5 Favourite Posts

How fortuitous that just when I dusted off my blog this week, along came a new Listography! Whether this marks a return of Listography or just a one-off thing, I'm happy to see it and immediately want to participate.  I loved Kate Takes 5's Listography when it was a regular thing - always so easy and fun to make a five-point list of anything.

So this Listography is Five Favourite Posts.

Top 5 Guilty Pleasures

I can't tell you how glad I am to see that Listography is back. Normally hosted by Kate Takes 5, this week it's being run at Older Single Mum.

This week's topic is: Top 5 Guilty Pleasures.

Mine are:

1. Nutella - obviously, because I am an Australian mummy blogger. We are all obsessed by it from what I read. In the past I used to eat actual chocolate. Now I eat spreadable chocolate that pretends it's something else. The kids get it rarely, on toast. I eat a mouthful (honestly, just one) on a spoon in the evening. I don't eat it every day, but that's only because some weeks I force myself not to buy it.


2. Horror stories. Not violent slasher stuff but scary supernatural stuff. Love/hate a good scare.  My current fixation is listening to podcast short stories at Tales to Terrify.  "Come in....if you dare!"


3. The Reader's Digest.  I know it's corny and old-fashioned, but I love it.

4. Cartoons. Scooby Doo, Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Ben 10, Stoked and Sally Bollywood give me immense pleasure.


5. Games on the phone. Words With Friends, Candy Crush, Temple Run, Cut The Rope, Cat Physics.... Such a time waster. So stoopid. And yet so much fun.

What about you? What are your guilty pleasures?

Listography: Top 5 Things I'd Like to be Reincarnated As

Hmmm. This is a hard one, Kate Takes 5.

For this month's Listography, the topic is what you'd like to be reincarnated as.

So who, or what, has the loveliest or easiest or most interesting life?


OK, here goes- in no particular order:


1. A lion in a protected game park in Africa.
Lions have an OK life. Top of the food chain; surrounded by family and friends; much of the time spent lazing around in the shade of a tree. I would want to be a FEMALE lion, hanging out and hunting with the other womenfolk; looking after and teaching my cubs, patiently putting up with their gamboling antics (until they get too painful, when they get a quick slap or nip). Most important to avoid the stress and macho crap of being a MALE lion - all that fighting and bluffing to keep your place until a younger upstart throws you out of the pride.


2. A girl, in a secure home with a loving family, 100 years in the future. 
What will things be like for her? What opportunities and experiences will be available to her?
(Obviously, this one needs a conditional out-clause, in case I wake up in a blazing nuclear/terrorist/climate-change Armageddon).


3.  Someone who makes money from creative pursuits, and is successful at that. 
Not a famous person, but someone like, for example, the kind of technical or creative consultants who create things for movies or websites, or a musician who is respected in the industry and works with others better known.


4.  A science writer.
Oh how I envy these people! Great job.


5.  A seagull. 
Oh, I know their lives are actually probably a bit stressful, and involve lots of scrapping for food and looking for food - but watching them soar in the air is one of the best, and most wistful, things in life. Jealous!

What about you? What would YOU like to come back as?

Seagull flying - by Witthaya Phonsawat via FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Seagull - by Dominic Harness via FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Listography: Top 5 Truths According to Women

Listography time. This month's is an interesting topic - what are your Top 5 Truths? What have we learned as women of a certain age?

Here are mine:


1. There is no such thing as work life balance, unless you are very rich or very lucky. There is just life, and you have to try and make yours work for you. We all have our trials and crosses to bear; we all have times of bounty and times of crisis, and we all struggle to make it all work. Find your way, know that it won't be perfect, manage stress, depression and difficulties as best you can, and enjoy the good bits. For that is all you can do.


2. The Internet is a major time-suck and must be managed. There is so much cool stuff out there, and so much to read - you will never read it all so do not try. And once you start participating in it - blogs, Tumblrs, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, parenting forums, LinkedIn, Google Plus, StumbleUpon, meme generators, linkys, news article commenting, education platforms.... aaaaaarghhh, you can get lost in it. Limit your internet time to a small window each day. (Note to self: why don't you try doing this yourself before you preach it to others?)


