Picking up and going travelling when and where it suits. All you need are some helpful neighbours and a watering system.
One of the great advantages of living in an apartment is that you can very easily not live there – picking up and going travelling when and where it suits, with little inconvenience. All you need are some helpful neighbours and a watering system.
Art transport delivers artworks for new exhibition at Ngununggula, the new gallery in Bowral.
After our brief jaunt to Sydney in mid January, we ended the month with a trip to our second home, the Southern Highlands, where as usual, we were perched in the Berida Hotel.
Unexpected and quirky finds
One of the aspects of our much-loved regional road trips is the unexpected and quirky finds we stumble upon. In Mittagong (another spot in the Southern Highlands), there is an unassuming Thai restaurant called Paste. The mother restaurant in Bangkok earned a Michelin star in the first Thai edition of the guide in 2018, with owner (and head chef) ‘Bee’ Satongun named Asia’s Best Female Chef by the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants in the same year. When I first discovered this restaurant I was intrigued why it is in Mittagong (there is also one in Laos).
One of the aspects of our much-loved regional road trips is the unexpected and quirky finds we stumble upon. In Mittagong (another spot in the Southern Highlands), there is an unassuming Thai restaurant called Paste. The mother restaurant in Bangkok earned a Michelin star in the first Thai edition of the guide in 2018, with owner (and head chef) ‘Bee’ Satongun named Asia’s Best Female Chef by the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants in the same year. When I first discovered this restaurant I was intrigued why it is in Mittagong (there is also one in Laos).
Train passes over main road at Moss Vale.
My theory is that like many decisions, it’s based on human intersection. The other chef, Jason Bailey, is an Australian and also Bee’s husband. Together they scour historic Thai writings and traditions and innovate Thai cuisine – reminding me of legendary Australian chef David Thompson, long based in Bangkok, and a key figure in the popularity of Thai food in Australia.
Café doorway in Bowral.
When we passed through Bangkok on our way home in late 2024, I really regret not going to the original Bangkok restaurant – I’m pretty certain it wasn’t far away from where we were staying. Bangkok was too big and boisterous and we had run out of oomph.
International Decade of Reading
Perched like a bird in the sky above Canberra, trying to pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist, I find I keep running out of good television programs to watch. Instead I have to go to bed early and read – not necessarily a bad thing.
Perched like a bird in the sky above Canberra, trying to pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist, I find I keep running out of good television programs to watch. Instead I have to go to bed early and read – not necessarily a bad thing.
‘Perched like a bird in the sky above Canberra, trying to pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist, I find I keep running out of good television programs to watch. Instead I have to go to bed early and read – not necessarily a bad thing.’
Perched like a bird in the sky above Canberra, trying to pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist.
In fact, so impressed was I with my renewed foray into reading, that I even published an article about it, A matter of life and death, or more important than that – discovering the beauty of ‘chicklit’ I rediscovered my local library and I found I was reading a book every 2-3 days.
It’s not as though I hadn’t read plenty of ‘difficult’ books – growing up in Tasmania I’d read all the fat Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev and Chekhov books, James Joyce’s Ulysses, Kafka, Thomas Mann, Kazantzakis, virtually every book ever written by D H Lawrence. But this was a new lease of reading life.
Book bag.
When I dropped a basket of 16 books back to the library recently, I said to the librarian ‘I’m trying to turn book reading into an Olympic sport.’ She replied ‘we’d all watch that.’ It’s ironic that back in the days when I worked, at one time I was responsible for the International Year of Reading. Now I’ve retired I’m part of the International Decade of Reading.
Remembering the 60s
They say that if you remember the 60s then you weren’t there. You could also say that if you remember the 60s, you’d rather you didn’t. The world might have been about to change for the better – before the more recent current reaction against it – but it hadn’t yet arrived.
They say that if you remember the 60s then you weren’t there. You could also say that if you remember the 60s, you’d rather you didn’t. The world might have been about to change for the better – before the more recent current reaction against it – but it hadn’t yet arrived.
Remembering the 60s: seen on the streets of Bowral – the first car I ever owned.
In his autobiography, ‘Not quite the diplomat’, Chris Patten, the last British Governor of Hong Kong commented that it is often said that people don’t like Americans, but he noted ‘in fact people quite like Americans, what they don’t like are American governments.’
Before we knew everything.
To which you could add ‘and the robber barons, crooks and mega-wealthy they represent.’ Perhaps in an updated comment he might have added ‘people quite like Americans, except those who voted for Trump.’
‘They say that if you remember the 60s then you weren’t there. You could also say that if you remember the 60s, you’d rather you didn’t.’
Sometimes I think that the actions of the American Government have such a profound effect on the whole world, that we should all get to vote in their elections. Given that so many Americans don’t vote, someone has to – and it might as well be us.
On the other hand, I’m not sure I really care. The whole US economy is afloat on an ocean of debt. I wouldn’t be surprised if an increasing number of countries that hold US treasury bonds do the dump on Trump and offload sufficient of the bonds that the economy shudders and even topples into another global financial crisis. During the Great Depression the US had Franklin D. Roosevelt. Now it has – Trump.
