IT SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN COLD FOREVER

OK This picture is not taken in Sydney,
but it accurately portrays how I feel! 

This appallingly cold weather is not part of MY social compact with the Commonwealth of Australia! It is a brilliant sunny day here in Sydney, but it is as if someone left the Cold Room Door open! A miserable 14 Degrees Celsius is the result of a chill wind oddly blowing from the North East here at Pymble - from the sea, would you believe? Now, I can live with the occasional errant cold day, but this type of thing has gone on now through this present Winter (OK) , through last Autumn (Hmmmm) , through last supposed to be Summer and right back through the preceding year even back in Brisbane!!!


What is this? No - it is NOT Global Warming and I'm sorry to tell you it is not even Climate Change ( the euphemism adopted when it became obvious that Global Warming was a heap of rubbish!) it is just crummy weather.


But I can remember.....Summer days...drifting away ...( oh! that's from Grease!) But, yes I can remember warm Sunshine ... on my shoulders makes me happy ( darn John Denver!) ....scented breezes ..and swaying palms ( oh Heck "Rose, Rose I love you! - Frankie Laine!) How come all the songs celebrate Summer and now we don't get any. 

Sydney Summer  Opera House and Opera Bar

But they were great times, bouncing along in a mini-Moke on Magnetic Island , or the same vehicle called a Fiji Go-Go in those blessed islands. Or riding on the Manly Ferry South Steyne crowded with beach goers, eating Smiths Crisps and gawking at the warships at Garden Island Dockyard. Or sitting  on the back verandah at Berala with the family, sweltering in the early evening , and waiting for my brother to return in his 1938 second hand Vauxhall Tourer with some Ice Blocks to cool us down!And more recently with the whole family sauntering around Cairns eating a cooling ice cream in brilliant hot sunshine.Or Christmas Day in about 2005/6 with everyone at our home for Christmas Lunch and a temperature of 41 degrees Celsius! Who could forget it!

Beautiful Daughter contemplating warmer days

So, yes I can remember warm and wonderful Springs and Summers and even Autumns, shorts and T Shirts and sandals ! Oh Man! Why do I torture myself : the reality is T shirt,Jumper 1, Jumper 2, Vest and to go outside Jacket over all!


No Australia! I did not sign up for this! 


Nor did I sign up for that Fat Cat Global Warming Czar who is paid $180,000 P.A. to work three days a week to do nothing but prattle about his pet ideas - yes, you are right - the same guy who three years ago said the drought was permanent and it would never rain again - just before the floods! What a load of garbage!




Here endeth the rant! I just want the heat turned back on !

*QUEENSLAND - NOT JUST A PLACE, BUT AN IDEA, AN IDEAL

MAP OF QUEENSLAND

WELCOME to Queensland Australia! The distinctive shape of the Queensland coastline makes it easily recognisable , even if you live in the heart of the Russian republic. Queensland used to be the poorest of Australian States, but in recent decades it has shaken off that unhappy status to become, together with Western Australia, the envy of all Australian States. And even then Queensland has particular features which assure it premier status!

The great key to the success of Queensland and Western Australia is natural resources : coal, copper , gas,iron ore, alumina. But Queensland adds to its natural resources extraordinary tourist attractions along its sub-tropical to tropical coastline! And it has plentiful ( occasionally excessive) rainfall!It has the distinction of being the great preference of Australian interstate migration and the retirement destination of choice.

My wife and I have lived 20 of the last 25 years living in Queensland. With different members of my family , the whole family or alone, I have visited all of the coastal centres past Cairns up to Cooktown, across to Normanton and Weipa down to Mt. Isa and down to Goondiwindi east of Cunnamulla and up through the centre to Roma,Emerald, Barcaldine, Longreach and Cloncurry and across to Charters Towers. It is a State of remarkable diversity geographically from tropical jungles, to rolling plains and desert, to lush highlands.

Most of the Provincial cities have populations in the range of 30,000 to 70,000 people and their wide spread and relative independence, gives the State a diverse economy, which on occasion has isolated those Provincial parts from national trends. The heart of the State's population is concentrated upon the Brisbane /Gold Coast(to the South) and Sunshine Coast( to the North) .

In the post WW II decades the State has enjoyed massive economic growth with remarkable financial discipline under 23 years of unbroken conservative Government and after several following periods of Labor Government had progressively stumbled into a strongly adverse debt situation. Earlier this year in an electoral landslide, conservative Liberal National Party Government was restored in an unprecedented landslide.And the new broom is sweeping clean whilst pushing greater development.

But Queensland is more than a geographic location, an aggregation of industries and concentration of populations. 

In the minds of its people and even of other Australians, Queensland is "different". Up to the early 1960s this "difference" was an object of ridicule in the Southern States. The smirk has long since been wiped off those Southern faces - it is now replaced by looks of envy! But for Queenslanders it has always been a source of pride, and, in the sporting world in interstate competition , the cry of "QUEENSLANDER!"is an inspiring, awesome war cry! There are no cries of "New South Welshman!"(for obvious reasons) or even "Victorian"or other - No, Queensland is different! It is an abstract ideal, a mental concept that embodies ideas of personal satisfaction, progress, quiet self-confidence and faith in the future. Yes, and all with good reason. Queensland is DIFFERENT! 

WELCOME TO QUEENSLAND!

THE VERY BEST OF HANDS

SUNNY SYDNEY FROM THE AIR LOOKING
SOUTH TO BOTANY BAY

This is where I grew up, in the Western Suburbs off in the top Right Hand Corner of the above picture. But this story starts with that clear blue Aussie sky! And the relentless Sun which beams its UV Rays down on this big, bold and brassy town. I lived here from my birth in 1940 until 1982 when we moved to Brisbane after my appointment as Queensland Manager of the Banque Nationale de Paris ( formerly the Comptoir Nationale de' Escompte de Paris and now BNP Paribas).

Through all those years, I had been fairly careful to avoid sunburn apart from one or two occasional accidental incidents each decade or so. My German - Celtic - Anglo constitution left me with a complexion prone to sun damage. When I was about 6/7 yrs old, the local Doctor who later proved himself of no use whatsoever in relation to my poor Mum's health, had issued the warning that I was to be kept out of the Sun, wear a hat and cover my face and nose with white zinc ointment!

Now, if you know ANYTHING about young boys, they do not usually like to "stand out"by looking different. So the very thought of wearing the sticky muck of Zinc Ointment on my nose and cheeks, was anathema to me . If it was put on I wiped it off, and I would not volunteer to put it on. AND I have NEVER been a hat person!!! ( Though I own both a bash hat - for lawn -mowing : now History, and a Beret : French style awaiting a suitable occasion!). But, by and large I did , generally keep out of the Sun although...... Well, for many years I suffered no apparent ill effects from this life of daring!

Then,about a year after my wife and I were married, and after the birth of our first child - our "little ray of Sunshine"our daughter Marianne was born, a persistent tiny sore on the upper part of my nose near the left eye was diagnosed as a skin Cancer of the least dangerous kind - a B.C.C. Arrangements were made for it to be excised  and the Specialist Surgeon Dr. John Harvey Drew did a marvellous job under local anaesthetic at a Private Hospital at Eastwood where we then lived. Through the whole operation which involved a graft, executed with brilliant precision going just to the corner of the eye without pulling the lids or causing any distortion, was carried out while the doctor and I discussed the disaster that was the Whitlam Labor Government - fortunately we were both of the same opinion.

Well, the years went by and there were no more problems . The good times rolled - a second daughter, Justine was born in 1973. But in 1974 we lost a child through miscarriage - The disaster of that loss has been highlighted by how much better such losses are handled to-day. But 1975 restored our good fortune  and  our son Matthew was born. 

SUNNY BRISBANE - URBS BEATA

In 1982 we made the move to Brisbane in Queensland . Ah! Brisbane! Urbs Beata! The Blessed City 600 miles ( 1,000 Kms ) North of Sydney,in Sunny Queensland! "Beautiful one day! Perfect the next!" Life was good a lovely and loving wife, three wonderful children a fine corporate house and car and many other benefits and so many good and truly lasting friends. And the Sunshine!

