The 29 best moments for women in the last year

March 7 2018

In celebration of International Women’s Day, I have collated a list of the best moments for women in the last year!

This is the fourth year I’ve written this post for IWD. It is both a labour of love and an opportunity to step back and consider our progress. Last year was so dire I nearly abandoned the cause… then the women’s marches happened around the world. And it seemed to unfurl a sense of togetherness, and power, and anger and determination that perhaps we hadn’t fully realised we possessed so collectively. This year, I felt these stories couldn’t be properly told without doing so chronologically. Because I hope you’ll see what I am seeing: not just a collection of wins and moments to celebrate, but a turning of the tide, a passage of time, a making of history that will render what came before definitively as ‘the past’ and no longer ‘the way things are’.

I invite you to sit back and reflect (and fist-pump and cry and sigh and celebrate) with me on the 29 best moments for women in the last year.

7 March 2017 – Fearless Girl sets the tone

On the eve of International Women’s Day last year, a 4-foot bronze statue of a girl by Kirsten Visbal was installed opposite Wall Street’s famous charging bull. With her hands on her hips, her head held high and a look of defiance on her face, “Fearless Girl” in many ways set the tone for a year of courage, activism and progress for women. “Fearless Girl” was only scheduled to remain in place for a week, but due to her incredible popularity – including 500,000 social media mentions in a single day – she was left in place for the year and will soon find a permanent home in the city.

19 April 2017 – We learn Serena Williams won the Australian Open while pregnant


Last January, Serena Williams won the Australian open for the 7th time, beating sister, Venus for the title. About three months after, the world learned she’d been 8 weeks pregnant when competing in the grand slam where she didn’t drop a single set. That’s right. Not. A. Single. Set.

21 May 2017 – “Zan TV” launches

Krishma Naz, 22 of Zan TV Image Source

Afghanistan’s Zan TV is the first TV network to be entirely run by women, for women.This is a pioneering feat in a country known to be one of the most difficult on earth for women, with many female staff risking their lives for the pursuit. Zan’s is building a network by delivering cutting-edge shows on the issues affecting young Afghan women, such as negotiating Islam as a feminist, reproductive rights, managing finances and careers.

1 June 2017 – Wonder Woman is released

The superhero movie genre has been dominated by white male superheroes for some time: think Batman, Spiderman, Ironman. So it was a surprise and a victory when the female-led, female-directed movie about a female superhero, Wonder Woman, became the highest grossing superhero-origin film ever! The film held the title for nearly 8 months and has just this week been overtaken by Black Panther, a worthy successor from a diversity perspective.

22 June 2017 – Larissa Waters moves a motion in Parliament while breastfeeding

In May, Former Australian Greens senator Larissa Waters became the first woman to breastfeed in parliament. In June, she put forward a motion on black lung disease in the Senate while feeding her baby daughter Alia Joy. An incredible legacy to leave in paving the way for acceptance of women breastfeeding at work.

26 July 2017 – Tunisia repealed a loophole that allowed men to avoid rape charges

Women demanding the repeal of Article 522 protested at the Beirut Marathon last November Image Source

Tunisia repealed a law under which a rapist could be exempt from punishment if he married his victim. Jordan followed and then Lebanon,

“To punish a rape victim by making her marry the perpetrator of a horrible crime against her – there is no place in today’s world for such hideous laws,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

3 August 2017 – Australian Women’s Cricket Team negotiate a historic pay deal

Earning the same as men: Cricketers Meg Lanning & Ellyse Perry

Women’s Cricket cemented its place as the leader in pay for female athletes in Australia. In 2011-12 the women earnt on average only $2,000 a season, in 2016-17 that had grown to $22,000 and players had gone without any pay during the pay dispute.The pay deal, finalised in August, made state and national players fully professional, with Australian players earning a minimum of $72,000 and top players like Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry who also have media commitments earning between $200,000 – $300,000, equal to the male players at the same level. The deal is enormously significant in paving the way for other sports to follow suit. The sweetest reward for our cricketers came when the women’s team took home the Ashes this season.

