2022 So Far

Postcard from Gotham Book Mart 2002

As we no longer have a real cat to photograph with Bingo now gone missing for five months, I’ve been reduced to scanning old cards to illustrate my blog posts.

I have an enormous collection of cards, the bulk of which I keep in an old suitcase, so I went  through it today to see if I could find suitable inspiration for a blog post and came across the above post card.

It was acquired in 2002 when I went to New York to attend a book launch held at Gotham Book Mart on 11 November 2002. The card reads Cats at Work and features three ginger cats named Thornton, Mitchell and Christopher sitting in the shelves of said bookstore..

Invitation to book launch

Gotham Book Mart was a famous old bookshop situated at 41 West 47th Street NYC. It closed in 2007, so I guess I should feel privileged to have visited the place while it was still open. It also had a gallery which at the time of my visit featured photos of musician Patti Smith who hung out there when she lived in New York.

Patti Smith display with Whittemore books in foreground

Gotham Book Mart sign outside the shop

Back in 2002 the world was still reeling from the 9/11 (11/9/2001) fall of the World Trade Centre in New York. Terrorism had entered our world and nothing would ever be the same again.

Likewise in these times of the Covid pandemic which has killed many more people than died on 9/11.

I did of course visit ground zero whilst I was in New York and read the tributes in the side street.

9/11 Tributes near ground zero in Lower Manhattan

It’s a sad old world these days, quite different to 2002.

Back then digital cameras and mobile phones were out of the price range of the general public, so the camera I took to New York was a Ricoh film camera. The photos I snapped with it are mostly not worth saving for posterity, either my abilities or the camera’s being to blame for the poorness of quality. All I can say is that I’m glad I have a decent digital camera these days, and that my skill in using  it has improved.

So here we are twenty years on, in the early days of 2022 and it’s not much fun so far with cases of Covid skyrocketing throughout the country. The Government has been pretty useless in keeping it under control and seem to have given up trying to do so.

There are however things to look forward to, such as the Autumn racing carnival, which kicks off in earnest in a few weeks.

Luckily fully vaxxed persons will be permitted to attend, so I’m  hoping to get to Caulfield for the Australia Day meeting to watch the Blue Diamond Previews.

Since Christmas it has been pretty quiet on the home front and I’ve been nowhere other than to the Victoria Market and the supermarket for provisions.

My recent reading pleasure was a reread of Nancy Mitford’s Love in a Cold Climate duology – a deliciously witty satire on Upper Class life in England in the 1940s. A cosy comfort read in other words.

It’s hard to face another year of the Covid pandemic; quite depressing in fact. However I’ll soldier on and try not to contract the virus or get seriously ill with some other ailment.