Content tagged: laura

Why do I blog?

Recently Skippy asked, 'why do you blog?' I was commenting on that and it got kind of long, so I thought I'd record it here. The short answer is, I don't know, and I'm not sure I need to know. But since this is all about figuring out the answer, I guess I'll play along. A good place to start with figuring out why I blog is probably to look at the content and see where that leads me, and the answer is that it's mostly personal - Laura and Aidan, my wife and best friend respectively seem to be ... more

Hi from London

Probably the final London instalment from Laura: Hello again! I was sitting at work today, talking about Indian saris, and my boss Phil mentioned a sari he'd seen that was the colour electric blue. Of course, being an Australian child of the 80s, I started singing Electric Blues. Suddenly my colleagues were strangers; they did not know the words. They did not know the song. And they certainly didn't have a clue who Icehouse was. A thought came into my head: it's time to go home. So this afternoon, Simon and I paid for our flights back to Australia. Although ... more

Another update from Laura

Ho hum. Probably naïve of me, but I had no idea how focused London is on the finances of the world. UK television, newspapers, current affairs shows every single day are dominated by news of all the bank collapses and money woes and recession talk. It’s all a bit doom and gloom at the moment, isn’t it? For the first time in my life, I’m also in an industry (recruitment of all things) where people lose their jobs and lose them quickly. No fat cats at all, but people like secretaries, accountants, help desk workers, consultants and techies I was ... more

The misguided focus on gender equality

This morning there was a good point, very well made over at skepticlawyer.com.au about the relative skills of men and women. Helen noted that she has now conceded an argument she had made much earlier in life that many typically 'girly' pursuits (like beauty contests and debutants' balls) are nothing more than sexist rubbish and should be dismissed as such. This kind of argument seems to abound in (what little I know of) the feminist movement, as does the argument for gender equality. That reminded me that I think some feminists paint their argument with too broad a brush when ... more

Hi from London

Greetings everyone! Happy holidays to all my teacher friends (remember I’m not one of you anymore, so you'd better enjoy.) How are the rest of you? I know the weather has been quite mild, except for Toowoomba of course. We have obviously had some excitement in our lives this past week, although it’s certainly resulted in a desperate bout of homesickness. It seems everyone but us has met my lovely new nephew Charlie. Simon and I were absolutely thrilled with his arrival. After seemingly taking so long to get around to being born, he was suddenly in a tremendous hurry. ... more