In The Can - The Food Edition

In The

CAN

the

FOOD

edition

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the

FOOD

edition

This online magazine has been a couple of years in the making. When I started HerCanberra, it was always my intention to broaden its footprint beyond a website. That’s eventuated through our event series, and there are still more innovations to come.

Time is the main reason you haven’t seen this publication until now...but I thought I owed it to our amazing team of writers, and to our 25 000 readers, to give HerCanberra’s great content a vehicle where it can enjoy more longevity than a website offers.

Not only that, I wanted to be able to display the wonderful photographic work of our contributors in a layout that affords them optimal impact.

There are some big things coming up this month and I want to make sure the talents of some amazing Canberrans are showcased to their full.

EDITOR’S PICKS

Katsudon from Kudos Taste in Civic New fiction from local author, Rebecca James

Contents 4

THE MAGIC OF TRUFFLES Shelley Eldridge goes in search of ‘black gold’

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COFFEE WITH HEART Martina Hughes looks at the Suspended Coffee concept.

SLOW FOOD Michelle Brotohusodo reviews Poacher’s Pantry’s winter menu.

10+ MUST-EAT ASIAN RESTAURANTS We round up some of our favourite Asian places to eat!

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DINNER ON THE DOORSTEP Nutritious, homemade meals brought to your door.

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MY FIRST WEEK IN CANBERRA Recent UK arrival,Hermione Wright, discovers Canberra.

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MY CANBERRA Author, Ingrid Jonach, shares her favourites bits of The Can.

FIVE WINTER DATE NIGHTS Shrug off the urge to hibernate and get out there!

OUMIRA A homegrown success story.

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FIVE NEW INDEPENDENT FASHION RETAILERS Unique additions to the fashion scene.

THE HIPSLEY EVOLUTION Lifeline’s vintage store gets a new lease on life.

Now, you may notice that this online magazine is quite visually different to the website. That’s because it’s the first step in a new look and feel, which we’re working to unveil in early 2014.

Thanks to Danvers Creative for the new HerCan logo, which you’ll see on the back page.

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FIVE HIDDEN HOME DESIGN GEMS Sarah Bowman shares her favourite Fyshwick haunts.

BLUSH RUSH Lesley Johnston tells you the five blushes your cheeks shouldn’t be without.

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TRAVELLING WITH KIDS It’s school hols again - Kate Neser shares her travel tips.

TIPS FOR FUSSY EATERS Kate Freeman gives her advice for tempting fussy eaters.

GIVE ABILITY DAY Raising awareness of Cerebral Palsy.

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PUT ON A HAPPY FACE Emma Grey says keeping it real can be the best policy.

LET’S TALK ABOUT MENTAL ILLNESS A sufferer shares what she has learnt.

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HAIR HOW-TO We show you how to get beautiful retro waves at home!

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DEAR ME... The importance of self-love.

WHY I LOVE RUNNING Jen Dawson tells why she loves strapping on the sneakers.

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THE NEW STAR RATINGS Kate Freeman explains this new nutritional information system.

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IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT Our guide to after hours health care options.

THE MOTHER DAUGHTER CHAT The health questions you should ask your mum.

DO YOU NEED A CAREER PLAN? Is it essential to formalise your goals?

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SWEET SUCCESS Martina Hughes reviews Canberra author, Rebecca James, two novels.

TOP FIVE DVDS IN EVERY GENRE Ros Hull’s perfect winter DVDs.

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Get your skates on at Skate in The City.

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CANBERRA’S NEWEST HOTSPOTS We unearth new restaurants and bars to discover!

HER RECIPE Banana, honey, coconut and oat bread.

86 Squared Ring from Oumira, Canberra Centre

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10 YARDS Where regional produce and fine dining meet.

LIMESTONE A truly regional experience.

So, at the start of each month, we’ll offer you a round up of a selection of the previous month’s articles so that you can access it in a handy, easy-on-the-eye format. Essentially, it’s that month ‘in The Can’.

I hope you enjoy this first edition - an issue which focusses largely on the amazing food we enjoy around the capital. After all, isn’t winter the best time for eating?

GET YOUR SKATES ON Skate in The City transforms Garema Place into a winter wonderland.

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WORLD WAR Z Brad Pitt. Zombies. What more could you ask for?

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Her

CITY Garema Place is transformed into a winter wonderland with something for the whole family!

Get your

SKATES on!

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SKATE

in the city!

Winter in Canberra has never been so much fun! For the third year, Skate in The City turns the centre of the city into our very own ice rink, and Garema Place comes alive with laughter, music, fashion and much, much more...

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kate in The City, Canberra’s “coolest” winter event, turns Garema Place into a winter wonderland for the whole family until Sunday 28 July.

The dazzling winter outdoor ice skating rink is bigger, better and more fun than ever before, with general skating sessions (90 minutes duration) from 10am every day, and Skate & Show sessions, which include a 30 minute show and 60 minute skate session.

And it’s not just for confident skaters – ‘learn to skate penguins’ can be hired for $7 per session by novices and young ones for some stability.

For under fives, the “snow box” (a wintry version of the sandpit) has heaps of snow and gear to make snowmen. Make sure you take warm clothes, gloves, gum boots and a change of clothes for the kids as they’ll probably get a little wet from the melting snow.

Family fun, fashion, music, Stars on Ice, Cultural Sundays... it’s all happening at Skate in The City!

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The tweens and teens can dance on ice – the evening general skate sessions will feature top 100 music and synchronised lights, creating a dance party atmosphere.

It’s not compulsory, but the 6pm sessions on Saturdays are themed for those that want to wear a costume (secret judges will award prizes for the best costumes so join in on the fun – themes range from ‘wildlife’ to ‘prince and princesses’ to ‘one’sey’.)

And there’s heaps more, including Stars on Ice performances, special daytime school holiday shows, fashion parades presented by Canberra Centre and more. Visit the Stars on Ice website to see the full schedule and to book your tickets.

Cultural Sundays are a great way to experience the food and culture of other countries…on ice!

There’s something for all ages including, craft, travel information, food, traditional dress, fun and games and culturally themed free skate shows. Each week features a different country – visit the In The City website to find out more.

Tips for First Time Skaters Never strapped on a pair of skates? No matter!

Skating can be tricky at first, but here are a few pointers to get you feeling confident on the ice!

Don’t look down or lean backwards when skating.

Keep your knees slightly bent and your weight forward.

Try to learn how to stop! To stop, bend your knees, turn the toes of each foot inwards, point your heels out, and push out on your heels.

This will slow you down and bring you to a stop.

And remember there are learn to skate penguins if you need them!

THE ESSENTIALS When:

Skate in The City is on every day until Sunday 28 July.

Where:

Garema Place, City Centre, Canberra.

Book:

At the Stars on Ice website

Web:

www.inthecitycanberra.com.au

Her

CITY 7

The magic of

TRUFFLES

There are two types of truffles. One is a decadent soft-centred chocolate; the other, a fungi that grows naturally on the roots of oak trees. Shelley Eldridge recently got the chance to experience and learn about this amazing fungi as part of the Canberra and Capital Region Truffle Festival.

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was invited to meet Sherry McArdleEnglish, owner of French Black Truffles, the only truffle farm in Canberra (otherwise known as a truffière), at her small shed at Majura.

In Australia, you must buy the oak tree that is inoculated with the fungi – you can’t just plant oak trees and hope for some truffles to grow. For this reason, Sherry has high security on her farm, as truffles are worth $2.50 per gram.

Sherry entered the world of truffles almost by chance…she explains that when her successful civil engineer husband, Gavin, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, he announced that he had always wanted a farm and he would buy one.

BUT WHAT ARE TRUFFLES?

They owned a sheep farm for a few years before Sherry found the word ‘truffle’ printed in cookbooks, from a cooking class she was taking at the time. She asked a person at the markets about buying truffles and he explained that that you can’t get them in this region.

Sherry has intelligent eyes, taking in the group of eager truffle hunters in front of her; I see them read the crowd as she talks, and she adjusts her story to suit their personalities.

These eyes give me an insight into the inner working of her brain, so, it comes as no surprise that Sherry didn’t like a simple ‘you can’t buy truffles here’ answer. She needed to know why. By 3am one morning, Sherry had read all there was to know about truffles. She woke her husband immediately in excitement telling him, “We’re going to grow truffles!”

Truffles naturally occur in the northern hemisphere, but the secret to successfully growing truffles is the right climate. Canberra’s cold frosts are perfect for the truffles to grow; they’re a winter food and are only available in the cooler months. And their shelf life is extremely limited – truffles expire after about seven to 10 days (if stored correctly).

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...and why are they worth so much? Firstly, you and I can take comfort in the knowledge that a little truffle goes a long way. Sherry’s brochure (which is given to customers when they purchase her truffles) explains that 40 grams will provide a 10-egg scrambled eggs meal (the eggs absorb the truffle by being placed in a sealed container in the fridge for 48 hours which means it can be used afterwards in another recipe).

“The truffle had a strong intoxicating earthy smell, and made my head feel light, like alcohol does...

The French truffles are bumpy black on the outside and grey smooth on the inside. They are a round sphere shape and range from five grams up to (the largest found on Sherry’s farm) 510 grams.

Truffles have a strong aroma. A good truffle farmer, seller or cook will teach you to have two short sniffs before a third proper smell, to let your brain process the new scent. In Sherry’s shed I smell the truffle for the first time.

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Truffles have a strong intoxicating earthy smell, and make my head feel light, like alcohol does… perhaps this is why they are considered an aphrodisiac! The smell is described by the group as molasses, burnt cauliflower or oysters, but it’s like nothing I have smelt before.

Sherry introduces the group to Snuffle, her American Cavalier truffle hunter dog who she trained herself. Snuffle is well groomed, a freshly bathed white and has had a recent hair trimming.

She is adorable and the key to sniffing out the truffles growing underground…without her, the truffles would be near impossible to find.

The group follows Sherry and Snuffle as they hunt. Snuffle goes around the tree once before tapping her paw on the place she has found a truffle scent. Sherry rewards her dog with a cuddle as she digs with a small tool for a truffle.

The air is crisp and fresh, the trees and mountains beautiful and I look on in joy, as I share in the experience of finding ‘black gold’.

Back at the shed, Sherry hand washes each truffle and places them in a clean glass jar with fresh paper towelling (this is how we should store them at home). The truffles are graded; A for excellent,

B for great and C for average. She wants her customers to come back each year and buy more of her product, so she doesn’t sell C grade truffles as she feels it may affect the public’s opinions of them.

“It’s like a good wine,” she explains. “A cheap bottle tastes good, but a really good wine hits the back of the throat. You can taste the difference.” A and B grade truffles are sent to various restaurants and exclusively to the Fyshwick Fresh Food Markets for the public to purchase.

