taxi bus donkey

Like many men of my age, generation and background I could quite easily count on my available appendages the number of times I have shared poignant or deep moments with my father. In fact even if i was to suffer some form of horrific appendage decrementing industrial accident I could still safely keep a running tally even if forced to rely on the stumps of my hands and feet. The cunning linguists amongst you will have noted that I failed to use the more predictable word “intimate” to describe the sorts of moments I am referring to, but as the intimacy meter betwixt the old man and I has never suffered even the most minor tremble I can safely use the more less eye-opening word “poignant”.

It isn’t impossible to share a poignant moment with any object irrespective of its degree of animation; accountants, travelling sales-persons, tram passengers, puppies or doorknobs are all quite common co-participants in intimate moments. In fact if my Father was an accountant it would help clarify the depth of our understanding. After all comes a time every July when you have to tell your accountant some pretty private stuff; hopes, dreams and off shore tax schemes. (more…)

Time wont tell, time tells nothing, it locks its knowledge away in meticulously maintained, bar-coded and sequentially numbered  zip lock bags, silently awaiting the next decisive moment to materialise at which point it stretches out its hand plucks the moment from space and tosses it into its coffers with all the others. That moment you refer to as time standing still is just time itself pausing your existence briefly to replace your reality with the backup copy that was running on a six second delay loop.

Time has no reason to offer us anything, time is a depository not a library, a drumbeat not a melody, an indexless flat file vault not a relational SQL queryable treasure trove of memories, it is time that is the true omnipotent being, not some needs-no-introduction, preceded by legend airborne dude with a beard and no second name. (more…)

Leisure (1976) - Google Video

There’s a fine line between laziness and standing up for your rights to be inactive.

Doing nothing is a peaceful and private form of anarchy, laziness is a product of your lifestyle or environment.

Very few people reading this will remember Ildiko, life has taken many turns since we were together and even the friends of friends have fallen off the radar.

She’s been reappearing in my thoughts a lot lately, not unusual for a retrospective kind of bloke like me. But even though it’s been 5 years since I saw her and 6 since we had anything that could have been described as a relationship, I think I am understanding what went wrong and why it was mostly my fault. (more…)

Despite the never ending heatwave I managed to haul my ass around this town several times. Assisting me in this endeavour was several centuries of sensible town planning.

The entire centro storico of bologna is made up of porticoed buildings which allows for plenty of shade and places to sit and also maufactures pleasing breezes which tickle the sweat on your brow and somehow trick you into thinking that 40 degrees C aint so bad after all.

In contrast to this is the town’s main square, piazza maggiore, a slab or concrete big enough to have a footy match in. (more…)

Venice is not the city to head for if you are on your own and the type of person that enjoys the company of members of the opposite sex but is unable to acquire said company at the drop of a gondolier… however, it is a pretty place so for those out there who plan to spend some time here, learn from my finite but poignant wisdom (more…)

In rome, watched an impromptu latin jazz ensemble perform at a piazza along side the tiber in trastevere, they played for an hour on the steps of a fountain, there were at least 15 of them, just the old classics but each had their go at a solo which was special… and no hat being passed around either… they were probably famous.

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Rome basically shuts down for May Day, so in my travels i came across several shops that i had been looking for, the local supermarket, tabacchi , post office, phone shop… so i started my day with a mission, purchase a few things, including bus tickets and head into termini station to purchase tickets i would require to travel to Pesaro on Saturday … tomorrow on my way to Urbania.The bus whisked me off to Termini and it was all rather orderly… Melbourne has been plagued with public transport ticketing problems … looks like rome has had a taste of their own.. each bus has 2 types of ticket validating machines… 1 old one and 3 new ones… but there is no ticket selling on board,.. you have to buy tickets from Tabacchi,.. but not all Tabacchi sell them because they dont make a cut on them that they are happy with… The newstands sell tickets but they are the old ones that they purchase via rather dodgy means apparently… they are still good, just not new fangled ones. fangled doesnt necessarily mean better,.. its just has added fangles. (more…)

I spent most of today in Trastevere, the place has me hooked.. its the cliched image of a narrow lane, a small dimly lit cafe at the bottom of a run down building, cobbled alley with garbage, cats, beggars and locals enjoying a frascati,.. family discussions flowing from the windows in the upper floors and washing strung on lines betwee the buildings… but its real and there is street after street of it just waiting to be seen. (more…)

I have always been against planning, this will come as no shock to my past employers.. and this holiday had a bit of a plan but i wanted to just land in a city and have to fumble my way around at first… it was a luxury that only time can give, and i had that in buckets.

So here I was in Rome. i knew little about the city … I had a map but wasn’t sure exactly where I was, wasn’t sure which way the river was so wasn’t even able to just wing it… but I did have myself some most comforbale lodgings at Hotel San Francesco in Trastevere, so it wasn’t like I was camping or anything… lordie lordie (more…)