Today was a gloomy and rained-out day; the Dow was down 266 points; China showed signs of slowing; and the Labor vs. Liberal election campaign had adjourned to the beer-swilling Rooty Hill RSL Club - it was time to shake off the cabin-fever and go for a drive down the coast!
A visit to my favourite "bookshop", the St Vincent de Paul op-shop at Moruya, always cheers me up and today was no exception. I found an almost mint-condition RANSOM by David Malouf, an equally well-preserved copy of Michael Moore's Stupid White Men, and, for a bit of light relief, Scrap Waggon, by the same Barry Crump who wrote There and Back.
As I was lining up to pay for all this lovely reading material, I overheard an old bloke in front of me pleading with the shop assistant to have put aside an old $10-television which he would pick up when he had the money. "We can't do that ...", the assistant told him but, quick as a flash, added, "... however, we can let you have it for nothing!" when she spotted me pointing at his back with a $10-bill in my hand. I last saw him humping the TV-set out of the shop. If only all problems could be solved so easily!
Back on the highway, we pulled in at the Eurobodalla Botanical Gardens where we had planted two memorial trees ten years ago. The ribbon gum in memory of my father had grown into a stately tree but the snow gum which commemorated my old mate Noel had withered away. Maybe it was meant to be because after a lifetime spent in New Guinea he had never quite settled back into Australian life, saying "My spiritual home will always be New Guinea."
Two things stand like stone;
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own.
Adam Lindsay Gordon
