"TOUGHIE" GOES TO QUEENSLAND

HOLDEN BARINA (alias Chevrolet Sonic) - dubbed ""TOUGHIE" by virtue of its appearance.

When the opportunity to "house sit" for three weeks after Christmas arose, it was truly Providential. We already had the intention of seeing our Son and his family as close as possible to Christmas, in order to bring  our grandchildren their gifts in good time.In addition, we had a couple of days business to complete in Brisbane. The three weeks would give us good opportunities to enjoy the company of the Dixons Jnr and also to catch up with our many friends in the "Urbs Beata".

So we set about making our plans to drive the just on 1,000 Kms North, leaving Sydney on the day following Boxing Day. It would also give us a very good opportunity to give our new car , the latest model Holden Barina (known in the USA as a Chevrolet Sonic). The engine and drivetrain used in our car are Belgian and different to those used in the Sonic version, providing 85Kw of power and using a 6 speed auto. Transmission.

We set out as early as possible on Tuesday. For us that meant 5.30 a.m. ! To achieve that early start, I had foregone shaving and so we set off with "Toughie", as I have dubbed the new car- in view of its somewhat aggressive stance on the road( see picture above).

The car proved to be a gem, with very comfortable seating, great handling,ample power and a silky smooth transmission.The cruise control made light work of maintaining the 110/100 kmph speed limits along most of the route. We habitually use the inland New England Highway which bypasses the suburbs of Newcastle an hour North of Sydney.It also has the advantage of passing through significant large country towns at convenient intervals for rest and refreshment breaks.

After only half an hour on our way we broke our normal rules and had some breakfast at McDonalds! We were quickly on our way, and reached Tamworth at 10.20 am, 383 km to the North of Sydney. Our attempts to get something decent to eat, were thwarted by the fact that Tuesday was a Public Holiday (in lieu of the one "lost" by virtue of Christmas Day falling on a Sunday). This meant that all the good Coffee Shops in this small city of 60,000 people, and a major highway stopping place for Sydney to Brisbane traffic, we're closed due to their inability to make a profit when paying holiday Penalty Rates to their casual staff! What a crazy situation! Protecting the workers with higher pay means in reality that they lose a day's pay.

We sped on, having lost twenty minutes for nothing. Outside Tamworth just beyond the town of Kootingal lies the two stage , long,stiff climb of the Moonbi Ranges. The car handled it with ease whilst maintaining around 90kmph dictated by several tight curves. At Armidale, 110 Kms further North, we arrived at 12.10 and found one decent coffee shop open in a shopping centre -all the shops in Armidale as in Tamworth were doing a roaring trade in Post Christmas sales , and were able to bear the Penalty Rates! By 12.50, rested and well fed and refreshed, we were on our way again.

I continued to be impressed by the car's performance.We decided to make our next stop at Warwick across the Queensland border. However having crossed the border, we revised our plan in order to minimise delays from traffic, and decided to stop at Vincenzo's Cafe/Restaurant and Italian goods and local produce store. Quite an unusual place and good value , in our experience. After 9 hours and 20 minutes"on the road" we were in need of refreshment and I must certainly have been looking somewhat the worse for wear. Imagine my surprise, after a long cool lemon juice I went to the Gelato Bar to complete the job with a Gelato each for my wife and me. As I was being served my Three Summer Fruits Gelato, my eye was caught by a superbly styled and colored Polo Shirt on the chap next in line. Just the colour shirt  I've been looking for, thought I. Looking discreetly to see who the wearer was, it occurred to me that he seemed remotely familiar.And, as my Gelati were handed to me and I left the counter, I tried to get a clarifying glance and found him giving me a  puzzled look,as if unsure if he knew me.He gave me a half nod,as though wishing to avoid the embarrassment of a mistake. I returned the uncertain nod and that was that. But driving away from the Cafe/Restaurant and resuming our high speed run toward Brisbane I became sure that I KNEW that face. It was in fact a German FACEBOOK Friend,whom I met in 2009 when he was of heroic assistance to  Robyn and me. He is a very fine young man, and I was really upset to have been so slow in making the identification- but it goes to show how complex our powers of  recognition are. To my memory banks "this person" was on the other side of the world , and not a valid consideration in their range of possibilities. Further, despite FB photos on our Pages, we had only met face to face for 10 minutes over two years ago. I am looking forward to discussing our "meeting" and apologizing for my slow wits at the time , and my no doubt rather dishevelled appearance! Imagine missing the opportunity to talk with a Friend one really admires, and at the end of the Earth!

As we travelled on through Warwick and down through Cunningham's  Gap, where vast amounts of money are being spent to do yet another temporary fix on the unstable climbing road, which is regularly washed out by torrential rains and collapsing cliffs, I had to think how this short term penny-pinching was ultimately hugely wasteful. Obviously, what is required is a tunnel through the the Range, with perhaps a high level approach bridge. But it will probably take a massive tragedy in loss of life before what needs to be done, is done.

After reaching the levels of the coastal plain at the foot of the Ranges,there is a 100km stretch of road that is almost totally level and   largely straight. It was eerie-the engine could not be heard, our capsule on wheels proceeded along at its Cruise Controlled 100kmph in this absolute silence.Even wind noise and tyre noise were absent, due to the particular road surface in this section. In fact it was becoming unnerving until we encountered the two slight uphill grades which briefly caused the revs to climb to an audible level.

Beyond that, we entered the Brisbane area and the massive complexity of the new construction of the Ipswich Motorway just as an impressive  torrential downpour broke over the area. This followed us along for the next half hour as we closed in on the City centre, somehow, despite the poor visibility in the teeming rain, we arrived safely at our"home" for the next three weeks . We can literally thank God for our Guardian Angels and their care! 964Kms in 12hrs 32mins including  1hr 30 mins for Stops - an average speed on the road of 87 kmph.

Alas no Autobahnen for OZ.

