I had an MRI this week. Or rather, I attempted to have an MRI. There is a difference. This was meant to be part of the preparation for next week’s gall bladder removal, which sounds delightfully simple until someone slides you into a metal tube and the ceiling is five centimeters from your nose. My…
Has anybody else noticed the football world cup is on? I suppose the first thing to ask is – which football? Rugby League, Rugby Union, American football, Australian Rules football, Irish football? Or that round ball game where you’re not allowed to pick the ball up and run like the hounds of hell were after…
Some of you may recall that back when I was working for a living, I was a computer programmer. That was before somebody invented the much sexier term, “software engineer”. This was back in the early 1980s, when the IBM PC was being hastily cobbled together and the future arrived in beige plastic with a…
Here in Australia, we’re at the winter solstice. The shortest day of the year. The longest night. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, of course, it’s the opposite. Midsummer. Long days, warm evenings, probably people saying cheerful things like “let’s eat outside,” while those of us down here are clutching cups of tea and…
Back in the Stone Age when I was still a working girl my go to lunchtime destination was a bookshop. Some of you might remember them. Rows of shelves labelled by genre. Special displays where the latest releases by popular authors were given pride of place. Comfortable corners where you could browse for half an…
What passes for winter in Queensland has arrived. It was 6c – SIX degrees overnight. Now, before anyone from colder climates spits out their coffee, yes—I know. “Winter” here is mostly a suggestion. But when the air turns crisp and the mornings have that ooh, that’s fresh bite, my whole routine shifts. The ceiling fans…
Australia is still a very long way from almost everywhere. This isn’t a complaint, exactly. I love Australia. I wouldn’t live anywhere else. But nobody can look at a map and pretend we’re conveniently placed. We’re tucked away at the bottom of the world, surrounded by a lot of ocean and a great deal of…
It’s been nearly 2 weeks now (12days but who’s counting) since I discovered I have gall stones. Gall bladders don’t get much attention — until you have gall stones. I soon discovered I didn’t know much about them, and why it doesn’t really matter if you don’t have one. Sort of like your appendix or…
There’s little doubt that the public health system in Australia is creaking at the seams. Like most Western democracies, Australians have access to (almost) free medical services at the large hospitals. Did I say ‘most’? Let’s change that to ‘all Western democracies except the USA’. If it’s an emergency, you go to the local taxpayer…
The Europe trip this year is already receding into history. Which is why I write the blogs. The blogs don’t cover everything. They can’t. They catch the places, the moments, the things we thought worth writing down at the time. But step back from the detail, and something else starts to emerge, the impressions that…