I'm back at "Riverbend"

 

 

While Padma was waiting at Samarinda airport for her flight to Yogyakarta (she's been gone for more than a week and I have almost forgotten what she looks like, but I think she's the third one seated from the right) I made a quick dash into the Bay while the sun was still shining.

At the GOLDEN LAKE Chinese Restaurant, I ordered my usual chicken in garlic and chicken in oyster sauce at $15 each. The young girl wrote it all down and then began to fumble. "What's the matter?" I asked her. "I can't find my calculator," she replied. Being retired, I was in no hurry; in fact, it gave me enough time to wonder what would happen to her. Would she keep working in this take-away until some young bloke got her pregnant and she would then raise a child who, like her, couldn't add 15 + 15 without the help of a calculator? Chinese food for thought!

Inside Woolies, I noticed that everyone was looking at me, and then I realised that I was the only one without a tattoo! Anyway, a loaf of HELGA wholemeal bread, a bottle of milk, and some mandarines and bananas later, and I'm back at "Riverbend". The red-and-white yacht is still anchored in the river, and I'm again in the only room in the house which is small enough to be able to be heated by an electric heater.

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

A whiff of Passionfruit & Pepperberry

 

The label reads, "Passionfruit & Pepperberry". Am I supposed to drink that stuff?

 

These days, my ability to remember song lyrics from the 60's far exceeds my ability to remember why I walked into the kitchen, but since I was already there, I thought I warm up my hands by doing the washing-up. Better not tell Padma that I enjoyed it, or it will become my permanent job.

All one needs is ONE spoon, ONE fork, ONE knife, ONE plate, ONE cup, and the washing-up was all done in a few minutes, which confirms that people with a high IQ tend to be lazy. I read this somewhere although I'm not sure where since I was too lazy to read the whole article.

Looking out the window, I see a red-and-white motor yacht anchored on the other side of the river. It had come to the relative calm of the river to seek refuge from the bad weather in the Bay, and it's been anchored here for the past three days. With the bad weather behind us, it must be time to up-anchor and return to the Bay. After a quick shower and shave, I may also drive to the Bay before I run out of bread and milk or start talking to myself. There's nothing wrong with talking to myself, except if I don't pay enough attention, I have to start all over again.

Breakfast is a piece of burnt toast and a cup of lemongrass and ginger tea. Strange, I seem to detect a whiff of Passionfruit & Pepperberry.

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

P.S. Great minds seem to think alike, as Padma has just now emailed me a couple of photos prior to her departure from Borneo where she visited family and friends and attended a Buddhist retreat. Today she's off to Borobudur, and to visit her brother in Jakarta and her sister in Surabaya.

 

Read it while you can still be sure it's only fiction

 

Sam Neill reads an abridged version of the book. For the unabridged version, click here

 

Putting things on lay-by was very popular when I arrived in Australia in the 1960s. I guess they are not so popular these days, but that hasn't stopped today's Australian government to give the USA a cheque for US$500 million (some AUS$790 million) on 8 February 2025 as a first instalment for three nuclear submarines it may never see.

 

Read the book online at www.archive.org

 

I paid far less for Nevil Shute Norway's 1957 book "On the Beach" - he used "Nevil Shute" as his pen name to separate his writing from his career as an aeronautical engineer - and its 1959 film adaptation, which stays pretty close to the book for the most part, but then changes the ending. In the book, Dwight follows military norms to the end, scuttling the submarine so it can't fall into the hands of a now non-existent enemy. In the film, he and his crew set out for home, wishing to die in America. This also ruins the book's sad end for Moira, choosing to die looking out over the bay where Dwight's body lies in his sunken vessel.

 

"On the Beach" is a story about the end of the world,
and Melbourne sure is the right place to film it - click here.

 

This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

"Herr Görmann ist aus eigenen Wunsch ausgeschieden, um im Ausland eine Tätigkeit anzunehmen."

 

Als achtzehnjähriger Lohnbuchhalter in 1963 oder 1964 irgendwo zwischen Walsrode and Verden wo wir die Autobahn von Hannover nach Bremen bauten.
Im Hintergrund ist mein "Schlafzimmer" und der Ölofen auf dem ich mein Essen kochte und Wasser warm machte für meine morgentliche Katzenwäsche.

 

 

Mein letzter Arbeitgeber in der (k)alten Heimat war Sager & Woerner, damals die größte Tiefbaufirma Deutschlands. Wir bauten die Autobahn von Hannover nach Bremen und unser "rollendes" Büro folgte der Baukolonne als sie sich langsam, Kilometer bei Kilometer, dem fernen Ziel näherte.

Wir waren drei im Büro: die Herren Dietl und Spoerl und ich, achtzehn Jahre jung und wohl der jüngste Bau- und Lohnbuchhalter den Sager & Woerner je beschäftigte. Herr Dietl and Herr Spoerl, beide Schwaben, waren mindestens zehn Jahre älter als ich; ihre Vornamen kannte ich nie denn wir redeten uns immer mit "Herr" an. Was wurde aus ihnen?

 

"Herr Görmann ist aus eigenen Wunsch ausgeschieden,
um im Ausland eine Tätigkeit anzunehmen."

 

Nach einundzwanzig Monaten im "rollenden Büro" auf verschiedenen Bauplätzen war es dann soweit "im Ausland eine Tätigkeit anzunehmen".

Das "Ausland" war Australien und die "Tätigkeit" war mir noch völlig unbekannt, aber die einundzwanzig Monate mit der Baufirma Sager & Woerner waren gute Vorbereitung and gaben mir Mut auszuwandern.

Noch vor Ende des selben Jahres war ich Bankangestellter bei einer australischen Bank, fünf Jahre später Buchprüfer in Neu-Guinea, und fünf Jahre danach 'chef-comptable' oder Hauptbuchhalter für die französische Ölgesellschaft TOTAL in Birma, und sieben Jahre später 'group financial controller' oder Konzernfinanzkontrolleur für eine große Gruppe von Rohstoffhändlern im Königreich von Saudi-Arabien.

Glück braucht der Mensch - und ein bißchen Mut!

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

It's been a couple of dark and stormy nights ...

 

 

And we may be in for one more bad night before things begin to quieten down on Thursday. I've been holed up in the bedroom with the electric heater switched to HIGH, reading, writing, and listening to the radio, while the whitecaps on the river are racing past my window.

We seem to have got off lightly when compared to nearby Burril Lake where some residents had to be evacuated and Ulladulla which copped 224mm of rain. But spare a thought for the good people on Pacific Street in Wamberal, a coastal suburb on the Central Coast. They lost almost all their beaches in July 2020, and they are copping it again now.

 

 

Whether by sheer good luck or clever design, a neighbour from up the lane and his wife set off on their motorbikes just before the weather hit, and are now well out of harm's way in Hahndorf in South Australia.

 

 

Just to rub it in, he emailed me this photo and wrote, "Hi Peter. Hope you enjoy your 2-minute noodles tonight while we feast on a German buffet dinner at the German Arms hotel in Hahndorf SA. I hear the weather is pretty extreme on the South Coast. It's still fine down here at the moment and we will be moving on before the rain gets here."

Who needs enemies when you have friends on motorbikes?

 

Googlemap Riverbend