Humble Roots to Haute Cuisine
A few years ago, I lost my mother’s recipe book when I moved house and I still sorely miss it. Her handwriting, the food spattered on the favourite pages and all those much loved recipes that evoked...
View ArticleThe new age
By JOAN LADY HARDY I vividly recall when I was eighteen and in a grumpy mood my mother saying to me ”take a look at yourself in the mirror, and remember we all get the face we deserve by the time we...
View ArticleMourning Glory
That last taboo – Death – has become a springboard for Leonor Scherrer, daughter of French couturier Jean-Louis to launch her own “funeral couture’’. In France one can no longer consider turning up to...
View ArticleLaw of the Jungle
She is a thoroughly new breed of single, older woman – confident, sophisticated, desirable and sexy – and the cougar woman is absolutely on the prowl according to Valerie Gibson, author of Cougar: A...
View ArticleWomen still on a see-saw of inequality
Love her or hate her, 40 years ago, Germaine Greer unleashed a brash new tome, the Female Eunuch, which was to upturn the prescribed world of women and write a new feminist creed. Some writers, such as...
View ArticleAbsolutely French
There’s something delightfully je ne sais quoi, about being French. It’s their musical language and wonderful accent and the French people’s hedonistic pursuit of life’s pleasures. Their love of fine...
View ArticlePampered pandas a star act
It is the cruellest of days to take the grand-children to see Adelaide Zoo’s famous new residents – the exotic Giant Pandas. The children have flown here from London for a holiday, the highlight...
View ArticleJones Road
Jones Road, a delightful route meandering between the pretty villages of Balhannah and Hahndorf may have a bland name, but it captures the essence of the picturesque Adelaide Hills. Lush vineyards...
View ArticleBowl of cherries
My life in this Golden Age of recent retirement is such a bowl of cherries, that each day I choose some other delicious adventure or activity. While a new fitness routine is the biggest challenge, my...
View ArticleFeeling high over film option
SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 2010. It is Saturday morning I rise early and I prepare my home for a Red Letter Day – the signing of the film options papers for my debut book From France With Love. I notice the...
View ArticleLove,Lust and Lies
Their names are Josie, Diana and Kerry and their suburban lives have become rivetting social history in Love, Lust and Lies, a documentary by Gillian Armstrong. The three Adelaide women – Diana...
View ArticleFamily first as Chris Nicholls turns 60
Former Adelaide model and co-founder of Rave Model Agency, still glamorous Chris Nicholls recently turned 60 with a family shebang in Wellington, New Zealand where she was born. Chris and husband...
View ArticleNo Buts, Butt out
My esteemed colleague, Peter Goers’ article today (Sunday, May 30) needs to be addressed and to set the scene here are some vital statistics to mull over on World No Tobacco Day – May 31. The average...
View ArticleThe grandchildren as guests
THE GOOD GRANDMA: Ours is a house of bliss right now as we host grand-children from either end of the age spectrum. Oldest grandson Andre, a solidly built 27-year-old fine arts student from Charles...
View ArticleA sunburnt country via the Ghan
When I was a young child visiting Grandma, the sweetest moments were when the train would clickety-clack past the front gate along the Islington line. I would swing from the gate, all bobby socks and...
View ArticleVale Adriana
Adriana Xenides, who died this week aged 54 of a ruptured intestine, was a breath-takingly beautiful dark haired Argentian-born 17-year-old when her big break into modelling happened by chance....
View ArticleA sobering story
It is the tail end of a delightful birthday soiree for eight hosted by our friends/neighbours Chris and Peter and we have retired under the vine-clad pergola for fig-infused ginger pudding with maple...
View ArticleA mothering milestone
Do we ever stop being mothers? Are we ever free of the “motherhood’’ tag to finally stop fretting about our adult children? If there is such a moment, it must be now that my son, my youngest child,...
View ArticleLavende: A rare French connection
When Callington restauranteur Christine Wilkinson was a young English girl growing up in London, she did not feel English at all. She knew her grandmother, Colette, was French and when she went to...
View ArticleI’m in love with Paris says Helen Orr
My husband and I seem to end up in Paris for a week or so each year. We don’t waver from our decision to see a new country each year (Turkey last year, Egypt this year) but convince ourselves that it...
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