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And indeed, to a week of beautiful Autumn weather here in Melbourne, Sunbury and surrounds, with temperatures in the mid to high twenties through until Good Friday.  As can be seen below, we have combined a few days into one contribution, something that seems to be getting into a bit of a pattern recently, and here I was in retirement, supposedly having more free time!!……………………………

Sunday, 1^st April 2012 –  an afternoon of coffee and conversation

Daylight saving time ended at 2am this morning, which basically meant an extra hour’s sleep – not sure if that actually happened, but I did feel a ‘little’ brighter than usual for my Sunday morning early departure to the radio station.  Now with it also being ‘April Fool’s Day’, I did undertake a quick perusal of the paper to see if anything untoward had been placed in today’s edition  – if it had been, I didn’t see it, which either  means no ‘fool articles’ were included, or I simply wasn’t bright enough to find it!! Certainly I wasn’t so bright at 9am, when the two presenters who follow me on a Sunday morning, commenced their program – three hours of country music, a program they have been doing for a decade. Sandy gravely advised me that they had changed their genre of music – from now on, country music would be replaced by 3 hours of jazz! I personally thought that was a great idea, because I’m one of the few presenters who plays much jazz on the station, but I wondered aloud as to what affect such a drastic change of heart would have on the many years of fans out there to this show – which I think generally gets more phone calls than the rest of us put together!!  It was at that point, that Sandy realised her little ‘April Fool’s Joke’ had gone a little flat  – though not really, because yours truly fell completely into the hole!!  Was she going to make that announcement on air –  I never found out because I didn’t get to listen, but she did mention, it was unlikely, as she was afraid they’d get ‘no’ phone calls this morning!  I should have responded that maybe that would be a good thing –  then she would know what the rest of us feel like every week!!

Meanwhile, by late morning, I was on a train, heading for the city, where I met Heather, down from Ballarat for the day –  a chance I guess for her to relieve some of the stress and trauma of the past few days with the death and funeral of her mother, do a bit of city shopping, and meet this old schoolmate for a coffee and chat – couple of coffees actually,  even a glass of wine out in front of the Speigeltent, where a jazz concert was in progress – from outside, we were still able to enjoy the music we both have a common interest in.

As I’ve mentioned previously, not a normal practice for Bill to converse with one person for too long – usually run out of conversation, or to be honest, wear myself or my voice out. Not so today, and before long, five hours had passed by, and we were both back at Southern Cross Station to catch our respective trains back to Ballarat and Sunbury – the former left about 20 minutes before mine. The trip in earlier his afternoon had been a very crowded and noisy through train from Bendigo, full mostly of football fans going to Edihad Stadium. I was hoping for a quieter return trip, and in fact I missed the main post-football train, as it was a little more peaceful on the return journey, allowed for a bit of reading without major distractions!

Meanwhile, after the completion of Round 1 of the AFL football games today, the Top eight teams see the following situation, although somewhat too early to make anything of that situation, with the two grand finalists teams from last year – Collingwood and Geelong being defeated in the first game.

1. Sydney Swans…………………………………4……..[207.27]
2. Adelaide Crows………………………………4……..[201.47]
3. West Coast Eagles………………………….4………[156.32]
4. Carlton Blues………………………………….4………[154.32]
5. Brisbane Lions………………………………..4………[152.56]
6. Hawthorn Hawks……………………………4………[119.13]
7. Port Adelaide Power……………………..4………[104.71]
8. Fremantle Dockers………………………..4………[103.96]

 

 

Monday 2^nd April 2012 – surprise visit from a Queensland brother & sister-in-law.

This was the lead story in today’s Financial Review [written by journalist Louise Dodson] – a subject which seems to have dominated our attentions [in the political sense] off and on for 18 months now.

‘Labor’s primary vote has collapsed following passage of the carbon and mining taxes through Parliament, a leadership challenge by Kevin Rudd and a crushing blow to the party in the Queensland election. As the federal government prepares to deliver a crucial budget, The Australian Financial Review’s Nielsen poll also shows that Wayne Swan is trailing his opposition counterpart Joe Hockey as preferred treasurer, especially in Queensland, Mr Swan’s home state. This follows Mr Swan’s high profile attack on mining billionaires Andrew Forrest, Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer as he sought to promote the minerals resource rent tax and his essay in ‘The Monthly’, seem by some as evoking class warfare. In the run-up to the May 8 budget, the poll finds that the Coalition is by far regarded as the party best able to handle the economy. The poll will be a major blow to Labor strategists who have been working to refocus attention on the government’s agenda and its ability to manage the economy after Prime Minister Julia Gillard was able to see off decisively the leadership challenge of former foreign minister Kevin Rudd in late February. Labor’s vote has dived 7 percentage points to 27 per cent while support for the Coalition rose three points to 47 per cent, opening up a massive 20-point difference in primary votes. This is very close to the 26 per cent – the worst score for Labor in 40 years of Neilson polls –  seen in July last year just after the government introduced its carbon tax into Parliament. The two-party preferred vote was Coalition 57 per cent, up four points, leading Labor on 43 per cent, down four points, the poll showed. Labor’s primary vote is now a hefty 11 points lower than at the 2010 election’.

Other factors revealed included that Labor was least popular in Queensland [a bit obvious after the recent election there], and that the party has a problem with male voters [is that because the PM is female, I wonder?]. Certainly, government insiders are hoping that with the leadership speculation over for the time being, ‘Ms Gillard  will have clear air to rebuild her personal standing and promote the government’s agenda’. Meanwhile, with the PM having a small lead over Tony Abbott as preferred prime minister, Mr Abbott’s personal standing, as Opposition leader is the lowest for some years, and I noticed in another comment in today’s paper, that while the Coalition has the current significant advantage over Labor in the electoral polls, Mr Abbott’s position as leader remains safe. A call for Malcolm Turnbull to re-emerge as leader [as I would personally like to see happen]  is really only likely to raise it’s head, should the government suddenly regain back a dominant position in those polls. As one Letter to the Editor writer noted  in commenting on the lure of trying to attract Turnbull back to the leadership of the Liberals ‘As in the Peter Costello analogy, he just waited too patiently too long, too proud to emulate Paul Keating [and challenge Hawke] by going to the backbench after stubborn John Howard had reached his ten years. It will not be lost on Turnbull that ‘timing is all’.

Putting that aside, the first four days of this week I had put aside to spend a bit of time out in the garden, trying to tidy things up in anticipation of visitors this weekend, and also because the work needed to be done. So that all began this afternoon, after my usual 11am Monday session at the gymnasium, then back home for a bite to eat before tackling that garden which as I’ve noted before has been a little neglected through much of 2011, and since the drought years caused a bit of devastation.

Surprise visitors this afternoon – was having a shower, when I missed a call from brother, Colin  – he and Angela were at the airport, waiting for her mother to arrive on another flight, and with time to spare, were wanting to drop out to Sunbury for an hour.  I managed to ring him back fairly quickly before they had made other arrangements, and invited them to come by!!  They arrived in their hired car just after Susie returned home from wherever she had been for most of the afternoon, which was pleasing, as she joined in the conversation for the next hour.  Colin & Angela were down here for a couple of weeks  – their son Craig and his ‘partner’/girlfriend were expecting a baby to arrive within that time, so the prospective grandparents had decided to come down to be here at the birth. They were going to stay with our old friend, Margaret Bryant down in Carlton.  I mentioned that Robert & Evelyn would be in Melbourne this weekend, and the suggestion of arranging a possible get-together of everyone was raised –  our visitors were keen also to catch up with Mrs Seipolt and Shirley whilst they were down here.  Anyway, a brief but pleasing visit – Colin and Angela were now living and working up in Rockhampton [Queensland], so the possibility of the various siblings and their families getting together these days are opportunities few and far between.

Evening meal tonight, before eventually heading out to my usual Monday night stint on the radio station for the three hours leading up to midnight.  An enjoyable program as always, although the digestive system seemed to want to play up tonight as it had been for most of the day. Must have been that glass of wine in the city with Heather yesterday, which I  actually wasn’t even able to finish. How things have degenerated in that area!!  The arrival home after midnight saw another hour watching a taped episode of tonight’s ‘Revenge’. I think I noted last week, that I would probably not bother with watching that drama series if I had to watch it in real time, with Channel 7’s seemingly avalanche of constant advertising interruptions! I find it difficult to understand how anyone can regularly enjoy television with that degree of constant and painful disruptions to what one is trying to watch. I try and limit my viewing of the commercial channels to a bare minimum.

 

Tuesday, 3^rd April 2012 –  a few hours in the garden, again!

After a slow start, a few hours in the garden again  –  no idea how I could manage five x 8 hours of labor a week, this garden maintenance work, especially when you are coming from so far behind, is damned hard work, but albeit slowly, progress is being made, and I am beginning to like what I see. I have got rid of all of the blackberry bushes, though I know there are still roots in the ground, will just have to control their future growth, day by day. Have not inclined to try and poison the weed while Susie’s cats are still on the property.  Mind you, I gave it all away for the day, mid afternoon, and eventually went into town for an hour or so to break the day up.

Some pleasing items in the post mail today [including a nice little card of thanks from Heather, in appreciation of my ‘support, etc’ over recent weeks during her mother’s  final months with her],  and I was especially pleased to see Tuesday’s local papers actually arrive on a Tuesday!!  I usually end up on the Wednesday morning sports report, not having seen the local papers which I find frustrating and a limitation with my report having to depend on internet and other sources which are generally not so reliable.

I rang Sydney tonight – spoke to Evelyn re their trip here next weekend, and she seemed enthusiastic about the idea of trying to get some of the family together, on the suggested Sunday afternoon.  Later in the night, I received another emailed request from James  – could I read over his latest university assignment some time tomorrow, if I had time!! [I didn’t realise at the time, that would end up another late night ‘reading’ having forgotten at the time that we were due to have the power switched off all day due to electricity works in the area!].

