I'm over camping. Geoff says it's because it rained and I got a shocking cold, and I should stop being such a Debbie Downer. That could be true but dealing with a wet tent and the rest of the crap when you get home does take the edge off the experience. When Geoff said he was taking all the gear back to the storage shed, I suggested he just whack it all on Facebook Marketplace as a job lot. He didn't laugh. Here's a snippet of the rain. Turn up the volume for the full effect. Anyway, there were some fabulous moments - check out the scenery!   Guaranteed too, that we'll meet some rea ..read more

Back in one of the many 2020 lockdowns, (they're all a blur - I can't recall which) I had a bit of time on my hands so thought it was an ideal time to start learning a language. It was one of those regular whims you have but with little intent to ever follow through - but faced with weeks trapped at home, it seemed like a case of now or never. Because I'd toyed with the idea for years, I'd already thought Spanish would be the best choice. Spoken by many countries and latin-based, a quick Google confirmed that it was (allegedly) the easiest language to learn for English speakers. I've always as ..read more

After M and I sold our business, we made good on our long-threatened outing to the greyhound races.  Why, I hear you all chorus and yes, good question. Always ones to get amongst it, we'd had some dealings with the sport's peak and felt we should expand our horizons. The greyhounds, as I'm sure you know, get a pretty bad wrap - often referred to as  the 'dish lickers', the races have been described as perfect for those with a very short attention span, because unlike horses, they run for seconds rather than minutes. They also had a highly explosive enquiry by the NSW government that ..read more

Are you a gambler? It seems for a lot of people - perhaps more blokes - it's a pretty popular pass time. I wouldn't call myself a punter. Yes, I like the Spring Racing Carnival and if I'm at the track, I'll have a flutter, but I confess, if I have three straight looses I totally loose interest and stop betting.  And it's not like we're talking sheep stations - five or ten bucks either way (win or place) is my modus operandi. And if someone far more informed than me wants to 'chuck on a quaddie', I'm in!  Oh - and there was the time the girls from the office and I went to the greyhou ..read more

I have come to the end of a job that was meant to last two or three months and in fact, lasted a year. The job itself has been been fabulous and I've really enjoyed it but I won't lie - I'm tired - very tired. My analogy would be expecting to run a sprint and then said sprint unexpectedly evolved into a marathon - and not really adjusting my pace. It's been such a totally crazy time in Melbourne - now officially the most locked down city in the entire universe - and we've finally been told we're being let out on Friday. Yippee!  During the long lockdowns of last year, I didn't have a lot ..read more

Before I get started on this cracking tale of incompetence, let me give a brief explanation of my patchy posting. I took on a fairly senior full-time job that was meant to be 'filling in' for two or three months. I thought this would be fine, as although I still had quite a few other commitments with other organisations, I could juggle - for a while! As it transpired, said job has turned out to be quite a lot more than keeping the seat warm, and along with the other roles, it hasn't really allowed the brain-space to blog regularly and for that, I am sorry. If I have any readers left - at all ..read more

The other week I had a business trip to Canberra for a couple of days. It's probably been more than a year since I had to get up early, drive to the airport and catch a plane - and I was a bit concerned I'd forgotten how. For the record, it's like riding a bike. What didn't help was that Qantas cancelled my civilized 8am flight and put me on the very uncivilized 6am. That meant getting up at 3.45am instead of 5.45am and people, that's just rude.  In my book, that's not the morning; it's still the middle of the night. But what I had forgotten, was the need to queue and get onto the plane q ..read more

 If you're like me, the word 'sample' conjures up images of tiny bottles of shampoo, perfume and body lotion, or tasty morsels stabbed through with toothpicks and proffered by middle-aged women in branded aprons at the supermarket. But no - in this instance, I'm referring to urine. Now that I'm of a certain age, I'm obliged to go to the GP for an annual check-up. That happened a few weeks back, but apparently, my urine sample was 'contaminated' (that doesn't bear dwelling on) and needed to be repeated. I was back at work so getting away from my desk to get it done took a few weeks, so I r ..read more

Some great things came out of the long, seven-month winter lock-down here in Melbourne and one of those highlights was this podcast.                                             Written and narrated by my brilliantly creative friend Sarah, and produced with our old friend David, it's no wonder it shot up the Australian Apple podcast popularity list with a bullet. Here's the blurb: Female ex-cop reveals a world of violence, intimidation and lawlessness - and that was just in th ..read more

Are you lucky enough to have a 'frelative'? That's the term I've coined in honour of this amazing woman, Theresa or to me, simply T. I first met T in 1988 when I started in advertising. We weren't particularly close but she was friendly and smart, and kind to the trainee (that was me). T married Peter, who was also in advertising. The industry in Melbourne is a fairly small circle so perhaps it wasn't that surprising that a few years later, Peter was my boss. He was charismatic, ambitious and very good looking! Because we lived in adjoining suburbs, he'd regularly offer me a lift home as an al ..read more