emma_in_dream

We have a new dog!!

Usually I do the Red Cross door knock. But this year we are advised not to... Instead they have asked that we just ask our circle of friends to donate. So, if you can, that's something to consider.

https://www.redcross.org.au/

Frederick Douglass. I'm hearing more and more about him lately. And he was a total hottie.

Just read one of his autobiographies.

Work: The project I am working on is moving with (for Government) astonishing speed. Am amazed and feel that I am running with scissors.



Children: School started successfully. Expectations exceeded (expectations were low).



Health: Have had a minimum of three medical appointments per week for the kids over the last month. Next week – five in a four day period.

I listened to the top 10 for 1968 over these holidays.



I was surprised, so then I listened to the American and British Top 10s for 1968. They were a lot cooler than the Australian version.



America: The Beatles, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding.



Britain: The Beatles, the Monkees, the Small Tops, Tom Jones.


Australia: Guess what was super popular? The Beatles, yes, and then the Irish Rovers. Who, you ask? Well they had a number one with the unicorn song. You remember, the novelty song about a unicorn who won’t get on Noah’s ark. Catchy but not exactly the cutting edge of cool. And also they hit number one later that year with the novelty song *The Orange and the Green*.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EPsuOEH1fY


Now, I instantly recognised these songs – I am pretty sure my parents must have had the album. They’re good for a sing along, but also a sign that Australia in the 1960s was a cultural wasteland. It actually makes me wonder if there was some kind of protectionist tax on musical imports, because local talents like John Farnham also hit number one. With *Sadie the Cleaning Lady*.

So, started a secondment at the Department of Transport today. This is exciting.

I am looking for a Rudyard Kipling short story that I vaguely recall. Any advice would be good.

They are in a small cantonment, with a limited number of Anglo administrators. There's an affair and then everyone carries on awkwardly, all knowing the truth.

Does this ring a bell for anyone?

So, books in 2019....

111 books, of which 39 were non-fiction.

The vast majority of what I read was printed since 2000. There were 37 from the 2010s and 20 from the 2000s. After that, the most common decades were the 1990s and 1980s. I would attribute this to a lot of Bujold and Jilly Cooper this year rather than Georgette Heyer or Dorothy Sayers.

I was wondering what people were listening to in 1919, and the answer that Wikipedia gives is... lots of stuff I recognise.

Music my white bread family sings... Lots of stuff I remember my grandfather and mother singing. 'How we gonna keep them down on the farm, now that they've seen Paree', 'I'm forever blowing bubbles' and 'Don't dilly dally on the way'.

I have a terrible ear for music, but basically music hall stuff.

And then, surprisingly, music that is clearly related to popular music in 2019. I listened to 'I ain't gonna give nobody none of this jelly roll' and was like, hey, I recognise this. There's a link from this jazzy rag to jazz, to blues, to rock.

So I wondered if I could find the same thing prior to the war. I had a listen to Wiki's biggest hits of 1909 and the trend to syncopation had not begun.

So, a brief summary of what has happened since September:

It took from 17 September to 3 December, but I finally reached an agreement with the RAC Insurance company. I would strongly state that they dragged their feet at every opportunity and stretched every single thing out for as long as possible. Would not recommend.

The car was written off and I got a new Toyota Yaris. Which is cute, smaller than the previous car, five star safety rating.

I have lost all my grandparents' jewellery and I am still very upset about that.

Ugly security windows will be installed next week. I will buy a security camera in the post-Christmas sales.