Uncategorized – Page 3 – my sensible friend

PAR-TAY!

By Serena | March 6, 2013 | Comments 2 comments

Gosh there are some fun blogs out there.

I was cruising the ‘Net early this morning instead of making the kids’ lunches for school like it was a Sunday. God knows what they eventually went off with….probably all my money, again. I re-visited one that I haven’t seen for ages but am looking at now with new eyes: Buy Now Blog Later. What I love about her apart from how pretty and interesting she seems to be is her unashamed shallowness. This is her tagline:

“Just so you know this is a blog about shopping.
It doesn’t get any deeper than that.”

I’m throwing around words like “wisdom” and “inspiring” – even “sensible” – but I still want to blog that amazing tube-y mascara….so I’m embracing my inner shallow.

On that note, let me show you a few photos from a great party we went to on the weekend. I feel entitled to blog a party as they are – to be honest – few and far between these days. Perhaps now that everyone’s turning 50 any minute – not me thank God – there might be a few last gasps of frivolity to be had. According to my oldest teen, we may as well just roll over and die from old age right now. She can’t believe I can stay up beyond 9.00pm and lets face it, I rarely can.

The party was in the south west at a friend’s holiday house which was more like walking into a winery for its elegant beauty. The theme was ‘festival’ so I channelled Kate Moss at Glastonbury and believe that no one could even tell the difference between us. I feel sure I will find this image floating around Google Images next time I google “kate moss”:

Rob channelled a hairy rock guru which was a mean, rockin’ look as he drove us to the bus stop in my mean, rockin’ Toyota Prius:

Ali and I getting ready in the bathroom of the family holiday house, Le Crap Shack (yes it is really called that):

The Hoodoo Gurus lit up the stage:

And we danced the night away, despite my daughter betting we wouldn’t stay up past 11pm.

Next day called for a lot of food, so we headed to Eagle Bay Brewery for a great feed of burgers and salmon with some of the other rockers. I highly recommend lunch there if you’re anywhere near Yallingup/Dunsborough. We chatted to one of the lovely owners, Astrid, and discovered its owned and operated (“..and there’s mum on the till…”) by a third generation farming family and sits smack bang in the middle of their farm.

Now about that really great mascara….I’ve got a section on the blog called The Dogs Bollocks which is just cool stuff other people have put me on to. It talks a bit more about it there.

The Local Grocer Delivers the Goods

By Serena | February 27, 2013 | Comments 0 Comment

This week I took a “preview” delivery of gorgeously fresh and mostly* very local fruit and veggies from new Perth business, The Local Grocer. It’s not available for orders until next week – I happened to have thrown an embarrassingly small amount of money at the business to help them start-up via the hot new(ish) concept of crowd funding – so they let me order a week early. They also asked me not to publicise their website until next week but I just couldn’t wait so please don’t tell on me.

It is chockas! The fruit and veg are fresh, cold and crisp and the local ham…lovely. It came at about 5.30pm so I whipped out a few ingredients and threw it together to make a ham and vegetable risotto.

It was all locally fabulous with a handful of frozen peas because the kids love them.

The box was $70 and will easily feed the five of us for the week. My box is a conventional box; the organic box is $90. I will have to supplement a couple of things – we eat a lot of apples here and we also have a beetroot, celery and carrot juice (Juice-Plus! we call it) each morning so need big quantities of those.

You don’t have to order a seasonal box. You can just pick and choose exactly what you like and in any quantities. I wanted to check out the seasonal box to see what is actually seasonal right now, and also to see if it would suit me as I like the idea of one-click ordering (are you getting how lazy I am yet?).

If you live in Perth and you’re interested in supporting Greg and Mary Winning and The Local Grocer you can jump on board to order as of next week. Just don’t tell anyone or give it away that you had a sneak preview this week, promise? It’s our little secret.

*While the business is newly growing, there are a few items that need to come from interstate. They plan within a couple of years to be 100% local. It’s a work in progress, as with any good idea.

