MANNERS AND OTHER MATTERS

Discarded  flowers in full bloom in Paris, October 2011 (photo taken by the author) I wrote a post a few months ago Friendships...Gold and Silver... , after giving a radio interview on the subject, about friendship and the rise of “internet friendship” in the last few years.  l I questioned the reality and honesty of communicating via an effectively anonymous medium, one in which regular checks and balances are difficult, if the “friends” involved have “covered their tracks” with pseudonyms.  Facebook and Twitter are certainly employed as search and discover mediums.  In earlier times, the checks and balances were made more simply through friends and work colleagues. I compared these modern medium friendships with the ones in our lives which are silver and gold standard relationships; the ones which are long standing and able to withstand sometimes critical and deliberating conversations, face to face over coffee or cocktails. I app...

Seafood in Saint Malo  This post is not so much about manners, but my other passion: food.   Sometime it’s nice to write about something which is not necessarily the subject matter, but rather connected to it. I have been back now for six weeks from my month in France;  and it’s been a busy period with television commitments with The Queen’s visit to Australia and preparations for the visit of my companion from Switzerland. Now that I have the time, as he has departed, I have been wandering through all the photos, reliving the wonderful times…and the stunning food experiences. I was there during the “Indian Summer” and even managed to swim in la Manche (The English Channel )on 30 September after a lovely picnic on the beach. Simple but lovely picnic The French were incredulous that they could swim at 5.00 p.m. in the heat; as an Australian, I was delighted to revel in the small waves, the cool water and the gentle salt of a clean sea. One wi...

A sign  on our hotel balcony in Langkawi After being back at home for 5 days after a fabulous week with my daughter in Malaysia, today I am leaving for almost a month in France.  I am joining a very special friend in Paris and we are going to navigate our way through the tiny villages and coastlines of Brittany before, as we say in Australia, “going off the beaten track” to see what else we would like to explore. I am taking my favourite French recipes and some new ones on my IPad so that I can try them with the French seafood, which is so very different to ours Downunder. I absolutely love cooking so I am excited about the many possibilities I have for success, and even perhaps some failures. And I will try some "fusion" experiments with some recipes I picked up in Malaysia. Spicy crab, sauteed stingray, steamboat chicken and more... The food in Malaysia was wonderful.  From the food stalls in Chinatown where we sampled spicy chilli crab, sautéed stingray with saltwater...

  The Concorde Menu: BA 172, New York-London, 7 June 1978 I have been cleaning out cupboards in preparation for the upheaval in my house in two weeks to enable the laying of new carpet. And it is amazing what I have found…I am much more of a hoarder of mementos than I realised. In the mid 1970’s, when in my early 20’s I had what I was sure was the best job in Australia. I was the assistant to the Press Secretary to the then Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser. I held the position between 1975 and 1979. I travelled the globe, worked ridiculous hours and loved every minute of it. To this day I am still very much a “political animal” and a news devourer. Late last week I had a call from my old boss. We keep in touch a couple of times a year and after such a long period of time I like to think of him as a very dear friend. The Official London Program And then this morning when I was sorting, ruthlessly, through my cupboards I found some of the mementos of my second trip t...