Author: jkirkby8712

Slept a bit longer than anticipated, after waking quite early this morning [as with yesterday’s time] and reading for an hour. Quick rush to the Swimming/Gymnasium Centre for an assessment to get into the new Lift for Life Program that I wanted to enrol in. I couldn’t complete the assessment today – wasn’t told to come dressed for gym work, though I was just completing the paper work!!!  Back again next Monday!  Into town, bit of shopping, and as with yesterday, stopped for an iced coffee in the Brook Street restaurant – probably something I ‘should not’ be drinking too regularly, but it is one of the few ‘coffee style’ drinks I can enjoy these days!!

I was pleased to hear from, friend Bev today  – she has been having health problems for the past 12 months, and computer problems over the past month or so, but they were finally hoping to get the latter sorted out today. Well that must have happened –  and she had some advice regarding my ‘medication problem  – ‘As I said in my ‘phone message, Kamal went to 2 chemists & neither had  Cartia. However one pharmacy said a substitute was Astrix. However,  you must have it after a good big meal, even if you have to change your
time of taking it’…………………unfortunately, it was the Astrix which appeared to be causing me some discomfort, so while appreciating the information, it didn’t really help me a great deal!    I had been feeling fine this morning, then had a bit of a rushed lunch –  been feeling off colour eve r since. Rather annoying. Seems to be a problem with the digestive system, not sure, will see how it goes for day or so, then follow it up.

Susie went off on ‘her road trip’ this afternoon – via Footscray where she was going to pick up Jodie, and together they were heading towards the beaches of the South Gippsland/Phillip Island area. I just hope the weather warms up a little for them both, though the amended forecast tonight was not too promising. I didn’t expect to hear from the girls tonight, though I did notice on one of their Face Book sites, that they were in the Lang Lang area, so at least they had managed to get well beyond the city area during the peak hour of traffic. I thought they would have been better off to head away this morning [expected them to actually], but apparently Jodie had to work today, which was where Susie picked her up from.  In fact, Melbourne’s weather yesterday, where the temperature didn’t get above 18.8 degrees [at 5.30 pm] in a day in which, throughout Victoria we had midsummer storms which dumped snow in some of the alpine regions [in the middle of January!!!], and gave the city it’s coldest January day in three years. No wonder, I have been wearing a pullover off and on over the past 24 hours! But things should be more normal by the weekend, expected to be back up in the 30s. Just hope the girls get some good sunshine before they return home on Sunday!

I noticed an interesting story the other day relating to the famous Stradivarius violins.  Reported in the Limelight magazine, we find that the  results of an experiment comparing violins by contemporary makers with two Stradivari (c1700) and one Guarneri del Gesù (c1740) have shocked string players around the world.  The blind test, conducted at the 2010 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis with findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has yielded some surprising insights into the quality of modern violin craft and the way a performer values an instrument and rates its sound.   Claudia Fritz, an acoustics specialist at the University of Paris, worked with Luthier Joseph Curtin and a team of researchers to gather 21 professional violinists for the study. Participants were given two tests: the first required them to play six violins and nominate the one they would like to take home. In the other, they played and compared pairs of violins, not having been told that one in each set was a valuable Italian rarity while the other was a new fiddle.   Tests were conducted in a room with dimmed lights and a dry acoustic; players wore modified welding goggles and handled the instruments through a dividing curtain. The chin rest of each violin was scented with perfume to prevent the odour of the wood from giving the game up.  To the chagrin of antique instrument dealers everywhere, one of the Strads was the least preferred in the series of pairs. In the six-violin test only 8 out of 21 subjects chose an old instrument and one of the newer offerings came out on top as the most preferred.   Prized for their resonant tone and exquisite craftsmanship, Stradivariuses are among the most expensive instruments in the world; the priciest specimen auctioned last year in support of a Japanese tsunami fund, the “Lady Blunt”, fetched AUD$15.4 million. Lest any of the world’s leading soloists rush out to trade theirs in for a newer model, Fritz noted that “differences in taste among individual players, along with differences in playing qualities among individual instruments, appear more important than any general differences between new and old violins.” 

Incidentally, the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s Satu Vänskä plays on a $1.79-million Stradivarius; Richard Tognetti on the 1743 “Carrodus” Guarneri.   While I like the sound of a good violin, one has to wonder at the ‘moral’ justification at so much money being expended on such an item  –  although, then again,  various categories of works of art, and other ‘collectibles’ attract equally atrocious amounts of money!!!     Away from violins, but within the same music genre, another interesting question was posed once by somebody, and no doubt echoed by many others –    “Is there a deeper, possibly unnatural, connection between music and death? Why is classical music, more than other arts, so preoccupied with the works of the no longer living? What other art routinely celebrates anniversaries of deaths as well as births?”  Certainly with respect to classical music, fans and the industry continually   mark these anniversaries all year long because it’s a great excuse to experience a lot of great music  –   it’s a time, and an excuse for the money makers, for the launch or completion of major recording projects, lavish boxed sets, pre-concert talks, radio saturation and, of course, special feature articles in publications, such as ‘Limelight’  Not always the case – I think last year, tributes were paid  to the living with Australia’s own Brett Dean turning 50, a milestone marked in a series of concerts around the world showcasing his skills as a composer, violist and conductor, while also, Peter Sculthorpe’s 80^th birthday gained some recognition [another Australian composer]. However, they are the exception. A couple of examples this year, briefly mentioned here  –  Claude Debussy [1872-1918], with the 150th anniversary of his birth on 22 August, 1862;   Frederick Delius [1862 – 1934] was born in Yorkshire 150 years ago on January 29;   Philip Glass [born in 1937], the American iconoclast, turns 75 on January 31;  Peggy Glanville-Hicks [1912-1990] is one of Australia’s greatest – and most unconventional – musical success stories.   John Cage [1912-1992], another American, and another century of celebrations likely to occur in memory of those and numerous others………………………….some of you might say, who cares?  But think about, musical composers are treated no differently, than countless other aspects of life  – we are always celebrating, acknowledging, or regretting the anniversary of someone, or something!!  It never ends.

Susan  away overnight for 2^nd night in a row, but home tonight before she and Jodie go down to the beach for a few days. Hope the weather is warmer than today – don’t think the temperature got above 19 degrees, unusual for January.  Meanwhile, another very early start for me this morning – on air at 6am for another ‘relieving’ 3 hours on the radio. While I was not enthusiastic about the 5am wakeup, by the time I had settled into the broadcasting studio, I was happy enough to be there, and really did enjoy my show – of music, news, weather & sport!  Another  morning text message from Jayne [our distant but regular listener], thanking me for the program, and enjoying the music.  I made sure, that before I finished, I played a little bit of the ‘sounds of Scotland’ for her!

I called in at the shopping area on my way home – was surprised at just how cold the breeze was at that time [about 9.30am]  –  I had a pullover in the car, and eventually, whilst walking around, had to go back for it!  A rare occurrence at this time of year during the daylight hours. While I was ‘in town’ called in at the local bookshop, and purchased a copy of the ‘complete poems of William Wordsworth ‘  – just a little something, at not a great cost that I wanted to add to my collection in that genre of writing.  This was a paperback edition of nearly 1100 pages – that man wrote a lot of poems!!  Wordsworth, who lived from 1770-1850, broke away from traditional poetry styles, and sought to write in the language of ordinary men and women, of ordinary thoughts, sights and sounds.   An example [from ‘The Sailor’s Mother’, written on 11 Dec 1802]

One morning [raw it was and wet

A foggy day in Winter time]

A \Woman on the road I met.

