Best holiday wishes to you, whether you are celebrating Christmas, just taking a few days off or working straight through ... hopefully there's some fun for you along the way. I've finally finished work - yesterday was an absolute shocker, but I won’t bore you with the stressful details … other than to say it... Continue Reading →

Long-time HouseGoesHome followers may recall that I once went semi-viral after writing a blog post about a woman who made her fortune by writing erotic novels about sex with dinosaurs. After discovering the weird reason why the post went semi-viral, I wrote another blog post about THAT, which went even more sort of viral and... Continue Reading →

Guess where I was last night? The hospital. The youngest was admitted to the short stay department with acute Epstein Barr virus AND rhinovirus (aka glandular fever AND a cold). Her spleen and liver are both enlarged and she feels terrible. My ex sat with her in the afternoon and I took over parenting duties... Continue Reading →

The universe made it up to me last night after yesterday's cranky blog post. I was invited to visit a restaurant in Double Bay called Bartiga, which features modern Australian cuisine mixed with Southeast Asian flavours, paired with a cocktail menu highlighting a Seychelles rum called Takamaka. I worked in Double Bay many moons ago... Continue Reading →

WARNING: This is a cranky blog post. Should I make up a word for that? Is it a crog? Let me start by saying that I enjoy a cancelled plan as much as the next person in my middle age. An unexpected night at home always hits the spot. But 2025 has felt like the... Continue Reading →

It is hard during summer to return to the real world from my second home on the Northern Beaches. Over the last few days I have wandered down the street each morning for coffee, window shopping and chatting with local friends along the way; then I’ve ducked to the beach in the late afternoon for... Continue Reading →

When I got married almost 25 year ago there were two extravagances: a Collette Dinnigan wedding dress and my favourite band serenading me down the aisle, Karma County.  The band had a song called Olana. Soooooo beautiful. And close enough to my name to make it the perfect serenade as I walked down the aisle. That was then ... This was... Continue Reading →

I am going to tell you how much money I spent on travel in 2024 without telling you much money I spent on travel ... This Christmas gift arrived yesterday from my travel agent ... A Maggie Beer gift box ... oooo la la! I was also emailed the finalised itinerary for my latest travel... Continue Reading →

The plan on Monday night was to head to bed early and catch up on sleep after a big weekend. I struggled wearily through to 9pm and was just about to take the dogs out for their last wee of the day when a strange and sudden urge to Christmas decorate came over me. I... Continue Reading →

It has not been a joy to return from the indolence and indulgence of my Melbourne getaway to force feeding one of my dogs tablets twice a day and wrestling the other dog to the ground to put ointment on his eyeballs three times a day. Get a dog they said, it will be fun... Continue Reading →