Final thoughts, rumours and an email already from Phnom Penh.

4 Comments

So, back home now. Just put my two babies to bed after oodles of their favourite dinner; Dad's bolognese and a custard chaser. After dinner they sat on the floor and watched an episode of their favourite show, "Wonderpets" and then were carried to their cots, where they lay watching the usual fuss between their Dad and I over what setting to leave their air-conditioner on. How to keep them conscious of their good fortune without nagging 'til they switch off, that is the question upon which...

Posted in Charities, Diet Swear Blog, Fight Racism |

what i did on my holidays by meshel laurie aged 37

5 Comments

So very sad to be leaving Phnom Penh today. Obviously I miss my children whom I'm assured have not noticed my absence in Brisbane. I'll miss the children I've met here though. I totally understand why people like Geraldine Cox, also from Australia, come here for a holiday and spend the rest of their lives working for these kids. I'll certainly be contacting her when I get home to become a formal supporter of her work. Steve Morrish from SISHA.org is another. He is a former Australian policeman...

Posted in Charities, Diet Swear Blog |

Ladyboys? Yes please!

Leave a comment

So last night I attended the office Christmas party of SISHA.org whom I support and am here to visit. Please don't tell anyone I work with as I have never, in my six years with the company, attended a Nova Christmas party and it is already something of a sore point. Anyway it was nice, I had a shandy in a pint glass as I am want to do and was flying through the streets of Phnom Penh on the wings of a tuk tuk by 9pm. I am actually a night-owl by nature but due to my early working hours, I...

Posted in Uncategorized |

Genocide tourism – hot or not?

6 Comments

I was supposed to go to the animal sanctuary today. I was sitting in the back of a tuk tuk bright and early this morning having attracted much attention with my request to be taken to Phnom Tamao. Rove suggested I go as he loves it and has a tiger enclosure named in his honour. Long story short, I realised just in the nick of time what all the kerfuffel was about - the sanctuary was a two hour drive away. By the time we reached the end of the street I asked the driver to pull over so we could...

Posted in Charities, Diet Swear Blog, Fight Racism |

I’m in a Phnom Penh state of mind.

1 Comment

I am fried, but in a great way. I think everyone in this town in fried. This is my second Asian experience, my first being Phuket. Phuket felt kind of professionally Asian. Like it was performing a pantomime of exotic pleasures for westerners to throw money at. I felt like there was hate behind the smiles sometimes. There was a massage place next door to our hotel, where western men impressed themselves with how little they could pay young women for hand jobs. Daughters, wives and...

Posted in Charities, Diet Swear Blog |

I’m Mc Spewing with Carrie Bickmore.

5 Comments

Boy, was I pissed off when I heard that Carrie Bickmore was doing the “Down under” segment for Oprah. Mostly, because it wasn’t me, obviously. The truth of the matter is that Carrie’s enjoyed many opportunities over the last couple of years that have made me green with envy. I’m pretty sure green smoke streamed out of my ears when I heard about this one, and I was pretty amused this morning when twitter fired up about the Mc Cafe stuff. I tweeted that I wished The Australian hadn’t...

Posted in Uncategorized |

Oh Brisbane, it’s only weather.

4 Comments

In 1997, seminal British trip-hop, act Smoke City sang, “After the rain comes sun, after the sun comes rain again. After the rain comes sun, after the sun comes rain again.” How charming I thought at the time, how whimsical and post-modern to drone on endlessly of the planet’s most obvious and arguably least interesting cycle. 13 years and one very long El Nino drought later I wish the Queensland Government would re release the song as a public service announcement. Beautiful one day,...

Posted in Diet Swear Blog |

love ‘em or hate ‘em, you have to respect cats.

1 Comment

When a seemingly normal old lady threw a neighbourhood cat in a wheelie bin recently, it just highlighted the lingering, fear and resentment of members of our community who happen to be cats. I researched the phenomenon of cat hate once, and it dates back to medievil Europe where everyone reckoned everyone else was a witch. Not content with accusing each other of being in league with Satan, they decided that cats, who cruise around at night, have eyes that glow when you shine your lantern on...

Posted in Funny |

special guest star with our old pal keenan.

Leave a comment

When we last checked in with Keenan, he was rocking Katy Perry's Teenage Dream. He got millions of hits, became a youtube sensation, and attracted exactly the expected amount of attention from the internet's vicious bullies. Well he's brushed it off, focussed on the fun and taken on lip-synching challenges from Train to Usher and back again. One very canny superstar has recognised an opportunity in young Keenan, but I'm not mad at him because it fits. His homophobic tweets of late haven't...

Posted in Showbiz |

It’s gonna be a great day! SNL vid.

1 Comment

Change is in the air, must be spring! I for one am working very hard to believe every day is gonna be a great day, this morning for example, my first thought upon waking was "Can I fit in a nap today?" Upon a quick run-thru of my mental diary, the happy answer was "Yes!" That was enough for me to determine that today is indeed gonna be a great day. Here's a little something to put a pep in your step, if you need one. I don't because I'm having a nap later, but I've watched it about 15...

Posted in Funny |

I can give!