Incredibly Easy Cake Everyone Will LOVE

By Serena | February 24, 2013 | Comments 2 comments

When a recipe starts with “put all ingredients in bowl” there is a very good chance it is going to get tried out in my kitchen. Today’s little winner is the Bimby Chocolate Cake. I only have one picture of it as it is so easy to make, it was prepped, baked and half-eaten before I had a chance to whip out my camera.

The other great thing about this recipe is the fact that the it makes either one big cake, two loaf-sized or loads of cupcakes. Today I made two. It is a thermomix recipe but any half decent food processor or a Kitchen Aid will cope with this. I have converted the amounts of everything to suit either. Just make sure your butter is very soft if you’re not using a thermomix. And use nice proper butter.

You can leave out the cacao and make a plain vanilla cake if you like, or throw in some finely grated orange peel for a Jaffa effect (I’ve done this and it is very good). Too easy.

Bimby Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
170g (3/4 cup) soft, good butter
4 eggs
250g (1 cup) milk
300g (1 1/4 cups) self raising flour
370g (1 1/2 cups) raw sugar
40g (3 tbs) cocoa/cacao powder
1 good splosh vanilla

Put all ingredients in bowl. Mix at a good speed for a minute (TMX sp6 1min). Bake for 45 mins at 180 degrees celsius in two tins or about an hour in one big tin.

Thanks to the wonderful Forum Thermomix for this one and especially to forum her “I Love Bimby” who kindly let me republish this here.

I did make a version of this recipe and simply left out the cocoa/cacao and it was just as good. I never got around to icing it before it was gobbled up:

Just for fun – here’s a photo of Tendercrisp doing what she does when out free ranging:

Balls, Peaches and Rock Stars

By Serena | February 18, 2013 | Comments 2 comments

Late Saturday night nostalgia completely overtook me on the way to pick up my daughter and her friends from the Year 12 School Ball. The whole thing was also expensive, so nostalgia was followed closely by relief that we may be able to afford to eat again next week. I had spent the evening at Mrs Browns with the very girls I shared that night with almost thirty years ago at my own school ball. It was the year of dropped-waist dresses, silk taffeta, Molly Ringwald, INXS, Mondo Rock, Footloose, Bachelor Party…1984.

Oh I could write reams on this glory year, but ancient history needs to stay where it belongs, in the past.

This is her, the one who makes my heart skip a beat every time I see her image. I study her for clues to myself and am constantly bewildered by just how much she is her own woman, not mine.

Who would have guessed the song they danced hardest to would be Dexys Midnight Runners’ Come On Eileen? Hello again old friend The Eighties.

Year 12 School Ball "Befores" 2013 — Year 12 School Ball “Befores” 2013

Sunday lunch was spent with my parents and our favourite priest Canon Frank Sheehan. I took a dessert I found while lying in bed in the morning instead of going for a run, letting the Internet take me carelessly from blog to blog. This one comes from The Londoner. I love her “anti diet” – a good one for mums to give their older teens who are worrying about weight, needlessly or otherwise.

The recipe’s been adjusted but if you follow the link you’ll get to the original:

Roasted Peaches

Some peaches (I had about 7)

butter

honey

black strap molasses (optional)

ground cardamom

mascarpone/creme fraiche

Halve and de-stone peaches. Put a knob of butter on each one on a baking tray. Drizzle honey and molasses (it’s a superfood you know), sprinkle cardamom and roast in a moderate oven for 20 to 30 minutes.

Reserve the melted sweet butter after cooking. Serve with a big dollop of mascarpone and a good few tablespoons of the decadent sauce.

Finally a music recommend: Friday night my groovster live band buddy (Rob) and I went to see Father John Misty at the Chevron Festival Gardens and they were completely fabulous.

We went on the back of only having heard a single song of theirs and loved loved loved the whole set.

Slow Burn 1980’s Nostalgia followed up with brightly coloured loud Up To The Minute Cool: Perfect weekend.

