Winter wardrobe efficiency.

My winter uniform.

I've found the only outfit I need during winter. Jeans, brown boots over the top, any dark skivvy or jumper presentable enough for the office, plus a scarf and my grey wool jacket for being outside. It's practical, warm, nothing falls down or rides up or blows around in the wind, it's neutral colour-wise (without being all black). I can, and do, wear it all week.

I follow the uniform pretty rigidly, but I can vary from this outfit only one way at a time: like, I can wear a different coat occasionally—Blue Blanket Cape gets a wear. Or once a week I can possibly wear a long skirt and leggings instead of jeans. Or I can add a hat. But if I change more than one thing, I invariably end up badly dressed. So I've pretty much given up on fashion creativity, I'm going to stick with my winter uniform.

An extra advantage of a 'uniform' is that I can get dressed really quickly in the morning, without getting cold while changing my mind.

Why I need to CULTIVATE contentment.

What My Son's Disabilities Taught Me About 'Having It All' - The Atlantic

Should I use the box cutlery?

I received a set of Maxwell and Williams cutlery from my parents for a present a few years ago. So I kept it in the box. I recently decided that I should have it handy for visitors, rather than in the top of my wardrobe, so I sewed bags and now keep them in the bottom kitchen drawer. My parents still keep theirs in the box, and get out the "box cutlery" on special occasions, but they don't have a very high standard. If you don't live there, you get the "box cutlery". If you live there, it's red plastic handles. That's pretty much how I've operated. If you are a visitor, I get out the nice set, if it's me or K it's yucky plastic handles.

But, what am I saving them for? I love the ad (which I cant find on youtube) for tea that is about not saving stuff for special occasions but making ordinary life special. I believe that. I try not to put things away anymore for some perfect future when I am married or have a really nice house or both. I might as well enjoy where I am and where I will be for the foreseeable future. So I've been working my way up to throwing out the yucky cheap cutlery and using the good set every day. Or at least, half the set, and keep some in the bags still because I don't want to waste the bags now.

And as a friend pointed out, unused cutlery will only go out of fashion anyway. I didn't think of that in relation to cutlery, only clothes, but it's true. I know a 70s steak knife when I see it. So that cliches that. Tonight is the night.

The secret of the challenge.

How exciting and mysterious is that title! Point made.

I'm currently doing a "don't buy clothes until the end of the year" challenge. It's not really about saving money for 6 months, it's about wardrobe efficiency. I want to refine my wardrobe over a few seasons so that in future I only buy what I need, and no longer end up with things I don't wear. Partly inspired by living out of a suitcase for several weeks, but also by Soph's post (see point 2) and by the women who have done things like only wear blue jeans and black tshirts all year. I've wanted to do something like that for ages.

You may have noticed that I do a lot of 'challenges'. This is why:

• A change is as good as a holiday. I get bored with routine sometimes, and changing things around for a little while is refreshing.
• A 'challenge' is a positive and exciting thing. It's more fun than just doing something hard. 'No clothes shopping' is not fun. But a 'wardrobe discipline challenge' is cool. It's way to spin a positive out of something that you might have to do (save money or eat less chocolate) which would otherwise be tiresome.
• A challenge usually comes with an end date. I do 'one month no chocolate' or 'one month no supermarkets' so I know it's only for a little while. It might hopefully be long enough to change my habits, but at least it's doable because there is an end date.

What ABOUT internet dating?

A recent post on Challies about online prospecting. I haven't thought that much about it, other than to decide that for me, now, I'm not comfortable with going there. (But I'm not comfortable with anything romantic; even if Captain Wentworth himself said he wanted to have coffee with me I would be awkward.) Online match-making is a thing, to be sure. I was bridesmaid for such a wedding last year. But I haven't come across any Christian discussion on the wisdom of it, and my own conversations with friends have been more wondering than useful. None of us disapproves of it but there is some speculation and confusion. Challies doesn't have much to say either, just some generalities, but the first comment there is rather excellent and readworthy for some helpful specifics to consider.

The power of Jillian.

As a few more people have started doing Jillian, and it's almost like a virtual gym class now*, I've noticed something. We tend to talk about Jillian as though she watches over us, and her words come out of our mouths, and we are empowered by her. It's really noticeable how we talk about Jillian. She is practically a cult leader. One long-term Jillianer has recently introduced Jillian to her mum. Even this sensible grown-up lady was texting that "Jillian would scold!". Jillian is a projection of our conscience and the voice of our will-power.

* Is anyone interested in some kind of online group where we can schedule workouts and tick them off when they are completed? I am more motivated when I am accountable and encouraged by others. Don't know if one exists. And we do it verbally anyway.

Bag-free.

I traveled to work this morning with NO BAG. Only my wallet, keys, phone and ipod in my jacket pockets. My wallet and phone are pretty small. I can still fit my hands in as well. I really like being bagless, it feels so fancy-free.

The things I can't fit in my pockets, that I have to carry in a bag when I need them are:

• diary
• lunch
• ipad

But I'm going to try and go bagless as much as possible. No bag is:

• lighter,
• better for your back,
• doesn't clash with your outfit (but outfit needs pockets).

I've always liked a minimalist wallet/purse. I generally avoid loyalty cards. My purse usually just has money, change, bus tickets, a debit card, and a drivers license. I've actually removed all the cards I rarely use, such as medicare, into a small ziplock bag. I saw an woman at church once pull out a plastic curtain ring filled with loyalty cards with holes punched in the corner. If I was going to do Flybuys and Spotlight VIP in a big way, a curtain ring is a cool solution.

http://au.bellroy.com/pages/slim-your-wallet has a whole guide to having a small light wallet. They obviously fancy their own wallet designs as solutions to the problem. I like the thought they put into it though.

Hydrating winter skin - Part 2

I've become very determined in my quest to treat my dry facial skin. I came across this Guardian article on products for dehydrated skin and it recommended glycerin and hyaluronic acid. I don't know why, but I ignored the glycerin and started looking for products with hyaluronic acid.

I remember seeing products in Daiso, Chatswood, that contained hyaluronic acid. I went to a Daiso outlet in the city, but couldn't see any of the products I saw in the Chatswood one. I did come across an Etude House face mask from an Asian beauty store. So I bought one to try.

I also remembered that I recently used a sample of an Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream and it didn't sting my face at all. So I checked out their Eight Hour Cream Skin Protectant Fragrance Free. I looked at the ingredients listing and realised it was just glorified Vaseline. I tried a sample and was really happy that it didn't sting my skin. But if it's just glorified Vaseline, then why don't I use Vaseline or the paw paw balm (similar in texture, also enriched with various oils) that I already have?

Anyway, I found that I could get the Elizabeth Arden product for quite a reasonable price online, so I've ordered one.



There is a Japanese drugstore brand called Hado Labo, which has products containing that h-acid. I will ask my sister to grab a couple of products for me. Apparently, some of the products in Aldi's skin care range also contain the h-acid.

So my new routine will be to use the rosehip oil twice a day, and applying the Elizabeth Arden protectant as needed.

Home Decor.

These are my new doilies, 4 for $3. I soaked them in napisan, and now drying them. I'm not sure what I will do with them, but I can't resist buying them.

Also in the picture is my new strategy for organising the messiest part of the kitchen. Bench space is so limited that the freezer (which is turned off and used as storage for TV plugs and vacuum cleaner nozzles) is about 1/4 of our bench space. It's the section with pens, shopping lists, garlic bulbs, and things that haven't made it into the cupboards yet. It is the section with the mess. I had an idea to get some storage drawers to put it all in. But then I remembered I've got this paintbox I made when I used to go to a craft group and do oil painting. I designed it myself. It's almost been thrown out several times, because it is so useless and ungainly. I recently painted it with leftover white bookshelf paint, so it looks rather Swedish now. I thought, I'll give it a go as a bench tidy. I'm putting some unused white coffee cups in one section to hold pens etc. It's really good, so far! I love that I have used something I thought was useless to conquer a really annoying area and make it usable.

