I don’t want to intrude, but the lack of a date for return suggests something more serious than a planned holiday. As the airline safety spiel goes, “put on your own oxygen mask before helping others”. Whatever, we all wish you a deep battery recharge and early return to full combat status.
+1 “we all wish you a deep battery recharge”…
“and early return to full ! persuasive and published ! status.”
I agree with your sentiment James, but I have a reaction to combat.
“Reactance can occur when someone is heavily pressured to accept a certain view or attitude. Reactance can cause the person to adopt or strengthen a view or attitude that is contrary to what was intended, and also increases resistance to persuasion. People using reverse psychology are playing on reactance, attempting to influence someone to choose the opposite of what they request.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactance_(psychology)
Sad to hear that and, like those who have commented earlier, I hope all is well.
As an aside, I’d like to thank you for signing the letter calling for Murdoch University to drop its damages claim against Gerd Schröder-Turk.
I am one of the three academics from Murdoch University that appeared on the 4 Corners program back in May so have a personal and professional interest in the matter!
KT2: Sorry if I caused offence, and given JQ’s views on war, perhaps the metaphor was ill-chosen. Substitute any other suggesting struggle and achievement, like the triathlon.
As above, plus ne lesse illegitimis te carborundum.
All well. Just a holiday and family celebrations. My son is getting married
Wa-hooo!
Weddings are always joyful occasions. Enjoy!
Don’t be so sure, TM. When my brother got married, my father ended up in hospital, though they let him out long enough to attend the wedding. My brother, then in the RAF and a little military minded in these matters at the time, had over-planned everything with too little slack (e.g. getting my measurements for formal wear so much in advance that it no longer fitted properly). Because of that tight scheduling, my father had to rush too much to collect me at a railway station and so didn’t have the margin to dodge a bad driver. I wound up having to organise my parents’ return home by a different method than the car travel they had intended, which unfortunately meant having to leave my companion to make her own way home once we had reached London.
Ah well, the boy who cried wolf was right eventually. Glad that all’s well in sunny and uxorious Queensland.
John Quiggin 
I don’t want to intrude, but the lack of a date for return suggests something more serious than a planned holiday. As the airline safety spiel goes, “put on your own oxygen mask before helping others”. Whatever, we all wish you a deep battery recharge and early return to full combat status.
+1 “we all wish you a deep battery recharge”…
“and early return to full ! persuasive and published ! status.”
I agree with your sentiment James, but I have a reaction to combat.
“Reactance can occur when someone is heavily pressured to accept a certain view or attitude. Reactance can cause the person to adopt or strengthen a view or attitude that is contrary to what was intended, and also increases resistance to persuasion. People using reverse psychology are playing on reactance, attempting to influence someone to choose the opposite of what they request.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactance_(psychology)
Sad to hear that and, like those who have commented earlier, I hope all is well.
As an aside, I’d like to thank you for signing the letter calling for Murdoch University to drop its damages claim against Gerd Schröder-Turk.
I am one of the three academics from Murdoch University that appeared on the 4 Corners program back in May so have a personal and professional interest in the matter!
KT2: Sorry if I caused offence, and given JQ’s views on war, perhaps the metaphor was ill-chosen. Substitute any other suggesting struggle and achievement, like the triathlon.
As above, plus ne lesse illegitimis te carborundum.
All well. Just a holiday and family celebrations. My son is getting married
Wa-hooo!
Weddings are always joyful occasions. Enjoy!
Don’t be so sure, TM. When my brother got married, my father ended up in hospital, though they let him out long enough to attend the wedding. My brother, then in the RAF and a little military minded in these matters at the time, had over-planned everything with too little slack (e.g. getting my measurements for formal wear so much in advance that it no longer fitted properly). Because of that tight scheduling, my father had to rush too much to collect me at a railway station and so didn’t have the margin to dodge a bad driver. I wound up having to organise my parents’ return home by a different method than the car travel they had intended, which unfortunately meant having to leave my companion to make her own way home once we had reached London.
Ah well, the boy who cried wolf was right eventually. Glad that all’s well in sunny and uxorious Queensland.