A youthful birthday

Yesterday was a celebration of Ralph's 80th birthday.  Ralph is the husband of Anne's sister Merle.  And Anne's mother was there -- aged 95.  I should have felt youthful in such company but there were also lots of grandchildren and great grandchildren there so there was no chance of that.  It was a great pleasure to see the littlies running around.  There were two little girls who were in perpetual motion, one blue-eyed blonde and one half-Korean girl. Asia has come to Australia in a big way.  All the waitresses and kitchen staff in the restaurant where we were were Asian too and did the good job you expect of Asians in hospitality. We are lucky to have them.

I seem in fact to have not only Asians in my life but also New Zealanders and Dutch people.  And so it was again. One of Anne's sons is married to a Dutch girl and the other to a Kiwi.  I have had Dutch people in my life ever since my teens, in fact.  One or other of my friends always seems to hail from that windy place.

The do was in a big club -- an ex-football club at Sunnybank.  The menu was the sort of basic food you expect in Australian clubs -- steak or seafood.  The cooks knew what they were doing however.  I had the seafood basket and got Barramundi for Anne.  Both were expertly done.

Anne and I had our dinners with Anne's sister June and her man Colin.  Colin is in his 80s and has had lots of health problems but is still fighting the good fight.  He was talking with Anne about going on train trips, the Gulflander specifically.  So he is not giving up yet.  Anne greatly enjoyed her recent trip on it.

Anne in fact was just back that day from a week on Norfolk Island.  She got off the plane and took a taxi to my place so we could go to the party together.

As we left the party I was greatly honoured to get a cuddle from Zenia, Anne's niece, once removed.  Zenia is a slim and pretty blue-eyed blonde who is also over 6' tall!  She is a university student.

We came out of the club at a different place to where we had originally stopped but I didn't realize that immediately so was disoriented and could not find my car in the carpark.  As a  big club it had lots of carparks.  So we took a taxi home.  On the way home however I figured out what had happened and when we took a taxi back this morning, we went straight to my car.

A strange thirst

I have long been a rather thirsty soul.  I drink fizzy drinks by the gallon.  And despite all the dental alarmists, my teeth are fine.  I haven't had a filling since childhood.

The amount I drink has however alarmed me at times as a big thirst is a symptom of diabetes.  So a couple of years ago I had a glucose tolerance test which came back dead-centre: No sign of diabetes.  So I continued enjoying my soft-drinks.  I put my fluid consumption down to the fact that I have a lot of salt with my food.  Salt makes you thirsty.

In recent months however my thirst seemed to be greater and I started to do something I hadn't done since childhood:  drink  orange softdrink.  I had previously been a confirmed drinker of lemon squash.  So I once again had a diabetes test and came back within  the normal range.  So I continued to enjoy my orange softdrink.

Today, however, things got out of hand.  I needed to get up and drink my orange softdrink almost every five minutes.

Now I have always believed that your body tells you what you need.  If you note the strange things that pregnant women eat, you will understand.  They will eat ANYTHING to get what their unborn baby needs.

So I thought that my body must be telling me that what I needed was not orange softdrink but real oranges.  So I got out a mandarine (mandarin orange) from the fridge that I had bought some time before (I normally never buy fruit) and ate it -- swallowing only the juice.  And my thirst vanished!

I normally have some salady things with both my breakfast and dinner so I thought it most improbable that I would have a vitamin C deficiency but it seems that I did.  Despite my extensive reading in the medical literature on diet I have never heard of thirst as a symptom of vitamin C deficiency so it seems that my body was wiser than the medical journals are!

I would be pleased to see any references I might have missed, however.

Dusty's birthday

The gorgeous boy is all of one now.

I got to Suz & Russ's place about midday and found quite a crowd already there.  The boy obviously has a lot of fans!

He just sat in his high chair for a couple of hours feeding himself so goodness knows how much he got down the hatch in that time.  I don't think he is going to be skinny.

There were a lot of kids running around, which I was pleased to see.  Simon & Tracy had their two along but they are hardly kids these days.

I talked a bit with Simon & Tracy about the education of their kids though I don't know that we reached any conclusions.  I rather naughtily remarked that Becky is a beautiful woman so will probably marry well -- which means that any educational choice she makes will be fine.  Far from being being critical of such "chauvinism", Simon wisely remarked that Tracy is a beautiful woman too  -- which she is.  Tracy just smiled.

Timmy was there with his colourful lady plus Jenny, Maureen, Davey etc.

