Confessions of a dog owner

Boo me now – but I have never been a dog person. I know they’re cute, they’re loyal and they love unconditionally. But they also stink, they’re needy, they have fleas. They have some seriously distasteful licking and eating habits, and lordy lordy, don’t get me started on their by-products. The very thought of picking [...]

Please excuse Christine’s absence…

It’s been a crazy summer. Jam-packed with more than some koalas could bear. Rain. Snow. Heat wave. More rain. Thirty-eight Bonger-Dongers for a Beach Christmas, dwindling to a mere eleven for New Year.  Followed by ten days in Japan, then home again, home again, jiggety-jig, for some quality time in bed with a nasty airline-induced [...]

Still counting

There have been a few changes over the past seventeen years. Someone (not him) has gained a few kilos. Someone (not me) has lost a bit of hair. He still goes on his surf trips. Because old surfers never die, they just stand up and paddle. I still don’t understand why people wonder at me [...]

Great Sporting Moments

Sam Stosur’s win in the US Open has prompted my own review of great sporting moments in history. 2005: The cartwheeling blonde goalie in Under Six soccer who caught her ankle in the goal net and hung upside down like a fly in a web while the opposition scored. Parents rushed in from sidelines,  unhooked [...]

A slice of heaven(ly feedback)

  Pinetrees Lodge Lord Howe Island Dear Dani and Luke Sorry for not returning the guest feedback form I so diligently filled in while the kids played with a giant lobster that washed up on Ned’s Beach. I must have packed it away with my snorkel and the wetsuit that made me look like a [...]

Happy New Year from all of us!

Getting high on Maui

It’s official; I’m Mauied. Seduced by the sway of it’s fragrant, frangipani-scented shores, our latest Griswold family holiday initially clung to the coastline. While hubba hubby windsurfed, the rest of us explored the north shore and Honolua Bay, snorkling with turtles, and discovering hidden pockets of rainforest, reminiscent of the Navi forests of Pandora. It [...]

Memories of my father

I feel my father’s presence more deeply since he died. Smoothing the curled edge of an old photograph,  reminds me… that men can be trusted mothers are precious and children, a blessing. My father taught me to shoot, to drive a car and a truck… how to change a tyre and clean out a spark [...]

Listening to your mother

My Mum turns 80 this year; my Mum-in-law is 83. Both were born into the Great Depression and World War Two, have endured the deaths of husbands and parents, and lived rich lives which include 13 children, 33 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren between them. Resilience and a sense of humour have made them much-loved by [...]

Bang-up bush Xmas

I learned to shoot and drive when still in primary school, but now need smelling salts at the thought of my own children accessing the same opportunities. This Christmas is a big Bongers Fest at my brother’s property outside Biloela. A forty-strong gathering of the clan complete with cold room, camper trailors, and you guessed [...]