It would be nice to think that America was bombing the terrible Iranian regime to help rebelling Iranians, but I’m sure it’s only because of the oil. After all in 1953, Britain with the aid of America, overthrew a democratically-elected government there to keep control of the oil, thereby setting in train the long string of events that led to what’s happening today.
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| To our glorious dead - the collateral damage from an earlier war that was just as pointless. This monument is in the glorious historic port town of Oamaru on the East Coast of the New Zealand South Island. I was in one of the sandstone buildings that had been converted to an arts and craft centre when I realised that long after all the warehouses and wharves in these old towns have closed, there will always be the art centres and the breweries. |
What's good about Good Friday?
Another Easter has come and gone. As I repeatedly say Easter is a good time to go away and also a good time to stay home. We stayed home. As the American Empire hammered a Middle Eastern state, it was ironic to think that the Easter story is about another empire – the Romans – occupying the land inhabited by various peoples, including the Jews at the time, and using force to repress popular discontent and eliminate leaders.
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| Looking down on birds – and balloons – from the paradise garden on our terrace. |
Good Friday slipped past and then it was Even Better Saturday. I can’t imagine why Friday, the supposed day of the crucifixion, is called ‘good’ and Monday, the day of the resurrection is called simply ‘Easter Monday’ – there’s a nomenclature issue there. Is it a bit like my response to ‘Make America great again’ – it wasn’t that great. I did jokingly ask ‘what’s good about Good Friday?’ Perhaps because Good Friday and Boxing Day are similar, in that both are quieter days amongst the mayhem, when if the world doesn’t stop, it at least slows down. It’s particularly true out in the paradise garden I have created on our terrace, looking down on birds – and balloons.
As part of my process of seeking to disentangle from the American tech octopus, I did a search to see what computers are not made by American companies. Lo and behold I found an array of websites providing information about what computers are not made in China, even one called Never China, offering to identify a product and place an order through Amazon. Clearly loads of Americans are busy searching how to buy more American products – they don’t need us or our money. It’s hard to escape the American economic empire, but to the degree I can, I’m moving to Asian or European products, not American products – and not even American products made in Asia.
Love song to Manchester
A friend sent me a link for a video of an Irish wedding recently. At first I couldn't turn on the sound, so I didn't know what the wedding guests were singing so enthusiastically. When I finally did I had to take a deep breath. My friend's daughter has just come back from living in Manchester and the song was the marvellous song 'Dirty Old Town', a love song about Manchester, and particularly Salford. It was written by Ewan MacColl (and originally sung by MacColl and Peggy Seeger, who I saw perform it in Adelaide a lifetime ago). It's not strictly an Irish song, but it's no surprise to see so many people at an Irish wedding knowing all the words and singing along. Beyond gorgeous.
The cost of living (a lie)
Lately there has been as lot of concern about the cost of living. Obviously not enough concern – lurking in the background are looming costs far higher than any we are confronting now, once the hard reality of climate change collides with the bottom line. I have realised that economists are like the Trojan seer Cassandra, fated to be able to foretell the future, but cursed never to be believed.
When I was in New Zealand in early 2023 and the North Island was hit by a cyclone which caused extensive damage, I remember thinking that this must have a deadening effect on the economy of a country, especially when it occurred on a reasonably frequent basis. When Australia has been struck by large bushfires and immediately afterwards by flooding in virtually the same places, I realise that you don’t need to be a country troubled by earthquakes to have your economy and society rocked by natural disaster.
On top of natural disasters, four shark attacks in one week a while back seems a huge increase. I’m convinced that nature is trying to tell us something important.
'Good Friday slipped past and then it was Even Better Saturday. I can’t imagine why Friday, the supposed day of the crucifixion, is called ‘good’ and Monday, the day of the resurrection is called simply ‘Easter Monday’ – there’s a nomenclature issue there.'
