A bit of Australiana to keep me anchored in the here and now

 

What is the 'now'? Even the simplest and shortest word fails to capture the essence of 'now' for the word itself, when thought or uttered, is nothing but part of the unceasing, evanescent flow from the present to the past. "What then is time?", St Augustine asked. "Provided that no one asks me, I know. If I want to explain it to an inquirer, I do not know."

Watching A Waltz through the Hills takes me back to the past, to the kind of Australia that made more sense than the now, and I enjoyed watching it, just as I enjoyed watching The Earthling which, perhaps indicating its status as a 'sort of' Public Domain film, is available on YouTube in ten parts, though it might at any point be taken down. Part 1 begins here, and part 10 is here (select the other parts direct from the YouTube page), though it chopped off Maureen McGovern's final over credits song in mid-flight. Well it's free, but it's sad to see even a bad movie end this way.

And here's another Australian classic. Watch it while it's still on Youtube:

 

 

The sameness continues

 

TRITON LODGE in Port Douglas

 

... and the thought of my friend Ian Paterson relocating to Port Douglas where he will take up residence in the Triton Lodge doesn't help. When I think back to those relatively short twenty years during which I relocated some fifty times across a dozen different countries, only to now be sitting here like a shag on a rock for the last twenty years!!!

I am reading "A Very Brief History of Eternity" by Carlos Eire. Interesting, thought-provoking and sometimes unsettling. It's about eternity (as opposed to immortality) and it's all about philosophy and a bit of religion which, as he puts it, "... is all about finding more in life than meets the eye."

The writer, Carlos Eire, came to the USA from Cuba as a child as part of "Operation Peter Pan" which I had never heard of until I GOOGLEd for it. We learn something every day!

Well, it's almost 9 a.m. and the ennui (best said with a stuffy nose) continues.

 

At $180 a week, electricity included, TRITON LODGE, just a skip and a jump away from the famous Four Mile Beach, is probably the best value-for-money in town. I had first heard about it through another friend (another riches-to-rags story) who moved into it some years ago, and so I recommended it to Ian. The things I do to get myself a free bed for my next trip up North! ☺

 

... and here's Ian's message before he hit the road: "Mate, it's onwards and upwards - as explained I become restless with the sameness of life. Port Douglas probably will be little different to Coolangatta, however will be meeting different people and experiencing interesting places to explore. That might take six to eighteen months to wear off, and then hooroo again. Australia is a big country! Have a feeling Darwin will be next."

 

... and these guys want to run the world?

 

... but wait, there's more:

 

 

God help America!