Category: My Diary

By 8.30 a.m. the temperature was already an extremely warm twenty-six degrees; the equivalent of yesterday’s maximum. This meant that the thermometer was to climb into the thirties.

On tonight’s edition of the current affairs programme, “Willesee”, the Australian actress, Jacki Weaver, interviews the famed American actor, Burt Lancaster.

The temperature is still twenty-five degrees Celsius at 9.00 p.m.

A large jar of mayonnaise, ‘Praise’, cost $1.17, a large container of the pills, ‘Ford’, $1.24 and a copy of ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ newspaper, twelve cents.

The old Pacific Hotel, which faces the ocean at Manly, is being demolished. Only about three floors remain. We walked the length of the promenade to Queenscliff and sat on “our” green “engagement” seat, in front of the modern block of units across the road, where I had gotten down on my knees — one knee was deemed to be insufficient, after I had lost so much money on the punt — and successfully proposed to Tiki, on the 4th of November in 1975, the day of the Melbourne Cup. I had to also solemnly swear to never place another bet.

Just as we had done on the evening of our engagement, we dined at K’s Snapper Inn on South Steyne: calamari entree cost $2.50 each; sand crab (two) $6.60, a whole lobster mornay $8.00; wine trifle $1.00, banana fritters with ice-cream, cream caramel sauce and crushed nuts $1.00; cappuccino fifty cents each.

Later, we walked around the shops and Strata Centre, at Cremorne, and stopped for a cup of coffee, at a cost of thirty cents each, at McDonald’s, in San Souci, during the drive home. Sydney’s maximum temperature was twenty-nine degrees Celsius.

It was a lovely morning when we left to drive to the Thirlmere Lakes, near Picton, however, upon our arrival it was cloudy and cool. En route, a hub-cap from “Mum’s” Rover 3,500cc sedan had become dislodged and disappeared into long grass. “Dad” told us that it was worth fifty dollars and to get out and find it. Fortunately, it hadn’t penetrated the grass far for all we could think of was the very real presence of snakes. We arrived home by 5.30 p.m., via the Camden Airport Museum which houses old aeroplanes, and watched the last half an hour of “Harem Scarem”, a film which bears the copyright of 1965 and stars Elvis Presley.

In rugby league, Manly-Warringah defeated Western Suburbs by fourteen points to seven. Australia defeated New Zealand by three goals to one, at soccer, in an match designed to eliminate one country from next year’s World Cup. The game was played at the Showground, in Sydney.

Five hundred and eighty people perished this morning when two jumbo jets collided on the tarmac at Tenerife Airport, in the Canary Islands. One was a KLM aeroplane, the other, Pan Am.

KLM, a Dutch carrier, is the world’s oldest commercial airline. Qantas Airways, is the second oldest. The name, Qantas, is an acronym of its original title: Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited.

At 7.30 p.m., on ABC-TV’s Channel Two, we watched a programme of “This Day Tonight”, which is a series based upon current affairs. “A Big Country”, another local series followed, from eight o’clock, on the same channel. It examines ‘Monte Cristo’, the mansion which is situated near the town of Junee in the south-west of New South Wales, because it is allegedly haunted.

The tenth episode of “Rich Man, Poor Man: Book 2” screens from half past the hour, on ATN Channel Seven.

It is another delightfully sunny morning. I bought a can of the relatively new ‘Stud’ cola, to sample its taste. As I drank I joked to Tiki about how much more irresistible she would find me once I had finished it.

“I doubt it.” She muttered, without so much as a hint of a smile.

Peter Finch has been awarded the first posthumous Academy Award, for Best Actor in the motion picture, “Network”. Faye Dunaway was named Best Actress for her role in the same film.

Sammy Davis Jr., appeared on “Willesee”, at 7.00 p.m., on Channel Seven. He lost an eye, in 1954, as the result of a car accident.

