Conversation that sums up how I feel about the word "hipster".

J1: That cafe is really popular now.

J2: It always was popular because of the doctors and people from the hospital.

J1: Well now it's trendy and has hipsters. Ugh I hate using that word but I mean cool young people who aren't working.

Being frugal on the bus.

I use travel 10s. I walk as often as I can, partly to save money and partly because I just generally walk as much as I can. I rarely use a MyBus 1 at all. I walk a MyBus 2 distance once or twice a week, so I usually manage to carry my MyBus 2 travel 10 over into the next week.

When the opal card comes in the cost works out differently. You get 8 rides at the full price ($3.50 each) and then any trips after that are free until the end of the week (cos it's capped at $28p/w for the MyBus 2 distance). So it won't save me money if I walk once a week, in fact if I walk I'm increasing the cost per trip. That's bad. I'll be able to get better value by taking as many bus trips as I can. To bring the cost under $28 a week I'd have to walk to work 3 times and then anywhere else I go on top of that as well. I've thought of one sneaky trick though, to go a MyBus 3 distance such as city to Maroubra I can get off half way (eg Kingsford) and get on the next bus to come along (they are very frequent), which makes two free bus trips instead of one paid trip.

Things I always do before I go away.

Eat the perishable food in the fridge.
Wash clothes so I have the full range to pack from and clean things when I come back.

Beach hair.

Swimming wrecks my hair. I need to find some cunning trick for salty water. Before I swim in a chlorine pool I've found that if I wet my hair in fresh water first, the chlorine doesn't soak in. So maybe that works for salt water too, or there's some other trick. Some have suggested putting conditioner in.

Anyway if I'm going to swim a couple of days in a row, there's no point washing my hair properly. I'll just give it a water rinse, because salt water doesn't dry at all. But it still keeps that salty stickiness which makes it hard to work with, and gets tangled very easily. I have found that once I do get it into a bun the salty tangles hold it together in a nice loose-looking casual bun. I'm treating it like a styling product rather than a problem.

Faking it

Whenever I feel unsure or insecure about something, I think, "What would a secure person do?" Then I do that.

Remember your own face.

Now I have BB creams it's been a long time since I have gone outside without one, mainly for the sunscreen factor. When I look in the mirror in the morning now though my natural skin is starting to surprise me with its uneven tone and light freckling and pores, and I never used to think it was that bad. I've just got accustomed to my BB face, and now my clean face is becoming a slightly disappointing surprise. I can see why some women describe their make-up routine as "putting their face on" because the make-up face is the face they are used to seeing in the mirror, and the clean face is unfamiliar. I must be honest with myself. It's kind of like Elsie's thing about not wearing makeup to church, because she wants people to see her as she really is. It's not a big deal, make-up or not, but it's good to like yourself as you are and face your fears. Haha pun.

Enclothed cognition

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/12/psychology-of-lululemon-how-fashion-affects-fitness/281959/

Half of this article is very good, the rest is about something called Lululemon. But I find the connection between the outside of the person and inside of the person very interesting. Lab coats make you smarter and workout clothes make you more energetic.

On parenting.

Several years ago when I went to church at the Cathedral in the CBD one of our pastors recommended this talk by Tim Keller called "It takes a city to raise a child". I found it very fascinating. A lot here about singles and their part in the church family.

http://sermons.redeemer.com/store/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_ID=26

Spotlight.

Spotlight is terrible. So is Lincraft. But on Saturday, while standing obediently at a queue point which was actually not being served, I had time to reflect on the terrible retail experience that is a large craft shop, and I realised that it is in fact an accurate representation of craft itself. A place where creative ambition comes and meets reality. A lot of potential, but infinitely more disorganisation and mess.