Celebrating our wonderful week!
Category: Blog
Last day at Varuna :-(
The last day. Tomorrow the alarm will wake me at 05.15 and I’ll start the long trek home to the north. For the first few hours I’ll have company. David is catching a flight home as well. He’s headed for Harare and Africa. His journey will only be half complete when I’m home, hand in Continue reading
Eleanor’s Life
Started reading Eleanor Dark’s biography, “A Writer’s Life”, at 2 am when the roar of the wind woke me. I felt I owed it to the woman, whose studio I’m writing in, to understand something of what her life had been. For a woman in the 21st Century it’s easy to forget how women born Continue reading
Another day of wonderment
Sitting in the presence of such creativity is clearly working. The words flowed and flowed and flowed some more today. And surprisingly it was the “love scene,” which is usually a difficult part to write for me… Don’t know whether I should admit that solitude is clearly inspirational for the sensuous side of life? Maybe Continue reading
A Day of Community and Conversations – Varuna
Five writers, five different stories, five different lives. The morning’s conversation wove its way through so many themes. From David came the observation that African natives build in circles – both houses and villages. Western societies build in straight lines. Is that why the cultures clash so tragically? From Toni, a beautiful story about a Continue reading
Varuna – LongLines programme
Wow, I’m here. After the weekend from hell, Varuna is a slice of paradise. Highlights of my weekend included forgetting to take my reading glasses to work and then discovering my boss had turned up to do a routine check of my performance and I could barely read the simulator screens, let alone my notes… Continue reading
What price will travellers pay for clean, green aviation?
The aviation industry has spent the last one hundred years dealing with rapidly advancing technology. Is it ready to face the changes that will be imposed by Emission Trading Schemes? Kevin Bullis of Technology Review doesn’t believe so. http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/23561/?a=f The article makes some interesting points about how far technology can go to reducing carbon emissions. Continue reading
So old bold pilots might know something after all…
My brother sent me a link to an article in the Harvard Health Publications from Harvard Medical School. Below is an excerpt from it and it makes interesting reading. Maybe some of our wise grey heads should be staying in the air to counteract the exuberance of youth… Age not a barrier to peak performance Continue reading
Gordo’s Farewell… (And Dicksta made an appearance!)
In a career spanning close to four decades, Captain Gordon Scott has accumulated over 25,000 hours in the air. A wonderful mentor to so many pilots, Gordon will be very much missed by his colleagues in Qantaslink (particularly the Sunnies Nth Qld base in Cairns xxx). Hopefully retirement will give him time to go for Continue reading
Hinchinbrook Island and the Texas Terror
6 am Monday morning and the sky was overcast in Lucinda. The rays of early sun created ‘fingers of God’ streaming down over Hinchinbrook Island. It seemed appropriate that, on a day we were hiking up to the wreck of the ‘Texas Terror‘, the weather should be sombre as well. The B24 Liberator bomber crashed Continue reading