MANNERS AND OTHER MATTERS

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (Photo:  The West Australian) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II arrives in Perth, Western Australia tomorrow afternoon.  There is great excitement among those who are traditional Monarchists and also those who will meet and greet her as the Australians who will probably vote for a Republic in the not too distant future. Quite aside from politics, Her Majesty has reigned as Head of the Commonwealth since she became the Queen in 1952.  This remarkable lady has outlasted many Prime Ministers, Presidents and Heads of State during her reign.  One can only imagine the stories she is able to tell about them. And certainly from the public images we have, Her Majesty has seen the change of century, world tribulations, crises, technical innovations and more with courtesy and graciousness. My family were staunch monarchists.  I remember my mother taking my sister and me down to stand under one of the pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 196...

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...

In the courtyard of the Masjid  Jemak I have recently returned from having a great week with my daughter in Malaysia.  While I had previously visited Kuala Lumpur to make presentations at conferences and visit clients when I had an office in Singapore, I had never had the opportunity to explore the city. And what fun we had! The shopping was amazing…ranging from Chanel and Gucci boutiques to the stalls of Chinatown with the “knock off” Longchamp and Louis Vuitton bags, badly copied CDs and millions of copied watches.  But unlike Bali, the street vendors were not “pushy” and loud, but respectful as we wandered around the colourful and lively stalls.  The city was decorated everywhere we went with Malaysian flags, draping from all the buildings, whether they were in the city centre, Chinatown or the Indian section of the city.  The Malaysian National Day was celebrated on September 16. During our selfstyled  “cultural tour”, where we walked for kilometres...

Graphic from the ABC memorial site The world lost a gentleman yesterday.  His family lost so much more. Paul Lockyer was a friend of mine in the mid 1970s in Canberra.  He was working for the ABC and I was working in Malcom Fraser’s press office.  He was about 5 years older than me.  And we became friends.  He encouraged me to achieve more than what I felt was possible.  When  I went to Perth to assist my family, and then decided to “migrate” he was one of the few friends who understood…he was a West Australian. Some years later I met him again.  He had married his Maria and I had married a West Australian;  we met at the home of mutual friends.  And as friends, we picked up where we left off…. Time passed.  And on Christmas Day, last year, outside the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Nedlands, our eyes met.  And it was such a pleasure to encounter such a friend…again, we picked up where we left off…and had the joy of in...

Lucinda in front of the lemon tree The weather today is beautiful.  A mild day of about 18 degrees under a very blue, Western Australian sky.  The jonquils under the Chinese Tallow Tree This morning I noticed that the first of the jonquils had burst into flower underneath the still bare Chinese Tallow tree.  The snowdrops are flowering around the chilli bush, above  the vincas, which have very bravely hung on through a bleak winter and around the roses, only pruned a week ago and still nestling in their very sandy soil.  I will build it up with manure as their leaves start to sprout. The chillies keep the aphids off the roses! And around the pool the bougainvillea and geraniums are bursting into colour to brighten my day.  The bougainvillea is showing off ! In the courtyard Lucinda gazes down on a bare soil which will soon be planted with white primulas, but she is comforted I’m sure by the background lemon tree which is heavy with lemons after the genero...

I read a comment the other day about the table manners being displayed by the judges on Masterchef Australia.   And I had to agree.  At what stage did licking the knife become any style of good table manners? Apparently one of the judges, when asked about his manners, responded that his grandmother had taught him table etiquette and that it was, on occasion, OK to break the rules…does national television equate to “on occasion”? With a vast television audience, multicultural and across all age groups – with respect, a great achievement by the programme – I would have thought that  this occasion would be one where the judges would in fact endeavour to “put their best foot forward”… closely followed by their best table manners. Hopefully tonight’s Grand Final will allow them to showcase their etiquette skills. It’s not old fashioned…it's just good table manners. Good luck to the finalists, Kate Bracks and Michael Weldon. I will be watching a...

My 21st birthday dinner...Oh so formal then! I was talking with a friend the other day about friendship.  About how it impacts on our lives, from childhood and teenage friends, to becoming friends with boyfriends’s friends, husband’s friends and their wives, parents of other school children, social club friends,  friends after divorce or death of a partner, passing friendships, acquaintances…and now virtual friends. It’s complicated. And I am finding in my “middle” years that my need for friends has reduced…not that I don’t value and cherish my friends, but my actual need has lessened.  Why, I wonder?  I used always be a “People who need People” (with apologies to whoever wrote the song made famous in Funny Girl ) sort of a person.  I was always out and about, making sure that I saw my friends, knew all that was going on with them and theirs.  Afternoon tea for the girls...with bubbles! However, as the years have moved on, my children have become ind...