The time changes and the winds rise

 10:55 PM 24/09/2020
Thursday I had time to do some stuff in Moonah and New Town.  It was a bittersweet afternoon because two local businesses are closing tomorrow and it brought back a lot of memories.  The New Town Newsagency had been a regular shopping destination for most of the 35 years I've lived in the northern suburbs  --  I remember buying the Sunday papers from Sydney when they had those big lift-out comics sections.  And the Magnolia coffee shop in Moonah was a place I'd visited every week for the last decade, a real central point for the community.  But after tomorrow, they will be no more.

4:55 PM 26/09/2020
Saturday out op-shopping and lunch as usual.  Keith sighed "When I started THE THREE BODY PROBLEM, I didn't realize it was a trilogy."
 "So now you have a three book problem," I said.
He stared at me across the table.  "Well, you're quick, I'll give you that."

2:03 PM 27/09/2020
Driving in to church Sunday morning, I often count the number of dogs I pass;  it was a game my sister and I used to play.  What I wasn't prepared for was what I saw when I stopped at a traffic light in North Hobart.  I was waiting for the light to change when I heard a loud noise coming from the other side of the road.  Glancing over my shoulder, I was startled to see a dog running down the footpath towing a table behind it!  
Apparently it had been tied to a table at one of the sidewalk restaurants when for some reason it had taken fright.  Its owner was running down the street trying to catch up with either the dog or the plastic table.  Traffic came to a standstill as drivers watched the chase.  At least one driver abandoned her car in the middle of the street to try and help catch the panicked pooch  -- nobody honked their horn, I think they were all watching the pursuit.
Eventually I noticed the light had changed and I drove off, relieved to see the owner had caught up with his dog before it reached the corner.  Who knows what might have happened had it run out into the intersection??


10:40 AM 28/09/2020
Sunday afternoon I was having a relaxing cup of coffee in the garden while I looked through the Sunday paper.  Suddenly I became aware of noises coming from out by the side door.   A couple of thumps, and the sound of water -- the sort of thing you'd hear if a drainpipe had come apart during a storm.  When I investigated I discovered that the goose was splashing about in the baby's bath I had left out in case he wanted to use it.  Every couple of minutes he would pause, lean over and take a drink out of the water dish that visiting dogs use.  
I always said that geese were intelligent creatures -- this one knows not to drink his own bathwater for example.

01/10/2020
Thursday the Friends Of Mission group were able to have their first meeting in the church hall since the pandemic began.  25 of us gathered for afternoon tea before David Jones gave a talk on his time in Malaysia early this year.  I took a photo but the light was low since David was about to give his Powerpoint presentation.
And the good news was that Dorothy didn't get the memo about there being no trade table this month, so she brought along her usual selection of home-made cakes to sell.  Dorothy, we've missed you!

1:59 PM 2/10/2020
"The page has become unresponsive..."   :(
For the last month the Internet has been slowing down for me.  Facebook in particular has become more and more difficult to use.  It seems there are three options:  Facebook is overloaded,  my Internet provider is low on bandwidth, or my laptop is on its last legs.  A fourth option, of course, is that the person at the keyboard is incompetent, but we won't go there.

3/10/2020

Weather a bit wild and  windy this week.  One evening I tried to sleep despite the sound of rubbish bins blowing around in the driveway. The doors that were closed blew open and the doors that were open slammed shut.  Perhaps the extra sunlight we get next week will make things a bit more settled  (Daylight Saving starts tonight in Australia).

 

Spring dawns

 As global pandemic deaths reach the one million mark, we are thankful that our lives in Tasmania are relatively normal.   Our neighbors in Victoria, however, are not doing as well and the borders between the states remain closed.  The business sector are agitating for re-opening, but the government has made public health a priority.  The example of Europe and the USA remain in our minds.   😢

10:41 PM 1/09/2020

First day of Spring and a fine and sunny afternoon.  After breakfast, a friend dropped in for a cup of tea - his dog barks whenever he tries to drive past my place without stopping!

Pleasant afternoon at the Croquet Club;  only played one game but it was a close-run thing and we only lost on the final hoop.

And the Innquizitive quiz night was even more energetically contested.  We scored 78 points, which wasn't bad, but some of the other eight teams were very good and we came in third in the end.  The winning team scored an eye-watering 93 points.  😮

5:14 PM 3/09/2020

My sister Julie always used to say cats were easier to manage in the winter than in the summer.  I agree with her  --  all through the winter my cat has been happy to spend as much time as possible under his blanket, but today is the third day of spring and he spent a lot of the morning wandering around the house meowing until he went out the back door to spend some time sunbathing in the garden.

07/9/2020

Doing a little tidying-up, I came across a shopping bag of purchases from the preCovid era.  Brought back a few memories.  Keith and I were out one afternoon and he suggested calling in to one of the shopping centres where he'd heard a music shop were having a sale that day.  As we walked in the door, they announced that all CDs were now $2 each, regardless of what price was on the label.  Well, you can imagine how this galvanised us into action!  At the end of the day, I think I left with at least twenty discs.  Eric Coates, Freddy Gardner,Victor Herber, Emmerich Kalman, Albert Ketelby, Louis Levy, Mantovani, Ivor Novello, Ronnie Ronaldo, Sigmund Romberg, Victor Sylvester, Lawrence Tibbet and several compilation albums.

Now to find time to listen to them!

4:34 PM 18/09/2020

A doctor's appointment took me in to the city Thursday afternoon and it was quite pleasant wandering around the CBD in the sun, with just a refreshing cool breeze hanging around the intersections.  I had to make a couple of detours, but actually enjoyed the exercise as I criss-crossed the town centre.  Stopped for coffee then picked up my UK and US magazines from the newsagent.  October issue of ANALOG now on sale, which was good to see.  

10:22 AM 21/09/2020

Sunday and Adrian drove me down to Kingston so we could have lunch at a friend's place.  We ate and looked at some old photographs from Julie's collection, some of which I'll be posting here later on.  That was the good news. 

The bad news was that our route south took us into the worst gridlock I've seen in years in Davey Street.  Insufficient signage meant that hundreds of drivers were unaware that roadworks at the top of Davey Street meant that half the road was closed.  Cars were almost stationary, moving along a foot at a time, meaning it took almost an hour to travel from the CDB to the Southern Outlet.  Not an edifying experience.

12:27 PM 21/09/2020

As some of you may know, the last few years I've been taking a collection of different drugs to treat my diabetes.  This week I'm starting a new prescription, which replaces two of my existing drugs Jariance and Metformin  --  not surprisingly, the new drug is named Jardiamet.  I have read the enclosed leaflet which tells you in great detail all the side-effects you may suffer (in quite small print).  I am wondering if this will affect my sleep (i.e. every time I get up to go to the bathroom it wakes the cat!) but that remains to be seen.  Stay tuned.

The Internet has been so slow this last couple of weeks.  It takes me a long time to read through my e-mails,  and one day three files I wanted from an OTR site gave me only "download has failed" notifications.  As for Facebook, I feel as though my laptop is sending FB messages saying "I want to post a comment", only to get back an answer "Yeah, we'll think about it and get back to you later." 

9:49 PM 22/09/2020

Played two games of croquet and lost both.  However, as I pointed out, after the third hoop I had scored twice as many points as my opponent had  --  can't argue the maths!

In the evening, we had a full team at the quiz night and got off to a good start -- by half-time we were tied for first place.  Alas, we faltered in the second half and ended up in third place by the final round.  As Mark mused, it only takes a few bad questions to slow you down and keep you from victory.  Still, third is better than fourth.

The future belongs to ... me?

 11:30 PM 3/08/2020
Things that made me roll my eyes last week:
1. The authors of a new book about tensions in the Royal family who say they've interviewed hundreds of people while writing their book.  I'm assuming this didn't include anybody who is actually part of the Royal family?
2. The Australian lawyer who had a falling-out with a Facebook group made up of female barristers and solicitors and sent them a message saying he'd sue them all and ruin their careers.  Even lawyers seem incapable of understanding you don't put stuff like that on-line  --  it can go all round the world and stay on the Internet somewhere forever.  Just don't do it.
3. And Donald Trump .... well, enough said.

THE SHARE-OUT (1962) - Mike's movie moment
Another concise little Edgar Wallace thriller.  Corporate crooks blackmail people into selling property at a cut price, but thieves will inevitably fall out.  Richard Vernon is one of the baddies, Bernard Lee is (of course) the man from Scotland Yard, and William Russell takes the lead as a shady private eye who keeps us guessing.  60 minutes of no-nonsense entertainment.

