Where have I been, you ask?

I've eventually found my piece of paper of how to activate this again.
You'll be relieved to know that the operation on my thigh was successful except it has left a nice long scar on my left thigh just above the dinner-plate removed in 1978.
All this leg renovation means that my chances of being selected to be a male model on the catwalk has somewhat slightly diminished.
Meanwhile I have had my scalp scraped twice and 5 stitches worth taken out of the flap of my left ear.
Who said that Global Warming isn't affecting us?
By the way, Happy Armistice Day.
When will we ever learn?

Driving resumed

You'll be pleased to hear that I have resumed driving again and am using one crutch to walk distances.

Today is the 61st anniversary of Hiroshima's great tragedy and we are still condoing the use of bombs and rockets upon vulnerable people in the 21st century. We are still animals who scratch and bite except we are now sufficiently sophisticated to use precision bombing. When will we get to be human?

Pain in my leg and in other legs

The stitches were peacefully removed from my left thigh in my GP's surgery this afternoon but owing to the infection requiring several stitches to be removed prematurely the wound has not fully healed and still requires antibiotics, treating and dressing. So, I stay with the crutches and let the cobwebs cover my Honda City languishing neglected in its garage detained without trial.

During the time when the infection raged through my leg, this dreadful war between Israel and Hezballah/Lebanon has caused wounds far deeper than mine. In pain, my heart goes out to those who are bleeding, who are weeping, who are fleeing. I am on the side of the victims on both sides of the border and to the aggressors on both sides of the borders, I yell, "Stop!" in a voice fit to carry right over there amidst the noise, and hope your voice joins with mine.

The slow travels of my left thigh

Only five months to Christmas.
I can hear you shriek from here.

I am still hobbling around on borrowed crutches and go places only with the assistance of friendly chauffeurs.
The surgeon rang me to tell me that the pathology results are back and it's all clear (whew), so there is no residual melanoma.

Meanwhile, the wound has become infected so I have antibiotics and pencillin to quaff each 4 times a day.
The joy of having pus squeezed out through 11 stitches inside one's left thigh is not one I highly recommend.
The stitches are due out tomorrow week, so I hope my car still recognises me by then.

Eleven Stitches

Yesterday afternoon I had that anticipated excision and I am the proud bearer of 11 stitches. The pathology review is due in 10 days and I shall know whether the removed freckle is primary or "in transit", i.e. something that had lain dormant since my St Valentine's Day massacre, a "dinner plate" excision in 1978. I dress my little wound in about 2 or 3 days and the stitches will come out in a fortnight. I return to my surgeon for inspection in 3 months time. My leg is not particularly energetic at the moment.

Just an ambitious freckle

I'm still here even though you may think otherwise since I've posted nothing here for 2 months.

I've received my son from Canberra, seen him off at Mascot International Airport at the beginning of his 4 week tour of UK and parts of Europe, collected him back and waved him "au revoir" as he drove to Brisbane.

Yesterday would have been my Pearl wedding anniversary had not the marriage collapsed after 11 years.
It was also the 22nd anniversary of Mum's death with the dreaded lung cancer in 1984.

Tomorrow I fight my way through the traffic and negotiate my way into a complicated car park to attend the Sydney Cancer Centre and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Newtown where I anticipate a wider excision of a superficial spreading melanoma on the inside of my left thigh just below a previous excision from the same thigh on St Valentine's Day 1978.

Would you keep your fingers crossed for me please if it doesn't interfere with your typing?

I expect to be bringing my leg back with me, well the rest of it, anyway.

Prayers at Ryde City Council

Last Tuesday night, I led our local Ryde Council in opening prayers.
I had not done this before.
I had the opportunity of reading the agenda beforehand so I was able to prepare accordingly.
Afterwards I was able to catch up with most Councillors and the others who had come to demonstrate for the retention of the Gladesville Library now under threat of closure.
An interesting evening.

ANZAC day memories

This is a rollcall of what war has cost my family.

