Author: ian

Sydney’s maximum temperature was nine degrees Celsius cooler than yesterday’s.

I read articles from “The Bulletin” magazine as I watched the film, “Smoky”, that was produced in 1966. One such article centred upon South Australian racehorse trainer, Colin Hayes, and his impressive training establishment, Lindsay Park, while another is on what is viewed to be ‘Russia’s African Gunboat Diplomacy’.

“Smoky” is about a horse of that name and was screened on television here only last year. It stars Fess “Davy Crockett”/”Daniel Boone” Parker and Diana Hyland. Diana passed away a fortnight ago from breast cancer, at the age of forty-one. She reportedly died in the arms of her lover, actor John Travolta, who was eighteen years her junior. The pair had met, last year, on the set of “The Boy In The Plastic Bubble”, a movie made for television.

“Good Times”, a film which is a year younger than “Smoky” and was also shown last year, features Sonny and Cher and the veteran actor, George Sanders, who was born in Russia to English parents. George committed suicide in Barcelona, Spain, in April of 1972, at the age of sixty-five.

Tiki joined me and, from half past two, we watched a thoroughly entertaining film, “The Jokers”. It bears the copyright of 1966 and features Michael “Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em” Crawford and Oliver Reed cast as brothers, who plan to steal the Crown Jewels.

We finally decided to get out of the house and drove to Brighton-le-Sands, in a chill wind, where I talked a young fellow out of charging us twenty cents just to walk around the promenade at the Brighton Baths.

At half past seven, actor Garry McDonald’s alter ego, Norman Gunston, performs “Peter And The Wolf”, backed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. This is followed by a documentary about British youths who hike on the icy mountains of Norway and Sweden.

“Perry Como’s Hawaiian Holiday” screens from half past eight and has as its guest the English songstress, Petula Clark.

It has been announced that Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips are expecting their first child. The royal couple was married on 14th of November (Prince Charles’s birthday), in 1973.

A howling chill wind blew as I mowed the lawns this morning. Despite this, Sydney’s maximum temperature still reached twenty degrees Celsius.

We drove into town to see Clint Eastwood in “Enforcer”, only to arrive and find that it was not being screened. In lieu of this I regrettably stood in a queue of about fifty patrons to buy tickets to view the recent recipient of four Academy Awards, “Network”.

In spite of its reputation, we found the highlight on the programme to be the short film on skateboarding, in which enthusiasts can be seen riding up the sides of empty swimming pools. “Network” is riddled with swearing, verbosity and periods of prolonged boredom.

Cronulla-Sutherland defeated North Sydney by twelve points to seven, at North Sydney Oval. “Just Ideal”, a 33/1 outsider, won the Doncaster Handicap at Randwick, and the odds-on favourite, “Balmerino” ($0.35 and $0.30 on the N.S.W. T.A.B.) the Autumn Stakes.

From 6.30 p.m., we watched the series, “Swiss Family Robinson”. It is followed, at half past seven, by “Baa Baa Black Sheep”.

We virtually drove the length of Sydney to its northernmost coastal suburb, Palm Beach.

The ring-pull on my can of drink broke away and Tiki cut her finger whilst trying to open the can with her car key. Therefore, we returned to the shop to have it opened.

Although the day remained fine, the icy winds continued to blow.

It has been another gloriously sunny day.

International tennis player, Karen Krantze, has collapsed and died, at the age of thirty, in the United States.

“Reckless” won the Sydney Cup, at Randwick Racecourse, this afternoon from “Gold And Black” and “Rhalif”. “Balmerino” ran disappointingly. “Reckless” is trained by Tommy Woodcock, who was the strapper to the legendary “Phar Lap”.

“Phar Lap” was foaled near Timaru, on New Zealand’s South Island, in October of 1926. He was bought at sale by an American businessman and brought to Australia to race. Although the horse’s early career was rather ordinary he was to become a favourite with punters during the early years of the Great Depression. So dominant did his career become, gangsters attempted to shoot him three days before he was to run in the Melbourne Cup of 1930. A race he duly won carrying 9st 12lb (61.5 kg or 138lb).

In fact, “Phar Lap” was to win thirty-two of his last thirty-five races; being beaten narrowly in two of the other three and finishing eighth in the Melbourne Cup of 1931, when burdened with the impost of 10st 10lb (68kg).

Despite the protestations of “Phar Lap’s” trainer, Harry Telford, the champion was literally hoisted aboard a ship and transported to America. Harry refused to accompany him.

“Phar Lap” was entered to contest the Agua Caliente Handicap, in Tijuana, Mexico. The competitors were vying for the largest amount of prizemoney ever offered for a horserace in North America, and it was “Phar Lap” who collected the bulk of it when he carried 129lb (58.5 kg) to win in a time that broke the previous record.

“Phar Lap” was returned to California, where on the 5th of April, in 1932 Tommy Woodcock found the champion writhing in agony in his stall. He haemorrhaged to death some hours later.

Conjecture still abounds as to the cause of “Phar Lap’s” sudden demise, but as his stomach and intestines were found to be inflamed, poisoning, whether deliberate or by accidental means, has always remained to the fore.

“The Bugs Bunny Show” and “The Flintstones” were screened on television, late this afternoon. On “Willesee”, on Channel Seven, at 7.00 p.m., there is a segment devoted to the fact that seventy-five Australians have lost their lives to road accidents this Easter. In another item a leader of nudists, in Echuca, tells of how he twice tried sex, but did not like it. He is a former scoutmaster.

