Speaking of memories, while looking to see if I had taken photos of old paintings of women in gowns in various art gallaries in Paris, France back in 2013, I came across some photos I had forgotten about.
Laurie between the lines, braving the traffic in front of the Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile.
A pair of lost soles on a bridge over the Seine.
Laurie once again between the lines, braving the traffic.
Napoleon’s horse was as dinky as he was.
A Seagull flying around above Paris
The Ginsburg family plot in the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris. Serge Gainsbourg was a famous singer and is still loved, as you can see from the flowers, metro tickets, and the lipstick kisses on his grave marker. Laurie left a metro ticket, also.
On November 25, 2025, Miriam with Out n’ About posted The DMax stops in Charters Towers. I thought their unplanned adventure was an incredible story. When I finished reading the post, a chorus popped inot my head, and I jotted down:
Now we’re driving around in a rented Yaris Looking for a brand new caris At the top of the world in the land down under Life’s twists and turns, one has to wonder
I sent the chorus to Miriam and asked her if she could rewrite the story of the broken DMax and finding its replacement into lyrics. She sent me the lyrics. I added the chorus and arranged the lyrics into an intro, chorus, fives versus, two bridges, a reprise, and an outro. With the help of AI music, I came up with a song that we all liked. Miriam named the song “From Maxy to Billie T.”
Charters Towers and Townsville City
The grand perspective
Miriam and Doug have been driving around Australia with a camp trailer in tow for several years. Miriam writes about their adventures and publishes them in a travel magazine and on her blog. She found some time to make a video for the “From Maxy to Billie T” adventure, sent me the video, and I added the music to her video.
Putting the lyrics and music together, and then adding the music to the video were fun collaborations, and I wanted to share the results with everyone.
Maxy to Billie T By Miriam Blacker
[Intro] We’re tripping Outback Queensland In our DMax and mobile home The car’s driving brilliantly but little did we know That testing times would find us And we’d need a bloody tow.
[Chorus] Now we’re driving around In a rented Yaris Looking for a brand new caris At the top of the world In the land down under Life’s twists and turns, one has to wonder
[Verse 1] We travelled far and wide on remote roads and dirt tracks To Karumba, Burketown, Lawn Hill and more Our adventures never set us back. Until one day it found us We were heading for the north Charters Towers, bound for Townsville The engine coughed and burst.
[Verse 2] Not really a blow up more a splutter and a clank Doug hoped it’d be minor I never thought we’d need a bank.
[Verse 3] Trouble found us but we had help I rang the RACQ A nice guy called Jay He saved the day towed our van back to Charters, and our DMax too. But the Dodgy servo back in Charters I won’t name them though I should They took one look at our Vic plates And tripled the quote, bloody crooks!
[Bridge 1] Your engine’s buggered It’s no good, they said as they trashed the dash bust the ignition barrel. Our car’s as good as dead.
[Verse 4] We’re guttered and caught We’re shocked, holy schmuck What the hell do we do With a van and no truck. There’s no rentals in town. Townsville’s more than 100kms away. We can take the train, there’s gotta be a way. Kindness always finds us A serendipitous chat in a pool leads to a ride to Townsville With a couple oh so cool.
[Reprise] There’s no rentals in town. Townsville’s more than 100kms away. We can take the train, there’s gotta be a way. Kindness always finds us
[Chorus] Now we’re driving around In a rented Yaris Looking for a brand new caris At the top of the world In the land down under Life’s twists and turns, one has to wonder
[Bridge 2] Now we’re in the Mazda sale yard Craig seems a real nice guy But is he a shark in sheep’s clothing who wanted us to buy But our dealing isn’t finished We know now what’s for us We haggle back and forth for days The BT’s quite a bus.
[Verse 5] When we tried to buy the car, to test pay a dollar for the truck The accountant laughed Craig whatcha doing Ya can’t sell a BT for a buck! Here’s a lesson that we learned don’t drive more than three hours make sure you arrive by 3pm Don’t blow up Number 3 Cylinder, especially near Charters Towers.