Now for a holiday, marred only by the difficulties of getting the Internet connection right! Which, as this post shows, I have finally done.

*"HE WAS LAID IN THE MANGER OF OUR LIVES...HE IS KEPT IN THE CRIB OF OUR HEARTS"

"Away in a manger.."

Having just returned from 8.30pm Carols and 9.00 pm Holy Mass for the Vigil of Christmas Day, I want to comment on , or rather introduce to you the idea developed by our young and holy Polish Curate Father Mariusz Adamczyk SDS in his Homily.

Father Mariusz spoke of the overwhelming importance of Christ's Birth, emphasising that we do not celebrate a myth or fable but that the "Great God of Might"had really become a little baby . And that ordinary reality, a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger of all things, was THE SIGN THE ANGELS gave that identified the Saviour! And that is how it is to-day,  that Jesus Christ is laid in the manger of OUR lives , and it is for us to embrace  Him in the Crib of our hearts. And we are to see Him in one another, in those we meet and pass, and in doing so in a fitting way, we can remake this tired world.

And the opponents of "imported "clergy will tell you "they don't understand our culture"!!! Father Mariusz , God Bless you! You understand us very well, and respond ideally.

Truly Christmas is about Christ "by highest Heav'n adored". In celebrating Our Divine Lord's birth, we have, over these two thousand years of the Catholic Church's life, also been moved to celebrate the families the Lord has given us. In that vein I want to share with you a couple of photos now some years old, so that you will know how lucky I have been and am:

If you can't see the joy on my face ..you are dead!
Taken about 1976..whatever happened to white Polo Necks?


But someone is missing! The cause of my joy is not only our marvellous children, but my beautiful Wife Robyn -the photographatrix(Its my word and I'm sticking with it!)

The heart of the joy and love we enjoy..with our children a few years later.

Life isn't led like a TV commercial with ever glowing smiles , but it has its regular moments when the Love brought into the world on that First Christmas IS reflected in our daily being, and we thank God for that and with Him " in the Crib of our hearts" we work through the highs and lows of our lives. And, we thank Him for  the Children He has so wonderfully given us ,each one of them.

Happy Christmas once again to all our readers, now and in future years.

SOMETHING SPECIAL "FOR MY FIRST BIRTHDAY"

9th April, 1941  Happy Birthday Anthony John Dixon!
QUEEN MARY DEPARTS SYDNEY HEADS AS QUEEN ELIZABETH ARRIVES
TAKING OUR MEN TO WAR BY THE THOUSANDS

My Mum and Dad had always spoken in awe of the day on which Sydney Harbour hosted all but one of the world's largest Liners QUEEN MARY, QUEEN ELIZABETH, AQUITANIA and ILE DE FRANCE , the French NORMANDIE was still in New York City. It was just as well, because she was so beautiful a sight she would have destroyed the Australian fascination with the grandeur of the British Queens.

But only yesterday, I discovered that the great event took place on my First Birthday - well done military authorities of the time!

NORMANDIE,QUEEN MARY AND QUEEN ELIZABETH
IN NEW YORK HARBOUR

The great Liners could never have justified a trip to Australia before the War - there were insufficient passengers who could afford the lengthy trip in such luxury. But with the commencement of the War, there were ample young ,healthy Australian men who must be shipped off to the far distant War at any expense . The speed of the Liners would not only hasten their arrival, but it would also guarantee safety from all but the luckiest U Boat torpedo shots.The Liners travelled at around 29 Knots and were excused from zig-zagging to avoid torpedoes by virtue of that speed, which was far in excess of anything a U-Boat could muster even on the surface.

The once luxurious fittings of the great Liners were stripped and their proud liveries removed for drab grey and they were crammed with soldiers by the thousands.Extraordinary risks were being taken - on one Atlantic crossing QUEEN MARY carried approx. 18,000 men, she had only 8,000 lifeboat places and rafts etc. and this in the face of the huge U-Boat menace.

What I had not known before yesterday, was that QUEEN MARY had been a regular visitor to Sydney collecting troops. But the special convoy on my birthday was the biggest effort.

Queen Elizabeth had been rushed from her Builder's Yard across the Atlantic to New York City for fitting out lest she should be attacked in the yard whilst being completed. Queen Mary had been repainted and readied for troops in New York and sailed from there to Sydney for the first time on 21st March, 1940 followed a couple of weeks later by Queen Elizabeth.

Sadly, the very beautiful fast and glamorous NORMANDIE caught fire at its berth in New York City in 1942 and a ham-fisted effort at putting out the fire caused her to capsize at the wharf.She was sold as scrap in 1946.

Queen Mary in Sydney Harbour 1941

Anyway, that's the story of my First Birthday - if there was a Cake - I don't know. With War time rationing and my infant ignorance of what was or was not happening, I doubt it!! Do you know what happened on your first birthday? 

*HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND THANK YOU

YOUR SCRIBE

As you know, I started this Blog for the use and I hope interest, of my children and their children and... well, you get the picture. That purpose still holds good. But along the way some kind folk from various parts of Australia and the rest of the world have dropped in to see what went on way back when. You are all most welcome , so don't feel you are intruding in any way.

I want to wish every one of you, but family of course most especially and whenever you might read this, a Happy Christmas now or in whatever year you are in(!), and to thank you for reading . I quite enjoy telling the stories and I hope you enjoy the reading of them. 

Special thanks to my Followers on Networked Blogs ,and on GOOGLE Friend Connect, for going that extra re-assuring (to me) step.

Life is good and God is Perfect so we should not be too surprised at this wonderful gift and at a loving Wife and marvellous Children and amazing Grandchildren and family all told , to share the gift of Life, and the Hope "that is in you" as St. Peter puts it - Eternal Life with God.That is, after all, what ITS ALL ABOUT!

