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Rethinking Vulnerability
It seems that every time I turn around, I see or hear something about the benefits of vulnerability. I’ve talked about it before in relation to pride, but it seems like it might be time to look at it again.
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2017 Mid-Year Review – Project Worthwhile Life
It’s taken me several attempts to get anywhere with the 2017 Mid-Year Review. I’ve put it off and made some false starts because I knew it would be difficult. I doubt that I have met any of my 2017 goals,
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Dealing with Assisted Death
Following a multi-party, Upper House inquiry into “end of life” choices; Victoria may become the first Australian state to permit assisted death.
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How to Deal With a Bad Day
It’s been one of those days that you might call a bad day, and I’m feeling grumpy and generally disgruntled:
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What Happens if You Slow Down?
In a forum that we are both members of, Sharon asked the question “What happens when you slow down?”
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Astronauts Dinner Party
Today we’re getting ready for the American National Moon Day with an Astronauts Dinner Party.
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Music Festival Outfit
I’m sitting, wrapped in blankets, envying my Northern friend’s summer plans. Today I’m imagining myself there and planning a Music Festival Outfit.
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How to Choose a Signature Hairstyle
Like the other aspects of presence, you need to think about how your signature hairstyle fits your life before you go to the salon.
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June 2017 Progress Report
So. June 2017. I watched The Lost City of Z the other day, and there’s a scene where the main character becomes caught in a fishing net and almost drowns. That’s kind of how June 2017 feels.
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Mysterious Mysterioso
Mysterioso mysteriously life continues on its path. And if I’m fortunate, there will be another 40 or 50 years of it.
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Politics of Personal Roles
In response to some recent political idiocy, I have been thinking about the politics of personal roles. This follows my earlier thoughts on how personal aspects convey your essence and representative government in general.
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Exemplum Virtutis
Exemplum Virtutis, n. An example or model of virtue worthy of imitation; a paragon.
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Alexandria’s Adventures in Productivity Journalling
I’ve been into productivity journalling for a while, and I mention it in my monthly progress reports. I’ve been asked a few times what it is, how it works, and where to get one.
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World Refugee Day #WithRefugees
If you haven’t heard, tomorrow (20 June) is the United Nations World Refugee Day.
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Breakfast Dinner Party
Toseland was describing his recent Oxfam Trailwalker experiences to me and it seemed like the perfect opportunity for a Breakfast Dinner Party.
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Why You Should Start Reconsidering Activity Trackers
I haven’t lost weight, built a consistent exercise habit, or slimmed down. In fact, it’s completely the opposite! I should be reconsidering activity trackers.
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How to Build an Outfit to Conceal Your Identity
I witnessed a guy trying to get into a pub where he was barred, and I thought it would be useful to have an outfit to conceal your identity. I mean, if the Queen can do it, so can we!
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Life is What Happens When…
Just recently, I have heard many different iterations of “Life is what happens when you are planning other stuff.”
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May 2017 Progress Report
Well, May 2017. What can I say? I think May 2017 may be the month my ball of string unravelled. I woke up heavier, wider, messier and a whole bunch of other -ers with no idea how I got here.
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Sheepishly I Sit
I’ve been sheepishly waiting a lot lately. With all the legalities I’ve been taking care of it’s been hard not to wait docilely in line until my number is called.
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Double Jeopardy in Jumping to a Conclusion
I confess that I saw this drawing “Jumping to a Conclusion” first. And having found the image I knew I had to write something to write about so I could use it. Like the creative writing exercises I used to do in primary (elementary) school. Only different.
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Pleasure of Existing
What with one thing and another I have spent a lot of time just existing lately. By existing, I mean sitting passively through periods of time with next to no obvious brain activity.
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Soup Dinner Party
While inspired by the idea of a 7-day Soup Diet, this Soup Dinner Party is not an attempt to translate a weight loss fad into an event. It’s just a fun look at whether it is possible to host a dinner party that consists solely of soup.
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When the Darkness Comes
Grief, like darkness comes and goes. It ebbs and flows over time; keeping weird unsociable hours and turning up at inconvenient moments like a door-to-door salesman.
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Unveiling Outfit
Unveilings are generally solemn afternoon ceremonies that reveal a statue or monument for the first time. Your Unveiling Outfit should be an appropriately respectful semi-formal or formal outfit.
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How to Effectively Manage Your Mental Clutter
As I was unpacking after my funeral trip, I realised it would take me a while to get back to normal mentally. I’d accumulated a lot of mental clutter leading up to the funeral trip, and it would be harder to sort out than unpacking a suitcase.
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April 2017 Progress Report
April 2017 turns out to be my “mense horribilis”. I mentioned in March that my mother was ill, and in April she passed away, which overtook everything else. You might want to give up, avoid this litany of misery/melodrama and pick up again in May when things have improved.
