  And we scored 10/10 in the French round despite the absence of our Francais expert!

22 March Monday
Spent a lot of time Monday morning considering how to get food and water to the goose, who has somehow got through the fence to join the goats in the back yard. I eventually worked out how to get to him without the goats trying to get out.  
The following day we moved him out of the back yard  --  hint, when handling a goose, scoop him up and get your arm around him to keep him still (this prevents you getting a whack across the face is he decides to flap his wings).  I carried him into the driveway and his head shot up;  he obviously remembered a couple of years ago when he and the other goose used to wander down the driveway and curl up on the front lawn in summer.

Later that day I went out to feed him before dusk and couldn't find him. (Surely he couldn't have got into the back yard again , I thought). I went up the driveway, then down to the front garden. Eventually he emerged from where he'd been curled up under the table at the back door. He likes a bit of shelter at his age and ended up spending the night under one of the garden chairs near the carport.
Hence the expression "You silly goose"?

23 March Tuesday
Croquet today was fine and sunny this afternoon.  In fact it was getting a bit warm by the end of the first game but after the tea break we played the second game with a refreshing sea breeze to cool us down.  Won first game, drew the second.
While we were playing,  I glanced over the fence now and then, watching workmen dismantling the greenhouse that the City Farm group built in the St John's complex.  They moved in a few years ago and made quite a success of their brand of popular agriculture. Alas, they must have lost their lease.

 

Quiz night went off all right.  Caroline rose from her sickbed and looked tired but ready for the fray.  W e were up and down a bit, but finished with a credible 79.  We came second out of the eleven teams.  (we would have made another point in TV except for me being unable to recall whether Gary Shandling played Larry Sanders or vice versa.)

Movie moment:  SECOND ACT [2018]
Jennifer Lopez gets a job with a big corporation using a faked background and qualifications.  So far so good, but midway through there's a mind-boggling twist that will have most viewers rolling their eyes.  Two stars only.

I did like the brief scene with a bunch of Cornish Rex cats, and the use of the anecdote about the Ginkgo trees of Hiroshima.

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..

Report from Dreamland 2008

 I was so tired one afternoon in 2008 that before lunch I lay down and slept for an hour.   It was not easy falling asleep in the middle of the day, but when I did I had one of those incredibly realistic and vivid dreams...

I could have drawn you a map of the place I visited and picked out the photographs of the people I met from any rogue's gallery you showed me.  Everything was as bright and real as watching it on a cinema screen.

The building I visited was a rambling old structure that seemed to be owned by the nearby Roman Catholic cathedral, because there were priests and nuns going in and out of one of the offices on the ground floor.   The rest of the building was leased to a very eclectic collection of businesses and groups.  

You went up the sweeping stone staircase from a lobby that would have done justice to Grand Central station.     There was a theater where a school group was rehearsing an elaborate and remarkably risque musical Einstein's Things based on a comic strip.  The bits I saw would have got them thrown out of the building if the landlord had seen them.

Along from there was a big room where I was doing a course of some sort.   But after it was over it was always interesting to wander in next door, where some sort of advertising agency or publisher had offices.   You could just stroll in without anybody asking you who you were or what you were doing.   It was that sort of freewheeling set-up.

The various rooms of the business were each given over to people working on different projects.    In one of them, a weary woman photographer had covered an entire wall in lurid covers from tabloid magazines and was taking pictures of the resulting montage of images.  

In other rooms people were working on equally outlandish but completely different projects.  

I stopped in at a waiting room or staff room which was full of comfortable couches and strewn with expensive glossy magazines, most of them still in the unopened plastic mailing envelopes.   There were a couple of issues of The New Yorker that I was tempted to put in my bag, since it was obvious they'd never be missed.

One of the magazines carried that comic strip that had inspired the musical they were rehearsing in the big hall.    

I sat back on one of the big couches and drowsed for a few minutes.    The feel of the room reminded me of the bedroom I'd had as a child.   (This is the first time I remember wanting to sleep in a dream.)   Then I got up and started tidying up some of the piles of magazines before I left.  

For the first time, someone who seemed to be in charge came sweeping into the room trailed by some assistants.   He was talking rapidly, finishing by exclaiming that everyone was invited to lunch.  Then he glanced at me, assuming that I worked there, and diplomatically remarked that he wouldn't disturb me from what I was doing.    I nodded and made some inane remark that someone had to keep the cars running that the clowns would get out of.   

They swept off and I had the feeling that maybe I should be on my way instead of making myself at home in a place I had no business in.    

I made my way down the big staircase and across the foyer filled with strangers, then down the stone steps at the start of the building.   There was a stall selling second-hand books and my eye was drawn to them.  