Maternal grandparents: Son-in-law William returned from WW2 with one lung.
Maternal Grandma: Youngest brother Alex(20) killed at Pope's Hill, Gallipoli. Nephew David killed in RAF in UK leaving daughter. Niece's husband Mobs killed in RAAF in PNG leaving twin daughters. Niece's husband George in Gull Force killed in Ambon leaving 4 children.
Maternal Grandpa: Two cousins, Clarrie and Bert (married with children) killed in France during WW1. Nephew Ernest killed while POW in New Britain.
Paternal grandparents: Dad's brother Arthur killed in Buna, PNG. Dad survived Bomber Squadron but died prematurely in 1966.
Paternal Grandpa: Fought in Boer War. Younger brother Aubrey returned from WW1 mortally gassed leaving 3 sons. Nephew Ken shot down flying Sunderland flying-boat.

Another war anyone?
You've got to be kidding.

S for Sugar

Several days ago, I received some on-line information about my late father's WW2 service in the RAAF. He was a bomb-aimer in 463/467 Squadron flying on sorties in Avro Lancaster over Germany. He flew several missions in the famous PO -S, better known as "S for Sugar" which flew over 130 sorties and survived. Thousands of air-crew lost their lives, and my father survived the war. Today I had the experience of speaking over the 'phone to his navigator now 89 years old.

Yesterday, I attended the Palm Sunday service and march at Parramatta. I don't want to see anyone going to war and suffering from war again, so making and keeping a just peace is a high priority.

ABC Public Meeting

Today I bussed into Ultimo wearing my wattle yellow Australian Democrat T-shirt to support along with a crowd of over 100 at a public meeting at our ABC.

Three proposals were adopted without dissent. (1) We supported the position of an ABC staff elected Director of the ABC Board; (2) We proposed an inquiry into the governance of the ABC with a view to ending the politicisation of the National Broadcaster; (3) We called upon the ABC Board to explicitly endorse the continued non-commercial character of the ABC opposing both advertising and sponsorship of ABC programs and services.

The meeting was chaired by John Cleary with the first proposal presented by Quentin Dempster. Other ABC "icons" were there in the form of Robyn Williams, Liz Jackson, Tim Bowden and I am sure many others.

New website

My son has managed by remote control to develop for me a new website so you are also able to visit http://home.exetel.com.au/cnridings/

Milosevic

I still mention his name most reluctantly as the monsters of history, present and past, deserve no recognition of their name because of the trauma left for generations among innumerable souls.

He tried to manipulate himself out of receiving judgment in The Hague but although he denied justice to so many his last breath was in captivity, and I guess one has to be content with that.

I am still trying to decide whether he was a psychopath or a sociopath and will have to leave that distinction to others who know the difference better than I do.

Those two Bosnian Serb henchmen of his now require urgent apprehension or their people will become even more isolated if they identify with these misguided "nationalists".

Why do such brutal leaders bring out our anger so much?
Is it because we tolerate what they stand for too much in the first place, and we did not find better ways to forestall their brutalities?
Have we not come to terms with the brutality which invades our humanity, and find ways to overcome it?

Four Corners 6.3.06

If anyone was having 2nd thoughts about advertising on the ABC, Monday night's excellent production of Four Corners by Ticky Fullerton would have well and truly laid that to rest.
By the time a baby is born there are parasites disguised as market research psychologists setting out to program the poor little mite to be hooked for life on product consumption.
You remember Jesuit founder Ignatius Loyola's maxim, "Give me a child until he is seven and he is mine for life."
This was taken up by the Communists and the Free Marketeers.
Ticky Fullerton should be in line for a Walkley's for one of the classic presentations of all time, and I hope the ABC repeats this several times over.

St David's Day on Ash Wednesday

Happy St David's Day whether you are of Welsh descent or not and welcome to Ash Wednesday and 40 days of Lent. Now how are you going to commemorate all that? Yesterday I was part of a party at our Manse celebrating Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras/Pancake Tuesday by eating pancakes. It reminded me of the time when we had restaurants called "Pancakes Galore" and one could eat pancakes with almost every conceivable flavour or combination thereof. Speaking of Shrove Tuesday, have you been shriven? Tonight I am off to our North Ryde Community Church to be marked on the forehead with a black ashen cross.

Did you know there are only 10 more months to Christmas?

Couldn't resist this, but please don't strangle me, at least not until Lent.

Human Filing Cabinets

What is it like living in a big city like Sydney?
Lately, there have been several occasions where gruesome discoveries have been made.
Residents living on their own, many in those huge blocks of flats, have been found by neighbours many months after they have been deceased.
Living in human filing cabinets, they have been filed away.
With the way human beings retreat from one another into their own mutually exclusive shells, this unbelievable state of affairs is happening more and more.
Why are human beings out of touch with their families and without friends and companions?
Will this ever happen to anyone we should have known?
Are we witnessing in this post-modern world the de-construction of community?

