On the road
Since ending my career as a cabbie, I’ve missed the pleasure of being useful, of helping people get to where they need to be, of demonstrating my ability to find my way around, and of driving. There wasn’t any money in the game any more, not unless I wanted to steal other cabbies’ fares, work [...]
Questioning Time
Every day that Parliament sits, between two and three in the afternoon, every member of both House and Senate wanders down for that grand piece of Westminster tradition known as Question Time. The idea is that this is an hour when ordinary MPs get to ask the Government about issues dear to their hearts. Issues [...]
The obvious solution
Recently-arrested Megaupload king Kim Dotcom and the various copyright holders claiming losses of half a billion dollars have more in common than they realise. And they should meet in the middle to solve the internet war. Dotcom’s assets are valued at $175 000 000, according to news stories describing the luxury cars, the sprawling mansion, [...]
Ex-cabbie
The taxidriving thing has been going downhill for a long time. When I started in October 2006, aiming to gain enough money to feed my travel habit, it was great. There were only a couple of hundred cabbies on the road at any one time, and at peak times we’d be flat out. I worked [...]
Dallas returns
The State Premiers are in town for a high level meeting with the Prime Minister. I picked up one or two from the Hyatt to take for a short ride to The Commonwealth Club, where a dinner was being held in their honour. Just round the corner, really, but you can’t expect such folk to [...]
A time of war
Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis I love Connie Willis! She writes intricate stories, meticulously researched, her characters come alive on the page, their environment is present in more than words and she does it all with gentle humour and romance. She writes a book about the Middle Ages – you are there. Simple [...]
Futures past
Your Flying Car Awaits: Robot Butlers, Lunar Vacations, and Other Dead-Wrong Predictions of the Twentieth Century by Paul Milo I’ve always been a bit of a science fiction nut. Gadgets fascinate me. I drive a car filled with buttons and screens. GPS, climate control, sound system, cruise control, iphone, bluetooth, remote controls… “We’re living in [...]
Sausalito, open your golden gate!
San Francisco! One of those places, like Paris or Texas, where I’ve always got a happy grin cemented onto my face. It might be just airport code SFO, but I’m still bouncing along pushing a luggage trolley, leading a party of five off to the hire care precinct, smiling at random travellers and humming songs [...]
Cloudbook
This is something that may or may not change my life. I’ll see how it goes, but it looks good. Day One is a journal app, one of millions allowing the user to jot down notes, keep a diary, whatever. The sort of stuff that you need to keep, but isn’t public or formal enough [...]
Old father Thames
Thames: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd I ducked into a bookshop in Kings Cross Underground to get Peter Ackroyd’s marvellous book London: The Biography. I was there to check out every square on the British Monopoly board and I wanted to get my research right. The book was a superb resource. I buried my nose [...]