Category: Personal
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Are You Brothers? No We’re Twins!
“Andrew Whalan speaking”. “Are you David Whalan?” “No, I’m Andrew Whalan. David is my brother.” The caller nearly ended the call as he thought he was talking to David. But we sorted that out. Yes he knows I have a brother called David. He doesn’t know that David is my twin brother. Not entirely a unique situation but…
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3 Drownings
Thrice I’ve nearly drowned. Twice as a child and once as an adult. I recall little of the first time. For some reason, our family had stayed overnight in Parkes New South Wales. I’m still surprised I can remember. I was only 3 or 4. Maybe it was having my first shower before going to the…
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This Printer Isn’t Working (Diagnostic Ping-Pong)
“Hi I’m just ringing about the printer. It’s not working.” It was the printer just over the partition from me. I had taken it on myself to try and fix it. But I was not a desktop support person any more. I had: Checked the printer had paper, no jams and enough ink Stopped and restarted the printer…
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Journalism After Murdoch : What Now?
Amazing! My inbox changed again! That hadn’t happened for at least 45 seconds. But this time the email was actually interesting. In the first place, it wasn’t spam and secondly, it concerned a subject of interest to me: journalism. While not a journalist, I’m a writer, and my keen interest came from a close observation…
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Sri Lanka : Much I Have Learned from You
There’s Anna Martin’s blog on her time in Sri Lanka on Facebook. She and I were one of many guests at our friends’ wedding there. I click on it, read it and share it commenting, “Great blog. I learnt much from it.” I thought I wouldn’t get away with that lightly. Then Anna asked me, “Share what you…
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Road Rage. Cured. By Tuk-Tuk Races.
Nothing prepared me for the drive off the freeway from Bandararainke International Airport into the streets of Colombo. We were met at our hotel by a bus. It was not on time but that didn’t matter! We then negotiated some minor traffic and entered a freeway. I started to relax. I thought: a couple of…
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From a Wedding, Hope
I’ve just returned from an overseas wedding in Sri Lanka. It was nothing short of extraordinary. The venue was beautiful. A seaside hotel (Chayya Tranz Hikkaduwa) with the couple marrying on the beach at sunset. The ceremony was heartfelt. Two people I know well were taking the greatest step in their lives with open eyes…
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Making Mistakes in the First Person
When I happened upon this article by Daily Life’s Natalie Reilly, I thought she had found me out. I just didn’t know it was called fumble bragging. Ok I finally admit it. I make mistakes. I also write about them. But is this the real me? Do I write about my mistakes just so people…
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Love, Science Fiction and Understanding
I lived in a small town (Kiama, New South Wales, Australia) which had, for me, too small a library. It consisted of three sections: As a child I worked my way through the children’s book section. I enjoyed children’s books (and still do) especially the child version of the Greek myths. Once I exhausted…
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The Dad Interview
It started as I’m the family blog expert. My sister wanted my Dad, Kevin Whalan to create a blog and record his memories. So I took it on and found that the blog had been started. But there was no content. So I tidied it up and passed it on to Dad. And he added…
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Bunnies in a Basket : Facilitation Before Persuasion
Keeping Bunnies in a Basket by Annabel Crabb is still one of the funniest things I’ve ever read. And today things became more complicated with Glenn Lazarus resigning from the Palmer United Party. Funnily enough, despite being political, I didn’t immediately think of politics. No, selfishly, I thought of myself. You see, managing stakeholders is…
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When The Fear Came
I’m woken this time by light not sound. It’s about 1 or 2 in the morning. I’ve left the bedside lamp on. I’ve forgotten to turn it off again and the glare has woken me up. I opt to try to go back to sleep. I reach across to turn it off. Except I can’t.…