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I see that today’s e-mail distribution from the Limelight Magazine has got into the Valentine’s Day spirit, with the Editor’s note that ‘Classical music may have a distinctly ‘un-sexy’ reputation, but the Valentine’s Day ‘Limelight’ has set out to fog up your opera glasses with the best examples of Sex, Love and erotica from the classics. We also explore the love lives of the great composers and learn more about the muses who inspired the masterworks. Usually sex, marriage or unrequited love had a hand in the creative process. If that’s not enough to get you in the mood, check out Classical Music’s Top 12 Pinups and our special expose on Naked Classical Musicians. Valentine’s Day is also about finding true love,  and that’s what Australian opera’s power couple, Cheryl Barker and Peter Coleman-Wright did, as evidenced by almost 28 years of marriage. They are the Cover stars of the March issue of Limelight, on sale tomorrow’.  Well, with that promotion, all lovers of Valentine’s Day should be rushing out to get their copy, maybe!

Meanwhile, according to the ‘Scots Family’ organisation, ‘ the remains of St Valentine lie in a golden cask held at Blessed John Duns Scotus Roman Catholic Church in Gorbals, Glasgow. But there was more than one St Valentine. One was a priest in Rome who offered marriages to soldiers even after the Emperor had banned it. He was imprisoned, beaten with clubs and stones then beheaded in 269 AD – apparently on 14th February. However the celebration of a day of love appears to be predated by the Roman fertility festival of Lupercalia on 15th February. Naked men would run through the city and with goatskin strips whip the buttocks of young women to promote fertility. So how about it ladies…. or do you prefer chocolates again this year?’

Well, that of course is one interpretation of the origin of Valentine’s Day, and I’m sure that in past years, I have come up with others on these pages. I think this one from ‘Scots Family’ site will do for 2012. I made only one brief reference to the day in last night’s program, think I played a jazz track by Charlie Mingus called ‘The Sound of Love’ – it had the right title to what the day seems to be all about, so I decided that would be my sole recognition of the occasion this year. No doubts, lots of credit is been spent on expensive roses, chocolates and motel rooms today, but not by me!

Thinking of ‘sweet’ things, I read an article the other day, suggesting that sugar is a health hazard. Well, I think I already knew that!  Anyway, the writers [US researchers] claims that sugar  should be identified like alcohol and tobacco as a health danger and taxed accordingly.  In an article published in the journal Nature, scientists at the University of California said governments should consider imposing taxes and limiting sales of sweet food and drinks to combat the growing costs of sugar-related health problems. The researchers said there was growing scientific evidence showing fructose can cause liver damage and other chronic diseases. The average US adult consumes 22 teaspoons of sugar a day, according to the American Heart Association.  Other countries, including France, Greece and Denmark, levy taxes on soft drink and the concept is being considered in at least 20 US cities and states.

Meanwhile, on the home front, Susie went back up to Bendigo today, apparently to continue with her studies! She told me that’s what she had planned? Actually, she thought it started next week, but only discovered late Sunday night – with an early shift at the bakery yesterday morning, she thought it was too late to cancel the job, or to get up to Bendigo in time for yesterday’s start to lectures. Hopefully for her, a day late was no problem – she was on her way by 7.30am this morning. In the meantime, my dental appointment, scheduled for next week, was brought forward to late today due to a cancellation – a welcome change, as last night was another painful one, from that part of my anatomy!

Well now, that visit to the dentist was not really a happy outcome, in view of the fact that three more visits are required for the same treatment, at a cost of $900!! I think that expense made up my mind about making too many concert reservations this year!!  Meanwhile, I don’t recall any flowers arriving

I briefly referred last week to Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee.

It was sixty years ago last week that Her Majesty The Queen ascended the throne on the death of her father, King George VI. Though The Queen will formally celebrate her Diamond Jubilee in June,  it was appropriate

that the occasion be  acknowledged last week. The Liberal party’s spokesperson noted that,  as evidenced by the tens of thousands who greeted her during her most recent visit last year, that she  has a special place in the hearts of all Australians.  The Queen’s first Australian Prime Minister was Sir Robert Menzies, and no less than 11 Australian prime ministers and 17 opposition leaders have come and gone in those sixty years. Whilst The Queen herself has been unchanging in her commitment to the values of service and loyalty, the Crown has evolved with the people it serves. Over the past sixty years, for instance, the office of Governor-General, for example,  has evolved into a fully Australian office.  Despite all the calls for a republic, etc, and disparaging opinions about the Royal family’s role in Australian affairs, it is safe to say that in general, Australians still think of our Queen with respect and affection.

Whilst on the subject of British royalty, Liberal Senator Michael Ronaldson, in a recent weekly email, had some interesting points to make the naming of royal members. To quote:-  ‘Members of the Royal Family can be known both by the name of the Royal house, and by a surname, which are not always the same. And often they do not use a surname at all. Before 1917, members of the British Royal Family had no surname, but only the name of the house or dynasty to which they belonged. Just as children can take their surnames from their father, so sovereigns normally take the name of their ‘House’ from their father. For this reason, Queen Victoria’s eldest son Edward VII belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (the family name of his father Prince Albert). In 1917, there was a radical change, when George V specifically adopted Windsor, not only as the name of the ‘House’ or dynasty, but also as the surname of his family. The family name was changed as a result of anti-German feeling during the First World War, and the name Windsor was adopted after the Castle of the same name. The Royal Family name of Windsor was confirmed by The Queen after her accession in 1952. However,

in 1960, The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh decided that they would like their own direct descendants to be distinguished from the rest of the Royal Family (without changing the name of the Royal House). It was declared in the Privy Council that The Queen’s descendants, other than those with the style of Royal Highness and the title of Prince/ Princess, or female descendants who marry, would carry the name of Mountbatten-Windsor’.  Well, so long as they know what they are doing, it’s all starting to sound a little confusing!

There was another anniversary ‘celebrated’ a few days ago, though perhaps not looked back upon with the same degree of celebration normally associated with anniversaries.  The anniversary of Australia’s worst peacetime naval disaster is a timely reminder of the service and sacrifice of Australia’s defence forces outside periods of conflict. The Voyager disaster remains Australia’s worst peacetime naval disaster in our history. At 8.56pm on 10 February 1964, Daring Class Cruiser HMAS Voyager collided with the naval aircraft carrier, HMAS Melbourne. The much larger Melbourne cut the Voyager in two, resulting in the loss of one in four members of the Voyager crew [82 lives lost in all]. Two Royal Commissions were held into the circumstances of the accident. This is the first time in Australian history that one incident has been inquired into by two separate Commissions.  The following report from a Wikipedia source, describes how the collision of these two Australian war ships came about.

‘Voyager and Melbourne were both sent to Jervis Bay for post-refit trials, with the two ships arriving on 9 February. During the day of 10 February the ships operated independently, or exercised with the British submarine HMS Tabard. That evening, while 20 miles SE of Jervis Bay, Melbourne was performing night flying exercises, while Voyager was acting as the carrier’s plane guard escort. This required Voyager to maintain a position astern of and to port of Melbourne at a distance of 1,500 to 2,000 yards (1,400 to 1,800 m; 4,500 to 6,000 ft).

