I remember the first cigarette I had. I was with a bunch of kids from the neighbourhood and we found a single cigarette, discarded and lying on the footpath. Sam picked it up and turned to us. ‘Hey, do you wanna smoke it?’ I would have been maybe around 11 or 12. Sam snuck home, nicked one of his dad’s…
Category: Personal
Our Stain
I’ve read two books* lately which use fiction to examine what happened as white men spread out across this land. It’s funny that, when I was a kid, the emphasis in stories about early Australia was always on our convict past. I can remember it being referred to as ‘the stain’. These books don’t lend any more weight to conviction…
Three things I’ve learned about debating and life
My partner once said he had not met the person who could win an argument with me. For a while I wore that statement like a badge of honour – as debater trained to win arguments for sport there could be no higher compliment. But a dawning realisation of the impact my argumentative approach was having on some important personal…
Are you procrastiworking?
Think of the last time you organised your linen cupboard, or cleaned out your kitchen pantry. Or perhaps the last time you chose a really fiddly recipe and cooked for your housemates or family. If you’re like me there’s a good chance that you did these things when you were facing a deadline or under some kind of pressure. …
I already regret not having children
I’m a woman of a certain age. I’ve been happily partnered for the best part of 20 years. And we don’t have children. If you believe in the biological clock you must be having trouble thinking over the noise of the alarm on mine going off. It doesn’t bother me. The only time I really hear it is when one…
Confusopoly…aaargh!!
I want to make a point about our capitalist system, privatisation of essential services and ‘competition’. This week I took a day of annual leave from work. That sounds nice but the day off was necessitated by a weight of personal administration which had been building up for some time that I wanted to knock over in one hit. One task…
Here’s a sentence I thought I’d never write
So here’s a sentence I thought I’d never write: I’m watching Married at First Sight. Before you close the post in disgust there’s a couple of things I want to clear up. Firstly, I would never normally watch a show like this. It’s not the trash factor I object to. I’ve been known to watch Kitchen Nightmares, Gogglebox and Geordie…
What is the point of Science?
Recently new CSIRO chief executive, Larry Marshall, has informed the organisation he wants it to operate more like a start-up company. When pressed he explained that this means scientists should be less afraid of failure and dare to try new things. WTF? Isn’t this the very nature of scientific research? I’ve been fortunate to work in universities for the last…
Malcolm: Can an entrepreneur lead a conservative nation?
This morning The Shovel ran with the headline ‘Malcolm Turnbull has used his extra hour this morning to propose, then withdraw, two new tax policies.’ I smiled wryly – clearly The Shovel perceives its audience as progressive types who would only live in states where daylight savings is a thing. But more importantly, like all great comedy, the headline was…
Safe Schools
I went to high school in the ‘80s. Had you asked me then I would have said there were no gay kids at my eastern suburbs state school. I wouldn’t have understood if you’d asked about trans or intersex kids. But I could have told you about kids who were strange. Kids who didn’t ‘fit in’. And kids who seemed…