Well, hello 2015, and everybody in it.

We have got a rather mixed bag today

Trivia Polly Ticks (qld/aust style), some childish humour, xmas and a promised poem

Do you know what I liked best about xmas this year, besides family and my Dalek Patrol Ship and Pilot (complete with Dalek Pilot figurine). it was this years fruit. Firstly the mangoes. For the first time to my knowledge nearly all the grocery shops were selling BOWEN mangoes … not just Kensington (the so called BOWEN mangoes), but the genuine, dinkie di, fair dinkum, back yard mangoes. And they were beautiful. I know they are usually available from the back of trucks at garages for a few weeks before xmas, but this year they have been available daily everywhere and I have been in ecstasy every evening when we have our fruit and meat salad meal.

And the other thing that has improved this year is watermelon, though it took me a while to prove a theory and perhaps I could have had a better quality fruit on my plate a lot earlier if I hadn’t procrastinated for so long. I kept saying that the watermelon at Coles and Woolies were rubbish because they had been frozen too long and I found their unfrozen flavour too hard to enjoy. Whereas the independent grocers mainly sold fresh watermelons. Though I did get my fingers burnt (or perhaps that should be frozen) a couple of times when I purchased melons from a couple of the bigger fruit shops and that was why I returned to Coles and Woolies.
But I have started searching through the smaller independents and it is paying off beautifully with the sweetest tasting melons I have had for years. If you remember we used to get sugar melons which have now disappeared altogether. The same applies to black seeded watermelons now replaced by seedless which I believe to be younger versions of the seeded versions. (in the u.s. the seedless is of a slightly different seeding program, but here I remember when we had the two versions in the shops occasionally you would come across one with flat white seeds or black seeds (only a few), but enough to convince we that the black seeded melons were simply adult versions of the seedless variety.
A few years ago we were able to buy both the seedless and the black seeded versions and at that stage the seedless version was dearer, but both versions were fairly equal in their taste. But they were a seasonal fruit and somewhere along the line the big supermarkets decided the product was a good all year seller and that means the fruit has to be imported from a variety of places. And that means it has to be frozen in order to travel, probably when very young and not yet fully matured as far as flavouring is concerned. And it also means it will be subject to a variety of environmental changes before you cut it up to eat it at home – and I find it goes off fast in my fridge. You can tell when the melon has been frozen by the dark green shading to the area between the outer skin and the flesh of the melon itself, but the ones I am buying now from a small fruit market in the Chermside Shopping Centre the skin is white … and the melon is beautiful.
The only problem I have now is that the season will come to an end … But then again, if global warming is here and we have just been through the hottest year on record … then perhaps the seasons for mangoes and melons could be extended to … well I can dream can’t I!

TRIVIA TIME AGAIN:

I’m in the process of watching an old episode of Midsomer Murders titled DEATH IN CHORUS and there, in a major role, was the current Doctor Who (Peter Capalidi) the 12th doctor), minus his Scottish accent, playing the cranky conductor of the village choir. This episode was broadcast this afternoon on ABC Australia.
I found his inclusion in the show rather ironic as two days earlier SECRETS AND SPIES, (also a repeat) shown on ABC Australia, featured Peter Davidson, who played the fifth Doctor Who and who, in real life, is the father-in-law of the 1Oth Doctor (David Tennant), in a major role.
And just to take this trivial piece of irony a little further, earlier today I hired out a D.V.D. from the Brisbane City Council library titled PENGUINS: SPY IN THE HUDDLE. An odd documentary on penguins where the producers have super-realistic animatronic cameras disguised as penguin chicks and eggs to spy on emperor penguins … and it is narrated by David Tennant (the 10th doctor).
And on final note, the producers of both Midsomer Murders and Doctor Who have the unique distinction of replacing the main character with someone who has played a semi-major role on the show several years earlier.
DOCTOR WHO
Peter Davidson (5th doctor) was replaced by Colin Baker (6th doctor) who had played a Soldier on Gallifrey (the doctor’s home planet) where he guarded the time lords (Title: ARC OF INFINITY featuring Tom Baker (4TH and most popular doctor of the original series), and
Peter Capalidi (the current doctor 2014 -) played Lucius Caecilius Iucundus, a Roman banker (who really existed and whose house can still be seen in the ruins of Pompeii according to Wikipedia) in The Fires of Pompeii. Naturally, it was the doctor that saved him and his family. History has been explained once again due to the magic of colour television and a good scriptwriter.
MIDSOMER MURDERS
John Nettles played DCI Tom Barnaby for 81 episodes since 1997
Neil Dudgeon took over the role in 2011 as DCI John Barnaby (Tom’s cousin). He had previously played the role of a lecherous gardener in the episode of Midsomer Murders titled: GARDEN OF DEATH in 2000.

Enough of trivia … its time for Polly Ticks the Aussie way.