During the early part of the evening, Voyager had no difficulties maintaining her position during the manoeuvres both ships performed. During a series of manoeuvres beginning at 8:40 pm, which were intended to reverse the courses of both ships onto a northward heading of 020°, Voyager ended up to starboard of Melbourne. 020° was the intended heading for flight operations, and at 8:52 pm, Voyager was ordered to resume the plane guard station. The procedure to accomplish this required Voyager to turn away from Melbourne in a large circle, cross the carrier’s stern, then advance along Melbourne′s port side.^[8] Instead, Voyager first turned to starboard, away from Melbourne, then turned to port without warning.^[8] It was initially assumed by Melbourne’s bridge crew that Voyager was “fishtailing”, conducting a series of zig-zag turns in order to shed momentum before swinging behind Melbourne, but Voyager did not alter course again.

At 8:55 pm, with Voyager still turning to port, Melbourne‘s navigator ordered the carrier’s engines to half speed astern, which Robertson increased to full astern a few seconds later. At the same time, Stevens gave the order “Full ahead both engines. Hard a-starboard.” before instructing the destroyer’s Quartermaster to announce that a collision was imminent Both ships’ measures were too late to avoid a collision; Melbourne struck Voyager at 8:56 pm. Melbourne impacted just aft of Voyager‘s bridge structure; the destroyer rolled to starboard before she was cut in half. Voyager’s forward boiler exploded, briefly starting a fire in the open bow of the carrier before it was extinguished by seawater. The destroyer’s forward section sank quickly, due to the weight of the two 4.5-inch gun turrets. The aft section did not begin sinking until half an hour after the collision, and did not completely submerge until just after midnight. Messages were sent to the Fleet Headquarters in Sydney immediately after the collision, although they initially underestimated the extent of the damage to Voyager. Melbourne launched her boats almost immediately after the collision to recover survivors, and the carrier’s wardroom and C Hangar were prepared for casualties.

At 9:58 pm, Melbourne was informed that five minesweepers (HMA Ships Snipe, Teal, Hawk, Ibis, and Curlew), two search-and-rescue (SAR) boats from HMAS Creswell and Air Sprite), and helicopters from Naval Air Station Nowra, had been despatched. Arriving just before 10:00 pm, Air Nymph collected 34 survivors and attempted to transfer them to Melbourne, but after swells pushed the boat up under the carrier’s flight deck and damaged two communications aerials, the SAR boat was sent back to Creswell to offload. Another 36 were collected by Air Sprite and transported ashore. Once offloaded, the two SAR boats rejoined the search effort: although all survivors were located within fifteen minutes and rescued, searches continued until well into 11 February.   From the 314 personnel aboard Voyager at the time of the collision, 14 officers, 67 sailors, and 1 civilian dockyard worker were killed, including Stevens and all but one of the bridge crew’.

Finally, this was the day when I finally got around to making that appointment with the dentist!! Have to wait a week, but to check each morning in the interim for a possible cancellation. Will certainly do so, as the troublesome digit is causing numerous problems not the least of which is more interrupted sleep!!  Meanwhile another session at the gymnasium this morning went off quite well, and rewarded myself appropriately afterwards!

Meanwhile, the sudden death of Whitney Houston, singer and actor, over in the US just prior to the Grammy Awards has certainly created a media frenzy, with tributes for another ‘lost soul’ pouring around the world. In my Smorgasbord program tonight, I played my own little tribute to the lady, at the beginning of the program, and read out a few details about her life, from the highs of wonderful successes to the lows of drugs, etc, culminating in a lonely hotel death at the weekend.  No doubt all the circumstances of that will come out to the public in due course.  In the meantime, I felt I had a wonderful show tonight, a huge variety of new music in particular – what a pity no one rang to tell me so!

After a night disturbed by a nagging toothache [this time], and which saw Susan not return home from her night outing, it was good to get up to the radio station, and play some relaxing and pleasant classical music.  The featured composer today was Samuel Barber, and in particular, his Adagio For Strings  – selected last year by the ABC Classic FM listeners as No. 7 choice

in their list of the Top 100 twentieth century classical compositions. Played by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, this relatively short piece of music was first performed as an individual piece of music in 1938 on NBC Radio in the US. It had immediate public appeal, and that enthusiasm has obviously continued to this day. Early in the period, it’s public appreciation was demonstrated for example, with performances at the funerals of people such as President Roosevelt, and Albert Einstein.  To some extent, it’s popularity would prove a little frustrating to Barber who had composed many other much longer pieces of music which tended to be overshadowed by The Adagio.

Thinking of the arts and the music & entertainment world,  sad news came through today, as reported   –  ‘Singer Whitney Houston has died at age 48, publicist Kristen Foster says.  Sources said Houston died at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles this afternoon, US entertainment news site TMZ reports. A police crime lab vehicle has been photographed outside the hotel. The singer was filmed leaving a restaurant in LA just last weekend with her on-again off-again boyfriend Ray-J — who is famous for making a sex tape with Kim Kardashian in 2007.  The Emmy Award winning singer has one child, Bobbi Kristina, with husband Bobby Brown.  She ended her 14-year marriage to Brown in 2006 after widespread media coverage of the couple’s drug and alcohol abuse. Houston holds the Guinness World Record as the most awarded female act of all time.  She is famous for her debut acting role in 1992 film The Bodyguard, which included the hit single “I will Always Love You”. The song became the best-selling single by a female artist in music history at the time’.

Another One Day International cricket match [50 overs] played today, in Adelaide – Australia 8 for 269 lost to  India. 4 for 270 [with 2 balls to be bowled] – glad I didn’t see the end of that game!

In the meantime, now I wouldn’t generally have considered golf to be a terribly thrilling event to watch on the TV, but was pleasantly surprised late this afternoon. I was watching the closing stages of the 4^th and final day/round of the  Australian Women’s Open Golf Championship at the Royal Melbourne Course [unbelievably, instead of the cricket]  – with part of the afternoon’s play undertaken  in driving rain such are the vagaries of Melbourne’s weather today. At the end of the 18 holes, there were six women sharing first place despite the fact of a number of chances for an individual to grab the prize in the closing stages. That meant a playoff of the final hole again. Again, a couple of definite opportunities for a winner to emerge with the ball just missing the hole on a couple of occasions. But no, after the first play off, these six players could still not be separated. Around they go again, attempt number two at a playoff.  This time, the 18 year old American, who earlier in the afternoon had seemed headed for a certain win, came back from a slump, and was the only one of the six to complete the second attempt under par, with a birdie shot.  Exciting, almost emotional stuff – lucky for viewers it wasn’t on the commercial channels – they would have left the finishing stages for a news or some other program commitment. The ABC stayed with the golf. And the results: –  1^st [after  playoff]:  Jessica Korda [USA] [who happens to be the daughter of Peter Korda, who in 1998, won the Australian Open Tennis Championships!].  Equal 2^nd –  Juliaeta Granda [Paraquay], Brittany Liacicombe [USA], Stacey Lewis [USA], So Yean Ryu [Korea], and Hee Kyung Seo [Korea].

I decided to place a poetic entry sample on my Face Book page this morning  –  from William Wordsworth’s ‘Daffodils’ [as it is generally known], just the opening verse, think I might make this a weekly occurrence!

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Awoke to a morning of  drizzling rain and very damp surroundings this morning, just before Susie left for an early Saturday morning shift at the Bakery. About an hour later, I was off myself, to the gymnasium for another hour of  ‘Lift for Life’ activities, felt pretty good afterwards, and did a bit of walking around the town re shops etc – after my Saturday morning iced coffee at ‘Blues Plus’ café. I have mentioned to one friend at least that I could be found there after 10am on a Saturday morning, but haven’t had anyone join me as yet!  Meanwhile, at the newsagent, I found recent editions of a couple of music magazines that I like to use for my Monday night show  – any music magazine that includes a CD of music genres that I’m interested in, will attract my attention! Today I found the January-February edition of Songlines [2 cds included this month], and a magazine I’d not noticed before,  the Dec/January edition of Jazzwise [both publications originating from the United Kingdom].  Some wonderful ‘world’ and ‘jazz’ music included with these publications, and consequently, some great new material for Monday nights.