TV has died.

Seasons have finaled. Crap has premiered (fortunately I was rewatching season finales and missed out). I'm going to have to find something else to do at night. Maybe read books or something.

Hydrating winter skin

How does winter treat your skin? It makes my face go crazy-dry. I get dry patches around my face and dry, red ones around my eyes. I experienced the same problem when I went over to Tokyo during their most recent winter.

I wasn't sure if it meant I should start using an eye cream, and I didn't really want to step into the world of eye creams: there are so many out there, how do I pick an effective, reasonably priced product?

After doing a bit of research online, I decided to give organic rosehip oil a go. It's meant to be a really amazing product, according to Zoe Foster, a former beauty editor. Lots of people rave about it. There are some great brands you can get at the chemist, including Trilogy and Natio. I ended up buying A'kin because it came with a dropper, which means it's easier to control how much you use, and it was two-for-the-price-of-one...win!

I'm pretty happy with it: it's reasonably priced and is a simple product. I like that it's an organic oil: sounds a lot less complicated than an eye cream or serum.

My skin actually got even drier after a few days of using the rose hip oil (although my cheeks felt very smooth), so I decided to look for a moisturiser to wear on top. I tried some of my mum's Lancôme cream, and it stung my face like crazy :( I also didn't like that it was in a jar. I think moisturisers in jars are less hygienic because you dip your fingers into the product and it gets exposed to air.

I decided to give Avène's Skin Recovery Cream a go, to wear on top of the rosehip oil. It did sting a little bit around the eyes. I don't why I just didn't stick to sorbelene to begin with.

My regular face moisturiser is Redwin Light Facial Moisturiser.

So here's my current battle plan for dry, winter skin:

Mornings
Cleanse as per usual.
Apply rosehip oil.
Apply sunscreen.

Throughout the day
Apply Avène cream as needed.

Nights
Cleanse as per usual.
Apply rosehip oil. Let it soak in for a while and apply Avène or Redwin afterwards. Unfortnately, the moisturiser stings, but the rosehip oil doesn't.

Seems to be working so far!

So what's your battle plan for dry skin? Are you on the rosehip oil bandwagon?

Warm fuzzy feeling.

An email from Myer.

They miss me! Awww! I'm so glad they noticed! Because I've been working really hard at not going there, and saving my money. They actually miss me. I feel validated as a non-shopper!

Chocolate | Cheese.

My latest "Eat Less Chocolate" rule is not to buy blocks of chocolate any more. It's a fairly easy rule to follow. I can buy a single chocolate bar if I want one, but not 200g. Its a good system actually. I applied it to chips as well, when I had such a strong craving one night that I had to walk up to the shops, but I only bought a single serve package, not a big bag. Got my monthly chip hit, no leftovers to eat the next night.

Maybe as a result, or a distraction, from eating less chocolate, I seem to have swapped chocolate for cheese. There are so many nice cheeses! A square inch of cheese goes a lot further than a square inch of chocolate, so hopefully I am eating less fat overall. Possibly.

I am currently enamoured of the packaging of this new brand of cheese, Great Ocean Road. It really stands out on the supermarket shelf. It's just a sandwich cheese, not a fun cheese, but it looks special. 

The other cheese there is a fancy one, it is balls of fetta covered in dukka and swimming in olive oil. Goes well with bread and grilled vegetables and olives.

Inevitable collision.

I walk through the city every day, and cross Elizabeth Sstreet, which no matter where you cross it is the longest and most frustrating intersection ever. You can SEE your bus just on the other side! Wait wait wait. Green man!

Anyway, I've noticed an interesting phenomenon. When you cross the street amid a croup of people against another group of people coming the other way, it looks like everyone will bump into each other, but we all magically weave through. When I'm crossing alone, though, and I realise there is someone coming the other way and one of us needs to change path, it's awkward and personal and extremely risky.

Weekly shop.

I used to walk home from work with a backpack and pick up whatever I needed whenever I needed it from cheap Kingsford, or Randwick Coles. My routine has totally changed this year, and now when I get off a packed bus at night the last thing I want to do is dive into a crowded supermarket for dinner. So I've started shopping on the weekend, when I am much calmer. I actually enjoy the routine of sitting down with a pen and paper, and deciding what I will eat for lunches and what I will cook for dinner (I just eat the same thing every day for a week, so it's not hard), write it down, and then go and buy it on Saturday or Sunday morning. It's sunny and peaceful. Then I have almost everything I need for one week. I feel very Proverbs 31. I do sometimes go to the shops anyway for milk or chocolate, but it's a relief that I never come home on a Monday night and try and decide what to buy and eat, cos now the fridge is full and the plan is made.

Photo Finish.

It's a good show. A really simple concept, presented efficiently. I could imagine friends of mine going on it. While it's not really that interesting watching people hold cameras to their faces and squat down, the photographic results are edited in so you see through their cameras as well. It makes me keen to take photography a little bit more seriously. Which I never get an equivalent cooking motivation after watching Masterchef. Probably the best thing about the show though is that it is stripped back. It doesn't try and build hype or drama like cooking and singing shows do. Nobody is on a journey. It's just "here's the brief, here are your cameras, good luck". Andrew G, who used to host Idol, has hardly any hosting to do, and certainly never cuts to an ad break before revealing the final 3. He just says useful things about how to take better photos, and he actually knows what he's talking about. So overall, I'm impressed.  It's niche TV, smartly done, and probably the least annoying reality show ever made.

Just odd.

Today, big news on smh, a restaurant is shutting down. Not because of lack of customers, apparently, but because not enough customers are finishing their dinner or taking the leftovers home in their own tupperware. I totally love her policy! I have brought my own containers to Eat Street many times! It discourages food wastage and plastic takeaway container wastage. I also love that she is so tough that she would rather shut down than be flexible. I would never open a restaurant, but this is what would happen if I did. I want to be a scary person who forces people to not waste food or else go away. You waste her food, you waste her time and your money. If only more people shared her/my views. Well done for trying, anyway.

Cherry Dilemmas.

I'm not sure who Cherry is, but she does some interesting TV programs. Basically she gets alongside different women and talks to them about why they live the way they do, and goes along with them, a different topic each week. I saw one on dating, it was painfully honest about how hard it is to date until you find a husband—one woman was shallow and wouldn't settle for imperfection, another woman had a short life expectancy but didn't want to give up and die single. It was all kind of sad, and made me glad I have more to live for than getting married. Then I missed a few weeks. Then I saw one on body image. Then one, Money Dilemmas, which is on iview for another 2 days, and the variety of women is again the most interesting thing. The millionairess is boring. The other women are fascinating. Marry for money, riches to rags, freegan, and poverty-line. I had no idea that money shapes people so much, until they're compared up close.

http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/view/853053

Fish markets.

A very Sydney thing was done on the weekend. I went to the Sydney Fish Markets for lunch. They are famous and somewhat trendy, actually they are a tourist attraction. I've always wanted to see what they are like. Long time passer-by, first time visitor.

Firstly, Saturday lunch is a rubbish time to get parking anywhere, let alone Pyrmont, let alone the fish markets. But it can be done.

Secondly, Saturday lunch is also a rubbish time to get seating there. It's kind of stressful figuring out what to get and then where to take it.

But once those hurdles are crossed, the fish was affordable, and tasty, although no lemon slices were provided. No lemon? From Doyles at the SFM? I expected more.

