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...a stronger national judicial structure,
and there developed a more independent way of thinking for the judiciary.
So that there was training of judges, and an idea of...
consistency across China.
And of course, at different times in the last 30 years that's been subject to
different degrees of control by the Communist Party.
Judges are beholden, they depend on the Communist Party to maintain office...
- They are, and in fact... - Totally unlike here...
...however Labour leader Bill Shorten isn't convinced,
giving a vote of no confidence at question time:
"If nearly half of his own government
"do not want him to be the prime minister of Australia,
"why should the rest of Australia have to put up with him?"
Peter Dutton has now quit cabinet,
and promises he won't try and cause problems:
"I will work every day to make sure
"the coalition is elected at the next election,
"and I want to make sure that I support the prime minister,
"and to make sure that we support the government's policies".
Also making news today, a family has been left devastated
after their son and brother was killed
in a hit-and-run in South Geelong early this morning.
The driver left the 32-year-old victim for dead,
after knocking him down as he walked home from a night out with friends.
Passers-by attempted CPR, but he couldn't be saved.
And a couple of crooks are still on the run after a smash-and-grab fail at Keysborough.
They used a car to smash into a Lotto centre,
before trying to steal an ATM that had no money inside.
Saints great Nick Riewoldt surprised to hear
that Jarrad Waite is calling it a day;
the North forward confirming Sunday's clash with St Kilda will be his...
Hi Mutti, it's just me.
Mutti?
It's just me. Mutti.
It's Buschi.
It's Buschi, Mutti.
It's Buschi, Mutti, it's Buschi.
I'll call you tomorrow. Okay, bye bye.
Hi hun.
Just left work.
I'm on Blackburn Road.
Yeah, it's slow, it's wet. Is it raining there?
And it's really warm.
I'm just getting on the freeway, just hang on...
It's gonna be slow... They're banked up by the lights here.
How was your day?
I tried, I didn't get anywhere.
I'll call her tomorrow, I don't know. Tomorrow's... You know, you know...
Oh, yeah?
Did you book the fares and all that?
God.
How much airfares, how much accommodation?
And what time are we leaving, what time are we coming back and all that?
4:05.
That's early.
Oh, okay.
Are we driving over on Sunday? Or are we driving over on Saturday?
We're driving Sunday, Saturday morning aren't we? Sunday morning.
And that's coming back though.
No, that's going over.
See the mums.
And then go, but it means we have to get away by three o'clock.
Geez.
It will be a funny day, won't it?
Yeah, yeah.
Come back. Which is okay.
And then coming back?
And that's on... Friday.
What time are we leaving? 5... 4... 5:45?
5:35. Okay.
And that's uh... That's May, that's...
Yeah.
No.
Yeah, yeah. No, that's okay.
Yeah, so like I was saying, I dropped in after court today.
And I...
Marie was too busy to talk to me.
I went and saw Julie. And she was really weird.
- What was Marie doing? - Oh, Marie was just on the phone.
She just looked at me, and stared at me.
Michelle glared at me. I'm just gonna call my mum.
Let me get going.
I'm just gonna call my mum, I do it every day.
And then I'll give Cheri a quick call.
Just bear with me, I'll do that in a second.
They expect a call from me everyday when I start heading home.
And like I said, Michelle glared at me.
And then...
And then, you know, I just left.
I thought, "Bugger that". I'm not going to get caught up in that.
- What did you do to Michelle? - Nothing, I think...
I think she's just part of the whole problem.
How are you and your lot going, in your area?
It's been fine.
I don't know anything going on over there with you guys.
Yeah, I know.
Stay that way. It's the best way to be.
- I'll just be a few secs, David, okay? - Sure.
Hello, Mutti?
Hello? It's Buschi.
Hi Mutti, how are you?
How are you?
Good.
Ah yeah?
Oh, good.
Good.
Yeah?
And what's the food like?
Excellent.
I'm pleased, Mutti, okay then.
Well I'm just coming home from work.
Just a quick hello and then I'll get going, okay?
Not for another couple of weeks.
But I will come. I am coming soon, okay?
Alright.
And we can get some money for you as well. I'll bring you some money, okay?
You don't need money, Mutti, but I'll bring some money.
And you can have it in your wallet or your purse, okay?
Alright?
Hello, are you there?
Mutti?
Yeah, I know, Mutti.
In a couple of weeks. I better get going. I'll get going, okay?
I'll call you tomorrow. Bye bye.
My mum thinks she's in a hotel.
As long as she's happy.
I'll just call Cheri, okay?
- Do you mind if I put some air on, Andrew? - Yeah, sure.
Hi hun, it's just me.
I'm okay, I'm with David, so I won't talk for long.
"Hi David".
How are you? How is everything?
Yeah, she thought she was in a hotel.
Which is good.
She actually knew who I was.
She was quite comfortable, she was quite happy.
Oh, okay.
It didn't settle, no.
Just a motor vehicle accident.
There was just... It just didn't settle. It wasn't going to go anywhere.
Big insurance companies they don't, they don't really...
They're just playing a game.
I won't talk for long, hun.
Tonight...
I've got something on my left knee, or something.
But it's okay. It comes and goes.
One minute it's okay, next minute it's not. But anyway...
When I get home, we'll eat real quick and then we'll go, okay?
Just coming up to the freeway now, so about...
Probably... It depends on the traffic.
Yesterday was really good.
Today might be really crap.
It's saying good.
16 minutes.
Yeah, I reckon about an hour.
Oh, 45 minutes.
Actually, it went away.
No, it did, it really did go away.
No, I took a Panadeine and Disprin.
Okay hun, I better go.
See you later. Okay, bye bye.
- Sorry about that, David. - That's alright.
I didn't see that truck there that just came on us.
- Where? - You didn't see it too, just behind us.
My mum thought she was in a hotel. She goes through stages.
She thinks she's travelling Europe.
Her res care home...
Some days I call her and she's completely out of it, and other times she's...
And then she always wants money. Even though she doesn't spend any money.
I give her money and then it disappears when I come back next time.
I give her a couple of hundred every time I visit
and it's all gone by the time I come back.
You know, they just take it.
But anyway... That's neither here nor there.
She uses the money?
No, she has no reason, there's nothing to buy.
But then why is the money gone?
Well think about it, what happens?
It's taken by somebody.
But if you make a complaint, what's the point?
She feels good that she has money in her wallet.
I mean, she's lost all her cards...
Her ID, her driver's licence.
We left it in her purse and it's all disappeared,
I don't know what happens.
When they get old, they hide things and they throw things away.
It's getting worse and worse, but you know...
Anyway.
So yeah, like I was saying, what about you and Simon?
Simon and you aren't bothered by what's happening at all, are you?
Simon and Marie are tight.
- Oh, yeah. - He knows how to deal with her.
Well, it's not a question of knowing how to deal with her, it's basically...
- if you just play the game and let her... - Well, he knows how to play the game.
Well play the game... If you just be subservient and get rolled over.
What Marie doesn't like is anybody who pushes back on her, that's the problem.
I thought I'd avoid the whole issue but... the whole blow up will get to me as well.
But anyway.
You've got to get out of there, Andrew.
- Well, you do... - It sounds like...
What about you?
You're happy, so...
Are you happy there?
Being out here?
I'll leave eventually, but at the moment it doesn't suit me.
Have you ever thought about the bar?
Yeah, I have.
But I've got... You know... I only...
Look, I've got it pretty good.
I go to the court, then I do mediations or I do my other tutoring stuff.
I had a mediation today, I get paid... it only went for a couple of hours,
but I get paid for three or so.
There's no pressure. Why would I change that?
I don't know... Get Marie out of your life?
But I'll leave when it suits me, it doesn't suit me at the moment.
What about yourself?
- With the bar? - I'm thinking about it. Maybe.
I'll try and sit the exam later this year.
Oh yeah, in November?
It's the November exam, yeah.
What year did you come?
- At work? When did I start? - Yeah.
Well, they have me down as 13, but I went away.
I've been casual for... now five years.
Some years I just did their court work.
They've been pretty good to me. They were before,
now it's all changed. It's a different environment now.
Look, eventually I'm going to have to leave.
But at this stage I'll stay.
Or just start toeing the line.
- Start toeing the line. - It's not about toeing the line, David.
I don't know what it is actually.
Maybe I'm part of the old guard and I just gotta get removed.
But I enjoy the work too much.
While I still enjoy... the court work, I'll stay.
I don't have a heavy case load now, so I'm pretty good.
Anyway.
So you're in Kensington too? Around the corner from us now, aren't you?
Yeah, it's good.
I kinda like it there, it's pretty quiet.
Have you guys been there a while?
About 21 years, a long time.
And whereabouts are you? What street are you on?
- I'm just off Rankins Road. - Okay.
That really is close.
I never see you...
in the shops or anything.
- I mostly go to Flemington. - Oh, okay.
Do you live by yourself?
No, I share a place with two friends.
- Did you know them before? - Pardon me?
You've known them or are they out of the book share house friends?
They were both friends of friends.
- Sorta knew them... - Male or female?
- One male, one female. - Oh, okay.