The ‘equine wonder’, the brilliant Australian mare ‘Black Caviar’ raced at Caulfield this afternoon, competing over 1400 metres in the C F Orr Stakes, the longest distance the horse has raced. It was Black Caviar’s 18^th start in a race, having won all previous 17 races. In order to allow as many fans as possible to see this horse run, I think the Caulfield officials opened the course to the public, basically without charge – irrespective of that, Black Caviar has brought back the crowds [and families] to horse racing in Australia, such is the interest and enthusiasm it’s victories have created.  – in the racing world, it is becoming a bit of a cult hero, along with Trainer, Peter Moody, and Jockey, Luke Nolan.  Well, in Race 18, the horse ran, and won again, no real surprise there – 18 starts, 18 wins.  As reported in the media:  ‘BLACK Caviar today moved to within one win of the Australasian consecutive winning streak record with signature ease.   The world champion sprinter notched successive win No.18, joining Hall of Fame member Ajax, whose 18 consecutive wins happened between 1937-39, as she captured the C.F. Orr Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield. Black Caviar breezed to an effortless victory as she claimed her eighth Group 1 to move to outright second place – and left behind triple Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva – in the Group 1 honour roll for mares. Former New Zealand champion Sunline holds that mark with 13 Group 1s. While it was Black Caviar’s first start beyond 1200 metres there was never any doubt of her unbeaten winning streak continuing.  Jockey Luke Nolen settled her fourth, edged to the outside before the home turn and barely moved as Black Caviar simply slipped into another gear and left her rivals in her wake. Trainer Peter Moody said no firm decision has been made on the five-year-old’s next start, but she is likely to be nominated for the $750,000 Group 1 Lightning Stakes (1000m) at Flemington on Saturday. Moody also has the Group 1 Futurity Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on Saturday, February 25 as Black Caviar’s next start where she would equal the Australasian record jointly owned by Desert Gold and Gloaming’.

I was supposed to go out to an annual barbeque function tonight – annual get-together of the former management  [and others] of the Shire of Gisborne, as it was before amalgamation in the mid-1990s. Generally the ‘and others’ part of the function tends to dominate which in the past has put me off from going – too many people there I don’t know, and I’m always reluctant to have to explain my life story to every new conversation n- a lazy socialiser I guess you could say.  Were it just the former management team, I would be quite happy and comfortable to be there, but this year I have again ‘let down’ host [and former Gisborne CEO], Terry Larkins. I’ve being to a couple of his barbeques, but admittedly have missed most of them.  I guess I feel that most of my former associates have made good success of their post amalgamation days, whereas I have never felt that I had much in the way of achievement to show! Consequently, I have generally avoided having to go through all that explanatory stuff. No doubt, Terry & Lyn [both very nice people] are thoroughly ‘cheesed off’ with me by now.

Yesterday, I was talking about books and poetry. I had on order another of the Wordsworth Poetry Library series books [an overseas purchase] but I was not expecting it for a week or so.  However, it apparently arrived as a late mail delivery yesterday [wasn’t in the box when I cleared it mid-afternoon], and I found it this morning after I returned home from town. The outside of the package was wet, and I was dreading the condition that I would find the book inside, had ended up, because of this morning’s rain!  But thankfully, the wetness applied only to the external packaging envelope – the publication inside was completely dry. A fourth book in my new collection of classic poets – this one the ‘Collected Poems of Robert Burns’ [the Scottish poet], described as the most celebrated of all Scottish poets. Three of his most famous compositions are Auld Lang Syne, My Love is Like a Red Red Rose, and Tam o’Shanter.  Quite a valuable contribution to my little ‘library’, in my view anyway!

Another coolish start to the morning though the sun would soon make it’s presence felt –  not in a real hurry to get moving this morning, either physically or mentally. So much on hand to get done, and today for some reason, so little enthusiasm to make a start, even on last night’s dinner dishes which as usual have simply being left for my attention!. Don’t like to see things left undone, so matters of that kind are generally in order, and kept up to date.   But sometimes, one is left dwelling on the image of a 65 year old ‘house maid’, a taken for granted role by my fellow occupant!!   However,  let’s not dwell on the ‘moods’ of the morning!  I actually tried to read some poetry, over some breakfast cereal and a hot chocolate.

Rudyard Kipling – purchased his book in Ballarat the other day  as with this series of books, I’ve found the Introductory essays quite interesting, particularly in this case with a good summary of the poet and his works by George Orwell. While only ‘early days’ yet, I’m so far no over enthused by Kipling’s poetry, which perhaps because of  its relevance initially to life in India, I’m not really enjoying or getting much from. However, only read a few selections so far,  and he certainly did write some quite famous poetry and prose, and hopefully that is ahead of my reading. Similarly, with Alfred Lord Tennyson – had at look at what was his first published work [written for a prize as a student at Cambridge], called ‘Timbuctoo’ [1829] – six pages in length, but I as having difficulty reconciling the contents with my vague knowledge of the West African nation of Timbuctoo!  I think to understand the context of that poem, I really need to do some research about that country s it was in the early 1800s.  Not a good start to my early attempts to get away from a ‘low mood’ with some historic poetry!!

One book that I’m currently reading, and about one third of the way through, is Peter Fitzsimons’ ‘Tobruk’. Slow reading, but fascinating at the same time. From the Australian War Memorial site, we read that between April and August 1941 around 14,000 Australian soldiers were besieged in Tobruk by a German–Italian army commanded by General Erwin Rommel. The garrison, commanded by Lieutenant General Leslie Morshead, consisted of the 9th Division (20th, 24th, and 26th Brigades), the 18th Brigade of the 7th Division, along with four regiments of British artillery and some Indian troops.  It was vital for the Allies’ defence of Egypt and the Suez Canal to hold the town with its harbour, as this forced the enemy to bring most of their supplies overland from the port of Tripoli, across 1500 km of desert, as well as diverting troops from their advance. Tobruk was subject to repeated ground assaults and almost constant shelling and bombing. The Nazi propagandist Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce) derided the tenacious defenders as ‘rats’, a term that the Australian soldiers embraced as an ironic compliment.   The Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy provided the garrison’s link to the outside world, the so-called ‘Tobruk ferry’. These ships included the Australian destroyers Napier, Nizam, Stuart, Vendetta and Voyager. Losses comprised two destroyers, including HMAS Waterhen, three sloops, including HMAS Parramatta, and 21 smaller vessels.  Half the Australian garrison was relieved in August, the rest in September-October. However, 2/13 Battalion could not be evacuated and was still there when the siege was lifted on 10 December, the only unit present for the entire siege. Australian casualties were 559 killed, 2450 wounded, and 941 taken prisoner.

At the beginning of Chapter 9, this quotation appears, referring to former Australian Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies:-    “Menzies saw Australia only as part of the larger British Empire. He could not envisage Australia without the Empire, and the defence of the Empire as a whole, and particularly it’s heart, Great Britain, could not in Menzies’ mind be completely separated from the defence of Australia. Though Menzies would push hard to obtain planes for Australia, he would not use his position to undermine basic British strategy if such a change would lay Britain open to greater risk. So British ministers found they could quickly abort Menzies’ claims for equipment for Australia by graphically describing the position in the mother country”  [by Australian historian, David Hay in ‘Menzies and Churchill at War: A Controversial New Account of the 141 Struggle for Power].