From there, it was on to 3Seeds at the Fyshwick Fresh Food Markets for a truffle cooking class with well-known Canberra chef, Andrew Haskins.

From him, I learn the key to making truffles is to not be too keen to use them the night you buy them and to just give it a go. It’s the sort of food that you can’t ruin.

All it takes is a tiny amount to turn an ordinary dish into an extraordinary one.

TOP TRUFFLE TIPS The outside of a truffle is rough and black.

The inside is smooth and grey, but all of it can be used in cooking.

You can buy a truffle shaver, but a potato peeler, a grater or even finely chopping the truffle works just as effectively.

Store the truffles in a glass jar with paper towelling (make sure you change it daily).

Truffles need to be left to infuse into the food.

For best results, put in or with the food you wish to flavour. Leave this in an airtight sealed container in your fridge for at least 48 hours.

Truffles work well with eggs, dairy and subtle/ mild tasting foods. For example, the flavouring won’t work with a parmesan cheese.

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The Truffle Hunters: Sherry McArdle-English and her dog, Snuffle..

Truffles work well with other earthy foods; such as parsnips, cauliflower and mushrooms. Use to prepare scrambled eggs or adding some to brie cheese, salt or butter.

Andrew Haskins, Owner of 3Seeds 11

10 YARDS

regional produce meets fine dining

The Canberra region is home to some amazing produce, and it’s this wealth of find food and wine that is central to the 10 YARDS concept. Vanisha Mishra-Vakaoti shares her ‘happy place’.

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attended the first 10 YARDS Regional Produce Dinner at Two Before Ten on my own. It was a difficult time. I had just found out I couldn’t have children. My husband was in New Zealand.

I was in desperate need of things that were familiar and safe - good food, good wine, and a happy, positive atmosphere...I spent the whole night on Twitter going on and on about how wonderful everything about this place was.

A few months, and four regional produce dinners, later I still feel the same way. I’ve been to these dinners alone, with girlfriends and, finally, with my husband. I keep going back because they have been consistently excellent, and now I’m excited about sharing my favorite ‘happy’ place in Canberra with you!

The name “Two Before Ten” comes from the idea of a perfect morning - two coffees before 10am. The name is emblematic of the lifestyle of the boys involved in the business. Over the past few months I’ve got to know the staff: Jarrod and Chris, the big bosses, both come from a bar-tending background but also have professional backgrounds - Jarrod in Landscape Architecture and Chris as a senior diplomat. James, the operations manager, ran a few bars and restaurants. Lachy, who looks after the events and marketing, studied security at the ANU and ran a few bars along the way. Sam, the Head Roaster, also studied and worked before getting back into hospitality.

I mention this because there is such a strong emphasis on the ‘team’ - one certainly feels the ‘family’ vibe at Two Before Ten. These guys are all very clever and driven!

The idea of the 10 YARDS dinner was developed when Adam Bantock, culinary maestro (who spent five years with the M group in

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Shanghai and Hong Kong, as well as time running the Dieci e Mezzo kitchen here in Canberra) joined Two Before Ten.

“10 YARDS came from the number of different ‘yards’ (or farms) that the team originally sourced their produce from...”

Adam’s passion for regional produce and the ‘paddock-to-plate’ philosophy, closely mirrored the philosophy of Two Before Ten. On my numerous visits to the cafe, I’ve had the pleasure of chatting with Adam - he complements the Two Before Ten team perfectly, and the result is a dynamic mix of people who are passionate about the same thing - turning out a great product and a great experience.

‘The name 10 YARDS came from the number of different yards [or farms] that the Two Before Ten team originally sourced their produce from. Adam selects 10 or more of the region’s best producers or “yards” and designs a menu to emphasise the quality of the produce and showcase the seasonal delights of the region.

Some of the regular “yards” includes Vince from Moorlands Biodynamic Lamb, Dutton Park Ducks, Yass Mushrooms, Alto Olives, Harefield Pistachios and the Two Before Ten farm at Chris’s place. The producers are selected based on the quality and freshness of their product and the seafood is flown in and picked up at the airport on the day of the dinners.

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While this was the last regional produce dinner, there was an announcement of more exciting things to come. A new “transient restaurant/wine bar has just opened around the corner from Two Before Ten (next to Harvest).

The new restaurant is based on the 10 YARDS concept and is trading Wednesday to Friday from 4pm, showcasing the best of the region’s food and wine.

In addition to this, look out for a new dedicated filter coffee bar, launching the first week of July, which is focused on alternative brewing methods!

The 10 YARDS Regional Produce Dinners & Bar was conceived and built in only three weeks, and is only around from July to September. It’s been an incredible effort from some very talented and committed people to put together an amazing, intimate experience out of an unused retail shopfront.

Expect local wines, beer and cider and Australian spirits, and stunning food made from locally sourced produce which is designed to be shared so you can experience items from a number of different farms [yards].

The menu will change weekly so each time you dine you’ll recognise the grower but not the dish!

What you might not expect is 10 YARDS is also a cellar door for all of Two Before Ten’s wine and spirits partners so if you like a wine you had for dinner you can take a bottle home at cellar door prices!

THE ESSENTIALS When:

From 4pm til late Wednesday - Friday and weekends for special events.

Where:

Shop 18, Canberra House, 40 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra City. Directly behind the Two Before Ten’s flagship store.

Web:

www. twobeforeten.com.au

Book:

10yards@twobeforeten.com.au

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FOOD

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COFFEE

with heart

The idea is simple. Someone goes into a cafe, bakery, restaurant and pre-purchases a coffee or food. This is then a ‘suspended coffee’. Someone in need can then go into the business and ask if they have any suspended coffees. They are then provided with warmth and nourishment at no cost to themselves. It’s about paying it forward, one coffee at a time.. Martina Hughes has more.

Canberrans are generally community-minded people. So when Suspended Coffee, or Espresso Sospeso, emigrated from Naples in Italy to Australia, the ACT was quick to embrace the concept. Sometimes the smallest things can have a huge impact on someone in need.

The idea is simple. Someone goes into a cafe, bakery, restaurant and pre-purchases a coffee or food. This is then a ‘suspended coffee’. Someone in need can then go into the business and ask if they have any suspended coffees. They are then provided with warmth and nourishment at no cost to themselves. It’s about paying it forward, one coffee at a time.

39 Steps in O’Connor started their Suspended Coffee program in May, and I caught up with owner Mark Whithear to see how it has been received. In the first month, over 100 suspended coffees were purchased and more than 20 coffees given to those in need. Mark has been pleased to see the program gaining popularity and hopes the word will spread within the vulnerable community that his staff are non-judgemental and will accept a person’s request as an honest and true reflection of need.

Additionally, Mark is involved with the Menslink Mentoring Program and has personally seen the impact that positive role modeling can have on young lives. The Program meets regularly at Gryphons to provide support and encouragement to men within the ACT Community. Mark is also a Director of Surfers against Suicide, an initiative created by the Komunity project, with the aim to enthuse the international surfing community to raise and distribute funds to support organisations that contribute to a reduction in death by suicide by promoting health and resilience amongst young people.

In between all of these business activities, Mark is also a husband to Jo (Director of the Canberra Reading Clinic) and father to five boys and a daughter who passed away unexpectedly in 2006.

What an amazingly busy family!

“It’s encouraging to see the willingness of the local community to support others that may be experiencing hardship,” he says. ”It is a really nice feeling to be able to provide a hot drink for someone on a cold day.”

So you see, what started as an interview about a great idea of providing coffees to people who couldn’t afford their own, became some time spent with an inspirational Canberran who is conscious about giving back to his community.

Mark and his team have plans to take the program a step further, and provide an option for a Suspended Meal for someone in need.

We can all do our bit to help others by choosing 39 Steps or another supporting venue (Smith’s Alternative also participates) the next time you step out for a cuppa and purchasing a Suspended Coffee or Meal for someone in need.

It’s the latest project in a long history of community aid initiatives for Mark, who is also a part owner of Gryphons Caffe Bar. Both establishments 16

participated in 2012’s Café Smart, an initiative which brings together coffee roasters, cafes and coffee drinkers around the country to help people who are homeless, and which raised money for small grassroots organisations within the ACT Community.

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Canberra’s LOADING ZONE

NEWEST hotspots

BARCODE CANBERRA

It seems like there’s a new restaurant or bar opening in Canberra every week, which is great for local food and wine aficionados. So, this weekend, why not move outside your usual haunts and visit one of the new kids on the block?

Loading Zone is “a little taste of Italy in Canberra’s oldest alley way.” I love this place more than words can say. I love that it’s unpretentious in every way – from the ‘back alley’ location, to the attitude of the staff, to the honest amazeballs food. Since opening in mid-March, it has consistently delivered great service and fare, and is a refreshingly down-to-earth addition to the city’s food scene.

Places like this are a big slap in the face for anyone who says Canberra doesn’t have any soul. The everchanging menu is geared towards providing food just like nonna used to make – the last time I was there I had a yummy little panini, and then watched with envy as the waiters walked around to other diners, dishing out freshly cooked and piping hot lasagne straight from the baking tray.

Want a taste of what’s in store? On any given day, you might find penne with creamy basil pesto, croutons, smashed egg and broccoli; pork and fennel ragu in nonna’s sugo on pappardelle; Italian minestrone with home made sourdough; piadinas, frittatas, and ham & cheese croissants from the cabinet (perfect if you want some good food on the run); salads; and home made pork and fennel sausage rolls with nonna’s sugo.

Grab a seat in the busy yet somehow tranquil little space, order a meal or just a great cuppa and a cakes, and watch the world go by.

THE ESSENTIALS Where: 22 Odgers Lane, Melbourne Building,

Canberra City

When: 6:30am to 4pm, Monday to Saturday.

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A. BAKER

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The already buzzing New Acton precinct is getting another injection of foodie goodness, with the news that A. Baker, is due to open soon in the space formerly occupied by Flint.

A partnership between the Two Before Ten team and New Acton developers the Molonglo Group, is set to be “an artisan bakery, eatery and basement speakeasy bar”…and with ex-Dieci e Mezzo chef Adam Bantock at the helm, it’s sure to be something special.

But you don’t have to wait until launch to get a taste of the A. Baker experience. Get your fix from their pop up espresso bar – it serves local hand crafted coffee, beautiful sandwiches and freshly made sweet treats. Open Monday to Friday, 7:30am – 3pm inside the Nishi building.

THE ESSENTIALS 15 Edinburgh Avenue, New Acton 7:30am to 3pm, Monday to Friday

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Barcode Canberra - Canberra’s Newest LGBTIQ Cafe, Club Lounge and Bar – recently opened in Dickson and there’s something on every day and night of the week!