One of the office workers coming down the steps with me saw me glance in his direction and offered me a cigarette from the pack he was opening.   I felt foolish having to explain that I was actually trying to read the cover of a book on the stall behind him.  

He shrugged and was lost in the crowd of people hurrying off to catch buses or trains.   Not being in such a hurry, I stopped to look at some of the books on display.    There was a whole section devoted to Naval warfare and I paused to look at one about fleet operations near Iceland in World War II.  I noticed to my surprise that the book next to it had been inscribed to Don Tuck, an old friend and bibliographer.   I was tempted to buy it but the $35 price sticker was a deterrent.   

That sequence, the last before I awoke, was notable because I remember somebody saying on television that he could not actually read in dreams -- that maybe it used a different part of the brain.   This was the first time I remember actually reading anything while I was dreaming.  

I found myself in bed, feeling refreshed.   Obviously I was not just short of sleep, but short of the REM stage of sleep where dreams take place.   Catching up on my quota of dreams had made all the difference to how I felt.     

Straightaway I sat down at the keyboard for 20 minutes and captured what I remembered of the dream before all those bright and realistic images faded from my consciousness.  ##

Haiku, hoops and sunnies

 Feb 25th Thursday
Autumn seems to be on its way.  The days are still warm and sunny but that breeze can be a bit brisk first thing in the morning.  The cat goes outside at the start of the day, then comes back and gets under the blanket again.  I have to leave his breakfast in a bowl next to him so that when he gets hungry he can pop his head out of the blanket and eat without having to get up.

Inclined to be a bit vertiginous today, but nevertheless made my way out to the Bocce Club and played three games this afteroon.  Once again I made a few good shots, which was pleasing.  It has only taken me about five years to get the hang of this game.
Got my new sunglasses in the mail.  They're not actually for being out in the sun, they're supposed to reduce glare at night.  They may be rubbish, but I'll have to try them out.  They do make me look slightly sinister.

Feb 26th Thursday

1950s movie alert  --  received today, a jiffy bag (when was the last time we saw one of those?) containing two movies I saw on television when I was a teenager but not since.  Arch Oboler's FIVE and one of the great spoiler titles of all time I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE.  My dilemma - which one do I watch first?

Haiku for a pussycat (2014):
Eyes shut, body still;
The true meaning of "cat nap"
Plain for all to see.

Saturday Feb 27th
As usual, Saturday was devoted to driving around the op shops, in spite of Keith taking a spill in the main street yesterday.  We went to Salvos and Vinnies after starting at the Glenorchy Tip Shop  --  I had warned Keith he might not find much there but he did pick up a couple of items in between grouching about their prices and the condition of the stock.  Stopped in for lunch at the Green Store, where I had the Vegetarian Breakfast and he had a big plate of kurosawa.  (i.e. I paid for his lunch after he gave me three Japanese movies!)
Felt so tired when I got home that I sat down with a cup of coffee and watched some Fraggle Rock cartoons before I stirred myself to make dinner.

On the air last week, a review of a documentary about photographer Annie Leivowitz.  The reviewer mentioned in shocked tones that she has 10,000 books.  Pshaw, I say.  If you lived in New York and had a big house and plenty of money, why not own 10,000 books?

Sunday Feb 28
Late home from church because I detoured to the Eastern Shore for lunch with friends at the Shoreline Hotel.  Some eyebrows were raised when I ordered the stir-fried wild rice, a dish that nobody else seemed familiar with.  (Zizania palustris is a plant native to the Great Lakes region of North America and not actually related to everyday rice.)
I nodded off while deciding whether or not have an afternoon nap.  ..Fortunately I had already fed the animals.


Haiku for the pharmacist [2014]:
   Tablets, potions, pills!
   The modern magic cure-alls
   Are briskly dispensed.
 
March 2nd Tuesday
Got in two games at the Croquet Club this afternoon.  I played very badly in the first game, but after the second game my partner congratulated me on how well I played.  That is not uncommon for me.   

In the evening, a skeleton crew for the Quiz Night, three of us plus Suze who turned up at interval.  We managed to score 82 points, which I thought wasn't bad, but in the end (yes, you're right) we finished in fourth place yet again.  

Quizzing, Croquet and Op-Shopping

 

 

12th Feb  Friday
The goats have done such a good job clearing out the back yard that they've now been transferred to working on the end of the driveway.  Our friendly neighborhood goatherd has done a great job in erecting a stockade made up of wooden pallets and bits of garden bric-a-brac.  Fluffy and Snuggles seem comfortable in their new quarters, the only drawback being that they can now see me coming and going, a cause for baaing and bleating.

