A good life at any age
30 December 2025 | Life-Style
It’s holiday time and while Melbourne rushes to the beach, I rush to the city. The days between Christmas and New Year see beaches and shopping centres crowded, but the roads are free of school traffic so moving around is easy. There’s a laid-back summer vibe in Melbourne that I love. Cricket at the “G”, picnics along the Yarra river and tennis fans anticipating the start of the Australian Open.
It’s been a hot night and I’m cranky. I need a coffee but I’m cutting back. Tea for breakfast. But the supermarket teabags taste like wood shavings. I need to buy tea from a great teashop that happens to be in the Dandenong Ranges, an hour away. Marvellous. Any excuse to get out of the city for a few hours, perhaps drop in on my favourite garden in Olinda and let mountain air work its magic on my ho-hum mood. As Emerson said, “The Earth laughs in flowers.”
As I climb through the hills the outside temperature steadily falls to a pleasant 24 degrees. The huge mountain ash, neanderthal tree ferns and gentle winding roads seem to calm and soothe the soul and I’m excited to find my favourite tea shop Tea Leaves in Olinda.
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Instagram ‘s a funny thing. As I scrolled and liked my way through the day’s posts I came across Retiring_Not_Shy and smiled. Clever. Funny. A woman who models my kind of clothes. Months pass and I post a shout-out for people to be interviewed for my book 50 Faces: 50…
16 August 2021 | 50 Faces 50 Lives
This week I met a remarkable man. Let me set the scene. It’s my first interview in over a year for my Ageing Well book. For the past year a Covid world made meeting people a risky business. So today I’m as excited as a kid at Christmas as I…
26 March 2021 | 50 Faces 50 Lives
I published this article after an interview with Petrus Spronk in November 2019..it seems like light years ago! It was one of the highlights of the research for my book and I’ll never forget encountering the creative mind in all its purity and the outstanding talent of this great artist….
19 February 2021 | 50 Faces 50 Lives
It’s holiday time and while Melbourne rushes to the beach, I rush to the city. The days between Christmas and New Year see beaches and shopping centres crowded, but the roads are free of school traffic so moving around is easy. There’s a laid-back summer vibe in Melbourne that I…
30 December 2025 | Life-Style
Let me start with a story. I was living the corner office dream in the 1990’s. A well-paid corporate job, big hair and shoulder pads, and a big ego, I was General Manager of an international consulting firm, saw little of the family and a lot of the coveted glass…
16 December 2025 | Life-Style
Never one to live moderately, I now belong to 3 book groups. I’m reading more than ever and I’m reading books and exploring authors that I never before knew about. Recently, we were asked to share a list of all-time favourite books. This is my list in no particular order……
13 November 2025 | Life-Style
Mention Wegovy, Ozempic, Mounjaro and Oprah in the same sentence and the mind goes into overdrive. The judgement noise around the use of injectable weight-loss drugs is LOUD. Taking away drugs from those who really need it ie Diabetics, was probably the first judgement call. Then there’s- only people with…
12 December 2025 | Living Well
I’m often asked what does Positive Ageing look like? It all sounds as if surround sound, continual happiness is the goal. In Fairyland maybe..but not in this world! Leonard Cohen, in one of his songs says something like- “There’s a crack, there’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light…
8 December 2025 | Living Well
” It’s beginning to cost a lot like Christmas!” A saw a pale face look back at me in the mirror this morning. Lady, you need a day off! It’s the pre-Christmas season and catching up with friends, family adventures, shopping, packing, cooking, decorating, planning, cleaning, more planning and negotiating …
1 December 2025 | Living Well