Nanny Babe
Happy New Year
As Oprah Winfrey once said: “Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right” Be honest, how many years have you made one or more New Year resolutions and never achieved your goal? You are not alone. […]
It’s More Than Just Colouring In
Time with my grandsons over the Christmas break was relaxing, but more importantly, precious. As a grandmother of two boys I treat every moment with them as a gift. Needless to say there are challenging moments as they develop their own personalities. […]
Walking On Sunshine
The very first Walking on Sunshine Raceday to raise money for melanoma research was an outstanding success with more than 300 people attending the event in The Birdcage at Eagle Farm Racecourse. Special guests included WOS ambassadors singer Pete Murray, poet Rupert […]
Roll Up, Roll Up!
It is amazing how discussions in the workplace can arise out of nowhere. A conversation last week began after I bought a packet of Home Brand chocolate-coated honeycomb squares and sat them in the lolly tray near my desk. Out of the […]
Making magic
We may well have been from diverse backgrounds socially, emotionally, culturally, financially and age range, but there is one thing we all had in common, a passion for making jewellery. Two hours on this particular Saturday morning had been dedicated to one […]
Trump Triumph
I normally don’t fear the unknown, but this is precisely how the election of Donald Trump as US President made me feel. My first reaction to the approaching result was disbelief. Looking back, it has been difficult to identify the Republican Party’s […]
What happened to Guy Fawkes?
As I was driving home from work earlier this week I was amazed to see how many Halloween costumed children were paving the streets with parents and buckets in hand. It started me thinking about my childhood and my own children growing […]
Writing for a generation
It is the psychological aspect of authors that fascinates me and there is nothing more interesting than to speak to the author of a book you have recently read to find out what makes them tick. I just closed the cover on […]
Back to school … too late to cancel?
You know the feeling when you have a function to attend and as you begin to dress you are still uncertain if you want to go but are too far committed to cancel? I was like this when I decided to attend […]
The ‘girlie network’ – my best friends
Part of the dictionary definition of ‘girlie’ is: “featuring nude or scantily clad young women.” I can assure you that none of my girlie nights out have succumbed to this level – phew! But on a more serious note, I began writing […]
It’s spring – calling all domestic goddesses!
Traditionally, it’s Spring clean time, but I peaked a little early. The weekend – the sun had almost set and as I shut and lock each window, I can feel the crisp air take over the house after what has been a […]
Will I still be ‘out there’ when I die?
I was one of the thousands on Census night—when Australians were requested to complete the form online to make a difference—that was unable to fill out the form. While I attempted to fulfil my obligations, I was thwarted by the website. Needless […]
The interview with my grandsons
I have come to realise that being a grandparent isn’t vastly different from when you are a parent, except that you can choose when to walk away, you need to be careful not to get too involved and not to overstep the […]
Another year (half) over and what have you done?
Did you make a plan this year? I did and it appears from my mid-year review—fingers crossed—that I have met some of my objectives, and the others I can justify not reaching. It is healthy to question There will be times when […]
Enriched versus a rich lifestyle
On my return from my overseas trip, I wrote about how the travel refocused me – made me review my life and question if anything needed to be done to change it. One of the things I noticed was that as a […]
Seven things that travel makes you think about
This was my life last week and it was difficult: I arrived back in Australia after a month overseas; I went to work the next day; dealt with sudden time changes; experienced sleep deprivation and irregular sleep patterns; had to avoid commitments […]
I have a life bucket, not a bucket list
I believe that life is one big bucket that is sometimes filled and sometimes emptied. Full of objectives, challenges, and achievements that includes travel. In my ‘life bucket’ there were some places I held on to and always wanted to visit: Naples, […]
My Greek writing retreat
I have the utmost respect for anyone who has written and published a novel, especially now that I have undertaken some study to do so. In late 2015, a colleague mentioned that there was a writing retreat in Greece. It didn’t take […]
Tips for surviving long flights … from first-hand experience
I am in Greece as we speak and as the Greek philosopher, Aristotle once said, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” and “happiness depends upon ourselves.” This definitely is true for long distance plane travel. What I have […]