15th Feb  Monday
Last week was so busy I didn't have time to note down what was happening  I remember I was out to dinner with friends on Monday as usual.  Tuesday I played croquet, had a doctor's appointment and went to the quiz night; Internet out for an hour.  
Wednesday was an afternoon tea with one of the groups from church.  Thursday I had to be out early for another doctor's appointment, then in the evening played three games at the Bocce Club.  Friday and Saturday I was out all afternoon with Keith going round the used book shops; Internet out for three hours but had series of reassuring text messages from NBN.  
Sunday there was Communion Service at church, after which I picked up the animal feed I hadn't had time to buy during the week, and slept for two or three hours after lunch.  That gave me the strength to stay up and watch the late movie STARGATE: THE ARK OF TRUTH which I had somehow never seen before.  A late dinner after Keith phoned and we talked about movies and music for half an hour.
Monday morning I felt so tired I had two cups of coffee before breakfast,  something I never do.

Feb 16th Tuesday
The Curse of the White Butterfly.  It was hot and sunny for Tuesday afternoon croquet, which didn't help my game. At least I had a bottle of water with me. But I noticed whenever I took aim at the next hoop, a white butterfly would flutter around me in circles.  That didn't help my concentration and in the end I lost by one shot.   
Still pretty hot when I got home.  I should have followed the example of the goats, who were curled up in the shade looking very settled.

Quite a crowd for the quiz night tonight, we had 13 tables competing - unlucky for some.  We came in fourth, the usual position from years ago, but I thought we did pretty well, scoring 77 points. 82. The winners scored 82.  I got 9/10 in the Old Stuff category  --  we would have got a perfect score if they didn't get Hank Aaron's home record wrong  We said it was 715,  they had it as 755.   Oh well, there's always next time.

19 Feb  Friday
Weather for Saturday is a bit startling.  It hit a maximum of 31 here a few minutes ago, and the latest forecast says that we'll have a minimum of 19 (probably about sunrise) then a maximum tomorrow of 22.   Confirms all those old jokes about the volatility of Hobart's weather!

20th Feb  Saturday
After a leisurely Saturday aftrnoon going around the op shops and lunching in the suburbs, Keith and I went back to my place to look over a whole box of DVDs that a friend had dropped off.  We made a cup of tea and settled in at the table outside the back door to sort through the movies.  One of the chickens looked in a couple of times but lost interest when she could see we weren't eating.  The cat, however, enjoyed the opportunity.
Keith looked across the table at me and said "That cat really loves being with you.  The expression on his face while he's curled up against you is positively blissful."  What can I say, it's animal magnetism.  (My sister really had it  --  she was visiting Bondi Beach once and a German Shepherd came over and put its head in her lap.)
As for the movies, it took us a while to go through them and divide them into three categories -  Yes, Maybe and Definitely Not.  I'll study them more thoroughly later on.

23rd Feb Tuesday
Slept poorly, waking every couple of hours.  What's with that?  Probably the only part of my life I can usually rely on 100% is my ability to go to sleep easily.
Said good morning to the goats,  had a late breakfast and listened to "Trump's Last Stand" on CONVERSATIONS on ABC Radio.  Richard Fidler interviewed Australian-born reporter Jonathan Swan with the inside story of Donald Trump’s last few months in office.

The Croquet Club had a good turn-up today with 12 or 14 playing.from lunch-time.  The only drawback was the noise from workmen at the oval next door.  It's bad enough the medevac helicopters now fly right over the club,  but we got a bit tired of the mechanical noise and constant chatter ("Bring it back... more... more"  "Was that a mouse or a rat?"  "Can't you shift that **** thing!").

Called in at the pharmacy to complain about my latest prescription.  "Jardiance and Jardimet are just different names for the same medication," they said.  I replied "No, because one of them has Metformin in it, and I'm out of those."  "Well, you've still got an unused prescriptiom for Metformin - we could give you a packet of those."  I paused, and thought to myself, OK I could live with that.

Quiz night went off all right.  Nine teams playing.  We got off to a good start, scoring 8/10 in the opening round about Nobel Prize winners.  I even answered one of the music questions  (it was about Little Richard)  By the end of the night, we had 82 points and won Second Prize.
The quizmaster was disturbed when she heard at least two of us would be absent next week.  "We're not losing all of you, are we?"  We assured her there would be at least a token presence next week from The Amnesiacs.
 

A spray of Art, a gaggle of Haiku, a wandering goat

  

 Today's haikus are from 2014:
Behold the image,
Flickering light projected;
The drive-in returns.
(Inspired by reports that the Elwick Drive-In may be re-opened after being closed for 29 years.)

The secret question
Between you and your data
A silent sentry.
(Inspired by watching Julie O'Brien
 trying to log-on with her smartphone.)

