Tuesday - Friday, June 21 - 24 2011 (diary)

The first of my two bridge courses has now been completed. Everybody was happy with the lessons and full enthusiasm to implement and practice what they have learned.

As a thank you for my efforts a group of them took me out for dinner at the Northlakes Chinese restaurant attached to the Darwin Golf Club. We had a lovely evening complemented by some excellent Chinese food.

It is the Northern hemisphere summer now and several of the dinner guests are about to depart for far flung places around the world : Mauritius, Canada, Italy, France, Scandinavia, South America, etc.

This I find is one of the great differences in attitude between people living in Australia and in Europe (or in the USA for that matter). Most of us here in Australia make regular trips to other Continents, whereas Europeans rarely appear to leave their own. This has the consequence of rather inward looking mentalities predominant especially amongst the older European generation. The younger ones, it is very good to see, do travel more, and many travel around Australia as back packers. So hopefully the old Continent will gradually change for the better in this regard.

Speaking of travel : my friend Malveen has just returned from her painting workshop in Tuscany. It has been "the experience of a lifetime" so she tells me. Presently still recovering from her jet lag I will soon hear and see (photos!) more about Malveen's trip.

Here on the Mango farm it has been very busy. The veranda around the house is being concreted. A huge job carried out by a crew of eight and two concrete trucks. The result looks magnificent.

Saturday - Thursday, June 25 - 30 2011 (diary)

Malveen sent me a glowing account of her trip to Italy. If you are planning a visit to Pisa Hotel Bologna, right in the center of town, is a great place to stay.
And in case you are planning to follow a painting or writers workshop Watermill in Posara is reputedly one of the best places in Europe to do that. Stunning scenery (as yet not many tourists), great accommodation and food, and very experienced world class tutors.
Interestingly we sussed this all out online early this year. The Internet is definitely the best place to find and book things these days.

As I write this I hear Andrew working on his Bobcat on the Mango farm right now. He is cultivating another area on his property, clearing undergrowth, preparing a lawn area, planting new trees, etc.
Owning a piece of land gives many people great pleasure, and most people here, away from the main centres of Darwin and Palmerston, all live on 5-10 acre blocks doing their own thing on their land. They live as it were in their own little "Kingdom" where they can do what they want and express themselves in whatever way they wish. (This is of course a common occurence throughout a big country like Australia.)

I know that my father enjoyed the two hectares we had of the forest at Martinshof. He was forever making new footpaths through the woods on which he did his daily walks with the dogs.
When he needed to think things through for his business he would take a rake and clear the paths of autumn leaves. In fact when I ran the business in 1981-83 after his sudden passing away, I did the very same thing.

The rear lawn at Martinshof was the focal point of our lives. Initially, during the war (1942-45, WW2) the area you see on above photo behind the far tree was established as a large vegetable garden. Later it was converted into a lawn. During the final stages of the war, the near portion (on the photo) of the lawn was extensively fertilised (after nights of heavy drinking), first by German, then by Allied officers who had confiscated part of our house for their accommodation.
As children we played soccer, badminton and all sorts of other games on the lawn, and during the wonderful Martinshof Summer Exposition in 1952, it featured as exhibition ground for six of Piet Slegers's early sculptures, created just after his apprenticeship with Henri Moore in England.