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It’s a beautiful morning, and I think that finally we may assume that the tail endings of a late wintry season are behind us, and things will begin to warm up from here on.

As I drove in towards the city this morning, my thoughts turned to years gone past, as I tried to put into some kind of context the past few decades in respect to the success or otherwise of my ’employment’ career, and depressingly, I came to the conclusion that in the broad viewpoint, it had been a failure. Sure plenty of individual successes along the way, jobs well done [in my view anyway], and some work achievements that I could rightly be proud of! However upon reflection, when you add all those different roles together [and there have been many of them since the mid 1960s], one can’t claim to have had a longterm successful pathway leading to major riches, any kind of fame, or fortune, or even the likelihood of a secure financial future. Most of those things have probably been sacrificed along the way – and not necessary in all cases, ways that one could regret –  family, voluntary workin community and as associated with the children’s education, and sporting and cultural pursuits –  for many people, time spent on those pursuits [by me] would have utilised to the ideals of accumulating wealth, pursuing faster and more successful advances in career paths.

As I reflected on all these things this morning, these realisations left your writer feeling a little sombre, but further thoughts will follow in trying to assess the real value and gains [and losses]  from following the directions I have! I shall return  to this train of thought at a later time!

Meanwhile. at the Opera House in Sydney this morning, there weas a Memorial Service for the late Joan Sutherland, who passed away a few weeks ago. There were the usual range of speeches and tributes, including a lenghy one from Julia Gillard [Prime Minister]. But the words that mattered the most came from friends and family. I got the impression [confirming peior knowledge] that Joan Sutherland was not just one of Australia’s greatest singers, but also a very warm and understanding human being, and this was further illustrated through some of the comments made in this morning’s service, some from her son, others from associates and friends.

Remarks included – no airs and graces; a real team player; a warm, human person; integrity and honesty as a performer; the public loved her, and loved them in return – at the end, she said that she didn’t miss the performancesso much, but missed the people; loyal; never assumed that things would always go well just because they had in the past – always revised her scores before a performance no matter how many times she had acted and sung the role; and from her son, she was dedicated to family, friends and work colleagues; will always give us pleasure for the rest of our lives through her cds, dvds, etc.

The Memorial Service concluded with the voice of the Diva herself – a recording of Dame Joan Sutherland singing ‘There’s No Place Like Home’ – I can imagine [from my own feelings], that would have been a very emotional and moving few moments at the Opera House, and I guess that was confirmed at the conclusion of the recording, by sustained applause of some minutes duration, of the kind that Joan Sutherland would have received hundreds of times after her live performances [and this was simply a recording]. The emotion didn’t end there – as the audience departed from the Opera House, there was a further recording [an ‘encore in death’ if you like] of her singing a beautiful aria from the opera ‘Norma’!   As indicated, to myself personally, rather a passionate and emotional ending to a special tribute to a great Australian.

We had a friend of the radio who had lost a relative in the last few days, so in the hope of cheering her up a little, I had a small segment in tonight’s Show music program, devoted entirely to Scottish music and songs  – some of the great old traditional melodies and airs such as Mull of Kintyre, Loch Lomond, Sky Boat Song, Flower of Scotland, and so on. I usually do that each week – call it a bit of an ‘interval treat’ where I put the show music aside for about 20 minutes, and play something completely different – and not just different on the night, but week by week, I choose a different style of artist, or genre of music! I didn’t really identify why I was playing Scottish music tonight – our friend would have caught on immediately, but my excuse was that I simply felt like it!! Certainly it was a bit of a contrast to some of the other tracks I featured in tonight’s show – Pearl Bailey and Marilyn Horne for eg, with songs from ‘Carmen Jones’ – or ‘Riverdance’ from Bill Whelan’s ‘Riverdance Musical’!!  I enjoy my music shows, and hopefully, the occasional listener does also, lol!!  Home much later than usual this week, as I stayed back at the studio for a while to ‘lend my voice’ for a sponsorship message, hence ended up eating a hastily prepared meal, which included some ‘hot’ calamari chips – mmm, can’t complain, Susie did warm me that they were ‘a bit hot’!!! Could be an uncomfortable night coming up!!!