Children of the Corn

By Serena | February 10, 2013 | Comments 2 comments

Not one sensible friend joined Rob and I last night for the spectacular St Jerome’s Laneway Festival in the Perth Cultural Centre. If I find out anyone was instead playing Bridge or lawn bowls that’s it; you’re de-friended.

Here is a song from one of the artists (you won’t be able to click on the link if you’re reading this via email, you have to open it in your web browser). It’s young Sydney DJ Flume with Holdin On:

Those who were at the beautiful Leeuwin Estate picnicking with singer/songwriter Carole King are exempt because no matter who is playing at Leeuwin, it’s a glorious evening of wine, food, music and friends.

Unlike the crowd at Leeuwin Estate Winery, we never saw another soul our age at Laneway. As the sun went down to the tunes of Alt-J, with beautiful young things pumping fists in the air, I shouted in Rob’s ear, “Do you feel like we’re in a scene from Children of the Corn and we’re the only people who make it to middle age?” Next year I am buying group tickets for my 40years+ MSF’s.

Speaking of Children of the Corn, I smugly sent mine off to school on Friday with a (lightly steamed) corn on the cob instead of an apple, just for a little variety. I just this Sunday morning emptied lunch-boxes and there was the corn. One had a little tiny bite out of it. I will keep trying. One sensible friend actually grows her own. Right here in the ‘burbs in her organic back garden. Her kids just dust off the dirt and eat it right out of the ground. But hey; she wasn’t at Laneway last night so I still win. Alright, she wins.

Attention to Detail

By Serena | February 4, 2013 | Comments 8 comments

Lunch at the newly renovated Cott Hotel with two sensible friends last week and the conversation turned to the movies. One of them gets free tickets to Luna Palace films and often asks me along. This is because I am a very agreeable movie date:

I scoff my choc bomb before the main feature comes on, or I eat nothing, so there’s no crunching of the end of the cone during awkward quiet bits. I don’t talk at all during the film, not even an ironic glance. Unlike one of the clever men I know I also don’t drink from a water bottle which then creates a little vacuum, making a popping noise as air is returned to the bottle once the drinking has finished (there was no easy way to write that bit).

Sensibly, we decided there were some people with acute attention to detail and others without and how one behaves in the movies is a pretty good yardstick.

The chatter moved seamlessly from movies to parking (aren’t we the fun girls?) and again bewilderment at some people’s lack of attention to detail.

When you’re headed to your car and you can see someone is waiting to pull into your spot, you skedaddle into your seat, put your seatbelt on as you’re pulling out and hot-foot it out of there ASAP so the person behind you doesn’t have to wait for too long, holding up traffic and getting annoyed. Although you will never see them again in your entire life, you don’t want them thinking ill of you.

So why when the situation is reversed, do you find yourself sitting there with your indicator on while the person in the car leaving ambles over, hops in their car does God knows what for two or three minutes then reverses out slowly, visibly surprised to see you waiting there for their spot. Then while they are half out of the spot, slowly put on seatbelt, make another call, chat to child in back seat for a while….This isn’t reserved to beach parking – there’s the shopping centre, the theatre parking, Napoleon Street…

Lets not even go there with the pick up lane at the kids’ schools and the mothers in front chatting from car window to car window when their little one has been belted in already for a full three minutes.

At least I can sit smugly in those queues knowing I am helping save the world in my Prius (let’s just forget the fact I am driving when I live less than one kilometre from the school gate).

Many of my sensible friends are celebrating this week: kids back to school, house staying cleaner, no longer haemorrhaging money on a daily basis. In my family we have two landmark years with one daughter in Year 1 and the other daughter in Year 12. In the middle a son in Year 10. We’re at the pointy end of the education system, but hysterically it’s both pointy ends. What fun.

