366 unusual things: days 164-168

12th June – My monosyllabic student had to write poetry for an assignment.  I started, he followed and came up with several words at a time.  Then he wrote a sequel.

13th June – My son who studies physics asked me which theory was more plausible:  time travel backwards or the idea that the physical world is an illusion.

14th June – Woke at 2 am and still awake at 5.  (This is not the unusual thing.)  I was surprised, in passing the hours, to read in a novel a recount of a long and spooky dream, then to pick up a second novel and read a recount of a long and spooky dream.

15th June – Turned on the car radio this morning to Artsound FM and heard Django Reinhardt.  Turned on the car radio this evening to Classic FM and heard Django Reinhardt.

16th June – Just after midnight, the dog across the street, who chases his tail all day and has never been outside his small yard, escaped and was free.  Ironically, shortly after, his mistress was put in a paddy wagon and taken to the watchhouse for the night for refusing to cooperate with the police (who had left her gate open…).

366 unusual things: days 159-163

7th June –  A black cat crossed my street.  The late afternoon winter sun created a monster-cat shadow which got me up off my chair to see if it was being followed by a large dog.  It wasn’t.

8th June – Sat at the table in a student’s home and quickly stuck to the seat in several places.  Put my books on the table;  they also stuck.  I told my 9 year-old friend about the problem;  she confessed it was maple syrup.

9th June – I’ve noticed that since I started blogging, I’ve stopped talking much.

10th June – Found out the previous owner of our new second-hand car was Lego.

11th June – On The Voice, the TV singing talent show, the coaches frequently say “I love you” to their protégés, who sometimes reply, “I love you, too”.  This love is a new fashion.

366 unusual things: days 154-158

2nd June –  My daughter-in-law, dressed as Madeline from the book by Ludwig Bemelmans, dropped in after work.  She works in a bookshop.

3rd June – Heard a woman on the news complaining of child care centre costs, saying it costs almost as much as she earns but she keeps working, anyway, so she doesn’t lose her skills.  But if she raised her own child she would gain great mothering skills.

4th June – An academic who said he doesn’t read people’s blogs responded to my arm-twisting today to read two paragraphs from one of my posts.  Only two.

5th June – The dog in the tiny yard opposite my place chases his tail all day, round and round, drilling circles in the dirt (mud today).

6th June – With my head in a rack of coats in a clothes shop, I heard a customer say she needed to change a top for a bigger size because the one she bought was “a bit snug around the middle”.  The shop owner said, “‘Must be all that meat”.  I thought, wow, that was a bit rude!  Then I turned and saw that the customer was the lady butcher from a few shops away.

366 unusual things: days 144-148

23rd May – Rode my bike to work today for the first time (car dead).  Next to the bike path, ducks and galahs were dining together.

24th May – Read on the Via Lucis Photography blog that when building their Romanesque churches, the French moved more stone than was used in building the pyramids in all of Egyptian history.

25th May – On the radio I heard about a guy who goes to the dentist every year on his birthday so he doesn’t forget.  And he enjoys it.

26th May –  Sat at a café table outside in strong autumnal wind.  Sparrows were hopping over the salt and pepper shakers, pecking in the holes.  A strong gust of wind blew the froth from my cappuccino across the table.  A magpie came and pecked at my sandwich, through its wrapper.

27th May – Watching a one-year-old boy and his three-year-old brother toddling past my place, fair in the middle of the street.  Another five houses till they’re home.

366 unusual things: days 139-143

18th May – Just received an email telling me how much the sender is grateful for my friendship and that good things will happen if I send it to ten more people.  But there’s more;  I am promised that at 10.35 am tomorrow I’ll hear something I’ve been waiting to hear.

19th May – At 10.35 am I was teaching a girl who can’t read much.  I didn’t hear what I’ve been waiting to hear;  she still can’t read much.  This false prophecy had an unusual effect on me:  though I looked at the email only once, the exact time prediction played on my brain like an irritating jingle.

20th May – A woman in the Housing flats had her partner evicted by police and is now picking up all the beer cans and rubbish in the yard.

21st May – In the black of night I was driving out of a large country property when the tall wrought-iron gates automatically began closing towards me.  I waited a few seconds, then they opened.

22nd May – Waited at traffic lights behind a painted hippy holiday van with the message ‘Beer makes you see double, makes you feel single’.

366 unusual things: days 129-133

8th May – The waning Super Moon was super yellow tonight.

9th May – The two cafés at the local shops are both owned by Greeks.  I asked the owner of one if he was related to the owner of the other, and he said, ‘Yes, he’s the godfather of my children and I’m the godfather of his children’.  I tried to get him to confirm they aren’t from the same family, but he wouldn’t really agree.  I saw that he had redefined family for me.