Haiku for a croquet ball [2014]:
Under a clear sky,
the mallet sees its target;
the hoop lies in wait.
[incorporating improvements suggested by the late John Bangsund]

24th January
After church, I went to the Sidney Nolan exhibition sponsored by MONA at the old Mercury building.  If you were expecting conventional portraits, you would have been very surprised.  In later life, Nolan experimented with spray paints and these are from that period.  Some of them (his early attempts?) look like random splodges of color, but some of them (his later work?) are recognizably depictions of individual human faces.  I didn't think I'd be allowed to take photos inside, but above I have a selfie of me at the entrance.
Reportedly the Nolan estate plans to put these pictures on the market for about $10,000 each.  That's cheap for a Nolan, but these are unique and nobody has any idea of their market value until they go 0n sale.

Haiku for Garrison Keillor:
Lanky. Laconic.
He speaks and millions listen.
Minnesota man.

27th January Wednesday
Discussion about Russia on the morning show on ABC radio today.  The Soviet security departments were never known for their subtlety, and they don't seem to have improved. They seem to have taken Red Grant in "From Russia With Love" as their role model.  l can't believe that they seem to have relied on Cold War nerve agents and rare radioactive elements as weapons of assassination.  What part of "make it look like an accident" don't they understand?

Two haiku for Carl Barks:
Coins fly above him.
Like a Wall Street dolphin
he dives through his cash.
In vibrant color,
the adventurers supreme:
those ducks are heroes!

27th January Wednesday
A quiet day at home until late afternoon when a trio of friends arrived. Afternoon tea, followed by an hour or two of yard work, finishing with a fish dinner in Derwent Park.  I notice that the half dozen hens in the goats' pen seem to have settled in there;  I think they could get out if they wanted to, but they seem content to share that part of the garden with Fluffy and Snuggles.  Peaceful co-existence in the livestock world.  Even the goose is calm about it all.

28th January Thursday
Yes, it is Thursday, despite the disorienting public holiday two days ago.  Wasn't too bad a day.  In the mail, received my bottle of Meso-Zeaxanthin and  the first issue of my NEW YORKER subscription  --  more of that anon.  I found the external hard drive I mislaid a couple of days ago, which was a relief.  The goats were still in their pen, looking forward to their breakfast.   I did a few chores then went out to the Bocce Club and got in two games -- tied one, lost the other.  Went to the supermarket on the way home, and scored the last issue they had of THE PHANTOM SPECIAL 2020.  

Out of curiosity, did a reading speed test on the Internet.  It said I had a speed of 198wpm.  I can't remember if that is better or worse than last century.


Fluffy (the white goat) is now an expert at getting out of the pen.  It's now routine for me to find him at the garden gate waiting for breakfast or dinner.  The only problem is that he is so eager he wants to jump up against me, looking for the food;  it's bad enough when a dog does that, but a half-grown goat with horns and cloven hooves is a bit much.
I was amused this week when he was in the pen one morning, then got out during the afternoon.  When I went out to feed them that evening, he was nowhere to be seen.  Because it was raining a little, he'd returned to the pen where he could shelter in the old hen house!

Cloven hooves approach,
the bleating intensifies.
A caprine breakfast!

Back in 2014 Richard Colom reported a startling piece of music history:  " I talked to the producer of Reader's Digest albums back in the early 90's, and he said that The Big Band Era was their biggest seller of all time (up to then). He said that they sold 15 million of them! It also was released on CD for a short time."
That is quite amazing - imagine a nostalgia album selling 15 million units today.  

A cup of evil,
steaming malevolently
reaching for your soul.
-- haiku for evil coffee

Collectors, hoarders and accumulators.  Which are we?
https://theconversation.com/digital-hoarders-weve-identified-four-types-which-are-you-153111?utm_source=pocket-newtab-intl-en

2nd February Tuesday  
Tuesday had its ups and downs.  I felt a bit rocky this morning but by the time I got to the Croquet Club after lunch I had picked up sufficiently to win both games that afternoon.  When I got home I sat down and nodded off for a few minutes.
But when I went out to the Quiz Night in the evening, it wasn't quite so upbeat.  We had a few good rounds and notched up 72 points at the end  (why does the sheet automatically get passed to me when we get to the round titled Old Stuff??), however we finished fifth out of the 13 teams when the winners streaked ahead to score 88 points.

3rd Feb
Wednesday I decided to have a quiet day at home.  Tuesday and Thursday this week there was a lot on, so it seemed sensible to take a day off inbetween.  The goat has stayed in his pen today, so at least I was able to feed the poultry without him careering round the yard in excitement.  A lot of the "spare time" was used up trying to get the PC to do things;  took me three attempts to get a post uploaded to Facebook.  I really should get the new laptop out of its box and set it up.

