My daughter and I took a road trip from Gold Coast to Sydney during our visit to Australia. We visited some long lost relatives and dear friends who urged us to visit the largest Buddhist temple in the Southern Hemisphere, in Wollongong.

The road from Sydney to Wollongong is sp… Read full post »

I was bitten in a place that was visible, that was my saving grace...

...and the second lucky thing is that I got the "bull's eye" rash. The doctor took one look and laughed, "You have Lymes!" She measured the rash, it was more than 8 cm across.… Read full post »

No one told me it was going to be bike week in Ocean City. I only know two individuals who own Harleys, and I don't get to speak to them often. So, here we are, my daughter and I, surrounded by a veritable hotness of potential opportunities.

 … Read full post »

Pieter Dirk Uys is a South African icon: a multitalented transvestite whose alter ego, Evita Bezuidenhout, a self-titled grande dame, mercilessly mocked the Apartheid government and all it stood for in the eighties and early nineties. I recall that at the start of her show in Cape Town, the national… Read full post »

Monkeys are very commonly found alongside the roads in Africa. These were near a town called Graaff Reinet, on the way to the Valley of Desolation.

 These were all taken from the car. It is NEVER safe to get outside of one's vehicle to try and… Read full post »

I just have to vent.

I have been watching the morning show on CBS because I am ill and not because I watch that kind of stuff. They were talking to some exercise guru woman who obviously never had a weight problem because she fidgets,does her laundry, combs her hair,… Read full post »

Says it all. Art by Adrienne Price. 

Yes, he should run, so that we can have something to laugh at. We are living through tough times: recession, disasters and bad tv. People with inflated egos who live their own reality shows provide light relief. Read full post »

I'll follow   your grace and your beauty, to the place where I'll go when I die, there are ten thousand kisses waiting to heal you, and the  sun it always will shine. And I'll take you and hold you and kiss you, for my heart has been broken in two, and… Read full post »

Oh my poor aching heart, how it bleeds for those overprivileged celebs who take themselves oh, so seriously! 

Ricky Gervais is unabashedly funny, but his caustic, brilliant humor was a tad too much for the tender hearted Hollywood crowd who felt abused by him at the… Read full post »

My, how Annette outshines her competition!

I can just hear the comments tomorrow on all those network shows who believe they have the right to comment on what everyone wore: "Daaahling! The dress! Omigawwwd, did you see the hair? And those glasses?!!!"

Well, pfffft to you all! She is STILL married… Read full post »

Who doesn't love a good grilled cheese sandwich, dripping with buttery cheddar? It is the ultimate comfort food, cheap and quick and easy. Go on, have another one!

Grilled cheese my way is perhaps a little more complicated, but not much. It is essential to use a dense bread, like a sourdough,… Read full post »

I am very bad at following recipes and even worse at writing them down because I tend to make do with what I have in the kitchen so things never turn out the same twice, much to the disgust of other members of my family. So I am unable to enter… Read full post »

Can anyone please inform me as to the reason for the real reason of the brief report on the Cold War era drills of "Drop, duck and cover"?

 It was sandwiched in between the usual Christmas drivel but it rang an odd, discordant note, souring the bonhomie of the Season. So,… Read full post »

 Yesterday was the third anniversary of my brother's death, so untimely, so utterly and terribly wrong. It fills me with indescribable sadness remembering the phone call from my weeping mother. The shock of the news, of that very moment that I heard he had been shot, is etched in my memory… Read full post »

 Honi came into our lives when my son wanted a puppy. We managed to find a Lab that needed a home. An energetic bundle of boundless joy, he scared away the cat and caused my son to be so upset that we had to return him to the owners who had… Read full post »

How many will admit to the secret little pleasure you get from watching Daniel Tosh? Does  his disgusting humor and his overriding smug attitude strike a chord that resonates with your own politically incorrect opinions?

Yes. I watch him.  I am one of you.

 At first it was not through… Read full post »

I have been practicing meditation since I was 16 years old...and that was back in 1973.  Many years, and many challenges later, I discovered, one day, that I had an overwhelming urge to paint. Believe me, I am no artist. I have a number of artistic people in my family, even… Read full post »

Permit me a little rant. Make no mistake, I love what I do. I am vastly overqualified for the work I do, but I am trying to get my foreign credentials acknowledged and to be able to get back to what I was originally qualified to do, namely, to teach English to High… Read full post »

This is my final week in Australia, and all I can say is this: Bloody amazing place, mate!

 I have loved everything about the people: their unpretentiousness, their unfailing friendliness and helpfulness, their curiosity about the rest of the world. 

The country is well organized considerin… Read full post »

 I had been wondering what I was going to do this summer: weeks and weeks of lazing around, cleaning the house (yeah right!), short trips to Ocean City, visits to friends in Virginia... the hot humid air of the Eastern Shore makes thinking an impossible exercise. In short, I had no… Read full post »

Oh the joys of summer! The endlessly long hot days, the enervating humidity for those living in the flatlands of the eastern seaboard! And while I'm at it, the mosquitoes, the bugs, the traffic, traffic, traffic. Yes, let me say again, the traffic.

But let's face it, once you arrive at… Read full post »

My memories of picnics somehow always involve two things in particular: ants that bite, and "sosaties", or curried lamb kebabs. The word "sosaties" is of Malay origin and is a common term for meat on skewers in South Africa.

I remember picnics near Kimberley on the banks of the Orange… Read full post »