Funny thing, nerves. Sometimes they appear when you least need them – like when you’re about to get up and speak! Three years ago I stood at entrance to a school hall full of high school-aged boys and their parents and teachers at a school in Canberra, as guest speaker for their commencement assembly for
January 2012: Three years ago this week I visited the east coast of the US as part of my holiday so I could attend President Obama’s Inauguration. On the way from New York to DC I detoured via Antietam and then, on the Sunday before Inauguration on the Tuesday, to Gettysburg. I’ve often thought of
This review coincides with the first anniversary of the passing of Major Richard Winters. Major Winters died in January 2011, aged 92. I was given this book for Christmas and finished it on New Year’s Day. Beyond Band of Brothers was first published in the US in 2006, only a few years after the TV miniseries
There are cricket books, and then there are cricket books. Such are the mysteries of life, that sometimes you read a cricket book and put it down, never to really remember it. Others, the really good ones, make you think. I could happily wax lyrical about this book, but then I’d rather you go and
Taste. It’s one of those wonderful senses that can delightfully whisk you to a time and place, often of happy memories. Some of my most treasured memories are based on food and drink, the latter often to do with coffee. This afternoon, I rejoiced in seeing one of my favourite flavoured milks on sale, so
As someone who reads widely across history, and has an interest in military history, I approached this book not knowing much about the subject. By the end of the book, I felt incredibly sad, I felt angry, and I felt relieved knowing that it would very unlikely anyone I knew would have to go through
Back to the Studio is a series of interview-based chapters on Australian radio and TV sporting commentators, by Peter Meares. Not a hard read, it’s good for getting for a trip where you can meander in and out, or just have it lying round the house, to have there for a chapter here, a chapter
Dear my Canterbury trackie dacks I wanted to write to you and say goodbye and farewell. I know you’re just outside, not far away really, but we know, come Tuesday morning, you’ll have crossed into trackie dack immortality. I remember buying you that sunny day at Lake Taupo in New Zealand – it was 1999
I love Wellington. And, having just uploaded some photos I took when I was last there – here is the best little city anywhere!
Recently, a newly promoted friend was having a chat about ‘management 101’ – the how to get your head around being a manager for the first time type of conversation. Halfway through the chat, my friend stopped and asked a very interesting question regarding the best way to communicate with their new team members. “What’s