This will hurt me...

Experience teaches only the teachable.

2012-05-27T09:00:00.000+10:00

Evil magpie. Our front yard. East Derwent Highway, Geilston Bay. December 2011.

Sunday Top Five again and today I venture somewhat into a self help territory: The Top Five Things That My Life Is Far Too Short For Me To Tolerate!

People who bring me down. There are an awful lot of people in the world, so I don’t really understand people who waste their time with poisonous people. Relationships should be enjoyable, not painful. Find people who you get on with, who entertain you, not drag you down.
A career that I hate. There are limits to this, as you have to keep paying the bills. Nevertheless, if the opportunity arises, I don’t see the point on settling on a job I’m not keen on. Keep looking, that’s what I’m doing!
Unnecessary miscommunication. I can’t apologise for this one. I say what I mean and mean what you say. If we’re conversing, please speak clearly and frankly. Ask questions. Clarify things until you understand them. Life is too short for games.
Unhealthy habits. There is some control here. In many respects, health is in your hands. Eat right, exercise and avoid doing things that are no good for you. This one is a simple one.
Debt. Always live slightly below your means. You don’t have to buy stuff you don’t need. Save for the big purchases when they are truly necessary. Have an idea of your budget and stick to it.

Beauty is worse than wine, it intoxicates both the holder and beholder.

2012-05-26T20:00:00.000+10:00

We like to call this one Pale Leg Jigger.

Autumn eats its leaf out of my hand

2012-05-26T09:00:00.000+10:00

Things are looking up at the silo apartments. Salamanca Place, Hobart. January 2012.

Rain rain go away.

Seriously.

Piss off.

Go on.

Now!

Corona, Paul Celan

Autumn eats its leaf out of my hand: we are friends.
From the nuts we shell time and we teach it to walk:
then time returns to the shell.

In the mirror it's Sunday,
in dream there is room for sleeping,
our mouths speak the truth.

My eye moves down to the sex of my loved one:
we look at each other,
we exchange dark words,
we love each other like poppy and recollection,
we sleep like wine in the conches,
like the sea in the moon's blood ray.

We stand by the window embracing, and people
look up from the street:
it is time they knew!
It is time the stone made an effort to flower,
time unrest had a beating heart.
It is time it were time.

It is time.

An early-rising man is a good spouse but a bad husband.

2012-05-25T20:00:00.000+10:00

Go to sleep Ezra!

The proper words in the proper places are the true definition of style.

2012-05-25T10:45:00.000+10:00

I’m not aware of any such services in the building! Mayfair Plaza car park, Sandy Bay. December 2011.

Three books finished this week, a Russian, Hungarian and American ~~walked into a bar~~ authors all represented.

First up is A Russian Affair by Anton Chekhov, a collection of five short stories all about love. Writing in the nineteenth century, Chekhov has a reputation for mastery of the short story form, so I was really looking forward to reading it. As a collection, A Russian Affair gives us a fair insight into Chekhov’s style, which has aged remarkably well and combines both an ease to with real emotional depth. Obviously, it represents a small sample of what Chekhov has to offer, but if you’re after a taste of his work, you could do far worse than this exploration of the emotional complexities of love. Recommended, especially if you are keen on quality short fiction.

Second up is Detective Story by Hungarian Nobel Laureate (and author of one of my favourite books , Fatelessness), Imre Kertész. Something of an inversion of the traditional hard-boiled detective novel, this one puts us into the mind of a cog in the brutal security apparatus of an unnamed Latin American country involved in the suppression of the people.

This is a highly staged police procedural, with our main narrator a chilling figure. Although he is ‘the new boy’, the furthest down the pecking order of a secret police unit designed to ‘upholder of the needs of the Homeland’ and perhaps the least despicable of that unit, he remains a torturer and exponent of the kind of extra-judicial murder that such ‘dirty wars’ are known for.

In the end, the mystery is really not much of a mystery. The real crux of the story is what drives the exponents of state repression, and explores the dark truths of the work of the secret police. As a work, it isn’t perfect (for instance, I’m never really convinced that we are in Latin America, as much of the manner and tone jars), but it is a worthwhile contribution to trying to understand some of the darker impulses of society. Recommended.

Last up is a dreamlike novel by Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping. This one was quite a tricky read for me in some respects, and a really strong example of a ‘feminine’ novel. A melancholy, lyrical story, submerged in in water, light and cold about three generations of women stuck in the American Pacific North-West.