14 August 2017 – Taylor Swift wins sexual assault lawsuit

A Denver jury found DJ David Mueller guilty of sexual assault for fondling Swift’s buttocks during a photo opportunity in 2013. Swift sued for $1, a symbolic amount and acknowledged her legal team as “fighting for me and anyone who feels silenced by a sexual assault”. Like everything Swift does, the case was followed closely by the media, no doubt demonstrating to her many young fans the power and importance of speaking up and seeking justice.

21 August 2017 – Chile legalises abortion in certain situations

People celebrate outside the court in Chile at news the bill had passed Image Source

In August 2017 a decision was made in the Chilian constitutional court to approve a bill which legalises abortion in circumstances where a woman’s life is at risk, in the case of rape or where a foetus is not viable. Chile was previously considered to have some of the strictest abortion laws in the world resulting in an estimated 70,000 illegal abortions being performed every year. The victory was hailed “a triumph of reason” by campaigners and considered an important milestone in opportunities for further liberalisation.

26 September 2017 – Saudi women are given the right to drive

Saudi Arabia made news around the world in September when King Salman decreed that women will be allowed to obtain a drivers license from June 2018. The last country in the world to disallow women from driving, the move was considered to be a significant step in the direction of women’s empowerment. Many working Saudi women have spent significant portions of salary on drivers or relied upon male relatives to transport them, making this change an enormous step toward independence. Saudi Arabia’s first driving school recently opened for registrations and received 165,000 in three days.

5 October 2017 – Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor break the Weinstein story

After months of research, Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor of the New York Times broke the story of Harvey Weinstein’s repeated and incessant sexual assault and harassment of women he worked with over the course of his career. The allegations were so explosive and Weinstein so well-known that many asked how this monster had been able to ‘get away with it’ for such a long time. Alongside so many allegations came the stories of people who’d been told, who’d known and failed to enact change. And with each passing day, more and more people came out of the woodwork with their own accusations. In what will no doubt go down as one of the most tide-turning pieces of investigative journalism in our time, this story began a much-needed, global conversation about sexual assault and harassment.

16 October 2017 – #MeToo

After 10 days of Weinstein and media and questions, Alyssa Milano shared a tweet.

48 hours later, the hashtag #MeToo had been used more than one million times as women (and men) gave the world a live survey on just how widespread experiences of sexual harassment are.

18 October 2017 – Tracey Spicer takes on telling Australia’s #metoo stories

Two days after Alyssa Milano, Tracey Spicer sent out her own tweet.
 
Within the first couple of weeks she had 500 responses, which has since grown to 1,500 and led to the undoing of Don Burke, then Craig McLachlan. Spicer is working alongside Fairfax’s Kate McClymont, with investigations into 40 further media figures ongoing.
Tracey received Australia Day honours this year for her work with charities and broadcast journalism. I am certain she will be one of the most influential Australian feminists of our generation.

1 November 2017 – Lego releases Women of NASA Lego kit

In 2016 Maia Weinstock, deputy editor of MIT news, pitched the idea for a Women of NASA Lego Kit in Lego’s Community forum. The idea received more than 10,000 votes and was put into production, being released – and selling out – on the same day. The 231-piece set features astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, computer scientist Margaret Hamilton and astronauts Sally Ride and Mae Jemison – four women who played crucial roles in the US space program.

2 November 2017 – Beauty pageant contestants change the conversation

In late October in Colombia, two-dozen women stood on stage the Miss Peru beauty pageant. In Peru, pageants are followed fervently by locals. It reached the part of the program where contestants approach the microphone to announce their measurements. (!? Yes I know, this seemed horrifying to me too.) Instead, one-by-one, the women stepped up, stated their name and followed it with a horrifying statistic about the treatment of women in their country.“The idea was to call attention and get people to react,” said Luciana Olivares, a marketing executive who organized the campaign. “These figures aren’t beautiful at all, they’re very much the opposite.”