 

Wednesday, 4^th April 2012 – thankfully, I don’t need power [of the electricity variety] in the garden

After my usual 6.45am call to the radio station with my brief sports report, I was up and about fairly early, and ended up spending a  large part of the day working outside – last minute efforts to achieve a reasonable outlook of the property for the anticipated visitors on Sunday next. This included an early visit to the local Bunnings  store to purchase a couple of items of garden equipment, and a few small plants to fill in a few gaps out in the front garden.  I’m householder who likes to have a compact garden, shrubs and other plants close together, in preference to the ‘sparse’ desert type look. As a consequence I suppose, some of my plants don’t get as ‘trimmed’ as often as they probably should, as I prefer to allow them to grow as fully as possible. Sometimes, there is a push from others, to attend to that task!

Even if I’d preferred to be working inside, we had the power off all day – from 8am to 6pm, so it was a little limiting to do anything requiring electricity!!  It was not without warning – I think we received advice some weeks ago that the power would be off today because of electricity work and maintenance tasks in the area, I’d simply forgotten about it!!

Apart from a bit of anxiety about the coming weekend’s activities, I’d received another request last night from son, James, to check over his latest university assignment for him – proofread for corrections, etc – he needed that done today ‘if I had time’!  Well, of course, as he sent it to me on the computer, I couldn’t get access to his project until this evening anyway. To be honest, by then, I was not really in the mood, but we got onto it eventually, and was able to eventually send him back my ‘suggested’ corrections or amendments.

I did get the opportunity to have a look at the first night’s events in the World Cycling Championships here in Melbourne [where I would be on Friday night, the first of three nights at that event]. The occasion was being promoted as ‘cycling ashes’ series between Australia and Great Britain, two of the leading cycling nations, but as would be seen, there were a few other players likely to have a say in that as well.

Day One Finals of the World Indoor Cycling Championships from Melbourne

Men’s Team Pursuit Final:

Gold: Great Britain

Silver: Australia [Glenn O’Shea, Jack Bobridge, Rohan Dennis, Michael Hepburn]

Bronze: New Zealand

Women’s Team Sprint Final:

Gold: Germany

Silver: Australia [Anna Meares, Kaarie McCulloch]

Bronze: China

Mens Scratch 15 Km Final:

Gold: Ben Swift – Great Britain

Silver: Nolan Hoffman – Rep South Africa [a brilliant finish from well back, almost got there]

Bronze: Wim Stroetinga [Netherlands]

Mens Team Sprint Final:

GOLD: AUSTRALIA [Shane Perkins, Scott Sunderland, Matthew Glaettzer], a surprise victory after Great Britain and the other finalist were disqualified, allowing Australia into the final].

Silver: France

Bronze: New Zealand

 

Thursday, 5^th April 2012  – my football team in action!!

Looking at the above date, I realised it was nephew, Alwyn’s 18^th birthday today  – Saturday week was apparently his official party date, to which I would put in an appearance during the ‘quieter’ part of the occasion!   Anyway, being Thursday, it was an hour at the gymnasium 9am – 10 am.   Then, back home for a gruelling 6 hours into the late afternoon,  working on the front garden, and mowing the front lawns, etc, plated some new smallish plants, and transferred two other plants.  It was still quite warm, weather wise, so by the end of the afternoon, this ‘old writer’ was beginning to feel rather exhausted, and had basically decided I’d done enough before Easter  –  the place would have to be judged as it was!

I should have gone to the radio committee meeting tonight, but just once in a while something else takes precedence over a volunteer role  – another Carlton football match on a Thursday night! Well, I sent in my monthly finance report to the Station Manager, so I was there in spirit!

After a few big days of baking and retailing at Bakers Delight this week [hot cross buns, etc for Easter], that organisation was having a pre-Easter ‘party’ tonight – three of mine involved, all of whom were wisely leaving their cars behind – which necessitated Bill undertaking what is now a ‘rare’ taxi service [before the football began] –  with Susie on board, it was over to Goonawarra to collect Jodie [former employee of Bakers Delight, her role now taken over by Susie on a part time basis] and then drive back into Sunbury to one of the restaurants near the Cinema complex. The arrangement was that I would collect Susie later on, she didn’t really want to be there too long, but as I advised her, that would not be until ‘after’ the football match!!! Agreed! Meanwhile, Adam [the baker] found his own way as usual.  My immediate duties over with, I was straight back home.

Meanwhile, for a Blues’ supporter, it was a rather enjoyable dose of TV viewing. The report from the Club, summarises the game up in Brisbane   – two unforgettable Eddie Betts’ marks have highlighted Carlton’s crushing 91-point win over the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba on Thursday night.  Betts put on a show few of the 25,920 spectators on hand will forget as he soared for a mark of the year contender over James Polkinghorne in the second quarter, and matched it with an equally spectacular effort in the third. After the Lions led by two points at the first change, the Blues flexed their premiership muscles to kick 18 of the final 21 goals of the match to storm to a 23.16 (154) to 9.9 (63) victory. While Betts was turning heads and dropping jaws, midfielders Marc Murphy and [captain] Chris Judd were running rings around the Lions’ engine room with virtuoso performances.  Quarter by quarter scores were as follows:-

Brisbane Lions:      6.1.37            7.6.48                7.7.49             Final:      9.9.63

Carlton Blues:        5.5.35            10.9.69              16.10.106       FINAL:  23.16.154

Well now, I waited for about an hour after the game finished, to wait and hear  if I was required to go out again and collect Susan from her work function The message was ‘not needed’, so I went to bed!  Sure enough, a further message  – could you come and get me please Dad!!  Close to midnight by now.  Down to the ‘Blues Plus café where the team had finished their night  –  Bill’s taxi service had three passengers – Susie, Adam, and another girl who worked with them

Day Two Finals of the World Indoor Cycling Championships from Melbourne

Womens Team Pursuit Final

Gold: Great Britain

Silver: Australia [Annette Edmondson, Melissa Hopkins, Josephine Tomic]

Bronze: Canada

Mens Kilometre Time Trial Final

Gold: Stefan Nimke [Germany]

Silver: Michael D’Almeida [France]

Bronze: Simon Van Velthooven [New Zealand]

Womens Points Race 25 km Final

Gold: Anastasia Chulkova [Russia]

Silver: Jasmin Glacsser [Canada]

Bronze: Caroline Ryan [Ireland]

 

But before we get to that, the following are the couple of verses of poetry I placed on Face Book this morning, part of a longer piece by the poet [Alec Hope], but I thought the two verses was enough, and gave some indication of what the ‘story’ of the poem was!

• For every bird there is this last migration;
• Once more the cooling year kindles her heart;
• With a warm passage to the summer station
• Love pricks the course in lights across the chart.
• Year after year a speck on the map divided
• By a whole hemisphere, summons her to come;
• Season after season, sure and safely guided,
• Going away she is also coming home;

[from Alec Derwent Hope, 1907-2000 ‘The Death of the Bird’]

I was not particularly happy with my hour at the gymnasium this morning, didn’t really feel as though I was enjoyed what I was doing, it was ‘tough’ going!! But we followed that hour up with an iced coffee, two weekend newspapers, and a bit of food shopping, including a brief hello to Susie who was serving behind the counter at Baker’s Delight. Back home for a brief spot of watering and weeding in the front garden.

The usual long drive over to Heidelberg preceded by necessity tonight’s concert by the Heidelberg Symphony Orchestra in the spectacular Performing Art Centre. An impressive program of music planned for the concert tonight which went under the general title of ‘The Emperor’.  I quickly noticed that the HSO had a new CD available for sale – at $15, a worthwhile addition to my radio collection, containing samples some of the orchestra’s more recent performances. On the program tonight – Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dance No. 1; Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 [the ‘Emperor’ Concerto], and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8, which I actually could not recall having heard or played previously. The guest pianist, for the Beethoven work, was local and national performer, Amir Farid, winner of the 2006 Australian National Piano Award along with many other awards and scholarships, and performed with many of the major Australian symphony orchestras.  Meanwhile, I had my usual seat, up the top near the rear of the Centre – a spot I preferred, though as related to someone later, not the best of places to be if anything [health wise] went wrong – nowhere to ‘hide’ in the Ivanhoe Performing Arts Centre. And prior to the concert, we were given the usual reminder by the lady MC about, not just turning off mobile phones, but about Melbourne audiences reputation as concert ‘coughers’

Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dance No. 1 was one of three such pieces he composed in 1941, whilst recovering from minor surgery, in New York.  Quite a bright piece of music of about 12 minutes duration, with elements of jazz and folk music creeping into the melody on the odd occasion. An example of his late style of composing [he would die in 1943], with a energetic mix of shifting harmonies, with some pleasant combination of instruments such as the harp, glockenspiel, flute and piccolo featured near the ending. I guess the jazz flavour came through with a beautiful theme played by the saxophone near the end of the first part of the composition, and of course, listening to the violins, gave this writer a desire to learn to play the violin one of these days! Will probably never happen, like so many other ‘wild’ ideas, but one can but dream occasionally!!

The guest pianist put in his appearance for the second item –  Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto [Piano Concerto No. 5]. Over three movements [though to be honest, I only noticed two], this lasted just on 40 minutes, and was as always, a beautiful piece of music to enjoy.  This is often described as Beethoven’s most innovative and ‘heroic’ work in the concerto style,  and allows for both, interplay between the solo piano, and the orchestra [not the complete HSO this time], and some wonderful joint movements. Beethoven wrote it between 1809-1811 and it was to be his last piano concerto. It was first performed in 1811, and as is often the case, the composer did not give it the title of the ‘Emperor Concerto’ –  in fact not generally known where the name came from!

