Footy tipping, windy Wollongong, music and reading, a treasure and Sunday lunch

Footy Tipping

It was looking bad yesterday afternoon but things turned around!

In fact in the Pottsville Tipping Comp, Rosemary tells me, I came in #1!

So I now pluck up courage and ignorance to have a go at Round 13. This time I will share what the Kiwi Expert said AFTER the round is over. Not even looking at this stage.

Windy Wollongong

The day dawned windy and coolish and stayed that way yesterday.

Music and reading

On Facebook in the morning I noted:

I am reading Siya Turabi’s The Last Beekeeper — yes a real book — and I am getting it now. The magic realism takes a while to tune into. Learning much about Pakistan beyond the stereotypes. Using my TV in radio mode I am listening to Bizet on ABC Classic. Outside the wind howls. My hoodie could do with a wash but it is warm.

Access the first three chapters here!

And here is what I was listening to at the time I took that selfie. Watch on YouTube or in the embed below.

I stayed on ABC Classic pretty much for the rest of the day, noting at 3 pm:

Still listening to ABC Classic — a wonderful concert from Hamer Hall at the moment combining the Australian Chamber Orchestra with the British-based Will Gregory Moog Ensemble to perform iconic works for synthesizers and acoustic ensemble including some arranged by Wendy Carlos.

Who? Switched-On Bach was the debut album by American composer Wendy Carlos, originally released under her birth name Walter Carlos in October 1968 by Columbia Records. Classic Live: ACO’s A Clockwork Orange and Beyond.

Program

Franz Waxman: Sinfonietta: I. Lento – Allegro

Vangelis: Blade Runner: Main Title

Wendy Carlos: Tron: Scherzo & Main Theme

Johann Sebastian Bach/Wendy Carlos: ‘Switched on Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048: II. Adagio; III. Allegro

Hans Zimmer: Interstellar: Cornfield Chase

Delia Derbyshire: Blue Veils and Golden Sands

Ron Grainger/Delia Derbyshire: Doctor Who: Theme

Olivier Messiaen: Oraison

Vangelis: Chariots of Fire: Main Titles

John Williams: Images: Reflections & Blood Moon

Johann Sebastian Bach/Wendy Carlos: Switched On Bach: Prelude and Fugue in C minor, BWV 847

Johann Sebastian Bach/Eduard Artemyev: Solaris: Chorale Prelude “Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ”, BWV 639

Henry Purcell/Gioachino Rossini/Ludwig van Beethoven/Wendy Carlos: A realisation of selections from “A Clockwork Orange”

Watch on YouTube

A treasure and Sunday lunch

That beauty is from the internet. I found it while searching for information about the makers. It is a Duchess “Laburnum” English Bone China Duo Cup and Saucer 1960’s. One eBay price is AU $43.37. Several of them are right here at my place in West Wollongong, along with half a dozen matching cake plates. They were my mother’s. I think they may have been a gift and I think I know from whom, but am not sure about that. I only know my mother treasured them, and some other things, and I took possession of them only after she had moved from Glebe Point Road to the nursing home in Annandale. Then in 1996 she passed away.

I brought them to Wollongong with me in 2010.

I rarely use them. I did yesterday.

Springtime Oolong leaf tea with ginger, that cup and saucer — I have 3 sets and more plates from my mother — plus Woolies fresh chilled chicken Singapore noodles. Tea and taste go well together.

Afternoon light West Wollongong

But look at an hour later!

Still nursing Junior HP carefully…

Yes, my perhaps ailing six-year-old laptop. On Monday I backed up a lot of files to a separate hard drive and cleaned around 3 gigabytes from Junior HP, the greatest amounnt being cleanup files from Windows Update — around two of that three. Now the disk usage is still tight but when the problems happened on Sunday it would have been dangerously full! I used Disk Cleanup to get rid of that stuff from Windows Update.

Now just a photo post from the past couple of days

Monday

New on the menu. Tasty.

Tuesday

And Junior HP is behaving itself…

Accompanied by a nice pinot noir. The Woolies fresh chilled spag bol really is delicious!

Just a this was my day photo post concerning 10th May in The Gong

Yesterday I shared a photo of my street at dawn. For the sake of thoroughness I share it again.

The day stayed fresh and clear as I set off to catch the 10.20 bus to The Gong.

A few days back there was snow on that distant range to the south. Not on the nearby prominent peak, which is Mount Kembla.

The bus was about five minutes late as there had been a serious car accident at Figtree, on the bus’s route. But it came and I fulfilled my first task as an elderly coot — renew prescriptions and get new reading glasses which indeed have improved the view on my WordPress drafting page. Then of course the City Diggers Club for lunch, some Shiraz, and chat with friends.

I should warn you — my appearance has changed. The hair was getting a bit too much even if, as I said at the club to ny friend Colin, I had rather enjoyed looking like my 19th century ancestors.

Lunch when it came was excellent — the specialty of the house: pan seared barramundi, that great Australian fish, with steamed vegetables.

It is safe to assume the barra was a farmed specimen. I doubt we would be getting them from the wild.

Watch on YouTube

Yum!

2.30 pm — time to go home. Love the Wollongong buses — except on Sundays and public holidays when they rather disappear…

Video of a similar bus — not my video — on an inward journey through Unanderra then Figtree then West Wollongong and on into town…

Watch on YouTube

More weighty matters next time? Maybe…