A similar crisis happened with the Soviet Union way back in 1991, as the underlying cracks and craziness grew wider and wider – here’s to the end of the world as we know it. I’ll have a great view of it from my balcony.
© Stephen Cassidy 2026
See also
Guides to a fiery future – it was only a matter of time
'It was only a matter of time. It seems such a long time ago that we moved from bushfires to pandemic and watched as a wave of disease and stupidity swept the world and the country. Now the bushfires are back – the stupidity as well. Did we ever think they wouldn’t be?', Guides to a fiery future – it was only a matter of time.
‘Today I popped out to get coffee and to visit the library, which just reopened after the break. They are the only things that would tempt me out of the apartment in this weather. Instead of the normal sheep graziers alert we get in Canberra, today we have a heat wave alert. Today is 33 degrees, then tomorrow is 35, the next day 37 and then Friday will be 39. Originally there were going to be three days in a row where the temperatures reached 39, so I’m thankful that’s changed. I feel as though I am living in Adelaide again, but it’s probably even hotter there’, Sheep graziers warning replaced by heat wave alert.
Lurching to a halt at the end of the year
‘For some reason Christmas reminds me of a play by Jean-Paul Sartre called ‘Huis Clos’, named after the French equivalent of an in camera trial or closed courtroom. It’s about three people who have died, locked together awaiting judgement in a crowded room for eternity. It’s the origin of Sartre’s famous line ‘hell is other people’. But it’s not the idea of hell that Christmas reminds me of, but the fact that at Christmas, especially on Boxing Day, the world suddenly lurches to a halt’, Lurching to a halt at the end of the year.
A different universe lapped by waves‘For some reason Christmas reminds me of a play by Jean-Paul Sartre called ‘Huis Clos’, named after the French equivalent of an in camera trial or closed courtroom. It’s about three people who have died, locked together awaiting judgement in a crowded room for eternity. It’s the origin of Sartre’s famous line ‘hell is other people’. But it’s not the idea of hell that Christmas reminds me of, but the fact that at Christmas, especially on Boxing Day, the world suddenly lurches to a halt’, Lurching to a halt at the end of the year.
‘The little city that serves Australia as a capital is tucked up in the mountains far from any coastline, even though in a strange historical quirk it actually has a coastline at Jervis Bay. Yet to reach the South Coast of New South Wales, below the swollen city where Australia’s official European history began, takes hardly any time at all. It’s much more drawn out heading down the coast from Sydney, through the great Sydney sprawl past Wollongong and beyond. The South Coast is an entirely different universe to the capital’, A different universe lapped by waves.
Walking with ghosts
‘Increasingly people I have known for a long time seem to be dying. In fact my generation is steadily starting to disappear. Who is replacing them? We shuffle along in a world that is unravelling, a world – that for both good and bad – our generation gave birth to. We are teetering in a strange balance between building on the achievements of the past and desperately trying to dismantle them. In many countries, the current generation is poorer than the previous one, upending generations of dreams by working class parents and migrants for a better life for their children. In this time of upheaval – both welcome and unwelcome – creativity is needed like never before’, Walking with ghosts.
On the rails again – a trip about the past and the future
I'm on the road again – well, on the rails again. On Monday I caught the slow train from Canberra to Sydney, and today I’ve woken up to a third morning in Surry Hills. I’m enjoying the days in Sydney – after all, I did live here for twelve and a half years. I’m mainly here to see the Yolngu Power exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW, which finishes next week, but I’m also using the trip to see to other business’, On the rails again – a trip about the past and the future.
I'm on the road again – well, on the rails again. On Monday I caught the slow train from Canberra to Sydney, and today I’ve woken up to a third morning in Surry Hills. I’m enjoying the days in Sydney – after all, I did live here for twelve and a half years. I’m mainly here to see the Yolngu Power exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW, which finishes next week, but I’m also using the trip to see to other business’, On the rails again – a trip about the past and the future.
Looking down on dire predictions
‘I see the latest report on looming climate change has some pretty dire predictions – like a future of four times the length of heatwaves, up to five times as many deaths due to extreme heat, a massive drag on productivity, 1.5 million Australians at risk of coastal flooding and a potential half trillion dollar hit to property values by 20250 – and that’s just the good news’, Looking down on dire predictions.
‘I see the latest report on looming climate change has some pretty dire predictions – like a future of four times the length of heatwaves, up to five times as many deaths due to extreme heat, a massive drag on productivity, 1.5 million Australians at risk of coastal flooding and a potential half trillion dollar hit to property values by 20250 – and that’s just the good news’, Looking down on dire predictions.
Marching with the Nazis – as un-Australian as it gets
'I’m still shocked by the marches and rallies around the country opposing immigration. Everyone involved says mass immigration, but it’s clear in practice they mean most immigration – and definitely all immigration by people who aren’t white, or as I like to say, ‘pink’. Here I am travelling through my own homeland once again and, at times, it seems like a foreign country – not because of immigrants but because of those who have grown up here. Those taking part in these marches probably have genuine grievances, but they have picked the wrong target to blame and, in the process, have been steered into becoming in effect neo-Nazi fellow travellers. We are (almost) all immigrants here, only just starting to genuinely come to grips with this country', Marching with the Nazis – as un-Australian as it gets.
