Daniel Bowen

I’ve been watching the Australian Open tennis with rather more interest than usual, because I’ve got tickets to go tomorrow night. All the Aussie blokes have already bombed out of the men’s singles, but hopefully the matches on will be of interest anyway. I’m off to bed early tonight to meet up with my friend  ... [More]

Roos in the wilderness near Seymour I put on my political activist’s hat over the weekend, up at Seymour for a junket/love-in/planning weekend. Actually, it can’t have been a junket because we paid for most of the costs. Anyway we were up at this groovy place in the wilderness somewhere outside Seymour (far enough from  ... [More]

I’ve done it. I’ve actually done it. I can hardly believe it. I never thought I’d see the day. I never thought it would come to this. I did the "when I was a boy I used to walk…", speech to my kids. It’s times like this when I realise that generation after generation is  ... [More]

I’ve been pretty busy this week, in a kind of lazy kind of a way. On Monday I took the kids to the zoo. Heaps of fun. Heaps of animals. I couldn’t help but notice one curious family, some of whom were dressed rather oddly for the zoo on a summer’s day, I thought. To  ... [More]

Saturday 12:00. Put a bunch of whites in the washing machine. Put soap liquid in. Close machine. Turn dial, ready to start. 14:00. Open machine. Pull washing out into a basket. Notice it seems remarkably dry. Must be because it’s a hot day. Don’t have time to hang up yet, so leave in basket. 14:45.  ... [More]

The new Melway. Not just a street directory, more a way of life. On Friday afternoon I headed over to Chadstone to buy the presents I didn’t get given for Christmas. You see, in our family we freely admit that we’re crap at choosing presents for each other (at least most of us are –  ... [More]

Well Christmas Day was cold and wet. Certainly very un-Christmas-like. But we all piled over to my mum’s place to unwrap presents, stuff ourselves full of food, and generally had a good time. Which we did. Especially on Isaac’s new pogo stick.

Getting into the Christmas spirit. Since it’s Christmas Eve, I wore a Christmas hat for much of the day… out at lunch, on the train home, that kind of thing. I discovered last week that wearing a silly hat can make some of my workmates laugh, and it seemed like a small price to pay  ... [More]

It’s almost Christmas. I’ve got all the presents. Haven’t wrapped them all yet. Soon. Very soon. On Friday night I went out with my sister and some of her friends to see the second last Mavis’s concert. The Mavis’s are a band that I’d heard of, but if I passed them in the street, I  ... [More]

Bloke on the train this morning in a pinstripe suit. His phone rang. "Hello? …. WHAT?! You’re kidding! Really?….. Oh you have to be joking!" What corporate crisis could it be? Creditors out of control? Administrators called in? Business collapse? Industrial disaster? Or something bigger? Breaking news? Bin Laden captured? Or another terrorist attack? The  ... [More]

The Age, Tue 18/12 I wonder if anybody in a position of power ever takes notice of letters to newspapers? I’m pretty damn pleased with myself. Managed to get just about all my Christmas shopping done yesterday. Not that there was a humungous number I planned to get, but it was all a bit intimidating  ... [More]