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We stood talking in the water. Waist deep. 6.30am. Saturday. I’d just managed 100 metres in the shallows without drowning. He was about to do an easy 1500. Probably more. I was heading into shore. He was heading into the deep. We stood talking in the water. Common humanity. He farewelled me with ‘See you […]
February 23, 2016
‘The foreshore is bleak and desolate with a beauty not at once obvious…’ The Age, 1990 I am sitting on a rock 300 metres from shore. The tide is out. The rock protrudes from the water. Behind me is Port Phillip Bay and beyond that, well beyond, is Bass Strait and then Tasmania. Ahead of […]
February 12, 2016
The Big Issue has just published On the Rock, a story about snorkelling, a summer sanctuary, and a former rifle range. The wetsuit is armour of a sort. The earplugs too. They keep the water out, but also the murmur of nearby traffic: not just cars and trucks and trains, but the traffic of life […]
February 1, 2016
Greetings dear reader, Creative conundrum: my busyness with Stereo Stories these past two years has run parallel with me writing less stories about the beach and the family and sport and suburbia. Has the need to think about staging, lighting, guest performers, set lists, running sheets, public liability, social media and heavens know what else […]
January 26, 2015
Cricket and snorkelling leave you with plenty of time to ponder the big questions. Can I actually bowl? Can I bat? Am I breathing?
January 5, 2015
This story was first published in The Big Issue (#474, 26 Dec 2014 to 8 Jan 2015) He tells me about the pigeons. Racing pigeons. He tells me about the nuns. Swimming nuns. He tells me about skin cancer, and marathons. He tells me about his pacemaker, and watching his daughter’s overseas wedding on Skype. […]
November 13, 2017
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