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Why Pigeonholing People is a Problem
It is human nature to classify things, most commonly into good and bad categories where they can be safely forgotten. But pigeonholing people can be problematic for you as well as the person you are classifying.
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In Memoriam Gwendoline Busby (1927 – 2017)
Gwendoline Busby (nee Dimes) was born in the East End of London in 1927. She survived the poverty of the Depression and bombing during the Second World War but never really got over her evacuation or the death of her youngest brother.
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How to Tell if You have Expensive Taste
There have been several recent instances where I have been identified as a person with expensive taste. It’s said with affection, but there is a definite moral judgement to the pronouncement.
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Why You Are Lost Without Your Family Photos
As you know, I have been making arrangements for my mother’s funeral, and I spent almost a whole day looking through family photos for pictures of her. They will be placed up large on a tv screen in the Chapel and small for the memorial card.
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How to Cope When Monotasking Goes Bad
I confess I am a monotasker, but right now, I’m struggling to cope as my monotasking goes bad. I prefer to do one thing at a time, generally until it’s done.
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The Perversity of the Business of Death
My mother’s last illness has reached its logical conclusion, and I am struggling to deal with the business of death.
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What Would Your Life Without Electricity Supply Be Like?
Our largest coal-fired power station recently closed, and the electricity supply is unreliable so, I’ve been considering modern life without electricity delivered to the house.
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Errand Outfit
In my recent wardrobe planning posts (Winter 2017 and Summer 2016) I mentioned my need for a Errand Outfit, and Jane reached to ask what that is.
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March 2017 Progress Report
March 2017 turns out to have been a big family month for me. My mother was ill, and I flew cross-country as you do when it seems like the end is near.
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2017 Winter Wardrobe Plan
The mornings are cool and dark, with recent storms, and summer time ends this weekend, so it’s time to think about my 2017 Winter Wardrobe Plan.
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The Melancholy of Ghosts Passing in the Night
I’m back at home, tired, jet lagged, and don’t fit into the Alexandria shaped hole I left behind. Feels like we’re all just ghosts passing in the night.
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How to Plan a Stress Free Emergency Trip
My 90-year-old mother has just come out of hospital, so tonight, after an emergency trip I am sitting in a hotel room in the town I grew up in.
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Picnic Dinner Party
We’re in the midst of seasonal change, so let’s do something different and have a Picnic Dinner Party while we can.
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First Aid for Old Injuries
I’ve been catching up on podcasts while catching trains, which led to the thought catching up on first aid for old injuries was a good idea.
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Picnic Outfit
We are united by the desire to enjoy the good weather, and one way to do this is to don your Picnic Outfit and head to the beach or a park for a picnic.
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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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February 2017 Progress Report
February 2017 feels like a momentous month, though I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s the HUGE number of ticks on the to-do list. And it has been a short month.
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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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Cat Lovers Dinner Party
Cat-loving Katy felt that if we could commemorate dogs, we should also celebrate cats with a Cat Lovers Dinner Party.
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Valentines Day Outfit
Today’s Valentines Day Outfit is something to wear on a dinner date rather than something to commemorate the Christian Saint Valentinus.
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January 2017 Progress Report
Is it just me, or did January 2017 disappear without a trace before it had even really begun? I was a little preoccupied with planning and website maintenance but it does seem rather unfair to have lived a month with so little to show for it.
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Dog Lovers Dinner Party
Katy mentioned that she was having a small commemoration for Fido’s passing, so today we’re having a Dog Lovers Dinner Party.
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Pride and Vulnerability
my desire for financial independence entails a reluctance to depend on my husband. I’ve been thinking a lot about pride and vulnerability since then.
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Fresh Start Outfit
Often at these times of transition, we change our hair and buy new clothes to symbolise the change. So today, we’re looking at a Fresh Start Outfit.
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Planning a Happy and Worthwhile 2017
Depending on who you listen to, a Worthwhile 2017 will either manage new beginnings and growth or endure greater turbulence and difficulty.
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2016 Year End Review
And now it’s time to look back and complete my 2016 Year End Review. It started with my 2015 virtues because I felt they continued to be a sound basis for a worthwhile life in 2016.
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December 2016 Progress Report
Looking back, December 2016 seems like a chaotic and ultimately futile scramble to get things done.
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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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Happy Holidays 2016!
Happy Holidays 2016. Twas Christmas week and there was chaos throughout the house…
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2016 Summer Wardrobe Update
I hadn’t intended to write a post detailing my 2016 Summer Wardrobe update, but you asked, so here it is.
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Impromptu Dinner Party
Now and again things happen, and you may need to host a dinner when you didn’t expect to. But that’s not to say that you can’t plan for an Impromptu Dinner Party.
