life – Filed words

Dowsing 4

He even let X divine for water the other day! It seems a spring was causing the water in the drive which they thought was the soak-away.

A local boy got separated from a school in some local bush and disappeared. Parties were out combing the bush for him. We offered help but they said it was difficult country and they kept to people with knowledge of it. So I tried a dowse, with no knowledge except boy 11, but felt certain I had got a reaction, and X, bless him, in the pouring rain, and I set off in gumboots and macs and drove to the end of a track as near as we could get to the bush I wanted. I was a little taken aback when I saw how wild it was, but we set off and crossed the river as soon as it looked shallow enough. Once I’d got my gumboots full and X just didn’t try but walked in the river in his shoes, it was quicker; after scrambling about 1 1/2 hours upstream and only covering between quarter to half a mile we were soaked through, I’ve never been so wet, and X said there was about 200 more yards and then we’d have to go straight up into the bush (and we hadn’t brought any food) I fear I gave in. Just as well – 2 days later they found his body in quite a different place. We don’t know what happened but he was cremated the next day, and the announcement said ’killed in an accident’ – I suppose he fell. Very sad.

I’ve got a super $32 book on the world’s oil wells which is s’posed to be for ref. only but I begged it from the rather pleasant odd type at the Library – I know he thinks I’m a bit scatty and obviously knows what I’m at as both the dowsing books and oil books are kept in the technical and scientific section. I’ve been stymied for a while as none of my depths coincided with the depths in the book – but I think I’m on the right track again now. Did I tell you X and I are going to look at the place I think there’s a seepage on the surface – one on shore which should be easy to confirm and one near the shore which I’m told you should be able to see from shore as if the water is still you see the bubbles and oil patches on the sea. If I can get a skindiver to go and have a look-see for a reasonable amount I’ll try that but it is about 60ft down.

X was anxious to have another look for her spring at the zoo, and we did a drive around all the local roads to spy out the ground. We found one dead end road which ran up to the top of the hill, roughly where she wanted to go, and we found a gap between the houses to look down about 300 ft onto the playing field where she had dowsed. And I then suggested she should just pop up to a house about another 100 ft up some very steep steps. I had to wait a long time for her, and was just wondering whether she had passed out from the heat, when I heard her again. She had apparently been able to go through the back garden and find some traces of what was probably the same water source. So that was very satisfactory. [And from a later letter] X’s report and map of the zoo water, which went off nine days ago, and had not turned up by Monday. So she started pestering the Post Office, who nowadays have a lot of machinery (computers) to chase up any parcel that goes astray. And at last they rang yesterday to say that it had turned up and was being sent by special delivery, and they were very sorry and would refund her expense. So that was satisfactory for the idea of getting yet another copy of the map and tracing off her streams on it was a despairing thought!

Sad, sad – the latest well on which I’d staked my all, including 500 shares, was reported dry yesterday, so as I was so sure, I’ve resigned, and told the man at DSIR I’m nonplussed. I know something happens, and must try and find another map dowser to advise me what I’m doing wrong; the reactions are so definite I’m still convinced there’s something.

Gardening 8

Here, summer is on its way, so one hour in the garden is very welcomed; the runner beans are pointing the right way; the red currants are getting bigger, and my favourite lily of the valley is divine.

The wheely bin cost me about $150 for a year’s hire, so it is worth trying to fill it each week. At the moment we are doing well as the bush with red berries has been getting obstreperous and last week I chopped it all back to the height of the fence which not only filled the bin but left enough over to do it again this week.

I said nothing was happening here but I’ve had 2 pink blooming trees in my long view and a very bright rhododendron and a large 20’-30’ mauve magnolia outside my sitting room window and I’ve put lots of plants in my new bed and far too many in another, I now know what a ‘riot of colour’ means. They’re all 3 times as large as I expected. I bought a plant of mauve chrysanthemums to replace the cyclamen that’s lasted for months – and cheaper than buying a bunch of spring flowers. Mine aren’t pickable sorts – apart from the daffodils and if I can count them there aren’t enough to pick!!

We attacked the garden. We uprooted about half the waist-high weeds and planted carrots, broccoli, potatoes and pumpkin beside the rhubarb and silverbeet we found so now we’re hoping for selective showers – to water the vegetables but not the weeds or grass!

The half row of runner beans are wonderful – I have had them every night for nearly a month! and put down enough for 5 days in the df and had some broccoli I’d grown, which was revolting!!

