Friday, January 24

 Friday, January 24

Sandra, the cleaning lady, is coming this morning. I've removed all the linen from the bed to leave it clear for her to remake and made a pile in the laundry to be washed.  We have two QS beds in the unit but the one in the spare room is seldom used.  I often look at the beds and think that they are just a little too big for the rooms they are currently in.  They were bought, of course, when we lived in roomier premises but our retirement unit has been built to different specifications.

When we married, fifty-nine years ago, we had a standard double bed, like most couples had at the time but we must have succumbed to an advertising campaign and changed it for a queen-sized model.  There was no reason why we needed bigger; clearly we just went along with the hype.  And now, when a smaller bed would fit better in the room, we have too much invested in the right-sized linen to change.

To compound the problem, we invested in new bedside tables about 10 years ago, and we went for roomy ones, wider than the ones they replaced.  So, in our bijou bedroom, perfectly suited to a retired couple, we have a 150cm wide bed flanked by two 57cm bedside tables.  That's a total width, with some allowance for spacing, of around 270 cm.  

If we expended several thousand dollars on a new bed, bedside tables and linen, we could save as much as 30cm in the total width; 30cm of extra space to make moving around more convenient. 

A double bed is also shorter than a QS bed so there would be more space-saving in that dimension, toom if we changed.

And I realise, of course, that that is the reason we changed.  I'm too tall for a 180cm long bed and sleep better if it's 190 cm, that is, queen-size.  I'll have to think of something else to worry about.

POETRY – THE KOOKABURRA’S CALL                                                       DECEMBER 2, 2022

In the wilds across Australia you can always hear the chatter

Of bush birds loudly arguing about things that really matter.

There are magpies, wrens and lyrebirds all clamouring fit to burst

Demanding our attention: I don’t know which is worst.

 

The magpie, called the flautist, is beautiful to hear,

His lovely perfect melody is pleasant to the ear.

The lyrebird is different, a mimic through and through

Copying the bush sounds, it must be hard to do.

 

And then there is the kookaburra …..

Early settlers to Australia, we are told, were unnerved by the sound of the kookaburra.  ‘It’s the devil,’ they said when they heard the call in the morning or the early evening.  Of course, we now know it’s simply the territorial call of the adult bird, letting other kookaburras know that he is still in charge of his territory.

When the local aboriginals were asked what was the bird that could make that unearthly sound, they replied, in their own language, ‘Gugabarra’, and that was misheard, of course, and it has become Kookaburra. The Aboriginal name and the European corruption are both onomatopoeic. There was a time when Laughing Jackass was preferred but that epithet seems to have been consigned to history.  I’ve also heard it referred to as ‘The Bushman’s Alarm Clock’ because of the regularity of its call but perhaps Australia is becoming too sophisticated to hold to those reminders of our untutored past.

The kookaburra is a member of the Kingfisher family; in fact, the largest member.  However, they rarely eat fish, although they have been known to take goldfish from artificial ponds.  They seem to prefer lizards, snakes and other small prey.  The largest of them can grow to 47cm.

The kookaburra’s distinctive call has been co-opted for use in movies and TV shows as a representative call of any jungle scene, whether it be Australian, African or South-East Asian. A Johnny Weismuller movie of 1938, set in Africa, had a kookaburra’s call in the background.  Even today, Disney uses the distinctive call in the various jungles of its theme parks.  The popular UK show, I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here, which is set in the Australian jungle near Murwillumbah, makes great use of the kookaburra’s distinctive cackle.

It’s an unlikely export for Australia but plays its part with our other iconic animals: Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo and Tas, the Tasmanian Devil.