14 November 2017 – Mattel releases the first hijab-wearing Barbie

Mattel made history with the release of their first hijab-wearing Barbie, a tribute to American Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad who was the first American to compete and medal in the Olympics while wearing a hijab. Glamour Editor-inChief, Cindi Leive said she challenged every stereotype, which “is the definition of a modern American woman.”

15 November 2018 – Marriage Equality Postal Survey returns a ‘Yes’ vote!

In a victory for the LGBTIQ+ community and Australia as a whole, the results of the marriage equality postal survey returned as ‘Yes!’. The majority of voters were women and the campaign was greatly aided by Penny Wong and Magda Szubanski who took leadership roles as campaigners and lesbian women.

6 December 2017 – Time Magazine names the ‘Silence Breakers’ as Person of the Year

 Time gave credit to the women and men shaping the public conversation on sexual harassment and assault.

12 December 2017 – Feminism named Miriam Webster’s word of the year

Word experts, Miriam Webster announced their 2017 word of the year to be: feminism. The word of the year gives insight into the collective curiosity of the public. Feminism was looked up 70% more in 2017 than it was in 2016 continued to be searched in line with major news events.

1 January 2018 – Iceland leads the world in mandating equal pay

On New Years Day, Iceland became the first country in the world to mandate fines for companies who fail to pay women less than men. Dagny Osk Aradottir Pind, an Icelandic Women’s Rights Association board member, told Al Jazeera: “We have managed to get to the point that people realise that the legislation we have had in place is not working, and we need to do something more”.Companies with more than 25 employees will be required to demonstrate men and women receive the same salary for the same job. Larger companies will need to comply by 2019 and all companies by 2021.

7 January 2017 – #TimesUp

At the Golden Globes we saw a remarkable show of solidarity with nearly all actresses – and certainly all household names – dressing in black in support of the Time’s Up Movement and in solidarity with victims of sexual assault. The Time’s Up initiative was founded by an all-female group of Hollywood Heavyweights, looking to put resources in place to fight the systemic culture of sexual assault in their industry and beyond. The initiative includes a legal defense fund, to help women with less-resources to fight sexual harassment and assault.
Big name stars also brought activists as their plus-ones, including Michelle Williams who brought Tarana Burke, the original founder of the Me Too movement well before hashtags existed in 2007.

18 January 2018 – NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is expecting a baby

It was a high-five moment with our friends across the bay when they elected 37-year-old Jacinta Ardern as New Zealand’s 40th Prime Minister and the youngest female head of government. Fun fact: when in her spare time, Jacinta loves to DJ, you can listen to her set on Spotify here. I’m not even joking.

Jacinta hit Australian news cycles nearly immediately when she offered New Zealand’s help in resolving our ongoing refugee crisis, an offer refused by our government. Her badass status was cemented when she met Trump, who during a light-hearted exchange said she caused a lot of upset in the country when she was elected to which she retorted “well you know, no-one marched when I was elected.” #micdrop

But the spotlight shone most brightly upon her when she and her husband announced they are expecting their first child in June 2018. How possibly will she run the country and be a new mum at the same time? Just watch.

21 January 2018 – SAG Awards all-female presenter line up

January’s Screen Actors’ Guild Awards was the next big event on the awards circuit. The Guild not only welcomed their first ever female host in Kristen Bell, but a presenter roster of only women. Be it a bold political statement or a risk-averse approach in light of the number of high profile men being accused of sexual harassment/assault at the time, it spoke volumes about the current platform for women to stand in the spotlight.

31 January 2018 – Formula One Scraps Grid Girls

In a move that had an unprecedented number of men speaking out on the rights of women at work, F1 announced in January announced there would no longer employ walk-on girls at their events, saying the practice was at odds with “modern-day societal norms”. The ‘girls’ will be replaced with kids, giving ‘the next generation’ of F1 drivers the opportunity to engage more closely with the sport.