3. Kids will always demand more of mum their primary carer. It doesn't matter if you both work; it doesn't matter if it's unfair; it doesn't matter if you're tired - it's just the way it is. Most often you will feel glad and smug about it; sometimes you will feel annoyed or overwhelmed by it. Doesn't change it either way.


4. Women's Weekly cakes you make will never look as good as the ones in the book. But your kids will love them anyway.

5. You don't need a lot of clothes, shoes, bags or make-up - just ones that you really like. When you go shopping for clothes, shoes, bags or make-up, you are really trying to purchase a new, invigorated, different or younger you. Good purchases are few and far between, so don't buy too much.

Linking up with Kate Takes 5 for Listography.

Want to play? Click here to add yours

Listography: Top 5 Songs I Grew Up To

I've missed the last couple, but it's Listography time again - yay!

Listography is run by Kate Takes 5. This time the theme is songs we grew up with.

Here are mine - but man, it's impossible to stop at five...

Abba, Hasta Manana

It wasn't their best, but it was very popular in Australia in the 70s, and was often heard in the background during musical chairs games at kids' parties, or on TV sung by an earnest child in a dinner jacket on Young Talent Time. It was also the first words of a foreign language I learned. My dad had travelled South America on business and told me Hasta Manana meant 'Until tomorrow' - he was so learned and sophisticated...
MEMORY BONUS: the video has the cat dresses!!

Rod Stewart, Do You Think I'm Sexy?

Massively popular song in the mid-to-late 70s, and I still like it.
Was not keen on mullet-headed Rod dancing around the stage in tights during this period, but my older cousin was in love with him.
MEMORY BONUS: like most videos of the time, contains a soft-focus image of a blonde lady with very glossy red lips

Michael Jackson, Thriller

The mini-movie video; the scary special effects; the dancing; Vincent Price and the way he pronounced "eeeeviiilll".... It was revolutionary! It is also entwined forever in my memory with my cousin's jealousy-inducing new "ghetto blaster" which had TWO tape decks and the impressive new "soft eject" feature. Technology overload!
MEMORY BONUS: the girl in the video is wearing stretch chambray pedal pushers!

The Knack, My Sharona

This has very specific memories for me. When I was 10 and 11 we lived in Los Angeles and I went to Jean Thorman elementary school in Tustin. The school was connected to a junior high school campus, and on some mornings before school my best friend Teresa and I would go and sit there and listen to the songs the high school kids played on the jukebox. (Yes, they had a jukebox). As it was 1980, the songs were always either Devo, Whip It, or The Knack, My Sharona. Still love them both.

 

Olivia Newton John, Physical

Olivia Newton John had been trying for some time to shake off her "good girl" image, but it was this that finally did it. 1981 - we were all in shock. SHOCK I tell you! The suggestive body language (for then, and for her, it was), and those SHOCKING lyrics: "you know what I mean", and even worse, "horizontally" - oh my gosh.
Watching it now it is funny how completely UNsexy the video is.
MEMORY BONUS: sweatbands!

Honorable mentions - another 5, ok 6:

Johnnie Wakelin and the Kinshasa Band, Black Superman (Muhammad Ali). MOHAMMAD ALI. He was huge. He had a song about him!

Jim Croce, You Don't Mess Around With Jim. Family drives in the Ford sedan. Silver seat belt buckles burning hot from the sun. 8-track. Whole family singing.

Phil Collins, In The Air Tonight. 1985: Live Aid!

Sting, Russians . Cold War memories.

Men At Work, Downunder. 1983. Australia winning the America's Cup. Vegemite earrings. Australian flag tote bags. And this song everywhere.

Split Enz, Six Months In A Leaky Boat - I was 12, living in New Zealand, and this was banned on the radio during the Falkland Wars. Oh, such different times...