I spent a bit of time talking to Simon & Tracy about the hazards of renting out properties and I think I may have changed their plans in the matter.  Simon has a new job in S. Aust. starting in January so they want to move down there but have to sell their house first.  If they could not get a sale before then they were going to rent their very nice house out.  I think instead Tracy will now stay on here until the place is sold.  Being in the services, Simon is rather used to being away from his wife -- though he doesn't like it of course.

I said to Simon that it would be fine to let his house out if he was around to punch pesky tenants in the gizzard and a definite glint came into his eye at the thought of that.  He has a martial arts hobby which is entirely appropriate for a member of the services.

The birthday boy got a mountain of presents, some of which Russ seemed to fancy for himself!  Definitely a traditional father.

Russell has a new space-age BBQ which produced some good snags and lots of onions, which I like.  The BBQ looked like a short trip  to the moon would be within its capabilities.

A good night and some good reading

Yesterday was Anne's last day at work before her retirement.  I tell her that she is now a pensioner but she rouses at me about that.  She doesn't like the sound of her changed status.  She does however have some health problems so it was high time she retired.

Anyway, to celebrate her retirement I took her to dinner at the Kafe Meze.  I ordered the usual: Tarama, Haloumi, Keftdes and Fourex Gold (beer).  It was all outstanding as usual and the beer went particularly well with the food.  I observed many years ago that Greeks in Greek restaurants mostly drank beer with their food so decided to learn from them -- and have never regretted it

But today has been rather pesky.  My cable connection to the net has been down all day.  Telstra say it is some sort of local area issue.

I do have a prepaid Telstra wireless connection as well for just such occasions but it is so much slower than the cable connection that it discourages me.  I have been able to get most of my usual stuff up today but my preparations for tomorrow are zilch.  I just cannot be bothered accessing things at a snail's pace.

I actually kept a promise to myself and spent some time instead  by re-reading Exodus (in the Bible).  It is actually quite a good story, retold with some repetition rather like a cantata.  Once again I was amused to note how unmodern Yahveh was.  But it is our  civilization that is out of step.  Yahveh's values were much like those than men have had throughout history:  Self-aggrandizing and vengeful.  He thought it greatly to his credit to wipe out the Egyptian army, for instance:  Not exactly a God of mercy.

But the one thing that stands out in Exodus is the cry of religious men throughout all time:  "Why won't people BELIEVE?"  Not only the Egyptians took a lot of convincing about the power of Yahveh but the Israelites were nearly as bad.  Yahveh was constantly having to prove himself to them.

So I actually enjoyed my time away from the internet.

The latest pix from the shaky Isles

Hannah with tulip. That looks a cosy jumper too. I wonder who knitted it?


A real live pixie

Some recent pix

Some recent pix that I like -- also on Facebook


Amish lawnmowing -- photo by Ken


The happiness that only a baby can bring: Katie Brown's smile says it all


A Queensland blue heeler. Those eyes don't miss much. Just watch out for your heels


Two cousins


Dusty


Unions. It's specifically a comment on a predatory American union, the SEIU


Hannah shows how grown-up she is


Hannah the snow bunny


Matthew in the snow -- photo by Ken

An anniversary and a sendoff

Saturday was the 7th anniversary of Anne and me meeting so by way of celebration I took her to the Kafe Meze. The last time we were there I ordered too much and I was so full I could not even finish my beer! So this time I wised up and ordered only Tarama, Haloumi and keftedes -- plus a stubby each of Fourex Gold to wash it down. It was all excellent. Keftedes can be rather basic but the keftedes at the Kafe Meze are first class food.

And today I shouted Paul and Susan a small sendoff dinner at my place in recognition of their imminent departure for a trip across the USA -- on Route 69, of course.

Susan as usual fetched our food. I just paid, as usual. This time she got it from the Riverwalk Tandoori restaurant and on my recommendation she ordered some filled naan bread. Their garlic and cheese naan has to be tasted to be believed. It is ambrosia.

Matthew was in perpetual motion during the visit but Paul is full of beans too so coped with him while Susan was away fetching the food. The restaurant was busy so Susan was away for a while so Paul was glad when she got back -- to help with Matthew as well as being "mother" to us all (serving out the food etc.). What would we do without her?

I gave them a set of binoculars as a going away present. Paul is going to watch the U.S. Open tennis match live while he is in NYC so needs the 'nocs to get the most out of the vast amount he is spending on tickets to the match.