Not old, though something past her prime;

Majestic in her person, tall and straight,

And like a Roman matron’s was her

mein  and gait’………………………………………..

Robert Kirk’s birthday today   – 63 years old – and still working, and playing [cycling, ball room dancing, etc] like a 43 year old!! I’m envious! I posted him up a card this year instead of the usual email greeting and/or phone call. Hope to see him in April [Easter] when he and Evelyn come down for the Indoor Cycling Championships.

Family History committee meeting tonight –  useful session, although I find myself feeing a little frustrated at our new President, who takes so ,long to say anything, and then persistently goes over the same grounds. I feel like simply saying ‘shut up, get on with it, and say something’ – probably I’m the only one who feels that way, but I’m beginning to feel that most of this year’s meetings are going to be long drawn out and painful exercises – for me anyway!!   Got home just before 10pm, feeling rather exhausted.

A couple of brief quotations from books I am reading at the present time.

From ‘Emma’ by Jane Austen:-   ‘”I think, Harriet, since your acquaintance with us, you have been repeatedly in the company of some, such very real gentlemen, that you must yourself be struck with the difference in Mr Martin. At Hartfield, you have had very good specimens of well educated, well bred men. I should be surprised, if, after seeing them, you could be in company with Mr Martin again without perceiving him to be a very inferior creature – and rather wondering at yourself for ever having thought him at all agreeable before. Do not you begin to feel that now? Were not you struck?  I am sure you must have been struck by his awkward look and abrupt manner – and the uncouthness of a voice, which I heard to be wholly unmodulated as I stood here.”’ [from p.32, Folio Society edition]  ………………….. a quotation which I think gives some clear idea of the social ‘personality’ of the subject of this particular Jane Austin novel  –    a novel, first published in December 1815,  about the perils of misconstrued romance.  As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England; she also creates a lively ‘comedy of manners’ among her characters.

From ‘Tobruk’ by Peter Fitzsimons’ [pub in 2006]:- ‘ From London, Churchill was so alarmed at the fall of El Agheila that he cabled Wavell: “I presume you are only waiting for the tortoise to stick his head out far enough before chopping it off. It seems extremely important to give them an early taste of our quality’. At this point, Wavell might well have been forgiven for sending a blistering reply back to Churchill, but ever the correct military man, he did no such thing. Nevertheless, he did have some cause for complaint. It had been specifically at Churchill’s behest that Wavell had sent, from North Africa to Greece over the previous two months, more than 58,000 experienced soldiers and 8,000 vehicles. And now Churchill was asking him to stop the [German] advance and chop the tortoise’s head off?  With what?  And to what ‘quality’ did Churchill refer?” [p188-189]

From ‘ART” – Architecture-Painting-Sculpture-Graphics-Technics:-  ’40,000  years ago, during the last ice age, the continents were still connected by land bridges. ‘Modern’ humans [Homo sapiens] had long before left their home in Africa and set out to populate the world. They reached Australia over the Torres Strait; the settlement of the Americas would first occur tens of thousands of years later. At about this time, an artist in what is today southern Germany carved a mammoth, while another carved a lion-headed man. The artifacts found in the Vogelherd Cave are the oldest known works of art. Presumably, other ‘first’ works that did not survive the ravages of time were created elsewhere’ [p7]

Those quotations I have included today simply as an indication [and a reminder to myself] of the variety of reading material I find myself  involved with from time, and readers to these pages over a period of months [even years] will have gain the impression that my reading matter at any particular time often is dependant on  my frame of mind or mood, whether I want something light and quick & easy to read, or whether I’m prepared to spend, sometimes up to months, reading a more serious piece of literature.  I guess that if I read all that I would like to, there would be nothing else of consequence happening in my life – a desirable practicality of course!!

Meanwhile, reading our daily papers today we see the resurrection of increases in petrol prices again, with claims that Melbourne petrol prices could get to their highest ever weekly average of $1.64 per litre, recorded in 2008, with the blame being placed on an expected surge in global oil costs, over concerns that escalating violence in the Middle East could curb supplies!  So motorists are confused and frustrated at the pricing mechanisms that determine these things, while motoring authorities, continue to criticise the lack of competition in the industry which allows such variations. Interesting that we blame the Middle East – perhaps indirectly that is correct – however, I understand that Australia’s regional market for petrol in particular, is Singapore, and the price of unleaded petrol in that country is the key petrol. Pricing benchmark for Australia. To meet Australian fuel demand, about 20% of petrol is imported [mainly from Singapore], which is the regional refining and distribution centre.  Where then, does the rest come from? Australian wholesale prices of petrol and diesel, are closely linked to the Singapore prices of petrol and diesel, not to crude oil prices [the Middle East affect I guess?].  So I believe that the Singapore price of petrol plus shipping costs and Australian taxes represents almost the entire wholesale price of petrol – about 95%. The balance is accounted for by insurance, a quality premium for Australian fuel standards, local wharfage and terminal costs, and some element of a wholesale marketing margin. The time difference between changes in Singapore prices is about 1-2 weeks.  These ‘statistics’ [or broad facts] are provided by Australian Institute of Petroleum, but I don’t really think they help the average Australian furl consumer to really understand, why we have to pay so much for our fuel. Of course, if Iran goes ahead with it’s current threats to ‘close’ the supply lines for fuel from those Middle East areas, then the argument that the situation in that part of the world affects what we pay is valid. Obviously, there is a lot more to understanding the whole fuel supply situation than these brief and somewhat vague intimations!

A medical appointment this morning revealed all was fairly well on the diabetes side of things [as far as the results of a recent blood test were concerned], although I didn’t really get a satisfactory solution to the medication concern, seems I no option but to continue with what is available.  A ten minute [scheduled] appointment actually meant almost two hours of the morning were lost, but I guess I should get used to that situation!!  Anyway, the reasonably good reports did encourage this writer to go out for a lunchtime walk,. And a few duties in the garden later on.

The balance of my Monday seemed to revolve around music –either the planning of and scheduling of future programs, or eventually., later tonight, my regular Monday night program  – which features a mix of a wide variety of musical and other entertainment genres. One area I feature each night, is a selection of international tracks, and these are taken from the ‘Songlines Magazine’, and at present, I’m using music from Issue No. 80 [November-December 2011]. Songlines is the magazine that looks at the world through it’s music, and features articles on music and artists from all around the world.. It also includes a monthly CD from which I draw my weekly ‘world’ selections. This CD presents the Editor’s selection of the current top ten world albums – reviewed in the relevant issue, and from which a track from each album is included on the monthly CD. There are usually a further five tracks, being that month’s selections by a specific musical personality each month.  Issue No. 80 also included an additional CD –  titled ‘Global Sounds from Australia’ [remembering the magazine is  British/Euro publication]. As the introduction to that section says ‘Australia is home to some of the diverse musical styles in the southern hemisphere. Proudly claiming one of the oldest cultures in the world [Indigenous peoples], combined with a long history of immigration, the island continent has become a melting pot of global sounds. The annual Australasian World Music Expo [AWME] offers a musical expedition of the region and beyond, bringing together musicians, industry representatives and festival audiences from all corners of the globe”.  The AWME put together a compilation  CD [of 18 tracks] of Australian artists that have showcased at the event over the period 2008-2010.  So for 18 weeks, I’m using this CD of ‘Global Sounds from Australia’ in the program, as another little segment – basically described as Australian Roots Music.  Many of the artists, I have featured on the program previously, some are completely new to me, such as tonight’s track –  by an urban roots outfit calling ‘themselves’ ‘Blue King Brown’ with what was a great song ‘Never Fade Away, which delivered a blend of dancehall, roots, rock and Afro-groove, all built upon an irrepressible percussive foundation.