Further, from the introduction to Chapter 10, a somewhat different quotation:-  “I’m proud to be an Aussie, there’s something different about them. The Hun [Germans] fights with grim determination, the Tommies [English] fight by numbers, but the Aussies tear about like kids at a picnic, swearing and laughing the whole time. They knock some bastard, then lean against a rock and roll a cigarette…..” [written by a young Digger in Tobruk to his mother].

Later this afternoon, at Susie’s request, I delivered some things over to Goonawarra. Met James there – he’d apparently not long being back from Rosebud, where he had joined Shirley and the others on Sunday. That meant he had left his dog, Murphy, for the family to look after all weak, no doubt most of that responsibility placed on the shoulders of Nan Seipolt. That poor dog really doesn’t get much time allocated to it from it’s supposed master!

ODI cricket  today/tonight in Perth – Australia 231 defeated Sri Lanka 226

An early morning session at the gymnasium today, which I think I enjoyed.  Oddly enough, later in the day, during an early afternoon visit to the radio station, we suffered a minor dizzy spell which I put down to trying to walk up the hill from the car-park, a little quicker than I   perhaps should have! Feeling a little light headed for the rest of the day, and not in a particularly talkative mood by the time I got to tonight’s General Meeting/Community consultation session for the radio.  That was actually quite a disappointing meeting, with low numbers of members turning up, and no-one from the community to whom the meeting had been especially addressed. These meetings are generated to allow the listening public the opportunity to come and voice their concerns and/or ideas about programming on the station – we are obliged by the industry regulators to undertake this process and obtain community involvement. Well the station has met all of the requirements in terms of  involvement, publicity, etc, and can do little else, other than drag people from their homes and make them participate!! More disappointing, from my viewpoint was the poor attendance of members, and as is probably common to many organisations, it is the members who complain the most about the organisation, who don’t turn up to events such as this and/or participate in  other activities and fund raisers. Oh well, the old story!!!  Not a new phenomenon  to 3NRG!

An interesting documentary on the ABC tonight [which I watched after returning from the radio meeting] about the author, Bryce Courtney, and his family life, his writings, and effect of the death of his son from Aids and the traumatic book which he would write about that time in his life [April Fool’s Day] on the ‘destruction’ of his family. I read that book in July 1994, and commented afterwards that it was ‘A real eye-opener. A very sad story, which offers much in terms of educating and learning about the reality of, and suffering caused by AIDS’.  Bryce Courtney has been having a book published just before Christmas for years now – last year, I noticed it didn’t happen, and tonight’s program explained why. A series of illness and medical treatments during 2011 for the 78 year old author, meant he fell behind his deadline, and eventually because of the way in which that was obviously distressing him, his wife rang the publishers and told them the next book would not be finished in time! Hopefully, we might see it’s delayed arrival  within the next month or so.  Bryce Courtney has usually being my ‘January’ reading!  The ABC program is called ‘Family Confidentials’ and takes an intimte look into the lives of some of Australia’s high profile families and reveals the dramatic private events that have marked their extraordinary public journeys. The following was the synopsis of tonight’s show, as submitted by the ABC.

‘”He’s a great storyteller. If truth is a problem there, well whose truth?” Celeste Coucke, Bryce’s daughter-in-law.  For the past twenty years, Bryce Courtenay has reigned supreme as Australia’s bestselling novelist. It’s said that every home has at least one of his books on the shelf; and every year, he writes a novel for Christmas that generates ten million dollars for the Australian publishing industry.  This is the story of a man conditioned from childhood to win, and who discovered himself in his imagination. But the journey has come at a cost.
For Bryce, a good story always comes first. His work takes precedence over everything. It means there is little time to spare for his family – and even his new bride sees little of him when he’s working. And, when he wrote about his own family’s tragedy, everyone suffered the consequences.  Nothing has stopped him – until now. In 2011, fate dealt Bryce a cruel blow. Ill health has cost him a deadline. For the first time in twenty years, there will be no Bryce Courtenay blockbuster in the bookshops for Christmas, and a man for whom stories are life, faces an uncertain future. This episode of Family Confidential exposes the private side of a man for whom the story means everything’..

Also taped and watched late tonight, was the 3^rd episode of ‘The Straits’, rather a dramatic and again, violent episode, with two of the principal characters meeting a violent death.   Vlad, a hired killer, sets out for Cairns with a high-powered rifle. Harry [the patriarch family father] is his target, but who has hired Vlad?  Meanwhile, having wrestled with the discovery of Paddy’s fraudulent operations [as Harry’s accountant], Sissy finally tells Harry [her father] what she has learnt. Harry is deeply upset by the news. He takes Paddy on their weekly fishing expedition to confront him [and get rid of him]. When Sissy learns what has happened on the boat, she has an almighty fight with her father.  Meanwhile, third son Gary who has been bitten by a snake on Zey, and believes he is going to die, makes a confession to his father [he’d slept with the wife of Harry’s  2^nd son].  Harry threatens death to the participant, the wife, if she doesn’t leave the family immediately. Before he has time to follow up on this however, Vlad makes his move!!

Earlier this afternoon, the harness racing horse in which Adam has a part ownership of – Dimensions – was racing over at Melton!  Adam never gives me much notice of when it is running, as I would like to try and go and watch it on one occasion. Melton would have been perfect! Anyway, I put a couple of dollars each way on the horse, just in case it got up into the placings  – I didn’t actually find out where it eventually finished in the field except that it was not in the first three places.  I lost my few dollars!!  Will ask Adam the outcome next time we talk.

Tuesday, 7th of February, was the third Anniversary of Black Saturday [7^th February 2009], when those devastating fires swept across large areas to the north and east of Melbourne In many of those areas, recovery was still taking place! Meanwhile, parts of the states of New South Wales and Queensland continue to suffer the consequences of major floods over the past few days. These extreme consequences of weather seem to be becoming more of an annual occurrence over the past few years..

I recall another extreme case of the weather in this date – back in 1983 – when a severe dust storm blew down from north western Victoria and shrouded Melbourne. We were living in a rental home at Keilor Park at the time, while the home in Sunbury was being built – with only James around at that stage, and Mrs Seipolt living with us. That storm was perhaps a precursor to the tragic Ash Wednesday bushfires which occurred in Victoria and South Australia on the16th February [including much loss of life and property at Mount Macedon, just north of Sunbury].  At the time I was working at Keilor Council, and recall one of two fellow workers were directly affected by those fires.  Had we being up at the home building site in Sunbury that night, we would have had a ‘spectacular’  [and frightening] view of the fires on Mount Macedon. As it was, I was down in Carlton for a while early that evening visiting brother Colin, who was living in the inner suburb at the time, and recall coming out of his house to find ash in the streets of inner Melbourne, having blown down from Macedon, 50 kilometres to the north. That was an eerie night – recall lying awake listening to the radio reports. But we were the lucky ones  – safe in Keilor, not so the people to the north of us going through a night of hell, both there, and in other parts of the state.

