Tag Archives: friendship

Three nights in Melbourne

January 7, 2025 By in Travel Tags: , , , 2 Comments

Street art that depicts the Aboriginal flag with a man and a bird

Many years ago, long before I could have even pointed out lutruwita/Tasmania on a world map, my friend A moved from the UK to Australia.

I thought she was extremely brave, making a life for herself on the other side of the world, and I was very proud – if a bit sad that our close friendship would be reduced to an occasional, often glitchy Skype call.

(This was long before the days when we all became Zoom experts!)

More than a decade on, A remains in Melbourne, and I’ve ended up in Hobart, so we are now just an hour’s easy flight from each other. The responsibilities of work and family mean that we don’t live in each other’s pockets… but every couple of years one or the other of us makes the trip.

This year, it was my turn!

Continue reading →

Old Friends New Friends

March 12, 2015 By in Family, Tasmania Tags: , , , 14 Comments

Boat Harbour Tasmania

We went away last weekend to the North West of Tasmania, an area of the state that I hadn’t been to before. It is so beautiful up there.

The drive is quite a long one – it took us about four and a half hours from Hobart – but that included a couple of short stops. The Midlands Highway is a very pretty drive, and DorkySon had great fun looking out for the metal sculptures that are dotted along the edge of the road.

We were staying with some of our oldest and closest friends, who have recently moved to Tasmania. We first met almost ten years ago in Edinburgh, when we were two relatively new couples. Now we are married and they are married. We have a son and they have a daughter. It is strange but wonderful that we have both somehow ended up on this small island on the other side of the world. Continue reading →

There is going to be a wedding

May 26, 2014 By in Family, Scotland Tags: , , , 37 Comments

marriage

There is going to be a wedding.

This July, back on the island where I was born, my oldest, closest childhood friend will exchange Miss for Mrs, although in true Scottish fashion she already shares a surname with the man she is due to marry. She was my bridesmaid, almost seven years ago, and I’m honoured that she has asked me to do the same.

What a joyful celebration it will be. I can imagine already her shy smile, her graceful walk, the radiant light in her eyes. I know there will be giggles as she and her husband try to steady their shaking hands for long enough to ease on golden bands. Continue reading →

A wobble. And a thank you.

October 18, 2013 By in Family, Tasmania Tags: , , 20 Comments

I had my first wobble this week.

It wasn’t so much an oh-my-goodness-I’ve-moved-to-the-other-side-of-the-world wobble as it was a damn-these-hormones-and-the-long-list-of-things-to-do-and-why-isn’t-there-any-chocolate-in-the-house wobble.

But it was a wobble, nonetheless.

So I did what any self-respecting woman would do in that situation. I drank too much wine, cried a lot and had an early night.

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Edinburgh

August 28, 2013 By in Family, Scotland, Travel Tags: , , , , 14 Comments

The Shore Leith

So we are back from Edinburgh – the final stop on the whirlwind world tour that we’ve been making before the big move. It was an easy, sweet and comfortable week, which we spent surrounded by many of the people who know us best. It was an oddly calm and unemotional reunion with the city I once loved so much I dedicated to an entire A-Z to it on this blog.

DorkyDad stayed in the centre of town, and spent most of the week focused on his festival shenanigans. I did steal him away for dinner at our favourite fish restaurant in Leith one evening – the first Dorky date night in a year – and I also made it along to watch the final of the BBC Poetry Slam that he was hosting. Continue reading →