Is Squinting a Sign your Child needs Glasses – or just Plain Cute?

Did you see that? Or would you have missed it, like my youngest brother did for the first 11 years of his life? Glasses for Kids, is a program currently being tested in schools, to screen kids for the need for glasses. If this initiative had been around back in the day, my youngest brother […]

Hot days, proteas and driving without a license – Part 2

One hot Saturday afternoon in a late October, Dad wanted to go to Bunnings to buy a protea.  He loved those plants, and I wanted to do everything I could to give him some joy in his last few weeks on earth. So, it was up to me to take him because Mum had an […]

Hot days, proteas and driving without a license – Part 1

One of my favourite podcasts is the Blindboy Podcast. The episode titled ‘Crying and Shame and Underpants’, 23rd November, 2022 brought back painful memories that I had buried decades ago. When Blindboy shared the story of his father dying from cancer and the realities of watching someone succumb to that sinister disease, it reminded me […]

Celebrating Winter Solstice in Hobart, Tasmania

There’s something truly special about stripping down to your bare skin, wearing nothing but a bright red bathing cap, and wrapping yourself in a big white towel. Your skin might be a bit different to the skin you were born in; it’s definitely hairier and shows signs of aging and sun damage, it might be […]

Rub-a-dub-dub, three kids in a tub

There were three little kids in the tub: Kieran,7, Alana,5, and Patrick 15 months, aka Paddy. Their mother, my daughter Hannah, was giving them a bath. My only job was to pass the towels. As the cleanest of the three, Paddy was the first out. The other two had used their arms as canvases and […]

Mini Getaway to Wilson’s Promontory

It was a beautiful sunny morning, the first Friday in May, when Sarah and I set off for our weekend getaway. She had come over from Tasmania and  hired a  Tea Rock City Life especially for the occasion  The car was an average size SUV, that we had managed to pack full to the brim. […]

Take that, you old piano

As kids, my brothers and I usually spent part of the  school holidays with our cousins at Old Greenhills, Triabunna. The property was nestled along the rugged east coast of Tasmania, where our grandparents lived on a farm. It was a rustic and remote place, about 20 km from the main road with the closest […]

“Good evening, Officer, can I help you?” 

At a time in my life when my kids should have been a constant source of teenage angst, they defied the norm. Rather than loitering around shopping malls after or during school hours and being rebellious when asked by the authorities to ‘move on’, they stepped into the role of responsible adults. Meanwhile, I transitioned […]

The tale of two bastards and a car

There once was a school groundsman whose hobby was fixing cars. Let’s call him Steve (not his real name). I thought he was a nice dude, but he wasn’t. Then there was Murray (not his real name). He lived next- door to me and his hobby was gardening. I never thought he was a nice […]

Twalking in Maroochydore, Sunshine Coast, Queensland

We’ve all done it. But we didn’t know we were doing it. Twalking, the timeless art of merging talk and walk, has been a cherished pastime since time immemorial. But who knew we were twalking? This term sprang to life from the fusion of “talk” and “walk,” coined by a friend of my cousin, Jeanette’s. […]