Category: Australia

I forgot to buy a train ticket this morning. Each week, I buy a ticket that will get me to Waverton, which is the last stop in the zone of my office. It’s now habit to use that ticket and of course it gets me through the gate at Hornsby, but it won’t get me… Continue reading Train Tickets

I’ve rejoined the masses in the daily routine of work. No longer is every day a weekday and every day a weekend. No longer am I working dawn to dusk on my own projects. I now have to rush out of the house to cram into a train to be at work on time. But… Continue reading 9 to 5

Let me drop the aboriginal child sex abuse issue for a while to tackle something really important. When I was in Belgium, I used to buy honey from a specialist shop that sold nothing but different types of honey from all over the world. I managed to try about ten types, but nothing compared with… Continue reading Spreadable Honey

As soon as I turned on the radio this morning, I heard the newsreader saying that a new report has found that indigenous communities can manage themselves. How arrogant and condescending, I thought. But when I looked it up on the net, I instead found an article from last year that stated that this expectation… Continue reading Can Indigenous Communities Govern Themselves?

I’ve got a lot of issues to catch up on now that I have access to my blog again, but one that deserves immediate attention is the issue of sexual abuse of children in aboriginal communities. A report was released on the 30th of April outlining the issue to the Northern Territory government. It seems… Continue reading Child Sex Abuse in Aboriginal Communities

It’s taken a while, but I’m finally starting to feel like I’m home. The problems of moving in seemed endless – missed calls for white goods delivery, missing boxes in the shipment, missing parts of just about everything I unpacked, missing stereo components, no signal for wireless internet, skyrocketing phone bills just to name a… Continue reading Home at last

I’ve picked up the keys to my new flat. It’s a short term got-to-get-out-and-take-control-of-my-life rental choice, so it’s bright, warm and clean. Those were the minimum requirements for enabling me to enjoy my life enough to feel confident about getting out and chasing down contracts, or potentially a new job. The bedrooms are small, but… Continue reading Sold on a flat

I spent a sunny weekend walking 26km or so from Otford to Bundeena – the length of the coastal border of the Royal National Park. I was ‘leading’ the group of five friends since I’d done the walk in parts in my school days, more than 20 years ago. Some things have changed – noticeably… Continue reading Whales off Sydney Coast

The toddler that my mate’s mother minds 4 days a week was extra hyperactive yesterday, prompting her to tell me that he had a bee in his bonnet. She then told me that there was a Lebanese equivalent and, after a pause to translate, came out with ‘He’s got a clove of garlic stuck up… Continue reading A clove of Garlic

April was a very wet month. It’s hard to believe reports on how little water we have when you see that much falling from the sky. And apparently things have improved tremendously in Port Macquarie, where my parents live, in the last few months, but Sydney is still scared. This is after I saw the… Continue reading Catchment Areas