© irene waters 2016
Hello and welcome. Come on in. What would you like today to drink? Tea? Herbal? Coffee? Hot Chocolate? Today I feel like peppermint tea but you can have whatever you like; I’ve got most things hot. I also have some custardy jelly slices that I bought from the Katie Rose stall. That is a sad story that if we were having coffee I’d tell you.
We are? Katie Rose cottage was donated by a benefactor a number of years back as a cottage where the terminally ill could go to die in surroundings that were homelike, their relatives could stay with them and the staff were predominantly volunteers. It was run by two women friends of the benefactor. Several years ago they attempted to get government accreditation so that medicare would pay benefits to them helping to alleviate the costs of running the house. To do this the government made them change the model of operation and put in a committee to oversee the operation. The house, promptly went bankrupt and the committee sold the house, then purchased another but at the other end of the Sunshine Coast where there are already other facilities of this type. The band of volunteers protested and at a special meeting they were turned away by the committee and told that their membership had been cancelled and they were therefore inelligible to vote. The community is up in arms. The benefactor has donated another property and the original model of operation is being returned. Government assistance will not be requested. A lot of slices need to be sold to raise the money (they also operate 3 opportunity shops), so eat up. The more you eat the more I may spend as I really don’t want to eat too much myself. Not with our cruise coming up.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you that I have been trying to work out ways that unlimited food on board will not be disastrous for me but still allow me to try everything. I am going to sit at any smorgasbord so I am not looking at the food. I know my eyes are bigger than my stomach but it doesn’t stop me trying. I am also going to ask for half serves of anything I order. An I plan on promenading on the poop deck during waking hours and dancing in the ballroom of a night. Hopefully that will do it. Only one month before sailing.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you that we went and saw Dylan Thomas’s Undermilk Wood on Friday night. I did it at school and didn’t like it then. I think, in my day at least, schools destroyed much literature for children. Set in the welsh town of Llareggub (bugger all backwards) we learn over a period of 24 hours the lives of the characters who include the blind old seadog Captain Cat who is forever mourning his dead love Rosie Probert, the Rev Eli Jenkins who sees the day in and out with a verse; Polly Garter and her lost lovers, Mr Pugh who dreams of poisoning Mrs Pugh; Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard and her two dead husbands and Mr Bread with his two living wives. It is known as a play for voices and the actors at our local theatre did it very well. What I had disliked as a schoolgirl, I now drank in the poetic melody of the lines. I was going to give you a quote but which one, there are so many, so I started at the beginning and maybe you’ll want to read it til the end.
It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters’-and-rabbits’ wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboatbobbing sea. The houses are blind as moles (though moles see fine to-night in the snouting, velvet dingles) or blind as Captain Cat there in the muffled middle by the pump and the town clock, the shops in mourning, the Welfare Hall in widows’ weeds. And all the people of the lulled and dumbfound town are sleeping now. Dylan Thomas Undermilkwood
If we were having coffee I’d tell you I’m filling in my time working on my manuscript, packing boxes, reading a book by Marcel Theroux Paperchase which has great promise, and a bit more blogging that I had been doing. I tried out a new challenge Abecedarian flash and the Weekly Discover Prompt was one that I had no inspiration for but in trying to translate to middle English and get borders around the page (it didn’t work) and try and get it looking like a Chaucer piece whilst in reality it was science fiction with a somewhat strange disturbing piece of art, I spent hours on something that simply did not work.
So that has been my week. What about you? Is it getting cold where you are? We are getting warmer. Have you read any good books or seen any good movies. Thank you Diana for hosting our weekly coffee share.
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
It is wet wet wet just now and autumn is dripping soggyboggy into a splintering winter hinterland season of misting mellow fruits…. or some such week!
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Is your name Geoff Thomas? LOL. Have a good week.
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Ha!!
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How awful that Katie Rose was destroyed by committees and government agencies. It’s no wonder people get frustrated. It’s a generous program that should have taken off and been supported by the community so that those who really need such services can have them and focus their energy on getting healthy. Of course you knew all that, but I had to write it.
I’m glad you’re working on your manuscript. I can’t wait to read it.
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Thanks. I do know it but it gives heart to battles to know there is support in spirit. You will get to read it…… sometime. 🙂
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Such an interesting approach to your week Irene, enjoyed it! We are having a final breath of summer before true fall sets in so I was lucky to enjoy many hours outdoors. Looking forward to more of your weeks!
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Thanks for dropping by Tina. I’ll look forward to hearing how your winter develops over coffee in the coming weeks.
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Thanks for peppermint tea! Good luck with your writing. Have a great week.
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Thanks. Hope you have a good week.
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Tea is good… Personally I like a spearamint or wintermint – peppermint is a bit too strong for me. I’ve been to have trouble with York peppermint candies.
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I’ve never tried other types of mint. Perhaps I should.
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Irene, thank you for the tea. I need it. I’m parked in my writing chair in the loungeroom too exhausted to move after a busy but fun weekend. I am starting to feel myself bubbling up through the surface after a couple of years recovering from that last health set back. It would be such a relief to be me again.
BTW I thought you’d appreciate the blobby ink stains my pens have left on my chair. As much as I write using my laptop, I also use black artline pens. Last week, I ended up sitting on one and there’s a big black slodge on the beige chair. This is splodge number 4. I think my chair needs something like a nappy on it to protect it from me.
Fortunately, it’s a temporary lounge we picked up from the op shop.
Hope you have a great week and it’s always great to catch up with you as a fellow Aussie who is living in the same season.
xx Rowena
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Cruises are deadly for me! I have a small frame, and can gain 5 pounds after one ample meal, it seems. Not fair! So after three cruises, I no longer go on that kind of holiday. Walking around suits me better.
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Now you have put the fear of weight gain well and truly in my thoughts. I think I will have to plan on lots of promenading on the poop deck.
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Thanks for the reminder to read Thomas’ ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’ – a good one for this time of year! It’s lovely to hear of your adult reaction to his writing compared to your childhood experience. I’m glad you gave him a second chance. 🙂
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Yes I am too.
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Sad story about the hospice, but maybe a happy ending? Never let the government get into running local things. Dylan Thomas is definitely not for school children – they would have a hard time understanding the lyricism of his words.
It is almost winter here, Irene. We had no fall to speak of – it stayed warm and the trees didn’t turn until about 10 days ago. Now it’s turned really cold and the leaves have all fallen off the trees (and into our pool, which I am cleaning every day). I’m already looking forward to March. Keep sending me the water pictures!
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Keep warm. I have done some water for you although it doesn’t look too inviting except perhaps to one who needs the wind so as a sailor you may appreciate that.
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