A cool and foggy morning

 

My toothache had kept me awake all night, and I rung my friendly dentist to see if I can't bring my 8th-July appointment forward. "Can you manage to be here by 11 o'clock?" "With bells on", I replied and jumped in the car for the 50-kilometre drive north to Ulladulla.

He poked and drilled and then, to my astonishment, built the old broken molar back up to its original size. I had expected something a lot more radical, like a jaw-breaking extraction. "We'll try this first", he said. "It's on the same side where you received all that radiation almost three years ago, and chances are it may not be healing up quite so well."

By midday I felt well enough to get stuck into a lunch at the Ulladulla Bowling Club, washed down by a couple of glasses of their house wine. Then we went shopping, Padma for more wool for her needlework and I for more books. Found this 650-page tome which cost 120 riyals (then US$60) in Saudi Arabia but was on sale at my favourite op-shop for a mere dollar. Thirty-five years later I can finally read up on all those miserable years I spent in the world's largest sandbox. Al-Ḥamdu lillāh!

Also in Ulladulla we came across a pop-up vaccination centre: no bookings, no waiting; however, it's only available in the mornings and only dispenses AstraZeneca. It was then already mid-afternoon, so we'll be back tomorrow morning to get our first shot. If AstraZeneca is as bad as some people seem to fear-monger, at least we'll die together! 😀

I'm happy to take my chances

 

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Are we there yet?

 

My helpmate Troy won't be able to give me a hand until next Monday, so for a few days all work on the "Beach Shack" has stopped. Anyway, books are piling up by the fireside and it's time to do some serious reading again.

And then there is the end of the tax year coming up. Even though I've already been in retirement for twenty years and in my self-funded so-called "pension phase", I'm still spending more in taxes than on myself.

I'm booked for my first AstraZeneca shot on July 7th which is just one day before my friendly dentist in Ulladulla pulls that terribly aching molar which is giving me even more sleepless nights than I usually have.

According to Mark Twain, some sufferer had to sit up with a toothache, and he put in the time inventing the German language. Now we already have the German language and I already speak it, so what am I to do?

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From bad to good news for BHP

 

Trading Central has detected a 'Price Crosses Moving Average' chart pattern formed on BHP Group Ltd (BHP:ASX). This bullish signal indicates that the stock price may rise from the close of 48.40.

Tells Me: The price is generally in an established trend (bullish or bearish) for the time horizon represented by the moving average period (21, 50 or 200 bars). Moving averages are used to smooth out the volatility or "noise" in the price series, to make it easier to discover the underlying trend. By plotting the average price over the last several bars, the line is less "jerky" than plotting the actual prices. A bullish event is generated when the price crosses above the moving average, and in this state, the price is likely in an established uptrend. The opposite is true when the price crosses below the moving average, triggered a bearish event.

This bullish pattern can be seen on the above chart and was detected by Trading Central proprietary pattern recognition technology."

I hope Trading Central is as spot-on with their bullish forecast as they were ten days ago with their albeit short-lived bearish predictions - click here. With prices for iron ore, copper, and crude oil at or near record highs, the company is rolling in money, and I'm expecting a record dividend pay-out in September, maybe even a special dividend.

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P.S. Recent daily closing prices:
17/6/21 $47.69 (Low $47.45/High $48.33)
18/6/21 $46.52 (Low $46.21/High $47.31)
21/6/21 $45.61 (Low $45.61/High $46.09) was this the bottom???
22/6/21 $46.68 (Low $46.33/High $46.89)
23/6/21 $47.16 (Low $46.80/High $47.45)
24/6/21 $47.60 (Low $47.36/High $47.79)
25/6/21 $47.90 (Low $47.77/High $48.10)
28/6/21 $48.40 (Low $48.04/High $48.54)
29/6/21 $48.06 (Low $47.65/High $48.12)
30/6/21 $48.57 (Low $48.27/High $49.10)
1/7/21 $48.22 (Low $48.18/High $48.74)
2/7/21 $48.55 (Low $48.16/High $48.59)
5/7/21 $48.45 (Low $48.21/High $48.58)
6/7/21 $48.85 (Low $48.64/High $49.36)
7/7/21 $48.80 (Low $48.01/High $48.81)
8/7/21 $49.66 (Low $49.38/High $50.03)
9/7/21 $49.48 (Low $49.11/High $49.63)
12/7/21 $51.05 (Low $50.87/High $51.33)
13/7/21 $50.70 (Low $50.70/High $51.61)
14/7/21 $50.96 (Low $50.73/High $51.22)
15/7/21 $51.53 (Low $50.78/High $51.66)
16/7/21 $51.87 (Low $51.27/High $51.91)