After a suitable encore from our guest pianist, and an interval period, which saw this concert goer remain in his seat rather than join the crush of bodies out in the lobby, we were entertained by a composition from Antonin Dvorak [1841-1904] which I can’t recall actually listening to previously –  his Symphony No. 8 I G Major. Interestingly, Dvorak, who is the best known of Czech composers, was the son of a humble innkeeper who had planned to have his son apprenticed as a butcher!  A good thing for the world of classical music that didn’t eventuate!   As the program notes indicate, Symphony No 8 is known as the English Symphony because he had the work published by the English firm Novello. Dvorak wasn’t satisfied with the classical form of the symphony and his work on it lead more towards a symphonic poem, and ended up being considered the most ‘national’  in flavor of all his symphonies. Tonight, the work was just under 40 minutes in duration, and was in four movements – oddly, when it was first played in 1890, with Dvorak directing, the audience was asked to refrain from clapping between movements – that is the normal practice for classical music these days, but obviously wasn’t always the case [I still prefer the attitude taken to a lengthy jazz piece – if the audience enjoys a particular movement or solo piece, they will applaud, and so it should be!!].  Anyway, No. 8 was a very enjoyable piece of music, typical of what one might expect from Dvorak’s romantic musical tradition, and his drawing, particularly in this symphony, from the Bohemian folk music of his time, but expressed in the symphonic language. So the only movement of the four which did not have attached to it the description of being lively and fast, was the Adagio in the 2^nd movement, we experience tastes of village band music, and the expressions of beautiful ‘bird’ music  through the flute and oboe components of the orchestra.  A recording I don’t have – must chase it up for my Sunday morning program!

The night ended with the obligatory encore, and the usual over-inflated audience applause, which I often see as the bulk of a concert audience following like sheep in maintaining sustain periods of clapping. Applause where it I deserved as tonight’s concert certainly was, but I sometimes wonder at the ‘mentality’ almost of the way it continues at times. Mind you, I probably enjoyed that a little more than the hour long drive home, although I did manage to find a pleasant jazz program on 3MBS, the alternative Melbourne classical music/jazz radio station to the ABC Classic FM network!  Home before midnight – no sign of Susie having returned from wherever she went tonight.

I mentioned this a week or so ago, but the Archibald Prize, for the year’s best portrait painting, is due to be awarded  within the next 24 hours or so – there are 41 final finalists. Rather than doing the usual tipping – horses, football, elections – I decided to nominate the winner from one of these six –

• Father Bob McGuire [by Luke Cornish],
• Angus McDonald [by Tim McGuire],
• John Wood by [Raelene Sharp],
• Melody – Missy Higgins [by Kate Tucker] ,
• Self portrait [by Natasha Bienick] or
• Self portrait [by Jenny Sages] –

Knowing the usual outcome of  my rather conservative tipping, no doubt one of the more outrageous portraits will be selected by the ‘experts’!! We will return with ‘that’ outcome once the results are announced.

Meanwhile, I began the day with another early visit to the dentist, to have a filling placed in the root canal he had ‘cleaned out’ last week – a shorter, less strenuous  procedure than last week, didn’t even require a local anesthetic – and I was out of there, thankfully, in a relatively short time.  Just before I went in, received a text message from Heather, wishing me well for that visit and thanking me, again,  for my presence yesterday at her mother’s funeral service.  I think I was back home by 8.30am, and really, had no intention of undertaking any physical activities today [apart from sitting out in the afternoon sunshine in the back garden this afternoon, trying to read, but constantly almost ‘dosing’ off!].

Meanwhile I notice that in a jumping horse race during the week here in Melbourne, a competing horse had to be put down after a race fall. That issue had calmed a little over recent months after a couple of years of rather horrific accidents on the jumps track, and a very volatile protest group. No doubt, after this week’s death, that protest movement will be making it’s presence felt again.  Victoria is one of few Australian states that continues to tolerate jumps racing. I’ve made my feelings felt on numerous occasions previously – I like to watch the jumps, but usually do so with some apprehension, and the hope that all the horses are going to get around the course safely. But it doesn’t always happen. Apart from the finance of minority groups and their influence on the government to allow the sport to continue, I think it is only the fact that the number of deaths from a couple of years ago has dropped off so considerably, that the racing is still permitted.  And the racing industry view, as perhaps reflected by one comment made yesterday by the Melbourne Racing Club Chairman , when suggested that the jumping fraternity needed to look at the big picture – the season as a whole, not one day. ‘Jumps racing needs to focus on yet another safe and successful season, while recognising that some fatalities will occur. The rest is noise”. Well that noise are the opponents arguing that ‘no’ deaths should be tolerated and simply accepted as a ‘side affect’ of the sport. I agree while realising that horses will ‘fall’ at some stage, whether it be out in the wild, or on a race or even training track. It is the acceptance of deaths by people like the chairman that many, myself included, find difficult to stomach.

An emailed letter from the Carlton Coach  received today, following last night’s game at the MCG, whilst making substantial reference to the players who contributed much to the win, he also noted that  with the Richmond game now done and dusted and the 44-point win now in the history books……and…. in reflecting on the pre-season, where much was made of our winless practice match form, it’s worth noting that ……while we were actually in front in some of those matches, we decided to give rookie [new] listed players an opportunity to win those games. ……………..In closing, many have asked whether I’m actually relieved that Thursday night’s result at the MCG went our way.  To tell you the truth, I’ve just found it part of the journey. After all, just as many match points are on offer in round two and to put an undue emphasis on the opening round would be to basically sell every other game short . . . and you do so at your peril. [Brett Ratten, Coach].   Meanwhile, there are still seven matches to be played between now and Sunday to complete Round 1 of the 2012 Season. With 18 teams now in the competition, that means a 9 match round each weekend.

I noticed a brief report in the Weekly Times during the week concerning research into the side-affects of the drought conditions of the decade past. As Peter Hemphill wrote, the stresses built up from a decade of drought prompted many families to consider the ‘taboo topic’ of walking away from their farms. But they found a reason to stay, a social research report says.  The Critical Breaking Point report, released last week, documents the ‘rollercoaster of emotions’ farmers experienced from 2001 as they tried to cope with prolonged drought followed by the deluge that then devastated grain crops during the 2010-11 harvest. University of Melbourne research fellow Lauren Rickards interviewed 109 people from 56 farms in the Mallee-Wimmera regions during February 2007 and again in February last year to compile report for the Birchip Cropping Group [one of the small towns in that region, which in fact happens to be where my Father was born in 1921]. Dr Rickards said some farmers had opted for ‘commuter farming’ – living away from their properties and driving to work each day – in a bid to stop mental health issues and other burdens affecting their families. She said that while commuter farming had already been in place for some families to meet the needs of spouse employment reasons or the schooling of children, the drought had helped accelerate the practice. I imagine also, that many had to actually obtain jobs in nearby locations etc, simply in order to generate enough income to keep the farm as an option until the drought years were over. I’m sure there was much more in the report not referred to here, that would make for interesting reading.

As for my Archibald Prize selection – well, I was right on one count – no doubt one of the more outrageous portraits will be selected by the ‘experts’!!  Not sure what they are experts in, not portraits in my book!!! This was the winner, below, described as the portrait with no face!!

After a regular Thursday morning session at the gymnasium this morning, it was home for a quick shower and change, and then time to hit the road for the drive down to Ballarat. I was not expected today, and I guess might have even changed my mind as of this morning. But in the end, despite reservations, made the right choice I think. As usual, most vehicles on the freeway between Bacchus Marsh and Ballarat, where the speed limit is 110 kph, pass this driver – I simply prefer these days to keep my speed below the 100 mark. I’m comfortable with that, and with two lanes, it seldom means I’m delaying anyone else. Occasionally the big truckers get a bit annoyed that they have to change lanes, but in most cases, s with the other vehicles, it would not seem to matter if I was doing the maximum of 110, most drivers would still be passing me!!!  People just simply don’t seem to like having a restriction of that sort placed upon them.

Bit of time to spare in Ballarat, before the 2pm service at my old church [Neil Street] for Heather’s mother – Muriel Gladys Jones, who died last Sunday night. Filled the car up with fuel, checked the air in my tyres [which always seem to be worrying me – I’d always had so many problems with unexplained tyre punctures when driving the VPTA car, that a degree of tyre paranoia seems to have carried over to the Mitsubishi!], then drove around to the Botanical Gardens, where I parked in a spot overlooking the beautiful Lake Wendouree, and had a look at the local paper.  Referring back to the comment I made yesterday about the current low polling of the Labor Party under PM, Julia Gillard, it was interesting to read an article in the Ballarat Courier today  – telling readers that work is almost complete on the creation of the head-sized statue of Julia Gillard – to be added to the avenue of Australia’s Prime Ministers which is in the Ballarat Botanic Gardens. These are a collection of bronze portraits of all 25 Australian Prime Ministers , which are set within the magnificent Horse Chestnut Avenue within the Gardens. One of the founding fathers of Federation was Alfred Deakin who was the first Federal Member for Ballarat and the second Prime Minister. They are each displayed as bronze portraits mounted on polished granite pedestals. I didn’t have a look at them today, but have done so on many occasions during visits to the area.  A bit of history –   On March 2 ,1940 the then Governor of Victoria, Sir Winston Duggan unveiled the busts of  the first six Prime Ministers of Australia at a ceremony in the long avenue of Horse Chestnuts. The donor, Richard Armstrong Crouch was born in Ballarat in 1868. He was elected to Federal Parliament in 1901 as a member of the Protectionist Party for the electorate of Corio, representing that area until his defeat nine years later. He was the youngest member of the new House of Representatives and shared a rare distinction with the oldest member . W.H. Green of Queensland. After service in World War  1, Crouch returned to  parliament, this time as Labour member for Corangamite, but after a brief two year period was again defeated. During his terms, Crouch served under two Ballarat Prime Ministers Alfred Deakin and James Scullin. What prompted Crouch’s concept for benefaction? His patronage and love of fine arts which he supported and endowed in many other ways and the influence of two parliamentary terms under the statesmen Barton, Deakin, Watson, Fisher and Scullin prompted him to return to Ballarat something of what it had given him. Not only did he provide the actual busts, but he left a legacy to perpetuate this historic avenue. Each of Australia’s Prime Ministers is depicted regardless of the length of time spent in office.

