Considering they’re down to a few dollars a kilogram bananas are surprisingly hard work. I wrote, recently, about how sorely our family’s patience was being tested as we watched a mammoth bunch of bananas – literally the size of my five year old daughter – refuse to ripen on one of the palms we [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Blog'
Cultural Fest, Townsville 2011
August 22nd, 2011 · 1 Comment · Blog
Townsville is a place that has really surprised me. Firstly, the weather this winter has been astonishing – like an endless southern autumn, with day after day in the mid-20s and then night after night buried in doonas. If winter was like this every year and there was no such thing as cyclones in the [...]
Tags: cultural fest·Townsville
A Little Banana Story
June 23rd, 2011 · 3 Comments · Blog
When it comes to gardening I am the fantastical dreamer and Prue the magical realist. She promises (and delivers) on turning our 700 square metre block in Townsville into a market garden while I try and convince her we should go for an exotic, impractical tropical orchard. When it comes to our yard I am [...]
Tags: bananas·Townsville
Footpath Fodder
May 17th, 2011 · 1 Comment · Blog
Our street in Townsville is so wide that the people on the other side look like they inhabit a whole other universe. The road often looks more like a vast asphalt car park than a thoroughfare. When we first moved there Prue and I formally applied to council to plant out part of the nature [...]
The J Day
May 2nd, 2011 · 2 Comments · Blog
I don’t usually like to blog about personal, family things but this one is an exception. In March last year my sister’s eight-year-old son, Jeremiah Del Tufo, died from brain and spinal cord cancer. It was the most traumatic experience that our family has gone through and for Jeremiah’s parents, Nicole and Dave, and his [...]
Let Them Eat Bike Dust
February 27th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Blog
South Townsville. It’s about 8pm after a Saturday night spent with friends on a Queenslander house’s deck and I am cycling home. The rest of my family is driving. The reason? We have a ute with only three seats and, because there are four of us, either my wife, Prue, or I has to ride. [...]
Tags: cycling·Townsville
Cyclone Yasi: The Clean-up Begins
February 4th, 2011 · 1 Comment · Blog
There is still no power here in many parts of Townsville and the streets remain strewn with trees and powerlines. I filed this story to the Guardian in London late last night: All everyone wanted was to get to the morning after the cyclone before. The citizens of Townsville had been told that category five [...]
Tags: Cyclone Yasi·Townsville
The Morning After the Cyclone Before
February 3rd, 2011 · 1 Comment · Blog
No-one knew what to expect when dawn arrived in Townsville after a relentless night, of storm winds and rain. Just before midnight, when we lost power I managed to file this piece to the Guardian in London: Cyclone Yasi had arrived. At 2pm on Wednesday the wind changed from its usual tropical laziness into something [...]
Tags: Cyclone Yasi·Townsville
Cyclone Yasi Begins to Arrive
February 2nd, 2011 · No Comments · Blog
It’s 2pm and the Strand at Townsville is absolutely deserted. Everything is closed and the wind is beginning to roar. The sea is looking ominous and yet it is still hours until the first proper front of Cyclone Yasi is due to arrive. For the past few days we have been watching as the storm [...]
