My 2022 highlights:

Remedial work on both balconies and re-cladding on some external panels at home continued and is now mostly completed. Hopefully I’ll regain access to the balconies soon. Then, I’ll replace the carpet that regularly flooded in the spare bedroom and buy a new sofa bed for guests. All up this has only taken twice as long as building the Golden Gate Bridge.

With air fares remaining ridiculous, I stayed  here in Oz and spent more money on Leica camera gear. My first trip away (by car) was  to Lorne via Albury in March. While down there I also visited Port Campbell with Gary and friends (Judith & Stephen) to see the Twelve Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, the Bay of Islands and the Californian Redwood plantation in the Great Otway National Park. Judith is another keen photographer, so we had a great time together as there was so much to see and capture. Gary and I also had what was to be our last meal with my former partner Kenneth at Coda Lorne. Sadly, Kenneth was to take his life soon after this in April. As an artist, he really was a victim of the pandemic as so many doors closed for him.

Various visits to my dentist continued when home again for two crowns and an implant. Ugh. 

On a happier note, our swim group was socially more active with regular Friday afternoon drinks and several nights out for trivia and bingo at various venues. We also had a great time at Howard’s 70th in October.

I made a brief visit to Canberra mid-year to attend a small wake with some close friends of Kenneth (Mary, Karen & Bruce) and to see Catherine Rogers’ brilliant photographic survey at ANU Drill Hall Gallery. I also caught up with Paulie and Ness a couple of times. Catherine has generously and patiently provided me with a great deal of advice regarding fine art photography printing and I’m finally getting the hang of it, thanks to actually following her advice.

My year as a Hawthorn FC member was full of more losses than wins, but I did enjoy a couple of trips to  Wollongong in September to see and photograph the ITT and Men’s Elite Road Race in the UCI Road World Championships. (You can view many photos in previous posts.)

I rounded out the year with another trip down to Lorne, not just to swim in the really cold southern waters, but to help Gary clean out Kenneth’s car. That was pretty hard emotionally. On return to Sydney I was able to safely send Kenneth’s laptop to Tommi in Switzerland, as he wished, and that was a relief.

I subscribed again to the Australian Chamber Orchestra for 2023, having enjoyed the 2022 season.  I must be well into my third decade of subscribing now, having started in Canberra many years ago.

Greg and I managed to catch up a couple of times with my cousins Philip & Ros and Helen & Terry at the Patonga Boathouse.

Other than all of that, my mad obsession with listening to podcasts continued and I may do a short post reviewing my annual listening soon. I also continued reading each day (on my Kindle) and that will be the subject another post coming soon. Hopefully I can find some affordable overseas air fares to jazz up 2023!  

Best, Mal