2023 was a great year for reading. I read War and Peace as my “Big Book for 2023” and I LOVED IT. I was a bit sad when I finished it because it had been part of my life for a few months. I discovered Anita Brookner and read six of her novels. I fell […]
Happy New Year
Goodbye 2023 and hello 2024. I can’t believe how quickly the years go by now. I stopped work in October 2022 and decided not to return to the corporate world of learning and development or social and virtual technologies ever again. That ship has sailed and in some way, when I think about my past […]
Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Here’s my latest book review that was just published on YouTube. I think this book is one of the best books I’ve read this year.
The Day Before Christmas
The day before Christmas and I’m spending it outside again lapping every bit of sunshine. I thought I’d enjoy the sunny day because as of tomorrow on Christmas Day, there’ll be torrential rain and hail again all week. The only negative out here are the mosquitos. That explains the can of Aeroguard on the table…. […]
The Only Story By Julian Barnes (A Book Review)
Here’s my latest book review. This year, I’ve read 75 books so far with my favourite author finds are Julian Barnes, Anita Brookner, Mieko Kawakami and Yoko Ogawa.
109th Women’s Annual Golf Trophy Presentation & Christmas Lunch
Today was our golf club’s 109th Women’s Annual Trophy Presentation and Christmas Lunch. I was looking forward to this event. We were in teams of three and had a shot gun start at 9am for 9 holes. We all got dressed up in our Christmas costumes as there was a prize for the best dressed […]
Gigantic Mushrooms
2023 was a year for the mushrooms. For one, some woman in some regional town outside of Melbourne tried to murder her family by inviting them to lunch and offering them a mushroom salad. Unfortunately a few died from the meal served but it turned out that it wasn’t the first time she had tried […]
Are These Types of Books Hot or Not?
Last week I created this fun video to talk about whether certain genres of books listed alphabetically, were hot or not, according to me. I was inspired by Renee from The Left Handed Book Reader on YouTube but I didn’t tag anyone else to respond (it just feels plain awkward and wrong like some kind […]
What To Do More Of….
This paragraph from Charlotte Wood’s new book Stone Yard Devotional. I’ve been a fan of her writing ever since I read The Weekend but this time her book is a little bit different about a middle aged woman who goes to an abbey in the Monaro Plains (outside of Canberra) to escape her life and […]
Crazy Weather, Crazy People
I have never been through weather as turbulent as we are experiencing in Melbourne. While the rest of Australia is burning up with the hottest temperatures on record creating bush fires that rage for days, our city has been battered with constant torrential rain, storms and floods. The humidity is 96%. This is unheard and […]
Champagne & A Little Bit of Bûche de Noël
So it seems my little virtual jaunt through Rimes recently to explore the champagne houses, vineyards and underground caves stocked with champagne came in handy. While YouTube can only go so far in firing up my imagination, there comes a time when you simply need to “do it for real”. So it wasn’t exactly a […]
Virtual Tour Day 6: Not Nice, France but…Salisbury, UK
I’m supposed to be continuing my virtual journey through France and I was ready to go to Nice. However the town strikes me as “too flash, too touristy” and I didn’t feel like going there although it’s on my virtual route. Instead I made a note to find places in Nice where there aren’t too […]
French Markets in Melbourne
Our weather in Melbourne has been wet, cold and miserable. As an indication, I’m wearing a scarf and beanie at the moment – unheard of at this time of the year. The constant grey dampness is affecting my mood. I don’t mind cold weather – it’s when it just constantly rains for days that affects […]
Virtual Tour Day 6: Grenoble
“Isn’t that a wine?” I mused. 🤔 I had heard of this town but to be honest, didn’t know where it was in France so I checked the map when I was in Annecy and saw that it’s quite near – only an hour and a half drive. However as this is a virtual tour, […]
Virtual Tour Day 5: Annecy
Today I take to my car (I hired a 1955 Citröen DS – don’t ask about the cost because as it’s a virtual tour – money is no object so I splurged) and decided to drive around Lake Annecy in the French Alps. The reason is that it seemed that Annecy had SO MANY PEOPLE […]
Virtual Tour Day 4: Heading for the Hills at Chamonix
Strap on those skis and let’s get ready to hit the slopes…. Well, not exactly. It hadn’t started snowing but as I went further up into the mountains, the weather started to get cooler but I saw that around me was the grandeur of the mountains. I couldn’t wait to get up to Mont Blanc […]
Representing My Golf Club at the Meg Evans Plate
Last week on Friday, I played at Heidelberg Golf Club which is north east of Melbourne to represent our gold club, Woodlands, as part of a team of six. I’m not going to lie, I was a bit daunted to be invited to play because I’m still relatively new to golf and my handicap is […]
Virtual Tour Day 3: Dijon…the City of Mustard and a Stop at the Beaune Wine Auction
So I’ve left the Champagne region and headed over to Dijon for my next stop. It’s the 19th November and my aim is to also try to get to the Beaune Wine Auction which is on this weekend. But first, Dijon. Imagine my delight to find out that there are owls all over the town. […]
Virtual Tour Day 2: Onwards to Rimes
I decided to head to Rimes today. There’s 6 direct trains every day at a cost of 27 Euros and the trip lasts for an hour and a half. Of course, as it’s a virtual tour, I’m going first class. Really, there’s no need for train travel on this virtual tour in all honesty, so […]
Some Thoughts About The Writing of Annie Ernaux
Here’s the latest video I shared on YouTube about some thoughts of the writing of Annie Ernaux. I pontificate about her style of writing, her openness sharing her entire life to the public. Why does the written word evoke so much “rawness” rather than say, watching some vlogger online share their world to the public?