You're a bit long in the tooth to be sharing a house still.
- Well I mean, you know... - Thanks, Andrew.
But are you looking at anything long term?
Are you with anyone? Partnered?
No, as of a month or so ago.
Oh, okay.
Don't ask?
You don't need to ask.
Don't ask.
Were you together long?
It wasn't too long. It was about...
- Six or seven months or so. - Yeah, okay.
But...
Only six or seven.
Oh well.
Still felt like it could have been something.
Why is that?
Alright. Anyway, okay. Doing anything on the weekend then?
- Not too much planned. - Okay.
- You're going away tomorrow? - We're going away tonight.
- Oh, tonight? - Yeah, yeah. As soon as I get home.
Oh geez, look at that. The board is orange.
Great.
Here we go.
I wonder why it was green...
Wonder why it's 12 minutes still. That's weird.
We're miles away.
- Maybe it's just this little stretch. - No, it just doesn't work.
It looks pretty bad.
So what happened?
What happened with?
With your girlfriend, what happened? Can I ask? I'm just curious.
- Well... - Did you...?
- I always ask too many personal questions. - No, it's alright.
It's just what I do.
She ended it.
- It was about a month ago. - Oh, okay.
The frustrating thing is we're in the same circle,
so I bump into her every now and then.
You're still holding a torch for her?
A bit? Or something?
I don't know.
It's hard if you keep seeing someone...
- Regularly. - Yeah.
Yeah, a clean break is better, isn't it?
How long have you and Cheri been together?
A long time.
Long time.
- What do you mean? - It means a long time.
Many years.
From high school?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
Many years.
- Did you guys have kids? - No.
No, I think it was a choice.
It was a philosophical choice.
Look, too many people in the world already.
Seriously.
And also we had crazy sisters.
Long story.
And also just finding the time as well.
And I don't think either of us regret it.
Somebody has to not have kids, you can't all breed like rabbits.
What's the point? Honestly?
Maybe I grew up in an area where it just seemed pointless...
Everybody was just sort of...
All the families with their kids, it seemed like...
It was just a never-ending cycle of, "Why?"
You know what I mean?
- But anyway. - Which area?
- In Adelaide. - Oh right, okay.
I wasn't... it wasn't a fancy... It was a working-class area.
It was just... You know...
Everybody just eking out their existence.
I don't know... Why? What's the purpose?
But it was a different time back then too.
I think kids are now more of a fashion accessory.
It's okay to have kids, it's okay to get married now too.
We weren't married for years as well.
It seemed like such a funny thing to do.
- But now everyone wants to get married. - You guys got married?
We only got married because we went overseas.
She got covered by my health insurance in America.
Otherwise, we wouldn't have been married.
We were both against it in principle.
It seems like less people are getting married.
Oh, no. You reckon? No.
No, people want to get married now.
People want to get married.
Well I don't know. Your friends, are they married? Formally married?
I don't know. Maybe one or two.
I got the impression that people now get married.
And certainly children are much more the thing.
You can see it with all the child centres and the schools re-opening.
Twenty years ago they were closing them all here in Victoria.
I think the lane is shut up ahead.
- Oh, really? - Yeah. There must have been an accident.
Great.
Oh yeah, I see it.
So you don't regret the decision?
What? Which one? To change lanes?
- What decision? - The philosophical decision.
Oh, no, no, no. Fine.
Sometimes I think I'd be...
I haven't bought the...
I shouldn't say it. I feel like maybe I haven't bought the...
What is it?
The box and dice and accepted that that's what life's all about.
I'll probably be lonely as I get older.
Okay, what's happening?
Thank you.
That was close.
- I wonder what happened. - Breakdown.
- You reckon? - Maybe. We'll see.
They don't have any safety lanes anymore.
Some smart-arse will go all along on the inner lane
then squeeze in at the last moment.
Yeah like that.
And like this one.
- Looks like two lanes. - Opportunist.
I'll be an opportunist too.
There we go... Always find your moment somewhere.
In you get.
It would be crazy if they were doing road works at this time.
Oh no, it's a broken-down truck.
Okay, cool.
The grass opens up once you move away.
- It's almost like a crop actually. - It is almost.
I was going to say, what is it? What grass is it?
I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know what you were like when you were at uni Jon,
but I was not a very good student...
I smoked far too much dope, threw far too many Frisbees,
played too much billiards, chased too many girls, and...
around about September each year I thought
I better do enough work to pass.
Exactly... Except I was chasing boys rather than girls.
Otherwise I'd have to leave, if I failed I'd have to leave,
and I want to keep this going for as long as I can.
I think, for me, this is the first time
where I've really understood what it is to be a student.
You know this, you've interviewed so many writers and artists...
There's always this terror that comes when you release a new work into...
into the world. And I've been... I've been quite terrified.
And Wayne, my partner, said the best thing to me,
because he's been through this process over the last seven years.
It's really, you know...
If I think about it, it's much longer in terms of the thinking about it.
- So it's been distilling in the background? - Exactly.
And he said, "You will never lose this, right?
"What you've learnt through doing this book will be always be there".
The scenario you've portrayed, and I haven't got to the end,
but I think I know how it ends...
Because we kind of know what goes on, but...
The life and the times that you recreate
are brutal and savage, and almost dystopian.
Did you want us to strip away
the veneer of respectability in the early days of Christianity?
Yeah, because I think what happens is... And it happened to me growing up...
You get this picture-postcard version of...
I mean you get a blonde Jesus, with blue eyes, right? That's...
Even in Bridge Road in Richmond in 1970s, that was the image of Jesus...
And I wanted to go right back, to what this time was like and...
Yes, the book is set in the first century, you know...
You know, the first decades after Jesus was crucified.
But I wanted it to, if...
I hope, that it calls back and forth between our era and then.
It's called "Damascus", and it's called "Damascus"
because of Paul's moment on the road to Damascus.
I was writing it over a period where...
this country and this society was being torn apart.
And you read the material, you read the history.
And you read the great Jewish writers like Josephus, you read...
You read the history of the Romans and the Greeks, and you understand how...
terrifying it was for them to be alive at that point.
When all these... When Rome was...
It seemed like it would last forever,
and it was all powerful and it was creating these...
Terrible conditions for people across the Mediterranean.
Do you think they were terrified...
Hello, hun? Hello?
Oh hi, hun.
A little bit long. I left a bit late today.
How about you? How is everything?
Yeah, yeah.
That's really weird.
Oh, okay.
Wow... yeah, yeah.
Oh, right.
Did you have someone next to you, cramped in, or have your own seat?
Oh, okay.
You were on the aisle though, weren't you?
Yeah.
Was your sister panicking? Or she was okay?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, all that bullshit.
And my mum? You saw my mum?
Did she ask whether I was coming over? I didn't call her today.
Yeah.
Did she remember me calling her yesterday?
And your mum?
Yeah... It's all psychological.
Yeah.
She's in that façade mode where she can talk automatically.
Did she know it was her birthday?
What? Take her to Simone's to see the new stuff?
And the room you're in is okay, everything okay there?
Where are you going?
The one in Jetty Road?
Well we know what that's like.
Oh, maybe. Maybe in another lifetime.
Just almost.
No, no, I do, I do.
Barb called about Vu. Apparently she's not really well.
Yeah, yeah.
Hang on. I've just got...
I tried to call Tom today.
This is him. I'll call you later.
I'll talk to him and I'll call you later.
How long are you going to be in your room?
I can talk a little bit longer, he's gone.
Barb was going to go and see...
Barb was going to go and see her tomorrow.
But basically, she's saying how... She texted Barb and said that...
she might not be... She might not last the week.
He's back again. Alright, hun, I'll go. I'll call you later.
See you, okay, bye bye.
Tom? Tom?
Hi Tom. I tried to call you, I saw you left a message.
What's up, what's happening?
They got back to us?
What do they want this time?
What are they saying? How much money do they want?
What do they want? But we agreed on a 50/50 split.
And what, they want 30 grand from us?
What? And if we don't agree, what are they going to do?
Yeah, I know.
I am so over it... I really am, really pissed off.
Yeah, but it's going to cost a fortune. It's going to take another year.
It's been four years now... Honestly...
On one hand I'm tempted, on the other hand... It's like my sister.
Everything with my sister has been a mess.
Her whole life.
It's like she's reaching out of the grave to grab me. Just to make more stuff.
I don't know.
How much are they saying they want?
But 30,000 off the price of the place, if you split that half-half,
that's 15...
So they're 15 grand down.
We just offer them 10.
This is my mum's money.
My mum has been in a home for two years.
If I had had this money two years ago...
This guy turns up out of nowhere, claims he's the domestic partner.
I'm taking backwards steps all the time.
I'm agreeing to that, I'm agreeing to this. Now if I give him another 10...
Then my mum dies, and we get the money.
And as much as I like you, that's going to cost us 20, 30, 40...
If I just offer them 10 grand. Offer them 10 grand.
If you could please.
Just write to them, just say...
Make no admissions.
I did everything right...
I just got that place, there was nothing...
There was nothing I did wrong.
I did everything in preparation.
I didn't know he was going to turn up and make a claim.