I personally wouldn't go back to eat there for Saturday lunch, cos it's just a grotty fishy food court on the water. Amazing that so many people in Audis want to go there, maybe they want to feel gritty. Although I don't think it should ever go fancy, because then it would be a luxury parody of a fish market. Like the "farmers markets" all over the place. They are the total opposite of the Newcastle fruit and veg markets my mum got our food from when I was young, which was a dark and scary warehouse with concrete floors, palettes of cardboard boxes, squashed fruit underfoot. I didn't like it much. But I say keep it authentic, fishy and grotty, and I won't go and eat there. I'll go to proper cafes and stuff. However, aside from a place to eat I would rather recommend it as a place to shop, to buy really fresh fish and produce in a bustling nonColes/Woolies marketplace to take home and cook. Personally, I'll shop closer to home, but if I lived near the fish markets I'd shop there.

Three years

I've noticed that a lot of my close friend are either 3+ years older than me or 3 years younger than me. What is it about the 3 year mark?

Tangent: on jelssie, we have the labels "ponderings" and "musings". I wonder what the difference is between the two?

Jumpers and thermals

So the other day, I was running around, buying jumpers to wear on top of shirts for work when I realised, "Hey, why don't I just buy thermals to wear under my work shirts? Cheaper than jumpers and I don't have to worry about co-coordinating colours on the outside."

Still, good to have both jumpers and thermals: more options and more warmth!

More on clothes shopping.

Elsie's recent shopping post and my own situation have made me realise that we have have "grown up" as far as shopping goes. We must have grown out of the sort of shopping I remember as a teenager: a big excursion to the shops with friends, browsing, buying, comparing. Now it's all about efficiency. Elsie has her backwards approach—she looks online, then targets the things she wants in the shops she likes. (Backwards because often shoppers admit that they look in shops then find a better price online). Similarly, I have also narrowed down my shopping to 2 or 3 stores, plus Myer if I have the time. No longer am I excited to go to every shop in Westfield. I rarely shop with a friend or a group. It's a cruel irony, that when I had no money shopping was exciting. Now I have a job and proper adult money and independence, but the thing I like about shopping is that I know what I want and how to access it efficiently. New clothes are always fun though.

In praise of canned soup

I cannot praise canned soup enough! In the past, I've made my own soups, but if you want a quick and easy dinner, canned soups are tops. The other night, I had a can of chicken noodle soup and I added shredded, poached chicken thigh fillet, steamed asparagus and lots of cracked black pepper. Perfect for a winter's night.

Effecient clothes shopping

I can't believe it's taken me this long to work out such an efficient method of clothes shopping. I guess it's because I've never really needed to build this type of work wardrobe before.

My old method would be to trawl store after store looking for something suitable. I didn't particularly enjoy it, and would avoid going shopping for clothes, unless I really had to.

Eventually, I worked out my go-to brands. My top two are are Saba and Oxford. Both of them do really good work shirts, have very good sales and if I'm pressed for time, I'll just pop into those two.  David Lawrence is a distant third, only because there's nothing really suitable for me this season, but I have picked up some very good sales from them in the past. If those options aren't working for me or I have a bit more time, I'll check out Myer, Cue, Jigsaw and Review.

My new method is to hop online and check out each brand's collection. That way you can see the entire range (not every store will have every item), see what's suitable, prices and what's on sale. So much easier than trawling through each store, and allows for easy comparison of product and price.

I still prefer to try things on and buy instore, so I'll then write down a list of what I want and head to the stores. If things are on sale, I'll ring up ahead and see if they have stock in my size (why waste time going to the shop, only to find out they don't have your size left?). If they do, and I really want it, I ask them to hold it for me. Generally, stores will say they don't hold sale items, but experience has told me they will ;)

Much more efficient!

Mistake out loud.

While walking from the bus to the office this morning I realised I had spoken out lout to myself. I said "Such a mistake!", oops, then I checked if anyone would have heard me, and there was a man very close behind with no headphones. I wonder if he was intrigued. I would have been, if I'd heard someone say something like that out of nowhere. What was a mistake? Other than talking to nobody? How odd.

The answer is mundane: I didn't wear a scarf this morning, because I felt like a change, and it was more super cold than normal. My neck was really cold. I should have worn a scarf, "such a mistake".

Morning routine

What's your morning routine like? It takes me an hour to get ready in the morning, and I divide my time into 15 minute blocks.

First block: Shower
Second block: Get dressed
Third block: Eat breakfast
Fourth block: Clean teeth and apply make-up.

It's the only way I know if I'm running late or ahead of schedule: what am I doing vs which block of time am I in?

Snoff.

That is a word I invented this week. It is a the opposite of a sniff. It is not as much as when you blow your nose, it is safe to not have a hanky or tissue. I can't be blowing my nose every 5 minutes, but I do need oxygen. It's just a gentle outwards sniff. Just a snoff, to try and create an air tunnel through your stuffed-up nose, for breathing. The word is a lot prettier than the sound it describes, though.

Cleaning with sorbelene

Did you know you can clean your hands with sorbelene? Well, it depends on what kind of dirty your hands are, but the other day, I noticed black marks all over my hands. It came from the shopping bag I was holding. I rubbed it with sorbelene, wiped the excess off with a tissue and my hands were clean. It's a great way of cleaning those kinds of marks off your hands, especially if your hands are dry and sensitive like mine.

Lose lose

With my last last top, I had used it so much that eventually, the lettering on the keyboard faded away. I decided to prevent that with my new laptop and bought a silicone cover for the keyboard.

As you can see, if I use the silicone cover to protect my keyboard, it leaves grubby marks on my screen when I close my laptop. Lose lose.


Of course, I can remove the keyboard cover when I shut my laptop or do a number of other things, but then that would make my point redundant.

Lights, power, action.

Changing lightbulbs is annoying and inconvenient and I put it off as long as possible. Me and my flatmate have been using the bathroom with a torch for 2 days, because it's such a nuisance to change: get a thing to stand on, (normally remove the light cover except that I left it off last time for efficiency), remove a lightbulb correctly (unscrew the screw one, unlock the bayonet one, not the other way around, as you can damage our old wiring), see if we have the right type of light bulb under the sink, if not—put new light bulb on a shopping list (current state of affairs), buy new light bulb, get a thing to stand on again, replace light bulb. I had a mini temper tantrum last night and kicked the bathroom door to release my frustration.

On the other hand... one of the small things I am proud of is knowing how to flip the switch in the box in the kitchen and get the magical electricity to be on again. It's invaluable to know that when you hear a pop and everything goes quiet or dark, you don't panic, or call a professional, or eat ice-cream for dinner. You know where the switch is, and you confidently flip it. It makes me feel so capable. It's not an obvious thing everyone knows, and it's not a thing that my parents taught me when I was home schooled. I somehow learned it myself in the real world.

Retailing in the internet age

A lot of the traditional bricks and mortars retailers in Australia have been finding it tough in the age of online shopping. They've been slow to jump on the online retailing bandwagon (e.g. Harvey Norman) and their profits have suffered as consumers search for better bargains online.

If you're happy to save money and wait a little bit longer to receive your product, why wouldn't you shop online? I was looking at a watch that retailed for $200 at David Jones and I found it on Amazon for around $60.

The truth is, retailers cannot compete on price alone. The internet will win nearly every time. You only need to look at the price of cosmetics in the major department store and compare them to their US prices.

One major way for bricks and mortars retailers to fight back is to offer something the internet can't: a particular kind of service. Benefit Cosmetics is a particularly good example of this (though the example might be somewhat flawed). Why pay inflated Aussie prices for Benefit Cosmetics when you can buy them cheaper online overseas? Instead, in opening a brow bar, they're providing a service for people that the internet cannot. They're also ensuring their income doesn't rest solely on their products alone. I'm pretty sure they do quite well with the brow bar.

Also, David Jones and Myer offer personal shopping. A few months ago, I came across it at DJs and asked about it. The personal shopper explained that it was a free service, you tell them what you're looking for, they find it for you on that floor, and you get to try the outfits they pick out for you in a really nice room (not your typical changeroom) with a glass of champers to boot. The smart thing is that DJs put this service on the floor where the clothes are more expensive than the floor below.

