Not an April Fool!!

Starting blogging again has been on my mind recently. I used to really enjoy it when I was writing before, and I miss it. I did contemplate a personal written journal, and I might do that too. But for now, I intend to write here about the things that interest me:

Chess: This has been my hobby for 50 years, and I've been working as a chess coach for the past 20 years. I recently won the Tasmanian Championship for the second year in a row and after a big drop in my FIDE rating, I woke today that it had rebounded a little and sits at 2019. This is a long way short of the 2200 I was at my best, and I doubt I'll ever get back close to that again. At the moment, I'm just happy to be above 2000.

It's no coincidence that I am starting writing just before the Candidates tournament starts in Toronto. The tournament promises to be the highlight event of the year with an incredibly interesting field of experience and youth in both the Open and Women's events. I'll be taking an interest in both events.

But the main chess emphasis of this blog will be local chess, Tasmanian and Australian. And, of course, anything that interests me in the meantime.

Nature: I also hope to post some stuff about where I live, in particular the natural beauty of Tasmania. I live in the north of the island close to the second city of the state, Launceston. The biggest city, Hobart,  is near the south of the island, about 3 hours drive from me. I recently found out that Tasmania has over 40% of its land considered as forest. And the air is among the cleanest in the world. All in all, it is a great place to walk around with loads of tracks, some of which are accessible to people like a 58 year old like me!

This is a pencil pine that I saw at Cradle Mountain earlier this year. This particular species is endemic to Tasmania, and only grows in the central highlands. It is a slow growing plant that can live up to 1000 years. It is believed that this species is ancient, a remnant of the super continent Gondwanaland. It is believed to have originated in what we now know as South America and then migrated across Antarctica before it split from the rest of the continent, finally landing in Tasmania. I find this kind of thing amazing, and will try to find more of interest about this beautiful and interesting island situated off the south coast of mainland Australia.

Other Crap: Although chess and nature are the two things that mean the most to me at the moment, I am also interested in other things. I live with my wife, Caroline, and two cats Alice and Candy. They might find themselves included here at times. I read a lot and I might use this blog to mention some books I've read both fiction and chess. And I'm interested in social affairs so I might use this as a soapbox from time to time, especially if an issue is important to me.

I should mention that I'm writing this primarily for me. I also will be writing for my friends and family who I lost contact with as I left social media last year. I closed both my Facebook and Twitter accounts, and currently only have a Mastodon account where I know no one personally. If you do want to link up, my account is chestas and I'd be particularly interested in building a chess community on Mastodon if anyone wants to join.

Anyways....Happy April!!!

Where were you when.....

 You often hear people saying that they clearly remember what they were doing when 9/11 struck, when Princess Diana died, or when JFK was shot, those historic newsworthy moments. I can only remember the first two of these as I am too young to remember Kennedy's murder. I was in Florence/Firenze, Italy, when I heard about 9/11 and in Stratford-upon-Avon in England the morning after Diana's death when I heard the news.

The same will be said for Trump in the future. Even now, people are reminiscing about what they were doing on January 6th 2021, but any indictments that stick will be massive news. There have been some highly prominent trials in the fairly recent past, with Saddam Hussein and OJ Simpson coming prominently to mind. But these will be nothing compared to what we can expect from the upcoming Trump trials.

Currently there are 4 major cases in Florida (secret documents), New York (Stormy Daniels hush money), Washington (January 6th), Georgia (election interference). There's also the civil case brought by E Jean Carroll and possible future indictments about retaining documents in his Bedminster home. There's a good case tracker in the Guardian.

Of all of these, the January 6th case seems the most important after the dramatic scenes of the US Capitol being stormed. It may not be the one that eventually brings Trump down, but it is certainly an epic trial, hinting at insurrection and treason. Living in Australia, we often hear American news the next day because of time zone differences. But the news of this indictment came to me in real time as I was climbing the Nut in Stanley to try to see a sunrise. The Nut is a large headland overlooking the historic town of Stanley and the surrounding coastline of North West Tasmania. The walk around the Nut gives great panoramic views and is listed as one of Tasmania's 60 Great Short Walks.

Unfortunately, I was not to see a sunrise because of cloudy weather, but I did see a lot of beautiful scenery, lots of gorse showing and wattle beginning to flower, and a load of pademelons, small marsupials that look like little wallabies.

Gorse grows abundantly in Tasmania although considered an invasive species

Wattle flowers beginning to show on this Coastal Wattle

Pademelons are small Marsupials