Here is a page set up as a test blog to identify if the page is going into the correct slot.

Andrew Bolt’s latest commentary on the ABC should be called out for what it is – unfair and inaccurate. He claims in his Herald Sun column of June 14, 2020 – ABC MAKES UP ‘HISTORY’ TO DESTROY AUSTRALIA – that: “The ABC tells an inflammatory falsehood in its war on Australia. How did this get published as “fact”?:  After […]

Winning the toss – and batting first – is crucial At 8/122 on day one Tim Paine probably thought batting first was a bad idea. He probably wasn’t feeling much better about it when England got 374 – a lead of 90 – but, as the old saying goes, ‘runs on the board’ and batting […]

I generally refrain from initiating election comment, though I often feel duty bound to respond to extreme or what I consider irrational or illogical positions. I’m not a believer in the idea that simply holding an opinion – even if it be a truly an honestly held view – makes one immune from having that […]

It’s 226km from Rome to Naples, the gateway to Pompeii. Our train slides out of Rome Termini at 9:17am, only two minutes behind schedule, pretty good I reckon for a country not renowned for its punctuality.   The early part of the journey is smooth but sedate as our Frecciarossa train glides through the outer […]

Today I was researching some family history and I made a bizarre discovery. My family is related to Alan Turing the famous computer genius, widely regarded as one of the ‘fathers’ of artificial intelligence and most famous for cracking the Enigma Code. Can you see the family resemblance? Sporting prowess clearly runs in the family. We […]

I’m a big fan of W. Somerset Maugham so couldn’t resist this little gem found in a charity shop and I’m happy to say that  ‘Willie’ didn’t let me down right from the start. I also couldn’t resist sharing this little extract from the opening chapter of ‘The Summing Up’. I guess in modern terminology we’d […]

  There seems to be an increase in the number of supermarket trolleys abandoned in the streets around  Brunswick and North Carlton. This one, in an open field at the southern end of Princes Park, was so far out of it’s usual context I couldn’t resist taking a photo. It seemed so lonely… such a […]

So, Labour Day; lovely sunny day, kids off school… we rode our bikes to a local cafe for lunch, as you do. Nothing special about that, however, I was intrigued to read the above note stuck to the salt shaker on our table. As you can see from the picture above it reads: “Please note […]

Sometimes you find something on the side of the road that just makes your day. I picked up a soggy piece of paper near my house the other day, annoyed at the littering and ready only to throw it in the bin. As I started to crumple the paper I noticed it was a hand […]

So the Olympics is done and dusted for another four years and our attention now turns to Tokyo in 2020. An IOC decision a few years ago allows the host nation to include one-off sports that are popular in the host country, so Tokyo 2020 will see the inclusion of surfing, sports climbing, skateboarding and […]

One of the most interesting things about yesterday’s Brexit vote – apart for the prospect of the general disintegration of the UK and the collapse of the EU – was that for the second time in just over 12 months everyone – the pollsters, the betting agencies and in this case even the markets – […]

It is a profoundly alienating experience when – through the collective force of social media – the ‘world’ is in mourning for the death of Prince and I can’t seem to name any of his songs. As a result I have discovered, or perhaps realized more fully, that I have absolutely no soundtrack to my […]