Thursday - Saturday, March 11 - 13 2010 (diary)

The weather is wonderful here at present. Sunny, clear blue skies, no clouds at all most of the time. Humidity is very low too. The first dragon flies have come out on the Mango farm. Those in the know consider this a clear sign that the wet season is over. So I arrived here very much at the right time.
I have raced though Peter Temple's novel The Broken Shore, and am now into my second one, Shooting Star. There are several more of his novels in the Palmerston Library and I will probably read all of them, they are outstanding.

Thursday evening bridge in Palmerston with Mairead, they were all happy to see me back. Friday lunch with my son Jeroen in town. He is off to Bali this weekend for 10 days, with his wife Lisa and 8 or 10 of his friends to celebrate his 40th birthday over there. No doubt they will have a good time.
Friday evening another relaxed evening's bridge with Freda in Darwin, and Saturday my first lunch at Stokes Hill Wharf, saying hello to the staff at the Portside Char Grill.
Someone else has taken over the eatery however, a friend. The former owners are just back from a holiday in Vietnam. One of them, who was expecing, has had a healthy new boy around Christmas. So that is good.
From midday clouds have started to build up and by 4PM, when I am soaking in the Mango farm pool, we get a brief shower. After that everything is fresh again.

I am feeling an increasing restlessness growing in me. I have to change, do something new, even a small tweak may be fine, what will it be ? I have no idea. But it is good, one can't stand still in life. I am constantly looking for new things to do (in a lazy sort of way mind you). In November I will change my way back to Queensland and check out some places along Queensland's North coast, Bowen, Woodgate, we'll see.

Sunday & Monday, March 14 & 15 2010 (diary)

We had some rain Saturday night and this Sunday morning. Clear and sunny after that, but the humidity has increased somewhat.
On the ABC TV "Insiders" Sunday morning program an honest answer by Tony Abbott (the present Liberal Opposition leader) to a moral question directed at him in an interview is discussed. "Why does he answer these questions always so badly?" Many of these journalists appear to be living in a mental cocoon, solely concerned with what makes the next headline. Australia (at least the media), it appears, is as yet not mentally ready to appreciate and deal with sincere honesty when it is offered.

Like Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, etc., I often think that 95% of humanity is very stupid indeed, but that is probably not quite true. Human minds are like computers, most of them are able to work quite well. The big difference occurs through what is fed into them. For just like computers it is "rubbish in, rubbish out". And that is what the media (especially TV) is providing in truckloads.

Two quiet days, I do lots of reading (Peter Temple, get two more of his books from the Palmerston Library) and also have added one more page to the Martinshof Story. Monday night a pleasant evening's bridge with Mairead. We start rather badly, but after the supper we bid and make two Small Slams, which nobody else bids. Rather satisfying. Back home more reading, deep into the night.