JUNE 2024 – IN REVIEW
The Plague –
As reported last month, as May closed both Nam and then I came down with the dreaded CoViD-19. It is now clear that accompanying the start of the winter influenza season there is a substantial outbreak of CoViD-19 in Adelaide. I mentioned that I qualified for the antiviral treatment Paxlovid, due to my delicate health. The treatment worked wonders in knocking the extremes of the viral symptoms. The worst I had was an elevated temperature and an extremely sore throat for about two days. However, for about ten days after that, I suffered a stubborn head congestion – no infection, just congestion – and a draining malaise. Then my mother came down with CoViD-19 in her nursing home. The plague!
Crabapple Tree –
Our front garden at the Brighton home looked beautiful with a row of three crabapple trees as the centrepiece. We have a bit of an undeveloped area in our Lockleys back garden that is just begging for … a crabapple tree! So, on the Sunday of the King’s Birthday long weekend, Nam and I had lunch at our new favourite local café, Devour, and then drove up into the Adelaide Hills to a tree nursery at Aldgate. We have now purchased a crabapple tree. This was my first outing since I had been struck down by the dreaded CoViD-19. I was very worn out by the exercise, and so it is clear that I shall be weak from the virus for some time to come. Sigh!
Wooden Anniversary –
June 15th this year marks Nam and my fifth wedding anniversary – Google informs me that this anniversary is our Wooden Anniversary. So, I suppose it was appropriate that our crabapple tree was delivered on that day. Google also informs me that a customary gift is silverware! What happened to the wood bit? In the evening, Nam and I ate a wonderful Greek meal at Estia’s at Henley Beach as our anniversary treat. Estia’s has been around for decades now and is still serving great Greek food. The whole Henley Square precinct is now quite alive with restaurants, bars, etc. This is a far cry from the seventies when I was a teenager. Gangs, hooligans and drunks were the order of the day back then. I even remember when Estia’s Restaurant was Fitzgerald’s Pharmacy! (Well, I was born at Henley Beach, and my mother grew up in the Kirkcaldy village on the northern edge of the town. I have known that area for my whole life!)
Some Greed and Misogyny for a Sunday Afternoon –
Adelaide’s Cabaret Festival was in full swing. The whole Festival is located in various nooks and crannies of the Adelaide Festival Centre’s location. The Festival provides a great opportunity to cheer up on cold winter’s days, and it has been going great for several years now. I’m not much up to gadding about to shows anymore, but my sister, Judith, suggested a Sunday afternoon one-time only show, “Between the Covers”. To quote the official program, “Journalist Jennifer Byrne and author Marieke Hardy join Artistic Director (of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival) Virginia Gay in a panel discussion of The Great Gatsby—cabaret style. The conversation is accompanied by a soundtrack of the era's classic songs, performed live.” Jennifer Byrne is much loved as the long-time anchor of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s television show “The Book Club”. The show today was sold out. Virginia Gay took the role of anchor and the three discussed F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, interspersed with cabaret songs of the era. The book itself is loaded with themes of greed and misogyny, and the author himself is widely regarded as having been a misogynist! I had to buy the book afterwards and have the three women sign it. I also had a secret second motive: I wanted to suggest to Virginia that they should do this again next year, using J. D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”. Virginia said it was a great idea and wrote it down. I’m not holding my breath, but …
89 and Still Swinging –
My mother, Joan, turned 89 years old on June 19th. Nam, Judith, and I took her out to a local hotel restaurant for a luncheon.
That was about it for June 2024.