Sausalito, open your golden gate!

San Francisco! One of those places, like Paris or Texas, where I’ve always got a happy grin cemented onto my face. It might be just airport code SFO, but I’m still bouncing along pushing a luggage trolley, leading a party of five off to the hire care precinct, smiling at random travellers and humming songs [...]

Flight of the jumbo

I love flying out of Sydney. I get to use the awesome Qantas First lounge. Even if it’s only a cup of coffee, sitting away up there with the huge windows, the smiling staff, and the art on the froth of my latte sets me off on the right foot. I glide down the hall [...]

Driving on the dark side

It’s not the first time I’ve driven on the other side of the road. The first time was in Caen, in Normandy, in 2006, in a little grey Opel. A manual car, and I hadn’t driven a manual transmission for about thirty years. I not only had a new car to learn, but a new [...]

I found my heart in San Francisco

I’d been listening to songs about San Francisco for years. People crooning on about bridges and cable cars and love and flowers and smiles. Songs about Los Angeles were hard-edged and desperate.

It was a quick decision, and one of the best choices of my life.

More Tales of the City – Armistead Maupin

Second book in the Tales of the City series. Armistead Maupin is hitting his stride with this one. He spins his little plots, teasing the reader along, sucking them in, until somehow, we’re edging ourselves along a catwalk high above a startled crowd and the horrific secret is revealed. This book sparkles like the waters [...]