Reunion
DAY FOUR
Toby and Alicia live in a palace! Their vast house with large garden and swimming pool is in the exclusive Mosman Park district, minutes from Perth via the Fremantle train line.
It’s baking hot (32 degrees and rising) but not uncomfortable. Dry heat — that’s new.
Having not seen Toby since the wedding two and a bit years ago (and therefore not since the ritual humiliation of performing Hugh Laurie’s “Mystery” at the evening reception) it was great to see the old dog. An unexpected treat was being reunited with him at his office at St Hilda’s (Alicia picked me up from the station and took me straight to the school), seeing him on-duty, dog-collar on, in his prestigious working environment. Old rascal — I can’t always believe he’s an ordained minister, some of the things he comes out with! Anyway, don’t want to get the man sacked, so moving on…
The rest of the day I just chilled — perfect opportunity to finish Remains of the Day. What a great read. I’d pigeon-hole it firmly with Joanne Harris’ Gentlemen and Players (in terms of style and quality). A page-turning, but gently voiced narrator, piles of subtlety and layers of meaning, with a totally affecting final scene — a rare moment where I’m moved close to tears by the written word.
My literaray emotion is compounded later in the day when I pick up an email with my results for the first round of E Lit exams. Just call me “Mr A”. Quite funny really; not so much that I wrote a crock of sh*t for the Shakespeare essay and still got an A, but that seeing the breakdown, I only dropped 10 marks out of an available 210! Baffling.
Categories: Australia, English, Travel, education
Well done on the AS result! Mum