This blog until recently was just an archive. Now I am using it to post in a more systematic way some of my best family history and memory posts. Enjoy.
Can’t find the posts that used to be here?
Go to New Lines from a Floating Life. See further down this page for more help.
It’s 1944 or 1945: in the foreground my sister, myself — on the left with eyes down and a curly head — and my cousin, with my mother (or Aunt Beth); my brother is lurking in the background. Pic taken, I think, to send to my father in Papua at the time.
What’s here
The pages on this site come from a number of my blogs. They reflect quite a bit of my life, background, and interests. Do explore them. Aside from the lists below, you will see all the pages listed in the side bar.
The posts continue a project begun as Floating Life Sans Words.
Contact me
About pages
Family history and stories
About the Whitfields: from convict days
- Loss: continues the story with reminiscences from my mother carrying it to World War 2 and beyond.
- Family pictures
- Wandering Willie’s Tales lists everywhere I have lived and tells of my childhood in Auburn Street Sutherland.
My mother’s story — mostly in her own words.
- More tales from my mother 1 — Spencer 1906-1913 [NEW]
- More tales from my mother 2 — Felled Timber Creek [NEW]
- More tales from my mother 3 — Braefield NSW 1916-1923 [NEW]
- More tales from my mother 4 — Dunolly NSW — and conclusions [NEW]
About the Christisons: my mother’s family.
A Guringai Family Story — Warren Whitfield — written by Warren: The family concerned is Warren’s mother’s family, related to me only by marriage.
Friends and acquaintances
The Rabbit takes me time travelling revisits Auburn Street fifty years later in the company of a friend.
The Bard, A Rabbit, and Ninglun: several years of Shakespeare plays with a good companion.
Remembering Neos: a project with friends in the early 1980s. Neos was a magazine for young writers.
Lord Malcolm, aka Malcolm Gleeson, was a great friend who passed away in 2007. This page has some pics from a picnic in 2005.
- Tribute to Malcolm, including his own words, on his death in June 2007.
- Malcolm’s memorial service June 2007: text by Dorothy McRae-McMahon.
Writings
When Snow Drifts Melt — a story I wrote between 1983 and 1989 which reflects much reality.
An essay on literacy from UTS 1998
My adventures with a Japanese Backpacker learning English (and more) in 1998
Old blog entries from pre-Internet 1999 through to 2004.
Blogging Olympic Year 2000 — as seen from Surry Hills.
A controversy I was caught up in during 2002.
A feature article I wrote for The South Sydney Herald in 2007.
Finding stuff that was here…
TIP: Try the link taking out ninglunbooks and substituting ninglundecember.
Try Search WordPress.com.
Another way to find what used to be here: go to the first Google Search below and look in ninglundecember.
Search all Floating Life on WordPress sites
Search English/ESL and Ninglun on Blogspot.
The search engine in the side bar searches this blog only.