Author: Vic Socotra

Question Time Shoes

  Tony Blair is going to finally step down this week as Prime Minister of Great Britain, and consequently there are stories in the press all over the Commonwealth about his prospective legacy. There are informed accounts that say he is going to convert to the Church of Rome, be designated a UN Ambassador without […]

Robin Hood

18 June 2007   Robin Hood You find comfort in the strangest places sometimes, for some the Blimpy Burger, others the bottle, and still others the pleasure of the flesh.   I found it on ABC last night. No, not the American Broadcasting Corporation- the other one. Robin Hood was broadcast, the latest in dozens […]

LessonsLearned from the Australian Engagement

View Larger Image Overview:   In the course of business, it is important to capture critical lessons-learned to enable successful new enterprises.   A tremendously valuable positioning in an overseas market has led to the Company being selected as the prime vendor of choice for the Government Customer Down Under. In order to continue the […]

The National Museum

16 June 2007   The National Museum     The drought is over up north, and that is a good thing. Sydney got pummeled again, on its way to the wettest June in four decades. This following the awful dry; and the floods. The Portuguese training tall ship Esmerelda had to stand back out to […]

The Ministry

14 June 2007   The Ministry I see by the only connection to North America I have- the little clock in the lower right hand corner of the computer screen- that as I sit down for the first time it is late afternoon yesterday in the other Capital City I live in.   The hotel […]

Money Day

  After all the miles, yesterday was the Money Day. I was in my suit, and prepared to go to work. That was going to be a bit of a trick, since I have no map, except for the one I was able to conjure up on the computer, and though I dutifully copied down […]

Walkabout

There was nothing in the air that a very long walk, some intensive and sobering history, and a Victoria Bitters at King O’Mally’s down the street couldn’t cure- that and Ivan, the Croatian, who had an opinion on everything.   Ivan was not drinking; he was in his shop filled with sport jerseys of every […]

Paris is Burning

Novotel Hotel Room, Canberra, in wide angle lens The first thing I heard after landing in the Capital was about Paris.   There is only one baggage carousel at Canberra, though there are flights out all the time. The Navy Chief was arriving, if the three-star-car out front with the Bo’sun Warrant Officer next it […]

Traveling Music

Gentle Readers, Vic will be traveling today, further and longer than I would like. It will be one sealed tube after another, hurtling from tri-graph to tri-graph: IAD to LAX to SYD and eventually into CAN. There, once arrived in the Antipodes, I am supposed to offer useful commentary on how a nation of twenty […]

Dinosaurs to Noise

The Battle of Midway, 4-7 June 1942, was still going on all those Junes ago, and two Junes later, on this day, the immense invasion of the Continent surged in steel and flesh across the Channel. The first was a halt to the long retreat. The second was the beginning of the end. A glass […]