Plenty of media time was given to the voices speaking out against the decision. Hopefully, the F1 will look for further ways to showcase the many women using their intellectual talent in the sport or look to bring on female ambassadors in a way that celebrates women’s voices, not just appearance.

18 February 2018 – Actresses again support Times Up movement at BAFTAs

The film community again donned black in solidarity as they attended the BAFTAs.

24 February 2018 – Ester Ledecka makes history in Winter Olympics

Czech athlete, Ester Ledecka, made history at the Peong Chang Winter Games as the first athlete in history to compete in both skiing and snowboarding disciplines. Not only did she compete – she won gold in both. With snowboarding her regular jam, her gold in the parallel giant slalom was not an enormous surprise. Her gold in the women’s Super G, however, was a huge upset. After her lightning-fast run, Ledecka stood in shock with her mouth open staring at the scoreboard, waiting for what she thought was an error to be corrected. Later, she refused to take off her ski goggles in her media interviews because she hadn’t put any makeup on before her run, not expecting to be speaking with any media.

1 March 2018 – Nearly-royal Meghan Markle talks about women’s empowerment

In a redeeming sign for the Royals, who had been deafeningly silent on the topic of #metoo, nearly-Royal Meghan Markle spoke about women’s empowerment at an event last week. “Women don’t need to find their voices, they need to be empowered to use it and people need to be urged to listen. Right now, with so many campaigns like #MeToo and Time’s Up, there’s no better time to continue to shine a light on women feeling empowered and people supporting them.”-

5 March 2018 – Women support Women at the Oscars

Frances McDormand won the Best Actress Academy Award for her ferociously badass performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri. Instead of using her speech solely to thank her peeps, she asked every nominated woman in the room to stand up and encouraged others in the room to take a look around and fund them. She then left the audience “with two words: inclusion rider” referring to the clauses inserted in contracts around terms, and later qualified backstage that people should be demanding diversity of cast and crew in their contracts.
Not captured on tv was a beautiful moment that happened offstage shortly after, where the remaining nominees in the category (Margot Robbie, Meryl Streep, Saoirse Ronan and Sally Hawkins) embraced. It was one of so many heartwarming moments for women in the awards season. If “fearless girl” was the right place to start this wrap-up, remarkable women in an embrace feels like the right place to leave it.
And so that’s been our year. I tend to finish every post with a question but this one matters much more than most: when it comes to gender equality, what legacy are you creating? Progress is made in historical moments like those listed above, but also in the smallest ones: a vote of confidence in another woman, standing up for what you believe, asking for what you want, speaking truth to power, making sure the women alongside you are heard.
Happy International Women’s Day, amazing women. Thank you for all of the ways you lift me up, I hope I manage to do the same for you. x

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

9 reasons you should be planning a girls trip!

February 25 2018

This month, I met up with one of my very favourite people, SW, in Byron Bay for a giggle-laden, sunshiney, instagrammable, girls-only mini-break. It was one of the most soul-filling 72 hours I can remember. So good in fact that I’m 100% convinced we should all be doing this more regularly, so in this post, I’m going to give you the complete business case for planning your own girls trip!

So here it is: my 9 reasons you need to be planning a girls trip ASAP!

1. Our friendships have milestones worthy of celebration

In Australian culture, we’re pretty good at celebrating milestones in our intimate relationships with anniversaries, Valentines Day etc. And for good reason: deciding to choose a partner for life is a big deal! But the other people we choose to be closest to in life – our friends – are also a big deal. Many of us have friendships that pre-date or outlast our intimate relationships.

SW and I booked this trip to celebrate twenty years of friendship. We met on the first morning of the first day of year 8 and 20 years, 4 degrees, 2 marriages, 1 baby and about 28,912 hours of shopping later, there is so much life we have shared and it was so worthy of celebration! (Though we are both certain we don’t need to wait another 20 years to do this again!)

A younger version of SW and me on one of those wedding days!

