Watching footy

Did you know Australians will bet on which of two flies crawling up a wall will get swatted first? Yes, and they bet on cockroach and toad races too, and horses, dogs, the toss of a coin and football games. Fond as I am of a punt at major racing carnivals, I have never had a bet on the outcome of a footy match, even though we follow rugby league fairly closely. It just never…

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Marriage vows and more

A good few years ago we were out for a meal at a Noosa restaurant with a work colleague of She Who Is Pictured on the Left. As it happened, this chap’s signature is on our marriage certificate, circa 1981. He did it a second time three years later when we had a Reaffirmation of Vows ceremony. (photo by Sarah Calderwood)) He may well have taken on a second job as a civil celebrant to…

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Leadership and loyalty

Only the NT News would dare describe this week’s dramatic political story with the headline: “Rich dude becomes PM”. Such is the Darwin-based tabloid’s sense of independence, the leadership spill story was pushed ‘below the fold’ by a court story. Given the over-the-top live coverage assigned to the breaking story, the NT News evidently decided to play the story for laughs. There was much room for satire and cruel amusement as social media lit up…

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Shoo flu don’t bother me

I had a little bird, Its name was Enza. I opened the window, And in-flu-enza. So went a children’s skip rope ditty of 1918-1919, when Spanish Flu swept around the world and knocked off more people than the so-called Great War. Isn’t that so like children; to make light of something so awful they can’t comprehend it. My free range imagination set off on this journey when confined to bed with something approaching flu, but…

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