The Waiting Game

Sophie – a recent photo

Here we are in a brand new year and I’ve been slack, feeling uninspired to write a blog post.

So far in 2023, nothing much has happened, life trundling along as normal as we grow older by the year.

Life without expectation of treats is not worth living, but I this year I am eagerly anticipating finally receiving my long ago ordered copy of the 25th anniversary edition of John Crowley’s wonderful novel Little, Big.

It was in February 2005 that I subscribed to obtain a Numbered Edition of the book, so I’m living in high hopes that it will be delivered before mid year. Already,  some subscribers to the standard Trade Edition have received their copies, but alas the Numbered Edition is delayed, due to  issues in the manufacture of the Slip Cases. Hopefully those issues will be resolved soon.

Even though I have been patiently waiting for 18 years, somehow it has now become excruciating the closer it gets to actual delivery.

Fortunately there are other distractions to ease the waiting, such as the Autumn Racing Carnival.

Caulfield racecourse is being renovated this  summer/autumn, so the Group races are being run at Sandown, not a track I have any intention of attending, so I’ll miss witnessing in person the Blue Diamond Stakes and other Group 1 races that are normally run at Caulfield. Luckily Flemington and Moonee Valley are sticking to the regular program of events, so I’ll attend a few in February and March, and have already purchased tickets to Lightning Stakes Day at Flemington and the All Star Mile at Moonee Valley.

Meanwhile on the domestic front, our cat Sophie rules the house.

She is almost a year old now, but still has Attitude with capital A, and is vengeful if thwarted, though not as violent as she was as a kitten.

My niece recently visited with her youngest daughter who is five years old, but surprisingly Sophie behaved quite civilly despite the daughter picking her up and carrying her around without being bitten or scratched.

She spends most of the day sleeping inside the house, but we try to keep her  in at night, even though she resents being confined and will turn into the cat from hell in the blink of an eye, before finally settling down for the night

Sophie–AKA the kitten from hell

Sophie in the back garden

Sophie has now been a part of the household for two months, and during that time has grown and looks more like a small cat than a kitten these days.

Admittedly she does have a healthy appetite and loves food,  eating everything we have given her.

Those innocent blue eyes belie her feisty aggressive nature, more often than not she resorts to biting and scratching and smooches are a rarity. Our hands and arms look like we’ve been infected with a pox, though since her last visit to the vet for booster shots, it’s not quite so bad. The vet obligingly clipped her claws, so they’re not as sharp. I don’t really agree with claw clipping, but in Sophie’s case it has made a difference, and the wounds are healing.

We mostly keep her indoors, allowing her out under supervision every so often.

Her nature tends to veer towards the fierce Bengal side, rather than the talkative Siamese, though like a typical oriental she takes a keen interest in everything we do around the house, “helping” hanging out the washing, by playing with the pegs for instance.

As she is the first kitten we have adopted who has not had to deal with an already resident cat, I think emphasises her aggressive tendencies, as previous kittens expended a lot of that sort of energy on the resident cat and let us be.

We can only hope that when she grows up she will be a more restful and companionable beast.

Other than raising a crazy kitten, not much else is happening, though we are saddened by the death of my sister in law on 11 June 2022.

She was a lovely person, kind, thoughtful and loving to her family, a pleasure to know and will be greatly missed. It is such a shame that most of the last year of her life was spent undergoing treatment for melanoma, which indeed was the death of her.

We will be attending her funeral next Thursday.

Wickedness with Whiskers

Sophie

To be accurate, Sophie at present is pretty quiet and not what we perceive to be her usual  lively self

This is because yesterday she received her first vaccinations and that has caused a reaction whereby she has become quite subdued. Bingo last year also had a negative reaction to his annual  jabs, but was back to his punchy self the next day.

Sophie  has now been part of the domicile for two weeks, so we’ve got to know her tricks and tendencies quite well.

She is generally a bundle of energy and very playful, even retrieving one of her toys when you throw it for her. And she’s a scratcher, a leg climber and a distracting small beast where she insists on human participation in her play.

Her wickedness comes from her attempts to claw her way up fly screen doors and  sharpening her claws on the stereo speakers, which B has now turned to the wall to prevent her doing so. She also drags the tea towels to the floor when they’re hanging on the oven door.

Now about 11 or 12 weeks old, she has grown a bit, but is still very small. Though not a greedy cat, she does mostly like a variety of food and unlike Bingo doesn’t bolt it down.