I was interested to see overnight that Australia’s mototcycle champion, officially ended his contract with Ducati with a second position in the Valencia MotoGP – in fact he actually led for most of the race, but was overtaken by Lorenzo with about 8 laps to go. Stoner tried to regain the lead, but didn’t quite make it. This was the final race in the MotoGP 2010 season. In the end wash up, Casey Stoner finished 4th on the year’s overall championship ladder, with 225 points, behind Jorge Lorenzo [383], Dani Pedrosa [245] and Valentino Rossi [233].  Stoner won the championship in 2007, and the following year was named ‘Young Australian of the Year’. An apt title, as I always felt that he looked a lot younger than he really was, certainly back in 2007, and even now, just after turning 25, you would probably pick him as much younger.

Meanwhile, the Australian Summer of cricket continued yesterday, with the thid of the three one day matches against Sri Lanka. This game was held at the GABBA in Brisbane, where I was a few days ago, and finally saw the Australian team achieve a win after 7 losses in a row [I think it was] in all forms of cricket, defeating Sri Lanka by 8 wickets. Scores were Sri Lanka: 115.  Australia:  2 for 119.

As for my day in the office, well after a 40 year career, my major task today was stapling papers together, and enveloping notice papers for the organisation’s next General Meeting!! How the mighty have fallen, lol!!  Actually, in a staff of just three people, someone has to do the mundane tasks now and then, most of which we share around – I guess it was my turn today, as one of the many administrative roles of the organisation!!

Meanwhile, we were expecting some repairs to the storm damaged patio at home to be finally started today [I think the storm in question was nearly two months ago], but upon arrival home this afternnon, it was obvious that there had been no activity! Presumably another job came up and took priority.

Over the past few days, the national broadcaster, through the ABC’s Classical music FM station has been featuring  the ‘Classic 100- Ten years On ‘ countdown, selections as voted on by the listeners to ABC Classics. This morning [after being on air for two hours, playing just that, classical music], I made a point of tuning into the ABC, in order to listen to and hear what the top three choices had been. As I had the house to myself, the music was appropriately loud, and as it turned out, wonderful to listen to.

And it seems that Beethoven is still on the top of the popularity lists when it comes to the regular listener of classical music. I feature his music every now and them, and in fact are currently working through each of his mine symphonies, playing one about every 6 or 7 weeks. But as I’ve noted before, I do also like to feature a wide range of composers in my program, including comtemporary, more modern composers, and our own Australian artists. But I think next week, Beethoven might have a special place. In the Top 3 listener choices that I have heard this morning, Beethoven filled all three slots, with two of his symphonies, and one concerto. No doubt many other of his compositions got into the top 100, but I haven’t seen the listing yet, nor have I had much opportunity to tune in over the past few days. Those three selections were;

1. Beethoven – 9th Symphony [the ‘Choral Symphony’], listening to this one as I write :-)]

2. Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 [the ‘Emperor Concerto’]

3. Beethoven:  6th Symphony [the ‘Pastoral Symphony’]

I’ve  already planned my show for next Sunday morning, and  have managed to include selections from all three of those selections in the schedule. Looks like an early start next week, as I have already scheduled in the 3rd to 5th movemejnts of Gustav Mahler’s very long 7th Symphony [75 minutes], of which I played the first two movements this morning – don’t usually do that, split a major piece of music, but with normally just two hours available to do the show, I decided that 1 1/4 hours allocated to just one piece was a bit much – hoped I didn’t upset any classical purists along the way!!

I was watching the debate on the TV last night – between John Brumby [State premier & leader of the Labor Party in Victoria] and Ted Baillieu [Liberal Opposition leader] – in the lead up to the Victorian State election on the last Saturday in November. As usual in these things there were a range of issues covered, but I did note in particular the various responses to one particular issue, the question of the increasing levels of violence in our city streets and on our trains, etc, and the question was asked of each leader as to what they intended to do about the problem, if re-elected.

