Pin the tail on the donkey

 

Click on umage to enlarge

 

If you can correctly locate "Riverbend" on this aerial photograph — which I "stole" from this Blackshaw advertisement, which I am sure they won't mind as it gives them free advertising — you are welcome to come down to claim your prize of a glass of retsina and nibblies while sitting on the jetty overlooking the river.

 

 

You are welcome to pop in on any day of the week, except Mondays, Fridays, Sundays, Wednesdays, Saturdays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.

 

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The vision splendid

 

Looking across from Pallarenda Beach to Magnetic Island
(not me, but someone else with more "Sitzfleisch" than me)

 

Sitting on a tropical beach in my retirement, with the sun on my back and in good company, listening to the waves lapping on the sand and enjoying the view. Was it a vision splendid such as this that made me buy that little beachside shack at Cape Pallarenda just north of Townsville back in 1981?

I had grown more and more tired of demanding overseas assignments and fixing up other people's problems. I just wanted to be like everyone else: an unimportant cog in the wheel who went to work five days a week to do an undemanding job that didn't totally exhaust me, and who on Friday afternoon could switch off from it all to enjoy the weekend.

 

 

And so I took an undemanding job in Townsville, bought a little house, both undemanding in money and maintenance, near the beach, and thought I was all set for an undemanding life. But real life isn't like that. Real life demands that you be true to yourself and do the things that you are meant to do. And so I went off again, first back to New Guinea, then to Saudi Arabia, then to Greece. Three years later I was back in town but the ease with which I used to slip in and out of jobs had left me - in fact, there was no job! - and I fled to the "Deep South". I had proven Heraclitus right: "No man ever steps in the same river twice".

 

Click also here

 

Marooned in the "Deep South", I drew a line under that vision splendid and sold the little house near the beach at 3 Bay Street, Pallarenda, but there are moments when I still wonder if I have done the right thing.

Remember "Ol' Blue Eyes" Frank Sinatra's signature song, "My Way"? Its iconic opening to the second verse reflects on living a full life, taking responsibility for one's actions, and facing the end on one's own terms:

 

"Regrets, I've had a few / But then again, too few to mention."

 

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Another Bill Bryson

 

 

While in the Bay, I will pop into my favourite op-shop to check out their book section. If I do find anything above the usual dross — Camus' "The Myth of Sisyphus" would be nice — I'll let you know in my next post."

 

 

Which is how I closed off yesterday's post, and, while I didn't find Camus' "The Myth of Sisyphus", I picked up a hardcover copy of "The Body - A Guide for Occupants" by Bill Bryson. I had bought it many months ago as a brandnew paperback, but there it was, as a hardcover and still in mint condition. Someone had bought it in Indonesia for 280,000 rupiah.

 

The notation 'NF' means the same in Indonesian: 'nonfiksi'

 

I still haven't read the paperback from cover to cover but merely dipped into the sections that interested me most, but now I shall go straight to my still new hardcover copy and read all 450 pages right to the end, which begins with the quote, "Eat sensibly. Exercise regularly. Die anyway." And that's you gone. But it was good while it lasted, wasn't it?

 

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From the pages in my Trading Diary

 

 

I shouldn't really call it that, as I don't trade very much, but I do keep scrupulous notes every day of how my shares in BHP, the world's biggest miner, are performing. I have held the shares for decades, and my patience seems to have finally been rewarded.

 

Click on bhp.com

 

Yesterday, while I was floating in the warm-water pool, they shot up to $58.71, before flatlining at $58.25 for most of the day. When I was back at home and in front of my computer by mid-afternoon, I placed two belated SELL-order: one at $58.70, in case they shoot the lights out again, and a lower one at $58.50, after which I took an afternoon nap.

 

 

When I woke up again in time for the evening news, the $58.50 order had been executed at $58.52. I viewed it as an insurance policy against a possible price reversal — which usually happens after such a huge price surge — and an opportunity to buy back in again afterwards.

 

 

It's early next morning, and I have looked up BHP's closing price in New York: DOWN 2.11% to US$82.55, or AUS$114.36 at the exchange rate of 0.72182. Since one BHP American Depositary Receipt (ADR) is equal to two shares in Australia, this translates to AUS$57.18 for one Australian share, or down $1.34 on yesterday's Sydney closing price of $58.52.

 

 

If Sydney follows New York today — and it usually does — I succeeded in averting a "paper loss" of $1.34 a share on that portion of the shares I sold yesterday, and created an opportunity to buy back in again at a lower price in the hope that they will return to yesterday's price.

(Of course, at such an elevated share price, brokerage accounts for about seven cents a share, both buy and sell, so a profit is made only if the sales price is at least fourteen cents above the purchase price.)

Who said life in retirement was boring?

 

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Autumn at "Riverbend"

 

Three deciduous liquidamber trees for a bit of a 'European' touch
I planted the two smaller ones on the left thiry years ago

 

Still being very much a tropical bird, I don't like the autumn mornings at "Riverbend", but I must admit that once the sun is out, there's simply no other place like "Riverbend". It's pretty hard to tear myself away, but with Padma meeting another Indonesian girl for coffee and I having to do some serious hardware shopping for the verandah project, we are off to town this morning.

 

First on the left is the 'Tradesmen's Entrance'; at the top is the main entrance

 

One last look in the rear vision mirror and we're round the corner and heading for "the real world". First stop will be the warmwater pool to thaw out those old bones; then I get dropped off at the shops; and Padma, with a bit of luck, will talk long enough with her Indonesian friend to leave me in peace to read my books for the rest of the week.

While in the Bay, I will pop into my favourite op-shop to check out their book section. If I do find anything above the usual dross — Camus' "The Myth of Sisyphus" would be nice — I'll let you know in my next post.

 

Googlemap Riverbend