Body-snatching,
Please serve up a new way for the dreary doubles ROBERT MACKLIN
It’s time to shine light on the prison’s dark side
HUGH SELBY
Wrong to remember every dumb, foolish thing
ANTONIO DI DIO
ANCIENT TREASURES AND IMMERSIVE EXHIBITION
13 December 2024 – 4 May 2025
By Elizabeth KOVACS
Rasa Kabaila was the youngest personal carer at a war veterans home at age 16.
“When I was 15, I did work place ment in a pediatric ward and then I did another placement at a war veterans home in Canberra,” she says.
“As much as I found it interesting, I found it all quite confronting.
“I was always told by people in [the war veterans home] that they hoped I would become a nurse,” she says.
“I was the youngest carer employed there at the time and I was working in the high-care dementia wing.”
Initially finding the work “backbreaking” and “emotional”, it was only after Rasa found herself working at a liquor shop in college that she began to appreciate how meaningful working as a nurse had been.
“It changed my world,” she says.
“It changed my perspective on eve rything very quickly.”
A self-professed party-girl in high school, Rasa says she threw herself into work experience to try to find her next steps after realising she’d neglected her studies.
She reflects on her Canberra nursing experience in her book Put Some
Concrete in your Breakfast: Tales from Contemporary Nursing, a book she wished had existed when she graduated as a new nurse.
“We have a shortage of nurses and we also have a huge rate of burnout
for existing nurses in the community,” she says.
“The book talks about all the different parts of nursing, including all the challenges, but the overall message is that despite all the challenges within
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the profession, it’s still a profession worth pursuing.
“Nursing involves a lot of different things.
“It’s heartwrenching stories, it’s weird stories and it’s uplifting stories.
“There are a lot of challenges within the profession and I wanted to have a book that captured all of those different elements.”
Now in her thirties and working as a mental health nurse at her own practice, Rasa says no amount of studying in university could have prepared her for the realities she would face.
“It’s such a change in your life that I don’t think anything can really prepare you,” she says.
“I was never that sure about it when I was studying, because it’s very hard to be able to apply things from a textbook without having real life experience.”
Rasa teamed up with some of the nurses she had worked with during her time in the public sector to talk about their experiences and stories.
“Nurses all have many stories to tell,” she says. “They’re just too tired to write them.”
Rasa’s book discusses her own experience with things such as death, burnout, strange encounters, psychosis, odd experiences and blame.
“It’s a hard adjustment when you graduate, because you just feel like you don’t know what to do when you suddenly find yourself taking care of
other people,” she says.
Rasa’s main piece of advice for new graduates is to surround themselves with a support team.
“I would encourage those nurses to restore their energy from all the things that [they] give other people,” she says.
“I see nurses coming through, who are just so vibrant, they’re beautiful people, they’re caring, so enthusiastic and intelligent and they’re the ones that are really at risk of getting taken advantage of and getting swallowed up by the system.”
Nearing the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rasa experienced intense moments of burnout, something she’s incredibly passionate about preventing in other nurses.
Now acting as a nurse practitioner, Rasa has rekindled her love of being a nurse.
“I’m focusing on enjoying the little things, and I’m starting to do that more and more,” she says.
“Happiness is in the journey and it’s the little things that count.”
Rasa credits her experience as a new nurse to the various mentors she had along the way, many of whom she speaks about in her book.
Now armed with a wealth of experience, she wants to encourage the next generation of nurses to enter the workforce with an understanding of just how valuable they are.
Well, the Aussie Open was okay, though I’m sure we would all have preferred a Djokovic/Sinner final in the men’s singles.
Curious chap, Sinner. Speedy around the court, not weighed down by a personality of any kind. Alas, his German opponent seemed to be carrying at least two of them.
The women’s singles result was a delightful surprise. Even the ebullient Madison Keys seemed stunned before bursting with joy.
Call me old fashioned, but I find Sabalenka’s oral explosions each and every shot as verging on the intimidation of her opponents.
On the practice court she was as silent as the snow falling on Minsk. And how come they banned her Belorussian flag because of the Russo-Ukrainian war? If they did the same to an Israeli player, it would be an antisemitic outrage.
But all that’s by the way; what really bemuses me is the slow death of the doubles competition. They no longer play five-set matches – three if you’re lucky and a 10-point tiebreaker if both sides are even after two and six all. It’s almost as though they’ve become an embarrassment to the organisers, and the sooner they’re done and dusted the better.
The stands are only ever half full
and the applause desultory at best, even on the rare occasions when a rally goes beyond four strokes. And since money follows popularity, the prizes are now rock-bottom compared with the millions tossed around among the singles players.
The doubles game itself has become hard to watch, especially for those of us brought up on the centre court adventures of Tony Roach and John Newcombe, or even Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall.
All that modern touchy-feely stuff between partners, and the sharing
of secret plots between every single point is truly off-putting. They should make their plans before the match, have a big cuddle in the dressing room if necessary, and use the court for playing tennis, not kissie-kissie peek-a-boo.
But that’s not all. Despite the commentary from Todd Woodbridge – who might well be partly to blame for its descent – the modern players have figured out how to end a point in several ways. It turns out that half a tennis court is too much for two trained humans to defend.
All that touchy-feely stuff and the sharing of secret plots between points is truly off-putting. They should make plans, have a big cuddle in the dressing room and use the court for playing tennis, not kissie-kissie peek-a-boo.
Todd says it’s like a game of chess. I beg to differ. It doesn’t get beyond the intellectual discipline of draughts (or checkers). The average point rarely goes beyond four strokes and ends with an unplayable volley at the net or a crosscourt forehand that zooms into the tramlines. Ho-hum.
So, what changes do we need to make to revive doubles and bring excitement back to the game that we can all enjoy watching once more? I guess the simplest solution would be to take the outside tramline away. But then the person at the net on the serving side would surely have too much control over the return. And that could lead to even fewer strokes per point.
Here’s another possibility. How about introducing a third player on each side? Their job would be to cover those shots that bounce beyond the outer tramline or the end serving lines, thus allowing the two other players on each side to concentrate on all the other groundstrokes and volleys inside the lines.
Of course, the new players couldn’t be everywhere; they’d have to choose which side to cover but they and the other two players on each side could plan their game around the positioning of all three team members. I know it’s a big step, but we need to act now. Something must be done or we’ll lose one of the delights of the ancient game forever.
Perhaps fellow doubles lovers will have ideas to refine this “triples” suggestion; or something entirely different might tickle the fancy of a clever column reader.
robert@robert macklin.com
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Taking rubbish to the tip just got easier thanks to the ingenuity of Canberra engineer Andy Stodulka, reports DAVID TURNBULL .
A Canberra engineer has invented a device that will make taking a load of rubbish to the tip easier than it has ever been.
With the help of an innovation grant from the ACT government, Andy Stodulka invented what he calls the Rotaskip.
Essentially, this is a trailer fitted with a rotating bowl that enables whatever is in the bin to be tipped out simply by using a remote control.
He says it’s easier and safer than any of the alternatives on the mar ket at present and offers advantages for professional builders, home renovators and householders.
By reducing the need for doublehandling it is a real cost saver for builders.
As an engineer with more than 40 years’ experience, Andy has spent a lot of time on building sites, and that’s where the idea for the Rotaskip came from.
“Builders always have a lot of rubbish to get rid of, but their options are pretty limited,” Andy says.
“They can throw everything in a trailer, or they can pay to have one
“Tradies can just throw stuff out a window into the bin. No double handling”.
Andy says the Rotaskip is just as useful for the home renovator, or as a replacement for a normal trailer.
“The Rotaskip can carry anything – firewood, rubbish, garden scraps, you name it.
“You can even fit separate bins:
one for recycling; one for rubbish.
“And to empty out you press a button. You don’t have to physically remove everything by hand.”
The next step for this Canberra inventor is to establish a franchise so the Rotaskip can be hired out.
He’s building another prototype at his Hume factory and plans to launch the franchise in coming months.
“We’ll start small in Canberra, but eventually we plan to set up a national franchise,” he says.
Police have seized 48 knives in the past five weeks and they say, concerningly, children as young as 13 have been found carrying knives.
In a spike in incidents involving knives, police have responded to carjackings, assaults and burglaries.
Insp Nigel Booth said: “We know the devastating consequences that knife crime can have, including serious injury or even death.
“A knife escalates what is likely already a serious situation and should be treated like dangerous weapons, not a fashion accessory.
“Another concern is that people have been caught carrying knives in crowded places which carries an additional element of risk to the public.”
Weston Creek Community Centre is once again offering free clothes washing and drying services for homeless people and anyone in need.
Manager Yung Tran said a thief cut open the gate padlock at the Cooleman Court centre’s back courtyard in mid-December and made off with the Bosch washing machine and Bosch heat-pump dryer. The centre had now bought a dryer and the Gungahlin Rural Fire Service had donated a new washing machine.
Extra security measures were installed to monitor and protect the facility.
The machines were set up in 2023 to provide free laundry services for homeless people and anyone in need.
Together with the free shower, anyone who needs to use these facilities can call 6288 1144.
A woman came into my clinic for a consultation about her hearing aids, telling me her hearing aids were 4 years old and she had never found them to be of much help. She said the salesperson quoted her $14,000 for a pair of hearing aids, however, the monthly special of 20% discount meant they cost her $11,200. So, she ‘only’ paid $11,200 for hearing aids that did not help her. Sadly, I hear this all too often.
Here are some things to do to avoid this type of problem:
1. Visit your GP. If you or someone you know has a problem with their hearing, visiting your GP to check for wax in the ears, and to get advice is a starting point.
2. Qualifications. Always check the qualifications of the person you are dealing with. A person without professional qualifications has no business advising you about your hearing. They need to belong to a professional association with a Code of Conduct, so you know they are acting in your best interests, not their own.
years. If you are not sure about their advice, then seek a second opinion. The wrong hearing aids can be an expensive waste and could lead you to stop wearing them. You should always have a trial of hearing aids to ensure that they are right for you.
