5/12/10

Politics have been uppermost in my mind today. We had our budget yesterday evening so the papers have been full of pros and cons. It appears to be steady as we go for people like us; in fact, pharmacy items are going to be cheaper.The main thrust is taxing the mining giants enormously, and that could easily backfire. Already some of them are threatening to move activities to more friendly countries!

Then, of course, I've been captivated by the news from Britain, where I was born. I go to sleep with the BBC on every night, and it's still droning away when I wake in the morning, but I wake up with a start if anything of interest to me is mentioned. Consequently, I heard Gordon Brown's 'retirement' speech when it happened, which was deep in the Australian night. I found it quite moving, particularly as he must be such a disappointed man. So now we'll wait for the two parties in the Coalition to start squabbling!

I conducted my U3A Poetry group this-morning. Our numbers were depleted through holidays and sickness, but we still enjoyed reading and discussing. I took along two very different poems, one by Walt Whitman and the other by Joyce Grenfell to analyse and others brought their own choices, from C.J.Dennis to T.S. Eliot. I had to spend the afternoon in town having ultra-sound tests done on my carotid arteries. Because I have problems in my legs, an additional test was deemed necessary. It's quite unnerving hearing the blood surging through ones body!