MomTok Has Me in a Chokehold

I have a confession to make: I love MomTok. Or at least, what I think is called MomTok. Mums who become content creators. Domestic influencers. Women with ring lights, label makers, and the kind of kitchen storage systems that suggest either incredible organisation or a quiet cry for help. Now, I’m 36, so I do […]

When Everything Is Special, Nothing Is

There’s a strange thing that happens when something special becomes too available. It stops feeling special. Which sounds obvious, but apparently it takes a month of Messina specials being available all at once for me to realise I have very strong feelings about scarcity, anticipation, and gelato-based community engagement. Because the Messina special was never […]

I Don’t Need a Pride Shirt to Be Proud

As Pride Month comes to an end, it feels like the right time to say something slightly controversial but hopefully understood in the spirit it’s intended. Every year at work, someone asks me if I want a company Pride shirt. And every year, I say no. Not aggressively.Not dramatically.Not in a way that suggests I’m […]

How My 9 to 5 Started Improving My 5 to 9

For most of my life, I thought the important lessons happened outside of work. Long before I ever managed a project, facilitated a workshop, or navigated a difficult stakeholder conversation, I’d already spent years learning about people. Standing in noisy nightclubs taught me how to start conversations. Friendships taught me how to maintain them. Dating […]

I Don’t Write This Blog One Week at a Time

Spoiler alert: I do not sit down each week and write a fresh blog post just before it goes live like I’m Carrie Bradshaw at her laptop, chain-smoking over a cosmopolitan and wondering if men are, in fact, just emotionally unavailable shoes. That said… sometimes when I reread my posts before I hit publish or […]

An Open Letter to Grindr and Madonna

Dear Grindr and Madonna, Nobody asked for this. And I say that with respect. Well, not respect exactly. More like the strained patience of a gay man who simply wanted to open an app in peace and instead got drafted into a pop rollout. I understand the idea. Grindr. Madonna. The gays. A cross-promotion. A […]

Sydney Changed. So Did You.

I’ve touched on this before, the idea that Sydney changes, and so does gay Sydney. The venues, the parties, the people, the energy of it all. But I keep coming back to it, because I think it deserves its own space. And maybe because the more I think about it, the less I see that […]

Busyness Inertia

My brain is very, very good at being busy. Not in a sad, overworked, “I’ve chained my worth to productivity” kind of way.More in a click, whirr, go kind of way. If there’s something to do, somewhere to be, a problem to solve, a project to move, a plan to make, an admin task to […]

The Personality Hire Who Turned Out to Be Competent

There’s a certain kind of compliment people give when they don’t quite know where to place you professionally. “You’ve got great energy.”“You’re such a people person.”“You bring so much personality to the team.” Which is lovely. And true. I do have excellent energy, thank you for noticing. But there’s always been a small part of […]

Is It Chemistry or Is It Just Chemicals?

There’s a particular kind of romance that thrives between about 11pm and sunrise. It starts on dance floors. In smokers’ areas. In the line for the bathroom. In that strange, heightened stretch of the night where everyone’s sweaty, gorgeous, open, and just vulnerable enough to start talking like the night means more than it probably […]