
… used to be death, taxes and Adriana Xenides turning around the letters on the Australian version of Wheel of Fortune. Adriana is sadly no longer with us, but this weekend, I spotted her longest running co-host – John Burgess or Burgo – in Hay Street Mall. There was a time when I’d try to…
Read More8
Dec
Let me take you back a dozen years to another country. Why did the people in the photo above dress up like this on a Buenos Aires evening in 2007? What were they trying to achieve? What good were they hoping would come from it? I don’t know, but I can say from my own…
Read More30
Nov
In Argentina, the Falkland Islands are called Las Malvinas; their capital is Puerto Argentino (Argentine Port) rather than Stanley. The Buenos Aires subway station of Juramento (the Spanish word for oath) has a cabinet with a model of Puerto Argentino during the 1982 war over the islands. Plus a set of rosary beads.
Read More24
Nov
On my many trips to Iguazu Falls, on the border of Brazil and Argentina, I’ve seen this: And this: Not to mention this: But I never saw the nearby Guairá Falls, on the border of Brazil and Paraguay, because they were destroyed to make Itaipu Dam. I visited Itaipu in 2007 when it was the…
Read More17
Nov
For some, the dream retirement would be to travel and paint. My friend Tim Sewell (pictured above) does plenty of both. On Friday night, I saw some of his works at his most recent opening in Café Café, Subiaco. For me, this piece brought back a singalong with three naughty US citizens on the TSS…
Read More9
Nov
Iguazu Falls are well-known for this: The nearby Salto Arrechea hardly has the same power. Yet that, plus the walk there, add to its charm. A relatively secluded place to swim while enjoying the surrounding South American jungle, but not too far from the main attractions.
Read More3
Nov
At a time when you could buy a decent house in Perth for twenty thousand dollars, MGM agreed to pay Julie Andrews – the world’s number one box office star – a million dollars to do a movie. When it came time to make it, they paid her a million dollars not to do the…
Read More27
Oct