"Where would you go?"

 

 

We've just come back from our walk around the village. A chap whose dog we've been admiring told us last week that he's selling up to be with his ailing father. This morning we met him again. "Are you still selling? I haven't seen your house on the internet", I said. "It's sold already", he replied.

He had bought it in 2020 for $460,000, and listed it for sale last week for $950,000. Before they could even put up the FOR SALE-sign and the advertisement onto the internet, someone walked in and paid full price.
(It had sold in 2000 for $107,000 and in 2006 again for only $320,000)

Which makes my friends' question even more pertinent: "Where would you go if Riverbend suddenly sold?" I don't think the word 'suddenly' comes into it as cashed-up buyers in my price range aren't all that plentiful.

As long as the sale will be a pre-Deceased Estate Sale and I can still drive out in my own car before they drive me out in a hearse, I'm happy to keep looking for my next dream house wherever that may be - see floorplan.

Instead of burying your millions like a past neighbour used to do - see here - invest them in an asset-test-exempt home so you can still qualify for your age pension - click here. Every other Australian seems to do it!

 

Lord of the Fries

 

 

A recent visit to Sydney brought back literary memories as we walked down King Street and saw the fish 'n' chips shop "Lord of the Fries". Nice play on words, I thought, but does anyone still remember William Golding's book, published in 1954, or the 1963 movie of the same name?

(There was a second film adaptation in 1990 which, in my opinion, is not as good as the 1963 original. Alex Garland's book "The Beach", and the adventure drama film of the same name, starring teenage idol Leonardo DiCaprio, have much in common with the original "Lord of the Flies".)

Of course, the story of "Lord of the Flies" never happened. An English schoolmaster made it up in 1951. "Wouldn't it be a good idea", William Golding asked his wife one day, "to write a story about some boys on an island, showing how they would really behave?"

 

 

Golding's book "Lord of the Flies" would ultimately sell tens of millions of copies, be translated into more than thirty languages and be hailed as one of the classics of the twentieth century.

In hindsight, the secret to the book's success is clear. Golding had a masterful ability to portray the darkest depths of mankind. "Even if we start with a clean slate", he wrote in his first letter to his publisher, "our nature compels us to make a muck of it." Or as he later put it, "Man produces evil as a bee produces honey."

Unlike English-speaking children who read "Lord of the Flies" at school, my schooling - as limited as it was - in post-war Germany required no special reading about the evil that human nature was capable of, as the legacy of it could still be seen all around. It was only in the late sixties here in Australia, while still reduced to linguistic toddlerhood in my newly-adopted language English, that I first tried to read this book.

 

Fast-forward to 7:40 to start the documentary

 

Perhaps "Lord of the Flies" is not the most apropriate reading in these troubled times as it may easily get you trapped into hopelessness. Because if you believe most people are rotten, you no longer need to get worked up about injustice. The world is going to hell either way.

If you are tempted by such cynical thoughts, please do NOT click on these links to read the book or watch the 1990 movie adaptation.

 

"I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet."

 

 

It was reported that a movie theatre displayed a short film which began with a snapshot of a room ceiling. No details, no colours. Just a ceiling fan on a white ceiling. The same scene remained displayed for six long minutes when the moviegoers started to get frustrated. Some complained about the film wasting their time.

Suddenly, the camera lens slowly started to move until it reached down towards the floor. A small child who appeared handicapped was lying on a bed, suffering from a spinal cord inquiry. The camera then pans back up to the ceiling with the following words: "We showed you only six minutes of this child's daily activity, only six minutes from the scene that this handicapped child watches all hours of his life, and you complained and weren't patient for even six minutes, you couldn't bear to watch it ..."

Sometimes we need to put ourselves in another person's situation in order to realise just how lucky we are and to be thankful for all our blessings.