Category Archives: Lifestyle

Gluttony

“There are those people who can eat one piece of chocolate, one piece of cake, drink one glass of wine. There are even people who smoke one or two cigarettes a week. And then there are people for whom one … Continue reading

Posted in Food & Wine, Lifestyle, Local Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Cricket & Ceviche

Adelaide was always going to be an avid cricketing city, with so many of the original settlers in South Australia being of British origin. So, it was no surprise to learn that a purpose-built oval was already being constructed in … Continue reading

Posted in Australia, Food & Wine, Lifestyle | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Cricket & Ceviche

‘Where would we be without water?’

I grew up in the driest state on the driest continent in the world. My childhood was full of drought warnings, water restrictions and murky brown bath water pumped all the way from the River Murray.Anyone with a television in … Continue reading

Posted in Australia, Food & Wine, Lifestyle, Local Culture | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on ‘Where would we be without water?’

Scones & Cream & Camellias

The camellia against the moss of the temple, the violet hues of the Kyoto mountains, a blue porcelain cupthis sudden flowering of pure beauty at the heart of ephemeral passion: is this not something we all aspire to?~ Muriel Barbery … Continue reading

Posted in Australia, Lifestyle, Local Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Scones & Cream & Camellias

Pandemic Panic

We moved into our new house the week after Australia joined the Pandemic Panic. For days leading up to it, my own sense of panic rose, not from the fear of an invisible, insidious virus, but from the fear that … Continue reading

Posted in Australia, Lifestyle | 4 Comments

Staccato

Obituary  He was my favourite poet through high school. He died on April Fool’s Day. Not corona virus – not everyone does – but old age. I didn’t know till today. The obituary says Bruce Dawe was a postman. A … Continue reading

Posted in Australia, Lifestyle, Local Culture | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

To Cough or Not to Cough

And the question is: when I pick up the phone, do I mention the ‘C’ word – (as in coronavirus or COVID-19)? Or can we talk about something else: pretend we are living in a bubble so far removed from … Continue reading

Posted in Australia, Lifestyle | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

A Feast of Birds

Galahs, of the blushing, watermelon-pink breasts, squawk and gnaw at the bark of grey-skinned gums The neighbour’s palomino pigeons swoop and loop like fighter pilots in formation, banking through a hair’s breadth between branches Down below, the diminutive and dainty … Continue reading

Posted in Australia, Lifestyle, Local Culture | Tagged , | Comments Off on A Feast of Birds

Shoo fly, don’t bother me!

‘Flies are of course always irksome, but the Australian variety distinguishes itself with its very particular persistence. If an Australian fly wants to be up your nose or in your ear, there is no discouraging him. Flick at him as … Continue reading

Posted in Australia, Lifestyle, Local Culture | 2 Comments

Recapturing Charmian

In 1964, the Australian born writers Charmian Clift and George Johnson returned to Sydney with their three children after fifteen years abroad. Over the next five years, Clift would write more than 250 essays for The Sydney Morning Herald and … Continue reading

Posted in Australia, Lifestyle, Local Culture | Tagged , | Comments Off on Recapturing Charmian