Have you, like me, been wondering what to feed the kids for brekky? Sensible friend Jane suggested an easy breakfast that avoids the cereal trap (cereal is easy but as you know, nutritionally so poor there is no point in it at all): Good quality yoghurt – we use Mundella (because it’s good quality and locally grown and owned by dear friends), some nuts roughly chopped, and some fresh fruit. It’s SO simple and so healthy. Maybe some nice homemade or Gaby’s Muesli and maple syrup spooned on top.

Below is a recipe I have adapted for the Thermomix and altered so it is almost completely Superfoods (superfoods I tell you!). It was originally a Curtis Stone recipe from a friend who dropped a slice of it in yesterday.

Don’t be alarmed by the number of ingredients, you just throw in what you have in your pantry. If you’re not a thermomixer, it’s basically a cup of flour and a couple of cups of ‘bits’.

Superfood Slice

130g coconut flour/other flour

100g muesli

30g each of sunflower seeds, goji berries, shredded coconut, chia seeds, coconut sugar, dates.

50g coconut oil

50g sun warrior protein powder (or whichever brand you like)

20g maca powder

40g honey (I used the McCall’s honey from the Margaret River Farmers Market!)

20g molasses

1tsp baking powder

1 or 2 eggs depending on how dry your mix is.

Throw it all in the bowl, mix it up speed 5, and press it into a brownie tin. Bake 180 for 20 minutes. For non-TMX’s just throw it all in a big bowl and mix it up.

This version happens to be gluten-free but I have also made a batch with normal wholemeal flour and it was fine. Don’t expect it to be more than luke-warmly received by the younger kids, its ‘healthy’ tasting: No it doesn’t taste nearly as good as a Tim Tam okay? You could try melting some chocolate and butter and spreading it on top to dress it up, or add 30g cacao powder to recipe to turn it into a chocolate slice.

silver linings playbook weinstein company 900-thumb-615x372-105628 — Silver Linings Playbook

Back to movies – you know who to ask if you want a movie date! It’s probably my most favourite thing to do. If you haven’t seen Silver Linings Playbook or Argo, do. Especially Argo.

Two Picnics

By Serena | January 27, 2013 | Comments 1 comment

Two picnics down by the river on two consecutive evenings? It must be summer holidays. Of course yesterday was Australia Day so we were picnicking with sensible friends and about a million others (many not nearly so sensible) who flocked to the Swan River to see fireworks accompanied to Absolutely Terrible Music. What a come-down from what was in my opinion the hottest Hottest 100 ever. The fireworks crew even played 99 Red Balloons as part of the mix; disgraceful. The fireworks were pretty and apart from nearly getting arrested it was a lovely evening.

photo from: http://article.wn.com/view/2012/01/27/Flashes_of_brilliance_Fireworks_and_lightning_combine_to_lig/

Alright, not “nearly getting arrested” – we each had opened a Corona and immediately a half dozen police swooped down and made us tip them onto the grass. I was extremely bold and took a little swig before tipping mine out.

Back to Hottest 100 for a moment. Here is a version of Matt Corby’s Brother (which everyone knows) from Like a Version. This version is by an Australian hip hop band called Thundamentals whose lead singer also releases songs under his own name, Tuka. They dwell in the Blue Mountains.

I am a little surprised Tuka’s song Die a Happy Man didn’t make it into the list. It’s so damn catchy:

This evening the family got together down at Chidley Point for Picnic Number Two which included stand up paddling and fishing. We even had a visit from a photographer trailing a bride in seven inch heels and her new husband all in military whites and a beret (army, apparently). The kids caught clear jellyfish but we made them treat them with kindness, unlike back in the seventies when they were shredded with sticks and smeared over rocks the poor creatures.