4th Feb Thursday
Lunch with Friends Of Mission at the church hall.  One of my duties was to present the Assistant Minister with his birthday card.  Then called in to pick up some prescriptions from my GP.  I told him that the Luteine supplement I'd been taking seemed to improve my short term memory.   He replied "Maybe I should start taking it."

Called in at the newsagency to pick up my standing order for D.C. Thomson comics and magazines, then out to buy feed for the animals.  Heaven help me if I went home without more food for the goats!

Thursday morning it looked so wet and miserable outside that I didn't think we'd be playing at the Bocce Club in the evening.  But the weather steadily improved until we were playing in bright sunshine all evening.  It didn't improve my game though  --  half my shots were terrific, half were terrible.

5th Feb  Friday
Friday morning breakfast was trying.  The cat insisted on climbing all over me, meowing if I wanted him to get down.  Apparently he was trying to make up for lost time, because I was out for so much of yesterday. 

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. 

Songs are in, books are out

 A further hiccup in the calendar.  The annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race has been cancelled for the first time after a fresh outbreak of Covid19 in Sydney.  Sigh.

November 24th
Monday was Espresso Day in some parts of the world, but that's no excuse for the amount of coffee I consumed on Tuesday morning and lunchtime.  Blergh!  It was also the 57th birthday of Doctor Who --  it confirms how old I am that I remember seeing the very first episode when it was broadcast on our old black-and-white television set.
I got out to the Croquet Club on Tuesday and played two games.  We had a couple of new people trying out the sport and they weren't too bad.  Hope to see them back again.
The evening saw another quiz night, where we didn't do so badly.  We got a perfect score on the opening round where you had to match the novel with its opening paragraph.  Money for jam!   At the climax, we came in second, our best result for months.  (A big thank-you to Minerva's Disciples, our friendly rivals at the next table who helped us over the line.)

Finished the audiobook of ON THE ROAD, read by David Carradine.  Certainly it's abridged, but a memorable experience being able to sit behind the wheel and listen to Jack Kerouac's prose flow over you from the car stereo.  Driving across town while listening to the protagonist making his way down into Mexico was almost like being there.  
 
25th November
Warm and windy -- it hit 32C at 2 o'clock -- so a perfect day for putting out some washing on the clothesline.  The poultry were nowhere to be seen, staying in the shade till dinner time.  
The cat complains whenever I go out and leave him.  Today I was home all day and he still complained.  "Cat, you are a mass of perplexity," I told him.  I don't think that's actually a word, but he doesn't know that.

26th November
A bit cooler and more pleasant on Thursday.  Tomorrow is exactly four weeks to Christmas -- I had a dream a few weeks ago in which I was back at the hotel again and it was Christmas eve.  But my conscious mind kept trying to butt in and say it couldn't be that time of year yet, so I was aware of two different tracks my mind was running on!  I don't often exerience that, although now and again I am aware that I'm dreaming.
The goats are still thriving in the backyard.  They have plenty of greenery to eat, but that doesn't stop them from being keen on breakfast.  I usually give them a couple of slices of bread as well, though you have to be careful;  if your attention strays while you're feeding them, you may suddenly find your fingers are disappearing into the goat's mouth  (fortunately they have small mouths).

28th November
Saturday the traditional day for doing the op shops.  The Hobart Tip Shop is still closed after the fire, but the Hobart City Mission have opened a new "super store" near me.  Much larger than any of their previous sites.  I am not very good at searching bookshelves these days, but look what turned up  -  a couple of vintage Thorne Smith novels, still bearing the stickers from the venerable Fullers Bookshop.

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.  In a less PC world, she probably would have been described as "the little lady with the big voice" !
She came over and gave me a hug at interval.  I asked if she'd changed her green hair because it would have clashed with her red dress?  She grinned but didn't answer.

29th November.   After the Sunday morning church service,  some of us went down to South Hobart for lunch.  I always like going to the Cascade Hotel because it's the only place I know that reliably has Lamb's Fry & Bacon on the menu.  The modern generation just won't eat liver, along with kidneys and several other things.
When I got home, I sort out some things that had gone missing from when a friend had "tidied up", then lay down for a nap.  Woken an hour later by a text message from a different friend, who sent a photo of the Union Jack motif toilet he's buying for his flat.  Shiver my timbers.

December 1st, the first day of summer;  Tuesday was unsettled, but I managed to get in two games at the Croquet Club despite windy weather.  [Last night I put a brick against the back door but even that didn't stop it blowing open overnight.]  At least we were indoors for the quiz night.
We were missing Rose, but the rest of the team were ready for the game and we did pretty well. At the finish we came in at second place, so not so bad. Only another couple of weeks to go for the year -- possible to get it to the number one spot before the holidays maybe??  

