Year: 2017

I sent my sister a document by courier – Aus post cost $50 to deliver it in 3-4 working days.Perfect I thought, so off it went. The 3-4 days went by, then 4-5, and then over 7.Finally yesterday she got a call and this is how it went: Kyria Anna?A: YesKyria Anna kalimera I am…

We celebrate four years in Australia as January turns to February.  The summer started off hot and continues so, with no sign that the high temperatures are going away anytime soon. And he chooses to ignore the signs for climate change – we all know who I am talking about. My sense of anger and…

In the incredible everything that is India the detail is what goes first, so this is a post script of the trip. I am no longer young in years but surprisingly young in spirit and with friends like Philippa Kaye the temptation to return and explore more is strong. This trip must be remembered for…

Taking a leaf out of Philippa Kaye’s latest blog,  I can add a small postscript to her D is for ….. India’s innumerable strays – also known as Desi Dogs. Adopting two while I was in India was how it should be, making the family bigger and sharing the caring. On my recent trip I…

Since arriving in Jaipur I have been woken up every morning with the call to prayer at 5.30 am. The first voice booms as if from my balcony and in a manner of minutes more join in and the whole of the city is simultaneously nudged from sleep. Some of the chanting is more melodious…

Last day of the Festival and the crowds are beginning to thin. The first Session is one which I am drawn to if only because of the title it bears “Manelists, Misogyny and Mansplaining”. The Panel a group of women and a white haired man. That in itself was odd – but I listened carefully…

The signs were hopeful, black tea and a little of that super porridge to set me up for a very exciting day with plenty of loo roll just in case things didn’t go my way.  It could not have a better start then listening to Nobel Laureate Richard Flanagan talking about his masterpiece ” The…

The weekend has started at JLF and as always it takes a while for the city to wake up. So our first session is a breeze – we walk into our seats and listen to a very entertaining talk from a panel of renowned playwrights, authors and directors. The subject matter “The Page is mightier…

Listening to Roy Foster must be one of my highlights of the Festival and this is only on the second day. The talk was entitled WB Yeats – the Arch Poet. This is what I like best, listening to an authority talking eloquently and authoritatively on their subject matter. Roy Foster has spent some 18…

As mythical and magical as a preacher in full force Anne Waldman started off the JLF with words of caution in this troubled world where chaos and darkness looms but for the salving power of the creative poetic word. She took to the stage like a shaman and the words of her poem “Anthropocene Blues”…