Xmas Reading when not going for a swim!!

Alright the temperature is so high that the only place to be is in my cool house turning the pages. And I have been doing just that. Isn't it great when you start a book and you can't live without it. No matter what you do there is always the reward at the end of the miserable activity to grab a few hours and finish a great book. No not to finish...I hate finishing any great read...but to be able to go back and spend some hours with a good friend. But there is a reward at the end...a list of books to also read! And this time I find three of my favourite writers are listed. I'll tell you about the list later.

..This image shows why I have stopped rushing to the beach or opening Facebook. Ok I have a little time to read my messages but then it is time to do my Xmas presents justice. As you can see it is a mixed bag. My partner decided that seeing I have more cookbooks than anything else in my kitchen there is one very important one missing...Australia's First Cookbook ever!! 'The English and Australian Cookery Book' by Edward Abbott.The Publisher's comment is "Australia's Mrs. Beeton". Well it remains to be seen!
I prefer to wallow in the depth of Novels so why not start with the winner of the Australian Book Industry Awards 2012 plus short listed 7 times...but who cares...in my opinion it is boring as batsh.t.
'So real, so true- this Novel sweeps you away in its tide' Robert Drewe...oh yeah? 'Past the shallows' by Favel Parrett only sweeps me right onto the next book waiting to be read.
So Bryce Courtney's The Silver Moon caught my eye once again and this book for its size is turning into a good friend. I must like to read about another author's experience of life and I do.
Then, lurking in the back, an unusual name for a book catches my interest, 'the Breaking of Eggs' by Jim Powell. I immediately recall Mrs. Powell, a third year Home Economics teacher of mine, who treated me so spitefully I wanted to give her a book on 'How to Make Friends and Influence People.'
But this would have been a waste of money...I didn't have much!
Anyway to cut a long story short, this Jim Powell is a most magnificent storyteller and of course in no way related to Mrs. Powell. If anyone has read the two books by Anna Funder relating to the history of the GDR and the Nazi times...fascist years...communist years...then this book is for you.
A great novel with so many insights I couldn't put it down. Definitely my book choice for the year.
And in the back of the book...suggested further reading...names mentioned Czeslaw Milosw...Timothy Carton Ash...Bernard Schlink and for some great laughs ...Marina Lewycka.
And because I've been involved in the NoNoWri Book or some such thing, I have managed 50,000 word Novella about my thyroid experience and hair loss... my friend was so shocked at my appearance that she lent me the book to change my life...'How Proust Can Change Your Life' by Alain de Botton. So far also a very interesting book. My hair is growing back!!
But because my novella is written in the Genre of Truth in Fiction I am also struggling to read 'A Death in the Family' Karl Ove Knausgaard. So far truth is more boring than fiction...so perhaps I will take more than the holidays to finish this book. So back to reading my favourites!!

Last one for the year!!

If you are reading this in Australia it definitely is only 7 hours before midnight and the year 2015 begins!! Whoopee!! You thinks so? I hope so for your sake! But I'll be reminiscing! I already have done...by reading my Blog inputs this time last year.
And as so much interest is in travelling ... our most recent trip took us to Sydney...our home town...well one of them anyway. The latest family addition and the youngest student of Sydney University joined us in our celebration of her mother's graduation in Industrial Law. Yes that was the reason for our visit and I took the opportunity to buy a jumpsuit in orange which had Sydney University printed on it. So there! Zoe became the youngest Sydney Uni. student and she didn't let anyone down as she watched her mother's performance. Not bad for a 3 month-old baby!

 Of course we hired a car and drove south to Moss Vale...luscious gardens...mountains...and surprise of surprises caught sight of a native echidna...what a pleasure it was to try and get a reasonable photo before it burrowed itself into the local soil.

 Then Dangar Island on the Hawkesbury River...was our next stop...big winds, heavy rains, lightening and heavy cloud formations challenged us...but luckily these storms only bothered us late afternoon and late evening. In between time we took our small tinny across the rough waters and visited the local club for a delightful dinner.

 Anyone ever see ducks flying so high from the water so as to be able to hide amongst the treetops during the heavy rain and lightening? Amazing? I never knew ducks could fly so high! And always in pairs!!
And so may you fly effortlessly through the New
Year and experience only the best!!

The unexpected or not hoped for has happened!

Sorry this bit of news has motivated me to write again! The LIBERAL government led by MR BIG EARS has placed the "TOE CUTTER" in charge of Social Services in Australia. Not only that but this government has taken the social ideas from America (read my previous blogs) and taken 21 billion dollars away from the usual "Homeless" in Australia.  No new ideas this government has decided to follow the ideas of some States in USA. Will making it illegal to feed the poor the next 'great idea' this government steals from the USA? If so, lets rush on the double dissolution!! Or the next election! How much more is this country to tolerate of this far right wing 'Nasty' Nazi-types' actions? I say rally now and stop this 'leader' with a small 'l' from embarrassing us anymore! Those who voted this mob in think again please!!!  

