Melbourne
Monday 28.9.81
Dear Alan,
Everytime
I ask mum ’has there being another letter form you’ she replies ‘have you
written to him’ so here it is. The politics here isn’t as interesting as SA but
you may be interested that Wilkes got dumped and John Cain is now the leader of
the opposition in Victoria. Wran has just won his state election with an
increased majority. The Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting starts in
Melbourne on Wednesday amidst tight security. Liz Windsor arrived yesterday.
‘Who cares’ Mal is going around making a big deal about it. Being a Carlton
supporter they won on Saturday which is why I am writing apart from wishing you
Happy Birthday.
Lois
and I went to the Grand Final. For some strange reason Dad and Uncle Ray didn’t
want to go, they had been the previous 3 weeks and maybe had had too much
football. I think Dad was also scared Collingwood would win and that would have
been unbearable. We had almost the worst seats in the MCG only 8 seats from the
boundary and 3 from the fanatical Collingwood Cheer Squad. We wouldn’t have got
out alive if Collingwood won. Fortunately despite leading by 9 points at ¾ time
and looking the better team they ‘died’ kicking only 2 more points. The cheer
squad also showed their true form by silence and tears, they didn’t even cheer their
players when they got their runner up medals. What the President of Zambia made
of this Sept ritual God knows.
Bernie
Quinlan and Barry Round shared the Brownlow medal. Doull, the Norm Smith medal.
A good omen was Melbourne’s win in the U/19 final. The first win of any
Melbourne team for 10 years.
A
couple of weeks ago on the 3LO travel show they were talking about SA-how
attractive Cape Town and Table Mt are about the super surf beaches at Port
Elizabeth , the Blue train which you
must do (he said the best way was Cape Town to Joh). How Joh was an ugly industrial city, the
largest inland city in the world not built on a river or lake, he said apart
from the petrol problem, travel was still quite cheap.
In
George Orwell’s ‘Keep the aspidistra flying’ the main character is working in a
book store with a library attached, and finds what the people read are authors
he has never heard of before. This has also happened to me, my reading taste is
not much to write home about. This is around about way of saying that the best
seller at the library at the moment is ‘Men of men’ by Wilbur Smith a South
African who only writes about South African sagas. I’ve been reading only
children’s books lately, but the ‘best’ are equal to if not better than the
‘best’ in adult fiction, sometimes it is difficult to draw a dividing line.
I’ve just read one of the ‘best’ books ever Lee Harding’s ‘Displaced person’
I
cannot give you much news from Neil Street because I don’t know what goes on.
Beverley still likes her job and hasn’t decided what to do next year. Lois
still runs the house when she is home (she decided we were going to the
football) Dad still exercises enormous self-control and mum continues to
surprise, last time I was home she was reading Emily Dickinson’s poems, in
between her detective novels. She seems to have no difficulty saving money. She
probably told you, she and Auntie Laurel have bought a flat-quite ugly but I
good condition inside. My please for her to but one where I can live went
unanswered.
You may
or may not hear from me for long time I not only hate writing but cannot.
Love
Pamela.
P.S. About the Navy, from mum, January intake, you are not
guaranteed a job because other dentists may apply and all have to go through
tests for suitability.
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