2. Great relationships – including our friendships – deserve nurturing

Of the 20 years we’ve been friends, SW and I have spent a little over half that time living in different cities. We are excellent at keeping in touch, but there’s nothing quite like time spent face-to-face. While the time off and the sunshine and the naps were definitely refreshing, there’s something about spending time with girlfriends that makes your soul smile.

SW + Me, smiling inside and out. 

3. You’ll probably want to do lots of the same stuff…

Shop! Nap! Eat! Swim! Shop! Cocktail hour! Did I mention shop!? Also, total snaps to Byron for being such a fabulous mini-break destination with all of these things!

4. … and if that’s shopping you won’t have to do any polite sightseeing first!

I didn’t marry a man that loves shopping. I married a man who loves me and accepts that I love shopping. When we travel, the shopping usually comes after the general exploring and that suits me fine. But I love exploring a new location through its retail opportunities (even if you’re not buying anything) but usually it comes on day 2 or 3, or squeezed in, intermittently, around other events. Not when you’re traveling with your like-minded gf/s! Check in, bags, down, explore the retail offerings!

I am also the only person in my marriage who loves a nap! Not the case holidaying with SW! As a mum of an adorable small person, we were 100% on the same page with nap-hour.

5. You’ll probably laugh ’til you cry

And maybe even snort-laugh, or choke on your food in the process, regardless of how it happens, it’ll be a wickedly good workout for your abs.

girls trip lols

Lighthouse lols.

6. You may also just cry

So it turns out that after a seriously great day with reptiles at breakfast, lighthouses, Hugh Jackman as The Greatest Showman, and a friend who knows me nearly better than I know myself… if you plant me in front of a beach where dogs are playing on the sand as the sun sets, I may well up with tears, confess my undying gratitude for aforementioned friendship and be laughed at by aforementioned friend.

girls trip

Meeting the locals at Halcyon House! #mixedfeelings Once this lizard (named Gordon, BTW) came even closer to eat SW’s crumbs, I told SW she couldn’t move (cause she might hurt Gordon moving her chair!) but that I was leaving and went inside! The HH team came and shoo’d him away and SW then thought it was HILARIOUS to take advantage of my now-jumpy demeanor and intermittently grab me under the table. #thingsfriendsdo

If you find yourself in this emotionally overwhelmed position, I suggest following this sequence with fancy drinks, woodfire pizza and icecream.

7. You’ll have some excellent opportunities to be matchy-matchy

Because who doesn’t like twinning!?

girls grip wicker basket

Wicker baskets make for happy holiday style!

 

girls trip

Sunshine, sunhats and big smiles.

 

Frankie4 Nat Sneakers

Go with everything: FRANKiE4 Nat Sneakers, available here.

8. You may get to enjoy a beautiful part of the world you don’t always see

We seriously rated Byron for it’s great food, gorgeous beaches and laid back vibes. We stayed right in the centre of town and it was great to have so much to explore on foot.

We also drove up to Cabarita to check out the much-instagrammed Halcyon House which was even more gorgeous than pictures do credit.

My favourite pic from our mini-break, moody skies, glistening sea, lovely friend.

9. You will remember it fondly always

As long as I can hold onto my memory, I will remember this three days as some of my favourite of my life.

girls trip

Thank you, SW, for knowing me, loving me, laughing at me (not a slip of words!) and taking three days out to celebrate having a pal who’ll do all these things in return. x

I am psyched to share that it’s only another couple of months before I’m headed away for the weekend with a bunch of girlfriends again. Extravagant? Maybe a little. But I can’t think of anything I could buy that will bring me as much joy as these weekends away so happy to save some pennies to make it happen!

Do you have a girls trip on the horizon? Do you think it’s time to book one in? (Hint: it is!) 

A foreign rendezvous, a blizzard and a few dirty martinis

February 18 2018

Sponsored by Diamondport

This is a bit of a personal, loved-up post. Along with Valentines Day, this week also marked five years since JS and I got engaged. I’m feeling a little sentimental and I’m going to tell you about how I came to be Mrs Smith.

