This is what I call aging gracefully

Jackie Collins and Raquel Welch have lived a total of 144 years between them.

They've also had 6 husbands and 5 children.

What is strange though, is that they don't even share 1 wrinkle.

I think I would like to try whatever they're drinking.

There is something to be said for aging this kind of gracefully don't you think?


Have a great weekend everyone.

Oh, and if you have any clues as to what they're drinking let me know IMMEDIATELY so that I can get started while time is still on my side.

But it's customary to do it..

Customs are funny things. And no I am not referring to the custom in some countries where burly blokes wear tartan skirts with work boots and socks to footy games as well as other lesser, but still momentous occasions like their weddings (that's just for you Mike, the best Scottish blogger around).

I want to talk about customs and public toilets in particular. No, not the squat toilets in Asia, the toilet slippers in Japan, outside urinals in Africa or garderobes in castles in the UK. None of these have particularly concerned me.

I'm talking about public bathrooms in the USA.

I think the most uncomfortable tipping situation that I have ever encountered would have to be the bathroom attendant. There is nothing worse look than leaving a public bathroom in a classy establishment with someone running after you asking for payment is there?

It's not like Europe or some other parts of the world where an odd looking person sits at the entrance of a toilet facility and demands payment before allowing tourists with full bladders in.

In the US it can be a whole different experience. If you visit an upmarket establishment in some parts of the US and need to run off to the bathroom, there's a very good chance a very nicely dressed person will be standing near the sink holding fresh paper towels.

Once you relieve yourself, they will offer you the towel.

They will also likely have breath mints, lollies, chewing gum, cologne in the men's or perfume in the women's. Some attendants may have cigarettes for sale.

It's customary to hand over a dollar or two to the attendant after they hand you a paper towel and allow you to pick through the lollies, freshen up your breath and slap on some scent.

If you decline their goodies, but still receive a paper towel, it is still a good idea to hand over a dollar ... at least.

Most Aussies like me are confused by tipping in general. When, how much etc.

I've never felt comfortable with it simply because it's not customary in Australia to tip, other than perhaps at a restaurant if you REALLY, REALLY think the service and food are great.

And it's also unnatural for most Aussies to mingle with strangers in toilets, let me tell you.

My first toilet attendant tipping experience happened twenty years ago in the lovely bathroom of a fine New York restaurant. I was oblivious to the whole concept of toilet attendants.

I saw this person approach me, offering a sway of goodies and I panicked (as I am wont to do with anything outside my comfort zone). I went to the sink, declined the person's invitation for a paper towel, grabbed my own, and rushed out. I may have been feeling a little sensitive because a few nights earlier I was picked up at the airport by a 'fake' cab and charged a fortune. I also may have wrestled my own luggage from the driver in an effort not to allow him to carry it into the hotel and thus avoid having to paying a tip on top of his large fare....
The next day someone explained the whole tipping/bathroom attendant protocol to me i.e. you've got to be prepared to tip everywhere, even the bathroom. After that, I couldn't stop thinking about how the attendant probably had five starving kids at home and the only job she could find was hanging out in the toilet offering paper towels and perfume to passers by.

I went back the next night and handed her $5USD. She was happy. My conscience was relieved.

I've never visited a public toilet since without at least a $1 note in my pocket just in case.

What customs have you come across in your travels that you don't understand? I am sure we have loads here that make no sense to tourists either.

Giveaway - Canvas Art

I just love this photo of my niece Caitlin and her friends having fun in the pool . It makes me smile every time I look at it! Happy looks good on everyone hey?

Large Format Posters.com, who are specialists in photo canvas printing and large format printers have offered to give one of my USA based readers (I know, I am sorry for anyone outside the US) a 16 x 20 canvas print of one of your favourite photos. I have never used their services before but their website looks to be full of ideas.

I have some canvas art of my favourite photos and I've found it to be ultra durable and it lasts a long time. It's also kind of fun making your own 'masterpieces'. You can choose to frame the canvases or get them stretched on a wooden frame at a later time if you want.

If you would like to enter just leave a comment. You can enter as many times as you like. I will use random.org to select the winner. Entries close on midnight, 23 May 2010.

Happy Sunday everyone!

There's endurance and then there's ENDURANCE.

I just read about a 69 year old South Korean woman who finally passed her driving test after 960 tries.

I shook my head and laughed before realising that there was a time in my life that I may have done the exact same thing.

Kept trying, that is, until I finally made it. Whatever it was. No matter how long it took me.

In fact, I am convinced I came into the world with the inherent belief that “you never give up, you bear it and get on with it until you achieve it.”

Endurance. It’s something to aspire to. It’s character building, right?

That belief system worked well for me for a lot of years.

In fact, if you had asked me some years ago whether I thought there was anything impossible to achieve I would have said no. I believed that if you tried hard enough you could get the outcome you wanted. Eventually.

However, that’s all very well when you are facing life with just a little adversity thrown in for good measure. But what happens if you are facing ADVERSITY with a big bloody A the size of which you’ve never seen before.

Like most people, I eventually found out the answer. The hard way.

The Universe in all its wisdom decided to give me a big ol' adversity test to wipe the smug smile from my face. And, as I was to learn, endurance and being courageous is not all it's cracked up to be.

The Universe's choice for my big A test was presented to me in the guise of a tall, dark, handsome and, on the face of it, very kind and loving man. Except, as the world turns, he was to prove to be a Jekyll and Hyde character which you can see on any TV crime show on any network, in any country on any night of the week.

Get the picture?

What started as heaven somehow slipped into hell. Given my belief system, and the fact I didn’t know quite what I was dealing with, I stayed in this toxic relationship and gritted my teeth through the terror of it, developing some kind of warped hostage mentality, until it was too late to get out and nearly ending up 6 foot under.

