Archives for March 2013

Just a thank you….

thank-you-wallpaperFor a time at work it became all about page impressions and unique browsers. I hovered over Google analytics every day to see how many visitors there were to the site, how many were new and how many had visited before. I pored over Facebook to see how many new likers there were and how they were interacting with the site. I scrolled through Twitter feeds looking for mentions and retweets. I went to Pinterest like a mad woman ignoring the images and looking only at the repins and the likes.

It wasn’t how I started at Mamamia, it wasn’t even who I was. I’m not a numbers person, a stats kind of girl – I used to balk at the sight of a graph and I’m still innately scared of numbers.

Soon after I announced that I was resigning from Mamamia/iVillage the messages started to flow in, both here on my blog (you people made me cry with these comments) and into my email inbox, my Twitter DMs and my Facebook messages. People that had contributed to Mamamia and iVillage started sending me messages without contributions attached. The most beautiful, heartfelt tear-producing messages you can imagine. Messages that I read again and again and will keep forever.

It wasn’t just the readers but the amazingly beautiful and talented Mamamia/iVillage interns* who sent me emails last week that turned my world around very briefly. Because they worked with me and they got what I was about.

My friends are supportive, amazing, reaffirming.  Kerri you are getting a special mention because AWESOME.

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All the messages and the feedback I have been getting just confirm for me that, in the end, it’s not about numbers and figures, stats and unique browsers. For me it’s about being connected. I want to be part of a community where I can be good and kind and be around people that are the best people that they can be (in a very non soppy and totally cool way) and essentially be true to myself.

I don’t want this blog post to be about me patting my own back or singing my own praises, Lord (and anyone who knows me in real life) knows I do not like spotlights in any shape or form but I have been overwhelmed and humbled and I have been feeling better about myself after reading those messages than I have in a long time.

So thank you everyone. Thank you for helping bring me back to my own blog

* Follow Mary and Elissa on Twitter  – tell them I sent you!

Is this an Easter Egg or is it a cheesecake? Or is it just bloody delicious?

It didn’t take me more than 5 seconds to decide to make these No Bake Cheesecake Easter Eggs when I saw them on Paula Joye’s website, Lifestyled here. 5 seconds and I was already thinking who I could serve them too, what I would serve them on etc. I spent far too much time worrying that they wouldn’t look like they did in Paula’s pics because my food seldom looks like the recipe book image.

But in the end I decided I’d go ahead – what was the worst that could happen? If they looked bad I just wouldn’t mention them to you 😉

But imagine my surprise when they were as easy as she promised and they looked great (other than the fact that I made the yolk too runny).  I only made one change to the recipe on Lifestyled which I will outline as we go. (For ease of shopping I have bolded the ingredients you need.)

First: Get your husband to chop the tops off some hollow chocolate Easter Eggs. This was actually the hardest part which is why I outsourced it. Mr Pencil promised that if the chocolate is cold and you use a serrated knife it’s really easy.

cutting the chocolate

After you’ve prepped the eggs stick them in the fridge to cool.

chocolate cases

Then mix the following ingredients together (I doubled these quantities as I was making eggs for 18 people)

150g cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice
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Beat  1/2 cup thickened cream till it stands and then whisk it together with the cream cheese mixture

cheesecake mixture

Pop the combined mixture into a piping bag and simply squeeze it into the cold chocolate cases then chill for 30 minutes and allow it to set.

cheesecake in case

Easy as.

The original recipe suggested you make the yolk out of some combination of passionfruit pulp, apricot jam and butter. I  decided to just go for icing. So I mixed about a cup and a half of icing sugar with 1tbs of butter and an egg white (best icing recipe ever) with a few tiny drops of red and quite a few drops of yellow food colouring to resemble yolk colour and then I piped it onto the egg whites. My icing was a bit runny but it was okay

eggs

Done. And Proud

easter egg

This will mess with your mind

I love the freedom of having my own blog. It means that I can post things like this just to mess with your minds.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44mw37d8LQw&w=420&h=315]
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Seriously can’t tell you how many times I have watched this clip with my hand over half the screen just to determine whose legs belong to who….

