Little Loves - November

READ I don't know if this is true but it sort of sounds true. I read that sea water resets your nervous system. Cortisol dropped in 32% while the vagusnerve activity spiked in a study where people swam for 8 minutes in the ocean. It mimics the body's 'safety signal', similar to babies being held on their parents chest. Apparently when skin meets seawater, pores release stress metabolites while absorbing certain trace minerals. It's the biochemical unloading that makes you feel 'lighter' after swimming. There is also a study that swimming in cold sea water reduces pain for arthritic patients.- apparently the pressure uniformity compresses the joints evenly.  The sea rewires you. I do know I come out of salt water (laps at Boy Charlton pool on a sunny day, or a dip in the surf) feeling invigorated and happier than when I went in. 

I'm getting to the end of Booth (books wise) but I'm slow going.

Had a lovely family dinner at Rosso Antico, Newtown

Was back to Lottie with friends in Redfern - the bonus being the whole menu is gluten free so perfect if you have friends with dietry requirements!

The food is delicious and beautifully presented.

WATCHED Been to a few plays - had a good laugh at So Young, I always enjoy Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf - my favourite play. Also had fun at Calamity Jane but the winner was Pharlap. So great - if you get a chance to see it, even if you don't like horse racing (like me), it's so much fun. One of my friend's announced "That was the best thing we've seen all year" and when she walked out of a play at interval, she left saying "Well, it's no Pharlap!" so hopefully they bring it back for those that missed it.

Went to Running Man, which is a good remake and If I had legs I'd kick you, which is funny and well done but I found a bit depressing, probably more about me than the film, necessarily.

My themed handbag for Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf?

On TV we are enjoying Pluribus,  & Down Cemetary road except for the weekly drops. Madly watching  the Iris Affair before my cancelled Stan drops out. The Beast in Me was devoured quickly and The Diplomat did not disappoint.

HEARD Parov Stelar has a new album out and it does not disappoint...if only they'd announce a tour here!

Fabbrica in Newtown has a Happy Hour form 3-5pm with $10 Negroinis and other drinks. We had a sensational meal there before Hot Dub.

We shared pastas (so we tried all of them) but lots of little nibbles before hand were individual, so everyone got what they wanted.

WORE Because of the endless saga with my feet, I needed some new shoes (other than sneakers and Birkies) to wear that I could actually be pain free in....Williams, of all places, had a sale and I ordered 5 pairs for the cost of one $$ pair of heels. Tested out the Hello Kitty shoes on the weekend and they worked a treat! So very happy with the price ($30) and the fit.

AND LASTLY Weekend away at Currawong was definitely a highlight, and I'm hoping Steve Aoki at Hypersonic is another one (but Claptone was so disappointing and I'd raved about him to my friends so it was just a dud all round...anyway, I don't want to jinx it!)

Linking with #LittleLoves #TalkaboutitTuesday #TuesdayTwirl

Share Four Somethings

I have no idea how we are here already! I feel I just did this. Where did the four weeks go? But when I look at my Insta, it's been jam packed so I guess I've been busy. And time flies when you're having fun, right?

Something I loved I have wanted to see Jeremy Loops for a long time and he finally turned up here again. I bailed on Harbourlife to get to the Hordern for his support set (to Ziggy Alberts). He was wonderful. He even did a bit of looping. He was everything I wanted him to be. It's joyous and clever. He is uplifting. It was just magical. The best part, he's coming back for a full band tour. In June. So watch this space and get tickets when they go on sale. You do not want to miss it!

We also managed to get to Eugene 'Hideaway' Bridges in Cronulla, at Brass Monkey - a great little venue like the old Basement. It was an afternoon gig so we got a group together for lunch so we'd have seats for the show. The food was good (you can by show only or meal and show but there was plenty of choice for the mains). It was a really special afternoon. There was this moment when he gets the venue manager to come and Always with him and I got a little emotional, to the point of tears. My first thought was 'what is going on? This must be some kind of Negroni comedown from the festival weekend' but then I decided 'it's just one of those fleeting special moments that the beauty of live music taps into' so I just revelled in the emotion and then it passed. When I later openned Insta to post my clips, the very first thing I saw was a meme that said "Concerts are where you realise how f&*%ing beautiful it is to be alive in this world." and THAT was what I was feeling. I was so overwhelmed with the beauty of it all, and the fleeting nature and the magic of what was created and we all shared.   (Clips of his performance are here).

If you have stopped seeing live music, please give it another go. Even a free pub band, a concert put on in a park, a music school recital. There is something lost in recorded versions, and something lacking when listening at home alone. There's something in sharing it with the crowd and the performer.

Something I learned 

My broken feet were becoming too much so I have finally gone to the podiatrist with them. (Well, I can't go without my feet, can I?). He made me bring all the junk I've been buying off the interent to fix them, and my shoes. We tested them out on the computer treadmill and I was honestly surprised at the results. The winners were my Twoobs with the Steppers inner sole...but next was, wait for it....my Converse with the weird ebay gel thing. I thought it was the arch support but it's actually the gel band that holds it in place protects the boney thing on the top of my foot causing the pain....so I can keep wearing my many pairs of Converse for festivals and stop buying more expensive shoes that I then chicken out of wearing if I have 6 or 8 hours of dancing to do....My podaitrist did also say I should keep jumping and going to festivals as that will stop my feet from getting worse....so Doctors orders!

