Thoughts, ideas, opinions and postulations on sport and adventuring
I got off the train at Osaka and did not have the foggiest idea where to go. Or even in what direction to head. The jumble of busy streets and incomprehensible signs gave no indication. Boasting a Japanese vocabulary that might have stretched to half-a-dozen words on a good day, I was steeling myself for the ignominy of approaching a perfect stranger and asking plaintively, … [Read more...]
When controversial Australian painter and novelist Norman Lindsay was told by friends that he should write a children’s book he quickly took a liking to the idea. When his friends told him that the book should be about fairies, goblins and mythical creatures he laughed at the idea and said that kids aren’t into fantasy stuff… they just love fighting, sticking … [Read more...]
“I hope you enjoy this, John! Fond regards, Judith.” I’d been living in Connecticut for three months. New England, forested by trees of red, gold and amber foliage, was wrapped in Autumn’s melancholy. Back in Oz, the semi-finals of the footy season would be kicking off. I was homesick. ‘Hooked on League,’ the autobiography of Penrith hooker Royce Simmons (co-written … [Read more...]
Most of us sports-mad Australians like to think that we punch well above our weight when it comes to Olympic competition. Australians, and our media, just love the medal table that we believe shows what a superior sporting nation we are. If the numbers of medals that we win, per capita, are any measure of how well we perform at Olympic sports then we better think again. The … [Read more...]
All of you unashamed aestheticists who have not seen the documentary film Mountain yet, get off your arses and do so before it disappears from the big screens completely. If you don’t give a rat’s arse about beauty but like a bit of awe and adventure, then this is a film that you must see. On the other hand, if you are not all that fussed about beauty or adventure but like to … [Read more...]
