Veronika Wild

Like Alice in Wonderland I stumbled into a strange world at Kettering recently. This is the place where you take the Ferry to Bruny Island and there are some pleasant places round about like Peppermint Bay, which has a great restaurant and Woodbridge, with its narrow crooked road, large old oak trees and quaint shops and vineyards. The road I usually take was closed and I ended up at an almost deserted hotel. Inhabited by strange creatures and mythical beings, it looked like a film set from Lord of the Rings. King Neptune guards the entrance. A mermaid gazes out to sea and wherever you look you come upon intricate sculptures by Swiss Australian sculptor Roland Gabatel. There's a Griffin grinning from the top of the chimney Giant Mushrooms lead the way to the door Entrance to the Oyster Cove Hotel. There are interesting sculptures inside too The mermaid's view from the verandah An exhuberant Merlin rises from a garden bed Strange creatures and mythical beings - even the gree...

Dear Friends, You must be wondering what is going on. Well it seems that my marriage of 24 years is about to end in divorce. This has made everything I was doing pretty meaningless - travel, writing, working overseas, doing up the house etc. and I have been miserable since June. It felt like someone had died. I think it was me. Now, after the coldest winter ever it is time to move on. For the last couple of weeks I have been in the nation's capital to see how the other half lives. On the surface Canberra is all public servants, anonymous high security apartments and tree -lined streets (the City of Masan in Korea is modelled on it), but every now and then you get a glimpse of what lies underneath. It's very international and restaurants of every persuasion outnumber every other kind of business at the rate of about twenty to one. I am not surprised that my son has been putting on weight. The rest seem to be delis and kitchen shops, although the clothes and bookshops are p...