I know climate change is not real and all…. pfft, of course it’s real you guys - how can anyone think an increase in billions of people wouldn’t affect the planet? Something’s definitely changed in Earth’s weather because I don’t remember this many severe storms in Brisbane a decade ago when I last lived here. I used to enjoy storm season because it meant tropical downpours followed by sunshine, butterflies and wonderful smells. Now storm season means dangerous lightning, damaging hail and flash flooding. The supercell from November 2014 put the fear in all of us.
Apologies are hard. Because I don't like to be wrong, let alone admit it. Ask Little Sissy Pham - when we were kids (and into adulthood if I'm honest) I'd argue with her until she agreed I was right even though I knew I wasn't. Only when she'd admit defeat did my fat ego then apologise for being wrong. I have serious issues.
Sometimes it's too hard to apologise to someone but Apomogy makes it easy if there's something you want to get off your chest - like say, accidentally killing someone's mother...?! Apomogy is anonymous apologies expressed on pom-poms because obviously - it's called an apomogy. It's an ongong group art project about saying you're sorry with the help of the almighty pom-pom.
Mount Coolum looking East
Usually when friends visit from interstate there's a cafe or restaurant catch-up followed by a short stroll to dessert...which is probably why Little Sissy Pham got me a Fitbit for my birthday now that I think about it. Anyhoo, I have one friend who's an exception to this rule. B is a circus trainer and roller derby athlete. She therefore eats like a teenage boy going through puberty and is constantly active. The longest time she sits still is on a plane to another part of the world where she will go mountain biking, hiking, rock climbing, kayaking and whatever else nature and sport have to offer.
With less than 2 weeks to go to the big day, our cousin learned she needed lucky number 8 in her wedding party so Little Sissy Pham and I went into a mad scramble to be more Asian. Normally, Viets get their dresses made in Vietnam. Unfortunately minimum turnaround is 2 weeks so this wasn't an option for us but it's totally an option for you.
I found out the red, stingy face way that I'm allergic to a preservative called hydroxybenzoates. I loved my Neutrogena Oil Free range the past few years but all of a sudden my face tingled whenever I use it. I don't know if it's the new formula or whether my skin has gotten sensitive over time from my Oratane acne meds. Being a bit dopey, I thought the redness in my skin was from being generally hot and sweaty after blow drying my hair. But no, it was my skin reacting to the moisturiser.
I am a firm believer that life is too short to use stationery and accessories that don't bring me joy (spoken like a true stationery addict). Which is why I have a BYO stationery policy in my professional life and I'm so loud about it, a colleague I haven't worked with for over 2 years remembered not to supply me with any stationery on my first day in a new job.
The good thing about workaholism is people love hiring me so I've jumped from contract to job to contract to job to contract. The downside is I haven't had a proper holiday in 5 years. So this year when Chris & Chrissy announced their Bali Wedding in August and I learned my former housemate/family would be there, I booked my flights and forced myself not to look for work after my last role finished. Best idea ever.
A holiday isn’t a holiday without Little Sissy Pham falling ill, but the little engine that could powered through my to-do list - kayaking with dolphins, snorkelling, horse-riding in the bush and lake, bush-walking in the national parks, visiting all the local beaches, lots of spa/pool/sauna sessions at the resort and eating all the things. Noosa holidaying is a fabulous way to spend a 30th birthday month!
Oil is bad, oil is evil! is what I've learned from my dermatologist Dr C.T. Lee in Sunnybank, Brisbane, Queensland. These days anything and everything that goes near my acne prone face is oil-free unless it's glorious and delicious like hot chips. Mmm... hot chips. Another exception is ALDI’s Protane Moroccan Argan Oil for hair.
As an acne sufferer, I’ve been trained to see the word ‘oil’ as nasty, malicious and evil. But like all my exaggerated feelings about minor life details, there’s always an exception. My oily exception is ALDI’s Protane Moroccan argan oil, which is literally my hair’s best friend.
Since I was turning the big 3-0 this year, I decided to give myself a whole month to celebrate. I went on a single ladies date on the actual day. Then once my eyeballs recovered from laser surgery, I went for a 5-day beach holiday with my childhood bestie and Little Sissy Pham to Noosa on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. It was divine.
For nearly a decade I’ve been avoiding the gym the way my cat avoids visitors - with a stealthy yet panicked trot in the opposite direction. But faced with the option to become a complete slob or start working out, I chose to join a gym.
I’ve been carefully plotting my future as a single cat lady for about a decade (only seriously for the past two years) so this gorgeous Karen Walker cat ring (she happens to be my favourite sunglasses designer) was the perfect 30th gift from my beautiful friend Elise. Though, of course, now I’m in a relationship with one homo sapiens and not 13-18 domestic felines as I’d planned because life just never happens the way you expect it to.
Smile! Those teeth don't clean themselves.
I was traumatised by a dentist in the public service when I was little. She was rough and mean, and must have thought I was being a wimp like other patients but no, I had a tiny mouth and I was whimpering because she'd ripped the left side of my lips open. After that day, I refused to go back to the dentist until I had money to pay for a good one (we were poor so free was the only option). It wasn't until a decade later when I had my first full-time job that I went to a posh dentist in Melbourne for a check-up. Luckily I didn't need much work apart from replacing a filling and good old clean.
I got my eyeballs zapped in January. It was like a party in my brain and all the rainbow colour pixels were invited. The procedure was quick and painless, and each step was clearly explained by Dr. Beckingsale and the friendly staff at Laser Sight. I highly recommend this clinic if you're in Brisbane.
