All about April

If I asked you all the things you did and though about last month it’s unlikely you’d remember, so if you can’t recall them now, how will you remember all those little moments of life that make it so great, next year? Write it down, your memory bank will thank you for it in a decade.

Making: Great memories and wonderful friends on weekends away.

Drinking: Wine. Popped into a winery, Mt Avoca Wines to be exact, tasted what I thought I might enjoy the most, told myself I really would enjoy it, and bought it instantly. They also gave us a little tour of the winery, it’s actually an organically made wine, but certification is just so difficult to get!

Doing: Took Miss 10 to see Matilda at the theatre, it was brilliant. Clever songs, talented kids, a fun storyline and many laughs, highly recommend it.

Reading:  I’d like to tell you how I am reading A little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, but really I am just reading the first few pages over and over as I decide if I am ready to launch into this book that has so many people talking. It’s a big one and it’s going to take some time to get through.

Wanting:  a clean car, not that I am really sure I remember what that’s like.

Looking: At the ocean from the beach house we stayed in at Airey’s Inlet and wishing we made the trip to the beach more often.

Playing: Headbandz. This is a great game to play after dinner with friends and with kids. We went away for a weekend with friends and played a few rounds, the little kids can get some question ideas from the cards and the adults start getting worked up that they just can’t figure it out. Play it, your kids will love you for it. You will laugh, it’s good for you.

Deciding:  Having a holiday house would be so wonderful, but having friends with holiday houses all over the place is even more wonderful and taking friends to where you like to holiday is pretty good too!

Wishing: There is so much inequity around us. SO MUCH. But there is one that really shits me. The cost of medications. Once, when I had my very own Dad dying of a super rare blood cancer, he needed a drug that cost $7500 per injection, he needed that injection every week.  But, the people in the chair beside him who had a more common blood cancer, they just had to pay $6.50, for the very same drug. My Dad, he was lucky/unlucky to get a double diagnosis within a few days, telling him he had TWO types of blood cancer, the oncologist was so happy, this meant he could get the drug straight away and not have to hope to get on a clinical trial.  Of course, my Dad’s blood didn’t care about all this and had it’s own plans. But it’s happening all the time. There are people all over Australia who get hit with the unlucky stick so badly, first they get cancer, then they are told it’s a really rare cancer (so we probably don’t know how to beat it) then they get told ‘sorry, you got the wrong cancer, so you don’t get any medicine. It’s just awful. So in April, and always, I am wishing for fairness in medication for everyone.

Enjoying: the dancing concerts my kids are making up.

Wondering:  If newspapers will come back in fashion? Or decent magazines? If quality is produced, would consumers buy it?

Loving: Small country towns, their history and their opportunities.

Pondering: When twitter will be finished.

Considering: school uniforms, I love them, but I hate them. I want them, but not every day. They look so sweet, their purpose is so outdated, they make mornings so much easier, they are rarely weather appropriate.

Buying: presents, and nearly getting them to the recipients on time. Nearly.

Watching: the last of Call the Midwife. Possibly the best series of all time, but sadly that’s the end of it. I miss my friends at Nonatus House.

Noticing: the colours of Autumn. Not every country gets to experience the natural beauty of a Victorian Autumn.

Knowing: My ten year old can win a cross country race if the bribe is high enough.

Thinking: I love day light saving time, but it’s over for now and I just have to get through the dark times.

Admiring: People who just say yes and find a way to make everything happen.

Disliking: Clothes needing to be dried inside.

Opening:  very few books.

Feeling: So happy with all the travel and getaways for the month.

Snacking: dark chocolate with orange, I love you.

Questioning:  Have you ever watched Schindlers List? You know how you watch it and you think, why didn’t all the Germans act like this, why didn’t more good people just do what they could to stop the horrendous from happening? You watch it and you like to think that if you were there, you’d be the Oskar Schindler, you’d be the good person, you’d never just turn your eyes away while people were sent to camps where they were just forgotten about.  The movie ends and you’re glad that those days are no longer.

