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In Safe Hands – Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
A dancing doll bobs on a string of beads slung from the top of a grimy windscreen, swinging back and forth like a hypnotist’s watch. The emaciated figure has a white beard and is dressed in a...
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A Viking Funeral – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Boerne is 51yrs old, handsome in a rugged sort of way; olive skin, high cheekbones and black straw-like hair. He’s never been a talker and we sit on the veranda drinking beer instead, our eyes drawn to...
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Feline of the Opera – The Astor Theatre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Outside there’s a neon finger-sign soaring skyward, the oversized letters reading `ASTOR’. The building’s not much to look at; the high facade brick, of cream and red. The veranda is low and squarish,...
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Winds of War – 4 Freedoms Park, Roosevelt Island, New York, USA
To the west, lay a somehow insignificant cityscape: the stacked steel and glass profile of a floating Manhattan. We’re among 7700 tonnes of precision-cut gleaming white stone taken from 12,100 tonnes...
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A Matter of Time – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
I’m startled as the nurse draws the curtain behind me, the click of the rings on the rail loud in the quiet of the ward; the sweet smack of cough mixture wafts through the room. I turn away from Sally,...
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Losing Faith – The Taj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
The plaintive cry of a lone peacock fractures the silence. Croaking egrets chorus from clumps of reeds at the foot of these stone walls and ramparts. There are snorts and bellows from buffalo. Two...
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Red Desert Dreaming – Raft Point, Doubtful Bay, The Kimberley, Western Australia
Strange figures are painted in broad strokes of red ochre – Wandjina spirit-men – eerie round faces with big pools for eyes. I stand next to Maurice, “a Worara blackfella” and a driver at local mines....
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Sunshine Blogger Award 2013 – a welcome surprise!
For those in the dark : `The Sunshine Award is an award given by bloggers to other bloggers. The recipients of the Sunshine Award are bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the...
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After the Opera – the sad passing of Marzipan the Astor Theatre diva.
Marzipan the Astor cat (1992-2013) – by Matt Elliott photography Many in Melbourne this week are mourning the passing of Marzipan, the grand old tortoiseshell diva of the city’s theatre scene. The...
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People and Places – Jhomolhari, Paro, Western Bhutan.
Funeral flags – Western Bhutan the place I see is special; a block of stone or wending path built by many hands or feet. and in my dream, I dream of this: a vibration, scent or residue, from pasts...
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Of Music, Madness and Fame – Vysehrad, Prague, Czech Republic.
`One Hundred Spires’ – Prague On my last night here, I’m dining with Bohdan at the Jindrisska belltower; a rustic restaurant occupying the top three floors. Panoramic views span the famous `one hundred...
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*Epically Awesome Award of Epic Awesomeness 2013 – my blog’s second award!
Haha, a comparatively new award, and quite a mouthful I know. But an award from a respected blogger is gratefully accepted; so thanks heaps to Diary of an Internet Nobody for thinking of my writing,...
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Topknots and Talking Stones – Hanga Roa, Easter Island, Chile
I’m met at the airstrip by Toi my guide, with a vice-like handshake and welcoming lei of yellow bougainvillea draped around my neck. Two skinny girls in grass skirts and goosebumps serenade to the...
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Down in the Lucky Country – Flinders St. Station, Melbourne, Victoria,...
Flinders St. Station – Melbourne Straight from a long lunch, I raised my umbrella and headed for the pedestrian bridge. Crossing the muddy river, I turned onto the station path; Melbourne cold and...
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Private Wars – ANZAC Day, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
I met Becky in the supermarket dairy aisle; a vivacious 40-something, born and raised locally. I’d seen her around, but we’d never met before Ed reappeared. I asked how my old friend was. “Not so...
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***Versatile Blogger Award 2013 – crikey! a third blog award.
Thanks so much to Melanie (motherofnine9) for thinking of my humble blog for this award, being one of the 1st BC members to touch base with me on joining this great community. Melanie is well...
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Touching the Sky – Granada, Andalusia, Spain
Late afternoon I meet Candelaria at a café on the slopes of the Albaicin – the old Moorish quarter – and sip peppermint tea from petite porcelain cups. She orders almond cookies and apologises for her...
View ArticleSoul Searching – Moeraki, South Island, New Zealand.
We linger in the dark after coffee, among deserted café chairs of bleached wooden slats, tables and simple benches. The air smells of seaweed, salt and garlic. The night cries of wheeling gulls float...
View ArticleRites of Return – African Burial Ground, Lower Manhattan, New York, USA
Just off Broadway I’m in a side street by City Hall, the ubiquitous New York crowds somehow missing, the hum of traffic vague and distant. A lonesome monument sits silent and tucked in the shadow of...
View ArticleThe Real Wild West – Nyksund, Vesterålen, Norway.
The narrow road is a roughed-out, potholed track gouged from ragged Norwegian mountains. Winding alongside a grey Arctic Ocean, it’s graced with the occasional passing bay and kept in place against...
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