Living Life Twice

  Under the present lockdown rules in the greater Melbourne area, we, the people are allowed two one hour recreation/exercise times beyond our dwellings. Such activities must occur within a five kilometre radius of your home address. Face masks are mandatory.  No problem. I take my walk early most days to avoid the inevitable casual wanderers and path cloggers. I like a vigorous walk. I use the time to clear my head, sort out my plans for the day and to observe the world just in case an idea presents itself. I want to be ready to receive it. I am further soothed by my sonic cocoon. Music and movement set me on my way. Most of my morning walks present as a form of splendid isolation, where not much in the way of uneventful things happen... That was until yesterday- About thirty minutes into my walk serenity began to evaporate. Without warning I found myself being dive-bombed by an agitated Noisy Myna Bird. Being dived once is annoying. Three times is totally unsettling. I was g...

My latest piece about teaching writing across the middle years of schooling and how the pedagogy commonly driving teaching contributes to disengagement on the part of adolescent writers, particularly boys. A failure to thrive is driven by a quite obvious lack of agency.  Please click the link to read more courtesy of The Age Newspaper: How To Give Boys The Write Stuff

For this slice of life story I didn't have to look any further than my left hand. I was holding the idea right there -and my deeper thoughts followed. In my current lockdown life, such thoughts are thankfully continuing to present themselves for consideration. Contemplation in isolation. I am pen particular.   My pen of choice is a   Uniball Gel Impact   pen with black ink. Always black ink. Must be black ink.    It is the pen I mostly choose when writing. It feels comfortable in my hand. When I am writing with this pen, words seem to flow more easily. They effortlessly spill across the page. I actually feel like I am speed writing. Being left handed, this continues to be my most glorious delusion. I also have a Lamy fountain pen which also uses black ink cartridges. I do like writing with this pen too. It has become accustomed to my left handedness. I would never a let a right hander use it. Call me fussy. It won’t change my thinking on pen sharing. Not for me ...

When times are tough we often gain some degree of pleasure from indulging in seemingly small pleasures...  As my home state of Victoria endures another week of stage 4 Covid lockdown, mask wearing is compulsory in public areas and you can only leave your home for work, food shopping. a medical appointment / emergency, or care giving, it means we must find solace is things pertaining to our place of residence and its surrounds. There is also a curfew in place, meaning we must be inside our dwellings by 8.00 pm each night. We are allowed to leave our houses for up to an hour per day for exercise, but we must remain within five kms of home at all times. The situation will be reviewed on September 13 and if the numbers warrant, there will be some small loosening of the health guidelines. I am happy to comply with this because it is clearly for the greater good of the community. The daily infection rate has fallen from a daily high of 700, to 70 cases today. The majority of my fellow Vi...