I have to write this today!

East Berliners are Free!! So what else is new you might ask? Thanks to Mr Jaeger who opened the Bornholmer Strasse border crossing between East and West Berlin on the night of November the 9th 1989.
Euphoric East Germans had massed there flooding into the West and so peacefully bringing down the Iron Curtain after 28 years of Berlin's division.
Mr Jaeger, now 71, still recalls the disbelief he felt hearing the words that drew the crowd there in the first place. On Tv someone, some communist official announced that East Germans could now travel abroad almost immediately.
I nearly choked on my bread roll! And didn't believe my ears!
Thank God he did but not until after he had rung a superior.  And so, down with the wall!!
"I had never seen such euphoria and I've never seen it since."
Yes the reality is quite different for everyone...EAST or WEST!

One for the West newspaper and the World!!

Who said only the word quiz is worthwhile opening the West Australian for each morning?  I did! And I take it all back ... today anyway ...Saturday Nov-8/9 2014.

I might be bogged down in writing my novel (is 28000 words being bogged down?) for the NaNoMoWri or some such but this article stirred me up.

New York- TRIO ARRESTED FOR FEEDING HOMELESS Page 50.

Yes can you believe it? Two pastors and a 90 year-old have been arrested in Florida for feeding the homeless in public violation of a new law banning food sharing (500.00 dollars fine and 60 days in jail) .
Is this saving the 'poor' residents of Florida from seeing the shameful state of their country? There are 10,000 homeless people in Florida. Mr Abbott, the 90 yr old arrested, who runs a not-for-profit organisation called LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR said homeless people were drawn to Fort Lauderdale because of the climate (they were less likely to freeze there).

You the reader can be sure that this MR. ABBOTT is not the same as our MR. ABBOTT as our MR ABBOTT although not far off 90 in his looks could never be seen to run a not-for profit organisation.

But cynicism aside, Fort Lauderdale has become the 13th city to impose restrictions on feeding the homeless.

Can we see this sort of LEGISLATION move on to our wonderful country?  I don't know why not.  We copy everything else from overseas!


BUT DON"T TELL MR ABBOTT!!!

Nothing like a front gate you can lock!!

Why would you say that? because its Halloween of course!! You are a spoil sport! Maybe...but it was my visiting daughter from Connecticut who asked...but what's it doing in Australia? It is an American custom!! You may think it is but the truth is quite different.

HALLOWEEN is an ancient Celtic celebration, Samhain. It marked the beginning of winter or the 'dark' half of the year. The day before Halloween is the last day of summer and the day after is the first day of winter. So John Stickle of Daglish asks...what is the logic in celebrating this in Australia?
'You may well ask' as the late Gough Whitlam would have replied. Thank you Gough for sharing your intellect with us.
The answer and I wish I could send this to the USA but I can't...Halloween was seen by the corporate US and pumpkin growers as a way to herd the sheep into department stores, supermarkets, novelty stores and any other place where the paraphernalia could be sold. and it seems to have been introduced into Australia in late 1960ties by homesick draft dodgers from the USA....to exploit our resources and who seem to have a fervent belief that the world would be a better place if everyone embraced the culture of the USA.
And this is where the family argument started...and this is why I can't send this explanation to anyone in the USA and why I won't be visiting this Xmas.
Roll on the National Rifle association says John Stickle, tongue in cheek of course!  But who could have said it better?
No photos for this one ... the words said it all!!

Spring ... it was a day of sunshine!

Too true! We just get our summer glad rags on and the Spring turns back into winter.  What can you

do? Go to Kings Park and snap a few pictures? It might be the school holidays...and it was...or

is...for another week or two...and the only available seat to sit and sip a hot coffee was at the foot of

the war memorial.


Not being a plant expert I did know that there are three types of Kangaroo Paws ... red   yellow...

and...and... you've got it...GREEN. Wow I have

never seen a green Kangaroo Paw until now.










But I know a bee or some bees actively pursuing

their reasons for being. Must have been great in

there because they never came up once to feature for my camera.

I can't say much about this shot but I do like it.

Don't forget to click on the photo to enlarge.








And then of course I couldn't ignore the huge

transplanted BOAB tree from Broom...going very well except

that some smart alec named MM left his or her trademark

carved into its trunk. Other than that it appealed to me as an

abstract image.