She hates her photo being taken, so you have to be patient and wait for an opportunity to capture her image.

Whatever, she’s certainly enlivened our usual routines with her presence.

Here’s Trouble

Sophie

With Bingo now gone missing for eight months, B had a strong feeling last Wednesday that he would find the perfect replacement on Gumtree.

The prices for pedigree oriental cats is astronomical these days, over $2000 in some cases, but on Wednesday there was an advertisement for a Siamese/Bengal cross kitten at a reasonable price. The kitten looked very much like a Siamese with blue eyes and points, so he rang the seller and consequently  arranged to drive all the way to Wantirna to purchase the kitten. She was the only kitten for sale, and the seller said that he was minding her for someone else. As she has not been vaccinated or microchipped explained the reduced price, and on first sight we liked what we saw – an exceptionally  cute and pretty kitten.

So we now have a new feline companion and her name is Sophie and she is about nine weeks old and very small.  Her mother apparently was Siamese and her father a Bengal, so she could grow into an interestingly patterned cat, with any luck she might develop spots and stripes.

I wanted to call her Dido, but I’ve been overruled and she is now Sophie, which is OK by me.

Anyway back to the kitten, Sophie has settled in well and loves warmth and affection, and has a vocal opinion about everything. We have discovered she likes cooked chicken, though she is not a greedy cat as Bingo was.

Being female we hope she won’t have a desire to wander. We plan to keep her inside for the most part, still mindful of Bingo’s disappearance.

The next few months should be more interesting than normal, distracting too with kitten mayhem and madness.

Good Riddance to 2021

Bingo, still missing, on the prowl 2020

After enduring two years of the covid pandemic and its concomitant restrictions, I’m sure I’m not the only one glad that 2021 is almost over.

Not that anything will really go back to normal, but I am feeling cautiously optimistic for an improvement in life in 2022, despite the rampant Omicron variation that is afflicting the world at present.

What a determined little virus it is!.

Just when we thought it was safe to go back into society, being fully vaccinated and boosted, we feel uneasy once more and I for one continue to be vigilant when out and about and wear a mask.

2021, as years go, was pretty awful with very few uplifting experiences; in fact I can’t think of a single one. No wonder I seem to have grown more cynical this year!

The lowlight was of course the disappearance of our beautiful cat Bingo. We still miss him and feel bereft having no companion animal after numerous decades with cats being part of the household.

Perhaps we’ll acquire a new kitten in 2022, as it is very doubtful that we’ll ever see Bingo again. That’s something to look forward to at least.

I did not read any new books that blew me away with their brilliance or originality, but I did enjoy Neal Stephenson’s take on climate change in his latest novel titled Termination Shock, and Amor Towles ( of a Gentleman In Moscow fame) Lincoln Highway, a sort of road novel set in the 1950s with a cast of interesting characters.

Also read and enjoyed were the new Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land, and Panenka by Ronan Hession, author of the wonderful Leonard and Hungry Paul, my favourite recent comfort read.

The computer game discovery of the year was undoubtedly the Monkey Island series; a great time killer with the just the right amount of levity and absurdity to take one’s mind off the dire state of the world, and keep one’s spirits up.

This New Year’s Eve is a hot 38ºC, a sizzling summer day in Melbourne, but the Ivanhoe house being well insulated  is cool inside. As usual we will not be celebrating the New Year in any particular way – staying home and retiring to bed well before midnight.

We went to my brother’s place in Ocean Grove for Christmas lunch – a surfeit of sociability that  left me tired at the end of the day. It was however pleasant to see my niece and nephew again, and note how the great nieces and nephews have grown over the year since I last saw them.

Verry Elleegant winning the 2021 Melbourne Cup

It was disappointing to miss the Melbourne Spring racing carnival, but exciting to watch on my computer. I was suitably thrilled when Verry Elleegant won the Melbourne Cup as I’d had a wager on her of $3.00 each way and she paid generously, winning me $73.50.  I would have loved to have been there and have taken a photo of James McDonald’s extravagant reaction as she crossed the line, but with tickets costing $120.00, I gave it a miss.

Looking forward to 2022 I hope to go back to the track on Australia Day, for the Blue Diamond previews. In the meantime the Magic Millions meetings in Queensland in January are always interesting to watch.

