© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Greg Ray’s Writing

Read more about the article Bushland find a missing link for a vintage car project
The builder's plate from the vintage Crossley tourer

Bushland find a missing link for a vintage car project

In April 2008 I took my son Oliver metal-detecting. We'd been to beaches a few times, but this particular weekend we decided to go to bushland near the Newcastle suburb of Jesmond. We chose the spot of a former settlement named "Hollywood" where people built shacks during the Great Depression of the 1930s. There isn't much left of Hollywood now, and I guess when they build the next stage of Highway 23 there will be even less. But I remember stumbling on some old hearthstones, chimneys and fruit trees when I was a kid, and learning…

Continue ReadingBushland find a missing link for a vintage car project
Read more about the article There’s more to life than books, you know, but not much more . . .

There’s more to life than books, you know, but not much more . . .

When I heard Morissey sing those lines, "There's more to life than books you know, but not much more" (they are in The Smiths song Handsome Devil) I felt I might have found a motto for my life. Because I'm a fiend for books and always have been. When I visit somebody for the first time I can't help myself. My eyes are drawn almost against my will to their bookshelves, as if I can make some kind of assessment of their character by what I see there. I dream about browsing in bookshops. I read…

Continue ReadingThere’s more to life than books, you know, but not much more . . .
Read more about the article Demand a refund for faulty goods
These ones are probably fine, but you get the idea.

Demand a refund for faulty goods

IT broke the first time I tried to use it. Just a little screwdriver, which looked perfectly good in the giant Bunnings hardware barn. Except that when I went to undo a screw, the shaft of the tool turned uselessly in its handle.Ordinarily when something like this happens with an item that only costs a dollar or two I just throw it away and swear for a while. But this time I pictured the big chain's buyer, who probably picked this garbage up in a huge job lot for a few cents apiece, sticking it on…

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