Did you know that in
Sydney in 1900 rats scampered off ships from overseas to spread the deadly Black (Bubonic) Plague throughout the town, killing more than 300 people in eight months?

I was intrigued by this information and wanted to know how Sydneysiders dealt with the crisis, and how their lives were affected. 

Some information is posted with pictures on my blogs 70 Plus and Still Kicking (www.70plusandstillkicking.blogspot.com ) and Journeys in Creative Writing  http://journeysincreativewriting.blogspot.com/2008/08/black-or-bubonic-plague-sydney-1900.html.

I also posted ‘Labyrinth’, a story I wrote, exploring the tribulations of a young girl living in the town at the time. 

Here’s a sample:

It is a particularly dark and still February night in harbourside Sydney Town, a scorching airless night where hundreds of souls toss and turn on beds of straw and rags, wishing for the southerly to come and ease the heat, the latest of their discomforts.
Look close through the gloom to see outsize rats skitter from nearby docked ships. See them nuzzle the rubbish in streets and backyards, and watch them scamper through cesspits and ground depressions where foul slops lie.

I am indebted to NSW State Records for pictures and some of the background information. I hope GreyPath people have a peek at 'Labyrinth' http://journeysincreativewriting.blogspot.com/2008/08/labyrinth-plague-in-olde-sydney-town.html

and let me know what they think of the story …

A delightful biography by John Miller of this fascinating man. It starts with a brief history of his forbears and the genes which went into his genius, as a child he spoke English, German and Russian fluently and added other European Languages as he travelled although he thought his French was only passable!!  Peter as we know was a renowned raconteur, but also an Artist, Playwright, Author, Actor, he wrote Operas and acted/directed many films. At the age of 5 he could mimic very convincingly an art he kept all his life and one which when he was an Envoy for UNESCO he used often in his interaction with children.  Although a very even tempered man he was not beyond taking the mickey when the occasion arose.  Once when confronted by a group of Chinese-Americans protesting his role as Charlie Chan, he told them he was no different from them as by birth and education he was an Englishman but ethnically he was Russian.

Published by Orion Press 2004.  

Hi GreyPath members,

Many of you are still visiting my blogs and I thought you may be interested to know that I made a post to each of them today.  One talks about the wonderful pandanus palm, so much a part of beaches and cliff tops of Northern NSW, and how the Australian Aborigines used them.

The other blog carries another of my short stories, 'Friends for a Time: Love in a Nursing Home'. 

Here's a short excerpt:  

Today there is a chill breeze on the verandah and clouds are scudding across the sky. The annuals in the private garden are almost spent, and the gardener has taken away some of the pots. The lady and the man draw their winter woollies closer, and amble into the television room where someone has set a log fire not far from the piano. It has only been weeks since they met, and yet it has been a lifetime.

Find out what happens at www.journeysincreativewriting.blogspot.com.  The second of my blogs is www.70plusandstillkicking.blogspot.com

Hope to see you there - and please leave a comment so that I know you've been visiting.

Cheers

June Saville

An international number one bestseller by Khaled Hosseini.

Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and moved to the United States in 1980.  In 2006 he was named a US goodwill envoy to the United Nations Refugee Agency.

This book is about a young girl, Mariam who is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry Rasheed an elderly and cruel widower.......... Nearly two decades later, a friendship grows between Mariam and a local teenager, Laila, as strong as ties between mother and daughter.  When the Taliban take over, life becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear.  Rasheed, who has always been a monster becomes more so.  He takes Laila, who is fifteen years old, and now an orphan, as his second wife.   Terrible beatings occur and the women are bruised and battered and must always wear  the burqua when they go out. They are not allowed to go anywhere, except when accompanied by him.

Eventually, what goes around comes around and Rasheed is no more!

A gripping story.

Thank you Grey Path members for your interest in my blogs.  I note that quite a few of you have visited in the past few days, although no-one actually left a comment.  Next time?  I'd love some feedback.  

I have posted a couple of more pieces of my writing on Journeys in Creative Writing -www.journeysincreativewriting.blogspot.com - and a picture story about my favourite walk and the people I meet on my 'oldie' blog 70 Plus and Still Kicking -www.70plusandstillkicking.blogspot.com

Here is a sample from the creative writing Hidden Meanings:

In the rainforest one day, not long after they met, she glimpsed a deep and private moment. He was walking a few metres ahead beneath the thick green canopy when he came to a sparkling trickle of a stream. The waters tinkled over round coloured pebbles. His frame seemed to lose its strength as he came to that stream, and he sank, slowly, to his knees, to his knees at the edge of the crystal water, and bent forward as though to taste the coolness of it.

After thirty-two years of being there, his wife was gone. His wife and the mother of his children.

This story is a bit hard hitting, so if you need a 'feel good' I'd stick to the picture story!  

Cheers

Muffin (June Saville) 

For me this was a fascinating look at a woman who I have adored since I was a teenager. Her insights into ‘Carry On’ are few but unmissable for the converted especially her comments on the other actors. So this is a book I recommend if, like me, you are a Sixties child.

May I be so bold as to post a little of my own writing? Below is a sample of many short stories available on my very own blog Journeys in Creative Writing - www.journeysincreativewriting.blogspot.com

I haven't had them published so I can't suggest a book, but I'm certainly old enough for Greypath.  My other blog is 70 Plus and Still Kicking - www.70plusandstillkicking.blogspot.com

Would love some feedback ...

Just a taste now from my short story Lamb Chops and Apple Pie:

When Dad did begin building the new house he was called up for civil service during the war, and we stayed in the garage. They wouldn’t let him join the forces: carpentry was an essential occupation. During the week he’d work in Sydney as a foreman on search light installations and munitions factories, and most week-ends he’d be at home building the house, with Mum alongside helping. Months later we moved in when it was still unlined, and Mum would paint and sandpaper every spare minute during the week, so that Dad would notice a difference when he came home again.
In those days a man delivered the milk with a horse and cart and we’d rush out with a jug, and the warm milk would gush from a tap at the back. At first we had only a meat safe, a small cupboard with fly wire walls, and keeping food and milk was strictly short term. We soon enough graduated to an ice box, with the freezing blocks brought in a corn sack from the ice works a mile away. By the time we had a Hallstrom Silent Knight kerosene refrigerator the front part of the house was finished. Cold drinks from the fridge were wondrous.

Read the rest at www.journeysincreativewriting.blogspot.com

Please enjoy and leave a comment on my site to let me know you've been there!                       

Muffin