At half past the hour, with “Charlie’s Angels” on Channel Nine, we watched Channel Two. On Bill Peach’s “Holiday”, at eight o’clock, Lord Howe Island, Noumea, and the Wrest Point Casino, in Hobart, were featured.

A portion of “Willesee”, this evening, is devoted to the subject of the growing numbers of minors who are obtaining tattoos. A “Paul Hogan Special”, at half past seven, on Channel Nine, features the strongman, Paul Graham.

Sydney’s maximum temperature was twenty-nine degrees Celsius.

An equine dentist appears on “Willesee” this evening. My father-in-law (“Dad”) is really depressed. He owns a factory and maintains that the company tax is too high and that he cannot get men who are willing to work.

My chest feels really tight and I suspect that it might be something to do with my lungs, perhaps trapped wind. Tiki and I are living with “Mum” and “Dad” at present. It was at their suggestion and while we are grateful, there is no place like one’s own home.

Sydney experienced a maximum of twenty-eight degrees Celsius.

We awoke to a sunny, clear breezy morning and turned on the radio to listen to the news via radio station, 2WS. Bill Woods presented the sport. At half past six it is four degrees Celsius in Sydney’s western suburbs and nine on the coast.

There has been another fire at a school in New South Wales, this time affecting Picnic Point High, near Revesby, in Sydney’s western suburbs. Overnight, a state politician, Michael Yabsley, claimed that he was robbed at the point of a knife as he walked from his office to his car, in Paddington, Sydney.

Gary Hoffman read the news at seven o’clock, on 2KY. A child has been burnt to death in a fire within a house, at Minto, in Sydney’s west. The Shop Workers’ Union is outraged at Premier, Barrie Unsworth’s decision to allow shops in the Pitt Street Mall to stay open until midnight on the day of its opening.

“Good Morning Australia” is on Channel Ten between seven and nine o’clock. Ron Wilson reads the news bulletins: there has been a day of escalation in the Gulf War; a seven days’ siege by prisoners, on the Italian island of Elba, has finally ended. Ann Fulwood reads the bulletins on sport, ahead of Tony Murphy’s presentations of the weather. An Australian woman collapsed about fifty metres short of the finishing line in an event for walkers, during the World Athletics Championships, in Rome. The Dow Jones, Wall Street’s index, has closed down by 51.98 points to 2,610.97; B.H.P., in London, closed at $10.16 which means that its price has fallen by four cents, while gold, also in London, rose slightly to close at $US453.25 per ounce.

“Good Morning Australia”, co-presented by Tim Webster and Kerri-Anne Kennerley, is conducting a poll by telephone involving the question: “Do you support the introduction of an Australia I.D. card?” Out of nearly 8,000 respondents seventeen per cent are in favour, while eighty-three per cent are not. The co-presenters showed their ignorance of Brunei describing it as a lush little island when it is, in fact, located on the island of Borneo, one of the world’s largest islands. Whilst watching television I saw the advertisement for the new Black and Decker ‘Powerfile’ for the first time.

Support for the Federal Labor Government of Prime Minister, Mr. Robert (‘Bob’) Hawke, fell by three per cent during the past month, according to the latest Morgan Gallup Poll, published in today’s “Bulletin” magazine. The drop in popularity coincides with an increase in debate on privatisation and the desire to introduce the controversial Australia Card. Mr. Hawke’s personal popularity declined by four per cent to fifty-eight, while that of the leader of the Opposition, John Howard, fell by one to forty-six per cent. Meanwhile, a study conducted by the University of Melbourne’s Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research has declared that more than one in ten Australians are living in poverty.

Many imported foodstuffs are not being tested for poisons. This has led a doctor to claim that many Australians are in danger of consuming foods which are, indeed, contaminated.

Customs has confiscated eight ‘stun-guns’, which possess the potential to kill as they can each impart a shock of fifty thousand volts. The devices, which were manufactured in Taiwan, are believed to be in demand as people believe they require personal protection, but could just as easily be used as offensive weaponry.