Here in Queensland, we are into election mode, but our kind and thoughtful (and possible ex-) premier, Campbell Newman has spared us the agony of a long and tedious campaign. Only 28 days of avoiding the news and newspapers (I love it). God bless the Premier for thinking of his people and saving them from months and months of agonizing splatterings of gossip and slander in the media and inane promises promises from the politicians that they have no idea of keeping.

But regardless who gets in power I maintain they should follow my suggestion of eliminating TIME from our daily work load.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY (in the weird little world of my brain)

Many people think that both facebook and twitter should be retired because of those that misuse it and possible they are correct in their thinking, or perhaps the controllers of these services should take on a little bit of responsibility in as far as what they allow in the medium.
But that is not what I am writing about at the moment. I think we should start a campaign to rid the world of clocks. Delete the word and meaning of TIME, I say. Free us from our restraints and shackles. let us start and finish something as it happens, and not be compromised by a time-frame. Imagine the rewards of destroying time. You would never be late for an appointment. You would never be disappointed by someone’s tardiness because you would not have known exactly when to expect them in the first place. Your reports and assignments would be meant to arrive when you handed them in and not at a set time. You would never become frustrated with queue delays or the traffic light that never seemed to change because you would have absolutely no idea how long you had been waiting. If your favourite show on the telly didn’t start on time you wouldn’t become upset because you wouldn’t be aware of the problem. In fact you would not know when it was going to start in the first place. You would be absolutely in heaven in a timeless world. No pressures, no expectations … it would be positively magic.
Of course some of you may have the odd problem like not knowing what time The Bold and the Beautiful was screening, but you could easily fix that problem by sitting down in front of the telly the moment you woke up in the morning and staying there, your eyes fixed to the screen, until your show came on. Sure it might take a big chunk out of your day, but think of all the house cleaning you would get out of and how much more you would enjoy your show if you were in a well rested and relaxed mode. And think of all the new shows you could discover and watch every day.
And for those of you who disagree with my philosophy of time, I would love to have a keen discussion on the matter. A real toe-tapping, all swinging, debate, with you, but I am afraid I have already given away my watch and clocks and now … well, now I simply don’t have the time.

okay
Time for a couple of extracts from I ONCE KNEW A VAMPIRE NAMED LIZZIE;

I once knew a vampire called Willy
Who wanted to fly to the moon
His first attempt missed by just a tad
But he should be back from Mars by June

An earnest young werewolf named Jim
Wanted to gore and feast on the dead
But he was too young and his teeth had all fallen out
So he settled for porridge instead.

A moggy named Jody from Ireland
Wanted to fly and eat jam tarts as well
But a shark ate her tail – and a whale ate her lunch
So Jody just jumped into a well

Its time to say goodbye and I look forward to our next meeting in a week or two, in the meantime I have posted the following poem: SOME LONG FORGOTTEN DREAM from LOVE AND OTHER MEMORIES: VOL 3 which is one of the many poems that have entered my head over the past 18 years which tell a story of a lost love, but it is a story that only entered my head as I was writing it. It was nothing like the poem that I thought I was going to write, and I certainly have no idea where the storyline came from. But I do know it has nothing to do with the opening scene of the movie: The Nuns Story starring Audrey Hepburn, which is what I had started watching when I had a sudden impulse to write a poem about an unfinished letter. The opening scene, which was all I managed to see, took place in a writing room of the house owned by the central character’s father, and the camera panned over a desk complete with paper and pens, hence my thoughts on an unfinished letter.
Whatever the reasons were for the production of this poem are unknown, but I remember quite clearly that it brought tears to my eyes and as a result I have never forgotten it over the years. Perhaps the mystery of its origin within my mind (or memories) may be revealed to me someday in the future.

in the meantime

Have a lovely day and have a lovely life

Tony Stewart

Some long forgotten dream
Tony Stewart

Some long forgotten dream
from many years ago
came floating back into my mind
reminding me how much I loved you so

Don’t think I can recall
the moment or the date
can’t remember if it was early
or if it was late

But there you were in resplendent glory
sitting on a sofa, sitting by my side
we were immersed in conversation
something about the moon and it’s
controlling of the tide

I don’t think it meant too much
just a conversational thing
but in my mind I can still recall
the glistening of your ring

you moved in close to me
and kissed me on the cheek
then you whispered in my ear
reminding me we were to meet next week

I don’t think I’ll ever know
exactly what went wrong that night
The papers said it was so tragic
perhaps you were blinded by the light

I don’t think it matters now
if there was something I could have done
I lost your love forever
with the setting sun

Many times over the years
My mind does wander back
to times I held you in my arms
and we ramble down a golden track

For many years after
I just wandered in my life
God had taken back his angel
I had lost my future wife

Slowly, after many tears
I learned the joys of time
I learned how to remember what I had
in the days when you were mine

And like this morning’s reflective dream
I slip back into happy days
and no longer wonder how love works
I just accept it’s wondrous ways

At how a simple mind
can conjure up so much joy and pleasure
by simply recalling forgotten dreams
I have found my life’s richest treasure

I hope I go on dreaming
till the day I die
then I can stop my dreaming
and join you up in heaven
up in God’s blue sky