Except they aren’t really are they? It’s just different people in the camps. Camps run by our very own country.

And on that note, we leave April 2016 with the hope that during the coming election campaign there will be many Oskar Schindler type voices and compassion will finally win.

Embracing my Active Wear

Active Wear, Active Wear...writing my blog in my active wear.

I've felt the pressure in recent years to not be seen too often on my active wear. Firstly, because I am never actually doing any exercise when I wear it, kind of just thinking about it for half a day.

I've seen online discussions that degrade those who tend to choose active wear as a regular outfit, even if they are exercising regularly.

I also don't have the correct brand of active wear to officially be allowed to be proud to wear it. It would seem that if you hand over your hard earned cash to LuluLemon or even Lorna Jane or the top sports brands than you receive a little more leniency from the anti active wear brigade. But the no name brand of lycra is not as acceptable in polite society.

Recent back injury (again, yawn) has meant I've been cruising about more in elastic waisted leggings and stretchy tops. I added a new fleece hoodie to the mix to make myself look particularly unstylish yet comfortable. The only suitable shoe to match this ensemble is my sneakers.

And it's been fantastic.

Wearing my active wear has made being active so much easier. I don't feel restricted by shoes or belts or buttons or dresses. My slow moving back gets supported in special support leggings (also from Target because that is what the rehab Physio at work suggested was the best option, not the ones that you pay $200 for).

The more I wear my active wear, the more I am actually active.

It would seem that those people who do don their dorky but comfy active wear attire might move a little more. It's easier to run after the kids in active wear, it's easier to pack a dishwasher, to run for a bus, to push a shopping trolley, to write a blog or walk to the shops for milk.

The more you wear your active wear, the more you realise it's bloody fantastic.
It's not expensive to buy if you go for something unbranded.
There is no ironing involved, ever.
It's easy to wash and fast to dry, plus it's often black so marks from little grubby hands don't show so much.

It's so comfortable that you just feel happy wearing it.

Active wear, it's time for me to embrace you more. 

Marched through that one

Oh March, you’ve been and gone and never even gave me a chance to blog. That’s how super impressive you were. All that’s left is the opportunity to sum you up in one nifty post.

Here’s what went down for March 2016.

Making:

Better use of my time. I am working more and I have had to break up my tasks. When you’re forced to work more efficiently at home, you can still get everything done

Drinking : Gin with lemon sorbet! Yep, that’s a cocktail that includes some gin, some vodka, a touch of lemon and some sorbet. It’s dessert and a drink in one handy glass.

Doing: Packing for our trip to Jakarta.

Reading:  Mr Wigg. A delightful book about an old man and his fruit trees. It’s a slow paced book in the way that it makes you slow your day down. I usually speed through a book to get it finished, but Mr Wigg, talks and thinks like an old man and I love old people and their stories.  Link 

Wanting:  Autumn arrived so of course I am wanting a new puffer vest. And a puffer coat. And a new work coat, and a coat for things like school pick up.

  

Looking: At the view from the top of a very large building in Jakarta where we went for dinner. The bar is called Cloud 9 and the velvet covered seats, which we didn’t stop to sit at, looked super inviting. 

Playing:  Acoustic music which no one else in my house seems to appreciate.

Deciding: That it’s really ok to only blog when it suits me.

Wishing: That Detention Centres were just not a thing.

Enjoying: Young Adult books – if you don’t have kids you probably don’t know that you need to read the books by Morris Gleitzman, Once, Then, Before and After. You’ll read them quickly and be surprised at how well an author can craft stories for a young audience yet share the horrors of the Holocaust and also have you glued to the pages wanting to know if Felix is ok.

Wondering:  If anyone will notice a few Easter Eggs have done missing.

Loving: School Holidays. I hear parents count down the days to when school goes back, but never me, I love the school holidays.

Pondering: How best to cope with five months of cool weather. I am thinking soups, pies and puffy jackets will help. 

