Australia has a new Prime Minister who appears to have the convictions of a practising Christian. What difference does that make you might wonder? Hard to say at this point. Previously we have had Prime Ministers and ministers who have been ambiguous about their faith – you can never pin them down as to what…
We all want to claim that title for our home towns but on a day like today, when Sydney is at its humid, sunny, sparkling best, it is hard to not want to say that we live in a pretty neat part of the scrub.
Painting in oils is something I don’t do enough of but it is one of those activities which is brilliantly eccentric (especially if you land up in a collective of wanna-be’s in an evening class (a “brush of artists”?)) and something that eats up the hours in a flash. Therapeutic in a word.
When I first started really paying attention to the Russian navy (I think it was a P3C Orion flight that did it) the Russians had been poking around in this part of the world for years. Sending their subs out into the Pacific and holidaying in Vietnam at Cam Ranh Bay with their warships for…
Let me just strap you to this board. Better hand me your coffee before you lie down. Now, if you don’t mind just hold still while I wrap your face in clingwrap so you can’t breath. Comfortable?
I am a fan of Emanuel Schmidt. Not his biggest fan. I think that medal goes to his wife who is a pretty vocal supporter when she attends any of his gigs. And I am in line behind a whole bunch of others. But his passion for good music is infectious.
The US Government has decided the Iranian nuclear program is not what the politicians thought it might be – an excuse to try and thump Tehran. I can imagine the intelligence analysts who put that assessment together must have been in a number of minds about publishing their National Intelligence Estimate. Which you can find…
I find myself reading Salman Rushdie wanting to nod my head in that way peculiar to those from South Asia. A gentle nodding and bobbing and swinging all in the one motion, through all three axes
The taxi down the runway after landing at Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, is the first hint that this place is a little extraordinary. Here are Su22 and MiG29 Soviet aircraft flying circuits (here is one with its parachute still dragging), and a number of them parked in their revetments. For a plane spotter it…
If I was was to reflect on my travel this last 12months I would ruminate over some of the unexpected destinations I found myself heading towards, obscure places visited and always the remarkable people I have met. Some old friends. And some new ones. The process of getting there has been interesting as well. The…