*WHEN I WAS TOWARD THE LAW PART III ME 1958

THE GREEN HOUSE - RAILWAY HOUSE WYNYARD

So here I was, working in the GREEN HOUSE, Head Office of the New South Wales Government Railways ( NSWGR), in the Office of the Solicitor for Railways. As I showed in an earlier post, it was not a huge office ,but top heavy with Legal Professionals a smattering of clerical staff and me at the bottom of the pile!

On reflection, the Solicitors were a really varied lot, the Solicitor for Railways was a brooding, rather unpleasant person, his Deputy was a mild seeming rather pleasant chap, there were others varying from Victorian era avuncular to modern day sex- obsessed sleaze, to financially distressed totally pre-occupied wreck, to modern calm self- possessed and efficient, to modern slightly amused by it all,to  prim "this is all a bit beneath me" and to  "after what I saw in the war, nothing impresses me"and one or two others, I forget or would rather forget.

My immediate boss was The Chief Clerk. He was a really nice old gent, whose whole demeanor would have been suitable to someone in the 1900s. He was a good, honest person of very conservative attitudes although he was a Labor Party man through and through. He was talking about an acquaintance one day, and described his shock and disapproval at seeing the fellow "driving a NEW car...and him a good Labor man too!" I managed to keep a respectful straight face.

On arriving at the Office each day , he would remove his suit coat and don a lightweight alpaca working jacket for comfort. But the time would come, several times a day, when the direct line phone from the Solicitor for Railways himself would ring. He was immediately galvanized into action, dropping what he was doing, seizing the handset and responding "Yes Sirrrr". Then the phone would be replaced and his swivel chair would creak and groan as he stood up with a sigh, removed the alpaca and donned his suit coat -to enter ...the Presence. On most occasions he was back out in no time flat, charged with some trivial task. That would be entrusted to an underling and then he would do the coat for jacket swap, and settle back to work. His name was Harry Bateman and I remember him with affection. He told me that his staff records were among those privileged to be marked " LOYAL DURING THE GREAT STRIKE 1917" - a matter of great moment as it was for my Grandfather Beckmann, who being German by birth and , in view of WW I, already under attack on that account, had no alternative to be anything but " LOYAL" and to be seen to be!

Another principal figure in the office was Miss Burden the Secretary to the Solicitor for Railways and Head Typist. A lady of considerable standing in her view - if not that of her charges!

The Supreme Court Sydney

My role was to go about the Courts,High (rarely), Supreme,District, and Workers'Compensation Commission and the various Solicitors' Offices and Barristers' Chambers, filing documents and delivering Briefs and correspondence. It was a close community of several hundred people and I very quickly found that I could hardly go anywhere in the City without seeing several people I knew. My daily round was full of characters. Those were still the days when there remained in the legal fraternity some people who seemed to be straight out of Dickens, whether in dress ,affected manner or actual personality. "Characters" abounded, and firms which were very old, were numerous. Just to mention those which I came to know did work for the Archdiocese of Sydney : there were Makinson,D'Apice, and Murphy and Moloney ( where my future Wife worked as a long term and valued employee) and J.J. Carroll and Cecil O'Dea (where poor old Mr Carroll still came in, bent over at near 90 degrees, his head painfully turned up to speak) and numerous others.Legal history was around not only in that personal sense , but also in the premises. Most were rather dingy, more early 1900s in style, and in buildings often dating from the late 1800s. The city was still free of most of what we see to-day. The tallest structure in town was the AWA Tower above the building in York Street which housed the then Protestant Radio Station 2CH.

The AWA TOWER York Street Sydney

Don't worry we had our Catholic Radio Station 2SM which became in the 1960s Sydney's leading Commercial Radio Station - not because of its Catholicity - which was far from being dominant but because of its Hit Tunes programming and characters like Tony Withers  and Mike Walsh etc., etc. But I digress.

So I had to get around the City as quickly as possible doing a morning run filing Court documents and an afternoon run picking up documents and the various daily emergency deliveries as required. To do this efficiently I had to learn all the alleys and back ways and buildings which connected with one another (sometimes surprisingly) providing short-cuts.It was all a very "in" sort of thing , though I rather felt like a rat, scurrying here and there, but I enjoyed doing it well. I got to know a number of the Solicitors who had small but lucrative Workers'Comp. practices because of Trade Union associations. And I got to be recognized by the Barristers' clerks whose principals we regularly used - a strange lot, the Clerks too -well portrayed in the Rumpole T.V. series - as was the whole English and Australian legal scene of the time. Unlike many of the workers in the game, I had the advantage of understanding the Latin used in the titles of the various documents   : the Subpoenas - Orders to do something "Under Penalty" "Duces Tecum"-(" you shall bring with you") ordering the production of documents in Court, " Ad Testificandum" ordering presence in order to testify. There were many other phrases too but the Queen of them all was, and is (leaving English floundering in its wake) "Mutatis Mutandis" (" Having been changed as much as it needs to be changed")! Take that you jabberers in English!

Getting to know people was important in getting things done, as was helping people out when they or their matter needed help - it might be you in need of their help another day. But the people it was important to get to know most of all, were the registry officials in each of the Courts. They could, if they wished, cover up your mistakes or those of your Solicitors. Or on a bad day, they could hang you out to dry and leave you mercilessly swinging in the wind . They were critically important when there were filing deadlines to be met or when you wanted a specific hearing date and things of that nature. And their decisions were often quite arbitrary. If they had a bad night out the previous night , you were done. And although your office could sometimes formally appeal to a Registrar or Master of the Rolls, it wasn't the done thing and they knew it !

Sometimes I had to feel sorry for the clients of some solicitors. On one occasion a young clerk I knew came to us to re-activate a Workers Comp. case in which his office had physically lost the file for 7 years! Perhaps the client was too badly injured to get to complain!

One of the biggest groups of actions we had against us were the Mangoplah Fires cases, which originated in a simple trip by a steam -hauled goods train one hot Summer's day.(Yes until "Global Warming" Ha Ha! We used to have hot Summers' days) Dozens of claims came against us.

