Last year I was wondering which way to go in my work life. I started an oncology post-grad but quickly lost motivation. My cynicism around the higher education sausage machine got the better of me. I ended up doing Plan 2: a year goofing off. I could work less; spend time with my family; ride my bicycle; travel; fix...

After Chalkahlom mentioned Syncthing on the microblog the other day I think I have found a possible workflow for this blog. So here I am with a keyboard plugged into my phone... R and I just spent a night in an Airbnb here in Byron Bay. The decor is straight out of Instagram. Real life aping our collective dreams. I...

I was to meet my son for breakfast at the stipulated time. It was part of yesterdays ultimatum or perhaps pen-ultimatum. He was still in bed when I arrived to pick hm up. He had seemingly forgotten the acid words he had thrown my way the day before. We went for breakfast at Split cafe. It was cold and rainy so we...

A bicycle ride back in 2006 with my boys The brain-cinema has been showing bicycles for most of my life. In my former desk jockey days I would while away the ennui geeking out over bicycle ephemera such as Cycle Chic (Thank you Copenhagenize ); Rohloff Hubs ; the writings of Sheldon Brown ; Rivendell Bikes and a...

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt's "heads" In the late 80's I wrote an awful essay for my Media teacher at Camborne Tecnhical College. There was no internet to speak of back then so I relied upon the books in the limited library for research. Most of the books seemed to be related to mining and farming. In the art section...

Bender might say, "Greetings to my yeasts and bacterias" The picture above is from an episode of Futurama I watched with my boys. The robot, Bender, is adrift in space. His body is populated by 'Shrimpkins'. Auden wrote "A New Year Greeting" the year I was born. It was in response to an article entitled, " Life on...

I remember another time when I was young. In my homeland traveling by train. A group of passengers sprinkled throughout the open-plan carriage talked amongst themselves. They appeared to know each other from their intersecting lives in suburbia. This was obviously their regular commute. Rereading Saint-Exupéry I am...

Sisyphus by Titian It's a Saturday morning. I can hear a phalanx of lawn mowers, hedge trimmers and leaf blowers marching through the backyards of my neighbours. Australians rejoice in weekend suburb maintenance. Like many others I have just had very busy week of work. The builders have been having a field day in...

Sometimes it feels like this. I want to move the fence, make our yard bigger for our fat dog. Re does not want me to start without a landscaping consultation of some kind. Despite this I have mostly formed plans involving retaining walls and wire mesh fencing. The first step is the hardest, mine requires hirng a...

Melbourne Graffiti - overstated security? I forgot I had my old Opinel penknife in my bag. The airport security were delighted. What had started as a normal boring morning suddenly had a frisson of excitement. My counter-culture terroristic leanings were only confirmed when I foolishly told them I'd forgotten about...

I am such an eejat. I locked my keys in my ute yesterday. Re picked me up on her way home from work. She rolled her eyes at my incompetence. Early this morning Davis and I hitched a ride back with the spare key. Before driving home we watched the blazing skyline as the sun approached and had a hot chocolate at...

Another life, in the past Last night I woke up and finally understood the existential answers to the questions posed by my life. The nature of restlessness and desire to travel. How to avoid hurting those I loved if I selfishly left. I finally figured out what I needed to do to move forward and grow as a person....