Emigration/moving 3

Harare doesn’t sound much fun. X has just come back from France and like so many other English is thinking in terms of buying a house over there. Y still to-ing and fro-ing the world and going to Mongolia for 10 days in March – after that he has to go back to Jo’burg which he doesn’t enjoy. I do wish you would all stay in England – perhaps you will?

[They] were much as I expected – pleasant and homely – lived for 30 years in X and mean to stay there – I’m sometimes quite jealous of people with roots, I never seemed to grow any.

Making money 2

Perhaps if they manage to pay off the present bills for the alterations, they’ll try harder not to run them up again. It’d be so much easier to pay it for them, but I fear they’ll only learn the hard way.

I’ve just got a job! It’s waitressing two evenings a week from 6 p.m. to close down about 11 or 12 p.m. It’s not as simple as I’d imagined. Each waitress has between 4 and 7 tables. And we have to do the wine and be able to recommend good ones. Then with the serving the waitresses have do all the garnishing of entrees, cocktails, soups, sweets, fish, meat, side salads etc. Which means knowing which of about 15 unlabelled sauces to put on what and/or whether to put lemon, toast, cream, parsley butter etc. on them! The outfit we wear is blue and white gingham skirts about 18” long! and voluminous short sleeved blouses with a broad black belt, regulation thick pants, lots of leg (regulation pantyhose). I’ll have to smile lots and wiggle my bottom (according to friendly advice from smooth Greek manager and mother-in-law) to get lots of tips!

Our landlord and family are incredible people. He’s a freezing worker and has 4 houses and is building a new one in a posh area – ‘but we’re not toffee-nosed, you know’ says she.

I don’t think I wrote last year, I was feeling really down. The family in the flat would not pay proper rent nor move out! I had to get X to get them out, so they did not pay rent for the last 4 months at all!

Outings 5

We were all supposed to tell a joke – horrors – I’d picked on one I gave X as I didn’t go:

The Thunder God went for a ride upon his favourite filly.

‘I’m Thor,’ he cried.

The horse replied, ‘You forgot your thaddle, thilly!’

He was compere-ing the concert and his wife sang 3 songs. He’s always cracked her up and she does teach singing but I had previously only heard her in the choir and didn’t like her fruity and melodramatic mezzo-soprano at all. However it wasn’t too difficult when we met her afterwards since we only had to say ‘At last we’ve heard you’ as though it was the climax of years of anticipation.

There was an excellent film on Tasmania too, which interested me as the crowd we went round with pre-war came mainly from there – it’s far bigger than I’d imagined.

Music/theatre/art 3

We went a week or two ago to a most disappointing exhibition of photographs in the National Academy. It would really be difficult to convey how bad it was. Many of the exhibits were only about 5”x4” or postcard size on rather tatty mounts and many with an apparently perverse desire to be disenchanting. One of the more memorable large pictures consisted of the back view of a lady squatting on her heels and bending forward – taken from the level of said heels so that the general impression was of a rather blemished mushroom. By contrast we went to a rival exhibition mounted by a man who resigned in protest from the selection committee of the Nat. Gall. show. He had written around and got together about 300 superb exhibits – including a large number rejected from the Nat. Gall. which were emphasised by large red stickers! … Almost all worth looking at including what I think was the newspaper picture of the year – a little crippled boy on crutches and a clown laughing at each other – the boy with his hand over his mouth as though he wasn’t quite sure that it was polite to laugh at a clown.

I didn’t – or won’t be – taking part in the ‘drama’ – the first time I opened my mouth I was told it sounded like a stock report – then remarks were made about the people he’d wanted couldn’t do it and the line he couldn’t teach an OAP new tricks!

Loneliness

Anyway, the two weeks was a welcome break with different things to do in comparison with just staying home most of the time. I can understand how non-working housewives go barmy – sometimes I have to into the city and walk around just to feel people around me. It is one of the worse things about being unemployed.

I hope she will be able to face her future life without him – it has to go on, but it’s never the same again. At least she has family near her, which is something. It’s awful having no one to chat to – that’s what I have never got used to.

It was sad to hear of X’s eventual death although I’m sure for her it’s a pleasant release. It must be hard for X being the last remaining. A very lonely feeling I should think.

I found I am alone at home in the flat too much, although I don’t mind being alone, but I’m getting lazier! I seem to have made a lot of mistakes in my life and I’m not actually good at making friends.