But it wasn't, always busy. When the Courts were closed we had time to catch up on things that accumulated during the year.On one fateful day, I was asked to clean up and organize the rear Store Room. I hopped into the task with a will, and had it looking quite spiffy in half a morning - all very rational, tidy and all that. There was some rubbish to be disposed of including a lump of wood- of all things. Out it all went, and everything was fine. That is until two or perhaps three weeks later, when Mr.Crawford a Solicitor who looked as if he has just been demobbed from some dull section of the R.A.F., came after me ferret- like asking in an accusing tone, "Did you clean up the Store Room?" "Did you see a portion of timber?" ("Lump of wood thought I") Yes was the answer of course. "What happened to it?" I threw it out with the other rubbish, was the reply. He had long since guessed the answer and had plenty of time to work up his spluttering rage! But, all things pass, and in due course I learned that it had been a vital piece of evidence in a case between NSWGR and a New Zealand supplier of Sleepers! He never did apologise for not having the piece appropriately marked and, I never heard of the matter again.

One of my daily contacts was a slightly older, perhaps 21/22 yrs old bloke who was newly married- D.S. He was a good bloke - a Baptist of some description, but not particularly prudish. We had good yarns as we headed out for the morning runs - he was more concerned with conveyancing matters and the Registrar General's Office, which was of course close to the District Court.

At a late stage the Office employed a young fellow even junior to me who used to walk out with us - his name was Richard........ Who had gone to School at Barker College (Bah Kuh) and he was filling in time until Uni started. He was "frightfully pukka" in speech and everything that needed to be explained to him was greeted with "Oh! I catch!"(Evidently a bit of Barker jargon.) One got the impression he had not had much exposure to the Plebs- as he seemed to consider us!. A few years later his time at University was interspersed with tussles with the Law over censorship Laws! He became a media sensation, briefly.

But all this daily rat running around the City was not getting me formal training in the Law. Despite representations from a number of the Solicitors in the Office, including his Deputy, the Solicitor for Railways in his bunker- like large office overlooking Wynyard Park would not accept the idea of having an Articled Clerk so that was the end of my hopes of Articles! Since he was the Solicitor of Record in the office no-one else could grant me Articles.

 However, he was prepared to allow me time to attend lectures during the day, as long as I made up the time before normal working hours. The result was that I started work each morning at 7.30 a. m. and had just a half an hour for lunch. Basically, he was just an old softie!! The real result was that after my exhausting rat running around town, I would find myself nodding off during lectures when the University Law School Year began in 1959. I enjoyed most of the lectures including Jurisprudence and Roman Law in particular. But when the end of the Year came, it was a case of failure. That was that!It was humiliating.

To contemplate being a clerk in yet another organization based strictly on advancement by seniority - having just fled that in the Commonwealth Public Service - was ridiculous. I began to cast about for an alternative.

MY FAVOURITE FILM - "BUT WHAT ABOUT.....?"

It occurs to me,  that some of my readers , the regular ones, of more than one of my Blogs, and I know there are more than a few, may say "A Man For All Seasons"- your "Favourite"Film?? But what about "The Passion of the Christ? " Good question, and, because I don't want to give scandal to anyone, I have anticipated it. 


My answer is this: I don't think of "The Passion"as a movie , I really don't. I know it is a movie. But for me it is a religious experience . It so faithfully, and plausibly when it is dealing with what Scripture does not tell us, recounts the story of Christ's sacred Passion that it is not in any way just a movie. It takes me directly into a religious experience with"full and active participation"of the type intended in the Liturgy. Mind and heart and spirit are fully engaged - I am not just watching. I am not being entertained.


For me , and for very many I'll bet, it is not "a movie"!


We all owe poor wretched Mel Gibson not only a huge vote of thanks, but also our heaviest prayers for his deliverance from the moral shambles his life has descended into. Satan has cruelly attacked poor old Mel where he is weakest. Instead of tut tutting we need to pray for the poor man and those he has hurt and scandalised - particularly his wife and family! We all have our weak points and need to be on our guard.


While we are at it ,we should say a prayer for the actor JimCaviezell who played the part of Our Lord. Many people of anti-Christ religious and moral persuasions in Hollywood, have not made the way easy for this fine actor and  committed Catholic who did so much to bring the work to completion so beautifully.

*WHEN I WAS TOWARD THE LAW PART II MY FAVOURITE FILM " A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS" PAUL SCHOFIELD VERSION

The King's Good Servant -
But God's First

I was enthralled by the Paul Schofield movie of "A Man For All Seasons"from the very first moment the projector began to roll and the majestic, super - confident and exciting medieval music of the soundtrack filled the theatre!And my attention did not wane for a moment until the very end when the closing titles rolled out the fates of the villains who brought the Saint's neck to the block.

Summoned by Cardinal Wolsey

Every aspect of the Fred Zinnemann film  made in 1966 and based on the play by Robert Bolt, was exemplary. But the best of everything technical will still fail if the script and cast are inadequate. Here they were and are brilliant. Robert Bolt himself adapted the Play for the screen and, in fact, much of the Plays dialogue is very true to St. Thomas' own words which are known from his own writings, records of his interrogations and of his trial. The cast was stunning from the masterly Paul Schofield himself as Saint Thomas, to Leo McKern as the ruthless and venal Thomas Cromwell, Robert Shaw as the handsome , brilliant yet volatile younger Henry VIII ( not yet the fully syphillitic wreck he was to become) , Wendy Hiller as the solid but pragmatic Alice More the Saint's second wife (after the premature death of the first), and Orson Welles as the powerful Cardinal Wolsey, More's predecessor as Lord Chancellor.

On Trial prosecuted by Thomas Cromwell (Leo McKern)"

Subsequent efforts to retell the story directly - the unhappy Charlton Heston version with Moses himself playing St.Thomas , and the more recent "THE TUDORS"TV Series went from the sad to the downright laughable . In the latter, we see Wolsey still around when a representation of Saint Thomas is walking around wearing the Lord Chancellor's Chain of Office. And in another scene we are treated to Wolsey coming back from a horse ride wearing a Cope!!! Both of those pathetic efforts serve only to emphasise the marvellous quality and integrity of the 1966 film.