Meanwhile, throughout the British Commonwealth, celebrations have commenced for the 60^th anniversary of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.  The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II is the international celebration throughout 2012 marking the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II to the thrones of seven countries upon the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 February 1952. Queen Victoria in 1897 is the only other monarch in the histories of the United Kingdom, Canada,  Australia and a few other Commonwealth realms to have celebrated a Diamond Jubilee. Following the tradition of jubilees past, a Diamond Jubilee medal is being awarded in various countries and holidays and events will be held throughout the Commonwealth. Quentin Bryce, the Governor-General of Australia, announced that the Diamond Jubilee will be celebrated “with a host of national and community events throughout the Commonwealth.” Paying tribute to Queen Elizabeth II as Queen of Australia in the Australian House of Representatives in Canberra on 6 February 2012, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard stated the Queen was a revered figure in Australia. Gillard also announced that she would on 4 June light a beacon atop Parliament House and a street in the parliamentary triangle in Canberra would be renamed Queen Elizabeth Terrace.  The Queen’s  special message to mark the year was as follows.

In this special year, as I dedicate myself anew to your service, I hope we will all be reminded of the power of togetherness and the convening strength of family, friendship, and good neighbourliness, examples of which I have been fortunate to see throughout my reign and which my family and I look forward to seeing in many forms as we travel throughout the United Kingdom and the wider Commonwealth. ………..Elizabeth II, 2012

Here in Australia today, ‘hostilities will recommence between the major political parties, as Parliament resumes in Canberra, also the location where the Reserve Bank made another monthly deliberation on interest rates this afternoon.

But I really had none of that in mind myself.  I left for Ballarat at 11.30am, leaving James’ dog  behind – in the house, against my better judgement. However, although she was out at that moment, I was hoping she would be around to keep Murphy company until he was collected for Goonawarra. I think part of that happened today,  although I’d not discover until my return, that in fact the dog stayed a second night with us, and for most of Wednesday – that day he was alone all day, while Susan was at work. I was a little annoyed, not at Susie, but at James for just taking it for granted we would be around to look after his pet for an extended time!!  Anyway, despite all that, it apparently survived it’s visit, and was eventually collected some time on Wednesday.

Casual drive to Ballarat, with one stop at Bacchus Marsh along the way – call of nature –  and to respond to a brief message from Susan – ‘Sorry Dad! Didn’t say goodbye, had a doctor’s appointment. Have fun!’  –  Originally, I’d thought she was working today, but apparently came home late last night unwell, and rang Adam to say she was sick today. She had rushed out rather quickly not long before I left – I was happy to hear from her, at least Murphy would have some company for a while – I had providing that since early this morning.

I think it was around 12.45pm when I reached the Central City Motor Inn, on the outskirts of the CBD, booked in, etc, then went for a wander down to the city Mall area, leaving the car behind. Had an iced coffee and a sandwich, before proceeding on up to the Art Gallery of Ballarat.

At the Art Gallery,  I collected my two tickets for tonight’s concert, and then spent an hour or so, having a look at the current exhibition on display  –  the paintings, etc of Michael Shannon. A retrospective Michael Shannon  [referred to as an ‘Australian Romantic Realist] is one of Australia’s most under-regarded major artists from the 1950s to the 1980s. In his heyday, Shannon’s distinctive paintings were as avidly collected and frequently displayed as those of near contemporaries, John Brack and Fred Williams.  I rather liked the exhibition  –  he had a lot of emphasise in his early decade or so on pictures of suburban scenes, buildings, structures, still lives, and so on, some of them rather plain and to many, would appear uninspiring. Later in life, after he became ill, and moved out to the Heathcote area in Victoria, he began to paint many rural and country town scenes, much more to my liking.  Born in South Australia in 1927, his biography explains how the late 1970s saw this change in focus. In 1980 he bought a small house near Heathcote (north  east of Sunbury). His interest in landscape had grown following a visit to David Chapman in Tasmania in 1974 (he exhibited small studies at Macquarie in 1979) and in the 1980s the landscape became the central concern of his work. It is a landscape he clearly fell in love with – from the rock faces of the quarry paintings through the more intimate glimpses of hill sides with trees and bush tracks, to the large canvasses of spacious hills stretching to distant horizons. A long battle with Parkinson’s disease preceded the artist’s death in 1993. Anyway, in my usual manner, I purchased a copy of the official catalogue – bought the slightly cheaper soft covered version this time, which apart from illustrations of most of the paintings on display, and others, included two or three excellent essays about his life and work. A good investment.

Whilst I was at the Gallery, I rang Heather to let her know I’d arrived, by car. Her mother was not the best, but Heather was determined to join me at the Art Gallery concert tonight, and as I’d driven down [after originally intending to come by train] we agreed that I would pick her up from her home this evening. From the Gallery meantime, I walked back through the main City area and back to the Mall – when I was a teenager, this area was open to traffic, and included the tramline down the middle. Bridge Street, as it was called, was quite narrow, and I guess eventually it was decided to make it a pedestrian only Mall [the trams were long since gone].  My next visit was Collins Bookshop [of course] . Quite a large store, and I was assuming that it would have stocked copies of the books of the Wordsworth Poetry Library. My perusal revealed none, although I did bypass the actual ‘poetry’ section. However, the shop manager assured me that there were none of that series in stock.  Well, despite that, I found one – ‘Collected Poems of Rudyard Kipling’. He was surprised that there was a copy left in the shop, but then began to quote verses from a couple of Kipling’s poems!!! He was ahead of me here, but anyway, I made the purchase, and so added to my library collection of that series of 3 books now, with two others on order from Amazon.

At this point, rang my sister Jean, to ascertain if she was in fact here in town somewhere – yes, not far away, with eldest son Vincent. We arranged to meet up in 30 minutes, and have a coffee. In the interim, I walked back to the motel, deposited my purchase, etc, and then returned to the Mall – perfectly timed, met my sister and nephew walking from the opposite direction. Chatted for half an hour over cappucinios – not that I really enjoyed my drink, don’t seem to have any favourable taste towards coffee of any sort at present [other than the iced coffee version, the one of least benefit to me!!].  Vincent, who was in between studies and work at present, had been distributing his resume [with the needed help of his mother apparently] at various businesses around the town. There was obviously quite a contrasting difference between him, and younger son, Alwyn, in terms of self-confidence and a the ability to face a challenge, and this became obvious on today’s meeting. Vincent currently lives in Ballarat, sharing a house with his sister, Rosemary & her boyfriend, Marc. Before we parted, I arranged to drive out to Jean’s place, at Enfield [about 20 minutes out of Ballarat] for a brief visit in the morning.  From the ‘coffee lounge’, it was back to the motel via the supermarket, where I purchased an evening meal to eat in the motel before going out later on.

Heather, who had been being through two disastrous marriages, since I last saw her in the late 1950s  [apart from our lunch in Bacchus Marsh the other day] lived in a unit up in the Ballarat North/Wendouree area, not far from the old Ballarat Cemetery [which is actually called the New Ballarat Cemetery!!].  It is many many years since I have purposely picked up a young lady [well, she is my age of course – we went to primary school together] for the purpose of  going on an outing –  some people might call it a date, but I think we just both looked upon it, as two ‘old’ friends catching up, and what better way to do that, than at a musical concert, within the environs  of the Art Gallery of Ballarat, such institution of which we both happened to be members. I gathered that at different times, both her late father, Charlie Jones, and her brother Ross, had been heavily involved in the management of the Gallery. We had a common interest.  Actually, I’m not sure if Heather and I were ever ‘friends’ as such – we went to school, and Church/Sunday-school together, but I don’t think we were ‘buddies’ or anything of that sort. Yes, as a ten year old, I was fond of her, though never communicated anything of that nature as far as I can recall, while Heather regarded shy Bill as ‘rather sweet’ [that wasn’t communicated either, at the time].  Now all of a sudden, 50+ years later, we are friends!!  That’s rather nice actually.

