Last Bologna pix

I realised that I hadn't published the last pics from the recent Emirates famil to Bologna.

This is an absolutely stunning city and I will definitely be back.

Dame Kate

My story on the remarkable Dame Kate Harcourt, who is about to be awarded NZ's first ever Lifetime Achievement Award, is published in this week's NZWW (click here to read).

Invasion of the white rose

Didn't I tell you the rose situation was going to get out of hand?

I already have more than I know what to do with.

But they are all kinds of lovely and at a time when far too much is heaped onto my plate and all I want to do is lie in the sun with a book and tell the world to sod off, they make the corners of my mouth bend up.

   

Welcome to Lava Land

Another of my Hawaii stories is published in the NZ Woman's Weekly (click here to read).

Melbourne's vintage shops

A piece I wrote from last year's Melbourne famil is published in today's Sunday Star Times (click here to read).

 

The best front page ever

I once met the late Jonah Lomu. It was years ago and I was covering fashion in the field at Trentham for Style Magazine and he was one of the judges.

All I can recall is meeting this mountain of a man with an easy smile; I must have come up to about his shins.

This has been an horrific week for so many people across the planet. Here in New Zealand, we've experienced sadness of a different kind with the loss, far too early, of one of the most amazing athletes ever.

Someone sent me this pic, yesterday's front page of the Irish Examiner, which beautifully sums up the death of Jonah.

Jonah, rest in peace.

Show Me Shorts Film Festival

Managed to blag a media ticket to the opening of the short film festival tonight. And even though it really is too sunny to sit in a darkened cinema, it should be fun.

First Christmas party

Last week, I heard my first Christmas carol in the supermarket. Tonight, I went to my first Christmas party, a Woman in Business event hosted by a global tax firm with deep pockets in a gallery with soaring ceilings and ridiculously expensive art.

Needless to say, the nibbles were outstanding and the jazz band was almost as good as I heard in New Orleans.

Best of all, I ran into a former colleague I'd lost contact with years ago (the last time I saw her was when the Animator and I stayed at her place in Rome when she worked for the NZ Embassy). It was all kinds of lovely to catch up.

It feels odd to be eating Xmas mince pies and having people wish you happy holidays when November hasn't even played itself out yet. But oh well...

   

Cultural exchange

My feature on four Kiwi families raising  kids in far-flung corners of the globe is published in the December issue of NEXT Magazine (out yesterday). Click here to read.

A weekend of firsts

We managed to sneak away to the bach for three glorious nights and on Saturday, we shovelled down the season's first strawberries (doused in aged balsamic vinegar, icing sugar and cream).

By the time we got home, the first white roses were nudging their creamy heads towards the sun. I am such a floral geek but I ADORE these delicate beauties which, as summer unspools, end up covering almost every surface and spilling out of every possible receptacle. They are, in my humble opinion, the most perfect of flowers (along with my other favourites, Christmas lillies and white peonies).

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Sulphur City

My story on Rotorua is published in the November issue of Horizon, a Hong Kong magazine (click here to read).

  

The healthy eating chronicles

My story on two pretty remarkable Auckland women who started their own food-related businesses after two very different health crises is published in the November/December issue of NZ Life & Leisure Magazine (click here to read).

  

Home

After a tangle of superb Emirates flights (oh that I could travel business class every time) and six hours in a Dubai airport hotel, I am finally home.

It is soooo good to see my two boys, especially this furry chap. I am fading fast - and am fully prepared for jet-lag to come knocking about 3.00am.

Sadly, there is no time for a sleep-in tomorrow as I need to be at the part-time contract at 8.00am. Yeah, I know....

Ferrari and Pavarotti

Today, our last full day in Italy, we drove out to Modena, the home of both the late Luciano Pavarotti (his former home is now a museum called, rather quaintly,Pavarotti Land) and Ferrari, the sleek luxury vehicles that cost eye-wateringly large sums.

Again, despite not being a petrol-head, I loved the latter (Pavarotti Land was pretty cool too). I don't understand the Ferrari obsession, of course, but the history of the Ferrari family is fascinating and I'm sure I can get a decent story out of it.

Check out the first two pics - the helpful Ferrari chap told me this particular vehicle is worth around a million Kiwi. Not a bad way to spend a sunny Friday.