Every year at this time I have expressed a hope that John Crowley’s Little, Big 25th Anniversary edition will finally be published.  This time there is every expectation that the book will be in my hands early next year. I hope I’m not proven wrong again.

Other books I’m looking forward to in 2022 are the new Jennifer Egan novel, The Candy House, a sort of sequel to her wonderful A Visit From the Goon Squad, and a new John Crowley novel called Flint And Mirror, both to be published in April.

I’m also intrigued by the news that G.H. Morris, author of the marvellous Brightside Trilogy that was published way back in the 1980s, has a new novel purportedly called A Brotherhood of the Disarranged being published in 2022.

Though world peace is standing on shaky ground at present with Russia and China rattling sabres, and with the covid pandemic continuing relentlessly to infect mankind, we can only hope that 2022 is an improvement on 2021.

Happy New Year for what it’s worth.

If Wishes Were Horses

Winx after winning the 2017 Turnbull Stakes

It now appears that due to the continued infestation of the Delta variant of Covid 19, public attendance at this year’s Spring Racing Carnival will not be permitted.  This is disappointing news, but I can hope for a normal Autumn carnival next year.

I’m particularly aggrieved  at not being able to attend the Cox Plate. I did purchase an early bird ticket to the Cox Plate in the hope that by the time it was run in late October that Covid  would not be still an issue, but I received a phone call from Moonee Valley Racing Club the other day advising that that public attendance was not allowed and that they will refund my outlay on the ticket.

If I could have attended next Saturday’s Turnbull Stakes meeting at Flemington I would have been somewhat mollified at missing the Cox Plate, as the Turnbull Stakes features several horses that I would have liked to see in the flesh.

It looks a great race with star mare Verry Elleegant, whom I have not seen in action since her three year old days, up against potential new star of the turf and current favourite for the Melbourne Cup  Incentivise and 2020 Cox Plate winner Sir Dragonet. Verry Elleegant won the Turnbull Stakes last year, and will be out to emulate the great Winx who won the race in consecutive years in 2017 and 2018. She has to beat Incentivise who won the Makybe Diva Stakes and six consecutive races in Queensland prior to that.

I also would have liked to see triple Derby winner Explosive Jack and Golden Eagle winner Colette  who I’ve not seen in action before.

On the up side of lockdown at least the distance one is permitted to travel has been extended to 15 kilometres, so I could go to the Victoria Market yesterday. It’s the first time I’ve travelled on public transport since early August.

I’ve almost forgotten what normal is after nearly two years in lockdown. Who knows what the new normal, when everyone’s vaccinated and borders open, will be like. It’ll be different from the old normal I suspect.

My current killing time reading is the wonderful Gods, Graves, and Scholars: The Story of Archaeology by C W Ceram which I have read a couple of times before and reviewed on this blog back in  2009. For light relief, on my Kindle, I’m reading Domestic Bliss and Other Disasters by Jane Ions, a well written witty contemporary novel. It’s been shortlisted for the 2021 Comedy Women in Print Prize.

As for computer gaming, Monkey Island is still keeping me amused at present.

And alas Bingo remains missing, though never far from our thoughts.

Four Years On

The Ivanhoe residence

Today, 7 September 2021,  is the fourth anniversary of our move to Ivanhoe from Northcote.

In  September 2017, Covid 19 was not around, and little did we know that three years after that move  our world would change to a new grim dystopian reality of lockdowns, curfews and mandatory mask wearing.

Like everyone else I am heartily sick of lockdowns. I have not been anywhere interesting for months and hardly dare book for any event that might relieve the tedium of life under restricting Covid 19 conditions in case it’s cancelled.

Added to the that, the mystery of Bingo’s disappearance just makes life more depressing and sad.

It is now 20 days since Bingo went missing and even though I am coming to accept that we may never see him again, the memories of his droll presence still take one unawares quite often and cause the heart to catch.

In the photo above he is playing with his favourite toy, a ratty old catmint cushion that he loved to retrieve when you hurled it up the hall.

His absence has left a huge vacancy in our lives that can only be filled with a new cat of Bingo’s calibre.

Covid 19 restrictions of course stymie any idea of acquiring a new feline companion, if we could find one that is.

Despite being fully vaccinated I have yet to experience (other than not catching the virus) any benefits for being so.

It was with a slight lift to my spirits that I read that vaccinated people  may be able to go to  public events in the near future. Hopefully that includes getting back to the races for some of the Spring Racing Carnival.

