8º of latitude

October 12, 2017

Living with Vulcan

HECTOR’S DIARY Bali Advertiser, Oct. 11, 2017 ONCE upon a time, the activity of a volcano in a distant domestic backyard from which one is temporarily absent would have been something relayed at intervals by news reports, or not at all. Its inactivity ahead of anticipated action would have been even harder to detect Continue reading

Bali, EU, Travel, Ubud

Autumn lunches, Information/Misinformation, Mendicants, Mt Agung, UWRF 2017, Vasco da Gama
September 13, 2017

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

General Interest
August 18, 2017

Pauline’s Peek-a-Boo

~ image from Senate CCTV footage PAULINE Hanson’s stunt in the Australian Senate on Thursday – for that is what it was, banal to its bootstraps – has caused an outbreak of comment. It also caused Attorney-General George Brandis to deliver to Hanson a condign rebuke in the chamber, for which he is due Continue reading

Australia, Islamic beliefs, Terrorism

Barcelona, Burqa, Pauline Hanson
August 17, 2017

Just Cruising

HECTOR’S DIARY In the Bali Advertiser Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2017 THE cruise market is big and likely to grow further, so it makes sense for Bali to have the capacity to effectively service this element of the tourism trade. The port of Benoa is the logical place to site the infrastructure required, and it Continue reading

Bali, Economic Development, Indonesia, Tourism, Ubud

ARMA Museum, Chinese Tourists, Earthquakes, Independence Day, Ines Wynn, Intercontinental Bali, Jazz, Land Titles, Local Radio
August 12, 2017

Red Sales in the Sunset

HECTOR’S DIARY His regular diet of worms and other non-religious fare The Cage, Bali Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017 WE had a little giggle this week when we read that the Minister for National Development Planning, Professor Bambang Brodjonegoro, had wondered why more Australian investment was directed to Mexico than to Indonesia. Mexico, as he Continue reading

Bali, Foreign Investment, History, Indonesia, Indonesian Law, Politics, Public Administration, Social Development, Writing

Bambang Brodjonegoro, Biku, Donald Trump, Malcolm Turnbull, Periplus, Samasta Jimbaran, Telephone transcripts, Tim Hannigan, Willard Hanna
July 19, 2017

Who Let the Dogs Out?

HECTOR’S DIARY Bali Advertiser Wednesday, Jul. 19, 2017 EATING dog is something we would never do. It disgusts us, for all sorts of reasons. We also understand that this is largely a cultural issue. Eating man’s best friend is not generally a practice of people whose conditioning originates from what is now Europe. Continue reading

Animal Welfare, Bali, Bureaucracy, Fine Dining, Food, Indonesian Law, NGOs, Tourism, Ubud

Animal Welfare, Chris Salans, Dog meat, Farewells, Kerala Ceramics, Life-saving coffee, Lloyd Hassencahl, Marathons, Mozaic, School aid, Sky News, Tom Hickman, tourist cuisines
July 12, 2017

Belt and Braces

HECTOR’S DIARY His regular diet of worms and other non-religious fare The Cage, Bali Wednesday, Jul. 12, 2017 DONALD Trump made a remarkable speech in Warsaw ahead of the economic summit he attended later in the historic Hanseatic League city of Hamburg, where he demonstrated exactly why the Group of 20 is now the Continue reading

America, Australia, Bali, Global Politics, Health

Brexit, Coffee, Donald Trump, English verbs, G20, Hamburg, Homosexuality, Joan C. Williams, London Daily Telegraph, Luwaks, Malcolm Turnbull, Mark Steyn, Nick Cater, Robert Menzies, Sappho, Sky News, Warsaw
July 5, 2017

It’s a Scream

HECTOR’S DIARY His regular diet of worms and other non-religious fare The Cage, Bali Wednesday, Jul. 5, 2017 THERE are many ways to judge a man’s character. The gender is specific in this case, and the point is pertinent to the activities of the current president of the United States and, in this instance, Continue reading

Australia, Economic Development, Environment, Foreign Investment, Global Politics, Indonesia, USA, Wine

ABC Four Corners, Bogor theme parks, Donald Trump, Drink Spiking, Harry Tanoe, Hatten Aga Red, Mara Wolford, Media, Nirwana golf, Rohypnol, Sjamboks, Walkley Awards
June 28, 2017

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

America, Australia, Bali, Books, Bureaucracy, Crime and Punishment, General Interest, Indonesia, Tourism

David Nicholls, El Kabron, Four Seasons Sayan, James Grippando, Kiran Desai, Music, Rose Madder, Titian
June 22, 2017

Hit Parade

HECTOR’S DIARY Bali Advertiser, Jun. 21, 2017 IT’S always good fun to read the local Bahasa language press, as well as informative. Some people like to criticise the media – well, no, everyone likes to do that – and that’s no less common in Indonesia than anywhere. One of the things about critics is Continue reading

Australia, Bali, Charity, Crime and Punishment, Music, NGOs, Writing

Bali Police Chief Petrus Reinhard Golose, Christina Iskandar, Cocoon Seminyak, Debbie Amelsvoort, Divas, Drug Raids, Jazz, Kerry Ball, Marzi Panne, Polly Petrie, Sea Breeze Mendira, Songan landslide, Vincent’s Candi Dasa

About Me

Former journalist now confined by age and indolence to blogging about this and that, now from Western Australia, previously from Indonesia (that’s the 8 degrees in the title) and before that, Queensland. I don’t do a newsletter so ignore that prompt below.