Last week I got to eat at 400 Gradi in Melbourne’s Crown Hotel, famous for its generally good Italian food and one pizza in particular. As the restaurant’s website will tell you, 400 Gradi’s chef, Johnny Di Francesco is the first Australian ever trained in Naples to the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana rules and was crowned […]
I’ll Have More Tea This Year (A Journal of T2’s Teas)
At the risk of failing every new year resolution once again I’ve decided to give myself one that I have some hope of accomplishing. And that’s to drink more tea. Everything else on my list (lose weight, exercise more, stop filling up my calendar) has been a futile exercise year after year. Having to […]
I hope the Airport is Listening to my Great Idea
Grumpy. Jet-lagged. Relieved. These are all familiar feelings for those who’ve arrived home having spent a good number of hours on a plane. This time we’ve arrived at about 5am and I’ve had no sleep on the flight. To make it worse, the credit card we used to manage our car park at Melbourne Airport […]
Alice was Wonderful but it’s The Queen who Triumphs
Sometimes you just have to negotiate in a marriage. Like when your DH can’t be with you on your anniversary and as “punishment”, has to take you to the ballet. The one that’s currently playing in Melbourne is Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by The Australian Ballet. We were happy (or at least, I was) to […]
The Bodyguard – The Last Rehearsal
The show starts with a bang. Literally. I say that to warn you so you won’t find yourself, as I did, jumping out of my seat. It took a few minutes to recover but you don’t have to wait long before you’re left with no doubt you are being treated to a show and a […]
The George, Christchurch
“She isn’t much to look at on the outside but she’s a real beauty on the inside,” So my taxi driver informed me as I was being chauffeured from Christchurch airport. We were talking about the lodging he was sending me to, a small luxury boutique hotel called The George, the first 5-star accommodation […]
My Epic New Zealand Famil Trip Was Off The Charts
I was pinching myself before embarking on this trip and now that I’m home, I’m still pinching myself. How did I not only get to see one of my bucket list destinations but also ticked boxes that would’ve been on many of my friends’ bucket lists. Like skydiving, riding in a McLaren and landing on […]
A look at Qantas Melbourne’s First Class Lounge.
OK so I probably don’t deserve to be here. I’m flying Economy but dining in First Class. Thanks to my frequent flying DH, I get to enjoy the special lounge for First Class/Platinum members before reality hits and I sink into my Economy seat later. Oh what a difference from the highest-level available class lounge for Domestic travel, which is Business […]
Tickled by a Tea Story from Anjum Anand
Even the smartest marketing minds sometimes can’t predict human behaviour. I came across the following story about the introduction of tea to India from a new cookbook by British-Indian author and TV personality Anjum Anand. (You know I’m a big tea fan, correct?) Tea of course, has been an integral part of India’s culture as much as […]
Anh Do’s The Happiest Refugee Live Show
One of the things I remember most about comedian Anh Do wasn’t funny at all. My neighbour’s copy of the book. He’d failed to turn up for a scheduled live interview at the radio station where I worked, leaving us scrambling to find alternative material and pretending to our audience that we hadn’t promised […]