When I moved to Britain the archaic drinking laws meant the pubs had to close at 11pm. I found this enormously frustrating because it meant I couldn’t go out for a quiet drink until midnight or one o’clock as I was wont to do in Sydney. I either had to go out early or I [...]

An art teacher in Dallas is about to lose her job after a parent complained because a fifth grade student saw a nude sculpture on a school trip to a museum.
Oh please! This is madness. Firstly, the educational value of going to see art of all kinds, nude or otherwise, is unquestionable. Anyone who fails [...]

I’ve missed almost the entire summer skating season, mostly due to my travels to various far-flung places. But yesterday I joined the Sunday Stroll for the first time in ages. I don’t think I’ve been since the one-way stroll to Wimbledon back in July. We are enjoying an Indian summer in London and it was [...]

My fashion reporting debut - the Armani show during London Fashion Week - is tame compared with the shenanigans at New York Fashion Week. This blog post from Sydney Morning Herald fashion writer Patty Huntington hilariously reveals how she fell afoul of one megalomaniac PR. You’ve simply got to get down to the bit about [...]

After my travel workshop, I felt like stretching my legs so I walked down to the river and found myself at the Tate Modern. I decided to go and see the Kandinsky exhibition since I’ve been meaning to for months and it’s finishing in about a week. It was crowded but I still had [...]

I have done a bit of travel writing and it’s something I’ve been meaning to pursue more seriously for a long time. A few months ago I read about travel writing workshops run by travel writer Dea Birkett in Time Out. The workshops sounded really great – inspirational and useful - and I thought they [...]

Last night I joined the Beautiful People at the Armani fashion show in Earls Court. Who was there? Well, Giorgio Armani of course, and Bono, Bobby Shriver, Elle Macpherson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ashley Judd, Kim Cattrall, Lily Cole, Oliver Martinez… We had performances from Beyonce, Bryan Ferry, Razorlight and Andrea Bocelli. And that was just on [...]

I’ve been thinking about blogging this week rather than actually doing it. There have been a few articles that have caught my eye that I’ve wanted to comment on and I’ve also been thinking about updating about my Arctic trip and also Italy, way back in May.
The priority, however, has been flat hunting. My [...]

Guardian Newspapers has appointed Emily Bell, editor-in-chief of the Guardian Unlimited websites, to the board of directors in the new role of director of digital content.
This is significant for two reasons. Firstly, Bell is a senior journalist and it is unusual for journalists to be appointed to board positions. Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, Observer editor [...]

UPDATE: I don’t know how I missed this fact but I have listed below SIX rather than five continents, making a total of 30 rather than 25 books. I don’t want to make it any harder on myself, especially when there is only three months left. The person who set up the challenge just had [...]