Christopher Barnett my brother

I was searching through some old paperwork and photographs today and found this torn photo of my brother Chris. Chris still lives in France, he has been a French citizen for many years now. He is poor health and it was nice to find him looking happy and well perhaps nearly 40 years ago! He has been writing poetry and plays throughout the world ever since he left school. See this discussion of one of his plays which "Selling Ourselves for Dinner" which was commissioned for the Adelaide Festival in 1982

I scanned a couple of things last night. This article comes from " A Book to Write Poems By" published as a school text by Rory Harris and Peter McFarlane in 1983. Peter wrote about Chris working at his school:

The next is one of my favourite poems by Chris, which was also published in the same text:

Saturday morning at the Darwin Sailing Club

I took a brief visit on Saturday morning to the Darwin Sailing Club, at glorious Fannie Bay.

Birthday barbecue at Jayshree and Peters

Tonight Hugh and I spent a very pleasant evening at a barbecue at Peter and Jayshree’s home to celebrate Jayshree’s birthday. Julie joined us as well.


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Mindil Beach Sunset

I escorted Jo-Anne to Mindil Market to enjoy some red wine, food and the sunset with thousands of others.

Adelaide visitor

An 'old" colleague from South Australian TAFE dropped into my office today. I worked with Jo-Anne Rivers many years ago. She is in Darwin to do some training for the Health Library for ExLibris a library technology company. I invited her to have dinner with me at the Darwin Sailing Club and a pleasant evening was had.



She had fun texting a friend in Adelaide describing her balmy location!

Mindil Market Sunday

I enjoy a meal on Sunday at Mindil Market. Hugh and I usually have a run on our scooters. I also chat to Lenore, the lovely Juice lady where its really fresh juice,

and I also get a bite to eat from a huge variety of choices. It seemed to be a bit quieter tonight although the "Drumming Monkey" show had the children really jumping

ALIA Top End Garden Party

The Chinese Gardens at Charles Darwin University were the setting tonight for another successful ALIA Top End Garden Pary. Members of the library profession from most sectors enjoyed the lovely ambience of the gardens and as in previous years chatted on into the dark. A big thank you as the Convenor of ALIA Top End to my colleagues especially Marg,Bernie,Jessie,Suzanne for doing the organising. It was a great success and I should have said so on the night!








Interstate vistors included Damien from the ALIA Board and his partner Justine.

ALIA Top End meets at Northern Territory Library for NAC

A group of us met at NTL to meet Damien from the ALIA Board as part of the National Advisory Congress Regional meetings



Then some of us moved down to the Mindil Beach markets to wine and dine and chat.

Trip to Adelaide

Barbara picked me up early on Saturday morning at Adelaide Airport and on the way to her home we dropped in on Karen and then Gumeracha where we showed Chloe the delights of the Big Rocking Horse complex.

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Phil O'Brien book launch Darwin City Council Library

Popular Darwin author "the irrepressible Phil O’Brien, a renowned bushman, camp cook, storyteller, and humourist"launched his cheeky new book "The Minor Successes of a Bloke That Never Had a Real Lot of Luck" at the Darwin City Library.
He is a real Territory character. Listen to this ABC clip from an earlier show.

Morning tea

On Friday I spent my last day with my staff before taking on a new role. It was a very nice farewell morning tea with a good team.