Recently discovered in the Windsor Castle Archives.
A historical verse
Queen Victoria
We adore ya
Person noble
Ruling Global
Problems you fix
Imperatrix
You were right
To make me knight
For giving praise
In many ways.
Maybe now in thanks for verse
Open up your Royal purse
Actual begging letter from Longfellow?
September is past its centre, Summer ends today. How does the seasonal change affect the family? It is two weeks now since Robin was flattened by a speeding Clydesdale, and her broken ribs and thumb seem to be recovering, It seems that she has all the stamina of her sisters, as she is off to do the 10 kilometre Army Run in Ottawa today, as parents we would rather she walked the % kilometre distance, but as her sister ran Boston with a broken arm, we will just wait and see.
It is not as if our other daughters are relaxing this weekend. Susan has been taking part in some 50 kilometer trail run in Kentucky, organised by the man who sets up the legendary Barkley marathon. As far as we know she has finished, and we await all the details in due course. Judy and Harry are part of a support team for a runnner in a 100 mile race somewhere out west, and Judy was planning on runnimg the last 50 miles with the guy they are helping. We believe12 hours that they have finished too.
Of course this week end the bridge from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island is open for runners in memory of Terry Fox, but Sheila and I decided to give it a miss, this time. A bike hike of 8 kilometers is probably enough for us today.
We now know what actually happened: Judy out for 12 hours and 57 minutes
:Robin out for 84 minutes
Susan out for 12 hours 25 minutes
Tim and Sheila 45 minutes
Arriving back at the apartment after my afternoon bike ride, I discovered the door was unlocked, which suggested that by wife was in. On entering I discovered she was indeed in, and in trouble. She was sitting on the floor just in front of the door to the balcony, and seeking my help. She could not get up, She asked for a cushion to go under her and I then tried to lift her up with my hands, I became unbalanced and almost fell on top of her. By sliding her over to my reclining chair and sitting on it, I found I had enough leverage to get her back on her feet.
She explained that she had been reading in the hanging chair on the balcony, when it became unbalanced a and dumped her on the floor. The suspended chair was given to her by daughter Robin at least 10 years ago, and was not in peak operating condition, so we condemmed it to the dump, in pieces, via the dumpster in our parking lot. I took the first part to our storage temporarily, leaving my keys in the storage room door. I took the next bit straight to the dumpster, but then I could not get back in the budin without my keys, So I had to explain everything to a neighbour so that they would let me in. By the time I had consigned the whole chair to un overhe dumpster, most of the building had heard the Story.
The week is not over yet! We received a phone call at lunch time yesterday from middle daughter Robin. She had suffered some broken ribs anD a fractured thumb in an incident with a charging carthorse. While we are most sympathetic towards our child, the temptation to sing about it as a parody of a popular Christmas song is inevitable
“Our daughter got run over by a Clydesdale!
Finally the wheel of life has completed a circle, not in any way fatal, but back to the beginnig. I first used a primitive computer back in the 1950’s, and bought one for home use in the 1970’s. By then we had three daughters, all of whom became familiar with the primitive machine. As the years moved on the world of technology moved further and further away from me, but the young fluorished. So I now have children and grand children working with all the latest applications, while to me. e-mail and facebook are as far as I normally go.
II do receive some encouragement from the young, I was given a Garmin watch for my birthday last year, which I have partially mastered, but I have trouble downloading it to my computer. Judy and Harry also passed on to me the I Phone that they had replaced with an up to date version, and I purchased an instruction ghubook with lots of pages that I have not read. Yesterday, oldest daughter Judy was competing in the Ottawa Iron Man a mixture of swimming, biking and running, which requires an incredible degree of fitness. I assumed that I would be able to watch her progress over the twelve hour period somehow, and sent a “help me” request to my children and grand children. One of them told me to “download an app” on my Iphone. So I tried to do it , and amazingly enough I found myself on an IPhone Ironman site wzperience in here I could keep track of Judy’s
An hour or two later Ireceived a call from a daughter who had 30 years expeerience teaching computer stuff asking if I could tell her how Judy was doing. I felt truly empowered that it was actually assumed that I had found out how to find out.
By the way Judy came second out of 51 in the 60 t0 65 age group, an even greater achievemrnt than mine!
