Wednesday, January 8th

It's our Wedding Anniversary today - 54 years since we walked down the aisle of St Alban's Church in Corrimal in front of family and friends.  As they say in the classics, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then.  (More details in my memoir 'Never Lost.')

I wondered just how common it is for people to reach their 54th anniversary and found there is all sorts of information on the Internet, but it depends what question you ask.  For example, Marilyn and I are members of an exclusive group of 6% or just one more pair in a mob of 50%.

I though I would rather be in the 6%, and found that that ratio applied to the question 'how many married people have been together more than 50 years?  But of course, in that situation, we're being compared with people who've been married for 49 years, those who've been married 1 day, and everyone in-between.  In fact, 6% seems quite a lot.

In the other scenario, the question is, 'how many people who married in 1966 are still married?' And the perhaps surprising answer is 49.8%.  All the other are divorced, separated, widowed or dead!  All things being equal, I think I'll stick with the second scenario.

There's probably a generational factor at work here.  Looking at our cohort of friends who married at around the same time as we did, we can think of just three couples who eventually split.  We're told now that, today, 1 in 3 marriages end in divorce, even though people stay together for around 12 years before ending it.  Our generation can certainly beat that:  maybe 1 in 10 failed, although who can tell what's around the corner.

Sunday, January 5th (2)

Jamie and Nera flew off to the Philippines on Christmas Eve to attend her youngest sister's wedding.  Kisia Mae in on the local council of their area, so is something of a celebrity.  The wedding was a grand affair and attracted much attention, even getting a mention on the Philippines equivalent of Good Morning Australia.

Nera will stay there until later in the month but Jamie has already come back.  He is enjoying his new job and doesn't want to adversely affect his clients.  Marilyn and I have moved in to their house in Hadspen to keep Jamie company and to enjoy the extra space, and their new 75 inch TV set!  There are a few movies we want to see and the giant screen is almost like being at the movies - without the smell of popcorn.

We had a small fire opposite our house at Dilston the other evening.  There were a couple of fire trucks from the local brigade there, and a helicopter dropped a couple of buckets of seawater on it, so it didn't come to much.  However, there was a note in our letterbox to alert us to the fact that this fire and a couple more had been started by 'fire-bugs'.  I can't get my head around what would possess someone to put property and lives at risk by starting a fire, and I can't imagine what sentence would be appropriate if and when they are caught.

Sunday, January 5th

I've been very remiss with this blog for the past few weeks, instead concentrating on my new venture JCpoetryblog.blogspot.com, where I am gathering some of the poems I've encountered over the years.  However, there's so much happening in the world at the moment, I need to keep this platform active as well.

Watching our hapless Prime Minister flailing around trying to give the impression of being a leader is a tragedy in itself, and yet our focus has to be on the real tragedy affecting the lives of other citizens of Australia, and the countless animals who need our protection.  This is not something we will simply endure for a few weeks and then get on with our lives.  Serious decisions need to be made about preparing Australia for a hotter, drier future and still we have a bunch of overpaid, barely literate MPs denying there's a problem.

And at the same time, there's another failed PM touring the world on the strength of his $300 000 pa pension, spouting the nonsense about a 'climate cult'.  Open your eyes, Tony, the times are a-changin'.

Wednesday, December 18

Our family received an unexpected honour today.  Giant Steps School has chosen Christie as the name of one of its new houses.  In the past year or so the school has been able to appoint a Student Representative Council and it is this body which made the decision to choose the names of families who have made an important contribution to the development of the organisation.

It's a significant honour and we feel suitably humble.  The motto of Christie House is 'Dare to be Different'.

Friday, December 13th

I notice that authorities are predicting we still have months of the bushfire season to endure and that various brigades are having to crowd-fund to raise money for their basic equipment, because governments are too mean to provide appropriately.  What sort of society are we, that cuts funding to an essential service manned by volunteers, many of whom are losing pay when they take time off from their work to carry out this public service?

I heard the story this week of the tiny Kimberley Fire Brigade in Tasmania who decided they needed to do something to replenish their tool kit; they were down to just one screwdriver!   Someone donated a parcel of chocolate which they decided to raffle.  The Deloraine Rotary Club heard about this and offered to help out, sitting at Woolies to sell tickets.  They made about $1500 and, with a bit extra from the Rotary Club, it's a good result.

The result is that the whole gang of volunteer firies from Kimberley are planning to visit Bunnings this Saturday to spend their windfall.  They can probably afford a whole screwdriver set.

Wednesday, December 11

It was another chaotic trip through Sydney airport yesterday.  I don't know what Virgin passengers have to endure but Jetstar give the impression they are trained by the Spanish Inquisition.  1 hour and 20 minutes I stood in line just to hand my suitcase to a surly check-in chick (is that how her job is described?).  Last time we were held up, they blamed it on a computer glitch; this time, they blamed the smoke from the bushfires, causing an alarm to go off in the baggage conveyor belt.  What rubbish! There are 12 check-in gates and there were never more than 4 staff members on duty.  

I felt for the family groups and for the non-English speaking passengers who had no idea what was going on.  Many of them would have flown in from Singapore or Tokyo: real airports who know what they are doing.  Sydney Airport is an embarrassment!

Tuesday, December 10

We've been in NSW for a couple of weeks, spending time with Robyn at Lake Illawarra, and weekends with Anne and Alan at Turramurra.  Marilyn likes to be in Sydney at this time of the year when her nieces and nephews are involved in various end-of-year activities. 

Apart from that, we sat around a lot chatting, haunted various shopping centres and travelled on public transport.  We had hope to be among the first to travel on the new light rail service from Circular Quay to Randwick but the starting date has been pushed up to December 14th so had to be content with a trip in the new Mwpetro line between Chatswood and Epping.  We were unsure how we felt about a driverless train but it was an interesting journey, and the up-graded stations at Chatswood and Eeping were impressive.

From Epping, we continued on to Central on the tired old line through Strathfield and we saw how much needs to be done to drag Sydney Rail into the 21st century.