WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, THERE’S ALWAYS THE BRITISH MUSEUM

It’s the world’s best known and, these days, its most popular museum.  You could tell that by the queue.  It snaked, zig-zag fashion, from a tent inside the vast forecourt to outside in the street.  There were no special attractions, just the usual broad ranging fascinating stuff.  Less than one percent of their hoard isContinue reading ”  WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, THERE’S ALWAYS THE BRITISH MUSEUM”

          ESCAPE TO POTOROO FALLS

It was as benign as it gets; the weather that is.  Crisp morning with rising fog from the valley below, a sure sign it was going to be a good day. My attention turned to the maps of Wingham hinterland.  There were hills to be sure, some even had the word Mount before them andContinue reading ”          ESCAPE TO POTOROO FALLS”

                   ON THE ROCKS

Castle Rock Ignoring the screams beside me; “You’re going the wrong way, turn right, turn right!”  Deep inside I believed the direction we were heading was correct as we rolled into Lynton, aiming for a railway…only this is a special railway, so called. It has two cars that pass each other on their 854ft routeContinue reading ”                   ON THE ROCKS”

              NO L-AUGH-ING MATTER

Such was the man’s fame that there’s a hotel in Tenby that still advertises the fact that he got completely sloshed and left the manuscript of what is arguably his most famous work, Under Milk Wood, on the stool.  I’m referring to Dylan Thomas and the Coaches and Horses Tavern, in the improbably named UpperContinue reading ”              NO L-AUGH-ING MATTER”

                    THE HOMAGE

DOWN IN THE BLUEGUM FOREST Walk in the Blue Mountains often enough and there’s a name that will crop up.  Blue Gum Forest.  No serious walker can avoid it, so the fact that I’d managed to not go there for 76 years indicates how serious I’d been.  For the seasoned hiker it’s usually part ofContinue reading ”                    THE HOMAGE”

  THE SEARCH FOR THE BIN CHICKENS

I’d done nothing much in the morning, couldn’t think what to do with the afternoon.  Then it clicked, there’s street art you haven’t seen yet.  Previously, I’d stumbled across them while house sitting at Eveleigh.  Hundreds even.  This time I decided to look them up first. That’s when I found Scott Marsh.  Well, actually, I’dContinue reading ”  THE SEARCH FOR THE BIN CHICKENS”

                   THE GALLERY

Art IS civilization.  It’s a measure of how advanced or not society has become.  Thus, when I see a new gallery opening up I should be pleased.  I’m not. Not all the art at Circular Quay is bad How many millions were spent on the new North Wing of the N.S.W. Art Gallery and howContinue reading ”                   THE GALLERY”

SOMEWHERE THERE’S ALWAYS A RAINBOW

It had been years, okay, decades, since I last visited the lake.  It had been created around the early 1900’s to supply water to what we now know as Sponars, nee Hotel Kosciusko, but even that amount of water couldn’t stop the original hotel from burning down in 1951 due to a fire emanating fromContinue reading “SOMEWHERE THERE’S ALWAYS A RAINBOW”

THE LEG AND THE POET 

He was behind the counter at the auto electricians.  I was glad he was serving me because his female partner was hobbling around with a pronounced limp.  I told him all I wanted was a replacement globe for the motorhome’s tail light.  I’ll meet him out there at the motorhome I said. Imagine my surpriseContinue reading “THE LEG AND THE POET “

                   RUNNING HOT

I stood at the door; disheveled, sweaty, bloodied arm and covered in cobweb remnants.  I pondered what they may think of me because I was about to look after their house for two weeks and it was the first time they’d ever seen me. I hadn’t meant to arrive like this, it just happened.  Well,Continue reading ”                   RUNNING HOT”