A busy weekend

The Hamburg Philharmonic is in town at the moment so it saves a trip to Hamburg to hear a noted orchestra! And all the players are Hamburgers! Its arrival was of course announced well in advance so at the time of my birthday, Anne bought two tickets for one of their recitals as a birthday present to me. And I actually managed not to lose the tickets! I did lose them actually but Anne found them again.

So I got into my Chinese suit again and off we went to the concert hall at QPAC last night.

The recital consisted of one work only: The Mahler 2nd. It is truly a magnificent work and ideal for the concert hall. It has a large dynamic range with lots of crashing crescendoes etc. so trying to listen to it off a CD or DVD would miss a lot of the impact. The audience gave the orchestra an extended standing ovation at the end of it.



The conductor was a little Australian lady who put enormous energy into her task. She literally danced around the podium and even leapt up and down at times. I found her slightly distracting actually and looked away for most of the performance. She would be a good actor in a Bollywood movie. She obviously loved the music however and did a good job with it.

And today was a lunch in celebration of the birthday of Mr. 1. Matthew is now all of one year old, a year many of us have been delighted to share in. He was actually rather subdued by all the people around him and looked at us as if we had all gone mad when we sang Happy Birthday. Susan lit a candle on his cake and in best toddler style he immediately made a grab for the flame. Susan caught him just in time however. You have to be fast around him.

And something of an unexpected star of the day was Dusty. He is unbelievably good natured. He just sat there in his high chair when nobody was holding him and gave us lots of smiles and no complaints.

Susan as usual put on lots of good food with a large glazed ham being particularly good. I got into the cheesecake too. And there was a pirate theme for the day that Susan had obviously gone to a lot of trouble to set up. I don't know how many people were there -- perhaps 20 -- including all the old gang except for those who are out of town.

Susan had both her mother and stepmother present, which I was pleased to see. There is a strong resemblance in looks between Susan and her mother.

Paul was his usual ebullient self and ate too much again. His latest scheme is to import dubious health pills from China! Being a good salesman he is going to take them himself so I hope they don't poison him. You never know what's in stuff you get from China.


The festive table -- showing the work Susan put into the occasion


Matthew with his Gran (Susan's mother) looking a bit overwhelmed


Dusty -- Mr. Smiles


Caught enjoying a ham butty

A great milestone: Matthew walks

He took his first steps today and has been walking ever since. He is just short of 12 months old so it is within the normal age for walking but it is very exciting to see for those close to the boy



Two more recent pictures of the boy below -- with his father at the Ekka (Royal Queensland Show) and at the Mt Gravatt baby show with his mother and grandmother where he won “Junior Champion for 2012” (on Sunday the 29th July)

A Sunday lunch

A roast dinner is traditional at lunch on Sunday and Paul and Susan kindly shared theirs with Anne and me today.

The roast was a little unusual in that it was pork ribs rather than a leg or shoulder that Susan cooked up. She simmered it for 12 hours beforehand so the meat really fell off the bones. I didn't find out where she got those ideas but maybe it was an old family recipe. The result was certainly good.

Matthew was good entertainment as usual and it turns out that he is a Daddy's boy. He likes being with his father -- with poor old Mum an also-ran. A bit unfair but babies do what they want.

We talked about all sorts of things but Paul's forthcoming 4-week trip across the USA was one topic. I advised him about a few things he was unaware of -- such as the inadvisability of carrying much cash.

Anne provided a dessert of apricot trifle which was well-received.


Watching Mr. Gorgeous

Nanna's 88th

To reach the grand old age of 88 is something very much worth celebrating, particularly as Nanna still seems to be in reasonable health and is still in full possession of her marbles.

So I hosted a small dinner for her at a Sunnybank Chinese buffet restaurant (her choice). Sadly, Von was ill so I got Jenny to take her home for a rest rather than make herself worse by trying to join in. Hannah and Simon stayed on, however. Hannah was very good. She just sat quietly in her high chair feeding herself with a spoon.

Matthew also seemed to be a bit ill as he was very clingy and did not want anyone but his mother to hold him. So at one stage Susan was doing her photography while also holding Matthew -- an impressive bit of juggling.

Paul as usual ate enough for about six people. It is his reward to himself for staying on a very restrictive diet normally. So he combines gluttony with slimness, which is pretty unusual.

The restaurant was packed, with roughly equal numbers of Chinese and Caucasians. Chinese are never any trouble to co-exist with. They are probably more civilized than us, if anything.

