This will hurt me...

Here is Henry pre-cut. On Monday evening, I'll let you see the result of a snip...

The morning sun at the right angle can trick you into thinking that it is Autumn. Franklin Square, Hobart. June 2012. It's cold. So very, very cold. Long Distance I , by Tony Harrison Your bed's got two wrong sides. You life's all grouse. I let your phone-call take its dismal course: Ah can't stand it no more, this empty house! Carrots choke us wi'out your mam's white sauce! Them sweets you brought me, you can have 'em back. Ah'm diabetic now. Got all the facts. (The diabetes comes hard on the track of two coronaries and cataracts.) Ah've allus liked things sweet! But now ah push food down mi throat! Ah'd sooner do wi'out. And t'only reason now for beer 's to flush (so t'dietician said) mi kidneys out. When I come round, they'll be laid out, the sweets, Lifesavers, my father's New World treats, still in the big brown bag, and only bought rushing through JFK as a last thought.

Flower power? How many kilowatts, to be precise?

Love is blindness. The bedroom, Geilston Bay. July 2012. A Man of the People is a 1966 novel by Chinua Achebe that foreshadowed a coup in post-colonial Nigeria. It tells the story of a young and educated narrator and his conflict with his former teacher who has pursued a career. One represents the changing younger generation; the other the traditional customs of Nigeria. An interesting novel graphically illustrates the challenges faced by African nations in the 1950s and 60s, it goes some way to explaining to outsiders why the continent has struggled in the aftermath of Western colonialism. Recommended. Andreï Makine is a Russian novelist who writes in French. Like the protagonist in his more recent novel - The Life of an Unknown Man - Makine is a man without a country (the Soviet Union of his formative years no longer in existence). This is a novel two very different, albeit related, parts. It is part meditation on finding autonomy even as when losing all control of one’s d...

There is no there's no old piano playin' hot. As far as we could tell, there are no people laughing a lot. We most definitely did not see any eyeballs peepin' through smoky clouds. Oh, wait a sec'. Oh, it's a YELLOW door.

Flame trees? Royal Botanical Gardens, Hobart. June 2012. Theme Thursday again and with the mood I have been in of late I thought that I'd hard pressed with this week's theme of INSPIRING THINGS. However, after putting a little bit of thought to it, I have indeed been reminded me that there are indeed some INSPIRING THINGS within my current purview: David Ireland's The Glass Canoe . After feeling the guilts for reading so little Australian literature, I'm hailing this 1976 book as a lost Australian classic . Seriously, this is a magnificent snapshot of an 'Australia' that I know, even if the blokes within don't make the cut for our glossy, cosmopolitan view of ourselves as a nation. Henry's fire . I love my Henry very much, but I've always had a spot of concern with his potential fragility . He's a lovely bloke, but I wouldn't want him to ever not have the confidence to stick up for himself. In this P.C. world of ours the 'gut i...

As ever, Ezra leads the path of the righteous man...

Wallaby. Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, Brighton. May 2012. Wordless Wednesday.

Little by little, day by day, Henry's kicking is getting just that bit better. All he needs to do now is find the natural rhythm of the action and go with the flow. Relax and kick. Relax and kick. Relax and... dummy kick, handball off the left run hard to receive the return hand ball run harder to evade the chasing player relax and kick the goal!

A house and a mountain. The view from Bath Street, Battery Point. June 2012. More questions more answers. This week, The Imaginary Meme, Part Five . 81. What’s your favourite action movie? Das Boot . 82. Have (or are) you ever been involved someone much older than you? Not for any more than a few hours. 83. Do you believe in lust at first sight? Isn’t that the very definition of lust? 84. Favourite type of venomous snake? Tiger snake. 85. Do you drink alcohol? Very rarely. 86. If you wanted to talk to someone who'd lift your spirits, who'd you call? Frank Skinner. 87. What do you wear to feel sexy? As little as possible. 88. Do you like to learn? I love to learn. If you’re not learning, you’re dead. 89. Have you ever been hit on by someone who really overestimated their attractiveness? A number of times. When I was a younger fellow I used to take great delight in pointing out that fact to them. Yes, I was a cruel bastard. 90. Where did you last...

All of a sudden the question 'Who wants to lick the spoon' has taken a very competitive turn...

Tap in the morning light. The backyard, Geilston Bay. July 2012. Do you ever have those days where you just cannot be bothered? I’ve got that right now… Anyway. As you know, the Internet is a wonderful place filled with the rich and varied treasures of the world holds (as well as a lot of very lonely people.) The following are some things that I've had a look at in the last week. I call this: a Compendium of Click-throughs for Monday Morning.. The animating spirit of Smith's The Wealth of Nations is 'interest' or 'self-love'. Conversely, that of The Theory of Moral Sentiments is one of 'sympathy' or 'fellow-feeling'. How might we approach this apparent contradiction in Adam Smith's writing? "Universities are no longer educational in any sense of the word that Rousseau would have recognised. They have become instruments of capital. Confronted with this squalid betrayal, he would have felt sick and oppressed." How depressin...

Henry admires the view.

It's time. The living room, Geilston Bay. July 2012. Sunday Top Five time and today I venture into what I am told is controversial territory (it generally isn't in the circles I frequent): My Top Five List Of The Most Stupid Arguments Against Same Sex Marriage! Marriage has been this way for thousands of years, so why change it now? Yes, in much the same way that we’ve not accepted change in the area of equal rights for women or property rights for slaveholders, institutions never change. Heterosexual marriages are valid because they are primarily about furthering the species (i.e. producing children). Yes, much like the laws that we have around forbidding infertile couples from wedding and the compulsory divorces once menopause kicks in. The Bible doesn’t allow it. In the same way as we don’t allow bowl cuts (Leviticus 19:27, "You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads); tattoos (Leviticus 19:28, "You shall not make any cuts in your body for t...