A very good day to you, loyal reader. A quick note to alert you all to some real-life shenanigans that have slowed my blogging efforts in the past couple of weeks, and will be occupying a sizable chunk of my immediate future.
Firstly, the DREADED COVID finally reached us in Outback Australia, where we’ve been blissfully sheltered these past few years. Both Mrs Columbo and Columbo Junior have been struck down, requiring yours truly to apply my nurse-maiding skillz to the max as they struggled through quarantine. Fortunately, both are now well again and I’ve heroically/luckily (delete as applicable) managed to avoid contracting it myself. Well done me…
If that’s the bad news, here’s the good! After her struggles with cancer last year, my daughter has been granted a PUPPY by Make a Wish Foundation Australia, which we will be collecting next weekend. The dear girl has been waiting ages for the right pup for her to become available, so we’re very excited to welcome the new arrival – even if my attempts to have the beast given a Columbo-related name were rebuffed.
Fetching the pup will involve a 2500-mile round trip by road, however, so I’ll be away on chauffeuring duty for the best part of week, leaving scant time (if any) to afford to the humble blog. If the output is a little lower than normal for the rest of August, please forgive me.
However, rest assured that I’ll be doing my best to provide red-hot Columbo content whenever possible and there are some excellent articles in varying stages of completion on the back-burner. I had been making a concerted effort to get the episode reviews on a schedule to allow them all to be completed before the end of the year, but I make no guarantees that will now happen (also I’m not exactly relishing watching Strange Bedfellows).
That’s about all for this update, except to say that if anyone makes a donation to the upkeep of this site in August, I’ll be passing it on to Make a Wish Foundation in recognition of the excellent work they’ve done in boosting my daughter’s spirits and providing her with a companion to treasure! Until next time, adieu…
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Mr. Columbophile. I don.t know if you.ll get this, so won.t write as much as wd like to. I hope the ‘voyage’ went well. I think you.ll be back at home. Thank you for your reviews. They are very good for me to read. Finally, i have to tell you, thank God, or your lucky stars if you are a non-believer, that I am not your editor, otherwise you wd be writing morning, noon and night.
All the best to you and your familyx best wishes from a very happy reader.x
I hope your daughter keeps enjoying one more thing with her new pup!
May God bless your daughter and your family. Fuck Cancer AND COVID.
Have a safe trip getting your new puppy. 2,5000 miles is no joke!
Hi Nick, I hope you and your wife are pretty well over it now. For me it was like a bad flu, pretty nasty, for four days then it eased. Sense of smell still not back. Had to self-isolate for a week.
Ironically, after avoiding it since 2020, COVID finally got to me in early August, then my wife a few days later. Felt like I’d been hit by a truck, and then after I was in the hospital bed in a daze, it felt like the attending physicians decided to infect me with the flu while I was there. Not a fun experience. I’m thinking of lodging a complaint with the hospital against the physicians, a Dr. Barry Mayfield and a Dr. Bart Keppel. Obviously a couple of quacks.
Will those scenes of cuteness at Columbophile HQ all feature John Cassavetes lurking in the background? LOL.
😁
Glad to hear everyone recovered from Covid and it’s wonderful that your daughter is getting a dog. Best wishes to you all.
Hopefully you called the puppy Dog. Also I never knew you were Australian, I always thought that you were English.
I am British born and bred, but have lived in Australia since 2011.
I didn’t know either that you and your family lived in Australia. I have heard of Melbourne and Sydney, but not quite sure where Perth is.
I’m happy your family is doing so well and your daughter is getting a new puppy!
Best for the trip CP and your daughter will love the new dog.
I wonder where on earth you are with such a long drive. I’m in central VIC in OZ and I also have covid right now. Had two shots of Novovax but symptoms still not pleasant.
We’re in the central deserts, approx 1800km north east of Perth (which is where the pup needs fetching from!).
Sounds very remote! Winter at least should be a better time to do the drive. All the best for it.
Certainly less likely to die of thirst/exposure if the car breaks down!
Central deserts? Alice Springs?
I used to know several Australian people through another Website. I tremendously enjoyed hearing from them. Most were from NSW, but a few lived in Darwin and another lived in Western Australia, several places
We’re about 8 hours west of Alice Springs by car, in the Gibson Desert in WA.
My. Gosh. Wikipedia has very little about this. I hope you live comfortably.
Bless your whole family.
So glad to hear that your daughter is going to get a puppy! I have three daughters, and this past year they each got a dog. They are wonderful, loving pets. I’m sure that your daughter is going to be thrilled when she brings her pet home.
Hope that your family’s experience with Covid is the same as my own,. We’ve each contracted this virus, and it hit each of us differently, with different symptoms. However, after 3-4 days each of us was back to work and getting on with our business, as normal. Best wishes to you and to your family!
Glad to read things are starting to go better for you and your loved ones. Take all the time you need 🙂
All in all, what wonderful news, dear Columbophile! I hope this new family member may bring a lot of bliss to your household.
Very best wishes for the road trip!
I’m sure it will be a gentle friendly dog, so you won’t be going on trips to an abandoned outback town, training on the word… “Rosebud…”
Aha, you never know!
As any of us Columbophile dog owners will attest, you may get the pup for a specific family member, but it’s the whole family that will fall in love.
Your Covid experience is a reminder that the effects and consequences of Covid are not over (and now Monkeypox). The silver lining is that the Columbo Renaissance continues. Adding the Guardian article posted in CP’s twitter feed last week, there have now been 16 such appreciations of the Lieutenant in world-wide online content since March 2020 (yes, my inner nerd searches and catalogues them). For a multitude of reasons, “Columbo” provides comfort viewing in a difficult period. Although it could not have been forecast at the time, Columbo’s take-downs of the 70s Elite is very morally comforting in 2022, when the divide between the haves and have-nots is even greater than it was 50 years ago.
Finally – and I emphatically don’t in any way mean this as a political statement but one from personal experience – I hope that in the far reaches of the Outback, you have vaccination/booster options available. Vaccination won’t prevent catching Covid, but for many people, it greatly eases the fear that it could be life-threatening.
Enjoy your family time! While seeing Rod Steiger and George Wendt on the same piece of celluloid is as stupefying as Jimi Hendrix opening shows for The Monkees, your review of “Strange Bedfellows” can easily wait.
Thanks Glenn, we’re all fully vaxxed here and do get to enjoy the benefits of ‘civilisation’ during school holidays and the such.
I think “Dr. Mayfield” would be an exceptional name for the pup!
Naturally the pup will be called Pup, right…?
All the best dealing with covid, however enjoy your days and travels with Mrs. Columbo and Columbo jr!
😄
What great news! 😊
Good news all around with regard to both Covid recovery and more importantly, your family’s pending new arrival! Even if you don’t have any new Columbo content, I’m sure we’d all like to hear more about the puppy! I also think you’re going to be busy in the puppy training phase. A pity that you can’t name him “Dog”! Safe travels in your round trip!
Travel safely to get the new addition to the family
So awesome about the puppy. So sucky about Covid!!! Do you think cases will go down as spring arrives!
Warmest regards! How long will it take for you to get the puppy and return home?
We’ll be on the road for a week to get the pup, including a few nights stopping over to rest and buy provisions.
If it is a Bassett hound, bear in mind they are completely untrainable – just like in Columbo !
We’ve opted for a smaller, sprightlier model!