It’s that one day of the year… when the 7:30 Report isn’t on at 7:30. Other than that, today… I’m tired. Both kids were home sick today, coughing their guts up. Wears you out. (Maybe I’m not feeling 100% myself.) Bank account almost drained for the month. My eldest son Isaac officially became a teenager. ... [More]
Category: Retrospectives
Long boring retrospectives
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Twentieth reunion
Friday night’s 20 year school reunion had all the standard components: old mates chatting; drinking; fairly raucous singing old the school song; a meal; more drinking; a few speeches, that kind of thing. And a school tour. If my kids had been there, I’m sure they would have thought it was very Harry Potter, especially ... [More]
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The garbologists
Nowadays I have a camera in my mobile phone, so virtually anywhere I am, I can take a picture. There was a morning, back in 1993 or so, when I wish I’d had a camera with me. I was waiting for a tram to work outside my old flat in Power Street, Hawthorn. That place ... [More]
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Goblins!
The party made their way slowly down the corridor. Leading was Raftor the Brave, followed closely by Roder the dwarf. Bringing up the rear were the wizard Pyhus and Felonius, the group’s thief. They came to a door, which marked the end of the corridor. Raftor tried the door; it was locked. Felonius got out ... [More]
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Not everybody made it
This year marks the 20th anniversary of my leaving high school, and the Old Boys’ Association has a reunion dinner organised which I’ll certainly be going to. I’m even thinking I might go early for the tour of the school, to see how it’s changed. (A teacher I knew at a different school is now ... [More]
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Finest cuisine
I’ve mentioned this briefly before, but back in my uni days, my diet was pretty shocking. Often a bunch of us would go down to the corner shop (now razed and redeveloped as Yet More University Buildings). I’d chow down a $1.50 hotdog, and maybe some chips, perhaps a Big M or an OJ, and ... [More]
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Follow-up comments
I get some terrific comments on this blog. Quite a few of them, too. The database reckons over 6000, though I think there might be some suspected spams in there. Then again, there are some old comments from 2003 that haven’t been imported into WordPress yet. Here’s some followups on some recent comments, and on ... [More]
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Grade 6
Isaac has reached grade 6, top of the heap at primary school. The grade 6ers get to wear special shirts and jumpers, and get School Leader status for a term. In my year of grade 6 at Ripponlea PS in 1982, I was flag monitor, with my friend Mark. On the first day, we initially ... [More]
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Commutes of my youth
When I were a lad, my sister and I walked to primary school with our friends — at least in the upper part of primary school; I don’t recall the first few years; I assume my mum walked with us, though she’s said a friend in the same block used to occasionally drive us. But ... [More]
One of my favourite authors is Bill Bryson. I haven’t yet read The Thunderbolt Kid yet (I have a dislike of hardbacks, though I’m currently reading Michael Palin’s diaries in hardback — and loving it). Bryson is touring at the moment, and Jon Faine’s conversation with him last Friday on ABC 774 is available to ... [More]
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Keeping the legend alive
I’ve mentioned before my exploits with video, a set of productions made predominantly when we were teenagers, with zero budget, on equipment borrowed from school. The very last production was an episode of the Professionals-inspired “STRIKE”, about a secret crime-fighting organisation. Made in 1993, by which point all of us were either at uni or ... [More]
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Memories of war
In the bookshop, an old bloke had bought something about WW2. For minute or two he reminisced about Churchill and Stalin and victory in Europe. The bookseller, a woman perhaps in her late 30s or 40s, nodded, being polite, fairly obviously not understanding the significance of the events he was describing. When I was born ... [More]