Ruth is our narrator, who guides us through a haunting story of loss, place and transience. Abandonment really is at the heart of the novel, both in a physical and spiritual sense. Robinson readily incorporates vivid descriptions of the natural environment to explore the fragility of human relationships and the transitory nature of the physical world. It’s a hard book to talk about, and I’m still working some of it through my head, but I did appreciate the vibrant contrast of the violence, majesty and impermanence of the natural world with human attempts to control uncertainty. The tragedy of these particular women’s lives and the failure of each of them to ‘succeed’ in maintaining conventional social relationships – especially that of ‘family’ ¬– is especially moving.

The (almost) complete absence of male characters is particularly telling, and I suspect that it is deliberate. Indeed, it does accentuate the marginality of these women in their society and subverts patriarchal notions of family, social order, and gender roles. That said, I’m not sure that the misfortune of their existence is much of liberationist statement. Maybe it isn’t. This is a challenging and moving read. I think that I’d recommend it, but suspect I’ll still be mulling it over for some time yet.

An intellectual is a person who's found one thing that's more interesting than sex.

2012-05-24T20:00:00.000+10:00

I'm not certain that we will find that thylacine.

Contrary to what the politicians and religious leaders would like us to believe, the world won't be made safer by creating barriers between people.

2012-05-24T11:00:00.000+10:00

Things grow in the unlikeliest of places. Outside of St Cuthberts Primary School, Lindisfarne. May 2012.

By golly, Theme Thursday already. Where has the time gone? I would suggest Port Douglas or somewhere where the weather is warmer, the ocean a little kinder and if you really want to quit your job, sleeping under the stars might not be so unpleasant!

Nevertheless, we are not here to talk about time or how much any of us might utterly loathe their employment circumstances at the moment, we are here to talk about something at the very heart of Theme Thursday: COMMUNITY. You see, as Brian has so eloquently reminded us, Theme Thursday is really about more than a theme or single blog post, it really is about COMMUNITY.

It is a varied COMMUNITY, to be sure, and one that covers the entire globe. Unlike earlier manifestations of the form, which were inevitably local and shaped and constrained by innumerable barriers – distance, landscape, history, kinship, language – the online world removes or negates many of these barriers. Do you like a photograph but don’t speak Portuguese? Easy, click on Google Translate, convert “Fantastic photograph, I love the use of colour!” and presto, you’re communicating. Intrigued by life in Stuttgart, but don’t know any Stuttgartians? Visit Tina’s PicStory and you might get an idea of it.

These days then, COMMUNITY is not constrained by mountains, rivers or oceans. One doesn’t have to inherit through the bland chance of birth or fate their COMMUNITY, for there exists greater scope to expand one’s horizons far beyond the immediate physical neighbourhood.

Obviously, this can be an amazing and liberating experience, especially for someone who spent many hours of their childhood dreamily browsing though atlases and encyclopaedias, imagining just how life in Nsukka, Nuuk or North Platte was lived, what the people ate for breakfast, what they did on their weekends, did they wear shorts there, or do they prefer trousers?

Nowadays, there are COMMUNITies out there that allow me to find these things out, to not just pop in and view someone or somewhere else’s life, I can also communicate with them. I can ask them what they eat for breakfast. I can see if they wear shorts. I can interact in real time if I want to. I can find and join an existing COMMUNITY or I can create a new one from scratch. The entire World is indeed my oyster (provided I have the bandwidth).

---[Darken screen and insert ominous music here]---

It is not all sweetness and light though. There is a risk that in the rush to embrace new and (geographically) remote COMMUNITies in an online environment, we can neglect our immediate and local COMMUNITY: the people around us, who live with us, work with us and play with us (and I certainly hope that you’re leaving your computer screen for a good play at least some of the time).

To my mind, the best exemplars of these new COMMUNITies are the ones that bring me a real sense of the person and place, another someone and somewhere that tells me about themselves and (hopefully) tells me something about myself, and vice versa.

Dina can take me through Yom Kippur in Jerusalem or how ANZAC Day is celebrated in Israel.

I can see Carola’s journey through Dortmund Hauptbahnhof on her way to work or hear about the trip to the hairdresser's in the depths of the Amazon.

Petrea has shared breakfast in Pasadena and a glimpse into the world of doggy day care.

Communicative action in practice!

So, for the COMMUNITY to work, I have to bring something and not just take. You have to bring something and not just take. It can’t just be a one-way street or a one-sided exercise. I suspect that a little bit of this has happened to Theme Thursday.

The world is out there people. Your World, our World. Let's share it.

