A broken shell

 
A couple of years ago, a friend and I spent five days camping on these isolated cliffs about a thousand kilometres from where we live. We spent the time fishing and swimming and sitting in this big cave on the beach.  Each sunset we’d drink beers in our cave.  Then I’d cook tea on the [...]

Pa on Mars

We are sitting at the kitchen table eating dinner and my 10-year-old son starts rattling off all this stuff about Mars.  I mean, he really rattled it off; facts figures, theories and the history of exploration.  “Where did you hear all that?” I ask in quiet awe of this seed of my loins, this progeny [...]

Lunch

There is so much I could tell you but I will only tell you the end. Or, as Mr Greene might say, “The end of the affair.”  So, to begin (or to finish?): 
It is Melbourne and winter.  Rain clouds bustle importantly across a grave skyline.  I am dressed in a suit for some conference or [...]

Geography and the Spectre of Richard Venner

 
So, it goes like this: I come home from school.  I am fifteen.  My father says, How did you go in geography today? And my mother looks up from her dinner and waits.  O father, do you think the world will be more or less beautiful if I can learn to name its parts?  Mother, [...]