2:15 PM 12/08/2020
OK, this week was fairly busy.  Out and about after church on Sunday, then on Monday out with friends for lunch and drove around with them for a while, then out to dinner.  Tuesday afternoon there were 14 of us at the Croquet Club,  then four of us at the Quiz Night  --  coincidentally, lost both on a tie-breaker!  Wednesday doctor's appointment on-line  (still feels a bit unnatural to me but it is what it is). A bit quieter for the next couple of days, then Saturday the usual round of lunch and op-shopping.  

2:05 PM 14/08/2020
As we get closer to Spring, the weather becomes erattic from day to day.  One day this week it was so pleasant outside that the cat went out in the afternoon for a walk around the backyard.  The following day it was so dark and drizzly he didn't want to go outside at all. [The goose seems to have settled in under the carport as his permanent bedroom, in spite of being officially classed as waterfowl.]  At least wet days aren't as cold as recent weeks  --  one morning I was making breakfast and couldn't butter my toast because the cloud of steam above the plate kept fogging up my glasses.

1:53 PM 15/08/2020
Muldoon asked why they were doing so much work putting in those concrete buildings behind the car park in Argyle Street.  I told him "I don't know for sure, but I suspect the City Council are putting in a bunker where they'll retreat when Hobart traffic finally becomes permanently gridlocked."

2:03 PM 16/08/2020
After a couple of months, we were finally allowed to resume going to church on a Sunday.  It's a bit strange having every
second pew closed off for social distancing, and of course there's the ubiquitous bottle of hand-sanitiser at the front door.  Last week a friend gave me a lift down south past Kettering where half a dozen of us met for lunch, the first time since the pandemic hit.  This week I took to the stage to read from the Bible for the first time in months.  I thought I had prepared myself, but I hadn't counted on the new lightweight lectern which wobbled alarmingly every time I touched it!

1:36 PM 19/08/2020
Lateley I've been watching some ten year old episodes of NCIS on television.  Some of them I remember seeing, some I don't.  One I didn't recall was "Gone", episode 8 of the tenth season from 2012.  In this story, Agent Gibbs seeks information from an old contact Miranda Pennebaker (played by Alex Kingston)  --  you have to wonder if the scriptwriter had been watching her in DOCTOR WHO, because her character speaks and behaves in an almost identical manner to Professor River Song.  If she had called Gibbs "Sweetie" just once I would have marked this down as an unofficial cross-over with The Doctor !

9:57 PM 19/08/2020
This afternoon at home.  Ring-Ring Ring-Ring.  "Hello?"
"Hi this is Lucy from Tree Services.  I'm just phoning to see if you received our account."
"Oh yes.  I had rather a lot of bills this month so I'm paying them in alphabetical order.  You should get your money next week."
"What...?"
"Thank you for calling.  Goodbye."  Click.

5:23 PM 20/08/2020
Met Keith for coffee on Thusday afternoon then gave him a lift to pick up some artwork he wanted to buy.  While I waited for him in the car, I took advantage of the spare moment to write two Haiku poems.  Stay tuned.

See those words on walls:
A community haiku
For all Huon eyes.
-- Haiku for Huonville 2020

Robots a-scuttling
As a world goes to ruin,
The blind see again.
-- Haiku for War Of The Worlds
  5:23pm 20/08/2020


6:21 PM 25/08/2020
Agenda for Tuesday:
01 Feed poultry
02 Breakfast, feed cat
03 Check e-mails and Facebook
04 Croquet Club
05 Coffee and supermarket
06 Pay Taswater bill
07 Chicken Dinner
08 Quiz Night


4:47 PM 27/08/2020
A sunny afternoon and I spent the lunch hour at the table outside the back door enjoying the fine weather.  Even my hairless cat ventured outdoors for a few minutes.  I listened to a recent episode of the radio serial THE ARCHERS without a lot of enjoyment  --  the BBC reaction to the Coronavirus was to convert the show into a series of monologues and soliloquies.
A shower of rain came over about 4:30 and when I went out to feed the poultry I found a lot of them had taken refuge under the carport, disapproving of the first signs of wet weather.
I'll sort of miss THE WAR OF THE WORLDS on Thursday nights.  I know a lot of people found it boring or uninvolving, but it's the only television I've seen for a long time that's really drawn me in.  Not a straight adaptation of the novel, but I found it compulsive viewing.   

2:44 PM 28/08/2020
Some people apparenty report unsettling dreams during the pandemic.  Not usually a problem for me, but some of my dreams are stranger than others.  For example, this week I dreamed I visited a friend in an aged-care facility -- quite understandable since I have not seen her since the virus scare began.  But last night I had a dream in which I could only sleep on the left hand edge of my bed because the rest of the space was taken up with $500,000 in cash!  What's more, I have a vague recollection that it was originally a million dollars but I had to split with somebody.  

What ^has^ my subconscious been up to overnight??

 

1:28 PM 30/08/2020
It's nice to be back in church on Sunday mornings, even with the social distancing and hand sanitising rules.  But I can't help thinking back to the old days -- printing up the weekly bulletin, bringing in supplies for morning tea, and counting up the collection after the service.  All gone now, gone with the wind, swept away by the stormy blast of the pandemic.  Our old routines are gone, we need to get used to whatever lies ahead for us.  
😰

Such stuff as dreams are made of ... (Yikes!)

 Friends stopped in, some with wings and some without.

10:31 PM 20/07/2020
Bought three albums of Harry Nile stories from the classic radio store, and finished downloading them at last -- last year I didn't download my stuff in time and it was a real hassle.  I've got HOUR OF MY DEATH (1994), PAID IN FULL (2007) and SILENT WITNESS (2006).  Now to find three months to listen to them all.

11:15 AM 21/07/2020
In Australia years ago, bestsellers used to be determined by surveying a dozen bookshops in a big city and extrapolating their sales.  So a new novel that was in high demand would get a good spot on the bestseller list.  It was a bit like television survey figures.  Then computerised cash registers and bar codes came along, and for the first tine you could know *exactly* how many copies had been sold of every title.  I think the first week the new system came in, critics were surprised to see the best selling volume was something like THE BIG BOOK OF STAIN REMOVAL TIPS.

A few days ago I was wondering if I was drinking too much coffee this winter.  I may have found a solution.  Going through the crockery, I found a mug that is 20% larger than the one I've been using.  That means I can have more than one mug of coffee without making a second one.  So I can have four of these instead of six of the other size  Problem solved..

Kerensky, the last Prime Minister of pre-Soviet Russia, fled to the US and married an Australian heiress.  A recent profile notes that "The couple later lived in a farmhouse near the New York-Connecticut border, living a social life and entertaining friends with croquet."  
(Hey, you need something to keep your mind off things when you know that both Hitler and Stalin want you dead.)

24/07/2020
Browsing through the DVDs in the op shop, I was momentarily transfixed by one movie whose leading lady rejoiced in the wonderful name of Shonda Whipple.  I thought this was such a great name that I was tempted to write a story featuring her, but I believe she's still alive and with my luck she would sue me.

FLAT 2  (1962)  --  Mike's Movie Moment
A victim's boyfriend sneaks into a blackmailer's flat to sort him out, but another man's already there.  Neither of them realise the crook is already dead.  Then Scotland Yard arrive.  John Le Mesurier, Jack Watling and Bernard Archard star  and there's some nice crisp black-and-white photography in this Edgar Wallace B-movie.

3:16 PM 29/07/2020
Last weekend it was three years since my sister Julie died.  Doesn't seem possible.  Is that twelve months since the second anniversary?  Sunday afternoon I drove Ian & Pat out to the cemetary so we could put some flowers on her graveyard and reflect on her passing.  Flights of white cockatoos wheeled overhead as we stood there in the winter sunshine, talking over our memories.  In the evening, I dug out a packet of Russian Caravan tea I came across in the kitchen recently;  it was one of Julie's favorites, so I made a pot and raised a cup of tea to her memory.  
As they'd say in Esperanto, "Ripozi pace, Julie."

1:51 PM 30/07/2020
The "to do" list for Tuesday

• Doctor's appointment  -- still can't get used to consulting my GP by phone, what happens if I want to ask "what's causing my hand to look like this, Doc?"
• Croquet club -- have to say I didn't realize how much I'd missed playing until we'd had a couple of weeks back.  Although I didn't plan on spending an hour and a quarter on the first game, it just worked out that way.
• Quiz night wasn't bad either, though we didn't finish in the money.  It was fun just being there, in spite of the questions we got wrong.  Asked to say which element was named after Ernest Rutherford, I wrote down "ruthenium"  --  not right.  Our table is just next to the quiz-master, who continues to be amused by the banter and discussions in our team.

