Bird of the Year; #TeamUndecided

On year 9 camp, a kookaburra stole my sandwich on an overnight hike. I’d hiked a long way and was really looking forward to that sandwich. It took me years to forgive the species. 

Goodbye ABC, hello Townsville

It’s a year since I packed up my desk, handed in my security pass and had farewell drinks with my colleagues at the ABC. At the time, people told me it was a great opportunity to moves towards that dream …

How a deal made at the Wahgunyah pub helped motivate a state champion

After winning her single sculling event at the Rutherglen Regatta in January, Briley Monahan’s coach, Adrian Keats, made her a deal. “I promised her that if she continued to do well, to my satisfaction, up to the Head of the …

Bushfire season: quick response, community response

As climate change increases the number of extreme fire danger days in Victoria, rural communities around the state are assessing current challenges, capabilities and lessons learned from bushfires past. Key findings from a report by Australia’s Climate Council show that …

Purchasing pointes: the misfit, the first fit and the second fit.

I got my first pointe shoes when I was 27. And as more adults discover the enjoyment and benefits of ballet, the number of mature dancers going for their first pointe shoe fitting is increasing. But we’re not their market. …

A trifle Christmas

There’s something humbling about not being able to make jelly. Who am I kidding? It’s humiliating. Jelly. That stuff you have been able to “make” since your mum felt confident to let you near a kettle. After all, it’s pretty …

Straighten up and dance right

“Keep doing what you’re doing.” They’re good words to be told when leaving the osteopath: No ‘but,’ no ‘however,’ just keep it up. When I started ballet as a raw beginner a little over two years ago, a key motivator …

The value of a seat

As trains become more over crowded and standing the entire way to Melbourne increasingly the norm, seats on a Vline train are becoming a commodity. But what value of a seat? The major appealing factor of my regular train for …

53 minutes* of standing

0 minutes Board train at North Geelong to find people from Geelong station already standing. No one from North Geelong finds a seat in this carriage. Following the discovery that sitting on the ledge puts my back out, I stand …

Not eating as a way of control in an uncontrollable world

Forget what the motivational speakers say, the reality is that we have no control over much of what goes on in our lives. We can’t control the train delays. We can’t control the network going down. We can’t control management’s …