Thursday 2nd December
Thursday was the annual Christmas lunch for the Friends Of Mission group.  The only time of year when you'll see Presbyterians wearing funny paper hats in public.  I had thought of going to the Bocce Club that evening, but was so tired when I got home took a nap instead. Woke at 7.30 and wasn't sure at first if it was a.m. or p.m. - till I noticed I was still fully dressed!

At the FOM luncheon there were a couple of displays for various missionary and refugee groups, and I solved the problem of what to get someone who has everything.  I paid for a donation that will buy a goat for a third-world family and they gave me a card to give to the donor.  I look forward to seeing her face when I tell her Christmas Day "I've bought you a goat."

Friday was a day wasted.  I was expecting Mick to come by to move the goats, but the hours ticked by with no sign of him.  About 6:15pm Helena rang to say he'd be round tomorrow morning.  "What have you been doing today?" she asked. I bit my lip and said nothing!

Saturday 5th December was the annual Christmas lunch at the Croquet Club.  Quite a few members turned up for a big lunch, a few drinks, a game of croquet and of course the annual Christmas quiz.  Last year there were complaints about too many Biblical questions (Hey, folks, it's a Christmas quiz!), this year I collaborated with June to produce a more acceptable set of twenty questions.   I think it went over all right, and June cheekily wrote a 20th question which was about an abstruse point of croquet law!
Our timing was pretty good.  It started to drizzle just as we finished the croquet game.  My team didn't do so well, but maybe I would have played better if I'd been sober and not using a borrowed mallet.  Or maybe not.

6th December
The Sunday morning service at St John's was the annual Sunday School celebration, which proceeded almost as normal - the people giving out the prizes were using hand sanitiser, and the minister didn't shake hands with the recipients.
 
But things weren't the same as the past.  Ten years we had snapped away with our cameras and probably posted the pictures for all to see.  But that was then and this is now.  Our minister had sent out an e-mail saying "This Sunday at our 10am gathering we will be participating in our annual Sunday School Celebration. I am looking forward to the teachers, helpers, and students sharing with us about the things they have learnt about God this year. Please note that, because our children will be participating in the gathering, we will NOT be livestreaming this Sunday morning. An edited version of the gathering, with the Sunday School celebration taken out, will be uploaded onto our Youtube channel on Tuesday of next week."
On the way home from church, I stopped to buy a newspaper.  While I was in the shop, I felt a gentle tap from behind.  Looking behind me I found a small boy looking up at me.  "I saw you in church," he said.
"Ah," I replied, "Were you one of the children getting a prize?"   He nodded shyly then scampered off in search of his mother.  Even in this paranoid century we can admire the innocent goodwill of children.

Sunday evening took an unexpected turn.  I was lying down reading and after a while I began to feel cold.  Checking the  weather bureau's site I noticed the outside temperature was fine, but the "feels like" ambient temperature had gone down to 6 degrees centigrade.  Got up and closed all the doors and dug out the old green jumper that I wear in midwinter.  Not what I expected from the first week of summer.

7th December
Broadcasting in the digital era  --  one of the good things about the Internet is that radio and television shows can be posted on-line so if you missed it live you can use a "catch up" site to listen or watch it.   But of course broadcasting companies are staffed by human beings, and while a big organization like ABC or NPR can have their stuff on-line in a matter of minutes, not everyone is able to do this.  Today I noticed that one small semi-professional radio station in New York had posted in one day on their Mixcloud page two episodes of the weekly show In The Mood, three episodes of the weekly show Radio Roots, and six episodes of the weekly show One Nostalgic Weekend!

Made my way to the Croquet Club on Tuesday, finding my way through an eye-opening amount of northbound traffic on the roads.  Can it be the Christmas rush already?  Played two games despite the cloudy and breezy conditions.  Only half a dozen of us there today.
However at the Quiz Night that evening, we had a full table indeed  --  even Derren showed up for the first time in months.  We did all right, though the results were a bit confusing;  there were twelve teams, but so many tied that there were only six positions.  I think we were either fourth or fifth.  

9th December
A day off on Wednesday, in the sense that after a busy couple of weeks I didn't have any appointments on my calendar.  There was stuff I could have been doing, but I decided not to.  So what did I do?
The day began with my trundling around feeding the goats, the chickens and the cat.  After that I could serve up my own breakfast.  After my morning coffee, listened to ABC's local radio station then Richard Fiedler's always-interesting "Conversations" programme.
Had a nap before a late lunch, listened to the UK radio show "Sunday Tea Dance",  I looked at the day's Facebook entries and downloaded some e-books from the Internet.  The cat lazed about on the table outside the back door, enjoying the mild weather.  Read Martin Lindstrom's monograph "Travel Truth and Lies Unmasked" which concluded with a dismayingly long list of precautions you'd need to take to be completely safe from the Coronavirus!
Had a couple of phone calls, then heated up a quiche for my evening meal.  Ate while listening to the US radio show "Make Believe Ballroom". Fed the animals, let the cat out for a while, then went to bed after listening to the late night news on the radio.
Didn't leave the house, didn't turn the television on.  A self-sufficient day.

