Lest We Forget
Mt Macedon War Memorial
ANZAC DAY 2012
I invite you to read my special tribute poem Anzac Cove (click here)
Our African trip, December 2011
My wife and I have just returned from a six and a half week trip to Ethiopia, Morocco and Spain. During that time I wrote an extensive journal every day. In the coming weeks I will publish excerpts from that journal here on my writing site. It will include accounts of what we did, what we saw and reflections on what we experienced.
Sunday 4th December: Dubai Airport
I am writing this in Dubai Airport at 6:15am local time after an exhausting but great trip so far.
In the days leading up to our departure we were extremely busy, first packing up and cleaning my mother in law’s unit and shade house. A friend helped me with the dismantling of the shade house and moving the plants out to our place.
Over the last few days we made last minute preparations for our big adventure overseas. This included checking the plant dripper systems, cleaning the yard, mulching the roses and other plants and gathering all we needed for the trip, including last minute purchases like extra camera memory cards, medicines and so forth. We packed our bags and everything was ready to depart. A major last minute problem mid morning was Corinne misplacing her reading glasses which quite distressed her. She took her computer glasses instead.
Our friends arrived at 2pm to drive us to Adelaide Airport. We had a pleasant trip with lots of chatter, mainly from me as Corinne was quite subdued. We were both very tired and she was perhaps nervous about her journey. I know I was and this is quite normal.
Our flight was at 5:35pm so we had time to check in and then have a drink, a muffin and a slice of carrot cake. Our flight was delayed by 25 minutes but we made good time to Melbourne. It was odd going in the wrong direction, but Emirates do not fly out of Adelaide.
Our friends from Gisborne near Melbourne were waiting for us when we arrived and after getting our boarding passes we had a cuppa with them. It was great seeing them and chatting for an hour. We then went through security and customs before lining up to board. Our flight to Dubai was uneventful, generally smooth but very long. Favourable winds meant just over 13 hours of flight (instead of 14 hours) and we arrived at about 5am local time. Corinne managed a few hours’ sleep but I think I only had a few short naps. We bought a drink at Starbucks and sat there writing in our journals, waiting for our flight to Addis Ababa.
Further reading:
- Trevor’s Birding – about the birds I saw on my trip
- Trevor’s Travels – photos of places we went during our journey.
Adelaide Airport - waiting to leave on our overseas trip
Happy birthday to me
Yes, that time of year has rolled around again. (Sings “Happy birthday” quietly to himself; no-one joins in.)
I had a very busy day with only one special happening. Well, two actually.
I spent most of the morning at the doctors’ surgery. Nothing to get alarmed about – just a routine check-up and all is in order. I needed new scripts for some regular medications I take. I also renewed my driver’s licence last week because the 10 years on the old one were up. To get my licence I had to declare that I had diabetes (which I was diagnosed with since my last renewal). This required a doctor’s consultation and a 4 page questionnaire for her to fill in after she had run me through quite a few tests, most relating to my eyesight. No problems there.
In the afternoon I helped my wife packing up my mother in law’s unit. Last Monday she was admitted to a local aged care home with advancing dementia. It is sad to see her deteriorating on a daily basis, but she is now receiving the professional care we tried to provide but it was beyond our skills. I admire people who dedicate their working lives to helping people in need like this.
A highlight for my birthday was that I bought myself some new binoculars. My old pair has been good, but I bought some lightweight, compact binoculars which are much better. Can’t wait to get out in the field and try them out doing some birding.
In the evening I took my wife to one of the local hotels for a birthday dinner. We had a lovely time, good food and a great view over the River Murray. It was definitely the highlight of the day. Later we each had separate meetings to attend. Mine proved to long and, at times, difficult and challenging, having to deal with a serious issue.
Now back to writing.
Friendly Street Poets
The Adelaide based poetry group Friendly Street Poets has long been a strong influence on writers here in South Australia. They hold regular monthly readings in Adelaide. In more recent years they have ventured out into suburban venues and continue to grow in both influence and importance. The meetings are usually open mike reading opportunities for poets and often feature a guest poet who is invited to a longer reading of poems. The open mike readings usually have a time limit of about 3 minutes.
Over the last few years the group is also venturing out into country areas. Two years ago I attended the inaugural meeting here in my home town of Murray Bridge. I particularly appreciated having only a 5 minute drive to the venue on a pleasant Sunday afternoon. Normally I can’t attend the meetings in Adelaide due to other commitments on the regular nights on which they are held.
On that occasion I wasn’t brave enough to take along any of my poems for reading, and last year I had another commitment. Two weeks ago, however, I managed to attend – and read two of my poems. It felt good – and I enjoyed the rest of the poetry read during the afternoon. The poems ranged from the hilarious to the deeply serious through to the cheekily risqué. Reading one’s poems during the open mike sessions usually allows one to contribute the poems read for consideration in the annual anthology.
Links:
- Friendly Street Poets – click to view their website which has details of meeting times and venues as well as membership, publications and plenty of other information.
Review: Taj and the great camel trek
6 Comments »5th June, 2011; Category: Authors, Books, Events, Fiction, Novels, Reviews, Writers, Young Readers
Cover of "Taj and the great camel trek"
Book review:
Rosanne Hawke: Taj and the great camel trek.
Published in 2011 by University of Queensland Press.
Two weeks ago I was privileged to attend the Adelaide launch of Rosanne Hawke’s latest novel. I am becoming addicted to launches of her books; this is the fourth one I’ve attended in three years. As anticipated it was a joyous time of celebration because I know how hard she has struggled with this story over the last 4 years.
The main character, twelve year old Taj, lived in Beltana in outback South Australia in the 1870s. His father is a cameleer and Taj has his own camel Mustara, a character in its own right. In fact, Taj and Mustara have featured in another Hawke book, the picture book Mustara.
Cover of "Mustara"
Taj and Mustara are invited to join explorer Ernest Giles on his second expedition across Australia from Beltana to Port Augusta and then on to Perth in Western Australia. It is not a journey to be undertaken lightly because much of the territory they planned to cover is desert, for most part uninhabited even by local Aboriginal people. The team accompanying Giles struggle with coming to terms with the isolation, their own feelings of fear, the harsh environmental conditions and the almost total lack of water. At times, they traversed many hundreds of miles without finding a drop of water. The whole journey has them on the very edge of disaster throughout, giving the reader a sense of the extreme hardships they endured.
While this is a novel, written as fiction and from Taj’s point of view, many of the incidents and characters are based on real events and real people taken from Giles’ own journal and the records in newspapers of the day. Taj himself is a fictitious character which points to the real strength of this book. Rosanne revealed at the launch that this book was originally conceived as non-fiction, but early on in her research and early drafts discovered that fiction was a far more powerful vehicle to tell the story. In this way the author has brought history to life for the reader, a delicate balancing act at the best of times. She has handled the transition with great skill. We see and feel the anxiety of the party through the eyes and emotions of Taj.
Highly recommended reading.
Links:
- Rosanne Hawke’s web site
- Taj and the great camel trek special page – including photos from the launch and teachers’ notes.
- Merchandise – buy T-shirts, mugs, ties, fridge magnets and many other items featuring the cover art work from the book. I am the proud owner of a Taj coffee mug which I use every day.
- Marrying Ameera – my review of Rosanne’s previous best selling novel, listed recently as a Notable Book.
Disclosure: Rosanne was my supervising lecturer when I completed my Master of Arts (Creative Writing) course recently. Apart from being a great friend and an amazing mentor, I gain nothing from promoting her books and the merchandise associated with it. Reviewing her books is just my way of saying ‘thank you, Rosanne.’
Rosanne Hawke and a friend