Carter's Column

Better the (Tassie) Devil you know It is always exciting to travel to new destinations and take in new sights, sounds and experiences. Usually I like to have a good idea about the places I travel to; to such an extent that if we were to suddenly get a huge cash injection via a lottery win (chances minimal, we don't play the lottery) I could plan a holiday around the USA with enough activity and destinations to last us a full year. So it was unusual for me to have nothing to do with planning our last holiday, and it turned out to be the best possible thing. Jess did an awesome job planning it all out, an because I had no real expectation of what to expect from Tasmania it blew me away with its beauty, and made me angry with a small but infamous part of its history. All action at Hobart Airport Our week started by flying to the beautiful, quaint little city of Hobart; the island state's capital, we visited Port Arthur Historic Site, explored Bruny Island, went up the...

An Open Letter To All Members Of  Macquarie University Cricket Club (Past, Present and Future) Playing the final game of the year in 3rd Grade in 2006/07 As I sit here writing on the cusp of my 100th match representing Macquarie University Cricket Club, I can't help but look back and be thankful for this great club and how it has shaped my life. My initial arrival to Australia in September 2006 was a strange introduction to the Lucky Country; the day before I left the UK the world was rocked by the news that Steve Irwin was dead, killed by a Stingray's barb to the heart. The day after I arrived I was taken to a Mazda track day at Oran Park, South West of Sydney, and was in the car with some bloke called Dick Johnson. Turns out he's a pretty big deal in V8 Supercars, of course I know that now as a Bathurst regular. He was given a phone, and was told that Peter Brock had just been killed (another Supercars legend, now the Bathurst 1000 trophy is named in his hono...

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT. IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TO GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF INJURIES, PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS BLOG POST. On Monday 8th January 2018, I posted the following status on Facebook: "Without going into detail, this morning was the most horrific scene I've ever had to deal with. The only reason I am posting on social media is because I want you all to take a few seconds to tell the people closest to you that you love them, and that paramedics, nurses, police, fireys and others that have to deal with the worst scenes imaginable deserve all of your respect and appreciation. PS, please don't worry about Jess or I, we are perfectly fine and Jess was already at work. I am just posting because you HAVE to tell people you love them. Life is fragile, and can change or be gone in an instant." At approximately 8:40am I heard activity outside our front door, which isn't unusual in our apartment block. I thought it may have been the cleaners working through the...

The Ashes: Cricket's Greatest Rivalry The history, the atmosphere, the rivalry and the media hype; It's all there in abundance as we anticipate the latest installment of cricket's greatest rivalry, with opinion split as to where the little urn will belong come January. Since late September the vast majority of media coverage had all but guaranteed an Australian victory on home soil, England's talismanic all-rounder Ben Stokes' hopes of appearing in the series seemingly knocked onto a street outside a Bristol nightclub. The incident was lapped up by an Australian media whose memory of a similar incident with their own David Warner aiming a punch at Joe Root was conspicuous in it's absence, and dare one say that the supersilious Australian attitude came back once again with several predictions of another 5-0 whitewash, regardless of who wears the revered Baggy Green over the next 7 weeks. The magnificent Sydney Cricket Ground How quickly times have cha...

Rather than write with emotion in the immediate aftermath, here we are a few weeks on from another mass shooting in the United States. Isn't it enough of an eye-opener already that we say the word "another" whenever it happens? How often does it have to happen before action is taken? How many more people have to die or be injured by shootings before the United States wakes up and realises the Second Amendment needs to be seriously looked at? The facts are there for all to see, in the UK and Australia when gun laws were tightened the number of shootings dropped drastically. I understand that the USA and the UK/Australia are vastly different countries with different cultures towards guns, but the fact remains that if you remove a gun, it can't be used by anyone to shoot and kill anyone else. 1996 was the turning point for both Australia and the UK. In March 1996, Thomas Hamilton walked into a Primary School in Dunblane, Scotland to shoot and kill 16 children, a teache...

A little over a week ago I was involved in a car accident and until tonight perhaps I had underestimated its effect. Last night and tonight I have been in one of the troughs associated with depression and anxiety, feeling lethargic and genuinely finding difficulty in actually moving or doing anything, lost in a circle of thoughts which I cannot shake off. I'm feeling pressure, and feeling wronged. Last week I asked my colleague Dave to give me a lift to work, highly unusual as I drive everywhere. Save for a few little details, in NSW you must carry your driving licence with you when driving. My new licence hadn't arrived in the post so I didn't want to take the risk. On our drive to work, we were stopped in traffic a few cars back waiting for a turning vehicle, which in turn was waiting for pedestrians to cross, then without any warning we were hit with force from behind. I don't use the phrase "without warning" as a cliché, it is literal. There was no scree...

Written 19th August 2017: I'm not spiritual, and I'm definitely not religious, and I don't believe in an afterlife even though I constantly "talk" to my deceased family members. After several months of working without a break Jess and I took a well deserved holiday last week and returned to the Gold Coast. We chose to drive, and stayed one night in Byron Bay then four in Surfer's Paradise. It was a 1,900km round trip which gave me plenty of time to ponder my thoughts while cruising up and down the Pacific Highway. Honestly, I'm not even sure I truly understand what it means but I think while we were there I found some inner peace and another degree of happiness. Before the holiday, late nights and early mornings with very little sleep were beginning to be the norm and it was taking a toll. A few books I had read had mentioned the relaxing qualities of classical music, so I experimented and played Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite as I got into bed. It w...