6 Pensioners and eligible DVA card holders often have entitlement to free services. If you are covered by a government concession, then let the clinician know (even though your clinician should ask). Eligible clients may obtain free hearing tests, consultations, and free hearing aids (referred to as fully subsidized hearing aids).
“A person without professional qualifications has no business advising you about your hearing. They need to belong to a professional association with a Code of Conduct, so you know they are acting in your best interests, not their own.”
– Dr Vass
These hearing aids are appropriate for many people, however if you have great difficulty hearing in background noise (for example a restaurant), then you may want to consider partially subsidized hearing aids. This is when the government pays a certain amount, and you pay for additional features and benefits. Your decision should be based on the following:
you are dealing with a qualified clinician, then they belong to a professional association. The best contact is an independent complaints body referred to as Ethics Review Committee. You can email ethics@auderc.org.au and view the website www.auderc.org.au. You can make an anonymous complaint and your complaint will be handled in a confidential and professional manner. If you are in the ACT, contact the ACT Human Rights Commission email human rights@act.gov au and the website www.hrc.act.gov.au
3. Independent advice. You should get independent, professional advice.
4. There are a wide range of hearing aids out there. Finding the right hearing aids for your communication needs can be challenging. Hearing aids vary in price and performance. Bluetooth® connectivity and rechargeable hearing aids are available on most hearing aids, along with apps that allow you to control your hearing aids from your mobile device. Be aware that just because a hearing aid is more expensive, that doesn’t mean they are the best hearing aid for you.
5. Just as hearing aids vary in performance, clinicians may also vary in performance due to training, experience, and skills. Make sure that you are comfortable and confident in their advice. You are likely to be with this clinician for the life of your new hearing aids, typically 4 to 5
(a) Can you afford the more expensive hearing aids? Don’t go into financial stress if you can’t afford them. (b) Are you clear on the free vs partially subsidized features & benefits? Never believe someone who tells you the free hearings are not good or of poor performance, this is simply not true. (c) If you try the partially subsidized hearing aids and are not happy, then return them. Do not keep hearing aids because you think the failure is yours or that you will improve over time. If the hearing aids are not working for you in the trial period, then they will not work for you in a year or two.
7. If you have a complaint, then seek help. Your clinician should be able to help you through most of your needs. Sometimes, a problem may be beyond the expertise of even the best clinician. However, if you have a complaint there are things you can do. If
By the side of the highway in Grong Grong, in the NSW Riverina region, Australia’s first solar garden is almost ready to harvest.
The development is expected to deliver a bounty to 175 solar gardeners within weeks in the form of credits on their electricity bills.
But developers and energy experts hope the 1.5 megawatt project delivers a lot more: namely, a new option for renters and apart ment dwellers around Australia who have been locked out of the solar market.
Work on the Haystacks Solar Garden began in January 2020, based on similar develop ments that have proven popular in the US and Germany.
Community Power Agency project director Kim Mallee said the concept for the project was to extend the experience of owning rooftop solar panels to people who had been locked out of the market.
The group includes people who rent their homes, those who live in apartments, and others with heritage-listed or shady roofs.
“What we really wanted to be able to demonstrate was what it would look and feel like for somebody who doesn’t have a sunny roof… for them to invest directly in solar and get that benefit on their electricity bill,” Ms Mallee said.
“That’s the model we were trying to mimic.”
One-hundred-and-seventy-five investors, known as solar gardeners, helped to fund the project, along with a grant from the NSW government Regional Community Energy
Fund and equity from the
Ms Mallee said the organisation had detailed its processes and solutions in a public report to help other groups investigate and invest in solar gardens.
Griffith University associate professor Tim Nelson, who is a member of the Climate Council, said he expected to see more solar gardens developed in Australia now that one group had proven the concept.
“These types of solar gardens can play a particular role in being able to tie your energy consumption to your investment. It’s an innovative model,” he said.
While units have traditionally underperformed freestanding houses for capital growth, data released by Domain shows several suburbs across the nation where apartment prices outpaced houses in 2024.
Buyers were changing their purchasing habits as high interest rates and house price growth constrained their borrowing capacity, Domain chief of research and economics Nicola Powell said, leading 2025 to be the “year of the unit”.
“Obviously units are much lower in price, and it allows many first homebuyers to get market access sooner,” she told AAP.
While houses outpaced unit price growth nationally in 2024, Domain’s December house price report found, the inverse was true in Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Units also grew faster than houses in Sydney over the last three months of the year.
Premium suburbs in that market such as Bellevue Hill, Woollahra and Vaucluse – where houses were as much as five times as expensive as units – saw some of the biggest growth in apartment prices.
“Perhaps in those types of premium markets you’re seeing downsizers drive that, or you’re seeing people prioritising the location when they perhaps can’t afford the multi-million dollars these house prices are achieving,” Dr Powell said.
Shannan Whitney, director of Sydney real estate agency BresicWhitney, said it was natural for apartments to look more appealing when the housing market reached the peak of the unaffordability cycle.
The extra capital costs associated and renovation risks associated with free-standing houses would also discourage buyers constrained for cash,” he said. –AAP
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You should treat workplace friendships like your diet –aim for balance and variety, says STEFAN KORBER
The list of organisations abandoning the option of fully remote work for employees has grown recently, with the likes of Amazon, IBM, JPMorgan and Meta leading the charge back to the office.
These mandates have caused considerable controversy, but they’ve also given attention to a crucial aspect of corporate life: workplace friendships. And, as the new work year begins, reuniting at work has its own special challenges.
Surveys have shown around three in 10 employees have a close friend at work. Furthermore, researchers argue these relationships can be as important to our personal and professional lives as a nutritious diet is to physical health.
For individuals, close personal ties with co-workers can increase job satisfaction, provide a stronger sense of belonging, and promote career advancement. For organisations, workplace friendships have been linked to higher innovation, collaboration, profitability, productivity and employee retention.
However, like many relationships,
workplace friendships are challenging to navigate.
Differing career goals, corporate power dynamics, tight deadlines and job insecurities can create resentment, conflict and disappointments that strain relationships.
So, how can we maintain meaningful friendships with work colleagues over time?
Sometimes, workplace friendships are strength ened through mutual support in the face of shared challenges. For instance, collaborative work under tight deadlines can create an intense “we’re all in this together” feeling, where everyone chips in and makes personal sacrifices.
went out of control, or collectively remember past achievements, feelings of belonging are reinforced.
are fundamental to workplace friendships, they can also erode those relationships if one element starts to overshadow the others.
For example, although working together on projects is essential, solely work-related friendships can quickly feel shallow or exploitative. Similarly, if collective moaning and negativity dominate all conversations, workplace friendships can start to feel toxic and emotionally drowning.
Hearing the same anecdotes or jokes over and over again can strain relationships, much like old school friends realising the only thing they talk about is getting drunk together
Finally, talking about future endeavours can create fractures if plans are consistently cancelled and workplace friends don’t make an effort to put ideas into reality.
ments are needed.
Accomplishing this requires an awareness of the different factors that define workplace friendships, and an understanding of how imbalances can strain relationships. Most importantly, it takes deliberate effort to re-balance work and friendship if things go sour.
Our research calls for managers and individuals to pay closer attention to the dynamics of workplace friendships, and the efforts required to maintain them.
On the one hand, decision-makers can make social connections part of everyday work life, rather than trying to “force” them through occasional team-building events or annual celebrations.
Similarly, collective moaning and gossiping about clients, company policies, superiors or co-workers can foster solidarity and deeper bonds.
Shared recollections of meaningful experiences that define relationships play a role. When we indulge in memories of office parties that
Deliberating about potential future endeavours – from the next team event to thinking of joint initiatives – can strengthen workplace friendships by fostering a shared sense of direction and common purpose.
Paradoxically, while these elements
This suggests maintaining workplace friendships depends on having good foundations to start with, but also on maintaining a balance between them.
Healthy relationships take work
To return to the healthy diet analogy, just as there is no single “magic bullet” for healthy eating, there is no secret ingredient for workplace friendships. Instead, a balanced mix of ingredients and regular adjust-
On the other, workplace friends need to be sensitive to the risks posed by routine and habit creeping into those relationships, making us take each other for granted.
Like any relationship, workplace friendships take, well, work. While this might sound obvious, we can probably all do with reminding that honest reflection and personal investment are key to maintaining any healthy relationship.
Stefan Korber, senior lecturer in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, University of Auckland. Republished from The Conversation.
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Recent reporting of alleged misconduct at the AMC shows the need for a root-and-branch inquiry to determine if the allegations are a campaign of nasty rumour mongering or are well founded, writes HUGH SELBY.
Recently, I called for the abolition of the ACT Integrity Commission, giving as one reason the years that it took the commission to investigate a straightforward, repeated failure by a corrections officer (CO) to carry out a cell check as required.
That failure was clear from the CCTV. To cover up that failure the officer created a false written record of checks.
To my surprise, that article led to contact from readers making claims of systemic failures within the Alexander Maconochie Centre. From different sources I was being given the same kinds of information.
In this article I share the general nature of those allegations because, if true, they are one or more of criminal, disciplinary, corrupt conduct. The focus is identifying and solving a problem. It is not to throw mud.
No one should jump to the unjustified conclusion that these allegations besmirch the reputation of all those
working in ACT Corrections, or even many of them.
Rather these allegations demonstrate that the present policies and systems are not adequately protecting either prisoners or staff.
Behind the fences and walls of prisons there are opportunities to intimidate prisoners by the improper use of physical force and the disciplinary rules.
Prisoners have various privileges, such as the use of computers, and the cell conditions in which they are housed. These privileges can be revoked where a CO alleges that a prisoner has breached the rules.
It’s a simple matter for a CO to write up charges against a prisoner that will entail a significant loss of privileges.
