The Happy Isles of Oceania

 

 

Reading a book one has read many years ago is a bit like meeting an old friend one last saw many years ago. "The Happy Isles of Oceania" is such an old friend. Having found a second copy, a 'cheap' paperback, I retired to my peaceful hide-away "Melbourne", my very own 'Oceania' but after someone has pulled the plug.

When marriages fall apart, men will often turn to drink, sex, therapy or their work in order to blunt the pain of separation and their sense of failure and guilt. When Paul Theroux and his wife separated, he decided to paddle around the South Sea islands in a folding kayak. And he wrote a book about it, which is more than I have watched others do who washed up on the shores of some of the islands I lived and worked on.

 

 

I went there when I was twenty-four, with my heart still unbroken, but I can attest to the healing powers of the islands, even if it's not in the Paul Theroux way, whose solution "was to keep paddling" - after all, "if you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there".

 

Below is a sample of the 24-hour audiobook which ends on page 4
with another 730 pages to go.

 

It's a wonderful book to read on a tropically hot day, with the quietly flowing Clyde River on one side and a cold beer on the other. Even the resident mob of kangaroos seem to have got caught up in the moment, as they peacefully recline under a shade tree just metres away from "Melbourne", ignoring my occasional glances out of the window.

 

Read it online here

 

I am back in the house, refreshed from a lazy afternoon in "Melbourne". The gods seem to want me very much to pay that new Division 296 tax because my BHP shares keep going up. Each time they reach a new top, I expect them to flatten out, and I sell down some more, and yet they keep going up. It's one way of 'losing out' while still making money.

However, today's wild gyrations gave back all of yesterday's gains: it went from yesterday's $51.51 to a high of $52.09 and then, around lunchtime, came the dive all the way down to $50.12, before closing the day (and week) at $50.57 for a weekly gain of 82 cents. Whiplash!

 

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Here's one DVD I won't be buying!

 

 

Poor Mr. Trump. His Trump Coin has lost 98% of its value. And even his wife’s hagiographic documentary, "Melania", is said to be disappointing. Market researcher 'Boxoffice' has projected it will gross between $1 and $2 million in opening weekend ticket sales. Both figures are well below the $40 million Amazon paid for the title.

He went to all the trouble of taking out Maduro in Venezuela, warning Vice President ‘Delcy’ in front of the whole world. ‘Delcy’ gave him the middle finger by saying she’s had ‘enough’ of orders from Washington.

And he went all the way to Switzerland to deliver a rambling, almost incomprehensible discourse, bringing his cannon onto the stage — he was going to invade Greenland! — but then he turned around and took his cannon home with him without firing a shot. Ditto Tehran. Even if they never admire him, at least they will learn to fear him. Right?

And 'USA Today' reports that "President Donald Trump said he hopes the father of Renee Nicole Good, the woman who was shot and killed by an immigration officer in Minneapolis, is still a 'Trump fan' after his daughter’s death." Yeah, right!

 

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P.S. According to reliable sources - click here - Trump has threatened the Ayatollah that it will release this feature-length biopic of the First Lady in Iran, if Tehran continues to ignore American demands.

 

In the empty hours when I miss them so

 

There are more 'professional' recordings - see here - but this one does it for me

 

I really need those empty hours of those early morning when I brew myself my first cup of tea before the house wakes up and breaks up my melancholic thoughts, which at my age are mostly about the people I have known and who have already gone before me.

It's a sad reverie but the sadness is tinged with gratitude. Gratitude for having known those people; gratitude for having had such friends. I never knew when their last hour would come, so I never had a chance to say goodbye, leaving many words unsaid and many things undone.

 

The hand is cold that once held mine I can't believe you've really left this world behind I can wait and I can hope I'll get over this in time It takes time to learn when someone's gone for good They're not comin' back like you wish they would In the empty hours when you miss them so Then it's time to learn to let them go Your last hours we never knew We never had a chance to say goodbye to you Words unsaid and things undone We'd just begun and now we'll never see them through It takes time to learn when someone's gone for good They're not comin' back like you wish they would In the empty hours when you miss them so It takes time to learn to let them go It takes time to learn that you're gone for good You're not comin' back like I wish you would In the empty hours when I miss you so Then it's time to learn to let you go The hand is cold that once held mine

 

It's taken time to learn that they're gone. Now it's time to let them go.

 

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Time waits for no man

 

 

They say that time and tide wait for no man, and so I made an appointment with my solicitor in the Bay to update my will, sign an Enduring Power of Attorney, appoint an executor, and even lodge an Advanced Health Directive, i.e. "Switch it off!"

I also talked with Padma about a eulogy and scribbled something on a piece of paper. Something about the many forks in the road, the many roads I had taken, and the many more I had not and now no longer will — in phonetics, so she won't have any doubt about the pronunciation.

 

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Lost in a good book

 

 

I didn't know what to make of this book, but anything that describes my almost constant state is worth reading, and so I picked it up, together with "The Writing On the Wall - China and the West in the 21st Century" by Will Hutton and another copy of Paul Theroux's "The Happy Isles of Oceania". I already have a hardcover copy but this one I'll take to "Melbourne" to randomly open up and lose myself in between afternoon naps.

Which is just about now after we came back from a full day in town, starting with a swim in the warm-water pool and a lunch of barramundi and chips and salad at the Batemans Bay Soldiers Club. Of course, we also went to my favourite op-shop whose window display had been a beautifully framed painting of "The Lady of Shalott". From High Street to high brow definitely deserved a photo but that was last week, as today the painting had already gone and was replaced by something tacky.

 

 

While in town, I kept an eye on the price of BHP shares. They opened a few cents up, then nosedived by sixty cents which almost stopped me from ordering that second glass of Chardonnay. I had left instructions to sell some at $50.95, only half-expecting that they would go that high after yesterday's close at $50.60. I have just checked and not only did they sell at $50.95, but the rest of my holdings have gone to $51.51 — that's an increase of a whole six dollars since the start of this year!

I know the world has gone mad, but these rapid price swings, all in one day, are quite mad. Not that I mind them as long as the swings are UP!

I think I take a nap now. I've earned it.

 

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