I made  a brief comment about this on Faceback, and did receive a couple of interesting, which without naming the people concerned, I thought it was worth making a note of. I began with the note that: –    Ted Bailleau missed the point tonight – asked how he would change the culture of violence in the streets, trains, etc –  oh, more police, more presence on the trains, more power to act. His own words – ‘To change the culture you have to have more police”.  He repeated the Coalition’s pledge to add 1,700 more police and 950 Victoria Police protective service officers on all metropolitan and major regional train networks.  But is that going to change the culture Ted – may drive the violence underground, move it somewhere else!  On the other hand,  John Brumby got the point – you change the culture through the schools, education programs, things like the cyber bullying program, etc. Sorry Ted, you slipped up there! ……………………… A few friends responded with some views and comments of their own

[CF]: If that was the ABC radio I was hearing this morning…I wish my other half had rung in with his comments!! I think they’re good but he’d never make them public 😦 Security guards it was said were guarding the trains not the people….but apparently their powers are limited unlike police anyway…I’ve observed they’re recruiting for more police currently.           [Me]: Yes, my son spent 18 months as a security guard with the railways – and yes, they were ‘guarding’ the trains – from vandals!!!       [RP]: I agree, prevention better than cure- just need to address things like that really early in life- good teaching and environment for each and every toddler and preschooler.      [AP]: In my partial opinion, I didn’t like the fact that Ted needed notes to push his message, Brumby, was non scripted, plus I don’t recall, but I could be wrong Ted mentioning education, his main push is Law and Order, and this is worrying. We in Vic don’t live in the Bronx, and I am very concerned that if Ted keeps telling people what an unsafe place we live in people will start really believing this spin, most of all the elderly, who will deadlock their homes to the extent that in the event of a fire etc they won’t get out.  I don’t deny that there are some safety issues but the way that Ted and the boys are playing it, it’s like we are not safe to walk out our front doors, and in my opinion this is dangerous.        [Me]: In this case A, I do agree with you, lol, I’d like to see less emphasise on the ‘fear’ side of it. Sure, the public needs to be aware of dangers, and take precautions accordingly. however, it does all go back to education, and way we teach our society to behave and/or react responsibly to other cultures, religions, beliefs, and the kind of ideas R suggests. This also needs to tie in with employment opportunities, youth training – bored and idle ‘youths’ [young, old, male, female] are a recipe for problems, potential violence through frustration, lack of opportunity, and so on.  Last night’s debate was interesting and worthwhile, but in some ways, I felt both leaders were a little backward in coming forward – a reluctance to promise too much too precisely. It would be useful to have a forum of that nature here in this electorate – we’ve heard from the Liberal & Labor candidates, not much from the others, presume there are some. I wonder if there is any plan to bring them all together, and address the issues that more directly affect this area, in addition to their feelings on the broader scale of things?       [RP]: Here, here- fear is MUCH overused- disgusting really- from refugees to this. [CF]:  Ann I think I agree with you whilst the world has problems living in fear is no good. [RP]: Especially irrational fear- what a waste! And what a distraction from the real issues.  Like when the American right gets all bogged down in hunting out immorality in a sexual sense and forgets about the immorality of the violence of its overseas adventures or poor healthcare system.

Apart from that topic, the two basic differences between the leaders – well, it was what was to be expected of course. The Premier pledged that education, hospitals and more jobs would be at the heart of a returned Labor government. I mean at a State level, who wouldn’t promise attention to those kind of things. And not surprisingly, Ted Baileau emphasised an end to a decade of waste, and a tough new regimen to tackle crime.

Meanwhile, I think the issue that shown both leaders up a bit was the unconvincing manner in which they responded to questions about the allocation of preferences to the Greens [the third major Party in the coming election]. While I thought too much time was wasted on that aspect [by the panel and debate host posing the questions] both Brunby & Bailleau seemed unable to satisfy those questions. And as one of the papers noted this morning, the ‘Opposition leader is stubborn and he failed, yet again, to put his position on the table about whether he would be preferencing the Greens in crucial inner Melbourne seats’.  I got a bit frustrated with all that – it would seem to me, that where there are only three principal candidates, neither party could really avoid allocating their preferences to the Greens, and that would probably cancel their value out in any case. Of course, there are usually a number of minor candidates stand in the city seats, who while having no chance of being elected, can often cause problems for the majoe parties under our preferential voting system. But the newspaper article seemed to be suggesting that this preferencing debate is threastening to derail the Coalition’s campaign for election. Although mind you, John Brumby was not strong on that aspect either, in that he was far from convincing in saying whether or not Labor would form a minority government with the backing of the Greens, were that necessary. He stuck to the line that Labor was going out to win the election in it’s own right, and anything beyond that was supposition!!