I also had a rather nice surprise during the program.  A phone call from a young singer up in Brisbane  – obviously, she couldn’t hear my program, but she knew that I was on air at this particular time, and that I promote and play Australian artists who are being sponsored by the AMRAP organisation here in Australia. Anyway, this lady was wondering if I would play her songs on my program, and of course, the answer was yes!! We chatted briefly, and she agreed to email me a sample of some of her work, and once I have managed to ‘copy’ her songs into a suitable on air playing format, I hoped to be able to interview her during the program.

She was true to her word – when I got home after midnight, there were four emails and four separate songs for me to listen to. Fantastic!  My initial reaction when watching one of the U-Tube videos she sent me, was to be reminded of my favourite Australian jazz singer, Katie Noonan. Different genre of music singing, much more versatile than Katie’s more jazz ballad style, but with similarities!!  Interesting!

This morning’s radio show just didn’t feel right, it wasn’t one of my best, although hopefully, I was the only one who noticed, or felt that way. It wasn’t helped by another restless night, with short sleep patterns, due to a general feeling on not feeling well, a sensation which tended to stay with me this morning. Usually, by the time I get on air, any tiredness or other concerns wash away with the pleasure of the music I’m playing, or whatever, but today, I’m not sure that was the case. I mentioned to Jack, who followed me this morning, that I felt an obligation to go to the station’s fund raising sausage sizzle this morning, though I really didn’t have the energy to be bothered.  As it turned out, I went back home for a brief while, doing a little shopping along the way, and then decided to stay there!! Tried to convince my conscience that I had done plenty for the radio station since Christmas – they could manage without my services on this occasion.

So there you go, after an early morning start, I returned home where I stayed – probably should rested more than I did – housework, reading, writing, typing, etc –  but really, those things were more restful than standing around in the warm sun beside a gas barbeque, trying to feel better than I really felt!  Anyway, enough of that!  The day passed by peacefully enough, and by Sunday night, I had decided to watch a bit of TV. That included and interesting documentary on SBS – the first of a three part program called ‘Once upon a Time in Cabramatta’.   As a reviewer, Doug Anderson wrote   “Malcolm Fraser says yes, and thousands of Vietnamese refugees start entering Australia. Pauline Hanson begins ranting doom and the Armageddon shock-jock choir cranks up ”We’ll all be rooned!”  But what of the refugees and their aspirations for a decent life? As we know, most have worked hard, integrated as much as is necessary and made amazing contributions to our social fabric. Anh Do’s story The Happiest Refugee is regarded as a bellwether of countless experiences but it was not smooth sailing to get here and the multilayered transitions required to build a new destiny came at a cost.  This series details some of the downside – the vagaries that confronted the children of those poor, tired, hungry huddled masses upon arrival. Stories of alienation, racism, lack of love and inadequate social back-up constitute a casebook study of what not to do for new arrivals.  Not all Vietnamese refugees have happy-ever-after stories. Not all Anglo-Aussies have abandoned their prejudices, either. The past hasn’t entirely passed – especially in Cabramatta, as this three-part doco makes clear”.  I must admit this was all happening in the years that I was not taking as much notice of such events, and I’d certainly not realised the extent of difficulties that many of these Vietnamese refugees faced, and created for those already  in the country when they came here in the 1970s.  My main contact was with a group of 2 or 3 Vietnamese brothers who joined our Wesley Badminton Club in the late 1970s, although from memory, they each seemed to be fairly well off –  educated, good jobs, and [I’m assuming] financially secure. I never asked at the time, but they probably didn’t come here by boat!  Family name was Lam or Pham, can’t recall which way it went – Shirley might remember, she was a better badminton player than I ever was, and as those lads were good players, she got to play as partners with them, more than I ever did.  Anyway, a program worth having a look at the next two parts of!

On the same channel [SBS], there followed a French movie – not sure why I started to watch it, obviously the brief descriptive subject matter drew my attention – story of an older sister, who comes out of jail, where she has spent 15 years for murdering her son – comes to stay initially with her younger sister ,her husband and two little adopted Vietnamese girls. For all intents and purposes, the younger girl had been forbidden by her parents to ever acknowledge the older sibling for what she had done, so the initial meeting and arrival in the family home is greeted with some tension, though not by the too delightful little girls who are very excited to meet their ‘mysterious’ Auntie!!  I really ‘enjoyed’ this film, if that’s the right word to describe a movie that in the main, is not a very happy storyline – filmed in French of course with English subtitles, which to my mind barely affected the viewing of the film.  I actually found a Wikipedia summary of the movie, which I thought did it great justice, and provides as good a synopsis as any other.  Incidentally, the name of the movie was “I’ve Loved You So Long”, made in 2008 I think.

From Wikipedia:  “When Juliette Fontaine is released from prison after serving a fifteen-year sentence, her younger sister Léa invites her to stay with her family – including her husband Luc, his mute father Papy Paul, and their two adopted Vietnamese daughters, P’tit Lys and Emelia – in their home in the university town of Nancy in Lorraine. Léa, a college professor of literature, is considerably younger than Juliette. The younger woman recalls little about her childhood. Because of the nature of Juliette’s crime (a secret which is revealed at the end of the film), their parents denied Juliette’s existence and refused to allow Léa to visit her. In addition, Juliette had refused to speak throughout her trial. As a result, Léa knows nothing about the circumstances surrounding the crime and, when pressed for details, Juliette refuses to discuss what happened.

While struggling to find employment, Juliette enjoys platonic companionship with two men, probation officer Capt. Fauré, who understands how prison can damage the human spirit and shares with her his dream of seeing the Orinoco River, and Michel, one of her sister’s colleagues. She also develops a close relationship with her young nieces, much to the distress of their father, who is concerned about their safety while in their aunt’s presence.

Juliette finds work transcribing medical records for a hospital, where her supervisor encourages her to be more friendly with her co-workers when they complain about her being cold and distant. But Juliette has been confined for so long she feels dehumanized and finds it difficult to relate to others. She agrees to accompany Léa when she visits their mother, who is confined to a nursing home with Alzheimer’s disease. For a brief moment the woman recognizes and embraces her, remembering her as a little girl rather than the estranged daughter who murdered her grandson.

Gradually, Juliette begins to fit in with her family, makes friends and is given a permanent job. Léa then accidentally discovers a clue to Juliette’s secret, leading to the film’s final revelations: Juliette was a well respected doctor; her young son had been diagnosed with a fatal and painful disease. When the disease progressed, Juliette had euthanized him so he wouldn’t suffer. During her trial, she had felt so guilty for what she had done, she hadn’t defended herself. Lea confronts Juliette with what she has learned and asks why she had never explained or asked for help leading to an emotional breakdown between the sisters. Juliette, finally able to express her feelings and describe in detail what she did and why, is able to come to terms with the past and move on”.

Peter Bradshaw of ‘The Guardian’ went a little further, in his review back in 2008, and I want to use this as a further illustration of the film.

