I was not in Greece for a long time, as the famous “Colonels Coup” had happened, and all of the prisoners in camps all over Greece were exchanged for others as the politics changed. This coup (which was organised by the CIA) caused an exchange of prisoners, the original prisoners were changed for a bunch of people who against the “Colonels”. Which included me.
Greece suddenly became a much more fascist state, reflecting the current state of American politics, and so it was really difficult to express yourself about all manner of issues and avoid being bunged into prison. Ah well, all good things end.
For a while, Greece became impossible to visit. Or at least if you were aware of politics. The “normal” tourists still went to Greece, but politically aware ones avoided it like the plague.
After the coup had softened its grip on power, Greece once again became possible to visit, and the Greek nature showed through once again, and the political prisoners once again changed back to the ones that the “Colonels” had imprisoned life became once again possible.
In other words, all changed back to the way things had been before the infamous coup, and Greece once again became Greece!
I have now lived in Australia for about 11 years, and I can say that I am enjoying it as an experience. Australia is a calm country, unlike some of the countries I have lived in! We have no risk of fascists taking over or becoming a police state, actually life is remarkably calm, life goes on calmly.
We have built our house, and are living in it now……
A Goana…… Huge lizards that they have around here. They are about 3 meters long!
A male Koala that once visited us…. Generally we hear them, but not see them.
A real nuisance, these creatures are everywhere! And destroy everything they see…….. Cockatoos if you are in doubt.
Lotty working away on one of our decks….. this was about 7 meters high!
An army of Cockatoos….. on our deck!
Our son and his children…. On their deck.
Our comfortable home…….
To give an idea of how high our building is……..
The completed house…… All except for the deck on the low side of the house…. This is now completed with a grape plant…. Which gives grapes in the summer, and gives us shade in the summer too.
Tis is how it is now….. The front balcony has grapes on it!
And it offers’ us shelter too.
All in all, we have it damn alright right now……. And are very content living in Australia, and love our house, which we built ourselves, really. And we are enjoying were we live… Actually, all is good in our lives right now
I came across this wheelchair some months ago, while I was picking up a trailer for our car, the most amazing wheelchair I had ever seen!
Before I talk about it, I shall show you what it is…..
So is it!
This is the most amazing machine…. I reckon that it should be for all invalids, can you imagine how they would be able to get around in it. All invalids should have access to such a machine and be trained to use it, the freedom that it entails is unbelievable, as opposed to the narrow wheels of a “standard” wheelchair. I speak from experience, as to a “standard” wheelchair, I had such difficulty getting it over a bit of mud and even getting it along the paths I had to go along – I was not wheelchair bound I hasten to add, I was simply wheeling a 92 year old guy along, who was wheelchair bound – so I speak from practical experience.
The freedom such a machine could offer an invalid is hard to imagine – not that I reckon they should be forced to use such a machine, but have the option available to them.
Can you imagine it? The freedom to be in snow, or in water, or in the wilderness or wherever they wish to be! It would mean that they had the freedom to be wherever they wished whenever they wanted to be.
So, everyone who is wheelchair bound should have the possibility to use such a machine at all times.
We have lived together for more than 50 years, so I can say, with a reasonably accurate statement, that we are suited to each other!
We started to live together in about 1970 while I was living in Upper Street in Islington, and we started to sleep together, but we didn’t get married until much later, to the disgust of our landlord then, who claimed that it would ruin our relationship – it didn’t! We worked in Interaction then, which was a group of people with an idea of Ed Burman, an American who looked just like Frank Zappa and behaved much like him too! For some info about Interaction, please follow this link. http://www.unfinishedhistories.com/history/companies/inter-action/
We worked in Interaction for about a year, I with theatre technique (we ran a number of theatres) and Lotty worked at office work. One desperately depressing work which we did, was to work in a remand home, which was supposed to be a “model” of good practice. But in fact it was truly awful! For a minor disobedience kids were locked up for 24 hours! And loads of kids were there who hadn’t committed any crimes, but simply were too much for the youth work people to handle. A terribly depressing place to work in! So I didn’t work in it for long! Others did, more strength to their elbows.
