Category Archives: Uncategorized

I’m an obsessive about notebooks. As well as obsessing about suitable devices for taking notes, I use notebooks extensively, and I’m picky, very picky. Moleskine or Rhodia for bound notebooks for use as travel journals, and Clairefontaine, Rhodia or Moleskine … Continue reading →

Supermoon over Woragee from Factory Lane Ok, most definitely not the best photograph, taken on a Samsung Galaxy at about 2010 AEDT last night, but we had fun driving round the back roads to get a decent view of the … Continue reading →

Last Tuesday, we needed to go to the city (actually St Kilda, but never mind) and instead of driving we caught the train to celebrate our becoming eligible for Seniors’ travel cards. In a lot of places, a 500 km … Continue reading →

It was pouring with rain today, too wet to do anything outsider or much inside, so I treated myself to some downtime researching how Australian newspapers reported the abdication of Nicholas II. Of course, Nicholas II was not the only … Continue reading →

In Beechworth, we have a park known as Queen Victoria Park. As some of the streets round about have Crimean war names  I always sort of just assumed that it was laid out in the 1850’s just as Beechworth was … Continue reading →

Way back in 2012 I wrote about the story that Lenin spoke English with a Dublin accent. At the time I was mildly incredulous, but in a comment Dara O’Rourke suggested that I follow up the story of Roddy Connolly, … Continue reading →

Ever since I first visited Turkey twenty years ago I’ve been aware that the Ottoman empire’s role in the first world war is something, with the exception of Gallipoli, we tend to ignore in the English speaking world, tending, understandably, … Continue reading →

Beechworth started out a grazing community, but with the discovery of gold in 1852 the town suddenly exploded acquiring banks, a post office and doubtless pubs. But there’s another little monument up a back road celebrating the first Congregationalist service … Continue reading →

While we were in Byron there was an online spat about a documentary that apparently suggested that Greek craftsmen may have worked on the terracotta army in Xian. I’ll say apparently as I havn’t seen the documentary, but something that … Continue reading →

Eureka Pioneers memorial, Eureka NSW Earlier this year, we’d moved to Beechworth in Victoria. While we’re pretty content with things in general, we decided we needed to do some remodelling of our house plus a modest extension and a new … Continue reading →