In 1972, for reasons best known to the Goverment of New Brunswick, I was appointed Director of Pollution Control in the Department of Environment and Fisheries. While my previous employment had been mostly as a geophysicist, back then there were not many environmentalists and others in related fields tended to find themselves coopted into this relatively new area of work. I was also known for having worked on various groundwater projects in the Province, and I was a rare bird for another reason, I spoke and understood French reasonably well, an unusual attribute for an New Brunswick anglophone in those days.
When being interviewed for the post I was asked whether in view of my previous work history in Australia, the UK and Canada, I could be expected to stay with this position. My response was that I would stay for at least two years or until the organisation had acquired a reputation for validity. At this time the Canadian Council of Resource And Environment Ministers Government of Canada was conducting a national public participation program entitled Man and Resources. Which involved a broad spectrum of involvemen t working on various aspects found to be of significance at a Montebello Conference in 1972. My own involvement as a late comer to the process culminated at a provincial conference in Fredericton at the Lord Beaverbrook Hotel, which was cut short by the arrival of the biggest flood in recent history closing down the downtown. Before we fled the flood we elected a delegation to go to a national conference later in the year, I was elected a member of that delegation.
Soon afterwards I received a letter from the Secretariat asking if I wanted to be part of an English, French, or bilingual group at the conference, and I replied that I would prefer to be in a bilingual group. Not long after I was informed that they were not having bilingual groups, so I had to choose one language, and I chose French. On arrival at the Four Seasons in Toronto, we were told that the first night we would having dinner with the working group we were assigned to. It tured out that there were about fifteen in the group, nearly all from Quebec with one from Belgium, and one from New Brunswick. We were meant to introduce ourselves to each other so as to be prepared to select a spokesperson for the group the following day. This person would then represent the group in central group that would work on the outcome report.
The following morning we had our first official group meeting, with an animateur to assist. The first item on the agenda was for each person to introduce the person next to him (I do not recall any women in the group). I was a little I agreed without much thought about the implications. puzzled as the third or fourth person to be introduced, when he said that he would introduce me later. From the introductions it was fairly clear that were all rom significan organisations in Quebc, with the exception of the Belgian. After the circuit, my neighbour introduced me and said that I was the obvious choice for the role of rapporteur for the group and to represent them on the central committee. I agreed without much thought about the implications.
In addition to the elected delegates there were also the various Provincial Ministers from the Council of Resource and Environment, including Bill Cockburn who was my Minister and his wife Mardi. To make more interesting for the observers, the hotel television system provided closed circuit coverage of the conference, including the various cetral group meetings. The central group met after dinner and was provided with simultaneous translation to reflect the two official language groupsn o sign in those days of the indiginous languages. Unfortunately the meeting was going on enthusiastically when the interpreters announced that they had finished for the day. Obviously the group did not want to finish so I suggested that we proceeded with amateur interpretaion from me and a couple of of others, so we went on for another 40 minutes or so.
The next morning one of the Quebec members of our group said to me that the Quebec delegates had seen what I was planning and would support me! This left me somewhat baffled at the time. That evening the central group had to elect a smaller group to prepare the report of the conference. The committee were more or less split on political lines and the committee of three was one from the right, one from the left and me as chair, so that is what Quebec meant.
So we now add yet one more daily meeting, as the three of us struggled to produce a meaningful report on what had been going on. I succeeded in convincing my two colleagues tat a short and snappy report was the best solution rather than a long diatribe. We then had to present at a noon time meeting of the whole committee. As soon as we started we were attacked on the basis of our newspaper style, and in response I pointed out that Ministers we were writing the report for were busy people and preferred that we would get to the point, rather than delivering a diatribe. We were told to go away and rewrite. Unfortunately the session of the committee was carried on the hotel television system and the New Brunswick delegation, including the Minister, Bill Cockburn and his wife Mardi were watching.
When I returned to my room I found a note on the door.”May I have your resignation in five words or less” signed Mardi Cockburn. WE became friends then and remained friends until she died 49 years later
As for the revised report, it went nowhere.
One critic labeled the effort as a “largely innocuous” forum “culminating in bureaucratic cooptation” of environmental concerns.
