This is a spin-off from an online music journal I kept for a few years, in which I mused about life and the universe while exploring the back catalogue of a band I had never liked until discovering belatedly that they had a serious, dark side. The main themes in this anecdotal piece are dating …
Modern Fairytales: Rock’n’Roll & Space Aliens
Some time ago, there was a tedious online carry-on because the bass player of a certain longtime band had apparently announced on social media that he’d had a falling out and was quitting. This was followed by a lot of sound and fury from a subsection of the fan base, and complete silence from the …
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Fred the Bread, Jacques Choux-Racque and Robert Plant
Here’s a little bow to our home life. Let’s start with Jacques Choux-Racque, a longtime presence in our household. Over a decade ago, we bought a flatpacked shoe rack and were assembling it at home, when my husband said to me, “That’s Jacques.” “What?” replied I in befuddlement. “Jacques!” intoned my husband, with an exaggerated …
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The Spiderman Is Having You For Dinner Tonight
So you’re in Australia, on the first day of a heatwave with temperatures forecast to hit 39-40 degrees C for the next three days. You do all your important work early in the morning before it gets too hot. Guests have just left and in your innocence, you say, “I’m going to air the guest …
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Desperate Ditties From Owner-Building
These are some comic relief ditties I penned when we were in the thick of our owner-build in 2012-2014. Every hands-on owner-builder will know exactly the feeling. OWNER BUILDER BURNOUT The house conundrums made me flatFlatter than the mat on which the cat satOne day a week I am depressedShould I be getting some …
Falling Off, For Nerds
To Isaac Newton, with love. 😉 Just a little aside about falling off horses. Using Newtonian physics, we can break down the fall into a horizontal component and a vertical component. Horizontally, the rider continues in the direction taken at parting from the horse. In the absence of atmospheric friction and gravity, the rider would …
The Garden Of Edam
In the beginning, there was the void. And God said, let there be cheese, and there was cheese. God saw that the cheese was good, and made more cheese. And behold there was Gouda, Wensleydale, Gruyère, Cheddar, Camembert, Mozzarella, Havarti, Parmesan, Feta, those little BabyBel things, and all manner of cheese. And God created man …