Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid #4 SO many Covid conundrums to confuse and ponder. The more our masters attempt to clarify, the murkier the restrictions become. How far from one’s home is “a reasonable distance” yet close enough to be accepted as an exercise zone? Precisely what qualifies as an “open…
Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid #3 04 Jan 2021: THOUGHT for the day: money does not buy brains. Nor can it buy common sense, or consideration for others or the community at large. Shell out zillions but there’s no guarantee the recipient will be transformed into a truly mature and responsible…
Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid #2 02 Jan 2021: SAME old, same old. Here we go again. Back on the media roundabout as the familiar format for each year’s beginning is once more regurgitated. Not even all the shifts in lifestyles forced upon us by the pandemic’s restrictions and changes can…
Living and coping: Year #2 of Covid-19 01 Jan 2021: AND so it goes; another New Year’s Day following yet one more New Year’s Eve. Ho hum. After enduring a long line of such pairings, I still have yet to gather much sense of endings and beginnings. Something more than the mere flicking over a…
CONFUSION continues to await avid readers of two popular series of crime fiction tales centred on Britain’s south coast. They can be left flummoxed, not so much by the intricate plotting but rather by the naming of the two main characters. One wonders whether there is mutual admiration or deep rivalry between the books’ authors,…
I HAVE been renewing acquaintance with an old friend. As always, it was a rewarding and compelling page-turning experience. It was also thought provoking, making me wonder yet again why so few Australian crime writers make it on to the international stage. Rather than becoming household names they are too often relegated to being the…
THIS was a huge letdown. A thorough disappointment on so many fronts. And all the more so for one who has been a consistent fan of the Cormoran Strike tales from the very beginning. As evidenced by having ordered and paid for this latest saga well in advance of its publication day. We know better…
THE prime reason we write is to communicate with others. This applies whether it be with one other person or with the masses devouring the latest scandal or disaster. Nowhere is this more true than in the print media. Newspapers need to be quickly and clearly understood by the widest possible audience. No going back…
NOW here’s a weird, even disturbing, thing; my trusty Garmin records a hilly four-mile run around the city where I live. Yet I have scant memory of it ever happening. How can this be? The watch tells of a continuous jog with every second accounted for. By contrast, my memory presents me with a…
THERE’S nothing like revisiting an old friend. So much forgotten pleasure to be derived from taking giant steps back to the very early years. In so doing we revive experiences that only now are revealed and recognised for their formative effect on so much that followed. As a youth, I voraciously and randomly devoured almost…