The youngest finally got her outrageously expensive braces on Monday. She has been VERY grumpy ever since about how they look and feel. Much like her mum is about the bill. But I felt cornered by her mouth-breathing-induced overbite, missing-front-tooth agenesis and teen vanity conditions. As I watched the braces being laboriously glued to her... Continue Reading →

You will exclaim "Oh Alana!" ... and not in a good way ... when I tell you this story. Within hours of receiving the horrifying $2400 plumber's bill for my leaking gas pipes last week my drains started doing this ... I was a bit emotionally numb by that point and dejectedly sent the above pic... Continue Reading →

Whenever DD and I host a soiree, someone invariably thinks it's going to be a surprise engagement party. There was lots of speculative murmuring at our joint 50th last year. On Saturday night, DD hosted a Christmas in July celebration. When he ding-ding-dinged his glass to silence the crowd, I got a nudge-nudge-wink-wink from someone. I... Continue Reading →

It was a busy night in booze land on Wednesday. Champagne Bollinger sent me a press release yesterday announcing it "hosted key media and guests at Fred’s in Paddington to celebrate the launch of the new La Grande Année 2008". Thanks for letting me know I’m non-key media. Delete. Ah, I was busy anyway, celebrating... Continue Reading →

I rousted the youngest from bed yesterday for her post-surgery check-up. As we were dashing out the door I realised her new referral was made out to the WRONG SPECIALIST. Arrrrrghhhhh! The doctor's surgery wasn't open yet, so I couldn't call them to get another one. Arrrrgghhhhh! I darted into the waiting room and apologetically... Continue Reading →

I can't believe I'm typing these words, but another drama has befallen me. I think it is most unreasonable of the universe to have lumbered me with an additional crisis, but you know what they say about life's unfairness. Anyways, I've been having problems with a leaking gas smell in the front yard. It's been... Continue Reading →

Yesterday was a shocker. You've probably heard the Kathleen Folbigg news. Click here if you haven't. Kathy is a mess as you can imagine. My life tends to be one of extremes, so I was at the Australia's Wine List of the Year Awards when I got the message that  an announcement was being made... Continue Reading →

It was 22C yesterday ... in freaking July ... so you know where I went. The beach! I felt terribly guilty though, because it was my weekend with the kids. It seemed wrong to run off and have fun without them.  But they weren't interested in swimming at the beach, plus the eldest had other... Continue Reading →

The youngest and I have been watching rom-coms all week, which makes a nice change from that underaged auto-erotic sex scene in Breath. So far we've seen the first two Bridget Jones movies, Wimbeldon, Love Actually and Notting Hill. Oh, and There's Something About Mary, which is more comedy than romance and resulted in me rolling... Continue Reading →

Someone said yesterday that I was "so brave to put so much of yourself out there" in my blog posts. It panics me when people say that. I’ve written about it before, waaaay back in 2012. I only remembered the blog post vaguely, so I looked it up last night and, oh man, I'd forgotten... Continue Reading →