I found sleep difficult and, therefore, arose at 12.30 a.m. and watched “A Story Of A Woman”, a film which stars the Swedish actress, Bibi Andersson, Robert “The Untouchables”/”The Name Of The Game” Stack and James “The Bold Ones” Farentino. Produced in 1969, it screened on Channel Nine.
Having returned to bed by half past two, I fell asleep around three; only to be awoken by Tiki at seven o’clock. We were still lying in bed when “Mum” rang, at 8.15, to ask Tiki to approve the use of lemon icing on her birthday cake.
Nearly two hours later I left to walk to the petrol station, that bears the logotypy of Shell, on the acute corner of Wyralla Road and President Avenue. There I purchased four litres of Castrol GTX at a cost of four dollars and eighty cents.
The series, “Westwind To Hawaii”, screened from eleven o’clock. An hour later, on Channel Ten, the motion picture, “How To Frame A Figg”, features Don “The Andy Griffith Show”/”Mayberry RFD” Knotts. This offering, from 1970, has him cast as a dumb council clerk whose computer detects a case of fraud to the tune of a quarter of a million dollars.
I left home at two o’clock to walk to Tiki’s parents’. Tiki had waited behind to drive the ‘Galant’ there. She appeared as I was half of the way up the last hill and I ran as fast as I could to open the front gates for her.
Her father was in the process of re-covering the actual seats of the dining room chairs, in an orange vinyl. Something he had not done in more than twenty years.
I undid the bolt to the sump of the ‘Galant’ after “Dad” had loosened it for me. Whilst the oil was draining, I helped him to remove the tacks from the underside of the chairs’ seats and stood on the bases while he stretched the new covering over them and tacked it in place. All of this was achieved as I stood on the lowered tailgate of his ‘Town and Country’ utility.
Next I removed our car’s front tyres in order that he might check its brake linings. “Still good for another five thousand miles!” he assured me. By that time the odometer would read forty thousand miles.
He told me of a wild driver with whom he works and of how he had to have the brake linings of his car replaced after just twelve thousand kilometres. I replaced the oil drained from the sump with that bought this morning and all was finished by twenty minutes to six.
“Dad” showered to be certain that he would not be told to go and have one during the delayed telecast of this afternoon’s rugby league final, which aired from six o’clock on “Seven’s Big League”. Parramatta was in charge of the first half’s action and yet only led the Eastern Suburbs ‘Roosters’ by two points to nil at the break. The second half unfolded in much the same vein and while the ‘Eels’ emerged victorious, by thirteen points to five, it does appear to have a number of players who have sustained injuries.
I washed some of the dishes before half past seven and the commencement of “Barnaby Jones”. An hour later I departed to walk home. “Mum” had understandably warned me to be mindful of cars filled with hoodlums, however, she really didn’t have to, for the prospect of encountering violence when walking at night is never far from my thoughts. Tiki passed me about one hundred and fifty metres from home.