The first sculptor was Wallace Anderson who was born in 1888 at Dean near Ballarat. Wallace’s most renowned work is “Simpson and His Donkey” displayed at the Melbourne. His work at the Australian War Memorial  and  The Ballarat Botanical Gardens established him as a sought after artist in the medium of bronze sculpture. Wallace Anderson created the busts of Barton, Deakin, Watson, Reid, Fisher,  Cook, Hughes, Bruce, Scullin, Lyons, Page, Menzies, Fadden and Curtin.  Ken Palmer was born in Ballarat in 1925 and studied art at the Ballarat School of Mines. He was commissioned to sculpt Chifley’s bust during his election campaign in 1946. Ken taught art in Schools in Castlemaine and Melbourne before returning to Ballarat where he opened an art shop.  Victor Greenhalgh was born in Ballarat in 1900. He was educated at the Ballarat School of  Mines until World War One. Following the war he returned to study at the Working Men’s College. He taught art at the Bendigo School of Mines, Ballarat School of Mines and  Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. His large statue of King George V dominates the Sturt Street plantation. His last work within the Prime Ministers Avenue was Malcolm Fraser’s bust which he was himself critical of the final casting. Following Victor Greenhalgh’s death the bust of Malcolm Fraser was recommissioned. Victor’s works displayed are Holt, McEwan, Gorton, McMahon and Whitlam.   Peter Nicholson was born in Melbourne in 1946, studied law and became renowned for his cartoons in the Nation Review, Financial Review and The Age. In 1985 he created the TV puppets “Rubbery Figures”. His serious work as a sculptor was not well known to the general public until commissioned to produce Premier Rupert Hamer’s bust for Parliament House Melbourne. Peter was commissioned to undertake the sculpting of Bob Hawke’s  bust. Following the success and acclaim of this work the replacement bust of Malcolm Fraser was commissioned. His works of Paul Keating and John Howard have followed his philosophy that the busts should impart an expression of the character of the individual. Peter created the bust of Robert Bruce Clark mounted in the Robert Clark Centre forecourt.

Today’s Courier report has Peter Nicholson still at work – this time working on the models for the bust of current Prime Minister Julia Gillard [I’m assuming that a bust has already been created for Kevin Rudd, although was not mentioned in the above summary – in fact, Nicholson did also create the Rudd bust which is on display in the Garden’s avenue]. Nicholson has updated himself – using his website and  Twitter to show working models of the likeness of Australia’s first female Prime Minister. He has an interesting way of reaching his final creation – in Nicholson’s words “When I do a portrait bust I start off by making several small, quick maquettes. When they get to a certain stage I just abandon them,  mistakes and all, and get on with another one. The result is, eventually I can do the final large head working quickly and freely almost entirely from memory”.  Ms Gillard will become the 27^th edition to the historic collection.

Here are those 27 Australian Prime Ministers

• Edmund Barton 1901 to 1903
• Alfred Deakin 1903 to 1904, 1905 to 1908, 1909 to 1910
• Chris Watson 1904
• George Reid 1904 to 1905
• Andrew Fisher 1908 to 1909, 1910 to 1913, 1914 to 1915
• Joseph Cook 1913 to 1914
• Billy Hughes  1915 to 1923
• Stanley Bruce 1923 to 1929
• James Scullin 1929 to 1932
• Joseph Lyons 1932 to 1939
• Earle Page  1939
• Robert Menzies 1939 to 1941, 1949 to 1966
• Artie Fadden 1941
• John Curtin  1941 to 1945
• Frank Forde  1945
• Ben Chifley  1945 to 1949
• Harold Holt  1966 to 1967
• John McEwan 1967 to 1968
• John Gorton 1968 to 1971
• William McMahon 1971 to 1972
• Gough Whitlam 1972 to 1975
• Malcolm Fraser 1975 to 1983
• Bob Hawke  1983 to 1991
• Paul Keating 1991 to 1996
• John Howard 1996
• Kevin Rudd 2007-2009
• Julia Gillard 2009 –

Back to my purpose in being down here in Ballarat. I arrived at the Neil Street Uniting Church at about 15 minutes before starting time of today’s Memorial Service for the mother of my schooldays friend, Heather – Muriel Gladys Jones [1916-2012]. Way back in the 1950s, Mrs Jones had undertaken some kind gestures, unasked for, towards my own mother & one of my sisters. I’d been reminded of that recently, by both Heather and Jill – hence my presence today, as a tribute to both Heather & her mother. I last visited this church at the end of August last year, on the occasion of the 150^th anniversary of this old church [at which I’d been asked to make an address – see blog for August 2011], and it was there that I’d caught up with Heather’s brother, Ross, and from that eventually made contact with his sister after about 5 years!!

Apart from Heather and Ross, there were not too many other familiar faces amongst the large congregation present at the service today [which had been preceded earlier by a private family dedication and cremation].  As mentioned earlier, I’d not been expected today, wanting to keep a low profile, but Heather would not allow that –  I think she was rather pleased to see me stroll across the road in front of the church just before 2 o’clock, and over the next couple of hours, insisted on introducing me to all of her family and friends, etc, who were present [including her ‘wayward’ son, Brad, whom I’d heard so much about in recent months] as ‘her friend’, Bill! A little embarrassing but she seemed quite willing and pleased to be able to do so.

It was a beautiful, quite lengthy service – as son Ross insisted during his wonderful 30 minute plus speech/tribute of remembrance of his mother, a time to ‘rejoice’ in her life, and if you didn’t know her beforehand, by the end of that hour or so, it would become obvious that this quiet, softly spoken, kind hearted little lady was a much loved mother, grandmother, great grandmother and friend to all. Meanwhile, Ross, who obviously enjoyed a good talk, was preceded by addresses by both Heather’s daughter, and then a granddaughter of Mrs Jones – the latter, extremely genuinely heartfelt and emotional.

Three beautiful hymns during the service – Amazing Grace, Make Me A Channel of Your Peace, and [for a lady who loved dancing apparently], he Lord of the Dance. Now readers may recall, that in Sunday’s contribution, I made reference to the fact that during that morning’s radio program, I played a version of that 2^nd hymn, above [taken from the Funeral service of Diana Princess of Wales] – as a tribute of comfort for Mrs Jones, who was at that stage going through her final battle of life. Speaking to Heather later, I discovered that it was no coincidence that hymn was chosen for today, by Heather – her mother had been conscious enough to express appreciation at the gesture, when it was relayed to her before she died, and Heather had included it in the ‘Order of Service’ for that reason. She had obviously made mention of that to others – her brother Ross, specifically thanked me for ‘what I had done’, when I spoke to him after the service.

I stayed around for a while after the service to join in the get together and light refreshments in the old Sunday school hall – noting that the cottage between the church and the hall was the little house that my family had lived in for 7/8 years in the 1950s [there were 8 of us when we eventually moved up to Humffray Street – 2 adults and 6 kids!] – chatted with son Brad for a while [he’d also driven down from Melbourne today] and was introduced to everybody in the family, etc!!!  I would leave before the function ended – I think Heather might have liked me to have stayed on a bit longer today, but decided I’d prefer to be on the way and back in Sunbury by early evening. In fact, I’d planned a quick visit to the Art Gallery initially, but decided to keep going at that stage – my only stop being the usual one at the coffee lounge in Melton, for an iced coffee.

With another dental appointment tomorrow, I expected to be on edge tonight, but instead was relatively relaxed about that forthcoming visit! Perhaps the fact that Carlton’s first official 2012 AFL season game for the year was on the TV assisted in that process.  It was an ‘Away’ game at the MCG, so my Member’s ticket, only for ‘Home’ games, was not applicable [bit of a relief, as it would have been too much of a rush to get to the game after returning from Ballarat]. Susan was home tonight, although virtually hibernated in her room all night – some company watching the game would have been good – so I just had my own company to cheer and/or curse s the game progressed. It was the now regular first round clash between Carlton and the Richmond Tigers – they have not beaten us in the past 8 clashes, but I genuinely expected that to change tonight,

Thankfully, that wasn’t to be. Richmond got away to a good start, and were just in front at quarter time. He Blues burst away in the 2^nd quarter, and looked as though they were going to romp away with the match early in the second half. But an exciting [and nerve wracking] fight-back by the Tigers late in the 3^rd quarter and early in the last, saw the opposition get to within a goal of the Blues. But, as the Carlton web site would cheerfully proclaim afterwards – ‘Blues start the year in style with a final quarter onslaught’.  Quarter by quarter scores [in front of a crowd of 78,285 at the MCG, the 4^th largest attendance for a Round 1 game] were as follows.

Carlton Blues:              3.2.20      8.7.55       11.13.79                    FINAL:    18.17.125

Richmond Tigers:        3.4.22      5.6.36        10.7.67                     Final:        12.9.81

Excelled myself today  – a good useful 5 hours out in the garden, pleased with what was achieved, thought I’d better make an effort, as probably no time to get out there again, before Monday!  Meantime,  although I haven’t got back to him yet, received another contact from an ex-workmate at my first job here in Melbourne, back in the 1960s. The others I have already tracked down, will be pleased at that bit of news!

There was a report in the Weekly Times today which noted that the Federal Government would be handed a belting if an election were held today [but it’s not going to be!!], according to yesterday’s Newspoll. The poll had Labor slumping to 43-57 on a two-party preferred basis. If these numbers were reflected at an election, they could see Labor lose 37 seats, leaving it with just 35 of the nation’s 150 lower house seats. Labor’s primary vote dropped from 31 to 28 per cent while the Coalition’s  rose from 43 to 47. However, Prime Minister Julia Gillard increased her lead over Opposition Leader Tony Abbott as preferred PM – up a point to 40 compared to Mr Abbott’s 37.

Also today, as a Blues supporter, I was pleased to see the announcement by the Carlton Football Club that our exciting midfielder Mitch Robinson has re-signed with the Blues for a further two years. “This is really positive news for the Club on the eve of the 2012 season and we are delighted that Mitch has agreed to continue his career with Carlton for a further two years, through until the end of the 2014 season,” said General Manager Football Operations, Andrew McKay.“Mitch is highly regarded by everyone at the club and I know the supporters love the way he plays the game. The fact he finished seventh in last year’s Best & Fairest is an indication of his importance to our team,” McKay added.  Robinson joined Carlton via the 2008 NAB National Draft as a third round selection, number 40 overall. Meanwhile, tomorrow’s night’s match between Carlton and Richmond at the MCG serves as the sixth consecutive occasion that the two teams meet in the opening round and the 208th time all up since Richmond was admitted to the VFL in 1908.  It’s one of a myriad of stats forensically compiled by Carlton statistician Stephen Williamson.  Williamson notes that in 115 seasons of League competition (1897-2011) Carlton has played off in Round 1 no fewer than 113 times, winning 63 and drawing six with a winning ratio of 58.41 per cent. Four of these draws occurred between 1911 and 1917, involving Essendon, Collingwood and Fitzroy twice. The club also took advantage of opening round byes in 1942 and 1991, while its round 3 match with Essendon in 1979 was actually staged prior to the opening round. And while on the Blues, here’s an offer, I don’t think I’ll take up!!   ‘Hi Bill,  Every day, the most committed Blues supporters gather together in one place.
On the Blue Believer Wall at Visy Park.  The Blue Believer Wall holds the names of thousands of dedicated Carlton supporters who’ve proudly contributed to a permanent record of their devotion. There’s a place for you there too. If you want your loyalty to the Blues to be publicly recognised, join our biggest fans on the Blue Believer Wall at Carlton’s heartland.  It only costs $25 – and it lasts forever……………….but the only people who will ever see it….will be Blues supporters!!.