 

Something that went well I listened to the pay day super webinar, and as we already pay super monthly, it's not going to impact us much at all, except to find a clearing house. So it was worth listening to it so that I feel more confident about what I need to do. My only thing would be for ethe ATO to make compliance 14 days because 7 days is not enough time if the payment bounces back to get it into the right account. This has not happened to me ever but it still worries me that it could happen if an employee changed funds....Even using the ATO clearing house it has taken over 5 days from ehen I transfer the money to them  and one Christmas, I put it in 7 days before their shut down date and they didn't transfer the money until Jan. So  14 days would be fairer than 7....as long as the emplyer put the money in on the payday. 

The lesson for me is not to worry about something until you have the facts. I was getting quite stressed about all the talk but as I got the facts, I sat there thinking 'oh, we already do that'.

Something I let go of Comments. Or keeping up with the comments. I'm really trying but I'm just chasing my tail at the moment. Sorry. I'm hopeless at the moment. It does weigh on me a bit. I just haven't had time at the weekend to catch up.So I will go and sit in the naughty corner. I do intend to get back to you all over the course of the week but then it just falls apart.

Linking with #WWWhimsy #FineWhatever #TalkaboutitTuesday #SeniorSalonPitstop and #AwwMondays 

Festival Weekend

This weekend is my favourite weekend of the year. It's my New Years Eve/New Year's Day as now I rarely go out New Year's Eve but do party at Field Day to bring in the new year.

For the last 4 years I've been at Hot Dub on the Harbour and it's my fifth Harbourlife the next day (the first time I went to Harbourlife, Hot Dub hadn't 'borrowed' the set up. I did notice that Olivia Dean borrowed the set up on the Thursday night so it's becoming a bigger annual tradition...good to see!

For the first time, instead of managing sweltering heat, it rained. Literally rained on my parade.

However, still a good vibe! 

Claptone, one of my fav Djs who was so brilliant the first time I saw him was bitterly disappointing but D.O.D saved the day and really was Good Vibes Only!

 

Danced for 40 kms over the two days and slept a heavy, happy sleep!

It is an annual tradition that I really adore and look forward to.

And it heralds the start of the festival season for me! 

(Note this one does have a lot of kissing and he takes his shirt off so I'm not sure if it's suitable for work or not - it's tame but depends on your work rules)

Linking with #TravelTuesday as it's definitely a weekend to come to Sydney for! And #WednesdayAroundtheWorld #MondayMusicMovesMe #ThruMyLens #HappyTuesday

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Advent - The countdown to Christmas #XmasLinky

 For the next 4 weeks, every Friday I will host a Christmas link up. Add your Xmas themed posts here for #XmasLinky   (old or new - but non xmas posts will be deleted).

As a kid, my dad came back from a business trip to Germany with the most beautiful advent calendar. It was paper but shaped like a gingerbread clock with little doors that you opened to reveal Christas pictures. I loved it so much, and we shut all the pictures back down after Christmas and used it for quite a few years.

I just adored the excitement of opening it each day. Even when it got to the point that I remembered all the pictures and there was no surprise. 

I still love advent calendars. I now give my neices kids advent calenders (but on Christmas day only give colouring books or something small to do on the day). My kids get fancy advents as part of their santa haul (ie I spend less at Christmas). I will admit I wait for the sales and use discounted vouchers so I can get them for $50 or more less than sale price. There are also flybuy or credit card points you can use to buy gift cards to pay for them.

I have been eyeing off the Jurlique one for myself but at $200, while good value for what you get, I can't justify it. And I haven't been able to knock off enough on the purchase price (I got it down to $180 but still out of my range).

So I've gone with Moomin Tea from Pappa Sven (this is the most wonderufl shop in Newcastle if you don't know it. If you are after Tove Janssen's adult books in English, they have them at a good price).

I do then also reuse the little boxes - I put a little Santa chocolate in it and bring them for the table at Christmas get togethers over the month of December. 

I find the men's one harder to buy so my son gets a gaming/korean noodle one that I put together myself...

If you are looking at Lego, always look at the sales around June. You can get the previous year's for $35-40. But the benefit of the Lego ones is they are small (if Inner city house space is an issue) and they can be played with all year round with any other lego sets and fit in a shoe box for storage once done. 

Ditto Little People and Playmobil. They add to the toy sets they have.

And of course we will be setting up our Playmobil reusable advent, now in it's 25th year!! Because it wouldn't be Christmas without it!

Do you get advent calendars? Which ones and any cost saving tips?

While not an advent, I just wanted to promote these chocolates from David Jones (which I didn't buy so can't tell you how much) but a thoughtful gift if seeing your Vegan friends over the holiday season.

On the Department Stores, if you're not shopping locally (supporting small business), could you consider supporting Myer and David Jones in person? I worry we will lose them, and I do love the ease of Department Stores when looking for specific items (obviously cost matters but they seem to be having endless sales at the moment!)

Note none of this is paid. All my preferences and opinions.

Share your Christmas themed posts, old or new below. Don't forget to share the love and coment.... 

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