After this, I was Production Manager at the Roundhouse and Lotty worked in schools – as a teacher. A lot of what we did was based on our plans to head for Australia – to which end we bought a yacht in Spain (which a friend had told me about), and Lotty sailed it to England, and I drove home, the intention was to sail it to Australia but we ran into storms on sailing off to Australia, so we ended up in Holland, which we enjoyed and in which we had Jake (our son), who was diagnosed with internal problems, so we found that we would have to stay inc Holland for the immediate future. So we sold Mjojo, our sailing boat, and bought a commercial barge, the 120 ton Luxe Motor which we lived on for the next 24 years, only selling it when we moved to France….. More about this later.
We have lived in a number of countries together…. England, Holland, France, (Lotty lived in Switzerland) Angola, China, The Philippines, Malaysia, and finally, Australia! So, all in all, we have lived all over the world, and had fun in all of those countries.
A couple of years ago, my son contacted a guy who had a huge collection of tanks and armoured cars, and similar war-like machines, and arranged for me to spend a day there…… It was my birthday present!
So, we all went there, just south of Brisbane, and had a really good day with tanks and similar….
To start with, we explored the vehicles he had in a shed…. A vast number of military types of machines, ranging from motorbikes through to tanks and armoured personnel carriers, it was amazing such a collection!
To give you an idea of the scope of this collection!Us sitting happily in a troop carrierUs in a troop carrierMe overwhelmed by all of these tanks!My two grandsons happily sitting in a military jeepJake, My son, admiring an armoured car!Jake, being overwhelmed by a tankAn obvious point!Us admiring a bren gun carrierAnd to finish it off….. a real tank ride!!!!! We are in the turret, my grandkids and me.
All in all, a real day to remember, and that will certainly be the case!! I was overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of the tanks and other armoured vehicles and the fact that my son found that collection of armoured vehicles for us to visit. And that we got to ride in a real tank!!!! Such a treat! A real day to remember.
I used to work in the Roundhouse in London, way back in the ’60’s of the last century (boy that makes me sound ancient!!!), and upon arriving in Brisbane I found work as a volunteer at the Brisbane Roundhouse, as an usher, rather than as a Production Manager (which was what I did at the Roundhouse in London (see other posts in this blog and my other blog, https://28061942.blogspot.com/).
It was amazing being back in another Roundhouse, and it was a great relief not to have the responsibility of being in charge, as I had been all my life – in the various things I did in my life – but simply just to turn up for work at the beginning of my shift, and then to stay until the end of my shift…… Easy really.
And not to have to rebuild the theatre when a new show came in, as we did in the London Roundhouse, simply think if it was in the round, or in a classical theatre thrust configuration. Actually, we ushers didn’t bother about that, we simply found it when we had our first shift – Stage hands built the scenery and configured the theatre each time…. We simply turned up and discovered what was what.
What was amazing about La Boite was that it was an experimental theatre, so shows that we put on there were more or less experimental, some more than others. Also, they held the annual Student Theatre shows there, which were interesting, but not necessarily good…… Student theatre is a big thing in Australian universities and much encouraged, but not necessarily good.
I worked in La Boite for about 6 years, and saw many interesting shows there, and then one day, we were all invited to a show, and we were fired! It seemed that they were in difficulties over the insurance which had to be paid for us all and so they had decided to get shot of us all……… Sad, but realistic.
Well, I have been silent for ages, chiefly because of Covid to be honest – Having been repeatedly in lock-down I haven’t really felt like writing anything much, as you may have noticed! But now I have come out of the other side of the whole sorry mess, and feel the creative urge again, so I shall write a post to celebrate “coming out of the other side” as one does!
So, what shall I write about? That is the burning question of the moment! And to which I shall have to spend some time contemplating so I shall stop writing just now and go and have a beer in the hope that Inspiration Will Strike.
Well on the point of National Anthems, both good and bad, I have recently heard what has to be the most amazing song that should be Australia’s National Anthem, rather than the dreary dirge that is actually Australia’s Anthem.
The words of this song, recognise that Australians come from all over the world, and also, in the first verse, recognise that the aboriginese were here first, a long time ago!!!
All the verses deal with one group of people who are Australians now, and also recognises in the chorus that Australians are made up of loads of nationalities – in the words of the song:-
“We are one, but we are many And from all the lands on earth we come We’ll share a dream and sing with one voice I am, you are, we are Australian”
This beautifully sums up how Australia is now, an amazing mix of races and nationalities, the whole world is represented in Australian culture now – even if a lot of British descendents feel that this is all wrong – rascists in other words. Like everywhere in the world, Australia has it share of rascists, sadly. But Australia is an amazing mix of nationalities, Asians, European, African, South Americans and so on.