Spent another evening working on the family tree – all of this ‘consolidating and updating of records is another step towards the completion of my ‘book’, that long-coming ‘family history’ that I’ve been talking about since the 1970s!!!  It’s a task that can be very addictive, and I’m well and truly caught up in that addiction!

 

It’s been a quiet day at home, a large part of which was spent out in the back garden.  I thought I might have a brief look at some of the news headlines in today’s Australian newspaper.

• AUSTRALIA’S Cocos Islands  territory could be used as a staging point for spy flights by US military drones over the South China Sea.
• THE number of asylum-seekers coming to Australia has fallen, despite a global surge in displaced persons seeking safe haven.
• TASMANIA has been logging forests faster than they can regrow and faces both the collapse of its timber industry and the destruction of world heritage forests.
• DEEP depression has taken hold of federal Labor, with a new Newspoll suggesting it faces the loss of up to 37 seats at the next election.
• Campbell Newman has criticised his predecessor, Anna Bligh, for quitting her seat after Labor’s weekend election loss.
• POLLSTER Gary Morgan has escaped conviction after pleading guilty to failing to file tax returns on his superannuation account.
• USING social media during natural disasters is comforting, empowering and can limit psychological damage, a study has found.
• AN Australian aid worker has been injured in an apparent suicide attack in Afghanistan.
• ACTOR Matthew Newton’s mental illness was “at its worst” during an alleged attack on a taxi driver, a Sydney court has heard.
• POLLSTER Gary Morgan has escaped conviction after pleading guilty to failing to file tax returns on his superannuation account.
• USING social media during natural disasters is comforting, empowering and can limit psychological damage, a study has found.
• AN Australian aid worker has been injured in an apparent suicide attack in Afghanistan.

 

Meanwhile, today in the centre of Melbourne, a State Funeral was held – for a footballer!!  To Jim Styne’s, the offer was made by the government and accepted. Interesting, in view of the fact that a similar offer was made in respect to the death last week of the wife of former Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam.  However, there can be no doubt that the decision in Styne’s case was a popular one,  and worthy of recognition in such a case.  The following is the report on that occasion today, and while it is quite lengthy, the sport of Australian football  has also been a significant aspect of life in Melbourne for a large portion of the population [whether others like that fact or not], and as a result, the death of one of the state’s most popular sporting personalities is likely to be treated almost in the same vein as royalty. The report came from theaustralian.com newspaper reports late this afternoon.

‘Jim Stynes’ best friend and former Melbourne AFL teammate Garry Lyon has told a packed crowd at his funeral there has never been anyone like the Irishman who inspired countless people on the football field and beyond.  Stynes, who died last week from cancer aged 45, was sent off at a state funeral in Melbourne’s St Paul’s Cathedral today. Lyon told several light-hearted anecdotes in his eulogy at Stynes’ expense, before turning serious. “The truth is that finding fault in anything he did was a fruitless exercise,” said Lyon. “I sat down and wrote a list of things that best described him as a footballer. “Consistent, reliable, dependable, trustworthy, honest, strong, durable, courageous, caring, resilient. “They are wonderful qualities to possess in a footballer – they’re even more significant qualities to possess as a man. “What I find most amazing of all is that of all the kids from around the world we could have attracted to the game when Melbourne took the audacious step of looking beyond our shores in the albeit unlikely hope of unearthing a footballer, we found him – Jim Stynes. “And as result we may now never question the boundaries of what one man is capable of achieving on the playing field but also never question the ability of the same man to have that same impact away from it. “There never has been anyone like Jim Stynes and there never will be, which is why we loved him and we miss him so much today.”

Stynes came from Ireland as a Gaelic footballer in 1984 to Melbourne to try Australian Rules and ended up one of the game’s greats. A memorial service overnight in Stynes hometown of Ballyroan, Dublin, was attended by about 1000 people, the Herald Sun reported. Jim’s uncle, Kevin Stynes, told those gathered that his family were experiencing “the saddest and worst days of our lives”. “Never in a million years could I have foreseen this tragedy, it is not supposed to happen that your eldest son passes before the parents,” he lamented. “Why did God have to take him so young when there was so much more he wanted to achieve and could have achieved for humanity?” Paying tribute to his far-flung nephew he said despite Jim’s successes he had always kept his head and was always looking out for others, even during illness. “Despite his fame he never lost sight of reality and was humble to the end,” he said.

He won the 1991 Brownlow medal, four Melbourne best and fairest awards and was twice named in the All-Australian team. As well as being named in Melbourne’s team of the century, he saved the ailing club when he took over its presidency in 2008. He also co-founded the Reach Foundation charity. Brian Stynes remembered his older brother as a man who was generous, loving and caring. “He leaves a six foot seven gap in our lives that will always be empty,” he said. “… I tried following in his footsteps but they were always too big. “Brian Stynes recalled how devastated his close-knit family was when Jim first left Dublin in the mid 1980s to try his luck at Australian Rules football. The weekly highlight for all family members was when Jim phoned home. Brian Stynes eventually followed Jim to Australia, playing two senior games for the Demons in 1992 before returning to Ireland to resume his Gaelic football career. Film director Paul Currie, who co-founded the Reach Foundation charity with Stynes, called him “a warrior poet who was ahead of his time”. In addition to the crowd packed inside the cathedral, thousands of others followed the funeral on the big screen across the road at Federation Square, many decked out in the blue and red colours of the Demons. Roads around Flinders and Swanston streets were closed for one of the biggest funerals Melbourne has seen. Melbourne AFL players arrived at the cathedral together wearing the club blazers that Stynes had presented to them only days before he died. They were to form a guard of honour as the coffin was carried from the cathedral at the end of the service. Community leaders were among those farewelling Stynes, including Olympian and former Victorian governor John Landy, Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu, federal Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop, federal Labor minister Simon Crean and AFL heavyweights. A private wake was to be held for family and friends in the Jim Stynes room at the MCG.  Melbourne’s iconic Young and Jacksons Hotel, which is opposite the cathedral, laid on “a few extra barrels” for after the funeral, according to staff. Stynes will be cremated and his ashes spread in Ireland.

 

Another tough session at the gym – when I leave these mornings, I really feel as though I’ve been there, and done something!!!  Guess that’s the idea!!

Chat with Heather late today – not had much sleep, was at Nazareth House until midnight waiting for undertaker, etc, and then didn’t sleep anyway, not surprisingly. Busy all day Monday, organising things for the funeral – she’d managed a bit of a compromise with her mother before she died, had not wanted a funeral, but apparently agreed to a Memorial Service at Neil Street [at 2pm on Thursday afternoon] to be preceded by a private family service at the Crematorium earlier. I didn’t say anything, but at this stage, it was my intention to go down to Ballarat on Thursday afternoon – will be a bit of a rushed trip, was want to make the effort.

Great program on air tonight, and featured people like Katie Noonan, James Morrison, Marilla Homes, Nina Simone, along with a selection of folk singers from the UK [Jim Moray], the USA [Sean Lathrop], a bracket of folk tracks from the Shetland Islands, and of course the usual range of Australian folk singers, together with all the other varied genres of music that I generally play of a Monday night.  I assume there were listeners out there. Finished up in my usual fashion with 25 minutes of ‘cool’ jazz!!

Meanwhile, as has been my practice over the past few weeks, when I return home, usually well after midnight, I sit down and watched a taped version of that night’s episode of a series on Channel 7 called ‘Revenge’. As I think I have noted before, thank heavens it is a tape I’m watching – as with everything else on this television station, every program is totally destroyed by the damn advertisements, and I think if I had to sit through this show in normal time, I would have given up watching it by now – in a one hour program, you are lucky to get 5 minutes of action before it is broken by an advert. To my view, a disgraceful presentation of a TV program, and the reason why I will only watch something on commercial TV if I really need to [such as the football for the next six months, groan xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]. At least on this occasion, I can fast forward the ad breaks, which even then, come so frequently, that I find myself cursing the channel!!

From this point onwards, I was wondering whether to continue with my public blog – I don’t really get a great deal of response, and  I feel that in writing it, I need to be wary at times of how much  personal detail I should include, perhaps already too much, probably why any readers consider it so boring!!  Certainly, that thought often restricts my content,  so for a few days with that in mind, my intention was to continue my daily scribbles,  but only for future personal/family output. At the time, I wondered whether my disappearance from the blog site creates any comment – I doubt it will!! Mind you, I will probably end up putting all of the following on the site in any case!!!

Monday, 19^th March 2012 –  uneventful Monday, but some lovely lyrics to end the day!

To the gymnasium at 11 am for beginning if 2^nd stage of my Lift For Life course – not the usual set of activities today, more of an Assessment of progress made, etc, in the first 8 weeks. All good, and advancements made in all areas [as I would have hoped and assumed] including improvements in weight levels, BMI measurements, etc. Even earned myself a certificate for my efforts, for what that is worth!!

