30 Tuesday Apr 2019
What is it about people these days that makes them think it’s their absolute right to speed?
I’m no goody-two-shoes but for some reason I get that a speed limit is just that – a limit – deemed to be the fastest you can travel safely on a certain road, in normal conditions.
A few years back in New Zealand we saw numerous road signs saying “it’s not a target”.
But that’s not how most people treat speed limits.
09 Wednesday Dec 2015
Posted in Journalism, Language, Media, Opinion
There’s nothing worse as a journalist than a mistake creeping into your copy and then published for all to see in print or online.
It would appear to be much easier to correct online, although realistically once live there’s no real recall.
It may have been sent out on distribution lists or caught by screengrab or a smartphone photo and shared ruthlessly on social media (yes, I’ve done it too).
And if it’s in print – it’s there to stay.
01 Friday Aug 2014
Posted in Journalism, Media, Opinion
Living in a bushland area you have to be aware that, sooner or later, you are going to face a bushfire threat.
This week we had our first close encounter at our current home.
We decided to go for a quick drive to establish just how close it was and to see if we needed to take any sort of action.
The bushfire as seen from the top of Clear Mountain.
20 Monday Jan 2014
Posted in Journalism, Media, Opinion
I was out on one of my morning walks when I caught sight of a sticker in the back of a parked car:
“Is that the Truth? Or is your News Limited?”
At first I chuckled to myself as a clever dig at the Murdoch press which in Australia until recently was referred to as News Limited (now News Corp Australia).
But then I got really quite annoyed about it.
Not in defence of Murdoch, but more that it really shows a lack of understanding about what journalism is all about.
10 Tuesday Sep 2013
Posted in Journalism, Media, Opinion
I recently overheard a Journalism student bemoaning the fact that yet again he’d heard someone say that journalism isn’t dead, it’s just evolving.
It probably is an overused phrase by those in the profession or working in journalism education – but understandably so. Who wants to be working in an industry that has no future?
Initially I thought, what, you’d rather we say it’s dead? That there’s no point in your three years at university because there won’t be any jobs at the end? Well that would be encouraging wouldn’t it?
But it got me thinking.
08 Monday Jul 2013
I love holidays.
Let’s face it who doesn’t? A time to travel, explore, relax and indulge a bit… okay, make that quite a bit.
But I never thought I’d be saying this: a trip to the United States is good for your health.
Well at least it was for me and my husband.
Our initial hotel had a ‘continental breakfast’ provided as part of an additional, compulsory, daily ‘resort fee’.
It was a little bit unusual – each room was provided with a small cold bag that you filled from the buffet and then you could eat it by the pool, on the beach or your hotel balcony. We chose the latter because of the stunning views we had.
Waikiki Beach, Hawaii
09 Tuesday Apr 2013
Posted in Journalism, Media, Opinion, Politics
It’s taken me exactly 15 months since my initial blog on Margaret Thatcher to watch the film The Iron Lady, and ironically she died the following day.
Don’t worry, I’m not drawing too much from this coincidence, but my reaction to the film was much as I feared.
The whole experience felt like we were watching it through tinted glasses. I guess we were – the glasses of an elderly woman.
20 Friday Jul 2012
There’s been so much written about these books I’ll keep mine brief.
Sadly I got caught up in the hype on a recent trip to the UK – there hadn’t been much talk about it in Australia at that point but I was picking up a lot of talk via Facebook friends in the UK and once we arrived it seemed to be the talk of the town. Every town.
Usually I resist this sort of hype. I’m sure I was the last to read Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code (which I loved by the way)!
But I went into one bookshop and there it was. I read the back cover and put the book down again and walked off into the shop.
I then noticed a couple of young women come in grab a copy and run – yes run – to the counter. Then another woman came in and bought a copy.
I walked over and impulsively grabbed two books. One for me, one for my sister-in-law. Well it was cheap in the UK!
06 Wednesday Jun 2012
Posted in Journalism, Media, Opinion
I have to admit I do have a tendency to get a bit star struck. Not the celebrity kind, the astronomical ones.
From a very young age I remember staring at the night sky in total awe.
My favourite smartphone app is the Sky Map.
To me there’s nothing quite so romantic as being with the one you love and watching a meteor shower or catching sight of a ‘shooting star’, as we grew up calling them.
And watching the start of the Transit of Venus this morning I’m convinced that’s one of the reasons I am with my husband today.
A fellow journalist, he’s been writing a few stories about this event so it was no real surprise when he said we were going to pick up some solar glasses so we could look directly at the Sun and see it.
It was a no-brainer that we would go somewhere together to do this.
Viewing the transit of Venus 2012
But I never expected to get the viewing we did.
29 Sunday Apr 2012
I’m not a big writer of letters to newspapers – although I have done a few times in the past and I’ve generally been impressed with the way that they have phoned me to check that I am, who I say I am.
I don’t think I’ve ever written to a magazine before and that’s mainly because I hate the nauseating drivel in the letters that are usually published.
“It’s because of your magazine my life is renewed, the sun shines every day and my children are beautiful.”
OK I exaggerate but honestly, anything to get a free frying pan or writing set if you’re the letter of the week/month etc.