i have been inundated with requests to provide more unsolicited reading material for your empty screens.
what you need, what the world needs, is my blog of new writings to delight, to entertain, or to appall.
i know you are busy and i am busy too, creating a new novel (to be published this century) and yet another non-fiction work, a miscellany of human mirth and misery (to be published in the same century).
because we are all busy people, i propose to save time by using lower case only.
punctuation and grammar will generally be preserved; it takes more time and effort to avoid them than to include them; good habits die hard.
the blog will include stories, the occasional thoughts, snippets of work in progress and some old unpublished material of which i have a high opinion.
the blog will be conducted by my blog-bully, my daughter, who wants a story a week.
i’ll resist the bully and post a blog when i think i have something worth reading.
here is the first blog
i hope you like it as much as i do.
good reading
howard goldenberg
p.s. the mark of a mature writer is one who has gone beyond enjoying polite applause.
i am not too mature for polite applause.
p.p.s. i want to thank my friend, the author and artist Rod Moss, who has kindly allowed me to display his paintings on my blog. See more of his work at http://rodmoss.com/
howardgoldenberg 
Hello Howard
You treated me by chance several years ago. My Dad had a terrible accident and was in ICU with a brain injury. The prognosis was grim. I decided to fly to Canada to take care of him and went to the clinic in the hope for something for my nerves as I had suffered from panic attacks previously and the long flight was daunting.
I was met with your kindness and genuine care. It has remained with me all these years. I wanted to say a heartfelt Thank You. In that moment of darkness, it was moving to experience the heartfelt care of someone I had just met.
My Dad made a miraculous recovery. He tells anyone who will listen (and also those who will not) that my visit ‘saved’ him. I think of you every time he mentions it.
I was looking to see if I could find your contact details to say Thank You. Finding this blog and discovering your writing is an unexpected and delightful gift.
I hope you and your family are well.
Stella
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Leeton called you back. Its swimming pool, channel, river, water that runs also through my childhood. I’m seventy-two, a thinking time, as you say, washed to shore in Melbourne. Your father and my uncle, Weeks…. my mother married the younger doctor W … swam in the pool, the river. What of Mrs Goldenberg I’m wondering, and was Mrs Wahlberg in Rose Bay a friend? The drifts of time … as you write, thank you. Marion.
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Hello Marion
I have just found your letter
Thank for writing and you fill me with wonder and questions
My DD’s dearest friend was
Weeks white
Who died suddenly , dying young, of a subarachnoid haemorrhage
Dad was DEVASTATED
Weeks made a gift to my Dad of a top shelf thermos flask
Dad treasured this , his fragment of remembrance
Marion – I feel I should know you but I have no recollection of you
Can you send me a Leeton photo?
You are the same age as my sister Margot
My email address is doffanpaz@gmail.com
I ave a phone too
0414-524-942
Warmly
Howard
Weeks W gets a brief mention in my memoir of my dad
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You were my GP. I live overseas now, but still think highly of you. I recommend you the others, but see you aren’t practicising anymore. This was about 8 years ago; I still immediately think to mention you whenever someone asks for a rec in Melbourne. I’ll be sad at the reality of finding a less genuine, caring and intelligent Doctor when I move back to Australia.
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Alex
How kind to remember – and to write so publicly
I am still working full time
I expect to do so for an indefinite period; the work and the connection -such as our own – rewards me greatly
Travel well
And there will always be caring doctors – long after I meet a caring undertaker
Warmly
Howard
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Hello Howard,
Pity we didn’t have more time to chat..so much to talk about…you will be pleased to know I am not dead or dying soon…heart checked out completely…all good! Hope you are up here again soon…I would have read more of your work. by then…tremendous reads. Your energy and passion for life is infectious…!
Best wishes Annabel
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Hi Howard, I’m a journalist looking into doing a story on Leigh Creek. I understand you did some work there.. would you mind sending me an email so we can talk further? pett.heidi [at] abc.net.au
Thanks!
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Hello, old (only a little older, maybe) friend. I just found your site and my eyes lit up. Pam, the girls and I hope that all’s well for you and yours. Still the best GP Diamond Creek ever had. I dips me lid to you.
