Monday, May 1 (2)

Jamie has been waiting on this review of his latest album. It's out today and he says he is 'Quite pleased.'

JJ CHRISTIE: FRESH NEW IDEA
APRIL 30, 2017 | TRAVIEYAK
If you haven’t heard of JJ Christie, you need to start paying attention, because he’s been doing some great work in the synthwave community. When he’s not helping to bring together a variety of artists, under the Filtersweep Collective, he’s publishing his own work such as the newly released “Fresh New Idea” which is a great collection of synthpop tunes from the land down under.

Preceding the release with a newsletter campaign, which contained backstory and context for the album, it was a great way to get familiarized with the concept and design that went into the music. I always appreciate when this is done.

For example, with the first track entitled “7th Heaven (Desolation Mix),” it was interesting to learn that it was originally written in 1994, on a Korg Wavestation EX, and was remixed and remastered for this release. The track itself is great, having an otherworldly feel to it, like I’m spiralling through space and time.

Speaking of time travel, the next song “Pay Per View” feels like being transported back to the actual 1980s, with music and lyrics that reminded me of the New Wave movement. In fact, I would dare say that the majority of the album feels this way, which isn’t a bad thing nor is it honestly all that surprisingly considering that JJ Christie has been in the game longer than most in the synthwave community in terms of his overall music producing career.

That said, he is quite versatile, and again while most of the album carries with it that vocalized infused new wave sound, there are some darker elements to also be found in the last track on the album. “The Night (Resolution Mix)” is a nice bookend to the first track, as they have a similar otherworldly feel, but the difference between them is not unlike that of the light side vs. the dark side.

Overall, this is a fantastic release, and implore you to lend your support!

Monday, May 1

It's May 1, I've woken early so it's a good time for reflection. There's nothing organised for today, which is not unusual so I'll probably have a walk, read my book and try not to switch on the TV

My head is full of memories of my life to date. Coming from war-depressed Scotland to this South Pacific paradise was an enormous piece of luck. My childhood was idyllic, with long summer days and extraordinary freedom which today's kids could never imagine. Our generation has experienced some of the most exciting advances in recorded history.

I was born during the Second World War and have seen the advent of television, humans in space, computers, and so on. We bought our first house for the equivalent of two years' salary. We can fly to the other side of the world for less than the average weekly wage.

In our 51 years of marriage, we have had challenging careers, lived in interesting places, made a contribution to society, and made a difference. We've seen a good bit of the world and met very interesting people. We haven't amassed much wealth along the way, but that was never a priority in our master plan.

Now we have to deal with the challenge of building a life which has to accommodate changing health issues and fewer activities to fill our day. It seems our life could become a never-ending parade of doctor's appointments, Physio check-ups, specialist referrals, optometrists, podiatrists, dentists ....

Our attentive government adds to the excitement by sending out Bowel Scan Kits to help fill in the hours with the challenge of collecting and sending off a sample for someone to peruse. I don't know what level of positive returns is expected but the poor souls who draw the short straw are in for a round of GP appointments, hospital procedures and intense conversations with well-meaning medicos.

Another government program offers a Medication Review. Your friendly local pharmacist will come to your home to review your medication to ensure there are no conflicts. Is it not the responsibility of the GP to make sure he/she doesn't prescribe something which will kill you? It looks like just another way to keep the income levels of medical professionals at a reasonable level.

Another thing about retirement is that it gives you too much time to listen to people like our Treasurer waffling on about the money being spent on welfare being 'bad'. Oh, I know he can't talk in complicated economic terms but surely the people who bother to listen to him could be treated with a little more respect. We're not children who need one-syllable explanations. Of course, it may be that he doesn't understand the economic terms himself.

In short, after an exciting and event-filled life, the twilight years are something of a disappointment. Is this how the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper?

Sunday, April 30

Oh, to be in Nowra this weekend for the Shoalhaven Ukulele Festival, with a guaranteed 10 acts playing each day. The organisers claim that there is a ukulele resurgence in Australia with more and more taking up the instrument each year. It's even being claimed that many schools are dropping the recorder in favour of the uke on the basis that you can't sing and play a recorder at the same time. Sounds reasonable!

