Albany Writers' Circle

Joy, a long time friend of us both, loaned me a small booklet of poetry and prose from residents of the South West city of Albany. The booklet contains 32 pieces from 20 writers.
Two of the pieces were amazing coincidences. One written by Joy's sister told about her friend Miriam...her child, husband and her passion for gardening. Reading it I suddenly realised that Miriam was our next door neighbour in Bicton for some 43 years. It seems that Joy's sister Norma was a close friend of Miri (as we knew her). Her husband Jack was deaf and mute and wrote all conversation on a small pad. Miri was a strange woman; very hippy for the time and quite difficult to approach. I wrote previously about the Williams family, the husband Jack and Mrs Sabodka the bejewelled WW2 refugee boarder.

The second coincidence was a piece written by Betty Kane about her marriage to a U.S. Sailor based in Fremantle during WW2. As it turns out, Betty is the grandmother of the girls in the local group 'The Waifs' who wrote and perform The Bridal Train, a song telling of the train taking W.A. war brides across Australia to Sydney to join the American liner which took them to their new home and husbands. The Bridal Train tells the story of their grandmother Betty. Nice! If you haven't heard The Bridal Train, you can find it on YouTube.

Our power meter is outside the house in a locked box. Western Power reads the meter every 45 days or so and at the last two meter reads the reader had difficulty unlocking the box. His/her master key wouldn't open the box. Fortunately, I was home on both occasions and was able to open the box with my key. If I was not home, Western Power would estimate the power usage based of previous bills. The large hardware chain, Bunnings, is a provider of these locks and I purchased one about 6 months ago, so I took it back explaining that only I could open the meter box. With a bit of argy bargy they eventually replaced my lock with a new one. Hope they don't give my old one to another customer.

At a recent gathering of friends we, being oldies, talked about times past. One topic was worn out shoes, something that doesn't seem to occur as much these days. All the males at the gathering could remember shoes with holes in the soles. Ralph told us that he often had holes in his shoes and could, when stepping on a sixpenny piece ( a 'zac'), tell whether the coin was heads or tails. Cardboard was a popular shoe life extender; not so comfortable when wet.

My brother has been single for many years and has long ago adjusted his food purchasing and cooking to suit one person. I am not at that stage yet. I tend to over buy and cook and end up with plastic containers in the freezer which I often end up dumping in my compost bin. I know I should divide meat portions etc and freeze them. I will try that soon.

Yesterday I went to John's nursing home to cut his hair. It was a bit difficult as he was asleep and didn't respond to requests to bend his head etc. I eventually got the job done...hair, ears and eyebrows. He looked good when I finished. Sad that he had no idea that I was there. His wife, Joy, has the same result most times she visits. If there was any saving grace in Joan's death, it was that she left us with sound mind with no need to be locked up in intensive care for years.