-
Visiting the Freuds’, Part I, Austria
•
During the depths of my midlife crisis, a mate suggested I give psychoanalysis a try. Now this particular friend knows a lot about pretty much everything, and feeling I had nothing to lose, I took his advice.
-
Bucket List
•
When I first heard the term ‘bucket list’ I thought it was funny; a list of things you want to do before you sink the boot into the proverbial water conveyance. However nowadays I don’t find it funny anymore. In fact, I’ve started to hate it.
-
Sleeping Bag, Bulgaria
•
It was time to replace my sleeping bag. Out of the corner of my eye I saw it sitting on the lounge, bound up tight in its red stuff sack. I looked away. I felt like I was betraying a friend.
-
‘Take away this ball and chain…’
•
Mike Ness of Social Distortion wrote ‘Ball and Chain’ in 1987, and has described the song as a ‘hard luck story’. For Ness, his ‘ball and chain’ was addition; mine is living in the past.
-
Night Demons
•
When I’m sitting in the dark, alone at the helm, I often receive unwanted visitors. They come when I’m at my weakest. When I’m tired and cold and wishing I could sleep.
-
There’s only one way of life and that’s your own
•
I have often felt that I don’t really fit in. Whether this is true or a neurosis I’m not sure. But I often just feel a little bit on the outer. Travelling as a single, middle-aged bloke is unusual, at least that’s what I’ve found on my world tour of New Zealand. Come to think […]
-
Identity
•
‘Can you tell me who I am?’ When I was young I couldn’t understand the question, but I was sure of the answer. Nowadays the question is clear but the answer is not.
-
Don’t Ask the Question if you Don’t Want the Answer
•
‘Don’t open ’til Doomsday, you might not like what you find inside.’ Have you ever heard the phrase ‘Don’t ask the question if you don’t want the answer’? It’s a bind isn’t it: you’re hoping for the answer you want, but know there’s a pretty good chance it might not be the answer you get. […]
-
‘Regret and remorse. Amends and atonement. That’s life, right?’
•
So intones the gravelly voice of the sinister DJ that accompanies us through the 2015 horror road movie ‘Southbound‘ (Soapbox/Willowbrook Regent Films). The film is an interlocking montage of five stories involving travellers on a desolate, arid highway. The DJ voice-overs appear through the film, providing tough love and counsel, playing tunes and promising to […]
-
Choose Your Own Adventure
•
When I was in primary school, me and my mates loved the Choose Your Own Adventure books. At the end of each chapter, you had to make a choice, and your story would head off in one of two different directions. Since my midlife crisis started, I have often found myself wondering ‘How the hell did I end up here?’