It’s also a simple matter to have a prisoner understand that a plea of guilty will shorten that time. Such a plea also reinforces the power gap between the CO and the prisoner.
Being able to assault prisoners with impunity is also a necessary tool in
the corrections misconduct playbook. If officers had to wear body cameras, as police do, then that would take the tool away. It would also reduce prisoner complaints because the evidence of good conduct or bad conduct by any of those involved is recorded for all to see and hear.
A CO can earn a lot of tax-free cash by being a courier taking drugs and phones into the prisoners. There’s a non-stop demand for contraband, especially since the “powers that be” banned tobacco.
The drug suppliers had a big bang party when that was enforced: the price of a smoke went sky high. I’m
told it can be as much as $30 for a single cigarette. It’s cheaper to buy other nasty stuff.
A contraband phone costs, it is claimed, several thousand dollars.
Searches of cells by COs may find such phones, which are then confiscated. This, naturally enough, means that the prisoner is anxious to buy another phone.
But prisoners don’t have the ready cash to make these purchases, so they build up sizeable debts.
The AMC is backward when it comes to “value adding” prison industries that let the prisoners build up a tidy bank account for when they are released.
Prisoners who are being paid for the real work that they do during their time “inside” would be better able to pay the inflated amounts for essential contraband.
If they are paying those debts then there will be fewer burned out cars, garages and homes because there will be no need for the creditors to intimidate the debtor prisoners or their families.
Obviously it would be better if there was no contraband market; however, that’s to dream the impossible dream.
Recent reporting of alleged misconduct at the AMC shows the need for a root-and-branch inquiry to determine if the allegations are a campaign of nasty rumour monger -
ing or are well founded.
Such an inquiry should be made by an inquiry under our Inquiries Act with three people appointed to do the job. All three must be independent of the ACT Corrections, police and legal system. Their combined expertise must cover corrections, criminology, and “being a former prisoner who has made good”.
To flush out any hard evidence about misconduct there must be an amnesty given on specified terms so that useful lines of investigation are quickly identified from people with first-hand knowledge of misconduct.
The report of the inquiry should address whether there are any failures in the policies and practices at the AMC. If so, what are they? How are they to be corrected?
Where evidence is gathered that might support any of criminal, disciplinary or corruption labels, then that information is to be provided to the appropriate agency (be that the AFP, Corrections or the Integrity Commission) as quickly as possible. Hence, some such information may be provided before the inquiry gives its final report.
If there’s a will then there is a way. Let’s get on with a job that needs to be done.
Hugh Selby, a former barrister, is the CityNews legal affairs commentator.
A look behind the curtains at a funeral home operations centre
Have you ever been curious about the care provided to a loved one after their passing?
We invite you to join the ACT InvoCare team, at our Mortuary Open Night.
The event will feature a guided tour of our support centre facilities, offering insight into our compassionate services. 26 March at 5.30pm – RSVPs are essential
Interested? Please contact Cassandra via email: actoperations@invocare.com.au
Memory is a funny thing –gloriously unreliable, it is a bit like self perception in other forms. You look at yourself in the mirror and are okay, if front on and holding your breath – but imagine if you saw what you really looked like (anyone reading this with a perfect little ski bump nose can stop now. You and I can never be kindred spirits)?
Similarly memory’s inaccuracies often recast events in a way palatable to our own self view. And thank God for that.
But some folk I know share a strange quirk – they remember every dumb, wrong, foolish thing they’ve ever said or done.
At first this is not a bad thing. You say something mean or do something thoughtless and somehow it gets seared forever in your head, and that in turn should hopefully ensure that you don’t do it again, making you a better person. No different to touching a hotplate as a child and learning that there is something to avoid.
games nearly as much as a dad should.
I once gave Mad Dog out LBW in a cricket trial to a ball that would have hit first slip instead of the stumps, subconsciously because I was next man in and wanted a bat. I felt terrible. Did he remember it?
I met his best mate at dinner 32 years later and it’s the first thing he mentioned! It led me, when my kids
As years pass, and new follies occur (we are the accumulation of our actions and daily habits, after all, and none of us are perfect all the time), the list we carry in our head of all the things we’ve done wrong can become a tower, reaching ever higher and burdensome.
It is the person that is crushed, as, to shamelessly stretch a hardworking little metaphor, they carry that tower everywhere they go.
And because that child is now a woman in her seventies and is still carrying it, the shame and hurt, and has been punishing herself for decades for something that the victim had forgotten for years, and is no longer alive to forgive. It hurts more the closer you are to the person or the more serious the outcome. It’s taken me 25 years to forgive the St George Illawarra five eighth for the 1999 grand final, but he can happily live without my approval
It is not just our bodies that are fragile, our hearts are softer that the Wallabies defence in Scotland, only one sad movie away from being that eight year old inside, still remembering hurtful things.
or that of idiots like me he’s never met and whose opinion matters as much as a thesaurus to a camel.
Still, it can also hurt if you receive judgement, a rebuke, and no chance of redemption or reconciliation, for the most trivial of things, from the most unrelated of people. Think a road traffic incident – you do something dumb, a fellow motorist is irate – they scream or shout at you and make a rude gesture, and drive away.
The issue is minor, there is no malice or negative outcome, but you’ve been judged and punished for guilt, and you’ll never know the other person to defend your case or, if you have none, to apologise and move on. Trivial? I’ve seen people crushed by the judgement of others they’ve never
met and will never know again, over a lane change.
All of which is to say, there is so much opportunity for real kindness and decency every day in just the act of living with people. Take your pick – you can help with the old traumas people carry or you can simply not add a new one to their lives by being patient, gentle, trying to understand.
We say that ”words don’t matter” and “gee, that’s okay with me” but the reality is that it is not just our bodies that are fragile, our hearts are softer that the Wallabies defence in Scotland, only one sad movie away from being that eight year old inside, still remembering hurtful things.
If when making speeches we imagine the whole audience in their underwear, then similarly, whenever anger rises within you at another, think of them as vulnerable and afraid. Half the time that’s no trick, it’s just the truth.
Antonio Di Dio is a local GP, medical leader and nerd. There is more of his Kindness on citynews.com.au
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How appropriate that the second coming of DJ Trump coincides with the Pompeii exhibition at the National Museum detailing the utter destruction of that sophisticated city, its surrounds and populace.
In lieu of the smoke and tremors of 79 BC, portents of economic and social ruination are among his demands that the global community purchase shoddier American made products in preference to superior European items under threat of severe tariffs on foreign-made goods. Such policy would allow free rein for US manufacturers to further minimise quality control mechanisms thus placing vehicles of lesser reliability and prestige on international motorways and, with Airbus shackled by punitive imposts, permit Boeing to assemble more aircraft that have engines and doors falling off in flight, if not nose-diving into the ocean.
There is hypocrisy also in aspects of the planned immigration and birthright restrictions, for in the marriage stakes neither Trump nor his vice-president chose allAmerican spouses. Melania is pure European and while Usha Vance was born in California, as her parents were Indian immigrants, under planned amendments she would not have been deemed a US citizen.
Coupled with his release and pardoning of the braying and felonious deplorables who invaded the Capitol Building when their kingwithout-clothes was defeated, this nascent
political quadrennial may well warrant an additional verse to the US national anthem concluding with words elsewhere attributed to Stephen Sondheim: “Send in the clowns, don’t bother, they’re here”.
John
Murray, Fadden
The average Australian consumes about two hours of social media “news” every day.
Given the widely varying sources and accuracy of this information, it is clear people don’t possess the time or resources to verify if they are being presented with the truth. However, there is a difference between being accidentally misinformed and being willfully ignorant. Even when presented with fact-checked information from reputable sources, people still believe what they want to believe.
I have long felt that people struggle to tease apart an objective truth from a belief, and now there’s a podcast tailored to suit and reinforce every opinion.
It seems that the quest for information is not to be informed, but to justify what people want to believe.
Liana Sangster, Griffith
The start of light rail stage 2a this week is another nail in the coffin of good govern -
ance in the territory.
The government has not justified its adoption of light rail. The alternative of bus rapid transport was analysed for Stage 1 (Civic to Gungahlin) and found to deliver similar benefits at half the cost.
It has contemptuously dismissed or ignored calls to provide evidence for the decision, an attitude framed in the context of an unelectable opposition, a disinterested electorate and a compliant bureaucracy. How did it determine light rail should be a higher priority than housing, health and education?
• Did it examine whether extending the coverage and frequency of the bus network could be more effective in reducing car use than light rail?
• Has it deliberately overstated the city shaping benefits of light rail given the strong demand for higher density housing in areas not served by light rail?
• Has it assessed the risk to light rail from the likely future widespread adoption of driverless cars?
• Has it considered the impact of increased working from home and improved electric bus technology on the need for light rail?
The inability of the government to provide such information suggests the decision was an act of faith, which is increasingly revealing itself to be a poor use of funds and detrimental to the welfare of the community.
Its opaque and inadequate governance is a betrayal of the trust placed in it by the
community. A responsible government would review the project as part of a comprehensive evaluation of the territory’s planning and transport strategies.
Mike Quirk, Garran
I have to congratulate CityNews on an excellent crop of letters in its edition of January 23.
All well written, sensible, to the point and of topical interest, I particularly liked BM Bodart-Bailey and Dr Jenny Stewart’s contributions and look forward to more such letters in the future.
Ric Hingee, Duffy
I refer to Antonio Di Dio’s Kindness column (CN January 23). Thank you, Antonio, I always appreciate reading your column.
As you said: “Next time you watch ugly anger and rage on the news, try standing in their shoes first.” Before we judge, we need to do this.
Like Antonio’s family, and like most of us, I have had rough experiences in my life. But do we advance in any way if we simply judge and dismiss people as cheating, wicked, violent – as lesser beings?