One of our favourite acts we've seen on cruise ships is Trevor Knight who is a ukulele virtuoso, although he plays guitar as well. I think he lives in Bulahdelah and breeds horses. His bio lists that he holds the world record for the 250Km Endurance Ride (the horse's name is not recorded) and has performed for the Queen. It's also not recorded whether the Queen had any requests for Trevor (apart from 'Please stop playing). My money would be on Pearly Shells.

Some of Trevor's best stuff is in his John Denver Tribute Show but he is doing a Beatles Tribute at the Waukivory Hall on June 10th. I hope he uses a guitar for that; I can't imagine Michelle on the ukulele.

Saturday, April 29

It's time for my regular eye check-up which comes around more regularly now because I have diabetes. It's a nuisance but, unfortunately, part of life at my age. I remember many years ago, the optometrist pointed out to me that I had a mark on the retina which he suggested was caused by a toxoplasmosis infection which I caught from one of our cats. It seems that the toxoplasmosis parasite sexually reproduces only in cats but can infect other warm-blooded mammals. No doubt, the problem was that one of my jobs was to clean the litter tray. Who would have thought that there would be consequences.

Probably about a quarter of all Australians carry this infection with no ill effects. However, now I hear that toxoplasmosis is a much more sinister creature than first thought. On QI last night, there was a reference to research which showed that toxoplasmosis in mice caused the mice to lose their fear of cats by reducing their ability to react to the smell. Ergo, they were more likely to be caught by cats and eaten, which gave the toxaplosmis access to their preferred host.

The real worry is that the research suggests that taxoplasmosis might have a similar effect on humans. Is it possible that we might find our responses to the fear instinct affected so that we could have a car accident, for example, which increases the possibility that we might be eaten by a cat? Just one more thing to worry about!

Thursday, April 27(2)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/27/australians-are-among-the-luckiest-people-on-earth-what-are-we-so-angry-about?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I'm trying something new: downloading a newspaper article to see if I can share it. Here's hoping!

Thursday, April 27

After every Anzac Day it seems we have another call to change our National Anthem. I remember I commented in June last year about Bob Ellis's call for a change.

Our national anthem, he says ..... 'makes us feel, however slightly, like dickheads. Though 'I Am, You Are, We Are Australians' brings us to tears of pride, especially when sung by children, 'Advance Australia Fair' makes us cringe. And when we stand up for it, we are usually, inwardly, lying.
Every one of the first six lines rings false. We are not young. We are not free. Our soil is not golden. Wealth does not come from toil here, but from birth or short-selling or real estate. And though we are 'girt by sea' so are all islands, and we are an island, and this is scarcely worth noting. And our land does not 'abound with precious gifts', it is two-thirds desert. Unless you count uranium I suppose, and the immensity of coal that is currently choking the planet, it does not abound, it is a desert waste.

The other side of politics is joining the push now with a government member from the Gold Coast asking for some changes. He wants the words to better reflect Australian values (I wonder what inspired that thought) and maybe include 'larrikin'. Is there a rhyme for that?

Caroline Overington of The Australian, not known for her progressive views, makes the good point that we are certainly not young; indeed we live in an ancient land. A crowd called Sovereign Union I stumbled across on the internet claims the sentiments of Advance Australia Fair came straight out of the White Australia Policy. After all, the now-ignored second verse started: When gallant Cook from Albion sailed ... As if that was the beginning .

i notice one commentator reminding us that the current National Anthem was voted for. Of course, we also voted for Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott and look where that got us.

We sang three anthems at Deloraine on Anzac Day: the Australian, the New Zealand and the British, and it was the New Zealand one which stirred the most. But I must confess to a catch in my throat when I hear Flower of Scotland.

Oh Flower Of Scotland,
When will we see, your like again
That fought and died for
Yer wee bit hill and glen
And stood against him
Proud Edward's army
And sent him homeward
Tae think again.

Wednesday, April 26

There's a whiff of Sweden about our house this week.. Marilyn and I are both reading books by Camilla Lackberg, a Swedish author, and we're watching Blue Eyes on TV, a drama about the rise of right-wing, Neo-Nazi organisations in that country.

For a long time, I've been keen on Scandinavian crime series, from Wallander to Stieg Larsson's Milennium trilogy and I have fourteen different Scandinavian authors in my collection. That doesn't include David Guterson who looks as if he should belong in that group.

I'm amazed at how many TV series are available and a quick scout of SBS on Demand gives me access to at least fourteen. I have another fourteen sourced from other places, and another dozen I have yet to find.

