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I’m back in my place at Bondi once more, having just wrapped up another bittersweet long weekend. Sad circumstances and easy to book Virgin Blue helped me to catch up with many of my friends at Brissie not just the huge family. ... Winston Churchill said somewhere or other that there are few things in life more exhilarating than being shot at without effect. I thought of this utterly characteristic remark a few days ago as I watched how fast the time flew in Brissie. So on Saturday I caught up with wonderful friends Phil, Kristen, James; even managed to share a story ot two with Peter and Elizabeth. The day was peppered with scenic drives around the Gap, an artistic conversation with Brett Lethbridge at Paddington, coffee with rich cake at flower shop and later dinner at Wilston at Earth and Sea. On Sunday morning I had coffee at Northlakes with family John and Anita, Michael and Kathy and around lunchtime AFL grounds and the club tucker at Aspley created a hearty atmosphere as we watched #42 (James) kick the ball. Kristen as always was the giver of life running around the football players supplying one an all with H2O. In the afternoon Phil and I clocked 22 laps swimming at Ferny Grove pool ... In the evening the invasion of the Boonah crowd Rob Meegan and Bella took place. The night was young at midnight as the Bohemian Plzenske beer flowed while Antipodean barbie kept Kristie and Phil busy with all kinds of surprises.
Amazingly, I even caught up with Kerrie at the musty library corners of the Parliament House and a chatty morning tea in the renovated part of the cafeteria overlooking Brissie river. River was the highlight of my day as the dining table along the Brissie River provided many hours of soulful conversation with Vanessa. There are some great quotes in the novel of my life. I like the one from Schopenhauer: "A novelist should aim not to descibe great events but to make small ones interesting." The nasty review for Cold River on Amazon was dimissed by an interesting observation by Vanessa using similar technique practiced by Lichtenberg: A book is a mirror; if an ass peers into it, you can't expect an apostle to look out ;-)

The creative person wants to be a know-it-all. He wants to know about all kinds of things: ancient history, nineteenth-century mathematics, current manufacturing techniques, flower arranging, and hog futures. Because he never knows when these ideas might come together to form a new idea. It may happen six minutes later or six months, or six years down the road. But he has faith that it will happen.

My father in law Les Rossiter was one of the most creative creatures on earth. He once shared with me the following story in Batehaven (Anzac Day circa 1991):

There are two waves drifting along in the ocean, one a bit bigger than the other. The bigger wave suddenly becomes very sad and upset. The smaller wave asks what's wrong. "You don't want to know," the bigger wave says. "What is it?" the small wave asks. "No - really - it's too terrible. If you knew what I knew, you'd never be happy." The small wave persists. Finally the big wave explains: "You can't see it, but I can see that, not too far from here, all of the waves are crashing on the shore. We are going to disappear." The small wave says," I can make you happy with just six words, but you have to listen very carefully to them." The big wave doesn't believe it -- what does the small wave know that he doesn't -- but he's desperate. After a while of doubting and mocking the small wave, the big wave finally gives in, and asks the small wave to tell him. And so the small wave says: "You're not a wave, you're water."