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S P E C T R U M S P E C T R U M S P E C T R U M M I K E R U D D B I L L P U T T . C O MM M I K E R U D D B I L…

.. their lack of salesmanship, because after twenty minutes of standing in the bitterly cold wind that was whipping round the schoolyard in a numbed kind of reverie interrupted only by the unwanted blandishments of the blotchy-faced woman in the crocheted poncho selling wax cups of tea and $2.00 raffle tickets (prizes of this year’s…

..painting of mine. The original purity of design has been a trifle compromised by the modifications but there were impracticalities inherent in triangular garden beds. Manoeuvring wheelbarrows around one hundred and twenty degree angled corners being one. During the reconstruction effort I have discovered that red gum is very much heavier than I thought, moving…

..having no foreign-speaking nations literally on our borders takes the heat out of having to learn another lingo, but New Zealand has given respect to the indigenous Maori population by making the learning the Maori language compulsory, and while I can see there are problems emulating that gesture in Australia, it does bring up the…

..day for four weeks was one, immediate punishment for yelling out the window at the band that they should play in tune was another. Actually it wasn’t all that bad as it was the so-called ‘university intake’ with, I think, only two people in my platoon who weren’t at university. The army didn’t really want…

.. tell me to tell me that he was 29 years old, that he was serious about his rap music, that one of his rap nom-de-plumes was Jules Rockwell, that he was registered with Centrelink, that his mother would prefer it if he could hold down a steady job and that she preferred Massive Attack…

..the Titanic, you really just want the boat to sink and take Leonardo and Kate down with it – the plot and exposition get in the way of the cataclysm. The critical mind will find there are plenty of moments during the movie to wander and contemplate what the rest of the world might be…

..computing. I realised as I poured over specification sheets, internet sites and price lists that I hadn’t bought a computer since 1989 when I commenced a Post Graduate course in Computing at the then Chisholm Institute which was soon subsumed into the cavernous qualification mill of Monash University. I remember more than twenty years ago…

S P E C T R U M S P E C T R U M S P E C T R U M M I K E R U D D B I L L P U T T . C O MM M I K E R U D D B I L…

..which in its turn used to be known as the Bank of NSW – aah, those were the days!). She had a young son, Jack, who was at his first year at school. All the first years had to be assessed for their swimming prowess, to which end a dozen or so were lined up…

..however, have a patently mad Abbott and a quite peculiar Bishop. Corruption is relatively minor, flourishing at the local council level (how else does a flood plain become a housing estate after all) but is not the rampant pervasive cancer as in many countries near our borders. Governments change civilly and without rancour perhaps because…

S P E C T R U M S P E C T R U M S P E C T R U M M I K E R U D D B I L L P U T T . C O MM M I K E R U D D B I L…

.. that Bad doesn’t get the girl in the end, but he does get his song-writing groove back . And about the songs, I was almost surprised that I liked them quite a lot. Stylistically they were veering towards country-rock for the most part, but they were consistently better than average with smart, self-deprecating lyrics….

..am easily led by my friends who think it will be a good thing and within my capabilities. The event takes two days and the first day goes from Bright, over Mount Hotham to Omeo. The second day goes from Omeo over the back road to Falls Creek and thence over Tawonga Gap back to…

Mike’s Pith & Wind cont. .. smoke. I can’t see that having any long-term effect. I think kids generally see smoking as a measure of maturity and sophistication for one thing, and if parents and oldies are agin it, it must be especially worth doing for another. Maybe that’s the clue. Maybe it’s time for…

Dick’s Toolbox cont. ..“Brilliance of the Sea” loomed down the channel dragging a tug “The Lourdes” behind as a token optimistic handbrake. The immensity was stunning, people like a myriad coloured dots acned the decks , the sun was momentarily blocked out as if by a partial eclipse. Our fearful eyes followed the boat’s path…

Mike’s Pith & Wind cont. .. (I think it was on the ABC) about an apparently typical family in North Korea. (Let’s get over the ‘what is typical’ debate before we go any further). Of course, by Western standards they weren’t that well off in terms of consumer goods that may or may not qualify…

.. is as lovable as I obviously am. I think I mentioned that I heard a program on RN on the way home from a gig at The Lomond recently by a young-ish, deaf-ish BBC chap who’d ventured into the world of hearing aids and was trying to demystify the process for the large-ish section…