And the rest:

Abba, When I Kissed the Teacher, Voulez Vous, Money Money Money...
Joe Dolci, Shaddap You Face
Leo Sayer, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing
Adam Ant, Goody Two Shoes
Shakin Stevens, Behind the Green Door
David Bowie, Putting Out Fire With Gasoline
Tears for Fears, Shout
Real Life, Send Me An Angel
Kate Bush, Wuthering Heights
Tim Finn, There's a Fraction Too Much Friction (shut up, I liked it)
Stevie Wonder, I Just Called To Say I Love You
John Denver, Country Roads
Neil Diamond, Holly Holy, I Am I Said
Air Supply, Making Love Out of Nothing At All
Carly Simon, You're So Vain
Helen Reddy, I Am Woman
Johnny Mathis, Chances Are
Elton John, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Simon and Garfunkel,The Boxer, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Cecilia, El Condor Pasa
Fleetwood Mac, Dreams, Second Hand News, Rhiannon
Peaches and Herb, Shake Your Groove Thing
Chic, Le Freak
Gloria Gaynor, I Will Survive
Dave Dobbyn, Slice of Heaven
Billy Idol, Rebel Yell
Billy Joel, Piano Man, Allentown
James Taylor, Witchita Lineman
Elvis Presley, In the Ghetto
Suzie Quattro, Devilgate Drive
Queen, Another One Bites The Dust
Blondie, Call Me
Madonna, Into The Groove
Sheena Easton, Morning Train
Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, Islands In the Stream
Prince, When Doves Cry, Let's Go Crazy, Sign O' The Times
Gordon Lightfoot, Sundown
America, Horse With No Name
Little River Band, Lonesome Loser
Juice Newton, Queen of Hearts
Kim Carnes, Bette Davis Eyes
Bonnie Tyler, Total Eclipse of the Heart
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, I Love Rock and Roll
The Go-Gos, Our Lips Are Sealed
Aha, Take On Me
Wham, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go (shut up, you know you did too)
Duran Duran, Hungry Like the Wolf
Coconut Rough, Sierra Leone
The Police, Every Breath You Take
Toto, Africa
Laura Branigan, Gloria
Dire Straits, I Want My MTV

... I think I now need to load up my iTunes with some of these.

Your turn! What are your top 5?

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Top 5 Things I Love About Kids

This post is linking up with Kate Takes 5's Listography.
What are your favorite things about kids?


Here are mine:

1. Excitement

Whether it's a trip to the beach, a playdate with a friend or raisin toast for breakfast, kids feel and show excitement in a way that's infectious - or at least entertaining. Sometimes I think they live their lives in a state of pent-up excitement which is just waiting for something to let it out. I'm not sure what age this disappears but I sense between 8 and 12 or so (depending on how exciting the exciting thing is).
Even now some things that used to cause my kids immense excitement are now completely passe. But it's funny when they are trying to act too-cool-for-school and then forget themselves at the prospect of an ice-cream or a playdate and run squealing with glee in happy circles again.

2. Memories

I'm not really stealing this one from Kate (who lists it in hers) because I remark on this all the time. It's gobsmackingly amazing to me how far back kids can remember. I've noticed a rough benchmark that little kids can remember back 2 years. They often amazed me at four and five by relating back events in fine detail which happened when they were two. Interestingly now they are six they seem to remember back to when they were three or so, but have lost memories of some of the events they used to talk about, which happened at two or three. I guess as we grow our memories condense, and of course the older you get the more there is to remember, so some of it is going to get lost.

3. Invention

It can be new words (M. still says "pokypine" for porcupine and "glue-tack" for Blu-Tack), crafts (making the Loch Ness Monster out of archive boxes), new tastes (peanut butter and Vegemite sandwiches - eugh!) or elaborate fantasy sequences in their games (my cousin says kids take longer to set up games than to play them). Kids are fountains of invention.  I also love seeing them learn new things and incorporate them into their speech, games and art, creating new twists on it all along the way.

4. Affection

Young kids are often so affectionate. As babies I had one (A.) very cuddly and affectionate and one (M.) less so, but as they got older it was (and is) often M. who was clambering all over me or clinging to my legs or back as I tried to go about my daily business. From a baby A. used to clasp my face in her hands and smile, and as a baby and toddler would want to go to sleep with one hand flat on my face or rubbing my cheek with her hand. Even now when she cuddles into me she will do it sometimes.

