If you are in the Northern Hemisphere, you might want to skip this post. But do make a note to come back and read it around January when you might need it for your own cold and flu season. I have a cold, and sadly for me, I caught it from DB so we’re both […]
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Ruminations on Rodents
My side of the planet is leaning away from the sun as if it is too hot to bear at present, and according to the news, it really is in the northern hemisphere. Extremes have led to heat wave, death and wildfires, and the situation has become so severe that the United Nations felt compelled to release […]
June 2015 Progress Report
Virtue May June Notes beauty: body weigh ≤61kg by 21 September 🙂 65.2kg 😐 65.5kg Didn’t meet my weight target. I stayed on the “go with the flow” eating plan, so maybe there is something to be said for eating to schedule. Though 300g isn’t much of a weight gain – could I chalk it […]
How to Get Exercise Into Your Life
I have been thinking a lot about exercise recently. I have acknowledged in my last few progress reports that I need to move more, but I haven’t actually done anything about it. Shame on me. It’s strange how easy it was to make myself walk out of my office at lunch time and on down […]
The Importance of Appropriateness in Clothing
Brighton Beach 1967, H. Dacre Stubbs via State Library of Victoria Just a quick post today. I am starting to get a tiny bit stressed about getting my book Build Your Signature Wardrobe finished and published by the end of this month, and it seems like there is too much still to do. Anyway, I thought I […]
The Pursuit of Perfection
‘Theobroma’ Harper & Co’s Finest Perfection Cocoa Melbourne & Sydney (Charles Troedel & Co.) via State Library of Victoria Over a wide-ranging breakfast discussion this morning, Toseland described evolution as the pursuit of perfection. I thought that was a pretty interesting way to describe natural selection, but it’s true. It is the creatures that are best adapted to […]
Stress Free Dinner Party Commemorating Ramadan
I’m running a little late for a Stress Free Dinner Party Commemorating Ramadan, but there is still have time to give you a hand entertaining any practising Muslim friends you may have. If you are a practising Muslim, please feel free to send me your suggestions and corrections. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and […]
Normal Service Will Resume Shortly
Wardrobe Planning 1935 style
Today’s advice about wardrobe planning 1935 style comes from a college textbook I discovered during my book research [1]. It offers advice on designing and fitting clothing, gaining the most satisfaction from your clothes and handily, a four step wardrobe plan. 1. Understand What Makes a Good Outfit Your outfit (or as they say, costume) starts with your […]
Marcus Aurelius on a Happy Life
Given our recent trip back to Perth, my resulting thoughts about timey wimey, and living the heroic quest you may have guessed that the happy or worthwhile life has been back on my mind. Today, I’m sharing one of my favourite philosophical thinkers for your inspiration. It’s all a matter of your perspective.
You Are a Hero on a Mythic Quest
I recently watched yet another gripping episode of Game of Thrones and it got me thinking about the mythic hero quest. You know the ones, the ones where the unlikeliest of people leave home, confront a monster, win treasure and returns home triumphant. Arya Stark runs away, lives on the street, leaves the Hound to die, […]
May 2015 Progress Report
And now we’ve passed May 2015 and are into June, it’s time to review the month of May. Is it just me, or does time seem to be racing ahead? I’m starting to get panicky I’m running out of time to write my book. I’ve already had to give myself an extension… Virtue April May Notes […]
How to Protect Yourself from Counterfeiters
Recently I had the misfortune to purchase counterfeit goods online. Owning counterfeit goods in Australia is illegal, let alone selling them. I found it very shocking – I thought I had been really careful, but once you click the buy button it’s too late to do anything about it. And when you realise you could be in […]
Your Responsibilities as a Clothing Shopper
It’s time to touch base with you again on wardrobe planning, in the main because my book researches led me to the most adorable book which I had no choice but to buy [1]. It’s a high school home economics textbook, which as the title suggests is about making, remaking and buying clothes but also includes […]
Wibbly Wobbly Family Timey Wimey
We just got home from a mad dash back to the town we grew up in (as opposed to our hometown, where we live now). The principle purpose of our trip was, of course, to visit our respective aging parents who have assorted medical problems, and are approaching the time when we don’t know when/if will be the last time we see […]
Silence in the Garden
Not long ago I talked about the spaciousness of silence and examined the notion that silence is becoming a luxury good. At the time, my thoughts were primarily focussed on the intrusion of clamorous advertising into spaces that were once quiet such as doctor’s rooms, train stations and supermarkets. But I recently had the misfortune to notice that the intrusion of […]
Stress Free Dinner Party Titanic Second Class (Intermediate)
Following on from last month’s beginners dinner, today I’m looking at what we can do for people who are comfortable cooking and hosting dinners, but might not yet be at the silver service level. It’s a Stress Free Dinner Party Titanic Second Class (intermediate). That means merely extortionate second class with professionals like advertiser Reginald Charles Coleridge, fashion […]
The Benefit of Wardrobe Budgeting
As you know I am writing a book, called Signature Wardrobe Planning (all title feedback welcome by the way). It’s been a couple of weeks since I talked about the value of wardrobe planning, so I thought I’d follow up with some thoughts about wardrobe budgeting and buying clothes. I think many of us know we […]
A Misfortunate Life
Today has been one of those misfortunate life days that never really got off the ground, where everything went a little wrong and took a hundred times more time and effort than it was really worth to fix it. One of those days where you would just have been better off if you took yourself right […]
The Beauty and Pleasure of Potted Plants
This may sound bizarre, but Katy showed me this and some other pictures of her newly potted plants and I was surprised that she had different kinds of plants in the same pot. It has never occurred to me to do that – I always plant singly. And now that we have been talking […]
April 2015 Progress Report
That’s April 2015 done and dusted. My key highlight for this month has been a couple of bouts of Gastroenteritis, so all in all, it’s been an unhappy and generally unpleasant month… Virtue March April Notes beauty: body weigh ≤61kg by 15 June 😐 64.8kg 😐 64.7kg Such a tiny weight loss it’s not worth […]
Five Ways to Show Your Sick Friend You Care
I was going to write something nice about cooking dinner for your mother on Mother’s Day, but I have had such a barrage of ads and sickly sweet advice about taking care of her for one day a year that I am sick of the whole thing. My own mother’s opinion is that if I can’t be […]
Would You Really Do Anything?
We recently gave ourselves a Supernatural marathon, and along with how much the character of Sam Winchester annoys me, I have been thinking about selling souls and what people do when they really want something. Like when they say something along the lines of “I would do anything to be (e.g. famous)?” Do you think they would really do anything? I […]
About Anzac Day
Saturday 25 April is Anzac Day. Along with Australia Day, it marks a key date in the development of both our Australian national character and calendar. I think it is actually a more important day for us than Australia Day, because war dead is something common to all Australians not just those related to people who were here […]
Why Wardrobe Plans are Valuable
My very first thoughts on this issue were laid out when I started thinking about my presence as an aspect of developing the virtue of beauty, and they were developed a little further when I talked around the issue of budgeting for fashion. So I was delighted when my early research suggested that others struggled with wardrobe planning […]