On Taking a Seven Week Old Baby to an Interstate Music Festival We took our seven week old baby on a plane across the Bass Strait to attend Dark Mofo, Tasmania’s mid-winter arts festival. If I’m honest, my partner and our friend Greta took the baby on the plane, I was on a separate flight an hour later, being upgraded to Economy X which has a skerrickContinue reading “On Taking a Seven Week Old Baby to an Interstate Music Festival”
On Patience Night-time nappy changes are like trying to bag an ebullient octopus. His limbs multiply, his torso stretches out, he releases his siren call. He dips his heels into the mustard yellow pool in his nappy and merrily kicks it across the room, and while you reach over to grab a towel he happily fountains weeContinue reading “On Patience”
On Touring New Zealand (part 2) I am naked in a forest glade in the centre of a patch of purple heather. The festival organisers have set-up a shower block here which is a flimsy set of bamboo lattice and a couple of tie-dyed cotton sheets. It’s entirely see-through and I can see the rest of the band having breakfast whileContinue reading “On Touring New Zealand (part 2)”
On Touring New Zealand Tour is salt and vinegar chips, spilled under the driver’s seat. Tour is launching ourselves into every possible body of water. Tour is a 4 am bed-time, followed by an 8 am lobby call. We spent the week travelling up the guts of New Zealand’s South Island, ensconced within an eight-seater Kia Carnival I nicknamedContinue reading “On Touring New Zealand”
On Gardens Charlotte Wood reminds me I have a garden. A derelict patch down the back of the house where I stacked four planters along the top of the Astroturf and enthusiastically grew silverbeet one year, supplanted it with a half-hearted attempt at zucchinis the second year and finally succumbed to beds of mint and oregano onContinue reading “On Gardens”
On Surgery and Slowing Down I’m realising that I’m not good at slowing down. Of all the things I’m bad at, slowing down might be the worst of them. I went in for surgery this week, a fun experience that involved punching a hole in my groin and running a tube through my kidneys. It was actually the second roundContinue reading “On Surgery and Slowing Down”
On Kotor We’re in Kotor. Brilliant beautiful Kotor, nestled on the Bay of Kotor, a stunning spot with mountains disappearing straight into brilliant blue seas. Step back. We spent two days in Podogorica, the capital of Montenegro, taking a little side-quest out to Ostrog Monastery – a blazing white building built into the side of a cliff.Continue reading “On Kotor”
On Montenegro Our bus driver is too angry for seven in the morning. Well, maybe he’s angry because it’s seven in the morning, but when I tell him I don’t have any Euros for the baggage and ask if he can take card, he yells at me and throws our bags on the ground. Grace scurries offContinue reading “On Montenegro”
On Croatia Croatia is warm. Very very warm. We’re in Dubrovnik, the most touristed place in all of Europe. Estimates are 36 tourists per each local resident and we feel it when we first arrive in the Old Town. There’s a literal swarm of people walking every direction, icecreams held high above the crowd. There’s icecreams everywhereContinue reading “On Croatia”
On Serbia Sitting in Belgrade Airport waiting for our flight to Dubrovnik, which has (surprise surprise) been delayed for an hour. Air Serbia flights have so far been cheap, spacious and late. Serbia hasn’t been quite what I expected. It was meant to be a stepping stone between Hungary and Croatia, but we figured if we wereContinue reading “On Serbia”