I took what promised to be lovely little chicken rolls to tonight’s picnic – shredded roast chicken with cashews, homemade date paste, and rocket in hollowed out french stick – but they just didn’t work; they were mushy and boring. We did take great biscuits we keep making over and over thanks to one of my favourite food blogs. It’s a fabulous recipe Juliet (6) and I made without screwing up thanks to Lottie and Doof. They do them in 100s&1000s but I love the taste of them rolled in sesame seeds or coconut:

Sugar Saucers (from Piece of Cake: Home Baking Made Simple by David Muniz, David Lesniak and Rachel Allen)

4 cups (600g) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 cups (340g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup (120ml) canola oil

1 cup (225g) granulated sugar

1 cup (200g) confectioners’ sugar

2 large eggs

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

rainbow sprinkles, for decorating

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter on medium speed for about a minute. With the mixer on low, slowly pour in the oil, and then add the two sugars, the eggs, and the vanilla. Make sure to stir well after each of the additions. Slowly add the flour mixture, about a quarter at a time. Mix just until the flour disappears. The dough will be soft. Refrigerate for at least an hour before proceeding (up to 3 days).

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment.

Using a 2-ounce ice cream scoop (or up to a 5 oz scoop), divide the dough into balls. Roll each ball in rainbow sprinkles until thoroughly coated. Place them on baking sheets with enough room for them to spread (if you are making giant cookies you will probably only get 4 per sheet). Use your fingers to flatten each ball slightly.

Bake for 12-20 minutes, depending on the size. Bake until the edges start to turn golden. Cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

A One Cop Town in The Eighties

By Serena | January 17, 2013 | Comments 5 comments

Does an email ever stop you in your tracks? I opened my mail this evening to see this:

“Have I found my old friend from Idaho?”

I was whooshed back 27 years to American Falls, Idaho 1985; a town with one cop, one set of traffic lights, two burger joints and a rumbling interstate highway just over the back fence.

Susan, a Kiwi, was also a Rotary Exchange student in a neighbouring town and equally exotic to the locals there. We were the only non-Americans for many miles around. I got asked more than once if it had been hard for me to learn English. Susan was my friend even after I told everyone that New Zealand was in fact a satellite state off the coast of eastern Australia.

Being 17 and more filled with self-knowledge and confidence than ever before or ever since (the most wonderful thing about being 17 is knowing everything about everything), I challenged the politics teacher on why only American politics and American history was being taught at American Falls High. Horrified, Coach Bob – for he was also the school grid iron coach – spat his chewing tabaccy into a bin and told me that the other counties would think Power County had been run over by communists if he taught anything about the Eastern bloc.

He challenged me to give a few lessons to the students about the history of communism and the Russian Revolution of 1917. They all eyed me warily from that week on and I wonder if they thought I was in fact a communist spy. The cold war was still cold, the Soviet Union still six years away from collapse, and although this was the year of Gorbachev’s glasnost, the frost was still bitey.

I saw Jack Reacher last night and it reminded me a little of this time; the good old eighties. The baddies were real old school baddies, complete with cloudy eye, missing fingers and Siberian accent.

The car chase was long and honest. There were no very special effects and the directing was open and disarming. For a goodies versus baddies flick that makes you feel nostalgic for the eighties (even though it’s set later), see this film. It’s fun. And I don’t care what you say, Tom Cruise is fabulous. He isn’t the Jack Reacher I have imagined for all the years I have been reading the Lee Child books, but he is a good Reacher nevertheless.

One more trip back to the eighties today: I ran into a girl friend of my brother’s who asked me if I had a perm. As in had I permed my hair.

AS IF!

I wanted to grab both her arms and shake her and wail “if I were to get a perm would I have it look like this? I mean come ON!” But I just shook my dunny-brush locks and smiled a tiny smile. No, this is just me. Bushy bushy blonde hairdo, reminiscing USA.

What’s on the telly?

By Serena | January 9, 2013 | Comments 7 comments

A passionate reader my whole life – ever since I was spellbound by Walter Duck and his romantic pursuit of Winifred at Blackberry Farm – I now find myself completely hooked on TV shows. It’s terrible. However for all my viewer’s remorse, I am still lurching down the viewing road with gay abandon and thought I would share some of the better shows MSF’s have been recommending. Yes it’s your fault, friends.