I too have learned how judging negatively often creates more harm than good. It even diminishes our own wellbeing. So,
let us think kindly. Let us understand what it would have been like in different eras, different circumstances. Let us behave kindly. And also a huge personal thank you to Dr Di Dio, who long ago used to be my GP!
Jane Allen, Fisher
Mike Quirk asks: “Is Peter Dutton a genuine addressor of energy needs and climate change or Gina Rinehart’s and the fossil-fuel lobby’s toyboy?” (Letters, CN January 23).
National Party senator Matt Canavan doesn’t think Dutton is genuine. In an August appearance on the National Conservative Institute podcast, Canavan said the Coalition was “not serious” about nuclear power, that it was a “political fix” and “ain’t the cheapest form of power”.
Dutton is also not genuine about combating climate change. He wants to scrap the 2030 emissions target and has no policies to reduce emissions in the transport and agriculture sectors.
He is beholden to the fossil-fuel lobby and last month, mining magnate Gina Rinehart hosted two private political fundraisers to directly support Dutton’s campaign.
As journalist for the Australian Financial Review, Mark Di Stefano, puts it: “There may be a time when he [Dutton] needs to make a decision in the national interest that directly goes against Rinehart. Will he do it?”
Ray Peck, Hawthorn, Victoria
How appropriate that the large recent crowds in Melbourne and Sydney at the Test matches are being compared by the media to the “Bradman era”.
It was in February 1963, at Canberra’s Manuka Oval, that Don Bradman, then in his early fifties, made the most famous comeback and played his last game.
It was for the Prime Minister’s XI against England and, as the anniversary of that looms large, it may be worth recalling that day through the eyes of a 12-year-old, new to this country, “fresh off the boat”, not too good in English, but already under cricket’s spell.
When the announcement about Bradman was made, the Canberra of that day went into overdrive. Red Hill Primary was buzzing, teachers were more than a little excited and our neighbours in downtown Narrabundah were initially speechless and then couldn’t talk about anything else. It’s doubtful if this country’s ever produced a more significant sports person.
How things have changed, back then Menzies was in charge, “climate change” simply meant a new season and the Western Bulldogs were still Footscray. In Canberra, it snowed regularly and, for those of us from Europe, a near religious experience.
So cometh the day, off we went, all 10,000 of us, to attend the “Twilight of the Gods”. An absolute full house, you couldn’t move. The old expression “batting after Bradman” is well known, but batting before him must have been beyond nerve racking. People wanting to see the back of you so Bradman could bat would have been quite character building.
Then, almost thankfully, a wicket fell and Bradman enters. Quite small, light of build, it was difficult to imagine how this bloke could have so terrorised the opposition.
His first and, from memory. only scoring shot was a crisp boundary, with so little effort that he may as well have been shelling peas.
Then the almost unthinkable, he was bowled! It wasn’t clean, he played on and that bloody bail dropped. The groan of the crowd would have registered on the Richter scale, but that was only to be expected.
The enduring memory for me was the reaction of the England players. Complete and utter despair. Hands on heads, bent over in anguish and this was an England team not to be trifled with, containing some of their best ever players. Captained by Dexter, it included future captains, May, Cowdrey and I think Graveney.
The reaction to Bradman’s dismissal was the thing. It took years for me to figure out that the England players were also there to witness and enjoy a long Bradman innings, thus providing the opportunity to dine out on having played against him for the rest of their lives.
The last thing they wanted was his early dismissal. How unfortunate that Bradman didn’t follow the example of the legendary Dr WG Grace. The story goes that when a young county bowler clipped his off bail, the good Doctor simply replaced it and explained to the startled youngster that “they’re here to watch me bat, lad, and not thee bowl”. We’d have all looked the other way had Bradman done something similar.
Having subsequently had the great privilege of playing cricket and football on that Manuka Oval a hundred times over, the bigger buzz for me is to tell anyone still silly enough to listen, that I was there when Bradman returned. Say no more
Frank Breglec, Fadden
In his Wine column (“There’s wine people and normal people”, CN January 30), Richard Calver reviewed a book titled Wine for Normal People.
Its author, American master of wine Elizabeth Schneider, wrote that “Australia is all at sea in terms of identity”. She is partly right and, in my view, partly wrong. The vast bulk of Australian wine, including the ultra-successful Yellow Tail brand, comes from large irrigated vineyards in the NSW Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (around Griffith and
cent of the travelling public use it. Hardly marketable is it?
We could have a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) like Brisbane Metro, which is a light rail lookalike. Using its own busway, it was faster than a car by the same route. It is spacious, comfortable and will take 170 passengers. Its 21-kilometre route cost was $1.55 billion as compared to Stage 2a’s 1.7 kilometres for $1.32 billion and we expect the route to Woden to cost no less than $4 billion.
the US-based hokey pokey (sic) is definitely what it’s all about. End of discussion.
Eric Hunter, Cook
It takes a brave man to admit he was wrong
Robert Macklin cannot resist having a go at Christianity (Now for the main bout where truth versus fantasy, CN January 2).
Yenda) and SA’s Riverland (around Renmark and Berri). Most of the rest is the result of bottling blends from selected high-production, undistinguished sites in SA’s Barossa Valley, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra and Wrattonbully; with a little from the renowned McLaren Vale. Even Penfolds Grange is a blend of cabernet sauvignon and shiraz from several carefully selected SA vineyards.
My association with a professional wine-judging group ended 24 years ago, but I have never forgotten the art of wine appreciation, judgment and recognition of vineyard site (“terroir”).
This has led to my finding favourites among the bewildering selection of labels on wine merchants’ racks. These include McLaren Vale shiraz, Clare Valley riesling and most single-vineyard, single-variety wines from the Adelaide Hills. Henschke Hill of Grace shiraz is in the last category. Alas, like Grange, with its four-figure price, I can no longer afford it. I am content to drink enjoyable wine that I can afford.
Dr Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin
Abandon extensions… like yesterday!
Light rail has some benefits, but there are many more downsides. Financials aside, the aim of any public transport system is to move travellers quickly to their destinations.
Canberra has never been able to do that. Even replacing buses with light rail will not improve travel time.
I’ve compared travel time now to 20 years ago and travel times have not improved in that time – that’s why only seven per
I believe 2a and 2b should be abandoned like yesterday. It is too expensive, does nothing to kill emissions, diverts much-needed funds from other significant needs in favour of BRT or electric buses with dedicated busways. Investing in projects that make money eg a convention centre will earn $4 for every $1 invested, compared to our tram which earns 49 cents for every dollar invested, makes sense. High-capacity electric buses or BRT could be delivered quickly with little disruption.
Russ Morison, co-author of 21st Century Public Transport Solutions for Canberra
Happy New Year to all, even to those who fail to recognise my innate profundity.
Speaking of which, columnist Clive Williams (CN, January 2), is becoming even more whimsically profound as we move into 2025. His entertaining list really stimulated my memories and intellectual juices. Starting in my comics period, I too puzzled over why no one recognised Clark Kent was Superman with glasses (not even in the movies). Then came puberty and I began searching for the tiniest hint of whiskery growth, but never connected it with the puzzle of why Tarzan never had a beard despite being a jungle dweller. Still, the answer was obvious: Tarzan’s alter ego would never have missed his daily scrape when he visited his English roots as the sartorially immaculate Viscount Greystoke.
But please don’t mention Barbie. As a young father with three daughters, not only did I have to buy separate sets of Barbie’s friends for each of them, but they insisted I shell out for the most expensive accessory of the time – a Barbie campervan. Thank heavens they settled for just one into which they jammed the entire Barbie/mates menagerie.
Finally, the answer to whether the hokey cokey really is what it’s all about is dead easy. For us dinkum Aussies it ain’t; only the Poms are “cokeyed” up. In our love of all things septic tank, we’ve always known that
He has similar qualities to Peter Dutton who, although he has heard many arguments against his nuclear power policy, doggedly persists in promoting it.
Both men are likely to blindly persist in their follies. It takes a brave man to admit he was wrong or even to tweak his main arguments.
Bill Shorten would’ve won the 2019 election if he had modified Labor’s negative gearing and franking credits policy in light of information gained during the election campaign. It also would’ve shown he was listening to the electorate.
Herman van de Brug, Holt
Bill Brown believes that the Canberra Times is on a “journey of obliteration” (letters, December 19).
I for one hope he is not right. I need my local newspaper. If the support of businesses that operate in the ACT is necessary to keep the paper financially viable, which I understand to be the case from what has been published in the CT over recent years, then we should thank those businesses for their ongoing support. I imagine the same can be said for CityNews! We have the choice not to read the advertisements.
I have been a loyal supporter of The Canberra Times since I arrived in Canberra nearly 60 years ago. Certainly, it is not the paper it used to be, in particular with significantly less local news than used to be the case.
I am not interested in relying on my phone or computer to read about what is happening in our local area.
I also look forward to the weekly edition of CityNews to provide valuable and interesting alternative commentary on issues relevant to the ACT. There is a place for both papers.
I should add that I have no personal interest in either publication and that I will send a copy of this letter to the Canberra Times, as Mr Brown says he did.
Peter Forster, Curtin
Mind-bending, body-snatching, blood-sucking: parasites are bizarre yet vital for life on Earth, says EUAN RITCHIE .
Parasite, zombie, leech – these words are often used to describe people in unkind ways.
Many of us recoil when ticks, tapeworms, fleas, head lice or bed bugs are even mentioned. Coming across such unwelcome guests – in our hair, on our skin or in our beds – can be a real nightmare.
Some parasites cause horrific deformities and diseases, maiming and killing millions of people and wildlife. Others may help boost immunity or provide the basis of food chains.
Parasites are often demonised and misunderstood. But the more we study these oddities and wonders of evolution, the more we appreciate their vital roles in ecosystems and our complex relationships with them. They’re essential to life on Earth.
Far from being invited dinner guests, parasites typically turn up of their own accord and feed at the host’s expense, consuming part or all of them.
