Month: February 2018

England has defeated Australia by an innings and eighty-five runs in the Fourth Test, at Headingley. Australia was dismissed in its second innings for 248, to which its wicketkeeper and left-handed batsman, Rod Marsh, contributed sixty-three. Australia has now lost the last three Tests in succession. After the match, Greg Chappell announced his retirement from official Test cricket. This means that the Fifth Test will be his fifty-first and last.

At 6.00 p.m., on Channel Two, actor, William Conrad, narrated “Wild, Wild World Of Animals”. “The Naked Vicar Show” followed “Willesee”, at half past seven. It contained some really entertaining skits on Bert Newton — during which a drunk guest from Hollywood made an appearance — and the Miss Australia Quest. The programme also included the gag: ‘How do you rape a grizzly bear?’…’Very Quickly!’

Half past eight, on Channel Ten, brought my favourite film, from those which portray the secret agent with a licence to kill, into our lounge room, namely, “Goldfinger”.

Prior to 8.00 a.m. I heard “Crying In The Chapel” on a tribute to Elvis that was being played on 2SM. Following our walk, I shaved and showered before eleven o’clock and while Tiki was in the shower I used her Sanyo radio-cassette recorder to begin to listen to another tribute to Elvis, this time on 2UW. It was originally broadcast a few years ago in separate episodes, however, this time, they have been combined to provide a programme that is destined to last for thirteen hours.

Elvis actually recorded the single, “Heartbreak Hotel”, on the fifth of January, in 1956. In June of that year he recorded what was to become the year’s biggest seller. It featured “Hound Dog” on one side and “Don’t Be Cruel” on the other. He also appeared in his first film, “Love Me Tender”, which also proved to be massively successful. Nineteen fifty-seven proved to be just as fruitful, producing such hits as “Too Much”, “All Shook Up”, “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear”, “Loving You” and “Jailhouse Rock”.

An edition of the series, “Westwind To Hawaii”, which stars Van “Surfside 6” Williams, was on Channel Ten from eleven o’clock. Tiki watched “Cher” at noon.

We left to collect “Mum”, “Dad” and Tiki’s younger sister, Wendy. As we neared the house we learned of the death of Groucho Marx, via the radio and a news bulletin at 3.00 p.m. The American comedian was a star of film, radio and television. He was eighty-six years of age.

“Dad” had experienced a frustrating morning for when he had attempted to launch his son’s new yacht, the foot-operated handbrake on the Holden ‘Torana’ had jammed and it had taken the pair an hour to release it.

I drove to Manly by a quarter past four and allowed the others to alight in Eustace Street, near the Manly Hotel. This allowed me to drive on, alone, to visit my elderly father. “Brutus” — as I had nicknamed him in the mid-sixties after I had had to study “Shakyspeare’s” ‘Julius Caesar’ in high school — appeared plump and pale, and said that he had had another ‘turn’ during the week. He continued by stating that his doctor had informed him that he could ‘go’ at any time, and with that showed me where he had hidden money in various places throughout his small home unit; in particular the kitchen. He even mentioned that he is thinking of getting a second-hand, portable television. This is something that he has not been in favour of, until now.

He appeared to be agitated over a letter he had written to the Commissioner of Strata Title, seeking to acquire the land outside the window to his bedroom because, as he worded it to me, the ‘old duck’ from next-door continues to water the geraniums she had planted there; much to his vexation.

While he gave me a biblical lesson — I’d like a dollar for each time he has told me: ‘You aren’t educated until you’ve read the Bible’ — I read articles on the late Elvis Presley, and Jacqueline Bisset from his copy of “The Melbourne Herald”.

I left at twenty past five and drove past K’s Snapper Inn where I noticed that “Mum” and “Dad” were occupying second place in the queue that had already formed. “Return To Sender” played on 2UW’s ‘Elvis Special’ as I drove into the car park in Wentworth Street, where I was met by Tiki and Wendy. “Dad” felt gelid, for he had waited in front of the restaurant since five o’clock. He wanted to pay half of the bill, as he and “Mum” had both ordered lobster mornay, however, Tiki and I refused and paid the total bill of fifty-two dollars and eighty cents. It was because of this that “Dad” had his twenty cents out before we left Manly, to pay for the toll on the Harbour Bridge.

We each had a glass of ginger ale at Tiki’s parents’ before I hinted to her that I thought that it was time to leave. We arrived home at half past nine and watched the film, “Sink The Bismark”, from 1960. It stars Kenneth More and Dana Wynter.

Telephone boxes with facilities that include the internet are set to revolutionise the system of public phones.

The curtain falls for the last time at Her Majesty’s Theatre, at the Haymarket, in Sydney. The final performance is that of the Canadian director, Robert Lepage’s ‘The Far Side Of The Moon’. This fourth and final Her Majesty’s Theatre opened in 1973.

Technology that allows the mouse of a computer to identify its user, is poised to revolutionise e-commerce.

Swimmer, Tammy van Wisse, who specialises in marathons, crosses the border into South Australia. Tammy’s progression, via the Murray River, provides her with new heart to make further headway and, hopefully, complete her intention to swim the 2,426 kilometres from Corryong in the north-east of Victoria to the river’s mouth.