God knows I need a distraction as I find myself unenthused by most of the things I used to enjoy spending time on, such as reading books and playing computer games.

The only books I really enjoyed recently were two rereads of Michael Chabon novels Telegraph Avenue and The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, and entirely due to the quality of Michael Chabon’s dazzling prose.

After Bingo’s disappearance the only computer games I felt like playing were the Monkey Island series, simply because of their humour,  light-heartedness and absurdity.

Even though I have got used to living in Ivanhoe, this fourth anniversary finds me sad and dissatisfied.

No doubt if Bingo was still around I would be feeling more cheerful and optimistic.

Desolate & Downhearted

I’m glad that I snapped several good photos of Bingo recently, because it is very doubtful at present whether I will have another opportunity to capture his beauty again on camera.

Bingo has been missing since the early morning of Wednesday 18 August, and despite all our efforts to find him, he remains lost to us.

We are heartbroken and torn between hope and despair –hoping to see him walk through the door, and trying to accept that he’s gone for good.

Tuesday night all was normal, Bingo sleeping on the bed with us as was his wont. He got up at around 2.30 am and we knew something wasn't right when he failed to to turn up for his breakfast. He always started hassling B at 6.30 am to get up and feed him. We were not overly alarmed at this stage as he occasionally became obsessed with something that caught his fancy in his cat world and would be home soon after.

We searched everywhere on Wednesday, multiple times over the day and in the evening. Calling his name and rattling a container of dried cat food would normally catch his attention and cause him to emerge from where he was lurking or communicate vocally, which to a Siamese cat is second nature. However, not a peep did we hear in all our perambulations through the streets of Ivanhoe.

So we are left wondering what disaster befell Bingo between the hours of 2.30 am to 6.30 am on that Wednesday morning.

Was he stolen?

With Melbourne currently being in hard lock down, very few people would have been abroad  so early in the day with dawn currently occurring around 6.30 am, so it is unlikely that he was catnapped. Besides, Bingo was very shy of strangers, even if they were visitors to the house, so he would have been hard to catch and would not willingly have entered a cage.

That he was trapped in a garage or shed seemed the most likely explanation of his non appearance, but the Lost Cat posters placed in all the nearby streets have failed to register a response from neighbours.

He’s registered as missing in all the usual places – vets, council, cat protection society and several Lost Cat Facebook pages. We’ve done everything we can to locate him, but as the  days roll by we’re losing hope of ever finding him alive or ascertaining his whereabouts and state of health.

Bingo was (hopefully is) a remarkable cat, and it’s only now that he’s gone that I realise what a big part of our lives he was. Every room in the house brings some reminder or expectation of seeing him – the cat toy abandoned in the hallway, the paw prints on the kitchen bench, the habit of closing doors in the house to reduce the places where he can drag his prey to kill,  or get up to mischief.

He took an interest in everything we did and loved his home comforts of food and warmth and laps to sit on.

I am certain that if he could have got home, he would have come home. He knew where he lived, no matter how far he roamed.

He was our sunshine. Without him, the world is a sadder place.

Hibernation

Bingo – photographed today

I’ve been awfully slack on the blogging front, but truth to tell, there has not been much to write about.

With Covid 19 still being a big factor in our lives, there is limited opportunity to do something different or go on outings that do not involve shopping for provisions.

It being winter, a surprisingly mild one at that, the horse racing is not that interesting, but there’s not long to wait for the Spring racing season to start. Of  course Covid restrictions may stymie actual attendance, but hopefully I will get to witness the big races of the Spring Carnival.

I’m looking forward to finally being fully vaccinated in 10 days, which will ease some of the anxiety attendant on any kind of outing, as has been the case over the last year and a half.

The photo above is of Bingo who is thankfully in good health this year, after giving us a scare the last two winters by losing his appetite in early July of both years.

There’s nothing wrong with his appetite this year – he is ravenous – so we worry about him becoming overweight instead.

On the time killing front, I’ve not been doing much mostly replaying the Monkey Island games and reading the odd book. I’m mostly uninspired by the new literature available at present, but have recently enjoyed Ronan Hession’s (of Leonard and Hungry Paul fame) new novel Panenka, which I thought quite as good and as heart warming as the earlier novel. Ronan Hession is a brilliant writer that I’m delighted to have discovered.

Once fully vaccinated I intend to go and soak up some culture, by attending the French Impressionists Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria and the Treasures of the Natural World at Melbourne Museum.

