Paying Ready Attention

Politicians Change. Governments change. Day length changes. Temperature changes. Things continue to change. The only constant is change - trite, but true. Some of these changes are most noticeable at either end of the day, in the mornings and evenings. Some may only be noticeable when the unemployment statistics are published or when you notice the size of your tax bill. Many things people seem not to notice at all. It was cold on the way to work, breath in the air, hands in the pockets, chill on the legs. Breath in the air is a clear marker that things are on the move. I like the idea that you can see your own contribution to the water cycle. It seems to be vapour made visible - although it's not really that at all. When the morning brings fogs or mists you swim through a thin soup of water - condensation on the fine hairs of a woollen scarf, droplets of water in the junctions of leaves and stems, pooling liquid on car roofs and painted fence rails. On some mornings the water thic...

We had missed the rush hour, but we still caught traffic on the way out of Melbourne. It seemed inevitable. Any escape from the urban area requires a period of slow moving traffic, a psychic speed bump to bring you down to the required velocity. A period of trial by boredom, where a manual car seems a mistake. Although we were planning to go south, we had to go east first. Out past the recent urban growth and the factory shops with poorly spelt names and promised discounts. Out past graceless shopping complexes striving for attention, calling for customers. Out past gated communities promising security and rural charm and probably delivering neither. Not fully urban and long past being rural. Neither arse nor elbow as my father would have said. Not everybody wants to, or can afford to live either the inner city or the rural dream, but surely our planners can do better than this? When you finally leave the built up areas it does not necessarily get any better. On the edges of small mark...