 

In memory of Malty

Little Malty's first day at "Riverbend" in 2001

 

The Rainbow Bridge ℬy the edge of the woods, at the foot of the hill, Is a lush green meadow where time stands still. Where the friends of man and woman do run, When their time on earth is over and done. For here, between this world and the next, Is a place where each beloved creature finds rest. On this golden land, they wait and they play, Till the Rainbow Bridge they cross over one day. No more do they suffer in pain or in sadness, For here they are whole, their lives filled with gladness. Their limbs are restored, their health renewed, Their bodies have healed with strength imbued. They romp through the grass, and sniff at the air, All ears prick forward, eyes dart front and back, Then all of a sudden, one breaks from the pack, For just at that instant, their eyes have met: Together again, both person and pet. So they run to each other, these friends from long past, The time of their parting is over at last. The sadness they felt while they were apart, Has turned into joy once more in each heart. They embrace with a love that will last forever, And then side by side, they cross over ... together.

 

On this day five years ago we said good-bye to our wonderful friend Malty.

Rest in Peace, our loyal friend. You will forever be in our hearts.

Your "brother" Rover & Padma & Peter

 

 

 

A good day's work

 

I am not always reading! Some days I'm busy building myself a new reading nook. This one will have a huge sliding door 2.20m wide and 2.4 high which looks out to the river towards the setting sun.

The wallframes are up. I already have a sliding door which I got cheap for $450. Tomorrow I'll go shopping for seven 4m-long 140x45mm roof joists, eighteen 1200x600x7mm Red Oak plywood sheets for the ceiling, and 90x35mm battens to go on top of it all to hold the corrugated iron.

Then I take final measurements before placing orders for the corrugated roof and the outside wall cladding, and think about the internal fit-out. Which will be, you guessed it, inbuilt bookshelves on all three sides surrounding a sofa long enough to lie on and a comfortable armchair.

Then I just put up the sign and draw the curtains to be in another world.

 

Des, do you remember the day we went shopping in Jeddah's Marhaba Shopping Centre? It was just on prayer time and a shopkeeper was about to put up this sign. I asked him where I could get one like it as a keepsake of my time in Saudi Arabia. In typical Middle Eastern fashion, he immediately proffered it to me as a present. I have maintained this custom to this day: ask me for my opinion and I immediately give it to you completely free of charge.

 

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An Island to Oneself

 

On rare occasions there comes along a profound original, an odd little book that appears out of nowhere, from the pen of some obscure storyteller, and once you have read it, you will never go completely back to where you were before.

Tom Neale's "An Island to Oneself" is such an odd little and profoundly original book. Trying to describe it to those who haven't read it can be difficult. It is not just a book about living on a desert island. Its essence is larger than that. It's a book about a passion for simplicity; it's about being alone and doing alone. It tells us that life is incomplete without dreams and risk. It teaches the important and hard to appreciate truths that the ocean is beautiful and violent, that soil is precious and that there is a use for a bicycle pump on a desert island. It's a book about how to dream and how we might live. It is a book that becomes a place.

You can read about Tom Neale on the internet. You can even read his book on the internet - click here (simply SIGN UP, LOG IN, and BORROW)

Ultimately, however, you will want to buy your own copy because it is the kind of book other people may hesitate to lend to you for fear they might miss its company.

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Of things to come

 

I like to think I've built this ramp to get myself onto the verandah when, limp and drooling, I sit in my not-yet-acquired mobility scooter, although right now it comes in handy as I push wheel-barrows full of firewood to the door to keep ourselves warm.

