The Year 2014

Soon after we enter 2014 yet another death makes me and some of my German friends wonder what the hell is going on. Norbert Rincke, in Hamburg, left us on the 23^rd of January, 2014 after a short illness which, however, did not suggest death as a consequence. I remember my brother writing to me and expressing his feelings of despair to loose a friend who was a few years younger than he himself. And I understood that feeling since the same thing has happened to me many times in more recent years.

 Norbert Rincke in Manly

Some time in 2014 I had a letter from my good old friend Claire, mother of my former partner Gregg. And she was telling me a story which I had never heard of before and which was and is saddening to this very day.

Claire had been contacted by some former Navy personnel and they told her about sexual abuse cases in the Navy in Western Australia. It all seemed to have happened in the training base HMAS Leeuwin.

Way back in 1964 Gregg, aged 16, more or less ran away from home to escape, what then must have been a somewhat unpleasant home situation, caused by his father. And He decided to join the Navy.

And not long after he had arrived there and started his training, he wrote to his mother, essentially saying: I can’t live any more, get me out of here. Claire's attempts to have him released from the training camp were answered along the lines: well it often happens that young recruits feel unhappy, we can’t do anything about it.

Claire had to write back to Gregg telling him that she could not do anything. Hence Gregg fled from the Navy, made his way back to NSW to his mother, where a few days after his arrival he was arrested and brought back to the naval base, only then to be dishonourably discharged.

All these things have now come to light through a Royal commission which was set up to explore abuse in the navy in those years.

The thing was that Gregg never spoke about this time of his life, not to me or any other friend I know of. So I was very surprised to hear of all this some 40 years later. And it is a great burden on his mother’s shoulders who somehow feels to this day that she has not done enough to save her son. 

Above picture thanks to the Newcastle Herald

And she is determined to make her voice heard in the upcoming inquiry. Whilst I understand her desire I also have some concerns what it might do to her well being. But she is a strong woman, I know that.

Given all those people dying in the last few years, brought back to the forefront of my mind my own thinking about it. For my own life and the inevitable end of it one day, I had and have a very personal view, which is, as I know, somewhat different to many other people in the wider community. I simply do not have the urge to beat a ‘record’ in longevity. The statistically minded person in me understands that an average of what ever is formed by low, medium and high numbers.

Many years ago I somehow ‘decided’ for myself that I would not want to die before my mother. Simply because I knew that this would cause her a great deal of pain and would be unfair to her, who lost her husband at a young age. However, after her death I would and do not care too much about the time of my death.

If it happens tomorrow, I am fine with it. I know that some of my friends and my siblings would feel sad and, if it were to happen tomorrow, would also feel that it was too early.

To this I say, I guess there is hardly ever a ‘right’ time for a loved one to leave us for ever. That is almost irrespective of age. The notable exception probably are cases like Tante Gisela and probably also the death of our mother. Whilst we were all very sad about loosing her for ever. We also understood that it somehow had been the right time in her life.

And somewhat later in the year, 21^st of May to be precise, yet another death news was brought to me by my good old friend Gisela Budack. This time it was Matti Hille. She somehow was the last of the three old ladies, Gisela, Matti and our mother, who had formed such a nice little ‘club’ of the oldies and spent, as I am sure, many good and enjoyable days and weeks together in their old age.

Back to FNQ.

Sooner or later Ute leaves Australia again to be in Germany with her mother. And whilst I understand and support her move, it’s a bit sad for me since she is one of the very few people I know here and have a good contact with. So my life here is, to express it diplomatically, simple. Scootering around the place and taking lots of photos of landscape, flowers and trees is one enjoyable part of it. Writing this book and a diary is another. Keeping in contact with my friends and my boys in Kampala makes for the occasional change in the day.

