August 2015

Really bad teenage angst poetry

OK – had not intended to post anything. Just packing for the trip and while looking for my old UK electric power point converters I actually found a screwed up piece of paper in a box under my bed that turned out to be one of my teenage poems (I was 18). Wow – 1982! It is soooooo lame. But I guess I can use the sentiments in writing teenage

Memories of dolphins

Not long now. On Monday we travel to a hotel near Sydney’s International Terminal and at 6am Tuesday we jump onto a plane heading for Europe. Exciting! Hence just a brief, nostalgic post today 🙂 Getting ready for the trip I found myself backing up old photos. One lot brought back fond memories. When Rhiannon was a lot younger the three of us travelled from Sydney several hours down the

Third book teaser, travels, genealogy and keratoconus

Wow – that title is sure a jumble of thoughts. Yes – my next brain-dump is upon you. Flee while you can! Third book teaser So I have chucked (I love that word) the teaser for the third book up onto the menus. For those of you not following my blog, I wrote a ginormous novel and then decided that it did not work together well in one whole. basically

Teasers and travel preparations

Short one tonight. But before I get to the purpose of the post, let me just say that the “boob flashing” incident of Tuesday is still haunting my life. Today my wife told everyone in her woman’s group about it. The thing you need to realise is that most people in that group have known me since at least my early 20s (I am about to turn 51

Another off-topic post: the booby-trapped platform!

First I will apologise for the awful pun in the title, especially as I never use the term “booby” in my normal conversations. OK – here’s the story of what happened to me on the way home tonight. I step off the train. It is night time and the station is mostly deserted. Dark. A few sad souls stand there waiting for a train that is obviously not the one

Lost things

I was not going to post today but something happened today to remind me of my Keratoconus. This is not a topic I address too frequently because I don’t like to be defined by my disorder. But sometimes it gets very frustrating. As per normal I hurried to catch my morning train. I use an electronic card (called an Opal card) to pay my train fare and I keep the

Writing, a photographic experiment with RAW and Premio Dardos Award

Hi everyone, My family and I have spent the last few days at my sister-in-law’s place looking after her four lads while she and her husband were down in Melbourne. Hence no posts from me. Today’s post will look at the writing/editing that I did there and also at a photographic experiment of mine. Given that I am no great photographer, I beg your indulgence. I need to get better

Site (Jetpack) issues and some novels identified

Hi all, Having problems with Jetpack operating with WordPress. It means that I frequently can’t post comments on my own site from my phone. Given that I do most of my WordPress reading and comments on the train to and from work using the phone , this is a problem. (That also explains why so many of my comments are pretty brief and not well thought out). I’ve tried fixing

Teenage sexuality - as father and as author

Today I realised that in a few years I would need a shotgun and a rocking chair. I subconsciously practiced the phrase “Son, what are your intentions with my daughter?” So what caused this train of thought? Well, today Rhiannon competed in a dance competition. She’s now 11, but since the age of 3 has been learning ballet, tap and contemporary dance at the local EDTA (Education in Dance and