What on Earth is going on?
Every morning I scan the ABC Online news, and what I’m seeing just lately makes me wonder whether we are teetering on the brink of collapse. Is the end, as Armageddonists like to tell us, nigh? Is the downfall of our civilisation at hand?I often ignore the grim ‘big’ news about wars, pirates, suicide bombers, political wrangles, terrorist trials, climate change and the global financial crisis. That’s the stuff of despair – or so I thought. All that is big stuff on the global stage – but closer to home I’m seeing individual horrors and tragedies that are unrelated to international relations; acts of evil perpetrated by ordinary people in small towns and suburbs, and

Music Means Stuff
I've never been a 'background noise' person. I don't understand people who have to have music/tv/radio in the background 24/7. My head is noisy enough, and after spending years in noisy classrooms I'm more than happy to live in a quiet world, free of background noise. When I ride I don't listen to music. I prefer the sounds of the road. I'm not a 'noise for the sake of noise' type, so when I put on music at home, my choices mean something – they're never just random background filler. They are carefully selected to fit my mood. Tonight I had the urge to listen to Patsy Cline. Erk. All those sad wailing songs about lost love. Bugger. Didn't do much for my melanch

Glassy-eyed on Friday
It’s not just that a week at work makes me glassy-eyed (although it does) – or that the unseasonally hot November weather (expecting 37C again today – noooo!) puts me in a daze.I want to know WTF is behind an apparent fascination for breaking glass out there in Canberra.I don’t get it.I live in a not-so-salubrious part of town, with a high population of delinquent kids – and I work in the middle of the city, not far from several pubs. Both places are littered with shattered glass. These broken bottles tend to be grog bottles. I’m trying to imagine what’s behind this antisocial glass-breaking behaviour, coz I counted 6 smashed on the walkway/

On the Road Again - Healesville and Back

Watering the garden
It was hard to keep my garden alive last summer. Water restrictions, a dreadful heat wave and a broken foot made a bad combination. The weeds seemed to thrive though, sans attention, sans water, sans just about everything.Somehow my precious plants survived