Having skipped yesterday's visit to my favourite op-shops, I suffered terrible withdrawal symptoms and simply had to drive back into town for a fix. And here they all are:
"Roads to Berlin" is an absolute gem and I shall devour its 350 pages all in one "sitting" lying on the old sofa on the verandah this weekend.
And anyone who has read my post on "The real estate deal of the millennium" about the island of Run knows that I've been looking for "The Island at the Center of the World" for some time. And here it was:
"So what has all this to do with Bonnie Doon?" I hear you scratching your head. Well, I also found this sign which I shall mount above the door to my "Melbourne" shack and rename it "Bonniedoon" in memory of "The Castle", the most quintessential of all quintessential Australian movies.
It should save me the trouble of driving all the way down to the real Bonnie Doon in Victoria to stay in the original Bonnie Doon which is now - no, you're not dreaming! - an airbnb. The serenity is still real!
What a great fix to my addiction! The Happy New Year just got happier! And if your New Year didn't go quite as well as mine did, may I suggest an extra couple of glasses of orange juice and go easy on the self-pity?
P.S. Unfortunately, YouTube has no clip of the full-length CASTLE movie but I was able to unearth for you these two clips of the making of this iconic - I've used the word "quintessential" often enough - movie:
Remember some of those famous lines?
"We're right next door to the airport. It will be very convenient if we ever have to fly one day."
"Dad still can't work out how he got it so cheap. It's worth almost as much today as when we bought it."
"They reckon the planes put people off. Them and the power lines. Not Dad. He reckons power lines are a reminder of man's ability to generate electricity."
"Dad adores Mum, and Mum adores him. They met at the greyhounds one night, and it was love at first sight."
"Steve is an apprentice mechanic, but he spends most of his time reading the Trading Post. He just loves buying and trading. Dad, ergonomic chairs. Four of them. - What does he want? - One-eighty. - He's dreaming. - Him and Dad really know bargains."
"She is the only member of the Kerrigan family who'd had a college education. Dad reckons the day she graduated as a fully-qualified hairdresser was about the proudest day of his life.
"All Dad's most prized possessions are in the poolroom – all his mementos and things that remind him of something special. So, by him saying it was "going straight to the poolroom" meant he thought it was special."
"Now, here back, all landfill. Not allowed to build there. - Has the soil been tested? - Oh, yeah. Nothing too serious in there. What do you know about lead?"
"If there's one thing Dad loved more than serenity, it was an outboard motor on full throttle."
"Dad reckoned that fishing was 10 percent brains and 95 percent muscle and the rest was just good luck."
"It's not a house, is a home."
"It's -- It's the vibe of it."
"You can acquire a house, but you can't acquire a home, because a home is not built of bricks and mortar but love and memories. You can't pay for it, and you're just shortchanging people if you try."
"Dad reckons it's important to be noble in victory, so he spoke to the other Q.C., the one who had a go at Wayne. - Bad luck. You dickhead!"
And this one definitely predates the movie before the 2023 Leongatha mushroom poisoning: "Oh, Mum, we had a choice between fish and Beef Wellington. - Beef Wellington? - What's that, darl? - It's beef done in pastry."
There's a generation of Australians growing up who have never heard of "The Castle". No wonder they're confused about which bathroom to use!
