Kristina Foster shares an insider’s guide of where to stay, shop, eat and party in Paris. The older we get, the more commitments we seem to have. Partners, children and careers fill our days, leaving little time for other pursuits. If you are resolved to spend more time with the girls in 2014, steal away with your besties for a #YOLO week in Paris.

"Playing Trimbole required a lot of preparation and research in order to bring the character to life, I had read a lot of books and watched a lot of footage from that period, if was a character that I really got inside of"

I wrote all of the public listing documents such as the annual report stories for Aurobindo Pharmaceuticals as they launched into the Australian market. I also write all the website copy.

Richard Brancatisano sits inconspicuously in a quiet back-streef cafe in Waterloo. He looks just like a regular guy in a faded t-shirt and jeans, but this handsome actor is anything but.

"l always knew I wanted to be a jockey. Dad prepared me for my career and has watched every one of my races."

Kristina Foster discovers why some of Asia’s biggest business hotshots are jumping out of their golf carts and hitting the road running.

"l wake at 3am and grab a strong flat white before heading to Flemington for trackwork. l'm at the track seven-days-a-week. I haven't taken a sick day in 26 years."

"In 2010 I went back to our village in Lebanon where my father worked as a child herding sheep. I saw the tiny room where my father lived with his 11 brothers and sisters. It was an inspirational moment to understand what my father overcame."

Kristina Foster gets excited about bikes, bitterballen and basking in the Dutch gezelig.

The verdant rice fields, temples and spiritual village life of Ubud, Bali offers a back-to-nature family break away from tech driven tantrums.

From the maze of lanes in the Old City market where locals haggle over live flinching bugs, to Pudong’s illuminated space-age skyline, Shanghai is a feast for the senses. Shanghai skyline defines the busy city. Credit: The Shanghai China Travel Website. Shanghai bridges the past to the future with sensory-rich experiences, but traveling with children in China’s most populous city needs clever planning.

This pearl of the Orient is adorned with natural beauty and a fascinating culture within a multi racial hotpot.