I was metres from the doorstep of the Renault service centre yesterday when I realised I’d left my mobile phone at home. Did you hear me cursing from your place? (In case you missed the news, my car has required three oil top-ups in six months and the driver’s side window won’t open. It is […]

play catch-up PHRASE informal  Fall behind continually with work or financial matters. ‘I’m always playing catch-up with my homework’ Whoever coined the phrase “playing catch-up” had a sick sense of humour – there’s nothing playful about it. I’ve been doing it all week … make that all year … ok, all decade … and it’s […]

Are there more terrifying words your child can utter  … when you finally slump on the sofa at 8.30pm … after being away for two days at a conference …  than “I need to dress up for Book Week tomorrow”? Mummy freaked out … but the youngest calmly explained it was all sorted – she […]

I’m just back from a lightning two-day visit to Canberra. I wasn’t expecting to have much to say about spending two days – mostly at the Grand Hyatt Hotel – in Canberra … but you know how I roll … I was in the federal capital for the Alcohol Beverages Australia Inaugural ‘Celebration of Industry’ […]

Warning: this blog post may offend the prudish.  When I removed my emotional hurricane shutters after the marriage-break-up-career-debarcle tornado swept through my life, it had an unexpectedly X-rated effect on my social life. People started telling me their sex confessions. I was innocently sipping chardy in a bar and someone announced she’d been in a […]

To cheer me up after my Kitty Flanagan surprise birthday gift fail, DD organised a double-feature secret outing for me last week. Aside from him thinking it was totally hilarious to pretend he’d gotten the time wrong we had a lovely night … The only clue he gave about the first surprise was that it […]

Every now and then I forget it’s a mistake to get plastered. Sure, it’s bulk fun at the time, but the next day is a bitch. Saturday was one of those times. It started innocently enough. I walked to a local bar to have an “early drink” with my sister after she finished work … […]

My Facebook feed is crammed with endless photos of people on holidays together. Literally every second post is a selfie of friends posing in some out-of-town locale: Paris, London, Hunter Valley, Perisher … It disturbs me. Oh, it’s not the fact they’re on a holiday that bothers me … lucky them! It’s that they’re on […]

Our children are growing up victims because we’re failing to show them another way. That life is what they choose, not simply what happens to them. That resilience is not genetically bestowed but a habit and practice that can be improved. Hope, gratitude, love, optimism, a positive identity, good relationships, empowerment, sound health and determination […]

You know how 10 minutes is never enough at parent-teacher interviews? Well I just got three whole hours! Remember how the youngest’s teacher came to watch her compete at the State Skipping Championships? Well, it meant we had LOTS of time to chitter chat. Mrs C loves my little pook-a-looka. She said she’s going to […]