This is what I have to say to the stranger at the park

We were at the park. Just me, my dog and my very gorgeous 12-year-old son when a stranger came up to us. There was something in the way that he approached us that made me feel a little uneasy, perhaps it was just because he was so determined to get to us.  He didn’t look menacing as such, just resolute. He really needed to tell us something!

We had been happily playing with a ball minding our own business (although admittedly Little Pencil was way happier than me – he is much fonder of a ball game than I am) when this man approached.

“Is this your child?” he asked me

“Y..e…sss” I said with part of my heart diving over to protect my son

“He’s very thin!” he pointed out rather unnecessarily. If there’s anyone that knows what my son looks like from behind, in front, from above and below – it’s me.  And yes he’s very thin.

“You should feed him more” he continued.

“Fuck off” I said in my head.  Outwardly I said “thank-you” and I walked away grabbing Little Pencil with me.

As I walked away my mind was being battered by a thousand thoughts

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Am I doing something wrong? I am trying my hardest. Maybe I should be giving him more supplements?

Is he always going to get picked on by useless strangers because he’s skinny?

I wanted to yell at the interfering him and tell him that my son was perfect and healthy and happy and that he was born early and had gastro-intestinal issues and difficulty eating and putting on weight even at age 12. That we had been to nutritionists and doctors and dieticians and pediatricians and they were okay with him.

And I questioned why I wanted to explain my son’s medical history with some random rude man at the park and I realised I just wanted him to know how happy my son was. But I also wanted to rid myself of any guilt.

God knows how much guilt I feel about my son’s medical past.

But all I did in that instant was tell my son that he was perfect. And that I loved him. And that he looked awesome and strong and beautiful.  And that the man in the park was a fuckwit.

Little Pencil at the park - notice how perfect he is

Little Pencil at the park – notice how perfect he is

They made water out of thin air. You have to see this

Today is World Water Day. I know you can barely contain your excitement.  In fact it was me who just the other day spent way to much time plotting against the person who sent me an email wishing me Happy World Consumer Right’s day.  I’m just not that into “dedicated days”

But World Water Day caught my attention not because of its aim to focus world’s attention on fresh water and the “sustainable management of freshwater resources”. No, not at all, because I hardy even understand what that means. It caught my attention because I saw this. A billboard that creates water. Seriously it does.

Take a look

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35yeVwigQcc&w=560&h=315]

For making an order for levitra uk does not need to have flashy advertisements because our customers are satisfied completely. Its simple and easy, just take one pill and have the normal love life as always without any kind of problems. cipla sildenafil , the famous blue pill, is known the world over for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. Medical treatments such as intake of generika sildenafil 100mg http://appalachianmagazine.com/2018/10/25/a-generation-thats-never-tasted-a-real-tomato/ drugs Following things cannot cause HIV: Hugging or touching an infected skin. So do try sildenafil generic sale but keep in mind its pros and cons then and there. This billboard in Peru literally creates drinkable water out of air (well out of the humidity in the air) .It is a joint effort between The University of Engineering and Technology of Peru and Mayo DraftFCBand, an ad agency.  Alejandro Aponte, creative director at Mayo DraftFCB  says “we wanted future students to see how engineers can also solve social needs in daily basis kinds of situations.”

And just like that engineers have gone on to my list of my top 10 professions.

Seriously – imagine the difference fresh water could make to the world’s poorest people? I understand that Lima has particularly high humidity which makes this billboard possible – but what a big step is this?

Don’t be surprised if I wish you Happy World Water Day.

The image I can’t get out of my head

It was only on for a second. Maybe two. But I cannot get the image out of my mind.

