On Saturday night I was sitting in a small local restaurant with some friends. Half-past eight came and went without so much as a dimming of lights from any of the restaurants in the plaza for Earth Hour. By the time I’d realised Earth Hour had passed it was around 10pm, and it crossed my mind that turning off the lights for an hour may not be a practical option for all small businesses.

It’s vitally important for all of us to consider the effect of what...

Last weekend I ventured south of the border to catch up with my friend, Dave. I’d been to Melbourne once before but it was about 11 years ago and I daresay one or two things have changed since then.

I’m sure I pushed my friendship with the poor guy to the nth degree by dragging him from one Melbourne tourist cliché to another while armed with one of the most useful apps I’ve ever downloaded, my new best friend the TrueLocal iPhone app

Last week in the TrueLocal.com.au office we had quite an animated discussion (read: argument) about coffee which ended in iPhones at 10 paces searching for the real answer to the question: what is the difference between a flat white and a latte?

The purists among you will start talking about ratio of milk to coffee and whether or not there is foam involved. But when there are so many other variables - strong vs weak, decaf vs caffeinated, skim vs whole...

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, high tea, low tea, morning tea, brunch. What about elevenses, luncheon, afternoon tea, supper, and as any self-respecting Lord of the Rings fan will be asking right about now, “What about second breakfast?”

In many cultures eating has had a bit of a paradigm shift from fuelling our bodies, as it did back in caveman days, to being a social event.

I’m quite fortunate in that everything at my place is in good working order. I’m also a bit of a self-sufficient kind of girl. I know one end of a screwdriver from the other, I can attach ends to a coax lead to make a TV cable and I can unblock my own drains without significant incident - emphasis on the term “significant”.

But I digress. My point is that I don’t often have a need for a tradie, so when the odd thing explodes, falls off or has red wine...

While all of us in the TrueLocal.com.au office were in the throes of Valentine’s Day yesterday we came across some interesting information, and we promise we won’t tell your mum.

We noticed a sharp spike in people looking for adult services, including escort agencies, in the month of February, with the annual peak hitting on February 15. So it seems that after all the cupids and love-hearts of Valentine’s Day have faded we get back to love in a very...

Happy Expectations Day… *ahem* Valentine’s Day everyone!

The other day I received an exasperated SMS from my dear friend Matt, vehemently ruing the day he ever laid eyes on a supermarket self-checkout. He made no secret of the fact his blood pressure rises whenever he hears the robotic phrase “unexpected item in bagging area”.

While Matt is a smart guy and it doesn’t take much to figure these contraptions out, I’ve lost count of other intelligent people...

Back in Elizabethan times single ladies would pin bay leaves to their pillows on the eve of Valentine’s Day in the hope they would dream of their future spouse. How times have changed.

Nowadays we celebrate Valentine’s Day with cookie-cutter romance - flowers, chocolates and red cards with standard messages in them.
I’ll step out on a limb here and say Valentine’s Day is now based on the expectation of having our partners buy us something to show how...

Why do we observe Australia Day?

Anyone who said it was when Australia was discovered, go and sit in the corner and think about what you just said. Anyone who said it was when Captain Arthur Phillip and the First Fleet arrived in 1788, high-fives. OK I’m done with the history lesson.

One of the inevitable nightmares of a good night out is getting home at the end of it. A pet loathing of mine is the upcab ... and I can see all your furrowed brows from here so I’ll explain.

When someone upcabs you, they ignore the group of people waiting for taxis and stand up the street in front of everyone and flag the next taxi down. They’re essentially jumping the taxi queue, even though there isn’t a formal queue, more like a mutual understanding...

Hi I’m Annette Maloney. Don’t tell anyone but I think I have the best job at TrueLocal. Dining at the best restaurants, drinking at the hottest bars, attending launches for everything from Spring Carnival, Fashion Week, Australian Open, Grand Prix to the opening of an envelope, some might say, I’m there. I get to mix it with all of the celebs and wannabe’s around town as well as the people who really make Melbourne tick and in doing so I have heaps of news...

We asked the good people of Adelaide to name their favourite businesses. Did your favourite make the cut? Watch the video above to find out.

What’s your favourite business? Tell us below or review them now on TrueLocal.com.au.

Did you know the first Father’s Day took place in Fairmont, West Virginia in 1908? It was to remember 210 fathers who died in a mining accident. It goes by a different name today but the First Father’s Day Church still stands in the area. Thankfully by the 1930s capitalism was in on the deal and the day began to resemble the commercialised affair we’ll be celebrating on Sunday.