Caution: I'm afraid this post may ramble. I have a lot of thoughts on what is going on in Australia at the moment, and plenty of areas of considerable ignorance compared with some people who may read this. I welcome comments, debate and corrections from all quarters. The only rules of commenting are: keep it respectful and civil.

( Very, very long political post in need of an editor. )

This evening, I decided to tackle another yummy-sounding recipe from Smitten Kitchen. That is an excellent blog, but probably makes some optimistic assumptions about the eptitude of the chef and/or suitability of their cooking equipment. I found a few parts of this recipe problematic (a packet of rather expensive organic dry lasagne noodles has ( Read more... )

Following on from the interest in my last post, I thought I'd tackle what is apparently an almost impossible task, and talk about the nature and policies of the parties seeking your vote at the coming election. This is an attempt to put some substance out there for those who would like to make an informed decision, but are being less-than-well- ( Read more... )

Today, I'd like to talk to you about something seriously boring. I do not - it will surprise you to learn - choose to talk about it because it's boring, but rather because it's important. Important because understanding it (or not) could affect your future, and the future of everyone you know. I'm talking, fellow Australians, about what happens ( Read more... )

In the past couple of days I was interested to read comments from a friend about the recent real estate market collapse in much of the USA. 140 characters has a tendency to reduce discussion to less than the bare bones, but the comment was along the lines of "big fall in house prices: good for buyers, bad for sellers". This may, to many, seem ( Read more... )

Since reading a friend's frustrated tweet yesterday after the defeat of Labor's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme legislation in the Australian Senate, I've been reflecting on ( what happened and how it happened )

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST or BAND, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to 10 people and include me. You can't use the artist/band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. Repost as "my life according to (artist/band name ( Read more... )

This isn't my creation, but still well worth blogging for the sake of posterity (and for making again ( Read more... )

We've just been informed that we have to find a new place to live in just 6 weeks time. This was not at all the plan, and there are plenty of things we might complain about, for all the good it would do.

Instead, I'm going to try and make a list of the positives about the situation. Commenters, feel free to add any I might have missed!

• we are ( Read more... )

That's the weather right here, just so's you know.