Offer them 10 grand and see what they say,
and 10 to 1 we won't...
Just to settle the whole thing. Alright, alright.
No.
Okay. Thanks, Tom.
Let me know.
Yeah, thanks, bye. See ya.
...about $89 per square metre, when...
it had been valued at 1600,
- and they made a 37% profit... - Yep.
You know, the industry average is about 20%, so...
Francis from Castlemaine sums it up with her text message...
Do join in, 0437-931-931, and Francis says:
"Never get between a property developer and a quick buck".
Now William, what do you think of this new announcement?
Ah, look Jon, I'm... devastated actually.
I'm sure the government has good intents,
but the way they've framed this... is just gonna be bad for public tenants.
In what way, what happens to you?
Well for us it means, apart...
We'll have to move away for a number of years and
it's going to destroy a pretty good community
that we've managed to develop.
Sure, it's neglected. But...
a lot of different races, with a lot of different people with...
What about your day today? You ended up going to the Family Court?
No, not today.
Office day.
I had to see a client and...
draft some documents.
I don't know.
Why did you choose law?
So late?
Oh, because, because...
I don't know. Why did you?
Yeah, I don't know.
You did it straight from school, didn't you?
- Yeah... - Did you do anything in between?
- Nah, I didn't... - Did you have years off or anything?
I had a year off...
But you're a little bit older than the normal graduate.
How long have you been out?
I've been out about three years.
So what did you do in between?
You're 31...
So you would have come out at 28.
But you should have come out at 24.
So where are the missing five years?
Four years.
The degree, I took it a bit slower.
Then I had a year off before, and took a bit of time off before work.
What did you do in the year off?
I lived overseas.
Whereabouts?
A little bit in London and a bit in the States.
- Whereabouts in America? - You were in the States, weren't you?
Yeah, a couple of years.
- But whereabouts? - New York.
That's nice.
Did you live on Manhattan, or what did you do?
No, in Brooklyn.
Did you work?
Yeah, but it was just bar work.
Where were you?
A place called Riverside, near Los Angeles.
That was back in the '90s.
What were you doing?
I was a scientist.
- Is there a university there? - Yeah, the University of California.
- Lecturing? - No, research.
Your mum's something, or your dad's something, isn't he?
- A bit like your dad, I guess. - He is, yeah.
Well they're both academics.
How was that?
It was okay, although Cheri didn't like living over there.
Was she working over there?
She tried to get some work.
They're a little bit anal over there. They really are.
She had a visa through my visa.
There's a long story of why it didn't work.
Maybe she didn't try hard enough. I don't know.
It's still a touchy subject with us.
It just didn't work for us.
And I think we were both homesick.
There's no place like home, David.
- How long were you there for? - I was there for two years.
But I spent a good year of that by myself.
Why?
Cheri had a good job. She kept going and coming back.
Working, and then flying back.
I was stuck there of course, so I just would work.
I'd come home occasionally for short holidays.
She had options to come back and work.
What was she doing?
At that stage what was she doing?
Marketing and publicity and all that sorta stuff.
I think she was... She was doing that with...
arts companies and so on. She was doing really well.
- Is she still doing that? - No, no.
Things have gone a little bit odd, or different.
Off on another tangent.
She got not well a while back.
- Oh, really? - Yeah.
She's okay now, but you know...
Okay.
Yeah.
She likes to think of herself as retired now.
But I think she's probably looking for something to engage. I don't know.
- In the same area? - No, all that's passed.
When you fall out of something, you don't get back into it that quickly.
You're only as good as... yesterday's wrapper.
You know what it's like.
Especially when you get older, it's hard to get back in.
The younger, prettier things come in...
Especially in that field.
Marketing, publicity.
It's all about...
It's all about what you look like.
And the world has changed too. You've got social media, and...
Facebook. The whole bunch. I mean we're talking...
It was a different world back then.
And I don't think Cheri is that driven to re...
re-train... I don't think she's really that overwhelmed with...
So there's... Get a little bit more money, for what? You know...
But we all know there are reasons why we work.
It's a social interaction, as much as anything else.
Or the desire to do something vaguely worthwhile.
I mean I sometimes wonder why...
It's different for me as it is for you.
I came to this work much later than you.
Already I had a life behind me.
On one hand I can say I can enjoy it more.
On the other hand I've left my run to wherever I'm going
to too late.
You've got so much potential, in what you do.
You shouldn't be trapped here.
Go to the bar. Do different things. You'll be fine.
Don't get caught up in the rubbish.
Stay single, stay away from the women.
Relationships are not easy, David.
No relationship is easy.
You have to work at it.
And it can go so quickly.
My goodness me.
You can't capture that.
It's not in focus.
Smells so nice and new.
Nice new car. I only got it last week.
Same car, different colour.
Why'd you upgrade?
We do so many kilometres.
We tend to rattle them into the ground.
It's better to replace every two years.
By the time we do depreciation, and all of that.
And driving a non-rattly car.
Even if we spend a lot of money on a fancy car,
and kept it for five years, about the same money,
but it would be falling apart by the time...
by the time we traded it in.
- It just works out. - Was the red your choice?
No, not my first choice.
I prefer a grey or a black.
But you know, they had two...
But we have manuals so...
They had a blue and a red manual in Australia.
Can you believe that?
And...
So we went for the red, which is a pretty common car if you look around.
In fact, there's a red car there.
They're about one in every eight, I reckon.
There's another red car over there, so they're a popular car.
Not that that's a reason to buy it.
- We're pretty happy with it. - Not one in every eight.
I reckon it's one in every eight.
You have a look.
I'll just call my mum, as usual.
And then we'll...
Ah yeah, sure.
He cramped himself up not to let us in.
He waved, what was that wave for?
She's not looking at me.
Thank you.
And there's another red car, David, just came up behind.
Lots of red cars.
I'll just get my mum.
Hi, this is Andrew Rakowski, I'm calling my mum, Inge.
Is she okay?
If she's okay. What... She fell out of bed?
Okay.
Has the doctor seen her?
Alright. Okay.
If I can speak to her that would be great, thanks.
Hi Mutti, how are you? I hear you fell?
And how are you?
Next week, Mutti. I'll probably be there...
End of next week.
No, no. But I saw you last week.
So every two weeks.
Okay, Mutti. Alright.
Okay, alright. Bye bye.
- My mum fell. - Is she alright?
Yeah, but she didn't really want to talk to me.
She's fallen a lot lately.
They, I don't know... Oh well, there's nothing I can do.
Hi hun, it's just me.
Okay. My mum just fell, but she's okay.
Yeah, very briefly, she didn't really want to talk to me.
Yeah, nah she's fine.
I'm okay, how are you?
Did Monique turn up?
And is everything going okay?
The usual stuff.
Any interesting discussions or anything?
Not yet, no.
I've got David with me, I won't... I'm just giving David a lift home.
Alright.
In a little bit. Okay, bye hun. See you later.
Cool. Done.
My sister-in-law has just come over.
Because of what happened the last couple of weeks.
We've got her for five days.
How is Cheri doing?
She's okay. Cheri is fine.
She gets a bit teary, but she's fine.
The sister's going to be interesting... It's going to be interesting having her...
- Does she come to see you guys often? - Never.
The last time was about eight years ago.
Then she went home and cried
because we weren't looking after her, to her mum.
Completely different now with the mum gone.
Mum dominated the sister.
And I think the sister is now looking for someone to replace...
She's been texting Cheri like crazy.
You've got to feel sorry for her.
- Her mum was a pretty dominant lady. - Cheri's mum?
Oh yeah. She had both daughters under control.
She had everybody under control, including me.
Well I mean, you know...
Her mum was... she was a strange lady.
She just was... She had to control everything.
And it was always competitive. She was competitive with her daughters
and she was competitive with anyone, including me.
What do you mean?
Everything you said, there was a competition in it.
You had to either... You had two choices, you could fight it.
And try to...
Try to win that little bout of conversation.
Or you went silent and gave up and just let her have the floor.
I ended up being quiet.
My reputation was the silent one. I used to be silent.
Because I used to stand there... There was no point in talking.
And I love to talk, but there was no point in talking.
That went on for 20 years, that's how it's always been.
She was just dominant.
- Did you get along though? - Me?
Yeah, outside of that?
The last five or ten years, I think I did.
Once Cheri got ill and everything...
I don't think she had a good experience with men.
Who knows? It was just one of those...
You had to let her have her space.
And yet she was the nicest, meekest, sweetest little old lady
to outsiders.
And it was quite telling at the service.
Both daughters wanted to include a fairly...
If you listened very carefully to the eulogy you would have heard...
They said she was "this" to the outside world
and it sometimes was difficult to the people closest to her.
Tells you a lot...
- Cheri said that? - Her sister did the eulogy.
Anyway, we've got her now until Sunday.
Hopefully she goes back, because if she doesn't I'll move out.
- What are you going to do with her? - Nothing really.
Home cooked meals, nothing too fancy.
She'll freak if she has to...
She'll think we're teaching her if we drag her anywhere...
It always has happened in the past.
I've learnt not to fight it, just let it happen.