Leaving that aside, we had a beautiful warmish day in this part of Victoria, which gave me no excuse to avoid the mowing of the those lawns and a few hours gardening. Mind you, by the end of all that, the ‘old legs’ were beginning to complain a little, and when we went out for a walk later in the afternoon, the legs convinced their owner that it should be a short walk!  I followed their advice!

As for this evening, well many tasks one wanted to get on with, but instead, read another chapter of the book I purchased yesterday – John Howard’s biography ‘Lasarus Rising’, and while I might be considered a little biased, I am so far finding it fascinating reading – in fact, although e are only into the early chapters, dealing with his early life, I finding it quite a comfortable writing style to read, hope it stays that way. Later, with the house to myself again [daughter away for the night, somewhere], I decided to ‘borrow’ her DVD player, and sit down for 3 hours with one of the DVDs that my son gave me for my birthday – the Series 1 and 2 of “24” featuring that secret agent Jack Bower!  This is one of the few TV series of recent years that I watched and enjoyed religiously, and I found it interesting revisiting the opening ‘chapters’ again, minus the advert breaks! I think I have watched all of the 5 or 6 series that have been screened out here. It will probably take me a while to get through these 12 DVDs that make up Series 1 and 2, as I seldom make time for that kind of TV viewing! Tonight was an exception, couldn’t be bothered doing anything else!! Incidentally, it got to 22 degrees in Sunbury today, almost Brisbane weather, and at this point in time it is a mild 14 degrees!

Finally, we have a beautiful sunny Spring morning – and an earlier start for me, as Friday is the day I call briefly in at the radio station, and join one of our ‘few professional radio people’ on his morning program, for a brief look [10 minutes maximum] at local sport [and we occasionally throw in a few comments and results on the international sporting scene] plus of course ‘Bill’s tips’ for that afternoon’s gallops [wherever they may be]. On this occasion, a little extra time devoted to that segment with tomorrow being the last day of the Spring Racing Carnival.

Then it’s back out into the traffic and the daily grind of fighting the peak hour roads. Yesterday seemed to be particularly bad leading into the city, but I think I will have to start getting on my way about 10 minutes earlier than I have been lately, that 10 minutes can often be the difference between an additional 20/25 driving of a morning.

Most of the news headlines in today’s papers seems to be concentrated on the mishap with the Qantas plane yesterday, where an engine apparently exploded midair, necesssitating a forced emergency landing at Singapore.  Thankfully, the outcome was no worse than that. However, there seems to have been over the past year or so, a number of incidents involving Qantas[an airline generally considered rather safe], and one comment I heard this morning was that these incidents were coinciding with the outsourcing of servicing, etc of the big planes to ‘overseas’ companies – obviously cheaper to do it that way I guess, but if that is risking the good record and safety of flights, etc, thenn the practice needs to be urgently. Now I have no knowledge of those outsourcing procedures, just repeating an opinion expressed on the radio, but certainly the outsourcing of work and industries to overseas countries before it is economically beneficial to do so, whatever the industry might be, has also ‘worried’ me to some degree, with the concern as to why more effort is not put into encouraging Australian home based industriers to undertake much of the tasks that are outsourced. Obviously, itr’s not as simple as that, but I sometimes wonder if our regulations and restrictions, etc, are been directed in the wrong manner. More on that at a later date.

I shall return>>>>

The Australian summmer of cricket continues, the second of a three match one day [50 overs each] series against Sri Lanka, and again, Australia’s run of losses continues – no doubt getting the English  media more and more excited by the minute!! Tonight in Sydney, a rain affected match, saw the Aussies fall short again.  Sri Lanka:  3/213 defeated Australia: 210.

It was a reasonably good day today – the 3rd day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival week – I think they call today ‘Ladies Day’, when races such as the Crown Oaks,  the Spring Fashion Stakes, the Gucci Stakes, and the Promenade Stakes, etc are run, Certainly overnight and earlier this morning, it was looking as though all of the ‘fashions’ were going to be ruined by the weather, but the weather improved as the day proceeded. The final day of the carnival will be this Saturday.