Generally a quiet day, spent a brief period out in the garden, some time on program preparation, and more work on the family history. Tonight, back to the radio station, for my weekly 3 hours late night stint. Featured music from the newly acquired Katie Noonan release –  ‘First Seed Ripening’  –  by Elixir, featuring Katie Noonan.  The CD has [on vocals of course] Katie, with Stephen Magnusson on Electric, steel and nylon string guitars, and Zac Hurren on soprano and tenor saxophones. They are also accompanied  on various tracks by the El.ixir String Quartet and one or two other musicians. Some beautiful lyrics throughout the recording, of which I played two songs in the body of the program, and closed off at midnight with a very beautiful and appropriate ‘Sleep Soundly, Peacefully’, and equally beautiful lyrics:-

living together you and I

create a shelter for our child

and all the dangers of the sky

and all the terrors of the world

we must withstand, we must withhold

that he sleep soundly, peacefully

moving together, separately

we must reach a single home

we must be a unity

to be a place where he may come

without distress and without harm

and sleep here soundly, peacefully

pull back the net and let me see

the marvellous terror of his trust

and darling, stand here close to me

who is the owner, who the guest?

we two are in a place most blessed

he sleeps here soundly, peacefully

[written by J Hurren, K Noonan & J Shapcott]

 

Tuesday, 20^th March 2012 – Jim Stynes passes away!

AFL great, player legend,  and former president of Melbourne football club Jim Stynes has died aged 45 after a three year battle with cancer. The ruckman played 264 games for Melbourne, including an AFL record of 244 games  in succession  He passed away this morning, with his young family by his side. The 1991 Brownlow Medallist and four-time Demons best and fairest resigned as Melbourne president on February 1^st.  The 45 year old was diagnosed with cancer in July 2009, and since then, has had brain surgery six timers, and endured more than 20 operations to remove tumours. He continued his role as Demons president during that time, but stepped down earlier this year with his condition worsening.
Stynes’ wife Sam confirmed the news in a statement posted on facebook.

 It was not only his foot-balling success that led to his popularity, but the tremendous work he did outside of football in the community service areas  of youth work, etc.   It was in 1994, that Stynes co-founded The Reach Foundation and became a prominent youth worker in Victoria. Reach believes that every young person should have the support and self-belief they need to fulfill their potential and dare to dream. Reach achieves this by creating safe and supportive spaces where teenagers can share stories and experiences honestly. A place where they can increase their self-belief, discover who they are and recognise that they’re not alone. In addition to Reach, Stynes worked on government advisory boards including the 1997 Victorian Government Suicide Task Force and the Federal Minister For Youth’s Youth Advisory Consultative Forum Committee.

Meanwhile, back here at home, I would spend quite a few hours out in the garden today, particularly around the front area, and by the time this ‘exhausted’  retiree wandered back into the house, he was reasonably satisfied with what  had been achieved.

 Wednesday, 21^st March 2012 – medical tests, and a medical scare!

Phone call to Ron Bourke t 6.45 am with local cricket scores and other sporting news.  This weekend was local cricket grand final weekend. Two Sunbury Cricket Club teams competing in the finals, including the B Grade team which Adam had played a few games with early in the season. The Sunbury United team also had two teams competing [in different grades] as did a couple of the other smaller clubs around the town. Let’s hope the weather holds off for a satisfactory completion.

From there, it was around to the local radiology unit etc, for one of my regular blood tests  –   there before opening time as usual in order to be client no. 1, which always proves an advantage, time wise. For a change, the nurse in charge, didn’t have the usual lengthy delay in finding a vein from which to extract my blood – generally, that is a long process, but perhaps the drinking of some additional water over night and this morning might have helped!  I was also given an ECG heart test – had not been aware that Dr McGrath had ordered that one, so was a bit of a surprise.

I was even more surprised, and a little disturbed to receive a phone call from the medical clinic late that same afternoon  – my ECG results were back and doctor would like to see me about the results!!! If there was not a potential problem, he would not be asking that! Anyway, booked myself in for this Friday afternoon.

By 10am this morning, it had become very dark, and the earlier patches of sunshine had disappeared completely – it appeared we were in for a storm shortly, certainly heavy rain has been reported in the Beaufort and then Ballarat area [a phone chat to Heather this morning confirmed that – she is upset, her mother is deteriorating quite quickly it seems, at Nazareth House].  As it turned out, the weather while remaining dull and overcast all day with some rain, it didn’t get as bad as had been anticipated.

As with Monday and Tuesday, Susie was home most of the day – had presumably decided to forego her studies, though she may have driven up to Bendigo yesterday, was gone for a few hours – no work rosters scheduled anyway until Thursday. In some ways, her situation was depressing me a little – doesn’t seem to be any direction in her mind at present, and it will be disappointing if she continues to drift along with the part-time job. Because of the lack of knowledge about what her plans are, I’m finding myself a little unsettled at present, and that frame of mind not improved by the phone call from the clinic this afternoon! Susie did go out to play volleyball tonight, over in Footscray – I didn’t cook anything, left a choice of frozen meals for her to choose from.

I had to go out myself tonight –  Family History Society meeting – not really keen to be bothered, but as vice president, felt obligated. Good to see Peter Free again – he was our guest speaker tonight talking on ‘archiving’  –  his health issue late last year, had apparently been something to do with his heart. He was relating the details, when someone began to speak to me, so I missed the gist of it. Anyway, appropriate to be at this meeting tonight – have been working on updating my family history records over the past few days, making that a bit of a major part time project at present.

 Thursday, 22^nd March 2012 – radio deliberations and dental fears!!

At the gymnasium this morning, I was put onto a new set of exercises, and I must admit that by the end of the session, I was feeling rather exhausted. Linda, today’s personal trainer, also pointed out to me that I needed to buy some new gym shoes, mine had no tread left at all on their sole and the potential for slipping, etc, was fairly high!  I actually bought some later in the morning – a $170 pair at 50% off, even then, still a lot more than I have ever bothered to pay for ‘basically sports/running shoes’ previously. But hopefully, these will last me a little longer than past purchases.

Another lengthy spell in the garden today, which soon took what energy this morning’s gym activities had robbed me of, away also. As with most of this week, I would spend some more hours working on the family history today!

Out to a radio  sub-committee meeting tonight. The station had received a complaint from a Hume councillor about comments made on one of the weekly ‘interview’ programs and it was our role to initially determine by listening to a recording of the program whether there was any justification to the complaint. I won’t go into the details here, except to say that the complainant had not actually heard the program himself – that had been passed onto him by hearsay by someone else. Needless to say, politics was creeping into it somewhere, and the unfortunate attitude and practice of some people to be always looking for something to use against their ‘opponents’!!   Anyway, be that as it may, the outcome of our deliberations was that we could find absolutely nothing to justify the specific complaint – there was just one aspect as to whether a fact that had been referred to in the program was in fact true!! If not, it was agreed that an apology was due to the complainant in question, even though that was a separate issue completely to that person’s initial so-called concerns.

For that meeting, and afterwards back home, I can’t say that I was in much of a mood tonight –  apprehensive about my visit to the dental clinic first thing tomorrow morning, if the truth be known My confidence in that area not helped by the note included in an email from Robert about some dental treatment of his own.

Hi Bill

You’ve caught me coming out of an eventful week; have needed some dental work for some time now and a recent mishap on the bike accentuated that need. Anyway, led to a 4 hour operation Tuesday last week having 6 implants inserted and some grafting; 4 hours of having someone drill holes into your upper and lower jaw (under a local anaesthetic only) isn’t much fun! Was meant to be recovering at home for the balance of the week, but had something big running at work so although home was on the lap top 11-12 hours a day plus conference calls (on which I sounded like a drunk as face was very swollen), and then the deal fell over on Saturday night (c’est la vie, but hopefully not an outcome of my drunken demeanour on the phone). Need to wait about 3 months now for healing before the crowns can be placed and hopefully a decent set of teeth again. Objective is to get it all done before my big trip in September.

Of course reading that, my little procedure almost paled into insignificance [in theory anyway] though I didn’t exactly feel that way! The reference to the trip at the end, I think refers to a cycling trip he has planned for the USA in September, something that has been planned for quite a while. Meanwhile, he also confirmed that he and Evelyn would be down here over Easter – I was going to join then at the World Indoor Cycling championships over the Friday-Sunday of the Easter weekend.,

 Friday, 23^rd March 2012 – nerves, appointments, and mixed results

Not the most encouraging start to a Friday morning –  after a restless sleep, awake at 4,30am, and stayed that way – on my mind, was an 8am visit to the dentist, one of three over the next 3 weeks or so! The task – a root canal procedure, though today was the ‘cleaning out’ phase. Still not particularly  pleasant – I have a bit of a phobia about lying right back, mouth open, and at the mercy of these ‘expensive’ medical personnel!!  Nevertheless, it was over in about 30 minutes this morning [$300 less discount for immediate payment], though I have still have another kind of medical appointment later today, that I have a slightly less trepidation about – more on that later, maybe.  Needless to say, I was pleased to get back home this morning, earlier than I had anticipated.

Received a message from Heather in Ballarat – mentioned her mother was not doing too well in Ballarat ,beginning to sound as though the old lady does not have long to go, sadly. It is going to hit Heather hard – she has visited her mother two or three times a day for almost a year now, since she began treatment for cancer last year. From those messages and the odd phone call, it was becoming obvious that her mother’s deteriorating situation is creating a deal of stress and heart ache for her daughter who is virtually spending most of her days at Nazareth House where her mother is hospitalised, and where by the weekend, she, Heather, would be spending the nights also. She was initially upset on the phone the other day when I rang her, although she quickly put that impression aside.

Let’s have a look at some news headlines in today’s ‘Australian’ newspaper , including:-

• Tanner slams politics of spending –  former Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner has attacked politicians, including his own former Labor colleagues, arguing that they are ignoring the national interest and handing out infrastructure funding ‘irrespective of merit’  for political and not economic gain.
• We’ve all been conned on super, says business – Business has accused Labor of misleading Australians about the cost of increasing the superannuation guarantee so it could slip the change through parliament without political inconvenience.
• Footy broadcasts in Conroy’s hands – Communications Minister Stephen Conroy will hold the ultimate power to decide the football games aired on free-to-air TV networks under long awaited laws to ensure viewers will not have to pay to watch  major sports broadcasts.
• Deposit rate cut to hurt savers –  the big four banks have slashed their key deposit rates while raising home loan rates to safeguard their profit margins,  which are under threat from the subdued domestic econopmy and high wholesale  funding costs.
• [Andrew] Demetriou [Chief Executive of the AFL] believes all football codes can flourish in Sydney – the AFL [Australian Football League] held its season launch in Sydney last night on the eve of the GWS [Greater Western Sydney] Giants inaugural match against the [Sydney] Swans tomorrow.  The Swans [nee South Melbourne] came to town 30 years ago and almost fell over  through a lack of support and funding, but the AFL has thrown millions [of $s] at GWS.
• Sister act set to make double the splash at London Games – Sisters Cate and Bronte Campbell have broken a 40-year drought by qualifying for the London Games after placing first and second in the 50m freestyle at the Olympic trials in Adelaide last night.

