Yesteryear Revisited

The alarm of our digital clock radio awakened us as per usual at twenty-four minutes past six. An overcast, sultry morning greeted us. Although the temperature was only nineteen degrees Celsius, the relative humidity registered at ninety-five per cent and this made conditions uncomfortable. Once I’d washed my hair, Tiki dried it. She looked well, but wasn’t keen to go to work.

Light sporadic rain at midday didn’t develop into anything more. Therefore, at six o’clock, I decided to follow a variation from the usual route and extend my walk beyond Gymea, to Kirrawee. There, I returned from the Prince’s Highway via the Kingsway. This has brought my tally of miles walked to seven hundred and nineteen.

At a quarter past seven I viewed the former Prime Minister and current Leader of the Federal Opposition, Gough Whitlam, as he stated that he’ll win next Saturday’s election for the Labor Party.

Channel Ten played the second episode of the new Australian series, “The Restless Years”, at half past the hour. Actress, Tina Grenville, is a member of its cast. The hour passed and then we sat through the dark comedy, “A New Leaf”, which was released to cinemas about six years ago. It stars Walter Matthau whose character marries a plain Jane played by Elaine May. Not only did Elaine May write the movie’s screenplay she directed the film, as well.

The index finger on my right hand became stuck fast to one of the icy bars that are affixed to the “ceiling” of our fridge, as I reached for the five-litre container of orange juice at a quarter to eleven. Tiki just laughed at my pleas for help, believing that I had my finger stuck up a tap in the bathroom.

My index finger was still marked and sore. Later, a blister formed on the wound.

We left at six o’clock this evening to walk to Miranda Fair where Tiki paid twenty-two dollars and fifty cents for a reddish pink Whitmont “Hob Nob” shirt at Kenrays, a purveyor of menswear. It has long sleeves, buttoned pockets and a buttoned epaulette on each shoulder. Whilst I was in the cubical trying it on for size, I thought that the young bloke who was serving me was going to invite Tiki to join him on the coach tour he’ll be taking to the Barossa Valley and the Flinders Ranges, in a few weeks.

Tiki felt refreshed after she’d consumed a double “Snow” cone, so we walked on to Gymea along the dusty Kingsway, which is in the process of being widened, and home down President Avenue. However, she was feeling somewhat exhausted by the walk’s end.

At half past seven the husband-and-wife pairing of Barbara Bain and Martin Landau appeared in another edition of “Space 1999”. An hour later we sat through another episode of “Cop Shop”. It featured the likes of George “Homicide”/”The Box” Mallaby, Tony “Skippy” Bonner, Joanna Lockwood and Rowena “The Rovers”/”Division 4″/”Number 96″/”Glenview High” Wallace.

Tiki has thrown my pillow and pyjamas out of the bedroom for not only am I still to finish writing in my diary, I am yet to wash the dishes! She closed the door and instructed me not to advance beyond it tonight.

Having awoken and ventured outside to the toilet, I asked Tiki if I might revert to sleeping on what I consider to be my side of the bed. The radio’s alarm woke me at twenty-four past six to the sound of the American pianist, Floyd Cramer, playing Badfinger’s hit of 1972, “Day After Day”, on 2CH. We continued to listen to Bob Moore’s breakfast programme, both at home and in the car on the way to work.

As we travelled in light traffic, on what was a bright and sunny morning, I learned that Abba’s latest release is entitled “The Name Of The Game”. After work, Tiki deposited a further one hundred dollars in her account at the bank. This has raised its balance, which we intend to spend on a holiday in Fiji next year, to eight hundred dollars.

We dined at her parents’ after which Tiki washed the dishes while I dried. Once we had watched an edition of “Police Story”, which screens from half past eight on Channel Nine and stars Desi Arnaz Jr., “Dad” presented me with a large sprinkler to use on our lawns. He estimated that it was twenty years old and assured me that it had lost none of its effectiveness in that time.

I didn’t go to bed until eleven minutes to one because I had wastefully studied the form that pertained to this afternoon’s trifecta, as well as sit through the first half an hour of the movie, “The Uninhibited”, which was being screened on Channel Ten. Melina Mercouri, James Mason and Hardy Kruger are three of the stars in this offering from 1967.

