Monday-Wednesday June 1-3, 2009 (diary)

I picked up a cold again this Saturday. Walking outside into a coldish breeze, after becoming wet through with sweat from all the carrying things up the stairs in the Motel, transformed my T-shirt into an icy cold layer, clearly very un agreeable to my body. These colds are aggravated by the nodule I have on my vocal cords (being in good company in this regard of famous singers like Tom Jones and Julie Andrews). This becomes very irritated and itchy during my colds resulting in excessive coughing. I should get this removed by the modern laser treatment available these days, but have been too lazy to do it so far.

So apart from bridge on Monday night and a quick visit to the Library on Tuesday I have confined myself to my cabin taking lots of pills. I have skipped my painting class too this Tuesday because I want to be sure to be back on deck by Thursday for three days of bridge in a row.
Mairead was away this Monday on a short break with her partner to Mendorah (the peninsula which forms the Western shore of the entrance to Darwin harbour), so I played bridge instead with Betty Mills. Betty is 6 years my senior (together we clock up a respectable 150 years) and a highly active bridge fanatic who runs the Palmerston Bridge Club. She also attends just about every large bridge tournament in Australia on the calender. In between she manages to play table tennis once a week.

To have something new to read during my self inforced confinement I got The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles from the Library. He wrote this book exactly 40 years ago in 1969 and I read it for the first time 10 years later on Bougainville Island while in the middle of my mid life crisis. I liked the book very much but then focused mostly on the emotional turmoil of the two main characters, Charles and Sarah (the FLW), which were of a similar nature and intensity as those experienced by "She" and myself at the time. After reading it I actually gave her a copy of the book too.

Reading it now for a second time, 30 years later, I get a much better perspective of the broader context of the book, including John Fowles' many astute comparisons between then (mid 19th Century England) and now, for example :

Now 40 years on Fowles ideas, I believe, still remain unchanged. It are only those "living in laboratories" : professionals especially of the natural sciences and philosophy, who carry on the torches lit by Darwin, Galileo, Newton, Einstein while the rest of human kind watches reality TV or harks back to long outdated religions and beliefs, largely (it seems) uninterested in or oblivious to those "discoveries of the utmost importance to the future of mankind."

But during my reading of this book my personal emotions from 30 years ago have risen from my subconscious, now flowing once again very near to the surface. Spinoza was so right of course : an emotion can only be replaced by a stronger emotion, never by the mind itself (Ethics 4 : Proposition 7).
On account of this I reopened the communication channel with "She" again several months ago. So far this has been onesided, She preferring to remain silent for now. Will this (mostly subconscious) emotional bond, which has tied us together these last 30 years, ever be resolved during our lifetimes ? Only time will tell.

Thursday & Friday June 4 & 5, 2009 (diary)

I am still battling my cold these two days, but of course can't miss my bridge. Thursday night in Palmerston with Mairead (just back from her break at Mendorah) and Friday night with Freda at the Darwin Bridge Club. It is a special "fun night", people dressing up in their best. I always find these nights a bit childish, but never mind, I put my second pair of bright yellow Gazman shorts on I just bought this week.

I have been working on The Martinshof Story these last few days. I put material online as I write it, so you are welcome to have a look at it as the story unfolds. Some of the material I have already written in my Blog will also be included, plus a large photo gallery putting all the jewelry images together. It is Saturday morning as I write this and am soon off to bridge again, playing two "series" sessions with Mairead in Darwin. My cough appears to have subsided somewhat thanks goodness, so I look forward to it.