Parasites can live within their host (or hosts) for short or extended periods – in some cases many years – going largely unnoticed. For instance, one man lived with a tapeworm in his brain for more than four years until the headaches and strange smells become too much to bear. In other cases, parasites can kill their host.
One man lived with a tapeworm in his brain for more than four years until the headaches and strange smells become too much to bear.
As an ecologist with a focus on wildlife and conservation, I wrote this article to share some of my fascination for parasites and the importance of their extraordinary lives.
Cuckoos are known as brood parasites, tricking other birds into raising their own young.
Parasites rely on living organisms for food, to grow and to reproduce.
They can either live on the outside (ectoparasites) or inside (endoparasites) of their hosts.
Perhaps the most gruesome type of parasite, parasitoids, kill their hosts in order to reproduce. The disturbing chest-bursting scene from the 1979 movie Alien is a truly visceral sci-fi example of a parasitoid.
In real life, examples include spider wasps that first immobilise their spider prey, lay an egg on them, and bury them. Then when the egg hatches, the wasp larvae devour the incapacitated spider. That is, of course, if another animal such as a “bin chicken (Sacred Ibis)” or insect doesn’t intervene.
Parasites are widespread and profoundly affect our world.
Parasites are typically much smaller than their hosts. Many are furnished with equipment for latching on and remaining attached, includ ing hooks, suckers and “teeth”.
Diplozoon paradoxum that lives in gills of some fish must conjoin with another to reach adulthood and reproduce. Once fused, they form a permanent, lifelong bond and mate with each other over many years.
As much as 40 per cent of all animal species may be parasites, and this mode of life might have evolved more than 200 times in the animal kingdom. But parasitism is not solely confined to animals. Many plants, fungi, protists, bacteria and viruses are parasites, too.
The leech scene in the iconic 1986 movie Stand By Me comes back to me every time I walk through a damp forest. The idea of providing a blood meal for another species sparks fear in many people. But leeches may also come to our aid, either by helping to reduce pooling of blood or reestablishing blood flow to areas post-surgery. Their anaesthetic saliva also has anti-inflammatory and anticoagulant properties, which are advantageous for medical procedures.
As the blood of leeches contains DNA from their past meals, conservation scientists can use them to search for rare and cryptic wildlife.
increase confidence and risk-taking, may even be linked with increased entrepreneurial and business-related activities. Indeed, this same study found that nations with higher rates of toxoplasmosis had a lower proportion of individuals concerned about failure related to new business ventures.
Parasites are a big part of life on Earth. A study on the Californian coast found the sheer mass of parasites exceeded that of top predators. In particular, the biomass of trematodes was greater than that of birds, fish, burrowing shrimps and polychaetes (marine worms).
Parasites shape our world in profound ways, have crucial ecological roles, and paradoxically, may in some cases help keep us healthier.
Leeches are aiding wildlife conservation.
One of the world’s most widespread parasites is Toxoplasma gondii. Some estimates suggest as many as one in three people are affected. This parasite’s main host is cats, large and small species. House cats are frequently infected, spreading this parasite through their faeces.
While many infected people appear to have no symptoms, serious effects can include organ damage, complications with pregnancy or abortion, erratic risk-taking behaviour, mental conditions, and more traffic accidents
Evidence suggests ecosystems rich in parasites are healthier than those with fewer parasites. But there is increasing concern for the survival of these species amid a growing extinction crisis. So a global plan for parasite conservation was proposed in 2020, with priorities including increased data collection and genetic analysis, making conservation assessments, and raising public awareness.
Sadly, parasites can inflict great pain, meat allergies, suffering, and a heavy death toll. Malaria, schistosomiasis (sometimes referred to as snail fever, bilharzia, and Katayama fever), and sleeping sickness are just a few examples. But they also shape our world in profound ways, have crucial ecological roles, and paradoxically, may in some cases help keep us healthier. Though it may be confronting to admit, we need parasites as much as they need us.
Euan Ritchie, Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University. Republished from The Conversation.
New year, new ideas! Here are the stories of some of Canberra’s top experts in home improvements, standing ready to help you take your home to the next level.
The owner of Renovation Matters, Kim Persson, says they work closely with clients to understand their renovation goals, whether they’re renovating to sell for maximum return or upgrading their home for a fresh new look.
“Our team provides expert guidance on costeffective improvements that add value, balancing aesthetics with market appeal,” says Kim.
“From minor updates to full scale transforma tions, we tailor each project to our clients’ needs, ensuring they achieve the best outcome with minimal stress.”
Kim says starting a home improvement project can be exciting, but advises it’s important to approach it with careful planning.
“Finding trustworthy tradespeople, manag ing renovations and sourcing materials can be overwhelming,” she says.
“That’s why we handle it for you, ensuring a smooth, stress-free process from start to finish, whether you’re selling or staying.
“From concept to completion, we manage the entire renovation process, ensuring a seamless experience and delivering high-quality results that align with our clients’ vision and financial
Using skilled tradespeople, premium materials, thorough planning and design, attention to detail, quality control and inspections, clear communica tion and taking a client-centred approach, Kim says her team is committed to getting the job right the first time, ensuring lasting results and
Renovation Matters offers transformational renovations that add the biggest impact and value when selling your property.
If you are not selling, we can help you renovate to meet your specific requirements!
Carpet One and CBI Blinds & Awnings, located in Mitchell, have been serving the Canberra community for more than 22 years, says Leonie Gann, co-owner.
Leonie, along with her partner Paul, run the family business and boast a team with more than 100 years of combined experience.
“Our experienced team is well-equipped to assist customers with various flooring needs, from carpets, timbers, laminates and vinyl planks,” she says.
“Under the same roof is our window furnishings store CBI Blinds & Awnings, offering a huge range of internal window treatments, including the very popular Verishades, roller blinds, romans, verticals, shutters and curtains.
“We are Canberra’s Oztech retractable roof systems specialist and also supply Ziptrak’s outdoor awnings and external shutters.
“Our expertise ensures that customers receive knowledgeable assistance in selecting the right products and addressing any specific installation requirements.
“Carpet One provides free design consults and on-site measures, allowing us to identify
and discuss any potential issues during the design process.
“Our in-house magazine serves as a visual guide, aiding customers in finding the perfect style for their homes.”
Leonie says the team at Carpet One strive to match the products in their showroom with customers’ specific needs and preferences.
“Carpet One offers tailored package deals that provide customers with cost-effective flooring and window treatment solutions while meeting customers’ requirements,” she says.
Carpet One, 141 Flemington Road, Mitchell. Call 6241 5666 or visit carpetone.com.au/ mitchell or cbiblinds.com.au
Sprucing up a space with new furniture doesn’t have to be an expensive process.
“At Ex-Government Furniture, we offer highquality, durable office and home furniture at a fraction of the cost of brand-new retail options,” says co-owner James Fullerton.
“Our products come from ex-government and commercial stock, meaning they’re built to last, environmentally friendly and budget-friendly.”
Unlike many mass-produced alternatives, James says their furniture is designed for heavyduty and long-term use.
“Our furniture is perfect for home offices, workspaces and renovations,” he says.
“We take a hands-on approach.
“Whether you’re setting up a home office, upgrading a study area or refurnishing a work space, our team offers guidance on selecting the right desks, chairs, storage and more.”
James says his team provides in-store consultations to show customers options first hand to help them visualise how pieces might fit into their space.
James recommends that customers start with a plan and prioritise functionality in their home improvements.
“If you’re setting up a work space, think about ergonomics, storage and durability – especially if you’ll be using it daily,” he says.
“You don’t need to buy everything brand new.
“Quality secondhand furniture can save you money without sacrificing longevity.”
Ex-Government Furniture, 6 Yallourn Street. Call 6280 6490 or visit exgovfurniture.com or facebook.com/exgovfurniture
From antique heirlooms to modern club lounges and TV recliners, Ebsworth Upholstery can assist with any furniture restoration or re-upholstery project, says office manager Robyn Ebsworth.
Robyn operates the business with her husband Mark, a skilled upholsterer with more than 20 years of experience, and together she says they work with designers, timber restorers, metal fabricators and frame makers to deliver attention to detail that’s second
“We often have customers with furniture that once belonged to their grandparents that’s been passed down through generations,” says Robyn.
“When it’s restored for them, there can be a real emotional response. “These heirlooms are often a way to remember loved
It’s just one of the valued services that Ebsworth Upholstery offers, says Robyn.
“We’ve got one of the biggest fabric libraries in Canberra that includes soft furnishings, fabrics, upholstery and drapery, and customers can come and purchase fabrics for their own projects through that library as well,” she says.
They’re also proud to offer custom-made furniture and lampshade making services, with the manufacturing process all done in Australia.
More than 15 years ago, in a small factory, with a staff of five, Skyview Windows was created with the vision to supply quality products in the shortest possible lead times, says managing director Neil Thompson.
“The company mantra from day one was ‘quality windows, fast’,” says Neil.
“In January we moved our factory to Waterloo Street, Queanbeyan, to improve efficiencies. This, together with a new display centre in Lowe Street, will give Skyview the opportunity to highlight the large range of products available.”
Neil says part of Skyview’s success is being able to work closely with customers and suppliers to ensure consistency in quality and supply is maintained.
Using dedicated, local people, Neil says all windows and doors are manufactured to Australian standards. All our products are manufactured right here in Queanbeyan.
“All windows and doors are manufactured from a mixture of local and imported raw materials to ensure cost competitiveness and, unlike the major window companies, all the profits stay right here,” he says.
“Skyview is the only window company able to supply any powdercoat colour with no cost premium involved.
“This allows our customers to mix and match colour schemes for their houses without having to stick to the six standard colours our competitors offer.”
Skyview is the only window company to offer the “Texturer” colour range at a standard price. Texturer significantly reduces marks and blemishes on the powder-coat finish.
