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This was the title of a musical int he 1960’s. In fact, it was the first musical I ever saw – in fact the first time I ever went to a ‘proper’ theatre. It was 1962 and while a student at the Ringwood Technical School in Victoria, I was part of a drama group. No,Continue reading “Stop the world, I want to get off.”

I love a good market. Not the bargain hunting variety such as carboot sales, antique markets or clothing. It is the food markets that have always attracted me – probably because I also enjoy cooking and eating food so much. My first experience with food shopping at a market was in the early days ofContinue reading “To market, to market …..”

In August 1989 there was a mass resignation of pilots across all the airline companies in Australia. The disruption this caused to business and tourism alike was huge. I was working with Kinhill at the time and held a national role that required me to travel interstate from Adelaide frequently. It was all very muchContinue reading “Pilot Strike – 1989”

For some time I have been concerned that when making decisions, at a personal, industry, government or church level, we often fail to consider the impact or consequence of decisions made. There is pressure for action – we need an answer NOW!   Immediacy has become the base-line.  As a result, we don’t take the timeContinue reading “Consequences and Risks”

Yes, I haven’t got the year wrong!  The year I am talking about is 1554. During that year in England, Queen Mary, sentenced the Lady Jane Grey to death for treason and imprisoned the then Princess Elizabeth in the Tower of London. In Germany, Martin Luther had been deceased for eight (8) years, having diedContinue reading “A treasure from 1554”

As the saying goes, all of us in Australia except the aborigines came from somewhere at some time. My heritage in Australia is through my father’s line, is via a Lutheran Pastor Philipp and Sophie (nee Stamm) Oster, who sailed from Bremen, Germany in August 1847, arriving in Port Adelaide in December of that sameContinue reading “Voices from the past”

At what point do the number of people that have been impacted or died as the result of an event have importance and we notice? I recall an occasion when discussing the institutional abuse of children, when numbers were being compared with the Catholics and Salvation Army, that we were fortunate having such low numbers. Continue reading “Deaths by numbers”

Unfortunately, I don’t remember much of these six years of my life.   How much of that is attributable to my inner need to distance myself from my past and youth, and how much is a product of moving schools and having to re-start each time, I don’t know. My first Primary School was Turvey ParkContinue reading “Primary School Days”

As a child, it was a common practice for my mother to discipline me by locking me up in an outside toilet – sometimes well into the night.   This has resulted in me being extremely uncomfortable in tight spaces.  In fact, when seatbelts were first introduced, I would often have a panic attack when bucklingContinue reading “The Parklands”

While I was based in Houston, Texas, I would often venture to other parts of the ‘Great State of Texas’.  One of my favourite places was Galveston, which is on the coast.   It has quite a history as it is the place where The Great Storm of 1900 caused the greatest amount of damage ofContinue reading “My encounter with Gregory Peck”