The globalisation of pop music

I caught a bit of PopAsia on SBS the other morning, and it got me thinking about the globalisation of pop music. I look at the clips and they don't seem that much different to Western pop music. My impression from watching the show is that there's a lot less solo artists and more groups.

As in Western pop, the Asian pop stars are also ridiculously thin and good-looking. The music sounds the same. It's hard to pinpoint what defines Asian pop, other than it's in an Asian language and the singers are Asian. There's lots of dancing and acting in the video clips, but that's the same for Western pop as well.

It's interesting to see how Asian beauty ideals differ from Western beauty ideals. The men are very lean, very pale and have very luminous skin. Western ideals dictate a more muscular build and a more tanned complexion.

Let me segue into this Bollywood song that's been stuck in my head ever since I saw Dhoom 2 (highly recommended) two weeks. It's a pop cultural masterpiece: the leads are ridiculously good-looking, the dancing is infectious and energetic, and the acting is dramatic and over-the-top. This song, Dhoom Again, is the lead track from Dhoom 2.  Love it.

What I did on my sick day.

Home with a nose and throat cold, I managed to achieve the following 3 gentle activities.

I machine-washed a dusty blanket and hung it on the line outside. Because it was a sunny day! I then rested by lying on the concrete in the sun under the washing line, because that is the only sun my place gets.

I cleaned mould out of the bathroom cabinet. This is part of my Spot Cleaning Regime, i've started noticing that there are lots of annoying jobs that only take 10 minutes to do, but get put off forever. Things like culling the utensils in the second kitchen drawer. Very satisfying once done, and utensils are more efficiently stored. In this case, emptying the bathroom cabinet, wiping it clean, and putting the good stuff back in. Followed by resting in the sun under the washing line again.

Finally, and I am very proud of this, I did my filing. It took a while but it was a sitting down job. I made a cup of tea, got out my black expandafile and all the bank statements and important papers that were piling up next to it, and filed. I threw out old statements, filed new ones, threw out old warrenties, filed new ones, and collected the papers and receipts to do my taxes. I am ready to do my tax BEFORE the end of the financial year! I also have a handful of paper to take to medicare, so I will make some monies out of the exercise.

What a sense of accomplishment! I still feel sick but I feel a lot more in control of my life.

Brows

I am not one of those people who can groom their own eyebrows. I just can't. I don't have the skills. So I usually go and find someone to do them for me. I've had them waxed, tweezed and threaded. Let me share my experience with you:

Curious Hair, Maroubra
In my humble opinion, this is the best place to get your brows done. Tweezed into a nice shape for about $15-$20. Unfortunately, this place is no longer around the corner from me, so I've had to go elsewhere. The only con is that you do your brows in the shop front, so you are visible to passerbys.

Threading
There's a place in Chatswood called Weena Skin Care Centre, and near her is another threader. I've also seen someone at the Kirribilli General Markets offer threading services for $10. I had my brows threaded for a while, but I've decided to stop going because I didn't like the end result of my last threading and I find it the most painful form of eyebrow shaping. Literally, tears streaming down my face sometimes.

Waxing
I've been to various places, and they're more or less the same.

Eastwood
I saw a handwritten sign that said, "Eyebrow tweeze and shape. $10". That is ridiculously cheap, especially compared to a Benefit Brow Bar. Might have to give it a go if I'm feeling brave one day.

Benefit Brow Bar
You'll find them in Myers and Benefit stores. The service is not bad. The woman who did my brows didn't do such a great job on the left brow, but did a great job on the right brow. If the left brow was as good as the right one, I'd rave about them. They're the most expensive option listed here, but the most convenient as well. Also, you do it right in the middle of the cosmetics section of Myer, so you have to not mind about that kind of thing.

At the end of the day, the end result really depends on the skill of the person doing your brows. Any of those three methods can achieve good results, but it's the skill of your brow person that makes the difference.

What's your brow experience like? Do you do your own?

Social Gospel, rain, tea.

A sort of ramble with a few jelssie-worthy observations.

I went to the cathedral convention on Monday, because I had no plans and it was a long rainy day. Although the topic of Social Gospel didn't appeal to me. Whenever I hear words like Social Action, Social Justice or whatever, I turn off. And I feel guilty about not being keen and earnest about these trendy Gen Y buzzwords, but I just hate being earnest about buzzwords. Basically, I'm not cool enough to be into Social Justice and I don't wear TOMS, is how I feel. Maybe that's something other people feel too, because it wasn't as well attended as other cathedral conventions I've been to. Or maybe it was the weather. But I reckon I can dress warmly, drink tea and enjoy a cold cathedral a lot more comfortably than I can cope with a hot, packed out cathedral with the fans on, so the cold and rain were a positive for me.

But anyway, the talks were excellent for where I was at, and clarified lots of things really well. Very much worth listening too, if you can. Adrian Russell in particular was really clear on the problems with things like "making poverty history" and "redeeming the city", things that have always slightly confused me and now I know why—eschatology. Phillip Jensen's Agenda for Evangelical Concern was good sense. The muffins were good enough, but the cakes were disappointing.

A personal highlight, and worth the price of this whole post, I took my own supply of peppermint teabags, because you can only expect black tea at these things, and having the herbal tea I like made a big difference to my comfort and enjoyment of a long day. I think I'm going to start travelling with a tea stash more often, it's a tiny effort for a huge comfort: tea people take note.

Unity

Nothing unites people quite like a common enemy. It's fascinating because people with a common enemy cannot stop talking about the situation. I have seen this with my own family!

Blowing your nose

I have spent this public holiday long weekend with a miserable cold. [On a tangent, how is it possible for the body to produce so much snot?!] I have concluded that there is no ladylike way to blow your nose. I trumpet. Can anyone offer any advice?

Mug.

I have earned a reputation for being frugal. I like to think I have even made frugal cool. I used to be a bit embarrassed about eating food other people would throw away or buying something on special that doesn't fit properly and altering it myself. Now I say, if you can't enjoy unlimited wealth, enjoy limited wealth.

But I have boundaries, as G discovered when I recently advised her to go straight to Good Guys and spend some money. I went 3 weeks with no fridge, but 1 week with no TV remote. I spent quite a bit of energy wondering what to do about the fridge, but went right out and spent $60 on the remote. No question. I need to watch TV. That's not a luxury.

Currently I am thinking long and hard about this cup. It's been my office tea mug for several years. I bought it at Coles for the specific purpose of office hydration, before I remembered that I had a cupboard full of mugs at home and I will never need to buy mugs ever in my life. They come from NTE, they come in sets of 4 with 4 plates and 4 bowls, they come out my ears. I have 2 mugs that I actually like and use at home, which were thoughtful gifts. I have 20 other mugs.

So anyway, the office mug is chipped. It doesn't matter because it doesn't affect the performance of the cup in any way. It's opposite the handle so my lips don't have to touch it. Frugal me is trying to keep the mug.

But small-kitchen declutterer me is thinking "I can legitimately get rid of this mug, and reduce the number of mugs I have at home and don't use. I can bring in one of the mugs that came with the plates."

This is difficult a choice between 2 good jelssie things!

Review: Cadbury mini drop egg things.

You might have seen the ad and got wondering, are they nice?

They are egg shaped M&Ms. The chocolate is better and there is more of it, but the shell, while thinner, isn't as sweet and leaves a strange feeling/taste in the mouth.

Early morning.

I had an ortho appt booked for 7.30 am yesterday morning. It's a good time for not missing any work and having breakfast afterwards without being much hungry. It's an unreasonable time for getting up in the morning and catching a bus to the city. Except that actually, a lot of people are doing that. Although probably half as many as at my normal time, and a higher percentage of them are wearing orange. It was a bit more peaceful. The moon was still up, big and ghostly, and there was a lot less traffic, and the bus wasn't full. A change in routine is very refreshing.