Some things regarding Uganda

I started the letter on homophobia which I sent to Moses first to have a look at it. I guess sooner or later I will send it to business people in Uganda. In this letter I urge those business people to raise their voice against the anti gay laws in Uganda, after explaining to them what it means and how it works to be gay, along the lines as I did with my letter to the women of Uganda. Now I also had the idea of sending something similar to foreign companies in Uganda, meaning to their head quarters in Europe and the USA as well as South Africa. So it gets a bit wider distribution. Whether it does anything, I doubt it, but I have to try. The first prominent business person to raise his voice was Richard Branson from Virgin Airlines, saying he would not fly his airline services to a country which had such laws.

I will have to create a new g-mail identity for me to not have it under my name for obvious reasons.

I had some thought about a new name for me. Initially I played around with more or less familiar German names which was not too helpful, could not decide on anything. Then I thought about the whole thing, what I do, for whom I do it etc. and then had the idea that I take the first letter of the first name of all my boys and create a name out of that.

After some shuffling around in a spreadsheet, and thinking more about it, I came up with the name Pfingstjamar. It sounds a bit like a mix of German (Pfingst) and Arabic (jamar) so be it. And my first name is a result of the oral interpretation a lot of people give for my original first name, it’s Johann.

Now all the boys are ‘represented’ in my name. And Pfingst(en) has this aura of the holy spirit reaching the apostles, thus bringing something good to the world. (funny thought for an atheist like me) but what the heck.

Tried to open a g-mail account for this name, but somehow it did not work. When ever I logged into g-mail it automatically came up with my original one. And whilst I seemed to have managed to establish a new e-mail address at G mail, when I sent a message to that new name, it returned as not deliverable.

Ergo I went to yahoo and created the account there. And it seems to have worked.

End of February, the Ugandan government signed the anti gay law into law. Awful thing. And Russia is not much better these days. What is it with these macho guys and their understanding of gays. We thought, we were over that by now, but that’s obviously not universal.

On OUT a lot of discussion about it and the usefulness or otherwise of signing petitions etc. It is my conviction that economic pressure is probably much more effective than political one. Even though that is often combined with withholding money. Germany did just that as I was informed by one of my friends. Can’t remember who it was who told me.

Internationally the Crimea thing is an awful mess. Tzar Putin. A wonderful picture seeing Vladimir Vladimirowicz goose stepping into the Duma. You really sometimes feel, all he needs is a short cut moustache under his nose and we are back to 1933. He might be able to borrow that from Robert Mugabe. What is it with Dictators and moustaches?

Some time in April I had a call and e-mail from a guy called Benedict Brook. He is a writer for the SSO and is writing a story about gay people living in foreign countries and their experience about being gay at home. Obviously through Gary he knew my connection to Uganda and also the fact that Moses was now living in Australia.

So I contacted Moses to ask whether it’s ok to give his details to Benedict and so he can interview him. Moses agreed, as he did for the DNA Magazine stories. We shall see what comes out of it.

Later in April the political thing of the time was the resignation of Barry O‘Farrell in Sydney. He had given evidence before ICAC and denied robustly that he had ever received a bottle of Penfolds Grange, vintage 1959, his year of birth, worth some $3000 from Mr Nick Di Girolamo. 24 hours later evidence was produced in form of a hand written notice from him, thanking Mr Girolamo for the bottle and wishing him and his wife all the best. Which proofed one thing, he had received the bottle.

Barry did the honourable thing and resigned immediately because he had, according to his words, misled the ICAC. Most commentators applauded the very swift and honourable reaction. And I agree. I can think of a lot of pollies who would have tried to skirt around it. But he did not!

Sometime in April I start to arrange some tobacco delivery system with Dorothea, Helmut and on the other side of Germany, Klaus and Sabine. I have given them a calendar which shows, on what day they should send a pack to me. Customs these days only allows for one pack at a time. And even that can be caught by customs and I have to pay tax for it before I receive the tobacco. But still even with that tax it's cheaper than buying it directly here in Innisfail. I did pay Dorothea some money for it, Klaus did not want any and sends the tobacco as a regular gift.