Scandi-noir seems to be the next big thing. More likely, it was the last big thing a few years back and I'm just catching up.

Tuesday, April 25

It was raining when we got up this morning but I still wandered down to the local cenotaph for the Anzac Service at 11 o'clock. The weather didn't deter anyone and the usual crowd gathered around to pay their respects. The Guest Speaker this year was an old gentleman who came to the district in 1949, so has a good claim to be a local. He talked about his father and uncle who served in the army and other local identities who had been in the forces. As he mentioned the names, we realised that the same names appeared on the cenotaph, commemorating members of those same families who hadn't returned.

Other members of those families still live in the area, so the ghosts of those diggers are never far away.

On this day last year, Marilyn and I were on the Dawn Princess anchored in Milne Bay and taking part in another Anzac Service, which we shared with a couple of thousand other passengers and several hundred ex-servicemen and women. I've attached a photo we had taken on that cruise with a couple from Brisbane we met. He was ex-navy and did his service in Vietnam.

Monday, April 24 (2)

I asked Jamie to write a little bit about what he and Nera are doing, and here it is, along with a couple of links to reviews of his music.

So things have been extremely busy in our lives. The last 12 months have been a year of getting things in place for the future, and things are now falling into place.
Nera and I have moved back to Dilston, and have the property looking great.

Nera has completed her registration as a Registered Nurse to work in Australia, and has started work at the Deloraine Medical Practice.

I have been working on my music, and have been having some totally unexpected success. My style is very much determined by my teen years throughout the 80's and it has enjoyed a resurgence in the form of retropop, synthpop or synthwave genre's of electronica.

I have a new album coming out on the first of May, and the amount of publicity involving interviews, networking and engaging with fans and followers is a full time job. I achieved my lifetime goal of getting a recording contract and have appeared on a number of compilations in these styles. Pair this with more and more freelance work in my studio, both Nera and I find ourselves with little spare time.

If you are interested you can find my music at https://jjchristie.bandcamp.com or iTunes.

https://t.co/zq5JFNSPuk
https://echosynthetic.com/2017/03/23/coming-soon-jj-christie-fresh-new-idea-ep/

Monday, April 24

The brain is a strange mechanism and beavers away even when we are asleep. There's a famous story told about Samuel Taylor Coleridge who fell asleep after indulging in some opium and woke up with a vision of Xanadu, the capital city of Kublai Khan, and between 200 and 300 lines of poetry. He feverishly started to write them down but, before he finished, he was interrupted by a knock at the door. The moral of the story is to keep a notebook by your bed for the times when your brain throws up a great idea.

A website called dreamessentials.com will provide you with an illuminated notebook called a Nite Note so you can scribble down your thoughts without disturbing your partner.

I woke up this morning with my own revelation in my head. It's not Kublai Khan; it's not even poetry, but there's a certain elegance to the story. See what you think.

A group of soldiers is in a forest in Czechoslovakia, talking about one of their number who is going off to become an academic. One of them says, "It's one of our RIGHTS to be able to go to university."

The second says, "Everybody should do some study. It's one of the RITES of passage."

Another one says, "It's a good thing he WRITES well."

And the fourth one says, "As an academic, he'll be useless with his hands so will have to make friends with WHEEL-WRIGHTS and SHIP-WRIGHTS and so on."

Pathetic, isn't it, that my brain wastes all that valuable time with such rubbish.

Saturday, April 22 (3)

Sometimes a phrase in a book stops me in my tracks. Today, I read ' I'm not comfortable with belief ... It's too lazy.' That's not something I've ever thought about but it certainly suggests some implications.

Neuro-scientists have been doing a great deal of work in this area and have come up with the understanding that the default position of the human brain is to believe what it sees or hears. It takes a lot less energy to accept something than to disbelieve it and the brain will not expend any more effort than it has to.
Since the brain tends to accept ideas rather than reject them, those raised in cultures that promote religious indoctrination of children at a very early age—long before they are taught science, if taught science at all—are more susceptible to holding fundamentalist beliefs later in life. The Jesuits are famous for saying, Give me a child before he is seven ...'

And it's why we need to start teaching critical thinking at an early age, and why teaching STEM subjects is so vital. And why the teaching of the pseudo-science, Creation Theory is a travesty of education. You might as well have Tooth Fairy Science or the Science of the Santa Claus Tradition.

