Naively, I thought things didn't get tricky with girls until they hit their teens. I got it so wrong. It starts much, much earlier than that. The bitch gene, for example, appears to activate around age seven. Every day, my little one - who's in year 2 - comes home with a new tale of... Continue Reading →

As I pulled into the prison carpark yesterday, I recalled how scared I was the first time I visited. Eight years later, it's the most normal abnormal thing in the world. But still, there are moments that shake my complacency ... The little girl in a pink dress, playing hopscotch beside the barbed wire fence,... Continue Reading →

Wow it's been a huge seven days. This time last week, my new job had just been announced, with Mumbrella trumpeting "Alana House to edit iVillage weeks after getting sack for protesting Woman’s Day story" Since then, the Kathleen Folbigg crusade has gone crazy with these three articles (and a radio interview on 2HD -... Continue Reading →

I've always quite fancied Lane Cove. It has an excellent farmers' market every Sunday. There's a Firefly bar. I went into labour with Sprog 1 at the local Malaysian restaurant, Kuali (great roti). There's also a public pool, and a pub. What's not to like? So I often slide my Domain app map its way... Continue Reading →

Not on my nature strip. On my neck. You remember wattles? Richard Fish made them famous on Ally McBeal, stroking them in a fetish-like way on the necks of older women such as Dyan Cannon and Janet Reno (see below). I was blissfully unaware of mine until I was sitting at the hairdresser's yesterday. Those... Continue Reading →

I've discovered an ingenious diet plan. It's called work. And I think it might. You see, when I was at home there was a fridge at my disposal 24 hours a day. The fridge was filled with all manner of luscious things that I couldn't resist. The fridge at work has a dried up avocado... Continue Reading →

I might have mentioned - once, twice, maybe 50 times - that my wardrobe is crammed with work clothes designed for someone in 2010 who was 5kg lighter than my current incarnation. Not quite the look I'm trying to project - even if I could squeeze into them - in my brave new digital workplace.... Continue Reading →

When I wrote a blog called "Who Were You In High School" I wasn't expecting it to strike such a chord with everyone from the former geeks to the former goddesses. One of the cool "Duran Duran girls" that I wrote about posted a comment saying: "It’s funny to suppose that other people thought we... Continue Reading →