As they get nearer, the mountain that emerges from the surrounding bushland reveals itself to be a cluster of tightly grouped stony hills. There is no apparent entrance but he has been here before and pulls off the dirt road that has taken them about two hundred kilometres from the coast. Soon a rough track [...]
Entries from July 2008
July 20, 2008
The neck of the sea
I grew up on a great river that flings its tail far back into the grey and green bushland of Australia. Impotent tributaries spread unevenly from its snaking body like tentacles sucking at the dryness. It is a wide river and long but for most of the year its sandy bed shimmers dry and hot under the indifferent [...]
July 13, 2008
Sunday afternoon in Nebraska
On a late Sunday afternoon in Lincoln, Nebraska, I emerged from a movie theatre feeling like someone had just put a skewer through my life and slowly barbecued it for three hours. I was alone in this big, flat, corn-fielded state; there was a slight coolness in the air and colour was leeching from the [...]
July 8, 2008
All their own work
A few people have tagged me in the past to nominate some of my favourite blogs. So…here they are! And what an eclectic lot! I don’t have many criteria for those that I enjoy – I guess I like those that contain true things, that don’t hate or spread hate, that make me smile or [...]
July 8, 2008
In which I receive certain advice relating to the practice of medicine
I stand up to leave the meeting. “I’ve got a doctor’s appointment,” I explain. I am with one of the Managers, and he looks up at me with raised eyebrows. For a moment I think he is questioning my excuse and I wait for his comment.
“I do hope you’re not going to tell him anything,” [...]
