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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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Wardrobe Planning 1935 style
Today’s advice about wardrobe planning 1935 style comes from a college textbook I discovered during my book research.
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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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Mythic Hero Quest
I recently watched yet another gripping episode of Game of Thrones and it got me thinking about the mythic hero quest.
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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…
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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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Your Clothing Shopper Responsibilities
I’m going to share the Author’s thoughts about clothing shopper responsibilities the responsibilities of wardrobe shopping. Some are still surprisingly relevant today and looking back some are strangely prescient
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Dealing with Aging Parents
We just got home from a mad dash back to the town we grew up in, 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 them.
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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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Titanic Second Class (Intermediate) Dinner Party
After the beginners dinner, today I’m looking at people more comfortable cooking and hosting dinners. It’s a Titanic Second Class (intermediate) Dinner Party.
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The Benefit of Clothing Budgets
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 on clothing budgets and buying clothes.
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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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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…
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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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Would You Sell Your Soul?
After a Supernatual marathon I’ve been thinking about what people do when they really want something. Sell your soul or do the work?
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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.
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Why Wardrobe Plans are Valuable
The key wardrobe plan problem is building this year’s wardrobe around last year’s clothes (not lack of funds). I think this may be…
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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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Titanic Third Class (Beginners) Dinner Party
My book makes mention of a Titanic-themed dinner party, and with the anniversary of its sinking being today (15 April 1912), I’ll start with a Titanic Third Class Dinner Party for beginners.
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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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March 2015 Progress Report
I can’t believe that March 2015 has been and gone already it seems only a few days since the February Progress Report.
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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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More String Theory
I was having so much fun with the Fates that I wanted to talk about more string theory; last time was old old school mythology so why not go ultra modern this time with the cutting edge of physics theory.
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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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February 2015 Progress Report
February 2015 was a kind of up and down month. It’s hard bedding new habits down.
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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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Life is Like a River
I was thinking that in metaphorical terms, my life is like a river flowing from birth to death (I’m staying away from what happens next for the time being).
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Short List of Annoyingly Long Productivity Suggestions
This time of year is productivity central. Annoying productivity suggestions in the form of lists of tips and hacks and apps are coming in thick and fast. I mean really…
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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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Perfidy of Modern Life
I am exercised today by the perfidy of modern life. That whole “We can get a man on the moon, but we can’t do x.” kind of thing.
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Ten Ways to Make Guests Turn Up for Your Dinner Parties
Most people want to know how to make guests turn up. They are a great deal more interested in this than making them leave at the end of the party.
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How to Manage Employment Misery
After hearing about some of Toseland’s workplace issues this morning I wondered whether I might in fact, be the lucky one. No employment misery.
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How to Manage Unemployment Misery
I’ve talked before about the perils of long-term unemployment, and full-time unemployment (and unemployment misery) continues to rise…
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5 Life Lessons Confirmed Through Painting
We’ve had some warmer days so I’ve been taking a break from the garden and catching up on some inside work instead. And learning 5 life lessons while I’m at it.
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January 2015 Progress Report
January 2015; first month of the year, and first month of the new Project Worthwhile Life.
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Me and Melbourne are Friends Again
As you know, I was quite sad to lose my feeling of kinship with the city. So I am really very happy to tell you that me and Melbourne are back on! Perhaps it was just been that kind of melancholic can’t find a thing to buy feeling – do you get that too? Sometimes having a firm…
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When Shopping in Melbourne
So today I went into Melbourne to do a bit of shopping and meet Katy for lunch. That sounds very grand doesn’t it?
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About Australia Day
Today (26 January) is my national day; Australia Day. On this day in 1788, our first Governor Captain Arthur Phillip arrived in Sydney Cove with the First Fleet to establish the first British Penal Colony.
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Today, on Rabbie Burns Night…
For those who aren’t Scottish and don’t know, today (January 25) is Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759 – 1796) birthday. Or Rabbie Burns night if you are.
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The Dread of Domestic Duties
You might recall that when I first brought home into the virtue of beauty framework, the goal was a comfortable, happy, cheerful, welcoming and calm home that reflects who we are right now. Odd now that I think of it, that I didn’t include healthy given my circumstances. Not to worry, I don’t live in a hospital thank…
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How to Make the Perfect Pizza
One of the rare pleasures of unemployment is the time you can spare to make “real” food. Today, it’s the perfect pizza.
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Could You Do Fashion On a Budget?
I spent too much on clothes – most of them mistakes, and I still had nothing to wear! I needed a system to procure fashion on a budget.
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Amazingly Unlikely Birth and Death
As you know, I’m working in the garden. Observing birth and death, but mainly just weeding the last few days… Which led to the appalling discovery that I can’t see well enough to weed properly without my “reading” glasses. Might need to get some prescription sunglasses made up for just that purpose… Anyway, I found a pansy…
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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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Who are the Home Grown Heroes of My Beautiful Garden?
When I first laid out my garden vision, I mentioned a need to develop habitats for native species – my home grown heroes.
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How to Look Like you Know What You’re Doing
Dressing to look like you know what you’re doing is why we dress appropriately for our circumstances, isn’t it?
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Virtue of Wealth
Cut and dried, the virtue of wealth is all about money (or maybe goods in lieu). It’s about being able to pay the mortgage and put food on the table. And not just for the now, I need to ensure there is money for the future too.
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What Wisdom?
What wisdom? I see it as a very practical kind of everyday thinking. A little book learning, the capacity to read a situation and the ability to use that information to make a wise decision.
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The Virtue of Wisdom
So, wisdom huh? Not just nous, but a bit of book smarts too. A little something to have my back when I am out in the trenches defending my point of view.
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Virtue of Pleasure
When I talk about excellence in pleasure, I’m not talking debauched sensual pleasures, fun though that sounds. I’m thinking about the satisfaction that comes from overcoming obstacles.
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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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The Wisdom of Choice
Today I am taking a quick detour to talk about expectations, reactions and the wisdom of choice (or free will).
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Virtue of Friendship; Family
At one end fo the continuum, a family is held together by duty, and the other by love. For one Christmas is rules and obligations, the other a good fun catch up. The child serves the parents, or the parents the child.
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Virtue of Friendship; Friends
You can have a lot of friends, (some might be animals or relatives, and some not), but only about 10% off them will be special enough to be besties.
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Virtue of Friendship; Creatures
I believe you can have friendships with two different kinds of creatures; your companion animals and wild animals.
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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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Virtue of Beauty; a Beautiful Garden
My initial thoughts on a beautiful garden were lush flowers, abundant produce, weather protection and mystical threshold. It also has habitats for “wild” native and domesticated creatures. That sounds quite small and simple, but in fact it’s HUGE!!!
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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!
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Virtue of Beauty; a beautiful home
For me, a beautiful home is a functional home that works well. I said I wanted a happy home that was small and comfortable. I went so far as to say it would NOT be full of relics from bygone times, and might even be Spartan.
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Virtue of Beauty; a Beautiful Presence
Your authentic self is initially seen through personal presentation – your beautiful presence; your clothes, hair and makeup.
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Virtue of Beauty; a Beautiful Body
We would probably all agree that, in general, a beautiful body is a fit and healthy body the result of good diet, exercise and sleeping habits.
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Project Life Worth Living
I’m trying to decide what makes a life worth living, and for me, this takes place in an ideal universe. And this ideal universe is organised by virtues (though some others might call them values). They’re half decision-making process and half goals.