As the winter season approached we prepared ourselves for the next phase of our Australian life. I would be going to North Queensland two months, but the rules did not permit my wife to come with me, even though she was pregnant with our first child. The crew, Eddie Polak, party chief, myself. and Charlie Braybrook and Jack Piggot the technicians. Our first stop was Mount Garnet, a mining town in The Atherton Table lands, where we stayed in Lucey’s hotel run by Erin and Sheila Lucey. It was a mining community attached to an alluvial tin dredging operation, and we were looking for an extension to the alluvial deposits. Luceys naturally had a bar with extremely flexible opening Hours as it was a mining town, and we soon fitted in as regulars as we could not have been accompanied by purer Aussies than Jack and Charley. Most days after our evening meal we worked on the days survey results and then retired to the bar for night cap. I had made it known that I was trying to photograph wild life, and periodically some one would come into the bar with a wriggling sack of wild life, normally snakes. This way I temporarily obtained a rock python a green tree snake, which I erroneously thought was non venemous, 3 smallcaroet snakes and a bat. The bat was most fun as it hung from my finger until I took it the kitchen, and it took off doing circuits and bumps over the screaming Luceys hiding under the table.
On Sunday nights when we were not working we spent time in the bar and I used to com[ose ridiculous verses about the area which amused the Luceys and the locals.
By this time I had to a great extent adapted myself to the style of a rural Aussie, masking my Pommie accent. Most of the people one met working casually in the bush were immigrants so as long as you dressed improperly there were no great problems in being credible. As an illustration, we happened to be in the bar at lunch time one day when a car with a camper trailer pulled up outside. (I should point out that Mount Garnet was about 40 miles into the tablelands from Ravenshoe, which was a proper town.) A man got out and came into the bar and he was wearing no shoes, he told us his wife kept them in the car so he would not run away. He was on his long service leave and hoping to find out what the real Australian outback was like. There were maybe a dozen men in the bar, all appropriately dressed for a part with Crocodile Dundee, as an established raconteur I could not resist. I asked him where he had come from, and he said he had just come from Ravenshoe, I expressed surprise that the road was open. He asked why and I explained that the tall trees by the road were Iron Bark gums, and we had an invasion of dingos the size of brumbies (wild horses) that were lifting their legs against the iron barks, causing. them to rust and fall down and they had been blocking the roads in the the area. I then asked where he was going, and he said Cloncurry, which was about 150 miles beyond where we were. There was much head shaking among the locals in the bar, and I explained that the direct road was probably closed by the fallen Iron barks, but he could get through if he took the detour at the edge of town and drove an extra 20 miles. We all went out of the bar to see him off, and he did take the detour!
Eddie Polak was originally Polish and was an officer in the Polish army when Germany invaded Poland, he esaped to England and served out the rest of the war as he put it ” The only Polish officr who could not sing” He completed his interrupted geological and geophysical studies at Birmingham University, and then came to Australia.
Charley Braybrook and Jack Piggot were both some kind of technician in the Australian Air force I believe. Both enthusiastic consumers of alcoholic spirits, but experts technically. If they were both drinking at once it created a problem.
A tale of two outhouses
When we bought the house in Carrum, it had an outside loo
Which was I’ll say for both of us, an experience quite new.
A little bit nerve wracking when you went out in the night
In case you should encounter those wriggly things that bite
Honey man came on Thursdays and replaced the can,
A task of course requiring a very special man.
I thought I’d have a septic tank installed at least I’d try
But they refused it as the water level in the ground was far too high.
I waited till we had a drought and when they came again,
They reluctantly approved it, we could stay dry in the rain
They were right about the water, before we left for good
The water was above the ground throughout the neighbourhood.
We went to Ayr in Queensland far enough away
And I would be there long enough for family to stay
Judy had arrived by then so of course she came too
And once again encountered a splendid outside loo.
The front of it was open, but the inside screened from view
By a trellis with some vines on it, and often tree frogs too
The first time that you saw them it came as a surprise
As you sat in the dunny watched by froggy eyes
A pawpaw tree beside it gave another food
The giant fruit bats loved it, at dusk they found it good
So as you finally decided to head out to the can
Something flew before you with a several foot wingspan.
The water was a problem too, a windmill and a well
Open for about 8 feet as far as we could tell
The problem was a circumstance that made an awful din
When the neighbour’s piggy found it and carelessly fell in.
Way back in years, when we were young,and generally light hearted
We showed up an altar to say we’d not be parted,
Some older so called wiser heads said back in the past
They’re far too young to marry, the wedding cannot last.
