Category: Uncategorized
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Metropole holds my chess secret
I couldn’t be the only chess player with a connection to the old Metropole Hotel in Launceston. Could I? This establishment stood in Brisbane Street for nearly 100 years before being demolished in 1976. It opened in the early 1880s as the Launceston Coffee Palace, and my instincts tell me this was exactly the sort…
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Letter on the fridge to my wife about 27 years ago
Forgive me for rambling on more than usual in this preamble. But it’s timely… in a 31st wedding anniversary sort of way. Yes, we tick off that milestone today. We were married at Cradle Mountain in Tasmania on August 7, 1995. It has been my role each year to research what gifts are pertinent to…
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My contribution to medical science
History is full of doctors and scientists who believed the quickest way to test a theory was on themselves. It sounds reckless today, but many regarded it as the ultimate proof of conviction. If they weren’t prepared to risk their own lives, why should anyone else? Australian doctor Barry Marshall famously swallowed Helicobacter pylori bacteria in 1984…
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Whatever you do, don’t mention the stool samples
This is a true story. It popped up in my social media feed as a memory from 2019. The chap behind the reception desk at Canberra Hospital pathology wasn’t Basil Fawlty, but I did wonder for a while. Him: “Have you been fasting?” Me: “Yes.” Him: “Why? There’s nothing on this form that says you…
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Why I never bought my wife a cow
I wrote this column years ago but it’s been edited for this blog post. Never let it be said that I am a culinary Philistine. I very nearly bought my wife Katherine a cow for Christmas. I didn’t, of course. But only because I couldn’t work out how to gift-wrap it. Has anyone ever actually…
JOHN MARTIN'S TALES 