Skyview Windows, 13-15 Waterloo Street, Queanbeyan. Call 6232 9977 or visit skyview-windows.com.au
The three focus points of Totally Green Cleaning Solutions are carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning and ground-level win dow cleaning, says owner Glenn Bignell.
“I tend to mainly do residential cleaning, and I started looking into environmentally friendly cleaning as a result of toxic chemicals in the cleaning industry having a negative effect on my health,” he says.
“I am using non-toxic, odourless and environmentally friendly cleaning products for a greener future and better health.
“Lots of small changes can have a big impact.”
Glenn says, as a sole trader, he has a direct connection with customers.
“Unlike big companies that tend to be disconnected from their customers, I like helping people and making a difference in their homes by providing old-fashioned customer service,” he says.
“For more than 10 years my business has been operating and evolving. Doing a lot of research and development has made me a better cleaner, which helps the health and safety of my clients, their homes and pets, and my long term health, too.”
Glenn says his mission statement is “to provide environmental cleaning solutions with both quality and integrity.”
Totally Green Cleaning Solutions. Call 0412 299284, or visit totallygreencleaning.net.au
With more than ten years providing trusted cleaning services to the Canberra region, you can rest assured your home or office will be in good hands.
Creating practical, beautiful and sustainable furniture has been a passion for Robyn and husband Gino Monteleone for more than 20 years.
“Select Custom Joinery creates bespoke solutions for people looking for beautiful additions to your home,” she says.
Opening in 2000, Robyn says the business started specialising in timber and hard woods in 2008.
“It’s a natural product, so it feels like you’re bringing a piece of nature to your home,” she says.
“It’s like you’re creating a soul in the furniture.
“You’re making a house a home.”
Robyn says they are particularly excited about their new range of flat timber doors.
“Flat timber doors goes against the way that timber should be built – with movement,” she says.
“We’ve found a way that satisfies the timbers’ need while also meeting the demand for flat panels.”
The doors are flat on the outside and busy on the inside, something that Robyn says was a genius innovation by her husband.
“Timber doors are supposed to be built as a frame and panel to allow for timber movement, but it’s been exciting working our way around this problem to meet demand.”
Select Custom Joinery. 1182 Wallaroo Road, Hall. Call 6230 9414 or visit selectcustomjoinery.com.au
Often left until the last minute when moving, downsizing, decluttering and packing possessions can be a daunting task.
“Many clients need impartial help working out what will make their new home work and provide the lifestyle they are looking to achieve by letting the excess items we all have find a second or third life,” says House to Home co-owner, Renee Le Grande.
“Our expertise is in helping clients prepare for a sale, downsizing and helping them find where loved treasures can go.”
Renee says many of their clients have lived in their homes for a number of years and most have more “treasures” than they realise.
“We take the time to understand the expectation, which is more than just the timeline,” she says.
“Working out what items to keep, what will fit into
their new home, is all part of our process.
“We focus on one area at a time so the process can be less demanding, which frequently delivers a sense of achievement.”
Renee says there is a difference between the “must haves” and “would like to keep” and works with clients by working through the available floor and wall space to help with difficult decisions.
“My advice is not to leave it until the last minute,” says Renee.
“It usually takes clients longer than they realise as many have a lot more tucked away into cupboards than they remember!”
House to Home, Removal Specialists. Call 0457 456 767 or visit house-to-home.com.au
Whether you are preparing for sale, renovations, or making your home safe our expert packing specialists can pack and clear rooms or whole houses quickly and efficiently.
We can organise and provide all packing materials to complete these clearing tasks for those who are busy and unable to complete these tasks in a short time frame. house-to-home.com.au
Taking a design-led approach, director of Salt Renovations Olivier Aldric says they have built a reputation for delivering beautifully designed, functional spaces tailored to each client’s needs.
“At Salt Renovations, we seamlessly integrate both design and construction under one roof,” says Olivier.
“This means our clients benefit from a cohesive process, clear communication and expert guidance from concept to completion.”
Olivier says every project they undertake is tailored to the client’s needs and lifestyle.
“We ensure that functionality and aesthetics work in perfect harmony and focus on beautiful finishes, innovative layouts and high standards of craftsmanship to deliver renovations that not only look stunning but enhance daily living,” he says.
According to Olivier, collaboration is key.
“By blending client input with our expertise, we create spaces that feel both personal and timeless,” he says.
Olivier acknowledges that renovating can be an overwhelming process, which is why they take a hands-on approach to managing every aspect of the process.
“From initial consultation to final handover, we handle all scheduling, co-ordination and communication.”
Salt Renovations. Unit 9/19-25 Kembla Street, Fyshwick. Call 6163 1663 or visit saltrenovations.com.au
“In general, what sells a house is the bathroom and kitchen,” says Jayde Thomson, in-house designer at The Bathroom Company.
“When people buy a new house, that’s the first room that they look at, so when you go to renovate a house that’s the first place to start.”
Jayde says the idea that customers have to spend a lot of money to make renovations beautiful is a misconception, and that it is all about quality.
She says that owner Andrew Finn has been running The Bathroom Company since 1994, so customers can be assured quality is consistent.
“The Bathroom Company is also probably one of the only companies that has an in-house designer,” she says.
As the in-house designer, Jayde is able to provide customers with floor plans, 3D renders, mood-boards and accompanies them on shopping trips.
“It’s less daunting than just going out by yourself and getting overwhelmed by the amount of product that is out there,” she says.
“The fact that it is complimentary is a big deal, it helps the client know what they’re going to get and lock in their decisions with confidence.
“The customer can relax and know the job is going to be done the exact way they want it.”
Jayde says that the first quote, which is free of charge, will also be inclusive of a free design consultation, so that customers can discuss design and construction before locking anything in.
The Bathroom Company. Call 0418 628693, email info@ bathroomcompany.com.au or visit bathroomcompany.com.au
vision for the project, knowing the budget allocated to the project and communicating with the builder.
“Communication is very important at all stages of a project,” says Chris.
“I ensure I keep my clients updated regularly to maintain contact and manage expectations.”
Chris says he takes the time to understand his clients’ vision at the beginning of a project.
“From there, I can then guide my clients through all aspects from the design to build, all the way to the finishes.”
Chris says Clarity Construction strives to showcase a high quality finish and close attention to detail in all of their projects.
Clarity Construction. Call 0412 938 682, email admin@clarityconstructions. com.au or visit facebook.com/p/Clarity-Constructions
Tony aims for trust in his passion for plumbing
Winner of the 2021 Icon Water award, owner of Jet Blast Plumbing, Tony Awad says he doesn’t take shortcuts, but rather takes a lot of pride in his work.
“Forget the stereotype of tradies being late or not turning up,” says Tony.
“I’m more likely to be early.”
Passionate and specialising in blocked drains, Tony has more than 30 years of experience within the plumbing industry.
Tony says he strives to go above and beyond to help earn his customers’ trust, especially those who are vulnerable and unfairly targeted by unethical tradespeople.
Fully licensed and insured, he is a member of the ACT Master Plumbers Association.
As a member, Tony’s work comes with a consumer guarantee. Tony says he guides customers through the process by ascertaining the problem, providing the best advice for remedy and other options if applicable.
“We don’t charge a call out fee to attend the job,” says Tony. “Just a flat-rate price that is communicated before starting the job.” Tony advises customers not to try to fix the problem themselves as it often amounts to more problems.
“For plumbing work, always call a licensed plumber,” he says. “The cheapest isn’t always the best option.”
Jet Blast Plumbing. Call 0412 30 20 40 or visit jetblastplumbing.com.au
First-founded in 1989, PFM Plumbing has become an established, well-respected, and trusted business by the Canberra community that offers customers reliable service for all types of plumbing, says owner Pat Morella.
“PFM Plumbing is equipped with the right tools to find the cause and correct the issue for blocked drains,” says Pat.
“We specialise in the replacement, installation and maintenance of hot-water services at properties throughout Canberra and the servicing, installation and replacements of gas appliances including hot-water units, cooktops and heaters.
“We also install all manner of appliances like tapware, hot water systems, toilets and more.”
A licensed plumber and gasfitter, Pat says he prides himself on providing customers with a great experience through his reliability, knowledge and commitment to quality work.
“When tasked with a job you can be assured I will be there working to complete the task from start to finish,” says Pat.
“If required we also have qualified team members to assist.”
Pat says it’s all part of PFM Plumbing’s quality service that they’ve been proudly offering Canberra and the surrounding regions for more than 30 years.
PFM Plumbing, call 0412 628538, visit pfmplumbing.com.au or email pfmplumbing@optusnet.com.au
Action Plumbing is a local, multi-generational family business that has been operating for 40 years, says director Simon Read, and includes his wife, Sally, who is the business manager, brother Daniel and his father Mark, who founded the business.
From the beginning, Simon says Action Plumbing has prioritised building trusted relationships, with the vast majority of work coming from loyal clients, some for more than 30 years.
“We are known for our commitment to personal and professional service, arriving on time and delivering quality plumbing solutions every time,” he says.
“Our honest approach to renovation and commercial and residential plumbing means we have built an impeccable reputation in the Canberra community for delivering quality services at the right price and in the right time frame.”
He says Action Plumbing offers the full range of plumbing services and start-to-finish bathroom renovations.
“This includes being responsive, communicating clearly, arriving on time and cleaning up after ourselves,” he says. “We treat your home like our own.
“We’re not out to trick or overcharge clients. Knowing a good plumber is like having a family GP, that’s why trust and respect in our client relationships are essential.”
Action Plumbing, call 0438 630508 or visit actionplumbing.net.au
By Helen MUSA
In a bold but theatre-savvy move, Lakespeare, Shakespeare by the Lakes, has got together with The Q this year to present Macbeth – mostly outdoors.
Directed by Jordan Best, who last did The Scottish Play for Canberra Rep in 2016, it’s not the obvious choice for an outdoor production, but Lakespeare will be relying on the age-old magic of Shakespeare’s words to bring to life the atmosphere, the political manoeuvrings and the trajectory of the warrior king and his doomed wife.