Considering: Perhaps I shouldn’t have eaten the Easter eggs.

Buying: I scored big time. You know I love the Facebook Buy Swap and Sell Page and this week I grabbed a vintage Oroton bag in white mesh, still in the original box. I am not sure if I’ll use her much, but I just like looking at her in all her glam and glory. I also just looked at a bit and wondered where this bag has been, was it bought for a wedding, a celebration, a special place? Why did it get carefully placed back in the box and kept so well? If this bag could talk, what would it say?

Watching: The Dressmaker. I read the book about 12 years ago and was a bit disappointed with the movie, but isn’t that always the way?

Hoping: the sunburn on my nose doesn’t peel and make me have a flaky face.

Cringing: at Baby Competitions. I don’t know why people want to enter them so much. Please don’t ask me to vote for your baby. I think all the babies I have ever met are the most gorgeous little things ever. I love their bald heads or spiky hair dos, I love their fat rolls or skinny wrists.

Just believe your child is the most amazing kid on earth, you don't need a marketing competition to convince you you're right.

Questioning: why Osteo’s are not on every corner like hairdressers. Those of us with bad backs and sore body parts just need them so much.

Smelling: Coriander. LOVE IT. Never had a coriander meal I didn’t love.

Wearing: Navy. And white. Really not sure any other colours are even required.

Noticing: There is a lot of traffic in Jakarta.

Knowing: There needs to be a solution to the level of traffic in Jakarta.

Thinking: How will they fix the traffic in Jakarta?

Admiring: My Mum. Who doesn’t drink alcohol but decided to make a Pomegranate cordial from scratch to then make up a Gin cocktail for her guests. Those same guests declined a drink that night so I had to assist in the consumption of said Gin Cocktail myself. The things I do for others.

Disliking: broken backs. 

Opening:  the fridge to see if someone decided to make a cake and leave it there for me, so far no luck.

Feeling: a hatred of the pantry moth, and laughing in my head at what it would look like if I accidentally dropped the r from pantry.

Snacking: me? Snacking? Never.

And that's all March. See you next year.

Just the one day for women. 2016

It's International Women's Day 2016.

A day to remind the world of how far we still have to go before our daughters will be treated the same as our sons.

Each year I read articles that push out the comment that It's important to remember that a man is not a financial plan. This is so true. But of course it means we have a lot more work to do.

Right now in Australia: 

If you're an older woman in Australia you are more likely to live in poverty, having limited superannuation and assets because you never had paid jobs, instead doing ALL THE THINGS for everyone and getting no super. No savings. No house in your name. No car. Then you'll just find yourself in retirement hoping that things are going to work out ok.

If you're a female university graduate with the same qualifications in the same job as a male you will earn less income.

If you're a mature professional woman working right now, you're only earning 83 cents for every dollar your male colleague is earning.

If you are one of the nations best sports performers you'll only get media coverage and sponsorship if you are also highly attractive, even then, you'll need another job to support yourself. Your actual games are unlikely to be televised.

If you're a little girl, you'll be learning that the boys are stronger then you. You'll be seeing that only men play sport on TV and that your body is for people to look at and critique on a regular basis. You won't get a plastic drill for your third birthday or be expected to make real things like aeroplanes with your lego, but you'll be able to build the cupcake shop or the hairdressers.

If you're a parent of girls you'll be doing everything in your power to teach your girls to GIVE NO FUCKS about what society tells them they should be. But often you'll feel alone in that ocean.

You'll cringe as you read pages and pages of comments on social media about how women should just accept that men and women are different and stop giving men a hard time. 

You'll hope that no one you know, no one you love is hurt in their own home. When you see the stats that more than one women is killed by her partner a week, you'll think it must be wrong.

To women everywhere - today is your day. And so is tomorrow. 

Get your hair wet. Wear your active wear or your high heals but speak loudly when you think something needs changing. Be brave when the conversation gets hard. Be confident that you deserve more. You are worthy. You are important. You can do this.