And I said to Cheri, I'll remind her,
any time I sense that she's getting in a competition,
I'll say something about an albatross and she'll back off.
We've got a code word.
So I say, "I saw an albatross today" or something like that.
Seriously, we talked about it last night. We have our strategy.
We keep it all calm and nice and pleasant.
- But anyway. - What does the code word do though?
It reminds Cheri that she's...
unknowingly engaged in the competition,
the debate, winning the floor in the verbal argument.
So she's the same as Cheri's mum?
I guess so. Yeah.
You learn from your parents, don't you?
Cheri said then to me, "Am I like that?" And I said:
"You've been with me long enough to get rid of bad habits".
We've been together, so she has...
We all adjust ourselves as well.
- Cheri's not like that anymore? - No.
They're different.
Are you like your brothers and sisters?
We all must be similar.
Horror to think I'm like my sister, but I guess I must be in some way.
But we do take after our parents.
Maybe Cheri is more like her dad.
Maybe her sister is more like her mum.
I can really tell I'm like my mum. My mum was talkative.
Talkative...
And then she'd lose interest and move on to something else,
and I tend to do that too.
But anyway.
And your dad wasn't like that?
My dad has been dead for so long, I can't remember.
I don't know what my dad was like really.
It's a terrible thing to say, but I don't know what my dad was like.
How old were you?
He died 25 years ago.
He was 51 when he had me, so he died when he was 84.
So he died old... I always just remember him as an old guy.
So he was a fair bit older than your mum?
Oh, yeah... Not that old.
He wasn't a cradle snatcher.
I think she was 15 years younger.
Which is not a lot really.
- Had he had a family? - No.
Well he had the war and all that. He was in a prisoner of war camp.
They met after the war.
He was getting on, and she was a young hospital physio.
When he broke his leg going skiing in the alps,
before they chucked him out of Germany.
You know, all those stories from those European...
The war shook it all up, and all these people were left displaced.
You know... My parents were lucky,
they came out of the whole thing relatively unscathed.
Well my mum lost a lot of her family, my dad's family lost everything in...
in Poland.
They were vaguely wealthy and they lost everything.
But lots of other people came out of it mentally scarred.
Losing every member of the family.
It's just terrible. Anyway...
So maybe your sister took after your dad?
No, my sister had anxiety.
And she developed... anorexia.
When she was 12, 13.
And then it developed into bulimic tendencies.
But it was basically anxiety, which was never diagnosed.
Anxiety has become a real thing in the last...
There's a red car!
Not a very nice red. And that's an Audi too.
This is a much nicer red, a deeper red.
- Your red or the Audi? - Our red. That's a sickly red.
I'd have to agree.
- Yeah, I've been feeling pretty anxious... - Because of...?
I don't know, just work stuff. Breakup.
Well work's not doing either of us any good at the moment.
But you didn't have it, just your sister?
- Huh? - You've never had an issue with it?
I wouldn't say I've never had an issue with it.
I had OCD.
- Right. - When I was a kid.
That's another story.
I used to check lights, and gas fittings and gates,
and power switches.
And my favourite number is three.
- What is that... - Don't worry.
What's your anxiety? How does it manifest?
- I don't know. - Not sleeping?
- Heart palpitations? - Waking up early.
I have people close to me who have anxiety.
Meaning... Yeah...
It's the fear of dying from the heart attack...
that you're about to have?
Is that the sort of stuff?
My anxiety?
- No, is it? - I'm not sure.
Well the funny thing was, my sister before she died,
she went to the heart specialist.
And Cheri and I... I was a bit mocking.
Well not mocking... Not to her face. I didn't have much contact with her.
But I was like, "Oh, yeah..."
And then she ends up dying. Maybe from the heart, maybe not.
I mean... I don't know. I feel terrible when I say all that.
But it's... Maybe we live in an anxious world.
Maybe everybody suffers from anxiety, of one sort or another.
The contrast between what our life should be and what life's really like.
Look around, it's all just crazy really.
The commute, the work hours, the pressures.
Ah, green car! Now green isn't popular apparently.
- That's what they say anyway. - Yeah.
I think there's a reason for that.
Well we've had two green cars,
in our many two-yearly swap overs.
You're going away on Wednesday, aren't you, in a couple days?
Yeah, I can't wait.
- You're going to Berlin or someplace? - Yep.
It will be good to step back and get away for a little while.
- How long for? - Three weeks.
And why Berlin?
I have friends over there.
Have you been to Berlin?
Years ago, when it was still divided.
But no family there?
No, I've got German family in Düsseldorf. I've got...
When I went over, my German grandmother,
my mum's mother, was still alive.
And she was in her late-80s. Nutty as a fruitcake.
She was... she was... Every time I...
I was there for a weekend and every time I dropped in to her home
she was completely pissed.
But she was okay.
It was funny, when I went to Berlin,
it was me and a friend, I was travelling with a male friend.
And we teamed up with a young American girl.
And we went across Checkpoint Charlie, and you do all that money exchange stuff.
Rather than do all the sites around the tower.
What's that? Where the central television tower is?
- Oh, Alexanderplatz. - Yeah, there were some hotels.
And we had to blow all our East German Deutschmarks
before we went back to the West.
But we did wander out.
And there was a real moment...
One of those moments that stays with you your whole life?
Just a scene that imprints on your mind, for whatever reason.
We were standing at the corner, looking at the grim buildings.
And it was really grim.
That Soviet style... Apartment blocks and everything.
There was... I remember looking around,
there was this little old German "omi"... Grandmother.
Same as my grandmother, on the other side of the border.
And she was just watching us.
I remember our eyes caught, there was some moment of something.
It was just like she was looking at us... And I was thinking, "That poor lady".
She went through the First World War, the Second World War.
By that stage it was 1980 some time, so she had...
almost 35 years of Soviet oppression.
And there we were in our Western clothes
and our backpacks.
There was a real difference between the young people there.
They looked really daggy, that Soviet dagginess.
You know, you can still sorta... Are you familiar with that?
They just were daggy basically.
From the West you were much more modern, Adidas shoes and all that stuff.
- Anyway. - You just looked at her?
- It was just looking? - Yeah, it was just a moment.
I was 21, 22, 23.
And why I had a moment of contact with this...
80-something year old grey-haired German woman.
Maybe I read too much into it, but anyway, I don't know...
It's just one of those moments that I always remember with Berlin.
It's the only thing I really remember about being in Berlin.
But anyway.
I would love to go back one day but...
No holidays for a while now.
Well with my mum still...
- So dinner tonight with Cheri's sister? - Yeah, keep it really nice and simple.
Chicken pie. Tomorrow, roast lamb.
Nothing foreign, nothing challenging.
She wouldn't eat it otherwise.
And she'd think it's a plot by either me or Cheri to...
to convert her.
She'd wake up in the morning...
She'd wake up in the morning a different person or something...
What do you mean?
I don't know why those people are so...
They like what they like and they don't want to be challenged.
And again, it's that whole competitive thing.
If you're trying to flog off something that they're not familiar with,
and they consume it or eat it or do it,
then in essence, you've won. Do you know what I mean?
You've got to win the floor on each issue.
So... It's just not worth the battle.
We talked about it and decided we're going to keep it real simple.
I know it sounds horrible what I say,
but we've been there before, she was really upset, when we...
I got into trouble for trying to make her eat prawns or something...
Then she said she was allergic, and I said:
"No, because you've already had them, and...
"Just because you don't..." I don't know, people get hysterical.
Anyway.
You're in the office tomorrow then?
- Just tidying up? - Yeah, tidy things up.
Can't wait.
Are you looking for a little holiday romance?
I guess I'll be open to...
whatever comes my way.
I need to take a step back, have a break from Melbourne.
I understand that completely.
I have to say, the two weeks I was away,
the whole thing with Cheri's mum.
Even though what was happening was tragic, or sad,
it was still good to be away from this environment.
From work, from Marie, from the whole stupidity of the whole thing.
Well I guess you weren't particularly close to Cheri's mum.
I've known her for many years, but look...
Dementia is a cruel, cruel disease.
She had an odd form of dementia.
Where she couldn't...
My mum's dementia, she can't remember who she is,
but she remembers what she is.
Meaning she can go to the toilet, she can eat, she can sit in the chair.
Cheri's mum had a form of dementia
where she just forgot what she was.
She remembered who she was.
Meaning, "I'm so and so".
And, "That's my daughter", and so on. And, "You're my daughter's husband".
But she couldn't remember, for instance, how to eat.
How to go to the toilet.
Think of how cruel that is. Not only...
She was forgetting things, but she also knew she wasn't remembering
how to do things that she knew she should have done.
Her life became...
Her life became horrible actually.
- There was an awareness? - I reckon, yeah.
She was aware she couldn't, and she should have.
I remember about five, six, seven weeks ago, we took her out.
I was in Adelaide.
And she couldn't work out how to get into a car.
How to sit in a car. Think about it, we do it quite seamlessly.
We position ourselves, we lower ourselves with our...
our bodies, we lift our legs in, and so on.
And she couldn't remember how to do it.
And to try to explain it... It was like, really sad to watch Cheri
try to understand it, what we do, and then try to explain it to her mum.