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Regency Empire Line Outfit
When you hear the term “empire line outfit” (or dress), this is the sort of thing that is referred to; the signature style of Emperor Napoleon I’s first wife Joséphine de Beauharnais. Or, if you were English (and at war with France), it would be Regency style. (Think Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice). Though technically…
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November 2016 Progress Report
November 2016 was all about the flu. Which was a shame as I had planned to be all about NaNoWriMo, but spent most of the month coughing, and sneezing, and sleeping, and blowing my nose instead.
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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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Who is the Essence of Your Person, Role, and Identity?
I recently watched The Crown, and found the portrayal of the young Queen struggling to balance her person, role, and identity engrossing.
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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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Cough Cough Coughy Cough
I’ve had the direst couple of weeks because DB kindly brought me the latest flu doing the rounds and it seems that all I did was cough. Cough cough cough.
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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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NaNoWriMo Dinner Party
So, the key to a Stress Free NaNoWriMo Dinner Party is having everything under control before you start writing then you won’t have to think about it later.
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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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NaNoWriMo Outfit
You come home from work ready to get changed and settle down to get your 1,667 words down. What are you going to wear? Your NaNoWriMo Outfit!
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How to Eat Well and Save Money on Food
As I mentioned for my 2016 Transplantiversary, I’m hoping to make some significant lifestyle changes to get down to the hospital recommended weight. I’ve ordered new cookbooks to help! During my cookbook shopping, I found a review of Jamie Oliver’s Everyday Super Food, which dismissed it (1 star) because if you made the dishes as described…
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October 2016 Progress Report
October 2016 was a big month for getting my tax affairs in order and developing business administration systems to get my sh*t together for next year. It was more fun than it sounds.
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2016 Transplantiversary
Yesterday was my 2016 Transplantiversary. We’ve been together for five happy years now.
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Alexandria’s Adventure in Adventure
My October adventure was compiling my first business tax return, but I’m fairly confident no one wants to read about that. While I found it was almost as exhilarating and terrifying as learning a little coding, most of you won’t consider it the kind of bold and risky undertaking that we commonly think of as…
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Sleepy Hollow Dinner Party for Halloween
I’m writing this Sleepy Hollow Dinner Party a little ahead of time. Appropriately enough, a bloated full moon is resting low on the horizon providing almost (but not quite) enough creepy light to write by.
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The Feeling of Bliss…
The acutal, literal feeling of bliss you get when you’ve done something really hard. Like get your taxes done.
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2016 Summer Wardrobe Plan
Like many others, I’m starting to think about new season clothes. It’s time to plan out my 2016 summer wardrobe plan
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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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Signature Wardrobe Working from Home Outfit
One of the outfits that has vexed me for some time is a Working from Home Outfit. For me at least, it’s going to be similar to the outfit for office work, because that is essentially what I am doing.
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September 2016 Progress Report
September 2016 feels like a missing month. There was managing August fallout, physically as well as mentally. And that’s about it.
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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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Wealth Management for a Happy Retirement
The tender “winners” are an older couple in their sixties who can’t afford to retire, so they have started an office cleaning business. Instead of the happy retirement life of sun-seeking travel, relaxation, and comfort they had fondly imagined.
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I Fear it’s All Chaos; I Must Refocus
It seems I have been too scatterbrained recently; I must refocus.
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Pirates Dinner Party
Tomorrow (September 19) is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. While it’s Talk Like a Pirate Day, it’s as good a day as any to host a Pirates Dinner Party.
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Outfit for shopping
The weather is changing, the shops are selling off old stock, and you’re adapting your wardrobe for the new season. It’s time to plan an outfit for shopping.
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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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August 2016 Progress Report
August 2016 has not been my favourite month of all time. Things could have been a lot worse, and I have no right to complain about my first world problems, but I fervently hope that September is better.
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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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Day is Beginning
August’s Haiku is inspired by dawn, the start of a new day. I’ve noticed that each new day is beginning earlier and earlier.
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Apocalypse Survivors Dinner Party
Our Apocalypse Survivors Dinner Party has to be the kind of food we could get knocking over abandoned supermarkets, and that’s not going to last long.
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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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Elvis Tribute Outfit
Elvis Presley died 16 August 1977, and today is the start of the annual Elvis Week in Memphis Tennessee. People dress in their Elvis Tribute Outfits, and take part in an
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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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July 2016 Progress Report
July 2016 was another backwards and forwards month with nothing to show for it. It feels like yesterday I was reviewing June and nothing has 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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Deliberations on Luxury
With the research for my new book Holistic Personal Finance progressing nicely, I’ve been thinking about luxury. Partly inspired by the old guy who just paid $55 for a packet of cigarettes (I believe they were about $15 when I quit), but more particularly luxury in food.
