QUESTIONS

• What news event do you vividly remember hearing about as a child, and where were you?

My earliest memories of news events were things that I saw on the television news at home. As most of you know, I was born in England and lived there until I was eight years old so my memories of world events are of those things that were big enough to make it to British television. I think that 1963, the year I turned six was the first year that I really started to take notice of what was going on in the world around me. Scary times in many ways, wars, assassinations, political tension but also events like Russian and American rocket launches. I also remember Beatlemania which was very much in the news.

There are a couple of particular news events I remember from my early childhood. One of the earliest is the death of Pope John XXIII in June 1963 and the election of his successor. Our family was not Catholic or even particularly religious but I recall this being constantly covered on the news. I’m not sure why I was interested as a six year old. Perhaps it was the detail of smoke rising from the chimney of a particular building in the Vatican when the new Pope was chosen. I barely knew what a Pope was. 1963 was of course also the year that JFK was assassinated and this too was widely covered on British television. Again I don’t recall a lot about the actual event but I remember it being on the news.

My other early memories of news stories from the early to mid 1960s, men walking in space for the first time, Tokyo Olympics in 1964, US elections 1964, death of Winston Churchill and a couple of Royal Weddings.

• What is a Christmas song that makes you cringe?

Most of the modern ones are not to my taste, mainly because I don’t care for the pop music of the last twenty years. Mind you there were some pretty annoying Christmas songs from earlier times too. “Last Christmas” by Wham comes to mind or the corny “I Saw Mummy Kissing Santa Claus”. There is no particular version of it I dislike more than others so I’m not picking on the Jackson 5.

• What is one place you shop(ped prior to Covid) that might have surprised people?

I really can’t think of anywhere I’ve ever shopped that would surprise people. Actually I have done a large amount of my shopping online for the past few years before Covid was even a thing. When I lived in Geeveston I could go to Hobart and the surrounding suburbs and I mostly visited stores like Target, K Mart, Big W, Millers, Chemist Warehouse and toy shops whenever I could find one. I used to love to visit bookshops but I can’t really afford new books even if I had somewhere to put them. Nothing particularly unusual about that.

• What is your least favorite holiday side dish?

I am always a little confused by the term side dish. I understand it as used in restaurants but I tend to think of the meat and vegetables as components of the meal not separate dishes. When we used to entertain at Christmas we did serve vegetables separately so everyone could take what they wanted but with two or three people it’s not necessary, it’s just all dished up onto one plate. As to least favourite dishes I really don’t have one. When you only have a couple of people to cook for and you are doing most of the cooking you don’t have to make anything that you don’t like.

Gratitude

I wouldn’t call it heart warming but I was rather pleased to receive a voucher for a local café in Wynyard from the local council as thanks for volunteering at the Visitor Centre .I had just started there in March and I’ve barely been there this year because of Covid. The volunteers were told to stay home soon after I started and the centre was closed for a while. So I thought it was a nice gesture.