Ever so slowly the days are getting longer and warmer and soon enough all hankering for the tropics will be distant memory - until next winter!

Already, the sun is warm enough to have an afternoon kip on the old sofa which had been a brandnew sofa when I furnished my flat in McMahons Point shortly after my return to Australia in 1985. It's a last reminder of that traumatic time and I like to think that, thirty-five years later, I've finally settled back into domestic life in Australia.

What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realised it sooner.

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"Riverbend" in lockdown?

 

No, not really - the Sydney pan(dem)ic hasn't spread farther south than Wollongong yet - but we might as well because, with a view like this, why would you want to be anywhere else? We've got plenty of books and plenty of toilet paper!

The Greater Sydney area, including Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour, is under Stay-at-home orders until 11.59pm on Friday, 9 July 2021. For the rest of NSW, click here.

No more singing (even in church), no more dancing (except at bridal parties), and one must be seated when consuming alcohol which removes the one useful test of knowing when one has had enough.
(Dan Murphy just sent me an email assuring me they are open as usual and home delivery is an option. Good to see that Big Liquor is on the ball. Must have access to our daily soma.)

Contact tracing, curfews, mandatory business closures, movement restrictions, fines for going to the beach, mandatory facemasks, millions put under house arrest at the whim of politicians ... isn't it incredible how fast the unthinkable has become normal and simply accepted as a necessary part of life?   Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World Revisited"?

Meanwhile, at Woolies in Batemans Bay ...

Please click on image

 

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Evening at "Riverbend" is life at its best!

 

Having put the finishing touches to the arbor above the stairs leading down to the pond, it's time to turn on my recently acquired Chinese lantern which I found at my favourite op-shop during my latest bookhunt. It's a real piece of art!

 

Pull the toggle once and it's a red lantern ...

... and pull the toggle again and the room is bathed in a warm glow.

Of course, it's nothing when compared to the sunset across the river.

Evening at "Riverbend" is life at its best!

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He's always had a way with (cross-)words

David Plomley, the cruciverbalist

 

The year was 1975 and I was still in Burma but had already been hired by the management consulting firm W.D. Scott to look after the finances and businesses of a certain PNG politician.

A week with him and I knew I had to get away! The manager of the consulting firm, David Plomley, got me another position with the National Housing Commission which was no better. It took me a year to get my career back on track again (of course, in hindsight, I should never have left Burma in the first place, but that's hindsight for you!)

With the name David Plomley forever engraved on my mind for having got me the two worst jobs in my long and varied career, I was a little surprised to read about a Mr Plomley who entered the crossword trade as a young University of Sydney chemical engineering student in 1961. "I used to do crosswords on the ferry in the late '50s when I was a student living in Mosman," Mr Plomley said. "So I thought I'd give it a go."

Then, like in any good crossword puzzle, came the clue, "Mr Plomley, now a 75-year-old retired management consultant, has been at it pretty much ever since, compiling more than 2500 puzzles." A 75-year-old retired management consultant! Of course, that's "my" David Plomley!

The newspaper I found this article in was a 2013 Sydney Morning Herald which makes him 83 years old today. Just enough time left to give him a blast from the past before it falls on deaf (or should it be 'dead'?) ears.

He replied to my email almost immediately, "Hello Peter! What a long time ago! Yes, I'm still in the crossword business - see any Wednesday's Sydney Morning Herald. Otherwise I am long retired. My last consulting assignment was with AusAID in Papua New Guinea from 2000 to 2003."

From management consultant to cruciverbalist: not much of a stretch as both diddle with words, and you've always had a way with them, David!

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Another early morning at "Riverbend"

 

Early Saturday morning at "Riverbend". I have fed the possum in his possum penthouse and the wild ducks by the pond, and then stood for a few moments in silent reverie admiring my latest handiwork (or should that be "handy work"? 😀)

My BUNNINGS purchases are mounting up. On this little job alone I have already run up a tab of two thousand dollars, and the most expensive bits, WEATHERTEX® cladding and Colorbond® roofing, are yet to come.