In the meantime I will continue my winter hibernation.

The Crazy Days Continue

Bingo  - December 2020

So far 2021 doesn’t look all that promising for a return to normal life, with Covid 19 still limiting  freedom of movement for many people in the world. One bright spot is that Donald Trump will no longer be US President after 20 January. Hooray!

Thankfully in Victoria a third  Covid wave has not eventuated, though certain areas in NSW and Queensland have been in lockdown after the virus escaped quarantine, and borders between various States have been closed. Unlucky if you were a Victorian holidaying in Queensland and NSW and wishing to return home.

Here at the Cat Politics domicile, we’ve been barely affected, life trundling along as normal.

We did however have a health scare with Bingo on Boxing Day, where he returned from patrolling his territory with a painful injury to his front left leg. It was something of a mystery as it didn’t seem to be external - you could squeeze the leg and paw without him reacting negatively. However, it obviously hurt to put weight on the leg and he howled and carried on in such a distressing manner we eventually took him to the 24 hour Vet, CARE in Hoddle Street to get examined. They were also puzzled by the injury and couldn’t find anything physically wrong. They treated him with an anti-inflammatory and gave us a bottle of the stuff to give him over the next three days.

He was quite subdued for a while, but the anti- inflammatory worked and he was back to his old self, walking - with a limp - in a few days. He still has a slight limp every so often even now. Goodness knows how he came by the injury, though I suspect an awkward jump from a height might have caused a muscle strain.

Since Christmas I’ve been amusing myself in the usual way, reading books and playing computer games. The current novel in progress is The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton, a Christmas present from a friend. I’m finding it a moderately engrossing read, though not high literature by any means.

And I’ve just finished a surprisingly amusing game titled A Vampyre Story that was released in 2008 and recently on sale on GOG.

 
A Vampyre Story screenshot – Mona & Froderick

Deep within the walls of a gloomy castle in the equally gloomy land of Draxsylvania, the young, gifted opera singer Mona De Lafitte is held captive by her tormentor, vampire Baron Shrowdy von Kiefer. Ever since she was transformed into a vampire by Shrowdy and whisked off to Draxsylvania, her greatest wish has been to return to Paris, continue her singing career, and one day become a star at the Paris Opera.

The voice acting and dialogue are excellent and Mona is an engaging and likeable heroine as is her bat offsider Froderick. Unfortunately the game ends on a cliff-hanger, the proposed sequel failing to  eventuate. I was however pleased to discover the game and will probably replay it in future.

There aren’t any cultural treats in store thus far in 2021 – such as music concerts and literary events I would pay to see, but at least with the Covid 19 vaccine close to approval in Australia it may soon be safe to go out and about as normal, hopefully before the Autumn horse racing season,  which kicks off in early February.

Next weekend is of interest with the Magic Millions race day on the Gold Coast – always one to watch and take note of the winners of the 2 year old and 3 year old races.

On that note, here’s wishing that  2021 will be an improvement on 2020 in all ways.

Sidling towards Christmas

Recent photo of Bingo

It’s December and the worst year on record is now drawing to an end.

Fortunately Covid 19 has now been eradicated from Victoria, but of course, with people now returning from overseas, there’s every possibility that it could be set loose again. I’m thankful to live in Australia, rather than America for instance, where the pandemic is wreaking havoc with infections and covid deaths skyrocketing.

I snapped the above photo of Bingo last weekend and the light was perfect.

Here’s another showing his beautiful blue eyes.

 

He’s now four years old and is in good health and high spirits, though spends most of his time during the day asleep on the bed.

For a while he was obsessed with Socks, a new cat on the block, spending a great deal of time engaging in growling and howling at Socks’ intrusions on his territory. Socks has now moved to the country with his owner, but before he moved both cats appeared to have reached a compromise and were sort of frenemies.

Bingo is an affectionate cat and great purrer , despite his forceful demanding nature, and still playful, remembering how to play fetch even now.

As for me I’ve run out of new books, so decided to read Piranesi by Susanna Clarke again. It’s even better the second time around, a melancholic, haunting reflection on isolation and memory.  I’ve promoted it to my favourite book this year.

In computer games I inadvertently reached the end of The Longing. I neglected the Shade too long, and when I entered the game again it finished in a rather unsatisfactory fashion. I suppose I could replay the game, but the thought of slowly progressing through it again is unappealing at the moment.