I believe in luck: how else can you explain the success of those you dislike?

2012-05-23T20:15:00.000+10:00

Now, who's a silly boy then?

Happiness is a hard master, particularly other people's happiness.

2012-05-23T08:00:00.000+10:00

Another self portrait. An unnamed lane-way just off Murray Street, Hobart CBD. May 2012.

Wordless Wednesday.

Good manners is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse. Whoever makes the fewest people uneasy is the best bred in the room.

2012-05-22T20:00:00.000+10:00

We love you too, Ezra...

Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.

2012-05-22T09:00:00.000+10:00

Alpine wilderness. Mount Wellington. April 2012.

A fantastic Q and A this this week submitted by Smudgeon. Some tricky ones this week, some have definitely got me thinking. As ever, I'm always looking for new questions, so please feel free to shoot me any that you might have laying about!

QUICK PICKS
Hobart or Burnie?
Burnie is always where my heart and allegiance will lay, but there are a number of good reasons that I live in Hobart. That said, it is starting to give me the shits...

White, dark, or milk chocolate?
I’m not really a chocolate fan, but I’d go dark (80% plus) if forced.

Penguin or Wynyard?
I hold both in very high esteem, but have to give Wynyard the nod. I have fonder memories and it has a nicer river and more options for food. In addition, it is much further away from Ulverstone.

Marsupials or mammals?
Aren’t marsupials mammals? The patriotic part of me should really feel much more strongly about marsupials but, to be frank, they really are a bit naff. I mean, would it have hurt to have a few (feline) tigers or elephants wandering about the place? When the top of your food chain is eliminated by a mongrel dog, you do have to wonder.

Blur, Oasis, or Pulp?
I enjoyed all three to differing levels at the time (mid-1990s), and will admit that although Blur has grown in my esteem, I was then and always will be a Pulp kind of fellow.

Prague or Berlin?
A very hard call. For a short visit, Prague is hard to beat. I suspect that Berlin might well hold my interest for a bit longer. Both definite top 5 “places I’ve been to” though.

Coffee or tea?
Coffee. I only drink tea when I am sick. That said, I am not a coffee snob. I’m generally happy enough with an instant. I know that good coffee can be excellent, but it’s my opinion that it has become one of the most overrated fashions of the last twenty years and a coffee fascist is one of the most annoying individuals around.

Apple or Microsoft?
Microsoft. Apple is very much the ‘middle class’ of the computer world. I generally eschew anything so blatantly brand self-conscious. I got a great little HP laptop for Christmas that does everything the Mac I bought (as a gift) the Christmas before, except a) it looks a little less swish; b) the keyboard isn’t backlit; and c) the screen is a tad smaller. Whatever reliability issues might arise (and I’ve yet to have any), I know that it can be addressed quickly and cheaply. I know that the Mac will be worthless in three to four years. Guess which one cost seven hundred bucks and which one cost over two grand.

CRICKET:
Is Tendulkar doing India more harm or good by playing on?
The answer really depends on your metric and information that I might not have. I suspect that his appearance generates significantly increased gate, TV and sponsorship revenue, so the Board wouldn’t like to lose him. I’ve no idea whether he is a good or bad influence on the younger blokes, but that would have to be factored in. Given that I’m only interested in Tests, I’d confine any comment on performance to that arena. A quick look at the data suggests a decline in returns since 2010, and a patchiness of yearly runs since 2003 compared to a relatively stable decade or so previous to that. It’s easy to say “he’s blocking a young guy” but if no-one wants to part with the cash to watch the young guy, I suspect the money men would be more concerned with that than they are with results.

On batting: ugly but effective, or graceful but inconsistent?
I always much more preferred Steve Waugh than Mark Waugh. I think that this answers the question.

Who do you believe is the most under-rated Australian domestic cricketer? Current and retired.
Current? I dunno. I think that Doherty’s performances of the past three or four years have been overlooked somewhat. Retired? It surprises me that how few people acknowledge just how good a player Damian Martyn was. Much better than Mark Waugh.

Pick XI current test cricketers who you don't like, with consideration given to team balance:
Off the top of my head: G. Smith, P. Hughes (does he count?), J. Trott, M. Jayawardene, K. Pieterson, B. Haddin, J.P. Duminy, C. Broad, M. Morkel, D. Steyn, R. Herath.

Explain one of your choices in the above XI.
There are a lot of white South Africans. Smith and Pieterson exemplify traits of that type I really don’t like very much.

Who should replace Haddin?
Right now it has to be Wade. I’d keep Paine in the mix though.

