Category Archives: Uncategorized

We were on Norfolk Island, a rock in the Pacific halfway between Australia and New Zealand. Getting there had been fun with an international flight on Air New Zealand between two parts of Australia – a legacy of the time … Continue reading →

We spent last week on Norfolk Island. J had arranged to go on a painting trip to the island, and it was only the cost of a second airfare for me to tag along, so why wouldn’t you, especially as … Continue reading →

When we went to Laos at the end of 2005, on a complete whim, I bought myself a hardback Moleskine notebook at the airport, and started keeping a travel journal of our trip. I later used these notes to write … Continue reading →

Hunting through the SLV’s online databases for mentions of both Nitrous Oxide and Ether, it is interesting to note that while 1847 starts with ether being hailed as a wonder treatment, doubts about its side effects creep in and that … Continue reading →

Well not quite, but following on from my recent post about how , round about 1870, nitrous oxide became the anaesthetic of choice for dentists in New Zealand and Australia, I decided to see how much earlier the adoption was in … Continue reading →

Yesterday I blogged about the use of nitrous oxide as a dental anaesthetic. As is often the way with such things I was speed reading a local history this morning looking for relevant background information for the documentation project I’m … Continue reading →

This time in Dunedin in 1886 … You might remember that last year I wrote about a rather splendid ‘before and after’ advert from the Merthyr Tydfil Telegraph of 1861 – I’ve just come across an equally splendid image from … Continue reading →

I’ve long been fascinated by the history and sociology of bicycles – the invention of the safety bicycle in the 1880’s took the world by storm – suddenly there was an affordable means of transport which allowed clerical workers in … Continue reading →

We were visiting a hospital in Melbourne, nothing serious, just J’s periodic checkup with her rheumatologist, and as in the way of hospitals we skipped breakfast to make an early morning appointment, rushed there on the tram, only to discover … Continue reading →

Louisa M Alcott aged 25 or thereabouts (wikipedia commons) We’ve been watching the recent miniseries of Little Women on the ABC, as always showing years later than everywhere else. Being male, I, of course, had never read Little Women, and … Continue reading →