Braving The Storm

Tell us more about what you’re wearing today.
So, backstory—I’m from Sydney and my three grown-up daughters are in Sydney. They thought that I would look good in a jumpsuit but I had no idea where to buy one so they all jumped online and the middle one—who’s a bit of a fashion designer—found it from a Scottish label.

What do you do?
I’m a journalist. I work for the Australian Financial Review so I cover Southeast Asia and Singapore for the paper. 

You’ve been in this line for 30 years. What’s something you enjoy about it?
Journalism is great because you get to talk to different people every day. You never know quite what each day is going to bring. 

Do you think people’s perspective about journalism changed over time?
I think what’s quite heartening is that people are beginning to respect professional journalists again. People are realising that they do have to pay for quality news because a professional has to be paid to make it. I went through the whole nightmare when everything just went online and newspapers had no revenue streams, and it looked like the profession was going to die. So it’s nice that we’ve sort of come out of the other side a bit. 

Personally, is there anything that you’re working on?
Yup, I’m taking up boxing again! I do a lot of running and swimming but about five years ago, I really wanted to box so I found somewhere in Sydney and started. I stopped during the pandemic but I’ve just found a boxing gym here so I’m picking it up again. It’s great because it’s so much fun, and it’s something you know that you’ve sort of got to be a bit brave about, since I’m not 20, and not male. 

Is running something that you’ve done for a long time?
I started about eight years ago. Before the pandemic, I participated in a half-marathon each year. I run about 30km a week.