10th May – This week I’ve been feeling really confident about my car because it’s French.  Today its engine died.

11th May – Home alone.  Studied two novels set in monasteries and two documentaries about the unchanging rhythm and solitude of monastic life.

12th May – Drove a car today that has no hand brake.  But it has a button.  A finger brake.

366 unusual things: days 119-123

28th Apr – An 8-year-old dyslexic pupil says she thinks in pictures when asked to spell a word.  I’ll have to find a way to turn sight words into pictures!

29th Apr – Just witnessed two angry young boys fist-fighting on the street. Their cool, calm mother brought them together, saying “Now, Matthew and Oliver, you must never hit each other.”  When she moved away they flew together, slapping and yelling.

30th Apr – Tutored a boy at a desk placed between a mirrored wall and uncurtained glass doors.  At the same moment, though facing in opposite directions, we both saw the clouds part and reveal a brilliant orange sunset.

1st May – A large black dog stood at the automatic doors of the grocery store, preventing them from closing, until his master had finished shopping.

2nd May – A few minutes before midnight, I translated a passage about a man locked in a room who heard a clock strike midnight followed by the sound of quiet steps approaching him.  He could see no one, but when he looked around, his door was open.

366 unusual things: days 114-118

23rd Apr – Offered two guests a cup of tea and both of them asked for a cup of hot water.

24th Apr – Tonight I was reading another blogger’s long, long post written in white print on a black background.  My husband came to my desk and when I looked up at his face I saw it veiled in white print for several seconds.

25th Apr – At the Anzac Day Services in Canberra (the first one at 5.30 am (4 deg C, brrrrrrrr), there were 40,000 people.  That’s 5,000 more than last year.  The further we get from the First World War, the more patriotic we are becoming.

26th Apr – A man down the road has a pet black sheep.  Farmers didn’t want her because she’s the black sheep of white-woolled parents.

27th Apr – Sat beside a full-length stained-glass window, the sun beating through from the other side.  Large pieces of red glass reflected red patches onto my red bag.

Anzac Day

In Australia, 25th April is Anzac Day.  Anzac stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.  On this day, in both those countries, we remember all those who have fought to defend their people and to retain the freedom and peace we love, through all the wars we have been involved in and those we are currently fighting in.

I’ve been submitting photos to this blog from my father’s war album, from his time in North Africa in 1941 and 1942.  He wrote a few poems during that time, including one about the Anzacs.  It’s several verses long but here I’ll give you the first and last pages.  There are some spelling errors and other slips in his handwriting;  my transcription following the images will correct them.

Ron Bruce, “Anzacs Forever”, 1942, first verses, © Patricia Worth, 2012

 

Ron Bruce, “Anzacs Forever”, 1942, last verses, © Patricia Worth, 2012

Anzacs Forever

This camp’s getting stale,
You could hear the boys say,
Wish they’d make up their minds
And bung us away.
They wonder why we won’t stay in,
Why we try to dodge the parades,
You could see them taking the old French leave,
Not one, but bloody brigades.

Then came one bright Sunday,
One chocked full of surprise.
“Move out tomorrow,” the Captain said,
Then did the gleam come to their eyes.
So, as you strolled past all the tents,
You could hear them chat
Of women, the race horses,
This, the other, and that.

*****

For those gallant sons are Aussies
And they’ve ne’er been known to flinch,
It’s just the stuff they’re made of,
They’re soldiers, every inch.
They’ll fight for King and Country,
Protect the friends they know,
They’ll even fight for the weaklings
That are afraid to go.

Let’s hope and pray
It won’t be long
Before they are returned,
To carry on, just like before,
With the freedom they have earned.
They’ll go back to their jobs again,
Some may prefer the track,
But they’ve upheld the name of
The great and glorious A.N.Z.A.C.

R.E. Bruce
© Patricia Worth, 2012

 

366 unusual things: days 109-113

18th Apr – Read some speeches by Desmond Tutu about the concept, ubuntu, and couldn’t remember where I’d seen that word, until logging off my computer and the word appeared on the screen.  It’s the name of my operating system!  Ubuntu means “A person is a person through other persons.”

19th Apr – Read that Chopin composed some of his best pieces in an abandoned Carthusian monastery, once occupied by ascetic monks who denied themselves musical instruments.

20th Apr – This morning the rubbish truck had a female mannequin’s head sitting on the dashboard, looking out of the windscreen.

21st Apr – Found out that the word Wikipedia is derived from a Hawaiian word, wiki, meaning quick.

22nd Apr – Visited my son and his new wife, and she put a record on!  An LP, on an old wooden stereo.  Sounded great!