The food was good, though not spectacular, and the cooks kept up by sending out fresh trays of food as the previous ones got emptied. There was a fair bit of seafood, which always goes down well.

I have no idea what we talked about -- just everyday things, I suppose.


Nanna with co-celebrants


Hannah can make Simon smile


Any similarity in looks between the boy and his father? Maybe in the forehead

That caterpillar on my forehead comprises sutures from a recent excision -- which also explains the droopy eyelid. "Edematous swelling" is the technical term for that. It's transient

The diaspora reversed

While the family diaspora is temporarily reversed (which is a fancy way of saying: While Joe and Von are back in town) Jenny put on a small dinner party at her place to enable me to see a little more of them while they are here -- seeing I got them back here one way or another. Anne and Nanna were also in attendance, as were Simon and Hannah.

Jenny put on a real spread centred around some excellent sausages, including some exceptionally good cevapi. She has discovered a place that makes them daily.

Simon was fairly loquacious by his standards but we were discussing their life in NZ and NZ is one of the few things Simon likes to talk about. True to his Dutch ancestry he seems very well organized. He gets free wood off the farm where he works and told me he has a two-year supply in stock. They use the wood for heating so have free heating, which is a good thing when you live as close to the Antarctic as he does.

I am a bit worried about Von. She is VERY slim, slimmer than I have ever seen her, I think. In my usual blunt way, I told her she needed to put on a few pounds but she says that it is her active life that keeps her slim as she eats plenty. Since Simon does all the cooking and is by all accounts a good cook, she is a lucky lady foodwise so it is rather a wonder she is not overweight. Anyway, she seems fit and healthy so that is the main thing.

Hannah was very good. She didn't disrupt anything but played for ages with a pink plastic kiddies' chair she found. It is sad that she will grow up unable to say "fish and chips" properly, though.

Celebrating Joe's 25th

With Von, Simon and Hannah over from NZ we had a BIG turnout for the birthday dinner at our usual "Bollywood" Indian restaurant at Stone's Corner. I originally booked for a party of 18 but there must have been more than that. Even Timmy turned up, which is rare for him. He brought his tall, slim and colourful girlfriend with him.

Squadron Leader Bartlett was in attendance and his usual lively self but Tracy was missed due to a wog. There has been a lot of that around so I am glad I haven't caught it. Anne has had it and it was only last night that she was fit for socializing again.

The large numbers defeated our usual attempt for us all to be seated at one table but people moved around a lot so that was not too bad.

Anne and Ken had a very lively chat as they are both big on going out, travel etc.

And with four littlies in attendance it felt right -- making it a proper family occasion. The youngest two were imprisoned in their high chairs so that simplified things a bit. Sahara paid a visit to the kitchen at one stage, though. She is nearly 3 now.

The food was good as always and the kitchen did a pretty good job of getting it all out for such a large party, plus various takeaway orders from their other customers.

We forgot to organize a cake but I supplied my usual toasting champagne so a toast and a song had to do. Joe got around the room quite a lot, however, and clearly enjoyed the occasion

A most pleasant day

I put on a "Welcome Home" lunch for Von today. She arrived from the Shaky Isles last night. Present were Von, Simon, myself, Paul & Susan and Joe and his friend from Canberra. Plus the littlies, of course: Hannah and Matthew.

We were intending to go to my usual Indian restsaurant for lunch as they are supposed to be open for Wednesday lunch but they were closed, to my surprise. I had rung to check that they would be open.

Anyway, it was no problem. We just went to the Thai over the road and, as Chaucer would say: "And wel we weren esed atte beste" (And we were well looked after). The food was good as was the service. We rearranged their tables to suit us but they didn't seem to mind. We were there at 12 so we were their first guests. We talked a bit about blogging, as Von blogs too.

After the lunch, we all came back to my place for tea and coffee, with Susan again doing the honours. Anne is still off sick. And we just sat there for maybe a couple of hours, not doing anything but watching the little ones and chatting desultorily. We just enjoyed being in one-another's company again.

Joe did not join us for tea as he has inherited my insomnia so was behind on his sleep. So he went off to a bedroom for a nap while we all chatted in the sitting room.

The small bathroom off my sitting room was again something of a hit -- with both Hannah and Matthew exploring it. It also functioned as a changing room for nappies.

I have got a pulldown blind in the sitting room and when Hannah started fiddling with it, I was waiting for her reaction when she pulled the cord enough for it to shoot up. I thought it would give her a fright and it did! The fright was only momentary, however.