3 SUP

This charming and intimate hole in the wall is all about the coffee experience.

Sup Espresso Bar might be tiny in size, but it’s big on ambience, with decorative glass jars brimming with cookies, orchids and succulents adding personality to the space.

Open 8am to 4pm weekdays, it boasts its own Sup blend of Lonsdale Street Roasters coffee, sure to go down an absolute treat with the passing parade of public servants.

THE ESSENTIALS 4A/148 City Walk, Garema Place, Civic just near Sizzle Bento

It’s nothing if not ambitious, open from 7am til late every day of the week, taking patrons from breakfast to the dance floor.

In the Barcode Club Lounge and Bar, Monday is Wine Bar Night; Tuesday Ladies Night; Wednesday it’s all happening with Trivia, Bingo, Karaoke and Speed Dating; Thursday you can expect live music, with everything from Jazz and Blues to girl bands; Friday and Saturday are Nightclub Nights and every Sunday from 5pm, it’s Rachel’s Follies.

During the day, the Cafe Code Bagel and Juice Bar gives back to the community, with patrons receiving a 20c token for every cuppa purchased. The token can be popped into one of the three boxes provided, with proceeds donated to the corresponding LGBTIQ organisations each month.

THE ESSENTIALS Where: 6/26 Challis Street, Dickson When:

Open 7am til late, seven days per week.

Breakfast 7am–10am Lunch 11:30am–2:30pm Dinner/Tapas 5pm–9:30pm BarCode Club 10pm – late.

8am to 4pm Monday to Friday

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CITY

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5 THE ALCHEMY BAR The Manuka site of The Alchemy Bar has quite a pedigree – Cabinet, Minque, La Grange – it’s seen countless tipsy Canberrans pass through its doors over the years.

But, despite the name, Alchemy is about much more than drinks. It’s open for eating every day of the week for breakfast, all-day options and dinner.

With an emphasis on classic flavours, but spanning a range of international cuisines, it looks worth a visit!

THE ESSENTIALS Where: 17 Franklin Street, Manuka When: Monday to Thursday 10am til late Friday to Sunday 8am til late

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6 THE LOFT AT DUXTON Situated above a suburban pub in O’Connor, cocktail, wine and tapas bar, The Loft at Duxton, has taken the ‘local’ to the next level (literally!)

With a playful wine list, a tapas menu influenced strongly by Southern Europe, and a cocktail list boasting 14 different exotic cocktails and five unique pitchers.

With live music most nights of the week, live acoustic and deejays on Sundays, this will be a space to watch.

THE ESSENTIALS Cnr Sargood & MacPherson Streets, O’Connor Open Wednesday to Sunday 5pm til late.

TREEHOUSE BAR Treehouse is one of the newest nightspots in town...and from all reports, it’s a welcome and classy addition. As is becoming quite the norm for Canberra hotspots, the fitout is impressive, with a beautiful illuminated tree the defining feature.

Spread over two floors (main bar and room for boogying downstairs and a more intimate cocktail lounge upstairs), Treehouse is good for a quiet glass of bubbles or slightly noisier cocktails with the girls. And the tapas look pretty impressive too – including the ‘gourmet dogs’ (perhaps a nod to the great tradition of late night hot dogs on Northbourne Avenue!)

Find it in the Sydney Building, 32 Northbourne Avenue, Canberra City.

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Treehouse’s Raspberry Eton Mess

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Canberra’s coming of age is reflected in the sheer number of new, exciting places to eat and drink.

OPENING SOON C DINE BAR

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AUTOLYSE

Artisan bakery, Autolyse, is the latest venture from Darren Perryman (First Floor) and husband-and-wife team Mickey Gubas (Alto) and Miriana Cavic (Milk and Honey).

A great place to head for weekend brunch, it’s a working commercial bakery which offers an assortment of hand made breads: from traditional baguettes to white and wholemeal sourdough, to pastries, to sandwiches and croissants and more. Oh, and there’s good coffee.

You’ll find it in Lonsdale Street in Braddon – why not wander up to the Lonsdale Street Traders or Pink Ink for a squiz at pretty stuff afterwards?

THE ESSENTIALS Where: 21 Lonsdale Street, Braddon When: Open for breakfast and lunch seven days.

C Dine Bar, a waterfront restaurant on the Kingston Foreshore, is set to open in July, with a strong emphasis on local seasonal produce, exceptional prime cuts of steak and perfectly prepared seafood. Owners Dan Keogh and Shann Howman, formerly of Artespresso, will deliver Modern Australian cuisine in a casual, fine dining atmosphere.

Polit Bar Filling the Manuka space left by The Vinyl Lounge (and before it, Julep Lounge) is Polit Bar, “a discreet, warm cocktail lounge where the influential can relax, network, and enjoy themselves in the heart of Canberra’s parliamentary entertainment triangle.”

Mini Bar From the team behind Indian-Italian fusion restaurant, Digress, comes Mini Bar “espresso bar by day and a trendy cocktail bar by night” (photo above). You’ll be able to find it where the old Ticketek CBD box office used to be.

Morks Southside fans of Morks Restaurant in Florey will be chuffed to know that Mork and Benn Ratanakosol are opening a bigger, more comprehensive version of their popular Thai eatery in a waterside location at the Kingston Foreshore’s Aurora Residences.

Northside devotees may be in denial that they will soon have to cross the bridge for their favourite fare.

Autolyse Bread

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SLOW FOOD

Poacher’s Pantry’s winter menu

A cold winter’s night, hearty, warming food with big flavours; and beautiful regional wine - it’s a foodie’s idea of heaven. Michelle Brotohusodo and a friend took the short trip to Poacher’s Pantry in Hall, and discovered the wonders of their slow food menu.

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s a single girl, I spend a fair bit of time hanging out with my friends, so am always on the lookout for potential places to go for a girls’ night out. One Saturday in June, my friend and I discovered that Poacher’s Pantry is an ideal place to while away an evening with good company and good food.

The first thing that struck us upon arriving was a delicious aroma in the air, which we soon discovered was mulled wine—the perfect drink for a winter’s evening. Made with Poacher’s own Wily Trout Merlot, it also turned out to be the perfect accompaniment for the food we were about to enjoy (they also had warm cider, which we plan to try next time).

I don’t know about you, but for me winter is an excuse to enjoy hearty, flavoursome food (and I know you all know how much I love to eat).

The people at Poacher’s Pantry clearly think the same way, as they’ve developed a special slow food dinner just for winter, which is what my friend and I had ventured out for.

However, presented with the menu we faced a number of conundrums: firstly, how to ensure that whatever we ordered we’d have room for dessert and secondly, what to order! While we had headed out for the slow food dinner, the usual winter menu looked equally appetising. After some debate, i.e. whether to eschew entrées so we could eat mains and fit in dessert without being too full, whether we would order our own meals or share so we could try more food, and whether to go with the slow food or winter menu (you know, the important issues), we finally came to a decision.

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Apple and blackberry tart on sour cream pastry with house made vanilla ice cream.

We figured since we were there we might as well go all out (i.e. entrée, main and dessert— plus, we’d worked hard that week, so totally deserved it, right?), and that we’d share, so we

could try more food. We ended up going for a combination of the winter menu (entrée and dessert) and the slow food menu (main).

Nothing like a happy compromise, non?

“I don’t know about you, but for me winter is an excuse to enjoy hearty, flavoursome food...”

Our choices turned out to be very happy indeed. For the entrée, we started with honey peppered figs with Poacher’s proscuitto, red whitlof and Hunter Valley Binnorie quark (admittedly, we had to google what quark was—my friend thought it was cheese (she was right) but all I could think about was the scientific term (definitely not right in this instance!)

While we enjoyed this (and now I know what quark is I know that I like it), we were blown away by the second entrée, a spinach and ricotta gnocchi with smoked chicken, local mushrooms and herbs (which turned out to include some deliciously sweet tomatoes).

My friend had the first taste and described it as a ‘flavour explosion’, and after I tried it, I had to agree. It was a real effort to savour rather than scoff our servings, it tasted so good (I liked it so much that next time I go back I might even attempt to see if I can get it in a main size).

When our waitress came to clear our plates she asked if we wanted our mains soon or if we wanted to sit for a bit. After a brief hesitation, we decided a rest would be useful (this turned out 25

to be a good idea—I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, pacing during meals is important!)

from the warm restaurant into the freezing cold freezer room, but it was so worth it).

The break also proved to be a nice opportunity to sip our mulled wine, enjoy the ambience and have a good chat. There’s something to be said about being inside a nice, warm, candlelit restaurant on a cold winter’s night, with good music playing at a reasonable volume (loud enough to add atmosphere but not so loud that you can’t hear each other and have to shout across the table).

All in all, it was a lovely night, and I highly recommend Poacher’s Pantry for a relaxing winter evening catch up with friends. I should also make mention of the staff, who were polite, friendly and got the balance just right between being attentive but not intrusive.

Finally, as someone who gets lost ridiculously easily (we were actually late for dinner because I got lost on my way to my friend’s house in Ngunnawal due to roadworks on Gungahlin Drive and appalling signage (i.e. none) at the end of the detour I had to take), I also need to give a big thumbs up to Poacher’s Pantry for their clear signage on the Barton Highway and Nanima Road, which made it impossible for even someone as directionally challenged as me to get lost, even at night.

After this pleasant little interlude, our mains arrived: a pork belly hot pot with scallops, baby turnips and soba noodles and braised pheasant with chestnuts, quince jus and winter vegetables. We enjoyed both of them, but for different reasons.

While I love pork belly, on this occasion I think I liked the pheasant more, but I preferred the sauce and soba noodles that came with the pork. My friend kept dithering between the two, I think she finally settled on the pheasant as her favourite, but only just. At any rate, both dishes were delicious—good, hearty winter food that left us feeling very satisfied.

Pork belly hot pot with scallops, baby turnips and soba noodles.

However, there is always room for dessert (remember my theory about the separate dessert stomach?), and after another ‘intermission’ we were presented with our choices: a dark chocolate and hazelnut feuilletine mousse cake with raspberry and an apple and blackberry tart on sour cream pastry with house made vanilla ice cream (side note: I’ve realised that in recent years I’ve become a bit of a vanilla snob, so when faced with housemade vanilla desserts at restaurants I always check for the black dots that indicate that they’ve been made with vanilla bean—I’m pleased to report they were there and the ice cream was lovely).

THE ESSENTIALS

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Where:

Poacher’s Pantry Smokehouse Café 431 Nanima Road, Hall.

Where:

Brunch Saturdays and Sundays from 10am – 11:30am.