The staging of the 1966 film was superb, with timber and stone being used in appropriate places, but in such a way as to highlight the dramatic quality of the unfolding story.Costumery was remarkable for its balance of opulence and restraint, reminding us of the constraints of the times, both economic,political and legal - for the sumptuary laws carefully governed what every layer of society might wear, and overdressing could have fatal consequences especially if you stood in line for the throne. This was a film that gave delight on so many levels that it is hard to do it justice. If any reader has NOT seen it, please get it out on DVD, better still buy the DVD and watch it and re-watch it, or download it. You could give yourself no more rewarding and entertaining gift. And at the same time you would learn so much about our Faith.

If you need to know something about St.Thomas More as a man , listen to
Robert Whittington writing in 1520, whose description gave the Play and Film their title :

"" Now that the Court has determined to convict me,
God knoweth how, I will discharge my mind........

"More is a man of an Angel's wit and singular learning, I know not his fellow. For where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness and affability? And, as time requireth, a man of marvellous mirth and pastimes, and sometime of as sad gravity. A man for all seasons." 

*"WHEN I WAS TOWARD THE LAW..." Part I

SAINT THOMAS MORE
The portrait by Holbein in his robes as Lord Chancellor of England

When I first planned to do a post with the title "When I was toward the Law....", I had in mind resuming the recollections of my life, and that quote from St. Thomas More in the movie (in this it is more accurate than the play which says when I was practising the Law)) "A Man For All Seasons"(the Paul Schofield version , of course!) came to mind as being useful. I will get to those recollections in Part III.

But two obstacles stood before my proceeding immediately with what I had planned. Firstly, my abounding admiration of the Saint, and secondly and on a lower plane, my admiration for the Paul Schofield film of Robert Bolt's play "A Man for All Seasons".

St. Thomas More was surely the most brilliant and truly noble Englishman to have lived. Quite apart from all else, it is his sanctity, which is his highest achievement - we remember Our Lord's exhortation to "Be Holy as your Heavenly Father Is Holy"(Matt 5 : 48).Holiness or perfection is the essential character of God, in man it came to also be called Godliness. It was a quality that St. Thomas More had long possessed, but he grew in it by leaps and bounds , even as the difficulties and trials in his life grew to appalling heights.

But he was remarkable for so much more than even that great achievement. He was a brilliant intellect, a writer, poet, lawyer, Judge,Ambassador, Parliamentarian, and as Chancellor, effectively Prime Minister of England.His wide experience, his scholarship and his humanistic  approach matched by his awesome integrity and realistic appreciation of the affairs of men obviously attracted many of the world's leading scholars to him, including controversial scholars like Erasmus. But St. Thomas was able to keep his balance and personal stability, even whilst moving in these exalted circles. His humility preserved his filial deference toward his Judge Father and when he would meet his Father in the Inns of Court, Thomas the faithful son, would kneel for his Father's Blessing. 

We know a vast amount about St.Thomas More from his own writings and from the records of his interrogation and trial. So great are his writings that the Harvard Library which owns his papers , has published 14,000 Pages of his writings. Further the bureaucracy of Henry VIII's early Police State had become very efficient and its files are preserved. Even the personal papers of the wretched Thomas Cromwell the avaricious and heretic successor to St. Thomas as Lord Chancellor are preserved, this, largely because when he fell from Henry's favour, he fell far and fast - arrested without warning one day and executed on the second day afterward. He had no time to sanitise his papers.

Study for a Portrait of the More Family by Hans Holbein.
St.Thomas is clearly seen beneath the Clock, His Father on his right and son John on his left

The sharpness of St. Thomas' intellect could have made him a very uncomfortable person to have around, especially when combined with his absolute integrity. However, both were kept rightly in balance by his generosity of spirit and highly developed sense of Christian  charity. All of his qualities made him the ideal Paterfamilias. One would logically tend to look at his son John to see the Father in the son, but there seems to have been some unusual and obscured factor there. Some have speculated that the young man was in some way deficient - but we cannot know , and it is useless and intrusive to speculate. We do know that St.Thomas' daughter Margaret "Meg" was the apple of her Father's eye. Yet in the end, she was to disappoint him,not only imploring him to swear the King's Oath denying the Truth , but swearing it herself to save her life.

It must be a bitter scourge to have one's deeply loved child betray the Catholic Faith for which so many have been enslaved and died at the hands of persecutors. 

St.Thomas was very much a Saint for us to emulate. For we are inclined to regard ourselves as uniquely "with it" immersed in, and taken up with,the affairs of our times.But he was equally so in his times. Though they may not have moved with electronic speed, they were, to those then living, marvellous indeed with the very recent advent of the printing press , ideas began to circulate far more widely and at a greater rate than ever before. There was a consequent hunger for novelty and an immense letting off of a head of intellectual steam built up over centuries.

 The situation was itself a very great novelty and one could hardly blame the authorities, principally the Church, for being so inept in responding. No-one had ever experienced or even imagined the phenomenon then infecting their society.Their response was to formally rebut error , expect compliance and punish non-compliance. Everyone knew that error had no rights. And those in error held the same view when they gained power in parts of Europe. St. Thomas More was in the thick of it, in fact the Champion, enlisted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to rebut the heretics. Publication and counter-publication was the order of the day.But the heretics enjoyed the advantage of the guerilla fighter. They were subversive and could mould any situation to their advantage siding with any group of locals who found troubles with Church authority, which in those days ran very far into popular life,and from there leaping into the controversies about doctrine. Any resentment against any cleric or situation, found its excuse with the deformers.

 (The whole situation bears some eerie parallels with the post- Conciliar period. The Council met, issued its documents and the Bishops and Curia expected the Church to move into broad sunlit uplands of a new golden age. But a coterie of North European Prelates and "Theologians"with another agenda, had been meeting daily and daily holding Press Conferences. They told the World "what the Council said ,and thought and meant and did". Of course it was not true, this "spirit of the Council"they invented was false and so plastic it could be moulded into any shape you wanted- it could subvert monasteries in Europe, subvert the Church in Holland, destroy Religious Orders in the USA with quack Psychology, undermine the Sacred Liturgy and Sacred Scripture TOTALLY ignoring Conciliar documents . The Council Fathers all 1,500 plus of them, were effectively gagged by a diabolically media savvy group of miscreants.)

 The Truth seemed paralysed whilst lies bounded about athletically. 

Yes, St.Thomas More had seen it all - he knows what we have lived through, and are struggling out of!

He was a man of great  humanity, he had considered a vocation to the Priesthood as a young man, but in his discernment found he was called in other directions.His youthful ardour is remembered in the poem"REUNION" in which he writes of a mature man, meeting after decades the grown woman he had known and chastely loved when they were sixteen. Denied by her parents the right to develop their relationship, they lost contact. But now the sight of her re-kindles in him the flame of youth. It is a marvellous piece of writing and shows us how very endearing a man he was.

Very human and a loving Father, he writes these lines for his children :

"I've given you kisses a-plenty,
A few smacks, lest duty fail
But if I flogged you ever,
It was with a peacock's tail. "

When so many have written books about the great Saint , and Holy Church has raised him to those Honours of the Altar, my lowly post can add nothing to his lustre or dignity. I only wish to record my homage to so great a man.
                   

CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS

I sought crystal clarity , but got abstract beauty in this picture of our Christmas Tree

The sights and sounds that surround us tell a consistent story - we, as a family, are fully engaged in the celebration of Christmas, whether actually or in preparations. 

From childhood we have learned how it is done, and now we see that our children have well prepared their children to do the same. The Church of course has well prepared us all in her normal way, with the Season of Advent and its carefully chosen  and designed Readings and Prayers and Homilies, as we would expect. And the Schools , with varying degrees of completeness have done their part despite the press of end of year exams, The world of commerce has its own manufactured "Christmas spirit"but we won't bother about that. 

No, it is certainly at the personal level of family and Church and friends and School that Christmas is truly celebrated.

VENITE ADOREMUS!

The Nativity Scene at the entrance to our Unit definitively sets the scene and keeps our attention focused on the Child born unto us, and on  the Holy Family He drew about Him. The hymn reminds us "From God our Heavenly Father the blessed  Angels came" and they are represented about the scene,  and the Three Wise Men with their gifts symbolising Kingship, Divinity and His saving Death and Resurrection, and the humble shepherds adoring - could there be better forerunners for our lowly selves? 

The Joy of Christmas Celebrated and Symbolised

To symbolise the fullness of our Joy, we have the Christmas Tree . It is fitting that this custom was brought to the English speaking world by Queen Victoria's Consort, the German Prince Albert- "Albert the Good" . By all accounts he was someone it would have been a pleasure and a privilege to know.However late it came to the Anglophone world, it has been adopted with delight , and even though, in our shrunken home unit life - no longer house dwellers- we have a smaller more appropriate tree ,it enjoys the best of the decorations, collected over 41 years of Marriage, which our former tree shared with others.

We can then, look to more preparations that delight or promise to delight , the palate. The Christmas Pudding and Christmas Cakes are made with my wife Robyn's consummate skill - (just as her cooking brilliance is heavenly, we ought to pity and feel for those men married to wives who are bad cooks - life must be a foretaste(!) of Hell).

We have a marvellous collection of 12 yrs of Panettone Tins, to which this will be added in due course.

 In addition we have assistance from bella Italia in the shape of our annual Tinned Panettone    ( this year from the ovens of SARONNO in Milano)which provides us with Breakfast in the week before Christmas!(Thanks to the Norton St. Grocer for stocking the Tinned versions!

From the Vatican Museums...

Our Celebrations have a Sacred character,and also a profane character.

.

...and from Villeroy & Boch

We look forward to the key celebrations on 
Christmas Day with family and friends to perfect the great Celebration ! Let us try , by the authentic joy we share, to do our bit to remind the world about us  what Christmas is truly about.Nothing less than our Salvation and the hope of Eternal Life with God!

So, yes, we are fully engaged in the celebration of the Birth of the Divine Child - God made Man - born with a purpose, to die on a Cross to save us from our sins and reconcile us to the Father.

  

*1954 CONFESSIONS OF A STEAM LOCOMOTIVE ADDICT

"RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION" - WHILE OTHERS WERE READING FOOTBALL MAGAZINES

Just exactly when I became addicted to steam locomotives is a question I have never considered until now, as I write this. The 1952 school prize shows that I was already hooked then,and by that time I already had several books about "trains" as non-addicts would say. As a little boy at Christmas 1945 I believe it was, I was given a Hornby Train Set with a little four wheeled, clockwork, red  locomotive and two chocolate and cream passenger carriages. It was to last until the great railway disaster of about 1950, when the spring broke hurling the upper part some distance from the wheels!

It wasn't anything to do with my Grandad Beckmann having been a Signalman, because I don't recall any glimmer of the addiction in him. I think it must have been spontaneous. And there is just SOMETHING about a steam locomotive. It seems ALIVE.Its Brake Compressor 's panting seems like breathing, its Coupling Rods and Connecting Rods are like muscles flexing and its exhaust is a human like indication of effort and just like a human body it is warm and its whistle and Safety Valves are like human roars! At the beginning of the classic film documentary "A Steam Train Passes"made by the famous Australian Cinematographer Dean Semler, a retired Steam Locomotive Driver speaks about the feeling when the Regulator (Throttle) is opened up, the steam released into the cylinders and "life"is breathed into the locomotive which begins to move under the driver as all the complex forces come into play.

TRACKSIDE JUST EAST OF LIDCOMBE

The photo above is one I took one morning, having climbed through the fence to get right beside the track with my pathetic camera, to see what I could catch , when along came 3670 at a nice clip leaning slightly into the long gentle curve behind the rarely used Rookwood Station headed East. That was before the days of the Nanny State with its more serious fences , CCTV and heaven knows what else to prevent ANYTHING HAPPENING ANYWHERE,EVER! In those days the Railways contented themselves with printed Regulations displayed in every Waiting Room, making all sorts of things an Offence and threatening all manner of death and destruction if you disobeyed. But when you are young in the 1950's you know that it doesn't mean you....and if it could have, there was no-one to police it anyhow!

AND BY SHE RUSHES WITH MAGNIFICENT NOISE AND THE SMELL OF STEAM<OIL<SMOKE AND COAL- WHAT MORE COULD YOU ASK FOR?

Coming and going it was a great sight and experience! I used to write off around the world to different railway companies when I was about 10 years old for photos and details of their Locomotives and quite often got very good replies. I would carefully monitor the Shipping Notices for ships arriving from the U.S.A . which would be carrying the mail - international Air Mail was too expensive. And often some days later a nice fat letter would arrive full of the right stuff - I particularly remember one from the Norfolk and Western Railway full of pictures and info. on their magnificent locomotives with a Business Card from "Ben Bane Delaney"- there was a name to conjure with! His reply was generous in the materials supplied - I still have a Blotter ( ok folks, one used it to blot up excess ink when writing with pen and ink....no, you can just find out about that yourselves!) with a colour photo of a sleek "J "Class 4-8-4 on the back.

Another thing about steam locomotives is that each Class made a distinctive noise. So from miles away I could tell just what Class of Locomotive was passing. The C36 had a quite distinctive noise especially when coasting or just regaining speed after coasting - it was a hollow clanking sound, which I think was called Piston Slap and came from small amounts of condensation in the cylinders caused when coasting.

The love of steam locomotives is "in the blood"somehow. I have known two brothers in Brisbane to be badly ( wrong word actually, its a virtuous thing!) addicted , and a third brother unaffected! Poor fellow!

EX LIBRIS : "THE MODERN WORLD BOOK OF RAILWAYS GRACE UNDER PRESSURE

The Bookplate says it all: in 1952 I was in First Year "A" of Marist Brothers College Lidcombe NSW, and I received Second Aggregate Prize for the year on this day in 1952 -59 years ago. In a very nice compliment , the Brothers had chosen a Railways book , thus acknowledging my consuming interest at the time. But this put me "under pressure"for , as it happened, I already had the book selected. As Brother made the presentation , on the Stage in the Parish Hall in front of the hundreds of students, he said "Congratulations - I hope you don't have the book - we chose it specially"- I did my best to mask my shock and disappointment and assured him I did not. A fib to save the Brothers disappointment!

A NICELY PERSONALIZED PRIZE

1952 had not yet seen the effects of World War II fully put aside. In book publishing, Australia published few books by present day standards. And imports were mainly sourced from the United Kingdom under still lingering Imperial Preference deals.The quality of books produced in the U.K. was poor indeed, the paper was often closer to cardboard or blotting paper than was desirable. Illustrations were limited and mostly black and white. This book was something of an exception with several color plates and numerous black and white photos , generally of poor quality as regards definition and contrast.

The text still harked back repeatedly to the War, though it was already 7 years gone.Steam was still King and most of the glorious achievements the book celebrated were from the pre War period. I loved the book, kept the prize copy, which as you see, I still have, and I don't remember what became of the other copy.

1952 opened with the death of King George VI on February 6th, and the ascension to the Throne of Queen Elizabeth II. The British propaganda machine began churning out breathless, excited talk of a" new Elizabethan Age". And at the end of the same month, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, back in harness, announced that Britain had the Atomic Bomb.Shortly after on the Island of Reunion, 73"of rain fell in one day- a record for all time. The famous educator Maria Montessori died on 6th of May and the notorious Eva Peron died on 26th July. Earlier, in June, South Eastern Australia had been drenched in heavy rain and severe flooding resulted.      On 3rd October the U.K. detonated the first Nuclear Weapon in Australia on the Monte Bello Islands - Australian servicemen observing were told to turn their backs to the Blast to protect their eyes, radiation did not seem to get a mention. As if to show that the U.K. would always be trailing, the United States detonated the first Hydrogen Bomb on All Saints Day. Later in November, on the 25th, Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" opened in London, and the same production is still running 59 years later. Little Vladimir Putin was born on 7th October  , and in other negative news there were 58,000 cases of Polio in the United States resulting in 3,145 deaths and leaving 21, 269 with varying degrees of paralysis. Billy Hughes "the Little Digger"our contoversial 7th Prime Minister died on 28th October, and, on 8th December the day before my Prize giving, Charles Lightoller the Second Officer of the TITANIC died, forty years after her sinking.

And as we have seen, Tony Dixon ( NOBODY yet called me "Tony" , that didn't start until a fateful day in 1955) came Second in First Year "A" !!

I still retain my unbounded admiration for the Marist Brothers, I owe them a great deal, Brothers Albanus, Samuel, Loman, Verius, Malachy, Timothy, Cloman ,Dominic, Athanasius, Patrick , Cassian and Fergus- exemplary Teachers. 

A TRIBUTE TO JOHN FRANCIS GLENNON (31.5.1931 - 8.12.2001)

John Francis Glennon celebrates his 60th Birthday under the watchfulgaze of the Blessed Virgin and Child at the "Boonaroo "Homestead.
He was to die only 6yrs later on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

John Francis Glennon and his wife Therese Mary Glennon were both the children of Irish born parents. They were therefore, by blood, Irish. Two finer Aussies you will never meet. We do meet very many people in our lives and enjoy the company of many. But there are exceptional friends whom we feel privileged to know. That was the case with John and Therese.

