Author: ian

Dr. James Wright, who has been dubbed the ‘Comic Medico’, hosts “The Mike Walsh Show” from noon. N.S.W. T.A.B. agencies opened their doors at 2.15 p.m. At three o’clock, “Mannix” sets out to find his friend’s daughter, who has been kidnapped from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

At a small greengrocery a bloke (and it wasn’t me!) spilled his money in amongst the beans and lost five cents. Then I mistook the grapes as being priced at forty-five cents per kilogramme and, therefore, ordered a “kilo” of them, only to be asked for one dollar and twenty-three cents: for the grapes, plus three bananas. Because I had insufficient money with me, the lady poured the grapes out and gave me half a kilogramme of them. I was then asked for eighty-eight cents, however, I had done my maths and she returned my ten cents.

“Last Of The Wild”, on Channel Two, is centred upon the jaguar of the Amazonian jungle. On “Willesee”, Mike Willesee appears to be decidedly cynical of the Government of Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, and its efforts to stop the strike by air traffic controllers, which is due to end at midnight tonight. We are disappointed that Cliff Richard’s concert, which was to be held tonight, has had to be postponed until next Tuesday, at 6.30 p.m., when he is to perform twice in the one evening. At present he is stranded in Auckland because of the strike at Sydney Airport.

The motion picture comedy, “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying”, from 1967, is being shown on television from half past eight. The film is based on the book by Shepherd Mead, which was firstly published in 1952, and stars Robert Morse, Rudy Vallee — a principal recording artist in the years of the Great Depression — and Michele Lee.

It was 8.37a.m. before I awoke to venture outside to our toilet. Our pup, ‘Daisy’, who is just eight weeks of age, hovered about my feet and ankles. She’s extremely active, as, I suppose, most pups are!

Having left Tiki in bed, I walked to Miranda Fair to purchase some polish, in order to shine our car. Despite me having attended both Woolworths and Nock and Kirby’s, I failed in my mission to purchase the one-year polish that I’d seen being advertised so freely on television. Instead, I returned home having purchased a bottle of ‘Turtle Wax’, at a cost of three dollars and sixteen cents.

After breakfast I emerged, again, this time to polish our Chrysler ‘Sigma’ that was parked in our driveway. As the weather was overcast, I was pleased,, for I had heard that such conditions were perfect when polishing a vehicle outdoors. I attempted to remove as many specks of bitumen from the car’s duco as I proceeded.

At noon, I adjourned to watch Channel Nine’s ‘The Mike Walsh Show’ which, in Mike’s absence was hosted by the slim Brian Bury. The singer and actor, Howard Keel, who is sixty years of age, was a guest as were ‘Shirley’ Williams, Jeannie Little and Joe Martin, along with footage of their weekend at the Walgett Rodeo in the north-west of New South Wales.

Tiki’s boss rang to verify that she was, indeed, returning to work, this afternoon, after her holiday of four weeks. She told Robyn of how much we had enjoyed our eleven days in the New Hebrides.

The American serial, ‘Days Of Our Lives’, followed ‘The Mike Walsh Show’ from half past one. Its cast includes Macdonald Carey and Susan Seaforth.

Having driven Tiki to work by a quarter past two, I stopped in Gymea to buy a copy of ‘The Sun’ for ten cents.

It was twenty past three before I returned to our driveway to continue to polish our year-old Sigma. However, when it began to rain I was left with no alternative but to return it to the garage, where I continued to polish the vehicle although, I have to admit, my desire to do so wasn’t there.

This was compounded when, as I was attempting to remove bitumen bespattered on the mudguard, behind the near wheel on the passenger’s side, my hand slipped and the base of my right thumb’s nail painfully struck the bottom edge of the mudguard, drawing blood in the process.

I ceased to polish at eight minutes to five and set out to walk to Miranda and back, this time in the name of exercise.

The news on Channel TEN was co-read by John Bailey and Katrina Lee, and at a quarter to seven I left to collect Tiki from her place of work prior to us watching ‘Willesee At Seven’ on Channel Seven. Mike Willesee recalled the Second World War because today marks forty years since Great Britain declared war on Germany.

Gene Pitney is a guest on the programme and during his interview a clip of him performing his single, ‘Blue Angel’, a hit in 1974, is played.

We viewed “John Laws’ World”. Tonight it centres upon Alaska. Thence, from half past eight, another episode in the Australian series, ‘Cop Shop’, on Channel 7.

I took this opportunity to adjourn to the kitchen and listen to the radio, in particular races from the greyhounds. Some Australians prefer to label these racing dogs as “dish-lickers”.

Tiki occupied herself by using a pack of cards to play games of ‘Patience’ on our carpeted floor in the loungeroom, as I returned to read articles printed in today’s copy of ‘The Sun’.

At half past nine we turned the dial to Channel Nine and ‘The Don Lane Show’. “The Lanky Yank”, as Don is affectionately known here, has amongst his guests tonight the forty-five year old Jerry Lee Lewis.

Jerry performed ‘Great Balls Of Fire’ and “Whole Lot Of Shakin’ Going On”, his initial hits in 1957, and while his playing of the piano sounded like that in those recordings his voice, unfortunately, did not.

Jerry barely gave more than one-word answers, in reply to Don’s questions and after Gene Pitney had performed one of his hits from 1962, namely, ‘(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance’, he outspokenly said that he knew that Jerry Lee had the ability to perform better than he had done tonight.

As the show is televised live from Melbourne, its resident comical personality, Bert Newton, kept taking the liberty of impersonating Jerry Lee on numerous occasions during the programme.

We retired to bed at five past eleven.