This afternoon, I paid forty cents to buy a copy of “The Sun” newspaper. Under the carport I used a razor blade to scrape off the outdated 1986-’87 registration sticker from the inside of the windscreen of our Chrysler ‘Sigma’ sedan. It was dark green in colour and bore an image of the Queen Victoria Building, which stands in Sydney’s C.B.D. The sticker’s replacement is a yellowish orange and depicts this country’s bicentenary, which falls due next year on the 26th of January.

When I turned on the television at five o’clock, Richard Wilkins, a New Zealander by birth, was hosting “MTV”, on Channel Nine. He opened the show by introducing the video to Bob Segers’ “Old Time Rock And Roll” and followed it, between advertisements, with Australian James Reyne’s latest, “Fall Of Rome”; “Living On A Prayer”, a recent hit by Bon Jovi; before the programme closed with “I Heard A Rumour”, the current release from the British girls, Bananarama.

With “Benson” on Channel Nine, between half past five and six o’clock, I turned to Channel Ten and this evening’s edition of “Perfect Match”, compered by Cameron Daddo and Kerrie Friend.

From six o’clock, the news on Channel Seven is red by the slim and extremely tall Ross Symonds; from 6.45, “Sport Today”, is presented by Garry Wilkinson, and shortly before seven, Susan Stenmark presents the weather. Jim Waley presents Channel Nine’s news from six,with Alan Wilkie delivering its weather report, from twenty-six minutes past the hour. Between 7.00 and 7.30, “ABC News”, on Channel Two, is read by Richard Morecroft. This includes its coverage of sport, presented by Jim Maxwell and the weather report, with Mike Bailey. Sydney’s temperatures ranged from a minimum of eight degrees Celsius to a maximum of eighteen, which is two below the seasonally adjusted average. Katoomba, an hour or two, by road, to the west of the city, in the Blue Mountains, experienced a range from nought to seven. The state’s highest maxima was twenty-one, at Kempsey, on the mid-north coast and the lowest minima, minus eight at Thredbo, in the Snowy Mountains.

It is alleged that a man from Narrabeen, on Sydney’s northern beaches, jumped one hundred metres to his death today, in what is being viewed as a bizarre attempt at committing a murder-suicide. It is believed that before jumping, the man attacked his wife and infant daughter with a hammer, which was found, bloodied, at the scene. The pair is in a critical condition with severe wounds to the head. The event was watched, at North Head, by a group of horrified sightseers, who took photographs in the hope that they will assist the police in its investigations.

The disgraced former Minister for Corrective Services, in New South Wales, Rex Jackson, 59, is sentenced to seven and a half years’ gaol, with a minimum of three years and nine months to be served. He is to spend his first night in Berrima Gaol, from this evening. The Leader of the State Opposition, Mr. Nick Greiner who, from memory, was born in Hungary, shocks some stalwarts of the Liberal Party by candidly admitting that the last Coalition Government, in New South Wales, was permeated by corruption. He suggests that the reputation of the then Government, led by Premier, Sir Robert Askin, should make the party all the more mindful of this, should it regain office.

The film, “Crocodile Dundee”, appears set to break the American record, set by “Top Gun”, for the number of copies sold on video cassette. The latter’s sales stand at 2.8 million.

“Travelling North”, a play written by the Australian playwright, David Williamson, is set to open a season of international drama on BBC Radio and the World Service Link. It is believed that twenty-five million listeners from around the world will tune in. “Travelling North” will become the first Australian play to be broadcast by the BBC.

Workers within the British military are to begin dismantling West Berlin’s Spandau Prison, two weeks after the death of its last inmate, Rudolf Hess. Adolf Hitler’s former deputy, Hess, ninety-three, was held in the prison for forty-one years, until he hanged himself on the 17th of August.

