Buderim Bulketin

Thought I’d try and do a summary of the week but there are no guarantees about future regularity.

This week began with a welcome visit from Dirk and Jan from Bungendore on their way home from Yeppoon where they had visited the first grandson. Great to see them and have a relaxing day around Mooloolaba enjoying the beach and the fabulous seafood.
Tennis was good on Tuesday in between showers. We have had stormy weather this week. They have big squeegees at the courts that we can sweep the water off and keep playing! (Very Queensland)
Italian lessons resumed after a break for school holidays. I go on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings and I also went to the Wednesday morning ‘Travellers’ class where I know some of the people. I love learning Italian and constantly fantasise about going to Umbria or Tuscany for an extended stay where I could practise my Italian. I’m probably the longest serving student in these classes having been going since beginning of 2005. Most people come and learn a bit before heading for Italy. I’m quite good friends with Gianni, one of the teachers! Everyone always asks ‘When are you going?’ and I always reply: ‘Prossimo anno, forse’. (Next year, maybe)
Wendy and Karissa are pretty well recovered from their fortnight in New York. We keep looking at the photos on the TV and they relive the many highlights including champagne on the 65th floor Rainbow Room of the Rockafeller Centre; the naked cowboy in Times Square; seeing the art and Jane Fonda at the MOMA; Central Park; and just experiencing and discovering at an easy pace.
I still reflect on my ‘road trip’. After dropping W&K at the airport I headed south. Highlights were the Girraween NP on the NSW border and climbing the scary granite Pyramid; Manilla (Redmond/Veness family history); calling on an old Wolaroi mate, Warren Sneesby; visiting Michael and Beth on their cattle property at Coonamble; Lightning Ridge and other fabulous Aussie towns like Warwick; Hebel; Dalby; and Toowoomba
Buzzy continues to recover from the spinal operation to reverse the paralysis of his hind legs that happened when Wendy and Karissa were away. The vet is very happy with his progress and we are hopeful he will be walking normally in a couple of weeks.
Spent all day Thursday helping friends (Pete and Joy) move from Yandina to their new home in Mapleton. Mapleton is a stunning place up on the Blackall range (near Montville and Maleny). Between loads we had lunch at the Mapleton pub and the views from the deck East toward the sea were world class.
Friday evening I did long walk along Mooloolaba beach and it was just fantastic. Great sunset and about 24 degrees. The beach is slowly recovering after the extraordinary September rains (350mm).
Tennis again this Sunday morning. Wow! Some of these oldies sure can play tennis (and I mean substantially older than me!)
Looking forward to visits soon from Luke and niece Emma
Howard finally called the election today. His cynicism this week has been breathtaking. $2billion on Tuesday for the Pacific Highway and then this was trumped with Thursday’s ‘new reconciliation’ and the proposed constitutional referendum. Why wasn’t this done in 2000 when there was mass support as shown by the bridge walks? Or in May this year on the 40th anniversary of the watershed 1967 referendum? And this from the man who dismantled the 1994 Native Title Act and Wik.

Rain and APEC and Howard's End

Such a long time between drinks and I apologise to my 2 readers!
As I write it buckets down rain, about 120mm in past three days and this only two weeks after we had 320mm in 4 days. Of course it was much heavier at Noosa and caused flooding. So sad to see most of it flow into the Pacific when some vision 10 years ago could have seen the harvesting now of at least some of the stormwater run off. Still most politicians are door closers after the event and the current crop are no exception.
WOW!! ONLY TWO MORE MONTHS OF HOWARD AND THEN HE AND HIS SMUG CRONIES, DOWNER, ABBOT, COSTELLO AND NELSON, WILL BE GONE.
What about APEC? 5km fence in Sydney's CBD; helicopter borne snipers sighting pedestrians on the Harbour Bridge; watercannon; police going over the top; the portrayal of all demonstrators as violent, etc etc. Can you believe this is Australia?
And George Bush coming here with his 4 plane circus. The leader of the free world being anything but free as he is closeted away from ordinary Aussies in bizarre motorcades and boatacades and tells us that his mission to bring freedom to Iraq is working. Irony on irony!!
Lots of reading lately - Coetzee, Winton, Mistry, Clive Hamilton. More soon.

