The Hat I Wore to a Summer Wedding I Almost SkippedI had the RSVP almost typed out. The kind of message you compose, delete, then re-type with one letter changed each time, hoping the answer will become clear.…What a chipped coffee mug says about morning routinesA chipped coffee mug is rarely about the mug. The crack along the rim, the small flake of glaze missing near the lip, becomes a silent marker of how a day…The Ring I Found in a Secondhand Shop and Never WoreI found the ring on a damp Saturday afternoon when the sky over Melbourne had turned the colour of old tin. I had ducked into a secondhand shop to escape the…Why I write about midnight conversations in kitchensThe kitchen is rarely the room people imagine when they think of romance. It has fluorescent light, half-washed mugs, a bin that needs taking out and benches…Turn A Cancelled Flight Into An Unexpected AdventureA cancelled flight can make an airport feel like a waiting room for disappointment. Your plans shrink to a notification, a queue at the service desk and the…The Coat I Wore During a Winter That Changed NothingI bought the coat in a season when I believed clothing could alter a life. It was long, dark, and convincingly serious, with a wide collar that made me look as…What a half-read book on a park bench reveals about us allPark benches across Sydney and Melbourne hold more secrets than the city's gossip columns. The other Tuesday, near the Royal Botanic Garden, I found a…The Watch That Came From a Grandfather I Never KnewThe parcel sat on my kitchen bench in Brisbane for two days before I opened it. My mother had wrapped it in brown paper and tied it with twine, the kind she…How to describe the sound of rain on a tin roofRain on a tin roof can be gentle, restless, violent or strangely intimate. Its sound changes with the weather, the roof’s age, the size of the drops and the…The scarf I knitted for a stranger on a trainI was halfway through a four-hour ride from Central to Werris Creek when I pulled the folded scarf from my project bag. The carriage was nearly empty, the kind…