[Outro] Finally we’re leaving town Billie T’s our smooth new ride We’ve said goodbye to Maxy now we’re heading Southside. Now we’re driving around At the top of the world In a new bus that is perfect for us Billie-T is really nifty To wander in the land down under Given life’s twists and turns one simpy has to wonder
Have you ever thought, “There must be a reason for it!” when no reason seems to exist? It’s called Apophenia, coined by the German neurologist Klaus Conrad. While I had made plans to visit Belgium and Greece before I left for Germany, the idea of visiting Scotland was last minute. The first thing we did when Shey and John picked me up from the hotel on Wednesday morning was to take Shey’s computer to a computer repairman. Shey explained the problem to the repairman, but the fact that her computer was ancient, around the same age as Dundee in cyber years, the only response the repairman had was that she needed to buy a new computer.
The problem sounded more like an issue with the monitor than the computer. After we got back home, we checked out the computer, did some troubleshooting, and the issue was indeed the monitor. Shey and I got the problem solved. Voilà! No need for Shey to buy a new computer. In an apopheniatic moment, I told Shey I guessed the reason I came to Dundee was to help her figure out her computer problem. Call it guiding spirits, divine intervention, or simply coincidental, helping Shey solve her computer problem was well worth the effort of going to Dundee.
I noticed a dollhouse on the floor in Shey’s cool attic studio, and asked her about it. She opened up the dollhouse and explained that her father made it for her when she was a child. Her father was a very good craftsman, and left her a precious gift and lovely memories from her childhood.
I asked Shey if she wanted to write about her father for this post. It turnes out here father, who she always thought of as simply her father, was a very special man in the lives of many people as Shey explains below:
“It was just wonderful having you visit Timothy. And I was actually really touched by your interest in my dad’s handiwork. Of course when I was wee I never thought Dad was anything other than just my dad, the guy who could fix anything, for anyone . A molder to trade, he had such nimble fingers, I’d actually bring him all the broken toys from the kids round about and ask if he’d mend them. And he did. It was why when I was eight and he offered to make me a dolls house for my birthday –well I had to pick the most complicated plans in the model making shop, a Tudor mansion because of course he could make and mend anything. I didn’t know about his very difficult upbringing, his mother dying when he was four, that his father was the family black sheep of a reasonably well to do family, that Dad left his reserved trade occupation, in order to serve his country in three conflicts in bomb disposal, thought nothing of nearly giving his life to save a North Korean peasant family while fighting for the UN against the North because retreating Northern troops had mined their paddy field–their only source of food, in addition to trying and failing to save the life of a young man whose leg had been blown off in that same conflict. I just knew he was my Dad who could fix anything. And in my mind, he’s still that to me. In a world that wasn’t always kind to him , he was unfailing kind to all of those about him. Thank you Timothy for giving me the chance to talk about him.”
John wrote a play called ‘From Jute to Joysticks’ that includes a song about Shey’s dad disposing of the grenades in the Korean families’ field. Their play was also performed at the Verdant Works. Shey sent me a clipping from an article about the play titled, “Nostalgic play documents the city’s shift from ‘Jute to Joysticks’”:
“As Quinn describes, ‘From Jute to Joysticks’ “is a play about the re-invention of Dundee with its proud history of innovation. To put it another way you might say, ‘Hats aff tae the past. Jaikets aff tae the future!’.”
Songs written for the play include a piece harking back to memories of The Lone Ranger’s visit to Green’s Playhouse in the Nethergate, with another acting as a tribute to Dundee-man John Scofield; the father of Shehanne Moore, the play’s director. The remarkable story of Scofield’s bravery as a bomb disposal expert in the Korean War – winning a medal for risking his life by entering a bomb littered paddy field along with his Australian comrade, to save a North Korean farmer and his family – is documented and celebrated through music in ‘From Jute to Joysticks’.”
A page out of the program for “From Jute to Joysticks”
Atlas: “That is such a touching story, Paparazzo! High paws to Shey and John for sharing the history of Dundee through theater and music, and giving us a glimpse into the life of John Scofield.”
Off Center & Not Even 