Welcome and come on in. Let’s get settled with a cup of tea or coffee and we’ll have a chat. Our weather here is perfect with a warm breeze and not too hot although perhaps the humidity is starting to build as the perspiration has started to roll when I start to do anything even remotely active.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you that I have had a lovely week. Everything seems to be on track. I have found a publisher I am hoping will publish my manuscript. I have prepared the first three chapters and writing covering letters which I will post during the week and am keeping the fingers crossed. I probably won’t know anything until I return from our cruise but I feel good that it is finally underway.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you that it was Australia Day last Friday. This is a day that is now causing much angst as our indigenous people see the day as Invasion Day. There has been a large number of people protesting and requesting that the day be changed. Our government is standing firm. Why I don’t know. It should be a day that can be inclusive of all Australians and most Australians are not descended from the First Fleet so do we have a great affinity with 26th January as a date? I personally think that the date of Federation should be the day – for that was when we did become Australia. However, that date is the 1st January which is already a public holiday and do people want to lose an additional day where they can go outdoors and have an Aussie Barbie and drink lots of beer.
© irene waters 2018 (these people set their tent up before 6 am to get a good spot on the river.)
The angst felt about the day aside, Roger and I had a lovely day. Our normal coffee shops were closed so we walked along Noosa River with the dogs rather than our normal Weyba Creek. After coffee we then drove to Perigian Beach and had an omelette for breakfast. A very social outing as I ran across two fellows from dancing who were breakfasting after an early game of tennis. We also met a couple at the table opposite who also had a dog with them. He had ordered toast with vegemite but had been told the shop didn’t have any vegemite, they only had jam. We watched him pile onto his toast a spread that looked very much like vegemite to us. I don’t know whether you have tasted our Aussie icon but it is a very strong beef extract and the smallest amount will suffice unless you have reached the addictive stage. We watched as he took a big mouthful only to see him spit it out and choke seconds later. He’d thought it was plum jam. We laughed and laughed.
One of the chaps from dancing was telling us he is planning on walking the Spanish pilgrimage trail ( the Camino de Santiago) which is a length of 800 miles. It would take him 5 weeks to complete. He went on to tell us that he’d walked the length of the United Kingdom at 68 years old followed by the Appalachian trail a couple of years later taking just over six months to complete the 3,500 km walk. He believes he has one big walk left in him. When Roger found out he is 81 years old he was gobsmacked. He hasn’t stopped talking about it since, even suggesting that perhaps we should do a walk. A walk that kind of length is just not going to happen – for me at any rate.
The rest of the day was pleasant. We took Mum out for lunch and then we came home and she and I had a game of rummkin. I had a dancing lesson that night. A very pleasant way to spend Australia Day.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you that I am starting to get excited about our cruise to New Guinea. Now only 12 days 1 hour and 47 minutes. We have now been allocated a cabin so at least we aren’t going to be sleeping in a life raft. Spare time is being taken up doing preparations so all is done in plenty of time before we go. We have our godchildren arriving before our departure so we have to be ready by the end of this week as the following week we will have them, I am giving a talk to Probus about my book then 1 day and we’re gone.
Enough about me. How was your week? Has your weather been warmer/colder, wetter/drier. Have you read any good books or seen any good films? Thank you for dropping in for coffee, it is lovely to see you. Thanks to eclecticali who is our host of the weekend coffee share.
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
Australia Day sounds wonderful but I understand about the protests to get it changes. We went, and still do go, through that with Columbus Day. It used to be Columbus Day commemorated the landing of Columbus on the U.S. shores, or the discovery of America. But, as with your indigenous people, it was felt that it was not a day to be celebrated to to celebrate the invasion of our shores by Europeans who, after all, brought a lot of negatives with them, including illnesses that wiped out so many natives. They were also pretty cruel to the natives and that goes for the Europeans that invaded, oops discovered, America as well as those that wandered up north into Canada and south into Mexico and beyond. Now, many of our fifty states celebrate October 12 as Indigenous Peoples Day.
Enjoy your cruise! Tell us all about it when you return.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks for telling me about Columbus Day. It sounds as though our indigenous people feel the same way about the coming of the Europeans.
Thanks Corina. I’m sure you’ll hear about it and see some photos. Have a good week. Cheers irene
LikeLiked by 1 person
ok Irene can you give a hint about your book … what’s it about? Most people I’ve offered vegemite to wont even try it, they loathe the smell! Had a few friends do parts of that walk only one young man who did the whole lot … well worth watching the movie about it. They tell me it’s very realistic of the walk, accom and characters one meets. An island cruise? Am sure you’ve given information on these things before, sorry! Thanks for the coffee 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
My book is called Nightmare in Paradise and it is a memoir of our time on a remote island in the Pacific as business partners of the paramount Chief in the running of a small resort and associated tour business. The island retained its traditional culture and that along with the active volcano and cargo cult drew visitors from round the world. It was our nightmare in Paradise with kidnappings and deaths, witchdoctors and Chiefs……..
Yes vegemite is an acquired taste. I’ll look out that film. Someone else told me about it last night and it sounds interesting.
Off to New Guinea. Having lived in the Pacific we had no idea to island hop around the Pacific islands so sticking to New Guinea. No worries re memory. You can’t possibly remember everything (at least I know I can’t).
LikeLiked by 1 person
wow your book does sound like it’s got the ideal ingredients to pull us all in!
My father served in NG for years, my fiancee flew in NG … it holds a multitude of different memories for me, a place I wont ever visit 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can understand you not wanting to visit. We probably would have chosen to go elsewhere but the choice from Brisbane was limited.
LikeLiked by 1 person
lol that would be true, enjoy!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was having coffee while reading this. I really enjoyed the post.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for dropping in and having coffee with me. Its always nice to chat.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You have a publisher?!!! I am so excited for you! Can’t wait till your book comes out, Irene – YAY!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I only think I have a publisher Sharon so I’m not too excited yet. I may well be rejected but at least I have got to first base and that in itself is an achievement. Don’t worry Sharon – when it is published you’ll hear me across the oceans with my screams of joy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your coming cruise sounds so exciting, Irene 🙂
I’m looking forward to your book too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Irene. Yes I am allowing myself to get excited now but am a bit daunted by the amount of preparatiion I have to do just to leave home. By the time I have got it all done I will well and truly need a holiday.
I am excited that I have progressed regarding the book. It is still a way off but it has moved forward. Cheers irene😄
LikeLike
Looking forward to EVERYTHING!
LikeLike
Thanks.
LikeLike
I enjoyed reading about your Australia Day, Irene.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for dropping in for coffee Robbie.
LikeLiked by 1 person