I’ve recently moved to a new city, Canberra, so I’m meeting new people and having lots of those initial-acquaintance conversations. I tell people that I studied Engineering for four years which sometimes causes confusion as I didn’t graduate: I ended up dropping out without completing that degree. When I reflect upon this there’s sometimes a […]
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David Walsh’s MONA: Art, Architecture, Life
February 23, 2013 
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MONA. Anticipation fills me, a pilgrim on a ferry, heading to MONA. It comes into sight: rocks leap from the bay, supporting verdant vines and the implacable exterior of what is surely becoming one of Tasmania’s and even Australia’s most compelling institutions. MONA. I’m the first off the ferry up the steps. At the top […]
Read more On Idleness, or Doing Nothing
December 30, 2012 0 Comments
One of my favourite things to do is nothing. Doing nothing is what weekends are for. When there’s nothing to do – do it. It’s actually quite easy. I sometimes sit, but more often recline. I might have a tea or a ginger beer, there may be music. Then I be. Sometimes I’ll deliberately practice […]
Read more Family Christmas in Adelaide
December 19, 2012 1 Comment
Like a returning soldier back from the front I step over the threshold and drop my bags, embrace my parents. It’s still early, and the others are in bed. But it’s too late now – just gone 7am by my body clock – for me to dream of sleep, so I ready myself for the […]
Read more How to Spend Less Money on Things You Don’t Need
December 11, 2012 0 Comments
Although I’m always trying to spend less money, I’ve recently been struggling against the temptation to buy things I don’t need. I’ve spent time looking online at tablets, at new smartphones, wondering at what price point I would take the plunge. Thankfully, I’ve got through this patch. What it took was a simple mental reframing. […]
Read more Facilitation and Emotional Intelligence
November 28, 2012 0 Comments
I used to think I was pretty great at facilitation. I had the methods down. I’d done the workshops. Heck, I’d run the workshops. And jeez, I had experience: meetings, training, you name it. As it happens though, I stank. I’m reminded of John Searle’s thought experiment, the Chinese room. Sure I was executing the […]
Read more Australian Poetry Slam Victorian State Final
November 24, 2012 0 Comments
I ended up at the Victorian State Final of the Australian Poetry Slam because of a text. True to her reputation, Freya was a poet champion. She treated us to her original poems, one about a wolf, and one about a spoon. She and I even had a slam off, in which I recited Invictus […]
Read more The Music of Love
November 3, 2012 0 Comments
Music and love go hand in hand. My first love, Jolie, was a musician. When we met, it was impressed upon me that she could perform the amazing feat of hearing Delta Goodrem songs on the radio then reproducing them on piano. Jolie could also play “Für Elise”. Back when I was 13, this was […]
Read more Film experience review: “Safety Not Guaranteed”
October 14, 2012 0 Comments
On Thursday night a friend texted me, saying she’d won a double pass to a film that evening. It was clear she’d also texted others, as her sms ended with the challenge “First one writing back gets the goods….” My weakness in the face of free stuff is well-documented; I also like watching films. I […]
Read more ‘The Dark Knight’, Allegory, Terrorism and Torture
July 22, 2012 0 Comments
Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight is one hell of a film. I enjoy watching it every time. It is bad ass. The first time I watched it I drove afterwards to my friends house. I drove with my lights off. Dangerous? Yes. Bad ass? Don’t you know it. When I arrived there, I cut-off power […]
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