a lunch invitation

the soaring opening to the Beatles’ ‘Lovely Rita’

coming in the back door and the aromatic delight of the slow cooker I’d forgotten about

The Queen pronouncing ‘happy’ as ‘heppy’ on The Crown

dawn when the family’s asleep

strolling into Adelaide Oval for the first time of the summer

gravy

the best ever one-hit wonder, ‘You Get What You Give’ by the New Radicals

that first glimpse of Kapunda High

coffee with Claire at the Broadway kiosk on a wintry afternoon

Jarman again. Around the body. That’ll do. That. Will. Do.

the boundless lawns of Peter Lehmann’s winery

Saturday morning errands, concluding at the Glenelg North TAB

‘I guess the brothers are driving down from Queensland and Stella’s flying in from the coast’

at a cricket club barbeque, pea and corn salad in a blue ice-cream container

the immediate bliss of ‘September’ by Earth, Wind and Fire

Bugs Bunny in drag

on the phone with Mum

‘In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars’ from The Great Gatsby

my annual writing retreat overlooking Knight’s Beach in Port Elliot

an Op Shop shirt

getting through airport security and with a holiday beginning, that sudden excitement

Ripper ‘76

the annual walk with old Kapunda mates up Rae Street to the North Fitzroy Arms

Jesus was born on Christmas Day and died at Easter. What’s the odds on that?

The Australian band TISM’s most probing lyric: So who is your favourite genius/James Hird or James Joyce?

Langhorne Creek cabernet sauvignon

having turned danger into grace, Andrew McLeod streaming forward across the MCG

dropping the needle on side one of Hot August Night

fruchocs

as she drives away hearing Claire toot her car horn

calm murmurings in the front bar of Hobart’s Shipwright Arms pub

a painting job, well concluded

The Members of Bung Fritz Appreciation Society Benchmark 60 Handicap over 1100 metres at the Gawler and Barossa Jockey Club

a pub schnitzel with chips on the side, not buried beneath in an ungodly insult

Grey Midford school shirts

Alex wearing my Greg Chappell hat

The festive season’s first playing of A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector

cowbells

being in the Prince of Wales in Kapunda, and not losing a spoofy final

at three Max telling me he was, ‘cooler than a robot, older than the wolf’

my wife eating her breakfast in the car

Harry saying to Sally, ‘I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night’

the sight and smell of a freshly-edged lawn

the reassuring piano on Gang of Youths’ ‘Do Not Let Your Spirit Wane’

shaking Dad’s hand

The Gambling Bug on the cartoon Early to Bet and the penalty wheel, number 14: The Gesundheit

hearing Supertramp and it instantly being 1982

Claire taking me to Mickey’s Beach on Randall Bay in Tasmania

The Country Cricketers’ Bar at Adelaide Oval

a late-morning sausage roll

convinced it was dead but one morning spying a green shoot on one of our trees

Tame Impala at the Entertainment Centre with Alex

The Adelaide 36ers at the Entertainment Centre with Max

Autumn leaves in the Barossa

Golden Retrievers on the beach, Sunday morning

the full and flowing 11.2 kilometres of Military Road from Taperoo to Henley Beach with its sole traffic light at West Lakes Boulevard

Manhattan’s most emblematic skyscraper, the Chrysler Building

Fisk