"If you love something, wear it all the time." Vivienne Westwood

We have a formal event on the weekend. My go to outfit for this kind of dress code is my wedding dress. The last time I wore it was 2019  and the intervening years of lockdown eating and menopause have not been kind. My bodyshape has changes.

I read somewhere that the ideal weight is the one when you stop worrying about it, so I've tried to think like that (or not think, more accurately) but when I tried on the dress is was very tight and looked curvy in all the wrong places. 

I do have a back up outfit that looks okay, but I think I'll stick with the dress (unless I catch a glint of horror in my husband's eye - he would never say I look terrible straight to my face, but the thought might sneak across his face). I'll try to chanel the confidence of these ladies, and the great lesson I learnt that night becuse the dress is so beautiful and it might just be the last time I get to squeeze into it.

I am hoping the luxury of wearing the dress, it's beauty and the magic of the all the memories woven into it's material is enough to carry me with confidence and more importantly, feel beautiful.

It holds not just the day of our wedding, 24 years ago but a dinner on the Eastern Oriental train on our honeymoon, countless nights of merriment at Mayorall Balls, wearing it to a formal dinner when newly pregnant and smiling at the sheen of the curve in the velvet on my previously flat belly, dancing the night away to great music with at a family wedding, and most recently, wearing it after a long hiatus at another wedding and feeling so very happy it still fit.

I will be sad when it no longer fits, as it's as beautiful as it first was, and timeless in style and looks brand new. 

So wish me luck that I can enjoy the dress on the night. For that is what this dress is made for. To feel beautiful and to party....

“Clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them” - Marc Jacobs

Do you have clothes that are special to you?

Linking with #WOWonWedneday

End of Spring

 We near the end of Spring and it feels like summer. The heat, the storms and lots of lovely bees doing their thing.

My kiddo and her friend did a school project many years ago on the importance of bees and delivered little packs of sunflower seeds to the neighbourhood. One neighbour liked me to pass on information of the plants progress and there are a few gardens now with sunflowers and I wonder if that's because of the project or just coincidence....

“Where there are bees there are flowers, and wherever there are flowers there is new life and hope.”
― Christy Lefteri, The Beekeeper of Aleppo

#Allseasons linky runs from Thursday to Wednesday each week.

Link one post that shows something seasonal. Traditional weather wise, a seasonal nature marker or a seasonal celebration. 

Make sure you link back to this  #AllSeasons post. 

Please comment on the post before yours and the host. Don't dump and run

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Click here to enter

“Dance is the joy of movement and the heart of life.” — Anonymous.

For the second year running, I've had a practice run at New Year's Eve & Field Day. A group of friends head off to dance the night away at Hot Dub on the Harbour and I back it up the next day with Harbourlife, this time for Meduza.

For those overseas, a stunning festival is set up right on the harbour looking onto the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

There is something wonderful about dancing as the sunsets, even though this year was a little cloudy to get the colourful disappearnce of the sun.

The city lit up and sparkled.

The next day, instead of a sore head, my heart was bursting with excitement in anticipation of the pending repeat activity.

All up, I danced the equivilent of 31kms and felt so fabulous all weekend.

“There are shortcuts to happiness and dancing is one of them!” ― Vicki Baum, Ballerina

Do you love to dance? Do you get to do it enough? (I know I don't!)

Linking with #WBOYC #TravelTuesday (Because it's a great weekend to be in Sydney) #MCoW #WednesdayAroundtheWorld #SkyWatch #GalleriaHimmelsblich

November Reading

This month I revisited The Honorary Counsel by Graham Greene. Such a great book. Greene writes the most likeable unlikeable characters, which makes it emotionally confusing for the reader as events unfold. I love it. More indicative of his expert mastery of words & creation, I felt both panic and became teary in parts, which is truly amazing as I knew how the book ends. I think the Quiet American is the better book but I really enjoyed The Honorary Counsel too.

I read Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow on a few friends recommendation. It was ok. I'm sort of amazed how much the people that loved it, loved it. It's interesting and covers a lot of new subject matter for the type of book it is, so I liked that. And with gamers in the house, it was interesting to get more insight on that world from a different angle.

