Latest Posts
Funding pre-schools
There have been a couple of articles (probably because it is the silly season) recently about the unaffordability of pre-schools in NSW, compared with other Australian states. The vast majority of pre-schools in NSW cost about $30 a day, with most children going for the year before school, for twoContinue Reading
Review – The History Question: Who owns the past?
Today I’m reviewing one of the Quarterly Essays – The History Question; Who owns the past? by Inga Clendinnen. Quarterly Essays are 20,000 words published quarterly, with responses generally in the next issue. I’ve previously reviewed Clendinnen’s Dancing with Strangers, which is a detailed deconstruction and pieceing together of the historyContinue Reading
Walking in the rain
One of our favourite weekend excursions is to walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and take the ferry home. It’s been a while, so we did it again today, even though rain was threatening. So picture us – three adults, with three small boys. They’d been cooped up a bit inContinue Reading
Extreme Jobs
A recent article in the Harvard Business Review entitled Extreme Jobs – the Dangerous Allure of the 70 hour workweek (reported here) sums up again why I don’t think creating work-life balance is just about telling (asking?) employers to be nicer to their employees. Many people enjoy their work, andContinue Reading
Book Review: The world according to Y
Today’s book review is The World According to Y: inside the new adult generation, by Rebecca Huntley. I probably wouldn’t have bought this book if I didn’t have some flying to do (four hours each way to NZ meant I needed more than just some magazines), but I’m glad IContinue Reading
Penguins under attack
I have yet to see the movie Happy Feet (which of course, given the name of this blog, I must). But I’m interested to see that it’s already come under attack for being “environmentalist propaganda”. As I understand it, in spite of the poles being more likely to warm upContinue Reading
Shoes
Last Friday, we were having our work Christmas party that afternoon – casual, outdoors, in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney. It was a beautiful day, not too hot, but sunny. Unfortunately, I had an important meeting, so I couldn’t go casual, as most of my colleagues did, but I thought aContinue Reading
The new Jobs
AFR Boss magazine had a very interesting conversation about flexible jobs recently. The full transcript is here. It was a moderated conversation between Dr Marian Baird, of the University of Sydney and Mr Stephen Bevan, research director, The Work Foundation. It’s a great conversation, but a few things really struckContinue Reading
Book Review: Teacher Man
Today’s Book Review is Teacher Man, by Frank McCourt. I read, and loved Angela’s Ashes, when it first came out. I had avoided Tis, as the reviews were mostly unfavourable. But I expected quite a lot of this book, given how good Angela’s Ashes was, and also given that IContinue Reading
A vicious cycle(ing)
A few months ago, in Melbourne, a pedestrian was killed by a cyclist while crossing the road. It was early on a Saturday morning, when the local cyclists were out on their morning ride. A friend told me that the cyclists on this ride are notorious for not obeying the roadContinue Reading