Monday January 26, 2009 (diary)

We are almost back to normal on the coast. Today is the last day of the Australia Day long weekend as well as the end of the school holidays and many families are returning home. Car parking spots near the beach are easy to find and the Mooloolaba Caravan Park (beautifully located next to the Surf Club and right behind the beach dune strip) which was still completely full yesterday is now half empty as I walk past it.
I have a good swim. Many kids as well as adults use boogie boards, (some even with flippers) in the surf, but I never do. I much prefer to rely just on my own body and simple skills to catch waves, it gives me much greater satisfaction when I succeed. Today the waves are rather weak but I do manage to catch a few.

The Surf Club too, thanks goodness, is much quieter than yesterday and there are plenty of tables available. I have lunch there, then go on to the Sunshine Plaza for a bit of shopping and also to take a photo of the Hikaru food stall. I buy a couple of nice casual Jag T-shirts and a lovely pale yellow Tommy Hilfiger polo. Pink shirts have been very popular amongst men now for a few years (it is also the colour of the Cancer Foundation which many support), but pale yellow, it appears, and a lovely pale light purple have become rather fashionable this season.
When I finally get to the Hikaru it is well past 3 PM and the stall has clothed, but I take a picture of it anyway.

Tuesday January 27, 2009 (diary, writing a blog, awareness)

After almost falling asleep at this morning's bridge and not paying much attention, I am off to the beach to wake up. Crystal clear water, now about 25° C, good moderate size waves for body surfing and, above all, the holiday crowds have gone. No danger of bumping head first into other swimmers in the water. Mooloolaba has gone back to normal, Heaven for the locals, regulars like me and the smaller numbers of holiday makers, mostly couples of various ages, without kids.
Awareness 25 continues from January 24
It is now over a year ago (13 months in fact) since my daughter Babette urged me to start writing a Blog, and I must say I am glad she did because I have been enjoying it all the way and still do.
I am of course well and truly retired and have written most of the material for my various music courses and therefore have plenty of time to think and write about other things, keeping my mind alert and occupied.

But writing a Blog is much more than just filling in time. You become much more aware I find, about what happens every day simply because you keep thinking : "What shall I write about today ?" Also your mind goes back to the past or latches onto ideas, interesting thoughts which sometimes come to mind out of nowhere.

Furthermore thinking about things is one thing, but writing your thoughts down is something entirely different. As you write memories suddenly flood back into much greater detail than you ever thought possible, and ideas which were up to now only vague cloudy blobs in your mind expand and come truly into focus as you try to formulate them into words. Writing a Blog is therefore (certainly in my case) an enormously life enriching experience.
To complement the writing you make photos of sometimes very mundane simple things, like plates of food, a tree, cafes, you would normally not even think about, which add to the overall picture you paint for each day.

Well, there you have the perspective of the writer. But what about you, the reader ?
I very much hope that when you read some of the things I write in my Blog you start asking yourself : "Do I agree with this ?" and if not, "What do I believe myself ?"
When you do start thinking like this (and regardless whether you agree with my views or not) I have reached my goal : you are becoming more aware about your life and your place in the world and the universe we live in.

So why not go one step further ?
Perhaps you have not had the years of writing practice (throughout my entire professional career) that I have had. I therefore challenge you with this simple idea :

1. Purchase a small Diary
   
2. Write at the end of each day just one thought you had that day.

Take your small diary everywhere you go, on business, holiday, wherever. (You can also use a laptop if you carry that always with you like I do.) The daily entry can be anything, but try to make it the most significant, or least insignificant, thing that struck you during the day. For example as simple as :

• I thoroughly enjoyed that delicious vanillas slice today, or
• I am sorry I said ......... to John today. It upset him very much, or
• It suddenly occurred to me today that ...........

Unless you throw a line in the water you will never catch a fish. That small diary is your fishing line. It will start you thinking "What shall I write today ??" and therefore make you more aware of each day, each moment you live. And you may surprise yourself, soon (I bet) you will catch fish much bigger (more interesting) than you could imagine.
Awareness continues on February 26

Wednesday - Friday January 28 - 30, 2009 (diary, hot weather)

Busy with various chores these days so not much time to write. I finally updated my finances for the past several months on the computer and prepared the material for my income tax for the accountant.
Did see my GP Jenny Cooke again for the test results : cholesterol level is good but I have to take some tests again next week as the present results may have been affected by my recent infection. Physically I feel absolutely terrific these days, perhaps a reflection of my all time low blood pressure ? Or my more active lifestyle walking and swimming each day.
I also had my 6 monthly dental cleaning at Vince O'Rourke, periodontist, a wheel alignment done on my car, a hair cut and I visited the Natuzzi - Italian Furniture store in Maroochydore to say hello to Ruth Broderick who manages the store. Ruth was another one of the co-founders of our Nambour Bridge Club 17 years ago. (On above photo she is standing on the left in yellow top and leather skirt.)

The weather in the Southern states of Australia (South Australia and Victoria) has been scorching hot for several days now, with day temperatures of 43-44° C dropping only to 35° overnight. Railway lines in Melbourne have buckled in the heat disrupting all train travel there. There are also several bush fires (some deliberately lit by vandals) with a dozen homes destroyed.

In terms of the weather SE Queensland's Sunshine Coast (green spot on the map) is the best place to live in Australia. Weather patterns in Australia tend to move from the NW to the SE. This means that in summer the monsoonal rains and floods follow the line from Darwin to Mackay, while the hot 40+° dry air from the Central desert region travels SE to Adelaide and Melbourne.
SE Queensland and the Northern coast of New South Wales are located between these two extremes with pleasant summer temperatures and moderate rains. But the winters are mildest at the Sunshine Coast due to its Sub-tropical latitude.

Saturday January 31, 2009 (diary, Erik Satie, clothes)

Erik Satíe (the French Impressionist composer I have referred to several times in this Blog) was a very eccentric man. At one point he purchased 12 grey velvet suits. He would wear one suit continuously until worn out, then throw it away and start wearing another one. At his death there were still six unused suits left.
I am by no means as eccentric as all that, but I do share with Satíe the strong desire to hang on to certain favourite clothes as long as I possibly can. (This is a feature of many other men as well I believe.)

My selection and style of clothing has always been determined by the environment in which I lived. In Australia that has always been very casual. Apart from my brief stint in Holland (from 1981-83 when I ran the family business 'Martinshof'), and my 41 day cruise on the Silver Shadow in 2007, I have hardly ever worn a suit, a jacket or a formal tie since arriving in Australia in 1966 !!

Soon after arriving at the Sub-tropical Sunshine Coast (in 1991) I started wearing Tencel material clothes, shorts, jeans and shirts. They have a lovely feel and rustic look about them. In the late 90s the Italian Palmone moccasins came onto the Australian market and I immediately switched over to them, discarding my Dutch handmade Greeve "penny shoes" I had been wearing since 1981.

When I moved North to Tropical Darwin, the Tencel material became far too hot to wear. But soon I discovered the light, easy to care for cotton/nylon shorts and 3/4 length trousers Gazman was making and switched over to those, together with their thin, cool shirts and T-shirts.
This summer Gazman did not produce any cotton/nylon trousers at all, but Yarra Trail did. So I bought half a dozen shorts of those. And although I purchased several different styles of moccasins in Europe, the Palmones are still my favourite.