12:30 PM 31/07/2020
https://www.nosleeplessnights.com/false-awakening/
I'm not often troubled by nightmares or bad dreams, but I had an odd experience the other night.  I woke, got up and started going about my day, then found myself back in bed and realized it had only been a dream.  So I got up -- then found myself back in bed.  And again, and again.  I even said to myself "This is crazy.  That kind of thing only happens in the movies.  When I finally did wake up for real, I felt exhausted.
A little research told me this is called "false awakening"  --  there's even a name for what happened to me, it's called "nested dreams", dreams within dreams.  
It wasn't that upsetting.  I don't know what caused it, maybe I was under more stress than I realized.  I'm just happy if it's a one-off.

Tiring times in Tasmania

 6:14 PM 1/06/2020

Much discussion in the weekend press about the effects of the Coronavirus lockdown.  Stress, depression, insomnia, etc.  Recent discussions with a friend suggest that old-school science fiction fans might not be feeling the effects as much as other people.  Remember these were people who went through a phase where their main social outlet was reading fanzines and writing letters.  In those days, fans went through long spells between having anybody to talk to about their interests.  And if a fan is  stuck at home for days or weeks, he can always entertain himself by cataloguing his collection or re-shelving the books in his library in a different order.  
He or she might even emerge from lockdown with a vaguely disappointed "Over already?  I thought I would have got more done in my time at home."

2:12 PM 3/06/2020

Muldoon has never shown much interest in American politics so I should have been wary when he raised the subject.  "Even back in the Nixon era", he said, "an unpopular president had the benefit of an experienced foreign policy adviser like Henry Kissinger.  I've been trying to work out who the modern equivalent would be..."  (About there I realized where he was going, but it was too late to stop him.)
"... I wonder who's Kissinger now?"

1:17 PM 8/06/2020

Things that made me do a double take last week - seriously.
On the air, the TV newsman covering Vatican City who said "The Pope went into the chapel to pray to a higher power."  The customer at the coffee shop who wanted a cappucino with no froth. People who still can't pronounce the word "nuclear."  

9:58 PM 11/06/2020

This week we saw the lifting of some restrictions - it's almost three weeks since we had a new case of the virus in Tasmania.  I was able to go out and play croquet on a fine winter afternoon, though maybe I should have turned down the invitation to play a third game.  I was even able to stop at my favorite coffee shop on the way home.
But the winter is starting to bite.  Thursday I woke up and wondered why my fingers felt swollen.  It took me a few minutes to recognize the symptoms of chill-blains  --  haven't had a bad case for years.  I usually rely on the Gingko Biloba tablets to keep my circulation up.
And the evening was ominous.  I came home from the shops and checked the temperature -- it was 5 degrees at the Weather Bureau, but the "feels like" was only 1 degree.  My breath looked like a volcanic cloud as I went back and forth bringing in the groceries (we were right down to the last of the cat food, so staying home wasn't an option!).  
Listened to some episodes of THE ARCHERS podcast.   I am nearly to the end of the stories from the pre-Covid19 era, the next batch will be the "new look" episodes where both the actors and the characters will be facing lockdown.  :(
 
4:02 PM 23/06/2020
Monday was a really strange day.
 I was woken up at 3 a.m. when the smoke alarm had a tantrum and I had to get up and take the battery out.  Cast a wary eye around the house then went back to bed.
When I did get up later it was raining outside and I dug out my heavy boots for the first time since last winter.  Walking out into the back yard to feed the chickens, I had to detour around a four-foot long pool of water that wasn't there last night.
Then when I walked into the house, a fuse blew when I switched on the lights in the back of the house.
There was a meeting scheduled for 2 p.m. today down at Dynnyrne.  I don't enjoy driving in the rain, but I felt I had to make an effort -- I ended up steering with my right hand while I tried to clear condensation of the windscreen with a cloth in my left hand.   (Furthest I've been from home for a couple of months!)
Driving home wasn't too bad, until I pulled over to  let an ambulance pass me in Macquaie Street.  I sat there for a while before I decided there was no way I could get back into rush-hour traffic at twilight in the rain.  I wound up walking to the nearest restaurant and enjoying a hot bowl of soup before I managed to drive home, arriving at 7 p.m.
I fed the poultry but the goose didn't like the muddy conditions in the yard.  He got out and I found him comfortably curled up on the front lawn the next morning.
And it wasn't even Friday the 13th !!

11:34 PM 24/06/2020
Wednesday I went out to a meeting after lunch.  Then drove from Sandy Bay to Derwent Park for dinner with some friends.  Keith phoned and we talked about Saturday.  Message came in regarding the re-launch of the quiz team next week.  E-mails from Bocce Club and Croquet Club about their activities.
I'm beginning to miss the lockdown already.

5:27 PM 30/06/2020
One thing about last week's wet weather, it kept us from shivering.  One rainy day, the temperature hovered around 12C all day.  Even when it cleared up,  Sunday and Monday it was mild enough for me to let the cat out into the backyard in the middle of the day.  (He's not so keen about going out at night since he discovered the goose is sleeping under the table in the carport.)    Monday I stayed in, so a good time to pay some bills on-line;  during lockdown it was easy to push these things to the bottom of the "to do" list since every day felt like a long weekend.  But comes the time of reckoning.

Tuesday I went out for a couple of games of croquet.  I hadn't played for two weeks because of the weather, but strangely it seemed to help rather than hamper the standard of my play.  And it was nice to see a few familiar faces that hadn't been around for a while.  Speaking of which, tonight sees the resumption of the weekly quiz night, which has been in suspension for the last few months.  Let's see how rusty (or not) everyone is when the questions start flying.

Keith phoned.  Apparently he has a crisis. (Crisis On Infinite Earths that is!)

And so to bed...

Lockdown eases a little

.

.

 ‎Tuesday, ‎19 ‎May ‎2020

Like many people, I usually leave a radio switched on for my chickens, playing softly as a sort of "white noise"  --  if you remember the TV show PIE IN THE SKY you will have seen it there.  Yesterday on a whim I changed the station from a talk station to one that plays only classical music.  Tuesday night I gave the poultry their supper, and turned to leave.
But I was surprised to see that the goose was standing underneath the radio, not moving and apparently staring into space.  He looked for all the world as though he was listening to the Trio Nordica play Elfrida Andrée's Piano Trio in C minor.
This was unexpected.  I had been given to understand that geese had a large brain to go with their large bodies, but nobody had said anything about them being able to listen to music.  A google search was uninformative.  Watch this space.

‎Friday, ‎22 ‎May ‎2020

The rubbish skip arrived yesterday, so after lunch I got out the broom and shovel and filled one of the bins with stuff from outside the back door where the poultry had been fossicking around.  I went out to buy more plastic crates for storage (and some cat food).  Then spent a while emptying 14 sacks of rubbish into the skip.  Still plenty of room.  The radio reports strange lights seen in the sky;  if they're aliens, they are welcome to take as much of my rubbish as they like.  I wonder what they'd deduce about our world from my garbage?

‎Sunday, ‎24 ‎May ‎2020

Saturday was a day for working away on the stuff at the back of the house.  A friend told me "You can't let your life be run by the chickens", and maybe it was time to clear out all the stuff that Julie had at the back door for looking after her poultry.  The cages, the lights, the bric-a-brac that had been hanging round for a decade or more  --  time to let it all go.  Out with all of that, in with a table and chairs.  On with the tablecloth.  Close the door to the chooks who had been used to sleeping in there.  I let the cat out and he meowed in surprise at the change before him.  "I know how you feel," I told him, "It's a bit strange to me too."

‎Tuesday, ‎26 ‎May ‎2020

2 degrees when I got up today.  Cat stayed in bed.
After lunch, went over to the croquet club.  It was a welcome feel of old times to see eight of us out on the lawns, familiar faces in a familiar setting.  The grass seemed to be smooth and welcoming, perhaps because there had been few feet troubling its surface for months and I enjoyed being out in the fresh air, the bright autumn sun beaming down on us.

‎Saturday, ‎30 ‎May ‎2020

This was the first weekend since the Coronavirus lockdown that the Salvation Army store has been opened.  I went in to take a look - when three customers left, another three were allowed to enter.  Hand sanitizer provided at the door.  The staff were happy to see their regulars again, and things felt more like the "old normal" as I suppose we should call it now.
Bought ten movies and three books;  if you average it out over the last couple of months, that's really very moderate.