All being well with the pandemic, and in expectation of a vaccine being available early next year, hopes are raised of returning to the races during the Autumn carnival.

As Time Goes By…

Bingo watching television

Bingo the wonder cat demonstrated the other night that cats actually do notice stuff on television. His taste in TV shows relate to nature programs, especially if there are birds involved.

He was lolling on one or the other of our knees in front of the heater as we desultorily watched  a program on SBS about Russia’s Wild Sea, exploring the Sea of Okhotsk that lies between the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Japanese island of Hokkaido, termed the last and greatest unspoiled ocean on Earth, when his attention was captured by the sea eagles flying around on the screen. He sprang to the floor and sat beneath the TV to get a closer view and remained fascinated long enough for me to take a photo.

People on the screen hold no interest for him; it’s only birds and animals that grab his attention.

It’s October already and here in Melbourne we are still in stage 4 lockdown, though hopefully with cases of Covid19 diminishing by the day, we may be able to experience greater freedom soon. Wow, I might even be able to go to the Victoria Market in a couple of weeks!

Unfortunately the easing of restrictions will not include public attendance at the races over the pointy end of the Melbourne Racing Carnival. I’m particularly aggrieved to miss going to the Cox Plate.

However, as usual I have been following the racing action as the season progresses. This weekend for instance has four Group 1 races to watch, the Turnbull Stakes in Melbourne and the Flight Stakes. Epsom Handicap and Metropolitan feature at Randwick in Sydney.

To console myself I have been having the occasional wager with mixed results, my best win being on Kolding in the George Main Stakes, which boosted  the funds in my Sportsbet account, thus giving me plenty of play money for the rest of the season.

On the home front I’ve as usual been killing the time with reading and computer games.

After finishing the Dublin Trilogy, which I enjoyed quite a lot, I read Lanny by Max Porter and the enchanting  new Susanna Clarke novel, Piranesi. I must admit I was not as enraptured by Lanny as I was by Piranesi, which continues to haunt me. I acquired it in an exclusive signed hardcover edition from Waterstones. It is a handsome edition, quite the bibliophile’s delight with ornate boards under the dust jacket.

Piranesi hardcover binding

Piranesi Dust Jacket

The novel has received rave reviews from all and sundry so I’m not going to provide one here.  There’s a summary of the reviews on Literary Hub.

As for games, I’m still playing The Longing and have progressed – at snails pace – in that the Shade has acquired more books, has explored most of the caves and collected various items to enhance his abode. He has expanded his one room into four chambers that include a bathroom and mushroom farm. He’s yet to find enough pieces of wood to make a bed. Most days I set him off on a journey to see if anything has changed and generally close the game when he’s back home reading a book.

I’m also playing a 2018 game called Unforeseen Incidents. Ironically it deals with a viral plague afflicting a town called Yelltown. As a person living in a similar situation in Melbourne, one feels slightly alarmed to see the game characters walking around without PPE and failing to be infected. It’s moderately amusing to play and the story is interesting so far.

So life goes on and one must be thankful that we’re still alive to report on it.

Give me somewhere to go…Lockdown Blues

The first part of the Post title comes from the James Reyne song Motor Too Fast, contained in the chorus that goes:

Give me somewhere to go
Don't give me train rides
When the shops are all closed
Don't give me train rides

I must admit that stage 4 restrictions here in Melbourne are getting a tad tedious, so I find the above lyrics running through my head every so often, as I certainly can’t go anywhere beyond 5 kilometres from home, and have not caught a bus, train or tram since the restrictions came in, coincidently on my birthday.

However time flits past and I fill the it with trivial pursuits such as playing computer games and reading.

The current game is a moderately amusing point and click adventure titled Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town, and the current book is the new David Mitchell novel Utopia Avenue, which, set as it is in 1967, I am finding quite enjoyable. I’ve also downloaded a heap of books onto my Kindle, redeeming Amazon gift vouchers I received for my birthday. So for a change I have eight new novels in my TBR pile (albeit electronic).

But what I’m pining for is an afternoon at the races, which of course is out of the question at the moment and probably for the rest of spring.

The Memsie Stakes, the first Group 1 race of Melbourne’s Spring Racing Season is at Caulfield next Saturday and I’m sorry to miss it having attended the meeting since 2013.

