Long boring retrospectives
(All the posts from the Sydney trip are now online) Read an article yesterday about new non-tuck school shirts to avoid the endless problems of students not tucking their shirts in. Seems to make sense, particularly in summer. As far as I recall, during my school-uniformed years (years 9-12), while most didn’t, I did tuck ... [More]
A survey says Australian children’s top fears are car accidents, bombs, burglars and terrorists. Some of us were talking on Saturday night about our fears when we were growing up in the early 80s. For many it was the fear of nuclear war. I remember lying awake at night thinking about it. Glad I was ... [More]
Marita was reminding me on Saturday of Dragon’s song Young Years (a discussion of various music lyrics that culminated in my car gaining the nickname Black Betty). Secret meetings at the river’s bend Simple days when I called you friend Came a time, we went separate ways — Dragon, Young Years As it happens last ... [More]
In each generation, most kids show boundless enthusiasm for creative pursuits. Whether it be drawing, building things, play-acting, whatever. When I was a kid, there was a lot of Lego building going on. My sister and I constructed whole cities. Sometimes we’d stick to the official designs of the sets, sometimes we’d go out on ... [More]
We lived in a number of places when I was growing up, but this block of flats at 62 Hotham Street, East St Kilda, was where we were the longest — seven years, for me from the age of about 4 to 11, covering most of primary school. The place doesn’t seem to have changed ... [More]
During the continuing clearout of junk, today I came across my first tax return, from 1988-1989. The highlights: I had a HECS debt of $900 Income was $3167 from Austudy, and $2368 from my part time job The only other money earnt was a mighty $1.57 in bank account interest Total income a huge $5536, ... [More]
I just did a load of washing, including a doona cover. Every single other item ended up inside the doona cover. How is this possible? Number of people observed at the mobile blood bank last week who were reading The Da Vinci Code: 2. It’s hot again today. Trying to take cover, keep the house ... [More]
Was chatting the other day to Tony about radio web casts from across the globe, and I was remembering how much harder it used to be before the age of the Innanet. About 20 years ago I had a rickety old shortwave radio with which I used to listen to the BBC World Service. It ... [More]
Geelong beat the Bombers by ten points on Saturday night in a rain-soaked MCG. Next comes the Preliminary Finals, and it’s the Brisbane Lions, which isn’t going to be an easy one to win. I’m not the world’s biggest footy fan, but I do like to keep an eye on Geelong. It’s been a while ... [More]
Where it came from What’s in it Where it’s going to Why this name Comments Other stuff Where it came from When I originally started writing and posting stuff to the Net (via e-mail and Usenet) in 1990, it was pretty much all off-the-wall “I wish I was a Python” surreal bizarro kind of stuff. ... [More]
The other day an old bloke got on the train at Spencer Street. He looked vaguely familiar. A station or two later I worked out who I thought it was. Major Grigsby! Griggers. My old year 12 co-ordinator*, probably long-since retired. I wasn’t sure until a few stops later when some kids from my old ... [More]
Isaac asked me this the other week, and I had to think about it for a moment: How many cars have you driven? I probably drove more cars while learning to drive than subsequently: My driving instructor’s white Corolla – André from the RACV Driving School must have nerves of steel, and his car a ... [More]