This will hurt me...

Something... Somewhere... Out there...

Sometimes the road less taken is less taken for a reason! Hastings Caves State Reserve, the Huon Valley. May 2012. Sunday Top Five and even though the sun is out and the day is pleasant, I continue to struggle through with this flu. That said, I have managed to do three loads of washing, hang it out and make a litre of dark chocolate mousse, so life could be worse. I hear that the Olympics are on. I hate the Olympics. Well, maybe that's unfair. I find them boring. Even that's a stretch. So today's Top Five Eight: My Memories Of Olympics Held During My Lifetime! I can't recall a single thing about Beijing (Ezra was born around the time of the Opening Ceremony). Sorry China. I know that it was in Athens the time before, but other than some odd shenanigans involving two Greeks on a motorbike, I didn't see anything else. Sydney was rammed down out throats here in Australia, but for me the memorable aspect was the Roy and HG show, and that consisted of tak...

I'm not certain that we will find that thylacine.

No Henry, we won't be seeing a Thylacine today.

That is the stride of a determined man.

Two went in... ...and two came out. This time.

Here's a question: What exactly is that that has delighted Henry so?

I think I smell a Gruffalo. Lune River, Hastings Caves State Reserve. June 2011. I thought, “What a jolly good idea!” and have thus done so. Healthy and happy kids. A bit of peace and quiet. Fiscal security. Thinking time. A way forward. Temperate climes. Good books. A good night’s sleep. Who put that there? Lune River, Hastings Caves State Reserve. June 2011. I’m not sure what that says about me. My wishes seem very level headed . Hmmmm.

Jen and Hen do some bushwalking the sensible way: on duckboards!

HA! Hastings Caves State Reserve. The Huon Valley. June 2011. Sunday ALREADY? Bloomin flip, someone has shortened the weekends again... A top five. Oh dear. Today I offer my Top Five Political Philosophers That I Can't Help Drawing Upon In My Everyday Business And Confusing People Because Their Relevance (Although Pertinent) Is Not Always Clear To Those Unfamiliar With Their Work ! Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels : at least people have heard of them, although that often does not help. While I am not a Marxist, their critique of the nature of things (especially work) is often both a succour and a curse. J.S. Mill : usual in a fight, a little bit of Mill goes a long long way... Michel Foucault : everything you wanted to know about power, Michel is your man. G.W.F. Hegel : the granddaddy of many, he can be the hardest to explain to the neutral audience. Thomas Hobbes : life in a state of nature. Enough said.

Trees. The Hastings Caves State Reserve. The Huon Valley. June 2011. I feel a little cruel to this week’s first book, Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck. Eking out snippets and snatches of reading at a time does not really do justice to a novel that seeks to engage with the epic trajectory of Germany’s troubling twentieth-century The central ‘character’ of this novel is actually a place. A majestic house and its grounds by a lake in Brandenburg (once upon a time best buddy of Prussia, and then for a spell part of the German Democratic Republic) is witness to a succession of occupants that displace each other through the political turmoil of the twentieth century. Like Erpenbeck’s other work, nothing is ever straightforward. The story does not progress through momentous occasions, and there are no grand scenes that progress the action. Indeed, we experience change only in shades, shadows or echoes. As such, it is probably not the best book to be reading in scraps of time. I think that it wo...