This anthology contains many song lyrics, poems and short pieces of prose focusing on the author's reflections on life, on love, and on his career as a teacher. In this anthology there are also ones about his love of old cars.His song parodies on politics are in separate volumes of another series "Barracking from The Sidelines – The Songs" and not in this anthology.Nor are the hundreds of songs about football and sport, many of which were sung by The Coodabeen Champions. Th...

In the eastern part of Paraguay, a small consortium has employed wildcat miners to drill test holes in the South American rainforest clad high plateau. A series of events including the sudden disappearance of some of the miners sees a troubleshooter brought in to investigate. Adam Lister fresh from doing a similar job in Rwanda is dragged away from the pleasant surroundings of his holiday in Fiji to solve the issue. What he found astounded him, and many of them would be lucky to come out a...

What happens when our physical form reaches its use-by-date? Is there a purpose to our existence? Do our memories live on after our body dies? Is there a heaven and can all creatures on all planets enter?As a Spheroid, I live on, but just as a tiny translucent object destined to continue searching the universe forever for answers to its mysteries and to life itself. Immortality sucks, but then so do black holes. What are they? Where do they lead? What lies in wait for the unwary dr...

In late 2012 I bought an Austin Healey Bugeye Sprite in poor condition, rusty and in pieces. Most of its parts were there. Most of my brain cells weren't for then I spent lots of money, time and effort doing a ground up rebuild. In 2017 I finally got to drive it. This is a humorous look at what insanity follows restoring a sixty year old car. The different people you meet, the strange things that happen, the realisation that you have no skill and that this type of tiny car has an ego the s...

Religions across the planet called Earth have got it all wrong. There is no heaven, hell, nor even purgatory. People do not get reborn in a way that is understood. Each planet in the universe is merely a training ground, a stepping stone in a journey. All "juvenile" organic beings that exist on planets across the universe eventually die. When they do they become tiny spheroids, free to zoom across the vastness of space and time to continue developing their minds. Only a very small but very...

Dominated by a federal government, in a three-tier system of government, Australian politics is based on a constitution written in the 1890's that is extremely difficult to change via referendums. It is a Westminster system of government that has two separate chambers that are dominated by two major parties whose ideologies differ and both the sides are very combative to the extent that agreement on issues except politician wage increase, are hard won battles. If one side thinks of an idea...

The year is 1937 and just after the first semester/Christmas break, a fight between two boarding final year law students in Balliol College, Oxford University has come to the attention of the master, and the head of law faculty at the college. It was reported by the porter and all the known qualities of one student seems to run counter the evidence of the other. One student remains uncommunicative. It is at a time when Britain is reeling from the sudden abdication of King Edward the VIII a...

Three men from totally different backgrounds find themselves in a strange alliance outside a hospital in the northern suburbs of Gaza City. It is the year following the massacre and hostage taking of over one thousand Israelis by the Palestinian group Hamas on October 7th 2023 and the retaliatory invasion by Israel which saw over forty-four thousand Palestinian deaths, most of whom were women and children, and also much of Gaza reduced to rubble. Each of the men have their own reasons for ...

Everybody dies. That's the cold hard reality of life. Not everyone gets forewarning and time to think about it, and what, if anything, comes next. After undergoing treatment for brain cancer, a patient finds that accepting his inevitable mortality is very difficult. His brain is whirling out of control and he has difficulty controlling his anxiety after treatment fails and palliative care is all that there is left. He has moments of clarity though where he seeks larger truths. Without the ...

It's five o'clock one afternoon in Melbourne, Australia. Collins St is awash with people. Some people might just see a herd of humanity heading off home at the end of a working day. However, every person has their own individual story. So many different things have brought them here at this time to be part of the cavalcade that clogs the footpaths on one of Melbourne's busiest streets.In 1955 John Brack painted a scene of Collins St, Melbourne at 5:00 pm. The colours were muted and ...

Retired police officer 'Sarge' Downs and his family and friends find themselves embroiled in a well-hidden corruption process that had skimmed millions over the years from the Queensland government. The discovery of this leads to murder, kidnapping and dealing with a group of desperate criminals as the noose tightens around the leaders. Far from, their quiet life in Cairns, the family calls on friends to help extricate them from the dangerous situation they have found themselves in. Sarge,...

Dominated by a federal government, in a three-tier system of government, Australian politics is based on a constitution written in the 1890's that is extremely difficult to change via referendums. It is a Westminster system of government that has two separate chambers that are dominated by two major parties whose ideologies differ and both the sides are very combative to the extent that agreement on issues except politician wage increase, are hard won battles. If one side thinks of an idea...