Week ending Friday 13th June 2025 Spending time with my siblings is so good! This past weekend, my two sisters and I hung out with my brother Mark, at his home in sunny Brisbane. We arrived there on Friday and didn’t fly home until Tuesday, so it was an extra-long-weekend, and we had the most…
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Do you miss it?
Thursday 5th June 2025 Last Sunday morning, when I was knee deep (arm deep?) in a heap of cooking, Dave asked me, “apart from it being physically hard, do you miss being a Chef?” It was an interesting question. I really, really loved working for TAFE, not least because of the reward and satisfaction I…
Waste not, want not
Week ending Friday 30th May 2025 It’s tempting not to write a blog post when I don’t have anything spectacularly interesting to say. It’s also tempting not to have any routine in my day. Tempting not to get out of bed at a reasonable hour, and very tempting to do no exercise. It’s my personality….
Same same, but different. VANUATU PART 2
Thursday 22nd – Sunday 25th May 2025 After checking out of Breakers Resort on Thursday morning we jumped in the hire car (VW Jetta all-wheel drive) and headed through Port Vila city and then north along the ‘ring road’, to take the clockwise direction for a full circle of the Island of Efate. Dave rode…
Post Holiday Blues
It’s a well-researched phenomenon, that when you get home after a holiday, it’s common to get feelings of being rather down and missing the freedom, fun and adventure you had. We arrived back in Sydney from South America on a Thursday, Dave marched for ANZAC Day on the Friday and on the Saturday, we had…
South America 6/6
Bolivia Stage 6 of 6: Thursday 18th to Monday 21st April 2025 “If you had not seen it, even if you had seen on a video, you would not believe it,” said Abraham (our guide), as we drove down ‘Death Road’ (officially named the Yungas Road), the notorious 36km gravel track that winds its way from…
South America 5/6
Peru Stage 5 of 6: Monday 14th to Thursday 17 April 2025 Are you a crier? I certainly am, crying often when I’m happy; always when I’m sad; and sometimes for no reason at all! I most certainly cried with happiness in Patagonia (Chile) when Will and Emma told me they were engaged. I cried…
South America 4/6
Rio De Janeiro STAGE 4 of 6: Wednesday 10th to Sunday 13th April Once again, I am lost for the right words to describe the amazing experiences we are having here in South America, but I’ll give it a go. Things here are so different from Australia, but also quite a bit the same. Profoundly…
South America 3/6
IGUAZU FALLS STAGE 3 of 6: Monday 7th – Wednesday 9th April 2025 Those of you that have been reading the blog for a while will know that Dave and I like to visit the filming locations of James Bond movies. There have only been a few of the suave spy franchise set in South…
South America 2/6
Stage 2 of 6: Tuesday 1st to Sunday 6th April 2025 Buenos Aires, with a side of Uraguay As I mentioned before we left Australia, we have a month away, broken up into six reasonably equal parts. When I left off on the last post, it was Monday evening, and I was busy cooking dinner…
PATAGONIA Part 2
Thursday 27th – Monday 31st March 2025 Firstly, my apologies for the length of this Post. I tried to be frugal with my words – which is nearly impossible when I am trying to record all the wonderful things we are doing! Apparently, no trip to the Patagonian region is complete without a taste of…
PATAGONIA, part 1
Tuesday 25th and Wednesday 26th March I actually don’t know where to start – we have done and seen so much in the short time since we arrived, and I am already enamoured with this amazing continent! But when you don’t know where to start, the logical thing is to start at the very beginning…
T-minus 4 days
Week ending Thursday 20th March 2025 (Apologies to subscribers who have received this twice – formatting issues now corrected) I’m on the holiday countdown. ✈️ For me, planning and looking forward to a holiday is every bit as good as the holiday itself. When I was a kid and my sister and I would play…
Seasons
THURSDAY 6th MARCH 2025 I’m a little obsessed with seasons. As we enter March, I love that we will soon be welcoming cooler weather, golden leaves and fabulous autumn produce. I know many people who would say that their favourite season is Spring. For chefs in particular, it seems to be the ‘sexy’ season with…
By any other name
THURSDAY 27th FEBRUARY 2025 A post-wedding holiday is called a Honeymoon. A pre-baby holiday is now commonly referred to as a ‘Baby-moon’. Apparently, the term ‘Mini-moon’ is also a thing, referring to a romantic bite-size trip, short, sweet and just long enough to get over the exhaustion of a wedding day, saving the big adventure…