GORILLAS OF BWINDI
December 2, 2022A silverback gorilla announced itself by thrashing around in a bush, and while we couldn’t see the Big Boy we watched one of the local…
Zizzy Stories and Blogs
EYESHINE
June 19, 2022Reflection of strong light on the back of the retina picks up the shine of the eyeball. Hold a torch close to your head and…
Field Notes from the 2022 Campaign
May 10, 2022Wow, isn’t there some overblown criticism about the CH9 election debate around. Check the huffing, puffing Canberra Times editorial above. Debates test policy, character and…
SEND IN THE ARMY!
March 21, 2022The suitability of our war-fighters to assist in flood and fire disasters became the topic of a national debate over the past few weeks and…
UNSHADOWED BY THOUGHT
February 11, 2022I have no parents; I make the heaven and earth mother and father. In a tower-block unit above Sydney Harbour, a party sparkled along. The…
Books that helped me escape 2021
December 8, 2021As The Kyoto Bell made The Australia Institute’s 2021 Essential Reads list, I thought I’d return a favour with a list of some escapist reads…
GLASGOW’S SMOKY BREATH
November 5, 2021“Then suddenly the sun was snuffed Behind a sooty cloud And night let fall on Glasgow Green Its sulphur-stinking shroud” From News of the World,…
7 YEAR BRAIN FREEZE
October 23, 2021I don’t usually struggle to invent fictional names, but it took me seven frustrating years to land the title of The Capricorn Sky. A title is…
THE PEOPLE’S SCRABBLE
September 3, 2021Max loathed games. He described them as “bourgeois timewasters”, in his hard-line way. So we were surprised when one evening, he appeared round the side…
LIVE BAIT
February 11, 2021I hadn’t seen McLeay since soldiering days, and there he was. Sat at a desk under the house where, in a manner both businesslike yet…