Lunch Friday to Sunday from 12pm – 3pm.

Dinner Saturdays from 6pm.

Web: www.poacherspantry.com.au Book:

If I had to use one word to describe each of these, I would use decadent for the mousse cake and delightful for the tart.

We made short work of the desserts as they were, like the rest of the meal, delicious.

Feeling rather full by this point (ok, really, really full), we decided to wander around the gourmet store to see what was on offer. While there was lots to choose from, including mulled wine packs so you could make your own at home, we settled on purchasing some smoked goods from the freezer room (yes, we went

Poacher’s Pantry offer a seasonal dinner menu throughout the rest of winter as well as Centenary Dinners in July and degustation dinners in August as part of the Fireside Festival. Bookings are essential.

02 6230 2487

Her

FOOD

Dark chocolate and hazelnut feuilletine mousse cake with raspberry

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1& 2

SAMMY’s & TIMMY’s KITCHENS

Regardless of which side of the bridge you’re on, you can get your fix of this yummy, cheap and cheerful cuisine.

Sammy’s is quick and convenient for a pre-movie meal in Civic (just expect chaotic and buzzy rather than intimate and hushed); and Timmy’s in Manuka is fabulous for a spot of pollie spotting.

ASIAN restaurants

Sammy’s Where: Bunda Street, Civic.

When: Open seven days.

Lunch 11.30am - 2.30pm; Dinner Monday – Thursday 5.00pm - 10.30pm; Friday – Saturday 5.00pm - 11.30pm; Sunday 5.00pm - 10.00pm.

Phone: 02 6247 1464

Timmy’s Where: Furneaux Street, Manuka.

When: Open Tuesday – Sunday.

Lunch 11.30am - 2.30pm Dinner - Tuesday - Thursday & Sunday 5.00pm - 10.00pm; Friday & Saturday 5.00pm - 11.00pm

Phone: 02 6295 6537

Her

FOOD

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THE CHAIRMAN GROUP

Over the last few weeks, we’ve introduced you to some fab new faces on the Canberra dining and bar scene, and some more to watch. This week, we looked at 10 (ok, maybe a few more) must-east Asian restaurants. in no particular order!

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Both boast the same signature dishes – are faves are the Hot Rock Salted Calamari, Shantung Chicken and the Penang Style Char Kway Teow.

THE ESSENTIALS

6 5 &7

10+ must-eat

3

4

It’s impossible to nominate one of the Chairman Group restaurants for a gong without mentioning the other two.

Chairman and Yip came first, enticing Canberra diners with its fusion of east and west. Then came Lanterne Rooms- an intimate little space at Campbell Shops, where traditional South-East Asian food. Malay Indian spices, coastal Fukien and local Nyonya cooking are skilfully blended.

The newest member of the family, Malamay, brings Sichuan fusion cuisine to the Burbury Hotel in Barton.

Choose any of the three – you won’t be disappointed in the food, service or ambience. Simply stunning.

THE ESSENTIALS Chairman and Yip

KOPI TIAM

IORI

Where: 108 Bunda Street, Civic When: Lunch: Tuesday to Friday 12.00 – 2.30pm;

Abell’s Kopi Tiam’s name comes from the combination of malay “kopi” for “coffee” and chinese “tiam” for “shop”.

Even if this wasn’t arguably the best Japanese food in Canberra, Iori would be worth a visit for the menu alone.

This place is my in-laws’ absolute favourite place to eat. Unpretentious, reliably good and offering fantastic flavours, it’s packed pretty much every night, and for good reason.

Why not try the Mystery Meal; Three Li’l Piggy; Chicken L’il; or the A.T.M (Assorted Tremendous Meal).

The Malayan Beef Rendang is amazing, and the specials board offers a tempting array of dishes.

If you can’t get a table, try little sister, Coo (Japanese Izakaya), or Iori Plus in Deakin for a finer dining approach.

THE ESSENTIALS

THE ESSENTIALS

7 Furneaux Street, Manuka

1 East Row, Canberra City

Open Tuesday to Sunday.

Lunch:11:30 am - 2:30 pm Dinner: 5:30-10:00 pm

Open Monday to Friday Lunch 12 noon to 2pm Dinner 6pm til late

02 6239 4199

Dinner Tuesday to Saturday 6.00 – 10.30pm

Phone: 02 6248 7109

Lanterne Rooms Where: 3 Blamey Place, Campell Shops When: Lunch - Tuesday to Friday;

Dinner Tuesday to Saturday.

Phone: 02 6249 6889

Malamay Where: 1 Burbury Close, Barton When: Lunch: Tuesday to Friday 12pm to 2.30pm

Dinner: Tuesday to Saturday 6pm to 10.30pm

Phone: 02 6162 1220

6257 2334

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8

PORTIA’S PLACE Portia’s was our once-a-week treat when we lived in Kingston many moons ago. We went as much for the cheery service of the eponymous Portia Yeung as they crispy fried duck rolled in paper-thin Chinese pancakes and Hoisin sauce and the King Island fillet steak with pepper sauce and button mushrooms.

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Portia may have moved on to new, casual digs in Fyshwick (Wok n Roll) but the food and atmosphere still make the restaurant well worth a visit.

THE ESSENTIALS Where: 11 Kennedy Stree, Kingston, ACT, 2604 When: Lunch and dinner seven days Phone: 02 6239 7970

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TU DO Tu Do in O’Connor has been a firm favourite of ours for a good 15 years, and it has a loyal following across the Capital.

The Rare Beef Pho is touted by many as the best in the city, and the space is warm and cosy, the staff friendly.

We also love the Pork Chop with Crabmeat Pate and Broken Rice (above).

GRIFFITH VIETNAMESE

It’s sure as heck not the ambience that makes Griffith Vietnamese a must-eat experience. The queues (go really early or book to avoid); the wobbly laminex tables, the shouting kitchen hands and the crash and flash of the flames coming from the woks – it’s all part of the package when you go in search of great Vietnamese.

It’s cheap as chips; Tan, the host, is both entertaining and obliging; and you can amuse yourself while you’re waiting by reading the penned endorsements of ‘celebrity’ guests which line the walls.

11 DICKSON ASIAN NOODLE HOUSE Ask anyone and they’ll tell you that Dickson Asian Noodle House is the place to go for Laksa.

Specialising in traditional Malaysian, Thai and Lao cuisine, the Laksa selection includes Chicken, BBQ Pork, Beef, Seafood, Duck, Fish, Vegetable, Prawn or Combination.

THE ESSENTIALS 7 Sargood Street, O’Connor Open Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 3pm for Breakfast (Pho) and Lunch 5pm – 10:30pm for Dinner.

02 6248 6030

THE ESSENTIALS Where: Shop 4/ 29 Woolley Street, Dickson When: Open seven days from 11am to 10pm Phone: 02 6262 5903

Photograph: Michelle Brotohusodo

We love the deep fried crunchy Spring Rolls and the Bo Sat - Beef with Lemongrass and Peanut Sauce.

THE ESSENTIALS Where: 6b Barker Street, Griffith When: Lunch: 11am to 2pm Monday to Friday;

Dinner: 5pm to 10pm seven days.

Phone: 02 6295 6505 30

Her

FOOD 31

If you’re a fan of Asian cuisine there’s something for every taste and budget...

AND DON’T MISS

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THIRST WINE BAR & EATERY Thirst Wine Bar and Eatery is all about the flavour.

Beautiful fresh salads bursting with herbs; fragrant curries boasting premium ingredients. Its central location sees hordes of public servants beating their way to the restaurants door most weekdays.

Our favourites? The deep-fried pork belly with tamarind and their Green Curry with Trout Dumplings. And, as the same suggests. there’s a nice selection of wines, too.

THE ESSENTIALS Where: 20 West Row, Melbourne Building, Civic When: Lunch Wednesday to Friday 12 noon til 2pmDinner Monday to Saturday 5.00pm -9.30pm.

Phone: 02 6257 0700

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The Seafood Noodle Soup or the Noodles in Long Soup at Chinese Kitchen Woden.

Ruby Chinese in Dickson for wagyu beef.

Asian Food Mart in Kippax for their mie ayam (Indonesian egg noodles with chicken and meatballs, in soup).

Streets of Asia in Tuggeranong for the best hainan chicken rice.

Shanghai Dumpling House in Childers Lane, Civic for dumplings and the vegetarian fried rice cakes (and value for money!)

2 Yummy Noodle House in Belconnen for Super Tasty Duck.

Kudos Taste for Japanese in Civic – try their katsudon.

Photograph: Michelle Brotohusodo

Her

FOOD

Hot Thai Beef Salad from Thirst Wine Bar & Eatery 33

LIMESTONE

a truly regional experience

It wasn’t all that long ago that travellers passing through Canberra would have been met with a decidedly ‘regional’ looking airport. A small and unassuming building with a distinctly temporary feel, boasting a newsagent, a couple of coffee shops, airline lounges and not much else. These days, it’s a different story..

The new Canberra Airport terminal shouts ‘CAPITAL CITY OF AUSTRALIA!’ - all smooth, shiny surfaces and striking minimalist design. It makes Sydney Airport look absolutely old hat. The newsagent and coffee shops are still there, as are the lounges - but they’re pretty damn swanky - but so is a fantastic little Asian cafe, Tuk Chop, and the new kid on the block, Limestone Cafe and Bar.

Limestone Cafe and Bar is a win for we plebs who don’t enjoy corporately-paid airline Club membership - not only is it a place where we can sit and have a nice glass of wine and a bite to eat while we await departure, but it’s actually good enough to warrant a visit to the airport whether you’re travelling or not. I recently met my friend Mat there - we’d been meaning to get together and it was conveniently near Costco where I needed to do a spot of shopping.

Yes, you need to pass through security to get there, but once you do, it’s a surprisingly serene space.

Unlike its Sydney or Melbourne airport cousins, it’s easy to forget that you’re eating in a transport hub.

Architect Richard Phillips, Manager of Aviation Projects with Canberra Airport, says this is a deliberate combination of a both planning and design elements.

“In planning terms, the bar serves just what will be two aircraft boarding gates, so the majority of passengers turn off before the bar. The architecture of the atrium space with it high ceilings, extent of glass and cleverly integrated acoustic treatment all add to the feel of the space.

“The ‘Unfurling’ sculpture by Melbourne based sculptor Andrew Rogers is offset from the building axis and this gives the bar seating space room.”

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It’s a really striking space. The bar is clad in illuminated handmade lime-coloured glass tiles, teamed with blue and yellow and aged mirrors, and dark textured tiles, all held together by softer timber elements and floor. There’s also a certain amount of industrial chic with the glazed cool room exposing the beer kegs and lines.