“The presence of Kristin Scott Thomas in this literate French movie by Philippe Claudel is so powerfully distinctive that it’s as if Claudel has not merely written the lead role for her, but extrapolated his film’s entire narrative structure from Scott Thomas’s personality. Her formidable bilingual presence, her beauty – elegant and drawn in early middle age – her air of hypersensitive awareness of all the tiny absurdities and indignities with which she is surrounded, coupled with a drolly lenient reticence: it all creates an intelligent, observant drama about dislocation, fragility and the inner pain of unshakeable memories. Scott Thomas is on screen for almost every minute of the film, often in close-up and her face is at once eloquent and deeply withdrawn.    She plays Juliette, a forty-something woman who after a long and painful separation has been taken in by her younger sister Léa, played by Elsa Zylberstein. When we first see Juliette, being picked up at the airport, she wears no makeup and smokes perpetually; she has a dowdy grey cardigan of the sort worn in girls’ boarding schools, and has clearly been institutionalised in some awful way.  Juliette and Léa’s childhood home was near Rouen, but Léa has now moved with her husband Luc (Serge Hazanavicius) and two young children to Nancy, in eastern France. The film’s regional identity is cleverly underlined with material about intense football rivalries, and soccer-mad Luc’s resentment of biased sports coverage in the Parisian papers.

Juliette’s English-accented French is explained by the fact that she spent some time in England and that the women’s mother (played by Claire Johnston) is English, a patient with dementia in an old people’s home. Juliette’s sole meeting with the old woman is a brashly tremendous coup de cinéma, which Claudel saves up for the very end: a dramatic flourish like something from Tennessee Williams.

The reason for Juliette’s absence is a grim, unnameable secret. It is the elephant in the living room whose shadow has fallen over all their lives, and it is only when Juliette goes for job interviews, or for mandatory meetings with her welfare case-worker, or the local police officer with whom she must sign in once a week, that she can speak the truth aloud. This Juliette does with a crisp, proud defiance, and a perverse pleasure in shocking and upsetting people, to pre-empt their judgment and their scorn.  In a series of cleverly constructed, indirect dialogue scenes, Claudel shows how Juliette’s 15-year-old secret has sent her entire family into shock and a collective dysfunction. Ironically, it is Juliette who has been able to look the facts squarely in the face and, having had a decade and a half to come to terms with it, is relatively well adjusted. But Léa, carrying the twin burdens of her own family respectability and the need to appease her parents’ angry demands for silence on the matter, has had to spend her adult life in denial. To her astonishment, Juliette realises that her secret has induced in Léa a kind of learned amnesia about their shared youth, and she is enraged that Léa has made life choices that look like an agonised repudiation of Juliette’s past. Yet all this makes Léa’s passionate need to reach out to her damaged sister all the more moving.

Scott Thomas and Zylberstein make good sisters. It is not simply that they look plausibly similar, but not too similar, it is that they act out sibling tension so well: the tricky magnetic field made up of shared memories, rivalries, intimacies. (I couldn’t help wondering what a film about sisters starring Kristin Scott Thomas and her own sister Serena would look like.) For a novelist, Philippe Claudel shows remarkable skill with his first feature film: in fact, his script is almost a screenplay masterclass, absorbing a lot of facts and story into a small space, but without any uncomfortable cramming, and he adroitly suggests the slow process by which Juliette is gradually accepted into the family and the community. With miraculous efficiency, he creates for Juliette a flirtation with a melancholy cop, a sexual encounter with a bumptious guy in a bar, and a growing, tender intimacy with Léa’s colleague and fellow lecturer Michel (Laurent Grevill). Enough material for a whole soap opera season is miraculously reduced to feature length

My only quarrel with this drama is that the final revelation, when it comes, is a little strained. It turns on the discovery of a photo and certain details on the back of a handwritten poem, but these details, as well as not being spelled out, do not appear to offer us much more knowledge than we, by this stage, have already gleaned. Scott Thomas’s performance, easily the best of her career, countermands any such qualms: the centre of a deeply involving, beautifully acted and expertly constructed human drama by and for grown-up”.

On that last point of Bradshaw, I had to agree, as it was difficult to follow what was actually supposed to have been on that piece of paper – left up to our imaginations I guess, I wondered for a moment whether I’d simply missed the point through the use of English sub-titles, etc, as I was waiting for a more definite explanation of what was happening. Nevertheless, the subsequent acting performance gave us all the answers eventually in some superb character acting.

Secrets and lies … Kristin Scott Thomas in I’ve Loved You So Long

I was also quite taken with the acting of the ‘supposed’ 6 year old Vietnamese girl  – a beautiful little performance for someone so young, and even if she were in reality, a couple of years older,  I was rather impressed

Last night, instead of my intended appearance on the radio, I spent quite a few hours cooking a late slow cooking roast, and then a few more hours sorting through old photographs, covering my life and activities, mainly through the 1960s. That little exercise brought back a few memories, and lots of names of people I used to work and/or socialise with, and in a number of cases, I found myself wondering where those people were these days, and whether like myself at this time, they ever thought back over past years, and remembered ‘Bill Kirk’. Probably not, and he was never a very ‘memorable’ character, soon forgotten once life moved on!! Oddly enough, most of them haven’t been forgotten by me, and I have retained most letters, photos, documents, etc, over my lifetime. Not sure to what purpose, but it’s a fact, and last night, I found myself giving much thought to some of those people who came into my life at different periods.

I got up this morning, to find the kind of news headline I’ve always dreaded seeing whenever I used to watch the hot air balloons over the city of Melbourne  – from this morning  in New Zealand  –   Eleven people have died when a hot air balloon was engulfed in flames in New Zealand.  The balloon came down in flames at Clareville, near the Wairarapa township of Carterton, about 7.30am local time (0530 AEDT) on Saturday. Local resident David McKinlay said he was watering the garden of his home on the northern boundary of Carterton at 7.40am (0540 AEDT) when he looked up toward the northeast. “I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” he said.. “There were flames licking up the basket on one side, up towards the guy ropes of the balloon itself and probably just about reaching the fabric of the balloon,” he told AAP. The balloon came down at speed in a paddock on Somerset Road. Mr McKinlay ran inside to alert emergency services.  “When I got back out I could just see the mass of flame where the actual balloon was on fire. It had completely disintegrated and it was just a long – probably 10 or 15 metres long – trail of flame coming in toward the ground at colossal speed,” he said. Wairarapa District Health Board spokeswoman Jill Stringer told AAP that 11 people died.  First reports were received by police at 7.26am. Police say there have been multiple fatalities but they have not confirmed the number killed. The area is a popular hot air ballooning destination and the annual Balloons Over Wairarapa festival is held there.  New Zealand’s Transport Accident Investigation Commission has opened an inquiry into the accident.  “It is going to be a terrible thing for Carterton,” Mr McKinlay said

Here in Sunbury, a coolish day, mid 20s, with overcast conditions from time to time threatening rain. But apart from a few splashes here and there, it had not come by evening.  It was about mid-afternoon, when I drove over to Sunbury’s Clark Oval, to watch my son’s cricket match. I arrived  about 20 minutes before the opposition’s innings finished – top team in the D Grade Division, Gisborne, all out for 101 runs.  Adam and his team should have been feeling reasonably confident they could beat that score, so long as the rain stayed away!  Adam took two catches during his fielding time, and then he came in to open the innings for Sunbury. He was in for 3 or 4 overs, but unfortunately, after been hit on the body twice in one over, he was then caught behind, for just 3 runs [I thought he’d scored more than that, but apparently there were a few Byes recorded as well]. Four more of his team mates didn’t fare much better, and with all of a sudden, 5 wickets down for 40+ runs, things were starting to look serious. But then we had a match winning partnership, which got to within 2 runs of victory before it was broken, however, it was only a matter of time before those required runs were scored, and Adam’s team had secured a handy victory against the top team in their grade.

