It's another medical appointment today, this time for Marilyn. It's just getting a blood test but it means a trip into town and that means pushing ourselves out of our comfortable rut. Jamie has already been this morning, to drop Archie off on his way to work. We see Archie most days and that's great.
Jamie and Marilyn have been busily planning her 80th birthday party. I had mine at home but Marilyn's decided she wants to have it at the local Bowls Club. There will be a lot more space and someone else will do the cleaning up. Jamie has put a general notice on Facebook and those invited have already started to respond. The local Filipino community will be heavily involved and we hope Madeleine and her children will come down from Brisbane for the event.,
I've been watching a number of travellers on Youtube, mostly from the UK but one fellow from Germany and a couple from South Africa. Where are the Aussies, I thought, so I've checked with Google and identified a few. Most seem to be caravanners doing the 'big lap' but there are one of two travelling in SE Asia. I'll have a closer look at them.
BRIEF ENCOUNTER JUNE, 2020
How many of us can say, honestly, that we have met our
heroes? My wife and I had dinner once
with Sir Edmund and Lady Hillary at a motel in Sydney and I’m happy to tell you
more about that some other time but, unless you’re very fortunate or make a
nuisance of yourself, it’s rare to see celebrities up close. Normally, the best we can hope for is to have
a brief encounter with someone we admire, perhaps in a crowded airport or, by
chance, in the street.
In 1954, though, 70% of the Australian population were lucky
enough to have a brief encounter with one of the most popular celebrities of
the time – Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.
Yes, an estimated 7 million Australians, from a population at the time
of around 10 million, lined the streets when the Royal cars passed by and flocked to the
various showgrounds where the Queen would make an appearance. As a reporter of the time commented: Australians
waited in all weathers and at all manner of vantage points to see her passing
by, like a waving doll in a gilded cage.
Our Prime Minister of the time made the most of this Royal
visit. The PM left
no doubt that he believed in the myth that Australia was a far-flung outpost of
the Mother Country in the South Seas. Describing himself as ‘British to the
bootstraps’, he must have been overjoyed at the opportunity to show his Queen
all that Australia had to offer and, at the same time bask in the reflected
glory attached to Her Majesty, which would help build up his standing with the
voters.
Ming the Merciless they called him, after an evil
character in a Flash Gordon comic book of 1934.
It may just have been a happy coincidence that his preferred name lent
itself to this connection and that some wit in the opposition party thought
that there might be some political mileage to be made by using it as often as
possible.
His name was Robert Menzies, followed by a string
of initials, some of which allowed him to be referred to as Sir Robert. He was intensely proud of his British
ancestry and made it clear that he preferred the old Scottish pronunciation of
his name - Ming-is: which led to his being dubbed Ming.
The wharfies at Port Kembla also derided him as
Pig Iron Bob because he expedited a shipment of raw steel to Japan in the 1930s
which everyone knew would be turned into weapons to support Japan’s imperial
ambitions in the Pacific and, as it transpired, they were turned against
Australia during the Second World War.
He had two stints as Prime Minister at a time
when Australians expected their PM to be aloof from the common herd, erudite
and patrician in their demeanour. He is still Australia’s longest-serving Prime
Minister.
In
the eyes of many, Sir Robert Menzies let his country down in his speech of
welcome to Her Majesty in the Australian Parliament on a later Royal visit in
1963. Instead of using the occasion when
the world was listening to offer a speech which highlighted the achievements of
a proud, young nation, firmly establishing its place in the word, Sir Robert
Menzies chose to play the lovestruck young swain bending his knee after a brief
encounter with the unattainable lady of the manor.
Quoting
from a rather trite poem by Thomas Ford, Menzies stunned his listeners.
I did but see her passing by
And yet I love her till I die.
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