Budgeting.

If you have the ability to have apps, and want to track your spending, I know some of you do, I recommend Smart Budget. It's like a spreadsheet, but better looking. It has cute pictures, and you record things by the month, and can set up repeating things like salary and direct debit giving. That's about all I want to do. It's not instantly easy to use, it took me a while to discover most of the functions, but I've got it now.

It has a column which totals the general categories, like transport, entertainment, food, and then a tracking column for adding the individual things as you spend, like a travel10, a movie, a hot chocolate. When I put in a hot chocolate, it's under the "Restaurant, Cafe" category so at the end of the month I can see how much all my hot chocolates and Eat Streets add up to.

See the cute pictures? You can also change the font if you like. There are 4 fonts.

It's free to try and $3 to buy. I'm on the second month and haven't paid for it yet, but if I have to I will because it's worth $3.

UPDATE: you can draw your own little pictures! I decided to break chocolate out as a separate category from groceries, and I drew a square of chocolate.

Pumpkin scones.

I feel like jelssie has been neglected again, so here is some love. A recipe I cooked on the weekend. It's a staple of mine, when it's cheap pumpkin season.

• 1 cup of cooked mashed pumpkin minimum. More is better. I usually use butternut.
• 1 egg
• 2.5 cups of self raising flour
• 60 grams of butter or margarine. A lump as big as the egg.
• milk

1. Chop up pumpkin, cook it in the microwave (I put it in a covered bowl with a little water and steam it then drain it) then mash it with a fork.
2. Mash the butter into the pumpkin. Salt and pepper if you wish.
3. Add the egg and beat it with the fork.
4. Add the flour, adding milk as needed to moisten.
5. Put it in a greased square baking tin. You can just put it in in one great lump like a loaf or cake, or you can dollop it in as per the traditional scone.
6. Bake in a moderate oven for about 30 minutes, until it's just starting to brown.

Spotify Wagner.

I wasn't convinced about Spotify at first, because I hate a bandwagon, but now I find it is useful. It's like web streaming radio where you get to choose the songs, with occasional adds. I am listening to the Ring Cycle at work. I mean, I just want to see what it is, and I'm not going to spend hundreds of dollars buying it, and I want to listen to the whole thing, not the tiny samples on iTunes, and not even Classic FM is going to play the complete Ring. So this is perfect. If I listen to an act or two a day I'll get through it in 2 or 3 weeks. I'm also finding all sorts of musical soundtracks I've never heard of.

I got curious about the Ring after listening to a Radiolab podcast about it. It's the most epic opera ever written, and I like epic things, so maybe I'll like this. It's a pity it's in German though. The language barrier really annoys me in opera.

My other favourite technology, the TV, is currently not my favourite, because the remote is broken. I'm a channel flickerer, so I have to sit on the floor within arm reach of the TV. Which inexplicably makes me feel like a kid. I've ordered a new remote online and I'm waiting. Online shopping is such a patience builder. But then it's like getting a present in the mail, so it's kind of worth it.

New word.

Jess K (the inventor of the word "short-scooping") coined another amazing word last week, "procrastibaking". Get it out there, even if you don't normally bake, you should, so that you can use this word.

It looks worse than it is.

This is only a normal amount of sliced colby. I call this proof that melted cheese looks much unhealthier than cold sliced cheese. Delicious cheese lava.

Getting real about flowers.

There were two photos from young women on Facebook this morning, of spontaneous flowers from their young husbands. CUTE! But I think I can do better.

Rejoice, eaters!

The announcement you have been waiting for!

The new jelssie Eat Street Challenge will commence this Friday night, 25 May. We have decided to eat the cheap half of Dixon Street, i.e. the north side, so it's outside of the really Chinatown bit. There is quite a diverse range of cuisine there, and it is mostly in a Person of Slender Means price range. We shall keep the same time and see how it works, 6.30pm. The first challenge will be at 1 Dixon Street, Arisun, which is Korean food. They seem to do fried chicken pretty famously.

Special invitation to anyone who has never been to Kingsford KESC, to join us in the central CBD location, handy to all and local to none of us. Here is a map. Hope to see you on Friday!

Don't "Ni Hao" me

It's a pet peeve of mine when strangers greet me with "Ni Hao", the Mandarin greeting for hello. Yes, I am Chinese, but no, I am not Mandarin Chinese, so your greeting doesn't win me over. I detest it when strangers do it to get attention. Yeah, I'm really impressed that you can say hello in Mandarin (<- detect the sarcasm), but actually, Cantonese is my Chinese tongue, so try again.

Ok, to be fair, I can speak some Mandarin, but seriously, just because you're Chinese doesn't mean you speak Mandarin. There's bazillion different types of Chinese out there.

That is all.

Winter mornings: difficult.

My morning functionality has dropped to about 15% since I got back from holidays. I'm TRYING to make it as easy as possible for myself: I am choosing my clothes the night before, putting them on the end of my bed before I get in at night, so that when I wake up in the morning I can pull them under the doona and warm them up before I get dressed. Sometimes I get dressed under the doona too, camp dorm style, to minimise exposure to the shock of the cold.

I also have a fridge stocked with salad ingredients in it, to make a sandwich or a salad for lunch. Today I looked in the fridge at my chickpeas and baby spinach and thought "I might buy lunch, just this once" but then overcame temptation, because how pathetic, I'm going to waste money on a salad sandwich in the city when I have the ingredients and the time but I just can't cope with putting stuff in a container.

And last night I resolved to scoot to work this morning, got my shoes and backpack and everything ready, but in the morning I was paralysed with indecision and stayed in bed wondering if I was fit enough, until it was too late to scoot, and I had to catch a nice, warm bus instead.

I used to think I was a winter person, a cold weather person, but I think that was just because I like the clothes, how everyone looks better dressed with long pants and a scarf, or stockings or whatever. I like the appearance of winter, but not, I have now realised, the cold. I do not like the cold.

Being new

Being new at church is hard, even for an extrovert like me, who loves meeting people. It's hard rocking up to a new church on your own and potentially not knowing anyone, especially if you thought church started at 9:30am, not 9:45am, and you sit there like a nigel while people are running after kids or running like headless chooks in order to get ready for church, and it's 20 minutes before someone talks to you. You start to feel strong pangs in your heart as you miss the people and the familiarity of your old church. I can see how people might lapse from being part of a church family if they had to change churches.

Forming new relationships is a two way street. The people there have to be willing to welcome you and talk to you, but you have to be willing to get involved, introduce yourself and make an effort. If you can put up with the initial discomfort of being new, get involved and just hang in there, your new church family will soon be familiar and start to feel like family. That's my strategy anyway.

Multiple punctuation marks

I used to be a person who would use punctuation marks sparingly. One's enough, thank you very much. Then I met someone who would punctuate his emails with multiple exclamation marks!!! And question marks, too??? And then I was converted to using multiple punctuation marks if they were exclamation or question marks!!! I think it just conveys the excitement I would have if I were normally talking to you!!! Don't you think so, too??? Sometimes, I stick to two!!

Of course, I could never do that professionally, but personally, multiple punctuation marks are zany?!?!!

And what's with the dot dot dots...why can't I just stick to one sometimes...

Armed force.

A First Lady

While on holidays a thing that irked me was that my brother walked 3 to 5 steps in front of me. He just couldn't see a reason to slow down and match my pace when I was tired, although neither did he hare off into the distance. He kept pace, just a few meters in front of me. Unless I physically grabbed his arm Austen-style, which actually worked very well. Slowed him down and took some weight off my feet. Those old-fashioned ladies had a clue.

Living in the single moment.

A rare singleness post. Not that there is anything wrong with talking or blogging about singleness, it's just another thing, like sickness or having babies or going grey or being a cyclist. But personally I find that the less I worry about it, the less I worry about it, so I enjoy worrying about other things instead, like culling my facebook friends. (I was overwhelmed by the relief in fb comments of the unculled!) Anyway...

I was looking through the layout for the upcoming Briefing, and skimmed Valerie Ting's article on The 'S' Word. I think this statement near the end sums up how I try to approach life:

"God gives us grace and faith enough for each step—he gives us each day our daily bread, not bread for the rest of our lives. I am not called to envision a lifetime of singleness and force myself to look forward to that, but rather to rejoice in this season of singleness, however long it lasts, and trust God to provide for all my needs."

I know I have a very rich life and I have a lot I can thank God for today, and that's all I need to know. It's a relief to know that I don't have to have ALL my contentment sorted out now, whenever I ponder the rest of my life. Yay, back to not worrying about it!

Simplifying.

I've come back from holidays with the realisation that there is a lot going on in my life in Sydney that I don't need. Too many clothes, too many TV shows, that sort of thing. I did not hear any news from Australia while away, and I seem to have missed nothing, for example. Therefore, I am going to black out the news from now on.

Today I culled my Facebook friends. I got rid of a hundred people who were either inactive, had nothing to do with me, or I don't really like them, etc. I know I could just hide them and keep them all without being annoyed or reminded, but why do I need a fake high number of friends I completely ignore? Just get rid of them and have a true number of people I want to be friends with or remember in any kind of active online way.

I also had a big inbox when I got back, but basically none of it was actually work. That was an hour of deleting. So I unsubscribed from all the stuff I like but don't really need to get news about several times a week.

This is like decluttering but of time and mental space, not mess and physical space!

Tender and tough

I've moved away from the east and I'm keen to make connections locally, so I've started going along to my local church. They run a course for newbies to get to the know the pastor and understand what the church is on about, in order for you to work out whether this church is for you.

One thing the pastor talked about, regarding what they wanted to achieve at church, was tender love in encouragement and tough love in confrontation*.

In my experience, when you receive tender love in encouragement at the right time, it is such a balm to the soul. When you receive tough love in confrontation, but at the wrong time, it is crushing to the spirit and you feel so misunderstood and unsupported. When you receive it at the right time, yes, it's a little painful, but you know that person has your best interests at heart, you would do well to heed their words and it is spoken out of love.

It takes wisdom and discernment to know which to use: spending time in the other person's shoes, understanding their lives and the situation they're in, and then making the call. Knowing which love to give at what time is one of the most helpful things you can ever give to a person.

*John Piper uses the same language in The Meaning of Membership and Church Accountability.

No tv

My tv viewing habits have been highly influenced by the people I've lived with. I've never owned a tv, but there's always been one in whatever household I've lived in. I've watched tv shows with housemates and gotten into Masterchef, Biggest Loser, Dr Who etc etc, but now, in my current household, my housemate doesn't have a tv and I don't think I should buy one because my spare time will soon be filled with study.

I do miss it a little. There are some shows I would like to watch e.g. The Voice (but only because everyone talks about it), Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and Community.

TV can be a great tool for unwinding and entertaining as well, but I've found not having one is a good excuse to invite myself over to people's places to watch it :) I haven't actually done that yet, but I am slowly compiling a list of people who've agreed to have me over for tv, which might be a nice way to hang out with introverted friends.

My dad offered to buy me a tv and I asked for a smartphone instead. He said, "No, tv only." So you see, if I had a choice, I'd receive a smartphone over a tv, but if I had to pay for a tv out of my own pocket, I'd get a tv over a smartphone because I would buy a cheap tv!

However, if I start reacting like this after a while, I may get a tv:

Singing in Africa not quite what I expected.

I played the piano at church in Africa this morning, it was quite difficult. Its not a strongly musical church, only one fellow who plays the keyboard and sings, so was very keen to have a tiny break while I played. It was a good experience but jolly hard work:  I couldn't hear myself too well. The only buttons i could press on the keyboard are the keys, so everytime I went to play i had to get the chap to turn it back on for me, or get off the string sound. My regular fills and intros confused people so after the first song I dropped fills in favour of a short pause and played simple tune intros. The sustain pedal actually did the opposite, ie, the keyboard naturally sustained and the pedal cut the sustain when I pressed it. And there was no song leader, other than the service leader who was as soft as me. I've never appreciated a song leader so much as I do now. The congregation literally hijacked the tempo because of a few loud slow singers who slowed everyone down and I had to slow down to play with them. God bless all you song leaders.

No smartphone...yet

Jess and I do not own smartphones. We just use your run of the mill old-school Nokia phones. On prepaid. I've had mine since Feb/Mar 2008.

I'm not against smartphones. They're great devices: I'd enjoy having a camera phone and being able to share images from my day. They're handy and fun. I'm sure one day, I'll get around to owning one. If someone gave me a smartphone, or if I found a suitable plan, I'd probably jump ship immediately. However, I'm not getting one for the time being, and here are the reasons why.

• Cost: it's hard to find a smartphone on a good value plan. Call rates will always be more expensive than my cheap, cheap prepaid rate. That's all I essentially need my phone to do: make and receive calls and texts. Anything else is a bonus. Also, plans package the illusion of giving you lots of calls, but the call rates are inevitably significantly more expensive. This mobile and data phone plan looks good though, I just need a smartphone to go with it.

• Commitment: I really dislike the idea of being locked into a two year contract, because two years is a long time for technology and over that time, prices will drop and even better deals will come out. I dislike the idea of being tied to a carrier at a paticular price rate. I want the freedom to move to a better service provider. I know if you take that argument to the nth degree, it'd mean you'd never buy technology, but I just feel at this point in time, it's not worth making the switch. Even worse if they lock the handset to the network. My other option is buying a handset outright, which is $460+ if you're looking to buy a Samsung or iPhone, and I don't want to pay that much right now.

• Fragility: I have seen so many cracked smartphone screens. Every time I've dropped my Nokia, I've been able to put it back together again, no problems.

• Time: this one is related to the cost one. Doing your research (e.g. finding a good value plan, picking a model etc) is time and energy consuming and I can't be bothered. 

• Charging time: I only charge my phone once or twice a week. People at work charge their phones everyday at work because it otherwise wouldn't last the day. That would be a small annoyance, having to carry a charger with you everywhere you go, charging whenever you get the chance.

• Engagment: knowing what I'm like, I reckon I would spend too much time on my phone surfing the net and checking social media. Instead of engaging with the world I'm presently in, I would just spend time playing with my phone. One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing people over-engage with their phone, rather than with people around them.

• Smart phones are big. I know, I know, I know by nature they have to be, due to their functionality, but hey, they're still big. 

• iPod touch: I have an iPod touch and it fills in the smartphone gaps, somewhat. Nowhere near as convenient or as advanced as an iPhone, but it fills in the gaps.

• And the final reason, to show you the extent of my paranoia: no-one's ever gonna mug me for my Nokia :)

Dropping in.

Cathy has shared some interesting thoughts about an interesting thing: the simple act of "dropping in". It's something I find quite hard to do, it crosses a boundary I feel shy about crossing, but maybe a little bit of boundary crossing goes a long way. So it's worth reading.
www.womenbiblelife.com/2012/05/art-of-surprise-visit.html

Libraries are for minimalists

Libraries are so awesome, especially for a wannabe minimalist like me. You get to enjoy stuff without keeping it! Woo! Libraries are such a vital part of the community, I'd happily pay an annual fee to join one. If I were building a community, I'd make sure there was a well-stocked library, alongside an playground/exercise park and meeting halls (for church and stuff).

Libraries are a hub

Local government libraries are a hub for migrant/non-Anglo families. It could be that the last two libraries I visited were culturally diverse areas, but I suspect the appeal of the library stems from:

- free access to a variety of materials: books, magazines, CDs, DVDs etc.