The rest of my Saturday, and evening, was spent quietly at home!  Looking back at my diary on this day, in 2005, it seems to have been one long procession of my picking up, driving, or dropping off, one or other of my children from one part of Sunbury to another [the youngest would have been 16 that year, but at least three of them were still dependant on ‘old Dad’ for a ride to their various venues of activity – work, sport, parties, etc!!  I noticed that I was also on call that night for the YRIPP program –  on call to go the local police station and provide a ‘trained’ adult presence should any unaccompanied minors be there for police interviews. I had trained for that in 2004 mainly, but only received a couple of calls in that time [which I was unable to attend] – I would eventually pull out of the program, as I was not keen on the  ‘on call’ nature of the program, I preferred to have my days, and nights determined in advance as far as possible!

My intention was to again fill in a gap on the radio station tonight, with a mixture of jazz and show music.  However, decided after another ‘rough night’ of sleeping, tired, and not feeling as well as I would wish to be, that I’d give tonight a miss  – I was not expected by listeners I don’t think, and simply felt like a brief break until Sunday morning.  I did let one listener know of my intentions [or should we say ‘non-intentions’], and received a rather nice response  –  ‘Thank you Bill, you are over doing things. You must slow down, enjoy your retirement. Give yourself time to adjust to your new routine, your health and well being TOP PRIORITY. I am giving you a PEP talk from my heart. Hope you feel better soon./ Jayne”,  Jayne is one of the station’s most loyal listeners, and actually admits to regarding 3NRG Sunbury as her family out here in Australia, and she doesn’t even live here in the town, but in Melbourne’s south eastern suburbs, about an hour from here by train! She has suffered from immense health problems over the past twelve months or so in addition to the recent loss of a brother [on Christmas Eve] over in Scotland. I do generally try and find at least one piece of music most programs, that has some kind of Scottish connection with it!

Meanwhile, at the newsagent this morning, found myself thinking of a couple of other people myself  –   and purchased a couple of cards for the circumstances involved –  brother Robert, who turns 63 next Wednesday, and long time friend [and former girlfriend of 40 years ago], Shirley, who lost her mother, last Friday. By coincidence, I was sorting through some old photographs last night, and came across a few photos from the late 1960s/early 1970s involving ‘Shirley’ [the old friend] and myself. She looked rather stunning in a ball gown that she was wearing, obviously for one of those ‘old style’ balls we used to go to in those days – although if I remember rightly, something she drank that night, did not ‘treat her very well’, and her night ended up with my ‘date’ feeling a little unwell!!  Memories, not always the way you would like them to be, but nevertheless, all a part of good and bad times in life. Another little verse I found somewhere, comes to mind here:

Life can be brief

In nature’s world,

A season’s but an hour,

And those who take the bad too soon

May never see

The flower –

It only seems a few months ago that we saw the creation of a new nation in Africa, with the arrival of Southern Sudan out of Sudan. But it seems that a new name and new existence does little to change the way things are in that part of the world.  I’m seeing reports of more than 3000 people killed in South Sudan last week in ethnic violence, that forced thousands of others to flee  – although ‘fleeing’ seems to what the people in part of the original Sudan have been doing for decades –  these kind of mass killings or massacres seem able to be perpetuated despite the presence of United Nations personnel, South Sudanese army,. etc   With the report that this is the worst outbreak of ethnic violence in the new nation since it split from Sudan in July, seems to be the indication that such violence is an ongoing activity anyway. Also seems that nothing has changed in terms of conflict and violence between the various ‘tribes’ of much of Africa down the centuries. As I read that, I’m wondering what has happened to a Sudanese friend/refugee who was in Melbourne some years ago – we brought Godfrey out to the Sunbury Church to talk to the congregation about the plight of Sudanese refugees, and in fact, at one stage, undertook a fund raising effort to bring a small group – two adults and two boys –  out here to Melbourne as approved refugees to this country. Presumably they are still here somewhere, the boys would be teenagers by now. But Godfrey went back to the Sudan, where for the past few years he has been working to better the life of many of his fellow countrymen and women, and from memory, he would have been very enthusiastic about the creation of Southern Sudan.  I wonder where he is now  –  his old email and mobile phone illicit no response when one tries to contact him, and the one occasion when he was back in Melbourne briefly for the Christmas of 2010, initial plans to meet up with him, fell through, and contact has been lost since. We even had a Sunday afternoon tea and meeting here at my home a few years ago, when he spoke about the work he was doing in his homeland. An example of a refugee who found his way to Australia, but has returned two or three times to his own country – simply to help the people there, at considerable risk to his own future out here I would imagine. I might come back to Godfrey, and our past associations, in a future contribution, in the meantime, my intention is to renew my efforts to contact him.

As for the cricket, the 2^nd Test ended, once again this Summer, a day early, when Australia eventually bowled out the Indian team late yesterday afternoon, to win the match by an Innings and 68 runs, and take a 2-0 lead in the four test series. Disappointment of the day [and probably not just for Indian supporters] was that Sachin Tendulkar failed again to scored ‘that elusive’ 100th century in international cricket. That ‘expectation’ will follow him now to Perth, for the 3^rd Test, due to start there on the 13^th January. Meanwhile, not surprisingly, after his mammoth batting effort at the weekend, Australian captain, Michael Clarke, was named ‘Man of the Match’. But not all good news for Australia. Successful new fast bowler, James Pattinson, has been ruled out of the rest of the series, due to an injury to his foot. Pattinson has been the player of the Summer, claiming 25 wickets in four tests, but he now joins  Australia’s growing casualty list of injured players.

Meanwhile, in the national soccer competition, the so far unsuccessful season for the Melbourne Victory team [after a number of top seasons] has had the inevitable outcome for the man at the top –  the Club sacked successful coach, Ernie Merrick in January 2011, and later in June, appointed Mehmet Durakovic as the new Coach. However, just 3 wins from 14 games, and now he is gone –  the club’s view being that ‘the club is in a position which isn’t acceptable and change is required’!! Durakovic was sacked this morning! Thankfully, for Victorian soccer fans, the other team down here – Melbourne Heart in it’s second season, is currently close to the top of the ladder and continuing to perform very well.

My contributions over recent weeks have given a lot of time to cricket. As a loyal Test cricket fan, I make no apologies for that. This is a one-off  entry, in order to share a front page article in this morning’s Age newspaper, concerning Michael Clarke’s contribution as captain of the Australian cricket team. The journalist was Greg Baum.

“MICHAEL Clarke walked out to bat at 4.43pm on Tuesday, in a crisis. Day and night came and went, and came and went. The SCG emptied, filled, emptied, was repackaged in Glenn McGrath pink and filled again. Several prime ministers happened by.  Two elders and betters joined him for about a day each, making mere and competent centuries. Two Big Bash League matches were played and instantly lost to memory. Clarke repeatedly changed bats and gloves, and exchanged helmet for cap, cap for helmet. India switched bowlers, balls and fieldsmen in their positions, unavailingly.  Crisis was averted, supremacy stamped in its place. History beckoned. By the first over after lunch yesterday, normally unhurried patrons were pouring down the aisles towards their seats, realising they now were witnesses as well as fans.

