Vegemite, Australian food.

Australian food

What’s Australian food like? I’ll find out soon enough. So far, I’ve tried two Aussie favourites: Tim Tams and Vegemite. A Tim Tam is a cookie, or a biscuit, as Aussies say. It’s two layers of chocolate malted cookie separated by a light cream filling, and coated in chocolate. Yes, it’s heavenly. Vegemite is a …

Read more

6 cute and dangerous Australian animals that can kill you

Last week I blogged about 12 dangerous Australian animals. Most of them are pretty obvious – spiders, snakes, sharks. But Australia has also cute and fuzzy animals that can kill you. They are especially nefarious because, well, they’re so darn cute. Australian Dingo: “Who’s a good boy? You are! Yes, you are!” Aw, look how …

Read more

Blackboard that says, "Do you speak English? next to the British flag. Australian English.

English translation

I need more than one English translation. English is not my first language. I was born in Havana, Cuba. When I was almost three years old, I emigrated to the US with my parents and sister. We came on the Mariel boatlift just like Tony Montana (Scarface) except that none of us of went on to …

Read more

Wineglass Bay, Tasmania.

Tasmania

We’re going to Tasmania! My partner Theo has a client who owns a holiday home there. They’ve kindly offered to let us stay there for a few days. Tasmania is an Australian island and state about 150 miles south of the continent. Tasmania is promoted as the “natural state”. About 37% of Tasmania is reserves, …

Read more

Spirituality, paganism. Little statue of a goddess with a flower.

What is Paganism?

I make no secret of the fact that I practice an uncommon form of spirituality. I’m Pagan. What’s that? I’m so glad you asked. Here’s an introduction to Paganism. Paganism is more easily described in terms of observable behaviours than beliefs. Broadly speaking, it refers to a collection of spiritual behaviours that include animism, pantheism, …

Read more

12 dangerous Australian animals out to kill me

Here’s a handy dandy list of 12 dangerous Australian animals out to kill us all. Redback spider: Belonging to the widow family of spiders, no redback spider-related deaths have been reported since the introduction of the antivenom in 1984. I guess that’s encouraging, but its bite is said to cause severe pain. On the bright …

Read more