Meanwhile, it was the night of our monthly radio Committee meeting, usually last between 90-95 minutes, but tonight seemed to drag on a bit, and for someome who was feeling weary before he got there, one can imagine what 9.45 was starting to feel like. It was however a useful meeting, and including a substantial report on a recent attendance at a major community radio industry conference by a local representative. Generally with community organisations, when you send someone off to a conference of that sort, you don’t expct to get a great deal of feedback [though of course you should, particularly if the organisation is meeting the costs]. This occasion was different, with an excellent report on the four days of the conference submitted by the member who attended. In a preamble to the report, the writer submitted a number of ideas or suggestions which he referred to as ‘valuable takeaways gained from the experience’  – areas where it was considered our station should follow through on. I won’t go into all of those ideas here, but a couple worth pointing out were the need for the station to get closer to it’s neighbour stations in nearby towns, with more collaboration and organised cooperation between us. To this point, not a great deal of initiative has been undertaken in this area, apart from our radio station welcoming two or three presenters from the other areas to actually present programs here, which currently happens. There was also the recognition that the Internet and Community Radio are inexorably linked in this current age, and more advantage and use needs to be made of that fact, and one means of doing that is to attract more of the younger generation to the station – it is that generation which seems to have a more practical ability and knowledge to make use of internet and other modern technological advances, and use this in the presentation and preparation of programs, etc. It was admitted, that in terms of age, there is currently an unintentional bias of presenters and members towards the more ‘mature’ age groups [including myself]! That aspect, and an urgent need to provide for further upgrading of our existing broadcasting technology, should be regarded as priorities for the near future!

Overall, if our people [all volunteers] are prepared to put the effort in, the ‘sky is the limit’ in terms of what we can make of this radio station we all enjoy being a part of. Quite an interesting, if tiring, evening.

It doesn’t take long to almost forget that you have had a holiday, once you get back into the ‘swing’ of one’s normal workday/week. That’s what it felt like anyway, and with the weather the way it is at present, it still feels as though we are back in late Winter/early Spring, with quite a spell of cool weather with daily showers, etc, continung on from last weekend. Perhaps it a case of my feeling the cold a little more than usual after spending a week or so up in Queensland, where the climate is always considerably warmer. Needless to say, it won’t be long before we are complaining that it is too hot, although I did read somewhere recently that we can expect an unusually wet Summer – well, after 12 years of drought, any rain during summer would probably be called wet!!

In all the excitement of the Melbourne Cup yesterday, the Reserve Bank of Australia ambushed everybody with an increase in the interest rates, and almost before the day was out, one of our leading banks [the CBA] has almost doubled the RBA’s increase by raising it’s mortgage rates! As reported in one of this morning’s  papers ‘Under the cover of Melbourne Cup Day, the CBA, which has posted a record $6.1 billion profit, took 90 minutes to lift it’s standard variable rate by 45 basis points – almost double the official rise’ [proposed by the RBA]. During the course of today, most of the other major banks followed suite in one degree or another, while throughout the country, protests from various sectors, including even from the Federal Treasurer and the Commonwealth Government echoed from one end of the nation to the other. At the government level, there are in train proposals to boost competition among the banks.  A couple of interesting comments from the different sectors:

Treasurer Wayne Swan said that ‘This is a cynical cash grab by the Commonwealth [Bank]….It’s little wonder so many Australians are angry with our banks’

Opposition Shadow Treasurer, Joe Hockey was more politically blunt: ‘The banks are treating the Australian people with contempt because the Government is completely insipid and weak in standing up to the banks’ [though I can’t see that previous governments were any different!!].

A Consumer Group spokesman said: “The [CBA] have thumbed their nose at the Government, the Reserve Bank, and consumers to effectively say we are powerful enough to do this”.

And the CBA’s response – ‘even after the rise, the bank had not passed on to customers the full increase in its funding costs since the global financial crisis…We do continue to absorb some of that funding cost increase’  [ doesn’t seemed to have affected profit levels!!].

