Back from our morning walk

 

 

We've just returned from our morning walk across the bridge and through the village. It's all so much easier now after they've adjusted all the traffic signs to Padma's height.

 

Raisin Toast $6
How many slices in a pack of Café Style Raisin Loaf? 18 - or 25 cents a slice!

 

The River Café was doing a brisk trade with all those bikies and then the members of the Vespa Club arrived, all good for a $25-breakfast. Peter from across the road was busily counting his five cars. He'd asked the Council to build another carport which was refused, so he's now parking his latest acquisition, a brightred sports coupé, at a neighbour's house.

Speaking of five, there are five OPEN HOUSES in Nelligen today - and that's not counting the other six properties for sale - click here. Nelligen seems to have suddenly become the real estate capital of Australia.

 

Click here

Click here

Click here

Click here

Click here

 

And that's not even counting "Riverbend". You've looked at the rest, now look at the best! - click here - but, please, form an orderly queue!

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin'

 

 

I was up last night around one o'clock. I often am when I can't sleep because old memories haunt me or simply because I need a drink or, conversely, a pee. Last night it was the rain that woke me up. It was a soft and steady rain and I opened the window to listen to it, and the pitter-patter sent me off to sleep again.

Now it's just after seven and I've woken up to brilliant sunshine and the sound of birds, and all I can think of is "Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin'". It's one of those rare moments when I'm consciously grateful to be alive for no other reason than just that - being alive.

And as I stand in the bright sunlight in my favourite corner of the kitchen where the kettle and the toaster await to help me make a hot cup of coffee laced with milk and a buttered toast with plum jam, all I can add to it is "I've got a beautiful feelin', everything's goin' my way".

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

The World Until Yesterday

 

 

If you were a frequent air traveller in the late 90s, you would have encountered Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" which festooned the shelves of every airport bookshop. I got my copy at Sydney airport and read it non-stop on a non-stop QANTAS flight to Shanghai in 1998.

 

 

In his most personal book to date, "The World Until Yesterday", Jared Diamond writes about his experiences over nearly five decades working and living in New Guinea, an island that is home to one thousand of the world's 7,000 languages and one of the most culturally diverse places.

Drawing on his fieldwork in New Guinea, as well as evidence from Inuit, Amazonian Indians and other cultures, Diamond explores how tribal peoples approach essential human problems, from child-rearing to old age to conflict resolution to health, and discovers that we have much to learn from traditional ways of life.

He unearthes remarkable findings - from the reasons why modern afflictions like diabetes, obesity and hypertension are largely non-existent in tribal societies, to the surprising cognitive benefits of multilingualism. As Diamond reminds us, the West achieved global dominance due to specific environmental and technological advantages, but Westerners do not necessarily have superior ideas about how to raise children, care for the elderly, or simply live well.

In keeping with my current more earth-bound lifestyle, I found my copy of "The World Until Yesterday" not at any airport but at Vinnies' op-shop.

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

Other books by Jared Diamond:
Guns, Germs, and Steel : The fates of human societies
The Third Chimpanzee : The evolution and future of the human animal
Collapse : How societies choose to fail or succeed
Why Is Sex Fun?: The Evolution of Human Sexuality