We awoke to the radio’s alarm at twenty-four past six, as if it were a day on which we had to work. Five past eight saw our departure for Miranda Public School. Upon our arrival we were sent from one room to another. Eventually, we learned that our names were still on the electoral roll for those who reside in Caringbah. A pleasant enough bloke, who reeked of bodily odour, informed us that we should, therefore, vote in that suburb’s electorate.

Instead, I drove Tiki to the hairdressing salon at Cronulla where she had an appointment for half past the hour. Returning home in the ‘Galant’, I washed it in our drive before employing the use of a grey extension cord and our red Pye vacuum cleaner to ensure that it was spick-and-span on the inside, as well. The temperature was already twenty-seven degrees Celsius by nine o’clock.

Tiki was collected by me at a quarter past eleven and after we had shopped in Caringbah we observed that the small thermometer inside the car showed that its interior registered one hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit!

Our votes were cast at Laguna Street Public School on the way home. The film, “Wonders Of Aladdin”, screened on Channel Seven from a quarter past twelve and at ten to three we headed for Waverton and Tiki’s Aunt Ruth’s, in spite of the fact that our vehicle possesses no air conditioning.

Gusty winds and gathering storm-clouds accompanied today’s maximum of thirty-five degrees and my self-inflicted weariness just added to my discomfort. I felt as though I could do little more than just sit in front of Ruth’s eighteen-inch Sony colour telly and watch what traditionalists of the game of cricket are referring to as ‘Kerry Packer’s Circus’.

The Australian Eleven batted second, at the obscure Westlakes Stadium in Adelaide, and in its quest to chase the World Eleven’s nine for two hundred and four proceeded to collapse to be all out for one hundred and fifty-five. Today’s one-day encounter and any subsequent matches, come under the banner of World Series Cricket.

We did experience some rain, but it didn’t last for long. After dinner we watched Channel Nine’s report on the Federal Election, which was presented by Michael Schulberg. It soon became apparent that the Coalition, led by the incumbent Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, was going to emerge victorious in an unanticipated landslide.

Having left Ruth’s for home at ten o’clock, we were in time to watch a sarcastic Mike Willesee tell those who were viewing Channel Seven that he hadn’t voted anyway, in protest at the major parties. We remained up until ten minutes to midnight to witness Mr Fraser’s victory speech. It followed Mr Whitlam’s acknowledgement of defeat, at a quarter past eleven, and his announcement that he is to relinquish his leadership of the Australian Labor Party.

After lunch and a sunny, warm summer’s morning, Tiki informed me that she is going to leave her full-time job and look for casual employment.

Having arrived at her parents’ she clipped her pet poodle, “Fifi”, who resides there, whilst her father carried out a mechanical check on the ‘Galant’ for we shall soon be on holiday. He fitted it with new points and cleaned the battery’s arm of acid prior to coating it with Vaseline. He then positioned the car above his “secret” pit that can be accessed from the recess where the lawn-mowers are kept and is situated below the level of the concrete area of yard before the garages. Despite having lived there for nigh on six months, I had no idea that such a pit existed!

Anyway, he declared the transmission oil to be “all right” and gave each nipple on the vehicle’s underside seven squirts with a grease gun. As “Dad” was doing this, I watched two boys, one fat and the other slim, hit a golf ball on the sandy beach below. When the thin one lost the ball in the bay the pair resorted to hitting tins and stones. We departed at half past five after I had assisted “Dad” in the removal of a front wheel. This permitted him to examine the brake pads.

This evening’s edition of “Hawaii Five-O” centres principally upon Danny Williams, portrayed by James McArthur, who, to escape from crooks, jumps off a cliff and on to a load of sand that is being hauled by a truck. He strikes his head in the process and, as a result, develops amnesia. At half past eight we turned the dial from Channel Nine to Channel Seven to watch the far-fetched spy movie, “Kiss The Girls And Make Them Die”. Produced in 1966, it features Michael “Tightrope”/”Mannix” Connors, Dorothy “The Roaring Twenties” Provine and the English actor, Terry-Thomas, who doesn’t have to do or say much to make one smile.