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A Toast to…
Read more: A Toast to…We are currently in Western Australia, visiting family and friends for a month before we head to Bali, our first international stop on our year-long sabbatical. Although we’re still in Australia, we are getting into sabbatical mode, which means that each day we work a little (I write, Ben works for a client), we play…
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To Airbnb, or not to Airbnb…
Read more: To Airbnb, or not to Airbnb…Before Ben and I officially start our year’s sabbatical in a couple of days, we have taken a quick side trip to New Zealand, a place we have now been to four times together, and which holds a special place in our hearts. Seven out of eight nights have been booked in Airbnbs, and here’s…
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Take, Chuck or Store?
Read more: Take, Chuck or Store?Over the past few weeks and months, Ben and I have been playing our own version of Shoot, Shag or Marry – only with our stuff. We have literally handled and considered every item we own and have asked ourselves, ‘take, chuck or store?’ That’s every darned thing. When we originally talked about taking this sabbatical,…
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Beautiful Chaos
Read more: Beautiful ChaosLast time it was about details, drowning in them, to be more specific. While I am still up to my chin in the minutiae of departing the country for a year, I have found myself in another not-particularly-comfortable predicament: I’m surrounded by chaos. Our usually orderly home is a study in disarray. There are boxes…
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New Year’s Absolutions 2018
Read more: New Year’s Absolutions 2018Every year I like to write a list of things I absolve myself from doing, no matter how good they may be for my mind/body/soul/relationships/success/wallet, and so on. This year I absolve myself of the following: Eating spaghetti squash as ‘pasta’ While I am all for substituting healthier foods for less-healthy foods, like Greek yoghurt…
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The Devil’s in the Details
Read more: The Devil’s in the DetailsWe are now in the T-minus state of departing Melbourne, and then Australia, for a year. As in, T-minus: 17 days of work left. And T-minus: 33 days until we fly out of Melbourne. And T-minus: several hours until I lose my damned mind. I woke up at 4am last night (or this morning). I…
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I Think I Met Someone (Book 2 in the ‘Someone’ Series)
Read more: I Think I Met Someone (Book 2 in the ‘Someone’ Series)The sequel to You Might Meet Someone picks up Sarah’s story a few months after her Greek adventure. Here’s the preface… “Have a great time!” my best friend, Lindsey, called as she climbed into the driver’s seat of her car. “I hope he shows up,” said her husband, Chris, grinning at me through the passenger window.…
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Why I’m taking a mid-career sabbatical
Read more: Why I’m taking a mid-career sabbatical“Let’s trade a year of our retirement for 2018,” said Ben. We’d been toying with the idea for years, but he was giving it a time-frame, making it concrete. Initially, my stomach clenched at the thought, but I took a deep breath and said yes. Ben and I have long described ourselves as ‘location-agnostic’, but…
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Opinion vs Ideology: Same-Sex Marriage
Read more: Opinion vs Ideology: Same-Sex MarriageI’m angry. Our (ridiculous) government has gone through with an expensive plan to survey Australians, asking, “Should the law be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry?” In the context of the discussions and campaigns associated with this survey, I’ve been told – and I have read and I have heard and seen – that…
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Where the winds take you
Read more: Where the winds take youA year ago, Ben and I were about to embark on a journey back to the Greek Islands, revisiting some of the places we discovered together in 2006 – when we met. Our skipper from the sailing trip in ’06, Patrick, would be at the helm again. We’d get to see new places, we’d make…
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Guest Blogger (My Awesome Mother): Changing the face of teaching in the 70s and 80s
Read more: Guest Blogger (My Awesome Mother): Changing the face of teaching in the 70s and 80sMy sister and I grew up with young parents. Mum and Dad were 21 when I was born and 25 when my sister came along. They were both primary school teachers. We grew up in the 70s, surrounded by 20-somethings – our parents and a slew of aunties and uncles – actual and honorary. When I…
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New Year’s Absolutions 2017
Read more: New Year’s Absolutions 2017Every year I think of the (sometimes silly) promises I have made to myself – or the albatrosses of obligations I have somehow bought into – and absolve myself of them. This is in the spirit of seeking (only) joyful, authentic, positive pursuits, and releasing myself from the pursuits that make me resentful, angry or…
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We the people…don’t always get it right
Read more: We the people…don’t always get it rightSo, how do you let an emotional public, or even worse, an ill-informed or indifferent public to make such an important decision, particularly when you’re not even compelling them to participate?Read more We the people…don’t always get it right
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What it’s like being an Aussie in America during a presidential election
Read more: What it’s like being an Aussie in America during a presidential electionI moved from Sydney to Seattle, Washington in January 2009 – just in time to watch President Obama’s first inauguration live on TV. He had been elected by the largest turn-out of voters in American history, and for many people it was a signpost of a better time to come. The vice grip of the…
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For Our Little Miss Lucy
Read more: For Our Little Miss LucyWhen you get a pet, you know that it is very likely that you will outlive them. You risk the inevitability of them dying sometime in the future, because you know that before that happens, you will have the wonderful experience of being a furrent. We had our little Lucy for nearly 5 years and…
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The hardest part is getting published
Read more: The hardest part is getting publishedWriting a novel may seem like a big task. It is. Start to finish, including chapter re-writes, incorporating feedback from trusted editors and reviewing the whole thing 3 times over, You Might Just Meet Someone took about 2 years. That’s 2 years alternating between intense labouring and equally intense procrastination. You see, I love to write, but I…
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Why Spectre Was a Giant Snore Fest
Read more: Why Spectre Was a Giant Snore Fest[Spoiler Alert!] There’s no nice way to say this. Spectre is a silly and rather dull movie. Which for a HUGE Bond fan – particularly of the Daniel Craig era – is grossly disappointing. They say Craig is hanging up his Omega watch and bespoke suits and that they’ll be passing the Bond mantle onto…
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You Might Just Meet Someone Chapter Two
Read more: You Might Just Meet Someone Chapter TwoOn the flight to Athens, I was stuck in the middle seat between a husband and wife, one who wanted to sit by the window and the other who wanted the aisle. They spent the entire flight talking across me as though I was some sort of aeronautical soft furnishing. When I politely asked if…
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You Might Just Meet Someone Chapter One
Read more: You Might Just Meet Someone Chapter OneThis is chapter one of a novel I have written. Feedback is welcome. Chapter One I woke up stiff and achy. I was pretty sure I had the beginnings of jetlag even though I was still in the air. It was that wretched mixture of queasiness and exhaustion. I hate flying long-haul. Let me correct…
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Humbled. Exhausted. Replenished. Gratified.