Macbeth is one of the easiest of all Shakespeare’s plays to understand. It rips along, it’s very short on subplots, although Macbeth’s opponents lurk in the wings, and it has wonderful parts for an ensemble cast of 11 actors.
I caught up with Isaac Reilly, who plays Macbeth, outside The Q on a hot night overlooking Aunty Louise Brown Park where the show will open.
Reilly, a graduate of the ANU in molecular biology and drama, is the father of three children these days, so doesn’t have much time to tread the boards, and we last saw
him at ACT Hub in Emerald City in 2021.
But when Best offered him the role of Macbeth, he could hardly turn it down. Reilly is not a superstitious man and takes the reputation of Macbeth as the unlucky play with a grain of salt, but when I tell him how my English teacher at school set out
to prove conclusively that Macbeth was the perfect play, he agrees wholeheartedly.
“I did study Macbeth at school,” he says.
“It’s tragic, it’s the perfect play, it really is.”
“It’s the source of many popular sayings and even has ‘knock knock’ jokes… it drives through.”
The play might be perfect but the character of Macbeth is not – it wouldn’t be a tragedy otherwise.
A great war hero, he doesn’t shy away from killing, unless, as Reilly notes, he has time to think about it. Nor is he particularly smart – that’s Lady Macbeth – and the fake language he uses to describe the dead Duncan (“His silver skin laced with his golden blood”) hits a wrong note.
The iambic rhythm drops a beat here, too, Reilly tells me, saying: “It’s amazing how layered the language is.”
To him, though, it’s the supernatural scenes that are pivotal, as the witches wind Macbeth up, leading him to cry out against “the equivocation of the fiend that lies like
As for the marriage of the Macbeths, he says, “it’s a close, deep relationship and that’s part of the tragedy… Macbeth is a war hero but not a politician. Lady Macbeth is, and together they make a formidable
Yet it’s a partnership that is flawed. Macbeth doesn’t tell his wife that he’s had his friend Banquo murdered, so she is as surprised as everybody else when he freaks out on seeing his friend’s ghost, a sure sign that things are getting out of control on the home front.
Reilly has never done an outdoor show. The performances will always start in bright daylight, but he says: “It’s nice not to be
relying on sets or lights [they’ll be miked up for the outdoor shows]. There are no limits to the imagination of audiences.”
Actors have always differed over how to play the ambitious hero, whether as a sensitive New Age Macbeth or a great warrior.
“I’ve pulled back on the sympathy a bit,” Reilly says.
“He certainly is a hero at the beginning, but his ambition is immediately evident and there’s also the matter of ordering the deaths of babies and wives, for which he doesn’t give any moral explanation.”
That, we agree, is probably because Macbeth appears to be an atheist. The play’s most famous speech, after all, ends with the words, “It [life] is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”.
And yet, Reilly reminds me, he goes out as a hero. Not wanting to be paraded around as a captive, the heroic Macbeth asserts itself again in his last words: “Lay on, Macduff, and damned be him that first cries, ‘Hold, enough!’”
It’s bound to send a chill up the spine.
Macbeth, The Q, Queanbeyan, February 12-16, pay what you feel. Free performances at Tuggeranong Park, February 21, Patrick White Lawns, NLA, February 22-23, and Haig Park, March 1. Paid performances, Act Hub Kingston, February 27-28 and dinner show, Shakespeare by the Vines, Lake George Winery, March 2. All details at lakespeare.com
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
By Helen Musa
The National Gallery has long nurtured an interest in the ukiyo-e (“Floating World”) woodblock prints of 17th-19th century Japan.
In 2001 a seminal NGA exhibition, Monet & Japan, took advantage of the fact that the great French impressionist Claude Monet had a huge collection of ukiyo-e prints in his Giverny home to trace influences of Eastern on Western art.
The gallery has collected a wide variety of traditional woodblock prints, including those by famous exponents, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Kunisada, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Toyohara Kunichika and Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.
Now there is a buzz of excitement at the NGA with the impending, long-awaited arrival of a modern-day ukiyo-e master, Japanese American artist Masami Teraoka, who will be in town in mid-February to see the first Australian exhibition dedicated to his work, Masami Teraoka and Japanese Ukiyo-E-Prints.
His contemporary works are displayed alongside those of traditional ukiyo-e artists. It may not be immediately obvious to those unfamiliar with the traditional art but they, like those of Teraoka, dealt with their own world and not a nostalgic world from the past, so that we see inhabitants of Edo (now Tokyo) going about their business, visiting Kabuki theatres, and enjoying
themselves in tea and bath houses.
Teraoka introduces modern Western figures into his scenes, with a predilection for pictures of bijin-ga, beautiful women, yūreizu, ghosts, demons and supernatural beings, and most famous, the shunga, graphically detailed erotic prints.
Teraoka has picked up on several of these themes to reflect on globalisation and the collision between Asian and Western cultures, using his mixture of Eastern and Western faces and bodies, some critics have
said, to make comment on the male gaze.
In Catfish Envy, for instance, a Japanese Samurai leers at a Western woman who embraces a catfish, but what does it mean?
Teraoka is probably best-known here for his body of work commenting on the AIDS crisis, seen in the National Gallery’s 1994 exhibition Don’t Leave Me This Way: Art in the Age of AIDS, which just marked its 30th anniversary.
A highlight of the current show is the folding screen AIDS Series/Makiki Heights
Disaster, 1988, which was acquired by the NGA in 2023.
Born in Japan in 1936, Teraoka moved in 1961 to Los Angeles, where he became an observer of Japanese and American culture, often in collision.
From the early 1970s, he took up the traditional visual vocabulary of the ukiyo-e woodblock prints to comment on the world around him, provocatively fusing cultural images, although her preferred his prints to be executed in Japan with artisans engaged
for each component of the papermaking, carving and printing.
The exhibition is part of the National Gallery’s Kenneth E Tyler Collection exhibition series, and focuses on Teraoka’s Hawaii Snorkel Series, published by Tyler Graphics in 1992-93, looking at the hybrid techniques and innovative approaches Tyler employed to help Teraoka realise his vision.
Masami Teraoka and Japanese Ukiyo-E-Prints, National Gallery of Australia until July 6.
The breathtakingly funny comedian Garry Starr is returning, this time to save books from extinction by performing every Penguin classic novel ever written in an hour and, as usual, mostly naked. In tribute to the famous publisher, Starr will wear flippers as he romps through everything from The Little Prince to Moby Dick. The Q, Queanbeyan, February 7.
An unlikely frontliner for St Valentine’s Day this year is laconic local troubadour and 2023 CityNews Artist of the Year, Fred Smith, who’s come up with a show called Domesticity. It draws on his 2020 album Domestic, which dealt with love and home life. Smith’s
Alternative, Civic, February 14.
The Bald Archy Prize, entering its 29th year, is Australia’s leading satirical art showcase and the only art competition in the world to be judged by a sulphur-crested cockatoo from Coolac. Watson Arts Centre February 7-March 23.
ANU Campus Environment has provided an update on the parking changes within the arts precinct of the ANU. The carpark next to Canberra Rep Theatre will now not be used for the light rail project
stage 2a so will not be closed, but the Childers Street carpark near the Street Theatre and the Peter Karmel Building will be vacated from February 21 for the rail project.
Megalo Print Studio is heading to the Melbourne Art Print Fair’s inaugural event. Linden New Art, St Kilda, February 7-9.
Netflix’s hit new drama series
American Primeval wants you to know just how brutal and bloody the Old West really was.
This six-episode show takes place during the Utah War in 1857, a conflict sparked by tensions between Mormon settlers and the federal government over land ownership.
Most notorious from the war was the Mountain Meadows Massacre, where a Mor mon militia murdered around 120 settlers trying to make their way to California.
This harrowing setting is where the protagonists of American Primeval find themselves, a mother and son desperate to make it across the frontier and into a new and better life.
Helping them is Isaac Reed, a skilled, gruff mountain man who takes pity on their plight.
Like a Cormac McCarthy novel brought straight to screen, this show pulls no punches in its depiction of the horrors of the time period.
There’s an impressive sense of cinematic scale that makes it well worth a try for anyone interested in the history or the genre.
MEANWHILE, a new drama series on Binge is also confronting audiences, though with a very different kind of setting.
The Pitt offers an inside look at the grim reality of working inside an emergency room.
Set in Pittsburgh, the story follows
Michael “Robby” Rabinavitch, a doctor who works at a fictional trauma hospital and who is still recovering from traumas he experienced during the pandemic. He’s played by Noah Wyle, who medical drama fans may know from the long-running series ER, which first premiered in 1994.
The Pitt has a very different gimmick though.
Each of the 15 episodes takes place over one hour of real time that together tell the story of one entire day in the emergency room.
Episode 1 is simply titled “7AM” and
covers the first hour of the day. The second episode is “8AM” and so on. The idea is that if a character has appeared in three episodes the audience understands they’ve been at the hospital for three hours.
It’s a simple yet fascinating gimmick that hasn’t been seen before and it certainly makes The Pitt stand out from the crowd.
The writers have cleverly used this central idea of time to build tension and create an instant connection with their audience.
To what extent the show can be called “realistic” I certainly don’t have the medical knowledge to say, but there is a sense of authenticity here not present in other medical dramas.
In some ways I was reminded of The Bear, a show which depicts the frantic chaos of working in a kitchen with an aim of capturing the real-life experience. The Pitt has a similar intense, fast-paced energy going for it with even higher stakes. Here, people’s lives are on the line and it makes for some telly that’s hard to look away from.
APPLE TV Plus is continuing to pump out big-budget drama with A-list actors, but strangely doesn’t seem to be promoting them.
The latest series is Prime Target, and features breakout star Leo Woodall (One Day, The White Lotus) as a maths genius caught
up in an espionage plot.