We discovered something that was very good for drying tears. Matthew is very active and bumps his head etc from time to time but on THREE occasions his tears were dried by picking him up and showing him the big chrome coat-hook I have on the bathroom door. It was like magic! Instant tear-drying. Curiosity deleted all other emotions, apparently. And Hannah once again enjoyed the big shiny rimlock keys I have in the sitting room.

Both Paul and Susan had cameras in operation from time to time so we should have a good photographic record in due course.


Helping Hannah across the road after the lunch


That big shiny key in the sitting rooom sure was interesting


Matthew exploring the bathroom

More birthday observances

My birthday celebrations generally stretch over a period of days and today I took the initiative of inviting family over for one of my pizza and champagne nights. It's simple fare but always goes down well

Anne was due to contribute to the celebrations by cooking me a haggis last night but she has the flu so could not. For the same reason she could not come tonight.

Nanna was also not feeling well and other people could not come for various reasons so there were only 9 of us tonight -- but we were a jolly company, including Joe, just up from Canberra.

We were going to have it downstairs in my backyard under party flares but the cold weather plus the smaller numbers meant that it made more sense to have it upstairs, so we did.

It all went well with lots of chat. George kept Ken and Paul engaged in conversation for a while -- with George reminiscing about it being REALLY cold in his native Yorkshire. Both Ken and George were glad to have escaped to Brisbane instead.

Paul's Susan was an absolute tower of strength to me. In Anne's absence, I had to take care of various hospitality duties but my bumbling efforts were not getting far so Susan took over. She even opened one of the champagne bottles! She is surprisingly good at that. And to top it off she bought over a PERFECT Schwarzwalderkirschentorte as my birthday cake. What a woman!

Matthew entertained us all by trying to get his little fingers into everything he shouldn't and Dusty was also crawling around with great energy. It's always a pleasure to have the little ones present. It was amusing how Matthew kept heading for the kitchen tidy bin. We all had to take turns keeping him out of it. It was like a magnet to him.

At the start of proceedings I had a 3 question quiz with a prize for the first person to get the third question right. The first two questions were who lives at no. 10 and no. 11 Downing St, which were easy, but when I asked who lived at no. 12 Downing St., there was a great hush. I gave a few clues and Paul eventually guessed it: The Chief Whip of the majority party in the House of Commons.

We also have a Whip system in Australia so Paul's interest in Australian politics paid off. Or maybe memories of "Yes Minister" did the trick. I remember that in one episode the Chief Whip was described as a "terrorist". So Paul got a bottle of champagne as his prize. As Paul remarked, with Australia's current fragile majority in the Federal Lower House, the Whips must be pretty busy.

Nobody knew what a three-line whip was, however, so I explained that and pointed out that there had been a mass rebellion against one in Britain very recently. A great shock!

I have never heard of a whip system in the USA and it probably would not make much sense there, given the "broad tent" that both major parties constitute there. There is plenty of (metaphorical) arm-twisting in in the corridors and offices of Congress, nonetheless.


The cake


Sahara was very good at handing out kisses & cuddles to the other littlies

A video of the cake-cutting below with Matthew in attendance



A reflection

It's interesting that a quiz about a small street in London should not only be seen as entirely legitimate by people on the opposite side of the world but was in fact answered correctly. Admittedly, two of the people present were England-born but they too are Australian citizens (whether de facto or de jure I am not entirely sure) and the answer to the hardest question was in fact given by someone Australian-born.

I think it underlines how small is the PSYCHOLOGICAL distance between England and Australia -- one of the more amazing events in human history. Normally psychological distance and geographical distance are closely allied.

"The City of Truro"

After I had finished blogging at about midnight last night, I spent about an hour and a half looking at videos of "The City of Truro". Many men are entranced by steam trains and I am afraid I am one of them. And "The City of Truro" is very special of course. I almost wept when I saw how well the Brits had looked after that century-old machine in their National Railway Museum.

For those who are unaware of it "The City of Truro" was the first manmade thing to exceed 100 mph

In later decades, the Brits built even more formidable steam locomotives -- such as the magnificent "Bittern" (below)

Lunch with Jill

Yesterday was the beginning of my birthday celebrations -- which generally stretch over a few days. As she usually does, Jill put on a lunch for me at her place. Anne came along too and Jill invited Jenny as well. So there I was with my birthday being feted by one ex-wife, one ex-girlfriend and one current girlfriend. It's obvious that I don't have any secrets!

Lewis was also there and we all mostly talked about travel, as everyone except me has been travelling recently. My travel is all well in the past.