We're too polite and respectful today and it will eventually bury us. We should be calling out the Stone Age beliefs of major religions, including Islam and Christianity. It's appalling that our whole future is put at risk by madmen who base their teaching on 1st century writings, and it's disgraceful that, in one of the world's most advanced technologies, the United States, Creation Science is given equal weight to Evolution as an explanation of how the world is developing. And it is ridiculous that Australian tax-payer dollars help to support schools which promote teachings which are little changed from the dark ages.

And, sadly, scientists are marching today to protest cuts to their funding, while every tinpot pseudo 'church' is entitled to tax-free status.

Saturday, April 22 (2)

It seems the Government is determined to go ahead with the re-location of the Pesticides and Vet. Medicines Authority to Armidale notwithstanding the almost universal condemnation of the idea from farmers, other users of their services and the people who work in the organisation. On the latest figures, only 10 to 15% of the current scientists who work there will make the move. How can the. government justify the loss of this amount of expertise because of one questionable decision?

This decision was no more than a pork-barrelling exercise by Barnaby Joyce worried about losing his seat to a resurgent Tony Windsor. All the rest is collateral damage. And the cost of $25million for the move is just petty cash.

However, the government must be experiencing the fallout from what is being said by the staff, commenting at social occasions and on social media. To combat this, they have issued suggestions as to what people should say when thy are quizzed. One piece of BBQ banter includes: “It’s no secret that the agency is changing – and that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.”

Employees unsure if they will make the move are advised to say, "I’m listening to what our executive have to say about the transition, but for the moment I’m getting on with the job." You couldn't make it up.

It's such a joy watching this mob at work, like an episode of Carry On Governing, with Sid James as Barnaby Joyce.

Saturday, April 22

For a change, Instead of my own babbling, I am sharing the thoughts of the Rev. Graham Long of the Wayside Chapel.

"ANZAC Day absorbs me in all kinds of emotional conflict. I read recently of a fourteen-year-old soldier killed on Lone Pine and I was left wondering if he’d ever heard of Turkey, or if he wondered why a boy from Australia would seek to defend the British Empire by shooting Turkish people who had attacked no-one. I can’t bear any talk of “The glorious dead” and yet when I hear, “Lest we forget”, my soul is arrested into stunned silence. Unless we remember, an appetite for war can grow like a cancer that kills without any warning symptoms. It worries me that the two men with the worst haircuts in the world could easily bring on a conflict that would send young Australians off to unimaginable deaths, while they sing bright songs and naively worry that “all the fighting might be over before they even get to the battlefield”. How easily we are whipped up by our leaders into attitudes of ‘us and them’ and we forget that a dead German, a dead Turk, and dead Vietnamese, a dead Afghani, a dead Iraqi, a dead Korean, is just as tragic as a dead Australian. Lest we forget."

I was invited, in 2001, to give the Anzac Day address at the Cenotaph in Deloraine. It was a great honour and I had to think long and hard how to express what I felt: pointing to the futility of war without denigrating the sacrifice of those who served. I used Eric Bogle's song, The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, as the theme. Here, 16 years later, war is still futile but we are being led by two megalomaniacs into another conflict which can only have devastating consequences .

Stop the world, I want to get off!

Thursday, April 20

Another day: another distraction. While one headline points out another 48 millionaires paid NO tax in the past financial year, the PM is up bright and early spouting a new Citizenship Test. How can we take this man seriously?

The 48 millionaires declared incomes averaging $2.64 million, with the largest deduction being 'cost of managing tax affairs', averaging $1.06 million. These leeches (leaners?) didn't even pay the Medicare Levy. Donald Trump would say they are 'smart'; I suggest they are crooks. However, it seems that avoiding your obligations is an accepted Australian value.

Back to the Citizenship Test. How can extending the waiting time make us a safer or a more coherent society? Surely if an immigrant is keen to make a commitment to his/her new country, we should encourage that as much as we can. I've been to many Citizenship ceremonies and I am always touched by the genuine pride and delight shown by those taking the big step.

