Not Just Another Mouth in the Lipstick Vogue
On November 10, 2014 by Speranza
Honestly, there’s nothing like a trip to Sephora to raise the spirits after both an appalling week at work and all those sinking moments of time spent watching the current world news. (For which I can find no satisfactory method of dealing with apart from healthy, regular shots of denial). Historical justifications, finger pointing and frantic hopping trips to news sites across the web have all proved hugely unhelpful to me. People who offer compact, intellectual summary statements are exceptionally irritating because, really, nothing is that simple, is it? The best advice I have heard thus far – apart from going on a total news fast – seems to be making a relentless effort to be absolutely the best person you can be, in your own day-to-day life. It’s the only strategy that makes sense – apart from letter writing and lobbying obviously – and really, it’s sort of a mash-up of that grassroots notion of “Think Globally, Act Locally” which I also love.
But I digress. Because perhaps I could do a much better job if I had a really top-notch lipstick.
The Good, the Bad and The Laundry
On October 21, 2014 by SperanzaI remember being shocked when I asked a friend how she was feeling about her eldest child moving out. She smiled and confided wearily: “It’s time. For all of us.” At that stage in my own life, both of my boys were still young enough to insist on curling around me as we all watched a movie together like a small tribe of monkeys. I literally could not envision them leaving home without welling up and feeling physically empty and panic stricken. I would feel as though I had swallowed a stone. But I now know that nature has a way of clearing that up quite nicely. And it looks like this:
So Kale Me Maybe
On October 4, 2014 by Speranza
I have a bit of a weekly tradition surrounding kale. As everyone knows, kale is a superfood chock full of vitamins, anti-oxidants and fibre but honestly that sharp, bitter after-snap taste taste in a frigid breakfast smoothie is just too unfriendly for me to bear first thing in the morning. (Plus that thick, brilliant green reminds me of verdant pond scum or extra-terrestial poo … ) Yet many Sunday afternoons (usually around 4pm when I am composing earnest menu plans for the following week, often whilst enjoying some kettle chips and a glass of Chardonnay) – I will revisit the notion of kale and end up purchasing a large, frilly bouquet of the stuff which then sits resentfully in the crisper, eyeing me each time I open the fridge door. (By Thursday the kale is a limp, browner version of its former self and to assuage my guilt, I throw it onto the compost heap with the others).
Little Triggers
On September 19, 2014 by Speranza
When I was 35 I distinctly remember believing – and I mean actually believing – that I was likely not going to age much more. It’s this kind of absolute conviction that allowed me to continue to wear those band t-shirts (Elvis Costello, The Clash, The Pretenders) possibly longer than I should have and to separate myself from those around me who may have already succumbed to floppy gym pants and soccer-mom haircuts. (These are always touted as ‘wash and wear’ but the truth is, if you’re not careful the whole family will end up with basically the very same do …)