Welcome to my blog!

 

 

𝕴 𝖜𝖗𝖎𝖙𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖘𝖊 𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖙𝖑𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖌𝖍𝖙 𝖇𝖚𝖇𝖇𝖑𝖊𝖘 𝖒𝖆𝖎𝖓𝖑𝖞 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖒𝖞 𝖔𝖜𝖓 𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖙𝖆𝖎𝖓𝖒𝖊𝖓𝖙 𝖇𝖚𝖙 𝖎𝖋 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖆𝖓𝖞𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖙𝖔 𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖙𝖗𝖎𝖇𝖚𝖙𝖊 𝖕𝖑𝖊𝖆𝖘𝖊 𝖊𝖒𝖆𝖎𝖑 𝖒𝖊 𝖆𝖙 𝖗𝖎𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖇𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖓𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖎𝖌𝖊𝖓[𝕬𝕿]𝖒𝖆𝖎𝖑.𝖈𝖔𝖒

 

I had to add this little preamble because something has gone wrong with the software. For some reason the side panel does not display unless I add this fixed "Welcome" post to the top. The mysteries of computers and computer software. Perhaps I should stick to playing my accordion. Last night a neighbour hammered on the door. It was already past midnight! Luckily, I was still awake and playing my accordion — I'm only joking; we live on seven acres and our only neighbour is the river.

 

I Nietzsche more than ever!

 

 

Friedrich Nietzsche lived a troubled adolescence, stemming from the intense difficulty he had in spelling his own name. This difficulty has continued to this day in the spelling of his name in bathroom graffiti and on t-shirts proclaiming "What doesn't kill me, makes me stronger" (neither does arthritis but it doesn't make me stronger).

As for pronouncing his name, I much rather talk about Freud - whose name is also easier to spell - but a useful mnemonic is to cast your mind back to your first girlfriend and the time when you whispered into her ear "I Nietzsche more than ever!" just before she stood you up.

Now that we have both the spelling and the pronunciation out of the way, enjoy the movie "When Nietzsche Wept" which is based on Irvin D. Yalom's book of the same name. It blends both fact and fiction and offers you the chance to nod knowingly next time someone mentions Nietzsche to you or drops the word 'limerence' (look it up, Des!)

 

The only online copy I could find is in Chinese 😁 - click here

 

For my money, the passage "It is wrong to bear children out of need, wrong to use a child to alleviate loneliness, wrong to provide purpose in life by reproducing another copy of oneself. It is wrong also to seek immortality by spewing one's germ into the future as though sperm contains your consciousness!" gives me my much-needed excuse because, you see, I did my children a favour by not having them!

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

"Objecting to your land value"

 

 

If you disagree with the land value on your notice of valuation or land tax assessment, you can lodge an objection. You will need to provide sales evidence from around 1 July in the valuing year to support your objection. If you do not provide supporting evidence, your objection will be disallowed."

 

 

Thus wrote the Valuer-General when he sent me these two Notices of Valuation which total $2,880,000. That value EXcludes the house and all other structures, and is $250,000 higher than the previous valuations three years ago, and is used to calculate the annual council rates.

Yes, I would very much like to object to the Valuer-General's assessment as I already pay council rates of about $500 A MONTH, which is far too much to pay for the privilege of living on my own piece of dirt. But how do I provide the required "sales evidence from around 1 July in the valuing year" when "Riverbend" is so unique that no similar property of this size and in this location has been sold since I bought it in 1993?

I guess I will be stuck with it until I sell it — at no more than land value.

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

"Durchhalten!"

 

 

Only the Germans would, or could, have a word with a double-h in the middle of it. It was one of the first words I learnt in post-war Germany: "Durchhalten!" Don't give up! Things will get better! And things did get better! Much better! Not through luck but through hard work.

"Durchhalten!" has been my motto all my life, and I am happy I grew up then instead of now. I am no longer a German and I no longer speak German except when necessary, but when I get into a tight spot, I still tell myself, "Durchhalten!". It helped me then, and it helps me now!

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

45 Hale Street, Townsville

 

The new owners did not change much of its outside appearance apart from giving it a 'cool' blue-and-white paint job.

 

The year was 1985. I had come back from my last posting to Greece. My Saudi boss, reluctant to let me go, had promised to let me continue my work from Australia, and so I bought this property on the edge of Townsville's CBD, which was going to be both office and home to me.

 

 

I bought it for something like $50,000-plus but then left town as the promised work never materialised. I hung onto the place for some years as a rental property but the trouble with maintenance and defaulting tenants was just too much bother and so I sold it in April 1998, a whole thirteen years later, for a mere $90,000 - hardly the sort of rags-to-riches story so often touted by real estate agents.

 

However, the inside has been quite stunningly renovated. The humble verandah has become an extension of the living-space.

The front room, once meant to have been my office, is now a beautifully appointed lounge.

Behind the lounge is another sitting-room. Its feature is the silky-oak room divider, repainted a gleaming white.

The garden has the city skyline as its backdrop, illustrating how close this ideal 'city pad' is to Townsville's mall and CBD.

 

What was it Heraclitus had said about rivers? It is not possible to step in the same river twice? Well, I haven't been back to Townsville since then.

 

Googlemap Riverbend