“The brief to the designers, Patrick Torcaiso and Jit Lau, was basically ‘wow’ us and they certainly did that,” says Richard.

In our Centenary year where the spotlight is firmly on our city, it’s pleasing to see that the ‘local’ element has been incorporated in every aspect of the bar from fitout to food, starting with the name.

“Limestone” takes its name from Canberra’s origins the city is built on what was formerly the ‘limestone plains’.

This nod to the region is extended through the food and beverage menu, with an aim of celebrating the excellence of local good and wine.

Peter Reffell, Executive Chef with Emirates Leisure Retail, the company behind Limestone, says “we believe that there is nothing better than what’s on your doorstep. Every cut of meat can be traced back to the local breeder and producers. We start at the

heart of the source, great quality products that need little doing to them apart from simple cooking.”

“We choose to work with suppliers who match our passion for food, like Griffith Butchery - a butchery with an environmental conscience with the same passion as myself for quality.”

All Limestone’s fruit and vegetables are sourced from farms throughout the ACT region by a family run business that has direct contact with the growers ensuring simple, fresh produce from field to plate.

And it doesn’t end there, the suppliers list reading like a ‘who’s who’ of quality local food and wine.

There’s locally brewed German ale from Zierholz Premium Brewery - a genuine Bavarian wheat beer made from European style hops honouring the family’s heritage - and Wild Brumby Schnapps from the Snowy Mountains (perhaps a pre-departure shot for nervous fliers?)

And wine is supplied from several regional wineries: certified biodynamic and organic vineyard, Lark Hill; Mount Majura Vineyard, whose slopes contain limestone making for unique wines with real character, and Chalkers Crossing, whose Young winery is focused on producing premium cool climate wines specific to the region.

In contrast to the produce from our own backyard, there is a distinctly ‘American’ feel to the menu burgers, soft tacos, slaw, pulled pork, etc. Classic, delicious comfort food.

“Nostalgic fare has really emerged in restaurants this year, with unstructured menus making entrées and mains a thing of the past,” says Peter.

“This casualisation of menus has allowed for the adoption children’s food for grown-ups and follows on from the trend of the ever growing number of food trucks on our streets; from burgers and tacos to gourmet hot dogs.”

But what of the actual dining experience? When I ate there, my overall impressions were that prices were low (most items around the $10 mark), service was fast, and the food was really fresh - all things really important for the Canberra commuter market.

I had the pulled pork soft tacos and they were amazing. Great flavours, really fresh, good value for $9.90. My friend Mat had the Margarita pizza, and he said it was the perfect size for a light lunch, and really really tasty.

Overall, Limestone is off to a flying start - a great addition to the Canberra Airport precinct and yet another sign that our city is really growing up.

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Dinner on the

DOORSTEP

One of my favourite things to do is spend a day in the kitchen, lovingly preparing food for my family and friends. But on weeknights? When I’ve had a long, hard day at work and the emphasis is on fuel rather than amazing flavours? Not so much. So, the idea of coming home to a box of fresh, homemade meals waiting on my doorstep - enough to see me through the working week - that’s my idea of heaven. And if I’m supporting local business at the same time, well that’s even better.

H

appily for me (and you) this isn’t just a dream. Canberra’s Doorstep Dinners has made it their mission “to create and deliver good food for busy people”. It’s a cost-effective alternative to takeaway food, with every dish made with local, seasonal, high welfare ingredients.

Doorstep Dinners is the creation of busy Canberra mum, Victoria Dolphin. Like many of us, she is balancing raising a family and running a household with work (she works part time as a paediatric nurse). She says the concept is a culmination of ideas that came from listening to friends and the families that she meets in hospital.

“I realised that families compromise on good food when they are busy. A mum working full time and picking up the kids from childcare at 6pm will head to drive-thru for a meal for the kids on the way home and then have scrambled eggs on toast for herself,” says Victoria.

“I hope that Doorstep Dinners will offer busy families an opportunity for convenient nutrition for the whole family and reduce the stress of having to prepare a midweek meal if it seems near impossible or just a colossal effort.”

Victoria says she is passionate about good health for families and really enjoys the experience of food that is lovingly made and shared.

“It’s easy to make a meal special if it’s packed full of wholesome, fresh ingredients and I hope that my meals can do a little bit to warm the soul as well as the body, especially at this time of year.”

So, how does it work?

Each week Victoria creates a menu, which is launched on the website on Sunday evening.

Customers then have until 9pm the following Sunday to place an order. Then it’s all systems go to whip up the meals and deliver them to the hungry.

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“I source all my ingredients and head to the kitchen on Monday and Wednesday, cook all day and deliver the meals fresh on those evenings (see the delivery schedule for details on when Victoria delivers to your suburb). The meals are not frozen meals - they are delivered fresh and require some level of preparation such as boiling some pasta, preparing some greens or creating a salad,” she says.

In an average week, the menu offers a selection of meals made over many hours in the kitchen (the many hours that busy people don’t have), including a pie or lasagne, a vegetarian dish, a red meat and white meat dish, plus a dessert option.

In the name of ‘research’, I’ve sampled quite a lot of Doorstep Dinners (I’ve been a paying customer since Victoria gave me some initial samples to review for the website). My favourites so far? Chicken, Bacon and Tarragon Pie; Beef and Stout Pie; Sicilian Chicken (in the pot at left), Lamb Tagine, and the Earl Grey Chocolate Brownies.

This week I can’t wait to try the Lamb, Mint and Pea Pie (I kinda like pies...especially when the pastry is homemade, not the frozen stuff I use to make mine).

“I like to cook dishes that take time, based on homemade stocks and long braising times to highlight the characteristics of the ingredients, as well as allowing time for meat to take on the flavours of the sauce.

The reason for this is these types of dishes are not often made by the time poor person schlepping in from a hard day at the office to be greeted by a hungry family.”

As an unashamed devotee, it’s hard to say what I like most about the service...but if I had to name my top six reasons (sorry, couldn’t condense to five): (1) convenience, (2) the anticipation - opening the box is kinda like getting a parcel in the mail, (3) the quality and great flavours, (4) the detailed 37

HerRecipe

BANANA

honey, coconut and oat bread

Sometimes it’s easier to collapse on the couch with a premade meal, a glass of wine and a bar of chocolate after you have trundled the kids off to bed than to think about cooking!

what you need 2 large ripe bananas, mashed 2 tsp vanilla extract 2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten 1 cup (250ml) light milk 1/2 cup honey 1/2 cup caster sugar 2 1/2 cups self raising flour 1/2 cup rolled oats

nutritional information (making it easy to make choices if you’re counting calories), (5) it’s flexible for families - if there are young kids at the dinner table, you just need to indicate on your order if you’d like the meal diced smaller than usual. and (6) the value for money.

Prices range from $8 for a kids’ serve, to around $34 for four adult serves. At an average of $20 for a meal for two people (with an extra dollar or two for the sides you make yourself), Doorstep Dinners may not seem a ‘cheap’ option. But I’ve done the sums and I reckon they stack up well. I would be hard pressed to make a Beef and Stout Pie for under $21 by the time I’ve run around buying the ingredients and spent several hours cooking it.

Plus, not having to think ‘Oh God, what am I going to make for dinner tonight?’ is priceless.

And it’s also a price-competitive and nutritious 38

alternative to takeaway foods. As a quick comparison, a Crust pizza for two will cost you between $21 and $24; one dish from Timmy’s in Manuka will cost you between $17 and 23 (and you realistically need more than one to feed a couple); and a pasta from Belluci’s will cost you between $21 and $25.

As Victoria says, “it’s a great service for busy families to order weekly, or for people who may just need a little extra help with meals for a short time, such as mums with newborn babies just out of hospital, anyone experiencing ill health or convalescing, or perhaps for people that travel for work or may have a partner away for extended periods.

“Sometimes it’s easier to collapse on the couch with a premade meal, a glass of wine and a bar of chocolate after you have trundled the kids off to bed than to think about cooking!” Amen, sister!

1 cup shredded coconut

what to do Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 19cm x 9cm x 6cm loaf pan, lining the bottom with baking paper.

2. Mix together mashed banana, vanilla, eggs, milk, honey and sugar.

3. Sift flour and add to wet ingredients with rolled oats and coconut. Gently fold through using a large metal spoon. Be careful not to overmix.

4. Spoon into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

5. Serve sliced with butter - I love it toasted!

39

My first week in

CANBERRA

begrudgingly

Hermione Wright is experiencing Canberra life for the first time after moving from the UK with her boyfriend. She is learning to breathe again after covering many a gruesome story in the mean streets of London as a reporter. This is her first week in the Capital, begrudgingly....

S

ix months ago I was running a newspaper, renting a cosy little London flat with my best friend, single, and considering adopting a cat. Fast forward to June 2013, I’m unemployed, without said cat and living with my boyfriend for the first time – in Canberra. I suppose there’s no point doing anything by halves.

To make matters worse, and to risk alienating all my audience in less than ten seconds, I spent a year in Sydney when at uni a few years ago and left feeling somewhat less than enchanted.

People looked at me like I had a problem when I vowed never to return to Australia, but for some reason its beautiful beaches, warm weather and chilled out attitude didn’t do it for me. On top of it all, I was a struggling student and could barely afford it. <Insert mundane pound to dollar exchange rate comment here>.

So, there’s no point getting mushy – I’m British after all – but you can imagine I must be pretty keen on this chap for me to decide to drop everything and return, tail between my legs, when he was offered a six-month secondment out here. The problem was, every time I shared my OMG news with fellow Londoners/ family/ anyone who would listen, they’d simply say sympathetically: “Canberra? And you don’t have a car? Well… At least you’ve got each other.”

Her 40

CITY

They compared this nation’s capital to a glorified Milton Keynes, which believe me is no compliment. I can’t say it exactly filled with me with confidence that this mid-20s journo (well, once was) made the right career, or even life, move. But, with no house, no babies, and no real responsibilities, it still seemed a bit of a no brainer to me. After all, Australia, I have unfinished business with you.

Arriving here last week was definitely more hassle-free than my last Oz visit. Whereas in my university days I had a rather up close and personal introduction to a not-so-friendly clan of cockroaches fearlessly roaming the floorboards of my youth hostel, this time we were picked up from the airport and seamlessly delivered to our rather swish apartment. I mean this pad is complete with spatulas – I’d hardly even reached the stage in my UK life that I’d invested in such a serious piece of kitchen kit.

And perhaps even more importantly, there’s not a pesky roach in sight.

