Sunday, October 16, 2005

I'd SMS'd a friend whose son said he arrived back in Sydney yesterday, for a breakfast meet-up (half as a joke as his fiance would want him wholey!) and as has been happening lately, looked up from work (typing or writing) and noticed hours had gone past - this time it meant the shopping centre was open and i could get some more printing toner.
So i set off, deciding that the renovated moore's cafe (they've made it one '0' now) with its excellent tables and plates (they're huge and square) would be the place to go if not too crowded and had at least one other single person in it (!), and found to my relief that it had the sunday papers.
Anyway that relief turned me into a near-crybaby as i got to page 3. When i'd gone to the pub for a late arvo g&t, my mate said it was Mummify that had 'broken down' ... we had a near-argument as he kept saying it came third how could it have been blocked (i cant quite remember the word i used) and i kept explaining that what i meant was was its injury due to another rider or obstruction... i still haven't worked out what happened, except this article on page 3 said that the trainer, lee freedman, cried his eyes out and implored the vets to save him if at all possible.
There's a movie, though i can't remember which one, where a horse is in a sling - two straps keep it elevated off the ground. While one'd immediately imagine the [bed] 'strap' sores, and the fact that the vets would have normally put him down, the look on the horse's face (i knew a horse had been injured but not which one) just after it happened, was similar to the look on Railings face when it was led into the mounting yard as the hero... he piped down once his strapper took the lead, it was as plain as day - Mummify looked to be looking round for someone too, or just plain staggered that it wasn't being lead into the mounting yard itself. No Wonder Lee Freedman was so upset. Apparently the foreleg sesamoid bone that he's broken is behind the fetlock and carries the weight.
Then later, once home, my friend for breakfast rang - he's still overseas until tomorrow!!! LOL

Friday, October 07, 2005

The last chapter of Poor Man's Orange by Ruth Park (1949) had me collapse in tears. The element of the much loved daughter/sister/wife/mother lost in childbirth coming through in psychic syncronicity; the descriptions of the marsh in the old days before the tarmac shops and slums as the breeding ground of swans and the loquats full of pink cockatoos; the mention of three weeds growing up as soon as one of the slums came down, and a quote about the sole of a koorie which so explained their loneliness in a white man's whirlpool. It came after an insolent-like fury that it was based in surry hills and not glebe wanted it finished then and there, an almost resentment for having to read endless images of bed-bugs, constantly broken and drunk men, and women in silent despair. Yet those descriptions won out; they were what i read it for, and were enough to feed my curiousity about the past. It's even a movie.

Monday, October 03, 2005

One of those delightful reading sundays : did a Stephen Fry, and before that Sex and The City.

I wasnt sure about "The Stars Tennis Balls" at first, but had picked SF up purely from seeing him on Parkinson, and the name : Fry. Christopher Fry's oft-quoted verse from "Sleep of Prisoners" i used in a little showlet i did as a teenager in Stanley Palmers' Culture Palace in Darlinghurst. When i opened the book i was pleasantly surprised by the big type, suggesting it wasnt that long a read. Moralistically, i think the change in the book came when Babe
noticed a change in Ned. Word-wise, the only phrase i didn't understand was "his own mephitic fug"

By the evening, after a day which was pregnant with a quiet anticipation : would the tigers win; i settled down with the match on, sound down, my book firmly open. I would put my glasses on periodically to check the score, and at one stage i thought the clock had stopped and then realised that there was only minutes left. I dont know the game (as like horse-racing before it i have spent most of my life here deriding it) but nearing the end the Cowboys got a chance for a goal which could have changed the scoreboard. But this morning when my shoulder, which had started hurting on satday night, was actually making me feel sick with pain, i noticed the 'tiger' on the linament packet. Today's main perogative is to ease the pain caused by the temp assignment of copy/pasting all day holding the mouse stationery to ensure the speediest workflow. Now for a speedy recovery before duty calls tomorrow. Go the Tigers!!! LOL

Saturday, October 01, 2005



Coriander Crop Spring '05

About 3 Satdays ago, when i realised there were visitors in the house that i was expecting next week not this week, i got a punnet of coriander and painstakingly transplanted each little seedling out into this planter box, and look at them now!

This week i did the same with a punnet (if that's the right word) of dill. At present they're mostly not standing up, so hope to post their picture here too in a few weeks. I read on the packet that they can reach a metre in height and their flowers are very decorative.

The important thing with the coriander is not to let it burst into seed, which it does very easily in our climate. I am a great one for planting out herbs and vegetables and then just looking at them. I guess here i should go and snap one of the lettuces :-


LOL.