After this I will tell you what I think of the titles on the Booker short list 2012 (not really; I am just waiting for Lee Child to write another Jack Reacher book actually. I am hoping MSF Sarah will write some book reviews here though).

Back to the telly. I accidentally bought the entire first season of The Bridge (the Swedish/Danish one) on iTunes the other day. I only meant to get the pilot and inadvertently bought the lot. I immediately noticed it is all in Swedish and Danish with English subtitles and madly pressed buttons to try and cancel the download, to no avail.

Which is lucky because it turns out it is a ripping good series. It starts with a murdered woman (women in fact) being left right in the middle of the bridge that connects Sweden to Denmark. Police officers Saga (Sweden) and Martin (Denmark) team up to solve the case and turn out to be even more fascinating than the murder. Martin is a friendly man recovering from a vasectomy and Saga is completely emotionally detached, presumable due to Aspergers (it isn’t clear or explained as yet). They work really well together as characters and I cannot wait for Season Two. Absolutely worth the $30 I accidentally spent downloading it.

Coming up this June is the second season of The Newsroom. Just find it and watch it and if you already have then for goodness sakes make sure you see all six seasons of The West Wing. Aaron Sorkin wrote both and I love him for it. Apparently he was already working on The Newsroom when he did The Social Network back in ’09. It’s a fast-paced, fun, fascinating look inside a cable news network. Jeff Daniels stars as the news anchor forced to re-think what he is about. Snappy screenplay, fun characters, makes you believe you have a brain because all the news they cover is set only one year in the past so you sort of remember the headlines. Ticks all the boxes.

If you’re interested in going a bit low brow without compromising quality, check out The Walking Dead. Yes that’s right: Zombies. ZOMBIES! I was a ~~little~~ very sceptical at first. After all I was just coming down from True Blood and worrying that my brain was actually dripping out of my head onto the floor. I even thought of picking up my kindle or doing craft with my six year old. But after sticking out a gruesome few days of severe viewers remorse and putting up with the un-dead eating people on the streets of Atlanta, I got into the storyline. I know I sound like a man justifying why he reads Hustler (“it’s for the articles!”), but it’s not bad if you can tolerate the nightmares later.Basically some sort of virus causes the dead to regain minimal brain function (enough to walk with a limp and moan a lot but not recognise anyone they once knew, or talk) and walk the earth in search of food; food being any other living creature. A brave little band of survivors battles through each episode. It’s a compelling, fantastical look at a post-apocalyptic world.

ABC TV production Jack Irish is fantastic: It’s set in Melbourne and stars the wonderful Guy Pearce who is at his best in this – so far – two part series. Each of the shows is 1hr40min so you’re getting your ten bucks worth on iTunes. IMBD describes it: “A former criminal lawyer is getting his life back together and now spends his days as a part-time investigator, debt collector, apprentice cabinet maker, punter and finding those who don’t want to be found – dead or alive.” The cinematography is excellent and the well known Aussie supporting cast are superb. I only watched this one night on a whim because I’d run out of episodes of Dexter and was delighted to stumble upon something so good. The two parts are Bad Debts followed by Black Tide. I hope there is more to come.

I am having a long-ish love affair with all things Scandinavian so will also recommend Wallander (thank you to My Sensible Canadian Friend). I spent nearly the whole afternoon in IKEA today as I just needed a hurgen vurgen fix. The salmon salad was very good value. You can find Wallander, another crime show (is there a pattern emerging?), starring Kenneth Branagh on iTunes and sometimes on ABC iView or the BBC equivalent (worth the subscription price) if you’re watching on your iPad. Here is how much I liked it: I found his ring tone and adopted it as my own. Not kidding.

If I don’t wrap this up I won’t have time for another episode of The Bridge before sleep time so will get more recommends from MSFs and update the viewing guide soon. Also soon to come is a Clever Man contribution, this time involving sour dough bread.

One in 80 000

By Serena | January 3, 2013 | Comments 7 comments

Apparently says Seth Godin, blogger extraordinaire, there are 80 000 new blogs created every day. It’s a bit sort of depressing, isn’t it? Just when I was struggling with relevance, there’s that figure. I almost want to post a picture of a cat doing something funny:

Onwards and upwards.

