I know it’s only Wednesday, but there’s no reason why you can’t be kicking off your weekend already with a good solid drinking binge. What’s the occasion? Apparently, it’s World Cocktail Week (though that sounds like a flimsy excuse at best). To celebrate, Merrivale is putting on a whole bunch of cocktail-related masterclasses; evenings focused on a specific spirit where... 

For anyone who lives or works around Moore Park, the Entertainment Quarter Village Markets are no big secret, but for many CBD-hugging commuters, this regular twice-weekly event is most likely well off the radar. Particularly the Wednesday markets (… there’s also the Saturday morning variety), a time when most people are trudging through the middle of their working week without sparing... 

Looking around the various things the city has to offer this weekend, apart from the continuing Comedy Festival, there does seem to be an awful lot on pertaining to beer, sports and the wearing of kilts. Kilts? Don’t get me started about the humble kilt. I’d wear mine all the time if it were something I could get away with at work without constant ridicule – and with full “traditional”... 

Chocolate. Ahh, she is a vile temptress of deliciousness, and quite easily the biggest devil on my shoulder trying to convince me to get off the daily health train. And you know what? That’s totally fine. Chocolate is wonderful, but I say if you’re going to get off the wagon for a cocoa-plunge of naughtiness, at least do it with style. Why would you bother blowing out all that hard work... 

Bar a few exceptions, practically everybody loves : 1. A good weekend away somewhere quiet surrounded by nature. 2. Cheese. It makes sense that there must be a fairly substantial combination of the two somewhere nearby – a weekend away which is all about cheese, and sure enough : Dreamcatcher Lodge. On the surface they might appear to just be another quiet B&B over toward Picton (and hour... 

It’s always a good thing once we get past the Great Easter Hump. Somehow the year kicks into full gear, no-one is complaining about “where summer has gone” anymore, and finally we can start pulling out our fashion layers in preparation for the winter and the Autumn wet-spells. It’s during these rain-dotted weeks (and weekends) that it’s good to build up a few good indoor...