Iraq and Iran trade attacks in an unprecedented escalation of the Gulf War. Iraq launches renewed attacks on Iranian targets in the Persian Gulf. This follows a lull in military activity, which had lasted for forty-five days. The largest mass of American naval power since the Vietnamese War looks on.

Bon Jovi flew into Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport this morning, from Manchester, England, for the start of its Australian tour. All tickets to the venues at which the rock group will appear, have already been sold. Bon Jovi hails from the American state of New Jersey.

This week’s Top 20 singles, in Sydney, according to the radio station, 2SM, is headed by Australian debutant, Kylie Minogue, whose revival of Little Eva’s No.1 hit, “The Loco-Motion”, from 1962, signals a meteoric rise to her career as a singer. Other revivals within the list are Paul Carrack’s “When You Walk In The Room” ( The Searchers; 1964), Los Lobos’s “La Bamba” (Ritchie Valens; 1958) and “He’s Gonna Step On You Again” (John Kongos; 1971) by the Australian outfit, The Party Boys.

The list of the Top 20 albums is headed by the Australian group, Midnight Oil, with “Diesel And Dust”, closely followed by Bon Jovi’s “Slippery When Wet”, which I predict is shortly going to surge with the group now in the country. Other albums in the list include: “F.L.M.” by the British female duo, Mel and Kim; “Whispering Jack” by the Australian John Farnham, who, as with Olivia Newton-John, was actually born in England; “Whitney” by Whitney Houston; Elvis Presley’s “Words & Music”, which was released last month to commemorate the tenth anniversary of his death; “Men  And Women” (Simply Red); “The Joshua Tree” ( U2); “Tango In The Night” (Fleetwood Mac); “So” (Peter Gabriel) and “Solitude Standing” by Suzanne Vega. The soundtracks to the films, “The Big Chill” and “La Bamba”, are also there.

In the paper, Robert Prechter, a commentator on the sharemarket, has reportedly stated that he believes that the bull market in American stocks is still intact, in spite of the downward move in recent trading sessions. Mr. Prechter, who writes a newsletter, “Elliott Wave Theorist”, on the financial market, has told an investors’ conference, in New York, that he believes that stocks on Wall Street have the potential to reach between 3,600 and 3,700 on the Dow Jones’s industrial average, in spite of the downward movement in recent sessions of trade.

Brian “Poppa” Clay who played two hundred and forty-six games of rugby league, in first grade, which included two hundred for the St. George “Dragons”, passed away last night in St. Vincent’s Hospital whilst he was undergoing surgery to have a heart transplanted. Brian, 52, played in eight of the teams which were a part of St. George winning eleven successive premierships from 1956. The almost bald five-eighth, renowned for his robust defence, also toured England and France, with Australia’s national side, the “Kangaroos”, in 1959.

From tomorrow, “The Untouchables” will be screened in Sydney. It is presumably based on the television series of the late 1950s, which bore the same title and starred Robert Stack as Eliot Ness. Anyway, the film’s cast includes Kevin Costner, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, Robert De Niro (as Al Capone) and Sean Connery (as Malone). “Roxanne”, with Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah, also opens tomorrow, at the Hoyts Centre. Films that are already being screened include: “The Witches Of Eastwick” (Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer), “Lethal Weapon” (Mel Gibson and Danny Glover), “Hell Camp” (Tom Skerritt, Lisa Eichhorn and Richard Rowntree), “Les Fugitifs” (Gerard Depardieu and Pierre Richard), “Angel Hart” ( Robert De Niro, Mickey Rourke and Lisa Bonnet), “Wraith” (Charlie Sheen, Sherilyn Fenn and Randy Quaid), “Outrageous Fortune” (Bette Midler and Shelley Long), “Predator” (Arnold Schwarzenegger), “A Nightmare On Elm Street 3” (Robert Englund), “Beverly Hills Cop 2” (Eddie Murphy), Woody Allen’s “Radio Days”, “From The Hip” (Judd Nelson), “River’s Edge” (Dennis Hopper) and the Australian films, “Travelling North” and “Crocodile Dundee”.

