Readers Digest Australia September 2021

ON 15 APRIL 2019, the world learnt the terrible news that Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris’s famous landmark building and popular tourist attraction, was ablaze. The unimaginable had happened, but with its magnificent 800-year-old roof still smouldering in ruins, the enormous effort to restore the medieval beauty began. In ‘Saving Notre Dame’ (page 64), we take a look at the restoration effort involving expert scientists and historians from across France to identify the most suitable natural materials to rebuild the cathedral’s roof and preserve its other unique structural features. We also delve into the intriguing life of Coco Chanel, creator of another French icon, Chanel No. 5 (‘Smell Like A Woman’, page 38). This year, the perfume celebrates its 100th anniversary, and though one of the mostrecognised global brands, the lesser-known story…

Working With Robots I found ‘Welcome, Robots’ (June) an insightful read. While I marvelled at the technology, I worried where it might end. Robots may be more efficient but not at the expense of humans – or so I thought. When Mark Borman said, “We’re going through a generational change … in agriculture” and that younger people aren’t choosing these jobs, previously I would have thought it best to encourage humans to fill these positions, not a robotic workforce. But it doesn’t have to be one or the other, it can be a collaborative effort. RAY POULSON The Lasting Effect Of A Golf Game ‘Golf, A Game Of Life’ (My Story, June) resonated with me. At the high school where I taught, the staff always had a golf day on the first day of…

Bringing Smiles To Children In Conflict Zones In her London home, 44-year-old professional clown Samantha Holdsworth is singing and dancing for social workers 8000 kilometres away in Bangladesh, who erupt in laughter. The Zoom call is a training session to equip them to entertain Rohingya refugee children. Holdsworth is founder of Clowns Without Borders UK, a charity that brings comic relief to children in conflict zones and disaster areas. She launched the chapter of the Spanishbased non-profit in 2014. “There is glorious defiance in their work,” she says. “They don’t accept that crisis, conflict or the threat of violence are more powerful than children having the chance to laugh.” Before the pandemic, NGOs would invite Holdsworth and her 17-clown team of volunteers to perform for atrisk communities around the world. A standard performance consists…

In late March last year, just a month after Pakistan’s first reported case of COVID-19, I returned to my village, Shujghal. The village sits at the highest peak of the Hindu Kush mountain range in the eastern valley of Tirich Mir. It is comprised of just 16 houses, and each one belongs to members of my family. As is the case during the winter months, when resources are more scarce in the villages, most of us head to cities such as Islamabad, Peshawar and Lahore. I teach English at a private school in Peshawar but the COVID-19 lockdown meant I had to return to Shujghal. On the upside, the lockdown reunited my cousins and I for the first time in years. To pass the time, most nights after dinner we would play…

Our Lucky Escape E. PETER VAUGHAN In the 1940s our family lived in a small farming town at the junction of the Darling and Murray rivers in the far south west of New South Wales. My parents ran a hotel business and my grandfather, who lived with us, was the yardman. At the time there was a severe drought and grass was very scarce. We had a Jersey cow called Lassie. The only cow in the paddock, she was big and a great milker. My job, as a 12 year old, was to take Lassie down to the river each day where the feed was good. On this particular day, I tied Lassie to a long rope so she could reach better grass. She had to be tied up or else Charlie Pitt,…

Our regular pet columnist, Dr Katrina Warren, is an established and trusted animal expert. SOME OF THE HABITS OF DOGS can seem strange and downright off-putting at times. However, most of these puzzling behaviours are perfectly normal for dogs and it is how they make sense of their world. Veterinarian Dr Katrina Warren explains the reasons behind some of the natural and instinctive actions of our canine companions. WHY DO DOGS SNIFF EACH OTHER? While we humans find this habit a strange one, it’s the way dogs greet each other and how they pick up information about the other dog by detecting its scent and pheromones. A dog’s sense of smell is thousands of times more acute than ours. A human has around five million olfactory receptors while a dog has around 300…