JASMINDA: It’s annoying – know what I mean?
DEAR Jasminda, I’VE started dating a man named Reece. Everything is great but he ends a lot of sentences with ‘do you know what I mean?’ Now I’m attuned to it. It’s all I can hear. Is there a way I can break this irritating habit? Carly F. DEAR Carly, IT is quite common for […]
LETTER: Don’t ask a local; what would they know
DEAR News Of The Area, THE perceptive among your many readers must have noticed my letter regarding the fire risk posed to Dungog township by the Dungog Common. I have since had local folks saying, “Yes, that needs to be attended to”. However, I have had an e-mail from the Office of the Assistant Deputy […]
WRITE DIRECTION: Why is boarding a plane such a pain
WHY can’t they get this right ? Despite the fact that travel by air has been around since before we were born, airlines still have one outstanding issue that they can’t seem to get right. Have you ever noticed but just accepted that the most chaotic part of travel by air is how they initially […]
Plastic bag
LETTER: Use fossil fuels to build renewable energy economy
DEAR News Of The Area, A SIMPLE Google search for correlation between increased atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperature shows that Wayne Dunesbury’s contrary assertions (“At least we agree on something’, NOTA 21/8/26) are nonsense, unless tens of thousands of scientists worldwide over the past 50 years have been wrong. Given that we have passed peak […]
ON THE COUCH WITH JASMINDA: Keep it short and sweet
DEAR Jasminda, WHEN I am asked, “How are you”, at the supermarket, I always ask the same question back and continue with some friendly smalltalk. My wife tells me the cashier has no interest in how I am, nor are they interested in extending the conversation, and it’s just a platitude. What do you think? […]
LETTER: Democracy must begin within political parties
DEAR News Of The Area, AS someone born in Burma (now Myanmar) I understand the value of democracy in a way that many people fortunate enough to grow up in a democratic country may never experience. I spent 15 years of my life involved in the struggle for democracy and basic human rights under a […]
WRITE DIRECTION: Canada, a great experience
HAVING spent 40 years in business with an economic background, that is the way my thinking is wired. When taking these extended overseas journeys many people just go to a travel agent so that their transport and accommodation needs are provided to them, packaged to their needs. For me, it is part of the experience […]
STARGAZING: Imagine a million satellites overhead
IMAGINE looking up at the night sky and seeing not stars, but thousands of moving lights crossing overhead. Now imagine that number growing into the millions. It sounds like science fiction, yet that’s the scale of a proposal now being fiercely debated by scientists around the world. SpaceX has filed plans that could eventually see […]