10th December
Coffee anyone?   I always used to say that K-Mart missed a bet when they started opening 24/7  --  if they had a coffee machine, they would have had a captive audience am9ng late-night and early-morning shoppers.  When Coles (next door to K-Mart) renovated, they installed a superduper coffee machine the size of a small car, and I felt vindicated.  I didn't foresee what would come next.  When I went into Coles this afternoon, I felt there was something different.  Then it hit me -- all the shopping trolleys were now equipped with cup holders!
 We can now consume coffee while we do our supermarket shopping.  I don't know if this is a good or bad thing

Thursday I wasn't sure what exactly I was doing.  The plans to meet with one friend fell through, but another trio of friends arrived for a long-delayed clean-up in my driveway  -- fortunately tonight was rubbish night, so it will all be cleared away tomorrow morning.  In between I went out for cat food in the morning, and played two games at the Bocce Club in the late afternoon.
Sat down to my evening meal at 9.30pm!

11th December
Keith got a lift out to New Town so we visited the  Salvation Army and had lunch at the Green Store.  While we were in the Salvo shop I picked up a movie I'd never seen before, a movie from Finland.  Keith looked at it appraisingly and said "After you've watched it, if you decide not to keep it could you pass it on to me?"
"So I shouldn't add it to my collection of Finnish movies?"
"You have a collection of Finnish movies??" said Keith in surprise.
"Well, I would have if I kept this one," I replied.    Laughter.

12th December
Goatherd work took up a bit of the morning then I had a quick lunch before going out.  Took two slices of low-GI bread and some low-fat margarine, then added some plant-based Deli Slices and a few bean sprouts.  "O Brave New World that has such snacks in it" I thought, recalling the days when your product was sold on what was in it,  not what wasn't in it!

It's Make-Believe Ballroom Time
Put all your cares away
All the bands are here to bring a cheer your way
It's Make-Believe Ballroom Time
And free to everyone
It's no time to fret
Your dial is set for fun
Just close your eyes and visualize in your solitude
Your favorite bands are on the stands
And Mr. Miller puts you in the mood
It's Make-Believe Ballroom Time
The hour of sweet romance
here's your make-believe ballroom
Come on, children, let's dance, let's dance!
https://www.spreaker.com/user/superstitions/mbbr111620

December 14th
No, I told the cat, you're not going out yet.  It hit 33C at lunchtime (about 91 in the old scale) and I would like it to go below 30 before I open the back door.  It's all right for him, he can walk around naked all afternoon...  I did let him out about 4 p.m. when it had gone down to 28C.
Got the electric fan out in the evening and left it running all night in my bedroom, but I still tossed and turned a lot.

December 15th
Slept badly after yesterday's scorching weather.  It was 28C when I went outside to feed the animals at breakfast but it did ease off after that, falling steadily (e.g. 13C at 9pm).  Felt pretty run down, but did get over to play two games at the Croquet Club and felt refreshed by the cool winds blowing across the grounds.   Felt a lot better;  went home and napped for half an hour then took a shower before going out to the last Quiz Night for the year.
Tonight we seemed to be scoring seven points per round more often than not, our total was 77 and Caroline  brought out a cake to celebrate her 70th birthday.  So we finished seventh, you ask?  No, though I had half expected it.  We came third.  And a thank-you to our pals at the Minerva's Disciples table who helped celebrate Caroline's birthday.

December 17th
Another lunch for the gang, this time down at the Boardwalk restaurant at Wrest Point Casino.  The crowd ate and drank, exchanged memories and stories of days gone by and traded greetings for Christmas and the New Year.  I had the grilled salmon and the cheesecake, washed down with cider and coffee, then went home to rest for a while.

December 19th
I was out two afternoons running this week with Keith.  We turned up at the Salvation Army two store two days in a row, which surprised even the staff who've known us for a long time. (One of them commented "I love the banter between you two while you're looking through a table of stuff.")  Keith had a good look through the CDs and came out with a set of the TSO's Beethoven albums and an almost complete set of the Ring Cycle [Wagner, not Tolkien].   Apart from that, we made a trip down to Kookaburra Books in Battery Point, who sadly are shutting up shop on Christmas Eve after many years at that location.  To paraphrase John Donne, I feel that every bookshop that closes somehow diminishes me and what used to be called the clerisy.  I did take the opportunity to buy some Leslie Charteris novels I did not have in hardcover, and at least one of his books I had never seen before.

