Here I am, squeezing in a ‘What I’m Reading’ post for May! I missed last month’s due to being away and didn’t want to miss another. This is an interesting turnaround because, looking back two weeks or so, it was looking like I wouldn’t write this one either. I’ve been feeling a bit lost when…
Atlantis the Palm is one of the most famous resorts in Dubai – or, indeed, the world. For many travellers, you need only say the name and they’ll know what you’re talking about: that pink hotel with the hole in the middle, built at the tip of the Palm Jumeirah, with its very own waterpark…
Dear Karen, On behalf of the Australian Government and the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, we are very pleased to inform you that your application for a double pass to attend the Anzac Day Dawn Service at Gallipoli on 25 April 2015 has been successful. You might recall my post from a year ago announcing my…
This is the Piazza del Popolo (the “People’s Square”) and it was at this moment when Rome and I finally ‘clicked’. I am high up on a balcony at the edge of the Villa Borghese. We’d had a fairly disappointing time until that point, but after a refreshing morning in the Villa’s gardens I was starting to…
I think it’s fair to say that many writers and workers in the arts industry have been feeling pretty deflated since the Australian Government announced its budget last week, revealing huge cuts that are going to take effect. It’s understandable; I get it. But one of the things I have always loved about the artistic community is…
I admit to feeling a slight… ambivalence… as to what laid in store for us in Rome. It’s been on my Living List since studying the Judio-Claudian emperors in ancient history and watching old movies a child, all those ‘sandal and toga’ epics, full of fighting and chariot races. And, of course, I wanted to eat the…
We were in Dubai when news of the first devastating earthquake in Nepal started to hit the television. I mentioned this over on my Facebook page, but I remember sitting there at breakfast at our five-star, sipping my coffee and nibbling on a danish pastry, watching BBC World, feeling out-of-place, helpless, even guilty. I am…
Then as the cloud passed I could see the ruins of the abbey coming into view; and as the edge of a narrow band of light as sharp as a sword-cut moved along, the church and the churchyard became gradually visible. Whatever my expectation was, it was not disappointed, for there, on our favourite seat,…
When I was in Year 9 in high school, we undertook what was called a ‘Visions’ project. Each student chose a subject of his or her own and examined movies, songs, poems and more relating to this subject. From memory, it was our first truly independent venture as learners and as you’d expect we were all…