- access to a clean, free, comfortable and sometimes quiet environment, which is good for studying (crucial in Asian culture) and good for reading free newspapers (enjoyable for senior citizens, as well as saving precious pennies)

- books are for nerds and most migrant parents want their kids to be the biggest nerd in town.

Pantry challenge

I have a lot of tinned goods in my pantry that have been sitting there for too long. So I've decided that each week, I will open at least one tin and cook with it. Two good things: forces me to cook and I use up things in my pantry, thereby creating more space. Win, win!

First on my list is a tin of evaporated soy creamy cooking milk. Even though I generally avoid soy products (except for fermented soy and tofu), I will make the creamy leek and prawn pasta recipe on the back.

"I only eat food from the bin."

I did actually just say that. I've got a reputation at the office for eating. Because I am enthusiastic about eating anything that is offered to me. Today I ate a banana that nobody wanted. I didn't really want it much either, but it was good healthy food, you can't have too much healthy food, so I ate it. But, for the record,  I have a lot of self-control with food that is just lying around, like the big jar of M&Ms that someone brought in (I've never touched it!), or the biscuits in my drawer, and I don't get cravings and have to go and buy food. I ignore a lot of food most of the time. However, food that is going in the bin if nobody eats it, I feel like I have a DUTY to attempt to eat.

I think this is an extension of my upbringing, "no ice-cream unless you finish all your dinner", and my frugalness. No amount of "your stomach is not a bin" can undo that.

Disoriented.

I have pretty good spatial skills: I design, I can draw in perspective, I make stuff, I can read maps, I can solve puzzles. But I am completely confused by the 3 lifts at work. In my head, the lifts spin 180 degrees between the lobby and level 3. I know the lift doesn't spin around but I feel like whenever I use it I step out the opposite side of it. I can stand on level 3 and know that the street is on one side, but when I get out the lift and step into the lobby, hello, the street is on the other side. I get in the lift on the right, I expect to get out the lift on the right, but it's now the lift on the left—because my brain forgets that I turned around in the lift. I've obviously never had to cope with more than one lift before, and it's totally muddling me up. I've given up trying to figure out how the lobby and level 3 relate to each other, and just put up with the disorientation every time I get off the lift.

Pots and pans

I've managed to reduce my stovetop cookware to four items. My cooking style seems to be either one portion or many portions (with the most heading straight to the freezer). Here are my essential four:

Small fry pan
This fry pan is about the size of your palm, including fingers. Great for frying an egg or two in the morning, or a piece of steak in the evening. Got mine in great condition from Kingsford Salvos.

Small saucepan
Great for making a quick Tom Yum soup for dinner, cooking a few dumplings or porridge.

Large fry pan, with raised sides
For when I want to cook in bulk or add bacon and other things to my eggs. The raised sides are great because it means you can add more things than you would in a regular fry pan, and it would all fit inside.

Large pot
For cooking soups and stews. Sometimes I even cook stir-frys in it, because nothing is going to fall out while stirring!

If I really had to cut down, I probably could go without the large fry pan.

I also feel like a fake Asian because there's no wok in my list.

That brilliant advice I always blog...

I'm in a non-coping place right now. I'm going on holiday on Saturday, and I've become stressed. And the thing is, everything is fine, plans are laid, preparations are made. But my brain can't stop worrying through things (what shoes to take, will I be late, airports and so on) when it should be sitting back and enjoying the anticipation of adventure.  I've started writing comprehensive lists, to get it all out of my head like I always preach, but it's too late, it's gone right through my body so now I'm completely anxiety-soaked. So I think this is when even jelssie advice is useless, I just have to survive another week. In the meantime: lists, progressive muscle relaxation, garlic-eating, and packing bags within bags.

Ironically, I filled out a research survey a week ago about anxiety attacks, and I merrily answered "no" to everything.

100 Ways To Uncomplicate Your Life

I'm a big fan of Hellen Buttigieg, a personal organiser from Canada, who has her own tv show. She recently published a list of 100 ways to uncomplicate your life. It's a great list and I highly recommend it. As Jess said, "That is so much Jelssie in one spot!"

Bag search.

I'm kind of looking for a new bag. One just big enough to hold an ipad and a lunch and a purse, and little pockets all over the outside to keep bus tickets and keys in. It's going to be a long search because bags are quite expensive. And in the meantime I'm getting bag envy of all the cool bags that men are wearing in the city. Women are loaded up with big ugly handbags, and men have all these really cool satchels. That's where it's at.

Hot chocolate is not manly

A male colleague of mine often looks like he's drinking coffee. Except that he hates coffee and loves hot chocolate. However, he couldn't stand the look his barista would give him when he ordered a hot chocolate. "They look at me like I'm a girl," he claimed. So he switched to a mocha. Problem solved: chocolate preference satisfied and manliness preserved.

We$$ing.

 
I think money wedding-presents are the best thing. I know it's a soulless gift, but when people have everything, why give them more? Why not instead give them money towards an experience, like their honeymoon, or as I see it, pay for your meal at the reception, so that they might perhaps break even on the wedding budget? And why not save yourself the hassle of thinking of something and buying it and then wrapping it and then CARRYING IT, which I just hate so much because that involves public transport usually, and then trying to find the gift depository when you get the church or reception. $50 in a card: I'm a fan. And you can tie it in a bow.

Renting and buying interactive chart.

Elsie found this on Art of Manliness. I love it. I found that when I put in MY approximate numbers I get the answer:

BUYING IS NEVER BETTER THAN RENTING AFTER 30 YEARS.

Thanks!

On the bright side, I think this means my rent is good value. If you are single, sharing rent makes huge sense financially. "Better" means that you have to save the difference though.

A little bit of city music.

I've spotted a few buskers in the last week. Not normal buskers with amps and pop songs. I think it must be con students doing some kind of performance challenge. First I saw a couple of guys in Pitt St mall on Thursday night, setting up a double bass and something else. On Monday morning walking through Martin Place I heard a trumpet playing The Sound of Silence, really beautifully, and it was a guy with a bike just standing there playing. On Monday night I walked through Pitt St mall again and heard a girl singing something operatic. None of them had a big crowd, but it was something special to hear a random voice making music above the noise of the city.

Rolling with it.

I read some articles yesterday at lunchtime about how Gen Y Americans aren't interested in buying cars. There is a significant percentage drop in the last 10 years and a dramatic change between generations. The article is uncannily true, it was like reading my own rants coming out of the mouths of marketing experts. There are pressures and there are choices. I want to live in a walkable, public-transport-serviced area and I don't particularly want to worry about parking, petrol prices, repairs, insurance. (“They think of a car as a giant bummer,” said Mr. Martin. “Think about your dashboard. It’s filled with nothing but bad news.”) It's funny because generational generalisations annoy me to death: Gen Y are usually called fickle, casual, tech savvy, etc, whereas I am frugal, go to bed early instead of staying up chatting on Facebook, eat "soup soup" instead of sushi, don't have a smart phone. But here we are, jelssie, fitting exactly into demographic after all.

Gonna miss. Not gonna miss.

It's my last week living within close proximity to Jess! I'm leaving the hallowed Eastern suburbs, as so many have done already.

Gonna miss my church family, my friends, the beach, the convenience and bumping into friends on the commute to and from work.

Not gonna miss the incessant humming and bright lights at night, and the long commute.

Birkenstock bliss

I love my Birkenstocks.



I used to wear them all the time, except in winter. Now that I work full-time in a corporate environment, I mostly wear flats (while commuting) and heels (while working). As a result, I have big, fat blisters on my toes :( My feet are not used to being confined and they do not like it! Oh, that my feet could be blissfully blister-free in Birkenstocks!

How to save money in a food court.

