Northwood, Sydney 16.9.67
Dear
Mother,
Shifted
out of the Grand Hotel today – thank goodness – any longer there would have
ruined me. Got out to Anne’s and since she was going out to do the shopping,
stayed in and talked to Christopher.
Though
it wasn’t much of a day, Chris and I went to Luna Park, (Jenny was already
going out for the afternoon) which was not nearly as big a place as I expected.
However, we enjoyed it, and Chris is fortunately not the sort of kid who likes
going on the really hectic things – Ferris Wheels, Big Dippers, etc. Though we
did go on three things in a row which resulted in my feeling knock-kneed and
dizzy, and several other things besides, but I survived the walk home from the
station – which is about a mile and a half from here, and a lot of it uphill.
Sat up
and watched The Window on TV – it
finished about 10.15 – in fact I was going to watch another movie but decided not to; it’s about a little boy (Bobby
Driscoll, who was the voice of Peter Pan, a bit later) who sees a murder, but
no one believes him because he’s a tall story teller at the best of times.
Arthur Kennedy and Ruth Roman were his disbelieving daddy and mommy. Very good.
They have an incredible number of movies on TV here. (Of course, there’s four
channels.) But I reckon, I could stay home and see a movie every night with
ease, and probably two. What a life! [In
those days, new movies were worth seeing, and Mum and I had gone regularly,
week after week, to a five o’clock Friday session to see a new film, from the
time I was quite young. When I was able to pay my way, I’d often go to more
than one in a day, or a weekend, and if there was a Film Festival on, I could
wind up seeing more.]
LATER
Mary Williams, (the cellist) has been out for the afternoon and we three went
wandering all round the suburb, in the sun; Anne pointing out various
interesting things.
Watched
Hole in the Head on TV, a Frank
Capra, of the 50s, with Frank Sinatra, Edward G Robinson, Eleanor Parker,
Thelma Ritter, etc. Marvellous.
Anne’s
house is very nice – she’s apparently re-done it, in a lot of ways – modernised
it slightly etc. She’s got quite a bit of furniture that she brought from
England, some of it very old (it belonged to her mother before her). And she
has a couple of Renoir prints and an old original (not by anyone famous) dated
1611 (!) in her lounge.
[In the original letter there is a drawn plan
of the house.] As usual everything here is a little out of proportion, but
I dare say you get the picture. It’s not really as big a house as it looks
either, I suppose it would be about the same size as our place, perhaps a
trifle smaller. [Which must means that
the rooms are very small, since there are four bedrooms in the plan.]
This
doesn’t seem much of a letter for 2 days, but I don’t seem to have done much.
Got to ring Aussie Trust again today
– so, we’ll see what happens. Supposed to see Pikler for lunch tomorrow – don’t
know that he’ll be of much use, now, since I’ve already been to the Con where
he works. We’ll see. How’s Fred? [the cat]
Love, Anyway, Mike.