Sunday, 31 May 2020

Felt excessively weary when I woke up on Sunday.  May have been a bit late taking my meds yesterday.  I did tune in to hear the on-line sermon from St John's, then went out to buy a paper.  My local shop was out of the SUNDAY AGE, so I decided to keep going and drove out to Glenorchy.  The shopping centre there was half full of people, but not enough of them to cause me unease.  Half the shops were open, but the closed and dark cinema brooding over the parking lot reminded you of the current world situation.
That was the furthest I've been from home in weeks.
.

I got them low-down lockdown blues

 Today is May first,
And from all on the planet
Comes the cry "M'Aidez!"
     
    -- Haiku for May 1, 2020


‎Friday, ‎1 ‎May ‎2020

Things going along quietly as usual (with the exception of the day I caught my foot in the extension cord and nearly yanked the power point off the wall).  The weather was halfway decent, so I took a tray out into the garden.
While I was eating, I was reading on my Kindle, having decided to dip into REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST during the month of isolation.  I was only part of the way through the first chapter when I felt a presence.  I looked down and the goose was standing next to my right foot.  He stared at me until I gave him a bit of bread from my sandwich.
Afterwards, the wind was a little cool.  Before I went out for an afternoon walk, I put on my wool scarf which has been hanging on the hatrack since last winter.  I suspect Proust would have made at least one chapter out of today.

‎Sunday, ‎3 ‎May ‎2020

Went out briefly to get groceries, particularly cat food.  When I came home, I spent five minutes sneezing.  Since I don't know a virus with a 15-minute incubation period, I'd say it was the cold night air rather than the pandemic that was to blame.
While I was out, picked up the latest NEW SCIENTIST.  The cover story this week is "How to protect your mental health in the time of Coronavirus."  Thought maybe I should read that.

‎Monday, ‎4 ‎May ‎2020

The weather, with its usual unpredictability, swung round so that we had a nice sunny afternoon -- quite a contrast to the windy and gloomy weekend.  I quite enjoyed my 20-minute walk after lunch, strolling along musing on the chapter of Proust I had been reading while I ate in the garden.
As usual I sauntered across the old railway bridge, my thoughts turning back to the year we had a mouse plague at my house.  Julie had purchased a humane mouse trap, and nearly every morning there would be one or two mice alive in it.  So each day I w0uld walk down to the railway line and release them there, bidding them to hop a freight out of town.  (How many mice did I exile in this fashion?  Don't know, I stopped counting at 60.)
.
‎Tuesday, ‎5 ‎May ‎2020

A fine and settled day.  I lazed away some of the morning in bed till I had to stir myself to accept a delivery of essential supplies.  A late lunch in the sun, while the cat wandered around my feet.  Then out for my afternoon walk, zig-zagging around the district so as not to endlessly walk the same streets as previous days.
At sunset, spent a while with Marcel Proust, whose words have a pleasant effect on the mind, filling it with a nostalgic longing for impossible journeys through the realms of time. (His words, not mine!)
In the evening, watched THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY: A COPPER'S TALE, a riveting 2013 docu-drama about the police squad that tracked down the train robbers.  Very good on the atmosphere of 1963 England.

When from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, but with more vitality, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection.   (SWANN'S WAY, chapter 1)


FLIGHTPLAN (2005) -- Mike's movie moment
Good looking thriller set on a transatlantic jet starring Jodie Foster.  The plot keeps the audience guessing to the end.  The film-makers, consciously or unconsciously, use as their template Alfred Hitchcock's pre-war film of THE LADY VANISHES.

Saturday I had to go out to fill a prescription and noticed there seemed to be a lot more traffic on the road.  Guys, the announcement yesterday said that they would be easing restrictions soon, not that they'd already done it !
Call from the office of my endocrinologist.  My appointment this month will be on the phone rather than in person.  I had been half-expecting that.
A friend has been trying to recover some stuff that she wrote years ago and is stored on a floppy disc.  We tried everything I could think of, but this morning we discovered why we couldn't read the data  --  the files were created on a Mac.  Reading it on a Mac was simple.  The one thing we never thought of.
The BOLD television channel has done it again - this time they skipped the whole of the fifth season of NCIS NEW ORLEANS.  Not one of my favorites. but it's not really a great way to treat your audience.

‎Tuesday, ‎12 ‎May ‎2020

Tuesday I thought I'd slip out and get my quarterly blood test done.  It should only take about twenty minutes, I thought.  And I would have been right, except for the fact the place where I usually go was closed for the duration of the pandemic.  A sign on their door referred me to an alternative site at Calvary Hospital, and I spent a good 45 minutes going around the hospital searching for the right office before I found it.
Once I got home again, I kept busy sorting out some old boxes from the laundry.  Mostly junk and clutter, unless you were agog at 10-year-old news magazines, but I did find a couple of gems.  One was an old greeting card addressed to me and still containing some birthday money - ca$h !  The other was an old sepia photo of Julie's house from way back;  I knew the photo, but I hadn't realized it was in that box of bric-a-brac.
When I showed the photo to a friend she took a picture of it with her phone.  Then she zoomed in on it to see the details better and discovered there were two women on the side verandah that I had never seen before.  Isn't modern technology wonderful?

THE MAN AT THE CARLTON TOWER (1961) Mike's movie moment
A brisk little B-movie based on an Edgar Wallace novel, starring Lee Montague and Maxine Audley.   An ex-policeman sets out to track down one of the cleverest crooks in London.  One of the supporting characters is played by Nyree Dawn Porter, who would become a global star just a few years later in THE FORSYTE SAGA.

‎Wednesday, ‎13 ‎May ‎2020

After clearing out the laundry yesterday, a stumbling block to doing that big load of washing I had planned for today.  What did I do with all my clothes pegs?  A quick trip to the supermarket before I could hang out my stuff to dry.
Read another chapter of Proust.  I hadn't had a chance to read any the rest of this week -- I need to be in the right mood to tackle those long sentences.
Later, did my homework for this evening's on-line Bible study.  I'm sort of used to this now but it did seem strange at first. Before I go to bed I need to complete the menu for the next three weeks of home-delivered meals.  I know, First World problem.

‎Friday, ‎15 ‎May ‎2020

I had to stay home Friday waiting for a delivery -- not exactly a novel thing nowadays.  It was a nice sunny day so after I ate lunch in the garden I went for a short walk down the street.  When I got to the corner, it was so pleasant that instead of turning for home straightaway I just leaned up against a wall and basked in the sun for a while like a lizard on a rock.
At home I was happily settled down soaking in the ambient music from last week's Hearts Of Space podcast, until Keith rang  --  he wanted to let me know he had the copy of the Miss Fisher movie (CRYPT OF TEARS) that I wanted.  He also said that he'd found the Blu-Ray player he bought a couple of months ago -- it was behind a pile of books (no surprise there).
I'm now 20% of the way through SWANN'S WAY, the first of the Proust series.  I have learned to love those long, long sentences and the way he devotes thousands of wordsike  to describing his weekly visit to church and its architecture as seen from various angles.

A world in solitary confinement

‎Tuesday, ‎21 ‎April ‎2020
I have some things to do on Wednesday, and couldn't face waking up at dawn to catch the early-morning shopping hour.    I used the self-checkout at one of the smaller suburban supermarkets, then went to the ATM. Since they were both touchscreens, I used my hand sanitiser freely after each encounter

DICK TRACY (1945) - Mike's movie moment
I admit it, when I saw this RKO B-movie was on You Tube, I expected a cornball cops & robbers romp.  Was I surprised when right from the first scene (a murder on a dark street) it furnished a lot of thrills in the best "film noir" style.  Way better than expected.(Director William Berke)

 ‎Saturday, ‎25 ‎April ‎2020
I have never been to the Dawn Service on Anzac Day, but this year things felt a little different.  In lieu of the usual commemorations, people were encouraged to gather in their driveways to participate.  So at 6 a.m. I walked down the front path and sat my lantern on the gatepost.  All was dark and still in my street and I stood there for a minute or two, thinking of all the people in my family - uncles, cousins and parents - who had served in the armed forces. 
Lest we forget. 

I had never thought much about my 70th birthday, but I certainly never imagined anything like 2020 if I considered it at all.  I never went through a war or the great depression, but we now have some vague idea of what life must have been like for previous generations.  But I have been encouraged by the cards, e-mails, messages and phone calls from friends wishing me a happy birthday. (And the cake that Gill & Graeme dropped off!)
Let's hope that next year we will all be together as normal.



TERMINATOR: DARK FATE (2019) 
Mike's movie moment
Having seen the first five Terminator movies, I found it startling for them to go back and make a sequel to the second in the series. Linda Hamilton and Arnie reprise their roles and Canadian actress Mackenzie Davis registers strongly as the time-travelling cyborg soldier.  This was a big noisy movie, but that's not always a bad thing.

