Category: communities

The Melbourne Cup is Australia’s version of the Kentucky Derby, The Epsom Derby, and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe a couple of times. It’s a national celebration of buffoonery, alcohol abuse, and questionable fashion choices. Oh, and gambling. The first time I attended was when I was nineteen and worked the bar in corporate marquees. As a hospitality job, it was relatively well paid due to the public holiday penalty rates and I had the unique experience of being the only sober person out of 80,000 race goers. I was living in St Kilda with a girl that loved heroin …

February 2020: I had just finished a board meeting at the property technology startup that I was working with, and it felt good. The numbers were heading in the right direction, we had traction. It was going to be a good year. In an excellent demonstration of the developed and developing world dichotomy, it was easy to ignore the early murmurings of a virus in Asia as something happening “over there.” March 2020: The virus in Asia was becoming hard to ignore. Cases had spread to the USA, Europe, the UK, and Australia. Real estate listings, which drove the proptech’s …

Before Uber came to the hills if you wanted to be picked up from Upper Ferntree Gully Railway station, 41 kilometres from the centre of Melbourne, the taxi driver would confirm the pick up address as ‘Upper Gully Rail’. Often there would be a long wait and I would have to relocate to the pub, affectionately known to the locals as the upper. Upper Ferntree Gully and Ferntree Gully has three pubs. The Upper, the Middle, and the Bottom. Each of them filled with gaming machines for the poor and addicted souls desperate for a win. Originally built in 1889 …

When I started my working career in an engineering business, I worked in the office, with no exceptions. The working day started at 8:30 am in the office and finished anytime after 5.30 pm, often later. Technology limitations meant that calls, invoices, meetings, and customer support all happened from a building filled with co-workers (hopefully) working together to achieve a common objective. Before I could afford to buy a car or motorbike I got public transport – the 96 tram from St. Kilda and a train to Footscray station which was exploding with $2 shops and heroin. At work, bikini …

There is a special type of braggadocious social post that manages to get the bile rising in the throat faster than a greenwash post from a fossil fuel company. I’m thinking of the disciplined time schedule post that says, look how busy I am, look how successful I am, and consequently, look at how much better I am than you. Whether it’s real or not, Mark Wahlberg was a pioneer of the genre in 2018 with a brutal schedule that went viral. It features a 02.30am wake-up with ample time for snacks, prayer, and exercise. Bless Marky Mark’s, patriotic god-fearing …

I have a few memories of Amy Winehouse. One is in Norway, which is an awful coincidence given the terrible shootings there this weekend. It was at a recovery BBQ for a Wedding, the weather was warm, the party attendees nicely drunk or hungover when “I don’t wanna go to rehab” came on the ipod mix. My brother-in-law, who has long struggled with his own demons, jumped up and said they’re playing my song  and started to dance; wildly, crazy, and free. The more senior members of the party looked at the ground or studied their wine glasses. The younger, …