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Contribution
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5 Things I Hate About Representative Government
So I’m reaching the point where the next fat old white man politician who tells me he’s in politics (representative government) to do what he thinks is right is in danger.
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Why You Should be Grateful for Your Life
Thanks to a whiny conversation overheard on a train, I’ve been thinking about how you (and I) should be more grateful for your life, and that you (or I) aren’t living someone else’s.
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The Metaphysics of the Control Clarity Continuum
My neighbour’s desire for a manicured lawn, saw me pulling a dead shrub. Leaving plenty of time to contemplate whether you can control clarity.
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Give Confusion the Slip and Cultivate Clarity
Having had a recent temper tantrum when confronted by refrigerator chaos, I realised it was time to restore order and cultivate clarity.
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Will HARD, SMART or Better Goals Make You Happier?
I think that one of the essential components of a happy life is setting and achieving goals. Many others agree, that’s why the planet is awash with exhortations to set goals for 2017.
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Reflections on the Joy of Mastery
It’s getting to the end of the year, and my well of creativity is drying up. I was looking for a different kind of picture for a different kind of post when I found this reflection on the joy of mastery. The picture’s not bad either.
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Alexandria’s Adventures in Food and Nutrition
Following my transplant review, I’ve done some research on food and nutrition. It’s been interesting, entertaining, and frustrating in equal measure. It is a whole other ball of string.
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Where in the War Zone is the Peacetime Blue Sky?
This weekend, in retrospect, has been a little surreal. Despite being at its core a perfectly ordinary peacetime weekend for this time of year.
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Unidentified Man
Victoria has its fair share of characters, but more frequently, the pictures are of unidentified people. Like this unidentified man described as:
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Signature Perfume 3: Trying Perfume Out
Now you know what perfume is, and have an idea of which one fits your lifestyle, it’s time to start trying perfume out so you can find your signature perfume.
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Signature Perfume 2: Perfume that Fits
Like the other aspects of your wardrobe, you need to decide whether your signature perfume that fits your life before you go to the store.
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Signature Perfume 1: What Is Perfume?
I’m prefers one perfume, Katy has all kinds of bottles, but before we start choosing, let’s take a look at what is perfume.
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12 Weeks of Festive Preparation for an Easy Christmas Day
Now that we have moved to Summer time, we are 12 weeks from Christmas. It’s time to think about festive preparation.
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How To Manage Your Rage in a Non-Life Threatening Way
It looks like I was tempting fate when I suggested that all was well with the website. I’m not saying much more about that as I am running out of hair to sacrifice. But, it has been making me angry. And when I say angry, I mean that kind of all-encompassing, unreasoning rage that you…
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How to Write a Book
’ve been asked several times recently how I came to write a book, so today I’m sharing the answer.
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Why completing your census form will make me happy
It is census year in Australia, and thus far it’s been controversial. Most people assumed it would be paper booklets as usual, and were surprised to be sent online.
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How Not to be a Bully
I went to the football, and was lucky enough to be sitting in a stand with a fairly even mix of supporters. During the match, people took turns to bully each other as the fortunes of the teams changed.
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How to conquer fatigue; Physical, Mental and Spiritual
I don’t know about you, but I am really tired. I need to know how to conquer fatigue. Not just the physical fatigue that’s at the root of it, but mental and spiritual fatigue too.
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The Perils of Disrespect
I grated my finger and nail the other day, and had to cut off the hanging edge (it’s still sore). Embarrassing, but this is what happens when you disrespect your tools.
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When Life Gives You Lemons…
Sometimes things don’t go quite to plan, and as they say, when life gives you lemons you should make lemonade.
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Look Forward
I think we spend too much time wishing we had done things differently instead of taking a look forward.
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Alexandria’s Adventure in Shaving Soap Shampoo
I included some of Annette Kellerman’s hair care advice in my book Signature Wardrobe Planning. Including her assertion that the shampoo is a pure soap like shaving soap followed by a rainwater rinse.
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5 Brave Steps to a Joyous New Life
I recently re-read Third Act Trousseau, by Kay Noske, I was saddened by her undertone of wistful regret but inspired by her choice to create a new life starting with the things she missed out on.
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Mobile Phone Madness
The first mobile phone call took place in 1973, but I didn’t get my first phone until 1997.
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Individualism and Collectivism
Last week was a solemn week for many Australians, and there has been an element of the tension between individualism and collectivism, and whose goals should be primary.
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Alexandria’s Adventure in 100% Pashmina
I bought a lovely shawl not long ago. It was labelled “100% Pashmina”, but I knew when I bought it that it was not “pashmina”.
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5 Shoe Fit Myths Busted
So I recently took my “go-to” boots to Toseland the cobbler to be resoled, and we were chatting about shoes and shoe fit myths (we should have gone to the pub for a couple of beers).
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The Surprising Benefits of Home Ergonomics
In case you don’t know, Ergonomics, sometimes called Human Factors, is the science of arranging spaces, products and systems to fit people. Not just workplaces, but things like car dashboards and wheeled suitcases too.