Early in May my hearing is very much impaired, I guess due to the cold I have. I had to move the TV on the little table, closer to my seat in order not to be forced to drive the sound up too high. Last night I asked one of the guys next door – nice looking young guy – whether they can hear the sound of the TV. But it seems it does not go through the wall.

With some programs/channels it’s ok, others cause a bit more problem. I guess it also depends on what is going on. When you can see the person clearly who speaks, it is better to understand than in a film situation where you don’t always see the person that speaks. Well I don’t watch a lot of this sort of film program. What I also realised is the fact that I can read the subtitle line much better now, which is no surprise. It has its advantages.

I just hope that with the cold getting better, the hearing comes back. But I also think I have to go to the doctor and have my ears unwaxed, as I do every now and then.

The hearing problem becomes most obvious to me when I play the yahtzee machine where I can hardly hear the tingling sounds. I also have to keep the timer from the kitchen very close to hear it.

Still in May, it’s been a few interesting days in the Sydney news.

On Sunday afternoon we had the Bondi Biffo. James Packer and David Gyngell got into a fisty cuff over …well speculation …. James seemed to have been miffed that a Ch 9 bus was parked close to his house. They both had some disagreements about James and his last wife splitting up etc. etc. They are still ‘good friends’ so be it. But it was certainly a sight to behold seeing the two wrestling each other. And, no surprise here, the Murdoch press had the pics – bought for $200.000 plus from a photographer who happened to be in the area.

On Monday during Q&A on the ABC a group of students protested loud and clear above the panel with banners unfurled. The topic was student fees and changes the Abbott Gov is planning to make. Christopher Pyne was in the panel and got a rap over the knuckles. It was a rowdy scene and took a while. The program then briefly changed to a recorded scene of some music, before they had the students out of the room and the life program got back to airing.

The critics at the moment (we are talking June) seem to focus on Tony Abbott and his diplomatic skills, which are, as we know, seriously underdeveloped. Some commentators seem to overplay the topic a bit, but by and large, I guess, they are right.

It causes a bit of consternation that Tony was mixing up the D-day celebrations in France too much with ‘we are open for business’ rhetoric. Did not go down too well with the oldies.

Malcolm Turnbull had a run in with Andrew Bolt and Allan Jones. They both seemed to imply or even say so, that he, Turnbull, had leadership aspirations. And their prove and evidence was the fact that he had a lunch with Clive Palmer. And whilst the conclusion seems rather far fetched, you never know. The problem with/for Malcolm seems to be that he would probably never again get the numbers, at least not in the current composition of the coalition parliamentarians.

Well he used the occasion to call Andrew Bolt unhinged and demented and used similar descriptions for Alan Jones. Tony Abbott on the other hand called them both his friends, but defended Malcolm from the allegation of seeking the leadership.

Many journalists seem to think that such a challenge, in one way or another, could be on the cards within 12-18 months. Some of it obviously depends on how the polls reflect the general populations perception about the government and in particular Tony Abbott in mid 2015 or there abouts. At the moment those polls are pretty bad, even worse than they were for the ALP during its battle times. And currently Malcolm ranks far above Tony in the popularity rankings.

Clive Palmer caused some exasperations with his comments about the parental leave scheme and the direct link to Peta Credlin – the personal assistant to Tony Abbott. Clive was saying that she had too much influence on the government, through having lots of influence on Tony her boss and the scheme had been created for her own benefit. And whilst Clive was/is probably right about her influence on Tony, the conclusion about the parental leave scheme seems a bit a long bow drawn. But you never know. Most people from all sides thought that the attack on Credlin was unjustified. But in many comments it seemed to be a non-expressed view that if Clive had confined his comments to influence, it would probably be much more supported. I must admit that I never had a particular positive view of her. And her influence via Tony on the government and legislation is probably much higher than it should be.

Tony Abbott spent a couple of days in Canada and, as is sometimes his fate, got the place wrong as Canadia. It’s all very difficult with those foreign places! And he also did a you tube video sending an encouraging message to our boys in Brazil but he got the first name of the captain wrong in it .

