Kindly Yours

  Before 9am, the nearby roads are beginning to be full of the parked vehicles of market visitors. The Berry markets are held monthly on the first  Sunday of each month.  Closed during the Covid 19 year until October, it has bounced back with more stalls, predominated by arts and crafts, clothes and fresh produce. Australian succulents are ground displayed in a region more of bush than urbanity than Big Smoke Sydney. around two hours away by road.   For the price of under a quality cuppa, one can take home something natural with texture and not needing much care.   Several people were observed getting big sized pots with plants that can adorn the pergola, corridor or front door. A bird bath that looks more like a cooking Wok in a stall with unusual metal craft.   As in any outdoor market, there can be gems to enjoy looking and savouring.   Some are new, some are hard me downs but it is always a pleasurable adventure. A captivating miniat...

 Around a year after the reported arrival of Covid 19,  we walked around the main street of a most familiar stomping ground - one of many comparable suburbs around Australia.  This one is served by a functioning rail station, albeit a secondary line outside a capital city.  The years leading to 2020 has seen a spike in small retail outlets, mainly in food, grocery, coffee, basic health services, household needs and nothing too fancy.  I did note that this micro economy was mainly based on consumption and a quiet lifestyle - and not so much on investment except in constructing more residential units. The future of an economy, big or small, need not be fully tied to its past.   What sustained in history can no longer be relevant.  Changes coming in the future need to be worked out to take advantage of them.  The Covid 19 year has not been kind to the viability in spending at small businesses, which do form the back bone of the Australian econom...

  In an age of information overload, increased screen time and competing media seeking your attention, what do we read for leisure these days? Or do we even  think of going for the written word as an option..... We get visual clips, often brief ones, shared with us from the social media network. Photographs can truly be better than a thousand words in conveying so many things. We have access to virtual and true computers in varying sizes in the course of a day's routine - the smart TV, tablets, mobile devices and desktops. I baulk at times at having to read long passages of messages, as if I really do not have the time to saviour them, even if some of them can still be inspiring, humorous or useful to know. Then there are those long PDFs in small font, not user friendly when we read them on the mobile smart phone when on the go between appointments in public places. Moments When Our Fingers felt the Paper Long ago, many individuals thought first of grabbing...