Since returning from the eastern states after my mum passed away in January, it has taken a bit if time to get into the ‘normal’ rhythym of life again. As someone at her funeral said to me, ‘If it wasn’t for your mum, you wouldn’t be here would you’, which is one way of looking at it. During this time, my two lovely sisters, Colleen and Sharryn, have been dealing with the sometimes difficult, but other times hilarious situation of sifting through the house, where mum horded anything and everything. Just to put you in the picture, we are talking about things like hundreds of fleuro light starters from mum’s old house ( moved out twenty years ago ), masses of medicine containers, medicare receipts dating back over forty years, xmas cards, birthday cards and a habit that us three kids have inherited, the writing of myriads of handwritten notes and lists.
So every few days I get an email detailing the latest treasure trove found, as Colleen and Sharryn head down to mum’s house to do a specific job and four hours later have become so immersed in photos, videos and notes, they forget what they originally intended to do. One of the notes found was an old hand written fishing poem and as we say in the family, it’s a classic. In many ways it reflected my dad’s earlier fishing exploits and what mum had to put up with when he returned. Hopefully the fisho in this poem was not out on a boat!
THE FISHERMAN
Lo! the fisherman.
He riseth early in the morning and waketh the
whole household
Mighty are his preparations
He goeth forth with great hope in his heart
and when the day is far spent
he returneth – smelling of strong drink
and the truth is not in him
The next day I get another note, this time one I had written as an eighteen year old, at two in the morning, when I was due to be the best man at a wedding that afternoon. ‘Mum, car has had the dick. Generator light keeps coming on. Steam coming outa boot. See ya in the morning. Gone to beach. Tried to ring my mate Mark Thatcher – couldn’t get on. He was going to drive car to wedding. If and when he rings, tell him it won’t be possible.’ Another classic which reminds us only too well of what our mums had to deal with in our younger days.
To answer last week’s question, the new pass mark for the RST theory exam is 34 out of 40 questions correct. Th is week’s question is, ‘Why is is a hyrdrofoil (refer the attached photo) sometimes attached to an outboard motor?’