The Royal Highland Fusiliers are reportedly furious at being ordered to salute Prince William. The troops, who guard the Queen at Balmoral, believe that the Prince, who is five years of age, did not deserve such an honour as he had allegedly been bossing them about since they had been there.

This evening on Channel Seven: from seven o’clock, the current affairs series, “Terry Willesee Tonight”; 7.30, a repetition from “Family Ties”, starring Michael J. Fox and Meredith Baxter Birney; 8.00, the Australian comedy series, “Hey Dad”; then from 8.30-10.15, the movie, “Porky’s”, from 1982 — this repetition is rated for viewing by adults only and, even then, modifications to its content have been made. “Newsworld”, which contains the latest news and weather reports and is presented by the somewhat cynical Clive Robertson, cannot be viewed until half past eleven.

Meanwhile, on Channel 9: 6.30, “Willesee”; 7.00, “Sale Of The Century” — one of the game shows devised by the Australian Reg Grundy — 7.30, “Matlock”, a dramatic series, starring Andy Griffith; 8.30, the movie, “Runaway”, which bears the copyright of 1985 and features Tom Selleck, Kirstie Alley and Cynthia Rhodes.

“Neighbours”, the Australian serial which propelled actress, Kylie Minogue, to fame in Britain, is on Channel Ten from seven. This evening, it features Briony Behets, Guy Pearce and Annie Jones; 7.30-8.30, “You’ve Got To Be Joking!”, gives the viewer a comical look at unsuspecting Australians. It is presented by Don Lane, who was actually born in the United States and who is affectionately known in Australia as the “Lanky Yank”. This evening’s guest is actress and model Lynda Stoner, who is also a passionate activist for the rights of animals. The dramatic film, “Six Against The Rock”, released only this year, is based on a true story. Six desperate prisoners wage war against their captors and the rock they refer to as “Hellcatraz”. It stars David Carradine, Jan Michael Vincent and David Morse, and may be viewed from twenty past eight.

ABC-TV’s Channel Two screens the British serial, “EastEnders”, between 6.30 and 7.00, and following the news and the “7.30 Report”, “Quantum” may be viewed. It is an Australian scientific series, which, this evening, investigates the progress of research into a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. “Lytton’s Diary” follows between 8.30 and 9.20. It is a British series which has Peter “To The Manor Born”/”The Bounder” Bowles cast in the principal role, that of Neville Lytton. For ten minutes from 9.20 there is “Andrew Saw’s Film Review”; 9.30-10.00, “Countrywide”, which provides weekly analysis of rural affairs, is presented by Lucy Broad. It is followed between ten and half past the hour by “The Walsh Report”.

In other news with regard to television, the British actor, Edward “Callan” Woodward, has recovered so well from his recent heart attack that he hopes to be back at work on the set of the series, “The Equalizer”, from the 17th of September. Meanwhile, bad weather and a strike by stagehands at the ABC have served to delay the production of the fourth series of the Australian comedy, “Mother And Son”. It stars Ruth Cracknell, Garry “Norman Gunston” McDonald, as her long-suffering, live-in son, and Henri Szeps as his brother, an affluent dentist, who receives all of the favours and adulation from his aged mother. Superstar, Tom Selleck, has reportedly vehemently denied any connection between his extremely popular television series, “Magnum”, and a rash of violent deaths among motorists in Los Angeles. Ira Reiner, the City Coroner, has allegedly contributed the deaths to people taking to the streets in the belief that they can behave like Magnum P.I.

