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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!

A bit of an unusual sleep/lie-n this morning, not very late, but more so than usual [useful, after initially thinking I would be in the dental chair at 8am!]. In fact, I went up to the radio station at around 10am for one or two admin and finance matters – pleased to find the people I wanted to see, were available today.

Meanwhile, a little weekly report from the Blues!! Carlton will use its fourth NAB Cup match, this Sunday against North Melbourne at Visy Park, as final preparation for season 2012.  Captain Chris Judd will lead the team again this week and, with the return of Murphy, Gibbs, Kreuzer, Scotland, Simpson, Carrazzo, Betts and Garlett, who all missed last week’s game in Maroochydore, it will be Judd’s first game alongside these established senior players in 2012.  Joining Judd for his second game of the pre-season will be Jarrad Waite. However both Andrew Walker and Nick Duigan, who played against Brisbane last weekend, will be missing on Sunday. Michael Jamison who is yet to play a pre-season game will also miss Sunday’s game and he is expected to resume playing in the Northern Blues season opener on March 24. Making his first appearance for 2012 will be Mitch Robinson who missed last week’s game with a tight back after being rested in the first two weeks of the NAB Cup.  Judd said fans can expect to see a similar style of football to what will be played this season. “Obviously the NAB Cup gives us an opportunity to trial a few things that we wouldn’t ordinarily get to do in the season,” he said. “It is a luxury we have taken full advantage of this year and it is fair to say that it has been an incredibly beneficial past month for us, especially in relation to giving some of the younger guys a run.” With the Carlton team taking on a more familiar look this week, Judd said it was time to put the final pieces in place. “The boys are almost ready to go, so the focus this week will be putting our energies into fine tuning some structural aspects of our game and make sure we are ready for the season opener against Richmond.”…………………Well, let’s hope the team performances from this point onwards are a little more encouraging, than has been revealed so far in the pre-season matches!!!

The Archibald Prize is due to be awarded for this year, at the end of March –  there are 41 final contenders. Rather than doing the usual tipping –  the horses, football, elections –  I’m going 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] – the ‘Australian’ article on Friday didn’t have the view that many of the 41 were worth winning, and knowing my luck with tipping, one of the more outrageous portraits will no doubt be selected!! Right or wrong, I shall return to this status with the outcome!! My first choice as below:

This morning was my final session at the gymnasium  in my first 8 week’s segment of my ‘Lift For Life’ program. Made an appointment to come in next week for a new assessment, and to make a start on the next phase of the program.  More money would change hands as well of course. Nothing is for free these days!!!

Another interesting set of figures put out through the National Seniors organisation this week – money worries are the top concern when it comes to growing older, according to a new survey released this week. National Seniors Australia surveyed 1,800 members and found their biggest concern about getting older was the value of their savings and investments not keeping up with inflation. This was followed by being unable to receive proper care when they are no longer able to look after themselves and thirdly by not being able to maintain a reasonable standard of living for their rest of their lives. National Seniors Australia chief executive Michael O’Neill said the findings were important for the government to acknowledge as it considers the Productivity Commission’s (PC) final report, Caring for Older Australians. “We want to make sure that those who cannot afford aged care are properly looked after because we don’t believe money should be the criterion for receiving quality care,’’ O’Neill said.  The respondents’ top three priorities for aged care reform were to address workforce shortages in aged care (24%), improve the quality of life for aged care residents (21%) and increase the number of residential care places (17%).

I’d like to see a survey of the make-up of the kind of National Seniors people who are both members of the organisation, and take part in these surveys. When I look at some of the things promoted –  expensive touring holidays, special wine offers, and so on, that seems to me to be catering for a specific financial level, and not particularly your average senior citizen. While I guess that is simplifying things a little, the concern about ‘savings and investments’ also points in that direction, and even the annual cost of membership – not necessarily high, but for many people, the direct personal benefits that they could derive from such an annual fee, seem fairly limited in my view and hardly worth the extra expense. Not quite so for myself – I ‘m not particularly  interested in those kind of  ‘special’ offers, but I do find many of the articles in the monthly magazine, and the regular email supplements, to be quite interesting, and usually of relevance. My point being that the kind of survey referred to – yes, possibly indicative of the views of ‘members’ but not necessarily of the majority of senior citizens in general who feel there is no value in paying another annual fee for another organisation that they can’t see themselves gaining much from.  Mind you, I’m sure that the top three priorities for aged care reform, as listed in the last sentence of the above paragraph are real enough indeed.  In respect to the first item, for eg, I read somewhere else today, that a survey of Human Resource managers [or in my day, Personnel Officers] revealed that there is a large scale ‘practice’ in many organisations to resist the employment of older workers, and I would imagine that would become even more prevalent, once the worker in question gets beyond the official age of retirement.