The postman will think I’m a desolate body the way I’m out waiting for him daily, as soon as I hear his whistle in the distance. (They whistle as they leave mail at the gate, such a good idea, saves endless trips to have a look in the box).

Nuisances of life 7

I thought it was exceedingly unjust: the only person there who didn’t drink because he was driving home had his car crashed into the next morning – makes you sick doesn’t it.

We have been having an unadulterated diet of BSE and CJD on the radio, at every time we hear the news (and how often we do seem to hear the same items during the day). I hope that it doesn’t worry you too much. I must say I have been surprised how many mad cows there are. … Our government here seems to vary in their opinions from day to day, first one day banning all semen from Britain, and then issuing statements that we can’t possibly have any trouble because we have never had a case of BSE, and then the next day demanding that supermarkets remove from their shelves all products which contain any beef product from UK, and so on… It’s a gloomy subject to discuss, anyway, especially when I know so little about it, really!

I had forgotten that we had such heavy rain as to be separately memorable on the day we went to lunch with X, who I agree behaved very badly that day. I think he must have had a couple of quick ones while waiting for us, or something. Anyway, nil nisi bonum… he died a couple of years or so ago.

Last Sunday we had the Annual meeting and this week another issue of the monthly mag is due to the printer (and hasn’t been started at lunchtime Wednesday) so there is still no peace for the wicked! And at the moment my attention is slightly divided because I’m illegally taping bits of the Messiah from some records which are due back to the library with a horrifying penalty if they are kept overtime… PS The tape ran out just before the last chorus!

You’ll never believe what our batty son-in-law has done now, pulling a nail out of the wall with a hammer it came away suddenly and he’s concussed himself; evidently he wasn’t too bad the next day but they went to a party in the evening and ‘had a few drinks’ and the next day he doctor sent him off to have x-rays: all clear there but he had to stay in bed two days. Some mothers do have ‘em!

She got home the day before and found a police car outside, evidently someone had broken into the [student] house and pulled al the drawers out and helped himself to a glass of wine and gone off without anything. I hope they don’t miss things later. The police were very impressed with all their chains on doors and things but made a lovely parting remark which didn’t sink in until after they’d left – one of them said looking at their rather odd collection of house plants – ‘you can get out the rest of your pot plants when we’ve gone’!!

Grandchildren 2

I’m having X – I think I’ll be flattened at the end – he’s at the all-go stage – quite adorable tho’ – just like Harpo Marx!

Last week was mostly devoted to maintaining life and sanity through a five day visit by X – well, perhaps that’s overstating the case a bit – but he is a very loud little boy – though equable: his ‘OK’ when bidden not to do something is reason itself and nothing to do with the fact that he will be back doing whatever it was 15 seconds after your back is turned.

We did eventually get an enormous letter from X saying (outlined in three colours) how angry she had been feeling about some remarks Y had made way back last October.

X has been in to see me twice – he’s cut his hair 2” long and had it dyed bright orange – it’s different!

The boys had been warned not to waken me, and their mother heard one get up at 6.30 a.m. so she investigated and found X sitting by the door watching me. About 7 I heard them and kept quiet and hoped they might go away; all went quiet so I opened my eyes and found all 3 of them about 2 feet away watching me!!

X is reported to have another boyfriend – about whom her father did not sound altogether excited on the phone. We only hope that she is not sleeping with them all but don’t suppose we are going to find out.

Our visit to the circus went off well. I only hope they don’t try some of the balancing tricks; they’ve already climbed a tree with the rope I gave them and then tried to hack it down with X’s chopper whilst up the tree!

They were there too and X, with another enormous bruise on her forehead, which has at least produced one new word in her vocabulary: ‘door’, which she apparently ran into.

Strikes

We haven’t had any proper letters for two days and I suspect the rail strikers – the last straw was when some little jumped up Union man who looks like that rag and bone father on TV said the public could go to hell – why should 4,000 railway men lose their jobs (reduction is numbers of guards on freight trains because they’re in the red, like most firms). At least he put some of his mates’ backs up so it could be a good thing.

Couldn’t agree more about the strike and I think all the staff everywhere are fed up with it. Our people all seem to have stopped bothering about days of action and such like and even the most militant only just sit and mutter together in a corner of the staff canteen at lunch time instead of doing a militant picket or something!