February 2012 Issue 119

I'm deaf. I mean I used to be deaf, or something like that. I have been told the condition is known [More...]

I spent the summer of a boyhood birthday with my cousins in Aberdyfi, Gwynedd, on the west coast of Wales. [More...]

My granddaughter, Dezzy0, told me 'that wearing a hat at high school is only an optional part of her uniform.' [More...]

Whilst many human habits and customs confuse me no end, this fascination that many males have with their balls has [More...]

Olga, my genteel friend and long gone mentor, who I still picture with a crochet hook [More...]

As I looked over to the cemetery I noticed a curious thing. A man was standing flanked by two tough [More...]

I open one eye. The bedroom is in semi-darkness; the only light is from a street lamp shining like a [More...]

Three white cockatoos

Heads bobbing in our bird bath,

Pinching sunflower seeds.

For this edition we offer 6 reviews. Peruse Australian fiction, international, indigenous, and natural issues and happiness. Click the heading for the full [More...]

Excerpt from Winged Word by Jeff Lynch I can see the lights of Palermo dead ahead of our Napoli to Palermo night [More...]

    Compiled by Kath Mounsey

Thought for the Month:  Poverty is a condition with but one advantage. It doesn't take much to [More...]

  As our departure date approached, my wife heard that Olva, a relative of hers was thinking about doing the same [More...]

In 2003, a small community project Blackbird was founded on the need to reunite families of the descendents of those [More...]

Back in 2008 I sent out a request for participation in a survey I was conducting to examine the differences in [More...]

Selected by Peter Hinchliffe for the February 2012 issue of Bonzer. 1946 found HMS Vengeance lying alongside at Woolloomooloo, Sydney Harbour, [More...]

Most of us are acutely aware of our senses – smell, sight, hearing and touch. We’re probably less aware of [More...]

 It winked at her. It was mocking her. She knew it was, or was she just going mad? Cathy [More...]

I was born with normal vision, but at age 9, a sinus infection spread to my right eye, which swelled [More...]

Of course, it’s the mantra of the Real Estate industry.  They tell us to 'buy the worst house in the [More...]

 I would walk across the little park and catch the ferry back to the peace and order of the [More...]

The old year passes, the New Year arrives. We sit in the aftermath of the celebration and reminisce, tell stories. The [More...]

Whew! The holiday rush is over as is the silly season and normality reigns at Chez CherAl. I trust you all [More...]

Sandra stormed into Archie’s Antiques, grabbed a duster and rubbed at the legs of a colonial chair with angry vigour. [More...]

It’s the people you meet along the road. People with a story. We’re on the Nullarbor, part of that stretch [More...]

Oh! G’day. Hamilton Y. Katto here, your guest columnist for today.

Readers, I am as happy as all [More...]

It's something of an annual ritual to attend the opening day of the cricket test match known as the Boxing [More...]

If only I had a crystal ball I’d be tempted to look up the next week’s Tattslotto numbers. After that, [More...]

'Check the label,' my mother would say, delivering a regular lecture. These were the days when I was 16 years old, [More...]

(I originally wrote this article in March 2003, as the air bombing started the war with ‘Shock and Awe'. [More...]

I’ve always been fascinated by volcanoes. Fiery vents that shape our planet and give us some insight into its evolutionary [More...]

 

'Time and tide wait for no man.'

 

Cooking and ironing are a girl’s worst friend. At least they were last century when we were bound to the [More...]

Les was pacing. ‘You guys must have heard something round the traps, must have had some idea?’ Benny and Fred said [More...]

For Caitlin Elizabeth Reed You will be our fair-haired girl - our sunlight on mysterious waters, our zephyr like whisper of [More...]

Me mouth feels lopsided And decidedly numb. Can’t speak without drooling, From the dentist I’ve come. I’d not be alarmed By a sock on [More...]

'I won't let them take my son!' Charlotte slammed the cellulose composite dish down hard. Plastic had long since entered the [More...]

It is with great sadness I share with you the following message from John Powell's family.

John has [More...]

I’m easily bored. I admit it. It was a wet Sunday, rain lashing at the windows, nothing on television and [More...]

It was an evening in December 1940 in our London home and we were relaxing after supper. Not for long. [More...]

For some strange reason the oft quoted phrase 'the whole of my life flashed before my eyes' has been on [More...]

There were the years in 'up-state' places, Where air was clean and unpolluted. Where quality of life was 'unsurpassed', And incest never mentioned. Where [More...]

Some people call them magpie-larks. Others call them peewees or pee wees. It depends on which part of Australia you [More...]

Today I will not lose my temper, I told myself firmly.  Whatever she says, I will remain calm.  It was [More...]

It’s always dangerous when you criticise another country. Especially when you don’t understand the culture entirely or grasp the nuances [More...]

It has been dark, windy and cold here of late: I have run out of library books, I have a [More...]

I return to the quiet woods, In my mind. The woods that overlooked my birth And later were my playground; [More...]

Well yes, it's that time of year. So I'd just like to thank all the contributors to Bonzer who have [More...]

Christopher Hitchens is dead. He is dead at 62 from oesophageal cancer, a cancer that statistically, few survive. And he [More...]

I have reached the point where I would trade all of my Christmas cookies for one piece of fresh strawberry [More...]