Australia’s Summer of Cricket: Limited Overs match at MCG today: Sri Lanka: 9/243 defeated Australia: 8/239 [won by 1 wicket]

As mentioned yesterday, a public holiday in Melbourne today – for the running of the 150th Melbourne Cup.  But no sleep -in for your writer –  up at the radio station by 7.15, for what is now the 3rd year in a row – Bill’s Melbourne Cup Preview program!! Why do I do this?  Well, no-one else has shown any initiative to put on a special program for the event, and while I’m no longer a part of the regular sporting panel on the station [Saturday morning’s] I think that a special service of this nature is warranted for our listeners [which is why I generally come in at other times like Christmas morning, when no-one else is interested, or otherwise engaged [I guess it helps when you no longer have young children to attend to at those times!].

Anyway, for such 75 minutes [with another regular program scheduled for 8.30] we talked about today’s 10 race program at Flemington, looked at each of the races, but gave major time and preference to the Cup field of 24 horses. I’m no expert on the individual attributes of every horse running around, so I do depend to some degree on the more professional opinions of the experts – doesn’t everyone! But together with a couple of other station personalities who rang in with their specific selections, we try and give the listeners just another viewpoint or two on which horses we think might be up near the front at the end of the two miles [or 3,200 metres] of the race!!

Anyway, 24 horses in, maybe one scratching of one of the overseas horses – a slight injury was been tested as I write – and I have come up with my predicted top 6 placings – the outstanding favourite [and if he wins, probably the most popular horse in the country] is No. 3: So You Think.  Only doubt – has won everything, but never raced over 3,200!

My top six –  1st: 22: Linton;  2nd: 3: So You Think [trained by the octerian, Bart Cummings, going for his 13th Melbourne Cup win]; 3rd: 1: Shocking [last year’s winner]; 4th: 5: Illustrious Blue;  5th: 12: Harris Tweed; and 6th: 11: Descarado [Caulfield Cup Winner of two weeks ago, and trained by the effervescent Gai Waterhouse]. I shall return later with the outcome!!

I do love watching the horses, but it is always distressing to see one of them fall during a race, as just occurred in Race 3. On this occasion, the horse got up and trotted away, and seems to be okay. Not so lucky the jockey, who apart from now losing his ride in the Melbourne Cup, is on his way to hospital. Was on the track for a long while, conscious, but presumably in a bit of pain, never got up at any stage, and was placed on a stretcher for transfer to an ambulance. One of the less pleasant aspects of horse racing. Blake Shinn was the jockey on Bart Cumming’s second Cup entry ‘Precedence’ – there are still plenty of good jockey’s avalable to take his place, a decision Cummings has to make very soon, as the horse is apparently sometimes difficult to ride.

Meanwhile the day remains coolish, a few showerd before at Flemington, though I’ve not noticed any rain out here in Sunbury. It was reported yesterday that this October past, was the wettest October in Melbourne for around 30 years. Probably not a record that most Victorians would be unhappy about after a decade of drought.

Well, as far as my ‘tips’ were concerned, I didn’t do very well. Won nothing, although of my predicted Top 6 first placings, two of the horses I named made in into the first six, but that’s about all I can say!! As for my daughter  – she has only had two bets on the horses in her life. Last year, she selected 1st and 2nd, and collected over $3,000!!  She has not looked at a horse race or betting slip since, until today, when she had another bet. It’s just not fair  –  you guessed it, Susie picked 1st and 2nd again, and this time, collected a mere $520!!! What am ‘I’ doing wrong?  Good luck to her of course, but I wish some of that luck would rub off on me!

Incidentally the results of the Melbourne Cup for 2010 were: 1st:  Americain.  2nd: Maluckyday.  3rd:  So You Think.  4th: Zipping.  5th: Harris Tweed. 6th: Holberg. And the other four horses I had in my top 6  –  Linton [finished 21st], Shocking [18th], Illustrious Blue [9th] and Descarado [didn’t finish]………………….what a successful afternoon for Bill!!

