Wednesday 9^th January

My nephew Will is a champion swimmer.  A winner, fast strong, competitive.  He is also very charming and popular, a hero to his younger cousins – Will is 17, in grade 12.  Last week he was at Kettering wakeboarding with some friends.  There were five of them in the tinnie and they were heading back to the jetty when – oh oops – they ran out of fuel.  The Bruny Island ferry was bearing down on them – what to do?  Not a problem, Will Superhero was in their midst!  He dived into the water, tied a rope somehow around his waist, and swam as fast and hard as he could to the jetty.  A tinny with four people and a big outboard motor is not a flimsy device, it was quite a challenge.  He towed the bat successfully to the jetty, got out of the water and received a standing ovation from the enthralled upper deck of the Bruny Island ferry.

His younger brother Tim is equally delightful and engaging, but in a different way.  When Will is off swimming in the icy and dangerous waters of Goats Beach and Shipstern Bluff, Tim is whipping up a batch of anzacs-with-a-twist, or working out a way to increase his capital.  He has a few sources of income, one of which involves delivering catalogues (Yes, the dreaded junk mail,) in his neighbourhood.  He often rings the manager with helpful suggestions, or to tell her that certain catalogues aren’t accounted for.  Andrea had a phone call recently, from a woman wanting to speak to Tim.  When she said he was out, the woman said, Well I wanted to ask him if he would like to be the area manager for Sandy Bay.  Andrea was a bit nonplussed.  “Ummm…you do know he is only 14, don’t you?”  The manager was quite stunned…

India #64

Jassi took us to see the huge and impressive Humayoon Mausoleum.  All very mysterious; some bits of Indian history we were slightly familiar with, others were a total enigma.  I decided early on NOT to get too stressed about my lack of knowledge. At one stage Mary and I were wandering around, trying to absorb what we were seeing, and trying to read copious amounts of information on big marble slabs.  I seditiously whispered to Mary, “You know, it doesn’t really matter if we don’t know everything about everything; there is NOT going to be an exam.”  She looked very relieved and we relaxed and just enjoyed ourselves instead of trying to absorb too much unfamiliar knowledge, which we knew would all just seep away in any case.