Story world questions
About a week ago, I was at a concert with a great group of people. During the very first song, the people sitting in the seats in front of us told us to keep quiet. Of course, this had the …
Author: Lara Russell
My top 10 travel tips
Here are my current top 10 travel tips (in no particular order): Fork out the extra cash to buy a flexible airline ticket. You’ll wish you had if you’re stuck in an airport four hours before your flight. Put enough …
Editing a manuscript
How many times can you stare at a sentence without wanting to pull your hair out? Or worse, without feeling the need to kick the one thing that is holding this whole operation together – my trusting little laptop, the …
Music envy
I often find myself feeling a little jealous, when I hear a song that was popular decades ago. Not because I’m weird, but because I would have loved to hear that song on the radio, being played to death like …
Great expectations
After numerous people recently described a certain comedy as the funniest thing they had ever seen, I made sure to buy a ticket and go and see it myself. Of course, throughout the film, I couldn’t help but wait for …
Do first impressions always last?
Have I ever told you about my first encounter with a Champagne house? It was in March 2010 and we were walking from the Reims train station to Pommery. After about 40 minutes, we reached the halfway mark and as …
Back to school
For the last five days, I have had the privilege of attending an accelerated learning course, specifically designed for Gen Y (and X) managers, at one of the most prestigious business schools in Australia. I remember thinking, as soon as …
My African backstory
Have you ever wondered where you came from? I’ve been spending a lot of time lately, thinking about exactly that. Obsessing, you might say, about an Anglo-Saxon, Germanic past, which accounts for my genetic make-up, and the place where I …
Romance, whose idea was it?
Have you ever wondered who the first guy was, or be it caveman, who said “I don’t think women like being shoved in front of the stove (or fire) as much as what we thought they do, unless we’re both …
Staying on a Vietnamese junk
Earlier this week, I spent two nights on a junk in Halong Bay – Vietnam. I was a little nervous, to say the least, to board the one year old vessel of roughly 29 meters in length and seven meters wide, …