In speaking of senior citizens, a much respected member of my ‘extended’ family – namely the mother of my former wife – celebrated her 91^st birthday today, and I was lucky enough to be invited to join the small family group to dinner at the local bowling club restaurant. Only member of her ‘Sunbury’ family missing, was my second son Adam – he had a cricket selection meeting tonight. While his ‘D’ Grade team missed out on the final four for this weekend’ semi-final games, two of the teams in the Club would be competing. I think Adam said that he was the Selection chairman, so he had a reasonable excuse for his absence from the dinner party. Not that I was really the life of the ‘party’ tonight myself – had been feeling slightly off color throughout the day, and when it came to eating a meal this evening, I simply couldn’t manage very much of my food! Rather a waste, which left me feeling a little guilty, but sometimes you just know when you have to stop!  However, ‘Nan’ or Win [the lady of the moment] appear to enjoy the night out at her favourite spot, and that had been the whole point of the night. The occasion included Shirley, James, Susan, Jodie & her boyfriend, Ash [plus yours truly of course].

Meanwhile, Adam’s horse had another run this afternoon at the Melton Harness racing – he did mention it to me last night in a text message, but alas, I forgot all about it  – discovered later, via one of his Face Book entries that ‘Dimensions’ had come in third today – getting closer to that elusive win!!  In the meantime, my attention was a little distracted this afternoon by the arrival of the ‘tree contractor’ who had decided that today was his opportunity to get rid of the large tree in my back garden, that I’d only recently discovered was dying, and threatening to partially collapse into the neighbour’s property!  For the cost of $400, it all seem to be over very quickly, but I figured there was no way I would ever be able to get rid of the thing, let alone cut it down, and I suppose the aspects of personal danger and safety are built into the cost of a job of that nature. Anyway, by mid-afternoon, the tree had disappeared, as had all remains of it, which satisfied me!!

Up until later this evening, I was under the worrying impression that I had a dentist appointment first thing in the morning. I was actually thinking that it was rather surprising that the surgery had not rung me to confirm the appointment, as is normal practice. I checked my diary – the appointment was for Friday of next week!! Well, at least I found myself feeling a little more relaxed for the remainder of the evening!!!

Early start, with phone call to 3NRG with the weekend cricket results on the local scene, and a few tips for today’s horse races down at Sale, in Gippsland. Later on in the morning, a trip to the radio station, but a bit disappointed to find no-one from the administration [as I’d been led to believe] nor were the mid-Wednesday morning presenters on air, once again!!  It’s a pity that one or two of our ‘top’ shows are so irregular in their appearances. Such is life!!  Anyway, couldn’t do or plan a few things I’d planned.  Made up for it, by a visit to the Blues Plus coffee lounge, a bit of shopping, and ‘lashing out’ at Collins/ABC store by purchasing the latest CD featuring my favourite Australian jazz singer – Katie Noonan –  called ‘first seed ripening’, and recorded by ‘Elixir’, and featuring Katie, who does all of the singing [14 tracks], which my mind has already slotted two or three tracks into next Monday night’s program!

Also received an email from the musical band/group ‘The Little Stevies’, which had the following news of interest –   Hey folks,    As you may already know we’re playing a show in Melbourne for the Brunswick Music Festival this Sunday. But what you probably don’t know is that this show will be our last in Melbourne for a while, and a very special one.  You see, over the last six months Byll has been working on a very special side-project – a collaboration which is due out in June. She’s been having trouble keeping it a secret lately, seeing as it’s getting so big, and if you’ve seen her recently you might know what it is. Yes, that’s right, you guessed it – there’s a little Little Stevie on the way! So once the little fella arrives the big Little Stevies will be taking a well-deserved break. Furthermore, as one Little Stevie arrives, another says goodbye. When the Stevies return it will be, sadly, without Robin. He’s off on some new adventures in distant lands, no doubt with a video camera in hand, and we wish all the very best to our dear friend and co-founding member.  Never fear though, mother Byll and auntie Beth have a brand new album in the pipeline which we plan to release early next year, with live shows to follow. So make sure you come down on Sunday for our last show with Robin and join us when we sing The Tram Song louder and harder than ever before (but not too loud as to send Byll into labor). Details: Sunday March 18^th  Doors: 7:30pm (10pm curfew)  Phoenix Public House, 133 Sydney Rd Brunswick  With support from Immigrant Union   Presented by The Brunswick Music Festival. Over and Out –  The Little Stevies..  I like to go to that, but not the right kind of venue to really alone at my age, mores the pity!! No doubt I will keep an eye open for the new CD.

