We visited the Pont du Gard on a clear, bright afternoon that the Mistral turned absolutely freezing. The sun looked inviting, but the wind had other ideas, driving hard and cold down the valley carved by the Gard River. It’s an astonishing sight. Three tiers of arches stacked one on top of the other, span…
We visited Tournon back in the days of covid, where we conducted our own tour of the town. That time we parked on the Tain-l’Hermitage side of the river. It was a lot warmer that day than today. Tournon itself has been important for centuries. It grew up as a fortified town on the right…
The joys of travel used to include getting there. I describe the problems getting a flight to Europe and the vexations of airports
January and February 2026 have seen the most significant challenge to the Islamic Republic of Iran in decades, with protests spreading across the country over deep economic pain and broader political repression. What started in late December 2025 with shopkeepers in Tehran’s bazaar reacting to a currency collapse and soaring inflation quickly escalated into nationwide…
For a long time, AI-generated images were… let’s be kind and say enthusiastic. Australian wildlife suffered particularly. Kangaroos that looked like deer. Lorikeets that looked like they’d been assembled from fruit. But now AI Animation has arrived. That phase is mostly behind us now, and the change has been surprisingly fast. What’s really catching my…
We visit the UNESCO world heritage site at Port Arthur with side trips to the Tasman Arch and the Devil’s kitchen, then the tesselated pavement
After the steamy Queensland climate Hobart is showery and cold with a wind coming off the ice. We start our Tinsel in Tasmania tour.
A light look at Thanksgiving from an Australian Friday. Why Americans roast giant birds, why Canadians do it better in October, and why Black Friday feels like our Boxing Day. A quick chat about gratitude, turning seventy five, beaches, whales, writing joy, and a cheeky note about my US$0.99 book sale.
Black Friday used to be a very American thing, the sort of chaotic retail ritual you watched on the news while clutching your morning tea and wondering why anyone would sprint through a department store for a discounted blender. Now it has become a global shopping season, stretching from a single manic day into a…
It has been 50 years since The Dismissal, that climactic day the Governor General sacked the Whitlam government. Since it’s a golden anniversary, the press has been full of it, telling stories from (elderly) people who were there. Our Dear Leader, current PM Anthony Albanese, has had much to say about that sacked prime minister…