See Introduction and Contents. This first part of 'Ina's Story: as I remember it' covers my mum's first years in Peru from 1938 when she was born there to 1945 when she came to Britain. I was born in Huancayo on December 1st 1938. My parents frequently commented on my being born on such an illustrious date – it is...

Continued from Part 1 Peru. This part covers Ina's arrival in Britain, from Peru, in 1945 Going home To get back to Britain we had to make our way to Buenos Aires. This must have taken several months. We went on a boat across Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, the highest lake in the world. We stayed in a place called Flores...

This is an introduction and contents to the story of my mum's childhood as told by her. This introduction is by me. A few months ago I was rummaging around in a cupboard in my parents' house. I was looking for photo albums I could get out and look through with them. I came across a small blue exercise book. I opened...

The steps in this guide have generated A$1,139,000 in salary (updated 25th September, 2026), measured as the sum of the highest annual salaries friends and readers have reached after following along, where they were willing to attribute their success actions in here. If it works for you, email me so I can bump the...

The third post on My Top 100 Tracks. When I recently told my partner this was one of my top 100 favourite tracks of all time and played it to her she laughed. I think it was a bit unexpected to her that I would like a song like this. She came along when I was in my 50s so had missed my earlier years of music...

Watching your team score a winning goal in the last minute of a match is great. But try leaving Facebook, Instagram, X, WhatsApp, and Amazon all in one day. That's what I did recently. That feels really good. Actually, I became inactive on most of these platforms a while ago and switched over to Mastodon (an...

The second post on My Top 100 Tracks. Explosive. That's how this track's often described. One hit on the drum and then the song dives straight in fast and direct. It was released in 1978 as the opening track of The Clash's second album Give 'Em Enough Rope. I was 14. I saw someone say: "It's one of the greatest...

I. A few years ago, I had an annual one-on-one with the Chief Technology Officer of an employer with more than ten thousand staff. Senior management absolutely fawned over this person — extremely politically savvy, they would say. Amazing at acquiring funding. Really cares about everyone on the team. The platform...

Introduction to My Top Tracks and, further down, outline of Alternatives to Spotify I listen to music about 3 or 4 hours a day and a lot of that time not in the background, but listening to it only and doing nothing else. It's been at the centre of my life since I was a teenager (as for many other people). Of...

The first post on My Top 100 Tracks. 'Do Anything you Wanna Do' was released in 1977. I was 13. The band was called 'The Rods' at that point. I know it's a cliché, but it blew my mind. Often thought of as a punk band, there was a definite element of punk to them (at least in the context of those days). They were...

I've been absolutely slammed over the last few weeks, between moving to a new house, a large number of readers visiting Melbourne over the holidays and wanting coffee, and doing work for clients at the ol' consultancy. However, writing will pick up again in mid-January, more than ever before1, and we'll embark on my...

Race and gender identity; racism and colonialism; family and outsiders; social dislocation; police and thieves; environment and nature; war, violence, and survival; spies, footballers, and ordinary lives. I thought I'd keep on reading social/political academic books when I retired from my sociology academic job in...