For ages we have been trying to work out the age of our grizzled Shipping Reporter , at times a grumpy old buzzard, with obviously dyed black hair , a gold chain about his wrinkled neck. Everyone in the Little Darwin padded office was stunned when he announced that he had received a birthday card from the Queen. We all assumed it was a letter from Buck Palace for his 100th , and wondered if he is taking monkey gland injections to make him look slightly less than a ton.
With a flourish, he displayed the above birthday card - not from Lizzie Twostroke,but the Queen of the Jungle , mentioned from time to time in this disloyal blog .Seems the Queen is an avid reader of his yarns in Little Darwin and sent the above strange birthday card, made from a recycled invitation she received for an art exhibition by Gordon Richards on the Gold Coast several years ago.
Richards was a well known chef and restaurant owner in Victoria before he turned to art ,his output described as bold, humorous yet poignant reflections of the human form in all its frailty.
The woman in the painting looks remarkably like the Queen of the Jungle in younger days and we wonder if she was the artist's model .The birthday card contained a voucher for five double icecream scoops from Adele's Cafe , Horseshoe Bay, so he can be seen licking his way along the beach, a camera over a shoulder.
The waterfront scribe also received a surprise birthday card from the proprietors of the Magnetic Island bespoke Mexican eatery ,Man Friday , Bev and Jason , their dog Wrinkles and the amazing Curlew Motley who mothers orphan birds (more about her later. )
Great friends of the reporter's who spend a lot of time in Asia arrived with a birthday gift,a book on the Vietnam War ,with an associated offbeat postcard warning to drive slowly on a bicycle because there is NO train.
Richards was a well known chef and restaurant owner in Victoria before he turned to art ,his output described as bold, humorous yet poignant reflections of the human form in all its frailty.
The woman in the painting looks remarkably like the Queen of the Jungle in younger days and we wonder if she was the artist's model .The birthday card contained a voucher for five double icecream scoops from Adele's Cafe , Horseshoe Bay, so he can be seen licking his way along the beach, a camera over a shoulder.
The waterfront scribe also received a surprise birthday card from the proprietors of the Magnetic Island bespoke Mexican eatery ,Man Friday , Bev and Jason , their dog Wrinkles and the amazing Curlew Motley who mothers orphan birds (more about her later. )
Great friends of the reporter's who spend a lot of time in Asia arrived with a birthday gift,a book on the Vietnam War ,with an associated offbeat postcard warning to drive slowly on a bicycle because there is NO train.
