I am going to tell you a secret. I have always been middle aged. While there are many ways to gauge your age – chronologically, with one of those Real Age questionnaires, or even with how old you feel when you go to a night club – there’s your own internal clock that ticks along until one […]

This year has been tough by any measure. The upside is that hard times teach you a lot about yourself and other people. The most important thing I’ve learnt is that if you focus on filling yourself up with peace, that peace will eventually overflow into other people’s lives. Same goes if you fill yourself up […]

Do you know about how crop rotation works? How farmers don’t plant the same crop in the same place year after year? Humans are the same. We can’t keep producing, producing, producing without a rest. We need inputs. If you were a garden, you would need to be weeded, composted, fertilised and replanted. You may […]

It’s about this time of year that mama needs a long lie down. But here’s the thing: I have a 20 month-old toddler who wakes up at dawn every single day. There is no holiday on earth that can get around that crushing fact. So how can you combine a family holiday where you get […]

If you have spoken to me recently, you have probably heard me banging on Camden’s answer to Quentin Blake. Meet Cathy Stait-Gardner – gifted artist, Buffy fan and all ’round hilarious woman. How long have you been an artist? An artist. It sounds so high-brow! I’m not sure how long Ive been an artist. I’ve […]

In keeping with my current Christmas gift-buying obsession, here’s my fail-proof guide to gifts for people you loathe: A leaf blower: You hate them. Soon, everyone else will too. A chutney gift pack: Has anyone ever used a Christmas chutney? This will live in their pantry and/or fridge and be moved from house to house, […]

It’s around this time of year that I do terrible things to my credit card. I love Christmas and I love buying presents. If you are looking for gift ideas for middle-aged women who love Marimekko but wear K-Mart, here’s some things that I can personally recommend as being both ethical and excellent. Original artworks Art […]

Silence of the Lambs has made the concept of a skin suit a little bit too literal but stay with me folks. We are all born into a skin suit that is composed of pretty much the same stuff as everyone else’s. Our genes dominate what it will look like. Some people get an Armani, […]

The Spark and I have lost three babies this year – one in January and two in the past week. Without going into the excruciating details, all I can say is that this is a very common experience. Every second person I speak to shares their story of loss. One of the midwives who looked […]

Most of the time I am a suburban mum covered in toddler snot but occasionally – almost magically – I get yanked out of my leggings and sent spinning into a world of luxury. That’s what happened recently when I wound up at the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Waikiki. When I was dropped off at the […]