Stepping outside all the comfort zones, we have set off on several months of travel. The discomfort of the endless flight across the Pacific, and the complete bliss of a hotel bed afterwards. That much is familiar, along with the endless grime of the airport district in Los Angeles. Familiar too is the impressive way […]

It has been a long and busy summer under the Moruya moon.The activities in and around our ‘shed’ have been a leisurely contrast  to the wild world beyond our coastal haven. While watching in horror the floods, fires, uprisings and nuclear disasters we take refuge in more positive, if very modest, developments. The more scary […]

Everyone might as well go see James Cameron’s Avatar. It’s visually delightful and imaginative, especially in 3D, and I just wish I’d seen it on an IMAX as well. The characters are good enough, and Sigourney Weaver as the crusty but conscientious scientist is sort of a reprise for her. Sam Worthington is easy to […]

Lately we’ve seen a couple of films that give different takes on WW2. Specifically digging deeper into less thought about groups that were caught up in the German burst of expansionism and genocide. A child unknowingly tumbling towards tragedy, his mother, father and sister each making different family-wrenching decisions (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas). […]

It’s the weekend! What could be sweeter than two days at home, after five in the office? I’ve never felt good about being enclosed in an office, with no reason to leave my desktop other than for tea and toilet. Even a benign, friendly, non-challenging culture with good kitchen facilities doesn’t set me at ease. […]

Truth is, there isn’t that much I really want to know. Not as a proportion of what is out there. My filters cut in last week when a somewhat misleadingly titled lecture provided more details on the aerodynamics of wind generators than I care to consider, so we crept off before the questions. The literate, […]

It’s cold in Canberra, much is afoot, much of it boring. But it’s raining, and that’s always good news. I’ve just dropped a dear friend off at the airport, knowing we probably won’t see each other for maybe 5 months. During that time we will both be overseas, and the world is full of surprises. […]

My friend Caroline Marohasy makes her movie debut in The Horseman, a new Australian revenge thriller, shot in and around Brisbane, including at the Burpengary caravan park. If you like the look of the trailer (I found it was suitably creepy, although they needed to hit the cabbage a bit harder in some of the […]