More of my memories seem to be shuffling off the planet. Walter Koenig, who played Chekov in the original Star Trek, died this week at the age of 90. Now Sir Patrick Stewart has died at 86. I’m not a Trekkie. I watched the original series, but not the later ones, so I knew Patrick…
The picture above has nothing to do with what I’m going to write about. It’s a reminder that in these difficult times there is always beauty in this world – and the sun will break through. But some things have to be talked about, unpleasant as they are. Not so long ago, I remarked to…
I watched some cricket this week. Australia playing Bangladesh in a women’s one-day international at Allan Border Field in Brisbane. And a very entertaining afternoon it was, too. Women’s cricket, like so much women’s sport, tends to live in the shadow of the men’s game. I think that’s unfortunate. There’s plenty to enjoy if you…
I was going to write something cheerful this week. Maybe share some of my lorikeet photos. Everybody loves them. Then I opened the newspaper. There went that idea. I find this government so frustrating. So often it does things that have me raising my eyebrows and wondering who came up with that brilliant idea. Anti-semitism…
I considered writing about the grim stories that have dominated the news this week. There are the allegations that a young woman at Cornell University was drugged and raped by seven men, while members of their fraternity discussed her in a group chat as if she were a commodity. No criminal charges were laid, although…
It’s Finals time The AFL Grand Final is played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground every year, apart from the COVID years when Melbourne wasn’t available. It’s one of those fixtures that seems carved into the national calendar. The last Saturday in September means football at the MCG. This year, neither team comes from Victoria. Brisbane…
I don’t remember learning to read. There’s a photograph of me as a small child in Amsterdam, examining a picture book of Peter Pan. The words were in Dutch, which wouldn’t have troubled me because I couldn’t read any language at that point. But the cover showed Captain Hook’s pirate ship, and that was enough…
11 September 2001 This week marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Peter and I didn’t hear about them until we turned on the television the following morning. Like millions of people around the world, we watched the footage in shock. The aircraft striking the towers. The buildings collapsing. People…
Spring arrived in Australia on Tuesday. Queensland celebrated by turning up the thermostat. Brisbane is expecting temperatures around 33 or 34 degrees over the weekend, while some inland towns will reach the high thirties. Apparently, this is not officially a heatwave, although several headlines have called it one. The Bureau of Meteorology prefers “unseasonably warm.”…
Last Sunday I went whale watching with friends in Hervey Bay. The weather was kind, the company was good, and the whales were underwhelming. We saw a few, but there were no breaches and no close encounters with curious whales gathering around the boat to inspect the humans. One whale managed a lazy spyhop, poking…