Meanwhile, I still had a medical appointment to get through – turned out to be a welcome anti-climax. The only ‘concern’ about the ECG test was not really a concern at all – it was the ‘reception’ staff rather than the doctor who had called me in today. Apparently everything was fine – a slightly slower pulse rate, which actually indicated a small increase in fitness levels rather than anything of a negative nature. That was certainly a major relief!! As for the blood test – those results were also available, and everything, including all of the diabetes measurements were fine – I am controlling my diabetes well!!! Further relief and satisfaction though of course, one must  never rest on one’s laurels!! And to top the visit off, Dr McGrath was able to relieve me of one of my daily medications  – from seven down to six!!! It’s now up to this writer to continue to keep things moving along in that manner.  If only i didn’t have those damn dental appointments hanging over my head!!! Meanwhile, the annual appointment with the heart specialist is due in 3 weeks.

 Saturday, 24^th March 2012 – ALP wiped out in Queensland elections!!!

Felt okay about going to the gymnasium this morning, following yesterday’s dental appointment, but by 10 am, I was feeling that was a ‘pretty exhausting’ session!! Yes, shouted myself an iced coffee afterwards, and had a brief wander around town – met no-one that I could stop and chat to! Returned home but was back in town before midday – at the Post Office before it closed – sent off a package of concert brochures to Heather in Ballarat, including the details of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert she had chosen to go to in July. A bit unfortunate that it in view of her Mother’s ‘precarious’ clinging to life situation at present, the package might well arrive with poor timing, nevertheless, Mrs J may rally again, so I decided to send the material off anyway.

Meanwhile, messages via text and phone today from Heather were indicating that her Mother was unlikely to survive beyond tonight –  I think Heather felt that she was hanging on until the grandson, Brad, arrived today from Melbourne, but she was nevertheless ‘struggling’.  I was glad he had made the decision to go down, because prior to his recent illness, he had been somewhat estranged from the rest of the family.

In the local cricket this weekend over Saturday & Sunday, two of the teams associated with Adam’s Sunbury Cricket Club were participating in ‘grand’ Final matches for the season.  The F Grade team was playing against St Anthony’s over at Melton [where Adam was in attendance today] and they apparently restricted the opposition to a score of 148. The Senior team [in B Grade, which Adam had filled in for on a few occasions earlier in the season] were playing here in Sunbury, against Bacchus Marsh, and at the close of the first day’s play, had scored  8 wickets for 241 runs. Both games will continue tomorrow, and I planned to call in at one stage during the afternoon [Adam would be there] to see how things were going.

Meanwhile, the official A.F.L. 2012 football season got underway tonight – just the one game, played up in Sydney  – new team in the competition, a second national team in Sydney, the Greater Western Sydney Giants versus the original Sydney Swans [who were created out of South Melbourne 22 years ago]. The first half of the game was reasonably competitive with the new comers [under experienced and successful AFL coach, Kevin  Sheedy] matching it fairly well with the Swans up until half time. However with more than half of their team teenagers and first game players at the AFL level, the difference in experience and match fitness began to show, and the Swans eventually went away to what looked like a very comfortable victory. Final scores were Sydney Swans – 14.16.100 defeated Greater Western Sydney 5.7.37. The second match in Round One of the season will be the traditional starter between Richmond and Carlton next Thursday night.

There was another more important contest happening in Australiua today –  the Queensland State Election, in which it was predicted that the Party that had ruled Queensland for the past 20 years or so, was likely to be thrown out of office. Lead by a Premier who has probably proved herself to be one of more efficient political leaders in Australia over recent years, despite leading a poorly performing government, i.e., Anna Bligh, that predicted was understated. In fact, the Queensland Labor Government suffered an electoral bloodbath tonight as Anna Bligh was stripped of her power in a record voter backlash. As would be reported, the Liberal National Party [LNP] leader Campbell Newman was rocketed into parliament, and the office of Premier, taking a wrecking ball to Labor’s rule. At the close of count tonight, the ALP had lost a staggering 42 seats, sending a foreboding warning to the Federal Labor government. Of the 89 State seats available, by tonight 75 of those seats had been called for the LNP, with the amazing figure of only 6 going to Labor [ a staggering 17% swing against the ALP]. As the vanquished leader said in her post-election speech ‘It’s clear tonight that the people of Queensland have spoken with the strongest possible voice and they have voted for a change of government’. Indeed they did!!  Labour’s historic electoral route now leaves the party retaining power in just one mainland state – South Australia. Not many years past, the situation was reversed!  It was with slightly more than half the vote counted, that Ms Bligh conceded defeat to Mr Newman, the former Brisbane Mayor, who had been elected leader of his Party, even before he had won his seat!

For the new ‘Premier elect’ in Queensland, Campbell Newman, his huge gamble – in choosing a very Labor seat to enter state politics, paid off. In An extraordinary move, Mr Newman campaigned as the alternative premier against Anna Blyth without holding a seat, and entered parliament for the first time as an MP, as the LNP leader. I think he had to achieve an 8% swing against the sitting Labor MP, and in fact almost doubled that in the final count! An interesting warning was made by former Queensland Labor Premier, Peter Beattie after the devastating defeat  –  that Labor must give voters a direct say in Labor leadership ballots. Not sure how they could achieve that, I would have thought that one problem was more related to the manner in which their electoral candidates are chosen in the first placed! Anyway, at the close of counting tonight, the Queensland political system showed:-

Labor………………………………………6 seats

Liberal National Party……………..75 seats

Katter’s Australian Party…………. 2 seats

Independent……………………………. 2 seats

Undecided………………………………  4 seats

Sunday, 25^th March 2012 –  Heather’s mother passes away!

It’s a pity that I have so much difficulty is achieving an uninterrupted night’s sleep, particularly when, even though retired now, I always seem to have some commitment of one sort or another of a morning, which means I need to remain conscious of how long I actually sleep of a morning!! Today such an example – of course, up at 5.30am for my Sunday Classics Program [No. 301] on the radio. Despite the usual poor sleep, feeling okay this morning, though have to get used to the dark mornings again now that Summer has passed us by and the days are quickly shortening! In fact, I believe our daylight saving period ends next Saturday night.

One thing I did do in the program this morning, was play a little tribute to Heather’s mother. I didn’t know if she had survived the night or not [she had not been expected to, though I’d not heard anything from Heather]. Anyway I played what is my favourite hymn, and one which I had no doubt, Mrs Jones would have sung many times with the congregation of Neil Street Methodist Church in Ballarat through her time there. Regarded as the Prayer of St Francis, it was ‘Make me a Captive of Your Peace’, which in fact was sung at the funeral service of Diana, Princess of Wales in September 1997. The following are the lyrics.

Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there is hatred let me bring your
love.
Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord
And where there’s doubt, true faith in
you.

Chorus:
Oh, Master grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of your peace
Where there’s despair in life, let me bring
hope
Where there is darkness, only light
And where there’s sadness, ever joy.

Chorus:

Make me a channel of your peace
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned
In giving to all men that we receive
And in dying that we’re born to eternal
life.

Chorus:

The Prayer of Saint Francis is a Christian prayer.  According to Wikipedia, it is attributed to the 13th-century Saint Francis of Assisi, although the prayer in its present form cannot be traced back further than 1912, when it was printed in France in French, in a small spiritual magazine called La Clochette  (The Little Bell) as an anonymous prayer, as demonstrated by Dr. Christian Renoux in 2001.

I sent a brief message to Heather [obviously my program could not be heard in Ballarat] to advise her of what I had done – thought it might act as a source of comfort to both Heather, and her mother [if she was still with us]. A little later, Heather’s response appeared as a text on my phone –  ‘Bill, thank you so much, you are a darling!!  I was just leaving to go home & have a shower, but will go back & tell Mum, it will mean a lot to her. Not much change but she actually spoke to Brad yesterday! Looks like I will be spending another night with Mum’.  So it seems the old lady has awoken to another morning of her long life. Back home later, I posted the same tribute on Face Book. Ruth responded – she knew who I was talking about [following our conversation at the coffee lounge a few weeks ago]. Later this afternoon, I received a second message from Ballarat  –  ‘Bill, thankyou for your beautiful thought this morning. When I came in and told Mum, there was a lovely little smile!! Truly appreciate your thoughtfulness. I will be spending another night here. I think Mum astounds every one! H’

It is a coolish overcast day, some showers expected, but hopefully not enough to allow Adam’s two cricket teams the opportunity to complete their grand final matches. An early afternoon call from Adam – the senior ‘B’ Grade team all out for 251 [last wicket fell as he spoke], while over at Melton, in reply to the Sunbury team’s score of 148 yesterday, the opposition had  slumped to the loss of  4 wickets for 10 runs!!  They were eventually all out for quite a low score, but that match would be forced into a third day next weekend, when the opposition decided not to concede on the single innings result but insisted on fighting the game out to a second innings. Meanwhile, at Clarke Oval, where I spent two hours this afternoon, another good bowling display by the senior team, to have Bacchus Marsh [their opponents] all out for just 87. However, again, the opposition [unlike Anna Blyth last night] refused to concede defeat, and forced the Sunbury boys to bat again. However, by the end of the afternoon, much to Adam’s relief, and that of the Club, Bacchus Marsh had a change of heart, presumably they had little chance of winning the match by forcing it into a third day next weekend, and Sunbury were declared the winners of the 2011/2012 B Grade Premiership. Obviously, Adam had a night of celebrations ahead of him – I say obvious, because he was thinking ahead earlier this afternoon, when he asked me to follow him home, so he could drop his car off, and return with me to the cricket club – no drinking and driving for Adam tonight!