This post is just to briefly sing the praises of some other blogs among the millions (millions I tell you!) out there that have been recommended to me by my sensible friends that I keep going back to, again and again for either advice or a laugh or because I really don’t want to be doing what I should be doing.

First up I should point out that I am not specifically primal or vegetarian or sugar-free or anything-arian or religious (perhaps not at all) or atheist. I really hate the idea that I might be a fence sitter though: Instead I see myself as taking a little wisdom from all of the above.

Here are some people on the Internet worth checking out.

Sarah Wilson: She has a blog that “makes life better, sweeter” – without sugar. It’s a pretty scary concept but her science is sound and she isn’t fanatical in her approach. You read her little book and her blog and you almost think you could do it. She also puts why good fats are good in very simple, easy to understand language.

Mark’s Daily Apple Mark Sisson is pretty much the king of the primal, or paleo, eating movement and also has some good science on his blog, Mark’s Daily Apple. I really like that while he is devoted to his pathway he is not a purist. I was delighted when I read his advice to someone who was terrified of being offered fresh-baked bread that they’d be a fool not to have some (slathered with butter), even though his main gig is “grain-free”. For an older guy he is also very easy on the eye.

Recipe Rifle: I haven’t been reading this for long but what I have seen so far is hilarious. As one of MSF’s said recently “I want her to move to my town and be my friend”. She offers a recipe with each post and a funny, irreverent update on life in her world. I love her style.

Flourish Magazine: This one is the work of one of my treasured sensible friends. It’s a wealth of recipes, advice, product info, reviews and fashion all based around the idea of living positively. I have a few articles floating around there but what you won’t see is gossip or celebs. A fresh approach to women’s stuff that leaves you feeling a bit better about yourself instead of hopelessly inadequate.

New Scientist Magazine: This isn’t a blog but there are loads of blogs in their blog section. It’s a magazine I love reading and I have zero science cells in my brain so that’s saying a lot about how hard they try to hit a wide audience. It is packed full of absolutely fascinating information like “cannibal insect sex caught on video” and how allergies could serve an evolutionary purpose, and “gut instinct” about the brain that is our stomach (Sarah Wilson talks about this in her blog too).

The Vine: “brings you all the latest news and rumours, facts and hard-hitting opinion, wanton gossip and downright lies, from the world of pop culture, music, fashion, art, entertainment and more..” I wish I was this cool.

There is more. Jude Blereau for instance, Sally Fallon. My lovely friend who I have never met in person; Blayney Colmore. The Cool Hunter, Remodelista. I will get to them another day, soon. But there is no more time on this frantic summer’s eve to get it all down and who wants information overload? It’s enough that there are 80 000 others like me out there today another 80 000 tomorrow (it can’t be true!).

I would love to hear of the ones you follow.

Category: Uncategorized

PAR-TAY!

By Serena | March 6, 2013 | Comments 2 comments

Like this:

The Local Grocer Delivers the Goods

By Serena | February 27, 2013 | Comments 0 Comment

Like this:

Incredibly Easy Cake Everyone Will LOVE

By Serena | February 24, 2013 | Comments 2 comments

Like this:

Balls, Peaches and Rock Stars

By Serena | February 18, 2013 | Comments 2 comments

Like this:

Children of the Corn

By Serena | February 10, 2013 | Comments 2 comments

Like this:

Attention to Detail

By Serena | February 4, 2013 | Comments 8 comments

Like this:

Two Picnics

By Serena | January 27, 2013 | Comments 1 comment

Like this:

A One Cop Town in The Eighties

By Serena | January 17, 2013 | Comments 5 comments

Like this:

What’s on the telly?

By Serena | January 9, 2013 | Comments 7 comments

Like this:

One in 80 000

By Serena | January 3, 2013 | Comments 7 comments

Like this: