Christmas! When I was a child that word held so much excitement and promise. It was rich with tradition and expectation. It started weeks before the actual day, with the arrival of what seemed to have been hundreds of Christmas cards which were opened, passed around for reading and then displayed on the venetian blinds […]
Mother was raised on an orchard in the Huon Valley, Tasmania and like many who grew up in the 1930’s depression, she was a determined, single-minded, independent woman who never had a full time job. Her education was limited; not finishing high school. Married just before World War II, Mum spent time in Canberra and […]
Creating your retirement wardrobe is essential to your feeling good about yourself. When you no longer have a business role, you can use your retirement clothing to make a statement about who you are in this new time of your life. It’s time to reinvent yourself! These days there are so manyu wonderful fashions for […]
Organ donation has the potential to not just save lives for the recipients, but to ease a lot of pain for families, friends and the extended community. Aside from individual pain and the attendant heartbreaking anxiety of families, the cost of a protracted illness to the broader community and the loss of a productive member […]
We ‘retired’ around 6 years ago when we moved to the beautiful coastal village of Mallacoota. But then we found we hadn’t retired at all, rather we had ‘re-wired’ our working lives. We had structured ourselves so that we had more control over how and where we worked and indeed what we work at. We […]
Once we reach our mature status (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) we have experienced numerous things over quite a few years. Are we mere historical artefacts? I hope not! For most of us, we have worked, grown up with friends and family, watched man landing on the moon, seen human tragedy and national disasters, voted a […]
I love you. We first met 38 years ago and I instantly fell in love. You were in fact my first international love; the first place I travelled to outside Australia. I was immediately captivated by your natural beauty, the warmth of your people and (at that time) your innocence. My love for you has […]
We often hear of lottery winners and retirees taking that “Big Trip” and I wonder how that is for them if they choose 5-Star options? Do they travel for travels sake, undertake “tick box” tourism, is their travel focused or themed, or just a general “see what we find”? A few disclosures, then jump on […]
We have our house on the market and of course our friends regularly ask us where we are going to move to. Our throwaway response is “not sure, maybe the south of France”. Actually, that isn’t very likely: although if we did find ourselves suddenly homeless, travel would be our immediate choice of temporary location/s. […]
Yes you do have consumer rights. Unfortunately, Australia has regressed from strong consumer laws passed in the 1970’s. However, take heart, you still have power. Hopefully this post provides some insights into dealing effectively with well-founded, significant consumer complaints of any dollar value. One of the first considerations when following through with a consumer complaint […]
