JEWELLER and co-proprietor of Manuka jewellery store Briolette, Diana Thompson, has a not-so-secret life as the author of her first romance novel “Winterflood’s Passion” – a story set in the Southern Highlands that’s already been called “the Bowral bodice ripper”.
Author Diana Thompson.
“Charlotte could not have imagined the turn her life would take after this chance encounter.”
Thompson launched the book in her temple of bling and will be signing copies at the Canberra Centre Dymocks, 5.30pm, on Friday, August 28.
Carlo wins an award
FORMER Civic restaurateur Carlo Tosolini, whose iconic Bailey’s Corner eatery closed suddenly at Easter when the landlord unhappily changed the locks, has been feted with the Lifetime Achiever award at the Restaurant & Catering Awards for Excellence.
Described as the industry’s “night of nights”, it recognised ACT operators who “provided exceptional service, demonstrated culinary excellence, and delivered great ambience and value for money across 25 categories”.
Other winners of the major-award categories included Sage, Braddon – Restaurant of the Year; Hyatt Hotel Canberra, Yarralumla – Caterer of the Year and Charlie’s Sala Thai Restaurant, Greenway – Consumer Vote Award.
In congratulating the winners Restaurant & Catering Australia’s CEO John Hart said: “The winners should be proud of their achievements, as they have been rigorously reviewed in one of the most objective awards systems, which looks at the entire dining experience, rather than a single food or service dimension.”
Bewilderingly, the association’s media release listed the winner of the Canberra Social Media Award to Coffee Amigo, which is based in John Street, Salisbury, an outer northern suburb of Adelaide.
Pig’s passed!
LIKE Kit Carson, the famous US frontiersman and tracker, the Queanbeyan City Council contractor has steadfastly tracked, trapped and killed the Wild Pig of Mount Jerrabomberra.
The pig, which is unfunnily blamed for biting a woman defending her dog against the fearful feral, has been stalked since last month with cameras and traps placed on the mountain.
Goodness knows what the tracking process has cost the council, but it has stoically reminded visitors that the mount is not an area where dogs are to roam off leash and to report any sightings of feral pigs. There are more?
Falling out of favour
WISH them luck as you wave them goodbye… “The Canberra Times” topped the nation with the highest circulation fall of any metropolitan newspaper in the year to June.
The breathtaking 18.91 per cent collapse in sales takes the paper’s average weekday circulation to 19,492, a sad shadow of less than half its former self. Likewise the flagship Saturday, down 11.21 per cent to 30,280 and Sunday, down 9.99 per cent to 20,312.
And why would anyone buy it when they are giving their news away online where, paywall free, readers can enjoy unfettered access to writers of the “Times”, “The Sydney Morning Herald” and “The Age”. And better still, a feature of the daily, free tablet app is a digital version of that morning’s paper. Nuts or what?
Thank you, Fairfax shareholders for this wonderful community service, though heaven knows how they turn a buck from Fyshwick these days.
The very long black
AND from Will Glasgow’s “Rear Window” column last week in “The Australian Financial Review”: “While we were sitting in Silo cafe in the Canberra parliamentary suburb of Kingston on Thursday morning wondering how it could possibly take 40 minutes to make a long black, the nation’s regional networks were descending on Parliament House – once again.”
Third time lucky?
POPULAR Queanbeyan mayor Tim Overall is so determined to see a multiplex cinema (among other, bigger things) built that he revealed on 2CC’s “CityNews Sunday Roast” news program his intention to stand for the third time at next year’s September council elections. Queanbeyan elects its mayor directly and at the last election in 2012 Tim scored a primary vote of 54 per cent in a Melbourne Cup field of candidates, something of a record he says.
Cutting the cost of living
A 2015 analysis of housing costs by the ACT Council of Social Service and ACT Shelter found that Canberra households spend an average $328 a week on housing, which is a whopping $63 a week higher than the national average.
Timely then that local community group SEE-Change is holding a talk on cutting the cost of living and the cost of home ownership, as part of its Sustainability Talks Series.
It’s at the Belconnen Library, 12 Chandler Street, 2pm-4pm, Sunday, August 30. Entry is $5 ($2 for members). More information at see-change.org.au
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