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Importance of Free Will in Destiny
After the destiny post, I was accused of being depressing. Not what I hoped for, but it leads into a discussion about the place of free will/autonomy/human agency in destiny.
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What Makes It Your Destiny Anyway?
I have been thinking a bit about Destiny recently. I’m not sure why – some, or all, or none of the following:
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Take a Little Time-out for Yourself
Take a little time out, because it’s the little things that make life everything…
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Alexandria’s Adventure in Bunking Off
I should first mention for those that don’t know, “bunk” (as in bunking off) is also a verb meaning to leave, most notable in The Shawshank Redemption when Andy Dufresne is noted to have “done a bunk, sir”.
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Alexandria’s Adventure on a Mental Health Day
What with this and that (and the other) I found myself needing a mental health day; a day away from book writing and business podcasts and all that. If you haven’t heard of this, it’s when you aren’t physically ill but need a day off work to unwind and de-stress.
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3 Ps for Dealing with the Unexpected
I recently read a blog post in which Krista offers advice about dealing with the unexpected.
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5 Simple Self-Care Steps for Body and Soul
This time of year, you’ll find a lot of people really committing to self-care, though they can’t seem to identify what exactly that entails aside from “eating well” and “running.”
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How Not to Regret Your Life…
My Aunt’s is the sort of thing that makes you think about your death and wonder how not to regret your life.
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How Wardrobe Reviews Make You Happy and Boost Personal Power
I recently watched a video where women talked about the life-changing nature of KonMari-ing their closets. How their wardrobe reviews boosted their personal power, and made them happy.
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How to Identify a Marriageable Man
This led me to wonder whether there was a time when men were mercilessly judged by women, and actually there was; as a marriageable man. It was about their suitability as husbands so perhaps more realistically the scrutiny came from girl’s fathers, but girls were given advice about what they should consider and this is what I am presenting to you today.
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Marie Lloyd Queen of the Music Hall
I followed a link from here to there to somewhere else entirely and found myself in the land of the Victorian English Music Hall, hot on the heels of larger than life Marie Lloyd, the “Queen of the Music Hall” (1870 – 1922).
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Dinner Party to Comfort a Friend with a Cold
If you’re the kind of person who likes to look after your sick friends, here’s our cold/flu care recipes for your Dinner Party to Comfort a Friend with a Cold.
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Ruminations on Rodents
Wild rodents can carry disease (and other pests like fleas and mites), they are NOT diseased because they are rodents.
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Ramadan Dinner Party
I’m running a little late for a Ramadan Dinner Party, 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.
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Happy Life
Given our recent trip back to Perth, you may have guessed that the happy life, or worthwhile life has been back on my mind.
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How to Protect Yourself from buying counterfeit goods
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!
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Silence in the Garden
I noticed silence in the garden is lost too, with unwanted noise in the form of car alarms, leaf blowers, and “doof-doof” music.
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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…
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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.
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5 Ways to Show Your Sick Friend You Care
I have some experience as a sick friend, so here are five things to help you show your sick friend you care.
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What is the Inherent Nature of Waste?
They’re buying new comfortable things and discarding old uncomfortable things – piles of stuff waiting to be collected by the council’s hard waste removal contractors.
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Discover Your Perfectly Comfortable Heel Height
Once, a very long time ago, I had a pair of heels with the perfectly comfortable heel height. Not only could I wear them all day, but then all night as well and hardly notice I was wearing them.
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Observations on Easter
While I was christened an Anglican, my family wasn’t deeply religious so I don’t know much about Easter, but I know for a lot of people it’s a significant event
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Appropriating the Spaciousness of Silence
I’ve always spent a lot of time alone inside my head, and the silence of my alone time is where my creative ideas come from.
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My version of string theory
In previous posts I have referred to my life as being like a tangled ball of string – I wasn’t specific at the time, but I imagine it as the kind you get when you give a cat a ball of wool to play with. When you try to unravel it, you pull one strand and all the…
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On International Women’s Day
I just found out that March 8 is (was) International Women’s Day. I only found out because I’m catching up on my reading (now that Stress Free Dinner Parties is on the market), and one of the services I subscribe to commented on a political party’s choice to have their formal “celebratory” dinner in a men’s club…
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Young Spirit v Older Body
I received a not-for-profit solicitation in the mail the other day. It’s an organisation that I believe does worthwhile work in the local and international communities. I have supported it for many years with donations of money, and more recently with my time and services. But, the solicitation really disturbed me – it made me very uncomfortable on a number…
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My kidney transplant
I received a kidney transplant in 2011. I was so sick for so long I wanted to stop treatment and let the end come. There was nothing more to do…
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Virtue of Friendship; Contribution
I’m now proposing it’s possible to be friends with people we don’t know, by making contributions toward their wellbeing.
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Virtue of Friendship
I realised I had to talk about the Virtue of Friendship before I could get into planning for friendship with creatures in the next post. Mainly because we need to know about friendship before we can talk about how that relates to things that aren’t people (as shown in the revised virtues table shown below.)
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Eek! There’s a Spider in the Bathtub
A little off topic, but I had to share this. I recently watched BBC4’s Spider House, and it was absolutely fascinating!