Went back to the radio station tonight, and didn’t mention horse racing!!!  My Tuesday night program of show & Broadway music, tonight, concentrated on the music and songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber, and also had a 30 minute feature on the singer, Josh Groban. I went to one of his concerts [probably the only one he gave] in Melbourne about three years ago, and was totally knocked out by his peformances. Tonight I played seven songs from the 2nd album he released – back in November, 2003 – called ‘Closer’. Groban apparently believed that this album was a better reflection of him and that his audience would be able to get a better idea of him personally by listening to it. He said “What most people know about me, they know through my music. This time, I’ve tried to open that door as wide as possible. These songs are a giant step closer to who I really am and what my music is all about. Hence the title”. There are some beautiful songs on the album, which if you listen closely to the lyrics, display intense passion and feeling, as though the words Josh Groban is singing, come directly from the heart – song titles such as My Confession, When You Say You Love Me, Never Let Go, She’s Out Of My Life, and Remember When It Rained, for example, almost depict what is to follow through the title alone. On this album, he also sings his version of ‘You Raise Me Up’, and while it’s not the original version, I much prefer to here Groban sing it.

I guess we can blame the public holiday, and the fact that us radio presenters are all volunteers, but sometimes I think the responsibilities that come with undertaking such a role are taken very lightly by some of my fellow broadcasters. With that in mind, it annoyed me a little tonight, that the presenters who were meant to be on air before and after myself, did not turn up. In fact, I had to use a bit of restraint, when the chap who was to follow me, rang me up to say he was not coming in, and then casually suggested that not doing so didn’t really matter, it was just a bit of fun anyway!!!  That kind of slack attitude really ‘gets up my nose’, and I think that without actually saying so, I probably made that point this evening!

I left the office 4 weeks ago, leaving behind a ‘clean desk’, and not surprisingly returned to the opposite. Of course, not unexpected, so it was no great shock. But the place was empty – no other staff [there are only three of us!!] on duty, something to do with tomorrow’s public holiday for the Melbourne Cup!! Yes, here in Melbourne, we are granted an official public holiday for a horse race!! Not applicable outside of the city, rather an unusual circumstance.  The other ‘warm’ welcome I received this morning – threw the switch to turn on one set of lights, and ‘whoof’ they all went out in the building! A visit from an electrician later in the day, discovered a fault in the particular light above my desk!  Could hasve been worse I guess!

Actually the first Tuesday of every November has two significant events that occur. As already mentioned, the Cup, and it is also the day of the month when the Reserve Bank of Australia [RBA] meets to decide whether there will be an increase, decrease, or no change in the current level of interest rates. So for most Australians, it is often a day when their pockets become empty, either from the bookmakers, or from the banks [when they automatically increase any rates that the RBA has recommended]. The ‘betting’ on the interest rate rise is generally of a low key, and I’m getting the feeling that ‘some’ increase is likely tomorrow. I wonder if we will hear before or after the Cup? Meanwhile, literally billions of dollars can be expected to be bet on the Cup, and for many Australians it is the only day of the year when they actually gamble any money on a horse race – this particular horse race!

The Melbourne Cup is run at the Flemington race course here in inner Melbourne, located on the banks of the Yarra River, a few kilometres west of the CBD. It’s the culmination, though not the final day, of the Spring Racing Carnival, which as we saw on Saturday, can be very quickly ‘disrupted’ by the vagaries of Melbourne’s weather. However, while more showers are predicted off and on for the rest of this week, I think that the heavy rainfall we experienced over the weekend, and in particular on Saturday, is behind us for the present, and while the track will probably be heavy tomorrow, it won’t be as bad as the weekend impressions were.  The race itself has provision for 24 starters, although there is usually one or more scratchings for various reasons that occur before the race commences. Of course, everyone hopes that will not happen – apart from the horse connections, all of us who are involved in workplace & other Cup sweeps certainly don’t want to see any horses missing, particularly if it is the horse we have drawn in the sweep!!!

The Melbourne Cup distance is 3,200 metres, the longest distance that horses in Australia run, over the flat [some jumping races, where they still exist, are longer], and it is an Open Handicap, for which of course, the final 24 accepted starters have had to qualify. I always get a bit annoyed at the number of overseas horses that get accepted, and subsequently prevent Australian based horses from getting into the field, even though their form may be almost as acceptable. This year, about a third of the field are entries from overseas!  The Prizemoney is $A6 million, of which the connections, etc, of the winning horse will collect $3,600,000 plus $75,000 worth of trophies!