I play music from the Little Stevies quite often on a Monday night – bit of a mixture of pop/folk genres, I’m selective with the tracks I play on the show, those that I think fit the general mode of that night [Monday nights].

Meanwhile, late this afternoon, it was a trip [by train] into the city – first concert by the newly configured Australian String Quartet [ASQ], with two new members at the Melbourne Recital Centre. I didn’t buy an annual subscription this year, was not sure how often I would go, and wanted to try some other musicians. However, decided to buy a ticket last week, for their first concert of the 2012 season.

It was the debut season for new line-up featuring new members Kristian Winther (violin) and Stephen King (viola)., joining the remaining members,  Anne Horton (violin), and Rachel  Johnston (cello). Kristian Winther and Stephen King were appointed to the ASQ in September following an extensive  search. Both Winther and King are regarded as two of the most sought after classical musicians in  Australia. According to ASQ Executive Officer, Alison Beare there is great anticipation for the 2012 season.  “Kristian, Anne, Stephen and Rachel are all committed to the future of chamber music in Australia and  abroad. They are an innovative group, with new ideas and territory to explore. The foundations have  been set, and the future is incredibly bright”, said Alison Beare. From what I would hear tonight, they seemed to have quickly melded together as a great new quartet.

The ASQ subscription season comprises of three national tours; Towards Light (March), Legacy (June) and Sunrise (September). The season focuses on celebrating Australian music on a grand scale with works from Peter Sculthorpe  and a new viola and string quartet commission from Brett Dean, which has been co – commissioned by  the ASQ. 2012 is also peppered with the great classics.  Tonight’s concert – ‘T o w a r d s   l i g h t’ featured  Peter Sculthorpe’s, String Quartet No 11;  Dvoˇrák’s, String Quartet No 10   in E flat major, Op 51; and,  Shostakovich’s, Piano Quintet, Op 57, and had a guest performer [another reason I decided to go tonight – love to hear the piano join the ASQ] –  Daniel de Borah, on the piano.

So tonight’s program began with a work by the doyen of Australian composers, Peter Sculthorpe,  one of many compositions inspired by the  starkly beautiful landscape of Kakadu and its  inhabitants.

From Australia’s unique interior, we travelled to the sunlit uplands of old Bohemia: few  composers wrote music in all genres which  radiated such spontaneous warmth and  charm as Antonin Dvoˇrák. Even by his exalted  standards, the Op 51 String Quartet is full  of gorgeous melodies where exuberance is  masterfully fused with poignant tenderness.

The program culminated, in the second half, with one of Dmitri  Shostakovich’s towering chamber masterpieces:  the Piano Quintet, Op 57, composed during  the fateful year 1940 and described as “a  last ray of hope” for Russia. It is a work of grand symphonic proportions combining the  composer’s hallmark skittish humour and  austere dignity with an underlying tension. Tonight’s guest,  Australian pianist Daniel de Borah (formerly  Hill) was 3rd Prize winner at the Sydney  International Piano Competition in 2004 and  has since appeared as soloist with the English  Chamber Orchestra, the London Mozart  Players, and with the Royal Philharmonic  Orchestra at the Barbican and Cadogan Hall,  London. In Australia he has performed with  the Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra Symphony  Orchestras, the Australian Chamber Orchestra  and Orchestra Victoria. He has given recitals on four continents and has featured alongside  many leading soloists including Rivka Golani  (viola), Li-Wei Qin (cello), Thomas Indermühle (oboe) and Andrew Goodwin (tenor) at the  Australian Festival of Chamber Music in  Townsville, the Canberra International Music  Festival, the Oxford Lieder Festival and  London’s Wigmore Hall. Daniel now divides his  time between Melbourne and London.

I must say that I found this music the most inspiring of the evening –  in particular , I think during the first movement – a wonderfully soothing [almost whispering] duet with the two violins, absolutely exquisite few moments, followed by the viola joining in, almost unnoticed, as with the cello also, then suddenly the strings almost seem to briefly disappear, as the piano exerted it’s role, yet still in a peaceful and quiet, but not keeping the strings down for long!  In musical technical terms, obviously not a very good description of what was happening I suppose, but nevertheless, as I sat there listening to the two violins initially, I could not help thinking that it was most beautiful passage I’d heard for many a long time!  The music itself  – a Quintet for strings and piano (two violins, viola and cello)., is in five separate movements, and usually last about 30 minutes, but I felt it was a bit longer tonight. It is one of Dmitri Shostakovich’s best known chamber works, which he began composing  in the summer of 1940 [when he was about 34]  and completed it on September 14 of the same year. It was written for the Beethoven Quartet, as were most of his string quartets, and premiered by them with Shostakovich himself at the piano on November 23, 1940 at the Moscow Conservatory, to great success. In 1941, it was awarded the Stalin Prize.

