I’m going to a book launch tonight – which is all very well. Bravo. Bravo. Book signed, etc. Excellent. But to get there from here I must brave the most unreliable bus in the world. OK so I could walk from Smith St to Lygon St BUT I’m wearing my pointy boots which – while […]

The heater at work is broken. Someone left it on overnight and it’s run out of puff. (It was mighty toasty though when I arrrived this morning.) Each time I walk past it, it flashes and blinks its digital display accusingly at me. The ambient temperature is gradually lowering. About every hour I put on […]

Reading over someone’s shoulder on the train this morning I spied the headline ‘Pagan: I won’t change’ in a section of the paper seemingly devoted to a critique of footy’s current coaching styles. ‘Hmm,’ I thought. ‘That’s an unorthodox approach.’ Do they employ druids? Does it mean dancing? Are training sessions held under the full […]

After a weekend of heavy reading for the new course, I thought work might offer some light relief today. Which it has – of sorts. Light-headed relief really. We’ve got the painters in doing touch up work and the whole building consequently is awash with paint fumes. (Awash is probably wrong for fumes, but my […]

It was early Monday evening. It was on the escalators at Melbourne Central station. I was ascending. He was descending. I had a map of RMIT and an air of distraction. He had a McDonalds takeaway bag of chips. I looked up to get my bearings. He leaned across and said, “Will you marry me?” […]

Tonight is the first night of my new course. I have new pens, new notebooks, new binders and a whole new and improved attitude to study (I think). And I’ve been listening to the 24 Hour Party People compilation CD here at work featuring lots of New Order and Joy Division – sounds that I […]

Which didn’t have anything to do with the weather. Which wasn’t actually an accident. Which shows that historians, too, can ignore any obvious evidence which gets in the way of a good story. Scene: a certain workplace. Time: a Monday morning. Activity: while sneaking a smoke out the back, a certain employee spies a glass […]

Since I placed my desire for a cheese-on (toast) yesterday on the record, I have had to face the accusation that I am food obsessed and/or prone to writing about snacks. A highly selective reading of the subject matter hitherto addressed, I would respond. So I won’t mention the luscious lamb shanks with creamy polenta […]

I’m going out to dinner tonight. Hmmm, but where to go? Somewhere old – somewhere new? Do I impress out of town visitor with something tried and true or walk on the wild side a little? Perplexing. I wonder if there’s anywhere we can go that’ll make me a cheese-on (toast, that is). That’s what […]

I had a very tasty soup for lunch. It was a mulligatawny – steaming hot and delicious. Served with roti bread. Scrumptious but hard to spell. Not that that’s an issue. Regarding soup, scrumptiousness is more important than ease of spelling. But, as I’d decided to write about the deliciousness of my lunch, I thought […]