Each verse of this song recognises a group who have created the Australia that now exists, from the infamous Ned Kelly through to Aboriginese via farmers and so on…. All the groups who have created the Australia we know today.
So, here are the words of this wonderful song, which definetly should be the Australian National Anthem, I shall bung the real one in later so that you can see how banal and dull it is.
‘I am Australian’ Song Lyrics
I came from the dream-time From the dusty red-soil plains I am the ancient heart The keeper of the flame I stood upon the rocky shores I watched the tall ships come For forty thousand years I’ve been The first Australian
I’m the daughter of a digger Who sought the mother lode The girl became a woman On the long and dusty road I’m a child of the Depression I saw the good times come I’m a bushie, I’m a battler I am Australian
We are one, but we are many And from all the lands on earth we come We’ll share a dream and sing with one voice I am, you are, we are Australian
I’m a teller of stories I’m a singer of songs I am Albert Namatjira And I paint the ghostly gums I’m Clancy on his horse I’m Ned Kelly on the run I’m the one who waltzed Matilda
I am Australian We are one, but we are many And from all the lands on earth we come We’ll share a dream and sing with one voice I am, you are, we are Australian
We are one, but we are many And from all the lands on earth we come We’ll share a dream and sing with one voice I am, you are, we are Australian I am, you are, we are Australian
And now here are a couple of versions of this song, the first one being a version sung in one of the aboriginal language………
And now the version sung by the Seekers, who wrote this amazing song.
And now, to show you what I mean about the current Australian National , Anthem, here is the “real thing”. This is to show you how awful the “real” thing is…………..
Between about 2006 and 2009 we lived and worked in Beijing, Lotty in one International School (Beijing City International School) and I in the Western Academy Beijing (WAB). I was employed as what they called their Production Engineer, which effectively was the equivalent of what I used to do at the Roundhouse in London, in other words, I functioned as their Production Manager, being responsible for the sound and lighting crew of the school. As we had something like 7 venues to deal with, and as they tended to start each morning at about 8 am and finish some time in the evening – with rock concerts, classical concerts, film shows or whatever, we tended to work for about 70 hours a week.
I had a number of Chinese guys working with me, so I found it relatively easy to learn Mandarin (the Chinese dialect spoken in Beijing, and thus the official language of China), except that it is a tonal language, and the tone used can change the meaning of a word totally – for example, the word “Mar”, can mean the following:- Horse, Wife, Arrow and who knows what more? So if you happen to get the tone wrong, you could be saying something like, “I shot my wife at a straw target”, or “I would like to introduce you to my arrow”. When the Chinese use their tones, it is very subtle, and hardly noticeable, but for us Long Noses (Western foreigners) it is extremely tricky! Which makes a language that on the face of it is very simple and logical, incredibly hard to use properly, so I spent my entire time making that sort of mistake – oh well……
While we were living there, the number of cars increased exponentially. When we got there, most people still used bicycles, but by the time we left, every week another 10 000 cars were registered in Beijing alone! This, of course, caused huge traffic jams, sometimes they were up to 100 km long!!!!
Also, the Chinese hadn’t grown up with cars, the way we in the west had done, so they did the most extraordinary things when in cars, or even when simply crossing the road. For example, when driving on a motorway, if they happened to miss their turning, they were perfectly happy to turn around, and drive against the other traffic until they got to their turning, and then leave the motorway. I have seen the crew of a police car happily having a picnic on the hard shoulder of a motor way, and I have also seen a shepherd happily putting his herd of sheep across a motorway – altogether extraordinary!
Also, in all the cities, the two opposing lanes of the roads have large, and very secure, fences on them, to stop people crossing the road anywhere but at the places intended for them to cross – this because people tended to simply wander across the roads anywhere they happened to be – the results of many, many years of only bikes on the roads.
Another hang-over from the days of no cars (for the ordinary people), when an official is being driven somewhere, they have a total right of way, so all other vehicles have to give way to them and their hugely important passenger(s), and the military have even more right of way than the politicians – so if you happen to be driving in Beijing, watch out for large cars with special number plates, they have, and will take, an absolute right of way!
In another post, I shall dwell on yet more curiosities of life in Beijing – a city that I truly enjoyed living in.