Memories of my Father 1: Ovine CPR

I have just finished reading Romulus, My Father by Raimond Gaita. What a captivating story! I thoroughly enjoyed this book: the way it captured the extraordinary experience of migrating to Australia and making a success of your new life; the way Raimond recalled his early childhood and the detailed descriptions of large and small events that shaped his life. I look forward to the movie which has been highly acclaimed.
Raimond is only one year older than me so some of his 1950s experiences resonated strongly. Of course I never had it near as hard as he did but there was some common ground including living in the country (rabbiting, swimming in dams etc) and experiencing Elvis Presley and Bill Haley music.
I have written a few of my memories of my own father and here is one:

I remember the day Dad brought a lot of sheep back to life. We had let a large mob of sheep out of the yards and they were to go into the sixty acre paddock opposite the house. As was the usual practice a couple of us kids ran ahead of the mob and positioned ourselves so as to prevent the sheep going down the track or over into the house yard. Uncle Vic was herding the sheep from behind and Dad remained behind in the yards or the woolshed for some reason I can’t recall. We successfully headed the mob and they began funnelling through the gate, jumping high in the air as they cleared the congestion of the gateway and saw the wide open paddock ahead. Perhaps we moved too close but for whatever reason the sheep started to bunch as they crowded towards the gate. You could hardly see the opening for dust and sheep but it became clear that sheep were falling down and others were jumping on and over them in their panic to get through. As the last of the mob struggled through we could see over twenty sheep lying in the dust. Some were not moving and others were writhing, unable to get up. Uncle Vic raced onto the scene and was very distressed at what looked like a massive and unfortunate loss. At this point Dad was racing down the hill calling out and swearing at us for being so stupid as to push the sheep too hard into the gateway. As he came across the scene of smothered and dying sheep he paused and then launched into action. While the rest of us watched helplessly, he picked a motionless sheep up and held it in a standing position vigorously rubbing its chest and sides. After about a minute, perhaps less, the sheep spluttered, took a few faltering steps, then trotted unsteadily away. Dad quickly grabbed another and repeated the process. He continued on, racing from one sheep to another in a frenzy. After a while, Uncle Vic followed his lead and us kids just looked on in awe. After fifteen or twenty minutes Dad and Uncle Vic had revived about twenty sheep. There were three or four that were beyond help. Dad was more displeased that some had been lost than with his extraordinary effort of saving so many. But apart from a salutary lesson in how sheep must never be rushed too much, the incident showed how clever Dad was and how cool he could be in a crisis.

Weapons of Mass Distraction

I am so disillusioned by the Howard government's cynicism that I cannot detail my disgust. Suffice it to say: Dr Haneef - what a bloody fiasco by those who are supposed to be running the country. What does it take for people like Andrews and Keelty to resign. You'd think embarrassment would get 'em even if incompetence doesn't. Saving a Tassie hospital - Every man and his dog knows that many hospitals are a mess so why wait until an election is imminent to make a big splash? Aboriginal problems - see comment on Tassie hospital. And now they will blame others for Wednesday's interest rate rise! Talk about trying to distract us from Kevin's rising star.

Busy July

Wow! July has been a month. Lots of visitors from down South escaping the July cold. Unfortunately it has been unusually cold in most of Eastern Australia this winter and we have not been spared. An oval less than a kilometre from us had a frost last week, the first ever recorded in this district. Needless to say the jeans have been getting a workout and shorts have been finally washed.
Still it was great to have friends from Melbourne, Cullen, Canberra and Sydney. Plus Karissa and I had significant birthdays so multiple celebrations. Went fishing with brother Michael last week and caught some nice bream off the rockwall.
Many political discussions with visitors. General disgust with the whole Dr Haneesh affair. The usual cynicism about Howard’s motives regarding Aborigines and glee over the latest revelations in the Costello/Howard saga.

An Amazing Woman

About a month ago I met Sheila. She is a lady in her 80s who was a Lieutenant in the Australian Army Medical Women’s Service in World War 2. Sheila was in charge of hospitals in New Guinea and has preserved her experiences in a fabulous book called The Lieutenant and the Tin Trunk. Based on her memories and the diary that she kept and interspersed with photographs from the locations where she worked, this is a treasure. The book is written in a style that takes the reader right up to some of the experiences that Sheila had. Sheila’s account doesn’t focus on the traumas (and there were plenty) but reveals the good humour, care and decency that she and others brought to this unprecedented challenge in their lives. The necessity of ‘making the best of it’ meant appreciating the simplest pleasures- swimming, dances, food parcels from home, occasional picture shows in the rain, rides on boats and daring trips into the hills. The value of friendship is at the highest level. To meet Sheila now is a pleasure. The same charm and intelligence that saw her ‘do her duty’ with such evident success as shown in her memoirs, shines through. It is humbling to know that her generation gave so much so selflessly and so effectively.

A salvaged ship, hot rocks and gas.

Time to eat humble pie. On my post of 23 June I proclaimed the Pasha Bulker would not be refloated. I got that one wrong. Today she was successfully towed off the beach. Well done to all concerned. I also said Geodynamics (GDY) who explore for geothermal energy in granite rocks underground would break $2.00 - they did that 4 days later. I also thought Queensland Gas Company (coal seam gas) would hit $3.00 before long. They did that today. So.... two out of three aint bad! Now to celebrate with some Taylors.