(Open) Post Of The Week

Every  hump-day -Wednesday, I do a post about the past week. Who I met, what I did, the things I was into, what I broke or burnt……anything really. It’s also an open post where you can talk amongst yourselves. Something on your mind? Anything you want to know from the MM Team or the community? Speak up at the end of the post…….

The Incredibly Humbling Experience:

This week I drove down to Wollongong, about 2 hours from Sydney, to speak at the Illawarra Business Women’s Conference. I arrived too late to hear the morning speakers but I did get to meet them during lunch. There was one woman who had the most amazing presence. You know those people who have an energy? Hers just radiated calm and serenity.

I asked someone who she was because her name – Ingrid Poulson – was familiar. You may also remember the name. Ingrid’s estranged husband stabbed to death Ingrid’s father, Peter Poulson 72, her daughter Marilyn Kongsom, 4, and her son Sebastian Kongsom, 20 months. before killing himself in 2003. He had a history of domestic violence and the night before the murders, he tied Ingrid up and raped her.

It’s almost impossible to digest, let alone experience.

Unbelievably, Ingrid now teaches resiliance training and has written a book about learning not just to live after such an unimagineable tragedy but leaning – slowly – to find joy in life again.

She is now expecting her third child and I asked her if the pregnancy is bittersweet. She said that yes it was but I cannot tell you about her aura and serenity…..it was a profoundly humbling experience just to meet Ingrid. Watch this space. I’m going to interview her for Mamamia.

You can get her book, “Rise”, here.

The Fashion Trend I Don’t Understand:

When did onesies for grownups become fashion? I am a bit obsessed with shopbop.com at the moment, I love to browse and browse….but I can’t help but notice how many ROMPERS there are. Did we used to call these jumpsuits? I’m assuming they shouldn’t be worn by anyone over the age of 19?

Do NOT be misled by how good the Shopbop models look in them. They look good in EVERYTHING. That is the evil genius of the site……

The Really Useful App:

Maybe you can cook. Maybe you can even boil an egg and get it JUST RIGHT. I am not you. My egg are constantly wrong which is disturbing because I eat a lot of eggs and so do my kids. This free app is life-changing in a first-world-problems way.

Egg timer – you can download it here.

The birthday

Lana baked the cupcakes and blew up the balloons. We sang. It was good.

The Video

Shut. The. Front. Door.

A couple of years ago I took my daughter to see Yo Gabba Gabba and we went backstage afterwards TO MEET THEM. It was a highlight and my youngest son – who was only a baby at the time went on to become as fixated on DJ Lance Rock, Muno, Foofa, Tootie, Plex and Brobie as his sister was, has a photo of that meeting plastered on his wall. Imagine our excitement to receive this video from the very smart promo people at the touring company.

We’ll be seeing Yo Gabba Gabba at the Opera House this weekend. Cannot wait.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efqr1hRxfzw&feature=player_embedded

The Horror

It’s really hard to get past the incredible, devastating story by Australia’s best investigative journalist Sarah Ferguson who this week, uncovered the horror that is abbatoirs in Indonesia where Australian cattle meet the most horrific, torturous death.

We posted about it but I wanted to share the words of The Australian’s Caroline Overington (pictured below and featured every week on Mamamia TV) who wrote:

IF you did not watch Four Corners – A Bloody Business – last night, do it now .

It’s the live slaughter of cows in Indonesia: broken-legged, bellowing cows being beaten, their tails twisted, trampled upon, stabbed in the head, sawed at the neck until they’re slipping, terrified, in agony, in their own blood, on the floor.

For mine, the worst scene was the last scene: one cow, tethered and shaking with fear, as her mate was butchered in front of her. She knew what was coming.

Never have such scenes been shown in Australia. Never in a milliion years did anyone imagine that it was like this.  Talkback radio in Sydney this morning boiled over with fury.

Many who called in were themselves farmers. As one of them said: “If you’re doing this for money … well, you’d rather live in a tent in paddock, wouldn’t you? Than condone this?’’

And what is the government doing this morning?

They’re having an inquiry.

An inquiry.

Here’s your inquiry: get on the ABC website, go to Four Corners, watch the program. There’s your inquiry. It should be done by midday. And the sale of live cattle to Indonesia, for slaughter in those conditions, should be over by tonight.

A GetUp petition to ban live exports can be signed here or you can write directly to the Prime Minister to let her know what you think. You can also visit the RSPCA’s Ban Live Export site here.

The broken phone

Yes, I did it again. Sigh. And you know what they said at the Apple store? “We’ll have to have it assessed to see if it was broken by accident or on purpose.” Come again? Apparently, people throw their phones against the wall. In anger? In frustration at bad hold music? Are there REALLY people who do this?

The Fabulous Crazy Friend

I was excited to have my beloved Paula Joye on Mamamia TV this week. Since we have a bit of fashion ESP, I texted her before I left home to say “what are you wearing” because it’s not unheard of for us to show up somewhere wearing the same thing. Sometimes, exactly the same thing from, say Sportsgirl or Witchery that we’ve both bought independently.

She replied: “I look like something from Priscilla Queen of The Desert”. So I assume she was wearing sequins. Or a tutu. Why wouldn’t she be. Paula loves nothing more than a tutu.

So I arrive at Sky News and there she is waiting for me in the very large foyer, surrounded by suity types and looking like this:

In public. IN PUBLIC. I have never seen such large rollers. They could have been coke cans. Or tins of paint.

“What are you DOING?” I half laughed half hissed. “What? I’m not vain. I don’t care. If I don’t do this my hair will be totally flat.” And then she pulled her sheepskin-lined moccassin slippers out of her handbag and said “I thought it might be too much to wear these WITH the rollers….”

Here’s how she looked when she took them out: they DO give root lift.

It was a fantastic panel this week – I’m yet to meet a woman who doesn’t swoon for ABC702 Sydney Drive host, columnist and author Richard Glover.

Note the cup he’s holding. I’ve started bringing those from home to soften the newsy set a bit and this week, I also brought a bottle of wine.

There may or may not have been wine in some of our cups on the set.

Unlike commercial TV stations (and the ABC and presumably SBS), there’s no hair and make-up at Sky News which suits me fine.

I’ve finally been forced by circumstance to learn how to slap make-up on my face after more than 20 years of wearing it badly.

I’m still not flash but I can get by.

Richard was a bit sad about having no make-up (men all wear foundation and powder on TV, yes, even Kochie, even Karl) so Paula lent Richard a helping hand with some powder before we went onto the set.

How was your week? Feel free to chat about anything, anything at all. You can ask questions, make comments about this post or just bring up something totally unrelated. Go. For. It.