After a few years I had on different occasions a number of spots removed, but none were actually cancerous.After 5/6 years we were transferred back to Sydney when I was promoted to Deputy and then Manager of the State of New South Wales . But the Bank was transforming itself into a pure Merchant Bank and I did not have that experience - I could see the writing on the wall . We had to spend about six months in Canberra sorting out a major problem there and seizing a multiple attraction opportunity back in Brisbane, I resigned.

I took up the position of Canonical Financial Administrator of the Archdiocese of Brisbane.We were back in the Sunshine State!

We were to be there on this occasion for 25 years before returning to Sydney last year.

I kept up a steady series of at least biennial visits to the Specialist who regularly checked me out for skin cancers. In 2008 he determined that a difficultly placed skin cancer on my right shin should be excised and grafted over , and at the same time he excised another on my nose (LH side) and covered by a "flap"- i.e. drawing the skin across it. The ankle operation was very delicate to ensure that the graft would take. It worked with a week's immobilisation which unfortunately resulted in DVTs which fragmented and caused the collapse of my right lung , which later came good with medication . It also resulted in months on Warfarin that pestilential medication that requires such close monitoring! But all came good and the nose operation also worked well.

The FIELD OF ACTION

We finally returned to Sydney in 2011 (ages 71 and 70yrs) to be closer to the majority of our family and oldest friends. Here I resumed consultations with doctors and a recurrence of the nose problem and another slowly developing area on my left temple led to the present phase of corrective surgery. 

At Royal North Shore Hospital 10 days ago a superb team of MOHS Surgery experts excised the left temple BCC ( as the Biopsy proved it to be) and under local anaesthetic ( involving needles in the temple - sounds like an Asian Novel!) did what they term a "flap". This involved a long incision down the side of my face immediately next the left ear ,down to the jaw and drawing the skin over the excision wound - all without distorting the noble visage! Neat! And the scar which will be very fine will tend to be less noticeable because of its location.

Part II - the Nose - is a different exercise - Biopsy showed mercifully that this was also a BCC, but - and we are talking fractions of millimetres here, it is rather deeper than can be covered by a graft. So.... in mid September its back to the ugly chocolate brick pile of Royal North Shore Hospital where my nose will become a two act show : Early A.M. Mohs surgery to excise the BCC, then straight away up to the Plastic Surgery Operating Theatre for another more ambitious and complex "flap". As the impressive, gentlemanly, and considerate young (35?)Surgeon explained it to me, this will involve a general anaesthetic and some borrowing of living skin from my forehead to temporarily place it on my nose for 3 weeks, then a return to put it back where it belongs !! Amazing stuff. Not convenient of course - my head will be heavily bandaged for the 3 weeks and less so for a further few weeks after the restoration . But I can handle that as long as I have the promised eye holes and I can get my headphones to my ears. During this period of "wrappedture"I hope to listen to the three volume Shelby Foote  history "The Civil War" and the Herman Wouk Novel "War and Remembrance"which has been recommended and given to me as an audiobook.

It would be helpful if I can move around readily - but that will depend on the quality of vision through the eye holes!! Wouldn't do to stumble!

My greatest regret is the burden it will place on my dear wife Robyn - living with a bandage headed old guy for around 5 weeks. But I recollect we went through something similar - though more brief- years ago with the roles reversed! 

So there you have it - the long term results of occasional unprotected exposure to the Sun!!  The real "white man's burden!"to use that vicious old British phrase! 

Happily for our grandchildren - as for our children before them - hats and Sunscreen are now just part of life. Yet when I was young, I remember reflecting that it was only silly older generations that wore hats - we were free of all that fashion! We do live and learn!

I hope to prepare a "Bank"of Posts I can put up during that period with the minimum of keystrokes!


The Surgeon assures me of the "best cosmetic result!"So,just like a Hollywood Star! Without the secluded Desert Retreat to hide away until presentable! As long as the result bears a reasonable likeness to my ordinary visage! Brings to mind the story of a painter who presented a portrait of Pope Leo XIII (POPE 1878 - 1903) to the Holy Father - it was awful! When the Holy Father later received one of the Cardinals whose attention was taken by the thing, Pope Leo quoted Our Lord : "Noli Timere, Ego Sum" ( Do not fear , it is I !)