The Sun-Herald, Australia – February 2, 2014
It’s a common holiday conundrum: how do you find time to exercise while you’re away? No one wants to spend hours cooped up in a gym when you could be sightseeing.
It’s particularly challenging in a city such as Memphis, with its tempting trifecta of blues, booze and barbecue food.
Rockin’ Running Tours reckons it has the answer: guided running tours. Who says you can’t sightsee and stay fit at the same time?
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GQ Australia – Dec 2013
“Perisher with chopsticks” is how a colleague described Hirafu, one of four ski resorts that comprise Niseko on Japan’s northernmost island, Hokkaido.
It’s a region famed for its annual deluge of snow – a dumping equalled by the number of goggle-wearing Aussies who now land there each season in search of superior white stuff.
Yet here, at the Hilton’s delightful Sisam Japanese restaurant, feasting on grilled scallops with truffle sauce, bogans and their collective predilection for garish ski kit have been welcomingly replaced by the stylish local set.
Read the rest of this story here: GQ Niseko (PDF)
The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia – October 27, 2013
As a guitar-mad teenager, there was only one thing I wanted for my 18th birthday: a Gibson Les Paul. Immortalised by the likes of Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and Slash, it was the wannabe rock guitarist’s dream instrument.
There was only one problem: a new Les Paul cost the same as a small car. Unperturbed, I waged a six-week campaign of teenage tantrum-throwing until my parents finally buckled and agreed to go halves on a Les Paul Studio. This considerably cheaper model has the same legendary sound quality but less of the fancy ornamentation.
Given that I’m writing this story and not rehearsing for a concert at Wembley Stadium, it’s fair to say my talent plateaued somewhere around Stairway to Heaven. But the guitar remains a treasured possession and on a good day it takes me only four attempts to play the intro to Sweet Child O’ Mine.
So you can imagine my delight some 30 years later when I visit Memphis and discover it’s possible to take a tour of Gibson’s factory, one block from Beale Street.
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The Sun-Herald, Australia – August 4, 2013
From a walk along the historic Freedom Trail to a day at the baseball at Fenway Park, there is always a lot to do in Boston.
1. FREEDOM TRAIL
Boston played a pivotal role in the American Revolution, in which 13 North American colonies broke free from the British Empire. You can learn more about the city’s involvement by walking the Freedom Trail, a four-kilometre route that winds past 16 of the city’s most historically significant sites. Although you can tackle the trail on your own, I’d recommend joining one of the free 60-minute tours led by a national parks ranger. They start at the Faneuil Hall Visitor Centre.
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The Sun-Herald, Australia – July 28, 2013
Life as the wife of a US coal baron in the early 1900s was a gruelling affair. Every year, Sarah Berwind would leave her New York home to spend the “season” (July and August) at their summer cottage in Newport, Rhode Island. She would partake in a punishing social schedule of tennis, golf and polo, not to mention host innumerable parties, concerts and dinners.
Of course, she had help. From 43 staff, to be precise. And the “summer cottage” was actually a 50-room mansion that took three years to build. Known as The Elms, it was modelled on an 18th-century French chateau.
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The Sun-Herald, Australia – June 2, 2013
Finalist, 2013 ASTW Best Australian Story under 1000 words
Travel descriptions can evoke a wide range of emotions. At one end of the spectrum sit terms such as “overwater bungalow”, “champagne breakfast” and “free upgrade”. At the other end lurk “overnight bus journey”, “flight delay” and “cavity search”. Coming somewhere in the middle is “airport hotel”.
It conjures up an image of somewhere you stay out of necessity, not by choice; a place to endure an inconvenient flight connection rather than frolic for a week drinking mojitos.
So it is with subdued expectations that I head out to the airport on a Sunday afternoon to check out the new Rydges Sydney Airport hotel.
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The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia – May 25, 2013
Judy has the willowy grace of a catwalk model, with high cheekbones, unblemished skin and a practised insouciance. When I ask her why she ran away from home, she slowly folds her slender brown arms and answers through half-closed eyes, “Because my father tried to make me marry a man 10 years older than me.” And what about the father of her nine-month-old daughter? “He says she isn’t his.”
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The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia – May 18, 2013
Unsurprisingly, the first thing that hits me when I enter Floris is the smell. It’s as if ribbons of fragrance are being twirled around my head – a delicate aromatic dance of floral and citrus tones, offset by sharper notes of spices and wood. For a few seconds I pause, sniffing the air like a basset hound.
It’s a fitting introduction to the second-oldest perfumer in the world.
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The Sun-Herald, Australia – May 12, 2013
I feel like I’m watching the opening scene from a movie. Projected across one of the world’s longest video screens – a 108-metre monster that looms over the track at Meydan Racecourse – is the image of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum. He’s strolling nonchalantly towards the winners’ enclosure, surrounded by friends and family, all immaculately dressed in traditional Arabian kanduras.
This is no public relations stunt. The sheikh is a horse-racing fanatic who regularly makes an appearance at Meydan to watch one of his vast stable of thoroughbreds.
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The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia – May 4, 2013
It was with some trepidation that I signed up for a cooking class at Freestyle Escape. The last time I ventured into a professional kitchen I rendered a salad inedible by liberally garnishing it with peppercorns (I thought they were lentils).
But the minute I arrive at Martin Duncan’s outdoor kitchen perched high in the lush Sunshine Coast hinterland, my fears are allayed. It would be hard to imagine a more idyllic spot for a class. In fact, the sweeping views prove to be so distracting that twice during the course of the day I almost lop off the end of one of my fingers.
