STILL IN THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE to pass through the eye of the needle? I thought that all I had to do was to reduce my stuff to the contents of a suitcase or so, travel to Australia and look around for a place to settle. If you want to hear more about my dilemma, just send me an email and I will put you on the list of close mates to whom I plan to send more detail of how this is working out. Suffice to say that the passage may well involve shedding some expectations. The project of the ecologically correct cabin continues to develop but the ‘where’ is yet to be determined.

In the meantime, I am enjoying Adelaide and have settled to a routine. For the greater part of the week, I am living with my sister, Cherie, and finding lots of maintenance work to do. Presently, I am attending to corrosion that has attacked metal framing around her house. Over the weekends, I am with my daughter and her family quite near to the city. Sunday morning is quite a highlight as we go to the nearby farmers’ market. It is quite extensive and involves real farmers; depending on how soon you read this posting, there will be one or two pictures of market scenes.

Near to her home is the local Alliance Francaise centre where I have enrolled in a course on Monday evenings. I have a work project at my daughter‘s home; retiling a shower alcove.

ON THE KNEE FRONT, I am continuing with rehabilitation exercises at a local gym and also keeping up a program of exercise call ‘Slow Burn’ (introduced to me by my friend Richard who lives near Hudson in New York). I was so impressed with the results of this program for him that I just had to take it up myself. I am now able to ride Bike Friday easily for up to an hour. My sister lives in an area with rolling hills, some quite steep so I find ’bike riding fitness’ returning with pleasing alacrity. I expect that it take a month or two for them to feel quite normal. One effect of chronic osteoarthritis with knees is that, as cartilage wears away, the legs become noticeably bowed. Now that they are straightened out, occasionally I feel a little knock-kneed. Still learning a normal gait, particularly when in a hurry, I am improving with balance and stride. Nonetheless, it can feel somewhat strange at times.

THE VIEW DOWN UNDER, Unfortunately, Aussies are not doing so well in their beloved game of cricket and have had a long run of defeats in one day matches, most recently being trounced by Sri Lanka. The six day matches against England are about to begin so selection for the Aussie team is a hot topic. The English team have brought along their own top sports psychologist to assist in maintaining their morale which suffered a terrible collapse last series. The battle between England and Australia is for “The Ashes“. At any time, cricket must be hard for Americans to understand but what on earth could The Ashes be? Would you believe these are the remains of the stumps (forming the wicket at each end of the cricket pitch) which were seized long ago by the Aussie team that first won against the English at the famous home of cricket, Lords. These stumps were burned and the ashes placed in an urn. This urn is kept by either the Aussies or the English, depending on which team wins the series.

RECENT VISITS BY AMERICANS: Hilary Clinton has been in town. She has been followed by Tiger Woods who is determined to add another Aussie Golf tournament to his list of successes. His fortunes have been varied since his last victory here a year ago and he hopes for a comeback on several fronts. Our Prime Minister has gone to South Korea to talk up a free trade agreement between the two counties. The G20 group meets there very shortly. Australia attempts a Janus stance vis-à-vis Asia and the US. We like to think or ourselves as part of Asia, despite our British colonial origins, On the other hand, in relation to Hilary Clinton’s visit, we have agreed to have a greater US military presence here, particularly in relation to training US forces for action in central Asia. Some of Australia’ neighbours might have misgivings about this. Australia provides an important strategic listening post via secret radar and intelligence installations. This may be part of the US’s plan to limit the influence of China. However, China is busily buying up Aussie mining and gas companies and may be seeking thereby to limit the influence of the US in Asia. Australian politicians hold the faith that, should we get into serious trouble with our neighbours the US military might will come to our rescue, as with the Second World War in the Pacific. “Might” of course, has several meanings. Ah…international politics!