When Flow drops in...

OK, so if you are like me and a vegetarian with...er... certain plumbing, you would probably be as lethargic and unenthused about life as I am when that time of month arrives. Why you ask? well lack of iron of course! while most of the female population will unfortunately opt for a giant steak or big bowl of Bolognese, us vegetarians need to be a little more creative.

So there are two types of iron, there is iron you get from eating animals (used to replenish the existing iron in our blood) and the iron you get from certain vegetables and legumes (not as readily absorbed by the body, but a good replenisher nonetheless) the key with eating non meat iron found in green leafys and legumes is vitamin C.

Yes, vitamin C commonly known as an ascorbic acid, actually enables the body to absorb the non animal iron you eat, which is why this soup is the gosh darn best when you are low on iron (which of course is inevitable when you are losing it throughout the day...)

I can't take credit for this soup, my dear friend Megan used to make it a lot when we lived together and I would end up raiding the stores of it she would leave in the freezer for a soup related emergency. She has passed this on to me and it has been a life saver!

The spinach, lentils, chickpeas and butterbeans provide an adequate source of iron matched with the tomatoes and capsicum giving this soup an absolute vitamin C bomb. There is nothing in this soup that isn't good for you, which is why I am passing it on

Megan's Spinach and Lentil aunty-flow-iron-thief soup

You will need;

Good splash of olive oil

1 large onion diced

1 red capsicum diced

As many fresh chillies as you can handle diced

2 cans diced tomatoes

2 cans lentils

1 can chickpeas

1 can butterbeans

1 bunch of spinach roughly chopped

Dollop of vegemite (I use marmite because I am 'anti Kraft')

Salt and Pepper and mixed herbs

In a large pot heat oil, add onion, chili and capsicum and cook until softened

Add diced tomatoes and all the beans make sure you have drained and washed the beans well

Cover concoction with water and start to add spinach, add a little at a time then cover until wilted down

Once all the spinach is in, cover and simmer on medium heat for about 30mins or until capsicum is soft

After 30mins is up season with salt pepper and herbs and add dollop of marmite, then cover again and simmer on low for as long as you like (usually 1.5-2 hours)

Eat as much as you can handle then freeze the rest for the next iron crash!

And there you go, lovely soup for when that time of month arrives and you feel a bit shit :)

OPI vs The World

So here it is ladies, after much rummaging through my own collection and acting incredibly strange with different colored nails in Gloss, I have come up with some lovely dupes (or near dupes) for the OPI French collection!

OPI Palez Vous OPI?- BYS Lilac Love (after much pining after this color I finally found a cheap dupe!! muted greyish purple! bless)

OPI You Don't Know Jacques- BYS White With One (not exact but pretty darn close! dark taupe color)

OPI Louvre Me, Louvre Me Not- Ulta3 Mulberry (Same deep purple with slightly red tone but without the shimmer)

OPI Baguette Me Not- BYS Nail Candy (dusty, reddish orange)

OPI Tickle My-Francey- BYS Fairytale Florals (a grey, pinky neutral)

OPI Crepes Suzi-ette- BYS Chk Chk Boom (Same dusty reddish brown but in chrome which I think is much more exciting!)

OPI A Oui Bit Of Red- Ulta3 Scarlet (pretty much the staple bright red, pretty dupable across every range, realy)

OPI Bastille My Heart- Ulta3 Brandy Wine (deep vampy red but Brandy Wine has a lovely shimmer)

OPI Yes... I Can-Can!- Ulta3 Black Plum (dark plum with shimmer)

OPI Eiffel For This Color- Ulta3 Waterlily (darker plum with shimmer)

So there you have it ladies, go save your pennies and eat your lacquer cake too!

Twilight Sucks

I have watched some amazing vampire flicks recently that I thought I might share with you, because it turns out the rest of the world does it so much better

Let The Right One In (Sweden 2008)

Before the US version is released go and hire the original flick or better still borrow the book from the library. This is a very heartfelt and strange love story that basically shits all over Stephanie Meyer's sparkling vampires. A young boy Oscar, encounters Eli in the local playgrounds in the middle of the night, a very strange and lonely girl who forms an innocent friendship with him. Through their friendship Oscar learns of Eli's dark secret but continues to love her. Eli on the other hand helps Oscar with some school bullies...

Sweet, dark, scary and emotive this is probably one of my most favorite vampire flicks of all time.

Thirst (Korea 2009)

Strange, funny and incredibly violent, this Korean gem has won a fair few festival awards (Melbourne, New Zealand, Cannes) The story begins with a young priest trying to do good by others, he volunteers for some crazy experiment in an attempt to develop a vaccine for a deadly virus. Something goes terribly wrong and he comes back to his post as a blood sucking, lustful, confused man. He falls in love with a local (and married) dressmaker and a very odd and sometimes disturbing love story ensues. Thirst has a miraculous ability to suck you in with it's high drama and snappy storyline but will make you queasy with it's very black humor and submersion of fantasy and reality. A very strange yet entertaining and horrific story.

