Monthly Archives: January 2013

Language learning, cultural awareness, and toilets

I recently posted on the suggestion that the Romans sometimes used bits of pottery to clean themselves after they’ve been to the loo. Other cultures are known to use stones as an alteranive to more flexible solutions, so the use … Continue reading

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Cleaning your bottom Roman fashion

The archaeological world is mildly agog today over the suggestion that the Romans used bits of pottery to clean their bottoms. Now we know about the infamous sponge sticks and we have remains from the cesspit at Bearsden fort that … Continue reading

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Jam and Chutney

This week’s hot weather and bushfire alerts have not done us any favours in the fruit and veg department with the hot dry winds scorching off the raspberries and the zuchinis not to mention that possums stripped the fig tree … Continue reading

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Urban Foxes in Ireland

Today’s Irish Times has an article about urban foxes in Ireland. Interesting, both because we have urban foxes in Canberra, and also because foxes are also an introduced species in Ireland – they only got the the Emerald Isle in … Continue reading

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Bushfires etc

Yesterday we had a serious bushfire alert, but despite a searingly hot day  with winds between 50 and 70km/h  and the smell of smoke in the air from grass fires to the west of the city, we’re still here. Yesterday … Continue reading

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New Year’s resolutions

Everyone makes them, everyone fails at them. Mine this year is to get fitter and lose some weight. This isn’t really a new resolution, I tried starting running again back in 2009 and found that really didn’t work for me … Continue reading

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Urban foxes in Canberra

Urban foxes seem to be a British rather than an Australian phenomenon. Twice, once in December 2009, and again mid last year, we’ve caught fleeting glimpses of foxes in the nature reserve on the hill behind our house. This morning, … Continue reading

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