General Interest
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Do Yourself a Favour, Gladys
Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021 I have some sympathy for former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian, as, I think, would many people who implicitly understand that no one is perfect, least of all themselves. She did the right thing – eventually – when the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) named her as a person of interest Continue reading
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There’s a lot of bull in this China shop
Sunday, Nov. 28, 2021 Well, forgetting the bull for the present, there’s a lot of blue water – literally in this case – between the fractious business of managing relations with China and doing the sort of pre-boy on the burning deck routine we’re seeing in Australia from the government and its fellow travellers. There Continue reading
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Is it time to consider a universal wage?
Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021 Every cloud has a silver lining. Well, that’s if you’re lucky and you believe in ancient aphorisms. But there’s certainly a silver lining under the big covid cloud if the idea of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) attracts you. Serious academic study of the concept and of its associated cost is Continue reading
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Eye, Eye!
Wednesday, Apr. 14, 2021 Just a little bit of whimsy ahead of an event I’m not looking forward to. This week I shall be having the first of two cataract surgeries. The first is in two days time, on Friday, Apr. 16, and the second is scheduled for May 11. I’ve read up on the Continue reading
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Peak Effort
HECTOR’S DIARY Titbits from his regular diet of worms The Cage, Bali | Saturday, Apr. 28, 2018 DIAN Cahyadi, with whom we had the pleasure of working in Lombok more than decade ago, on a little and now extinct monthly newspaper called the Lombok Times, has achieved a new personal best for 2018. Actually, it’s Continue reading
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Cool Aid Needed
HECTOR’S DIARY Titbits from his diet of worms Ubud, Bali Saturday, Apr. 7, 2018 IT should surprise, though of course it doesn’t, that Indonesia’s pique Islamist bother boots brotherhood, the FPI, has taken issue with a poem written nearly two decades ago and recently recited by Sukmawati Sukarnoputri. It laments the way Continue reading
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To Note
I think I have at last managed to administer phoenix serum to my blog, with the assistance (here acknowledged) of the WordPress team. So, excusing Murphy, Sod, and all their works, the Diary and other things should be back up and running again soon. Chin-chin! Continue reading
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A Treasured Gentleman
RON WATSON Died Queensland, Australia, Dec. 8, 2017 Ron and his wife Tania dining out in style in Brisbane just days ago. (Photo from Tania Watson’s Facebook page, with my apologies for lifting it without first getting permission.) RON Watson was a lovely man. We were never close friends. Life’s Continue reading
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Wingnuts Away!
HECTOR’S DIARY in the Bali Advertiser Wednesday, Sep. 13, 2017 WHEN this diary was written, we were supposed to be in Provence, France. Specifically, we were supposed to be in the lovely lower Rhone Valley, at L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. “We,” in this instance, means The Diary and the Distaff. That’s for any quibblers out there. We Continue reading
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Statuary Declaration
HECTOR’S DIARY His regular diet of worms and other non-religious fare Candi Dasa, Bali Wednesday, Jun. 28, 2017 TEN days in the blissful zephyrs, beside the azure briny you get in the better parts of the archipelago, can do you a power of good. Such a break provides time to read books – or Continue reading
8º of latitude 