Sunday Diary

BRYANTICS

April 25th

The earlier part of the week was dominated by the Volcano Crisis. We were well out of it down here, but passengers suffered. The long arm of the news was evident in a strange way in our family. Rebecca, Brian and Blake are due to fly out to New Zealand on Monday, for three weeks, and Blake's School Principal was going to organise things. She, however, was stuck in London! So some forms may not have been filled-in! Only a small connection but it shows how far the results of something in Iceland spread!

Locally, our news has been full of a Rugby League scandal. Normally, anything to do with sport bores me witless (except for big events like the World Cup) but this has been quite an item. The leading club has been found guilty of cooking the books, and stripped of all its 2010 'wins', throwing the whole system into chaos. The team is called The Storm and they've certainly whipped one up!

 In Happier Days!

Greg and Michelle arrived home from Thailand (much to my relief) last weekend, but after my Diary had 'been put to bed' so here are a few shots for relations.

Hunting for Crabs.

Max meets an Elephant.

The Boys made Jewelery for Dad.

Feeding pike.

 

Harry tried his hand at Golf.

Max was persuaded into the water where he gave his hat a dunking!

And Harry grew up!

Almost as soon as they got back here Harry started a new school! They're moving house in May and so he's going to a school nearer the new house. I thought this was an awful upheaval for a little boy but he took it all in his stride.So now he's in another uniform!

I hate these big-brimmed hats but they do a good job in Summer!

His new school is the oldest school in the whole of Australia and there are only 180 pupils. I liked the atmosphere when I collected him from there.

My own life was fairly quiet. One reason was the fact that I was supposed to travel down to the Central Coast by train on Tuesday, but dates were mixed up (either by me or my friend, Fran) and so I didn't get there. There was the usual Probus Committee Meeting on Monday, followed by Choir Practice, and then we had our Book Club Meeting on Tuesday night. We held it at Ann's place in the Wattigan Mountains so we expected it to be chilly, but this has been a mild Autumn (hot at times) so we were very comfortable. We discussed 'Shattered' by Michael Rowbotham which I found very gripping.

With Gwen and Gwenda

On Thursday Rebecca and I took Max out for the day.We decided to walk along the board walk at Redhead. The weather was superb, as it has been for weeks.

 

View from the Boardwalk

During the week we watched 'Tess of the D'Ubervilles' on TV. Although the story is so melodramatic it had a ring of truth because it was actually written at the time. And the actress who played Tess was ideally cast and acted wonderfully. The hero was a let-down though. When I read about Angel Clare in my youth I pictured him as an Adonis.

Angel and Tess

ANZAC Day tomorrow so I have to get up before dawn!
Till next week.
Brenda

Sunday Diary

BRY ANTICS

March 6th.

 Only one personal photograph this week! I've done quite a bit but friends and family have begun to whimper 'No, not again!' when I've produced my camera, so I've been disciplining myself. This group looks quite cheerful but I think they really wanted to get on with their food!

Our monthly lunch 'At the Beaches'.

The occasion was marked by a drenching! Just as I got out of my car in the beach car-park a great squall of run rushed in from the sea! An umbrella was useless so I just dashed! I arrived at the lunch soaked to the skin! In fact, I had to rush home and change all my clothes before choir practice!

Other than that I ran my usual U3A Poetry group on Wednesday. It's so enjoyable. People bring along  a favourite poem and, before reading it, they have to tell us why they've chosen it. This results in a round of anecdotes and general discussions. We want to increase the number of sessions per year but I don't think U3A wants to pay any more room-rental!

A new member of the Melodrama Group, called Olwyn, came round for tea after that. She seems enthusiastic, but, like all of us, her time is limited (she's another crazy bowler!). New members are always welcome so that we have a supply of actors to work with.

I had another pleasant day with Becca and Max on Thursday and this time Malcolm came too and we all had a picnic at the Lake. The weather was overcast, but it didn't rain. After that I collected Harry from school. I taught him all his 'small letters' last year, but his school teaches Capitals first so now we're having to do some catch-up. He's a willing learner, though.

Friday was a great day. I've rewritten 'Unhand Me' as a two-hander, in case we're short of players and we all met for a rehearsal. It was hilarious. We met at Pam's creek-side cottage and she gave us tea. The new format involves a lot of hat-changing tomfoolery and it seems to have hit the mark, humour-wise.Another new member, called Bebe, joined us. We thought she might be straight-laced, but not at all!

This weekend I have Blake staying with us (the 11 year-old grandson). His parents have gone to the Central Coast to a party. He's no trouble and we've just had a great game of 'Labyrinth'. Now he's gone to the beach with his Uncle Greg and the two little cousins.

Local news? The possible Tsunami from Chile was a worry, not because anything happened but because beach-goers were warned to get off the beach and they just refused! If there's another warning and it turns out to be necessary there could be a disaster.

Lifeguards were ignored!

I end with an unedifying sight!  Thousands of naked Australians being photographed at the Opera House! I was glad I was no nearer than this!

Till next week!
Brenda

Sunday Diary

BRY ANTICS
January 24th

And so I resume my diary. I let it lapse for a while because, quite honestly, I didn't have much to write about. January is a very quiet month in Australia, unless one is away on holiday, and we would never go on holiday when the heat is at its peak. We tend to stay in because of the heat, in January, much a wrinklies in the Northern hemisphere stay in because of the cold. We put the air-conditioning on and do odd jobs. At least, I do. Which means I now start the New Year proper with a reasonably tidy house and everything (nearly everything) sorted. I organised the publication of my poetry books and prepared the coming year's melodrama program for instance.

Of course, my life fades into nothing when I consider Haiti. In fact, one feels almost guilty about enjoying life, but, apart from donating what one can afford, what can one do? The results of the earthquake have dominated our news bulletins.

Haiti

Australia has had incidents of its own, of course, the most worrying being a spate of attacks on Indian students in Melbourne. Some may have been straightforward robberies as Indian students here are usually affluent, but there has certainly been a racist element as well and that's nasty. It's caused a rift in our relations with India itself.

Indians pointing a finger.

But one rather good thing came of it. The composer who wrote the music for 'Slumdog Millionare' gave a free concert at the Opera House in order to improve race relations, and it was a great success. There were lots of 'Europeans' among the enormous crowd.

Rahman

We've also had a visit from Prince William and that has caused quite a flurry of excitement. I'm not much of a royalists (I'm in favour of Australia becoming a Republic) but I thought he was very charming and gave a good impression.

Very popular.

This girl proposed!

The photograph below was taken at the Australian Open Tennis Championships and I found the TV coverage of this very endearing. When the crowd clapped him he actually blushed. That couldn't be feigned and I almost became a royalist there and then! I feel quite sorry for him as he proved himself to be naturally shy and he's got such a tough job ahead of him.

At the tennis.

My week was still quiet on the whole, although we enjoyed our first Book Group meeting of the year,and the Scrabble Group met as well. One evening we went to friend Pam's for a meal. But it was very quiet by comparison with the Christmas season!

Pam must have said something very funny at the Book Group!

The photo below is not me (you may have noticed) but it's just a shot of someone suffering the pain of Claudication, with which I have just been diagnosed. It used to be called Hardening of the Arteries (how aging!) Like this gentleman I have been suffering pain on walking. I had the scans done during the week. I'm hoping it can be cured with a pill, but a friend had a stent inserted into the blocked artery for the same thing, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!.

Typical situation.

As a foot-note, I was very amused to see this notice at the Printers' when I went to organise my books!

It says it all!

By the way, blogging will take a back-seat to entertaining this week, so forgive me if my comments drop-off.


Till next week,
Brenda