Is Michael Clarke's captaincy "all that"?
Time will tell. I think that stronger opponents will be the test.

Imagine it's 2030: what's the state of cricket?
Five over games. Batsmen get three ‘lives’. Bowlers wear blindfolds and must have an arm behind their back.

CULTURE, HISTORY, ETC:
Which, out of Brave New World and 1984, has been most "prophetic"?
Orwell was closer to the mark in the pre-satellite age, but essentially his fear was of a state that seeks to shape and control information through iron rule. Huxley though envisaged a world in which there would be no reason to ban a book, as conditions would arise in which no one would be bothered to read one. Essentially we have a world of a captive culture versus that of a trivial culture. Brave New World is one in which ‘freedom’ is limited by distraction and people are constrained by their appetite for pleasure. In 1984, people are controlled (ultimately) by inflicting pain. Which sounds closer?

1984 is a fantastic book though, and its worldview was influenced by the destruction of the Second World War, the vicious Nazi occupation of much of Continental Europe and Orwell’s fear of an aggressive and repressive Soviet Union. His exploration of the control and use of history and language is extremely relevant, if the immediate threat of such a totalitarian regime is less so. Just because the World has changed, the analysis is not rendered worthless.

Most intriguing period of 20th century history:
Very tricky this. The indulgent answer would be the ‘short 20th Century’ from 1914 through to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It is hard to isolate and separate specific events from the whole. If I HAVE to, I find it difficult to get my head around the who, what and (most importantly) why’s of the Eastern Front and everything that happened in the occupied territories during WWII, the destruction and the subsequent reconstruction, the immense reshaping of borders, peoples and languages and the net effects on the following period are all almost too overwhelming to properly comprehend.

Has The Simpsons lost its edge?
The last time that I watched it it had. Mind you, I can’t say that I’ve seen much since Season 11, and that was the year 2000!

Who is your least favourite historical figure?
I’ve chosen to reinterpret this a little. Rather than pick an obvious and nasty one like Hitler, I thought I’d go with one whose reputation frustrates and annoys me: Winston Churchill. While I certainly accept that he was an important source of strength and leadership in WWII, there is much to revile about the man. He was a sexist pig, a drunkard, integral to the wonderful idea of the Dardanelles Invasion (including Gallipoli), a silver-spooned reactionary who advocated the shooting of strikers, the Chancellor of the Exchequer that oversaw the decisions that led Britain into the Great Depression, a traitor to his political parties, a frightful racist who denounced Ghandi and used poison gas to supress colonials. A lot of that seems to be missed in the narrative that he was solely responsible for saving Britain and winning the war.

List your three favourite webcomics (active or inactive):
The keys ones that I've kept going back to for years now really are Married To The Sea, Pictures for Sad Children, and xkcd. I should also give a nod to get your war on, which really impressed me when it first appeared.

Name an author who people have recommended to you, but you just don't get:
David Foster Wallace is the big one at the moment, but there are a few. Obviously Don DeLillo, Jonathan Franzen and Dave Eggers can all write, but they leave me cold. Ayn Rand, on the other hand, her work is so ham-fisted and poorly-written that I struggle to believe that it is anything other than an elaborate joke. J.R. Tolkien just bores me to tears.

MORAL QUESTIONS:
Whales: on, or off the menu? Why?
I have no problem with anyone eating anything, provided it is done sustainably. It strikes me as supremely arrogant to have erected some moral or ethical barrier around an animal that has long through human history been part of the food and resource chain. Protect the resource, of course, but to dictate to all others that it is now ‘off limits’ (in absolute confidence of one’s moral superiority) bewilders me.

If you had the means to eradicate one extant virus, disease, or syndrome, which would it be?
Can I answer ‘stupidity’? If not, I will hedge my bets and say ‘cancer’.

You've just found $23,500 in unmarked, non-consecutive notes in a neat bundle on your doorstep one morning: do you give the police a call, or pop it straight in your pocket?
If it is on the doorstep, I simply have to figure that there is some kind of scam or swindle going on. I’d call the police.

If you had the means to revive an animal recently extinct due to human activity, would you? If so, which?
The ‘recently’ tag rules out one of the many dinosaurs that I could offer the boys for Christmas. While I’d love to see thylacines out and about here in Tasmania, I can’t help but feel that they’d struggle with modern life. If 1627 isn’t too far back, I would be fascinated to have the Aurochs back.