Of the several notable deaths this week, Justin Townes Earle for instance, the announcement of Atlantic Jewel’s death giving birth to a foal by Justify, was particularly sad for the racing fraternity.

A coodabeen champion of the likes of Black Caviar and Winx, Atlantic Jewel  won 10 races out of 11 starts, her only loss being the 2013 Underwood Stakes where she was beaten by a whisker by It’s A Dundeel , her second last start before retirement. It’s pity she was so injury prone, otherwise she could have won many more races, including the 2013 Cox Plate.

I saw her in action several times in 2013, including the Memsie Stakes. Unfortunately my camera at the time was not as good as the current Nikon, so the photos are less than perfect.

Atlantic Jewel on her way to winning the 2013 Memsie Stakes

Atlantic Jewel returning to scale

This year’s edition of the Memsie Stakes has attracted a field of 15 contenders that include star mares Mystic Journey and Arcadia Queen, as well as All Star Mile winner Regal Power, dual Australian Cup winner Harlem, and other familiar gallopers such as Mr Quickie, Begood Toya Mother, So Si Bon and Gatting.

Many in the Memsie Stakes field contested the cursed P B Lawrence Stakes a fortnight ago, which was won by Godolphin mare Savatiano, who is also part of this year’s Memsie field . It will be interesting to see if she wins again this spring or is cursed like recent P B Lawrence Stakes winners who have failed to win again in the season, for example Mystic Journey last year.

Mystic Journey

Who knows what the race outcome will be this year. I’m hoping that either Mystic Journey or Arcadia Queen are in the finish somewhere. They disappointed in the P B Lawrence, but second up on a firmer track might show their true colours.

Last week the first Group 1 of the spring, the Winx Stakes, was run at Randwick. Verry Elleegant demonstrated that she was well and truly  heading for a good spring by winning the race impressively.

On the home front Bingo has continued to eat well, in fact his appetite is voracious. We now worry that he’ll become overweight. Fortunately he still eats zucchini and other vegetables which we give him to fill him up between meal times and go easy on the dried food. He loves his home comforts of warmth and affection and even still remembers how to fetch.

Japanese Modernism–A Short Break Before Lockdown

Toraji Ishikawa– Resting (Woodblock print)

Here we are in Melbourne forced again to stay home for the next six weeks in a second lockdown.

But, just before this second constraint on liberty occurred, I visited the National Gallery of Victoria ostensibly to see the current exhibition featuring Japanese art from the 1930s – Japanese Modernism.

You had to pre- book your visit online, nominating a date and time, as visitors to the gallery were limited to around 450 persons at a time.

I opted for July 8th and it’s lucky I selected that day as the lockdown came into effect from 9 July and the Gallery is closed again for visitors.

It was like having the gallery all to yourself; so few people being in attendance at the same time made the outing pleasant with not having to cope with other attendees hogging the exhibits.

One of my favourite old calendars is that for 1989, Prints of the Dark Valley which features the woodblock art of Japan in the 1930s. I was smitten back then with Toraji Ishikawa’s  series of prints titled The Ten Beauties (AKA Ten Types of Female Nudes).  They were so stylish -  sort of oriental Art Deco with an unusual composition aesthetic.

So I’m delighted to discover that NGV acquired the series for their permanent collection in 2014 and are currently featuring them in their Japanese Modernism exhibition. I can go back and see them anytime when I am not as distracted as I was last Wednesday due to Bingo being unwell. (More about that later)

The Japanese Modernism period is described in the exhibition notes as follows:

During a brief window between the destruction caused by the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923 and the calamities of the Pacific War (1942–45), the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Osaka developed into some of the world’s most vibrant and modern metropolises. Bustling streets filled with glamorous department stores, fashionable cafes, popular movie theatres, swinging dance halls and high-tech transportation catered to a new generation of confident and financially liberated youth, who challenged conservative views and delighted in disrupting the establishment by making their own lifestyle choices.

Playfully known as moga and mobo – modern girls and modern boys – this new generation represented the arrival of modernity in Asia and in turn spurred the inspiration, iconography and dynamism behind a creative movement that energised Japanese creativity and innovation during the early twentieth century. This exhibition investigates the increasingly socially liberated status of women in Japan at the time. Japanese Modernism also features fashion of the 1920s and 1930s, including women’s and men’s kimonos, and related accessories. Decorative arts objects include beautifully crafted glassware, lacquerware and bronzeware, and popular culture is represented by street posters,
magazines and graphic design.

