Lifestyle - Saturday, March 7, 2026

The Flight of the Conchords comedian shares the New Zealand capital’s best coffee, nature spots and the pastries he’ll queue out the door for Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email I’ve been based in Wellington for most of my life, aside from a stint in Los Angeles. I love that it’s small and incredibly liveable here. There are lots of beautiful wooden homes with water views in the hills surrounding the harbour. Unlike Los Angeles, you can do several things in a day and leave 10 minutes before you need to be somewhere, as Wellington is very pedestrian and ebike friendly. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Continue reading...

They were survivors of the killing fields and Mao’s China – and their shop was not just their existence, it was their second chance at redemption, writes author Alice Pung It is the last day for my parents to pack their stock, peel off the handwritten “SALE: please ask for Special” posters and close their Springvale shop of almost 35 years. We aren’t supposed to open the doors, because we’re still packing, but my mother insists. We aren’t just boxing toasters and air fryers and blenders, speakers and sandwich presses, but more curious things not found in regular Betta stores: cloth-covered shopping trolleys, wooden-handled umbrellas (marked at a bargain $10) and a dozen pink glitter pencil cases my mother had bought during a post-Christmas Kmart sale to gift to children so their parents would stay longer and hopefully buy that fridge they’d been looking at for the past 40 minutes. Alice Pung is an award-winning author, artist-in-residence at the University of Melbourne’s Janet Clarke Hall and an adjunct professor at RMIT University Continue reading...

Paul Heath knew the rice-cooking David McLean was his sort of guy. Then one humid morning, he reached for the camera to capture a post-shower moment Find more stories from the moment I knew series Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email We met in 1998, at a health and relationship course run back then by the Gay Men’s Health Centre in Melbourne. I saw David across the crowded room at a drinks session afterwards and slowly made my way around to talking with him. We were both in our mid-30s, and I’ve always gone for those tall skinny guys. We chatted easily and before he left I scribbled down my number. He rang a few weeks later on a Saturday night, apparently figuring I wouldn’t be home and that he’d just leave a message. When I picked up, I think he was a little thrown. He said something like: “Hi, um, hang on a sec, oh fuck, I’ve gotta turn the rice down!” And I thought, this is my sort of guy – Saturday night at home cooking rice, what’s not to love. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Continue reading...

“She was aging. I’m very close to her,” photographer Arnaud Montagard said. “At the time of the trip, she was 88. She’s now 89.”

Party's in the kitchen. The post 32 Things to Bake When You’re Bored—From Quick Treats to Weekend Projects appeared first on Camille Styles .

A musician offers tips to helping your favorite artists thrive – from switching streamers to buying merch This story was originally published in the Filter US newsletter on buying fewer, better things. Sign up here to get early access to it Each week we cut through the noise to bring you smart, practical recommendations on how to live better – from what is worth buying to the tools, habits and ideas that actually last. I stream thousands of minutes of music every year. Since 2016, it’s been me and my perfectly curated Spotify playlists against the world. Continue reading...

Interior designers reveal how they use mathematics to bring harmony to a space.

These squishy, bouncy potatoey pillows are suppertime favourites, but which will float your boat and which will leave you with that synthetic, sinking feeling? • The best supermarket pesto Gnocchi are a godsend – my children love them – but I was shocked by the quality on offer here. Of the products I tested, 80% were made from reconstituted dried potato flakes, emulsifiers (mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids), stabilisers (diphosphates) and preservatives (sodium metabisulphate). Most came in non-recyclable packaging, too – that’s simply not real food, and unnecessary when you consider that similar long-life products are made with real potato and few preservatives. I’m going to be very cautious about buying gnocchi from now on. Gnocchi are generally slathered in sauce, so I’d never tried them plain before, but doing so revealed their true nature, as did studying the ingredients labels. Also, I was taught to cook gnocchi until they floated, which usually takes only a minute when you make them from scratch, but most manufacturers advise boiling them for two or three minutes, not until they floated, which left me wondering whether they were even cooked at all. Continue reading...

How does this caregiver respond to “nauseating” levels of adulation from well-meaning loved ones?

Student in highly competitive high school learns that focusing on arts plus taking only one AP class equals an object of ridicule.