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The Sun-Herald, Australia – Mar 3, 2013
I used to dread US domestic flights. I would board in a fog of despair knowing that for the next four hours I would be squeezed between two bathroom-tile salesmen from Idaho. The only entertainment would be a Miley Cyrus movie played on a screen 100 metres away and the packaging of the inflight meal would be tastier than its contents.
But now I positively skip down the aerobridge, high-fiving other passengers along the way while whistling Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah. Why? Because I’ve discovered SkyMall, the bizarre but endlessly entertaining inflight shopping magazine behind the seats of many US domestic carriers (and online at skymall.com).
To call SkyMall merely a shopping magazine is to do it a grave disservice; it is actually a window into a parallel universe. Through SkyMall you will get a glimpse of a better you, a happier you, a you surrounded by products you never realised you needed but now can’t imagine life without.
So sit back, relax and let me offer a tantalising taste of just how perfect your life could be.
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The Sun-Herald, Australia – Jan 13, 2013
Ask a New Yorker about their plans for the weekend and you’re almost guaranteed to hear the word brunch. It’s a New York institution. A chance to catch up with friends and indulge in a Mimosa-fuelled afternoon of good food and gossip.
The tricky bit is choosing where. Almost every restaurant in the city has a brunch menu and the scene can range from family friendly to Vegas-style debauchery; from $US12.95 all-inclusive to a $US200 splurge to remember.
Here are five popular brunch spots to get you started.
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Escape travel section, Australia – December 16, 2012
For the past few days I’ve been haunted by two things: fleeting glimpses of Mt Kinabalu’s ominous-looking granite peak and the dawning realisation that I’m the least prepared of anyone in the group.
At 4095m, Mt Kinabalu is South-East Asia’s highest mountain, but it’s also one of the most accessible; there’s no technical climbing involved, just a steady, relentless uphill slog.
As our group of eight has come to know each other better, it has emerged that everyone else has done some serious training. One couple recently hiked 29km; two guys have been tackling 1000-plus steps; another couple have climbed Mt Kilimanjaro.
The furthest I’ve ever hiked is 15km. And that was when I was 17.
Read the rest of this story here.
GQ Australia – Dec 2012
First, let’s tackle the stereotypes. Yes, Stockholm can be eye-wateringly expensive and yes, its inhabitants are possibly the planet’s most attractive race.
Which at least means when you’re being relieved of $10 for a beer, it will be by a long-legged, flaxen-haired beauty with piercing blue eyes and a poetry-inspiring smile.
Read the rest of this story here: GQ does Stockholm (PDF)
GQ magazine, Australia – October 2012
Of all the great highway journeys, one has been elevated to pilgrimage status by music fans. It starts in the jazz halls of New Orleans, sweeps through the cotton-rich blues joints of the Mississippi Delta and finishes in the honky-tonks of Nashville.
It’s a 1000km slice of musical history; an opportunity to hear these influential genres in their birthplaces and experience the society that led to their creation.
Read the rest of this story here: Music road trip (PDF)
The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia – Sep 22, 2012
The legend of Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil at a deserted crossroads in Mississippi is perhaps the most famous in blues music folklore. The story goes that after several lacklustre performances, the guitarist disappeared on the Mississippi Delta. One night he found himself at a crossroads where he made a deal with the devil – he would give his soul in return for mastery of the blues. The devil agreed and when Johnson returned he could outplay anyone. Eventually, the devil came to collect and Johnson died in mysterious circumstances on August 16, 1938, at the age of 27.
Like many before me, I’ve been lured by this enduring tale to the small town of Clarksdale, Mississippi, which claims to be the location of this infamous crossroads. Perhaps unlike many before me, I’ve decided to try to find it at 3am.
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Open Road magazine, Australia – September 2012
“We’re like a blueberry in a sea of tomato soup,” remarks one Austinite with a wry smile.
It’s a statement that explains a lot about this endearing little city. While most of Texas is Republican and conservative, Austin is a democratic enclave – a laidback, liberal speck on the map that over the last few years has blossomed into one of the state’s most appealing destinations.
Read the rest of this story here: Austin (PDF)
The Sun-Herald, Australia – Aug 26, 2012
Precisely 134 steps from the consumer carnage of New York’s Times Square is the first of two discreet entrances on West 44th Street. Cloaked in black awnings and manned by immaculately dressed doormen, they lead without fanfare to one of the city’s most elegant five-star hotels.
The Chatwal Hotel has no grand driveways, no gold-trimmed lobbies and no convertible Bentleys parked outside. Instead, it aspires to re-create the refined glamour and elegance of its heritage: the art deco heyday of 1930s New York.
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The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia – Aug 18, 2012
It’s a typical Tuesday night on Bourbon Street. Young people clutching dangerously strong daiquiris roam the narrow, neon-lit strip, past a gaudy parade of bars, strip clubs and tattoo parlours.
Competing spruikers try to lure people inside with the promise of cheap drinks, while up on a balcony a group of guys is yelling at girls to lift up their tops. Two men stand morosely outside an empty bar wearing sandwich boards that read: “Huge Ass Beers”.
This is my first time in the French Quarter and I’m struggling to reconcile the scenes with the romanticised vision in my head. New Orleans is, after all, the birthplace of jazz. I want to wander through the Quarter’s historic streets to a soundtrack of soft clarinet melodies wafting from behind wrought-iron balconies. Instead, this feels like Sydney’s Kings Cross on a Saturday night.
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Dominion Post, New Zealand – August 1, 2012
I look at him in disbelief. In front of us is a sweeping vista of tree-blanketed hills in a riot of autumnal shades. There are lipstick reds and buttercup yellows, deep mauves and vibrant oranges. The colours shine with such intensity it looks as if each leaf has been painted by a Disney animator. If this ain’t poppin’, I don’t know what is.
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Rob McFarland