Recording time continues to fascinate me. From the Prime Meridian to admiring timepieces in shops and online, there remains something important to punctuality.
Perhaps it is simply good manners. Perhaps it is a feeling of not letting people down.
Perhaps is a guide to being better. Whatever it is, time should be a companion and not the enemy of reward.
Read MoreThe setting is not a location that we ever thought would feel comfortable.
Mobile houses crammed in with tents and swags and gazebos taking up the remaining space. A community with unspoken rules that you dare not break for threat of eviction.
A sense of privacy created by strategically parking cars and hanging washing on a mobile clothesline. Just enough to shield fellow holidaymakers from any tiffs that inevitably ensue when living close together.
Read MoreThe door should not have been left slightly open; it was an accident; a forgotten formality after tasks were completed. It did not really matter but created an accidental air of excitement and expectation. I should not have been looking but it was impossible to avoid the quickest glance en route to the bathroom again...
Struggling to sleep with excitement and with anxious feelings preventing shut-eye, I was desperate to see the presents yet petrified that I may come face to face with Santa Claus.
He was such an unknown and there was a clear and present threat that gifts could be rescinded should I disturb him at his work.
Read MoreMy parents were of the generation who met at dances. Introductions and engagements and marriages had their foundations on the dancefloor.
At country dances in the local hall there was no opportunity to slide into people's direct messages or swipe right, this was full noise courting with the brave and shy equally catered for as a likely young lad or lass could swoop and swoon.
Read MoreMy family has an elaborate faux Christmas tree.
It has not always been that way.
Once upon a time, a popular department store plastic and wire excuse of a tree that adorned our sunroom with a unique lean that had to be leveled with the assistance of a folded sheet of A4 was all we had for Christmas.
There was not enough tinsel across Northern Tasmania to hide its inadequacy.
The tree signified Christmas and that meant so much, but it was half-baked ornamentation at best.
Read MoreIt will not be long before we are comparing the price of diesel or unleaded fuel against the price of a kW of charge.
When watching the Bathurst 1000 motor race recently, Master 11 and I contemplated how long it will take before the great race only involves electric vehicles.
That may seem a ridiculous or to some even a sacrilegious proposition.
However, with Holden no longer producing cars in Australia and the Chevrolet Camaro likely to fill the void to dual with the Ford Mustang, these world leading companies will not be left behind in the world of electric.
Read MoreNow, New York City does not sleep because of the fear of what is to come to finalise the election result.
The tension underpinned by lies and caused by a failure to accept democracy including unconscionable comments that have been called out by major television networks, and the potential for civil unrest fortified by a reprehensible set of gun laws underpinned by a missing comma in the Second Amendment, has created a cocktail of conflict and concern for the future.
For the centre of the world: "If I can make it there, I'm gonna make it anywhere, It's up to you, New York, New York".
Read MoreAustralia has an uncomfortable past. It is simple to acknowledge but difficult to repair.
I did not hear nor recognise blatant racism until 16 years of age. I was left feeling shocked and my father demanded to know who made the offensive comment. He understood the impact of intolerance, not racism.
In viewing the harrowing footage that led to the rise of the Black Lives Matter protests, and the unacceptable looting and rioting, it is unsurprising that the issues have also found a home in our country.
Read MoreThe US instructed either "put distance between yourself and other people", or six feet (182.88cm), the World Health Organization and Singapore chose one-metre and, underpinned by 1930's research, New Zealand went for two metres along with the UK who after finally falling for the metric system soon realised that it was easily explained with, "Och, just stay six feet apart - the height of your bairn, or wee'un, or littlin, or lad or lass..." affectionately used well after such descriptors should have lost relevance.
Read MoreThe COVID-19 pandemic has already cost local jobs. There are businesses under extreme pressure and there will be more of our friends and colleagues who lose employment as a result.
For others, there has been instruction to work from home to "flatten the curve".
Read MoreMy Aunt Margaret sent mum an old postcard, stamped in England where my father was working for the Royal Mail after leaving the Royal Air Force. On the front, a photo of Trafalgar Square and Nelson’s Column, London by John Hinde, F.R.P.S. And on the back a beautifully handwritten message, which defies the fact that dad left school at 14 years of age, and simply reads…
Read MoreDoctors say recovering from lightning strike is complicated. Ironically, the term lightning is employed by AFL commentators to describe the elite foot speed of an electric small forward, not the working conditions of an AFLW superstar.
Read MoreAustralian school children proudly, and without question, recite the Welcome to and Acknowledgment of Country. Most major events begin with the same gesture. And several Australian businesses and companies conduct annual cultural awareness training and, are beginning to construct or already have in place, Reconciliation Action Plans.
Read MoreThe late Ernest Hemingway is one of my literary idols. He employed commas to slow the reader down. At other times commas are not seen in his writing for paragraphs.
So why is it easy to pause when writing but not during our daily grind?
Read MoreAs December arrives and the festive season kicks into full swing, we find time to reflect, acknowledge and celebrate.
The end of the calendar year and heralding the new year often involves fireworks.
Read MoreMuch loved Scottish Comedian, Billy Connolly recently offered in his lament, the melancholic television series, Made in Scotland, “But tea is the best substance in the world. Tea, I love tea. It makes me feel good. It makes me feel jolly. Tea is the substance,” he said.
Read MoreThere is a gently recurring daydream filed at the back of my brain; somewhere near my cerebral cortex.
One day I stumble upon a masterpiece; a work of revered and unquestionable skill.
Read MoreMy late father would often quote the famous saying “penny wise and pound foolish” coined by Mathematician, Oxford University Scholar, and vicar of St. Thomas’s Church, Robert Burton in his therapeutical memoir which became a medical textbook, The Anatomy of Melancholy first published in 1621.
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