It all kicks off when Woodall’s character Edward Brooks discovers a pattern in prime numbers that allows him to access every computer in the world.
Of course, any major power that catches wind of his ingenious discovery either wants it or wants to destroy it.
Woodall continues his run of charismatic performances but the writing he’s given isn’t quite up to scratch, leaving Prime Target to fall behind in an era of spy thriller oversaturation.
The star power here will still bring plenty of subscribers though.
It begs the question, why does Apple TV Plus not promote its shows like other streaming platforms?
Unlike Netflix, Binge, Disney Plus and the others, Apple has made the bold move to build its library entirely out of original productions, rather than fill it with films and television shows.
Perhaps it’s playing the long game, hoping that one day it will have so much content available on the platform that it will result in total market dominance.
Does slow and steady win the streaming race?
Time will tell.
•
By Jackie WARBURTON
While there are many plants we can grow that use less or little water, drought-tolerant plants also need to survive our cold winters.
Drought-tolerant plants can be grey, short-leaved plants that have deep-rooted systems and succulent leaves, but importantly plants that photosynthesise a certain way with water conservation in mind.
Flowering now is an oldfashioned plant I have replanted this year called Rose Campion (Lychnis coronaria)
The foliage is grey and its upright stems stand tall with magnificent magenta flowers and is a terrific
border plant, growing 50-centimetres tall.
They do self-seed, but are not invasive and, when young, can be transplanted to areas where there is good drainage.
This plant is disease free, low maintenance and flowers right through summer. There are white and pink flowering varieties and they all can be treated the same way. Dead head them to keep compact or left for the flowers to set seed and self-propagate.
They prefer division in spring and get them growing strong before the summer heat comes along.
ALONGSIDE the Lychnis, try buddleias (or butterfly bush) to attract butterflies and bees.
Buddleias are perfect for our climate and there is a large variety to choose from. Their sizes range from dwarf to small tree.
My favourite is Black Knight
(Buddleia davidii) as its flowers are a dark, unusual colour that contrasts well with other shrubs.
Most buddleias do not have any special pruning requirements other than they won’t die if you give them a good hack. They are fast-growing, evergreen plants, great for under powerlines and providing good screening. Choose the right-size plant for the right-size spot and that will decrease the maintenance in the future.
FEBRUARY is perfect for sowing vegetables for winter harvest. Winter vegetables take the longest to grow and can be the most expensive to buy at the supermarket, but once you’ve eaten your own produce, you’ll be sowing seeds every year!
The most successful winter vegetable seeds to grow in our climate are carrots, celery, parsnips, swedes and turnips.
All but celery are root vegetables, and they don’t like a rich soil, preferring to be planted after top-ground growers such as greens and floater plants such as zucchini or corn.
While planting seed where it is to grow is best, winter vegetables can be started in punnets.
Seed-rising mix can be made at home by sifting potting mix and
the fines can be used with a little core peat to hold the moisture and top up punnets with a little sharp river sand to help reduce fungal issues and drainage for seedlings to grow fast.
Keep them moist and lay shadecloth over the soil if needed, until germination and then gradually increase the sunlight to the new seedlings.
Once there are four sets of leaves on the seedlings, they can get a little, light liquid feed to get them growing strong. Pull out weak seedings that will stop others growing well. The more room root vegetables have to grow, the better the overall yield.
jackwar@home.netspeed.com.au
• Keep winter seedlings moist and plant out in succession.
• Deadhead summer bulbs and fertilise.
• Do not compost diseased or insect eaten fruit, place in the green bin.
• Prune branches off citrus if needed to shape and fertilise.
By Joanne Madeline Moore
ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 20)
Attached Aries – romantic vibes are high, as the fiery Full Moon lights up your love zone. Focus your attention on your lover, as you give them the right royal treatment this Valentine’s Day via a special pronouncement, a thoughtful gift or a candlelit dinner. Single Rams – with Venus visiting your sign, self-love is important. So treat yourself to some pampering on Friday. Perhaps an indulgent massage, a walk on the beach or a meal at your favourite restaurant.
TAURUS (Apr 21 – May 21)
There could be some conflict between your professional and personal relationships, as the fiery Full Moon highlights the ongoing challenge to achieve balance between your work and home life. With Uranus transiting through your sign, have the confidence to be the authentic you and listen to the wisdom of your inner voice. Be inspired by birthday great, Olympic champion Cathy Freeman: “It all comes down to having the confidence to be who you are.”
GEMINI (May 22 – June 21)
Wednesday night’s Full Moon fires up your brain power, so it’s a good time to research a subject that has always fascinated you or to enrol in a course of study. But restless Uranus squares Mercury (your patron planet) which pushes you to pursue more adventurous options, but you’ll also feel extra impatient and may skip over important details along the way. And be careful you don’t blurt out an inappropriate comment to the wrong person at the wrong time!
CANCER (June 22 – July 23)
The stars highlight communicating from the heart and saying what’s on your mind. But – with Mars reversing through your sign – resist the urge to act impulsively and spread salacious gossip. Slow down, think things through and try to speak as tactfully as possible. It’s a good week to promote a joint venture, catch up with an old friend or organise a romantic rendezvous. Unhappily single? Sparks could fly with a work colleague, client or customer.
LEO (July 24 – Aug 23)
With the Full Moon in Leo and the Sun, Mercury and Pluto in your partnership zone, prepare for a bold and busy Valentine’s Day. Coupled Cats – why not initiate a special romantic rendezvous with your partner? Singles – in order to find true love, you need to be brave and step out of your comfort zone. So your motto is from Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu: “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
VIRGO (Aug 24 – Sept 23)
At the moment, with taskmaster Saturn moving slowly through your relationship zone, love is a very serious business. So your quote for Valentine’s Day is from writer William Barclay: “Love always involves responsibility, and love always involves sacrifice.” Singles – it’s time to give flirtatious, superficial suitors the flick. Instead, look for a lover who has real character, depth and substance – a philosopher (with a romantic soul) who can last the distance.
LIBRA (Sept 24 – Oct 23)
Librans are addicted to love in all its forms – romantic, platonic and universal. And this week Venus is visiting your relationship zone. So – whether you’re attached, searching for your soulmate, or happily single – Valentine’s Day is an appropriate time to reflect on the fact that love really does make the world go around. Do all you can to encourage and nurture more love in your life. As John Lennon (a fellow Libran) observed: “Love is the flower, you’ve got to let it grow.”
SCORPIO (Oct 24 – Nov 22)
Attached Scorpio – on Valentine’s Day, avoid the temptation to be bossy at home. Give your spouse more space to express their individuality. Singles – stop looking for love in all the obvious places. Write a wish-list of the important qualities you desire in a dream partner. Think outside the box and be adventurous! Then sit back and wait for the magic to happen. As actress Loretta Young observed: “Love isn’t something you find. Love is something that finds you.”
SAGITTARIUS (Nov 23 – Dec 21)
Don’t take your partner – or potential partner – for granted! If you do, then your neglected lover may go looking for attention elsewhere. (“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone. It has to be made like bread, remade all the time, made new,” – Ursula Le Guin.) So plan something uniquely special this Valentine’s Day. Singles – it doesn’t matter what a potential partner looks like, or how much money they make. You need a romantic mate who is also a friend.
CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 20)
Monday’s lingering Mars/Saturn trine brings the opportunity to complete a challenging task. But remember Mars is still retrograde, so pace yourself. Then the fiery Full Moon (on Wednesday night) shines a bright light on self-esteem, finances, core values and trust issues. It’s also time to don your Capricorn detective cap and turn on your X-ray vision, as you zero in on the cause of a lingering problem – and come up with a satisfactory long-term solution.
AQUARIUS (Jan 21 – Feb 19)
Uranus squares Mercury and the Sun, which could lead to hasty words and impulsive actions. So slow down and think (carefully) before you speak and act! Then the Full Moon lights up your relationship zone; so this Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to tell loved ones how much you really care. Inspiration for the week is from fellow Aquarian, avant-garde artist Yoko Ono: “The regret of my life is that I have not said ‘I love you’ often enough.”
PISCES (Feb 20 – Mar 20)
Attached Pisceans – you’re feeling extra romantic as you lavish attention (and money) on your partner, wear your heart on your sleeve or play out a secret fantasy with your lover. Singles – don’t base your self-esteem on whether you have a partner. You possess a multitude of talents and a kind nature. Finding your soulmate is just the extra icing on an already spectacular cake! The weekend is wonderful for creative thinking, artistic pursuits and intuitive insights.
Copyright Joanne Madeline Moore 2024
1 Name a source of electromagnetic radiation. (6)
7 Who formulated the theory of relativity, Albert ...? (8)
8 Which term describes lively intelligence? (6)
9 To begin, is to do what? (8)
10 Name a herb of the trifolium genus. (6)
11 Which parts of the cricket ground are nearest the wickets? (8)
14 What is a conversation between two or more persons? (8)
18 Name an infectious, eruptive fever of warm climates. (6)
19 Name a popular game played in the USA. (8)
21 What are oval drupes more commonly known as? (6)
22 Which small car is used to make short trips? (8)
23 Name an open item of footwear. (6)
1 To have allayed or satisfied, is to have done what? (8)
2 Which Tuesday is Pancake Day? (6)
3 When one goes to bed, one is doing what? (8)
4 Which prefix means “against” or “opposed to”? (4)
5 What is Australian English, humorously regarded (coll)? (6)
6 To have become limp and drooping, is to have done what? (6)
12 What are areas of land on which cattle are hand-fed? (8)
13 Name a cake topping of nuts, sugar, spices etc. (8)
15 Who used wings made of wax and feathers, and flew too close to the sun which melted his wings and he drowned in the Aegean? (6)
16 Which term describes extra space, time money, etc? (6)
17 What is a standard-bearer known as? (6)
20 What is a call used in hailing, especially on ships? (4)