The Department of Immigrations's Statement on Australian Values says:

Australian society values respect for the freedom and dignity of the individual, freedom of religion, commitment to the rule of law, Parliamentary democracy, equality of men and women and a spirit of egalitarianism that embraces mutual respect, tolerance, fair play and compassion for those in need and pursuit of the public good
Australian society values equality of opportunity for individuals, regardless of their race, religion or ethnic background; the English language, as the national language, is an important unifying element of Australian society.

Do they intend to change this as well? Maybe the Minister for Immigration is embarrassed by the words 'compassion for those in need? If not, he certainly should be.

Wednesday, April 19 (2)

I'm watching Malcolm Turnbull talk to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and I'm impressed with his words. He talks about how Australia has been looked after for tens of thousands of years by the first Australians. He talks about the contribution of the migrants who have boosted our population, and how 40% of people in Sydney were born overseas.

And yet, I'm suspicious of his back-message. He says our immigration program is a recruitment program and that Peter Dutton is our chief recruiter. Huh? He talks about being ever-vigilant about keeping out the people we don't invite here. Fair enough, but at what cost? Surely, an innovative Prime Minister could come up with a program which could give desperate refugees some hope.

He's only been talking for a few minutes and he's already attacking the ALP. This is something else we don't like about politicians: the obsession with denigrating the opposition. Only the current government can improve our lives; the job of the Opposition is only to keep them honest. Unfortunately, the business of government seems to be to flounder around doing nothing and distract the populace by throwing attention on something the previous government did or did not do years ago.

And what pushed 457 visas to the top of the political agenda? When will attention be focused on things that matter instead of peripheral issues. Have politicians no shame? If they had any integrity, they would accept that they were not earning their salaries and stand aside for someone who has the strength of character to tackle the real issues facing Australia

Wednesday, April 19

It was our Probus meeting yesterday which is always enjoyable. I've taken on the role of Stand-in Secretary as the real Secretary is ill so there was a bit of preparation for me before the meeting.

One other task I have is to drive to Westbury, about 15 minutes away, to pick up one of our older members. Chas is 88 and was moved into an Aged Care unit in Westbury last year when he could no longer look after himself in his own home. I'm not sure of the reasoning as the move has isolated him from his old friends and neighbours, and he still has to do all his shopping, cooking and so on.

I get the impression that I'm the only person he sees in the average month so he gabbles on from the minute I pick him up. On the trip to Deloraine, the familiar sites trigger memories and he makes the same comments every time: I used to wash the windows in that house, that's a trig station on that hill, I was a surveyor during the war, we used to send weather information to Western Junction every morning, I helped to build that little barn, and so on.

It's a bugger getting old, especially when other people feel they can make decisions for you. Chas has never married so he only has his elderly cat and dog for company. Everybody knows him in Deloraine but, in Westbury, he's that odd bloke who mutters to himself and is best avoided. There are terrible sins committed in the name of social welfare.

Monday, April 17

The string across the ABC screen this morning read "Abbot claims Australians are sick of politicians and Government can do better". Well, duh! Does he think this is something we haven't realised? Is he now going to say that he, personally is almost the epitome of what we dislike about politicians or, as usual, is it all the fault of someone else?

What we don't like about politicians is that they say one thing and do another, they are driven by ideology rather than by the welfare of the people, their decisions benefit one group of people at the expense of the majority, and they manipulate their expenses to line their own pockets. Tony Abbott has been tagged our most successful Leader of the Opposition. He achieved that title by being negative, unco-operative, sexist, racist and by playing on the worst instincts of the voters.

Add to to that list disloyalty to his own leader and it's clear that the best gift Tony Abbott could present to the Australian people would be to resign.

Sunday, April 16

We've been watching The Fall, a three-part series set in Northern Ireland. It's an enthralling program, spoiled for me by the performance of the headline actress, Gillian Anderson. I didn't like her in X-Files either but in this show she is even worse. She plays the Senior Police Officer as a pseudo sex object with bleached blonde hair, surly pout, long intense gazes, a breathless way of delivering dialogue and a taste for younger men. Helen Mirren is believable as a female detective; Gillian Anderson is not!

Not withstanding the execrable Ms Anderson, the rest of the show has some outstanding moments. The pure evil of the serial killer is palpable. The young girl who plays his daughter is fantastic. And there is a scene in a hospital emergency room which is extraordinary.

This show is an outstanding piece of TV drama. We're into the final series at the moment and will be disappointed when it ends, and we hope Ms Anderson doesn't end up as the hero.