It was just terrible.
And she was a pretty competent...
individual, until this hit her.
So in many ways I was just sitting there thinking, "Look..."
You know.
My mum on the other hand is fine. She's got dementia,
but she's happy where she is. She's comfortable where she is.
Alright, maybe she doesn't...
Maybe her memory is like, about
20 seconds...
If you say something, she'll just repeat it.
She's on a short loop.
But she's still happy, she'll smile, she'll laugh.
Maybe I'm making excuses for why I don't go back more often.
Because I think they're looking after her, I think she's happy.
But she's falling down.
Well, yeah I mean... Obviously things are changing as well.
Look I don't know how long my mum's got, I'm now thinking...
how quickly it happened to Cheri's mum.
- But what do I do? - That seemed to happen so quickly.
Yeah, it did.
But what do I do, go over and live, and what?
Wait and sit and watch?
What benefit is it...
Oh, bugger.
What do we want, we want...
- I reckon one over. - Nah, I think we're stuck.
Nothing we can do.
What benefit is it I sit there, and spend my life sitting there,
to make her happier?
If I'm out of her life,
she's...
She's occupied, watches "Andre Areer", or whatever his name is...
On TV, they have it on all the time, or Elvis Presley.
And she sits there and she seems quite happy.
When I'm there it's just a reminder of things gone and lost.
Again, maybe I'm just making myself feel better.
Your parents are young aren't they, they're quite young?
- Mid-60s. - Oh yeah, they've got a long way to go.
My mum's 95, I mean she's not...
She's... you know...
I mean I don't even know whether my mum remembers whether I'm there.
I can say I've been there and she'll go, "Oh, okay".
I mean... it sounds cruel doesn't it?
But when you speak to her on the phone, she knows it's you?
Yeah, and when I'm there she knows it's me.
But she doesn't remember when she last spoke to me
or when I was last there.
I mean she thinks...
For a long while with my sister, she used to say, "Where's Jacqueline?"
And I'd say, "She passed away. She died".
And then I'd be sitting there
while she said, "Died..."
And we'd have to go through the whole thing again.
And then she'd cry, and I'd just sit there.
So now I all say is, "She came and say you last week",
or, "She's coming on Saturday". Makes her happy.
And then she'll say, "Have you spoken to her?" And I'll say, "Oh, yeah".
So my sister's actually going to visit my mum more often than I am.
In my mum's mind. I guess... Is that far from reality, you know?
Who are you flying with?
- Qatar. - Oh, okay, via Doha?
- Just economy? - Yeah.
...the reality is we've got major issues with climate change across the board.
Temperatures rising, drought which is a consequence of this.
We've got a whole range of things going on,
yet he talks about bringing in a lump of coal.
We've got Adani out there, that moved their capital base offshore,
to the Caribbean, so we've got to question their ethics and morality.
He's got no idea what's going on. We're gonna be facing massive drought,
massive consequences, irrigation problems, farmers going bankrupt,
and he's just sitting there talking about being "leader".
He's more concerned about himself than the country.
You can't shut down coal overnight though, can you?
There's too many people who depend on it, too many...
I mean there's billions of dollars,
there's thousands of jobs and billions of exports.
But we had people in this country who have led in the past,
who have actually developed things
and moved things along and invested in the future.
Scott's living in past technology, he's not prepared to invest in Australia.
If you look at the reality, you've got changes in technology,
you could go solar for a lot of this, move to battery back-ups.
We could look at the hydrogen technology that's coming out around the place.
This country's got so much potential, provided we had some leadership
that could actually deal with that and start to re-structure our industry.
But what do you do about the people who lose their jobs? I mean we just
- shut down the car industry. - I'm not suggesting we do it rapidly,
but I'm suggesting we need a progressive policy.
The Kyoto Protocol and us meeting our targets
is a load of rubbish with him.
He thinks we're going to meet our targets, we're not,
we're way behind and going backwards rapidly, he's denying that...
Well, I mean, if you make these sorts of changes,
and I agree with you, the rest of the world,
by and large has moved on, while Australia is, you know...
we're becoming a bit of an outlier...
China's still opening up new coal mines,
India's still dependent on coal, we supply it, it creates wealth,
it creates prosperity, it props up your super fund probably, Leslie, so...
You know, we've got to take all of that into account, don't we?
We do have to take it into account, but it takes a bit of time and effort
to put some of that structure in place.
If you spend some time and effort on the forward planning,
like we've had with previous people and previous prime ministers
who have thought about these things with a greater depth of understanding,
then actually end up with getting a solution that runs for the country.
And we need someone who can lead and develop a bipartisan approach
so it won't be just one government doing it.
It's not going to be a quick change but we do need that change
and we've got a government at the moment that seems to be more concerned
about their own investments than what the future holds.
But the reality is that our future is dependent on our climate
and our climate needs to be managed effectively,
and it doesn't matter whether it's Australia or not,
we need to step up to the mark.
We've batted above our weight in a lot of other industries,
why can't we take the forefront lead in this issue
and start to talk about it openly around the world?
Our neighbours will be drowning from the consequences of climate change,
Fiji and the islands offshore,
and yet we're sitting here, exporting a commodity,
where we're going to need to provide them with aid...
This is not appropriate. This requires leadership
and a humanitarian approach. He prophecises to be a Christian,
but he doesn't appear to have a very Christian attitude to other people.
Good to get your views on it, Leslie, and thank you for your call.
Next up Gillian from Hawthorn. Good afternoon, Gillian.
Hi Jon, hi.
Now coal, yes or no? And should we be persisting
with our current mix of climate policies and energy policies for Australia?
Well... I just think, Jon, and it's really upsetting me,
I just think that... It's really upsetting
that politicians think that they know better than scientists all the time.
I feel like we're at a stage now, where the...
the knowledge that scientists have accrued is just being rebuked
and not being taken seriously, and that concerns me...
Ta, you're very good to me.
- But I can't see what I'm doing. - Oh, sorry.
Go away, go away.
There's lots of monarch butterflies as well.
A big emu or something has walked through here.
- There are lots of emu tracks. - Yeah?
Isn't that amazing? From the rain,
everywhere you walk there's little native violets.
I'll have a look in a minute.
If you focus your eye on it, the whole ground
is just little purple dots everywhere.
...one hour, stuck in traffic, and allowing an extra hour...
I have to allow an extra hour, or two,
because if there is even one small bumper-to-bumper tail end collision,
no one's hurt...
That blocks a lane, that means we can sit then for another two hours.
- That is not fun. - No it's not, not at all.
Fiona, I've got a full board of calls, I better get a wriggle on, 1300-931-931,
and more texts, 0437-931-931.
Shirley in the western suburbs says: "I'm sick of hearing about the inner city,
"all they ever do is talk about themselves,
"have they any idea what it's like out this way?"
Larry, good afternoon.
Hello Jon, yes good afternoon, thanks for taking my call.
Yeah, I'm interested in this...
Hi, can I have Banksia Ward please?
Thank you.
Hi, can I speak to my mum,
Inga Rakowski, room 32, please.
I'm her son.
Okay, thanks.
How has she been today, how was she?
Is she... Yeah, I know.
Is she feeling... Is she better today?
Yeah, don't wake her, that's fine. I'll try again tomorrow.
If you could let her know her son called, that would be great.
Alright, thanks a lot. Bye bye, see ya.
Hi hun, it's just me.
I'm okay, where were you?
Oh, okay.
My mum's still not any better,
she was asleep, so I didn't get a chance to talk to her.
So that, yeah...
Nah, I got the usual stuff about her being old and so on...
It's probably good we're going next week.
I'll be able to drop in or something.
How are you?
Freeway seems to be okay, 40 minutes or so.
But how was your day, stuff like that?
Alright, okay.
Okay, bye bye, see you.
Are you taking time off before?
Yeah, took Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off next week.
- Can you just take that over there? - Sure.
But you've done a lot of study beforehand haven't you?
Yeah, the last couple months.
Didn't take any time off though.
Do you reckon you'll pass?
I don't know, I hope so, I don't want to do that study again.
I've just gotta...
I've just gotta get some petrol.
We're going to Adelaide tonight, on the way to Adelaide anyway.
- Tonight? - Yeah, my mum's not too good.
She stopped eating, taking fluids.
So we want to go over.
- She stopped today? - No, about two days ago.
And what are they saying?
Well they say about five, six, seven days if she doesn't pick up.
They don't last that long.
They don't take fluids, and that is what probably does them in.
Dehydration and that sort of stuff.
So we're going to go to Horsham, and stay the night and then go on.
We'll drive about four hours tonight when we get home.
- You guys have a place in Horsham? - Yeah, I've mentioned it before.
We bought it to go to Adelaide, that's what we're using it for.
We went so often for the mums.
We'd go halfway... I'll just go to the petrol station here.
It's nice, turned out to be more of what we enjoy than going to Adelaide.
It's a house on a fair bit of land, we lease out the land to a farmer.
- So it's not in Horsham town? - No, it's outside.
About halfway between here and there.
- Between here and Adelaide? - Adelaide, yeah.