At 2.11pm yesterday, after nearly 10½ batting hours, Clarke was 329 not out, king of the SCG and within a couple more of those lacerating cover drives of surpassing Don Bradman, among others, on the honour roll of highest individual Test innings. Then he declared.  Doubtlessly, he figured that Australia’s gargantuan 468-run lead was ample, that victory was the only objective, and that Australia would need the second half of the match to bowl out India again. As it transpired, it took Australia the rest of the day and all its bowling wherewithal to take two wickets.  Yet to some minds, Clarke’s declaration was tactically hasty and had another motivation. Implicit in that thinking is that by affecting ultimate selflessness, he was seeking unreserved acceptance. Here is the last vestige of the mysterious phenomenon by which 2004’s debut centurion and boy wonder so totally lost favour with Australian cricket fans that, at the end of last summer, he was summarily booed by them

Many theories have been advanced. The most persistent is that for a boy from Sydney’s west he was too consumed by lifestyle – the car, clothes, THAT girl – and not enough by cricket. In the land of the aspirational, his sin was to aspire. But in cricket terms he had shunned easy Indian money and, when made captain, quickly showed himself to be an intuitive and astute one. More probably, his unforgivable – though hardly exclusive – latter-day failing was to not make enough runs. But be it approval or scores, building them necessarily are long-term projects. Here is yesterday’s moral.  An innings such as this is by definition larger than life, yet consists of a repetition of life-sized acts: those glorious cover drives, that effortless easing to leg, the feather-light footwork against the off-spinner. Any one ball might have halted it. Ask Shaun Marsh, who faced only one, or Rahul Dravid, who last night was bowled by an exceptional one by Ben Hilfenhaus, or Sachin Tendulkar, who so nearly was. Yet Clarke outlived all of the game’s happenstance, leaving for the record an innings that will far outlive him.  At first, Australia’s pinched circumstances weighed, and Clarke was providently flighty. But once into his innings, it was notable for its even temper and tempo. He became neither bogged down nor carried away. He was rarely tempted, by fast bowlers or slow, but nor was he deceived. Past 300, he still let go balls that posed no threat and would gain him nothing. Clarke knew there was plenty more hay to make.  When India was bedraggled on Wednesday evening, he sped from 150 to 250 in 108 balls. When India regrouped yesterday morning, he was content to face 91 more to get to 300. Truthfully, India had long since stopped trying to get him out, settling instead for attrition. The seamers bowled wide to off-side fields as crowded as Kolkata, the spinner bowled with a leg slip. There was little subtlety.  Ishant Sharma, the most persevering of the Indian bowlers, troubled him, but only every other hour or so. Three hundred posted, he swung airily at Sharma once or twice, not so much liberties as flickers in concentration.

 
His celebrations were variations on a theme, each hug tighter than the last. For the two to reach 200, he ran with his hands in the air and rounded the non-striker’s wicket as if it were a base. At 300, he gave it the works: a kiss of the helmet, a squeeze for and from Michael Hussey, an acknowledgement of the McGrath Foundation.  The ovation was like the innings, rousing, resonant and sustained. In its echo, an era might have begun”.

I was interested to read in yesterday’s media, that Victorian Premier, Ted Bailleau’s Coalition State Government has recorded it’s biggest slump in support since winning government in November 2010, losing four percentage points of it’s primary vote to Labor, in a rare sign of trouble for the conservative side of politics in the Julia Gillard era. It is the first time in a decade state government has finished its first year in a weaker position than when it was elected.  While Bailleau’s personal standing is still strong as comparted with his Opposition leader, and he is still well liked,  the personal ratings don’t compensate for what opinion makers claim is a troubling poll for the Victorian government.  My view is that they seem to be ‘stumbling’ along with government without creating too much excitement most of the time, while in comparison, with Labor under its new leader, one barely seems to be aware that they exist, unless you were a Labor supporter. Perhaps it is simply because it is state politics and doesn’t get the same media coverage between elections, than at the Federal level  –  certainly, the volatile negative attacking nature of the Federal Opposition, appears on the surface to be much lacking at the State opposition level. Nevertheless, it appears obvious that Mr Bailleau’s government will need become more pro-active in 2012, and let the voting public become more aware that things are taking place, and that changes for the better are occurring in this state. Those things are not so apparent at the present time, we just seem to be gliding along!!

A bit of reading early this morning, of ‘Tobruk’ by Peter Fitzsimons  –  a cable from British PM Winston Churchill, dated  10 January 1941 to the Australian forces in North Africa at the time “Nothing must hamper the capture of Tobruk, but thereafter all operations in Libya are subordinated to aiding Greece. We expect and require prompt and active compliance with our decisions, for which we bear full responsibility” [p.122].  This was related to that fact that while the Italians had not really been successful in their ‘invasion/attack’ ob Greece, it was anticipated that the Germans would soon invade Greece themselves. A long standing agreement between Britain and Greece that the countries would come to the aid of each other in such circumstances, meant an obligation on the Britain to do just that for Greece. But Britain at the time was running short of troop resources to commit to such a venture  –  the Australians in North Africa were their best option to meet that aid commitment……….I’m finding this book extremely interesting, but at Chapter 6 of 17 lengthy and detailed chapters [after two weeks occasional reading] I have a way to go!!

Weather a little cooler today, felt I must make the effort to get out in the garden later. Yesterday, I had my first walk for the year, and while the left ankle does not yet feel 100%, it held up fairly well during that walk.  Will go out again, early  this evening after the heat of the day has passed.  Susie was away overnight again, and this morning, the house was quiet, something I’m well used to at present. The TV would only go on during the day for something like the cricket, which was of course continuing this morning, as the Australians, and Michael Clarke in particular, continued with their big innings.  More on that later, no doubt!

{i had a brief look back at my Diary for 2006, written prior to commencing this blog later that year  –  just one sentence on a foolscap page for Thursday 5 January 2006 –  it said ‘Joined David and Raquel at lunchtime, they were walking Jodie’s dog’  – they were three co-workers at my workplace of the time, at the Alternative Technology Association, and we were all obviously out walking in the Fitzroy Gardens, which were conveniently across the road from our offices. Jodie, who was not with us, had obviously brought her large dog into the office for the day!!!!]

Not sure where I found the words below, just a little collection I have of unsourced quotations, it sounded just right for this morning – it’s such a pity, that in so many parts of today’s world, that kind of philosophy doesn’t or won’t apply to the way many peoples lives and think!

If each of us fights

cruelty, injustice and greed

in our own little worlds,

perhaps there will be no need

for the next generation

to go to war –

And similarly, this verse could follow on from that thought  – wouldn’t it be great to have the goodwill and generosity of crowd support that was taking place at the Sydney Cricket Ground today, at what was described as the McGrath Foundation ‘pink’ day of cricket [see below]

There are some causes

for which I would die –

cruelty, injustice and greed

but I cannot think of one

for which I would kill

Today, at the  Sydney Cricket ground, we had Pink Stumps day 2012, as part of Day 3 of the second Test match between India and Australia, in support of the battle against breast cancer. The ground was covered in a pink tinge with pink signage, stumps and Australian players sporting pink batting grips, and the fans also joined in on the act and turned the grandstands pink as well.  The trademark Pink Stumps day intended to raise more than 1 million dollars for the Jane McGrath Foundation, was initiated by former fast bowler Glenn McGrath’s then wife, Jane, who died of breast cancer in 2008. McGrath was also present at the ground during the match, where he also helped host the annual Jane McGrath High Tea. Since the inaugural pink Test at the SCG in 2009, the funds raised have been utilized by the Foundation to place specialist breast cancer nurses in communities right across Australia and to augment breast cancer awareness among young women. The Channel 9 cricket commentary team also fully joined in the occasion with their large floppy pink, one of them even daring to wear a pink suit, which personally I thought looked terrible!!  However it was all part of a wonderful spirit of support for the ideals of the foundation, and which has become an annual event on Day 3 of the Sydney Test match..