 ‎Sunday, ‎26 ‎April ‎2020

A quiet day at home (of course).
In the evening, being a bit disgruntled with television, ate dinner and listened to an audio drama THRESHOLD, a spin off from a Doctor Who episode.    Scriptwriter Paul Finch supplies an imaginative plot but doesn't quite get to grips with the medium -- a story that relies heavily on weird noises and strange voices can often leave the audience confused as to what is actually happening


‎Tuesday, ‎28 ‎April ‎2020

Again the days fall into the familiar new rhythm.  After breakfast, one feeds the poultry, lets the cat out and listens to the Premier's daily briefing on ABC radio.  If it's a nice day, lunch in the garden and read for a few minutes on the Kindle -- today a novelette by John Russell Fearn.  Then a walk down to the old railway bridge.  No trains run on that line anymore, but I remember the days when Julie and I would walk her dogs down that way, waving at the engine drivers as they roared past, feeling a little like the main characters in THE RAILWAY CHILDREN.
Today I unloaded some feed I bought earlier in the week.  After all these weeks of staying home, it only just struck me that if I bought two bags of wheat instead of one, I would have to venture out half as often.  Slow and steady, O'Brien, slow and steady. 

 (I realize that most of my posts fall into this sort of pattern: there will be a description of the world from my viewpoint, some throwaway references to classic science-fiction or English literature, ending up with some self-deprecating humour. I see how it works, but the leopard can't change his spots.)

===
‘The change is enormous, ”  John Suchet told THE GUARDIAN straight after presenting his morning radio show on Britain's Classic FM. Instead of being inside a professional radio studio, he has just been broadcasting live to the world from the spare room of his flat in east London.

“I’ve never had so many emails and texts in nine years of doing this programme. I mean, they are flooding in,” he says in amazement. “And the one phrase that most of them seem to be using is: ‘Thank you for keeping us sane.’ ”

Carry on and keep social distancing

Now that Daylight Saving has finished, the poultry expect to be fed earlier.  As you can see, they often gather around the door, waiting for me to remember it's dinner time. 

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Friday, ‎3 ‎April ‎2020
#Start every morning the same way -- after breakfast, listen to the live broadcast by the State Premier on ABC radio, followed by their airing of that day's Corona Podcast. The Premier's message today was "Be kind to each other."  (Following that is the Conversations show, which at least is usually a bit more cheerful.)
#This morning I dealt with some messages and phone calls.  Messaged one of the local newsagents that I would try to pick up my magazines somehow.  This brought a response from the girl who works at the front counter, offering to bring them to me.  It turns out she lives just near me, but she didn't know that when she made the offer.  An example of community co-operation.
#Downloaded some more of that big batch of the radio show COUPLE NEXT DOOR that I bought from the Classic Radio Store.  I begin to see what the fellow at the computer store meant when he advised me to do one thing at a time on my laptop -- if you try to do too much at once, the machine slows to a full stop.
#And, of all things, I was in contact with a neighbor who told me one of my hens had got into his back yard.  I went round and had a look, but it's a big garden and the chicken was in no mood to be rounded up.  I shall have to think on this.

Saturday 4 April 2020

A follow-up to my mention of the straying hen and the back fence.  To my surprise, my neighbour tuned up with his children who had successfully captured the renegade chicken and brought her home.  Unexpectedly they had also brought her young chick with them. What I am thinking is that the chick got through a crack in the fence, and its mother had fluttered over the fence in search of her errant offspring.  No wonder she didn't want to be caught.

Sunday 5 April 2020

Went to church on-line after breakfast.  A little strange, but better than nothing.  Surprising that the figures show we had enough people tuned in to fill the church twice over!
Listened to today's update from the State Government on the radio, then switched on the television to see SONGS OF PRAISE for the first time in years.  (I used to tape it on my VCR back in the days of analog television, but I have no idea how to do this with digital television.)

Wednesday 8 April 2020

~Into the third week of semi-isolation.  Wednesday morning I got up at sunrise so I could take advantage of the supermarket's special early-morning shopping hour for "the vulnerable"  -- the aged, the disabled, and those in need of assistance.  Two out of three ain't bad.
~This evening I took part in a virtual Bible-study group via Zoom.  It was a bit odd, with many of the participants distracted by the little screen images of themselves on their computers.  Since they had not seen me for about a month, there were several good-natured comments about the length of my beard.
~Made out my menu selections for home-delivered meals for the month.  Food without human contact.  At least I won't starve. (The cover for last week's NEW YORKER depicted a delivery person dropping off a meal on a dark street - very atmospheric.)

‎Thursday, ‎9 ‎April ‎2020

A disturbed night's sleep, so I didn't get up early because -- well, I had nowhere I had to be and nobody I had to see.  I listened to ABC radio's THE WORLD TODAY then had a late lunch in the garden.  I selected a new book on my Kindle for afternoon reading, THE RED THUMB MARK.  I've read a few of the Dr Thorndyke series by R. Austin Freeman, but I thought I'd go back to the beginning and read the first story, published in 1907.  Thorndyke is a doctor and a scientist and this first novel brings him into conflict with the then-new study of fingerprints as a forensic science.  (Even if I keep reading all through the lockdown, I don't think I would get through the whole series!)

‎Friday, ‎10 ‎April ‎2020

Good Friday and it felt strange not to be in church.  I tuned in for the You Tube live stream from St John's with Alistair and Rachel, then I had coffee and a hot cross bun.  You can't share buns over the Internet, so I made sure I had some in the house.
Oddly my back felt worse after watching the service from home in my own chair than it does when I spend the same amount of time in a hard wooden pew.  People are complex things.

Lunch in the garden and read a couple more chapters of Dr Thorndyke.  Couldn't decide whether to take a nap or a walk, so ended up doing neither.  Sat around downloading some old radio shows till it was time to feed the poultry and have dinner.
The cat was a puzzle today;  all the rest of the month, he's been eating like a horse and putting on weight.  Today... nothing.  I had to give him some dry food I had left over from a previous cat;  that, he ate.

‎Saturday, ‎11 ‎April ‎2020

A cool and cloudy morning and the cat had gone back to bed after breakfast, so I took the opportunity to go out and get some feed for the poultry.  On the way home, I called in at the supermarket for a loaf of bread and found there were a good number of people around for an Easter Saturday.
It was then that I realized the effect that the fortnight of seclusion was having on me.  Even though I did everything to follow the rules for social distancing, I felt anxious at being among so many people.  More than once, I went to scratch my head and stopped with my hand in mid-air, like a robot who was about to violate one of Isaac Asimov's Three Laws.  I was relieved to get home and settle myself with lunch and a good book. 

‎Wednesday, ‎15 ‎April 2020

Woke at sunrise and made my way before breakfast to the supermarket's early-morning shopping hour.  Returned home an hour later with what I hope is a week of groceries, feeling a bit knackered.  I rested up in the afternoon so I'd be ready for this evening's Zoom teleconference with some people from church.  At least it gave me the incentive to trim my beard and put on a clean shirt.
Meanwhile in Burnie the army has been called in to help disinfect the hospital that seems to be the focal point of a virus outbreak in north-west Tasmania.  The Premier is on the radio every morning, warning us to stay home if possible for at least another four weeks.

‎Thursday, ‎16 ‎April ‎2020

For a change, I wouldn't have had any phone calls on Thursday if it hadn't been for Federal Parliament.  A staffer for Brian Mitchell MHR rang to ask how I was getting on.  Apparently he's phoning a lot of voters in Hobart to check on them.  Nice idea but I told him I was doing all right, thank you.
Aside, that is, from that periodic buzzing noise I kept hearing this evening.  Insistent, but sort of far away.  The sort of sound you'd get if you locked your mobile phone in your suitcase.  It's not my phone, or the laptop, or the smoke alarm, or the microwave.  Maybe isolation is sending me cuckoo faster than I expected.
Meanwhile the media are suffering along with the rest of us.  TV stations like Sky News may be doing well in the ratings, but your local newspaper is probably flagging.  My local paper is getting thinner every month, and seems to be subsisting on full-page ads from the government.  The editor appeared in her own paper yesterday appealing for support from the community.  Who would have thought it could come to this?

BANDIDAS - Mike's movie moment:
Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek decide to rob banks to get justice in old Mexico. This 2006 romp is the most fun I've had watching a western since the days of CAT BALLOU and VIVA MARIA. And written by Luc Besson of all people.

‎Friday, ‎17 ‎April ‎2020

The Yale University School of Public Health found that reading tends to involve brain functions that help you live longer.  If I read all the books in my house, I could potentially be immortal.

