Treaty

I’ve found the ideal time to come to the Sunshine Coast. The beginning of winter. It’s lovely. The sun shines, the sky is radiant blue and the temperature is bearable. Certainly works for me. I’m guessing it’s not normal.

Paradise?

Today is the wedding anniversary of Wallis Simpson and (former) King Edward VIII. They were wed in France in 1937. I’m wondering whether the service included the instruction for Wallis to obey her husband. Given he was no longer King, I’m thinking it was probably unnecessary.

I didn’t realise that Ms Simpson was actually divorced TWICE. Clearly that made it twice as bad as it was. Apparently, Edward may have started an affair with her while she was still married to her second husband. Edward strongly denied this but, it seems, palace staff actually saw them in bed together.

Meanwhile, Her second husband, Ernest Aldrich Simpson, was himself a divorcee when he married Wallis. He didn’t stop with Wallis, however. He married two more times, firstly to Mary Raffray, who was a childhood friend of Wallis and was her bridesmaid at her first wedding. Poor Mary died, so he then married Avril Leveson-Gower, who was born in Haslemere as Avril Joy Mullens. After she died, Ernest decided four marriages was enough and stopped walking down the aisle.

Wallis Simpson’s birth name was Bessie Wallis but she dropped the Bessie bit quite early on. I have no idea why. Perhaps it explains why she dropped a few husbands on her way to Edward. She spent a lot of her early years in Asia and, apparently, the only Mandarin she learned was “Boy, pass me the champagne.”

Her entire life was full of rumours and lies, full of imaginary lovers, conspiracies and strange people. She lived a very long and social life.

In a complete turn-about…today also marks the death of Mr Yunupingu, founder and frontman of Yothu Yindi. He was an amazing man and will, no doubt, be sorely missed. He died this afternoon in the Northern Territory after a battle with kidney disease.

But he wasn’t just a rock star. He was the first indigenous Australian from Arnhem Land to gain a university degree and in 1990 became the first indigenous school principal in Australia. An amazing guy. He was only 56.

Apparently, Aboriginals don’t like the first names of the dead being written down, so this great, intelligent and inspirational man can only be called Mr Yunupingu. I think that’s a bit sad, too.

I just liked this shot