It was also a day of records at the cricket, as far as Australia was concerned. The Aussies resumed this morning at 4 wickets fore 482, with Michael Clarke not out 251 and Michael Hussey not out 55.  The following reports tell the story of the day as far as the cricket was concerned.

Well Michael Clarke, the Australian captain,  thinks anyone who believes a victory will come quickly in the 2^nd Test, despite the Australian cricket team being well on top, are kidding themselves, and insists that team must be prepared to work hard to ensure a win..  The captain made a mammoth 329 not out in Australia’s 4(dec)-659 in reply to India’s first innings of 191, meaning the tourists needed 468 in their second innings just to make the hosts bat again.  Looking at the Nine network report of the game, we read the following.   Australia still have their worries at the top of the order, but their colossal first innings in the second Test against India at the SCG was a triumphant return to dominance with the bat. .  The hosts are just eight wickets from taking an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-Test series going into Friday’s fourth day but Clarke thinks anyone who believes a victory will come quickly are kidding themselves.  The captain made a mammoth 329 not out in Australia’s 4(dec)-659 in reply to India’s first innings of 191, meaning the tourists needed 468 in their second innings just to make the hosts bat again.   Australia declared at 4-659 with Michael Clarke 329 not out and Michael Hussey unbeaten on 150, and with nearly two and a half days left in the Test, they really could have kept on going The 163-over effort at the crease was the equal second highest team total amassed at the SCG.  It was Australia’s biggest innings total since an Ashes Test against England in Cardiff back in 2009.  They scored 6-674 declared that day, but in more recent times Australia have found it a battle just to even get past 150.  To break the shackles will give the batting line-up a timely boost of confidence at a time when the bowling attack seems to have finally found the right balance and plan.  The two-day massacre of India at the SCG was also the first time since that same Ashes Test at Cardiff that three or more Australian batsmen have scored centuries in an innings.  Back in July 2009 it was Simon Katich, Ricky Ponting, Marcus North and Brad Haddin..  This time it was Clarke, Hussey and Ricky Ponting’s meaningful 1  On day one and two, captains past and present, Ponting and Clarke, racked up a 288-run partnership.  It was a record partnership by Australian pairings against India, but it lasted less than 24 hours.  On day three Clarke and Hussey made short work of the 288 and turned it into a monstrous 334 not out – the fourth biggest ever compiled at the SCG in its landmark 100th Test. Clarke’s 329 not out was the fourth highest innings by an Australian, fifth highest ever by a captain and the biggest score and first triple hundred seen at the SCG.  In contrast, back in  November, 2011,  against South Africa in Cape Town, historians were struggling to keep up with the horrific second day which saw Australia lose 9-21 and be all out for a 102-year-low of 47.  That record highs and not record lows were being brought up at a rate of knots in Sydney just a month and a half later, can only be a good thing for Australia as they fight to reclaim the No.1 spot in the world Test rankings.  Incidentally, had Michael Clarke kept batting, he would have surpassed the previous highest Australian Test scorers of the late Donald Bradman, and Nine commentator and former Australian captain, Mark Taylor scores of 334 [when Taylor made that score in 1998, he declared, rather than exceeding the Bradman score. Subsequent to that match, Matthew Hayden scored a mammoth 380 runs in 2003 in a Test match over in Perth.

Here is Michael Clarke with the ‘pink’ environment clear in the background –

For cricket lovers in Australia, the 5^th January, 2012,. Particularly if you were at the Sydney Cricket Ground would be a ‘pink’ day to remember. Incidentally, chasing Australia’s big lead,. with two days to play, the Indians were 2 wickets down for 116 runs at Stumps tonight.

The major purpose for which I began to write these contributions, back in September 2006 was to share with those who cared to read them, events of interest to myself, both within Australia, and internationally,  sharing both my views and those of journalists and other media commentators, etc  – bit of an emphasise on politics, sport, music & the arts, and social issues generally. Some examples of what I’m referring to, appear later in this contribution.  Over the last year or so, my writings have broadened to encompass more personal day to day events, and I generally try and submit a contribution on each day. Occasionally we go missing for a few days, and suddenly you might find a consolidated approach which incorporates a number of days.  The things that are of particular importance to your ‘personal essayist’ [a title I modestly apply to myself] are  my community radio involvement, music, books, films, concerts, sport,  and commentaries on social and political issues, and admittedly, these often tend to dominate my contributions. While in ‘modern’ terms, most people would describe my writings as a form of ‘blog diary’, I don’t really like the word ‘blog’, hence you will generally find that I use the term ‘contribution’!

This is how I started on the 11 September, 2006  –  ‘My philosophy is that ‘Life wasn’t meant to be easy’  but you make what you can of it, and treat everyone else as if that was the way you would like them to treat you.   The essence of life is friendship, and while a true and good friend may not always be easy to find [or to retain], once you have that special element of a real friend, you will remain so for life, I sincerely believe that.  This writer is a quiet natured guy, but who always remains loyal to his friends, and their interests, and enjoys the opportunity to share those interests, concerns, desires, whatever –    he has many interests and ‘hobbies’ [if that’s the right word] of his own which he will share at the appropriate time with any with a genuine interest in doing so.  Try me, I’d love to hear from ‘YOU’……………………………  whilst this initial  blog was on Yahoo360, I came into contact with a number of interesting people, but since that avenue disappeared, and I’ve transferred my contributions to other blog sites, that interaction has dried up, and it has become a little like many of my radio programs – I feel so often, as though I’m talking to myself. And yet there is, like the radio, always someone out there, listening [or reading], one simply doesn’t hear from them however.

My life is not really one of ‘adventure’, so if that is what is being searched for in the physical sense, you will probably be bored and/or disinterested. In fact, having just retired from full time employment, and subsequently not as young as I once was, that aspect of my daily activities will probably lessen further as time passes. I do live a ‘quiet’ life, despite many interests and a lifelong involvement in community organisations and work.  So with the beginning of a new year, I guess my future aims and prospects, in respect to both what I want to do with my life from hereon, and how I would like to continue with this ‘blog’ [if you like], are both up for reconsideration. As indicated previously, there is much I would like to achieve in the years ahead, but generally those ‘things’ don’t include world shattering experiences like international travel, late in life sporting achievements, or any kind of fame  – if  ambitions such as completing the writing of a family history, improving the look and quality of my garden, making headway through the reading of my large and varied book collection, or consolidating my involvement in community organisations such as the local radio society, and the family history society, together with other  like involvements, or a pride in activities of family or friends,  or simply seeing more of Australia – if those kind of things don’t sound exciting enough reading  –   well, I’m sorry, but I’m not really going to change a great deal because those things ‘represent’ the writer and his persona. But I’m always open to suggestions as to how I can attract more readers – happy to always consider those things, just so long as it doesn’t essentially force me to change my interests [which are admittedly wide and varied] because that means changing the person I am.  People who visit my home, for eg,  may express surprise at a lounge-room dominated by bookshelves and books [rather than, for example,  thousands of dollars worth of entertainment systems, etc] but then,  they have to accept ‘that is Bill’, his ‘thing’, and while another material items or activities on display may be another person’s ‘treasure’, books are my ‘gold and treasure’.  Of course there is a downside to that ‘love’  –  books take up a lot of space, and time [if moving], and I constantly worry about what will really happen to my book collections, when something happens to me!!

