Now and then

I’ve joined a Facebook group filled with former magazine colleagues reminiscing about the good old days.

They’ve been posting photographs of the extravagant staff Christmas parties, the glamorous on-site gym, the lavish Christmas hampers and other fabulous stuff.

They were very good old days indeed.

The main pic on today’s blog post is the Cosmo crew, possibly at the launch of a “hottest men” feature.

Maybe it was the photo shoot that involved me to convincing 50 men to pose naked with various household objects in front of their bits … I’m pretty sure I talked my former brother in law into posing with a strategically placed jar of Vegemite.

Back then my working life was all about handing staff vibrators to test, judging Miss Nude Australia and being yelled at by disgruntled celebrities.

My name popped up in one of the Facebook recollections in an unexpected way. I was lauded – alongside my beloved deputy editor Lorrae Willox – for “letting every sin go by as long as the mag came out” when I was editor of Woman’s Day.

I have so many questions about this blind eye of mine! I’ve completely forgotten being so permissive.

It was a very different world to my current one. Yesterday I had an excited conversation with a colleague about all the stuff happening in the drinks world this week, from the new executive team being announced at the combined CUB and Asahi Premium Beverages to Treasury Wine Estates being placed in a temporary trading halt to Coles Liquor seeing a 70% rise in online sales in Q4 of FY2020 to Diageo buying Ryan Reynolds’ gin brand (OK, that one crosses both genres … and … this is totally left-field, but I had a sex dream about him the other night … he’s not my celebrity free pass, but DD reckons he’d be an excellent choice.).

I get so hyper about the latest breaking drinks news from Bloomberg and the Australian Financial Review these days.

Mind you, it’s not all financial reports and executive movements in my current job. While our annual Australian Drinks Awards went virtual this year, I frocked up for the celebration in 2019 (above).

And, when we’re not in the middle of a pandemic, I often sip lavish concoctions at fancy events … where I’m invariably the oldest person in the room …

But I’m mostly at home these days due to the dreaded COVID-19. And it’s a shambles at the moment. I’m surrounded by the contents of my pantry while I wait for a doorway to be knocked through from the kitchen to make my laundry internal. Ooooooh, exciting!

Tom finally returned to start waterproofing at 2pm yesterday, so things are moving again.

But my day ended on a bit of a blah note. I got a response from Jamala Wildlife Lodge about some suggestions I sent them regarding our recent visit. I’m not in the habit of sending those sort of emails and I was a little shocked by how passive aggressive the manager was in her response.

Head over to The Thirsty Travellers for the lowdown.

I’m still a bit about it. But I’m very sensitive in my middle age, so perhaps I’m over-reacting.