Category: Family

Covid Christmas

So, did Santa bring the presents you wanted? All I got for Christmas was Covid. It’s the gift that just keeps on giving. And yet I’d been so careful. At work I’d kept a mask…

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Present Tense: Getting Tense About Presents.

I’m currently sobbing in a foetal ball. My condition? Severe P.P. – Prezzie Paranoia. With Santa already harnessing his reindeers, I still haven’t made any purchases. What to buy? It doesn’t help being a chronic…

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OZ-Catraz – My Aussie Odyssey

I’ve never been so glad to see a horlicks and a hob nob. Why? Well, I’ve just got back to Britain after a two month Sydney lockdown. My Oz Odyssey felt like a time warp….

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A Christmas message to you all…

2020, your goose is well and truly cooked because we refuse to let this Covid Christmas be a turkey. Make merry pals. Kick up those sequinned heels and garotte any Grinches with a string of…

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Covid made me choose between my 89 year old mum and my autistic son

Last week I joined the distraught ranks of people the world over who’ve felt the true cruelty of this vile Coronavirus. My mother is in intensive care in Australia and I can’t get home. There…

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When fledged kids fly back into the family nest…

Is there a statute of limitations on maternal self-sacrifice? What with lockdown, redundancies and a recession, kids are boomeranging back home at warp factor speed. Due to Covid related redundancies and a looming recession, apparently…

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Yes, I Love London But Why I’ll Always Call Australia Home

‘No Worries’ should be Australia’s national motto. It’s the first phrase I hear when I boomerang back to Australia from Britain each year for family fun in the sun. This laid-back response from an airport…

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Welcome aboard the HMS Hedonism

Learning to sail with my sisters in the Whitsundays. Or rather – Who’ll be first to walk the plank? Life is made up of two types of people – the Haves and the Have Yachts….

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Special needs in this specially needy time

Have you found the lock down nerve-wracking? Well, imagine what it’s like if you suffer from an anxiety disorder. Or if you’re caring for someone who does. My 29 year old son Jules is autistic….

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Not so perfect Mother’s Day

Are you a Mum? Then step up to the podium and receive your award. Kid and career juggling takes the agility and expertise of a gymnast trying to balance on a beam. For decades you’ve…

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