I’ve just sent the invoice for three chapters that I wrote for inclusion in a biochemistry textbook. It isn’t a heap of money, but it is the most I’ve ever been paid for writing. It always feels good making money for doing something that I love. Not that it is that common, mind, but nonetheless. [...]
Archive for the ‘Boy Z’ Category
I’m wondering how the glass will hit
The new dog, in a cyclone of sharp little puppy teeth and a flood of puppy pee, has arrived. Boy Z is besotted, Dr. O’C resigned and Not Max slightly confused. Along with the peals of laughter and declarations of love, however, have been fits of tears. Puppies nip. It’s what they do. Not Max [...]
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
It is winter in Australia which means that it is football season it Australia. And by football, I don’t mean steroid stuffed giants in full body armor standing around for three plus hours, nor overpaid Brazilians kicking a round ball around for an hour and a half in the quest for a nil-nil draw. No, [...]
He’s the hairy, hairy gent, who ran amok in Kent.
Reason #143 that I love Australia: public holidays for trivial reasons. There’s the Queen’s Birthday in June (which is not actually the current or any past Queen of England’s birthday), Family and Community Day in the ACT in September, Eight Hours Day in Tasmania in March, Picnic Day in the Northern Territories in August and yesterday’s Adelaide [...]
I live out yonder where the snakes and scorpions run
Boy Z and I need dates this weekend. For WOMADelaide. Dr. O’C is not a fan of ‘hippy shit’. (Nor, for that matter, am I. But I’m too old and Boy Z is too young for Big Day Out and I want to take some advantage of The Festival State’s offerings) And she reckons that [...]
Most Novembers I break down and cry
I keep thinking of the scene in “As Good As It Gets” when Jack Nicholson’s character gets a bit tearful after returning Greg Kinnear’s dog. He exclaims with a grim chuckle:
“Over a dog! Over an ugly dog!”
I know how Melvin Udell felt. My dog wasn’t ugly, but he was damn stupid. He has been gone [...]
This life is sweet. You’re dancin’ in the street.
To those of you shoveling snow or scraping the ice off your windshield or grieving the meteorological predictions of an amphibious rodent I have one thing to say:
Suck it, Northern Hemisphere losers.
February rocks!
Now when you manage to get out of your parkas and your fingers thaw, go and check out my post on The Greenists today. [...]
Music and passion were always the fashion
Not Max, our now five month old son, doesn’t get a lot of face time here at A Free Man. This accurately reflects his position in real life, squarely in the shadow of his older brother. Boy Z walks and talks and runs and throws and hits a cricket ball and thus earns far more [...]
And they all have pretty children…
I have been trying to think of ways to describe the unique sound of a plastic cascade of Lego tumbling from its appropriate receptacle onto the floor. If you’re a parent or like me, a childhood afficianado of Lego, you know what I’m talking about. There is no other sound like it. It likely strikes [...]
Soon the sleigh was flashing past, right over Marble Bar
I’ve been trying for a few weeks to get a decent picture of both boys for my office. This, seemingly, is an impossible task. I can get photos in which one of them looks good – looking at the camera with a smile of sorts – but none in which they both look good. Typically [...]
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