Friday morning started with a long phone call, then after breakfast listened to the morning briefing from the Premier on ABC radio followed by the national "Coronacast".  A bit of a chilly wind for lunch outside but went for a walk in the afternoon sun.  The streets are so quiet nowadays but the crisp Autumn air was refreshing and I enjoyed being outside for a while.  One neighbor had put out a box of apples and pears at their front gate and I took a few -- another neighbor has a Little Library of free books but in this health-conscious era I was not game to inspect them, alas.

MONSTER - Mike's movie moment:
This was made by the Asylum studio, who specialize in imitations of blockbuster movies. This one was released the same week as CLOVERFIELD in 2008. The trouble with "found footage" movies is they are actually supposed to have inaudible dialogue and jumbled images! One star, at most.

A radio research group has compiled a collection of the 1940s radio show THE WEIRD CIRCLE and I took the opportunity to download a few samples of the show. To start with it, I listened to "What was it?" based on an 1859 short story by Fitz-James O'Brien.   I well remember reading this story as a teenager in Damon Knight's notable anthology A CENTURY OF SCIENCE FICTION.  Since the story is about (SPOILERS) an invisible monster it was a natural for radio and this recording is a good quality one.

‎Saturday, ‎18 ‎April ‎2020

A few months ago, I spent every Saturday fossicking through the Thrift Stores and Op Shops.  A blur of book titles, DVD covers and all sorts of stuff.  Mental overload at times.  Now Saturday is pretty much like every other day of the week  --  breakfast, feed poultry Facebook, lunch, walk, maybe a nap, dinner, TV and/or book, bed.

Still working my way through that big list of downloads I bought from the Radio Classics Store.  I've done the COUPLE NEXT DOOR comedies and half the SHERLOCK HOLMES shows.  After that I just have HOPALONG CASSIDY to go.

The year the virus came

‎Monday, ‎23 ‎March ‎2020
Sunday night I slept for almost nine hours.  I guess my body thought I needed it, because when I woke up I had the feeling that nothing was going to be the same again.  It was like the day after September 11th in a way.  A friend had phoned last night and given me a summary of the Prime Minister's latest speech and it hadn't been soothing stuff.
All the states had closed their borders.  Two weeks of quarantine for all people travelling, inside or outside Australia.  Pubs and clubs had been shut down, restaurants, sporting events, churches and any other "non essential" activities.
You could say 2020 is shaping up to be a memorable year, but I suspect it may be a year we would rather forget.  The weird thing is that it comes exactly a century after the Spanish Flu...
A little googling reveals there were also pandemics and epidemics in 1820, 1720 and 1620. Would it be paranoid to suggest burying a time capsule to be opened in 2120, warning the authorities to be wary?

‎Tuesday, 24 ‎March ‎2020
Usually Tuesday is a busy sort of day.  Croquet at lunchtime, pub quiz in the evening and in-between downloading all the weekend's radio shows from America.  But times change.  I ventured across to the Croquet Club and found two other players there -- what a difference a week makes, last Tuesday we had 15 out on the lawns.  We had a couple of games, resting halfway through as we sat at opposite ends of the shed, drinking from our own water bottles.
Afterwards, I stopped off in Moonah to support the local coffee shop, who were still open for take-aways;  they said they would keep going as long as they could, or until the government changed the rules again.  At the moment, the official word is very strong on the messge "Stay home unless absolutely necessary." 

Friday 27 March 2020
Quiet outside but there were a few things I had to do.  Firstly, I woke up to find I had a text message from the water company telling me there had been a problem with the water supply to my street and it wouldn't be restored for a few hours.  Fortunately I had enough water in the kettle for breakfast, and I was able to get enough out of the watering can in the garden to provide for the poultry.  It was not, as one might have thought, the final sign of the collapse of civilization in the 21st century.
Then a request from the people next door for any feed sacks I had that weren't needed.  I swapped a bundle of sacks for some home-made stewed fruit from their apple tree.
Most of the afternoon was taken up moving crates around.  I had promised to lend a friend a particular DVD and as usual it wasn't where I thought it was.  I had no option but to start glancing through the three dozen odd plastic crates I had stacked up (which is why I always use the clear plastic design).  I found it in crate #29.

‎Saturday, ‎28 ‎March ‎2020
Last time I was in Woolworths I noticed customers were limited to two packets of bread or rolls "excluding Hot Cross Buns."  Huh - is this because in their greed they ordered thousands and thousands of these so they could start selling them in January?   Difficult to feel much sympathy for them.

‎Monday, ‎30 ‎March ‎2020
Wednesday I had my monthly consultation with my psychologist via Zoom.  It was a little strange, though I suppose it was better than nothing.  It did make me feel a little self-conscious;  I'm not used to having conversations with my laptop.  Not to mention the interruption when the cat sat between me and the camera.
Then on Sunday I attended church via You Tube.  This went along fairly well, until the last five minutes when the sound dropped out and the vision started to buffer.  It's only the second time we've done this, so you must expect a few glitches.  It was odd on Saturday night thinking I didn't have to drive in to church the next morning for the first time in thirty years.

‎Tuesday, ‎31 ‎March ‎2020
Looks like being a quiet day at home. Gatherings of more than two people have been banned from midnight on Monday night and Tasmanians have been ordered to stay at home for the next four weeks or face arrest. (The only exceptions will be for people going out to buy essential supplies, going to school or work, or check on neighbours or elderly relatives.)
My minister phoned to ask how I was going, which was nice.  He asked if I was keeping in touch with my friends, and I told him on Saturday I had three people ring between breakfast and lunch.  (I also exchanged e-mails with one neighbor, and another pulled up as she was driving past to say "If you need anything, just knock on our door.")
Aside from that, I pottered around the place feeding the poultry, playing with the cat and drinking too much coffee.

After spending the morning with the laptop and the phone, decided on a late lunch out in the garden.  Made some sandwiches and enjoyed the fine weather while reading a Sherlock Holmes on my Kindle (a new one by Lyn McConchie)

Muldoon tells me we're going to have to call it a "world-wide pandemic" instead of a "global pandemic."
Apparently there's been an objection from the Flat Earth Society  😊

Beware the ides of March?

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Tuesday, ‎17 ‎March ‎2020
Fine and sunny on Tuesday afternoon, but only half as many people turned up at the Croquet Club as the last two weeks.  The streets are quieter than usual but the supermarkets still have a lot of empty shelves.

More and more it feels to me as though I'm an extra in a disaster movie.  Things are progressing rapidly -- stores and offices closing down, transport restrictions, friends advising you to stay home and avoid crowds,  politicians trying to put a spin on increasingly bad news.  The radio is so incessantly full of the Corona virus I switched it off tonight and listened to a Bossa Nova album on You Tube.

I would have said I wouldn't be affected much by the virus scare, but I don't know now.  The Bocce Club has shut down for the duration, the Quiz Team didn't meet this week, I didn't visit friends on Monday, all sorts of little things.  What the future holds for we 69-year-old diabetics seems hard to fathom. 

‎Wednesday, ‎18 ‎March ‎2020
The Radio Classics Store has finally straightened out the problem with my account that stopped me downloading the big lot of old radio shows I bought last year.  (Main problem was I didn't realize I had to download them all within a month!)  I have until May to download them now, but better safe than sorry, so I spent this evening grabbing the 18 episodes on the album CLASSIC ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES.  Still to come -- HARRY NILE, COUPLE NEXT DOOR and HOPALONG CASSIDY. 

‎Friday, ‎20 ‎March ‎2020
Another day of semi-isolation.  Some friends dropped in for lunch, bringing take-away food.  We ate out in the carport, being careful not to touch each other or anyone else's stuff.  It was pleasant enough, but conversation kept drifting back to the international situation.  I thought of going out to the K-Mart, but didn't go since I had enough provisions in the house for this week. 
The cat played with me for a while till he got tired, then I had a couple of hours undisturbed with the laptop while he slept under his blanket.  Then he got up and wanted attention again.  I fed him and he decided to take another nap.  Why aren't we all be more like cats?

‎Saturday, ‎21 ‎March ‎2020
As part of anti-virus campaign, the South Hobart Tip Shop is closed.  I wasn't sure if the Salvation Army would still be open but they were.  No plastic baskets unless you brought your own, to avoid cross-contamination.  Fewer people shopping than usual on a Saturday, so we could practice a reasonable amount of "social distancing".    Lunch at the Green Store, who were also still trading, though they were very pro-active in wiping and cleaning all the tables.   I await tomorrow to see how Sunday goes.

