IF there's a more stirring sight than that of a bevy of bikini babes sunning themselves on Whitehaven Beach, it would have to be a pocket maxi sluicing downwind under a giant asymmetric spinnaker on the azure waters off Hamilton Island.

The exotic pleasures of a former Melbourne schoolboy's first heatwave in Perth suburbia were soon blunted by the bitter reality of the bullying Miss Doris Langridge, a turtle-shaped teacher in his new school, writes Robert Drewe.

A ballet based on a Beckett play brings out the actor in the dancer, writes Valerie Lawson. In Samuel Beckett's play Happy Days, Winnie is trapped in a mound of sand up to her waist. She sinks slowly into oblivion as the sand creeps up to her neck. Yet Winnie..read more

Sue White kicks off her shoes, puts on her swimmers and sets her watch to local time on Ko Bu Bu.

KICKING off your shoes and running barefoot may sound romantic but experts are divided over its potential to reduce injury and improve athletic performance.