Author Archives: dgm

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

Piqued by our upcoming transiberian trip I’ve been doing a lot of reading around the subject, and about Kolchak, the civil war, the allied intervention and more. Even Chekhov. And in the course of this, purely by happenstance, I happened … Continue reading →

Mary Beard recently had a piece on her blog complaining about the rise of the e-christmas card. And it’s undoubtedly true that as the postal service declines more and more people are turning to sending seasonal greetings by email. I … Continue reading →

Yesterday I received a letter, yes, a genuine letter printed on nice paper from a local hospital inviting me to apply for an eHealth record. (eHealth is an Australian government initiative to link up individual medical practice records and aggregate … Continue reading →