There are quite a few experiences for me, as a volunteer photographer for BMA Magazine and sometime contributor to your publication during the '90s.

I remember meeting Nirvana backstage at their infamous Canberra show and regret not getting Kurt's guitar pick rather than one from Krist.

One more highlight was US band Fishbone.

I was somewhat addled when I decided to talk my way into photographing their show and for some reason it was the only time I've seen the pit at the front of the stage closed at both ends.

Their tour manager had explained that after the usual "first three songs, no flash," I'd sneak across the stage when the lights dimmed.

As I climbed onstage in the dark and began to make my way to the steps leading offstage, I found my path blocked by a dark figure.

The lights came back on and I saw it was a band member and Fishbone launched into their next song.

I looked around and saw the band were dancing, thought I'd better dance too.

Then the singer said something like "There's only one way off, jump!" and I had my first experience of stage-diving.

A sea of hands rose up and carried me to the back of the audience and it was glorious.

Jason Richardson, Leeton, NSW

I am lucky enough to live adjacent to Lake Tuggeranong, its surrounding bike path and to be only 1.2 kilometres from the Tuggeranong shopping centre.

I have the luxury of choosing to either walk, ride my bike or, should the weather be inclement and I need milk (or beer), I will drive.

I am fed up with the whinging of recent times in your letters pages from the waddling, walkers who seem to think cyclists have no right to be on a cycle path.

I have lived in Canberra long enough to remember that these paths were actually built as "cycle paths" and were not referred to as "shared paths" until quite recently.

In the '80s, I used to ride my bike to work daily, year round, from Kambah to Russell Offices and back without any problems.

These days, just riding to the shops requires negotiating multitudes of "doubled-up" mums with their prams, often with dogs attached, and too busy talking to notice anything or anybody coming or going.

And then there is the "plugged-in" group with their earbuds stuck in so far the only bells they hear are coming from INXS.

I have noticed the formal walking clubs are most aware and courteous to all.

Maybe I should just drive.

Jeff Day, Greenway

Please cease publishing letters with the "bright" idea of walking on the right hand side of shared paths.

Whatever limited merit this suggestion may have, the end result of some people not obeying the keep-left advisory signs is a dangerous confusion with some walking on one side and some on the other.

As a walker, runner, dog owner, child wrangler and commuter cyclist who uses shared paths, I do understand the concern path users have of bicycles passing them at speed.

I do ask other path users to also understand that the advisory is for cyclists to ring a bell and slow down, however a bicycle passing a walker will always seem fast even if they slow down to a decent jogging pace of 10-15km/h.

Keep in mind we allow two-tonne cars to travel 40km/h through school zones.

Warwick Bradly, Weston

I'm not sure of the validity of the bicycle registration/licence points Norman Lee (Letters, January 2) is pushing, but it had me wondering if he was channelling either James Bond (with his licence to kill) or a counter view to the National Rifleman's Association position ("People don't kill people, bicycles kill people").

If it's the former, I wonder whether Q might have already prepared something of a bicycle equivalent of the beautiful Aston Martin DB5 that I might take for a spin next Sunday morning.

James Lee, Holder

I wonder how tradies manage to avoid punctures from all the screws they have carelessly deposited on the roads, Guy Swifte (Letters, December 21)? Or indeed, cyclists forced onto those tyre-shredding roads, thanks to pressure from James Grenfell's anti-cyclist fraternity (Letters, December 30)?

Maybe both avoid travelling too close to the gutter where most of the screws end up.

This may explain why cyclists drift dangerously (and illegally) close to the very right edge of their lane.

If only motorists would be allowed to "ring the bell" while waiting to pass, there soon would be a reduction in pedestrians having to bear that startled-rabbit-look.

Michael Crowe, Hawker

When the announcement about this roundabout "improvement" was made in August 2015, through these columns I asked Roads ACT to advise us if there were any technical reasons why a flyover on the Barton Highway alignment could not be built.

I have seen no correspondence from that august department!

The provision of this flyover is such a glaringly obvious solution there must be some engineering problem which prohibits (its') construction.

Paul E. Bowler, Holder

How long would a doctor's registration remain unquestioned in Canberra if he/she failed to diagnose and treat illnesses resulting in death?

Detainees on Manus Island, cared for by International Health and Medical Services, must question the standards of their service providers.

What has happened to the "in-depth" review" promised in 2014 after the death of Hamid Khazei?

Now there has been another death, Mr Faysal Ahmed, who by all accounts was seriously ill for six months before his death but, like Mr Khazei, he was not transferred to an Australian hospital until death was inevitable.

K. L. Calvert, Downer

Ms Kathryn Spurling (Letters, January 2) has been informed that she is to lose her war widow's pension because of the revised asset's test.

This advice, from wherever it came, is wrong. Below is an extract from the DVA website: "The assets test affects service pension and income support supplement, as well as pensions paid under the social security law such as age pension. Compensation payments such as disability pension and war widow(er) pension are not affected."

If you wish to check up on your own circumstances open the link below: http://www.dva.gov.au/benefits-and-payments/income-support/rebalanced-assets-test-apply-01-january-2017

James Wain, national president, Vietnam Veterans' Federation of Australia

Perhaps Ms Spurling is in receipt of a part Service Pension (DVA Old Age Pension equivalent) which is affected by other income and assets, and is reduced accordingly under the new government regulations.

Dave Jeffrey, Farrer

The war widow's pension is not means tested, Kathryn Spurling (Letters, January 1). The income support pension is means tested.