Read more: Humbled. Exhausted. Replenished. Gratified.“How was it?” I can’t tell you how many times I have been asked this question since I returned from Cape Town, South Africa just over two weeks ago. It’s a perfectly valid question, as I was doing something quite unique. In February, I spent two weeks with 12 others from around the world, working with…
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FRIENDS
Read more: FRIENDSWhen FRIENDS burst onto the scene in the mid-90s I devoured it with an appetite I hadn’t had since TV shows were named after addresses in California. Of course, I wasn’t alone – it was a juggernaut. It was refreshingly funny, it was aspirational, it was Seinfeld for Generation X. I can still watch any episode…
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Fa La La La Laaah La La La La
Read more: Fa La La La Laaah La La La LaIt’s that time of year – time to deck the halls and all that stuff. It’s my favourite time. It’s Christmas time. I am not what you would call a religious person – I know this, because I was once very religious and I am now the antithesis of that – but I LOVE Christmas.…
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What’s My Excuse?
Read more: What’s My Excuse?There has been some hubbub in the cyber world this past fortnight, because of this woman, Maria Kang. The backlash, both from the online community and from people I know, was passionate, angry and sometimes even vile. How dare she shame other women? ‘Fat shaming’ it was called. I watched this discussion unfold (mostly on…
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Slump
Read more: SlumpThere are a lot of writer’s who say that there’s no such thing as writer’s block, because you can always write something – even if it isn’t very good. Maybe that’s true. I mean, I’m writing at the moment. I’m writing this blog post. So, if writer’s block no more real than Santa (sorry, spoiler alert),…
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7th Heaven
Read more: 7th HeavenThis month Ben and I celebrate the 7th anniversary of our ‘meet cute’. Ours was a cute meeting, and we have retold it in various forms to an array of people over the years. If you know us, we have likely delighted (bored?) you with it at some point. I am currently penning a (mostly)…
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I had the craziest dream last night
Read more: I had the craziest dream last nightIt’s a little-known made up statistic that 9/10 people who insist on telling you about the dream they had, start re-telling it with these seven dreaded words, seven words that would make even your mother cringe. Because the truth is, no one wants to hear about your dream, not even your mum. I know that…
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NZ ’13
Read more: NZ ’13I was a lucky bugger and I won a trip – an all-expenses-paid trip – to New Zealand. 25 words or less on who I would take to NZ and why, and a couple of months later Ben and I were winging our way to Wellington. This is a retrospective of our 7 night, 8…
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Legends On Stage
Read more: Legends On StageToday I saw Darth Vader and Jessica Fletcher – on stage together. Well, not really, but I did see the matinee of Driving Miss Daisy starring two of the world’s most famous octogenarians. James Earl Jones, 82, and Angela Lansbury, 88, together for 90 splendid minutes. They were joined by…
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What’s On My…
Read more: What’s On My…This blog post is inspired by Renée who was inspired by another, who was inspired by…it goes back a ways… BATHROOM COUNTER: Pretty things in seafoam blue. And tissues. My dad taught me that you should never have to be more than 10 feet away from tissues in your home. Of course, the box is…
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Gallipoli 1997
Read more: Gallipoli 1997In 1997 (February) I was on Contiki’s European Training Trip. This is what I wrote about going to Gallipoli. Leaving Greece we were on a pilgrimage – to Gallipoli. Most of us were antipodean and we were keen to see where our ANZACs had landed, fought and died, and to pay our respects with a…
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And all women like pink…
Read more: And all women like pink…Last week I listened to/watched a wonderful talk by Kirstie Clements, the woman who was the editor of (Australian) Vogue Magazine for 12+ years and was unceremoniously dismissed last year. The talk is an incredible exploration of women in the business world and if you have 25 minutes to give to it, you may just…
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