The honey moon was quite a change, the wife was made to cook
For the husband’s fellow students at whom she had a look
A Pakistani was the first, an Indian and a Turk
An Iraqui and Nigerian who shared her husband’s work,
A geophysics field trip as complex as could be,
While Tim was doing surveys to get his MSc
And Sheila was the cooking star, her dishes all were taken
Though diets were a little strange, marmalade with bacon.
Sheila fully qualified, in Stourbridge went to teach
While Tim worked on his thesis just within his reach.
We had a flat in Birmingham on the bottom floor
With access to a garden, who could have asked for more
My brother came to visit together with his wife
Wed a year before us but now attached for life
I fear I have to tell you they did not like our house
When Sylvia discovered their couch contained a mouse.
With studying and teaching we were somewhat perplexed
As to what would happen later, where would we go next.
Should we stay in Britain or should we take the chance
Of travelling together on some wilder global dance.
Our job search was a brief one, our request was not a failure
I was offered a position to go out to Australia..
In these days such a journey would get you there by plane
In a cramped and stuffy cabin, 30 hours of pain
But this was in the old days before that came to pass.
They put us on a liner, and booked us as first class.
Three weeks of fancy menus and lots of fancy wine
Paid for by our dining friend working for the line.
Most of the first class cabins were taked by the old
The rich and also famous, thats what we were told
The few of us, much younger were by social leaders trained
To take part in activities to keep old ones entertained.
Sheila starred in deck quoits, but then got a surprise
She was playing with an Indian and told it was unwise
Tim used his fastest bowling in a match against the crew
And brought them to submission an experience quite new
It brought an invitation for when we got to shore
To try out for a major club which would be quite score.
The vessel docked in Melbourne, they met us at the quay
And took us to hotel for a day or two or three
We had only just arrived and still not unpacked our cases
When a pen pal of Sheila’s took us to the races.
Explaining thatb the nation for the day would be shut up
While everyone was listening to hear the Melbourne Cup.
We went there in a fancy car with cool conditioned air,
It appeared this girl’s father was indeed a millionaire
He also had horse to race that he assured me had to win
So I should make a wager unless it was a sin
We watched them race all afternoon, sweating in the sun
Waiting for the moment he said his horse would run.
The time arrived they all set out, racing round the track
And from the start to finish his horse was at the back
Returning to our residence his excuses he expounds
It seems his loss was quite a lot, about ten thousand pounds
In Melbourne town there was another,
Sheila’s step mothers brother
And through his efforts we soon found
A place where we could go to ground.
While our search took off apace
To buy ourselves a living space
Estate agents were so slick
We bought a house but far too quick.
The place in which we would remain
An hour from town by crowded train
But then quite soon we thought that maybe
We were going to have a baby.
Christmas time was coming and we could cry hooray
And move into our residence just on Boxing Day
At Christmas time down under some rules must be obeyed
Like eating roasted turkey at a hundred in the shade.
And for a pregnant Sheila this one thing I must say
Was a challenge that she had to face upon that Christmas Day.
Step uncle came in early to take us in his car
Where everyone was gathered it wasn’t very far,
Then women to the kitchen and cook the dinner there
Men back to vehicle and to the pub for beer.
We came back for our mealtime, the turkey and plum pud
With all those women working, no wonder it was good.
After lunch there was a toast offered by our kindly host
Saying welcome to Gods Own country sport,
and we suppressed a rude retort.
When the meal was over things went a little far
Women did the washing up, the men back to the bar.
We came back in at tea time after all that beer
And Sheila mumbled to me “get me out of here”
She’d held up pretty well so far but as we closed the door
She said thank God its over, I can’t take any more.
She said it very clearly, she said it with some force
And I knew a repetition would lead to a divorce.
On Boxing Day our things arrived as we had planned ahead
The temperature was 105, Sheila stayed in bed.
Things would change within the month, the new year underway.
We went off to Tasmania for my first seismic survey.
As it was only one state off the rules said, this is true
If you travel for a month, your wife can travel too.
So while spent my time encamped beside a mountain peak
Sheila stayed in sad hotel in infamous Mole Creek.
The daily rate was reasonable it could have been much more,
But then they might have cleaned off all the blood stains on her door
Her daily walks through Tassy bush revealed some native life
Like Platypi, and parrots, a pleasure for my wife.
