ink marks on a blank page Thursday April 8th

Just a little bit of trivia to start the day. Some years ago Feng Shui got a bit of a roll on here, and possibly just about anywhere there was enough money to start up and run a Feng Shui business. Not that I am knocking it , not at all, as I have always believed that cultures such as the Chinese can teach us many ways to live a better life. Many years ago my maternal Grandfather had a great deal to to with the Chinese and worked in business partnership with them. He often told me of the degradation that Opium had caused the Chinese and laid the blame squarely at the feet of the East India Company and its practise of paying the Chinese in Opium and conversely enlarging the Opium trade. Australia played a part in this and an Australian diplomat and adventurer ,Morrison, was so incensed by the corruption and double dealing by some of his diplomatic colleagues he tried to stop this trade. He was also a bit of a wheeler dealer and womaniser himself and possibly was not quite the white knight he appeared on the surface. Grandfather painted such a dire picture of Opium dens, the joss houses, that I lived in fear of falling into one on the way past the local Chinese herbalist shop.
Have you ever been into a genuine Chinese herbalist? They are fascinating places and for a small boy with a large and vivid imagination simply worth all the trepidation of falling into an Opium den or Joss house just to visit. The shop we used (Mr Wu) was an Aladdin's cave full of dried shark fins, snakes and things in ceramic pots, stranges twisted roots, powders in large jars all to be weighed out on brass scales and wrapped in brown paper, the bill was totted on an abacus at lightning speed and written in a neat hand on strips of very light paper like a present day cash out strip. Mr. Wu, who appeared to be the apothecary, was a tiny man normally to be seen sitting on a high stool with a rattan back and gazing out of the window into the street as if he could somehow mesmerise customers into coming in. His parcels were always wrapped in brown paper and tied with a dark brown twine whilst his recommendations for taking the medicine were written both in Chinese and English on the left hand side with your name printed in large block letters on the right. Heavens knows why he bothered to write in Mandarin as to my knowledge there wasn't anyone in the family who could read the characters. If by any chance it was me who needed his potions and Grandmother couldn't come with me I would appear at Mr Wu's with a note from her, place it on the wooden counter top and repeat, in my piping little voice, exactly what Nana had told me. "Please Mr Wu my Nana says I am to ask you nicely to read her note and then ask me what is wrong" Whereupon he would leap from his chair ,read the note and then come around the counter and hold my chin in one hand and look intently into my eyes. He then would take my hands one by one and look very carefully at the back first then the palms,each of the fingers/nails. He would speak very slowly in measured very quiet tones "Missy Grace say you feel not well here,(poke) ahhhh so, that is feeling bad?"Sometimes he would look through my hair, take a few strands and disappear into the back of his shop. I could then spend time gazing in wonder at the various odds and sods on the shelves and hanging tied with that brown string all over the shop. What was I looking for, I never asked myself that, but quite possibly it was eye of newt, frogs tongues, bat wings or dried dragon blood, anything that a small boy might think he would find in a Chinese apothecary. Once, after reading a story about Brooke of Sarawak and the Dyak headhunters I ran to Wu's shop looking for dried and smoked human heads,alas none to be found, but it was fun to sneak into the shop when he was busy and look.


Back to Grandfather. Over years he made many Chinese friends and along the way developed a love of Chinese architecture, artifacts, including the Chinese way of doing business. He used to tell me that if you do 'good' business with a Chinese on the shake of a hand then years later you will be able to do the same business with his son and his son and their cousins and their cousins relatives. The Chinese played a big part in the development of early Australia as thousands of Chinese came here in the gold rush days to work the emerging goldfields and create business such as market gardens in the mining settlements. Melbourne, which was at that time the richest city in the world, became a hub for the Chinese immigrants as did the provincal cities of Bendigo and Ballarat. Many Chinese also landed in the port of Darwin and stayed there to make a vibrant and busy culture. Gowdowns became during that early period a feature of the wharves in Darwin and much trade was done in trepang,beach-de-mer,shark and pearl shell to many Asian countries. Grandfather was a part of all this and I have been fortunate in being able to keep some of the artifacts and antiques he collected or was given over his years in dealing with the Chinese traders.

For us who live in the Southern part of OZ sometimes we forget that at the tip of our country (Cape York) it is only 20 nautical miles to a foreign country which is part of Asia. In 2007 I stood right on that very tip and if you look at a map of OZ you will see that Cape York goes to a point. Well I can vouch for that as I stood right on that tip and looked down into the crystal clear water I could see the tip of OZ. The helicopter I had hired landed some 60metres from the actual tip saving us a three hour walk and a massive climb down (and back up)from the normal landing site. That time ,(hour or so) I spent there was in retrospect an extremely cathartic experience, as not many folk actually get to go there for to drive from the nearest settlement is ,if the road is passable, about a four hour trip and then you have at least another three hours of strenuous walking and climbing.

Yes Hortense I do know that our esteemed leader can speak perfect Mandarin and that he is great mates with everyone who is anyone in China. Me?, you also know that I have a few words of Mandarin, don't look like that, I do know that there are some of those phrases I could never use in polite society. Being friends with the Chinse is wonderful stuff Horty but I don't think that our Defence Minister should have had his business trips paid for by that lovely Chinese lady who seems to know every top General in the Peoples Army. He also rents an apartment from her when he is Canberra too, possibly gets a cheap deal I would think. Do you think he asked her what all the echoes and beeps / whistles were in every room whenever he discussed Government business? Oops! best I stick to stuff I know lots about, like the wonderful selection of Gelato at Cocolat we had Saturday morning after the moving picture show. Wasn't such a bad movie either, 'The Boat that Rocked', not Gone with the Wind or anything but it was great fun. Nope,I'm not going to apologise for leaping up from my seat and singing along with the EasyBeats to 'Friday on My Mind'. Oh, and I wont mention that you sang along with the Supremes either.
Great day it was Hortense and I thank you heartily for being the you that you are,"gonna have fun in the city, be with my girl she's so pretty,I'll be right tonight, toniiiiighhhht, for I've got friday on my mind, na nah nuhhnahhh na nah....i've got friday on my mind"