Mile (Jedinak) became Mike. Well why does the bugger have such an unusual name when the more common Mike is so close! Those foreigners!!! Thank Heavens, I never was and never will be in a position where Tony would have to pronounce my name.

Before leaving for Cairns in early July, I was looking for my GPS system and could not find it anywhere. Looked at every possible corner in the flat and almost took the car apart. If my memory serves me correctly, I took it last time for the drive to Cairns and then left it in the glove box. Hence the conclusion – tentative – is that somebody has pinched it out of the glove box. With me never locking the car, it is possible. Must admit it caused me some sorrow, simply for the fact that I can’t leave the car open. Well at least, that’s the lesson I’ll take from it.

This happens to be the 2^nd break in on me in less than two years in FNQ. First the money box in Flying Fish Point and now this. I never had anything like this happen to me in 17 years Australia Street, let alone 10 years GPP, where the doors were always open.

On Monday early July there was an interesting docu on renewable energy, giving examples from Australia and California. The latter often quite impressive. They somehow developed large towers which seem to be filled somehow with salt or a salt substance, which then stores the energy like a battery. Have to do some net research on that one. In some parts they now get over 40% from renewable sources and in one city they are up to almost 100%

And what do we hear from our Tony? Solar is useless because you don’t get anything when the sun goes down. He is such a silly and dumb person when it comes to this sort of thing. It really gets up my nose when they say such stupid things and a lot of people in the community still believe that crap. No, for us it’s coal, coal, coal. Silly old buggers.

Mid July a Malaysian airlines flight was shot down over Ukraine, in the rebel held part of it. All 298 passengers died. Amongst them it seems 28 or more Australians. The plane also carried about 10 delegates for an AIDS conference to be held in Melbourne as of tomorrow, Sunday. Some quite eminent scientists seem to have been on the plane. Quite a loss. And as of Friday morning, our TV was quite saturated with reports on the event. And it goes on today and, I guess, in the days to follow.

There is some non-confirmed evidence around which would suggest that Ukrainian rebels shot down the plane, thinking it was a Ukrainian war plane from the central government. Serious questions are asked of Vladimir Putin who rejects the suggestion that Russia had anything to do with it. The available evidence seems to suggest otherwise. And those Russia committed rebels seem rather awful in this whole thing.

The question now raised is whether or not Putin should be stopped coming to the G20 meeting in November in Brisbane. I think it would be a good thing if he stayed away. On an international basis the UN and the Security council want to establish a full and independent investigation in the site. I hope this happens, however, I fear that the rebels who control the area are already doing their best to prevent this and remove things from the site which might be crucial to explore the full truth of the shoot down. By the time the international community gets its things sorted, it might be too late.

All this does not really contribute to lifting my spirits to be honest.

And sometimes things happen like the visit of Thomas in July 2014 and our trip to Cooktown, for which he invited me kindly. It was a lovely drive up in one day on the highway and down in one day on the side road, which was often quite interesting and adventurous.

Here the detailed story:

On Sunday morning Late July I got up on time, had breakfast and then made my way to Cairns. The drive was pleasant, no big traffic on a Sunday morning as expected. Got a bit early towards the airport, so I drove a bit further north, just to kill some time. Thomas flight was scheduled for 9.50 hours and arrived at 9.40 Good to see Thomas all well and happy.

We first drove to the car rental shop on Abbot street to get his Mitsubishi 4WD. Nice car and 4WD proved to be good as we would find out later. We then went to David’s house and I parked the car there opposite under the tree on the green strip. No parking limits here. All worked perfectly ok. Then we went to 1^st Choice to get a box of Pinot Grigio for our trip and night sessions.

And then we took the main highway north. It was a pleasant drive. Wonderful landscape but yes, lot’s of landscape for a few hours. Somewhere in-between we made a stop at a little waterfall.