Earlier, the Sculthorpe work ‘Jabiru Dreaming’ provided a very contemporary piece of classic music – one of a series of three works that Peter Sculthorpe composed from 1988 – this one, described as a gift from Australia to France, marking the Bicentenary of the [French] Revolution, was actually premiered in Paris in June 1989. Sculthorpe based it on three short Indigenous melodies transcribed by members of Nicolaus Baudin’s French Exploratory Expedition to Australia in 1802. The first movement sees Sculthorpe refer directly to the Indigenous music of the Kakadu region in the Northern Territory. The second movement is based on dance chants transcribed  by the Baudin expedition In writing this, and the other two pieces, Sculthorpe noted that “Flying over Nourlangie Rock, I could see across the great floodplains to the abandoned remains of early white settlement, to the Arafura Sea and, in my imagination, to Torres Strait and even the islands of Indonesia. The music of these places, and of Kakadu itself, fused in my mind”.

Then it was back to the traditional classics, with  Antonin Dvorak’s String Quartet No. 10. Dvorak had quoted a banned Slavic song in his third string quartet [for political reasons], but in No. 10, the ethnic elements are integrated into the overall form of the music, which gives a mix of themes from folk-tunes, slow elegiac music played off against the rhythms of Czech dance music, and even a third movement emphasising almost a lullaby-like theme. Music for the times, written nearly 110 years, prior to the Australian, Peter Sculthorpe, yet both in their own ways drawing on the music of indigenous and folk based memories.

That was the Australian String Quartet, 2012 variety and their first concert for the year. As I left the concert hall, and walked past the Arts Centre underground car-park, I must admit to a wishful thought  in wishing I had my car with me, meaning I would have been home an hour earlier than walking into the city and then waiting for the 10.15 train to Sunbury. Really however, I didn’t mind, I was these days avoiding the hazzle, of driving into the city during peak hours, and the subsequent expense associated with both that, and the parking! A worthwhile option!

 

 

 

A lovely surprise phone call this morning [highlight of my day]..  A couple of weeks ago, my little notice appeared in the weekend paper, seeking contact with my former work associates from my first job in Melbourne. There was only a small group of them, and up until day, I’d only made direct contact with one, discovered the former boss had passed on, and the lady in the office [who was much older than the rest of us when we were there] was apparently in a nursing home, down in Tasmania. This morning, my ‘favourite’ little English switchboard operator from those days rang me, having being told of my advertisement by a friend  – in actual fact, I misunderstand the name she gave on the phone initially, thought she was another caller from the nursing or medical side of the institution we worked at, and I began to apologise for my misleading advert in which I had forgotten to specific the ‘administration’ side of the staff!!  Then the ‘bell rang’ –  it was Penny!!

We had a pleasant little conversation, remembering old times and the people from Kew Cottages – like the other contact I’d made, she was interested in being part of a reunion – was apparently actually thinking along the same lines a few weeks ago [must have known something was in the air!!].  Penny and I spent a bit of time together over the few years I was at the Cottages, and after I left, and I seem to recall, that as a naïve 19 year old down in the big city from the country, she had a few things to teach me!!  Always loved her beautiful English accent, and in contrast to the ‘white skinned pale colouring’ that one might have expected of an English person in those days, Penny always looked as though she had a permanent suntan throughout the year!  At the time I met her, I don’t think she had been in Australia for very long – came here, I understood, following a disappointing broken relationship. Her sister, named Dianne I think, had come out either with her, or shortly thereafter, and I met her on the odd occasion – in fact, was looking recently at some photos of Penny and Dianne in the Ballarat Botanical Gardens, where I had presumably taken them both for a day trip back in the late 1960s!  Memories!!

I didn’t go anywhere today, bit of work in the garden until it became too hot, more family history research and tidy up of records, and another phone call, this time from Joyce Wheeler at the church – thinks she was hoping that I might be able to help out with setting up the book stall at St Andrews on Friday morning  –  would have done so, but remembered I had a dental appointment that morning, may not be in the right state of ‘mind’ to be unpacking boxes of books, etc. Otherwise, would be happy to help, had already thought of offering some time, selling the books – but of course, their real need is the unpacking and packing at beginning and end!!  All this is for the Sunbury Festival this coming weekend –  I will be ‘on duty’ at the radio station  stall on the Village Green throughout Saturday.

