In the first hospital, the waiting room is heaving with the tide of the unwell. An enormous man sits at the triage desk. He’s a giant egg in a red jumper and when he draws himself up to his full height, his shins are crimson sores. He walks as if ... READ MORE
‘He remained annoyed with himself until he realised that not knowing what he wanted was quite natural.’ – Milan Kundera ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’. When I was a teenager there was a young man who lived with his father in a house behind a tiny blue milk bar. There ... READ MORE
It was very early on a Saturday morning when we last went to a farmer’s market in Melbourne. The cold sat heavily on us and the wind moved across the long flat grass like a glacier. Sleet threatened. I noticed a good car park near the gate and said to ... READ MORE
Alfie, my eldest grandson, was to have his swimming lesson. On this day, the grey sky was edged in yellow like a cut peach. Clouds were coming apart. Leaves were still falling but in ones and twos and the wind flipped by now and then and knocked your coat a ... READ MORE
One boiling Saturday in 1970 when we were 15, my friend Helen and I decided to get jobs in the river-bound city of Melbourne. We took a red rattler train into town with narrow swinging doors, all dusty with the smell of everyone. Bourke Street was the target. We had ... READ MORE
I never know how cold it will be outside, but I always fancy the worst from the skies and the roads and the winds. I still dress with too many layers even though I have a coat that makes me look like the Michelin Man. I have three pairs of ... READ MORE
Attending house open-for-inspections is strange. You’re in the master bedroom just getting the gist of the room and a large man barges out of the bathroom leaving a cloud of odour and looking for the cellar. He doesn’t know about the cellar which a four-year-old couldn’t stand up in. You’re ... READ MORE
My eldest daughter Phoebe’s house was robbed a while ago now. She came home after work and from picking up Rosie at childcare, walked into the little house and knew something was wrong. The front window was broken apart like an eggshell. All the drawers and the wardrobe in the ... READ MORE
Not long ago my travelling daughter went overseas for a month with her husband and the kids, Alfie and Hazel. Skies full of birds, clouds and aircraft. And cold air. I missed her clever thoughts and kind heart instantly. The trip went well. Even now, at such young ages, they ... READ MORE
Health If you looked at your life, you’d see where the slow neglect began. As we age, it takes us with it like leaves on a river. We’ve lived to negotiate the fads of the day. Your mother was under general anaesthetic to extract you. There was little breastfeeding then, ... READ MORE