Self-imposed lockdown – hanging around home
'For all their faults and disadvantages there were some positive sides to the pandemic lockdowns. As I often say, ‘good times’ – maybe my memory isn’t what it was. I realise that I planned and prepared for so long to move to an apartment and now I am here I keep discovering more and more things I like about it. I could stay home and read and write and never leave it, just popping down to the shops when I need supplies – perhaps it’s a case of self-imposed lockdown', Self-imposed lockdown.
Essen, trinken, tanzen – aber nicht rauchen
‘From time to time my posts on ‘travelling light’ include references to restaurants we have eaten at or enjoyable places we have stayed. However, most of my regular writing about food, produce, restaurants and places we have stayed is on one of my blogs, tableland, which I describe as: ‘Food and cooking land to table – the daily routine of living in the high country, on the edge of the vast Pacific, just up from Sydney, just down from Mount Kosciuszko’, Essen, trinken, tanzen – aber nicht rauchen.
‘From time to time my posts on ‘travelling light’ include references to restaurants we have eaten at or enjoyable places we have stayed. However, most of my regular writing about food, produce, restaurants and places we have stayed is on one of my blogs, tableland, which I describe as: ‘Food and cooking land to table – the daily routine of living in the high country, on the edge of the vast Pacific, just up from Sydney, just down from Mount Kosciuszko’, Essen, trinken, tanzen – aber nicht rauchen.
Cooking minestrone in an art gallery – pineapple fruit cake, hot soup and art on a cold day
‘In winter my mind turns to food, but since it is never turned away from art, cooking and looking manage to fill in the cooler months – or maybe that’s all months. I haven’t made hand-made pasta for a while but I have made sushi and sashimi – though only once in recent memory – as I resurrect all my food traditions. Cooking, eating and cruising around art exhibitions – that’s winter for me’, Cooking minestrone in an art gallery - pineapple fruit cake, hot soup and art on a cold day
‘In winter my mind turns to food, but since it is never turned away from art, cooking and looking manage to fill in the cooler months – or maybe that’s all months. I haven’t made hand-made pasta for a while but I have made sushi and sashimi – though only once in recent memory – as I resurrect all my food traditions. Cooking, eating and cruising around art exhibitions – that’s winter for me’, Cooking minestrone in an art gallery - pineapple fruit cake, hot soup and art on a cold day
Winter markets in a creative city
'The winter we had to have (and could have hoped for) finally arrived on the Southern Tablelands. We have gone back to going to the Farmers Market every week. To add to the winter sun good news arrived. For over ten years we worked to have Canberra listed as a UNESCO Creative City of Design, part of a global network of creative cities. Finally the ACT Government announced that it intended to take the bid forward – and that it had allocated funding for it, the true sign of a government being serious. It’s always a pleasure to help initiate a worthwhile endeavour, but even more of a pleasure to look back ten years later and see that it has been a roaring success in more ways than one', Winter markets in a creative city.
Speaking in tongues
‘Where I live a statue of French maritime hero, La Pérouse, looks out over the suburb as though to say: this, too, could have been France. For a period it seemed everyone who went to school in Australia studied French. Perhaps it was a belated attempt to acknowledge how much better everything would have been if the French had got here first. As I like to say whenever I’m in France, ‘j’ai étudié le Français pendant six ans à l’école’ and I would like to have had more opportunity to use that knowledge', Speaking in tongues.Looking down on birds
'While the world unravels and some gleefully repeat the mistakes of the past, life goes on in gardens everywhere. I remember that in the Roman Empire, if a change of regime occurred, soldiers, recognising that they were also farmers, would often retire for a time to their farm - until circumstances and duty called them back. Some wit commented that what is happening now is like the fall of the Roman Empire, but with wi-fi', Looking down on birds.
Back in the days when we travelled
'Back in the days when we travelled, I used to post news of my trips to Facebook, so my friends could follow my exploits overseas. For a long time it has been apparent that Facebook has issues, so back in 2019 I set up this blog 'Travelling light' to replace my Facebook posts. However, in the end I decided to stay with Facebook, so this blog was never used', Back in the days when we travelled.
Travelling light by being still
'As I've said repeatedly, I don't have any problem with flying, it's landing and taking off I don't like – and all the logistics in-between. I have few problems with lounging around for hours and on a flight, you get to sit still while people bring you food and drink. How much better does it get?', Travelling light by being still.
Abandoning the world of work
'When I left full-time work over ten years ago, I was asked what I intended to do. Once I no longer had distractions, like work – fun though it was at the time – it was clear that I would definitely have some time on my hands. I replied that I planned to keep up with my friends and to travel – when I wasn't gardening, cooking, reading or writing. It sounded like a fine plan at the time and as things panned out, it was a fine plan', Abandoning the world of work.