If you don’t mind my asking, ma’am…

is there any hope for us?

This is the question I was asked by the polite young man at the check-in desk of the minivan company when I checked in for the van to Tacloban at 7:40 in the morning.

He might as well have asked me the answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything.

It was not a question I was ready for. Not three weeks into living here. Not at 07:40 in the morning. And not after the comedy of errors that was my journey to the minivan company,

Protected: Brown-out at the beach

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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Elections

Local and State Government elections are looming in Queensland, and this will be my first opportunity to vote as an Australian. I wish I was more excited about this, but frankly, the whole hullabaloo makes me want to run for the hills.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of democracy and I intend to participate in it, but I’m inclined to agree with the late, great, Douglas Adams –

“Well, I mean, yes idealism, yes the dignity of pure research, yes the pursuit of truth in all its forms, but there comes a point I’m afraid where you begin to suspect that the entire multidimensional infinity of the Universe is almost certainly being run by a bunch of maniacs. And if it comes to a choice between spending yet another ten million years finding that out, and on the other hand just taking the money and running, then I for one could do with the exercise.”
~ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Stormy Weather

After several weeks of sweltering heat, frayed tempers and cold showers, the first storms of the season finally broke this afternoon. What sweet relief from the oppressive heat and stickiness of the build up! Just in time to prevent us all from succumbing to a chronic case of mango madness!

And what better way is there to spend a stormy afternoon than listening to some old classics?! Here are a few of my all-time favourite tunes for a rainy afternoon. Enjoy!

How to feel really good

Kisauni, Mombasa in 2003

Let me tell you a story…

Once upon a time, I was a volunteer in Mombasa, Kenya. Every day I squeezed into a matatu (a privately owned mini bus) and made my way into the city for work along with thousands of others. Every day I saw a disabled man pedalling a rickety little home-made cart (made of fruit boxes and pram wheels) across an insanely busy junction with his hands. Taking on the cars and the buses and chaos and the choking fumes of the morning rush hour… in a box. Every day I feared for his life, taking on the traffic in what seemed like a suicidal errand.

Wangari Muta Maathai, 1940-2011

RIP Wangari Maathai

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There are people around the world who commit small acts of heroism every day. There are those who show great courage in pursuing what they know is right in the face of great intimidation. There are those who dedicate their lives to public good, whatever the personal cost to themselves.

Professor Wangari Maathai was all those things, and more, inspiring others to start “doing the best I can”.

Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival

– Taken June 2011. View the full photostream on Flickr (190 photos).
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The Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival is the largest celebration of Aboriginal culture in Australia, held every second year at the Laura danceground, Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. Communities from all over Cape York and the Torres Straits come together for three days and nights of dancing, music and story-telling.

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