Year: 2023

Arriving at Heathrow we were met by our Punjabi driver “James”.We pushed our way through the hundreds of people to the car park and I said jokingly “this is as crowded as the sub- continent. It is only missing the Delhi airport special carpet”. Well I spoke too soon. On the back seat of the…

This is the title of an amazing exhibition I had the pleasure of going to this week. It is a collaboration between The Queensland Eye Institute Foundation, Griffith University and Publicis Worldwide. It has matched 10 vision- impaired Australians with artists who were tasked with recreating the vision they last saw before they lost their…

Not bubble gum, spearmint or peppermint, though I do believe there is a peppermint gum – I am talking here about Eucalypts. Last weekend I went to a Gum Fest, in the botanical gardens in Brisbane and what a treat that was. From cultivating them, identifying them, walking amongst them, dyeing fabrics and paper with…

For many years I have listened to the song of a particular bird and wondered what it was. There are apps these days that might give you the answer but what happened today was infinitely preferable. As I was out on the back deck feeding Dilli Darel, a family of handsome birds came to the…

At the weekend we took two little boys to see the Australian Geographic Exhibition. As we entered the hall we saw this poem. The boys read the whole of it aloud to us. They are half Aboriginal and are slowly but surely recognising the depth of their roots and their familial ties. I am a…

An evening concert with the Australian Chamber Orchestra was just that little bit different. Walking in to Brisbane Concert Hall was a bearded man with a waxed moustache, wearing a Fez with golden tassels, checkered trousers a bright orange kaftan and golden sparkly shoes. Another man, also bearded, was a little more conventionally dressed but…

Artisan, a local art gallery near my house is hosting an exhibition of Ikuntji Artists. I went along with a friend to see it. Ikuntji Artists is a non for profit aboriginal art centre, situated in Haasts Bluff (Ikuntji) in Northern Territory. The population is 150 people. The art centre was initially set up to…

The bus is late today. I hear the 12 o’ clock chimes from Brisbane City Hall’s famous Clock Tower. I am leaning with my back to a barber’s shop front and have not noticed the time. I love just standing there and watching the people pass by. The young Asian girl in shorts and a…

We eat them cold – sometimes for breakfast – yes, its an odd and dangerous choice, but Cypriots love them. Here in Australia they are rarely seen in the shops, that is why I got so excited when I saw them at my Greek Greengrocer. I will peel them extra carefully and present them to…

We travelled west for about three hours to an area called the Western Downs which is only marginally smaller than the whole of Switzerland. We drove on the straightest road with fields of mung beans and sorghum on both sides, as far as the eye could see. A hugely rich agricultural area but also a…