2018/19 - in the midst of the Black Summer bushfires Many people are glad to see the back of 2020. For all our projections of 2020 vision at the start of the year, our hopeful plans of what was to come, our 2020 hindsight is vastly different. I know that when Victoria opened up (in… Continue reading Ushering in the New Year
To end a Covid-constrained year we now have a Covid-constrained holiday period. My thoughts go out to all the people who can't share festivities - from all cultural and religious backgrounds - with their families this year. My heart is heavy from the people who are no longer with us, due to Covid (and indeed… Continue reading Covid Christmas
Live webcam Lightbulb moment: the West Gate Bridge is thusly named because it is the Gateway to the West! Seems obvious, doesn’t it? Yet it’s something I never questioned: this feat of construction is something that was always in my childhood and I never stopped to think about its whys and the wherefores. I had… Continue reading West Gate Stories
Fifty years ago Australia experienced its second-worst construction disaster. Here are my memories: my humble contribution to this story of national psyche. The West Gate Bridge today The West Gate Bridge is a vital piece of infrastructure which connects Melbourne's Central Business District to the Western suburbs. Prior to the bridge's completion this route was… Continue reading West Gate Story
MINIMISING MY CARBON FOOTPRINT Found in the shed: a big box of shoes I didn’t remember. Grroooaaaannnnn ...... They are dirty, covered in cobwebs and - even worse - have been chewed by rodents. Those innards coming out definitely have rat-sized teeth-marks around them. Who’s going to want to wear them now? Clearly… Continue reading Walking lightly on the earth
There is a lot of hurting in the world. Sometimes it seems that the older I get, the more I hear about people’s suffering from when they were children. Maybe people from my generation, my friends, have more of a forum to talk about it now, in ways they couldn’t before. Maybe professional organisations are… Continue reading My Fellow Survivors
Some people shout their politics from the rooftops, waving banners and flags in the face of humanity going about its daily business. I admire these people for standing up publicly, pinning their causes to their chests and making a public nuisance of themselves- that is, getting in other people’s way, forcing them to move out… Continue reading Some People
How to be remembered in three easy steps. Step 1: Live. Step 2: Do something. It doesn’t have to be big. It doesn’t have to be noteworthy. It doesn’t have to be famous. It simply has to be something. Step 3: Have someone notice you doing something. Again, that someone doesn’t have to be big,… Continue reading Remembering-Remembrance
I’ve decided I’m not disorganised, I’m differently organised. What does it matter that I’m showering after breakfast because I got too hungry after sleeping in because my night was filled with fitful sleep, tossing and turning? Followed by half an hour’s yoga-like yoga practice to try to ease my way into the day, an attempt to… Continue reading Organisation
What happens to all the letters that get erased when writers realise they’ve made an error and go back to correct it? When they’re typing as they’re thinking, and change tack mid-thought? When they erase the bluntness of what they’re feeling in preference for kinder words which don’t attack the reader as much as their… Continue reading Where do all the letters go?