It's about a four hours' drive, so it's a fair old way.
I've just got to get petrol.
How much land is there?
About a thousand acres, it's quite nice.
I've got some videos, if you want to have a look.
I took a video the other day... Get my iPad out of my bag.
Open up to Photos, go to Videos.
Let's just have a quick look. There's nothing on it that...
Here we are.
Where are Videos? There's Videos.
Which one did I do last week?
That one, have a look at that one.
You can have a look at a few other things if you want, I'll just get some petrol.
Whatcha doing?
I'm picking roses.
- What are you doing? - Just taking a video.
- And why are you doing that? - Because I can.
They're lovely this year.
I'm trying to work out which ones to take home.
Take some smelly ones.
- Huh? - Ones that have nice smell.
Flies are really bad.
The flies are terrible.
A lot of these are already past their use-by date.
Well no, you know, but by the time you get them home...
They'll be... They'll be...
- Which ones? - RSL ones. But already their buds...
I could take those buds I suppose.
- Are you coming? - I'm coming.
They said that they are... right.
In your mum's mind, she's dreamt, or whatever,
that you've said you're coming, and no matter how many times
you, me, the nurses, staff...
No one can tell my mum that she's not seeing things.
She's right, and we're all wrong.
Even the fact that we're all saying,
"No, there's no people climbing up poles".
She won't even rationalise that, "Maybe there is something wrong with me,
"Because everybody's saying there's no people climbing up poles,
"so maybe I am seeing things". She can't even do that.
Oh you've got all this on tape, me ranting, have you?
No it's good because I'll listen to it and I'll think about
how difficult it was, and how we went over and over
to justify everything,
you know, the feeling of distress.
I don't know.
It's just crap.
Careful here, tread in the middle here, okay?
Don't tread on the edge.
Tread here. I almost flicked myself up.
Where my foot is.
You can tread on the edge there, and then tread there, you'll be right.
And you've done it, you've trodden exactly where I said don't tread.
Which one you looking at?
- How does, how do you do it? - Oh, god.
That's all my mum's stuff, after she went into the home.
That's in the shed up there.
Oh end it, end it, end it.
I'll show you my mum.
This one, you'll see her here.
No, I'm not particularly interested.
She's in the home there. You can hear "Areer", "Andre Areer",
they all sit in front of that. It's revolting.
Almost a stereotype, a cliché.
She's speaking German.
- You understand German? - Yeah, yeah.
- What's she saying? - "Are you sleeping here?", "No".
- "Where are you sleeping?" - I'm flying back now, soon.
We're flying back in a minute.
We're going home today, yeah.
"Do you live in Adelaide?"
That shed's now full of my sister's gear.
Cause you know my sister...
- Which shed? - The shed up there you saw it before.
There's a photo of my sister's place too there.
Where abouts is it? Let me have a look, David.
Which one is it? I think it's taken...
Here we are, take a look at that one.
This was taken after I'd cleaned it out.
Took out all the cupboards.
It was a mess.
That was her kitchen, I took out everything that had rotted out.
Because I...
She passed away, at that spot.
And I took this in order protect myself.
Because I knew the other guy might say I'd done too much.
But all I did was clean it out.
But in the end they said that I had vandalised it
and I had to pay ten grand.
Can you believe it? Completely ridiculous.
This state is what you found it in?
No, I had cleaned it out, ready to...
Look at it, it's fine. What happened there?
But I wasn't going to argue, there's no point in arguing that stuff.
Anyway, put it away.
So that's it, so hopefully she'll... Who knows what will happen?
It's probably not going to be great, but we'll see.
What's not going to be great?
My mum, I don't reckon she'll go beyond...
Beyond another week or so.
Which is a pity, but I guess it's...
- Giving Cheri a call? - No.
She knows I'm coming home, I said that you were catching a lift.
She's fine, she's just getting ready.
She's at work actually, she won't get home... What time is it? 5:18.
She won't get home for another half an hour anyway.
She got some work, which was...
- Which was good. - Yeah, that's great.
- How long, just temporary stuff? - Yeah, just three days a week.
With a local arts company. A friend of hers, remembered her from...
five, six, seven, eight, don't know how many years.
Is this where I go? I don't go this way normally.
- No, next one. - Yeah, I reckon Forster.
It's good, it's been good for her. She's really...
She's a bit more cheerful, I think it's good.
Work's good.
Gives you a focus,
takes your mind off of other stuff.
These are my sister's. Bollés, I found them in her stuff.
Aren't they fancy?
Most expensive pair of sunglasses I've ever owned.
- Are they women's sunnies? - Are they? I don't know.
I'm told they make me look very European.
You like them?
Yeah, not bad.
They probably are female sunnies, but male, female, I don't know.
- Are they? - I don't know.
Now you've got me worried.
I imagine it's going to be an interesting week ahead.
And I don't mean "interesting" in a good way.
Cheri's taking time off work?
Yeah, it's only part-time, so she can shift around her days.
And she'll fly back maybe, I don't know, we haven't really thought through it.
We don't really know... We'll go over...
We'll get there tomorrow afternoon, we'll be able to judge it pretty quickly.
If she starts eating, it will be all okay.
And be delayed for another month, or week, or year, or whatever.
I've squared it up with Marie, she's fine.
With that sort of stuff she's pretty good.
What do you do, what's the land like? I couldn't tell on those videos.
Flat.
What's growing?
That video was pea.
They grow pea. It's a bit short because it's been a dry season.
- But who grows the pea? - The farmer, we lease it out.
He grows pea, he grows barley, lupins.
What else does he grow? Lentils.
Chickpea.
The one time he grew chickpea, we had a bad season.
All very weather dependent.
He doesn't live there though?
No, he lives in town.
He's an old guy.
He's got a few things wrong with him, it's amazing he just keeps going.
But he's got a bloke, he's got his son-in-law,
they run a little farming business.
And we're just one of their plots.
Yeah, it looked nice.
- Should come up one day. - Yeah.
How long does it take you guys to get there?
Four hours. Take about four hours.
Does Cheri do any of the driving?
No... Well yeah, look... No I'll probably drive, she...
I like to drive.
I like to drive in the city, I like to drive...
I just like to drive.
- This car has cruise control, yeah? - Yeah, yeah.
Come on, I don't like traffic.
What's holding us up?
I'm a bit impatient, I just don't want to be delayed today.
What are you going to do if you don't pass the exam?
I don't know, it's starting to get a little funny with Marie.
I really hope I pass, Andrew.
And if not?
I might have to start looking for something else.
I don't reckon I've got long there too.
I need to shake things up, I can't just keep doing this
day in, day out. Pointless.
God the traffic's terrible, isn't it? I saw 25 minutes.
Oh, dear.
- 25 to... Kings Way? - To Kings Way, yeah.
Let alone up over the Bolte.
You can have a look at more if you want.
Where's the iPad, did you put it back in my bag?
You can have a look at more if you want. I don't mind, I mean there's nothing...
I tend to not take people, I tend to take things.
Landscapes, the photos, I don't know whether there's anything there.
Have a look, you'll see there's some stuff.
Oh that's videos. There's some drone shots there too.
Got a drone, which I mentioned a while back.
They're pretty cool.
- More of your mum. - Yeah, more of my mum, yeah.
What's that one? That's the lake.
That's a boring one.
What's that one?
That's the garden, you can see Cheri there.
Where is she? Is she there?
Stand up, hun.
She won't appreciate that.
- Just say hello to the video. - Hi, video.
Look at me.
Hang on, I can't get up and down that easily.
Okay, I'm just gonna go walk to the drive.
My stool's cool, but when I have to kneel for a while and then get up...
The ground is really wet.
That would have been a year ago or so.
The flies are out, so wasn't this year.
There's our old car.
Probably two years ago.
Three maybe.
Turn the sound down, I don't like the sound of my voice.
I don't mind watching it, I don't want to hear me.
That's the driveway. See that's barley.
- That's barley? - Yeah, that's barley.
That's looking down the drive.
- Yeah, looks beautiful. - Yeah, it's lovely.
The drive's 800 metres, so it's nice.
Is the lake out that way?
The lake is on the other side of those trees.
And it's big, a big lake.
It's dry, wet, dry. At the moment it's dry.
Two, three years ago it was full. Not full, two-thirds.
There might be one with water in it. Go have a look.
Just look for one with water in it, and that will be it.
Again, turn the sound down, I don't want to hear myself.
There's some photos, go to the photos. There's quite a few photos of the place.
Why'd you guys drive so much, why didn't you fly between them?
- If I had an aeroplane? - No, between Adelaide and Melbourne.
Given that we can stay there,
it kind of breaks it up. I mean... It sounds a little bit bad
that we're getting some enjoyment out of it all, but...
It will be nice to get there tonight,
it will be nice to wake-up tomorrow morning,
It will be nice to have breakfast and then go.
It's just making a good thing out of a bad situation.
We have flown a lot, I was a gold member there for a while.
But it costs a heap of money. Oh, that one.
There's me and my mum, there we are. On the beach.
- In Adelaide? - That was about two, three years ago...
Look for water, that's the lake. Go for one that looks like the ocean.
