Thanks for reading. This blog is an opportunity for me to capture some of the diversity of my writing interests. My muse tend to appear on my shoulder as I board an international flight although not all of my writing is inspired by travel and foreign places. These blogs have been the basis of a novel (Flowers of Baghdad) but there are a few other writing projects in progress besides. Please feel free to leave a comment. Or two.
I have to confess to some disappointment with our press. And ourselves perhaps. Cadel Evans slogs his heart out for three weeks to finish the Tour De France in second place, within seconds of being the first Australian to win the race outright, and all our front page press here gives itself over to is…
My childhood recollections of Invercargill include a bullock being shot, and burning my feet in a mound of white ash – the logs had long since stopped smoking and the pile of talcum soft ash in the middle of Don’s paddock was too much to resist. It hid orange hot coals underneath.
When your jambiya (dagger) becomes blunt from whatever it is that blunts it (cutting up qat?), or if it cracks from the weight of far too many admiring glances, drop down to the local forge in the heart of Sanaa and have it beaten back into shape by barefoot smithys who don’t seem to notice…
Larking about Trafalgar Square in hot woolen get up is not all it is cracked up to be. Especially in July when it is so terribly hot. Well, at least hot for London.
On a day like today we are not in any winter thrall to speak of. Wave after flat wave softly slushes into the sand and dies in a sigh, to be gently gathered up again and returned to the white hot glitter of blue sea diamonds which are spread out today under a clear sky…
The third row in the main hall of the Sydney Opera House is a good place to be if you want the music, in this case Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.22 in E Flat, K482 to wash over you. It does so literally and figuratively and the sound cocoons you up, inviting you to close your…
In another life I was an imagery analyst in the military. Locked away in a bunker somewhere looking at images of all sorts from a myriad of sources. I enjoyed the stereoscopic work most of all, handling and caressing one dimensional data in a three dimensional illusion. It is an entirely convincing world – gamers…
Display Courtesy of God, Text Courtesy of NASA “For many years scientists have known that our sun gives off powerful explosions, known as flares, that contain millions of times more energy than atomic bombs.
Over the years I have envied family and friends who have been settled in one place and who have libraries shelved. Mine have travelled with me for years, most tucked away in boxes packed with moth balls. Over the last few months I have been slowly getting some floor to ceiling shelves built and a…
Occasionally we have attempted to be a tourist in our own town but we usually stagger to a hotel, collapse, have a late breakfast on the sidewalk and then head home feeling somewhat cheated and resolved to be more “touristy”next time. This morning I walked with some friends along 10km of track only minutes from…