The Lighter Note

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Whether oil pipe lines rupturing, exploration engineers and strange creatures of the deep make good reading is all up to the reader but The Note thought we should bring this Perth-written item to your attention.

No it’s not a report into Varanus Island or Montara, but a work of real fiction from a local writer.

WA-based John Squire has penned a sci-fi novel entitled The World Within, which follows fictional character John Steiner, an engineer working for Westworld Exploration and Production who investigates a strange undersea pipeline rupture in the North Sea.

Mr Squire is an electrical engineer from the UK who, when not writing, has worked in the oil and gas industry.

We are presuming that, unlike many first novels, this one is limited in its semi-autobiographical nature.

Perhaps harbouring ambitions of our own, The Note is always keen to give a plug to local authors who’ve taken that leap of faith in the reading public and actually published a book.

Coffee 1, Gillard 0

The Note is a close follower of the Miss Maud Coffee Bean Poll, mainly because we are clueless about the potential winner of the forthcoming federal election, but also because we are a sucker for quality self-promotion by retailers.

The last poll news we could get was that more than 12,000 customers had already expressed their views in Miss Maud’s 18 outlets.

As of last week, Miss Maud had the Libs out in front with 47 per cent, Labor at 27 per cent and the Greens at 14 per cent. Miss Maud claims the coffee bean poll is astoundingly accurate in predicting voting preferences.

Strangely, the coffee drinkers are putting the Democrats at three per cent ahead of the Nationals at two per cent.