December 20th
Right up till a few days ago, St John's had been preparing for a difficult time staging their annual Christmas Carols service.  But at the last moment the state regulations were eased and we were allowed to fill the church to the 75% level.  It was great hearing so many voices belting out the old favorites,  though I felt uneasy when the woman in the seat behind me starting coughing halfway through (my first impulse was to get up and run, but that seemed an over-reaction).   Thanks to the organist, the pianist, the guitarist and the clarinetists who accompanied us.

The heat is on the road

 The gradual opening-up of borders between Australian states has hit a snag with an outbreak of Covid19 in the South Australian capital Adelaide.  Hopes of being home for Christmas now seem to be up in the air.

November 17th
Another up and down day, weather clearing up a bit.  Goatherd duties prevented me from getting to croquet again, but I was free for the quiz night (though it does seem odd arriving there in broad daylight).  We settled in for a good evening of quizzing, though I always forget the Quizmaster is seated so close to our table until one of my comments ends up as an aside in her compering.
There were ten teams this week, and we didn't do so badly, scoring 74 points to finish in fourth place (again).
I don't think my goulash was good value for money, working on the amount of meat present to the price charged.  Have you ever tried to eat gravy with a fork?  That's what it felt like by the end of the meal.

I picked up a Jack Kerouac audiobook some time ago, and finally got round to putting it on a flashdrive.  Now that I've plugged it into my car stereo, I can listen to it on the road.  {snicker}

November 19th
100 days since there was a case of Coronavirus in Tasmania.  The local paper's comment:  "Looking back on our battle with COVID-19 it’s important to reflect just how far we’ve come.  In light of the South Australian outbreak, it also reminds us just how quickly the situation can change."

Wasted a lot of time yesterday and today trying to work out why I can't get photos from my iPhone onto my laptop (again).  I must have changed something but I can't work out what.

Some work done on maintenance of the goat enclosure (not by me).  Everything seems to have worked out fine apart from the two hens who are on the wrong side of the wire and haven't yet worked out they could flutter over the fence if they really tried.

Weather a bit uncertain.  Didn't see the sun till 6 p.m.   I was worried that it might rain at the Bocce Club but we got through three games without any trouble.  Then I arrived home and found I'd somehow left the cat locked out for two hours.  Boy, did he give me a talking to !

20th November
Friday I had a phone call from Keith that he was heading out to my part of town and we met up for lunch at the Green Store (conveniently opposite the Salvo store).  I had been studying ON THE ROAD recently, so while I sat there listening to Keith talk about cats I had a feeling of deja vu, as though I was Jack Kerouac sitting opposite Neal Cassady.
We trawled through the Salvation Army, our main hunting ground this week since the fire at the Hobart Tip Shop, then I gave Keith a lift back to his place before I went home.  

On Saturday I had arranged to meet Keith early so we could make a detour to his storage unit to get the bookcase out of the back seat of my car.  I've never seen one of these self-storage buildings first hand, so I was intrigued to see how neatly it was set up, with corridors leading off in all directions and a lift ready to move heavy items from one floor to another.  (I was glad we didn't have to carry the bookcase up the stairs!)
We called in at some other places to drop stuff off, including a stop at JB Hi-Fi (more DVDs!) and the Mall newsagency who were holding for me this year's BEANO and DANDY annuals.  
We had coffee and discussed various things.  At one point Keith inclined his head and said "I defer to your superior wisdom."   I looked at him and said "Now that is a first!"
It was hot in the car driving around today, and I felt like Jack Kerouac driving across the Mexican desert in today's chapter of ON THE ROAD.  When I got home, I had an iced coffee and a sandwich and lay down for an hour.  I might have made it two hours except I knew I had to get up and feed the goats.

21st November
The more things change the more they stay the same.  In tonight's episode of VICTORIA, some private pictures of the royal family were leaked to the press, and a specialist had to be called in to treat the emotional problems of the Queen's son.
Except ... the pictures in question were pencil sketches made by Victoria and Albert, and the young prince was examined by a phrenologist !

22nd November
The last few days I've been battling with my iPhone to try and get it to talk to my laptop.  I even bought a new lightning cable the other day, thinking that might be the problem, but didn't help.  I was so annoyed by my constant failures that I actually had trouble getting to sleep last night, something that never happens these days.  But I may have found a solution --  a friend recommended a gadget called the SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive, which has a lightning cable on one end and a USB connection on the other.  This may solve my picture problems.