Arthur And George (Julian Barnes) — not quite historical novel, not quite biography, following the true story of Arthur Conan Doyle and George Edalji. Somewhere in between, perhaps. Really well written, I thought (no wonder if was on the 2005 Booker shortlist), getting inside the heads of the main characters using language they’d probably use ... [More]
Well, I did it. I survived an entire week without chocolate. Cruelly, my body reacted to this effort by producing a rather large pimple on the side of my nose. Is there no justice? However, I’m conscious of the fact that diabetes is far from unknown in my family, and while I’m not going to ... [More]
It seems one of the popular things is to complain about these days the curse of the always-on generation. Mobile phones, email, instant messaging mean you’re always contactable. But I like all that stuff for other reasons. It means I can leave the office early (as I do every Tuesday) and stay in touch. I ... [More]
Yesterday morning I had a blood nose in the shower. Very Psycho, I must say. My left side is clearly my best. My right side is… well, a bit defective. My right nostril is always the one that gets the blood. Semi-regularly in fact, particularly in high summer or when I’m blowing my nose a ... [More]
Thankfully it’s only a minority of smokers who are obnoxious about their habit, like the two bogan girls in the Campbell Arcade yesterday morning. I wonder what made them think they were allowed to smoke in there? After all, smoking is banned from most inside and undercover locations now. Maybe we should have smoking zones? ... [More]
The wacky dreams keep on coming. This one on the weekend involved walking Maisie (the dog) with Marita in Footscray Park. But beware! Assassins! In a white stationwagon! They pulled up nearby and came attacking, with a syringe full of something to stab me with. Maisie, being her usual cautious self, was not about to ... [More]
I had a reasonably bad cold last week, and I’m still periodically coughing yeuchhy stuff up very noisily. At its worst, I worked from home, which was actually pretty good — I reckon I got more done at home than I would have done at work, thanks to the tranquility. Thanks to a contact in ... [More]
Can I do it? Starting at midnight tonight, I’m going to try. An entire week without chocolate. Just to prove I can. My name is Daniel, and I am a chocoholic. I may be addicted, but I CAN GIVE IT UP ANY TIME I LIKE. No Mars Bars, no choc brownies, no Freddo Frogs, no ... [More]
In year 11+12, I studied accounting. It wasn’t the most interesting of subjects to me, but I did very well in it. The teacher was Mr Read, who was a brilliant accounting teacher. He breathed life into what could have been a very dull topic to study. There were always plenty of anecdotes to amuse ... [More]
While many of us are thinking about near-trivial day-to-day things like what DVD to hire, or how to make our frequent flyer points go farther, in other less peaceful parts of the world, they’re worrying about just getting through the day alive. Tony Issa [warning: graphic photos], normally a Melbourne native, is in Lebanon right ... [More]
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang — A kinda violent-yet-funny Lock Stock/Snatch type comedy-mystery-drama. Very well done, with some nice touches on the narration. Plenty of laughs, very enjoyable. Broken Flowers — Another of Bill Murray’s refined, old bloke, laid-back movie roles. Very good. Corpse Bride — Reminded me of one of those 80s/90s afternoon kids’ programmes, ... [More]
I’ve been planning some activity for my many frequent flyer points, many tens of thousands of which were earnt over several years of paying for childcare on a credit card several years ago. It adds up, I can tell you. Firstly I’ll be jaunting down to Hobart for a few days in October with Marita. ... [More]