 

Still going with How to Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran. I've read two of her fiction books before (here & here), but this is more memoir and feminism. I'm enjoying it, and I like books that make me think about things. This covers a lot of what we just accept without ever thinking about.. It is, of course very light hearted and funny too. Good entertaining stuff!

So short and sweet again. Not a lot of time to read at the moment.

What's been on your bookshelf?

Linking with #WeekendCoffeeShare #MonthlyBookWorms and #WBOYBS #UnlimitedLinkParty

Tell us about....Laughter

It is said that children laugh 300 times a day and adults laugh about 17. There is a lot of problems with the way we decide to 'grow up'. I'm not sure we get it right.

I go to the Comedy Festival when I can - last year I had 10 shows booked until covid made me give away the last (and most expensive) show's tix to friends. I tend to go to unknown (to me) comedians - favouring women and Asian people (because they have to work harder to get an audience usually) and if the ticket is only $20-$25, then I only have to laugh a few times to get my 'money's worth'. It's fun to just pop out for an hour set with friends on a weeknight - still home early enough to have no impact on work the next day but be buzzing with the joyful endorphins.

As soap is to the body, so laughter is to the soul. — A Jewish Proverb

One should laugh constantly and hard. It does indeed have a medicinal effect. You feel rejuvenated. 

It releases neuropeptides improving your immune system. It stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles (according to this article on preventative medicine) and obviously it's the perfect way to destress and reduce anxiety & lighten depression. It can even lower blood pressure. Laughter even reduces feelings of loneliness. I guess it's that shared moment, and probably when you laugh, you tend to look at people in the eye to 'share' the joke. There's a bond or connection built into laughter.

"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face." — Victor Hugo

Children laugh more not because they have less worries, though that is probably part of it, but because they have an innate ability to find joy.  I write a lot about seeking out joy and relishing in happy moments, no matter how small. Seeking out laughter will also infiltrate your life. It may start as a conscious effort - watching a tv show or comedian but like any muscle, the more you work it, the more easily it becomes.

"Mirth is like a flash of lightning that breaks through a gloom of clouds and glitter for the moment. Cheerfulness keeps up daylight in the mind, filling it with steady and perpetual serenity."-- Samuel Johnson

What made you laugh recently?

Linking with #HappyTuesday #WordlessWednesday #KeithsRamblings #TellUsAbout #TrafficJamWeekend #SeniorSalonPitstop #PictorialTuesday

The photos are just some of the things that made me laugh in Singapore  (for some reason me as a weird bird skeleton entertained me for way longer than it should have)

Nesting season

Some of you may remember the horrific battle we witnessed last year where the birds tried to save their babies (eggs?) from becoming the Monitor's lunch. 

While I got much better photos last year, I was much happier that the outcome saw the lizard slink off in defeat....

This time it was very interesting to watch all the different types of birds (except the Kookaburra who didn't care to join in) team up together to battle it out. They seemed to have learnt something in the last 12 months about strength in numbers.

A practical example of the lesson: united we stand, divided we fall. 

I had not really thought about how stressful nesting season must be for animals. Hats off to those feathery Mamas and Papas that don't give up, doing all that they can against a much bigger foe. Or as another favourite saying of mine says "Even the smallest axe can fell a tree if it's sharp enough".

#Allseasons linky runs from Thursday to Wednesday each week.

Link one post that shows something seasonal. Traditional weather wise, a seasonal nature marker or a seasonal celebration. 

Make sure you link back to this  #AllSeasons post. 

Please comment on the post before yours and the host. Don't dump and run

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Encouraging someone to be entirely themselves is the loudest way to love them - Kalen Dion

I have lots of friends from different parts of my life - from school, from uni, from jobs 20 or more years ago, from school years of the kids and even from now.

The best types of friends are the ones with whom you relax. You never need to think about what you said or did. You never feel the differences, just the bond.

Go where you're celebrated, not merely tolerated.

If you don't return home from time with friends feeling content with who you are, then they're probably not the people for you. 

“Time doesn't take away from friendship, nor does separation.” Tennessee Williams

Linking with #SundayBest #MondayMusicMovesMe  #SeniorSalonPitstop #InspireMeMonday #WednesdayWordsandWhimsy