Of the 24 starters, a horse named ‘So You Think’ looks as though it will start as favourite [No. 3] – anyone who saw that horse win in the rain last Saturday, would have to have been impressed at the dominant manner in which is simply strode away from the opposition in that last 200 metres or so – it was beautiful to watch, and hard to ignore when trying to select the winner of the Cup. I shall return a little later [or in the morning]  with my views on which horses will finish in the top 5/6 horses, but at this point in time, I’m going for a real lightweight down the bottom of the list [No. 22] named Linton. Described as being perhaps the wildcard in the field by one expert, it is a very lightly raced horse, which is open to plenty of improvement, and it’s suggested that the distance will suit the horse just nicely!  And with ‘So You Think’  –  currently Australia’s premier weight for age performer – but  – he has not raced over 3,200 metres, and this is his biggest test. Some say the horse is so good, so strong, that it wiull win anyway!!  A dangerous claim to make about a racehorse!

Yes, it’s being raining for nearly 20 hours now, a lot of water on the roads, and hopefully, plenty getting into the dams and reservoirs, we need it all. Just a pity for all the weekend sporting events, and outdoor cultural & community activities which have been disrupted this weekend. It’s amazing how quite often, these rainy periods occur over the weekend!!

I’m not complaining though, back to work tomorrow, after a month off, and I’m quite happy to have an excuse not to be able to get out into the garden, go for a walk [though I should do that], but preferably relax inside with a book or two and some great music. I have actually just spent two hours listening to some wonderful music –  my normal Sunday morning begins with an early start of at the community radio station here in town, where I play for those listeners who care to tune in of a Sunday morning, a sewlection of strictly classical music – currently the only program of tht genre of music you will find on our station! Now while as the years pass, I’m finding it more and more difficult to be up for a 7am show on a Sunday, the enjoyment and pleasure I get from sharing one form of my music loves, quickly negates any feelings of not really wanting to bother. Those pleasures are accentuated, by the occasional early morning phone call from a listener, such as this morning’s caller – he’d been out of the countr for 6 months, and was apparently pleased to return and find Bill was still playing his classical music!!

Each Sunday, amongst other selections [including a ‘Mozart corner’, and a ‘Four Seasons’ selection], I include a major work of music by my ‘composer of the week’. This morning, we travelled to the rich selection of  composers from the United States, one Amy Beach [1867-1944], who was the first American woman to succeed as a composer of large-scale musical works.  She was born in an era when society expected women to marry and stay at home, and not have professional careers. But Amy would have none of that, and against opposition from family and society, became a concert pianist, and later, the USA’s first successful composer of major concert works. One such work was her ‘Gaelic’ Symphony – or Symphomy in E Minor, Op. 32, which she wrote between 1894-1896, and ironically, was first performed almost to the day – 30th October 1896 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra – appropriate as the score as actually dedicated to the then Director of that Orchestra. This morning’s playing was a more recent performance by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kenneth Schermerhorn, and was a Naxos ‘American Classics’ recording performed in 2002. Probably generally unknown to most music enthusiasts, it is performed in four movements, and makes use of four traditional Irish tunes in addition to original themes in the same idiom and spirit.  Music lovers who perhaps are familiar with some symphony music would generally ‘not’ come across composers such as Amy Beach, with her music generally played only on the dedicated ‘classic music’ radio stations. I like to be different.

Anyway, with my radio and shopping comitments attended to for the morning, I intend now to basically relax for the rest of the day. Reading an interesting book by a Burmese girl at present, and that is one of the things  I shall now turn to!!

Incidentally, I have an early ‘tip’ for next Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup [horse racing], now that the final field of 24 horses has been decided –  I may change my ‘final’ selection before then, but certainly expect No. 22 – Linton –  to put up a good show. Current return from a standard bet is $21.00.  Get on him!!

Meanwhile, the Australian ‘home’ international cricket season got under way today –  over in Perth,  an International Twenty/20 match between Australia and Sri Lanka –  Australia’s Summer of Cricket: Sri Lanka 3/135 defeated Australia 8/133 [visitors won by 7 wickets with 21 balls remaining].