Lot’s going on the world, but I didn’t even buy a newspaper today. Contacted Susie to see if she would be back from Bendigo today – no, not until late tomorrow, at which point, I decided to leave the fish I’d been planning to cook for us, in the freezer! Turned the TV on for just one hour today –  to watch Question Time from the House of Representatives. Not quite a volatile as normal, this afternoon in that venue!

I was very pleased with the reports coming out of Turkey concerning the World Indoor Athletics Championships. Sally Pearson’s wish list of successes continued as she won the Indoor 60 metres Hurdles title in a blistering  7.73 seconds, apparently the equal 4^th fastest time in history over the five hurdles that make up that distance. The World 100 metres hurdles champion, now has the Olympic Gold medal firmly in her sights, although one must always be careful to be wary of such assumptions. However, if her form and success continues as it has done over the past year or so, Sally’s confidence must be at a good level. As Pearson said herself, after winning the 60 metre event “It means I’m in fantastic shape and everything is going to go hopefully smoothly towards the Olympic Games”.

Another promising Australian performance came in the Men’s Long Jump event, which Pearson’s teammate, Henry Frayne [whose principal event is the Triple Jump] who just lost that event on a count back, claiming the Indoor Silver Medal with a leap of 8.23 metres. Frayne has been selected to compete in both events at the Olympics in the Australian athletics team. Meanwhile, we now have three Aussie girls qualified for the Olympic Marathon, always one of my favourite Olympic events – they are Jess Trengove, Benita Willis and Lisa Weightman, and their team selections will be ratified by Athletics Australia in May.  Unfortunately, Craig Mottram finished 11^th of 12 starters in the final of the 3000 metres event – hoping for a better outcome from Craig who is on a bit of a comeback trail, certainly indicates the need for some considerable improvement  – his time was 7.48.23 behind the winner [Bernard Legat of the USA] in 7.41.44.  Henry Frayne apparently didn’t qualify for the Triple Jump final.

As already noted this weekend, today is a public holiday in Victoria. Today is Labour Day – officially commemorates the granting of the 8 hour working day for Australians, and recognises the contributions of workers towards the nation’s economy. I’m not sure that many Australians actually give that origin much thought these days – simply another holiday to make a long weekend!!  The occasion is recognised on different Mondays in March by the various states – for Victorians, that means the second Monday of the month.  The history of Labour Day in Australia spans over a century. It is an important annual event that remembers those who struggled and succeeded to ensure decent and fair working conditions in Australia. During the mid to late 1800s the working day was long and arduous, where some employees would work up to 12 hours a day, six days a week.  Many Australians saw the need for better working conditions and in the 1850s there was a strong push for this. On April 21, 1856, stonemasons at the University of Melbourne marched to Parliament House to push for an eight-hour working day. An agreement with employers for a 48-hour week was eventually reached and Australian workers welcomed the new eight-hour day. A victory march was held on May 12 that year and each year after that. In 1856 the new work regulations were recognized in New South Wales, followed by Queensland in 1858 and South Australia in 1873. In 1874, Tasmania joined the other states in adopting the shorter eight-hour working day. In 1879 the Victorian Government made one further step towards better conditions for employees by proclaiming a paid public holiday that year. In light of the labour movement’s successful push for an eight-hour day, a large May Day meeting was held in Melbourne in 1890. On May 1 that year a local newspaper made reference to that day as May Day.

I spent most of my ‘Public Holiday’ [which was indeed a beautiful Autumn day in this part of the world] inside [a bad choice of plans] working on my family history records. Susie drove up to Bendigo, late morning – think she has a couple of days this week at the university up there. In many ways for myself, I would have preferred to have been in Ballarat at the Begonia Festival, but had planned for a week or so of no ‘commitments’ of that sort, instead working and catching up on home commitments.  Not that all planned gets achieved, as usual!  But I did enjoy the relative quietness of home, and the general area. Even James commented this evening, when he called around, how quiet the area was, great for study purposes, which he had another year of, ahead of him. Not sure if that was a hint, but I didn’t take it!!!

I did spend an hour at the gymnasium this morning, where I discovered that my particular program was not scheduled for today, as a public holiday, but I went through the program in any case seeing as how I was there!!  This evening, spent 5 minutes ‘proof reading’ another of my son’s university assignments  – he writes and researches very well, but as I read through his material, I was glad that I don’t have that degree of study commitment anymore! I got that finished just prior to heading off to the radio station for another late night Monday show.

