Cyril’s Fine Foods, a Sydney institution

Cyrils (1 of 7)

A word of warning before you visit Cyril’s Fine Foods – Cyril may charm you into buying more of his fine foods than you intended. If you are into food and you happen to be in the Haymarket area, I definitely recommend you poke your head in and take a look. The store is on [...]

The best lamingtons in Sydney?

Single Origin Roasters (3 of 5)

It is a little ridiculous that it took an American living in Paris to point me in the direction of a good lamington in Sydney but that’s what happened. A lamington is a quintessentially Australian cake. In the US, Girl Scouts sell Girl Scout cookies. In Australia, Girl Guides or school kids have “lamington drives” [...]

City kayaking tours around the world

Bridge over Derwent River in Hobart

Some cities demand to be admired from the water. I know – I live in one of them. As lovely as Sydney is, it is never lovelier than when you are out on the harbour. There are other cities too where the water is a huge feature. Copenhagen and Seattle are famous for their beautiful [...]

Kevin Spacey in Richard III: Now is the winter of our discontent

The Old Vic Theatre at night

When I lived in London, I went to see Kevin Spacey perform at the Old Vic Theatre every chance I got. The theatre is not in the West End, but on the south side of the river near Waterloo Station. It dominates its corner block on the intersection of Waterloo Road and The Cut because [...]

Passports with Purpose: We did it again!

Room to Read Zambia

I have to admit I had my doubts that we were going to reach our target with Passports with Purpose this year. To raise $80,000 – $30,000 more than last year’s target – seemed way too ambitious given the economic climate. I was quite worried when we only reached the halfway point with less than [...]

Sydney contest: Win a cookie construction

Aussie surf shack cookie construction

That Roulla Yiacoumi is a clever cookie! She is a successful freelance technology journalist in Sydney and now she is also a baking entrepreneur. She has just launched her new business Cookie Constructions and is rushed off her feet with Christmas orders. For Christmas she is selling gingerbread houses in various sizes, in both a classic fairytale construction [...]

Romeo and Juliet at the ballet

Sydney Opera House

I read about the new Australian Ballet production of Romeo and Juliet in the Qantas in-flight magazine some months ago. The article was about the collaboration between renowned choreographer Graeme Murphy and fashion designer Akira Isogawa, who did the costumes. I have wanted to see a Murphy ballet since his famous production of Swan Lake [...]

Return to work and Jane Goodall

My babies with Jane Goodall

Now that the babies are nine months old and becoming more sociable and independent, I am able to turn my mind to my freelance journalism career once again. I have negotiated with my husband so that I can have some time mid week to work and if things work out, we may end up hiring [...]

Botanic Gardens from a pram

Pram view of Botanic Gardens

For most of my Camera Craft II course at the Australian Centre for Photography, we studied the rules of photography – exposure, tonal range, colour theory, composition, and so on. For one of my previous assignments, I played with shadow profiles in black-and-white photography. But in the final week, our assignment was to break the [...]

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll at Belvoir

1950s dress similar to the ones Olive wore

One of the hallmarks of great theatre – or any art – is how strong an impression it makes. A good play will be enjoyable to watch but a great play is more than just an evening’s entertainment. The difference is not always clear during the actual performance but if my mind keeps dwelling on [...]

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