Welcome to GR Online, a series of short-form articles that take aim at the moving target of contemporary culture as it’s whisked along the guide rails of innovations in digital media, globalisation and late-stage capitalism.
Free lunch
HE DIDN'T LIKE being considered middle-aged, let alone a senior citizen. Not that he minded the savings now and...
Tryst
IN 1985 I am twelve. The tropical north is nirvana, especially for a child previously so tightly pressed by...
No man is an island
IT WAS THE best part of the day when Mr Peters read to us.He was reading a book that...
Enlarged + heart + child
WEDNESDAY IS DOG day. Or dog afternoon, to be more precise. In fact, it's really only a twenty-minute distraction,...
Continental drift
ALL SHE THOUGHT about was leaving for England. There was nowhere else to go. America, of course, but America...
Octopus
AT TEN THE sun finally sets and the pub fills up and the news comes on. It's my round....
Friday night at the Nudgel
JO WRAPPED HER arm around the square green veranda post of the Billinudgel pub and cursed her best friend...
Mrs Dogwether’s bird moment
MRS DOGWETHER'S FRONT door is open but I don't go in because it smells like chops and cat poo...
A matter of instinct
THE ESTATE AGENT suggests a three-month lease to start. 'A bit isolated. Usually rent it out as a holiday...
The tank
IT FEELS GOOD to have the sun on him. To press his body into the sand, the hot wind...
Offshore service
'WHAT DO YOU call a Kiwi with a harem?' Bernie asked over the intercom, hardly pausing for a response....
Ghost town
I DIDN'T WANT to go back to the town that wasn't there. It was three months after the wave...
