I’m about to take off again, literally.  Flying to Perth for a stint of work, to be ensconced in a hotel for four days.  Apart from the décor in the rooms and the colour and quantity of the marble in the foyers (or lack of it), one hotel in Australia seems to be much like any other, especially if I don’t venture outside. (more…)

I am in the middle of upgrading my computer, with a new hard drive and new operating system.  I temporarily have no spell chequer to catch those odd words that I mist when proofing.

I try so hard to get things write, that I sometimes miss the obvious, such as failing to see that what I’ve written makes no cents; I get bogged down in the detail and no longer see the bigger pitcher. (more…)

For almost a week, my life has had a different rhythm to it.  I’ve been attending a Tai Ji retreat in New Zealand. (more…)

I’m sitting here, exhausted, after completing four days of intensive work – mostly non-physical, but long hours of concentration and attention to detail and including a night away from home. The word ‘exhaustion’ is the one that rolled off the pen, but is it accurate? (more…)

I dislike tests.  They are meant to judge a person’s fitness for an aspect of life, or to ascertain how alive a person is.  It is very difficult (if not impossible) to design a test, the results of which are useful.  The designer of the test makes assumptions, some based on known facts about the person being tested, such as their knowledge, upbringing, background and state of mind. (more…)

Speaking to a business owner just before Easter, I commented on looking forward to a blessed few days off.  He said that, not being a practising Christian, he would be working most of those four days.  He doesn’t believe it is right to take something that is not rightfully his. (more…)

It’s easy to feel at a loose end, the sense of an absence of anything to do.  It’s a strange notion and conjures up even stranger images.  What is it a loose end of?  Am I following a piece of string and then come to the end of it, dangling loosely in my hand?  What does this string represent?  Security?  Guidance?  Imperatives? (more…)

Recently, sitting here at my kitchen table, dog prostrate at my feet, I have spent quiet days immersing myself in Etchings Indigenous: Black and Sexy, a project from Ilura Press.  I’ve read it through several times and contemplated the stories, poems, interviews, reviews, photography and art, trying to get my head and heart around it all in order to write a review.  It has not been easy. (more…)

There are still people out there who do real science: they observe something, wonder why it happens, form an hypothesis, test the hypothesis, revise the hypothesis and retest it, etc. (more…)

Having a new camera reminds me how much I try to capture, instead of simply enjoying, experience.  Photography as an art has its place, but coming around a bend in a road and witnessing a breath-stopping scene and whipping out the camera is questionable behaviour. (more…)