Welcome to Another Weekend Coffee Share & Happy Father’s Day!
How are you? Hope you are going well!
Today, it’s Father’s Day here in Australia and we’d like to invite you to join us for pancakes. Not those rubbishy excuses for pancakes which are conceived inside one of those dastardly shaker bottles either. No, I mean the real thing made from scratch using real eggs, milk and butter and just for a bit of flare, I beat them up with a vintage hand-beater. They’re in a league of their own as long as I don’t get distracted. It’s not unusual for a pancake to get sacrificed to the dogs who are only too happy to oblige.
Father’s Day was rather low-key at our place this year. Our son seems to have the flu and our daughter flew to Brisbane on Friday night for an audition and arrived home about 1.00am this morning and was wiped out. So all of us slept in and breakfast became lunch.
After lunch, Geoff and I headed off to see if the waratahs were out in their usual location. I know this makes it sounds very Top Secret, but they actually grow in a particular patch beside the road on the way to Patonga. That will mean absolutely nothing to most of you but it’s about 10-20 minutes from Woy Woy (the town Spike Milligan put on the map in the Goon Show many moons ago.) Waratahs, as you can see, are an absolutely magnificent flower and the NSW floral emblem. Unfortunately, they seem to be quite rare in the wild and this is the only place I’ve seen them.
Meanwhile, my new trajectory as an “exercise fanatic” continues. I’ve been doing pulmonary rehab for a few weeks now to try to improve my lungs and breathing. Or to be very frank, do whatever I can to save them which seems to be working to some extent. Unfortunately, my concept of “working” is considerably modified and a long way from peak condition but provided I don’t catch another virus, I should be right for a bit. Meanwhile, I’ve been clocking up some pseudo kilometres on the exercise and walking “in real life” (as I’ve seen referred to as IRL in a text from a friend. I don’t usually distinguish between the two as online is my real life especially thanks to covid and associated lockdowns).
My writing has cut back a lot during the last six to twelve months, but I am trying to get back into the swing again. I’ve got back into my weekly contributions to Friday Fictioneers where we write 100 words to a photo prompt. I find this flash fiction seems to be my best medium, even though I’ve been writing poetry for years. I’ve been quite surprised to see how much ground I can cover in only 100 words, and I’d encourage you to have a go if you haven’t tried it out. Here’s my latest offering: The Bikini Inspector of Bondi Beach
Meanwhile, beyond our four walls there’s 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum will be held on 14 October 2023. Voters will be asked to approve an alteration to the Australian Constitution, creating a body called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice that “may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government … on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples”. This is about six weeks away and all sorts of people and organisations are publicly taking sides. There Aboriginal people on both sides of the debate, which I’ve got to say certainly confuses matters. I’m voting Yes and feel that’s the right thing to do but I’m not out there drumming up supporters. I’m still recovering from the intense arguments and broken friendships resulting from opposing views on the covid vaccination debate.
Anyway, I’m going to call it a day. Or, to be more accurate…a night.
This has been another contribution to the Weekend Coffee Share hosted by Natalie the Explorer.
Best wishes,
Rowena
Beyond the Flow 