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This Week: Bike Riding and Juicer Buying

March 23, 2013 in Health, Lifestyle, Meta, Nutrition

I have had a pretty eventful week but the really disappointing part is most of it I couldn’t photograph! I visited family (who have a no-photos-on-internet policy) and went to the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition (again strict no-photos-policy). But there were some things I could photograph, so here they are: We got an assortment of desserts from KoKo Black including the best chocolate mousse I have ever tasted. The Viking & I shared this  ”sampler” and we struggled to finish it (I think the hazelnut hot chocolate – see later pic – was the clincher). I attempted to ride the coolest bicycle [...]

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I Don’t Want To Pay To Read The News Online

March 21, 2013 in Current Affairs, News, Technology

I’ve used the Sydney Morning Herald as my browser’s home page since – well – since I can remember using the World Wide Web. It’s been the way I’ve started the day for over fifteen years. I quickly scan the SMH home page for the latest news, read the articles that interest me – maybe even share them on social media. But I think that may be about to change. It’s just been announced that both the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age digital editions will switch to a subscriber model from mid-year, possibly charging as much as $15 a [...]

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Sporting Bad Boys: Do We Punish Them Enough?

March 18, 2013 in Current Affairs, News, Sport

Everytime I hear one of these stories I wonder when will enough be enough? The story I’m referring to is the Canberra Raiders sacking of their star fullback, Josh Dugan. Most of us, well those who follow Rugby League anyway, would have seen the Instagram pic by now. It shows Dugan promptly giving the bird to the camera while drinking with his mate and fellow Raiders star, Blake Ferguson. Dugan has now been sacked by the Raiders but that doesn’t mean he can’t be recruited to another NRL team. Remember the last high-profile sacking made by Canberra? Todd Carney. He [...]

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Don’t Panic! It’s Hot!

January 18, 2013 in People, Self

I don’t mean to alarm you but last week was really hot. Did you know? If you didn’t, where the bloody hell have you been? Sure hasn’t been in Australia where it’s been talked about on every Facebook timeline, Twitter news feed and all over the news. Never before has the temperature outside been so openly discussed on social media. Even I couldn’t resist from posting on Facebook about it, asking people to look after their pets by giving them water, a cool and shady place to sit or to bring them inside if you have air-conditioning when the heat [...]

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Would You Pay for a Cuddle?

September 19, 2012 in Current Affairs, Friendship, Health, Mental Health, News, People, Relationships, Self, Sex, Society

Just when you thought you’ve heard of everything along comes the new craze to hit the US… the rise of the “cuddle party“. No, I’m not even kidding. What exactly happens at these parties? Firstly, get your mind out of the gutter please and lucky I’m here to enlighten you. Cuddle parties are strictly non-sexual gatherings in which guests hug, touch and massage one another. Huh? Yep, that’s what I thought until I read further and came to the realisation that in life what most of us are lacking is intimacy. I’m not talking about sex, or even trying to [...]

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Destined to be Australia’s “Fifty Shades of Grey”?

July 11, 2012 in Books, Current Affairs, Entertainment, Fiction, News, People, Relationships, Sex, Sexuality, Society, Stories

Grazia magazine has credited Fifty Shades of Grey with sparking a baby boom. Could first-time Australian author Indigo Bloome’s new steamy three-part series Destined to Play have the same fate? As reported in The Sydney Morning Herald this week “the first in the Avalon trilogy may be Australia’s answer to the Anastasia Steele plot that has blown open the hunger for erotic fiction – and Destined looks set to please those who enjoyed the escapism afforded by the raunchy BDSM of Fifty Shades.” Women are proving to be thirsty when it comes to more Anastasia-esque explicit fantasy. While I have [...]

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Newspapers: Don’t Fight The Inevitable

June 18, 2012 in Current Affairs, News

I love broadsheet newspapers. I love their size. I love the way the news is laid-out across such huge pieces of paper. I like the shapes the columns make on each page. I like the large format photos. I like the sheer physicality of wrestling with a huge broadsheet publication. I also like the amount of reading delivered by a broadsheet, and the quality journalism expected from a broadsheet. But I also have to be honest. I haven’t bought a physical broadsheet newspaper in years. I stopped buying them in the late 1990s when the Sydney Morning Herald first started publishing a web-version of [...]

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The Obsession With Virginity

May 30, 2012 in Celebrity, Current Affairs, Entertainment, Marriage, News, People, Relationships, Self, Sex, Society, Sport

Virginity has become a bit of a hot topic this week after 29-year-old American Olympic hurdler, Lolo Jones revealed to HBO’s Real Sports that she doesn’t want to have sex until marriage. The interview – in which she called her extended abstinence “harder than training for the Olympics” – has further fueled Jones’ social media stardom. Her Twitter (@lolojones) following has jumped by 40 per cent since May 20. The question is why is virginity suddenly so popular? Should this kind of information be private or do we like to know the sexual history of not only celebrities and athletes, [...]

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Is a Zero Tolerance Approach the Answer to the “War On Drugs”?

May 24, 2012 in Current Affairs, News, People, Society

A couple of days ago there was an article in the Sydney Morning Herald which focused on Tony and Angela Wood, the parents of Anna – the 15-year-old schoolgirl who died in October 1995 after having taken an ecstasy tablet at a rave party, combined with what a coroner later determined was a dangerous amount of water. “The drugs policy issue has been reignited by a report from Australia21, a group of experts and high-profile citizens who have declared the ”war on drugs” a failed policy and called for a debate on new directions. While many people, including the former [...]

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