We’re for telling good-news stories.

IN a city built on lifestyle, I’m the proud owner of a job title that hardly sounds like work.

I’m the Gold Coast Bulletin’s head of lifestyle and, if I happen to find myself explaining my nine-to-five at some fabulous function with champagne in hand, I’m aware of the irony.

One of the most fulfilling (literally) facets of my role is reviewing restaurants.

The Gold Coast is famous for reinvention, but our most extreme makeover has nothing to do with blonde hair and boob jobs.

Over more than a decade of restaurant reporting, I have watched our food scene transform from so-so seafood buffets into one of the most exciting and energetic in the country.

That’s why I’m for restaurateurs like Simon Gloftis and Daniel Ridgeway who raise the bar, and the little guys that have a go in a fearless culinary culture.

I’m for feasting on prawns fresh from the trawler, seasoned with salty air as waves roll under your feet on the deck at Currumbin Vikings, and for pastry picnics at Paddock Bakery.

For going from beach to bar and back again. For lunchbreaks in the Burleigh boardroom. I’m for the brand bikini, a cheeky fashion legacy founded in 1952 when model Ann Ferguson and her notorious navel sauntered on to the Surfers Paradise sand in a Paula Stafford two piece and continued today by local labels Peony and Molly & Polly. I’m for cheering homegrown talent that shines on the world stage. For Amy Shark at Miami Marketta, Margot Robbie on the big screen and live gigs that can turn a moonlit beach into a dancefloor.

More than anything, I’m for telling good-news stories in a city with a bottomless supply. It’s why I dove into journalism as a 17-year-old cadet and it’s why I think I have the best job in the best place on earth.

And, if I see you out and about at one of those fabulous functions, I will definitely toast to that.

We’re for the Gold Coast. And we’re for you.