Shankari Chandran duckformation.wordpress.com

Shankari Chandran is a recent returner to Sydney, after ten years in London. Happy to have escaped Summer drizzle and Pippa Middleton’s bottom, she found herself back home in Sydney, feeling strangely homesick for London. Formerly a social justice lawyer, she now uses her skills to keep the peace between her four children and husband. Shankari chronicles the day-to-day of her family’s return in her blog. It seems to help her make sense of the challenges of re-establishing a new life in an old home. She hopes it makes sense generally.


A Vaccination that doesn’t Hurt

Today Mark, our Rentokil guy, turned up with his team of technicians. They stepped out of their vans (they needed three, it was a big job); and armed with all manner of termite-artillery, they were ready to create a protective barrier around my home. The termite treatment consisted of termite baiting to deal with the One [...]

A Problem Shared Is A Problem Solved

I really like Mark, our termite guy. Now before I get a concerned call from the HR department of Rentokil, please let me clarify. When we moved back to Sydney after ten years in London, we put every pound and every dollar we ever earned into our new home (as well as all the debt [...]

The Mothership and its Forcefield

It’s only a matter of time before scientists discover that processed ham will kill you. Somewhere in a small university laboratory, there is a scientist completing a study on the effects of long-term processed ham abuse. Any day now he is going to tell me that I have been inadvertently poisoning my children for years [...]

Termite Control – a long term relationship

Our family is about to embark on what is potentially a costly and invasive termite-control process. A simple internet search of “Pest Control Sydney” reveals hundreds of pest control companies, with nothing but their own marketing spin to enlighten me. As we all know, you shouldn’t trust everything you read on the internet. Clueless, stressed [...]

Coptotermes – we are surrounded

I am a lawyer, which by definition makes me: - highly organised; - prone to excessive amounts of research; and - very annoying to live with. And so I have been sizing up the enemy at the back of the garden. Apparently the Coptoterme is the most destructive timber pest in Australia. Like my family, they [...]