You’ve gotta love what the Aussies can do to the English language. No time was wasted Down Under in adapting linguistically to the present crisis. A sample of the latest OzSpeak: “Me boss tested posi for the ’Rona so now I’m in iso. Popped down to Woollies for some sanny, but it’s been bloody magpie’d.”
THE elderly man flicked through the pages of the newspaper. Back and forth. Flick, flick. Stopping occasionally to re-read an item, perhaps check a headline, looking for meaning, for answers. Finding none, only confusion. What first appeared as imperatives could also be seen merely as advice, open to interpretation. An either/or situation. Toss a coin….
Things are not going to change. All you poor sensitive souls out there, and you seem to multiply by the day, will simply have to accept my continuing rudeness. There will be no apologies if what I write upsets you. Grin and bear it, turn the other cheek, tweet away on Twitter, fulminate on Facebook, …
ON a day when Waitrose announced it was following a move at least partially made by other supermarkets, it was intriguing to discover how dear old fuddy-duddy M&S was faring. So, in the interests of research (are there other reasons for favouring this pricey purveyor?), I bought a cucumber from the M&S Food Hall (such…
Writing a blog used to be a simple, time-efficient task. That is, until WordPress decided to “improve” things. And, as so often happens when such decisions are made, things became intolerably worse. It used to be a case of type of the text, select a picture and insert it wherever appropriate. Simple. Now we have…
Sorting through my recently discovered pack of old postcards has provoked not only memories but also an unexpected feeling of sadness for the Facebook generation. This intrusive all-seeing all-knowing app (what a ghastly truncated word) has enabled them to bombard their army of “friends” about every aspect of their lives. The postcards of the 21st…
Uninvited, but more welcome than a cold shower on a stinking hot day in Melbourne, my muse has reappeared. As usual, she came from nowhere and without a prompt. I was merely taking s stroll (or perhaps I should say ‘we’) to combat inertia, mental as well as physical. And there she was, whispering seductive…
As this next postcard instantly reminds me, they were holding a funeral the day I arrived in Tana Toraja; and the corpse was six months dead. To mark the occasion, two splendid white buffalo were slaughtered (quickly and cleanly), dozens of pigs were butchered (slowly and noisily) and there was hour after hour of singing…
Now here’s some food for thought. Real food, too. Which probably makes quite a change for many of us in these vitamin-fuelled times. At least you can now count me out of the millions here and worldwide who are buying vitamin supplements in ever-increasing numbers in the hope, and even belief, that they will improve …
My first tentative venture into crime fiction occurred many years, even decades, ago. As tends to be my way of doing things, I started writing and let the characters lead me. Chief among them was a mild and insignificant denizen of suburban life, Garfield Parks. Why he was called that, I have no idea; that…