Saturday, April 15

Nera's birthday today and we celebrated by having breakfast at the Deloraine Deli, and cutting the birthday/Easter cake we won at the Church Fete.

The news this weekend is full of the exciting news that Our Donald has
dropped the world's biggest bomb on some hapless cave-dwellers in the Middle East. I'm sure the Freudians are rubbing their hands with glee with all the sexual overtones in Donald's choice of weapon. I can't get the tune of Andy Stewart's 'Donald, Where's Yir Troosers?' out of my head.

The bomb is apparently called MOAB. It's launched from the belly of an aircraft and slides out on a heavy metal sled. When it leaves the 'plane, the bomb falls away from the sled which is lowered to the ground on a parachute. Just as well, a heavy steel object like that could do some damage if it hit somebody on the ground.

Friday, April 14

The weather is beautiful this morning and it's a public holiday. In the old days, when I was gainfully employed, this would have been a cause for celebration but every day is a holiday now that I'm retired. On TV this morning I caught a glimpse of the front page of the NT Times with the headline: 'WORK IS FOR JERKS'. If I heard correctly, the Northern Territory will celebrate eight public holidays before August. That's getting the work/life balance right.

Marilyn had her follow-up appointment with her cardiologist yesterday and all went well. He asked her whether anything had changed and she commented that she puffed a little when she walked up hills. "I can fix that," he said, and made an adjustment to the settings on her pacemaker.

Is is it really as easy as that? I have a few things regarding my health I'm not happy about and I'm disappointed there's no dial I can twist to make them better. In the meantime, I seem to be married to the Bionic Woman.

Wednesday, April 12

We farewelled a long-term employee of Giant Steps this morning. David was brought in to control the school's finances in the very early days of its existence, when every penny was a prisoner, and the financial excesses of the Board of Management were putting the future of the school in jeopardy.

I inherited David when I took over the school in the year 2000 and it's fair to say that, without him, I would have been unemployed not long after because the doors would have been closed. In the 20-odd years he was on the staff, he never mixed with other employees and maintained a low-key, shadowy existence. As Neil Diamond might have said, he was a Solitary Man.

It fell on me to give the farewell speech, as one dinosaur to another. As I said, even dinosaurs had their day, being perfectly adapted to the times in which they lived. In its early days, Giant Steps needed a parsimonious, penny-pinching, pedantic, particular person, and that was David.

It was clear he was very reluctant to be there, refusing a cup of coffee and a cake. As he said, he only wanted to shake our hand and go out the door. But, he agreed to play the game. The four women present would have chatted all day, but the three men had varying levels of tolerance. For us, it was a duty; for the women, it was a pleasure.

Monday, April 10

We put Brian and Margaret on their plane to Melbourne this morning so I was at a bit of a loose end as to what to do with the rest of the day. A new cartoon from First Dog on the Moon gave me lots to think about.

It seems that, if they wanted to, spiders could eat every human in the world in less than a year. Of course, they won't because they're not organised enough. "When it comes to getting it together, spiders are even worse than the Left. They don't have unions, or food co-operatives, or groups like Rotary or Toastmasters." Still, there are 131 spiders to every square metre of the earth so there's at least one near you now.

Of course, being First Dog on the Moon, they became even sillier and suggested we beware of the Poolnoodle Tarantula, which can stay under water for hours while articulating arguments for amendments to 18c.

It's all too much for a Monday morning.

Sunday, April 9

Horrible weather today. There was thunder and lightning overnight and heavy rain this morning so we decided it was not a good idea to venture too far from home. Brian had an idea he would like to see a Museum and , luckily, we have a nice little Folk Museum in the town, attached to the Yarns Exhibition.

Yarns was a community project to produce four large silk panels depicting the landscape of Deloraine. It has its own display space and an AV presentation to show it off. Not a bad way to fill in an hour or two.

The afternoon was quiet and we ended up at the Empire Hotel for dinner.

Tomorrow, Brian and Margaret head off on the next leg of their journey. It's been a delight to see them again.

Saturday, April 8 (2)

Another busy day, today! We planned to drive to Ulverstone to check out the beautiful beaches along Bass Strait. It was around lunchtime when we arrived and we found a restaurant called Pedros on the waterfront. What a find! The food was fine but the real treasure was the waitress. She had just the right amount of charm and banter to make us feel welcome and we would have forgiven any mishaps with the food rather than see her upset.