The more interesting things were all the barren rocks where we climbed around to get to the edge to see the water. Not much of a fall, but nice anyway. Australians and their obsession with Waterfalls. Once you have seen Iguacu or even one of my favourite in Hawaii in Waimea, those little dripples seem silly. I mean even Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains is majestic compared with that. But anyway, nice view.

We went all the way up to Cooktown in one hit, which was really good. Some 350 km. Arrived there mid afternoon and checked ourselves in at the Sea view (I think that was the name, have to check with the photos.

hotel in Cooktown

Got a pleasant room with two separate beds. Little bathroom, ground floor. We had a large lawn area in front of the house, with several tables and chairs. And the view across the road was onto the water, half river, half end of the ocean.

view of the water from garden

Very pleasant view during the day. And a black hole during the night, as is usual. But it was very pleasant and we had a longer chat and the first glass of wine at about 16.00.

Thomas took a longer swim in the pool and cooled down. At about 19.00 we walked down the road to find a place to have dinner. And there it was, the Cooktown bowling club. As usual, busy and loud, dinner was simple and so la la. Had a Caesar s salad which was lots of salad and little Caesar. But enough for me with a glass of wine to wash it down.

Walked back along the water front to our abode and sat outside for a while with a drink, nice to chat. Thomas wanted to watch the car race but it was on Fox which did not seem to be available on our room TV. So we went to bed at about 22.00, me a bit later at 22.30 Since I did not have my usual afternoon sleep, I was fairly tired and slept well until about 2.30. But that’s reasonably usual for me these days. Turning around in the bed for a while. Got up at 8.00.

We were fairly lucky with the weather, all dry and mostly sunny..

Monday morning we walked again down the road along the water front and found ourselves a café for some basic breakfast, just a sandwich and some strongish coffee. Could sit outside which was nice, had a bit of a pipe afterwards. Most people around here are elderly. And a lot of the ubiquitous caravans and camping vans are driven by grey nomads. You see the occasional backpacker in a Juicy van or something similar, but they are far and few between.

One of the things in Cooktown which grabbed our attention were the thousands and thousands of signs and explanations, historic and otherwise. Never seen that many signs in a single place.

signs in Cooktown

After breakfast and a bit of sitting in front of the house, we packed the car and took off again. First to a wonderful look out in town. Well high up there with a lighthouse. This town is plastered with signs and explanations for every cobble stone in the village. Nobody will be able to memorise all the info, but at least some of it was interesting to read about the history of the place and its development in the 19^th century. The view from the look out was magnificent.

lighthouse

view from the lighthouse

Drove down again and then Thomas took the left turn to drive the coastal street, rather than the highway we had come up, to get to Port Douglas. His car rental place did not allow the car to be driven this road, but we did it anyway. In the early parts you did not quite know, why they would not allow a renter to drive this road. But it became more obvious at a later point! Very obvious indeed.

This road, firstly properly tarmaced, later then changing between dirt road and tarmac. It was far more interesting than the highway. Driving through real bush. The points on the route were roughly

Mulligan Highway

Rossville

Mount Finnigan

Along the Annan River

Bloomfield

Degarra

Wujal Wujal, aboriginal village

Cape tribulation

Thornton Beach

Diwan

Cowbay

Kimberley

River ferry

Lower Daintree

Wonga

Rocky point

Newell

Cooya Beach

Mossman

Shannonvale

Port Douglas

Craigly

Mowbray

Oak Beach

Wangetti

Ellis Beach

Palm Cove

Cairns

Earlier on we got to the Lions Den café. A wonderful and unique Café where we stopped. The wall and everything is totally filled with writing from guests, beer deckel, visitenkarten, and millions of pieces of knick knack too difficult to describe. Never seen anything like this in the world! And the lion stands at the entrance to ‘guard’ the place.

the Den

Thomas at the Den

Spent about an hour there, Thomas having a beer and I did with a glass of water.

