A few weeks ago, I stood on the beach and watched the most perfect scene: my twin sons paddling for a wave, crouching, standing, then catching it towards the shore. The sun was high, the ocean like velvet – except for the rolling breaker and its fraying white fringe. On the horizon, a container ship … Read More
Sydney grandmother Alice Chan is small, petite and softly spoken. A delicate jade pendant hangs around her neck. She’s one of the last people you’d expect to be working up a sweat on a bench press or a lat pulldown in the gym. But two years ago, a regular bone scan showed she had osteoporosis … Read More
My first love, Daniel, is dying. The cancer has returned, and the prognosis is not good. He has about six months to live, two years at the most. I’m in Melbourne on business, and I meet an old friend at a pub. She has heard the news from a mutual friend but she is not … Read More
About 20 years ago, as a young journalist, I covered a court case concerning two teenage boys accused of savagely murdering one of their mates. They were aged 16 or 17 at the time, and they came from what we like to call “good families”. There were no drugs and no family violence involved, and … Read More
When I was eight years old, our family dog died. He was a black labrador named Black Dog who had been my father’s best friend long before he met and married my mother. In those days, dogs were not always walked on leads. Black Dog, who must have been 12 or 13 at the time, … Read More
Recently, I interviewed for a role with an all-female, fully remote consulting firm. It was less an interview and more of a conversation. The intro to the firm came via a colleague and although the firm wasn’t hiring, we wanted to explore possibilities. It was unlike any other job interview. The senior partner spoke about … Read More
A few years ago, I was involved in the design of a social housing project. The project had all the best possible intentions. It aimed to address homelessness among older single women by building high-quality, affordable eco-townhouses in a gentrifying suburb close to the city. Like many architect-designed projects, it came in over budget. I … Read More
Late in her life, my beloved grandmother was diagnosed with coeliac disease. It was the early 1980s and “gluten free” was not the woke gastronomical term it is today. There was no gluten-free bread in the supermarket and no GF alternatives on the cafe menu. If we went to a restaurant, we phoned ahead. “Can … Read More
Late last year, I was offered my dream job – serving on the executive team of an influential NGO reporting directly to the impressive female CEO. But when the offer was made, I became paralysed with fear. How would I manage a demanding full-time role plus my responsibilities as a sole parent – to myself … Read More
Susan Sarandon does not do bland or saccharine. Politics is at the heart of everything she says. Only a few minutes into our conversation, Sarandon launches into a diatribe about deregulation of the US media, lambasting both former Democrat president Bill Clinton and 2016 Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump. “You know, I came of age at … Read More