After eating our way across the globe in various planes, airports and timezones, we couldn’t help but nap our way through our first day in a foodand-jet leg-induced coma. The evening though spelt adventure so we grabbed our hiking boots, flints and emergency rations for our 20-minute walk into town. Yes Canberra doubters, we

survived the trek. I’d love to say we instantly immersed ourselves in Aussie life, but like any true tourist we instantly fell into King O’Malley’s. We pretended to read the history on the walls, but were instead over-awed at the fact that we could legitimately drink mulled wine again despite our UK body clocks believing it’s summer. Well, with our recent weather, I use that term very loosely. And any doubts I’d made the right decision were of course instantly silenced when I noticed fliers for a beard competition scheduled for later in the month.

London, you need to up your game.

For the rest of the week, we largely got lost in the Canberra Centre. Again, not very adventurous but we’ll blame the need for our bodies to adjust before any wild expeditions can begin. I still can’t believe how HUGE that place is – I don’t remember Sydney having anything on the Canberra Centre. I instantly invested in the inevitable Ugg slippers which will no doubt make my quest for employment all the more difficult – I just can’t get out of them! I also spent most days in shock at how eager shop assistants are to talk – what am I supposed to say when they ask me ‘how I’m going?’ Should I ask them ‘how they’re going?’ I’m not 100 per cent what it means, but I know shop etiquette is a hell of a lot friendlier than most places back home. I mean shoppers even have their bags packed for them in supermarkets here! What a treat.

In our mission to once again convert to Australian life, we even bought Tim Tams and popped them in the freezer following the recommendation of my former Sydney housemates. I’m unsure if this enforced choc temperature drop is a normal thing. Either way, I can’t help think they taste just like our Penguins without the joke on the back of the packet, but they’re delicious nonetheless.

I even bought kangaroo steaks last night. I chucked them into burgers with hummus and avocado and a pretty little side salad, and boy was I excited. However, I’ll blame my cooking but they tasted like tongue. I know it’s good for you and all that, so perhaps I’ll give it another go.

I’ve also been exploring the delights of Lonsdale Street – there are a few vintage shops, including Hipsley, which I know will become a firm favourite. It can be difficult living in this limbo life though, because no matter how much I know that retro green jug will look lovely in my next living room, I just can’t justify transporting it to the other side of the world with me.

One week down, 32 to go. I have lots to learn, and I know there’s ‘heaps’ more to Canberra than frozen Tim Tams, a beyond huge shopping centre, and some less than tantalising kangaroo steaks. Now I just need to find it.

READ WEEK 2 & WEEK 3 OF HERMIONE’S ADVENTURES ON HERCANBERRA. 41

1 BOWL ‘EM OVER Strap on those cute little shoes, grab the lightest ball your fingers will fit into and bowl the night away. And, while I’m never going to advocate the food on sale at most bowling places, I’ll admit some sneaky beers and a hot dog can add to the fun of it all.

The downside is on Friday and Saturday nights there are a lot of kids’ parties. So if you are averse to screaming children and One Direction on repeat over the stereo, it pays to plan ahead and book a lane or a time away from the chaos.

Oh and, it’s not cheap, so look for coupons that will save you money. Bowl ‘em over at AMF Belconnen and Tuggeranong.

2 GAMES NIGHT A night in during winter is a very tempting proposition, so why not settle in for a night of board game fun.

A nice little twist to add is that the winner of each round of whatever game you are playing gets control of the stereo/CD player/iPod. Makes for a bit more competition and some great ambience (provided your other half doesn’t have horrendous musical taste!)

Now, where’s that Foxtel remote?

Five Winter

DATEnights

Winter has well and truly settled in, and the temptation for many couples can be to settle into a couchbound date night routine. Not that there is anything wrong with that. For those who are bored of spending cold Friday or Saturday nights on the couch, Jen Dawson has five fun ideas for “date night”.

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4

UNDER THE STARS

FUN ON THE ICE

Throughout the coming months, Scope Mount Stromlo are holding Star Gazing Friday Nights.

For those who want to embrace winter with open arms, Skate in the City is a great opportunity to have some arctic fun.

You can book a table for dinner at one of two sitting times and then use the Mount Stromlo telescopes to look at the stars.

Now THAT sounds romantic.

If you are anything like me, you have a romantic image of you and your other half gliding along the ice, hand in hand. And if you have a partner with coordination anything like mine, that will not be the reality.

More information and booking details can be found at scopemountstromlo.com.au.

Our feature piece on Skate earlier in this mag has some great tips on how to stay upright, and keep some degree of dignity intact. If all else fails, they do have penguins to lean on.

5 DINNER ON THE MOVE With so many great restaurants around town, it can be hard to pick a date-night dinner venue. So, why not pick a few and have a progressive dinner?

A progressive dinner involves having each course at a different venue – think cocktails and tapas to start, a gorgeous main meal, and dessert anywhere of your choosing. The key would either be to book ahead, or make sure you go to a location with many restaurant choices (Dickson? Civic? Braddon? Kingston?), so that you aren’t left waiting in the cold for a table between courses.

If you’re heading out on a Wednesay, Thursday or Friday night, why not try Two Before Ten’s brand spanking new 10 YARDS Regional Produce Dinners and Wine Bar?

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STILL WANT MORE? Make sure you visit HerCanberra every Monday morning for our This Week in The Can post. It’s the most comprehensive round up of events in town!

No matter whether you’re looking for a great musical experience, a trip to the theatre, or keen to head to an exhibition, you’ll find something to suit.

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CITY

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My

CANBERRA

Last year, we introduced the “My Canberra” series, prompted by the HerCan Team’s observation that all too often, we don’t play ‘tourist’ enough in our own hometowns. We get caught up in our neighbourhood favourites that we don’t explore too far afield…we don’t uncover all this city has to offer. The little boutiques, the fabulous coffee shops and providores, the great little secret gems that too few people know about.

So, ”My Canberra” is a chance for Canberra women to share their favourite places to eat, drink and shop, and their favourite things to do. It’s about encouraging us all to try new things and to see our town through fresh eyes.

Renee Toy introduces you to Ingrid Jonach, a local author who writes books for kids and teens. Her debut young adult novel When the World was Flat (and we were in love) is due out in September 2013 by global imprint Strange Chemistry. She is also the author of the picture book A Lot of Things and the chapter books The Frank Frankie and Frankie goes to France published by Pan Macmillan Australia.

FAVE WATERING HOLE

FAVE READING NOOK

Call me old-fashioned, but I love being able to talk over a drink, which means also being able to sit down.

I love the intoxicating scent when you walk into Paperchain Bookstore in Manuka (above), a mixture of books and the wooden bookshelves.

I also held two of my book launches there, so it holds a special place in my heart.

For that reason, I like to go somewhere with plenty of seating like King O’Malleys.

For a night out though, you will generally find me at either The Kennedy Room in Kingston or Public in Manuka. I highly recommend the pie floater from Public (above…yum) if you also want a bite to eat

I am also a huge advocate of Libraries ACT.

FAVE MID-RANGE EATS

SPOT TO SHOP

Belluci’s. I know I am not the only one to pick this as my favourite mid-range restaurant. My friends recently threw a surprise birthday dinner at Belluci’s Woden, just so that I could have my favourite dish - the Gnocchi Di Agnello, which is hand made potato gnocchi with braised lamb, baby beetroot, confit garlic and horseradish cream. Yum!

Canberra Centre, in particular Zara, David Jones and Myer – for clothes at least.

I should also mention Knuckles German Restaurant at the Harmonie German Club in Narrabundah. Their pork knuckles and schnitzels are delicious.

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I found my favourite coffee table book in Paperchain Bookstore, which is Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book; written by Terry Jones (Monty Python).

For everything else it is Lonsdale Street Traders in Braddon or Shop Handmade in Civic.

These places are treasure troves of some of the most unique and beautiful products in Canberra.

Ingrid Jonach

CLICK HERE TO DISCOVER MORE OF INGRID’S CANBERRA!

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Canberra’s

OUMIRA

a homegrown success

When it comes to your creatives, Canberra punches well above its weight.

Shelley Eldridge introduces you to Oumaya Issa, the young entrepreneur behind the Oumira jewellery label, currently available from its pop up shop in the Canberra Centre.

w

hile other people are finishing university degrees and entering the workforce, Oumaya Issa has chosen a different path.

At 23 years of age, she has opened her own unique jewellery store in the Canberra Centre.

So, with the help of her boyfriend/ business partner, Chris Richardson, Oumaya started selling their product at the Sydney markets. The business went online in November last year and the Canberra store opened last month.

The pop-up shop Oumira (level 1, near Bardot) presents jewellery that is exquisitely designed

by Oumaya herself.

Oumaya and Chris have worked long hours to ensure the success of the store. “It’s what you have to do at the beginning to make it work,” and Oumaya wouldn’t have it any other way.

Oumaya is friendly and exudes warmness in the way she welcomes me into her store.

What struck me most about the jewellery is the statements they make, all individual art pieces in their own right. I see bright colours mixed with the gold, silver and copper and I am personally in love with the turquoise coloured pieces.

I glance around the and immediately spot Egyptian and African inspired pieces.

Oumaya says “I’m inspired by different countries. I love multi-culture and looking at what other cultures wear traditionally.”

Oumaya grew up in Canberra, gaining a fashion design CIT Bachelor degree and working as an intern for a Sydney fashion designer. She then worked for a wholesale jewellery company, loving the work, but feeling limited creatively.

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To other young entrepreneurs she says, “Do it!

Make sure you have the finances in place, because it is such a big commitment. But make it happen. Put time aside for your dreams. Even one day a week at a market means you are working towards making it happen.”

Oumaya dreams of having a second store in Melbourne and eventually one store in every capital city of Australia.

THE ESSENTIALS What:

Oumira

Where:

Upper Level, Canberra Centre.

Web: www.oumira.com.au

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Five new independent

FASHION retailers

Canberra has a vibrant independent fashion scene - and we need to support those who strike out on their own! Today, we tell you a little bit about five new Canberra retailers which will tempt you with their unique offerings.

1

HONEYSUCKLE & LACE

Honeysuckle and Lace is a brand, spanking new retail presence in Kingston, opening its doors just weeks ago.

Boasting labels such as Style Butler, (collections for the modern, sophisticated woman with a love of quality, attention to detail and individuality), Oleana Knits (beautiful Norwegian woollen and silk knits) and Carlopik ( described as fresh and carefree, but elegant and original), it’s set to provide a sense of international style to the suburb, with Scandinavian brands the focus.

Expect a diverse range of fabulous fashion - from vibrant colours and patterns to the traditional Scandinavian minimalism - and beautiful accessories in a kid-friendly environment. Just ask owners Pamela Jansson and Maria Wolters about the secret playroom...

