Latest Posts
Parental leave
When Hungry Boy was born, I was the main breadwinner of our family (as I still am). I got two months paid maternity leave, so took three months total maternity leave before going back to work. It was lovely to have two parents at home for what was a prettyContinue Reading
Book Review: The Third Chimpanzee
Today’s book review is The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal, by Jared Diamond. I read this book after his other two; Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (a worthy Pulitzer Prize winner), and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (notContinue Reading
Holiday economics
I’ve just been on holiday to Far North Queensland, and was pondering what kind of place my perfect beach holiday would be. It would be a sandy beach, with warm water (25 degrees or so) – a sheltered beach at one end, surf at the other. No jellyfish, or otherContinue Reading
School starting age
As all the US bloggers I read have sent their children to kindergarten, I’ve been pondering on school starting ages in different countries. There is a surprising (to me) amount of variability. According to this research paper, in Europe, the standard school starting age varies from four (Northern Ireland) toContinue Reading
Worms and work life balance
In a very metaphorical, entertaining post, Stephanie West Allen at idealawg talks about whether you can ever have more than one level of work life balance at a law firm. She writes of reading of worms that live in water so scorching that it would kill other worms: What would happen ifContinue Reading
Writing
Writing my previous Unearthed post made me remember the other reason I decided to become an actuary. I remember saying to one of my teachers, “I’ll never have to write another essay again.” I find it somewhat ironic, then, that I’m now effectively writing as a hobby (quite apart fromContinue Reading
World Champions
I have to record this: Australia’s women just won the World Basketball Championships! Women’s basketball is one of the few sports I make an effort to see live, whenever world class teams are playing in Sydney, and with the Australian women’s team having been ranked number 2 for the lastContinue Reading
Unearthed
Lazy blogging today, but I thought I’d use a profile I put together for a work magazine. It was quite fun to put together. My favourite energetic pursuit: Triathlons (although it’s been over a year since I did one) My favourite meal: Pancakes and maple syrup on a Sunday morningContinue Reading
School choice
There’s been an interesting set of posts started by Elizabeth at Half Changed World about how people choose their childrens’ school. Jody at Raising Weg had a very thoughtful post about the choices she made for her children. So I thought I’d give it a go. My theory is that theContinue Reading
Worst jobs in history
Last night I watched a piece of highbrow fluff on the ABC – The Worst Jobs in History – the Dark Ages. I usually like watching Tony Robinson – best known as Baldrick on Blackadder – but I found this program profoundly irritating. At a time when most people livedContinue Reading