Ricky

The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy

The Passenger

Cormac McCarthy doesn’t have anything to prove. With 10 novels under his belt since 1965, one winning the Pulitzer Prize, another turned into a Best Picture Oscar winner, and a raft of other literary awards as well as enormous sales around the world, he already stands as one of America’s greatest living writers. Yet here

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Treacle Walker, by Alan Garner

Treacle Walker

It’s so good to be back in the world of Alan Garner. It’s not like other worlds. Geographically, it’s in Cheshire, north west England, often around Alderley Edge, where Garner grew up: it’s English but it’s also Welsh and Scottish. Chronologically, it’s the aggregated history of ancient Celts, forgotten Druids, assimilated Romans, seafaring Irishmen, conquering

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Shakespeare Unbound

Shakespeare Unbound

It’s one thing to have a clever idea, such as telling the story of William Shakespeare’s life and work through the eyes and voice of one of his fellow actors, a colleague who outlived the Bard and was among those responsible for ensuring that his plays survived in written form. And it’s another thing to

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French’s

French's art by Toby Zoates

In early 2015, I joined a Facebook group called “I drank at the Sydney Trade Union Club” because, well, back in the 80s, I did. When other venues were mentioned in that group, I brought up French’s Tavern, which I frequented even more than the TUC. Liza, a former staff member at French’s suggested we

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Corrimal Churches

Corrimal Churches

St Columbkille’s Catholic Church   Walking a Border Collie twice a day means we follow lots of interesting paths around where we live in Corrimal. Scout being 11 years old now, she likes to find new routes with excuses to stop and smell the roses, get a few pats from kids and growl at other

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Single Page Applications

Single Page Applications

A Single Page Application (SPA) loads a website as a single web page. There is no page refresh, and content is added dynamically with the aid of JavaScript. This creates an online experience that is faster and more like a native app than a traditional multi-page website. In contexts such as the web interfaces of

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My First Bolognese

pot of bolognese sauce on the stove

Had my first go at a proper bolognese. Came out pretty well. Ingredients 125 ml olive oil 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped 1 medium carrot, finely chopped 1 stalk celery, finely chopped 1 small brown onion, finely chopped pinch of chilli flakes 400 gm ground veal & pork salt & pepper 2 tbsp tomato paste

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