Category: Friendship
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It’s Okay To Man-Hug
Photo by Thiago Barletta on Unsplash We caught up with some friends at the weekend and when the husband and the old man did that awkward shuffle as they greeted each other, our male friend launched into the story of how he had tried to hug his elderly father once, who froze and brushed it…
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Sometimes, A Good Chinwag With People That Really Know You Is All The Therapy You Need
Bonding with someone is ” Like sharing an invisible stream of consciousness with each other.” Those are the powerful words of Zat Rana in his piece The Subtle Art Of Connecting With Anyone on “Medium.” My connection to others has always provided me with the best therapy. I’m needy emotionally. I might even go as far…
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This Birthday, JOMO Replaced FOMO
It was my birthday yesterday. In some ways, it’s hard to believe that I am now 53, in others, it feels like it has taken me bloody ages to get here. The most important part, I suppose, is that where I am, feels right. The kids and a good bunch of friends came over for…
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A Postmortem Of Twenty-Five Years Of Marriage
As we hurtle towards our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary – celebrations and condolences for which are still under negotiation – it seems to me that the timing couldn’t be more perfect for a postmortem of our relationship. I’ll be honest with you, as the product of divorced parents, I never expected our marriage to last, and…
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Letting Go Of The Shit In Your Life
NC and her friends had a sisterhood meeting the other night. She and her tight band of millennial girlfriends, who have recently experienced a spate of more trials than tribulations in their journeys through young adulthood, decided they needed an intervention. After a rough few weeks of new jobs, new-people stresses, cockroach infestations, the cost…
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Can I Please Stop Drinking Now?
We’re drawing to the end of those tricky days between Christmas and New Year, where no one really knows what the fuck to do with themselves apart from drink alcohol at odd times of the day and gorge on left-overs. It has been stinky-hot here in Sydney, but at least we’ve had the coolness of the ocean to cure…
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Celebrating Your Millennial’s Birthday In Style
In spite of Kim Jong-un’s very obvious intention to spoil all our fun, Saturday marked the end of the last birthday “event” in our house for this year, as well as the end of winter and its excuse for visible leg hair. It was NC’s 23rd birthday “event” and she chose to mark its Grand…
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Memories, Friendship and On The Move Again
I might have mentioned that we’re about to embark upon our fourteenth house move. Reactions to the move have varied: the Princess has begun twitching so I will need to up her anxiety medication, and she and Kurt rock on her bed together whenever I pack a box. The old man has locked himself inside…
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A (Sort of) Birth Story For Easter
I’ve been caught up in between worlds these last few weeks – the worlds of back pain, Easter chocolate and that of my characters, as I put my final touches to my manuscript. I’m not the best multi-tasker, so I find it difficult to tackle other writing projects when I’m so invested in these four…
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Not Another F..king Post About “Gratitude”…
I realised that that I make the same long bloody list of resolutions each year and then persecute myself for being such an under-achiever when I don’t accomplish them. Mia Freedman wrote a piece in Mamamia in the New Year about how last year she simplified the whole process of resolutions and instead picked one…
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Whatever Floats Off Your Boat
Like many people I suspect, whenever I’m under pressure to perform or create an impression, I fuck up badly. Last weekend we were invited onto the boat of some of the old man’s work friends. For normal people, the idea of jet-setting around on a yacht in the clear, emerald-green waters of the Hawkesbury on…
Louisa Simmonds 