Walter

She’s a dead-set legend

In mid-March 2022, our eldest daughter tested positive for COVID-19. She was the second of three who copped it in our household, and had mercifully minor symptoms. But the timing couldn’t have been much worse. Having just gotten their feet back under them at school, her entire year level were ramping up for City Experience… Continue reading She’s a dead-set legend

…the year of The Wiggles

Twenty years ago, on Triple J, a comedy trio named Tripod regularly faced the challenge of writing a song about a given theme in just one hour. They were generally pretty funny, in an undergrad-humour kind of way, but on this particular day they were asked to imagine what the world would be like in… Continue reading …the year of The Wiggles

The Border Opened

For months, we listened with bated breath as medical authorities made their recommendations. For months, we suffered myriad local griefs, with emotions rising and falling as key metrics went up and down. For months, we watched and waited and hoped for a time when broken relationships would be restored. For months, we prayed for a… Continue reading The Border Opened

Ten Albums – (#10)

Rachel, Jess, Neets, Al, and Wally. Doesn’t quite roll off the tongue as well as John, Paul, George, and Ringo, but for me the most formative album is the one I got to help write and record.

Ten Albums – (#9)

Anyone who constructs a list of top ten albums, and doesn’t include Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical tribute to the venerated Virginian veteran’s right hand man can simply close the door on their way out. The 2015 soundtrack was simply

Ten Albums – (#8)

Emu Music are an Australian collection of Christian musicians committed to putting the themes of God’s Word to good music.

Ten Albums – (#7)

Given the propensity for the “Ten Albums” posts I’ve seen to contain more established (and perhaps less personal) albums, I’ve shied away from that here – trying to explain a little of why the album is meaningful. I suspect I’m also trying to remind myself of less-remembered albums so that I don’t forget them as… Continue reading Ten Albums – (#7)

Ten Albums – (#6)

Resilience is something of a buzzword at the moment in workplaces in the West. The cynical take is that it’s just businesses pushing responsibility for the stress they create back onto their workers. That may be the case in some places (not mine!), but resilience as a skill – or the idea that stress is… Continue reading Ten Albums – (#6)

Ten Albums – (#5)

Every year except one*, my wife and I have gotten away to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We are blessed to be friends with lots of really lovely people (hopefully including you, dear reader) and in 2009, we travelled to visit some of them in the United States of America. A wonderful friend traveled across state… Continue reading Ten Albums – (#5)

Ten Albums – (#4)

Things would have been very different when I started working as an undergraduate at Telstra, if it weren’t for my boss at the time – a brilliant bloke named John. He was technically capable without being nerdy, politically savvy without being a politician, and a strategic thinker and genuinely pastoral person. He worked hard to… Continue reading Ten Albums – (#4)