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Rudi Leibel
Famed in myth
And in fable
Rudi leibel
Good rudi leibel
With
Probit computers
Supremely able
Pam and rudi
Rudi leibel
As is written in the
Holy Bible
You do unto others
Most reliable
Such a joy
To see your name
Keep breathing rudi
While you’re able
Warmest greetings to you, pam, the girls
Howard
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God’s blessings to you, to Annette and the family. I well remember my many visits to see you professionally.
I admire your attitude.
Rudi.
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Hello Howard
Totally independently from my sisters comments last year , I found myself googling my life.
Reading about DC and remembering the tiny town of the 60s and the lasting memory of Dr Don Cordner examination of my appendicitis and then his fresh face apprentice Howard Goldenberg.
I sit here in the UK after many years residence with my wife Mandy, yes the same English nurse from Greensborough Hospital. After so many years we still refer to our wonderful doctor and friend and so many even the UK NHS has heard of the famous Howard “G”.
Healing is an amazing thing, after 40+ years your contribution to our lives and the smiling recollection of your place in our life has a strangely reassuring effect.
Having the love of so many and distant people is a awesome statement of your personality and contribution to the world.
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Mark
You humble me
I sit on a bench in a busy street in a small town in Israel where I am visiting cousins, and bugger me, my minutes- old ISraeli sim picks up a message from across worlds of space and generations of time
I remember the cunninghams of DC!
A family of individuals, all driven with some inner source of energy
I remember your parents- your mum did a flattering pencil portrait of me
I remember your dad
I remember your sister, her early teen trauma; her young adult sickness, her drive
And I remember mark – such a handsome youth!
And Mandy – fresh English rose , lovely diction, lovelier face
Such a joy to receive and read your words and feel your kindness
Do you and Mandy have kids, grandkids?
Whatever your life, my blessings and kind thoughts go to you both
And to all the cunninghams of DC
Warmly
And greatly touched
Howard
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Hi Howard
” Bugger Me” You have not lost your poetic eloquence 🙂
The UK may have created the cult figure “Ali G” but little do they know that he was a generation behind the Oz cult figure “Dr Howie G”
Mandy and I had three kids , James, Kate and Nick
James is 28 doing fine, Kate 25 graduated Uni’ doing Marketing in London, Nick 22 about to graduate Nottingham Uni’ degree in Economics. ( No registered Grand Children)
We returned to UK in 1994 and Mandy is still a nurse and I have been successfully working in London.
If you ever find your self sitting on a park bench in London passing time please stay in touch email we would love to see you.
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What a happy success story, mark
My youngest daughter spent nearly three years in Bristol and London, returned home early 2015
I did a fair amount of park benching during that time
Next time I’ll know to be in touch
With mark and Mandy and co
Wonderful to be in touch and to read of your Achievements
Warmly
Howard
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Dear Howard,
You were such a huge part of mine and my families life for such a long time….you were there at my darkest times and my happiest times. You saw my babies into the world and now one of them has babies….you are very loved and missed. You were my yard stick of what a doctor and human was meant to be and sadly no one has ever compared….therefore you have never been replaced.
It is really pleasing to see you are well and driven by passion in a different form….writing & communication.
Kind regards
Jo Barker (Cunningham)
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Jo
Your words impact upon me powerfully
We should meet
There will be much for us to share, much for me to learn
I’ll be doing some sessions at the old practice over coming weeks
Please contact me there
Warmly
Howard
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Dear Howard,
I’m an old friend/student (from 2007-2008). I’ve been looking for phone number for medical clinics so I might be able to contact you and re-connect, although since I’ve found your wonderful blog I wonder whether you are now focussing your energies on writing rather than practicing medicine.. do you have a phone number or email address I can contact you at?
My email address is katherine.knight@rocketmail.com, perhaps you could email me and I’ll explain all!
Yours Sincerely,
Katherine
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Hello Howard
I am just finishing your book ‘My Father’s Compass’ grabbed randomly from the biography section of my local library. How moved I have been by this unputdownable memoir. So I searched the Internet for more of you and discovered this blog and the other books you have written. The library has ‘Raft’ and I am sure will buy your novel. What a find! I am delighted and will recommend your writing to my book loving family and friends. Thank you
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Vivienne dawn
With stretch and yawn
I’m up ere dawn
To flight to Boston
And beyon
-d; and I arise
To what surprise
And mild surmise
And delight
That my writing might
Reach this Dawn
Thank you vivid dawn
Howard goldenberg
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The other night I was telling somebody about Manny Olian, and afterwards decided to Google him for the first time in 50 years. The only result was your piece “The Reunion”, 11 November 2013.
