Sunday & Monday, October 11 & 12 2009 (diary)

Birds all over the place, going berserk with excitement about the mangos. Some tree branches are so bent over heavy with fruit they must be close to breaking point.

Sunday morning I watch the Insiders program on ABC TV as usual, then it is off to the Sunday morning Nightcliff Markets. I have not been there for ages, but prompted by a craving for those large size spring rolls I decide to check them out again. Lots of people there and they do of course have spring rolls, so I buy a couple for tonight.
Then, as I pass by the Nightcliff swimming pool I see that it is lovely quiet in there, so I go in and do my usual half dozen (50 m) laps. The water is beautiful and very refreshing. After this healthy exercise I feel I have earned some sushi at Bar Zushi in the Casuarina Square shopping centre. The small eatery is packed with people and there are only four staff on duty, battling to keep up with the orders.

Monday I have a quiet day. At lunch time I try out some sushi from the Palmerston Library Bistro, but these take-away boxes prepared by an outside source are simply no match for the freshly made sushi from the proper Sushi Bars. In the afternoon the sky is black with thunderclouds, but after just a few tentalising drops of rain it all blows over and a clear blues sky returns.
In the evening it is bridge with Mairead Kelly again, we end up in the middle, I have perhaps a bit too much red wine to drink and am not quite with it. Earlier I receive congratulations about last Saturday's event. Freda Park and I won the evening session, and together with Freda and Terry Hanley's afternoon effort we won the whole event.
I return late at night, find it hard to fall asleep and keep reading (novel The Fencing Master). Then I hear the rain drumming on the cabin roof. Great it will freshen up the farm in the morning.

Tuesday & Wednesday, October 13 & 14 2009 (diary)

This 13th day (Tuesday) has clearly got it in for me. In the late afternoon we have a sudden brief rainstorm with strong wind gushes. The noise of a heave thump wakes me from my siesta. After the rain stops I check out what happened. The welding on one of the steel poles holding up the shade cloth over my car, has given way. The pole fell onto the back of my Vito and smashed through the rear windscreen.
Unbelievable, 6 days short of exactly one year ago I broke the same windscreen here. Fortunately it is not all bad luck today. I immediately ring Windscreens O'Brien who assures me they have a new windscreen for my model car in stock. They can replaced it for me in the morning.

Wednesday morning I rise early to say farewell to Gordon and Iris (Kim's parents) and wave them on their way as they leave for home in Victoria. They will return next May.
After my morning walk it is off to town to get my windscreen replaced and in less than 2 hours that is done. I have a swim in the Nightcliff Pool, then a sushi lunch in Casuarina.

Late afternoon another short rain downpour, this time without the gusty winds. In the evening I watch an episode of the Danish TV crime series The Eagle. It is like that other Danish production Unit One, brilliant drama. These two series are in my view not equaled by anything in this category I have ever watched on television.

Thursday, October 15 2009 (diary)

The Dow Jones went (as I anticipated) for the first time since the crash over the 10,000 mark, with more than 2 months to spare for this year. The Australian stock market is also forging ahead, and will reach 5,000 well before the end of this year I believe. So the economy appears to be on the mend.
The Aussie Dollar is firmly lodged around the 61 and a half Euro cents, and I am sure will rise further as new interest rates rises are announced by our Reserve Bank in the coming months.

As I do my morning walk amongst the trees on the farm I have a strange thought. If trees do have a certain sense of awareness in any shape or form, then some of these mango trees must surely feel vaguely similar like an 8 and a half months pregnant woman. Bent out off shape, fruit laden branches at breaking point, they seem to suffer with a wise knowing smile, aware that they are at a most vital stage in their species' cycle of propagation and evolution.
A few of the trees, recovered to their normal shape after having been picked bare of their fruit by Gordon before he left yesterday, seem to have a "body language" of relief and satisfaction after their completed "labour".

After heavy short rain downpours the previous two days the skies are blue again with accululations of benign woolly white clouds moving around here and there. Life is good.
In the evening I play bridge with Mairead. Betty Mill (in chage of the Palmerston Bridge Club) is back and I arrange to go through the ScoreBridge program with her tomorrow.