THE ESSENTIALS Where: Eyre Street, Kingston When: Monday -Thursday: 10am-5.30pm; Friday 10am-8pm; Saturday 10am-4pm Sunday 10am-3pm Phone: 02 6134 6421 Email: info@honeysuckleandlace.com.au

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FASHION

2 REVERIE BOUTIQUE Reverie Boutique may not be a familiar name to Canberra fashionistas, but it has a huge online following, boasting over 45 000 Facebook fans. Originating on Ebay in 2010, owner Samantha Shanks initially sold to just to a handful of customers, but with rapid growth on Facebook there has been a large customer demand for new products and an easier way to shop - now comes the Reverie storefront!

The relatively unassuming suburb of Macquarie is sure to be enlivened by Reverie’s unique and colourful products, and Canberrans will love the selection of sought-after brands, like Limecrime, Kardashian Kollection and RMK.

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MUSSEN Mussen is one of the city’s newest women’s clothing boutiques, stocking top designer labels and fashion accessories.

Small in size but big on style, you can find labels such as Wish, Sass, Cooper St, Staple the Label, and Bebe Sydney.

There are some gorgeous items to take you from day to night.

Plus, the girls regularly operate a brow bar, so you can get your fashion and beauty fix in one go!

THE ESSENTIALS

THE ESSENTIALS

Shop 6, Macquarie Place, Macquarie.

Corner of Cooyong and Mort Streets, Braddon

Open Monday - Thursday by appointment; Friday 5pm - 9pm; Saturday 11am - 5pm; Sunday 12pm - 5pm

Tueday to Thursday 11am - 6pm; Friday 11am - 8pm; Saturday 10am - 4pm; Sunday 11am - 3pm 49

4

WOLFIE

Just what I needed.

Another way to spend money on my kids...

Wolfie is just gorgeous... tucked away on Manuka Terrace, the store is like a forest filled with fanciful fashion and whimsical wares.

The team, Belinda and Kylie, will make sure your kidlets are dressed to impress in labels like bebe, eeni meeni miini moh and Rock Your Baby... and there’s an online store coming soon!

THE ESSENTIALS Where: Shop 10, Manuka Terrace, Flinders Way, Manuka When: Monday -Thursday 9am-5.30pm Friday 9am-6pm Saturday 9:30am-4pm Sunday 10am-4pm Phone: 02 6239 6038

5 CBR COLLECTIVE We’ve told you about CBR Collective before, but as Canberra’s first dedicated store promoting local fashion design through an innovative collaboration of six designers, it’s worth another look.

Founders of CBR Collective are the designers behind the brand labels: E4, FibreStudio Design, M&TM (Mec and the Maid), Pure Pod, Sofia Polak and T-Heinrich... catch their pieces, plus the work of other Canberra designers, like Hutch, PNC Metalsmith,Tango & James, I Heart Threads, Cynthia Jones-Bryson and BM designs.

THE ESSENTIALS Canberra Centre, Civic on the upper level opposite Nine West.

Monday - Thursday: 9am - 5:30 pm Friday: 9am - 9pm; Saturday: 9am - 5pm Sunday: 10am - 4pm

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The

HIPSLEY

evolution

When Lifeline’s Hipsley Lane was launched nearly a year ago, it quickly gained a reputation as a beautifully curated collection of vintage fashion. Now it’s shifted focus, evolving into a community space that’s making fashion accessible for all.

It’s been 10 months since Lifeline’s Hipsley Lane opened on Lonsdale Street, and walking in today, it’s clear that change has been afoot. Originally a vintage clothing store, it has evolved into a welcoming space.

Chenoeh tells me that she wants Hipsley to be the shopfront for Lifeline. She loves vintage, but her main job is to work towards and support Lifeline’s goals.

There are couches, a coffee table at the front of the store, and a warm floor rug over the wooden floors.

Secondhand books surrounded the couches, which makes me feel at home. I see orange walls and a small table at the back of the store, where people are welcome to bring their food or their laptops.

So what are they? Lifeline recently rebranded their image after research showed that most people didn’t know what the organisation did or stood for. As their new branding suggests, Lifeline saves lives through suicide prevention and crisis intervention. They are the charity organisation behind the phone number 13 11 14 for those who don’t know where to turn in their darkest hour.

Hipsley (now minus the Lane) has broadened their focus from its initial carefully curated range of vintage women’s fashion and accessories – there’s now menswear, children’s wear, wedding gowns, as well as high-end vintage gowns. Prices now start at $2, meaning anyone, whatever their budget, can enjoy something preloved.

100% of the funds raised by Hipsley go directly to Lifeline Canberra, to ensure their volunteers continue to receive the best training, resources and ongoing support. Do yourself – and Lifeline – a favour. Embrace the Hipsley revolution!

The kids’ corner meant I could leave my toddler to play, while I talked to Hipsley’s Manager, Chenoeh Miller, about the relaunched store.

“We are hoping for Hipsley to be a community space. We are working towards having live music here, have free storytelling for kids at 10:30am each Thursday morning, and are planning yoga classes in the evenings,” she tells me as she redresses the mannequin to show me a vintage dress (down from $100 to $35!)

Chenoeh and her team also want people to feel welcome to come and just relax in the space. They have a free shelf where people can take what they like and replace what they can. “It’s a great free way to swap accessories each day,” she explains.

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THE ESSENTIALS What:

Hipsley has a range of vintage clothing, accessories and books.

Where:

Shop 2/ 27 Lonsdale Street, Braddon.

When:

Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 3pm.

Web: www.facebook.com/HipsleyforLife Book:

0420 530 445

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Five hidden

FYSHWICK

home design gems

Once only home to Canberra’s seedy brothels and car yards, Fyshwick has undergone a transformation in recent years. It boasts some of Canberra’s hidden gems, and where it really comes into its own is when you’re looking to find something amazing for your home. Whether you’re wanting supplies for a major renovation, or just a funky pendant light, you don’t need to travel outside the 2609 postcode. Sarah Bowman reveals her faves.

1

MMM INTERIORS

After 24 years of creating beautiful homes for Canberrans, MMM has found their niche. This is a unique one stop shop that will get your creative juices flowing. Beginning in the bathroom renovation market, they have now expanded their wings and have become a successful multi award winning design company - from bathrooms, laundries, kitchens to full home redesigns and extensions there is no job too big or small.

Their extensive showroom showcases everything you’ll need for your bathroom and home with future plans to include kitchen displays. Here you’ll find all of the top designs from Europe including brands such as Duravit, Kaldewei, Paco Jaanson and the best of Italian tiles. They also support local Canberra businesses with all of their custom made pieces made right here in town.

If you’re lacking imagination or inspiration then you’ll find everything you need here. With trained Interior Designers guiding you every step of the way, you can successfully get the room of your dreams through their project management service. From design to completion they offer only the best in designs, products and quality workmanship. This is proven in their latest award for the HIA/CSR Australian Bathroom Design of the Year 2013.

THE ESSENTIALS Where: 51-55 Kembla St Fyshwick When: Tuesday to Friday 9am-5pm Saturday 9am-12pm Phone: 02 6280 9980 Web: www.mmminteriors.com.au

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2 INSIDE STORY APPLIANCE GALLERY The Appliance Gallery hold exclusivity to the Swiss V-ZUG and German Siemens brand and are also major retailer for Miele and Qasair.

Whether it is a fridge, cooktop, dryer or vacuum cleaner you will find the right appliance here. The staff have impeccable knowledge about the latest technologies, so your questions of whether or not to have integrated appliances, induction cooktops, steam ovens, combi-ovens and any other type of oven will soon be answered.

Home economists from V-ZUG and Miele even offer sessions on how to use their appliances.

It’s a great way to see firsthand the benefits and to taste what can be made.

THE ESSENTIALS 72 Gladstone Street, Fyshwick.

Monday to Friday 9am-5pm Saturday 9am-12.30pm 02 6239 2877 www.appliancegallery.com.au

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After 15 years in Canberra, Inside Story has made a name for itself for its exclusive fabrics and wallpapers and now offer everything in the way of soft furnishings for your interior.

Not only do they provide an amazing showcase of products which you can touch, flick through and sit on, but they also provide a window consultation service along with inhouse interior decorators.

Here you’ll receive a comprehensive service with all of the manufacturing done inhouse rest assured you’re getting the best of quality.

If you’re looking for something unique with a designer edge then this is your next port of call.

THE ESSENTIALS 27-29 Collie St, Fyshwick.

Monday to Friday 10am-5pm Saturday 10am-2pm 02 6280 5434

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4

FLASH INTERIORS Flash interiors (at left) is the newest baby of my chosen favourite design shops. Opening last September, this shop will swoon you with its unique designer furniture, wallpapers, fabrics and accessories.

Managing Director Debra Nowell started with the concept of having an online shop but realised people want to touch what they’re going to buy so Flash interiors has that option.

The showroom is on the smaller size but what they lack in space is only made up with their divine products and displays. With gorgeous fabric and colour combinations you’ll be well on your way in creating a beautiful home.

If you can’t find what you need in store they offer custom made pieces with the help of their inhouse interior decorator. They exclusively sell the Chair Candy brand which houses your custom made chairs and blinds with some incredible fabrics to choose from.

They also have the “BMW of beanbags” with the brand Ambient. Their prices are sure to please and they offer free delivery on most of their products which is always a bonus.

THE ESSENTIALS Where: Shop 10, Manuka Terrace, Flinders Way, Manuka When: Monday -Thursday: 9am-5.30pm Friday 9am-6pm Saturday 9:30am-4pm Sunday 10am-4pm Phone: 02 6239 6038

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DREAM DESIGN

Formally known as Wai Wurri, Dream design Furniture & Upholstery have been in the business since 1983, first starting off in the waterbed market.

This is the place to go if you’ve been on the hunt for that special piece but are yet to fall in love with anything. Dream design are an inhouse furniture and upholstery shop.

Here you can have your dream lounge, arm chair, bedhead, cushions, acoustic and decorative wall panels or ottoman custom made to your exact requirements. They offer a large range of fabrics and even those environmentally friendly options such as eco wool and chemical free vinyls and leathers.

The best part about this is that they can also spruce up your tired looking furniture.

The staff are well trained with an exceptional attention to detail and with having everything done in-house you can expect only the best service and value for money. The team work to deadlines like a well-oiled machine from the basic to the most complex designs.

These guys even made the chair that sits in the Queen’s bedroom at Government House.

THE ESSENTIALS 6 Yallourn Street, Fyshwick.

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HOME

Monday to Friday 9am-5pm, Saturday 10am-3pm 02 6280 4464 www.dreamdesignfurniture.com.au Saturday: 9am - 5pm 57

BLUSH RUSH Have you ever been asked “If you were stranded on a desert island, what three cosmetics would you take with you?” Our beauty editor, Lesley Johnson’s must haves are mascara, sunscreen and Blush - she says there’s nothing like the healthy glow that blush gives you... Here are her top five to try:!

