News and current affairs
Late yesterday (31/3) I was contacted by a major publisher, who propose adapting my diary into a book. They want to use all of it going back to 1994, and if all goes well plan to put it out in time for Fathers Day (September) in Australia and NZ, with a view to UK, USA ... [More]
Zoom. Well, there goes the year. To me it seems to have gone incredibly fast, but a lot’s gone on in my life and around the world over the past twelve months. In the grand scheme of things, particularly in the Personal Relationships Department, the start of the year didn’t seem great to me, but ... [More]
Billy Joel on the capture of Saddam Hussein: I don’t care what consequence it brings I have been a fool for lesser things I want you so bad I think you ought to know that I intend to hold you for the longest time (Overheard this morning from the railway station kiosk man’s radio as ... [More]
As I think about world events, and look through my diary entries for this month, it occurs to me how self-absorbed I might seem. This is not really the case – at least I hope it isn’t, though I’m not about to use this an excuse to launch into a 3000 word study on how ... [More]
Well now, I’ve had a pretty shithouse weekend, how about you? Actually judging from the news, the world hasn’t gone too well this weekend. It’s been a shocking few days. On Friday there was the Waterfall train crash near Sydney, which left eight people dead. This morning I woke up to find the space shuttle ... [More]
The newspaper guy normally tries to conceal the newspaper in the driveway shrubbery somewhat, so people can’t easily see it and steal it. It only happens occasionally, but it’s annoying when it does. Well this morning it was so well concealed in the shrubbery (hey, I get to use the word "shrubbery" twice – it ... [More]
After lunch I took a walk up to state Parliament House. A blanket of flowers covers the steps, left there by people in memory of the Bali bombing. Judging from the notes, most had been left there by strangers, rather than relatives of victims. Above, blowing in the wind, the flags are still at half ... [More]
At 8:47am this morning as I was driving along, car headlights lit up along the road. Not all of them, by any means, but probably close to two-thirds of those that I passed. It was a simple, yet poignant reminder of September 11th last year, a gesture suggested by a local newspaper, which has been ... [More]
A rumour on the grapevine. Apparently my dad’s cousin Fay in England heard from a friend of a friend that she was walking down the street and an Arab man dropped his wallet up ahead. Stop me if you’ve heard this. She ran after him and gave him back the wallet. Stop me if you’ve ... [More]
I was just about to go to bed last night when my sister e-mailed me: Tue 11/09/2001 23:16 "Heard about the World Trade Centre!!!! logon to the new (sic), quick!" I did so. You probably know the rest. Now almost 24 hours later, it’s still a little hard to digest. Rest assured, anyone reading from ... [More]
Welcome to the year two thousand. The very fact that you’re reading these words probably means that the dreaded Y2K bug didn’t eventuate. At least, not in a huge way. I’m sure the residents of Hobart and Adelaide aren’t too disappointed that their bus ticket machines stopped working for a while. (Oh, commiserations if you’re ... [More]
Well, here we finally are, the eve of the year 2000. Will the Y2K bug (design decision, actually) destroy civilisation as we know it? Somehow I doubt it. I think there’s going to be a lot of embarrassed survivalists on Monday, humming and haa-ing and wondering what on earth they’re going to do with all ... [More]