Does the world need this post? Aren't food courts already cheap? Well yes, but compared to home food they are still expensive, and thinking like this is first nature to me, I can't help it. In fact a colleague asked me to find the cheapest lunch near our office. I have not got a definite answer yet, but this post is a good start.

1. Order something small. Most things are too big and calorie-rich in terms of what a woman who sits at a computer actually NEEDS to eat, especially if you are like me, and eat snacks regularly.

2. Don't get a meal deal. The chips and the drinks are a waste of money. Carry a drink bottle. That will bring a lunch under $10 straight away.

3. Don't order something hot. Ready made sandwiches and wraps are a few dollars cheaper than a plate of noodles or fish and chips.

4. Share the order with a friend where there are quantity discounts or large portions. Like 1 wrap for $4.50 or 2 for $8 (you can get quantity deals on sushi rolls a lot). Or a big gourmet sandwich for $9, cut in half.

5. Wait for AFTER the rush. A lot of food gets marked down mid afternoon or when they are closing.

Toilet cubicle dynamics.

There is a bathroom with 2 cubicles for all the ladies on our floor. It's locked, so only 3 companies share it. The left cubicle was my preferred toilet because the right cubicle has a strange door in the wall with plumbing or something in it, and the spotlight is pointed in the wrong direction so it is dimmer, and also, someone put a paper sign on the back of the door, typed up, telling you to BE CONSIDERATE and don't mess up the bathroom for the next person. So obviously I used the friendly, brightly lit cubicle over the insulting weird dark one. Especially, I hated that sign. So I avoided the cubicle on the right. But sometimes I forget, and see the sign, and feel rebuked, even though I don't mess up bathrooms. But then one day I took the sign down. That was a heady day.

Thinking about the 2 cubicles, I then reasoned that probably everyone was like me, and automatically avoided the dim lighting and the scary door in the wall. So if I switched to that one, I would virtually have my own reserved cubicle. So I have.

Oh no... not again...

Is there anything quite as microscopically worrying and annoying as finding a small screw on the floor? "Where did this small screw come from? has a handle fallen off my chest of drawer? I can't see anything… it has traces of white paint on it, what has white paint that might have lost a screw? I'll put it there and keep an eye out for something falling apart so I can screw it back in." And I'm pretty sure that the same screw keeps falling onto the floor and I find it and go through the same process over and over again. But if I find something without a screw, I really don't want to go and buy a whole packet of screws just for the one. So it's a worry. A tiny worry, but a worry.

It really works.

There were some spots of something, dried blood or hair dye or something, on a plastic surface and I tried water, detergent and exit mould and only got 30% of it off. Didn't want to scratch at it with anything so was using a chux. Then after a couple of days I remembered that vinegar and bi-carb are magical, and the carb soda would at least be a tiny bit abrasive but not in a damaging way, and the vinegar would at least be fizzy and fun, but it actually got the spots 99% off with just some steady rubbing. I'm just a tiny bit amazed.

Flabbergasting.

Valentine and Glover were discussing moments that feel like eternity, and one of them is the time when you squeeze the petrol pump handle and no fuel comes out because you're waiting for the man in the servo to push a button and release the fuel. Why can't it just come automatically when I squeeze the handle, they complain.

WHAT?

I had to turn to the people next to me and ask them if they knew about this. Somebody googled it, and said "I'm flabbergasted". Too right.

Another fuel fact from the ABC recently, a caller ranted about the 15 cents that replaces the zero when you start pumping fuel. Like it costs 15 cents for the fuel in the hose*, or something ludicrous. Have you ever noticed the fuel starting at 15 cents instead of zero, quickly flashing past when the dollars start climbing?

I hope your mind is blown.

* Stingy people apparently don't just shake the drips out of the pump handle, they lift up the hose and drain the fuel that sits in the loop.

Useful little pots.

I TRY not to keep random junk JUST IN CASE it's useful one day, but when I see something useful I try to quickly match it up with an immediate need. I've had a bit of recent success with tiny little containers. I love tiny little containers.

I tipped out some yucky moisturiser that came in a bathroom gift pack present, peeled off the labels so it is now plain, and scooped some of my nice moisturiser into it from the big tub. Big tubs are good value, but I used to buy tubes so that I could travel easily with them, keep them at work and so on. Now I have a small one for the desk drawer which I can refill from my long-lasting, better value, tub at home.

Then there was a little blue pot of eye cream I bought once to see if eye cream really did reduce dark circles and puffy eyes. Not really but it was such a convenient pot that I now use it to keep a small squirt of medication cream in at work. Itchy fingers are now never far from cortisol calm, and I don't have to keep the big ugly chemist-looking tube around. Could also use this size pot for a squirt of paw-paw lip balm. In the past I have actually used it to squirt cosmetic samples into, you know the foil packets you rip open. Make free samples of eye-cream last longer!

This is a maggie beer quince paste tub. The lid fits well. I use it to keep a small handful of nuts at work, and I refill it from my big stash at home.

Fake cull

Well, I'm moving, so it means culling, culling, culling before I move out. However it's not a real cull because I'm taking a lot of my stuff to my parents' place. It's what I call a fake cull: where I live will be minimalist (my dream!) but the reality is that the stuff is at my parents'. Ugh. Stuff. Here's a guide to creating a minimalist home.

Quick food #3.

This one uses the george foreman grill I love. One meat (suggest a chorizo, or a lamb or chicken skewer) and 2 vegetables (a carrot and a zucchini for example, although eggplant slices and sweet potato and other stuff is good too). Obviously put 3+ cloves of garlic on as well.

The trick is to put things on the grill in the order of how long they need to cook, so it depends on what you have. Carrots take ages, meat goes on next usually, zucchini or eggplant is pretty quick. Whole meal will cook in about 15 minutes.

I like to go MUFA with this one, and eat it with whatever I have in the way of olive oil, olives, avocado, cheese and some maybe sort of fancy bread. The cooked garlic is like a soft garlic paste, yum. It's nice without a meat, if you have enough cheese and olives and stuff to make the vegetables more friendly.

BOM love.

Probably the best thing on the internet, after all the essential social media stuff, is the BOM radar. Having the internet at home or on a phone is worth it just for this. All those morning questions: Will I be able to scoot to work or will it rain in 15 minutes? Will I need an umbrella? Should I wear gumboots today? Answered. I am obsessed with efficiency in weather preparedness.

Guys and Gals

An article I thought jelssie worthy, since we have discussed this issue before (calling guys men and girls women), but this is an option that never occurred to me before. And it's true in theory, "What I feel like most of the time is a guy. A female guy."

I Am Gal, Hear Me Roar - The Atlantic

Quick food #2.

I am surrounded by asian supermarkets and I am not afraid to use them.

Another meal using only one pot and 3 ingredients. The ingredients: carrots, frozen beans and a packet of frozen dumplings. You get about 20 I think, in a packet for less than $5.

Put chopped carrots in a pot with shallow water and bring to the boil. When boiling, put in beans and then dumplings on top, the water level should not cover the dumplings completely so that when you boil for another 5 or 10 minutes the dumplings are actually steamed. For flavour, roughly chop a few cloves of garlic and boil them in it too, and any sort of stir-fry or soy sauce you have handy.

I purchased a dumpling folder from Bec's garage sale, which I intend to use one day so that I can make dumplings with identifiable fillings.

Quick food #1.

Life has been busy while I've been re-routining my working day. But I have a few quick posts on the subject of really fast cheap dinners.

This meal I call "Soup soup". As the name implies, it is soup which you make mainly from soup as the main ingredient. You buy tins of soup on special, and stock up on other tinned veg or fresh or frozen veg. You heat up a in of soup as a quick base soup, and add the frozen veggies or whatever so that the soup tastes less tinned, and is better value. It's soup made mainly from soup, hence the name, Soup soup.