Australians have had a mixed day at the United States Open Tennis Championship. Veteran Paul McNamee was defeated, 6-3 6-7 6-4 6-4, by Californian Michael Chang. Michael, who at just fifteen years of age, is the youngest player to take part in the championship. Brod Dyke advanced to the second round by defeating American Mel Purcell 6-4 6-3 2-6 6-2. Peter Doohan was eliminated in straight sets, 6-1 6-2 6-2, by the thirteenth seed, Brad Gilbert. Wally Masur also exited from the tournament, at the hands of Spaniard Emilio Sanchez, 1-6 6-4 7-6 6-3. The first Australian woman to advance to the second round, Nicole Provis, 18, defeated Claudia Porwik of West Germany, 4-6 7-5 6-1. The defending champion and second seed Martina Navratilova easily accounted for her American opponent, Kate Gompert, 6-1 6-1, while the fourth seed, Hana Mandlikova, of Czechoslovakia, defeated Nathalie Herreman, of France, 6-1 6-3.

The tournament, which is being played at the National Tennis Center, in New York, has also resulted in the defending champion, Ivan Lendl, becoming only the second player in men’s singles, in a U.S. Open, to prevent his opponent from winning a game. The Czechoslovakian, who has already won the title twice, took just an hour and eleven minutes to overwhelm South African Barry Moir, whom is ranked one hundred and twenty second in the world, 6-0 6-0 6-0. The first male player, at the Open, to do so was Romanian Ile Nastase, who defeated Frew McMillan 6-0 6-0, in 1977, on clay at Forest Hills, when matches were decided over three sets. John McEnroe, in his opening match, experienced little difficulty in disposing of his fellow American, Matt Anger, 6-3 6-2 6-2.

Veteran political journalist, Alan Reid, has died in Sydney after a long illness. Many fires are ravaging forests along America’s west coast. A couple of hundred fans greeted Bon Jovi in Melbourne and the media is trying to compare it to that amazing visit by The Beatles, in 1964, when in Adelaide, for example, an estimated 300,000 people — about half of that city’s population at the time — massed to see the ‘Fab Four’ wave from a balcony.

Enzedder (New Zealander) Michael Fay’s action in court, to stop the San Diego Yacht Club from revealing where the defence of the next America’s Cup will be held, has been successful.

On “Terry Willesee Tonight”, the first segment has Terry interviewing Terry Bertwhistle whose son has been gaoled in Greece for taking a packet containing fifteen codeine tablets into the country, without a prescription, in contravention of a law that has only been in place for a month. In another segment Queensland’s highly controversial Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, who was born in New Zealand, has come under verbal attack for ordering the removal of vending machines that distribute condoms from that state’s treasury institutions. Some experts believe that his actions may result in death(s). Desalee Maitland, 55, who lives in a house in Maryborough, in Queensland, and who, at the age of twelve months was diagnosed with diseased bones, that have caused her to receive more than two hundred fractures in her life, gets about her house on a skateboard. She has had a special lift installed to convey her to and from the level of the street.

This evening’s “Go Lotto” draw on Channel Nine is hosted by Johnny Tapp, who broadcasts horseracing, and former centrefold, Karen Pini, who is originally from Perth, in Western Australia (as opposed to Perth, in Scotland). Johnny, tried his hand at singing and in the middle of 1974 had a minor hit with the single, “Little Hondo”, which peaked at No.34 on the Australian charts. It lauds the feats of a champion pacer of that time, “Hondo Grattan”, which had earned the nickname of ‘The Bathurst Bulldog’, for its exploits.

 

 

Today was Sydney’s hottest day, forty-one degrees Celsius (one hundred and six degrees Fahrenheit), for sixteen years. Meanwhile, in the south-western suburb of Liverpool the mercury reached forty-six degrees Celsius (one hundred and fifteen Fahrenheit) that area’s hottest day since records began, and today’s highest reading in the state of New South Wales.

It was twenty degrees and overcast at 7.00 a.m., however, this seemed cool when compared to yesterday’s heat. I paid sixty-nine cents for a pair of rubber thongs.

Tiki asked me to assist her to get a plastic bag, filled with rubbish, into a slightly larger bag. In reference to the latter bag, she instructed me to: “Hold on tightly while I stuff this in.”

“That’s normally my job!” I quipped.