I was 20 when I met JS, he was 21. We were so young: studying, living at home and yet to dip more than a toe into ‘adulting’.  JS wasn’t ever romantic in the traditional sense but he’s always been very charismatic and I had little control over how hard I fell for him. A few years later we’d moved in together (which, quite honestly, was nearly a non-starter after we decided we were capable of moving all of our own things using a horse float #PoorJudgement #NoCharismaThatDay). A few more years on, we’d learned a lot about ourselves (like, that my cooking skills leave a lot to be desired) and each other (like, that JS may never outgrow his youthful love of a good party). After seven years together, we’d bought a home and welcomed a schnoodle, Archie Boo Smith, into our lives and I’d known for a long while that in JS, I had found the love of my life.

Engagement ring/s Brisbane

Archie Boo Smith, firstborn schnoodle

Our time together has been perforated with JS traveling for work, often on extended trips. In mid-December of 2012, JS took off to Panama for a ‘two-week’ work trip. By February 2013, we’d been apart more than six weeks and there was no sign of the work being completed anytime soon. We had three options: JS could come home for a visit, I could visit Panama OR we could meet somewhere else. After some quick maths, we planned a meetup in New York!

A snowy NYC rendezvous

With barely a few days notice we both set off: me, burying my near-paralysing travel anxiety deep inside and J navigating several missed attempts to make it out of Panama. Finally, we met up in New York City for five very chilly, and very magical, New York City days.

Good morning NYC – sunrise on my first morning in town. JS didn’t make it ’til later after delays out of Panama. [Engagement ring/s Brisbane]

By day three, a snowstorm had rolled into the city. Through crazy coincidence, JS and I have been in NYC for two of the biggest snow events in the past couple of decades. Let me tell you this: the ‘city that never sleeps’ shuts down in a blizzard. It is not a time to be outdoorsy. After braving the increasingly wild weather in the morning, we took refuge in an old-world cigar bar on 50-somethingth street for the afternoon. Rugged up indoors, we watched snow billow past on the street. Several hours and several more dirty martini’s later, we went in search of some food and found a steakhouse where JS had ‘the best steak of his life’. (Later, he’d claim the steak was ‘the turning point’ toward our impending engagement.) After dinner, JS told me he wanted to take me somewhere.

People asked later if I had any inkling as to what was about to happen and the answer is yes. I knew something was up. There was a bit of magic in the air. Which is why I allowed myself to be led in circles around New York in a blizzard (an afternoon of dirty martinis doesn’t help one’s sense of direction) before we arrived on a deserted 5th avenue, nowhere in particular and certainly not the at aforementioned ‘somewhere’. JS spun around to face me and grabbed my mitten-clad hands. “Rara, will you marry me?”. There was no bended knee, no ring, but it was every inch JS: a little bit intoxicated, not entirely sure of our destination but up for anything and perfect in every way. More than a little giddy myself, I asked several questions before blurting “yes!”.

Engagement ring/s Brisbane

A blurry, blizzardy, squinty selfie on Fifth Ave, moments before JS ‘popped the question’. Also, this hat! Desperate chilly times result in desperate fashion choices! 

Choosing an engagement ring

After our five days of glorious, snow-covered escapism, JS went back to his project in Panama and I came home. It was another two and a half months before he followed me, which gave me plenty of time to contemplate the type of engagement rings Brisbane had on offer. JS knows I am very particular and I was glad to have the opportunity to choose a ring together. My googling told me we’d have better value for money buying from a wholesale diamond merchant. We found someone locally and after considering a whole range of options, we picked a cushion cut diamond and a halo ring design.

A torturously long wait

Despite me thinking I’d just had the longest wait of my life hanging out for JS to return from his ‘two-week’ work trip, the wait to receive the ring felt even longer. We had several missed delivery dates and a whole range of infuriating customer service.  The finished product is a ring I love dearly, but the process we went through was enough to evoke one’s inner bridezilla and take joy out of what was otherwise a wonderful time. I wish we’d done a bit more research beyond stones and price to find someone who would have guaranteed a great experience.

