Author Archives: browney

Wine – a fifteen year reflection

2 Replies

 

My favourite person and I at Taltarni

This post was inspired by Lettie Teague’s articles on wine in the Wall Street Journal.

Her comments, were witty and insightful. Sadly a few months ago here tenure at the WSJ ended. Her articles were an easy read and bring to an Australian wine enthusiast an American perspective on the broader wine world , the US market, what she’s drinking etc. There was barely a mention of Australia or Australian wine. It was a refreshing take as my wine reading and consumption is very much based on the Australian market. And what a wonderful market it is. We are truly blessed with the quality of our wine, but there is so much more out there.

In one of her articles Lettie reflected on changes in the wine industry, and the American market over 15 years. It was an interesting read and led me to thinking about changes in the Australian industry over a similar period. 
Continue reading →

The Long Wait Is Over: Reflections on Arsenal’s Title-Winning Season

2 Replies

Source- Yahoo Sports

For an Arsenal supporter living in Australia, late nights and early mornings come with the territory. Yet without doubt, this has been the most stressful season I can remember following any team. That includes my lifelong support of Sturt in the SANFL and the Adelaide Crows in the AFL.

As I’ve written before, I can’t remember exactly why I became an Arsenal supporter. What I do know is that my support stretches back to my high school years in the early 1970s. Back then, following English football from Australia required patience.

Source – Retrosepcto.co.uK

The only way to keep up with results was through the classified sports results on the radio early on Sunday mornings or by reading The Advertiser a day or two later. The only live football we saw was the FA Cup Final and the European Cup Final. There was also a weekly highlights package from either the BBC or ITV—I honestly can’t remember which. Every week I eagerly waited for Shoot magazine to arrive. By the time it reached Australia by boat, the news was already weeks old, but it still provided that vital  connection to the club.

Towards the end of the 1980s, the occasional First Division match began appearing on Australian television, including the incredible final game of the 1988-89 season. Gradually, coverage improved until there was usually one match on television each week. Then came Pay TV, bringing regular access to the Premier League, along with other European leagues and competitions.

With improved coverage and a career spent working for an international professional services firm, my interest grew into what can only be described as a passion. Sometimes I wonder whether Arsenal has become my true favourite team, even ahead of the Adelaide Crows.

Years of watching matches in the middle of the night have helped me perfect what I call the “silent roar” — that moment when Arsenal score at three o’clock in the morning and celebrating too loudly would wake the entire household. Continue reading →

So where am I

Leave a reply

One of my favourite non-mainstream media reads is The Free Press. While much of it is focused on politics, more and more articles are appearing on softer topics.

I was really taken by The Surprising Pleasures of Widowhood by Elinor Lipman. At the outset, I am not a female, so I am not faced with being a widow, and thankfully, my favourite person is still going strong. However, we have watched our mothers go through widowhood. Both had different reactions, but as I listened to Elinor, I was taken by the term ‘grie-lief’, which I think applied to my mother, who cared for Dad as he suffered cancer and then dementia. Mum did so much of her grieving before he died, and with his passing came a release of sorts. It didn’t mean she was pleased he was gone. He still featured in conversations, and there were photos on the mantel shelves, but Mum got on with her life. Her next few years were ones she got a lot from, and I’m thrilled for her. I miss her and Dad still.

There is much to take out of Elinor Lipman’s article and accompanying interview with Suzy Weiss. I wanted to focus on the final piece of the interview, where she considered some questions Continue reading →

Is it OK to read at 3 in the afternoon?

1 Reply

Cairns, Queensland


In the last few months, I have started reading fiction again, and I’m enjoying it.

I have read all my life. I read academic literature when I was at university, both as an undergraduate, in the late 70s and then more recently as a postgrad student. In completing my PhD, I must have read thousands of journal articles.  At work, it was professional reading. Oh, the joy of reading an Accounting Standard or recent tax case!

In my leisure, I have also read, but until recently, it has mainly been non-fiction and, as a result, often hard to read. I also read the papers and between my favourite person and I, we have a number of subscriptions to online sites. A couple of these are The Free Press, which I have referred to in earlier posts. Although The Free Press is mainly focused on current affairs, it also offers regular pieces on literature and music, as does another of our subscriptions, Quillette. 

As part of a rethink on ‘What’s Next’, I decided to change direction with my reading. I decided reading for pleasure might be a good way to spend some time and decided to move away from non-fiction. The rethink was also a function of my decision to unburden myself from the constant negative and destructive forces that seem at play in our world. It had become so easy to ‘doomscroll’ and I decided that I no longer wanted to succumb to it. I haven’t been wholly successful in this endeavour, but I’m well progressed.

Continue reading →

Reflections on Dire Strait’s Romeo and Juliet. Was it time and place or is it the greatest love song ever written?

1 Reply

 

Romeo and Juliet / Solid Rock by Dire Straits (Single; Vertigo; 6059 364): Reviews, Ratings, Credits, Song list - Rate Your Music

As has become a habit in recent months, I woke early and lay in bed listening to music. I have found Spotify’s AI DJ to be a useful way to while away the early hours. It produces a mix of songs based on my listening. It can be a bit repetitive, but it’s easy.

 

As I was listening, up came Dire Straits, Romeo and Juliet, a Mark Knopfler song that apparently draws on his failed romance with Holly Vincent. I have always thought it was a captivating and emotional ballad, and while it may not be the critics’ choice, it is head and shoulders above my number one Dire Straits song. 

 

The song’s Shakespearean title sets the scene. To Romeo, it is a tragic tale of unfulfilled love, and although it has gone sour, Juliet is the true love of his life; it is ‘just that the time was wrong’.

 

He, ‘A love struck Romeo sings the street a serenade’,  ‘He’s underneath the window’  and is hit with Juliet’s cutting retort ‘Hey, la, my boyfriend’s back’ showing her love has moved on. She passes him off with ‘Oh, Romeo, yeah, you know I used to have a scene with him’ and he’s ’just one of her deals’. The latter is such a put-down. It is a callous rejection. 

Continue reading →