I was watching something on the ABC, I don’t even remember what it was because I wasn’t really watching but the TV was on in front of me. When the show ended I looked up at the TV in the way that you do when there is a change in the sound. You know, even subconsciously, that one show has finished and another is about to start.

And that’s when I saw it – the one second of footage that I cannot get out of my mind.

I don’t even know what it was for but I can sure as hell tell you what it was about – the most awful, heinous and despicable animal cruelty.

I cannot get the image of a man throwing an animal (it turns out it was a turkey at the Inghams factory in Sydney) repeatedly to the ground. And every cell in my body is crying. Literally.

What kind of debased, evil human does that to an animal?

How does this go on while I sit in my bed at home with my dog snoring gently at my feet?
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I fear for humanity when I see things like that.

I’ve tried everything I can to get the image out of my head but I feel like a coward.  If I can’t (or don’t want to) see it , it won’t just go away.

I feel sick that there is nothing I can do to help. I feel trapped by my helplessness because I know in my heart that other than donating money (which I do) there is nothing that I can do to stop it.

Sometimes I think I should be working for some kind of animal anti-cruelty organisation but I know that I can’t. I know that the knowledge that comes with a job like that would likely kill my soul.  And so I feel worse about myself.

I am not sure of the purpose of this blog post, I don’t know how writing this is going to help because all I want is that image erased and that’s not the right thing to want.

How can a person who can’t process even one second of footage help make sure that it comes to an end?

I laughed so hard. I think you will too

You know when you watch something and you laugh so much that you cry and then you want every single person you know to watch it and laugh with you? Nina Conti did that for me this weekend.

I saw this video of hers on Facebook  (courtesy of Kirsty Rice and Kerri Sackville – although I wont say in which order) and it seriously made me cry with laughter. That laughter that renders you blind with tears and helpless with mirth. I shared it on Facebook but I don’t think enough people watched it because no one rang me sobbing with laughter afterwards.

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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ixiP_nmCfU&w=560&h=315]

10 things I learned from my son’s homework

Image

My son has had a major assignment to complete for school. It was handed our in late February and is due on Tuesday. It feels a bit like we have never known life without “the project”.

It’s not that I did his homework for him (because quite frankly it’s too hard and I couldn’t) but I did supervise him throughout the very arduous process. And I guess that’s a good thing because there was a lot that I learned over this time

  1. I am too old for homework.
  2. Homework for year 6’s is very hard in 2013 – we’re talking questions that test skills like “provocative questioning” and “tolerance for ambiguity”.  When I was in year 6 they were testing my ability to answer questions in full sentences.
  3. I know nothing about Australian history and next to nothing about World War 1  (okay not next to nothing – properly nothing)
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  5. The school that my son attends does not know what they want in a bibliography. They do have a booklet in which they offer two completely conflicting ways to do the bibliography. They then refer you to their online student portal to check that you have done it correctly. Problem is that there is no bibliography on the online portal. It is clear that they don’t know what they want. Hopefully they like the way I did it in Year 6 back in the 80’s because that’s the way I taught Little Pencil to do it. Pity there were no such thing as a website when I was in Year 6. There was also no such things as online portals
  6. I have no patience
  7. If you ask your child to go the extra mile and put in a little more effort you will regret it when he insists on making a board game to show what he has learned in a “engaged, relevant and exciting way”
  8. Playing said board game will make you want to change his entire project and hand it in under the name “Bored Game”
  9. Boys are very different from girls when it comes to completing projects. You cannot entice a boy (well at least not my boy) with pretty paraphernalia and as hard as it is to resign yourself to the fact that it his project and must look the way he wants it to look, you have to. When he starts choosing fonts on his own all your ideas of a classy looking project will be thrown out the door
  10. If you buy your child plastic toy soldiers as pieces for his board game you will realise that no matter that he is 12 and has not so much as looked at a toy for about a year, he will play for hours setting up the “guys” and imitating both the wars that he has read about and the seriously scary wars that he has in his imagination.
  11. I am thrilled I am no longer at school. Thrilled.

