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The ancient Greeks inscribed “A Healing Place For The Soul” above the door to the library of Thebes and I have to say, this intense period of reading has done excellent things for my spirits.

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The night before, I gave Holly a letter which she read aloud to me and her godmothers…

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Top prize in the 2024 World of Wearable Art featured a headpiece made of road cones and a dress in high-vis orange. Photo by Stephen A’Court.

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While everyone else is looking forward to the Easter Bunny this weekend, I will be celebrating the Tooth Fairy.

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They were all mates, called Dave-oh or Biff-oh or Muzza, representing a range of views from centre to right, rugby to league, Holden to Ford.

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Each year as Daylight Saving comes to an end – our clocks go back this Sunday – the big question is, “What shall I do with that extra hour?”

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There is a shift, we’re hearing, in corporate America towards encouraging ladies to dress more like… well, “ladies”. Think traditionally feminine – skirts and dresses with high heels, rather than trousers with flats.

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There is, we agree amongst us before Saturday night’s show time, a particular smell to a theatre. Not just this one – the Levin Little Theatre – but possibly to each of them dotted around our country in the towns that have been careful enough to keep them…

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Knowing where you come from can be a tricky thing for some of us. I grew up, for example, in a town my family settled into shortly before I was born, and then left once I’d flown the coop – which makes it my hometown, but not where my wider family is from.

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Whenever I hear anyone talking disparagingly of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, it reminds me of that time I spent in a war zone.

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International Women’s Day is one of my favourite lady-celebrations. Low-key as it – and increasingly observed via offers of retail discounts for things women are supposed to adore, like small appliances and lingerie – it has a proud history.

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Don’t get me wrong, this is one of the things I love about us, that we are less jingoistic that our neighbours (Aussie Aussie Aussie, oi oi oi) and way less than the noisiest nation on the world stage currently, the United States of America, oft described by its citizenry as “the greatest country in the world” and currently being made great again.

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When my uncle had his DNA done and reported evidence of Romani genes, it made sense. I feel ancestral travellers over my shoulder, itching to move on and equally keen to take their treasures with them into the next place.

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Some people can afford art in their houses, but all of us deserve fascinating things to look at in shared spaces …

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“This is a mother/daughter thing?” she asks us. We confirm that it is, this whole day of hot pools and spa treatments and cocktails. And then to be helpful I add, pointing at myself, “I’m the mother”.

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I love my freelance life. You celebrate when they choose you, try to be philosophical when they don’t, evolve, and embrace the challenge of making a calendar of random events work together. There is magic and wonder when it all falls into place.

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A breakaway offers all the things associated with longevity, the very goals recommended by health experts…

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You don’t have to be a full-on Grinch to feel triggered by shopping mall carols and incessant reminders to have a Very Merry Christmas …

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Mostly I am too busy enjoying being an old hag to register these things. The glorious thing about being this age is you’re not bothered about being this age…

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I’d love someone to come up with a way of doing a mammogram that feels less … crushing? Pretty sure that’s not how they check for testicular cancer...