Having experienced quite a bit about the Olympics while I was working in Beijing during their Olympics I have rather strong feelings about the lunacy of wanting them in our fair city of Brisbane.
My introduction to the Olympics started about 8 months before they actually happened with a bunch of TV technicians who arrived at the huge International School I was working in (I was called a Production Engineer, and was responsible for all the stage sound and lighting stuff, in a school that had about 7 stages and arenas).
These technicians were there to train a large number of locals in how to use TV cameras as there simply were not enough trained people available locally to cover the many events of the Olympics. And a damned nuisance they were too! I was basically working a 70 hour week, as we had events to cover that started at about 8 am and other events (rock concerts, talks, film shows etc. that went on until about 10 pm) and to have these guys and their many students milling around the place was tricky. Curiously enough, they worked for a British commercial TV company (ITV) who in the UK were responsible for ordinary TV programming.
As things went on, I discovered that there were no end of companies who simply worked on the Olympics, going from city to city as it was decided which city would have the next Olympics – TV people, physio-therapists, uniform makers, builders, decorators and so on, an almost endless collection of people whose only work was the Olympics,, and who earned damn good money from their work.
In other words, for a lot of companies, the Olympics was how they earned their living.
As time went by, I discovered more and more about the way in which the Olympics work, and how – to be honest – the athletes were the industrial equivalent of the coke in coke bottles, in other words, their presence was the justification for the rest of the huge, money earning, circus that was the commercial side of the Olympics. And was the whole reason for the Olympics as far as I could see.
The other side of the Olympics is the building of huge arenas in which the various sports will occur. In Beijing this happened too, of course, and since the Olympics most of the huge arenas have rotted away as they are simply too damn big for normal use – Huge, expensive white elephants.
The other lousy thing about the Olympics is the way it snarls up the traffic. In Beijing there was a section of the road which was reserved for the cars and buses that were ferrying the athletes and officials from event to event, or from the “village” to the arenas. But not all the vehicles – of course – stuck to that lane, so the awful traffic jams that Beijing was famous for, were made even worse.
If the Olympics should continue (and for my part, I see no reason why they should), then there should be a permanent summer games stadia and village (probably in Greece) and a permanent winter venue (probably in Russia) and the TV crews, sound crews, maintenance crews and so on will all be permanent staff, employed by the Olympics and the whole thing continued thus.
In other words, instead of building totally useless stadia, training loads of locals to do work that disappears as soon as the Olympics are finished and so on, we have a set of stadia, villages and technicians all trained to work on the Olympics and the whole thing becomes a normal commercial operation – which, of course it absolutely is!
Also, it might be fun to run the modern Olympics in the manner of the original ones – ie. the athletes have to be nude, they have to be only male and all wars have to cease for the duration of the games. Now that would be fun!
So, how do you read a “real” paper book? I know, we can all do that, but will we still know how to in, say 50 years time? We have all seen those videos of small children trying to swipe to the next page in their kiddies books, as they have been brought up on iPads and similar devices and found those videos to be charming and funny in a nice and fuzzy way. But in fact they are showing us the future of reading. Like it or loathe it, ebooks are where we are heading, and patently paper books are slowly but steadily being superseded by their digital descendents.
And it is possible that in the not too distant future, paper books will only be read by academics in pursuit of their knowledge of these primitive predigital eras. Depressing thought isn’t it?
In spite of the fact that I own a blog that is devoted to all aspects of ebooks, I am also a passionate lover of the paper variety as well, and have thousands of them which I read and reread with enormous pleasure. Loving the feel, the smell and the weight of a real book – And those rows of book spines on my bookshelves, all of which promise me so much pleasure and escape to new and different worlds. Whilst I am very fond of my Sony, Kindle and so on, and truly appreciate their convenience, a couple of lonely looking, albeit sleek and smooth ereaders on a book shelf, each containing an enormous number of ebooks are in no way to be equated with the pleasure of the real thing obviously. A total lack of the sense of adventure that a decently filled book shelf offers us.
Paper books sitting there on the shelf offer us in a highly visible manner an escape from the daily grind, romance, friendship, relaxation and all the many benefits of reading, and they do this in a tangible and individual manner. ereaders obviously offer the same experiences, but they are discrete, nothing to be seen, no visible promise of pleasures, actually really very sterile objects.
OZTHOUGHTS 