In any case, tonight, we have come to see the ‘Helen Davey Trio’ – a poetic world/folk group with a contemporary twist, made up of Australian lady [in her 40s], Helen Davey [who sings and plays guitar and the piano], and two guys from Switzerland [about the same age as Helen] – Ferdi Rauber [a percussionist, who also ‘plays’ a variety of other instruments and implements, such as tablas, gong,didjeridoo, frame drum, udu, cymbals and percussion, amongst other things], and David Aebli [on double bass, mandolin, bouzouki, & solo guitar]. They had called the concert tonight ‘Carvings’, and that was in fact the name of the CD, of which both Heather and myself purchased a copy during the evening.  An interesting trio  – mixture of ‘almost’ jazz, folk, blues, and some other odd genres of music, it’s hard to describe. I expected a short program, in fact it was split by quite a long, and we thought too long, an interval, and then another lengthy period where Helen called for ‘stories’ from the audience – to which she would then, on the spot, create music, words, etc, to fit in with the particular story. She got that started by referring to one of the classic European paintings on the wall where we were, and calling for ‘descriptions’ of what that painting was depicting – can’t recall the name, but it has been on display for many years, featuring an old couple in the prime of their years. Interesting, the painting underneath that one, is of a young nude lady bathing – a picture I’ve always admired, and one of the audience, thinking that was the painting Helen was referring to, very aptly gave it the title of ‘cheeky’!!

In any case, I think we both enjoyed the concert overall – some of the music or style was a little ‘strange’ or different, but an entertaining night  – we both agreed on two things, it was perhaps a little too long, could have done without the story telling segment, and we both had trouble understanding the lyrics of what Helen was either saying or singing – maybe the acoustics just didn’t match her soft [though at times, deep voice] – anyway sometimes, I simply gave away trying to pick up what she was saying, [was giving me a headache, to add to a nagging toothache!] and simply sat back and enjoyed the music.

The musicians invited those of us present to join them after the show at a restaurant around in Sturt Street which had apparently remained open for the purpose –  certainly, I doubted there would be much else of the ‘coffee lounge’ nature still open at this time of a Tuesday night in Ballarat. However, Heather & myself jointly agreed that we would not bother to join the crowd – the concert had gone a bit later than anticipated, and I don’t think she was used to late nights over recent years.  I declined the invitation to have a drink back at the unit – instead, if time permitted, we would meet up again tomorrow afternoon for a drink, before I returned to Sunbury.

Back at the motel, though I was not ready for sleeping, I didn’t even bother to switch the TV on, and couldn’t get the internet to connect up to my laptop, so instead,  I opened up the ‘Rudyard Kipling’ poetry book, and had a look at the introductory essays, the most interesting of which was the piece written by George Orwell, originally written in 1942. It was described by many critics as a ‘hard-hitting account of Kipling’s poems’, and apparently has been generally considered as one of the most important contributions to critical discussion of Kipling. That detail is too extensive to canvass here, but as I started to read the early poems in the book, I tried to reconcile the contents with what Orwell was saying. At the time of writing, I’ve not got too far, and not really sure if I have enjoyed [or sometimes even understood] very much of what I’ve read so far!  Time will tell –  on page 36, with over 800 to go!!

Wednesday, 9^th February –  woke earlier than I really needed to, and had over an hour before the breakfast I’d ordered, was due to arrive.  That breakfast included an especially prepared juice combination drink of carrot, apple and celery –  not sure whether that was going to do me good or not, but it was an interesting and enjoyable drink. Anyway, I remained at the motel until near checkout time, in no rush, and in a relaxed mood.

When for a drive up to Lake Wendouree – beautiful sight to see the lake full of water again – and whilst there, rang my sister, Jean to make sure she was home out at Enfield. It’s about a 15/20 minute drive out to the Skilbeck property – being a working and school day, Jean was the only one home, and I stayed for about an hour, over a slow coffee [which I wasn’t really enjoying] and a bit of a family chat. Ross apparently was not really happy with his job at the Grammar School anymore, and was looking elsewhere. They were all going up to a family wedding in Cairns in a couple of months – the suggestion had been made that he might find something up there!  I made the comment that such a move would leave just the one Kirk sibling down here in Victoria!!

Rather a busy morning – expecting James to bring his dog over any time for us to ‘dog sit’ for a day or so, even though Susie and I will be missing for a lot of that time!  Rang the RACV, to come and start Susie’s car, so that she could drive it down to the Kmart vehicle service centre. Thankfully, the RACV were fairly speedy in responding, although Murphy [the dog] had arrived before they did.  Engine running, so that shortly after 10am, I followed Susie into town, she dropped off her car, and returned with me.  I was off again, shortly afterwards, for a Monday morning 11am session at the gymnasium. I think I was left to my own resources today – the instructor had another customer to attend to, and I must admit, I felt a little more comfortable working solo, rather than having somebody ‘looking over my shoulder’ etc.  Was quite a good session. Judy Unwin was doing a circuit again, and surprisingly, although I didn’t get the chance to speak to her, I noticed that Tricia P [Ruth’s mother] was also there this morning.  Interesting over time, the people I am running into here!

[Incidentally, the first of the One Day International cricket matches was played yesterday in Melbourne in the three way series between Australia, India and Sri Lanka –   Australia won the first match, scoring 5 for 216 to defeat India 151.  These days, I don’t take as much interest in the one day limited over matches, as compared with the Test cricket, but still like to keep a track of how things are progressing].

The rest of my car – after a phone call, soon after I left the Gym, from Susie, to tell me that total car service, new battery and other repairs, were going to cost about  $900!! Could I help out?  –   was spent basically dog-sitting, for most of the afternoon, and into the early evening. Susan’s cats were not happy with Murphy’s presence in their environment!!  Overall though, the dog was well behaved, and no real trouble – very friendly, but very insistent on human company at all times. Unfortunately, over the next day or so, it would be left alone for quite a bit.  The family at Goonawarra had all gone down to Rosebud for a few days, for a brief break, and to visit the grave of Shirley’s sister, Susan [who died Christmas night, in 1985], and James had joined hem. Jodie, who was working all week, called around briefly this evening, checking up on Murphy, etc.

Earlier, we took the dog for a drive to town, to pick up Susie’s car, the repair costs for which came in at just under the quoted figure all of which I paid for! It will come back one day, though I’m not too concerned.

I had my Smorgasbord ‘radio’ show tonight, from 9 until midnight – a good show, which I enjoyed but a little disappointed at no calls in again.  Exchanged a couple of text messages with Heather  in Ballarat, re my visit down there tomorrow, wanted to make sure her mother was well enough to allow Heather out for the evening concert.

Tonight, a poor sleep between  1 and 3am, at which point,  woken by Murphy, in the laundry – took him outside briefly, then returned him to laundry, but he was restless – brought him up to my room, which I’d earlier not been intending despite James’ advice that the dog almost slept in a room with someone!!  Mot something that I would want to encourage, but because it was just the one night, and the animal was in a strange place, I relented this time.  Truth is, I needed some sleep. From that point onwards, a bit of sleep was gained on both counts.