Advertising via mobile billboards has increased by nearly forty per cent in the past six months, particularly in those areas of Sydney where councils have banned those erected on static structures. A row of trucks carrying advertisements is becoming a common sight across the city.

When we awoke at half past seven the temperature was already nineteen degrees Celsius and the morning perfectly sunny. Using ‘Tusk Ivory’, I painted the doors to the linen cupboard and those to the cabinet in the bathroom. As I had finished by ten o’clock, I decided to put my feet up and listen to 2KY’s ‘Elvis Special’ until noon. It concluded with his version of “My Way”, followed by a minute’s silence.

“Gretel II” defeated “Sverige” to level the tally at three races all. This means that for the first time, in the history of the America’s Cup, the outcome of a series will rely upon the seventh and final race between these two challengers.

As the temperature was nearing its maximum of twenty-four degrees, Tiki brought in the washing as it had already dried. We left for the Illawarra Country Club on the Princes Highway, Helensburgh, with me driving — no pun intended — the twenty-two miles to reach it.

I opened with a drive that must have measured two hundred and fifty yards. The course was so dry and the fairway’s surface so hard that the ball must have covered half of this distance by simply bobbing along the ground. Regardless, and in keeping with my usual form, I then visited the trees before eventually carding a nine.

Two holes later, Tiki, who acts as my caddy, took it upon herself to move up the fairway before I had teed off. My drive was a poor one and bounded straight towards her. Just as the ball was about to thud into her, my unsuspecting caddy bent over to examine the pen she had espied. At that instant the ball narrowly cleared her head, clipping low gum leaves as it passed. The moment in time was akin to something one might see in a motion picture comedy and I could not help but laugh when she stood upright and exclaimed, “Look at what I’ve just found!”

The eighth hole eventually arrived and once again Tiki decided to advance along the fairway. This time she decided to ignore my advice, which was to stand wholly behind a tree, claiming that she could see the ball coming if she were to stand in the middle of the fairway. As before my low drive headed straight for her, only this time the club had made good contact and the ball was travelling at speed. Not only that, it possessed a slice which made it more difficult for her to ascertain just where it would be positioned by the time it reached her. Although Tiki was a good one hundred metres distant, she literally evaded it by centimetres. Frantically arching her back at the last moment. I feel certain that the ball would have inflicted a grievous injury, had it struck her.

I selected a three wood for my second shot and to my delight the ball came to rest some twenty-five feet from the hole. Alas, this self-satisfaction soon dissipated when I three-putted on the rough surface to record a bogey. Having completed the nine holes in fifty-one strokes, I was placing my clubs in the boot when I heard via the car’s radio that, at Leichhardt Oval, Manly-Warringah was leading Balmain by fourteen points to twelve at half-time. Manly-Warringah had to win or otherwise face a play-off against Cronulla-Sutherland on Tuesday to determine fifth place in the competition.

“Ask The Leyland Brothers” screened from half past five and from Channel Seven’s news, at six, I gleaned that the controversy over legalised nude bathing at Reef Beach is set to flare again. We watched “Seven’s Big League” from half past the hour and were pleased that Manly-Warringah had, indeed, prevailed over Balmain by twenty-four points to seventeen. Tragedy had been averted when Balmain’s Dave Edwards swallowed his tongue within minutes of the game’s commencement.

Tiki was watching the “Bionic Woman”, as I washed the dishes. Suddenly, I experienced severe pains in my chest and stomach and adjourned to rest in the lounge room. “A Severed Head”, a film that was produced in 1970, followed from half past eight. Its cast includes Lee Remick and the English pairing of Claire Bloom and Richard Attenborough.

It was thirteen degrees Celsius when we arose at 6.30 a.m. I still felt unwell after having experienced severe pains in my chest and stomach, last evening.

The Swedish challenger, “Sverige”, has eliminated “Gretel II” from the America’s Cup by winning the seventh race between the pair. She now meets “Australia”, from Perth, to decide which yacht will challenge the Americans.

This week, on “Willesee”, reporter Paul Makin has been promoted to present the programme in Michael Willesee’s absence. This evening’s edition includes a segment on the Mayor of Rockhampton, in central Queensland, who recently dismissed a newly married librarian, in the belief that her job should now go to a single girl.

At half past seven the dial was changed to Channel Ten in order that we might watch the latest offering from the series, “The Rockford Files”. I retired at nine o’clock, having washed the dishes.

I awoke at midnight and, unable to get back to sleep, watched the film, “Some Will, Some Won’t”. Made in 1969, the cast of this British picture includes Leslie Phillips, Ronnie “The Two Ronnies” Corbett and Barbara Murray.

I awoke again, this time at half past six, to yet another sunny, virtually windless morning and a temperature of eight degrees Celsius.

“Bing Crosby’s Irish Songs” screens on Channel Ten from 7.30 p.m. Tiki turned the dial to Channel Seven at half past eight so that we might watch the British movie, “Otley”, from the year of 1968. Tom Courtney, the Austrian actress, Romy Schneider and Fiona Lewis are among its cast.