The Weekly Round-up: What everyone is talking about.

It’s Friday and you made it. If you don’t have kids, there’s a degree of  ‘woo-hoo’ about today.

Another working week is over and ahead of you stretches 48 blissful hours of…whatever you want.

If you’re a parent, the weekend is a slightly less relaxing prospect. Family time is (hopefully) welcome but there’s not a lot of sleeping in involved, particularly if your kids are young. But regardless of your family situation, weekends are social. BBQs, drinks, playdates, birthday parties, dinners……..

This weekend is going to be a stinker – in a weather sense for those along the east coast. So we’re predicting many Frosty Fruits will be consumed and many swims will (hopefully) be had.

It’s been a big week. Lots has been happening in the world and we understand that you might not quite be up to date if you’ve not had time to log onto Mamamia daily. That’s okay, we forgive you.

But as it is the season of giving and we’re generous souls here at Mamamia, we also don’t want you to be that awkward silent person at the dinner party or the kids birthday party, who has nothing to add to the conversation.

So here’s a list of the timely things you might have missed this week.

A few conversation starters to get your through the weekend:

1. The explosive 60 minutes interviews with both parents at the centre of the Italian custody battle. If there’s one thing we learned from the video it’s that there are no winners in family court.

2. Can you judge a sportsperson’s performance based on who they’re sleeping with? That’s what one journalist did. He compared Michael Clarke’s batting average at the time he was dating Lara Bingle to his batting average now that he’s married to Kyly Boldy. And the answer was… Irrelevant.

3. The picture of Miranda Kerr that is just… we can’t even.

4. The number of parents registering ‘conscientious objection’ to vaccinating their children is up 500% from 1999. The reason? Anti-vaccination campaigners whose modus operandi is to use misinformation, junk ‘science’ and bogus unqualified ‘experts’ to spread fear and lies about the safety of vaccination. On the one hand there is science and there is no other hand. Vaccinate your kids.

5. Julia Gillard, the Australian Workers Union and something about a slush fund? Questions over Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s involvement in dodgy dealings by employees of the Australian Workers Union in 1993 came to a head this week when she was forced to hold an HOUR LONG press conference to answer questions. And yet the media – and the Coalition – still haven’t stopped with the allegations.

6. The pictures of Kate Middleton wearing a green Mulberry dress that’s very similar to a frock that Princess Diana once donned in the early 80s.

7. The US ‘dating’ website where men bid to take women on dates. In the sites own words: “If the date goes sour, at least they won’t be going home empty handed.” Our question – practical or prostitution?

8. The hotel you’ll never see on Getaway. If you have kids, you’ll need to leave them at home because sadly, there’s no kids club. (NSFW – and probably best talked about after a few wines.)

9. The former Australian Rugby Union player who thinks “girls” shouldn’t be allowed to write about sport. David Campese sent a tweet this week questioning why a female journalist was reporting on the rugby. We ran a response from a sport-loving female journalist, who said something along the lines of…..

10. Singer Chris Brown deleted his twitter account after he sent a series of abusive tweets to a comedy writer calling her a “ho”, a “pathetic b*tch.” And did we mention he’s still on probation.

11. The ARIA Awards. We’ve unofficially awarded Taylor Swift ‘best dressed.’