Anyway, over the days and weeks ahead, I shall return to those thoughts from time to time.  In the meantime, this morning, whilst I was referring to some of the day’s news headlines, on our local radio station, I was a little disturbed at one story –  The U-S led war in Iraq killed about 162,000 people, of which 79% [or 128,000] were civilians, including about 9,000 Iraqi police officers. The US military death toll in the period was 4,484 with roadside bombs the most common cause of casualties. These statistics related to the period 2003 until last month, and were compiled by a British non-government organisation called ‘Iraq Body Count’, one of the few organisations to keep a meticulous record of fatalities. Reporting in The Times, James Hider noted that ‘The worst scene of violence was Baghdad, hit by suicide bombings, stalked by death squads – many of them in the uniforms of the security forces –   and reshaped by a sectarian ethnic cleansing that has permanently changed the demographics of the city. Residents were 2 ½ times more likely to be killed than in other areas of the country………………….The violence peaked in 2006, when Baghdad felt the full brunt of sunni-versus-sh’ite violence fuelled by a ruthless al-Qa’ida bombing campaign that triggered a full-scale sectarian civil war’  The closing comment in that article illustrates the fear that many of us had, as to what would occur once the Americans left Iraq [irrespective of whether one believed they should have invaded in the first place]  – one Iraqi leader recently warned that Iraq risks sliding back into dictatorship and war ‘The prize, for which so many American soldiers believed they were fighting, was a functioning democratic and non-sectarian state…But Iraq is now moving in the opposite direction towards a sectarian autocracy that carries with it the threat of devastating civil war’. That seems to me to be a worse situation, than the state of the country, and at what cost – 182,000 lives, so far!!

As for another dictatorial leader, I see that the daughter of  Muammar Gaddafi [who was killed after being dragged from a drainage ditch in his home town of Sirte in August] is taking legal action to basically have the nature of her father’s death investigated, as a war crime.  While it seems rather hypocritical and ironic, in view of some of crimes against his people that Gaddafi has been accused of,  she is demanding, through her lawyer, why the International Criminal Court in The Hague is not investigating a ‘possible war crime’. Gaddafi was paraded, bloodied, but standing and talking, in front of rebels wielding guns. He was, apparently, sodomised with a bayonet, almost all of it caught on film. Then suddenly, he and his son Mutassim, who was also filmed alive in custody, were dead!  I have no sympathy for Gaddafi, but I have wondered at the manner in which he was killed under the circumstances described, and tend to agree with the view of the lawyer who has stated that ‘No matter what you might have thought of Muammar Gaddafi, this was a truly horrific act and in order to preserve the crime scene an immediate investigation should have been initiated’ [by NATO and/or other forces involved].

I mentioned above, the radio show I did this morning.  While it was rather difficult to want to get up at 5am this morning, once I was out and on my way, it was into a beautiful fresh morning  – overnight, a coolish change had moved into the area, and while during my time up at the station, Sunbury was hit by a severe thunderstorm and heavy rain [which at one point had me feeling that the power was about to go off in the studio], it was quite pleasant, though overcast outside, and any earlier reservations I might have had about going in this morning, quickly disappeared.  I was relieving for the regular Wednesday morning presenter [and still had a couple more weeks to do so], which meant 3 hours, of news, weather, music, etc from 6am to 9am. I enjoyed doing that program, and partway through it received one of those rare messages, that make this particular voluntary role worthwhile. That little message read as follows  –  ‘Great program Bill, got the sound up over the thunder; you have made my morning shine, thank you’!! 

For Australian cricket fans, today was a great day at the cricket. In Sydney it was Day 2 of the 2^nd Test between Australia and India. I wasn’t really going to watch a great deal of cricket today, but with a wonderful Australian partnership, and some big scores in the offering, it was difficult not to resist!! Let’s have a look at the day, point by point.

• At beginning of Day 2 play: Australia 3 for 116 [Ponting -44, Clarke -47]  in reply to India 191
• At lunch break:  Australia  3 for 236  [Ponting – n.o. 97; Clarke – n.o. 103]
• Ricky Ponting eventually out during the afternoon session for 134 Runs [faced 225 balls]  – his 40^th Test match Century [69 scores of 50 plus]. Partnership between he and Michael Clarke was 288 runs [score was now 4 for 325]. Records of Ponting for Australia –  40 Test centuries; 22 of them in Australia; 6 at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
• Note:   Ricky Ponting – played 160 Test matches [273 Innings], now played 108 more Test matches than Don Bradman.
• At the Tea break, the score was 4 for 349  –  Michael Clarke no 170 and Michael Hussey no 8.
• During the Tea-Stumps session, no more wickets, but a further 133 runs were scored.
• At Stumps, Day 2  –  Australia  4 wickets for 482 runs [291 runs in front of India] with Michael Clarke no 251 runs, Michael Hussey no 54 runs.  Clarke’s score is the highest Test score at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Cricket Australia described the day in this fashion.       ‘A career-high double century from Skipper Michael Clarke and a drought-breaking Ton to Ricky Ponting have left Australia in complete control against India on Stumps on Day Two of the Second Test at the SCG.  It was a day of total dominance for the hosts who piled on 366 runs for the loss of just one wicket to be 4-482 at stumps, leading by 291 runs with three days still to play.  Clarke (251 not out) and Ponting (134) set the tone with a breathtaking 288-run stand before Michael Hussey (55 not out) joined his captain in an unbeaten century partnership to complete a miserable day for the tourists.  While Ponting’s first Test century in 721 days kept the 30,077 crowd on the edge of their seats, the day belonged to his successor who pummelled a listless Indian attack to all parts of the SCG.  The captain smashed 31 boundaries and a six in his unbeaten 438-minute, 342-ball knock to post the highest ever Test score by an Australian at the SCG.  He surpassed Doug Walters’ 242 against the West Indies in 1968/69 with a blistering cover drive off Zaheer Kahn to cap a memorable day on his home ground’.

On the tennis front, there are a number of tournaments happen in Australia over the next couple of weeks as a lead-in to the Australian Open, but I notice that none of the free to air channels seem to be telecasting them this year. I did find one tournament was on a non-regular channel, so I let my wife’s mother know, that if she was able to get this particular channel on the TV set she had been given in the last year or so, there was tennis to be watched. She is a very enthusiastic tennis fan [at 91 years], and I knew that it was possible for her to get the matches, she would be watching!!  Meanwhile, about 45 minutes north of Sunbury, at a small place called Hanging Rock  [made famous by the novel ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’], they have two major horse race meetings each year at the small race track in the area – one on New Years Day, and one on Australia Day [26 January]. Last year, the Australia Day meeting had to be cancelled because the track was invaded by a mob of kangaroos, and for some reason, officials couldn’t get rid of them – a big disappointment to the crowd of up to 10,000 who normally attend what is a great family picnic day at the Hanging Rock races.  On Sunday last, in the midst of the heatwave conditions, a crowd of around 6,000 were on the course.  At the end of the first race on Sunday, after a horse stumbled about 150 metres from the finishing line, officials inspected the track, and found a large hole on the track, and because of the danger it posed to horses and riders, the meeting was cancelled after that first race!! Whilst similar instances have occurred at other country race tracks, it is a real disaster\ for this small club that depends on just two meetings per year. At this stage it’s uncertain whether the Australia Day meeting will be able to proceed or not!!

Just a brief comment or two on issues or events of the day that came to my notice >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I shall return!