ink marks on a blank page Sun 8th Feb

I am a Thomas Hardy fan, there said it,been practising for hours to write that as if it were dirty washing or stuff so secret no one should know it about me. But I guess lots of you have read Thomas Hardy, no , yes? maybe or not. I see, wont admit to it eh, oh well we haff ways you know.

You all know that I came out of the closet ages ago re my Anglophilia, being a Hardy fan is just a manifestation of that, but in a more subdued way. Sort of clenched teeth, controlled, anal retention without the anal. Hardy was more or less the original script writer for the Bold and the Beautiful, get my drift?. Far from the Madding crowd was I think one of 'THE' novels of the genre and of course so wildly popular that the title has become a staple of the lexicon and is used ad nauseum by such pretentious writers such as yours truly. Everyone knows the plot, even those of us who have never seen an episode of Bold and Beautiful, and if you have to ask what is Bold and etc then we all know that you actually watch or tape episodes when you go away. The heroine has a most B&B name too, Bathsheba Everdene, which could be an anagram for, 'the best heaven, her bed'. A most theatrical name for a person who really is a bit of an actress herself, loves a few histrionics and likes to be pulling the strings. Some folk will say that the Mayor of Casterbridge or Tess were better books and perhaps they are but just contemplate this gem of thought. Far from etc is part of our word culture in itself and that speaks volumes for what is the style of the book, how it grabbed the mind set of generations, how that title described the content of the book,just what the heroine thought so well, that it became a narrative in itself. For Whom the Bell Tolls / Blood on the Sand / Of Mice and Men /The Postman Always Rings Twice. Yes, I do understand that the Scottish poet(Burns) first coined the phrase 'the best laid plans o'mice and men' and Steinbeck based his story around that. If you type the phrase into Google Steinbeck's use of it comes up more times and first, so I naturally chose the most relevant for the times. Oh heck I cannot fib, never could get into Robert Burns so I used the author I preferred, how's that for unfettered bias. C'mon, make your own list of famous novels whose titles have created meaning which is in use many years after the novels themselves were well read. The main theme of these great novels? boy meets girl and after great hardship either wins girl or gets into deep doo doo trying to. Ain't love grand?


I know Hortense, why do I continually rabbit on about stuff that is clearly above me. Well it's like this old dear, I am trying desperately to lift myself above the normality of a typical life of suburban mediocrity. Do I really think anyone actually reads this outpouring of whatever. Well it is like this Horty, I have an ego and also a bruised psyche for years of trying to keep up with you as a person of the gender I admire as being most capable of clear thinking and debate, unfettered by gender based affiliations. That is you don't stalk off to the pub with your mates to talk sport until you all get legless , then ring up the ones at home looking after the kids to come pick you up. Okay, just don't put your head to one side like that, I will get on with some reality.
Here in OZ we have had some horrendous hot weather.In my little state something like an average of 43.2c over 6 days with the temperature going down to 38c for a few days then yesterday rocking back up to 46.7c . In Victoria just across our state border they had 48.6c Saturday, then some halfwit started a fire which has now burnt out at least 5 villages and towns and killed to this point some 60 people. The actual acreage burnt is in the many many thousands of hectares and the number of houses lost is about 150 with stock and wildlife dead or dying in the hundreds of thousand. No one aid or Government body has yet put a dollar figure on the loss but just in human terms it will be incalculable. The senior Senator for the Greens party, a chap by the name of Bob Brown was quoted on radio as stating that this fire was caused by Climate Change, and as the senior Greens senator he will be calling on the Government to step up its Climate Change policy in the wake of this fire. Might I add as fact too that as long as folks bum's point downward the Greens will never be able to form a Government in their own right so therefore they will never have to formulate policy or deal with an emergency of any kind, let alone one of this National magnitude. A good thing as well for they are a bunch of nincompoops.

As a person who was once a farmer and a member of the volunteer fire fighting brigade I respectfully inform Senator Bob Brown that Climate Change had very little, as a matter of fact nothing, to do with the fire at all. SOME BLOODY LUNATIC LIT IT. Calling Climate Change responsible is drawing the bow trifle long good sir, and, a scare tactic of the worst kind.

Yes Hortense it was Sunday and wasn't that gelato at Cocolat just super and just the ticket too after seeing that funny little film Ghost Town with Ricky Gervais. He is hardly George Clooney dear girl but he is funny.