Forget about reading those popular movie reviewers: Here is the first reaction (review) to the film “50 Shades of Grey”, by my astute, wise friend, renowned Adelaide divorce lawyer, Diane Myers. “Dear nadine The movie was dreadful I yawned through most of it Just a bit of tantalising and bondage The actors looked gorgeous as […]
50 Shades of Drivel
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Saint Laurent’s story “pure haute couture”
Ze Fashion Party before screening of the film Saint Laurent at the Palace Cinemas last night was a little light on fashion, (there was none) but made up for it with delightful pastries and chocolates – and plenty of French champagne and red and white wines. There were also hair stylists and make-up artists to […]
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New therapy could stem death rate from prostate cancer
The Advertiser today ran a good news story that new therapy could beat the most resistant prostate cancer. The new treatment, which acts on the immune system, achieved almost complete remission in mice when combined with chemotherapy. It was published on May 1, the same month my husband Olivier died of prostate cancer three years ago. He […]
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Bastille Day big success despite drama
This year’s Bastille Day breakfast organised by L’Agence Consulaire de France d’Adelaide had an unexpected element of drama. The volcanic eruption in Bali had stranded Adelaide’s honorary French consul, Sue Crafter at the Bali Airport on the eve of the Bastille Day Breakfast she was to host. Sue had organised the annual event which celebrates France’s national day […]
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A “Sparkie” life of family and faith for Frank
My father Frank Buxton, who died on October 1, aged 96, was a cheerful character whose sense of humour reflected a certain Britishness. He was born in Sheffield, England, on October 22, 1918, however, when he was a two-year-old tot, his parents Emily and Harry Buxton brought him to South Australia on board the SS Beltana with his babe-in-arms […]
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Mother koala and baby make a house call
The other night, at the height of a vicious storm, I had startling house visitors. I took this photograph of a mother koala and her baby terrified by the storm and trying to get into the house. Mother koala was literally pawing on my door and pacing back and forth. It was as if she […]
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Terrorists take terrible human toll in Paris
Paris, the City of Light, has been plunged into darkness, fear and grief by a series of terrorist attacks by gunmen and suicide bombers, which have left 129 dead and 352 injured – 99 critically. In the wake of the shocking news which gripped the world this morning, comes the realisation that it was naive […]
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Pretty Pink makes perfect pad for Gurley Brown
The plush pink pad of renowned Cosmopolitan magazine editor, Helen Gurley Brown, who died three years ago, is up for grabs in New York. The American author, editor and businesswoman, who was 90 when she died in August 2012, had a fetish for pink. And she lavishly splashed 50 shades of pretty pink all over […]
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Wordsmith leaves legacy of years of wisdom
Farewell to former The Advertiser What’s Your Problem editor, Barbara Vivienne Ross, who died on October 18 in Adelaide, aged 82. Barbara was Adelaide’s local Dorothy Dix with all the answers to myriad questions presented to the What’s Your Problem column, which she edited for more than 20 years. When she retired in 1989, she […]
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Poverty to be eliminated by 2030
The pledge by world leaders to end poverty by 2030 is one of the good news stories of the latter half of 2015. The new UN agenda includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets which apply to both developing and developed countries. Although the United Nations has set out an ambitious list of goals, its plan will […]
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Tourists find Katmandu in recovery mode
My Sydney friend has taken her first post-retirement trip to Nepal to do her bit to boost the tourist industry in that impoverished country,which has suffered from massive earthquakes in May and June this year killing more than 8600 people and destroying more than 500,000 homes. Here is her first report. “Well, we are here in […]
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The Belier Family – fab feel-good French story
The French film, The Belier Family (La Famille Bélier) by director Eric Lartigau makes you think deeply about the disadvantages of being deaf – and it makes you cry – but mostly it makes you laugh. No wonder La Famille Bélier was France’s number One Film of the Year. Because the feel-good story about a […]
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Powerful women as change agents in politics and media
Recent appointments and events reflect powerful women at the helm of politics and media. Powerful Google executive, Michelle Guthrie, has been appointed the new head of the ABC following Mark Scott, who has been managing director since 2006. She has called her new role with the public broadcaster as an “ extraordinary platform’’ to keep […]
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Ageing increases risk of breast cancer
It was the telephone call women most fear: The woman speaking calmly to me at the other end of my mobile is advising that I need to return to BreastScreen SA because my rec ent mammogram had shown “cellular abnormality’’. The mind plays terrible tricks with such news and within a noni-second I have imagined […]
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Publication deal heralds new chapter
Hello everyone, The stars above us must be in alignment because March has brought astounding happenings to set my life on a new trajectory. Hoorah! I have sold my manuscript, Bon Voyage Mesdames, to Harlequin Publishers. Adding to the excitement, my agent, Selwa Anthony advised me of this splendid deal a few days after Writers […]
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Robyne thanks her dad for happy childhood
Robyne Laird Jones wrote this emotive tribute to her dad and she was happy to have it reproduced on my website. Straight from the heart, it reveals the typical Australian childhood she and her siblings enjoyed – One quite different to mine, noted in my My Journal blog in November 2015. “It is with a broken […]
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Harlequin publishers buy my memoir
The stars must be in alignment because March has brought astounding happenings to set my life on a new trajectory. Hoorah! I have sold my manuscript, Bon Voyage Mesdames, to Harlequin Publishers. Adding to the excitement, my agent, Selwa Anthony advised me of this splendid deal a few days after Writers Week here in Adelaide. […]
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Church covered up child sexual abuse
LETTERS: I have just finished reading the damning report into the negligence of the Anglican Church under the leadership of Dr Ian George towards protection of child sexual abuse victims. The entrenched practice of cover-up is truly shocking and a betrayal of the concept of Christian principles. Where protection of young children should have been […]
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A lovely life after profound loss
What a happy day! My new book, Farewell My French Love, my second memoir, arrived at my doorstep and my pride knew no bounds. Here is a photograph of my author’s copies. However, they will not be in bookshops until Monday, April 24. Harlequin non-fiction (HW Non Fiction), the publisher, has designed a wonderful front […]
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Eastertime in Melbourne is always fun
Melbourne is always a refreshing lifestyle change from Adelaide. Here I learn all about the city’s amazing public transport system of trains and trams. Train travel takes me between the two homes of two of my adult children and a bus will take me to the third child – a daughter in Williamstown. Altona Meadows […]
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More Pages to Explore .....
