penneylaneonline for Friday, October 26, 2007

Getting the wrong end of the stick can almost certainly cause a storm in a teacup but how do you stop it when you realise you've too far gone to pull back from it? Do you just continue on and finish it knowing full well you're in the wrong or do you nip the whole charade in the bud and hope all will be forgiven (eventually). Is it really such a tough call? I think it is because being wrong is so unhelpful to our thinking. For the most part we believe we know why we do the things that we do. I... Sign in to see full entry.

Rove McManus is the host of his own television show here in Australia called Rove Live. He's something of a private person/public figure which must be a double-sided life to live. Like double-sided cellotape. It's sticky whichever way you cut it! Last year his beloved wife Belinda Emmett (Belle) passed away after a long battle against cancer. She was so loved by Rove and the general public alike. Yesterday Rove's name and face are splashed across the front page of the papers because he has... Sign in to see full entry.

At dusk in the 'sham (short for Petersham where I live) the skies can get to look like ruby grapefruit juice. They taste so good to your eyes. I never tire of looking at the sky when it's like that here. Sights like that can make you do things that ordinarily you wouldn't do! Like lick your plate! My mother was a woman of refined manners. Licking plates would have got me sent to Siberia but one day in a peak of adult separation from childhood reprimands in my head I licked the plate I'd been... Sign in to see full entry.

Many things impress me about today's youth but the thing that impresses me the most is when I meet one with manners. And why should that be impressive? It just is! It speaks of a respect toward a person that has somehow been diminished over the years. Diminished by generational misunderstanding and sometimes social and cultural misinterpretation. To meet a young person with manners is as refreshing as the Maroubra sea air. You want to breathe it in for a long long time. I had an occasion to met... Sign in to see full entry.