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The Very Real Costs of a Very Real Problem — “While elders don’t always agree with younger people for solid reasons, they’re often still willing to listen and appreciate what young people bring to the table. They want to be part of the conversation. Unfortunately, that appreciation is rarely reciprocated. Much of what older people have experienced and the wisdom…

A Journey to the City — a True Story — “Imagine the perversity, the level of repulsive fetishism and entitlement you’d have to feel to think you can just do this. In public with people all around you.” We start trickling in around 5am. A motley crew, the five o’clock people. A little after 5 the train hauls its unwilling…

What’s In a Ring? — “Garrulous Glaswegian Gagged by Elite Goons in Gripping Gossip Grapple”. In which Alison’s I Told You So Campaign is Revived As I’ve mentioned before, I try to avoid the further exploits of Ginge and Whinge — I really do. But there is something about incredibly fortunate people with no self awareness or gratitude who throw huge public tantrums that makes…

The Ancient Celtic Tradition of Hallowe’en — It’s Hallowe’en, it’s Hallowe’en The Witches are on the green!* — Traditional Scottish children’s chant It’s that time of year when some Aussies can be heard to cry “Oh not that American holiday again!” So it should come as a great relief to discover that Hallowe’en celebrations were actually made…

Dear friends, frenemies and constant stalkers, I’m still recovering from a bout of Covid. Not as bad as the one that had me looking like this back in January 2022 (photo from article I published at the time). To be clear, I don’t generally waltz around in flower crown —…

How Bovine Tuberculosis changed the lives of our cousins for the better — We consider it normal to shape our lives to avoid, constrain and placate the worst of men, to be ordered around by them, to find ways to accommodate their behaviour. We’ve been swimming in filthy water for so long we’ve become accustomed to the sewage. Let me tell you a…

The next time I touch your face, it will be spring, and the jacaranda will be coming into bloom. I brush my fingertips over the solid angles of your jaw, and steal a warm kiss. …

Thoughts about a remarkable woman — “They tried to bury me. They didn’t realise I was a seed.”* Sinead O’Connor will forever be 56. Soon enough, fate permitting, I will be her age, then one year older than her, and then ten. For Sinead died on the 26th July 2023. Her song Nothing Compares to You…