Soon after we left the Den and got on the road again it became more clear, why the rental place did not want you to drive there. The road conditions became very very basic. And something which I have never experienced so far, in many places the road was incredible steep up and down. Steep roads in BGD seemed flat compared with this.

look across the river

As I said before, we were lucky that it was dry, hence the roads were not as slippery as it would be if it had rained. But the drive through the rain forest with many trees threatening to come down on the road was fantastic. Most of the little creek crossings were ok and simple but then there was one where the water level came well and truly to the door level. But we got through ok. On the opposite side was a little PKW, he could not drive through the river. End of journey for them.

Met a few bike riders on the road coming our way. The poor buggers would have their work cut out, pushing their bikes all the way up those hills. But all in all the drive was absolutely fantastic.

Somewhere around Kimberley there was a river ferry which brought us on the other side of the river. Gave a little break and some opportunity to take some pics. Soon after the river crossing, the road got better again and the drive became more ‘normal’

river crossing

Got to Port Douglas at about 14.45 and the original plan had been to make a stop over there for another night.

But we both decided that Port Douglas was more or less a tourist shopping centre and not much different to Cairns, but very little to do there apart from shopping or sitting in a bar and drinking expensive drinks. So, after visiting yet another look out, which basically gave you a very good look onto a large and most ugly modern house underneath, we decided to drive the rest to Cairns.

Got into Cairns at about 16.00 and first picked up my car, which had survived the parking there quite fine. Then we parted company, Thomas wanted to stay in Cairns and visit some friends where he could also stay for the night. And I went back home, though not missing the opportunity to pass by 1^st Choice and get 5 boxes of wine, mostly Pino and Sauv Blanc and one box Hidden Gem.

Got back to Innisfail at about 17.45, unpacked and got back into “normal”

31^st July I got the news from Hensler that a new fridge (replacing the broken one) was to be delivered today afternoon, a day earlier than expected which is fine. Well just a few minutes ago, it came. It now stands in the lounge room in the place where previously the tables and the little computer trolley were. I have to think about what I am going to do with that stuff. It’s a big fridge, much higher than the old one and about 12 cm wider, so be it. It got plugged in and works. So in a few hours, I will be able to re-load it with the stuff from the esky and then tomorrow do some shopping. All in all fine.

In August and on the political side of things, something became known. There is a very right wing Family Congress organisation from the USA. Christian, anti gay, family values of the 19^th century. This awful bastard Lively seems to be a member of it. They have a congress in Melbourne, after their original congress location, Moskau, bombed out because of the Ukraine things. And guess what, Eric Abetz and, even worse, Kevin Andrews will be attending the congress and speak there. No surprise that Cori Bernardi is also involved. The most irritating thing seems that Kevin Andrews is actually their international ‘Ambassador’ And this is our minister for social services. Seems to explain some of the budget measures in relation to social payments.

Thursday 9^th October, 2014

Today is a somewhat sombre if not sad anniversary. Two years ago to the day, I left Green Point at about 11.00 (the time right now is 11.09) to drive to Newcastle and then Port Macquarie for my first day of a long trip to FNQ. And whilst it was a good thing to see my bank accounts that night on the camping ground, it was a sad thing having lost the house I loved and still love to this day.

Sometimes I think Silke and Cameron have done me a favour with painting the house in such garish colours as they did. Makes it visually less attractive.

GPP in new colours

I can’t remember/count the number of times I have dreamed about getting the house back by some stroke of luck. But that’s all dreams and not reality. I know that. I shall see how the day today goes on.

Tuesday 21^st October, 2014

Today we got the news about the death of Gough Whitlam, aged 98. He was born in 1916 like our mother. And obviously the TV is full of stories and remembrance. I watched most of the parliament speeches in his honour. Sometimes with a tear in my eyes. I guess the most memorable quote which I know of was his comment after being dismissed in 1975 by Gov Kerr. Well may we say, God save the queen, because nothing will save the Governor General.