Like Manny, I started Architecture at Melbourne Uni in 1964. I did not know him well, but no-one in the year could fail to be aware of him. With his shoulder length hair he was unique; I had never before seen any male who looked like that. Of course in a few years many of us had long hair and beards, but he was a pioneer.
I believe he was a very good pianist as well, and he was, as you suggested, somewhat distanced from the rest of us as a result of drug-taking.
I have enjoyed reading some writings in your blog – your heart is obviously in the right place in these troubling times.
***************************
[Please contact me privately for further recollections.]
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Hello peter
I admired manny immensely
Gifted, free of malice, spider-fingered, hilarious, a surreal clown, loveable
We who were his classmates still lament his absurdist fifty years later
And yes, I would like to hearore
Thank you, peter
Howard
Forgive the question -have we met
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I found your picture on one of your pages, and no, I don’t think we have met personally. However I have played for many orthodox weddings and barmis in ‘Schnapps’, so you might know me at a distance.
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I bet I do mister schappster
Send me a photo?
Berg
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I danced to your music- to my great joy and to the peril of those around me
May the music of life cause our paths to cross again, peter: I’ll be the boy in the skullcap
Hg
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Nor me!
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I have just read your article on Wadeye in the Weekend Fin.
You are an amazing writer, a compassionate commentator and and eagle eyed observer.
Why have I never heard of you before?
In a world of too few heroes commentaries like this should be obligatory reading for all.
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One funny man! You were my GP for a couple of years while I lived in Melbourne and in 2002 you saved my life!
I was looking up some details for another doctor and your name came to mind so I googled you to see if I could find what you are up to now. It looks like you are having a great time, having great experiences and making a difference- which is what really counts.
Some people leave an impression and some don’t… You did! Thanks
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Dear Howard,
I am currently reading ‘Raft’, and I love it and mostly relate to your experiences. I found your book in a library last week. You have captured the reality of working in the outback as a medic. I have also worked in the Kimberely in communities and throughout W.A as a nurse and this year I have experienced the N.T. I go back every year, because I too have so much interest of our Indigenous communities and the issues. I have been writing a fictional novel since 2010 inclusive of my outback experiences as a nurse. It is almost completed and ready to be exposed to the big bad world. I hope. I admire everything you have shared with the world in your book. I also live in Melbourne and nurse. When I burn out here, I go outback, when I burn out there, I come home.
Many Thanks for your wonderful writing.
Nicky
nicky
thank you for this
i read it and it left me groping for a reply
too humbling
but i am glad to find a brother/sister in the solitary, frustrating, exciting, thrilling, fulfilling business of writing
and working in the outback
i’ll look forward to reading your book
more ink to your pen
write on
best wishes, nicky
howard
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I worked in the same building as you and remember seeing you arrive in your colourful runing gear or see you outside the premisses, waiting for somebody, and your eading some material–never a wasted moment.
I was lucky to get you once when I attended the pracice and as it was a simple procedure you had to do on me you engaged me in conversation. You listened to my opinions and knoing that I was in the presence of an intellegent person, made me feel very worthy.
Your writting on the marathon is an example of another of your qualities: you really are a true gentleman, by that I mean gentle-man
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Howard, good to know that you are safe and in good shape.
May the Lord bless you and keep you safe.
ALLAN
(room-mate, Israel, Dec. 1967)
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allan
as a result of my towering ineptness with all machines, and particularly with computers, i have read your comment properly for the first time just now (3 june, 2013)
your blessings move me
i can’t recall now what precipitated them but i’m grateful for them and for your warmth
what sort of doctor are you, allan?
where?
all blessings in return
sincerely
howard
ps did i snore?
or worse – in 1967, when we were roommates?
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she’hechiyanu and mazal tov. no apologia required. i will stay connected by RSS; ask Rach what in buggery this is. nev
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