Shane Nicholson album launch

I first heard of Australian singer-songwriter, Shane Nicholson about a decade ago (maybe longer) when he recorded a terrific version of the song “Still In Love With You” by legendary Australian band, Dragon. And so, it put a smile on my face, when going to the toilet last night at the Camelot Lounge for the […]

Remember When We Had Mobile Phones?

At the risk of sounding like a total hypocrite, I want to rant about our society’s current, complete obsession with mobile phones. Although, I’m as guilty as probably everyone else, it’s really starting to bug me in a major way. Earlier tonight I was in a bar in Sydney. All around me, there were people […]

Stockholm or Sydney?

As I looked down on the ice and saw the surname, “Dahlberg” on the back of player number twenty-seven, I thought for a moment I could have been in Stockholm. Except for the fact I’ve never actually seen an ice-hockey match played in Sweden. In fact, this was my first ever ice-hockey match, and the […]

Scandinavian Film Festival

“I thought the Swedes were so hip and cool”, a number of friends and colleagues have said to me, when I’ve told them about a fairly dark past, about how Swedes treated Indigenous people there, the Sami. With a number of parallels to what happened in Australia and many other countries, it’s a very sad […]

Theatre and Art

The last few days have been “action-packed”. As well as work during the day, I’ve had quite a few social activities this week. Trivia night on Wednesday. Thursday night going to see a play, part of Late Night Library at Surry Hills Library. And then yesterday afternoon/last night, we popped in to 4A Gallery, and […]

The Day I Discovered Ice Hockey in Australia

I must mark down this date. It’s the day I discovered there was an ice-hockey scene in Australia. It all began with a Facebook post about “Sweden Day” at an ice-hockey match being played when I’ll be in Melbourne on July 30 at the O’Brien Arena. Yes, seriously. And then I discovered there’s a a […]

Camera Roll

The long-running garage in my street has closed and moved to Peakhurst, I discovered this morning. As I don’t have a car, I’ve never actually entered the business in the twenty-something years I’ve lived here, though I’ve often glanced inside, as I’ve walked along the street or the back laneway. I noticed it, as I […]

Getting around Sydney Airport

I spent far, far too much time at Sydney Airport this week. In the midst of the school holidays, there were better places to be. The reason? I had a family member (and her daughter) down from Lismore. She needed to travel to Newcastle for a specialist appointment. And, as she’s quite old, and immobile, […]

Chippendale Historical Walk

“Is this place up for sale?”, a bloke asked the tour group leader. With his slurred speech, he appeared to have already had “a few”. “No, I’m not a real estate agent, this is a history walk”, he was told, and we all laughed in recognition that we probably did look like a group of […]

Adieu, Midnight Shift

The wallpaper at Sydney’s “Midnight Shift” features hundreds and hundreds of photographs snapped over the bar’s thirty-something year history. Sadly, there’s not a photograph of me, or that I’ve seen. That’s odd, given the hundreds and hundreds of times I’ve visited the bar during my life. The first time was probably in the early 90s. […]

Combat Wombat

The first time I saw them play live was in May 2005. In the midst of a week of seeing live performances by popera group, Il Divo and cabaret singer, Tim Draxl, I also saw the Australian hip-hop band, Combat Wombat. They were launching their debut at Sydney’s legendary live music venue, now closed, The […]

Two Terrific Plays

In high school, in 1982 or 1983 (I can’t remember), we studied the play “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf”. As we read the play in class, my teacher chose me to play the role of George. Typecast? My friend Sue played Martha. Anthony played Nick. Louise played Honey. We all loved our roles, and continue […]