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF:
I understand you used to teach political science students: do you miss this?
I do miss the teaching side of things, but will confess that the increasing trends of apathetic, egoistic (as distinct from egotistic) and superficially opinionated students was depressing. I love the Internet, but the overwhelming mass of facts, opinion and comment [i.e. knowledge] seems – for many people – to have a) disempowered truly independent critical thinking and personal reflection; and b) narrowed rather than widened the scope of dissenting opinion that individuals encounter.

That is, in the vast multitudes online, it’s easy to surround yourself with people who think like you, believe the things that you believe, listen to the music you listen to, read the books (blogs) you read etc etc. In some ways it must a be a good thing for people, but there is something to be said for being the only 15-year-old Burnie boy at Parklands High who is a mad keen Byrds fan and discovered Hemingway, Heller and Morrissey and trying to get your head around what happened to the Soviet Union and why those Yugoslavs are suddenly killing each other [to a large extent] independently from the rest of the world. I don’t know what might have become of me if the answers to the millions of questions that were emerging could (ostensibly) be found in twenty seconds. My reflections upon the experience of teaching at University from 2000 to 2008 does not fill me with hope.

Favourite building at St John's Park:
Hmmmmm. This is a hard one. I’d have to plump for the King's Orphan School building.

You've got all your pieces of pie, and you're in the middle of the Trivial Pursuit board, playing for the win: which topic are you hoping you aren't asked?
God’s honest truth, I’ve never once lost a game of Trivial Pursuit. It got so bad that everyone ended up refusing to play me. Very upsetting. If everything rode on the last question, I’d want most to steer clear of ‘Science and Nature’.

Least favourite 20th century communist state:
It is very hard to go past the regime of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. You know things must be bad when other totalitarian Communist states invade you because of your treatment of your people.

Weapon of choice: pencil, biro, or keyboard?
It depends on the battle. I always try to have a pencil with me at all time, so for versatility alone it has served me well.

I enjoyed that, and have accepted the challenge of penning some questions in return. I'd say it's almost trickier than answering them!

He was a bold man that first eat an oyster.

2012-05-21T20:00:00.000+10:00

A coy Henry considers life as a lion. Some would suggest that he already knows full well about that sort of thing...

Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically.

2012-05-21T09:00:00.000+10:00

The grand old dame remains... for now. 10 Murray Street, Hobart. May 2012.

The Internet is a wonderful place filled with the rich and varied treasures of the world holds (as well as naughty people doing naughty things.) The following are some things that I've had a look at in the last week. I call this: a Compendium of Click-throughs for Monday Morning..

Why countries fail...

This picture is worth four million bucks... really?!?!

Contingency, Foreshadowing, and Real-Time Tweeting...

The problem with politics today...

Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.

2012-05-20T20:00:00.000+10:00

Ezra cracks an elaborate gag that involved a Greek, a Bulgarian and a Romanian transsexual who walked into a bar...

It is the vice of a vulgar mind to be thrilled by bigness.

2012-05-20T09:00:00.000+10:00

Grows anywhere. St Cuthberts Primary School, Lindisfarne. May 2012.

Sunday Top Five? How about these Top Five Words That We Need To Start Using In English!

Backpfeifengesicht, from the German, meaning a face badly in need of a fist.

Bakku-shan, from the Japanese, meaning a beautiful girl… as long as she’s being viewed from behind.

L’esprit de l’escalier, from the French, which is generally translated as “staircase wit,” referring to the act of thinking of a clever comeback too far after the moment.

Nunchi, from the Korean, meaning the subtle art of listening and gauging another’s mood. In the West, nunchi is about knowing what to say or do, or what not to say or do, in a given situation. A socially awkward individual can be described as ‘nunchi eoptta’, which means 'absent of nunchi'.

Tatemae and Honne, again from the Japanese, which refer to what you pretend to believe and what you actually believe, respectively.

Everyone who wants to do good to the human race always ends in universal bullying.

2012-05-19T20:00:00.000+10:00

The oddest thing about Henry's insistence to get out and about among these rocks is the fact that he refused to wear his shoes to do so.

Hope is the thing...

2012-05-19T09:00:00.000+10:00

The real end of summer. Hobart as seen from Little Howrah Beach. March 2012.

People who find breastfeeding offensive are idiots.

Hope is the thing..., Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

My God, these folks don't know how to love - that's why they love so easily.

2012-05-18T20:00:00.000+10:00

Only love can break your heart.

An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.

2012-05-18T11:30:00.000+10:00

A sign from somebody, or something. Franklin Wharf, Hobart waterfront. May 2012.

