|
ℬy the edge of the woods, at the foot of the hill,
|
Rest in Peace, our loyal friend. You will forever be in our hearts.
Sunday, June 28, 2020
In Memory of little Malty
Thursday, June 25, 2020
Let your fingers do the walking
Remember Yellow Pages' "Let your fingers do the walking"? We've gone one better: Padma does the walking and when she's found something that I might like, she sends me a photo via WhatsApp and I simply reply with an "Okay!"
Just now she's been at Vinnies from where she sent me this photo:
"Motoring with Mohammed" by Eric Hansen! I'd just started to read it on archive.org but there's nothing like the tactile experience of holding the real book in your hands! Well spotted, Padma! "Okay!" And Stephen Fry is also one of my favourites. Another "Okay!" And then there was more: Bette Davis and Glenn Ford? "Okay!" And ditto for "A Passage to India".
Shopping is tiring. I'd better turn off my WhatsApp for the day. "Okay?"
Good neighbours add to the value of your property
The reverse is also true. The previous owner of "Riverbend" had been given so much stick by the neighbours that he'd all but given up on the property and accepted my offer which was more than a HR Holden but still well below market value.
Ernie Dingo couldn't have done a better job for me, as I've been a happy "Riverbender" for more than twenty-seven years - twenty-three years more than the previous owner lasted - and I may add many more years while the value keeps going up even without my neighbours' help.
As G.K. Chesterton wrote, "The Bible tells us to love our neighbours, and also to love our enemies; probably because usually they are the same."
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Flying high
Air Niugini tee-shirt, Port Moresby, 1974still with laundry mark "15" for my room in the Pilots' Mess at Six-Mile
On November 1, 1973, AIR NIUGINI commenced operations as the national airline of Papua New Guinea, taking over the internal services of Ansett Airlines of Papua New Guinea and TAA.
AIR NIUGINI's first general manager, Ralph Conley, hired me in May 1974 to set up the airline's internal audit department, located at ANG House on a hill overlooking the city of Port Moresby and its harbour. I was billetted in the former TAA Mess at Six-Mile which accommodated AIR NIUGINI's pilots and also provided the in-flight catering, all supervised by a young Swiss chef who became my neighbour and friend ("Grüezi!" - if you read this, please contact me at riverbendnelligen@mail.com).
Papua New Guinea in those pre-Independence days was full of expatriates who under the immigration law had to be in possession of an open return air ticket at all times. Those tickets had been bought from AIR NIUGINI and in most cases would not be used for several years. AIR NIUGINI, being a member of IATA, also sold tickets to any destination in the world without flying to any overseas port other than Cairns and Honiara. They collected the money and only had to part with it after the overseas airlines had presented them with the used ticket coupon through what is known as the Interline Billing System which in those pre-computer days could take months. In the meantime, AIR NIUGINI "sat" on all that money from open return tickets and uncollected overseas fares and earned good interest on it! A very good business indeed! But imagine my surprise when during an audit I discovered that AIR NIUGINI's accountants at Six-Mile were routinely including all that unearned money as INCOME in their current Profit & Loss Statement! My report caused quite a flurry (and red faces) in the accounts department!
with my work taking me all over Port Moresby and indeed all over the country
AIR NIUGINI had absorbed many of the previous staff from Ansett and TAA and there were many internal conflicts. One day, for example, an ex-Ansett flight attendant was assigned to an ex-TAA F27 and obstinately refused to open the door after a landing at Wewak. According to the regulations of her previous company, this was the responsibility of the traffic officer on board. The traffic officer, an ex-TAA man, had been trained differently and, in any case, had other things to do. He refused to open the door. The argument pretty well covered the subject of responsibility and competence. Fortunately, it remained at the verbal level, but it is reported to have lasted more than 15 minutes while the passengers roasted in the cabin under the sizzling sun.
