Home is where...

[El Gordo]

Have I missed something? Where did this conversation come from?

Anyway, I'm a big Eric Bogle fan.

I missed him last year when he was over from Australia, but have seen him play a couple of times before.

You've reminded me of something that happened in the Copenhagen marathon that I'd completely forgotten about. In the last couple of miles, when I was feeling totally spaced out, I kept singing to myself the refrain of one of my favourite Eric Bogle songs: "It's nearly over now, and now I'm easy". I told myself I'd look up the words to "Now I'm Easy" when I got home, but forgot about it.

I did finally do it, so here they are. It's a song that makes me cry.

For nearly sixty years I've been a cockie
Of droughts and fires and floods I've lived through plenty
This country's dust and mud have seen my tears and blood
But it's nearly over now and now I'm easy

I married a fine girl when I was twenty
She died in giving birth when she was thirty
No flying doctor then just a gentle old black gen
But it's nearly over now and now I'm easy

She left me with two sons and a daughter
And a bone dry farm whose soil cried out for water
Though me care was rough and ready, they grew up fine and steady
But it's nearly over now and now I'm easy

Me daughter married young and went her own way
Me sons lie buried by the Burma railway
So on this land I've made me home, I've carried on alone
But it's nearly over now and now I'm easy

Oh, city folks these days despise the cockie
Saying with subsidies and dole we've had it easy
But there's no drought or starving stock on the sewered suburban block
But it's nearly over now and now I'm easy

For nearly sixty years I've been a cockie
Of droughts and fires and floods I've lived through plenty
This country's dust and mud have seen my tears and blood
But it's nearly over now and now I'm easy
But it's nearly over now and now I'm easy