Like others here I have wondered ‘whither the Julian Assange affair?’. He has breathed the free oxygen of notoriety with some relish, it appears, but now finds himself in a stuffy box room in Knightsbridge. This BBC piece struck me as informative and refreshingly free of media spin:
Category: Australiana
Well, how about that?
Today was the day I’d been waiting for, with equal measures of hope and dread. Following the MRI scan and a few other tests, the chief neurosurgeon consultant was finally to deliver her verdict and my sentence.
As it happens, she was away on maternity leave, so I was seen by her deputy, an austere and awe-inspiring gentleman by the name of Brunovski (or something equally mid-European); he was as Aussie as they come, however. We sparred a little and he told me that my grasp of medical terminology and anatomy were crap. “Not so bad for a software engineer, though”. He ignored this and brought up a succession of images from the MRI on his computer display.
“Look at that,” he cried. “Can’t you see how absolutely normal it is?”
I couldn’t even see what it was, let alone judge its normality.
The bottom line is that I am no more likely than any other normal person to have another subdural haematoma – and no less likely either. “Forget it, put it behind you and carry on like any other normal person. Of course you can drive again. No, no paperwork necessary. Goodbye, good luck – and I’m quite sure I shan’t be seeing you again.” He had the grace to grin broadly as he shook my hand and ushered me out of his office.
Boadicea and I were stunned. It’s true that this is the outcome we had been hoping for, but it was so rapid, so clear-cut and so definite that we couldn’t take it on board immediately. Five months to the day, exactly, and life has returned to normality.
Wow! 😀
Judgement on photo competition 29
The photo competition, number 29 asked for photos to illustrate what the weather was doing in your area of the world… and I thought there would be masses of entries – but no, only a few!
OZ posted a laid back cat, sunning on a wooden beam – wonderful blue skies behind. How envious I felt.
Soutie posted several pictures, here, here, here and here illustrating rather extreme wet and windy weather in South Africa. My favourite of all these was the third, where the damage and the scale of the trees is clearly seen.
Boadicea posted a picture of a kookaburra in an old gum tree, and this for me is the winner.
I may be biased, but I love those wonderful birds and their call reminds me so much of camping trips in 1987 -88! I can almost smell the eucalyptus…. But more than that it is a beautiful photo: the composition is balanced, with the branch shape, the proportion of blue against the silvered bark, and the tufts of the bird’s head-feathers echoed in the sharp spikes of the broken off tree stump.
Thank you Boadicea, and over to you!
So as you know …
Boadicea and I will be absent from The Chariot from some time early on the 11th July (next Wednesday) until the evening of Saturday the 14th (3 days later), if all eventuates in accordance with the promises of our various service providers. When we reappear, it will be from our new home. Actually, on the 11th and 12th we shall be staying with elder daughter, so we may possibly pop up for a short while by hitching a lift on her WiFi.
It hasn’t taken long to sell, buy, settle and move, has it? 5 weeks from start to finish – wow! 😀
Henley the Bearded Dragon (Poetry Competition)
Wiki photo
Grey and pretty, frilled and scaled,
with blood around her head,
at first I couldn’t ascertain
if she were live or dead.
“Some bastard hit her”, I did cry,
“And left her on the road to die.”
Continue reading “Henley the Bearded Dragon (Poetry Competition)”
Encounter with a latter-day Saviour
This is a bit personal, and it’s real, but I have permission from Boadicea to publish it. So delicate flowers should perhaps read no further … Continue reading “Encounter with a latter-day Saviour”
Love it or Hate it?
Apparently the Marmite factory in New Zealand had to close following the earthquake and now there is a shortage of the product, which is different, apparently, to the UK version. Thicker and stronger, I believe.
“An announcement by New Zealand’s leading manufacturer of the black sandwich spread, Marmite, has sparked “marmageddon” fears among Kiwis.”
Before Christmas a different version of the usual UK Marmite came out … I wonder how that compares?
In the 80’s in Australia we became accustomed to Vegemite, though it is but a poor substitute – but I have never tried the New Zealand version: can anyone add to this taste debate? Continue reading “Love it or Hate it?”
Tempting fate
I was surprised to see that the perpetrator of this fine example of “Tell God your plans, if you want to give him a good laugh” is an Australian – they’re usually such pragmatists! Let’s hope he doesn’t qualify for a Darwin Award (Geddit? Oh, never mind.)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/04/30/oukoe-uk-australia-titanic-idUKBRE83T0Y220120430
Loyal captions?
They’re on a 4-day state visit to Denmark, here being greeted by the Danish Crown Prince and his Tasmanian wife, Mary
Will Meryl do Julia next?
I can’t wait for the announcement that Ms Streep, still bouffant from her Maggie efforts, will accept the challenge presented by Australia’s own iron lady, who has seen off her closest rival in short order. It was understandable that the top 2012 oscar honours went to a silent film, when the alternative was to reward those famously strident tones echoing along Downing Street. But as voices go, Julia’s deserves to be immortalised too – and who better than Meryl to pull it off? A bit of a red rinse and hey presto!
Boadicea's Chariot 
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