They were in so many ways larger than life! They lived life , Larger than life, they had a large family , several house at one stage, the grand "Boonaroo"Homestead was "Home", there was a town house in East Brisbane - "Scotby"designed by Dods and commanding views of the City across the River, and "A Summer's Place" the very pleasant Beachfront House at Tugun or was it more properly Currumbin? The latter I think.

They were almost annual passengers on whatever was the latest giant Cruise Liner from one point of the Globe to another - enjoying the experience, including the various well-heeled fellow passengers and their eccentricities. They had earlier in their married lives spent a year living in Ireland, but John noted that the Irish love you visiting, but they do not like you staying and diminishing the limited commercial possibilities by competing!

I first met John and Therese when I was Manager for Queensland of "the French Bank"Banque Nationale de Paris.At that time it was owned by the French Government and was the Second Largest Bank in the World. ( I t came to Australia in the 1800s as the Comptoir Nationale dÉscompte de Paris and is now BNP Parisbas).The Glennons had been clients of the Bank for some years. I was able to consolidate their banking with us and expand it.

When I first visited their extensive holdings of land at Nerang , I was amazed to find a magnificent hilltop in the property which commanded views of the entire Gold Coast. On this site they built "Boonaroo"which became the family home. The house was as "big"in character as John and Therese themselves. It had been constructed with all sorts of elements, from wainscotting from a Castle in Wales, to Stained Glass and Doors from the Historic Royal Exchange Building in Bridge Street, Sydney - demolished in an excess of crass development mania in the 1950s.

These elements and very many others, Therese had carefully and assiduously researched and searched for, and stored in a Coca Cola Warehouse at Nerang, until they were needed.

JOHN IN FINE FORM AT THE OPENING OF EXTENSIONS TO STUARTHOLME  COLLEGE

John had a remarkable commercial history. He was by profession an Accountant and had operated a practice in Brisbane with his old mate Bill O'Hare for a number of years.But I first encountered his commercial flair long before I knew him.

In the late 1950's and early 1960's I was working as a Teller in the Commonwealth Bank . In those days Australian Banks rarely accepted deposits to accounts at another Bank, on the rare occasions it was done, special forms needed to be completed and higher than normal fees were charged. Then suddenly young women started coming in with printed deposit books for the account of CARRIGANS LIMITED at the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited ( in the 1974 Banking Crisis it was absorbed by the ANZ I think). Our Supervisor at George & Market Sts. was a rather Bolshy sort of Labor voter, and he was incensed that someone had PRINTED BOOKS of these deposit slips saying that they could be deposited at any Bank! Oh, but someone remembered a Circular to all Branches approving the arrangement....."Harrumphh! Our local Leftie was not impressed...these darned private Banks etc., etc. The end of life as we know it..

Years later I was to learn from John himself that he had bought CARRIGANS and negotiated with all the Banks to get their agreement. Then he arranged a national network of door-to-door salesmen who hawked cotton goods for household use, sheets, pillow cases, towels etc., marketing them to young women on a plan basis, for their "Glory Box"as it was then called. This was a collection of household goods for use when they finally got married. One can imagine to-day's radical feminists choking on their skimmed yoghurt at the very mention of the concept. However the traffic through our branches showed how brilliantly successful it was.

In later years John turned to property development and interim farming to keep himself occupied.

The core of John's and Therese' lives was their intense Catholic Faith and their family. We shared those same core principles and so, became more than client and banker, but firm family friends. This friendship lasted long after I had resigned from the Bank and worked as Canonical Financial Administrator of the Archdiocese of Brisbane. At the time my application for that position was being processed ( one of 52 applicants) John and Therese were on a Cruise which had taken them to Venice. I had the remarkable experience of sitting in the study of the Banque's house in Canberra ( when I was doing a major overhaul of the Canberra Branch) poring over a three dimensional map of Venice and phoning John's Hotel,just as he had walked in the door of the hotel which I could see plainly on the map - it was like Satellite detection and surveillance! I had to ask him if he would telephone the Vicar for Administration to confirm his reference, because they had not been able to contact him. I got the position obviously.

John and Therese lived a life few can afford, but they were always generous in their treatment of the poor, the Church and their acquaintances, and people they did business with. John loved Jazz, Big Bands, dancing and had been one of the first devotees of water skiing on the Gold Coast in the early days. For all that, they were serious people, Serious in their approach to their spiritual lives, planning for their family, developing their business activities - numerous of which I have passed over, and serious in their charitable works. I got to know about these only from a banking point of view, because often, one did not even tell the other what good works they were doing, let alone anyone else.Actually one of the few occasions John was seriously annoyed was when he gave a VERY substantial sum , supposed to be kept "anonymous"to the boys' Marist Brothers College at Ashgrove and the school made it public who the Donor was.On another occasion he offered a valuable parcel of land, ideal for the purpose, to the local Parish only to have the offer rejected after a bit of local non-party "politics". He was hurt and disgusted.

JOHNNIE GLENNON WE MISS YOU ..AND YOU DEAR LAUGHTER!

John would often take problems down to the beach an"talk to the waves "as he put it, and tidy the matter up by saying the Rosary as he walked along the water's edge, He would often do that walk in the early morning and prided himself on being able to select from those walking the beach , the ones who were holidaying Priests.( Several Religious Orders had low cost accommodation by the less glitzy beaches) . On one morning he decided two fellows walking toward him were Priest and as they drew near , gave the a nod and a smile and said "Dominus Vobiscum".As they walked on he heard the response" Et cum spiritu tuo."He was chuffed! Neither he nor they seemed to consider that they might simply have encountered an old Altar Boy/Boys!!But I'll bet he was right!

John and Therese were dear family friends we loved them both,and ejoyed their marvellous hospitality on numerous occasions It is hard to see that "boonaroo"itself is now gone, swept asid for re-development. But the knowledge that John and Therese temselves are gone still huts and leaves a void once filled with love and laughter, and such good times!

Requiescant in Pace