Meantime, the highlight of the Melbourne Moomba Festival, which finished with a burst of fireworks tonight, was record crowds in the city area this morning to witness a reinvigorated annual ‘Moomba Parade’. I didn’t see any of it of course, but it is certainly an event that brings the crowds, families in particular I guess, for a day out. As is often the case in March in Melbourne, the weather was beautiful. I only have to think back to the 2006 Commonwealth Games which were held during the second half of March, and which saw ten days of glorious Melbourne Autumn weather. I think we are expecting 2 or 3 days this week of 30 degree days!

 

Another enjoyable two and half  hours of presenting classical music on the radio this morning, beginning at 6.30am.  It was Program No. 299 of this particular show, and I would spend a part of this Sunday afternoon, putting together the format for my 300^th program, next week, which I was planning to extend for a full three hours, from 6am! [if I can get up!!].

In fact, most of today at home, I was actually either working on future radio shows [putting the program formats together], or quietly enjoying the not over-hot sunshine out in the back garden  –  but not working today, just sitting in the sun, reading, and actually for a change, enjoying the occasional company of Susie’s two cats [mother and daughter] who after all their years with us, still seem to ‘enjoy’ the occasional cat fight/roll on the grass – never really sure whether they are playing, or one initiates the activity out of annoyance, because when it ends, they never seen very friendly. Meanwhile, in some ways, I would like to eventually see these cats leave the property [with Susie of course, if she eventually makes such a move], as I want to encourage more birdlife into my back garden – there are quite a few birds around much of the time, but of course they are discouraged by the presence of the cats, and the need to be always wary of ‘that’ ever lurking danger. Generally, the cats seem to ignore the birds, particularly a small group of doves which seem to be around a bit lately. But I think that is wariness on the part of the cats – they are aware also of my ‘hostile’ response to them, if I ever see any sign of ‘bird stalking’ going on by these felines. I’m sure there are the occasional unfortunate local birds that become the victim’s of Susie’s two pets, but these days, they are generally very careful not to allow me to become aware of such activity.

While I was relaxing in the quiet solitude of a  peaceful Sunbury garden backyard, the Moomba Festival was in full swing in Melbourne, no doubt the city packed with thousands enjoying a beautiful Melbourne Autumn day [which it was], while down in Ballarat, they were celebrating the Begonia Festival –  to be honest, I would have liked to have been down there this weekend, but had simply felt like a peaceful and relatively restful ‘long’ weekend at home, which apart from a couple of visits to the gymnasium, was exactly what I was doing.  Got onto a bit of family history work this evening, not having done very much in that area so far this year.

This evening, I watched a brief interesting little program called ‘Compass’ on the ABC – was dealing with cases of sperm donors in the USA, and the attempts by some of the resultant children in such instances to find out the identity of the donor of their originating sperm. That part comes next week, but the fascinating aspect of tonight’s show was the finding by these children [where the donor had made multiple donations over a period of time] that they had many half -sisters or brothers from this donor.  The similarities in looks, habits, mannerisms, etc, were fascinating to see, and it was heart-warming for eg, to witness the benefit accrued a single child of a couple to suddenly to discover a whole new family of brothers and sisters out in the community. Rather an emotional little documentary. Later, I watched an episode of ‘Great Expectations’ – always enjoy the BBC renditions of the old classics!

It was not a good night’s sleep overnight, nor was I feeling particularly well, would I get to the gymnasium this morning?  Well, we did make it, just before 9am,  on a surprisingly cool morning, I’d really thought the weather was warming up yesterday. By the time I exited from that morning’s gym activities, I found it still quite chilly out in the air, and many people were walking around the streets in what was almost winter clothing. I was in shorts, and a tee shirt!!

Earlier, I had placed my Saturday morning piece of poetry onto my Face Book account – it was a verse or two from the pen of Australia’s best known poet, Henry Lawson, called ‘The Song of the Darling River’ [one of the major river systems in Australia which flows down from it’s source in northern New South Wales, through the western part of the state,  and eventually joins up with the Murray River. A length of 2,740 kilometres [the longest river in Australia], it is often described as the lifeblood of outback New South Wales, and is a key component of the Murray-Darling Basin, and Australia’s  ‘food-bowl’. It flows through a generally arid region of the country, and experiences booms, busts, floods and droughts. This poem was written with a view to the breaking of a drought, it’s affects via the river on the environment, but indicating a lack of recognition of it’s relevance in the overall picture. Anyway, a few lines here:-

I rise in the drought from the Queensland rain,

I fill my branches again and again;

I hold my billabongs back in vain,

For my life and my peoples the South Seas drain;

And the land grows old and the people never

Will see the worth of the Darling River.

I drown dry gullies and lave bare hills,

I turn drought-ruts into rippling rills –

I form fair islands and glades all green

Till every bend is a sylvan scene.