M. had to learn affection - I still remember her as a toddler giving my cheek an experimental kiss in a way that suggested she was thinking "I believe this is what one does to please one's mother and yet I fail to understand the appeal." She went through a rather long phase where her method of showing affection was to hit or push, and was quite resistant to kisses and cuddles.
Now she is very affectionate especially at night-time, but she will still often duck or shrink away from a kiss.

But if I or their Dad says "Kiss and Cuddle..." they will both throw themselves at us, arms round our necks and squeezing tight, which is more than catnip for parents - it's what we live for!

5. Art

I love, love, LOVE children's art. Whether it's Aelita Andre or the gifted child in the art class whose work makes your jaw drop or the gleeful scribblings of any child with a box of crayons, it's all glorious. There is wonder, colour and movement in children's art and somehow every child, at some point, manages to turn out a mini masterpiece.

What are your favorite things about kids?

To see what others have posted, or to link your own post, 

click here.

Top 5 Wishes For My Children

This post is linking up with Kate Takes Five: Listography. These are so much fun!

Disney Clip Art

What "inner gifts" would you bestow on your child, if you had fairy godmother powers like the fairies in Sleeping Beauty?



Here's what I would bestow on my daughters (and my nephew), if I could do it with a wave of my wand:




1. Optimism. Very helpful for a happy and productive life. It's not critical, but it helps.

2. Patience / Judgement. Sadly this is one that most of us only acquire with experience (the wrong sort of experience). But if I could bestow it, I would. Not at the expense of some crucial thrills and spills in their younger years, mind. Those are part of a good life too.

3. Empathy / Kindness. I know, we teach our children these, and we model them, and we don't really need a magic wand to bestow them. But they are that important.

4. Middling Beauty. Not raving supermodel good looks, which (I imagine) bring their own kind of pressure and problems, but simple "attractiveness" which is not disruptive and goes far.

5. Friendship. Not just a circle of friends, but the delicate and crucial art of making friends and maintaining friendships.

What would YOU bestow?

For more Listography, look here.

5 Reasons I Know I Work In Finance

Okay, so I'm into this "five" thing now. I just posted Five Reasons I Know I'm a Mum to link up with Kate Takes 5's latest Listography (here). Here are my thoughts about my other public persona.


Top 5 Reasons I Know I Work in Financial Markets:


1. I know the ASX Operating Rules, ASIC Market Integrity Rules, Corporations Act, Financial Services Regulation, and the Anti-Money-Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Act really, really well


2. I smirk and shake my head cynically when politicians pretend to criticize the Reserve Bank for lifting rates


3. I thought the NAB got it really, badly, stupidly wrong with their ad campaign about divorcing the banks - unlike the rest of the public which deemed it a massive success and worthy of a major advertising award


4. Like most people working in markets I cannot pick stocks for crap, AND I continue to think I can


5. I am appalled at the worst excesses of Wall Street and I empathize with the Occupy movement - but I don't think you can do a whole lot to legislate for fairness or ethics beyond the basics. I know the traders will always be ahead of the regulators, because constant evolution and innovation are part of how markets work.

If you want to see some other 5 Reasons lists, look here.

5 Reasons I Know I'm a Mum

Photo: Il Conte di Luna via Flickr CC

This post is linking up to Kate Takes 5's latest Listography linky. I love the simplicity and speed of lists of 5 things!

So here are my Top 5 Reasons I Know I'm a Mum:


1. My favourite time of the day is early morning when I sit alone with a coffee and NO SOUND other than birds outside. No music. No radio. No TV. No talking. Ahhhh, sweet relief.


2. I leave the house with a bag full of stuff for the kids and forget my own jacket/cardigan/make-up.


3. My tabletop is mysteriously sticky no matter how often I wipe it.


4. My social life centres around the school gate.


5. My emotional state ricochets between bliss, despair, rage, frustration, hope, contentment, fierce blinding love, heart-stopping fear, gratitude, anxiety, giddiness and relief, every day.

If you want to see some other 5 Reasons lists, look here.