‎Sunday, ‎22 ‎March ‎2020
Sunday saw our first "Social Distancing" church service.  It was a strange experience.  Now I know how the footballers feel playing in an empty stadium. Not counting the minister and his helpers, there were less than a dozen of us spread around the church -- it's to be hoped that most of the congregation would have been tuned into the Internet feed.  "These are extraordinary times," the sermon began.   Indeed.
There were noticeably fewer people in the city.  That's the first time for about two years I've been able to park right at the back door of church. 
 

• Following similar announcements in Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia have announced tough new measures that will see both states close their borders to slow the spread of coronavirus 
• Press reports say Sydney's CBD has fallen silent as Australia's increasing social-distancing measures and fears about coronavirus spark a mass exodus in business hubs and tourist hotspots.
• Martin Place, Barangaroo and Circular Quay have become ghost towns punctuated with empty restaurants and deserted shops, and there's never been more room on the roads or train platforms of New South Wales.
• Breaking news:  AFL football games suspended.

Summer of Fires

.
The spate of bushfires seems to be easing off, though the other states have had it much worse than Tasmania.  It is disturbing to those of us who remember the terrible 1967 fires
 
1/02/2020
Back in the 1960s I was an Argonaut.  That would mean nothing today, but back then there was a popular ABC radio show for children and you could send off for a badge and certificate recognizing you as a member.  Among the many features and skits on the show was a short radio serial.  Already being aware of science fiction I enjoyed one serial they presented -- "The Stranger", in which a visitor turns out to have otherworldly origins.  I was slightly surprised to see it turn up on television a couple of years later.  And I'm very surprised to see it is now available for viewing again on the ABC's website.

10:39 PM 2/02/2020
Sunday didn't start well, but we won't go into   that. (I found a second broken window.)  It was mild and sunny when I went into church, so it was a bit surprising to see it was raining lightly when I left.  I had an invitation to go out somewhere, but this week had been so tiring I went home instead and lay down to rest.  I must have slept for an hour or two, then slowly awakened and stared at the ceiling, enjoying a faint breeze that cooled the house to a comfortable level.
I felt a rare sense of calm and peace.  For some time I just lay there, feeling relaxed and contented.  Moments like that are rare enough that they should be savoured and enjoyed for as long as possible.

4/02/2020
Cool and mostly fine Tuesday.  Surprised that 15 members turned up at the Croquet Club for this afternoon's game.  The sun was shining non-stop and there was a cool breeze.  I took off my cardigan for the second game and was happy in my light t-shirt.  "Aren't you cold?" asked my opponents, two ladies wearing jackets zipped up to the neck.  I told them I was quite comfortable, did not add that after last week I found the cold wind quite refreshing.
In the evening, out to the quiz night.  Didn't really expect to win three times in a row, but our chances were laid low by the absence of our music expert.  I think we scored 4/10 in the music round, and two of those were guesses.  So coming second wasn't so bad.

9:26 PM 5/02/2020
Spent a lot of Wednesday relaxing around the house, listening to the ambient music of this week's "Hearts Of Space" program and munching my way through an unopened packet of Vegie Straws I found while looking through some stuff.
Friends rang to say they were coming through in half an hour and did I want to meet for lunch.  That went off all right, but I made the mistake of saying I'd bought some extra plastic crates and they decided this was a great time to come round and help me do some tidying-up.  I think we filled 6 or 7 crates and tossed out another one of rubbish before I said good night to them. 

10:56 AM 7/02/2020
Thursday was a busy day even for me.  Got off to the Croquet Club punctually so I could fit in a game before I had to go into town.  A few of us up on lawn 3 while the first two lawns were occupied by the earnest players in the Pennant match.  Then caught the bus into the city (to avoid those diabolical new parking meters) for lunch and the first meeting of the year for the Friends Of Mission group.  Back home and drove out to the Bocce Club for a couple of games and a sausage sizzle in the bright afternoon sun.  Home in time to watch DOCTOR WHO (disappointingly did not follow on from the plot of last week's episode) and receive a long drawn-out phone call from Keith Curtis who is more of a night owl than I am these days. 

Farewell to a Feline friend

The end of 2019 saw one of Julie's cats go into a decline.  Since my sister died, Livvy had been morre and more "clingy" -- she spent a lot of time on my lap and usually curled up next to me in bed each night.  Alas, she began to waste away, and it was obvious nothing could be done for her.  The final trip to the Vet was a sad note to end the year on. 

1/01/2020
Wednesday morning some friends came round and we interred Livvy's tiny body in the front garden. We said a few words, then went out for lunch -- actually we detoured first to Harris Scarfe for a bit of what Helena called "retail therapy", which did take our minds off things a bit.
I spent the rest of the day at home, Nelson and I keeping each other company. He was visibly unsettled, meowing whenever he lost sight of me and curling up next to me for hours. I guess we will have to learn to manage.

3/01/2020
I had vague ideas of going out to play croquet on Thursday morning, but the cat curled up on me and I didn't have the heart to give him the boot. So I spent the day quietly at home, apart from going out for bread and milk later.

In the evening, tuned in for part one of the DOCTOR WHO New Year special. It was interesting enough, but most of the hour seemed to be just a lead-up to the cliffhanger at the end. Next week we shall see if part two lives up to it.

With my new iPhone, I have managed to install the free Kindle app and can now read my e-books on my phone. I began with an omnibus of 99 science fiction stories that I think I picked up for a dollar. First story was "People of the Pit" by A. Merritt, which was first published in 1918 in ALL STORY WEEKLY. Only his second published short story I believe, but the description of the lost city in the Arctic will make your hair stand on end.

4/01/2020
Saturday the forecast was for a hot day but smoke blowing in from other states shielded us from the sun. I left home about 10 a.m., picked up Keith Curtis and we spent the morning rummaging through places like St Vincent de Paul and the South Hobart Tiip Shop. Keith put in a lot of time going through stuff and occasionally it paid off (he was really pleased at finding that 1960s Pan paperback of a Simenon novel).
 
Lunch at one of my favorite eateries, the Macquarie Street Foodstore. After the meal, Keith gave me a long explanation of the history of Sun Books, one of the minor Australian paperback houses of the 1960s (of course in those days there were very few Australian paperback publishers).
We had to make a return trip to Vinnie's after lunch because Keith realised he had forgotten a book about Scarlet Macaws that he saw on top of one of their bookcases. Yes, it was still there. And we took the opportunity to go through the CD section -- I ended up with ten classical music titles for a dollar each. Now to find time to listen to them all...!

Today's short story on my Kindle: "Omega" by AMELIA REYNOLDS LONG, sort of a mix of Poe and Wells -- a hypnotist tells his patient to mentally travel forward in time to the end of the world and report what he sees. All right, but not that remarkable. From the July 1932 issue of Amazing Stories
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"Come hither!" I cry,
But there comes no response.
Just a flicking tail.
-- Haiku No.4 for January[2014]
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11:13 AM 7/01/2020
Monday seemed to be the end of the holiday season.  Traffic was busier and things started resuming for the year over the next few days.  In the morning, after my post-breakfast nap, I went out to meet friends for lunch after their visit to MONA [the Museum of Old and New Art].  In the evening I visited other friends who'd just returned from their Christmas break at Gordon, down past Flowerpot.  We chatted, had dinner and watched a DVD, and it was still daylight when I got home -- the wonders of Daylight Saving.

Kindle story:  THE Nth POWER by Arthur Train from The Saturday Evening Post, October 2, 1909.  A Wellsian tale about a stockbroker with an interest in the sixth sense who allows a scientist to experiment on him to enhance his five existing senses.  Be careful what you wish for!

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Told anew by all,
Stories of the long past days
That make family.

-- Haiku for January No.5
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1:09 PM 8/01/2020
Tuesday I woke from a confusing dream -- I had been living in the city again, but some buildings had moved around and roads had either lengthened or shortened without rhyme or reason.
At midday I set off for the Croquet Club and played two games.  The weather was surprisingly cloudy, with a sea breeze cooling us.   Picked up some stuff at the pharmacy, then just had time for a short nap before the first Quiz Night of the year.
We didn't do so bad, though we fared badly in some rounds (who knew bromine was liquid at room temperature?).  In the end we were back in our old spot, fourth place.  Afterwards I drew the winner of the raffle someone had organized for Bushfire Disaster Relief.  We raised $250 in one evening.

Today's Kindle story was "Adjustment Team" a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published in Orbit Science Fiction (September–October 1954, No. 4) and filmed 2011. Early PKD story in which reality becomes unreal.