The politics and jockeying for positions permeated most departments, including finance and administration, and internal auditing under those circumstances was not a pleasant task. I left before I could explore the deepest depths of the human character and just after Christmas 1974 (which I spent on a beach in Lae, blissfully unaware that Cyclone Tracy had just wiped out Darwin) flew out to Rangoon in Burma to take up the position of Chief Accountant with the French oil company TOTAL - Compagnie Française des Pétroles who had begun drilling for oil in the Arakan Sea. I stopped over in Hong Kong where the company had booked me into the swank PENINSULA Hotel who met me at the airport with a chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce. I hadn't expected this nor had they expected to meet a young chap straight out of New Guinea, in shorts and tee-shirt, carrying a swag over his shoulder. But that's a story for another time!
P.S. To read old issues of AIR NIUGINI's In-flight magazine PARADISE, click here. For the latest issue in pdf format, click here.
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
What a day for an intra-day trade
These irrational markets offer some exciting intra-day trading opportunities but it requires nerves of steel or a devil-may-care attitude, neither of which I possess (but I'm working on it).
Take my favourite, BHP: it opened at $35.80, went as high as $36.04 by mid-morning before dropping to $35.08 just before lunch. It recovered to $35.65 for much of the afternoon, before the day's close at $35.64.
Daytrading is based on the premise that no one ever went broke taking a profit, and while no one ever bought in at the very bottom and sold out at the very top, even a trade from $35.80 down to $35.10 and then back again to $35.60 would have netted a cool $12,000 (before brokerage) on 10,000 shares, $24,000 on 20,000 shares, $60,000 on 50,000 shares, etc.
And it isn't just BHP; the banks, too, have huge intra-day trading ranges: CBA, from $68.29 to $69.66; NAB, from $18.42 to $18.90; WBC, from $17.88 to $18.39. Even good ol' WOW ranged from $35.97 to $36.95.
Of course, all this is with wonderful hindsight, and these are the sort of charts they are spruiking at those daytrading seminars which I've never attended and never will. If I ever made that sort of money in just one day, I may well be the very first daytrader in history who'd ever done so.
"What a day for a daydream; Custom made for a daydreamin' boy; And now I'm lost in a daydream; Dreamin 'bout my bundle of joy."
Monday, June 22, 2020
Even the dog would love the book!
Remember the story of a man who went to see a re-run of "Gone With the Wind" and was surprised to see a very large dog sitting next to a woman in the row in front of him?
What was even more surprising was that the dog seemed to follow the story, sitting with ears pricked, wagging its tail at the happy parts, and sitting downcast with bowed head during the distressing bits.
At the end of the show the man couldn't contain his curiosity any longer and, as the audience filed out of the cinema, walked over to the lady. "Excuse me, madam. I couldn't help noticing your dog in the movie. He seemed to understand the story and really enjoyed it. It was amazing!" "Yes," replied the woman, "I was amazed, too. He hated the book!"
I am sure the dog would love the book "Caddie, a Sydney Barmaid", even more so than the movie which is set in Sydney during the 1920s and 1930s, and is the true story of a desperate struggle against the almost overwhelming hardships of the Great Depression, against bad rooming-houses, bed bugs and illness, against exploitation and the corruption of Catherine Beatrice "Caddie" Edmonds' working environment.
So which is it to be? The book or the movie? They're equally great.
"What? You too? I thought I was the only one."
Friendship arises out of mere companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden).
It is when two such persons discover one another, when, whether with immense difficulties and semi-articulate fumblings or with what would seem to us amazing and elliptical speed, they share their vision - it is then that friendship is born. And instantly they stand together in an immense solitude." C. S. Lewis
I was reminded of what C.S. Lewis had written about friendship when, as we sat in front of the fireplace with three very good friends, there came this moment of "What? You too? I thought I was the only one", and we had something experienced in our own lives reflected back at us.
I may have been the only one who had read C.S. Lewis, but I was not the only one who had enjoyed spending the year's shortest day in front of a warm fireplace in the companionship of three like-minded spirits.