Being Dead by Jim Crace really is unlike any book I have read before. It begins with a straightforward, albeit shocking, image; the bodies of a middle-aged couple lying in the dunes of the seacoast where they met as students. A frenzied stranger has battered them to death them with a chunk of granite for no reason other than the few valuables they have with them. Yet this is no murder mystery. Less about murder and more about death, to be more precise.

The reader is than taken on a [very] graphic account of what happens as their corpses lie undiscovered and rotting for a week. We learn of the effects of putrefaction, the role of crabs, flies, and gulls in processing decaying organic matter. The narrative then abruptly shifts backward to the [again, incredibly graphic] moment of their deaths. It’s fair to say that the opening third of the book is not for the faint hearted.

The narrative then alternates between the few hours shared between the couple preceding the murder; thirty years earlier and the events of their meeting and getting together; a continuing account of their decaying bodies; and events in the life of their only daughter in the week following their deaths. Each lens is an intimate view of life (and death). The graphic descriptions suddenly feel more appropriate and poignant, and less shocking. Crace has done exceptionally well to achieve this feat.

The key message seems to me to be that death is a natural part of life. Whether we are aware of it or not, it simply is. It might seem obvious or trite a concept, but it’s Crace avoids this with his brutally honest account of the lives and deaths of two people, and the immediate effect on their distant and remote daughter.

I really like this book, and respect its achievement. None of the characters are particularly sympathetic, but they are all fundamentally human. There is something made more touching of their dysfunctional relationships that is highlighted by the central theme of death (and the contrasting challenge of life). It’s not for everyone (particularly the squeamish), but if you’re up for a challenge, you could do much worse than read this book.

Highly recommended.

What happened? I forgot to give it a title!

2012-05-17T20:00:00.001+10:00

Look at them go.

Where?

I dunno.

As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think.

2012-05-17T12:15:00.000+10:00

Seen better days #976. Lindisfarne North Primary School, Lindisfarne. May 2012.

Theme Thursday again and the place is like a ZOO. Well, if you knew where I worked, 'madhouse' would be inappropriate (if somewhat more precise).

I've been busy. So very busy.

I apologise. Not good enough, I know.

Don't set your wit against a child.

2012-05-16T20:00:00.000+10:00

Drink from thine regal chalice...

We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

2012-05-16T09:00:00.000+10:00

Show caution, in the name of love... The corner of St Georges Terrace and Sandy Bay Road. May 2012.

Wordless Wednesday.

Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion.

2012-05-15T20:00:00.000+10:00

We had our first parent-teacher meeting with Henry's Prep teacher yesterday evening, and were delighted with the news that the lad is doing very well in all areas! Of course, like his father, the one area that he perhaps might need to work on a little bit is understanding the correct time and place for 'a joke'.

Well done Henry!

An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.

2012-05-15T09:00:00.000+10:00

Spindly dongers (at least that's what Henry calls them) on trees. Royal Botanical Gardens, Hobart. April 2012.

In the absence of another reader contribution (reader?), I am back to stealing from Sunday Stealing this week. Thus, I present to you Part Two of the Semi Charmed Meme

21. A better name for me would be: something German. Jürgen Grüßer or some such.

22. I have a hard time understanding: why people don’t ask more questions.

23. If I ever go back to school, I’d: enjoy myself more than the first few runs at it.

24. You know I like you if: you see me again.

25. If I ever won an award, the first person I’d thank would be: my lovely wife and children.

26. If I could bring back a TV show for a reunion it would be: Deadwood.

27. Take my advice, never: think that merit on its own will get you anywhere.

28. My ideal breakfast is: porridge with fresh raspberries.

29. A song I love, but do not own is: I honestly cannot think of one. If I ‘love’ a song, I must possess it!

30. If you visit my hometown, I'd suggest: keeping your preconceptions and prejudices to yourself and just try to enjoy yourself.

31. If I could meet a couple of my blog buddies, I'd include: anyone who wanted to be included!

32. Why won’t people: stop being so bloody selfish all the time?

33. If you spend the night at my house: I expect you to be very quiet after 8 pm.

34. I’d stop everything for: a chance of peace and quiet.

35. The world could do without: people always hatin’ on each other.

36. The last time I got drunk I: couldn’t get up the stairs.

37. My favourite blonde is: a brunette!

38. Paper clips are more useful than: spinal meningitis.

39. If I do anything well, it’s: likely to go by unremarked upon.

40. And by the way: I have a headache and am in a bit of a shitty mood, so the answers might be skewed a little bit.