Category Things I love
Boxing Day at the opera house
The most iconic building in Australia is Sydney’s beautiful opera house. Jutting out into the harbour on a spit of land that had been used for centuries by aboriginal people for song and dance, the opera house is massive, unmissable, and mesmerising — and we had tickets for a guided tour first thing the day […]
Christmas Eve down under
Have I ever enjoyed the weather on Christmas Eve so much? I doubt it. Sunny and clear, in the high 70s and with a light breeze — it could not have been more perfect. I started the day with a visit to the Royal Botanic Garden. The lush expanse of green lawns and colourful flower […]
Australia for the Holidays!
All I want for Christmas is sun, beach and city. Sydney fits the bill! Wish me luck on the longest flight of my life… London to Perth, then on to Sydney in just under 24 hours. I may set a personal best for number of movies watched in a row. 😜
I’m in Luxembourg!
What do you do when you’re in Luxembourg right before Christmas? Eat all the cheese!!! First a delicious raclette with my business clients . . . . . . then a Mont d’Or, which is an entire little wheel of cheese that has been baked until melted, and into which you dip meats and potatoes. […]
I’m in Brooklyn!
Nothing like a quick hop across the pond to catch up with friends! A good excuse this time: Nicole, one of my good friends from Kennedy Center days, is getting married tomorrow and today is her birthday! Naturally we’re in the uber-hip neighbourhood of Williamsburg, and the hotel is all artisanal free range brick and […]
A Christmassy Saturday in London
I love Christmas in London–and I realized last night that this is my last weekend in London until after the New Year! I’ll be in New York next weekend for a wedding, then in Luxembourg for work, and then off to Australia for Christmas and New Year’s. So today I went into full Christmas mode. […]
No dainty swans
I finally saw Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake! Can’t recall when I first learned about it . . . maybe the ending scene of Billy Elliot? If so it feels a tad late, given the piece won roughly all the awards in London and New York in the mid-1990s (but then again, in the mid-1990s I was living […]
Everything is better on blue and white
Turns out my 18th Century Chinese dish is the perfect size and shape for a burrito bowl from Chipotle. Yum!
“The ‘breast of the nymph in the brake’ astounds no one”
Ever vigilant in keeping my gardening standards at the cutting edge of taste, Lady took to heart Muriel Stuart’s sage advice that gnomes and pheasants are out . . . . . . but stone nymphs are in . . . . . . with the happy result that my window boxes are now graced […]
Birthday weekend
I’m not normally a big birthday celebrator, but it just so happened that some of the things I really wanted to do were best done this weekend — so I made a birthday treat of it. First thing was to get up early and open a little wrapped package that had been hiding in my […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 