travel

Hello Bendigo

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Over the Christmas / New Year period we spent a few days in Mr B’s hometown, Bendigo. In between visits to Nanna and all the cousins and a birthday barbecue out at Uncle Mark’s place where dust and snags and lollies and water fights made it Scout heaven, we decided to play tourist. Have you…

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Little things – the cowboy

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Little things in my home… This pensive cowboy sits outside his restaurant and on my kitchen bench. I found his photograph in a bric-a-brac shop in Aspen, Colorado, when I was staying up there for a fiction writer’s course (called Aspen Summer Words – if you ever get the opportunity take it – it was…

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Seasons pass

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As I write this, Mr B, Emily and I are sitting on couches in our lounge room re-watching Notting Hill and dreaming about moving to London. This is one of Mr B’s favourite movies, but I am ambivalent. It’s Hugh Grant at his floppy, bumbling best and a fantastically quirky supporting cast, but I never…

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Have sketchbook, will travel

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I’ve mentioned before about the road-trip I took across the USA before I moved from New York to Australia. I was blown away by the diversity – of culture, of geography, of architecture, of food – that revealed how little I’d known about the American story. Turns out the story of the USA is way…

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Welcome home

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Have you been following astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield’s poetic tweets from space? Somehow, he made “out there” feel so much closer to “in here.” As though we were all part of the same universe, and all connected. Which of course we are. While I have been going about my closed little life: working, walking, writing,…

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Favourite things – itchy feet

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This time of year smells like school holidays. Long stretches of hot, sunny days spent jousting on Pool Ponies in the backyard swimming pool; nursing grass-burns from the muddy puddles that form at the bottom of the slip ‘n slide; jumping up and down on the neighbour’s trampoline while the hose creates an ankle-deep lake….

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What to pack for London

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Have you seen the Kate Spade city guides? They offer stylish advice on places to sleep, eat, drink, shop, explore, visit and even what to pack for five fabulous cities, and more to come. For anyone lucky enough to be heading Olympic-ward, this is the packing list for London. Isn’t it cute?

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Sydney weekend

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In which I woke up at 4am because my body knew I had to get up at 5am. I flew from Melbourne to Sydney and, when I arrived, the sun was high just like I remember it always being in Sydney and I thought all those Wettest Season Ever claims must have been imagined. In…

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Around the world in 80 pages

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Hooray for creative people: writers, journalists, designers, photographers; who take the initiative to showcase their creative work on their own terms. Journalist Brittney Kleyn, for example, garnered her creative friends and produced a zine from her holidays in Europe. Called Around the World in 80 Pages, it’s a celebration of travel, discovery, journey and destination….

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Accents

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Somewhere on Route 66 It was more than 100 degrees outside the car. As I rolled the window down to place our order at Burger King, I swear my eyelashes singed. The sun-faded speaker box asked what I would like for lunch today. Me: One fish burger, and… Speaker box: Chicken nuggets, yes. Y’all want…

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Searching for ghosts

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You cross the drawbridge and enter the ramparts searching for ghosts. There should be many; Carcassonne has a sad and brutal history that spans 3000 years. But if they are in the cité today, the ghosts are silent. You are in southern France, not far from Toulouse. There have been Celts living here, then Romans,…

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Roman holiday

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Let’s go wandering together. October 2011

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