It is very important to be pretty. Never mind about your personality, or your grades, if you're pretty, your life is sorted. Everyone will like you. The above were the kinds of messages that I received as a young girl. Of course, I learnt pretty quickly that you needed to be more than looks to have a successful relationship with someone. Or successful anything really. Looks aren't going to get you through university, they aren't going to guarantee you employment or happiness. No matter how many sparkly tank tops with crude messages such as 'Caution: contents extremely hot' I wore circa 2004 I never quite hit the mark. I was young for my grade and definitely a late bloomer. I had acne, braces and didn't attract much attention anyway. I tried to be 'hot'. I failed. While it is embarrasing to look back at the things you used to wear, the majority of the clothes I wore as a teenager were due to the messages that I received. The kind of messa
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From having his sister stare at us when we made out, to his sister sleeping in the same bed as him... How close is too close? I once dated a guy called Jack.* Things started off really well, he was a lovely guy, sensitive, into music and art. He was intelligent and good looking. He was the type of person who never had a bad word to say about anyone. He ticked most of the boxes and was well liked by my mum and friends. He introduced me to his family. I met his parents and I got the impression that they were a tight knit family which I liked. It wasn't long before I was then introduced to his sister, Melinda.* Melinda was nice to me and they seemed quite close. There were loads of pictures of them together around the house which I thought was really sweet. Jack was so supportive of Melinda and everything that she did. If she would walk into a room he would flood her with compliments on her choice of clothing. It is said that you can tell a lot about a boy by the way he
How many times have you heard the term 'selfie' generation or generation me me me? As an outsider looking into the behaviour of millennials it is not far fetched to come to that conclusion. With our abundant use of Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. We are constantly sharing every minute detail of our lives. Any photo opportunity is usually done with a selfie. Boredom is satisfied with selfies. We are shameless posers. We will willingly take quite a few photos of ourselves until we finally find the one we are satisfied with. So the question remains...were millennials always like this (narcissistic)? or has the technology revolution of Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook exacerbated this and made us more narcissistic ? To answer this question, lets look at the facts.. Social media is a relatively new phenomenon. Previous generations growing up in the 1960s-90s did not have access to social media and iPhones were not around prior to 2007. If you wanted to ta
Dear Sydney, You and I have been together a long time. You have seen me grow up and I have seen you evolve into the scenic beautiful city that you are today. You leave me spoilt with choice when it comes to food and restaurants and yes the harbour is very pretty. I know how lucky I am to live here and as a warning the majority of this piece is regarding first world problems. There is no such thing as perfect, most large cities will have some pitfalls. Maybe I am getting older or maybe you were always like this, it just bothered me a lot less. Lets start with some basics.. Sydney, Where have your manners gone? I caught the train into town the other day and saw a heavily pregnant woman standing up on her own when it was 35 degrees. No one moved or offered this woman a seat (including me because I was standing up too). This used to be a standard social norm, if someone needs a seat more than you, you should offer it to them. You let her down Sydney. To the young man watc
Goodbye, Mr Bean: As Dastyari resigns we need to revisit the legitimacy of political donations Sam Dastyari has announced his resignation yesterday amid pressure from parliament and the general public. Dastyari, as we now know accepted a payment from Chinese based real estate company Yuhu Property Group to settle a legal bill. Chinese billionaire Mr Huang Xiangmo owns Yuhu. In 2013, Dastyari was being sued for $40,000 by an advertising company called ' Diversified Communications ’ for preparatory work on the ALP campaign. This was when Dastyari was General Secretary of the NSW ALP. The contract was then cancelled when Kevin Rudd was given the flick (or the stab in the back, depending on how you look at it). The payment from Yuhu to settle the legal bill was around $5,000. You cannot help but wonder whether the 5k paid was the full amount disclosed? and why Diversified Communications accepted such a low figure in settlement? Dastyari's name has been dragged thro
Milo Yiannopoulos has caused quite a stir since arriving in Australia for his tour, to say the least, with the violent protests breaking out in Melbourne upon his arrival. He is a lewd, walking contradiction, for example he is gay, yet doesn't really stick up for the LGBT community and appeals to many conservatives for his strong right winged views. Yiannopoulos is against political correctness and has helped support white supremacist views when he worked as a journalist. He has stirred the pot with feminists down under by plastering a picture of Clementine Ford and labelling her 'unfuckable'. He is against feminism and labels it cancer. He has labelled muslims as 'rapists' and 'terrorists', has expressed a view that underage sex can be consensual and refers to victims of child sexual abuse as 'attention seekers'. Milo Yiannopoulos is either genuinely confused about who he is or he knows exactly what he's doing, which is causing a stir t
Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours...unfortunately we do not always get them. My husband and I upgraded from a one bedroom apartment to a townhouse (still renting of course - this is Sydney and I'm not a millionaire). This is not one of those articles where I complain about property prices and how I can't afford them because I eat smashed avocado. Mmm smashed avo... I am actually happy with the new place, yes the rent is more expensive but I always count myself lucky that I have a roof over my head. One week after we moved in. I parked my car across the street from the new place. A middle aged male neighbour was standing outside his house having a cigarette. He started walking towards my car and leaned over the window. I thought naively, that he must be welcoming me to the new place? I am his new neighbour after all maybe he just wants to say hello? Then again this is 2017...manners aren't as prominent as they used to be. I shouldn't be so optimisti