It turned out she was a student of Neuro-psychology, just finishing her dissertation after 8 years of research. Her topic is the effect of diazepam on the biota of the lower gut, in relation to pregnant women (or something similar). So the restaurant job is just a temporary one.

No doubt she will be a great asset to medical research but a real loss to the hospitality industry.

Saturday, April 8

After our long drive from Port Arthur on Thursday, we had a leisurely start to yesterday. Margaret is a keen quilter so I took her in to Elemental Artspace in Deloraine so she could buy some fabric with Tasmanian animals on it.

Then we set off to sample some of the food that's produced here. Forty-one Degrees South at Montana makes hot-smoked salmon, Salmon Rillette and Ginseng products and that's always worth a stop. We missed the place where they produce freeze-dried apples, and eels, and headed to the Mileta Honey Farm at Chudleigh.

Lunch was at the Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm and we called in to Ashgrove Cheeses on our way to d'Anvers Chocolates. By then it was time for home and a fantastic meal of all the great things we had acquired during the day.

Friday, April 7

Having picked up Brian and Margaret in Hobart, we made our way to Port Arthur, along with hordes of other people intent on exploring this bit of Tasmanian history. It turned out to be a day of celebrity spotting. Next to us in the line to pay was Senator Doug Cameron and his wife. I've always thought of him as more principled than most politicians; he says what he means and doesn't always toe the party line. I notice he will resign at the next election so I suppose we will see some younger, glossier party apparatchik nominated to take his place.

While we were waiting, we had a chat and he told me lives in Katoomba. All very pleasant and polite.

The other celebrity we saw was Lindsay Fox, larger than life and surrounded by a group of young boys. He climbed on to a people mover we had requisitioned and sat beside Marilyn who immediately engaged him in conversation: are they your grandchildren? How many do you have? Etc.

it turns out he (a careless Protestant) and his wife (a good Catholic) had six children), all of whom are now producing. He takes the boys for excursions, while his wife takes the girls. Marilyn said, 'If it were me, I would want to take the boys some of the time' and Lindsay replied, 'But I don't have to sleep with you.'

He told us he has just come back from Seattle where he was talking to Amazon. With their plan to set up in Australia, I reckon Lindsay is trying to get their delivery contract. You read it here first.

This picture was taken at the Waterfront Cafe in Dunalley:

Tuesday, April 4

We are off to Hobart tomorrow to pick up an old school-friend and his wife. Brian and I were at High School together and shared enthusiasm for early Barry Humphries and Mad Magazine. He was at our wedding but, soon after, he set off to travel overland to Europe, and ended up in Canada where he met his wife-to-be, Margaret.

They find themselves in Hobart this week, celebrating the 50th reunion of the party who travelled together to Europe all those years ago.

Brian and Margaret visited us in Townsville, maybe 20 years ago but we haven't seen them since then. We will have lots to talk about and might find time to visit some of the iconic tourist sites in the few days they'll be with us.

Monday, April 3

Our daughter-in-law, Nera, started her new job today. She is the Practice Nurse at the Deloraine Medical Centre. There was no plan in her mind to work in Deloraine, but the job was advertised and could not be ignored. Anyway, we're delighted for her and expect we'll see more of her and Jamie, even though they have decided to stay in Dilston and Nera will travel each day. Travel is not such a big deal; I did it for 10 years when I worked at Giant Steps and you soon get into a pattern.

Sunday, April 2

Sometimes a panellist on one of the comment shows makes a statement so breathtaking in its wisdom that it makes you stop and think. Laura Tingle on Insiders this morning, musing on the ludicrous way our parliament is operating, suggested that two major parties have much more in common with each other than they have with the other mobs they have to deal with.

The ALP is much more centrist than the Greens and traditional Liberal values don't match up with Pauline Hanson or David Leyonhelm or Derryn Hinch.

The implication, of course is, if the two major parties could find some common ground, co-operate to pass some useful legislation, then the other parties would be irrelevant and people might start to have some confidence in politicians again.

Of course, the ALP would have to agree to give some ground and the Government would have to stop pushing bizarre propositions like changes to Section 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act.

Australia is floundering at the moment; wouldn't it be nice if our elected representatives put aside their differences and their personal crusades to make some decisions that might be of benefit to us all.