About Fairlie

Who is Fairlie?

I’m a Melbourne blogger who loves to travel. And I love to tell others all about it too, to aid and inspire them to create great travel itineraries packed full of memorable moments. I write purely because I get a kick out of sharing the stories and information.

I take lots of photos and I collect lots of stories, and here on the blog I put them together into bite-sized bits which remind me of where I’ve been, and offer tips, advice and information to entertain and inspire. It’s a bit like an old-school slideshow, except unlike Uncle Arthur’s slide night, no-one’s forcing you to be here. Poke around, check out places you fancy, or click on something that catches your attention. Start on the home page for a selection of recent posts, or choose a location from the top menu for all the posts about that place. And remember to click on the link for your FREE e-guide to Creating Memorable Moments.

Fairlie is not actually my real name, to most people I’m known as Alison Dennison. It’s a long (and not very interesting) story about how I came to be blogging as ‘Fairlie’, but it’s been so many years now that the name has stuck, and sometimes I even think it is my real name. Fairlie is the travelling Superman to my at-home Clark Kent.

Mostly I travel with my family, and while they allow me to include them in my posts, they prefer I refer to them by pseudonyms. So, you’ll read about The Poolboy (my husband) and my daughters, Queenie (24) and The Impossible Princess (18). Collectively, they’re known as The Fairlie Entourage.

Other characters also pop in from time to time, including our gorgeous English exchange student, Britannia (24) and her family. Not only did we travel a bit during the three months Britannia was with us here in Melbourne as a 14 year old, but after Queenie returned from her three months with Britannia and her family in England, the two girls hatched a plan for the two families to holiday together. So far, we’ve met up in Vietnam, New York, England and here in Melbourne before heading to Far North Queensland together.

Over the years, The Fairlie Entourage has refined what works for us as a travelling family. You can read about our guiding principles for family travel here.

I like to always have the next big trip on the horizon, and in between I check out places locally. I’m not happy sitting still for too long.

In addition, I love to visit Writers Festivals each year with my friend, M. So there’s a lot of posts about those too.

You can keep totally up-to-date with everything that is going on in here by joining my email list. See the box right over there on the right >.

And the links to my Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram accounts are on the top and side menus (or just click the words here). Join me at all those places for more travel frivolity!

Why ‘Feet on Foreign Lands’?

I’m so glad you asked.

This title is a nod to the line,

“The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign lands; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.”

which comes from G.K Chesterton’s essay, ‘The Riddle of the Ivy’, and I think this sums up my philosophy when it comes to travel.

For me, travel is not about ticking off countries or places, adding to the list-count. It is about opening our eyes to other ways, so that we examine our own.

So, you’ll also find a lot of posts about Melbourne, particularly on my Instagram account. I try to view my own city as if it is a ‘foreign land’, never taking for granted what it is about our way of life and our environment that makes it so unique, and seeking out all the memorable experiences this fabulous city holds.

A couple of other things:

I’ve been blogging for many years at various locations, and Feet on Foreign Lands has grown out of a couple of my earlier blogs.

All the photos on this blog are my own unless credited otherwise, and all the opinions and views are entirely mine.

I write purely about the places and experiences that interest me and 99.9% of the time I pay my own way. I always disclose if someone else is footing the bill, or is in any way influencing my decision to write about something. If I write a partnered post, the content is always 100 per cent my own opinions and observations.