Following last weekend’s FI motor racing Grand Prix in Melbourne, today was the turn of the Malaysian Grand Prix – though not telecast until later tonight, some hours after the actual event!  Then the race had a couple of delays due to a heavy rainstorm, it was even surprising that the cars got to start again. Myself, I didn’t see the end of the race –  I’d already heard unintentionally, the result, when I’d switched the car engine on a little earlier, and found I’d left the radio on – just as the ABC news report was announcing the result. Wouldn’t have even been in the car at that time. However Adam rang me – wondering if I could pick him up from the cricket club and drop him home, he’d had enough of the night’s celebrations!!  Interesting little point he told me about – as basically in charge of the selection committee, it had been his task to tell a player that he’d been dropped from the team that went on to win today’s premiership. Apparently the player didn’t take it that well, and Adam was obviously feeling the responsibility a little!!

Shortly after 9.30 pm tonight [before I went out to get Adam], I received a brief message from Ballarat – “My precious Mum passed away 8.15 pm tonight. Heather”. So, suddenly, it was all over, and Heather’s plan to spend another night with her mother, ended very soon after she returned to her bedside. I sent back a brief note of sympathy, and left it at that, knowing her daughter, and presumably son, would be with her.  I would ring her tomorrow night.

As for the Malaysian Grand Prix  – well, our man, Mark Webber missed out on the podium again, as he finished in 4^th position for the second race in a row!  The first three placegetters were:-

1. Fernando Alonso
2. Sergio Perez
3. Lewis Hamilton
4. Mark Webber

This morning, at the radio station, I presented my 300^th Sunday morning program of classical music, and in doing so extended my normal time to the full three hours, from 6am, and early start, but I had a very full program. Not surprisingly, I didn’t have time to play all that I would have liked to today, but the following is a list of  music presented – a bit different, tried to feature all pieces that would be familiar to most listeners, I guess the more popular classics! Let’s see which composers featured this morning, as an example –  Chopin, Bach, Saint-Saens, Debussy, Greig, Wagner, Bruckner, Mozart, Gounod, Handel, Vivaldi, Beethoven,  Ravel, Elder, Bruch, Orff, Puccini, and Offenbach, to name a few. Would have liked to have included some of the more recent composers had time permitted, but as I do promote the ‘modern’ classics on a weekly basis, I decided to restrict this morning’s program to some of the better known traditional composers and their music. No phone calls today, which was a little disappointing though not unexpected, although later in the morning, a couple of text messages from listener Jayne, out in Glenhuntly.\: – ‘Congrats Bill, I hope to enjoy the next 300 programs’ and also ‘I will remind you to have a REST at some time, you must look after your health first and foremost then we can all enjoy Sundays and Monday night’. Admittedly, quite a number of congratulations from all parts of the world came through in response to my brief comment on Face Book this morning J

Today’s news included the report of the death of Margaret Whitlam, wife of former Labor Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, the PM who was dismissed from office by the Governor-General on the 11^th November 1975. Gough Whitlam described his wife as ‘She was a remarkable person and the love of my life. We were married for almost 70 years’. She encouraged and sustained me and our four children, their families and many other people in a life full of engagement with Australians from all walks of life’.  While I can’t claim to have ever been a fan of the Whitlams,  Mrs Whitlam was described in one editorial title this morning as ‘Never the woman to fall into the silent and supportive role’ as compared say, with her predecessors playing the part of a PM’s wife. There has been no dispute about her value as an electoral and social asset for both Labor, and the women’s movement in Australia, generally [perhaps John Howard’s wife followed that example to some degree]. As the Sunday Herald Sun says today – ‘Margaret Whitlam’s contribution to the culture and social wealth of Australia is immense. It is also characteristic of an attitude we now see as happily typical of Australian women – direct and feisty, never taking a backward step. In December 1972 after her husband had won that historic election, Mrs Whitlam wondered at her own place in the scheme of things. “What am I to do?, she wrote in her diary. “Stay in a cage – wide open to view, of course – and say nothing”. Then she answered her own question “That’s not on but if I can do some good I’ll certainly try”. Almost 40 years on, those words serve as a perfect epitaph for a woman who never gave up’.

Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park this evening. I quite enjoyed the race, however Australia’s Mark Webber has still not managed to get onto the podium in his home Grand Prix. Today, he did finish closer than any previous attempts  –   in 4^th position – but that elusive home town victory continues to be hard to come by. Our other driver, Daniel Ricciardo, finished in 9^th position in his first race. The first four place-getters were:

1. Jenson Button  [McLaren-Mercedes]
2. Sebastian Vettel [Red Bull Racing – Renault]
3. Lewis Hamilton [McLaren-Mercedes]
4. Mark Webber [Red Bull Racing – Renault

Meanwhile, Carlton had it’s final practice match before the official 2012 season begins, this afternoon, and apparently it was another loss!  Not a good start to the season –  North Melbourne: 18.8.116 defeated Carlton Blues: 15.10.100. Lets hope results begin to improve in a couple of weeks!

 

But first things, my little piece of poetry contribution this morning, for Face Book came from Robert Browning, and was titled ‘Meeting At Night’.  Browning’s poetry was one of my English literature texts way back in 1964, but I don’t recall us been asked to read anything short like this selection  –  we had to study the lengthy, almost novel style poetic sagas like ‘The Flight of the Duchess’, or ‘The Bishop Orders His Tomb’, or, ‘My Last Duchess’, or, ‘Fra Lippo Lippi’, and so on – a lot of obsession with duchesses and the like, are obvious in Browning’s poetry. Anyway, I decided that none of those ‘drama lyrics’ were quite suitable for this morning’s contribution, hence my selection, as below.

The grey sea and the long black land;

And the yellow half-moon large and low;

And the startled little waves that leap

In feiry ringlets from their sleep,

As I gain the cove with pushing prow,

And quench its speed i’ the slushy sand.

Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;

Three fields to cross till a farm appears;

A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch

And blue spurt of a lighted match,

And a voice less loud, thro’ its joys and fears,

Than the two hearts beating each to each!

[‘Meeting at Night’ by Robert Browning, 1845]

As for the remainder of this Saturday, I would spent the bulk of the period from 10am until near 5 pm, on the Village Green in Sunbury, helping to supervise the 3NRG stall. Not a great deal of activity, certainly prior to the lunchtime parade of floats, etc, as our stall had been located in what was a relatively ‘off the main thoroughfare’ location on the Village Green, just adjacent to the St Mary’s Church building, so we not getting the bulk of the passing traffic. Subsequently the only fundraiser we had going –  a raffle for the station, didn’t do as well as we might have hoped.  The spruikers [or sales types] amongst our members, were all missing today, and those of us who put in an appearance, were not at the same level of ‘salesmanship’ [certainly, that is not my thing!!  But, we did have a presence in the Festival,  and also, somewhat surprisingly picked up an award, for the station ‘float’ [which was basically Steve’s ‘exotic’ panel van toeing a decorated trailer!!! – Don’t think we had much opposition in that particular category.  This year is the 36^th year of SunFest [or the Sunbury Fair or Festval – various name changes], being held on the 3^rd weekend of March each year, and is held over the two days. It is generally well supported by local traders, businesses, residents, community groups, and visitors from out of town. A range of attractions, in addition to the many stalls, and ‘circus’ type entertainment venues, are held on the main stage, and the dance floor, with a mix of local talent, national acts, award winning entertainers and childrens’ entertainment. The Grand Street Parade has been held for about 30 years, while on Sunday this year, we have the second official SunFest – Walk or Run for Fun event [which I didn’t take part in!!]  This event is organised for Sunday morning, and charities supported this year will be Multiple Sclerosis, Cystic Fibrosis and the Leukaemia Foundation. He latter charity is specifically supported in September each year, under the title of ‘Light the Night’ Walk, in support of the Leukaemia Foundation and people with blood cancer.

Whilst I was at the Village Green today, I went for the occasional wander around the area – a large number of business and community stalls, entertainment, exhibitions of various activities, and of course, the Uniting Church was running it’s regular morning teas/trash & treasure/craft stall/Leprosy Mission/ and book stall – chatted briefly to one or two people associated with the church, including the Minister who despite my absence for the past two years, was extremely friendly, and certainly, outwardly non-judgemental. I was left feeling somewhat guilty that I’d not been around for most of the time he’d been at the church – just a coincidence as far as timing was concerned, but nevertheless, I didn’t feel that comfortable about the situation. Earlier, Barry H turned up at the 3NRG stall briefly, but there was no sign of Ruth during the day. Meanwhile, a number of 3NG personnel who usually assist on these occasions did not put in an appearance today. Principally today, there was myself, Mike C, Ollie, John & Maureen, Steve, Gus, and Geoff M, while Christine stopped by briefly for a chat at one point.  I was pleased to see Jodie on a number of occasions during the day – came looking for me, and also to watch some of the live acts [rock bands, etc] – she had a girlfriend with her, a pretty little thing whom I’d not seen around before [not unusual, as I’m not in the habit of frequenting the places Jodie goes for entertainment!!]. James was going to put in an appearance but left his ‘run’ too late.

I left just before 5pm,  after we had packed up the stall equipment etc – didn’t think of it until afterwards, but I should have gone up to the studio to help ‘onload’ the gear, although I think there were enough on hand for that task. In fact, that night, your ‘personal essayist’ was totally exhausted – not interested in cooking, though still had to go back out again to buy something for Susan [she seemed to be having a weekend at home, apart from shifts at the bakery] – sat down later and watched the Final of the football pre-season game between  West Coast Eagles [from Perth] and the Adelaide Crows, played over in Adelaide – in the end a strong win to Adelaide, although I don’t think I saw the end of the game – was in bed by 9pm, only to be totally disturbed by the proverbial ‘fireworks’ display at 9.30pm. Not sure where they let them off, but it sounded as though they were all exploding right over the top of our roof!!  Right on scheduled time, at 9.30, but thankfully, only lasted less than 5 minutes! At which point, silence reigned again!