Women of Letters

When was the last time you wrote a letter? Like, a real letter needing a 60c stamp and written with a pen? This doesn’t include birthday or Christmas cards either, cheaters.

I was about 13 I think. Dad got a promotion and we moved away from the little coastal town I had spent the previous 12 years of my life. For a 13 year old girl this is like, so totally devastating.

So my friends and I wrote letters to each other.  The letters mainly included information on who was new BFF's with who or that Rodney threw a half eaten apple at Anna’s head – he SO likes her.

Sometimes we would send each other friendship bands that we had crafted ourselves and at some point we went through a stage where we’d put the weirdest thing possible in an envelope and send it. I remember receiving a smear of toothpaste with a note that read “try this new toothpaste mum bought me - dare ya to lick it”

A while ago we went to a Women of Letters event at the Red Rattler in Marickville. It bought together some of Sydney’s brightest musicians, writers, and actresses to celebrate the lost art of letter-writing and share a letter they had penned specifically relating to love.

Our faves were Claudia Karvan and Sally Seltman. Claudia because well… she’s Claudia and wrote a letter to love itself. She read it aloud like she was narrating a scene from Love My Way. It was beaudiful.

And Sally because she sang Beyonce’s Halo in a love tribute to catchy pop songs. She had everyone singing along with her, which was quite entertaining in itself.

Hand written letters needing a 60c stamp truly are a lost art. Which is why I’m so glad I kept every single one that I received when I was 13. They’re all in a box in my old bedroom and every few years I read them. Each one has been designed with love hearts or flowers with pretty colours and personality.

Nothing compares to a good old tangible letter, does it?

Poppy the Psychic

We went to see a psychic called Poppy yesterday. She is in Newtown at the back of her store that sells second hand fashion. Not just any fashion, but the outlandish type, with bright colours, big shoulder pads, shiny fabric and furs all crammed into one room. You have to take the trip through this den of pre-loved clothing to make it out the back to her psychic room. It's worth it. It's like going to see a therapist and being able to talk about yourself for a whole hour. No guilt involved. She is engaging, kooky, and wears some very interesting eye makeup. She told us good stuff, some weird stuff and also some stuff that didn't really make sense at all. But we loved it all the same...

Have we mentioned that we love Newtown? Being there gave us an excuse to skulk around the backstreets with a camera. There is so much inspiration....goths, drag queens, grafitti, rubbish, fashion, dogs, music, environmental causes, markets....we love it all. We love Newtown.

If you want to see Poppy she is at 22 Enmore Rd in Newtown. At the back of her store Purple 22. Duh.

funbooth, will you marry me?

I went to a wedding on Friday. It was just lovely. The bride and groom were so happy. Everyone cried, including the men. It was a day that celebrated the love between the happy couple, but also the love they share with their families and the community they they come from.

Apart from enjoying the love in the room, it was also the place where I discovered the funbooth. It is a portable photo booth that you stand in, cue pose, have 4 photos taken, and then get cute little prints to take home with you. I can't really explain why, but I just love photos. All types. Any camera. This being the digital age, I love photos even more when I can hold them in my hand instantly. Polaroid cameras are on my current crush list. So this booth is really just a large version of a polaroid camera. Oh, and did I mention they had a suitcase of props to use as well? I basically wanted to keep going in it. all. night. long.

My sole mission in life is now to have a party that warrants hiring the funbooth. Is it wrong to want to get married just to have one?

It's allllmost here...

In the summertime when the weather's high,

you can stretch right up and touch the sky,
when the weather's fine...

It might be a couple of months 'til summer but it's beach weather already I say.

Into the wild - we recommend it

This time last year I had just arrived home from a two year, globe trotting stint.

Traveling the world with nothing but a backpack does something to you that I’m not too sure anything else can. It makes you realize what true freedom is. It liberates you. It puts life into perspective. It gives you the ability to be whoever you want to be.

But most of all, it gives you timeout from your life so that you can decide on what it is you really want to do – what’s really important. What makes you happy and what you are passionate about.

I was reading through my travel diary this morning, reminiscing and just before I came home I wrote a list of all the things I wanted to achieve and things I wanted to change.

I remember being really anxious about going back to my old life and forgetting all things I’d learnt about myself. I wanted to really appreciate things more and DO things that I would otherwise procrastinate about.

Whilst reading I came across this quote by Christopher McCandless which I’d written down when we were cruising around Alaska in our van. I was reading John Krakauer’s ‘Into the Wild’ (if you haven't, you should read it)

The quote resonated with me so much at the time and it still does.

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.

The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”

Here are some pics from Alaska. We decided it was one of the biggest highlights of our trip. It was so vast, untouched and uncompromising.

“Screw it, let’s do it” Richard Branson

In recent weeks I went to a breakfast with guest speaker Sir Richard Branson. Since we are like this (you can’t see me, but I’m crossing my fingers) I call him Dickie Branson for short. Now when I say went to a breakfast, I mean I sat in a room with 1000 other Business Chicks and ate all of the food and then watched him speak from the stage.

This post is quite late in terms of blogosphere timings because I have been thinking about what my main take home points were from the morning. Obviously, I needed some extra thinking time, as the breakfast was on the 13 September. Simply put, I didn’t find it as inspiring as I hoped. He was very subdued. At one point  newsreader Natarsha Belling quoted a moving part from his auto-biography and Dickie had to admit that he didn’t remember that exact quote. Credit to him, he continued on and told another related story but it left me feeling like he hadn’t really been properly briefed.

I had possibly let my imagination run away with me and in my head I saw him pumping his fists on stage mid motivational quotes and me bursting out from the venue doors with a new inspired lease on life. So I only had myself to blame really. But since I have had over 20 days to think about it, I have two main take home points that I want to share: 

1) During the breakfast it was mentioned that his motto for business is “Screw it, let’s do it”. I do quite like this. I love the fact that for all the planning and plotting people do, at the end of the day you really just have to take a leap. It reminds me of a quote by Erica Jong: “If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more”. If you let yourself be ruled by plans and money and what if’s, then you will miss out on all of the positive changes that take place when you do something different. Bugger it, I say, let’s all go join the circus. Weeeeee! 

2) The other point that really stuck with me was when he talked about the people that he employs. Sir Richard said of potential employees "the absolute key thing is that they are kind and genuine people". Alleluia! He said that the foundation of a good business is the people that you employ. I agree 100% with this comment. Sometimes we focus so much on the superficial parts of the workplace that we lose sight of the basics. It’s simple, but it can have a huge impact not only in your professional life, but in your personal life too.


Here is a pic of the outdoor billboard for his latest venture - V Gym. There is one opening in Pitt St in Sydney soon. It sounds like it will be on a planet of its own. You know you have made it when your name is the main part of the ad.