As part of my process of seeking to disentangle from the American tech octopus, I did a search to see what computers are not made by American companies. Lo and behold I found an array of websites providing information about what computers are not made in China, even one called Never China, offering to identify a product and place an order through Amazon. Clearly loads of Americans are busy searching how to buy more American products – they don’t need us or our money. It’s hard to escape the American economic empire, but to the degree I can, I’m moving to Asian or European products, not American products – and not even American products made in Asia.
Love song to Manchester
A friend sent me a link for a video of an Irish wedding recently. At first I couldn't turn on the sound, so I didn't know what the wedding guests were singing so enthusiastically. When I finally did I had to take a deep breath. My friend's daughter has just come back from living in Manchester and the song was the marvellous song 'Dirty Old Town', a love song about Manchester, and particularly Salford. It was written by Ewan MacColl (and originally sung by MacColl and Peggy Seeger, who I saw perform it in Adelaide a lifetime ago). It's not strictly an Irish song, but it's no surprise to see so many people at an Irish wedding knowing all the words and singing along. Beyond gorgeous.
The cost of living (a lie)
Lately there has been as lot of concern about the cost of living. Obviously not enough concern – lurking in the background are looming costs far higher than any we are confronting now, once the hard reality of climate change collides with the bottom line. I have realised that economists are like the Trojan seer Cassandra, fated to be able to foretell the future, but cursed never to be believed.
'Lately there has been as lot of concern about the cost of living. Obviously not enough concern – lurking in the background are looming costs far higher than any we are confronting now, once the hard reality of climate change collides with the bottom line.'
When I was in New Zealand in early 2023 and the North Island was hit by a cyclone which caused extensive damage, I remember thinking that this must have a deadening effect on the economy of a country, especially when it occurred on a reasonably frequent basis. When Australia has been struck by large bushfires and immediately afterwards by flooding in virtually the same places, I realise that you don’t need to be a country troubled by earthquakes to have your economy and society rocked by natural disaster.
On top of natural disasters, four shark attacks in one week a while back seems a huge increase. I’m convinced that nature is trying to tell us something important.
© Stephen Cassidy 2026
See also
‘The cool of the changing seasons is in the air and apples are on the table. For me the months of stone fruit are like Christmas – well they are Christmas, along with fruit mince tarts of course – but nothing lasts for ever. Luckily, though, it comes back again a year later. Right now what’s come back are apples. All the apples at the Farmers Market early this morning were new season. That’s good because war is in the air and we seem to be surrounded by things falling apart, so ongoing certainties are reassuring’, Cooling seasons and war in the air.
Stumbling over ghosts in an art gallery
‘We seem to be creeping towards the colder weather. Still with the daily news full of America revisiting its 1953 coup in Iran who has time to think about the weather? In between catching up with old friends, we’d just driven back from one of my favourite spots in Australia – the Thredbo Valley – and now it was time to return to furnishing our home. Someone once commented that inhabiting a modernist house would be like living in an art gallery and I thought I’d like to live in an art gallery. For many decades I carted around some old silk screen prints from my time in Adelaide. We finally decided to get one of them framed after all those decades and cities’, Stumbling over ghosts in an art gallery.
I'm never leaving home again – well, except to travel
‘I’ve made a couple of big decisions. I’ve decided that it’s better to be a Chardonnay socialist than a Riesling reactionary. I’ve also decided that given the state of the world – despite all the good things going on that we never hear about, it seems to be balancing between mediocrity, incompetence and plain greed and lust for power – I’m never leaving home again…well, except to travel’, I'm never leaving home again – well, except to travel.
‘I’ve made a couple of big decisions. I’ve decided that it’s better to be a Chardonnay socialist than a Riesling reactionary. I’ve also decided that given the state of the world – despite all the good things going on that we never hear about, it seems to be balancing between mediocrity, incompetence and plain greed and lust for power – I’m never leaving home again…well, except to travel’, I'm never leaving home again – well, except to travel.
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.