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Having noticed that every house whose block runs north-south is advertised as either “north facing street frontage” or “north to rear gardens”, Kerry Kyriacou of Strathfield wonders if this is just a case of real estate agent spin or if there is “an ideal orientation for properties in Sydney? I trust one of your informed readers will enlighten me”.
As an avowed yellow peach-lover (C8), Margot McGregor of Balgowlah has discovered through years of trial and error how to distinguish between the slipstones and clingstones before you buy them. “The slipstones have a small point on their bottoms, whereas clingstones are smooth all over. This way has always worked for me.” If by some chance the peach still has some stem attached to it, Tony Livingstone-Thomas of Taipei suggests “flipping the remaining piece of stem attached to the peach, and if it comes away easily it is a slipstone. If difficult, it is a clingstone.”
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Having not had the opportunity to work from home during this COVID era, Jack Dikian of Mosman is interested to know where those working from home go to when they chuck a sickie . USB-C is great, writes Warren Menteith of Nyatnyatan (Bali). No more fumbling, cursing or damaged bits when plugging in your phone or whatever. Now a challenge to the tech boffins. Please do it on the other end of the cord and the adaptor.
Everyone correctly identified the orange poles artwork (C8) as a memorial to the Light Horsemen at the appropriately named Light Horse Interchange on the M4. Congratulations! A few readers observed that the site is particularly significant as the Light Horse trained at nearby Wallgrove, some actually managed to appreciate the humour in the suggestions in John s item while others admitted to their own original confusion about the poles upon first seeing them, thinking they were unfinished electrical poles. Those who regularly pass the location lamented
The Ghost of Christmas repast
The Ghost of Christmas repast
December 23, 2020 8.00pm
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Ralph Davis of Wahroonga thinks: The Christmas turkey tradition (C8) is like the Australia Day lamb tradition – both dreamt up by hungry Aussie advertising executives, and Paul Keys of Cloud Creek says: There were no turkeys for Christmas in the 1950s in my surrounds. Chicken if you had money and a slice of K.R. Darling Downs tinned ham for us. But others beg to differ. Alison Gyger of Sydney is 87 and definitely has memories of turkey as part of Christmas. We picked them up at Newcastle station, as they were sent by rail (two trains) by my grandparents in Forbes. In her 70s, Anne Cook of Ermington is a spring chicken comparatively and remembers roast turkey on Christmas Day. For many years, we had a hot Christmas lunch until someone had a lightbulb moment and it became a cold banquet.
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The father of Warren Menteith of Nyatnyatan (Bali) was a primary school teacher, who had “the unerring ability to turn from the blackboard (C8) and hit a miscreant, supposedly sight unseen, with the chalk. Years later when I asked how he could do that, he said, “Easy, I wear glasses and the blackboard acted like a mirror on the edges of the specs.”
“Well may you write a cheque on a cow (C8) but a student teacher of mine actually drew a diagram of a cow’s digestive system on one of our school’s Jersey cows,” writes Phil Armour of Yass. Something to ruminate on.