rachel.blog

Category: Journal

  • Delayed gratification, spiders and bikinis

    Elizabeth was watching a TV advertisement this morning with two children on it who were both offered a chocolate fish and told that if they waited a short while before eating it they could have another. It was the classic marshmallow experiment of delayed gratification except using chocolate fish instead of marshmallows. Ben decided to…

  • Lilly: long may she rampage and ravage around the universe!

    I’ve just discovered (thanks again to my lovely aunt), the Marmalade files which is a collection of early diplomatic correspondence held at the National Archives of Australia. One tale in particular is very funny so I’m going to transcribe it in its entirety here. This is a true story about an Australian woman called Lilly…

  • A funny letter to DFAT

    My aunt sent me this funny letter which was apparently sent to the Australian DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) office about a passport application. I have since discovered that there are British and American versions of this letter as well. I can’t comment on the process in Britain or America but I can…

  • Phones calls, traffic, the bridge and beards

    Daniel, who is 7 years old, got his first phone call the other day. I answered the phone and heard a young boy politely introduce himself and then ask to speak to Daniel. Completely stunned, I handed the phone to Daniel who was just as surprised as I was and then I heard them discuss…

  • How many chances for a good passport photo?

    I’m in the process of applying for passports. My Australian passport is soon to expire and I am now eligible for a New Zealand passport so I’m applying for that too. But I hit a bit of a hurdle with the passport photos. The first one I got was dreadful. It was not even clear…

  • More on sock puppets

    I have mentioned sock puppets on my blog before and am bringing them up again now because we found one recently on the AndThenTheresPhysics blog. For those who do not know what a sock puppet is, I’ll recap. It’s a fake online identity created for the purpose of making comments or reviews online to give…

  • I am a fraud!

    This evening I officially became a New Zealand citizen. I know what you’re thinking: she hates the place, why would she apply for citizenship? Yes, it’s all true. I don’t want to live here and yet I applied and was granted New Zealand citizenship so this is why I am a fraud. But I have…

  • The Franchise

    The franchise lacks personality. It is just like all the others: a clone. They are all the same and so they are nothing; a vacuum. There is nothing unique about the franchise. It follows the recipe like all the others. There is no space for creativity or individuality. It is soulless. The franchise has elements…

  • Melancholy

    Droplets falling absent laughter absent joy emptiness, estrangement, loneliness, death A parasite has sapped my soul my stems wither from non-use fakery abounds in a sea of featureless suburbia intimacy downtrodden by concrete and metal on wheels the death of passion and so the droplets fall

  • What does it mean to be Australian?

    I read an article in The New Yorker recently by William Finnegan called, The Miner’s Daughter. It’s about Gina Rinehart, the world’s richest woman. This post isn’t going to be about her though but about what it means to me to be Australian, and I think Gina Rinehart is the antithesis of it. Finnegan made…

  • My war wound

    I have an impressive bruise on my knee from falling over while skating last weekend. It started as a swollen lump. Now it’s an ugly purple mess but it’s healing nicely.

  • State schooling in the UK

    I thought I would write about my experiences with the UK state schooling system now that Daniel has been at school here for a good three months. Note that my experience relates to just one school in the UK which may or may not be representative of others but I think it’s still worth talking…

  • It’s not easy being PM

    Tony Abbott is having a tough time. The Indonesians are not doing what they are told, the people smugglers are not doing what they are told and the weather is not doing what it is told. The president of Indonesia, has been tweeting his disappointment with Tony Abbott. I also regret the statement of Australian…

  • Memories of World War II: an interview with my grandfather

    Last week I asked my father about my grandfather’s wartime experience since it was Remembrance Day and I had been thinking about it. He sent me an interview which my cousin, Lyle Shelton, had conducted with Pa in the years before he died. It’s fascinating reading and so I’m going to put it on my…

  • Sock puppet

    Just a quick post to warn other bloggers about sock puppets. I recently found one on my blog. These are people who comment under a false identity to make it seem like more people are critical of your posts than is really the case. In some cases, a sock puppet’s purpose may be to add…

  • Cycling, naughty words and vegetarian biscuits

    I have had a couple of flat tyres on my bike recently. It is very annoying when this happens because it is almost always when I am cycling or about to go cycling. What it has made me realise is how much I prefer cycling to walking and running because what usually happens is that…

  • Russell Brand on voting | Halloween festivities

    Russell Brand is guest editor for The New Statesmen and he’s written a surprisingly good essay about, what exactly is hard to say, but I would say it’s a sort of Russell Brand philosophy of everything. You can read it here – Russell Brand on revolution. It is very long but well worth reading. Here’s…

  • River Ouse

    Last week the river Ouse looked very full. Yesterday I thought, wow, it’s even fuller. This morning it is double WOW! Here’s a photo of the river, taken from the bike path, yesterday afternoon.   Here’s a photo taken from the same spot this morning.   And here in portrait mode so you can see…

  • Online shopping in the UK

    Yesterday I ordered some groceries online. I thought I had ordered 1kg of carrots and 1kg of bananas.  What I got instead was a single carrot in a bag and a single banana in another bag. This is one of the pitfalls of online grocery shopping. Don’t get me wrong here though, I absolutely adore…

  • British weather rocks!

    English weather gets a bad rap. I just love it and will try my best to explain why. It’s never hot and humid, the lighting is softly dimmed and when it rains, it’s more of a drizzle than a downpour. Hot and humid makes physical activity unpleasant. Animals in hot climates tend to sleep in…