 

O this is the hymn of the Darling River

 

[from ‘The Song Of The Darling River’ by Henry Lawson, Feb 1899]

 

In the meantime, I was reading an article about the current terrible internal situation in Syria this afternoon, and couldn’t help myself, had to make a comment on my Face Book account!  ‘

When you read in today’s ‘Age’ the descriptions of the degrees and levels of torture carried by the Syrian ‘authorities’ against their own people when in detention, one is left wondering at just what stage of degradation, humanity is heading towards in 2012, while the rest of the world sits back and ‘watches’! Sickening!!!

Not surprisingly, it created some reaction from a couple of friends, suggesting that perhaps more consultation was in order rather than just going in ‘all guns blazing’ – the latter was not really my intention, I just wanted to see a more ‘worldwide’ consolidated attempt to ‘do something’ to stop the internal killing and bloodshed happening with a similar determination to what had been undertaken in places like Iraq and Libya, while at the same time learning from the errors of judgement made in those examples. Some of the responses, and my attempts at reply, follow here.

Do you think more could be done diplomatically, Bill?    In this case, I replied,  it doesn’t seem as though talking is helping much – I could say much more, but am getting so angry about these kind of situations, that best I remain mute!! Except, apart from the ‘supposed’ WMD, I wonder what is the difference between the oppression of the people in Syria today, and the cruel manner in which Saddam ruled his ‘people’ at the beginning of the 2000’s, or Gaddafi last year – the difference seems to be the kind of response of the so-called peacemakers [UN, etc]

But do you think the way the US intervened in Iraq improved things?  Or from another friend –   Look at what is going on in Iraq now, do you think we really helped over there, sometimes I wonder? Is it all political? God help us all!

My response to the first question was, no,  not for the million + civilians who died or became refugees, and you know anyway, that I didn’t approve of the way that intervention took place – but does that mean we just sit back and allow another nation to murder and torture it’s people, and create a new batch of thousands of refugees, because the UN is too scared to act because of mistakes of the past [or more likely, Syria doesn’t have the resources that the western world needs to the same degree as Iraq, Libya, etc!! Think I’ll put the paper away, and watch the horses, and hope that none of them fall over!!  And yes, true  – God help us all!! We don’t seem to be able to satisfactorily help ourselves or others!

From a longtime friend  –  I know you didn’t , Bill- you were at the anti- war rally with us!
I just get concerned our interventions are not well thought out- Libya still has a way to go- without established democratic institutions the rebels become perpetrators of atrocities later and not much stops another dictator coming to power or anarchy reigning *sigh* can relate to your frustration though, I really can 😦

Yes, it is indeed a frustrating scenario, and even more so for those of us on the outside looking in, helpless to personally do anything, or help in any way, other than voice our concerns as is happening here, because we live in a democratic country that allows us to do just that, express our opinions.  Yet another comment from a reader of my account –    ‘Syria is looked upon favourably because its regime is not aggressive towards Israel. If they are overthrown it is not guaranteed that the next Government will have the same benign attitude toward Israel. I’m pretty sure this is probably a factor in the thinking of the US.’    I threw off a one-liner to that – Yes, at the risk of fearing offending the Israelis, everyone else can rot in hell! [which earned me a light-hearted ribbing from that longtime friend   You antisemite you, Bill ;)……………..the original comment in reference to Israel  was countered with   ‘Israel is a toughie. Yes, they are selfish. Yes, they are delusional. Yes, they are paranoid. Yes, they probably wouldn’t exist if they weren’t all these things.’

It’s interesting, that by coincidence, as we were going through this little discussion, that I was sorting through some old personal papers, and came across a ‘letter’ which I’d written to a group of friends at the church [including the writer above who had commented on my opposition to the invasion of Iraq], and I thought it a perfect time to include into the above discussion, and on this page. It adds a bit of length to this contribution, but I will include it in any case, just as I added it to the Face Book discussion!