At one stage I amused myself in a typically academic way -- when someone mentioned the Canary Isles. I promptly asked: "What where they named after"? Lewis gave the sensible reply and I imagine everyone agreed with him: Canaries. I pointed out however that they were actually named after dogs. How come? Hint: Latin helps.

Jill put on an excellent lunch to her own recipe as usual and we greatly enjoyed the setting of lunch on her patio, backing onto bushland as it does and with frequent visits and occasional warbles from the "feathered friends".

Jill had J.S. Bach's Brandenburgische Konzerte playing in the background for all the time we were there -- which was greatly appreciated.

Prufrock

I wanted to introduce Paul and Susan to the sort of poetry that normally gets discussed only at university level so I organized a dosa lunch followed by a discussion at my place.

While we were at the dosa restaurant I also offered some thoughts about the way forward for Matthew, including a recommendation that he get a good background in some sports: Rowing, cricket, tennis and horseriding in particular. Sports are a very good way of relating to other people. We also later discussed getting him into a school army cadet unit and getting him taught German from an early age.

I then went on to read T.S. Eliot's "Prufrock" and pointed out some of the reasons why it is so highly esteemed despite its dismal tone. As a stream of consciousness poem it is of course open to a variety of interpretations but I offered my interpretation that it is the young and frustrated T.S. Eliot bemoaning his inability to understand and get on with women.

Matthew was his usual lively self and developed at one stage a determination to bite my big toe. I successfully avoided that for a while but he got me eventually.

Jenny's 60th

I had promised Jenny a slap-up dinner or lunch to help her cope with turning 60 but was unfortunately hospitalized when the big day came around. Though George did the honours for her. Thanks, George!

So we had the lunch today instead. We went to the smorgasbord lunch at the Sofitel -- which included unlimited champagne.

That was Paul's undoing. He always on principle eats everything in sight at a smorgasbord but he was unwise enough to extend that to the champagne. He ended up a rather ill lad when he got home later on. Knowing Paul, however, I think we all had a bit of a laugh about that. He might learn that free wine and free food have to be handled differently.

Susan didn't drink at all and acted as our chauffeur so we had not only a glamorous driver to take us all home in the Tarago but a sober one! Thanks, Susan!

Present were Jenny, Nanna, Paul, Susan, Anne, myself and Matthew. Matthew was very good -- he just sat there in his high chair for the full 2 hours. I had envisaged chasing him all around the Sofitel but it didn't happen.

The Sofitel clearly has the best smorgasbord in Brisbane so we were all happy with the food. I had a lot of smoked salmon and Paul had an enormous plate of natural oysters. So many oysters plus lots of champagne were a definite warning of doom but Paul heeded no warnings, as usual.

We talked a bit about getting Matthew into Eton and I had some advice about handling the interview -- which amounted to letting Susan do the talking. Knowing Paul's verbosity, we all found that amusing but even Paul agreed that that would be the best policy.

Another dosa lunch

Paul, Susan and their little caveman came over for lunch today. We managed to get dosas as takeaways this time so we could have them in a more peaceful environment at home -- though Matthew kept us all on the hop.

Susan did the honours of fetching our takeaways as she usually does and we were quite pleased that we could get dosas as takeaways as we are all very fond of them at the moment.

While Susan was away I talked to Paul a bit about self-presentation -- how it is fine to be ambitious and have high standards but admit that only to the closest people in your life. It's rather mad but people think much more highly of you if you talk about your failures rather than your successes. So we went over all that sort of thing in some detail and Paul seemed to get something out of it.

And when Susan arived back with the dosas we mainly talked about the latest developments with my will. The laws keep changing so I have had to make various changes to keep up with that. But there are lots of details to consider so the more I discuss it with the people involved the better understanding everyone should have of what is intended.

So we had some interesting chats to go with our dosas.

A blast from the past

I was going through some old papers when I found the photo below -- showing me in rather unusual company. I am the guy in the back row with the black glasses. I had more hair then. As you can see, the photo was taken in 1970.



Despite appearances, it is not a religious occasion. I was teaching economics at a Catholic regional High School for girls in Merrylands (Sydney) -- called Cerdon college. The photo is of all the school staff. In those days Catholic schools still had religious staff, at least in part.

Sister Aquinas, the Head, was a very smart lady. I liked her. I wonder if her vocation endured. I see that she was still in the Marist Sisters order in 1980 so perhaps it did. I believe her birth name was Joan McBride.