40 years ago

It was 40 years ago when I had not long moved into the Methodist Manse in Mullewa, WA, when on a hot morning, there was a knock on my door and I was handed a telegram. It read, "Your father died today. Letter following. Uncle Clive." Dad was National Bank Manager at West Wyalong, NSW and had just gone through the Decimal Currency changoever barely a few days before. He, his 2nd wife, and 5 children ranging in age from teenage to two had been staying in the Metropolitan Hotel prior to moving back to SA because of his chronic asthma aggravated by his smoking. His heart had given out overnight.

I was shattered that I would never see him again, nor ever have the opportunity to actually know him, for we had separated in early 1943 when he joined the RAAF and Mum took me home to Eudunda, SA.

I had last seen Dad in January 1955, eleven years before in SA, when he had flown over from NSW for his mother's funeral and I met his wife and his eldest 2 children. Up until then, I was 15, I had heard about his starting a 2nd family but was not sufficiently mature to accept the fact, so I had spent that time in some shock, partly because my paternal grandmother had died and my father had a new family. I was unusually quiet, I think, for the meeting and the farewell. I sailed from SA about a week later to join Mum and my stepfather in WA.

Happy St Valentine's Day

Funny, today was the 30th anniversary of my engagement. Was it THAT long ago? Also, it was the 28th anniversary of the removal of a suspected melanoma from inside of my left thigh. My legs cause a wind tunnel when I stand to attention.
So, how did I celebrate? I went with a mate to the Sydney Cricket Ground to watch the interstate match between WA and NSW before bad light halted play. No red roses came or went. When petals fall off the thorns remain. I think that's what happened to St Valentine. Shalom.

SENATOR LYN ALLISON'S SPEECH TO THE SENATE

This was quoted by Australian Democrats Leader Senator Lyn Allison yesterday,

"The Reverend Dr Dean Drayton of the Uniting Church said this week:

The decision to have an abortion is not just a moral issue but a social one. While the current debate attempts to pass moral judgement on the act itself, it ignores the many emotional, physical, financial and social issues that often create a situation where a woman is forced to consider an abortion.

The Uniting Church hopes that those engaged in this debate do not lose sight of the complexities of the issues."

Question of the day

Why are moderates so badly organised in comparison with extremists?

Happy birthday, Dad and Mozart!

Yesterday was my father's 94th birthday which he shared with MOZART born 250 years ago. Unfortunately, Dad's last birthday was his 54th as he died nearly 40 years ago. Funny, after all these years I never realised the two shared the same birthday. Yesterday I played a CD of Mozart to celebrate and then turned on to ABC Classif FM because I thought there might be more Mozart. Would you believe, it was playing exactly the same piece on the CD from his Piano Concerto No 21. My favourite Mozart piece in his Clarinet in A.

Deeeeeeepression?

Yesterday, Dr Geoff Gallop, Premier of Western Australia for the last 5 years, retired from politics, citing Depression.

It recalled for me my own on-going struggle in managing this debilitating disorder I've had for the best part of my 66 years, and my premature retirement from full-time parish ministry in August 1982.

Depression affects some time or another about one person in five.
There are different kinds and expressions of Depression.
Does this make any sense to you?

Forty four degrees in Ryde, NSW

Yesterday was the hottest I experienced since I arrived in the city of Ryde, just west of Sydney, early in 1990. After church, I spent the rest of the day in close contact with a faithful electric fan until I retired to bed to spend the night spread-eagled like an expiring star-fish. I never knew air could be so hot. I thought of those who have limited excess to power and water supplies and wonder what will happen as climate change continues and climate change affects and limits all our lives.

We really must find ways of being better stewards with the resources we have, for we can never take energy for granted and need to explore and invest in suitable alternative energy resources like solar energy, for example before we run out of oil.

When it is 44 degrees one can do little but think, and drain my late father-in-law's Warragamba Dam just that little bit more.

What is a good memorial?

I attended a funeral on Friday. I long to say at funerals that the best way to honour some one dear who has left us is for each of us to take personally on board even but one quality of that person, so that when our turn comes, some one else will take some quality of ours as their own. In this way, the qualities we need for the survival of good character on the face of this God's earth will flourish in the face of everything ranged against it.