Tuesday 4^th November, 2014

Did some washing today – well I attempted to. Put things into the machine at about 12.00 hours and then went down at about 13.30 to take them out and hang them up, only to find that the machine had a fault and was blowing water all over the place. I already heard the flowing water when I came down the stairs. And there was water everywhere, in the kitchen, in the lounge room etc. First I moved the furniture from the wall and the matrace and fridge, than started cleaning up with the sponge from the bathroom. But that did not really work. Too much water on the floor. Hence went to Bilos and got a rubber thingy to clear the water out of the kitchen and lounge room. Then opened all the doors to let air flow through. Now after a few hours, most things are back to normal and the floor is really nice clean. Later in the afternoon I can put the furniture back in its places. I now have to see whether it was a one off thing with the machine or whether it’s actually kaputt. Did put the washing back in and schleudert it, which worked. Also pumped out all the water which worked. I shall see and do the next washing under control.

Saturday 15^th November, 2014

Brisbane is now turning into a security centre with about 7000 delegates from all around the world meeting for G-20. Learned on the news that there are a fair few other organisations like the C-20, the L-20, the B-20 etc. They stand for all sorts of interest groups, like labour, business charity etc. Our government is desperately trying to keep everything focused on jobs and growth and are trying to keep this miserable topic environment out of it. I guess they have a problem there with the most recent USA and China agreement. And whilst this agreement itself is not the break through thing we might need, it is certainly, as far as perceptions go, much more than our clowns are doing, or not doing to be more precise. Obama has been treated like a film star, his address at the Uni was most welcome.

Abbott gave an unusual and totally inappropriate speech at the first gathering of the leaders, telling them all about the things he promised to do – like ditching the carbon tax, which went down like a lead balloon and his problems in the senate with the ALP and Green resisting his beautiful budget. One could see most of the leaders getting rather bored after a few minutes. Some might have thought they were in the wrong meeting.

Putin was largely kept on the sidelines, most delegates seem to avoid greeting him. We had some recent interviews from Russia and it seems quaint that he is so popular in Russia. Well I guess his stunts in the wild with his shirt off must do some good for him. A bit of a kerfuffle with all those Russian warships around the place. I guess it’s very much done for the internal thing, showing the Russians: we can sail where ever we want. Well it does not go down too well in Asia and the Pacific nations.

Wednesday 17^th December 2014

Some occasional and very mild pain in my tooth where the filling is lost somehow prompted me to find out where I could go for tooth work as a pensioner. Was referred to the hospital – as I thought.

First visit was totally confusing, could not find anybody in any of the rooms for a while, until a nice guy took me to the right place for dental care. Filled in many forms etc. and then was telephoned to come back at 14.30 to the dental clinic. They basically called me two minutes after I had left the office. Theoretically it could have taken days and weeks or even until the new year, because they have their last day tomorrow. But all of a sudden they came around and got me back for 14.30 at least for the wobbly one.

The dentist pulled my wobbly tooth and put some tampon thing into the hole to prevent bleeding. Now got a new appointment for tomorrow for a full x-ray at 9.30 just opposite Coles car park. They suggested not to smoke for a week. Well we have to see about that. I won’t eat anything tonight. They gave me another tampon type thing to put into the wound when/if necessary. Most of their instructions were not overly clear. But anyway. Never have been given such instructions about drinking and smoking after a tooth was pulled out.

Talking about things coming back. Sometime during my first thoughts about the dentist, the story came back to my mind about Dr Elzner and my two missing teeth. His words were about: Leute mit einer grossen Zahnluecke kommen weit rum in der Welt. And somehow he was right.

Now lets hope that the pain in the other tooth does not get any worse. Funny enough, the wobbly one never caused me any problems, I just tended to bite it back into its place. Though could not eat on that side of the mouth. Now I wonder how long it will take until the numbness in my left part of the mouth subsides.

Well the year came to a quiet end, at least here in Innisfail

Will all this ever change? I don’t know. We shall see.