We woke on day two of our cruise to the awful news that two sailors competing in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race had tragically died during the night, the first fatalities since 1998. Catastrophic conditions in 1998 saw six sailors die, five yachts sink and more than 60 yachts retire - the boats were... Continue Reading →

How was your Chrissie and New Year? Mine got off to a rocky start. Surprise! While it's usually me that gets sick during the festive season (I've lost two Christmases to COVID-19) this year it was those around me who suffered. The youngest was crook as Rookwood with tonsillitis, glandular fever and a cold, which... 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 →