At the risk of boring everyone, if not already achieved, and in view of the mention of  Iraq in the context of the current situation in Syria, this is what I wrote to a group of friends, 9 years ago [18 March 2003] –

“I had intended to make no further comments on this subject. But I have just sat here with some of my work colleagues, and listened to George W Bush, give Saddam Hussein and his sons, 48 hours to get out of Iraq, at which point, Bush’s ‘policy of aggression’ against the people of Iraq will commence failing that demand. Earlier we heard John Howard indicate Cabinet endorsement of the American President’s request that Australia provide military assistance in any ‘war’ against Iraq. Bush claims to be setting a course for safety, as opposed to drifting along to ‘tragedy’. We will all judge that view on our own perceptions of it’s ‘rightness’ or otherwise, in the context of how the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ intends to achieve that safely!  It deeply saddens me to realise, that despite the wide divisions of opinion within the Australian populace, virtually no individual members of our government have had the personal courage or strength to stand up against JH and voice a protest. His Cabinet and Party it seems are 100% supportive of Australia’s decision to ‘go in’ with America! I cannot believe or accept that not one Liberal Parliamentarian has a different point of view, and that on a matter of such moral and humanitarian significance, they all remain silent?  That may sound naïve, but surely we all have a conscience of some degree……………..Forget for a moment, the spin about the ‘war against weapons of mass destruction’ and against strategic military targets in Iraq, and let us think for one moment of the people who will really suffer from these imminent attacks. When it is all over, it won’t be the bodies of George W Bush, John Howard or Tony Blair lying like a slab of carcasses of bloodied meat in the streets and fields of Iraw, but ordinary families, children, mothers, etc, like you and myself – it will be their limbs, heads, mangled and bloodied bodies that will lie rotting under the bombs and western weapons of mass destruction fired in the name of peace!!!………….John Howard accepts there will be civilian casualties and that saddens him! But not enough, obviously! Our government is wrong, and I voted for them!!……………….I don’t expect all my readers to agree with me, and there are many of the arguments for ‘this war’ that it is not easy to argue against. But the ability to express a different opinion is the nature of ‘this’ democracy ‘we’ live in. This approach against Iraq is the wrong way to go, yet I admit I don’t have an alternative other than the continuation of peaceful mediation [something Bush has never been capable of, with his constant aggressive rhetoric!!!]  Maybe, but without trying, nothing is achieved. But then, it seems from the postering and war mongering speeches we have listened to over recent months, that a peaceful solution has never been the intention!………………My 18 year old son’s immediate response to Bush’s speech – perhaps typical of what you’d expect to hear from that generation – was simply ‘he’s the most contradictory hypocritical president ever, he’s only protecting US oil in Iraq’. Obviously, there’s far more to it than that, but it’s an opinion shared in many parts of the world……………….I feel angry and despairing. I pray for the lives and freedom of the perhaps many thousands of innocents who will die within the next few days, in the name of ‘Western freedom’ [or as Bush described it ‘collateral damage’]. Right now, put yourselves in the home of a normal Iraqi family, and think about it……………..May God – whoever he/she may be –  forgive us all!”

That anger and despair seems to have never gone away, just pointing in a different direction!!!

To another subject, much more warming to my heart – sport!!! I noticed overnight that our Sally Pearson had run her way [as anticipated] into the finals of the 60 metres Hurdles event at the World Indoor Athletics championships, currently underway in Instanbul [Turkey].  More on that in a day or so, but she is our big hope [maybe our ‘only’ hope] for an Olympic Gold medal in London later this year!

In the meantime, son James  [with his friendly and exuberant dog, Murphy] came over to visit this afternoon –  though ostensibly to watch the Carlton football match against Brisbane, on my computer – no TV coverage available, but we eventually able to pick up both the picture and sound of the game through the Carlton FC website.  I think he watched more of the game than I did, particularly the second half, when I was busy preparing a meal for Susie & myself [the former at work today]. The first two quarters of the game were quite even, and the halftime score showed Brisbane 6.6.42 to Carlton 6.4.40.  But from that point onwards, we really should have turned the game off –  that seems to have been what the Blues did, because they failed to score even a solitary point in the second half.Unbelievable, and yet the Carlton website still allowed themselves to feel optimistic –  ‘Blues were out-gunned in the second half, failing to add to our half-time score. There were, however, plenty of positives to come out of the match. Andrew Collins and Ed Curnow both continued their fantastic NAB Cup form, Zach Tuohy was moved into the midfield with great effect and Marcus Davies showed plenty of dash off half-back’.  Mind you, as my son reminded us, almost half of the regular Carlton players who would participate in the main season in a few weeks had been ‘rested’ for this game, so difficult to say have serious the team management was about this game – more interested in giving the young guys a guy.  Good move from that perspective, but not a good view as a fan and spectator to witness such a one-sided thrashing, in the end!!  Full time scores showed Brisbane: 15.14.104 defeated Carlton 6.4.40  [9.8 to Nil in the second half!!].

Susie home from work after 8 pm, remained quiet, and after eating, went out again, presumably around to nearby Rachel’s place, as she left her car behind. She was back in the early hours of the morning, while I had my usual unsatisfactory Saturday night sleep, having been worried all day by that persistent ‘upset’ stomach!!  Enough!!