- I don't want to distract you. - No.
- These ones? - Yeah, that's the lake.
It's like being at the beach.
You wouldn't know.
And now, you can just drive out on it.
We drove out on it the other day.
In fact if you go to the videos, there's one of the drone of it.
Go to the videos, there's a drone one of the lake,
probably about three weeks ago.
If you want, I mean you don't have to.
I think I saw it.
- It's got a shadow of the drone. - Oh, this most recent one, down here?
Yeah, I went up, just had a look.
In a minute I'll pan up and around.
Maximum flight altitude reached.
Alright, I'm 500 metres now.
It's amazing those things, they can do... They're fully automated.
You know the Mars thing that just landed the other day?
And they're all going on about how it goes.
But really, drones do it all the time.
They're all programmed to do all sorts of things.
I guess the thing with the Mars thing,
is whether everything's still working, after six months in space.
Do you know what I mean?
That thing will go, where it takes off, to the nearest centimetre.
If you just press a button, it'll do everything you want, automatically.
Technology's just amazing.
That's our place there, you can see it expanding across there.
And it goes back a little bit.
- It's so flat. - Yeah.
Well it's all that sort of, plains.
Very rich, alluvial soil.
Oh, there's the lake, bit of water.
- Is there? - Isn't that water?
Nah, that's not water, you'll see the river, to the left.
But anyway.
What happens is, when it runs out of battery it'll start beeping,
and no matter what you do, it just lands.
The big danger with those things
is that they run out battery and just fall out of the sky.
Which has almost happened once.
If it can't maintain its location with the wind.
But anyway.
I'm sorry to hear about your mum, Andrew.
It's okay.
It's probably for the best.
Her life quality's pretty crap.
She's not happy, I mean...
What do you do?
What did she do?
Well, she was a physio.
But she helped my dad, in his business.
And he was a vet. So she was his...
Sidekick.
Back in those days it wasn't all this - green gowns with the face masks,
and the machine that goes "ping", all this sort of stuff like a hospital.
It was pretty rudimentary.
People just treating animals... It's just gone crazy now.
What do you mean?
Now you go to a vet, well you don't have pets,
but you go to a vet now you're going to pay as much for the pet as you are for...
for a human being.
And they'll give chemo, and they'll do this and do that.
It's all just... You know.
It's all just milking it, my dad would have said,
if he detected cancer or something, because cancer's nothing new.
He would have just said,
"Dog's not in pain? Still eating?", yes,
"Still wagging tail?", yes.
"Well until that stops
"enjoy the puppy or the dog.
"And then when it gets bad, we'll put her down humanely,
"and gently and you can all grieve together". But now...
Who was it? Our next-door neighbours have just paid $5,000.
Somebody we know paid over $5,000, for their dog,
because it had some sort of cancer.
$5,000, and it will die anyway,
it will die in three months' time, or half a years' time. It's just crazy.
They see you coming.
It's gone out of proportion to what it is.
I shouldn't say that.
- What did she do at the vet? - Well, there's a lot to do.
Places now probably have receptions, nurses,
assistants, you name it. It was just her and my dad.
She did all the... Reception, nurse, assistant.
Cleaner probably, who knows.
Me and my sister as well, my sister and I.
I always used to get the tail end,
figuratively and literally.
Which wasn't great, because when you do anything to a dog
without anaesthetic they tend to let loose of their bowels.
Me and dog shit are fairly closely familiar.
And my dad was... He was a hard taskmaster,
he wasn't an easy guy to get along with when he was at work.
I mean he was good, but everybody at work gets a bit tense.
It was pretty tough for my mum, I think.
I know after he died she really relaxed and started to enjoy life a little bit.
Which was good for her.
The last 20 years at least, 25 years, have been quite good for her.
Until about three years ago.
Damn.
Only bad thing is I haven't seen my mum for a while.
I just neglected to go lately.
She just seemed like she was going to live forever.
They get to a point and you think, they're not gonna go,
they're just going to be around, you know.
So I sort of dropped back a little bit from going over.
Which I regret a little bit.
She wasn't really aware... You could see in that clip...
She wasn't aware of who I was.
She spoke English?
- No, she spoke German. - I know, but in life.
Yeah, she spoke English, she spoke quite good actually.
My dad never did.
It was his mark, of how he approached everything.
Sort of like, "Bugger you I'll speak as I want".
But my mum was quite good.
But when people get old they tend to revert back to their native tongue.
What was she like?
What do you mean, what was she like? She was my mum.
Never know what my mum's like.
No one, we never know what our mums are like, or our dads are like.
We never know them as human beings.
We just adopt their views and opinions,
and never understand why.
What about your parents, they still kicking? They would be, wouldn't they.
They're not here are they?
In Canberra.
- There's a distinct theme in your photos. - Yeah?
- Not people? - No, the bush.
Don't look at any ones with Cheri, she'll kill me if you've looked at them.
I think the place gives me a lot of pleasure. It was such a...
- We were so lucky to... - Are they your sheep?
- Are they sheep? - Yeah, they're sheep.
Ah, there's my sister, hang on, there you go, that's my sister.
Yeah right.
- That's your sister? - Yeah, yeah.
And there's my mum and dad down the bottom.
I sent that to a friend, after she passed away.
I sent that as a little thing to her friends.
- That's you and her? - That's me and her with my dad.
They're all dead now, just me. That's great, hey?
That one, there.
Were you and your sister close?
- Is that you? - Yeah, that's me.
Don't I come across as that good looking chap anymore?
Oh, my god.
- Why? What's the matter? - Is that you?
Yeah, that's me, that's a funny one, that one.
Yeah, I had long hair.
That actually was probably only in the '90s, mid-'90s.
Oh, early-'90s.
Do you mind if I put my sunglasses on?
My mum was pretty good.
First time to Melbourne... She used to take us as kids to Melbourne.
I remember that was our first...
Really our first and only holidays as kids.
We used to always go... She used to always stay the best places.
My poor old dad was always back home battling away.
Now he was pretty old you see, so my mum would, she was funny...
She spent money a bit wildly.
We'd always go to the best hotel.
We went to Florentine Grossi, before it was...
it was the Florentine, back in the day. I remember...
- It was real ritzy. - Is it still there?
- It's now called Flossi. - Grossi?
It's now owned by that guy. But it's the old Florentine.
Melbourne's full of those old places, that have been here since year dot.
You know, 40, 50 years, 40 years, 30 years.
Vlados, you know that one? And what's the one...
The one in Toorak? There are a whole bunch of them.
Do you go out much?
Never down that way. To Toorak.
Do you go out to dinner much?
- I guess, every now and then. - Gourmet dinner?
- Is Grossi gourmet? - Oh, yeah. That's one of the...
- So your mum would take you there? - She'd take us everywhere.
What she couldn't do with my dad in Adelaide,
she'd then do with us in Melbourne.
Oh, yeah. It was great.
We stayed at the Southern Cross, which is in Exhibition Street.
I love Exhibition Street, I'd go that way but I don't want to delay.
To me, that's Melbourne, Exhibition Street.
You go up that rise off the rail yards. And the trees, and the cars...
I've just got that image from when I was...
I must have been 10. And we were at the Southern Cross Hotel.
Who stayed there?
I think The Beatles, or Mick Jagger stayed there back in '63 or something.
- It's not there now is it? - Nah, it's gone.
It replaced a beautiful old Victorian building,
I remember looking at pictures of the old building it replaced.
And now it's gone and I think it's just an office block or something.
That's my memories of Melbourne.
- We used to always train over... - They knocked it down?
Oh yeah, it's all gone.
We used to train over on the sleepers, that was fun, a lot of fun.
All gone.
My mum was pretty good that way. What is the speed I didn't look?
60? Or was it 80? It must have been 60.
I've been done here before.
I don't think you'll be going faster than 60.
No.
It's 80.
I just hope it's not long and drawn out for her.
So she came into the office.
And she stood there while I was doing some work.
Ta.
She stood there with her arms folded, looking at me. And I sorta said...
I was feeling really uncomfortable at that stage.
- Was anyone else in there with you? - No.
I said, "I feel like you're bullying me, I feel intimidated".
And she sort of said, "If you can't work with me..."
She just went on that whole thing about...
If I can't...
If she can't talk to me directly, then there's no working relationship.
And I just said, "Well, I feel uncomfortable".
And she said, "We'll need to talk about this seriously further on",
and then she just left.
I don't know. Anyway, we'll see what happens.
How long have I got there I don't know, but anyway.
At the moment all is happy, happy as Larry I guess.
And what about yourself? You're leaving Friday aren't ya?
Friday's your last day isn't it?
Friday's last day.
- But I'll be in the city the next two days. - Cool.
And then what, after Friday what happens then?
The course starts next Wednesday,
for two months, and then that's it, I'll be out,
practising.
Excited?
Are you gonna give Cheri a call?
Nah, you're here. She's at work anyway.
Did I tell you she got work? Part-time work.
And now she's about to see her boss.
The boss thinks she's great, so they're going to offer her more work.
I don't know. She always gets headhunted.
I think every job she's ever got she's been headhunted.