I can distinctly recall thinking while in the grips of this drama that if I tried hard enough and did the right thing it would be fine because that’s how it had always worked for me. I clung to this belief and wouldn't for the life of me let it go. I just had to try harder and harder...and endure it...and more...never giving in or up until everything was alright with the world.

Malignant hope is such a double edged sword isn’t it?

However, like the best of fairy tales, there was a beginning, middle and thankfully an end.

And luckily for me the ending was way better than it could have been. Like the good English proverbs say, adversity makes strange bedfellows, hindsight is always twenty twenty, all things must pass, better safe than sorry, a trouble shared is a trouble halved, time is a great healer, laughter is the best medicine and crime doesn't pay.

(As an aside, I have made a vow that I will never say the words; time heals everything, to anyone while they are in the throes of despair. Even though it's so true. It can drive someone further down the dark pits and is not very helpful at all. In fact it’s about as helpful as buying an obese person who has just started a diet, a size zero bikini to wear when they lose the weight. Grief, like weight, has many layers which have to be peeled off before you can see the positives let alone trying to visualise a different kind of reality. People facing challenges need validation and space).
I will give Monsieur Universe his dues though (bound to be a he surely although Lisleman makes a good point in his comment that it could indeed be a couple). I learnt that having a strong character and showing endurance is not about putting up, staying put, fighting for your rights and trying to win a losing battle. It’s about never letting anyone trample your personal boundaries not even for a second and knowing when to walk (or run away) and when to admit defeat and get help. Sometimes giving up and getting out shows the real courage and brings the real victory.

ADVERSITY with the big letters no longer terrifies me. I see it as some kind of divine intervention almost and if we are open to it then we (the victims and the bystanders) can take the ammunition we sorely need to grow and become better and more empathetic human beings.

None of us escapes the hard lessons that the Universe throws in our path. Some even get way more than their fair share. But next time big fella, I am ready for you, even though you won't exactly find me hanging around waiting! And you sure as hell won't find me attempting to do anything 900 times either. I've learnt my lesson!

What about you, what trial have you faced in your life that has taught you the most about yourself and the world around you? What got you through it?


Image: My favourite relaxation spot down by the lake. It’s bliss. I like peaceful places.

Put your legs behind your heads?

I've always known that you should never underestimate a woman who can get both legs behind her head and wrap her feet around her face.

Don't you agree?

I've secretly spent years trying to perfect this move with one yoga class after another, unfortunately followed up by one mishap after another.

It's just one more dream I have let slip through my fingers...

You can therefore appreciate how excited I was when a friend of mine sent me this video of some 1944 footage of the Ross sisters -Vicki, Dixie and Betsy. They are performing as a 3-part harmony trio......with some acrobatics and contortionism thrown in for good measure.

They are about 14, 16 and 17 and just gorgeous.

Watch past the first 45 seconds or so before you see the interesting stuff.

It starts out looking like another kitschy 40's tune, but give it a minute. Things get wild!

Whoah, it's quite amazing. Oh the good old days when teenagers actually turned their bodies inside out without having to resort to drink, drugs or even poles to do it.......sigh

Bigger is not necessarily better..unless...

Mattel has just released a range of Barbies that are meant to resemble Australian women. Hell yes, we women all look like that here! Err, NOT!

So, before I blog, just let me throw back my silky blonde perfectly coiffed locks, use some toothpicks to hold my eyes open so that my extraordinarily thick, extra long lashes don't prevent me from seeing the keyboard, and then adjust my jewels so that the reflection on the computer screen doesn't blind me.

Mattel designers clearly need to get out of the doll making factory a little more and travel. Someone's been looking at too many Playboy magazines. Stop psyching out our kids...no-one looks like that....and while I am at it where the hell is Barbie's nose? It's missing.

Speaking of psyching, I've been watching TV instead of blogging lately. I initially got addicted to the Biggest Loser (overcoming adversity is a potent drawcard in any medium for me). And now I've gone full circle and am addicted to Masterchef.

This show is inspiring millions of Australians to cook. Me included. After the first show I made so many pavlovas I lost count. My first attempts looked more like pavlova pizzas so I had to keep trying until I got it right. I have finally conceded that we Saggitarians are hopeless at following any recipes and prefer to freestyle everything. It is tricky to do that with cooking ......and .....your taxes as I've also discovered.

I am now wondering if the television network has some kind of subversive control over viewers - its a slippery side - a cycle of cooking and eating, then exercising and losing weight just in time for more cooking, tasting and girth expansion. And round and round it goes. It's a sort of a life resembling art situation rather than the other way around (that's if you can stretch the definition of art to include TV).
The Pavlova recipe is here at my Inspiration blog which has been lying idle and uninspired for a while. The bigger you build the pavlova shell the better of course.

Although, as Barbie's eyelashes already show, bigger is not always better.

Take a look at this house being built near where I live. No amount of money can hide bad taste, can it? I find this house so disturbing I can't take my eyes of it. I keep walking past and wondering who is going to live there. I guess everyone's home is their castle and the owners of this house are clearly quite partial to very large, ostentatious Grecian columns on a very large house.

And speaking of ostentatious and gaudy columns, I am going to be closing off comments on my blog for a while. I am having trouble catching up with everyone's blogs. Damn cooking show.

Finally, Happy Mother's Day to all those mothers in internetland for this coming Sunday. The US, Canada and Australia celebrate Mother's Day on the 9th I think. Put your feet up ladies!

My daughter asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day, I told her I like surprises. She asked if I wanted eyelash extensions.

Yes. True.

In light of the Barbie photo above, I respectfully declined and told her that bigger is not always better for some of us. The expression mutton dressed as lamb unfortunately came to mind....