My bleary red eyes have picked up the searing natural light creeping under the window flaps. We are on the downhill run now. There is stirring and movement and a frisson of anticipation as breakfast is served and people peer eagerly out of their windows for their first sight of Sydney. I have not seen my home for two whole months.
For this homesick Aussie there is nothing like swooping in over our shimmering harbour city. Her décolletage of dark craggy coves, speckled...
Read on
Maggie has parked her implacable arse in its usual spot on the edge of the stone retaining wall that keeps my terraced garden from invading the house. She has a cigarette in one hand and a globe of semillon in the other. The glass sliding door is open only enough so that I can hear her from the kitchen, where I am throwing a salad together. Her crossed legs don’t quite reach the ground and she dangles her flat suede shoes off her toes while her substantial calves stretch...
Read on
I shift the phone to my other ear and glance at my watch. Thank goodness Fay gets cheap calls from the States, I think for the hundredth time.
‘…and it was just sooo cold, we scooted into this bar. Well, they were just about to start a speed dating event weren’t they, and they must have been a bit short of women, because the organiser pounced on us before we’d even got our coats off, and we got invited to join for free.’
‘Speed dating? God, you’d never get me doing...
Read on
Hey babe, are you back already? Why aren’t you snoozing off your jetlag?’
‘I’m not too bad, actually. I reckon I’ve got till mid afternoon before I’ll need starch for my eyelids. Thanks for looking after stuff for me: the plants all seem to be clinging onto life and the pile of mail looks utterly frightening.’
‘Yeah. You sure have a large fan club. You’ll see I left you some spag bol in the fridge and there’s also a new carton of soy.’
‘Aww, Stace. You’re the...
Read on
I’m lucky to have good teeth. I’m in my mid 30s and still no fillings. So I get my teeth cleaned and checked religiously every six months. The worst thing about going to the dentist is the waiting room. I am like a moth drawn to the flame with those glossy papered bon bons. I know they are high calorie and low in nutritional value but I just cannot resist them. And I would never buy them for myself, which gives them that additional verboten tang.
I sit there flicking...
Read on
Wallet, check. Phone, check. Keys, check. Laptop, check. Chargers, check. I take one last glance at the note on the kitchen table left for my cleaning lady and grab my suit bag. I jump into the taxi waiting out the front and we’re off.
I’ve managed to get these last minute trips to Melbourne down to a fine art. I haven’t had much choice. We’ve got a long way to go before we reach the critical mass necessary to open an office down in Melbourne, even though our one...
Read on
I am cruelly wrenched from my Saturday morning lie-in and jet-lag recovery by the infuriating buzz and whine of a leaf blower. When will a caped crusader free Sydney of this scourge?
With the persistence of a blowfly of prehistoric proportions the drone continues pulsing and reverberating, seemingly getting nearer and nearer. I stumble out of bed to see if this person is doing our street any good.
Petrol fumes from this infernal menace are drifting in through my...
Read on