I've never wondered why DJs have silly pun names. Then Han Cholo jewellery landed at work and in the fleeting moment I thought about it, I came the conclusion that the effort to find out why probably wasn't worth the result. So, suffice to say I still don't know why DJs have pun names but I've decided that DJs should leave the punning to editors and people who are good at dad jokes. Han Cholo jewellery is awesome despite the name. Even Hans Solo would approve some of the designs like the All Seeing Eye UFO Pendant Chain I bought.
For someone so into shiny things I am not that into bling. Mostly because I get it caught everywhere and always end up ripping out bits of hair or breaking the chains and never get around to replacing them. But I could not resist this gorgeous UFO meets third eye meets galaxy necklace from Men In Black 1 chain. So far I've only accidentally punched myself in the chest with it when it swung against my desk and rebounded hard right between the boobs. Ow. Jade 0: Han Cholo 1.
Okay, I cave. Carmex is the mother of all Lip Balms. Even though I love my Maybelline Baby Lips for the added colour to my 'pale ghost face' as mother liked to call it, I use Carmex all day every day now that Oratane has killed my will to produce natural oil.
I've only tried the click sticks so far because I don't like greasing my fingers with pot lip balms but it is amazing and I recommend the whole range. It's a no frills lip balm with pure moisturising and not overly scented or coloured like my fave teeny-bopping lip balms.
As Dad likes to say, "YOU DO!"
I've had 5 people in the past fortnight want to switch up their phones but scared to lose their contacts. How can this happen in this day and age? By that I mean the Google age. I've had my contacts synced to Gmail/Google Apps since I made the switch from dumbphones to smartphones. I like to plan ahead so I can slut around between handsets and networks without a care.
You can of course sync to Yahoo and Hotmail emails but if you do, we can't be friends. Gmail - get with the program. To sync your contacts to gmail head to your iPhone settings and set up a new Mail, Contacts, Calendars Account. Add a new Microsoft Exchange account and fill in your details using the server m.google.com and use SSL.
Then on the next screen switch on sync contacts if it hasn't automatically done that. I sync my calendars using exchange too but prefer the Gmail App instead of using the iPhone Mail app because Gmail App has better search function and can archive/label and do all the other functions I love in Gmail.
Once your contacts are synced you are FREE to do whatever you like because unlike Apple, Google gets along with everyone in the tech world so you can hop between phones and operating systems without fear of ever losing your contacts again!
Here are the detailed instructions on how to synch your life to Google by Google. It's a step by step guide I used a couple of years ago when I married an iPhone. Love.
Then on the next screen switch on sync contacts if it hasn't automatically done that. I sync my calendars using exchange too but prefer the Gmail App instead of using the iPhone Mail app because Gmail App has better search function and can archive/label and do all the other functions I love in Gmail.
Once your contacts are synced you are FREE to do whatever you like because unlike Apple, Google gets along with everyone in the tech world so you can hop between phones and operating systems without fear of ever losing your contacts again!
Here are the detailed instructions on how to synch your life to Google by Google. It's a step by step guide I used a couple of years ago when I married an iPhone. Love.
I can't be without my hand sanitiser… is not something I ever thought I'd say. Who knew the girl who had dirt throwing fights, ate off the floor and rarely bathed as a kid would grow up to list hand sanitiser as an essential?
It all started last year when I worked in a big office with hundreds of other people for the first time. I finally had a real-life reason to say, 'We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.' Nobody heard me but one of the office guys noticed my face and asked if I was okay. No, I wasn't. I was distressed at working in a massive Matrix-like office and was praying in my head that a detached voice on a mobile phone would tell me to climb out the window and escape. But, no, I was now one of the worker ants.
Commuting on a train with hundreds of other humans then being shoved in office with hundreds more made me instantly ill. I'd come from working in large spaces with few people to large spaces with too many people. Little Sissy Pham who's learned the ways of modern office life made me get hand sanitiser - she prefers Purell hand sanitiser because it absorbs better but I got Dettol because it was in a rack by the check-out in Big W. Public transport, shared toilets, elevator buttons, ATM buttons, escalators arms... if you touch it too, sanitise! Sanitise! At least, until your immune system toughens up a bit. I'm back to a larger space with fewer people so I don't need to sanitise 100 times a day but I still carry a bottle with me, just in case. It came in handy the other week when my pal needed to do a stealth bush-wee.
It all started last year when I worked in a big office with hundreds of other people for the first time. I finally had a real-life reason to say, 'We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.' Nobody heard me but one of the office guys noticed my face and asked if I was okay. No, I wasn't. I was distressed at working in a massive Matrix-like office and was praying in my head that a detached voice on a mobile phone would tell me to climb out the window and escape. But, no, I was now one of the worker ants.
Commuting on a train with hundreds of other humans then being shoved in office with hundreds more made me instantly ill. I'd come from working in large spaces with few people to large spaces with too many people. Little Sissy Pham who's learned the ways of modern office life made me get hand sanitiser - she prefers Purell hand sanitiser because it absorbs better but I got Dettol because it was in a rack by the check-out in Big W. Public transport, shared toilets, elevator buttons, ATM buttons, escalators arms... if you touch it too, sanitise! Sanitise! At least, until your immune system toughens up a bit. I'm back to a larger space with fewer people so I don't need to sanitise 100 times a day but I still carry a bottle with me, just in case. It came in handy the other week when my pal needed to do a stealth bush-wee.