A year in Brisbane
Last week marked the end of my first year “back” in Brisbane. When I returned to the city I’d lived in for the best part of…
A tourist in my own town
Can a Canadian tell me anything I don’t already know about the Australian city I’ve called home for nearly 20 years? The answer is yes…if he’s…
The barmaid who bought the pub
Who remembers those classic commercials in which Remington shavers were spruiked by Victor Kiam, the man who famously “loved them so much I bought the company”?…
Sunday lunch at the Apollonian
The smell of roasting lamb is always enough to get this Kiwi girl’s mouth watering. I love a good Sunday roast at any time (lamb, pork,…
Having a beer with Dad and Dave
Australian author Steele Rudd’s fictional father and son Dad and Dave may have faded into the mists of time a bit, but they’re alive and well…
Turkeys at the bottom of my garden
Spring has sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where the birdies is? So goes the poem, and Spring has certainly sprung in my part of…
The pub that time forgot
Swing through the saloon doors at the Imperial Hotel in the tiny Queensland town of Ravenswood and be prepared for a shock. It’s all carved cedar,…
A brolga walks into a bar…
I’m starting to really love blogging. So it’s quite a thrill to be asked to be a guest blogger, which has happened a few times since…
Sailing: the art of slow travel
A turtle pops its head up as I glance across the water. As quickly, it is gone again…but I know there’ll be another along sometime, for…
Raising a glass to Merle and Ro
On a Wednesday afternoon in March 1965, Merle Thornton and her friend and fellow feminist Rosalie “Ro” Bognor walked into the public bar of a Brisbane pub and…
A Glass Half Full 