Vanessa Menezes is really popular with her clients – and not just because she’s a very nice person. Vanessa’s job is to help small businesses get government grants. Who wouldn’t like Vanessa? Vanessa, the 77th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, started her business, The Money Lifeline, in 2016, after [...]
As I was chatting to Adem Manderovic, I realised that if you have an indomitable spirit and a creative mind, you can achieve great things in life. Adem, the 76th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, suffered a devastating accident in 2006 when he broke almost every bone in his [...]
Murray Hughes, the 75th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, has abs to die for. Murray had always wanted to have a perfect six-pack. So he tried five different times, using five different methods … and found five different ways to fail. Frustrated, he spent a year reading about the [...]
Monika Lemajic, the 74th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, has some serious credentials. Last year, Monika was listed at 13th in the Top 100 Women in Shipping for 2019 ranking – the only Australian to make the list. Earlier this year, Monika finished in the top five in the [...]
“So are we all just playing roles?” I asked Evie Suss, the 73rd person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers. Evie, who works as a mindset coach, had been telling me how some of her clients seem compelled to follow certain paths in life, even if they’re not sure why. If [...]
Life in 1980s London was bleak, David Thomas said, so when his father, the attorney-general in Hong Kong, suggested David join him in Honkers, David agreed. Coincidentally, David, the 72nd person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, did a similar lunches-with-strangers thing during his eight-year sojourn in Hong Kong. David would [...]
What a time to be a doctor. What a time to begin a new job. Those were my thoughts as I chatted with Jazmin Daniells, the 71st person I’ve met on my quest to meet 500 strangers. Jaz explained that she had started her new job with the Public Health Unit on that very day. Her [...]
Rachel Worsley, the 70th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, describes herself as ‘neurodivergent’, a term I’d never heard before. Just as we have diversity in terms of race and sexuality, Rachel explained, so we have diversity in how our brains function. Rachel has ADHD and autism. She also has [...]
Can you draw a picture of Donald Duck while dancing on roller-skates? Aditi Mamtani can. Aditi, the 69th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, performed this feat while competing at Miss India Australia last month. She placed second (which makes you wonder what you have to do to finish first). [...]
Years ago, when you had to pay the Sydney Harbour Bridge toll by handing over money (rather than with an electronic tag), Ronny Jensen used to do something surprising. Ronny, the 68th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, would sometimes give the attendant double the toll – paying for himself [...]