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Look away a sec,
Then you hear the "cluck cluck" noise.
Your sandwich is gone.
-- Haiku for a rooster 2020
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4:19 PM 9/01/2020
I had thought that if I rested up on Wednesday, I would be better prepared for a busy Thursday, but not so.  Felt so tired in the morning I didn't get to the Croquet Club at all.  After lunch, the NBN was off all afternoon, so I spent some time burning CDs from last year's downloads.  After that, I will transfer the files to my external drive, doubly backing them up.  It's not that I'm paranoid, but I hear there's a 50% chance any back-up method will eventually fail.

A visit to the Bocce Club this evening had mixed results.  A lot of us found the court unpredictable, with the result that our ball would head straight for the target and then just veer off and go past.   Aaaagh.

10:15 PM 10/01/2020
Friday things cooled down a little, and there was actually a light shower of rain when I went down to Blackmans Bay for dinner with friends.  These summer evenings are so long that we were able to stop and walk the dogs along the Cornelian Bay foreshore and still get me home before dark.

On the Kindle, this week I am reading REPEAT BUSINESS, a collection of new Sherlock Holmes stories by NZ author Lyn McConchie.  The gimmick is that each story features a character who has previously been one of Holmes' clients in a Conan Doyle story -- hence the title.

10:04 PM 11/01/2020
I can never resist those lists.  You know, the ones with titles like "100 Books Everyone Should Read Before They Die."  I plowed through the latest one and I counted up 19 that I've read.  81 to go  --  I'm obviously going to live to a great age.
Of course these sorts of lists are inevitably not one-size-fits-all.  I once looked at a list where I scored quite low, because a lot of the books they mentioned were collections by American poets I'd never even heard of.   Conversely, a list heavy on classic science-fiction and crime stories would send my score soaring but would doom many literate people to a really low score.
But 19% -- yeah, I guess I can live with that.


12:08 AM 12/01/2020

Published in the NEW YORKER January 6, 2020, issue, with the headline “Grief.” 
 The Strangeness of Grief -
A writer reckons with the different forms of loss.  
By V. S. Naipaul
(I was going through an almost identical experience with my black cat the week that issue would have been on the stands  --  perhaps the Universe was trying to send me a message.)

12:30 AM 13/01/2020
When was the last time you kept a diary? Turns out, writing down your thoughts is a proven (and simple!) mind-clearing technique. “Journaling helps you analyze and organize your thoughts, which is a great way to relax your mind,” says Sanam Hafeez, PhD, a neuropsychologist and faculty member at Columbia University in New York City. “Research suggests that expressive writing eliminates intrusive thoughts about negative events and improves working memory. These improvements may, in turn, free up our cognitive resources for other mental activities, including the ability to manage stress more effectively.”   --  Readers Digest website

2:22 PM 16/01/2020
Another Wednesday when I didn't have any appointments, so I thought I'd stay home where it was cool and just enjoy the peace and quiet. Yes and no, as it turned out.
About midday, I wanted another coffee and went to get the milk.  The cat, Nelson, was sitting on my shoulder and tried to jump onto the top of the refrigerator.  He missed, and bounced off my face on his way down.  I didn't see if he landed on all fours because he knocked my glasses off as he went past.
I had to get down on all fours to find my spectacles, then fetched the tube of antiseptic I keep next to my bed for putting on cat scratches.  (He also got me on the right thumb on his way to the ground.)
With all this, I somehow forgot to have lunch.  Forgot about it until the evening when I started to feel shaky and uncomfortable.  You may not be sure how to spell hypoglycemia but you know when you've got it.

1:56 PM 17/01/2020
Thursday I usually ponder on whether I'll play croquet, but some unseasonal thunder and a shower of (very light) rain in the morning made it a no-brainer  -- especially after watching Nelson eat his breakfast and curl up under his blanket without going outside.  But this may have been a good thing for my evening visit to the Bocce Club;  I made a couple of really good shots in the middle of the game, though I petered out towards the end.  Still, it's nice to see the balls go where you aimed for a change.

Home in time for this week's DOCTOR WHO story "Orphan 55" which has a couple of nods to the movie ALIEN in its script.  Some controversy about the script in on-line reviews but I liked it well enough.
Downloaded some old radio shows I bought from the Radio Classics website - SHERLOCK HOLMES, HARRY NILE, COUPLE NEXT DOOR and FAMILY THEATER.

9:24 PM 17/01/2020
For a change the cat decided to leave me alone and spent the afternoon dozing under his blanket.  I had lunch and listened to "Sentinels of the New Dawn", one of the Big Finish audio dramas based on DOCTOR WHO  --  it starred Caroline John, which is a big plus if you were watching the show in 1970 like I was.
Practiced my Bible reading for Sunday and after dinner watched the movie THOR RAGNAROK, which has a lot more jokes in it than you would have expected from the title.

19/01/2020
Sunday I was scheduled to read the Bible in church at the morning service, which I have done many times.   What I haven't done before is read Matthew 5, maybe better known as The Sermon On The Mount.  I've read lots of other pieces from the scriptures, but this was one of the biggies.  Ideally I would have liked three weeks of rehearsal time instead of two days, but I got up there and gave it my best shot.   Maybe not up to the standard of the original, but I'm sure that He'll forgive me.
After that, I just had to sit back and listen to the sermon from Jon Brown. who (somewhat to my surprise) started off by quoting from "The Portrait of Dorian Gray"  -- I'm sure Oscar Wilde would have been surprised too.

10:52 PM 21/01/2020
Tuesday I was a bit slow out of the starting gate, but was determined to get to the Croquet Club.  A bit warm at first, but spent nearly two and a half hours playing then went home to rest up for tonight.  After finishing fourth in last week's quiz, we zoomed into the lead and stayed there tonight.  We did pretty well in most of the categories, but it really helped we got an extra ten points when Mark made an inspired guess and correctly tipped the answer to the puzzle question was "the Electric Chair" !   Now that's what I call an amazing hunch.

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Under a clear sky,
the mallet sees its target;
the hoop lies in wait.
-  Haiku for a croquet ball, 2014
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25/1/2020
Saturday was a fairly busy day.  Out to the Salvation Army and St Vincent de Paul, lunch in New Town.  Then on to JB Hi-Fi, Cracked & Spineless Books, Harvey Norman, Coles Supermarket, the Cat Cafe and Barrington Lodge. 
By the time I got home I was ready to sit down, but the cat was so glad to see me he kept running back and forth, smothering me with affection.  After about four hours, he finally wore himself out and went to sleep. 

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11:40 PM 26/01/2020
Slept all right, and got to church on time.  A few people away for the Australia Day weekend, but it was nice to see Owen & Sue there today.  After the service, I stopped in town for lunch and bought the SUNDAY AGE [interview with Essie Davis].
After that, I went over to JB Hi-Fi.  Keith had told me they were having a 30% off sale.  I was tempted and I fell.  The good news is I saved a third on my purchases, the bad news was I spent (cough) dollars.   Came home with a bag of boxed sets of old TV shows, including MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, STINGRAY, CAPTAIN SCARLETT, SAPPHIRE & STEEL and BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES.  I really don't need to buy any more DVDs for a couple of years. 

6:59 PM 30/01/2020
Thursday morning I was completely flabbergasted.  Early in the week my remaining goose had disappeared;  I had looked around for him and found only a pile of white feathers and some bones.  Sadly I assumed that he had met an untimely death.  Not so !
This morning I went outside to take food and water to the poultry before the weather got too hot.  I stepped out onto the patio and there was the goose, sitting there in the sun in front of me.  I just stood there, staring.  It took me a couple of minutes to overcome my astonishment.
I used to tell Julie "Never assume."  Looks like I should take my own advice.

9:14 PM 30/01/2020
Thursday afternoon I shut myself inside where it was a bit cooler (plus that's where the electric fan was).  Once the wind swung round to the south we saw the temperature drop from 36C at 4pm to 18C at 6pm.  Whew.
 
This week's DOCTOR WHO was such a remarkabe story that we had the whole Internet being carpet-bombed with spoilers. It wasn't easy but I managed to avoid 90 percent of them. That still leaves ten percent of course.

2:13 PM 31/01/2020
Today will be one of the hottest days this summer, and one of the highest temperatures ever recorded for Tasmania, said ABC News.  It will also be warmer in Hobart than it will be in Darwin, which is forecast to hit a maximum of 33C.
So I made sure go out to the shops before midday, but it was still 30C by the time I got home.  The power had failed at the supermarket while I was there -- first time I've had to gather up my groceries in the illumination of the emergency lighting system.   
It was 40C by 2 pm.  I was settled on the couch with the electric fan going and just about to reach for my second iced coffee.   Hope all my friends and relatives are going all right too.