Nightwatch (Russia 2004)

Set in modern day Moscow where Vampires rule the night and an age old story of light and dark will finally come to surface. There are some who try and control these pesky night dwellers know as 'Nightwatch' that are beginning to wage war on their blood sucking opponents. Dubbed a fantasy thriller, Nightwatch is fast becoming a cult favorite.

Aussie Women that Rock our World

So, as promised I am paying tribute to some of the finest musicians from our fine talent ridden country

Adalita Srsen

Lead singer and guitarist for Magic Dirt, Adalita would have to be one of the hardest working female musicians around, seeing her band release 11 studio albums in the last 17 years, and they still continue to tour throughout the country these days. Adalita is said to be influenced by female greats Kate Bush and Chrissy Hynde and her first guitar was one she made herself out of cardboard and wool, what a hero!

Patience Hodgson

Anyone who has ever seen Brissie band The Grates live would have instantly fallen in love with lead singer Patience. Wearing outrageous and whimsical outfits such as a pink and white cowgirl outfit or giant fluffy hoop skirt, Patience bounds and leaps across the stage like a 5 years old on fairy floss. Her energy and stage presence is intoxicating. Patience learnt of her own talent for singing in a karaoke bar and formed a band with her high school chums. The Grates currently have two rocking studio albums and a very awesome live DVD

Beck Darwon

Keyboardist and bass guitarist for The Cops, Beck may not have been centre stage a lot of the time but she sure did know how to rock. Coming up with the band’s name and getting lead singer Simon Carter’s demos out of the basement and onto EP are just a couple of her achievements, she also won the Jack award in 2005 for best bass player. Beck has since left The Cops, but only after one of the best albums I have ever heard was released, Drop It In Their Laps (2007)

Clare Bowditch

With four studio albums and many more EPs, Clare is one of the most versatile and talented female artists this side of the southern hemisphere. She has an amazing vocal range, incorporates a lot of different instruments and sounds into her music and writes beautiful songs about everything from office romances to grief. Her most recent studio album with new band ‘Clare Bowditch and The New Slang’ is Modern Day Addiction which will see her tour the country in a couple months (and yes, I am super excited about it!)

Patricia Amplett aka Little Pattie

Rising to fame with her adorably named single ‘He’s my Blonde headed, stompie wompie, real gone surfer boy’ (1963) and gee wiz it’s super cute! She also received various awards and honors for performing for the troops in Vietnam. She may not be a gen-y favorite, but she is certainly part of history!

Chrissy Amplett (Little Pattie's more famous cousin)

The lead singer of rock group the Divynls, Chrissy is best known for her sexually charged and explicitly feminine ‘I Touch myself’ which many of us sang along to loud and proud (and behind closed doors) when we were 14. She has an amazing and unique voice and is sadly living in New York currently, battling MS. Thumbs up to you Chrissy, a true rock legend!

Katy Steele

Lead singer of Little Birdy and proving to have an enormous voice, Katy Steele is definitely a favorite in the Australian rock/alternative scene. The latest album from Little Birdy ‘Confetti’ is a refined blend of folk, rock and pop with Katy’s haunting and adorable voice stringing it together. Katy is an amazing artist and most definitely rocks my world.

Janet English

Janet English- Sometimes lead vocalist for Spiderbait and best known for songs such as Calypso and F&%ken awesome, Janet has a sweet voice by an acid tongue. Don’t be fooled by her sugary sound, Janet is all rock and a hard working, long standing woman in rock.

Taasha Coates

Lead singer and instrumental all-rounder for Adelaide band The Audrey’s, Taasha is as talented as she is beautiful. Her sultry sounds and moves on stage are a match made in heaven with the indie country folk sound of the band. Their awesomeness has been recognized, the band picking up an ARIA for Best Blues and Roots album for 2008 for their last album ‘When The Flood Comes’ Rumor has it there is a new album due in late 2010

Bree Leslie Pucilowski aka Brody Dalle

Born in Fitzroy Melbourne, Brody now resides in LA and has every finger in every punk rock and rock pie that is legendary. She is most famous for being the lead singer and guitarist for The Distillers but now fronts Spinnerette and has had appearances in The Eagles of Death Metal, Queens of the Stone Age and Transplants just to name a few. This chick can really wail

So what's the deal with Miss Universe?

"We, the young women of the universe, believe people everywhere are seeking peace, tolerance and mutual understanding. We pledge to spread this message in every way we can, wherever we go”…. In a bikini

Today in my fluey haze I realised that for the last 45 minutes I had been gazing at the television completely blank at what appeared to be a very backwards old fashioned beauty pageant. It was Miss Universe 2010.

Firstly, a little history on Miss Universe, the pageant started officially in 1952 and was orchestrated and owned by a clothing company, Pacific Mills. It was bought by Donald Trump in 1996 and to this day remains one of the most shallow and backward spectacles of mythical femininity in the western world.

