There’s no polite way to say this: the coronavirus is on my shit list. I had so many lovely things planned for my Festival of the 52nd Birthday. I was going to Comedy Steps Up for Bushfire Relief at Sydney Opera House tonight to see Arj Barker, Carl Barron, Urzila Carlson, Joel Creasey, Kitty Flanagan, […]

Yesterday was HUGE wasn’t it? Tom Hanks announced that he and his wife Rita Wilson announced they have the coronavirus and have been hospitalized on the Gold Coast, Donald Trump banned travel between the US and Europe, the International Jump Rope Union cancelled the World Skipping Championships … I started to wonder is this how […]

New Order was the soundtrack to my late teens. Every Saturday night I’d hit the dancefloor at a scruffy little wine bar in Newcastle called The Gunfighter’s Rest. We’d dance up a storm to New Order and Erasure under the ultraviolet lights as the dry ice steamed out of our Dingo Dangler cocktails. It was […]

Over the next few weeks, I turn 52 and my daughter turns 14. How do you like them hormonal apples? We actually get along pretty well most of the time, despite our respective cranky streaks. I think it freaks other kids out when they’re in the car with us and we start playfully jibing with […]

The youngest texted me yesterday to ask if she could go into coronavirus self isolation. She went to a yoga class on Sunday with a girl whose school has since been shutdown due to the outbreak. Eeeek! I suspected the youngest was just trying to get a few days off school, so we texted back […]

I can’t be trusted with pink bubbles in the middle of the day. I was reporting on the Drinks Association’s Embrace Difference event for International Women’s Day when the transgression occurred. A waiter appeared in front of me with a tray of pink stuff and I couldn’t say no … next thing you know I’m […]

I’ve been sorting through old photos as I clear out my garage and it’s taking FOREVER because I keep getting distracted. For example, I posted this pic in a Facebook group for former Newcastle Herald employees … The bloke went on to become my flatmate in Sydney for a while, then he was editor of […]

An old friend Tracey Cox made a flying visit to Sydney this week and I was so sorry to miss her. She was in town for a brief 48 hours to promote her new book: Great Sex Starts at 50. It’s about having the best sex in the second act of your life. She notes […]

(Not a blog post about diarrhoea) Ever since the calendar ticked over to March 1, my inbox has been flooded with special offers and discounts for my birthday, which is lovely, but a constant reminder that I am about to turn 52. Still, it’s better than when I turned 50 and the bowel cancer and […]

The fastest way home from DD’s place is via a road called the Wakehurst Parkway. It’s very bushy and uninhabited and I drive along it at least twice a week, often around 9.30pm. But I had to take a detour last night and go the long way. Not because of traffic or roadwork or storm […]