How to have a great engagement ring purchase experience

So how do you know who are good providers and who are not? Five years later, we are now pretty spoilt with Google and Facebook reviews which quickly give you a sense of customer sentiment. I was invited to write this post in partnership with specialists in engagement rings Brisbane, Diamondport. I was initially a little cautious… I’m out of the engagement ring market and wouldn’t ordinarily recommend someone I haven’t purchased from. So instead, I did the research I wish I’d done 5 years ago.

What I learned about Diamondport

I was enormously impressed to find that Ashley Portas at Diamondport has 166 x 5-star reviews on Google and 49 x 5-star reviews on Facebook without a single review of 4 stars or lower. Plus Ash – a self-confessed romantic – has received a whole bundle of detailed, gushing customer testimonials about his care and attention to detail. Ashley is also a wholesale diamond merchant, so if like we were, you’re looking for the very best price on a diamond, he’s got you covered. Next time we’re shopping for diamonds (because honestly is there such a thing as too many diamonds!?) or I’m asked for an engagement ring recommendation, I will absolutely be pointing to Ash.

Engagement Rings Brisbane

Engagement rings Brisbane: some of the gorgeous designs from Diamondport pic via @diamondport_brisbane

Five years on

We were married in the November 2013 (some pics here) and life has continued to deliver us love and lessons and schnoodles (Sadie Sue Smith joined our family in 2016).

Sadie Sue Smith, our schnoodle #2

JS hasn’t become a romantic, but I’ve learned that love comes in forms other than red roses or meticulously executed proposals… like a custom-built wardrobe. Or taking care of dinner while I write a blog post. Or advocating for gender equality. Or a tag on a cute dog meme during a tough day.  Sometimes great acts of love look different to the ones we see in the movies.

Are you a romantic? Is your partner? If you’re engaged or married, how did your proposal happen? 

SaveSaveSaveSave

SaveSaveSaveSave

Running on empty.

December 7 2017

I feel as if I’ve run out of steam.

The 11 months of 2017 soared by at warped pace, with assignments and research and events and travel and fash-un and laughs and friends and family and fundraising and work and progress. 11 busy months. 11 amazing months. 11 months where I stayed true to my inner over-committer. 11 months where I kept it together… just.

And it seems as if my body has had enough, done enough and is boycotting December.

I was struck down by a migraine last Friday, barely 12 hours after signing off from the final 2017 event of the not-for-profit industry association I’m involved in running. Wiped out, two days. I dragged myself into work on Monday and went downhill, seemingly succumbing to the head cold that everyone in my office had this year – except for me… until now. I’ve been in bed since, a congested ball of germs. I swear this sort of thing didn’t last this long when we were kids? Why am I five days in and still thick with lurgy?

I have an assignment yet to complete this month, I’ve sought an extension to buy me some time. Who on earth decided it was appropriate to run university during December? This is my 36th university subject and I’ve despised every occasion I’ve been required to bunker down in the books during party season. This subject will be no exception.

This is clearly a ranty germ-addled post from someone who’s seemingly got some cabin fever setting in. And let me acknowledge my complaints are mild ones, I know there are scores of people dealing with very real issues of a whole range that make my whinging look like a picnic in the park on a sunny day.

The point I want to make is this: I know I’m not the only one running on end-of-year empty. Maaaybe we need to be a little kinder to ourselves, a little more inclined to say no, plan in a little more roses-smelling time and find some marker for a life-well-lived that isn’t doing All Of The Things.

And maybe, perhaps, possibly, kinda I’m really trying to make these suggestions to myself.  

Wherever you’re at as we reach the end of the year, my very best non-germ-infested vibes to you. Four years in, this space on the internet still brings me so much joy, which comes through sharing it with you. Thank you x