Author Archive: Lesley Jakobsen
Daphne Gum – A Celebration
Yesterday, on the eve of her 100th birthday, TVC was honoured to join Daphne Gum MBE OA and family in a sumptuous afternoon tea celebration. Today, the 24th January 2016, Miss Gum is celebrating this milestone with friends in her care facility. Miss Gum is acknowledged world-wide for her contribution to the welfare and education of children, particularly children with cerebral palsy. To us she is Auntie Daphne, a staunch, cheerful and purposeful influence in our lives. To read more about this pioneering woman, see Lesley’s updated Wikipedia article, “Daphne Lorraine Gum” go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_Lorraine_Gum Note: Sadly, Daphne Gum passed away on 28 February 2017. She touched and enlivened a…
Continue Reading →The Earl of Leicester Hotel
Nick Xenophon's Entrance is permanently locked
85 Leicester Street, Parkside, South Australia Confession. We at TVC frequent The Leicester. We know the Liar’s bar, the Liar’s Restaurant (complete with witness box), very, very well. There is also a cozy bistro and the pokies lounge . Monica and Ian (the hard-working publicans) & Co. greet us with their friendly, witty, knowing, slightly sardonic manner. You know they’ve seen it all, including a shotgun hold-up and patrons who have completed the Beer Challenge 10 times. But it is invariably a welcoming and refreshing haven. The famous, enormous ‘schnitties’ (Will you have yours with avocado and cheese? Or with bulls’ balls [sorry]?) – are,…
Continue Reading →10 (or more) Songs We Hate
1 Always Take the Weather With You (Crowded House) – [dreary and nasty, almost hostile.] 2. Why Does it Always Rain on Me? (Travis) – [Why don’t you stop whining and buy a brolley?] 3 Born to be Alive (Patrick Hernandez – there is dispute in the TVC house about this one) [Ecch!] 4. Wonderful Christmastime (Paul McCartney) [Worst Xmas song ever.] 5. Happy (Pharrell Williams – there is a dispute here too) [L – unhappy] 6. All That She Wants (Ace of Base) [“she’s gone tomorrow” – why not today?] 7. I Will Always Love You (Whitney Houston version) [a…
Continue Reading →Guillaume
Paddington, Sydney, January 2016 On a blustery evening when the Sydney streets had been washed as clean as the new year, TVC joined the well-heeled (and well-jacketed, well-hand-bagged, well-skirted and well-suited) at Guillaume in Darcy’s Building, This smart three-storey-terrace is set, rather incongruously, in an otherwise ordinary (if up-market) suburban street. Slightly odd too, is sitting in the elegant revamp of what feels as if it had once been someone’s living room. Slightly too minimalist for TVC but – hold the presses! this means that the tables are acres apart and it is all lovely and quiet. This is not a place for shrieking…
Continue Reading →10 Reasons to Hate Bowie
Well, it is easy to venerate Bowie of course, and De mortuis nihil nisi bonum but no major figures are completely loved. Here’s some drawbacks advanced simply in the interests of total candour –
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