This sounds like a repeat of 12 months ago with parts of both southern Queensland, and northern New South Wales in the midst of major floods concerns from recent heavy rains. For example, as the following report from ‘The Australian’ indicates, the south Queensland centre of St George is suffering from the unfolding inland flood crisis, with its residents now being urged to flee their homes.  Authorities will consider mandatory evacuations amid predictions that the Balonne River will hit 14m, topping the 2010 flood that swamped the town. The town of 3800, about 500km west of Brisbane, is the latest to be threatened by floods that have precipitated the declaration of a state of disaster across southwest Queensland. Army helicopter have been deployed to assist with evacuations and supplying communities cut off the sea of flood water, that stretches from the central-west town of Alfa to the Queensland-NSW border. Moree and other centres in northern NSW continue to be cut off. A search continues at Roma for mother-of-two Jane Sheahan, who was swept away on Friday when her car, with 7-year-old son Darcy inside, was caught in floodwaters. She pleaded with rescuers to “save my boy’’ before being carried away. Darcy was saved but grave fears are now held ofr his mother. Levees at Charleville, 740km west of Brisbane, continue to just hold, with the swollen Warrego River lapping at the top of the barriers in some places. Local authorities say they are confident the worst of the emergency has passed – provided there is no further rain in the catchments. At Mitchell, 590km west of Brisbane, locals returned to heart-breaking scenes as receding waters allowed them to re-enter flooded homes. Queensland police deputy commissioner Ian Stewart says emergency crews are focusing their efforts on the town of St George, which is facing record flooding. Mr Stewart believes it may be necessary to evacuate most of St George and neighbouring towns. “We are working on our contingencies to manage the potential evacuation of areas south of Roma and in particular, St George,” he said today.  “There are very large volumes of water in those systems getting to record levels as the predictions are currently telling us. “Whilst there is some time to make these arrangements due to the water flows, certainly we are taking very seriously the potential for mass evacuations in that area so that people are absolutely safe from this very large scale event.”  By this evening, as the situation worsened in St George, the order was given for the whole town to evacuate, with no exceptions!

Meanwhile, as Prime Minister Julia Gillard hosts a barbeque for fellow Labor politicians today, the widespread media and other speculation about her future as leader continues to keep many journalists and media commentators on the payroll!  While most Labor MPs were putting on a strong front today, it is widely thought within caucus that a challenge is unavoidable, yet despite a reported shift in support to Mr Rudd’s camp in recent weeks, it is not yet clear he will have the numbers to be successful in any leadership challenge.  Certainly people like the PM’s deputy, Wayne Swan, and other senior cabinet ministers have brushed off leadership speculation ahead of an ALP crisis meeting being held for the new parliamentary year, which was also being held today I believe –  with Mr Swan and Finance Minister Penny Wong kicking off the gathering with presentations about the state of the economy and Labor’s economic framework.  In an interview this morning, Treasurer Wayne Swan denied that Kevin Rudd was plotting a return to the prime ministership. “The fact is a lot of the media coverage at the moment is simply bizarre,” the Treasurer told ABC’s Insiders program. “I think the community has had just a gutful of so much of the commentary and speculation that is out there. Most of it is just a huge beat up, sure there are one or two individuals out there who are disgruntled and they are feeding some of these stories but the great bulk of the coverage that I read is completely divorced from reality.” Mr Swan said he took Mr Rudd “at his word” that he was happy being foreign minister and said that Prime Minister Julia Gillard had the “overwhelming support” of caucus. “She is someone who is getting things done,” he said. “Our Prime Minister has the strong support of caucus. She is a tough leader, a person of integrity and great strength and great vision.” Meanwhile Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese said the leadership issue was being blown up by the media but said the government was determined to “get on with the job of governing”. “I think once parliament goes back this week people will see the business of government taking place and that begins today with the special caucus meeting,” Mr Albanese told Sky News’ Australian Agenda. “What we need is for government members to continue to focus on selling the government’s message. That’s a job not just for the Prime Minister but for the whole team.”

Some of the other conflicting media headlines this weekend relating to the leadership issue included:-

• Opposition leader Tony Abbott said this morning Labor would gain very little from changing leaders and denied Kevin Rudd would be tougher to beat than Julia Gillard at any future election. “In the end the government doesn’t have to change leaders – it has to change its policies,” Mr Abbott told Network Ten. “If they have Rudd or Gillard they’ll still have the carbon tax, they’ll still have the mining tax and they’ll still be a government that is addicted to spending.” Mr Abbott said the leadership should be decided at an election. “They’ve got to change the way they do things,” he said. “People should choose the Prime Minister of Australia at an election. That’s what we need. “Unfortunately I think we’ve got to the point where this Labor government is so tainted that it needs a good period of time in opposition to work out what it actually stands for.”
• Kevin Rudd hasn’t got the numbers to defeat Julia Gillard yet, but his support is growing in the Labor caucus.
• Julia Gillard’s days are numbered. The dilemma is: who could replace her?
• After 2010, no political analyst is prepared to say something can’t happen – that no matter how outlandish, it is not possible.
• Two independents say they have grave concerns about whether they could support Kevin Rudd as ALP leader.
• Labor MPs supporting Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd agree there has been a shift in support to Rudd.

In the meantime, the weather down here in Victoria [this part anyway] has seen a bit of a change this afternoon, after temperatures reached 33 degrees again. By 3.30pm here in Sunbury, the gauge had dropped to below 28 degrees, and the strong winds which have been blowing all day, freshened a little and brought a few patches of rain with them. When I was up at the radio station early this morning, it was quite warm, even in the studio – perhaps that led to my feelings of tiredness in the subsequent time since then, though admittedly, with the air feeling a little cooler later in the afternoon, my energy levels rose somewhat.

The major piece of music I played in the classical music program this morning, was by the Spanish composer, Joaquin  Rodrigo [born in 1902, died 1999], and his composition called the ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’, written in 1939.  A piece of music which has enjoyed widespread popularity from it’s first hearing to the present day. In the recent ABC Classic FM’s vote for the 100 most popular 20^th century classical compositions,  it came in as No. 6.There were a number of reasons for it’s popularity. As Thomas Kahlcke writes [translated by Mary Adams] – ‘In a time of great political and cultural uncertainty – in Spain the Civil War had just ended and many intellectuals and artists were fleeing the Franco regime – the guitar concerto sounded [and still sounds today]

like a soothing reminder of an idyllic epoch. And indeed it was Rodrigo’s intention to provide musical compensation for the outward and inward ravages to his native land by recalling with the harmonious music an age long forgotten. Even the title manifests this: Aranjuez, the name of the magnificent summer seat of the Spanish kings, not far from Madrid, awakens associations of luxurious indolence and the splendour of past times, of vast gardens, fluttering breezes and cool fountains. And the music affirms these associations in that it transports folk elements from the Flamenco culture into the framework of  of a classical form, evoking a subtle atmosphere of vitality and elegance and overlaying it with an archaic patina….’  In other words, the music attempts to transport the listener to another place and time through the evocation of the sounds of nature, through the guitar and orchestra, and it does so beautifully.   According to the composer, the first movement is “animated by a rhythmic spirit and vigour without either of the two themes… interrupting its relentless pace”; the second movement “represents a dialogue between guitar and solo instruments (cor anglais, bassoon, oboe, horn etc.)”; and the last movement “recalls a courtly dance in which the combination of double and triple time maintains a taut tempo right to the closing bar.” He described the concerto itself as capturing “the fragrance of magnolias, the singing of birds, and the gushing of fountains” in the gardens of Aranjuez.

For myself, the second movement [the ‘Adagio’] represented 12 minutes of pure beauty, and while it had at times a familiar melody from traditional adagios of other composers, it became something special with the addition of the guitar as the principal source of melody. Apparently,  Rodrigo and his wife Victoria stayed silent for many years about the inspiration for the second movement, and thus the popular belief grew that it was inspired by the bombing of Guernica in 1937. In her autobiography, Victoria eventually declared that it was both an evocation of the happy days of their honeymoon and a response to Rodrigo’s devastation at the miscarriage of their first pregnancy.  I suggest readers find a copy of the internet, and have a listen for themselves, to the second movement in particular. It should provide inspiration.