Of course, every time I leave their store, they check and check again to ensure I have paid for everything. What they don't seem to realise is that each time I'm smuggling out one of their shopping baskets which make excellent carry-alls for my tools or as laundry basket for Padma.

According to the Bible's Isaiah 48:22, there is no rest for the wicked, but I am declaring this weekend the "Stay-at-home-and-read weekend".

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A quick eye test before we hit the road

 

We drove to Batemans Bay nice and early today so we could do our shopping and also enjoy a leisurely lunch at our favourite Thai restaurant. Before we left, I did my usual eye test which, not surprisingly, confirmed my suspicion: I need more books!

At Vinnies I found "The Spirit of Kokoda - Then and Now" and "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", and the Salvos supplied me with "The Lost Ships of Guadalcanal - Exploring the Ghost Fleet of the South Pacific", John Douglas Pringle's "On Second Thoughts" (a sequel to his best-selling "Australian Accent"), and "The Well at the World's End" from the author of "The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow" at the latter.

I had walked the Kokoda Track in my younger days back in the early 70s (I certainly couldn't do it now!), so reading up on its wartime history should be interesting; I close my eyes when I put my head under water and never dived Iron Bottom Sound when I lived and worked in Honiara on Guadalcanal in 1973, so "The Lost Ships of Guadalcanal" should be a real eye-opener (pun intended!); and, having very much enjoyed "The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow", I can't wait to follow A.J. (Sandy) Mackinnon's footsteps to the Well at the World's End whose waters hold the secret to eternal youth. And, not wanting to judge a book by its movie which I watched and couldn't get my head around - see clip - I look forward to Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being".

I don't think I'll need my eyes tested again for at least a week!

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Is that how the cookies crumble?

 

The Chinese biological laboratory in Wuhan is owned by Glaxosmithkline, which (accidentally) owns Pfizer! (the one who makes the vaccine against the virus which was (accidentally) started at the Wuhan Biological Lab and which was (accidentally) funded by Dr. Fauci, who (accidentally) promotes the vaccine!

GlaxoSmithKline is (accidentally) managed by the finance division of Black Rock, which (accidentally) manages the finances of the Open Foundation Company (Soros Foundation), which (accidentally) manages the French AXA!

Soros (accidentally) owns the German company Winterthur, which (accidentally) built a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan and was bought by the German Allianz, which (coincidentally) has Vanguard as a shareholder, who (coincidentally) is a shareholder of Black Rock, which (coincidentally) controls central banks and manages about a third of global investment capital.

Black Rock is also (coincidentally) a major shareholder of MICROSOFT, owned by Bill Gates, who (coincidentally) is a shareholder of Pfizer (which - remember? sells a miracle vaccine) and (coincidentally) is now the first sponsor of the WHO!

Fake news? You work it out! I'm over it!

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James A. Michener Returns to the South Pacific

 

I wish I could tell you about the South Pacific. The way it actually was. The endless ocean. The infinite specks of coral we called islands. Coconut palms nodding gracefully toward the ocean.

Reefs upon which waves broke into spray, and inner lagoons, lovely beyond description. I wish I could tell you about the sweating jungle, the full moon rising behind the volcanoes, and the waiting. The waiting. The timeless, repetitive waiting." [Continue to read here]

So begins "Tales of the South Pacific" by that masterful story-teller, James A. Michener, who followed it up with "Return to Paradise" and "Rascals in Paradise". They have been my friends and companions since my own days in the South Pacific, and I have re-read them at different stages of my life. The stories never change but my perspective does.

They were my years on sweaty and muddy Bougainville Island where, as Michener wrote, "... pretty soon you hated the man next to you, and you dreaded the look of a coconut tree." As he points out elsewhere, "The South Pacific is not a paradise, in the sense that Eden wasn't either. There are always apples and snakes. But it is a wonderful place to live. ... many white travelers [have been enchanted to] built happy lives. Often on a cool night when the beer was plentiful and the stories alluring, we have envied the men and women of the South Pacific."

Unlike James A. Michener who in the above video clip returned to the island of Espiritu Santo the late 1980s, I will probably never see the islands again but I can read about them and remember. I am a reader not because I don't have a life but because I choose to have many.

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