I've never been headhunted.
I don't know whether she'll take it or not, we'll see.
I don't know whether I want her to, but it's got nothing to do with me.
If she's happy with it, I think it's better that she does.
She's been far happier, lately.
Rather than being at home. I've really noticed a big change.
Sitting at home worrying about the miseries of life.
It's no good for anyone.
No good for me.
Anyway, we'll see.
Is it going to be full-time?
I hope not. I think she'll go crazy if it's full-time.
I hope not, for us. I don't want her to work full-time.
What's the point? At the end of the day, what's the point?
Life just becomes a grind of waking up, going to work, coming home.
It's like the hamster wheel.
What's she going to be doing?
- What's she going to be doing? - Yeah.
Just what she does.
You know, that admin, management type stuff.
She'll get paid more money, everything.
It's typical Cheri, but that's good, all good, everything good.
Okay. Oopsie-daisy.
Are you going to report Marie?
Nah, I'm not going to, I'm gonna leave that's what I'm going to do.
I'll do like you, go to the bar.
Don't know whether I have it in me though.
Do you think this water will be any good, sitting in the hot car? It's a bit warm.
I reckon, as I've said Andrew, it would suit you,
or you could start your own firm.
Yeah, yeah, I could. I'll see, I don't know.
I'll wait and see.
Right now, I just want a quiet life. I just don't really want a lot of hassle.
I don't want too many clients hassling me.
That's the good thing about what you're doing...
You'll be impartial... The taxi rank...
At court advocate.
You deal with the client and walk away.
That aspect of the work I quite like.
But with carrying their problems, sometimes it just wears you down.
As you know.
So I won't be giving you a lift anymore, hey?
Not that I do that often, but still.
Can't say I'm going to miss being out here though.
Lunches are better out here.
The city's pretty bland, lunch-wise.
It's expensive, put it that way. Where you get great food out here.
At good, reasonable prices.
Anyway.
See how it goes.
So, what else have you got to tell me?
Still doing the Tinder thing?
Reluctantly.
- Reluctantly? - Yeah.
I thought you were with someone.
A few dates.
I'm not really sure if I should keep it going or...
to end it now. I don't think I'm really feeling it.
I don't think that's how I want to meet someone, Andrew.
- What, Tinder? - Yeah.
How else should you meet 'em?
I don't know.
It seems to take something out of it.
Like what?
Well most people meet at work, or most people meet at... you know...
Most people meet at something they do mutually together.
Tinder's just being on the internet. How different is it really?
The bar or something...
Do people meet at bars, and continue on to have relationships?
Short things, but relationships? I don't know.
I've got no real experience in that.
- Where did you guys meet? - We've been together since year dot.
20, 30, 40 years, maybe.
At uni, we sat together in the class.
- You met at uni? - Yeah, yeah.
Friends.
- Uni in Adelaide? - Yeah.
We went out for a little bit, then we had a big argument
and I didn't talk to her for about three or four years.
We saw each other around,
sat next to each other at a seminar, or a movie,
or something that was on campus. I remember that, we both remember that.
And after graduation, we had a graduation party
and a mutual friend...
They rocked up to my place, I was still living at home.
I think I was... Yeah, I was living at home at that stage.
- How old would you have been? - I was 21, 22.
And they pull up in the car, friends picking up everybody...
And they said get in the back, and who's sitting there but Cheri.
She looks at me and I'm looking at her, I'm thinking, "This is interesting".
Cause like I said, we'd been together for about three, four months,
back three years earlier, four years earlier, I think.
And from then on we haven't looked back.
So... it's kinda funny. And I often wonder whether the guy who picked us up knew.
Cheri says she never said anything, she said she'd always had a thing for me.
I was always aware of her being around, we passed each other around the area.
We kinda had... She slapped my face actually, way back.
- At the end of the three months? - Yeah.
We were at a party, and it ended with her slapping my face.
- Then I didn't talk to... - What did you do?
It was nothing really, it was one of those silly parties when you're young.
Oh, you know. I don't know, I can't remember.
It was so many years ago.
That's how it's been.
It was just meant to be I suppose.
You didn't try to get her back?
Nah, it was pride, and all sorts of things.
Also you're young, and you've got a life,
and you want to do other things...
We've been together, we've been living together for probably,
I don't know, how many years...
For a while we weren't, for many years we weren't actually,
for five or six or seven.
And then we moved in together.
And I've been away for about three years in total, interstate,
and did the overseas trip.
I lived in America for a couple years, she came over...
We've been apart probably, in total, about three years.
Were you with anyone else in the three-year gap?
No. Oh, you know, the usual stuff, but nothing...
Nothing... No relationships of any note, put it that way.
What about before you met?
Again it was the... vigour of youth.
But again, nothing serious.
And there wasn't any... I don't know about... Was it meant to be?
I don't know. Who knows.
I think it was friendship, it was really solid,
we really... clicked.
Like the yin and yang, or the Lego pieces fitting together.
Sorta like that. It felt very comfortable, the friendship aspect.
Of course, there's always the sexual tension.
All that sort of stuff.
And then it just felt so right, I suppose.
That's crazy, one serious relationship.
That's life.
You've never had your heart broken?
- Or broken someone else's heart? - That's all another story. Anyway...
Let's just enjoy the drive, David.
What's that story?
Let's just enjoy the drive, here we are...
It's 33, the cool change has come through.
You were always sure?
What do you mean, I was never sure, I don't think anyone is ever sure.
If it works it works, and if doesn't work,
you're not together.
Cheri would tell you I've broken her heart many times.
Yeah, I don't know.
I must say, I mean we've been together... Three years...
I mean, being alone, nup...
It just felt right, still feels right.
But you've gotta work at it, David, you really do.
It's like a little flame, flickers back and forward,
the wind blows on it, it rains...
If it goes out, I'd hate to think.
Then it just wouldn't work.
Gotta have the little flame.
Sometimes it roars.
Sometimes it's just like a little pilot light in a heater.
You think, "Oh, it's going to get blown out".
Have you heard the song "Cheree"?
No, who's it by?
A modern song, contemporary?
- It's from the '70s. - Oh, '70s.
I may have heard it, not that horrible screeching one?
Hang on, I'll see if I can find it for you.
You have an iPhone, why don't you talk to Cheri on your iPhone on this?
Got Bluetooth too.
Yeah, but you always use your headphones.
Because every time I talk on Bluetooth on this
she says, "What, what, what?"
So I just find that if I...
I use the earphones it's really clear and concise,
and she doesn't go, "What, what, what?"
I'm trying to wean her onto Bluetooth.
Alright, so what are we listening to?
It's a band I like, from New York.
You never heard this?
Yeah, it's been a long time.
Relationships are good, I guess, I don't know
if something happened, I don't know whether I'd go into another relationship.
Maybe I'd just live a single life at the end of the day, I don't know.
- What do you mean? - Oh, I don't know...
Why would I get tangled up again? It's different for you.
Do you mean if you were to do it again?
No, if anything were to happen to her now.
Oh, okay.
She says I wouldn't last five seconds.
Without her?
No, she thinks I'd be fine,
she thinks somebody would come along and hook me, and sorta, you know...
pull me into the vacuum of their lives. And I'd be, I'd be trapped.
And she reckons I'd last alone five seconds.
I've gone on about, if I was by myself... But she says, "You wouldn't last".
Some woman would suck me in,
I'd be gone.
Don't think I would be, I say, "Nup, nup".
I think I'd relish the independent life.
Move into a hotel, join a men's club,
walk with a cane.
Just sorta be free.
It's one of our jokes actually.
...and a man was watching YouTube, or a television show or something,
just staring at his screen.
The woman was on Facebook, or texting or something,
and the child was just sitting there looking bored.
Yeah, I just thought...
I wish I'd had the guts to actually make a movie of it...
and post it, I think it would have gone viral.
- On your phone? - Yes, on my phone...
You would have used your phone to film these people on their phones,
and that's where it's eating itself, the culture is eating itself.
Stephen from Berwick there, kicking off our discussion today.
Annie from Melton, are you addicted to your mobile phone, Annie?
I have to admit that I am, it's with me pretty much 24/7.
And what do you do about it, if you're aware of it,
does that trigger a response?
Well I've been looking for self-help groups,
but I can't seem to find someone
to have a decent face-to-face conversation, so I...
No, that's probably on the phone.
I think... I've retired from work
and I've felt a little bit socially alienated.
I've taken to reading books on my phone, and...
I certainly, you know, am aware of...
of the fact that it is a poor replacement for friendship, in some ways...
Sorry, are you telling us you phone has become your best friend?
Well, look as I say, it's with me 24/7, and...
You know, I read books... As much as I know...
Hi hun, how are you?
I'm okay, where abouts are ya?
It's okay.
Nothing, nothing much, same old.
It was okay, interesting, worth going, I guess.
What about yourself?
Did you just leave now?
Yeah, no I'm fine.
It's fine, everything's fine.
No, that's okay. Alright. Okay, hun. Alright.
Yeah, sure that's fine.
Alright, when are you going to get home?
I don't know, probably the same. Okay hun.
Okay, alright.
See ya.