Susie’s gone out again, Dad’s home, again, with a ‘upset’ digestive tract again, this is beginning to become rather annoying, almost distressing!! Putting off going back to complain again, for a while!!

We didn’t have much to say yesterday, but I did get the back lawn mowed, and although the workmen out in the street have moved along a few doors from here, they did actually clear up most of the refuse they had left behind – although on closer inspection, I think a fair degree of ‘raking’ will be required before I put the lawnmower over that area!!  Seems to be a lot of mini gravel material left behind!  And at least this morning, I was not disturbed by an early morning ‘banging’ on my front door, as occurred yesterday – to eventually open and find two police gentlemen awaiting my attention, asking for the name of somebody I’d never heard of! I guess they were satisfied that I was not whom they were looking for, as they were soon on their way, although I noticed their car was parked out the front for quite a while thereafter ‘considering their options’!

Anyway, it’s Saturday morning, and a rather warm day is anticipated – rather glad that today’s gym session was a 9am starting time before too much heat gets into the day. Incidentally overnight, I noticed that India finally had a win in the cricket – the second of the two 20 over matches, played here in Melbourne saw the Indians win rather convincingly in the final analysis, by 8 wickets – India 2 for 135 defeated Australia all out for 131 [including 4 run outs!!] .  Now I believe a triangular  50 Over series with Sri Lanka joining Australia and India, commences on Sunday, here in Melbourne again.

A bit tougher at the gymnasium this morning, the instructor felt I did things too easily on Thursday, so put things up another level for me, again!!  Legs felt a little heavier or more tired than usual. However, followed up with a bit of a Saturday morning wander around the town centre, called in at Blues Plus for my Saturday morning iced coffee, then up to the Sunbury market – not really to buy anything, but have a brief chat with a couple of people from the radio station, who have stalls at this monthly market.  Admittedly, I did adjourn briefly at the book stall – accosted by the owner who obviously loves a good talk and dropping names of the rich and famous that he knows!! While all of his books are second hand, I feel that they are generally a little over-priced, however he had a lot of great Australian historical stuff there, but not exactly what I was looking for. So in my case, all of his taking didn’t earn him any cash! Actually, I spent my weekly [or monthly] book buying quota yesterday, at Collins Book Shop in Sunbury – purchased another poet from the ‘Wordsworth Poetry Library’ series – this time ‘The Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson’.  Now, there was a fascinating little opening quotation to the ‘Introduction’ written by Karen Hodder.

‘He’d been out walking one morning and he came back with a great wide-awake hat full of the most terrible-looking fungi, which he brought into the drawing-room where I happened to be with my mother. He showed her his hat full of these objects and said “Emily, will you please have these cooked for luncheon?”  My grandmother was absolutely horrified. “MY dear Ally”  – she always called him Ally – “you couldn’t possibly eat those. I’m sure they’re most unsafe and poisonous”. He said “Emily, I know quite well what they are. They’re very good to eat and I should like to have them cooked for luncheon”. I think my grandmother, although she was said to influence his poetry unduly, always knew when she was beaten, so she rang the rang and gave the hat full of mushrooms to the butler,  who carried them off and had them cooked. At luncheon they appeared on a very large dish, and they were handed all around the table, and everybody refused them until they got to him – he was, of course, last on the circuit – and rather aggressively he cook the whole contents of the dish and ate them all with everybody glaring anxiously at him, thinking that he would probably fall down dead.’  ^{[from ‘Sir Charles Tennyson, cir. Norman page, pp. 166-67].}

Now in this particular series of books, I now possess the grand total of two books  [works of the poets, Tennyson, and Wordsworth]!! The only copies in fact that the local book shop had in stock, so I must look up the relevant site, and see what else is available  – I see that I have 35 still to find!!!

Thinking about books, yesterday I finished another of Jane Austin’s novels –  Northanger Abbey, which was the first of Jane Austen’s novels to be completed for publication, ready for press in 1803, but not actually published, posthumously until 1817. I must have begun to read this about a decade ago, according to a bookmark I found in the early pages, but presumably decided at that stage of my life that I was not really in a Jane Austen frame of mind! Anyway this time, I read the complete novel over a few days, and rather enjoyed it, intending to work through the other six of her novels as time goes by – actually, I’m sure I’ve read Pride and Prejudice, have certainly seen two or three movie/drama versions of it on the TV over the years in any case.  Here’s a little plot summary of the story which I found.

.‘Northanger Abbey follows seventeen-year-old Gothic novel aficionado Catherine Morland and family friends Mr. and Mrs. Allen as they visit Bath. It is Catherine’s first visit there. She meets her friends, such as Isabella Thorpe, and goes to balls. Catherine finds herself pursued by Isabella’s brother, the rather rough-mannered, slovenly John Thorpe, and by her real love interest, Henry Tilney. She also becomes friends with Eleanor Tilney, Henry’s younger sister. Henry captivates her with his view on novels and his knowledge of history and the world. General Tilney (Henry and Eleanor’s father) invites Catherine to visit their estate, Northanger Abbey, which, from her reading of Ann Radcliffe’s gothic novel The Mysteries of Udolpho, she expects to be dark, ancient and full of Gothic horrors and fantastical mystery’.  The story contains a number of major themes, obviously applicable in particular to the period in English history and cultural practices at which time the novel was written. Those themes include:

• The intricacies and tedium of high society, particularly partner selection.
• The conflicts of marriage for love and marriage for property.
• Life lived as if in a Gothic novel, filled with danger and intrigue, and the obsession with all things gothic.
• The dangers of believing life is the same as fiction.
• The maturation of the young into skeptical adulthood, the loss of imagination, innocence and good faith.
• Things are not what they seem at first.
• Social criticism (comedy of manners).
• Parody of the gothic novels’ “gothic and anti-gothic” attitudes.
• In addition, Catherine Morland realises she is not to rely upon others, such as Isabella, who are negatively influential on her, but to be single-minded and independent. It is only through bad experiences that Catherine really begins to properly mature and grow up.

I guess those are the kind of themes and subject matters that one would be asked to elaborate on as am English literature student of Jane Austen’s novels.  I don’t remember studying any of them myself, though I undertook English Literature at my final year of secondary school –  my favourite subject, but disappointingly, on perusing my old school reports, I see I only gained a normal Pass in the subject!! Presumably my teacher that year didn’t agree with my synopsis of the above kind of questions. Trying to recall which pieces I actually studied that year – one was Dostoevsky’s ‘Crime and Punishment’, then there was also ‘The Getting of Wisdom’ by Australian author Henry Handel Richardson, and the ‘exciting’ [how I felt, not, at the time] the ‘Selected Poetry of Robert Browning’ – will us students that year, ever forget poems of the likes of ‘My Last Duchess’, ‘The Bishop Orders His Tomb’, or ‘Fra Lippo Lippi’ –  nine and half pages of the latter, though all I can recall is the name.  There must have been other books on the syllabus, just can’t recall them now [we are speaking of 1964!!!]  –   ah yes, of course, I knew William Shakespeare had to be there, somewhere’  –   my favourite Shakespeare play, ‘Hamlet’. I even have a vinyl recording of the play here at home, with Richard Burton performing the role of Hamlet!!  Enough of this literary reminiscing!