01. As part of Melbourne Design Week, I went to Tide Table: A Seaweed Supper. Described as an ‘immersive dining experience’, we enjoyed a seaweed-based menu that included some things made to look like something they weren’t – watermelon with whipped tofu and chilli oil that looked like perfectly sliced tuna sashimi, and incredible beetroot carpaccio that at a glance could be mistaken for pieces of kelp. Continue reading
01. It’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival time. Have been to a couple of shows: Continue reading
01. Friday evening at Slow Poke cocktail bar (and then dinner afterwards at Pincho Disco). The view from Slow Poke toward Kew is one that you don’t get often. And, the Slow Poke Sling cocktail was exceptional. Also, is it crazy to have made travel plans for 2028?! Because my friend and I have… Continue reading
It’s hard to pick out the happiest of happy things but this is my list of 2025 highlights (excluding books – more on those later – and holidays, and I had some amazing ones this year, notably Hobart, Cambodia, New Zealand, and my sinkholes tour). Continue reading
All year I show restraint and then November happens – Nonfiction November, Novellas in November, and German Literature Month – it usually means my TBR stack grows, although this year I have been a little more restrained. Continue reading
One novella and one novel (so far) for German Literature Month XV. Continue reading
Guten Abend!
Yes, the calendar has just flipped into October but I’m fairly sure that other readers are doing what I’m doing… that is, making November reading plans. We have to be strategic given that it’s German Literature Month, Novella November and Nonfiction November! Continue reading
01. The 2025 Stella Prize announcement. Yay for Michelle de Kretser and her book, Theory & Practice. Continue reading
01. A big week of early starts in our house because it’s Eurovision week! We had a lot riding on the result this year as, all things going to plan, my daughter and I are going to Eurovision 2026. So, where will we be going…? Continue reading
What a delight! Judith Schalansky’s Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands is a curious little book. A bit bigger than ‘pocket size’ (or maybe my pockets are too small….), a striking use of colour (bright orange paired with aqua blue fore-edges), and crammed with fascinating facts about islands that are essentially dots on a world map. Continue reading