Not being entirely sure as to where the exhibition was situated in the gallery, other than knowing it was on the first floor somewhere, I headed that way and came upon the NGV’s collection of Asian Art.

The first object that caught my eye was this amazing metal motor scooter, the creation of Indian artist Subodh Gupta.

Cow by Subodh Gupta

Cow (back view)

Also in this area were various Buddhas…

Dainichi Buddha – Japan Kamakura Period 1185 to 1333

…and Guanyin – Chinese Goddess of Compassion

Guanyin – China Jin Dynasty 1115 to 1234

I was also taken by these contemporary Japanese artworks in the Japanese Design – Neolithic to Now exhibition

Bag by Issey Miyake 2016

Fan by Taro Yamamoto -Green maple and boat on flow (2012)

Up In the Clouds  by Wei Guan – bronze sculpture 2012

Also exhibited in the Japanese Design section were Noh Theatre Robes of elaborate design…

Noh Theatre robe

…and the following exquisite lacquer bust

Lacquer Bust by Ah Xian

Eventually, after wandering around the Asian Art collection and failing to find the up ramp which led to the Japanese Modernism Exhibition I asked one of the Galley staff for directions. The gallery is a maze – a Chinese Mystery Box of rooms within rooms within rooms.

The Japanese Modernism exhibition encompassed not only woodblock prints but clothing and other objects such as this lacquer box…

Lacquer Box with horses and hand printed gift envelopes to the left

…and small animal sculptures in bronze.

  Polar Bear by Junmin Yamamoto

There was a wall of woodblock prints of  young Japanese modern women enjoying various activities.

and another wall of popular music scores.

Music scores

The Toraji Ishikawa series of nudes also occupied its own wall.

Toraji Ishikawa display

Toraji Ishikawa – The Sound of the  Bell

Toraji Ishikawa – Reading

Toraji Ishikawa – The Blue Parrot

As opposed to traditional kimono design, those of 1930’s Japan have a thoroughly contemporary look that would be attractive and unusual even today.

Kimonos

Kimono design detail

Kimono design detail

Kimono design detail

Even the modern (1930s) Japanese male had interesting modern undergarments decorated with such things as planes, cars, record albums etc.

Man’s undergarment with records

Men’s undergarment with planes and cars detail

As you will have ascertained that there was a lot to see in the Japanese Modernism Exhibition, and truth to tell I did not view the whole in as much detail as I could.

However one cannot move on from the exhibition without posting two quite famous pictures.

Shunko Saeki – Tea and coffee Salon

Hisui Sugiura – The First Subway in Asia – Ueno to Asakusa

The Japanese Modernism Exhibition  is on until 2 October 2020. It’s a refreshing, colourful and unusual look at Japanese society before World War II changed everything.

Before leaving the Gallery I decided to go and have a look at Liquid Light- 500 Years of Venetian Glass. It ranged from exquisite creations to over the top excess.

Venetian Glassware

Candelabrum C 1880– not really to my taste

Wine Glass -  more my thing

Wine Glass

Goblet

Of course I couldn’t leave the Gallery without visiting the NGV Shop. It being a Wednesday, my Seniors Card permitted me to claim a 10% discount on purchases. The NGV Shop has quality items at various prices. I generally buy a few postcards for my collection and greeting cards to send to friends on their birthdays.

Back to the cause of my distraction, Bingo the cat was very unwell last week, refusing food from Monday and looking quite poorly – listless and quite unlike his usual self.  We took him to the vet on Tuesday. who had no idea what was ailing the cat, other than that he had a fever, but gave him an antibiotic injection as a precaution. Bingo was slightly brighter on Wednesday but refused food again, which meant that he had not had any solid food since Sunday evening, though had been drinking water. Back to the Vet he went and spent the day there on a drip.  He was extremely distressed when we got him home that night, but he eventually settled and even nibbled on some leftover sausage. I left a small  portion of said sausage in a bowl over night and he ate it. On Thursday he had improved and even managed some breakfast of sausage. Today he is back to normal, thank goodness, but he certainly caused a great deal of fret and worry to his human companions last week.

The Vet gave us some pills to boost his appetite and a liquid painkiller that seemed to zonk him out. Described by the Vet as cat heroin, we’ve discontinued administering it over the last few days.

Curiously, at pretty much the same time last year he had a similar episode of not eating for a week. Coincidence?