This evening’s edition of “A Big Country”, from eight o’clock, on Channel Two , is about transcendental meditation and how it is hoped it will overcome Mount Isa’s growing problem, centred upon its level of unemployment, by 1980. Mount Isa is a town, of thirty-three thousand inhabitants, in North Queensland, which is largely dependent upon the industry of mining.

Episode 12 of “Rich Man, Poor Man: Book 2” is being shown, on Channel Seven, from half past eight.

A packet of five Gillette twin-blade razors cost me $1.12 at the grocery store, Jewel, in Caringbah. A packet of the same five blades was earlier priced on sale at Woolworths’ for $1.35.

I entered a chemist’s shop in this same suburb to ask for four Tek multi-soft toothbrushes, only to have the gentleman hand me four Nada toothbrushes at a cost of forty-odd cents more for each of them. It wasn’t until I protested that I had asked for the cheaper Tek toothbrushes that I actually received them.

However, all was not plain sailing for he then tried to charge me $1.80 when the correct price was $1.08. I corrected him and he assured me that they were innocent mistakes.

“The Mike Walsh Show” is on Channel Nine from noon. Hollywood actor, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, is a guest on the programme. Another edition of “Medical Center” screens from two o’clock and, at three, on Channel Seven, in “Mannix”, the private investigator of that name is shot and then hunted by a thuggish group of children.

Tonight, at the Caringbah Drive-in, “Battle Of Midway” and “The Big Bus” are being screened. The former features a long list of stars which includes Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Robert Wagner, James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Cliff Robertson, Pat Morita and Robert Ito. The latter: Stockard Channing and Joe Bologna.

Meanwhile, at home, “This Day Tonight”, at half past seven, is followed, at 8.00 and also on Channel Two, by “Holiday” which takes the viewer to Surfers Paradise; on a hunting trip by raft, some sixty-five kilometres from Lake Taupo on New Zealand’s North Island; and lastly to Hayman Island on the Great Barrier Reef.

At 8.30, on Channel Seven, Bill Collins introduced the motion picture, “The Salzburg Connection” (1972), starring Barry “Petrocelli” Newman, Anna Karina and Karen Jensen.

The Chinese Art Exhibition is on display in town at present. It has been Children’s Day at the Sydney Royal Easter Show.

It has been a delightfully still, sunny day.

The N.S.W. T.A.B. has held its first betting on a trifecta. It was conducted on a race on this afternoon’s card at Randwick. For every unit of one dollar, placed on the combination in the correct finishing order, one receives $277.50. “Dalrello”, a visitor from Queensland, was placed first, “Manawapoi”, second, and “Oranmore”, a visitor from New Zealand, third.

“The Andy Williams’ Show”, hosted by the crooner, Andy Williams, is on television, this evening, from eight o’clock. From half past the hour, on ABC-TV, an army of mercenaries gets out of hand in the British series, “The New Avengers”. It is a sequel to “The Avengers”, which was produced in the 1960s, and again stars Patrick Macnee as John Steed. Gareth Hunt is cast as Mike Gambit, and Joanna Lumley as Purdey.

Tiki rang me, at 1.00 p.m., to say that pathology had detected a high level of “something” in my blood and that I have to revisit the doctor. She sounded quite depressed.

However, when I arrived at the surgery, after work, I learned that it is not open this evening.

Shaun Cassidy, who at eighteen years of age is the younger brother of David , appears as a guest on “Willesee” at seven o’clock. He appears to be mature and level-headed for his age.

At twenty to eight we left for Grace Bros in Miranda Fair to book seats to see Cliff Richard, at the Regent Theatre on the thirteenth of May, only to be told by the three women at the booking office that they knew nothing about it.

I informed them that in today’s copy of ‘The Sun’ it states that one should book at “Grace Bros stores”.

We returned home and watched “Policewoman”, from half past eight, in which Robert “Wagon Train” Horton is cast as the head of a dishonest scheme designed to sell babies to desperate parents.

The weekly children’s programme, “Behind The News”, screens at ten o’clock. Presented by Barry Eaton, it looks at the work of the Red Cross; as well as the Calgary Stampede: ten days of events, based upon the theme of a rodeo, that is held in the Canadian city after which it is named. The third segment heralds the greatest agricultural breakthrough since the year 1700, when the seed drill was invented, namely the planting of newly germinated seed in a special gel to overcome the factor of soil temperature. This method affords every seed the optimum opportunity to fulfil its destiny. All of this research has been carried out in England.

My doctor informed me that one’s level of cholesterol should fall between two hundred and three hundred, with the latter regarded as a high reading, and that mine was, indeed, in dangerous territory, at three hundred and twenty-one.

Consequently, it was stressed to me that I must walk for six kilometres a day and play as much golf as I can. A short list was compiled of foods I cannot have — ever! With this in hand I headed for home to eat the lamb’s fry and bacon that “Mum” had already prepared for dinner.

The actor, Peter Lawford, who was born in England, was interviewed on “Willesee”, this evening; shortly before Tiki and I set out to walk for five kilometres.

The film, “The Last Time I Saw Paris”, which stars Van Johnson and Elizabeth Taylor, is on television tonight.

Sydney delighted in a maximum temperature of twenty-six degrees Celsius.