Pete’s Blog

Walking to the bar, the African picks up one of the schooners and drinks a mouthful. ‘Tastes like home,’ he says, smiling. ‘Smells like an abattoir to me,’ the Aussie says, eyeing the other schooner. There’s no way he’s drinking what looks like a glass full of blood....

It’s an ‘almost Charles Dickens Day’ in Preston as I walk along the concrete slabs of a footpath: a small dog barks like a starter motor on a cold morning; the bristles of a hedge scrub the sleeve of my jumper and over-hanging fat green leaves touch the top of my...

“What do you fear, lady?” Aragorn asked. “A cage,” Éowyn said. “To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.”* Coming up-hill from the big town, I drive along a street towards our house...

It's just another quiet night out here in the yard. The trees are doing their sentinel silhouette thing, as if they're waiting for something. The dog is just over there and the stars are burning. I feel the odd one out with my lean towards hurry. Hurry about what?...

It's night and I've wandered into a big space of glaring white fluorescence with number one daughter. She's lugged her year-twelve art project here to be left alone with it. But I'm allowed, cause I'm the Dad, looking and wondering at this gigantic mobile of photos...

It's not every day you get to have a journalist sit at your family dinner table and record the conversation. But that is what is going on. I'm okay with it and I hope my wife and children are. The fact is, I like this guy, we all agreed to this—actually, teeth a bit...

It's late-ish. A candle burns and I'm flaked on the lounge. Simon and Garfunkel sing, 'wishing to be homeward bound'. Fortunately, I am at home and my love isn't waiting silently, she's singing along. I wonder what it would be like to be at home but not really: like...

You're all grown up now—and guess what? The planets have lined up, it's a blue moon and pigs are flying: you're out of uniform, inside school property and on your way to the principal's office! Even those walking the other way seem to know—and out of respect and...