Hair today…
Shelley is giving me a lesson in blow-drying my hair. I tell her I just normally blast it and it looks fine. She asks about what “product” I use. I mumble that I can never remember the names of them....
View ArticleConfessions of a rookie race-goer
What is it that makes a city stand still for four minutes? If you live in Australia, chances are you know the answer. It is, of course, the Melbourne Cup. But what is it about this particular horse...
View ArticleMy Christmas card list
It’s the middle of December, and so far I’ve only received one Christmas card. From my mother. And somehow, I won’t be surprised if it’s the only one I get. The art of Christmas card-giving is dying....
View ArticleAn empty place at the table
Christmas can be the loneliest, saddest time of year for some people. They may not even be alone, but there may be that sense of loneliness that comes even when in a crowd. It’s a feeling of not quite...
View ArticleGifts, giving and gratitude
As we battle with last-minute gift-giving dilemmas, and curse roundly as we circle the shopping centre car park in a seemingly interminable search for an elusive empty spot, it’s easy to rail against...
View ArticlePassport to memories
My new passport has arrived. It’s stiff and clean and shiny. It’s my sixth passport, and suddenly I feel like I’ve never been anywhere before! As I add my cancelled one to the pile of old ones,...
View ArticleSlithering into the Year of the Snake
In Chinese astrology, we are entering the Year of the Snake. I’m not a Snake, I’m a Dog. But living in Australia has brought me more than a few close encounters with snakes, and as Chinese New Year...
View ArticleA year in Brisbane
Last week marked the end of my first year “back” in Brisbane. When I returned to the city I’d lived in for the best part of 18 years – taking out a couple in the middle spent in Central Queensland –...
View ArticleGoodbye Frommer’s, I’ll miss you
After more than a decade of writing for the US-based guide book company Frommer’s, I learned this week that the popular titles that have accompanied travellers around the world for more than 50 years...
View ArticleWe will remember them
Tomorrow – like tens of thousands of other people in Australia and New Zealand, and other places too – I’ll be getting up early. I’ll pin a red paper poppy to my lapel and walk a few blocks to the...
View ArticleHunting for a new home
Tentatively, I have dipped my toe into the piranha pool that is the real estate market. Yes, I am looking for a new home. Now settled in Brisbane, it is time to forget about renting and buy a place of...
View ArticleHome…where the heart is
I’ve just moved house. Something to be done as infrequently as possible, if you want my post-move opinion. It’s less than two years since I last did it – and this time I’m planning to stay put for a...
View ArticleMemories of a dogsitter (For Ollie)
For six wonderful weeks at a time when my heart and mind needed space and serenity, dear friends allowed me to look after their house and…
View ArticleA letter to my sister
Dear Anne, This was a day a long time coming. Your family had been planning it for a while but suddenly the timing was perfect. It…
View ArticleBuying into the ‘burqa’ debate
At the back of my wardrobe, in a place that no-one ever sees, hangs a shiny voluminous black cloak. It’s an abaya – or what many…
View ArticleMy love affair with London
“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.” So wrote the 18th century essayist and poet Samuel Johnson. He could easily have…
View ArticleA Christmas pudding made with love
The pudding bowl is on the table, filled with luscious dried fruit and glace cherries, soaked in rum. As my daughter and I arrive for the…
View ArticleRemembering Gallipoli
The sense of overwhelming loneliness is what I remember most. Just row upon row of flat marble headstones, flanked by cypress trees and watched over by…
View ArticleLetters from Dundee
Since the age of 10, I’ve had a penpal. Does anyone still use that term? Probably not…but that’s what we’ve been, Caroline and I, for all…
View ArticleLien: A refugee’s story
Journalists meet many people in the course of their working lives. Some of those people – and their stories – stick in our minds. Some more…
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