How was your weekend? We had such a cruisy one, in both senses of the word. My friends at Sydney Harbour Tall Ships had a last-minute cancellation on Friday night for their Wine & Canapes cruise and asked us to join them. Yes, please! DD and I love any opportunity to be sailing, especially with... Continue Reading →

I've judged a few things in my time ... Miss Nude Australia ... the Logies ... the Craft Beer Marketing Awards ... Trump supporters ... Earlier this year I added another role to the list: judging the Australian Gin Awards. And the reason I didn't blog yesterday was because I was being a dirty stop-out... Continue Reading →

I am very bleary this week from lack of sleep. My brain is whirring even faster than usual. It is contemplating the most random things late at night and early in the morning. Topics include what cruise I should book in 2026, whether the eldest wants to move out because I talk too much, what... Continue Reading →

There's a clip doing the rounds on social media that features Matt Damon appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Jimmy asks Matt about his kids and Matt tells him that his daughter, Isabella, is about to go to college. "They grow up so, so fast. I remember working years ago, and my old friend who's... Continue Reading →

I feel guilty about not making more of the first weekend of spring. It was spectacular! Well, I did dine al fresco on Friday night with DD at a casual Vietnamese place. We took along a BYO bottle of one of our favourite wines, Peterson's Chardonnay. Yum! And I did go for the most beautiful... Continue Reading →

Those were the compelling words, typed in capital letters, that greeted me when I checked my inbox last week. I was intrigued and opened the email to discover it was from the "Desk of Susan Mensah Director ATM Head of Operation UBA America Bank, New York" Ooooh, exciting. Susan said: Dear Beneficiary This notification letter... Continue Reading →

I walked the dogs at 9.30pm last night while wearing a singlet. In August! It wasn’t the slightest bit cold. What is going on with the weather? According to Weatherzone many coastal locations in NSW are edging close to record-setting territory. By 1pm yesterday it had reached 29.4°C at Sydney Airport. Further up the coast, Evans Head reached... Continue Reading →

I accidentally took DD to a drinks industry party on Monday night. DD is not a drinks industry party guy. He went to a few in the early days of my booze news career, but decided he prefers low-key, educational events where the focus is on the distiller or winemaker - sit-down dinners, masterclasses etc.... Continue Reading →

I was shocked last week to learn that an American right-wing activist is forcing big companies to halt their diversity and inclusion initiatives and other “woke priorities”. According to Robby’s website, he became vocally political in 2015 because he sensed "the danger of communism rising in America", which led him to endorse Donald Trump. There are... Continue Reading →

I made the outrageous and erroneous statement in a blog post on Friday that I planned to rest over the weekend. As soon as I typed the words I thought to myself "you are MAD. There is absolutely nothing restful about your weekend". It kicked off with a walk and coffee at Balmoral Beach, followed... Continue Reading →