Deidre Woodger, Weston

You be the judge of what is fair: Retired couple "A" lives in a paid off home worth $10,000,000 and has other assets totalling only $375,000 and therefore gets the full aged pension; or retired couple "B" whose home is worth $450,000 but has other assets of $816,000 and therefore does not get a single dollar of pension?

Welcome to Australia 2017 where retired couples with net assets of over $10million can be entitled to government money while others with a tick over $1million are not.

Maybe we should change our national anthem to "Advance Australia Unfair".

Geoff Chatfield, Frankston South, Victoria

Eric Hunter (Letters, December 3), is quite correct to suggest that the present state of our world points to the futility of many wars, in spite of the courage of ex-service men and women.

But this is not true in all cases. Consider World War Two in which Britain and her empire, later joined by the United States, struggled to destroy Nazi Germany and later Japan.

Without the determination of Winston Churchill in 1940 the British leaders, like Halifax, might well have "negotiated" with Hitler and Hitler's "Thousand Year Reich" in Europe would have been a horrible reality.

If Britain had been subjugated to Hitler there would have been no base for the United States to liberate Europe. If ever a war was justified, in spite of the ghastly cost, that one was.

Churchill had his faults but he saved civilisation in 1940.

Robert Willson, Deakin

It was such a happy moment reading my copy of The Canberra Times in bed this morning. ("China vows to shut its ivory trade", January 1, p15).

I take my hat off to the Chinese government and to President Xi Jinping for his leadership on this conservation issue and on many recent environmental initiatives such as those aimed at reducing global warming.

The icing on this particular cake, is the reported plan to help ivory sector workers to transfer to other jobs such as conservation of art works in museums.

Jane Holesgrove, O'Connor

There was a lot of interesting reading in James Massola's piece ("The MPs to watch for", Forum, December 31, p1) in which he raised and addressed the question: "Who in the next generation of MPs are the rising stars?"

He put forward 16 names.

That's encouraging.

From his description of them they all have the capacity to assemble and argue the merits of a policy position.

However, do they also have the commitment to stare down the lobbyists and the extremists within their party and its financial supporters?

That's what would distinguish the rising from the falling stars.

Stuart Magee, Griffith

In my letter of January 2, about the attack on the ACL office in December 2016, this statement was added to my original letter: "They (police) concluded there was no political, religious or ideological motive."

In fact my original letter said police pre-empted the motive, and that a full investigation was warranted. My words were: "Mr Shelton would not be alone in wanting, in the interest of public safety, including the safety of ACL staff, a full Police investigation, into what was effectively a car bomb explosion in a built-up area".

Arthur Connor, Weston

Having been interstate when Rod Olsen's letter was published (Letters, December 30) I was not able to read his thesis.

A few years ago I read that Jesus probably was born in October according to the Gregorian calendar.

This was because the shepherds were guarding sheep in the fields.

From November the sheep would have been in a shed and because a conjunction of planets would have formed a bright "star".

Anyway, we celebrate the Queen's birthday on other than her actual birthday, so why the fuss about Jesus' birthday!

Ken McPhan, Kingsford Smith

May God bless you, J Halgren, for your concern ("God help Barrie," Letters, Jan 2).

But, while I appreciate your desire to make me meeker before I meet my maker, my chances are slim, I fear.

Barrie Smillie, Duffy

CHURCH SERVICE

Why does ABC Radio News continue to report the Queen has missed the Christmas and New Year's Mass? We know the Queen is unwell but hadn't heard she had converted to Catholicism. Mass may be a generic term for a Catholic service but it is not for a protestant, much less the head of the Church of England would use.

J. Bracht, Gordon

SEAFOOD ALTERNATIVE

Paul Heffernan (Letters, December 31) asks "I wonder if Jenny Moxam can offer an alternative to 'cruelly-derived seafood'? " The answer is blindingly obvious, perhaps even to Paul. Yes. The alternatives are called plants.

Graeme McElligott, Isabella Plains

CONCERT TOO LOUD

The New Year's Eve Civic Square concert was marketed as "family friendly". There is no way it could have been "ear friendly". The noise could be heard inside a home with closed double glazed windows, well up Ainslie Avenue. Surely the impact of such an assault on hearing is a public health concern?

Murray May, Cook

THE WRONG IMPRESSION

Further to Andrew Rowe's dislike of Lambada-like embraces on the cricket field (Letters, December 30), West Indian Wes Hall wrote in his book, Pace Like Fire, of his captain, Frank Worrell, telling him "Running about and kissing each other like footballers only creates an impression we are not used to taking wickets".

R.J. Wenholz, Holt

TURNBULL IN A TWIRL

I have just watched Malcolm Turnbull on the TV wearing a yarmulke and dancing (I use the term loosely) a Jewish folk dance with Jewish constituents to mark the Hanukkah festival. I look forward to the sight of our PM being similarly compatibly dressed when he next attends the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Roger Dace, Reid

LACKING PRINCIPLES

Having returned from Israel Bill Shorten described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a "good friend of Australia" ("Labor hedge their bets on UN Israel resolution", Canberra Times, December 31).

Well done Bill: you're real leadership material ... not a principle in sight.

John Richardson, Wallagoot, NSW

DISTURBING POSITION

Julie Bishop's support for Israel ("Bishop back Israel rather than US", December 30, p4) is disturbing. Israeli politicians' determined dispossession and murder of Palestinians over the decades is breathtaking.

Chris Swinbank, Kingston