But in honesty I am really proud of his project – especially the very boring amazing game he made – I can’t wait till he takes it to school so that I don’t have to play it again.

5 years after I started commenting on Mamamia…..

Five years ago I was working from home, writing copy, putting together presentations, compiling articles for industry newsletters and you know, surfing the web. In reality I was doing more web surfing then anything else and it was there that I found my two happy places – Twitter and Mamamia.

Mamamia and Twitter were inextricably linked for me – the friends I met on Mamamia were the friends I saw in my Twitter feed. We were taking Mamamia to Twitter and taking our new friendships back to Mamamia like a perfectly formed circle of conversation.

I commented on Mamamia a lot (l’ve always had a lot to say).  I commented enough for Mia to notice me and to start talking to me on Twitter as well. It was more than 4 years ago – both Twitter and Mamamia were much smaller.

In a glorious turn of events Mia reached out to me, the very gorgeous and gifted Kerri Sackville and the amazingly talented Amanda Whitely.  We worked together scurrying around the back end of Mamamia for a short while before Amanda and Kerri went on their very successful ways and I went to work for Mia at Mamamia.

It was the dream job for me – I learned more than I could possibly have imagined I would ever know. I got to meet amazing people and experience extraordinary things. I was often bruised – just from pinching myself that it was actually my life I was leading.

The move to iVillage last year was a big step for me – I left the safety zone of the Mamamia community and I embraced iVillage with everything I had. And it was an amazing ride.
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But I’m getting off.

I resigned from Mamamia/iVillage yesterday with a heavy heart and an eternity full of beautiful memories.   Mia, Jason and the team at Mamamia – especially Nat, Nicky, Lucy, Bec and Rick (although he is no longer there) with whom I have shared SO much, have built me the perfect ramp from which to fly my coop. I need to spread my wings with these incredible memories , I need to  fly to new places.

And even though my first foray into Mamamia was almost 5 years ago, it is testament to the strength of that early community that when I announced on Facebook that I was leaving, it was the people that I met all those years ago commenting on Mamamia as Sharpest Pencil, wishing me well.

Benita, Angela, Danya, Rachel, Emma, Julie, Amanda, Sandra and of course my very dearest Kerri*  let’s raise our glasses to Welfington – hope we get there soon

*with a special mention to Miss Manly 😉

Tomorrow – I will eat

I’m so cranky that I can’t even think properly. Instead of gently tapping at my keyboard I am bashing at it in anger. Every time I bang the wrong key (and that happens a lot when you bash they keyboard) I get angrier.

I have been snappy with my son and my husband. In fact Mr Pencil very wisely left the house to go do some or other fitness class or we’d most likely be fighting now or wishing divorce upon each other.

Poor Little Pencil has been witness to the very shortest of tempers. My last words to him before he fall asleep were something along the lines of “shut up”

I’m not proud. But I am very, very hungry.

Today has been a fast day. Day one on The Fast Diet in fact. It’s the new trendy diet to follow and you all know

a) how I’m feeling about my weight and

b) how trendy I am

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The science in the book made perfect sense to me (but then so did the science in The Secret) and I am convinced that I can do wonderful things for my fatty liver and pre diabetic body by giving my cells a chance to rest and repair.

Obviously I love the fact that other than offering respite to my cells I stand to lose some weight.

But the thing that got me over the line was that the diet promises that I can eat anything I like for the five days I am not fasting.  Could there be a greater lure for someone who loves  food so much?

Anyway today one of the two fast days and I have been reminded what hunger is all about. I’ve been allowed 500 calories today – that means 2 boiled eggs, a cup of instant (and hideous soup), a tiny tortilla warp with salad in it and a cup of raspberries.  That is not a lot of food,

That is the amount of food that leads me to be a very cranky person tonight. But tomorrow is close…. And breakfast is planned.

Hold me readers as I try get through tonight without losing my shit.