If you really think about what Miss Universe represents, you can understand why not much has changed since 1952. Although the pageant now accommodates for a brief interview as part of it’s judging process, these women, from all around the globe and in some homogenous way, representing their countries, are judged for the way they look. Wake. Up. Modern. World. Are we still here really? Are women really still valued only for how they pull off a bikini and evening couture? Have we not learnt anything in the last 50 years? It seems to me, when I look at these ghastly displays of patriarchy and superficial values that the hard work of Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedman, Namoi Wolf and Judith Butler was all in vain. Are we not listening?

But what can we do? To this day Miss Universe has 600 million viewers worldwide, I know it’s easy to be sucked in by the pretty lights, sparkly costumes, cheesy hosts and beautiful women, or perhaps like me this morning we are mentally switched off and don’t know what it is we’re watching. Perhaps it’s time to think critically again about these things, perhaps we need to continue the war that was waged all those years ago. We need to open our minds to what is still considered acceptable, make some noise and engage in public debate about it.

Yes I know it’s a bit of fun and the ladies look lovely and blah blah blah. However, I cannot imagine bringing up a young girl in a world where superficial beauty is still valued over intellect, compassion and humility. It has to change. And as long as there is a Miss Universe pageant with swimsuit and evening gown segments instead of community involvement, academic merits, and worldly achievements being the focus of worth, women will never be valued publicly for their hard work and intellect, and as usual, the 96% of women who do not look like Miss Universe will never be worthy of a crown in our backwards society.

When you are Fired...

Whether you have done something purposefully, had a momentary lapse or reason, just plain stuffed up or been dismissed unfairly, even the best of us have been fired at one point in our lives. J K Rowling was fired from her job as a secretary for writing stories during work hours. Sure, this would have been a humiliating blow at the time but maybe you should ask her how she is doing these days and where she thinks her life would be now had she not experienced this traumatic event.

I was recently fired from my job working for quite a large and reputable global company, something I initially thought would absolutely destroy my life and leave me on the dole forever. While the circumstances surrounding my dismissal are humiliating, my employer somehow getting access to my personal life and turning it into reasons for accusations of serious and wilful misconduct, it seems clear to me now that my heart was not in that job or that company and I am much a much better person for not being there.

But what do we do when our lives are overthrown so swiftly and possibly undeservedly? How do we begin to pick up the pieces and make ourselves truly believe that we are not worthless fuck ups and that we are better off? There is no way we can change what happened, unless we go down the legal path but at the end of the day I had to ask if it was really worth all the time, energy and whether I wanted this incident to sit in the forefront of my mind for an extended period of time or if I wanted to recover and move on as quickly as possible. I chose the latter but some one with more time, energy and vengefulness may pursue. I guess in the end I felt that my own torment and humiliation was not painful enough (or too painful, really) to want to risk dragging it out longer for the sake of retribution.

I guess the argument lays in the fact that maybe that’s not where you belonged in the first place. I feel that since being fired from my big corporate job, my perspectives have changed. I am beginning to remember that this job was simply a time filler while I pursued other paths and that I somehow got lost in the cash, the modern office setting and the cute corporate attire. At the end of the day I did not agree with the business practices of this company in the first place, did not want to work for a large corporation (a promise I had made myself many years earlier) and felt that I didn’t belong there. These very big epiphanies were a bit late in coming and I guess were the reason behind my getting fired in the first place. Whatever. So I guess when this happens you have do ask yourself what it is you really want to be doing with your life. Did you see yourself at that same job 10 years down the track or did you see yourself somewhere else? No matter how unrealistic that somewhere else seems to you, maybe that’s what you need to aim for because if that’s where your mind and heart was to begin with then maybe you didn’t really belong where you were.

Once you try and put your mind at ease, damage control must ensue. Get yourself back in the market as soon as you can, but this time be selective. Apply for jobs you could be really passionate about, with employment conditions that you are happy with. Don’t step backwards out of desperation because it is not going to help with the dire feeling of worthlessness your last employer left you with. I started looking for jobs with smaller businesses, and am refusing to go back to weekends. I have decided that this time I am not going to go for the first job offered to me because I’m sick of looking. I will be persistent.

Also, reassess your life. Do you really want to work full time? Do you want to study? Do you want to do some volunteer work? Money isn’t the be all and end all of how you conduct your life, reassess your situation, do what makes you happy. For me that was freeing up some time to really throw myself into my honours degree and taking up some volunteer work, leaving me with only two days a week for work, not four. This has given me some balance, and while I will make much less money, I have come to the realisation that the money I was making prior was going to a lot of unecessities anyway, not to mention lunch and parking four days a week (you can literally take $100 per week off for that alone!) so while I just get by, and shopping has become seldom, my life has done a complete turn around. I am finding pleasure in the everyday now, rather than just the weekends when I can go and blow my pay to feel better about being a slave for the wage.

At the end of the day it is your life, and we orchestrate our own fate, if you have been fired, it really sucks but while you can’t change that alone, you can change what you do next.