Travel writing isn't as remunerative as being a lawyer—but it's a hell of a lot more fun!

There are a couple of ways to experience 'the real flavour' of a country. You can go first class, but when you ‘buy it’ you'll only see a sanitized, orchestrated version of the world. Alternatively, you can wander out into the streets solo and really get immersed. Things happen, spontaneously, accidentally and genuinely. The latter approach inevitably results in a richer cultural experience—but can also come with diarrhoea.

I hang out in some diverse social circles, and each of my unique friends seems to know a great deal about a few things. I, on the other hand, know very little about almost everything.

I heard a great life lesson the other day. A retired Navy General said, “If you want to change the world, start by making your bed every morning. You will have accomplished your first task of the day.” What I want to know is, when I get up from my afternoon nap, do I have to make the bed again?

When people ask me what kind of a lawyer I was, I say, "I was a criminal lawyer—but nobody can prove it!"

Writing travel stories for the newspaper has resulted in a moderate degree of celebrity in my home town. I'm constantly besieged by elderly admirers at the grocery store—a perk being a lawyer simply didn't offer.

After retirement, please don't start drinking at night. Sometimes it's better to begin at lunch.

I avoid famous places, those 'bucket-list' destinations. They are inevitably over-commercialized, overrun and overpriced. Give me a quiet stream or a remote mountain trail every time. I'm constantly amazed how people love to be jammed together amongst a multitude of strangers. In these settings I feel small and insignificant. But, alone in the great outdoors, I feel big and important.

I'm in charge of the experience. Clean up I leave to others.

To deny science is to imply that you know better.

I've never met anyone who didn't consider themselves open-minded. And I've certainly never met anyone who actually is.

Kimberley has a great ski hill, with vast gladed areas and plenty of tree skiing. We're lucky. In lots of the world, Japan and Europe for instance, tree skiing is verboten. If you ski off piste, they get pissed off.

Summer is golf and fishing. Winter is skiing. So, I've decided to have my rotator cuff surgery in November, during the shoulder season.

Relying on a creation myth to explain the wonders of the universe is absurd. There is no such thing as the inexplicable, only the unexplained.

Is waterboarding torture? It's a slippery slope.

The world is chock full of interesting people—and a lot of remarkably boring ones.

COVID aftermath. Dear Liza: there's a hole in my bucket list.

Why are people so obsessed with celebrity? The really important thing is to meet Mike Myers.

At some stage all of us reach an inalterable mind-set. Perhaps dictated by primal parental disobedience, or obedience, or disinterest, or, perhaps on the rare occasion of genius, a unique perspective. But inevitably, we all become fixed in our ways. After that, any discussion on religion, politics or… whatever, eventually descends into a rant. Why is that?