We kept in touch by radio, with a Flying Doctor set
Which had one tricky consequence we can not forget
Because I was transmitting from up 4000 feet
My transmissions were quite clearly heard by the local fishing fleet,
A response came, glad you love her, nice to hear your views
But we tuned in not to hear from you but for the weather news.
This trip would soon be over and we’d go back again
To our nest in Carrum, our second trip by plane
I go back to the office to try to get a grip
Of all the things I meant to know before a future trip.
This time its to Queensland, and that’s two States away
I’ll have to leave my pregnant wife at home where she must stay.
I’m sure she’ll find some neighbours to chat while I’m not there
Like the football players wife and the cow that strays quite near
And the guy who lives two doors away fought at Gallipoli
He also was the hangman, but at least he has TV
We didn’t have a car back then, but Sheila learned to drive
Going to a driving school to learn how to survive.
It was from the Police Station that she passed her driving test
And almost clipped another car before she came to rest.
She had a pack of Brownies entrusted to her care.
And she met with them weekly, her experience to share.
Normally the meetings were an hour, not more
But one was much extended by a deadly snake, parked outside the door
Another day the meeting ended quite differently than planned
When some very windy weather got completely out of hand.
They had to leave the building, they really could not stay,
They fled into their parents cars before it blew away
The fund raiser
Have you been to a fund raiser recently
I was out to attend one last night
I try to not attend them too frequently
As somehow they don’t seem quite right
The guests are all there in their splendour
Donating their cash and their time
Generous too to surrender
Themselves to a cause so sublime
There’ll be speakers who tell the objectives
Of the people who’re running the show
They’ll be grateful to us all selective
Who could choose and be willing to go
There also may be an auction,
Silent or run by a star
Who’ll sell, off some weird concoction
Like a licence to hold a bazaar
I wonder, and my payment pauses
How the beneficiaries feel
When the amount that goes to good causes
Is no more than what goes on the meal
The mail box
If you once sent some money supporting
A charity that you admired
You’ll find that they keep on reporting
That further donations required
They’ll send you letters suggesting
You could send them money each week
Or else use your money investing
In gifts they include as they speak
Like calendars notebooks and labels
Socks and bags for your gear
I’m surprised how they are able
To pay for the postage each year
Any article on healthy aging can be assumed to speak positively of the impact of exercise, but sadly tends to admit to the downside of the same thing. To explain my position I am an 86 year old with an 85 year old wife. We are both committed, more or less, to exercise. In my youth, by that I mean prior to reaching 60 years of age, I was an avid runner. I discovered the marathon in 1978 and undertook massive mileage in preparing for one race after another. Unfortunately that was before the foot fetishists of the the running world invented fancy shoes for running, and you could move from race course to squash court, tennis court, or yacht without changing your sneakers. Up to 100 kilometres a week in tennis shoes was not a good idea, so it is not really surprising that my knees said to me in 2000, stop running. So I switched to a bicycle.
That was not the end of it. As time went by, even going up and down stairs was a painful knee challenge. The only solution was to find a way to live on one floor. The house had to go, as descibed elsewhere, (see Moving on) this proved surprisingly easy to do. We have two bederooms in the apartment, and because my wife hs the fallacious belief that I snore we have one each for sleeping. My wife has the larger room, so in there we have a stationary bicycle for me to ride on and one of those treadmills for Sheila to walk on. In front of the two of them is an “intelligent TV screen” . This shows Murder She Wrote when my wife is alone on the treadmill. or Dad’s Army when I am on the bike. 8:30 to 9:00 am will normally see this going on when I am willing.
We have coffee at 10 am, and then Sheila heads out for another hour on the trails or with a friend while I vegetate. After lunch, weather permitting we will go out in the car and I will ride my real bicycle while Sheila hikes again. If the weather does not permit we head for the YMCA’ where we spend anhour on appropriate machines and in the steam room.
After our evening meal Sheila will, head out for a walk round the third floor accompanied by various neighbours of varying capability for half an hour or so. She then adds up her days mileage, something in the order of 11 kilometers, which in my opinion is more than enough.
Sheila is in training for a 5 kilometre race, I am not, the main outcome is somewhat painful and advantageous to Voltaren.
muffinandbagels 