Wednesday 23^rd May

It’s all very interesting, listening to the news on the ABC, reading the papers, catching up with this and that on electronic devices.  I have come to realise that we all view life from our own particular paradigm.  Mine tends to be a bit like that of Candide (many MANY years ago I wrote a thesis, in very bad French, on Voltaire, with specific reference to Candide – maybe it has all stuck there, along with my very favourite childhood book, Pollyanna… Play the Glad Game!   All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds…)  So I try to look at everything from a cheery angle.  If possible…

I think I have written in this blog before how very beautiful the whole world is, and how particularly beautiful and PROSPEROUS Australia is.  So last night, when I had trouble sleeping, I listened to Paul (Candide) Clitheroe on Tony Delroi’s Nightlife program.  I won’t go into the details but he said that yes indeed, we are extremely prosperous.  Lots of people, eg 500 QANTAS workers, have lost their jobs, and that is indeed a dreadful thing.  But…unemployment levels are going down – someone must be employing people somewhere.  And is that ever on the news?  Of course not!

Tony D asked him about the terrible problems with regards to our ageing population and Paul said, “Oh yes, how dreadful, we’ve all been given an extra 25 years of life!  How shocking!”  He went on to say that people in the retirement age group are having a great time.  Where in the past they might have gone to an Adult Ed cooking program, or a wine tasting course, now they are going to cooking classes in Vietnam, and wine tasting courses in the Loire Valley.

I perked up considerably, listening to Paul, and was very soon fast asleep with a happy smile.

As an illustration of how well we are all doing, here is a brief rundown of the activities of some of my friends, relations, colleagues:

• The Wakefields are off the Alice Springs and Kakadu in the June holidays
• Chis and Bob have just left for three weeks in Hawaii and San Francisco
• Chris and Angela are spending ten weeks in Europe, with a European Crusie, and time on a canal boat in the Midi
• Richard and Meriloy are away until August, zipping from one fabulous overseas location to another.  At present they are in Turkey.
• Bob and Annie are about to go on a Mediterranean cruise, then Paris, then goodness knows where but it will be wonderful
• James and Colette are off to Europe in August
• Tim and Jan are going to Alaska next year
• Barbara and Pauline are going to New York for three weeks, leaving on Friday
• Later in the year Pauline is going to Malaysia with Elsa
• (Jacqui is going to Vietnam…but this is slightly different…she is going with a school group on a World Challenge…)
• Pete, Andrew and John are flying in a light plane from Port Macquarie to Cape Leveque
• The entire Headlam clan is off to White Sands on the East Coast for a long weekend in July
• Di is off to California to get married
• Catherine is taking her entire family on a Mediterranean cruise and to visit extended family in Croatia
• Cam and Del are caravanning around Australia
• Ron is heading for the South pacific on his yacht; Laura is in Airlie Beach with the grandchildren
• Tim and Jan are going to Alaska next year
• Kerrie and Michael are in Paris and going to a family wedding in a chateau
• Ann-Marie and Philippe are just back from three weeks in Thailand
• Poppy and Matt are just back from The World

And I am sure I have left some people off this very hasty, random list.

I rest my case!