Category: Wine
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Recipe For The Best Christmas Punch, (Or How To Get Your Friends Slaughtered At Your Christmas Party
So, this year’s Christmas party is done and dusted. More than thirty of us sweltered under the deck on what felt like the hottest day of the past month – as ordained by climate change or whichever God seems to take such personal pleasure out of fucking up my life as often as possible. And…
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Who Says Family Holidays Can’t Be Fun?
It was that time of year again last weekend. The family holiday 2018 had spun back around with all the promise of a mammogram. Admittedly, the word “holiday” is somewhat of an exaggeration. The kids will attest to the fact that the word “holiday” is something of an exaggeration. This year – at the old man’s…
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Why Are Men So Obsessed With Sport?
Photo by Morgan David de Lossy on Unsplash The old man is that breed of men that needs to hit a ball at least once a day. He delights in telling anyone who can listen to him (without falling asleep) about his childhood spent in the family garage, throwing ball after ball against its back wall. And while…
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I Want “Cheese Lover and Wine Connaisseur” In My Eulogy
The old man and I went on a mini-break to a farmstead in the south of Sydney a few weeks ago. Due to the risks posed by Australian wildlife – wallabies, wild horses, spiders and no doubt brown snakes, waiting for me in every corner – we left The Princess at home with close friends.…
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Beware! Irresponsible Middle-Aged Drinkers On The Loose
Found on Pinterest. Four women dancing at the water’s edge. circa 1940 Picture #: 543H Copyright 2003 – Photographs Of Old America. Photosofoldamerica.com A couple of girlfriends and I have had a lunch planned in the diary for a while. It is a lunch without husbands, none of us are driving, and we are going…
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Your Fifties: The Make Or Break Age Where Bad Decisions And Bad Genes Can Catch Up
It is always a shock to hear about the death or illness of celebrities around our own age. While I don’t believe that their lives are more special than mine, it can be hard not to secretly suspect that their barbeque areas aren’t paved with gold. Which was why the passing of Emma Chambers at 53…
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When You Kid Yourself That One Night At The Opera Makes You Cultured
I had steak tonight. It was one of those spontaneous decisions brought on by the anxiety that we’re all going to die soon and I might never taste steak again because I rarely eat red meat these days. I am one of those people that get sucked into the latest health advice about what you…
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Fuck Holidays and Resolutions And Bring Back Routine
Michael Buble took us into Christmas again this year, so I’m going to allow him to take us back out gently and buoy you with optimism for the year ahead with his classic rendition of ‘Feeling Good.’ There was something very anally fulfilling about creating my new January 2018 folder for this month’s blog posts…
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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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Christmas Day And Vodka Shots, Aussie-Style
It appears that all of those conversations I had with the kids before Christmas about WHAT NOT TO DO when Grandad is here, fell on deaf ears. They didn’t mention The Ashes, but when the middle-aged tribe is heavily outnumbered by Millennials, things don’t always go to plan – and just saying kids, Vodka is…
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How Much Do You Drink?
That’s the question that makes you cross your legs in shame in middle-age, similar in awkwardness to when the doctor used to ask you how much you smoked or how often you have sex, or (more pertinent these days) when was your last mammogram? Fact: every smoker lies. The ‘walk of shame’ these days is…
Louisa Simmonds 