awful tragedy, Tim's mum Thelma has kicked her bucket and shaken off This Mortal Coil.
Went to the shindig wake at Eamon's Red Scooter, where they played Thelma's last requests over the sound system. She wanted everyone to get up and dance, first to We Are Family, and then "oh what's that song, it's from Rocky Horror .. yes the Time Warp".
So sure enough, as Tim said, "You are evil if you don't dance" everybody got up to shake their booties. What a great dance, such a good bunch of people the Ratcliffes.
Delightful send off for an amazing woman. Thank you Thelma for all your loveliness and straight-talking.
Louise's cat Zena is a total darling, but he just isn't interested in catching any kind of rodent. Not for dinner, not for fun. Not at all.
"They tried to make me catch a rodent, i said no no no !" (To the tune of Amy Winehouse 'Rehab'.)
Now i think i know why .. someone has been messing with his genes. in this video from Reuters, they say the mouse has been altered to remove the smell of fear from his hereditary knowledge bank.
But what have they done to the cat? Are they saying that cats only chase mice because the mice are afraid? That the cat is culturally inclined, rather than genetically, to chase the rodent? This opens up a whole can of cat food!
Anyway, this cat looks a whole lot like Zena. i think he's been living a double life.
Delightful friends, i gotta say that .. That infamously strange hotel experience was not the sum of my travel time in Cairns, nor did it epitomise the overall joy and usefulness.
Yay for SnoRkelling! On my birthday i went to Green island and dived headlong into the reef. Covered up in a huge lycra body suit to protect against the stingers and lice, i gazed in bliss at the totally gorgeous, wondrous underwater panoramas. Mmm, delicious and delightful. Yum. i could have snorkelled all night, um .. day.
Cairns is a beautiful place, especially when you get out of town. Rainforest, reef, tropical rivers .. my time was a bit too work-focussed, so i was mostly indoors and in the city.
i've never seen a city beach more abandoned .. perhaps because of the "Beware of Crocodiles" signs. One person walking on the beach in ten days. Thousands strolling along the promenade.
Amazing history panels. Turns out there used to be a fabulous beach with stunning sand dunes, but dredging in the 1930's destroyed all that. Need for shipping channels etc. (Are you paying attention, Victorian govt? no, i guess not.)
i also caught up with the very amazing Avril Duck who is a theatre director up in Gordonvale. Avril used to live and study in Melbourne; she's preparing for a play in 2008 focussing on the experiences of local parents. The other week they had a reading on the radio. Sounds good .. perhaps i can post a copy here.
And look, i carried a book around with me the whole week (yes, that book), and i was often wearing my iRiver mp3 player, with wires hanging off me everywhere. In very many places people glanced at me with no suspicion whatsoever, just the friendly happy-go-lucky Cairns vacant gaze. Lovely place .. i'd go there again.
