Valentines, war and musings

Yessterday

Today is Valentines Day and I must confess that I am not too big on celebrating the merchant's holidays, it's all a bit of a scam I think... (I know... "Bah humbug")  I can't completely ignore it being that I am so very in love with TLOML.

The visit to the doctor yesterday went quite well except that he wants me off the sleeping pills that have been working so well for me over the last month... sigh...  I had a restless night as a result... sigh...  It was kind of hard as I had a rather painful afternoon and evening yesterday and had to take a pass on a stroll along the beach with TLOML, The Nurse, and the dogs.  I just couldn't muster any more energy to overcome the persistent aches and pains.

Today

This is the 70th anniversary of the fall of Singapore.  Effectively this is the 70th anniversary of the shift in allegiance for Australia from England to the United States.  The Prime Minister at the time (John Curtin) clearly saw the desperate situation Australia was in if we were to rely on England to protect us; a scant two months earlier Curtin had joined Franklin Roosevelt in declaring war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor - a controversial move as he acted for Australia independently of the British Commonwealth.  Curtin knew that left to England we would have been quickly conquered by Japan.

The fall of Singapore is deeply personal for me - I almost feel like I was there.  My mother was there and her stories and her passionate and personal telling of those stories are indelibly imprinted within me.  This day 70 years ago she was jammed, with many other women and children, onto a tiny World War One mine sweeper and began a long and hazardous journey through the war torn South Pacific.  Her husband (her first husband, not my father) was imprisoned in Changi.  She was just 24 and never shed a tear until arriving at Sydney Central Station and receiving a bear hug from her father.  What times her generation lived through!  Born during World War One, she was nearly twelve when The Depression began and at twenty-two she watched her brothers, friends and suitors enlist to fight in World War Two.  All the way from horses and carts to space shuttles.

Australia has an interesting relationship with the United States, it's a bit like being a younger sibling with a very impressive and quite bossy older sibling.  You know you love them, you even admire them, they make you feel safer, but you slightly resent having to comply with their decisions.  Since the American Civil War the United States has never gone to war or been involved in a foreign conflict without Australians by their sides.  We have been complicit in both the travesties and the noble conflicts.  This relationship was fully cemented by the fall of Singapore.

Enough history and politics.  Today I am sore and a bit flat (in case you can't tell).  I worked too hard yesterday and my body is furious at me.  So I am going to veg out and try to recuperate.  I really need to do some stuff about getting organized for University and I have no excuse because I can take care of it online, but I am still feeling lethargic and avoidant.  Oh well, this too will pass.