STILA CUSTOM COLOUR BLUSH NARS ORGASM BLUSH The blush that is always at the top of everyone’s list. All of the NARS products are high performers, but the popularity of Orgasm comes is due to the way it suits all skin tones. Not only that, but it makes you look perfectly illuminated and gives that healthy glow we are all after..

When Stila released this I wasn’t sure how it would work, but it claims to react with your skins PH to create the colour that is perfect for you. I was definitely skeptical, but it does seem to do what it claims!

DUWOP BLUSH BOOSTER

Both colours (Pink and Coral) do adjust to suit your skin tone and I would recommend giving it a go if you want a matte finish blush with a fun twist!

DuWop used to be sold at Mecca Cosmetica when I first started working there and I was addicted to using it every day. It was the glow!

$32 from Mecca Cosmetica, Canberra Centre.

NARS Orgasm Blush is $45 from Mecca Cosmetica in the Canberra Centre.

$40 from Mecca Cosmetica - Canberra Centre.

BLUSH BY 3

BENEFIT BENETINT

Sleek Makeup are amazing and these blush palettes are no exception.

You get three colours that are all super highly pigmented - I really love Pumpkin because you get a great variety of colours that will see you through every season. $19.95 for a three colour palette.

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Five years later and I’m still hooked on this product...if you’re looking for a shine that isn’t glittery, and acts as a booster to your existing blush then get yourself this one!

I love Apple.

DISCOVER LESLEY’S TOP 5 Ingrid Jonach MAKEUP REMOVING CLEANSERS & MASCARAS ON HERCANBERRA

Tints are amazing - if you’re more of a bare faced beauty who doesn’t like the look of makeup on your skin, this is the product for you.

Benetint ($55 from Myer) comes in a liquid formula that you just press onto the skin.

It’s fast, easy and a little goes a very long way.

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hair how-to

RETRO

waves

Recently, I showed you What I Wore to the Kiss Goodbye to MS Charity Dinner and Silent Auction. A gorgeous Rachel Gilbert number from Dressed Up, topped off with gorgeous ‘old Hollywood’ hair, thanks to Emma Luscombe of Antique Salon.

Back then, I promised to ask her to show you how you could get the look at home...and here it is! Emma’s guide to DIY beautiful retro waves.

TOP TOOLS

PREP PRODUCT

Straightening Iron - Regular size.

If not, use curling wand or heated rollers

Mousse or foam for body – we love Phomollient by Aveda – made of honey and marshmallows, it gives amazing bounce!

Soft bristle dressing brush (like nanna had!)

If not, use paddle/flat brush or fingers!

Light hold hairspray – nothing too sticky and a gloss. We love Frizzy Logic by O&M – made from coconut!

Hairdryer

Finishing Product More hair spray and a light shiny wax to define the ends or finger waves. We love brilliant anti – humectant pomade by Aveda.

for step-by-step, turn the page!

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Her

HAIR

STEP

by step

1. Clean your hair The night before or in the morning, use a mousse or foam and a preparation product for body.

2. Decide which side Part your hair to which side you would like - generally in line with corner of the eyebrow is a great place to start!

3. Blow dry Blow dry your hair with a round or flat brush, elevating the root area for body. Or you can use Velcro rollers (get them from the chemist or Price Attack) when your hair is damp – roll them in and let your hair dry! It’s the cheat’s way to a bouncy blow-wave!

4. Curl it up!

Once your hair is dry, turn on your straighter, curling wand or heated rollers. Taking horizontal sections no more the 2cm by 2cm in depth and width - curl each section. Give a light spray with light hold hairspray and leave to cool. Do your whole head!

1. Don’t curl in uneven sections.

5. The brush off

This will make waves not match up and mean they’re harder to brush out!

Once your curls are cooled, use a soft bristle brush or paddle brush and start to brush your curls out in a vertical motion. Once loose, apply gloss to your hands and make S shapes whilst still pulling the curls vertically.

2. Make sure you let your curls cool down.

You can brush, pull or tug as much as desired – the more the better, trust me...if curled correctly, the curl should fall into place.

Continue the S shape method around your head in the same direction – curls form left to right or right to left.

6. Finishing touches Tuck the smaller ‘side’ of your hair behind your ear – add some sparkle (comb. bobby pin, etc) if you have any they really make it a feature. You can really pull the curls forward to create a little finger wave on the face - fantastic for the Gatsby trend we’re seeing at the moment...

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TOP TIPS FOR BEAUTIFUL WAVES

It’s the trick to getting them to last.

Don’t touch them while they are hot!

3. Don’t turn your chosen heat appliance up too high!

If it’s too hot it will take forever to cool down!

4. If you use too much hairspray, apply gloss to counteract (and visa versa).

They are opposites on ph scale and balance each other out

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Travelling with

KIDS

With July school holidays either kicking off or just a breath away, depending on which side of the border you live, travelling with kids is a timely topic...particularly if you’re heading off on a long haul flight. Kate Neser shares her experiences of travelling half way around the world with children in tow.!

I’

ve been looking back at some old travel photos of our trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. And now I can understand why people at the time gave us a very strange look and asked us whether we were taking the kids.

When we went to Vietnam, my daughter was only five and my son was seven. At the time, I thought they were so grown up, but looking back on the photos – they look so little! Since that trip, we have also taken them to India when they were eight and 10 years old.

And I don’t for one moment regret taking them overseas at such a young age. Although, I wouldn’t say it was easy. Some of my enduring memories are of playing incessant games of ‘Simon Says’ in the ancient ruins of stone temples in Cambodia, taking all of our lives in our hands crossing the streets in Ho Chi Minh City, being slightly terrified when we got lost at night on the way to our restaurant in the old city in Agra.

But I also remember the guide in Hanoi who taught our daughter to sing his favourite Vietnamese song and took us out for icecream with his family, the record set for the cheapest dinner ever at the vegetarian restaurant in Mysore ($5.96 for the whole family all-you-caneat!), and being showered by elephants in India.

But one of the most remarkable things that surprised me was how much the kids took in about the history and culture of the places we visited.

In Vietnam and Cambodia, as you can imagine, it’s pretty hard to avoid tourist activities that involve stories of the war. And while we didn’t specifically seek them out, it was impossible to shield the kids from some fairly confronting images.

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I remember one glass monument which was filled with human skulls. Just how do you explain that to a five-year old?

But what really delighted us was when the kids started asking some really intelligent and sensitive questions about what they had been exposed to. We never started the conversation, but instead let them lead it, and answered any questions they had as honestly and age appropriately as possible. It started with our daughter asking us over dinner one night “How does one country rule another country?” (referring to the French occupation of Vietnam that we had heard about that day). It definitely opened up some conversations that we wouldn’t normally have at the dinner table.

And then in India, their recall of the stories we had heard from one place which didn’t quite gel when we heard the same story a few hundred kilometres away across a significant border line.

A good opportunity to explain how a story may change depending upon which side of the war the storyteller fought on.

“I don’t regret taking them overseas at such a young age.

Although I wouldn’t say it was easy.”

TIPS FOR TRAVELLING WITH KIDS If I had to pass on some tips for travelling to some of these more challenging destinations with young kids, I would make a few recommendations. Obviously all the regular tips for travelling apply – listen to the advice of your travel agent, travel websites, Lonely Planet, local guide etc. But below are my tips specifically for those travelling with kids.

Firstly, we made sure that when we arrived in a new place, we had a guide meet us at the airport and transport us to our hotel. This took out all the stress about making sure we always knew where we needed to be and how to get there – no worrying about dodgy taxi drivers or messed up accommodation bookings, when the kids were tired and just wanted to eat and sleep.

We also booked in regularly with high quality accommodation with all the mod-cons. This meant that when the kids were a bit overwhelmed with culture shock, we could escape back to an airconditioned room with cable TV and internet access. And swimming pools at reputable hotels are a godsend. Even if you are not staying at a pool-equipped hotel, sometimes you can pay a fee to enter a pool at another hotel. This has several benefits – it provides a relaxing break for the whole family, a cool respite from the heat and humidity, and it’s also a source of exercise and fun for everyone.

We planned our itinerary fairly carefully. Every second or at least every third day, we booked an activity which was specifically aimed at amusing the kids – elephant rides, safaris, a family cooking class, a houseboat ride. Expecting them to traipse around to endless ancient stone walls is a bit unrealistic. And some of these activities that we might not otherwise have done provided some of the highlights of the trips.

Be prepared for some of the more challenging aspects of travel. The things that our kids found a bit confronting were beggars in the streets, and even more so, hawkers selling their wares as they are more aggressive and don’t tend to leave you alone. Also, both of our kids are fair and blonde. This meant they got LOTS of attention with complete strangers wanting to take photos.

And whenever we stopped still long enough for one family to take a photo, more photographers would form a crowd, and it was sometimes difficult to escape, with a couple of notable examples when we got surrounded by about 50 teenagers and had to escape back to our car, and the time someone picked up my daughter and started walking away with her – only to place her on her grandma’s lap so they could take a photo. One benefit was that this did at least provide the opportunity to take some great photos of some local families with beautiful children themselves, or wearing lovely traditional saris.

The best advantage, we believe, was broadening the life experience of our kids. I think we live an incredibly lucky and privileged life in Canberra, and we really valued giving our kids the opportunity to see that there are so many people in the world who have a much harder life, but also that there can be and is so much history, culture, and joy in some other cultures.

And it was all worth it when my son wrote in his travel journal in the plane on the way home that India had been his best holiday ever!

Although I have told my husband that our next trip needs to be somewhere easy to travel – maybe Europe?? But I’ve noticed the travel brochures for Africa appearing on the coffee table… I’ll let you know how it goes!

Her

FAMILY

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Never give up

Become a cheerleader

Research has shown that repeatedly offering and exposing your child to the rejected food will do wonders in getting them to accept the new food in the future. If you offer a food and it gets rejected, don’t worry, just try again the next day. It can take up to 10 exposures before a child will accept a new food, so be persistent, it WILL happen!

Encourage, encourage, encourage! Tell your kids how proud you are of them for eating like a champion!

The more positive associations kids have with meal times the more comfortable they will feel in trying and accepting new foods. Don’t reward with ‘junk food’, reward with words of affirmation!

You are not a restaurant When offering your child a meal, if they wont eat it, don’t stress. Do your best to encourage them to at least taste it and then tell them that meal time is over. Don’t offer them anything else to eat. You’re not a restaurant where they can send the meal back and get something else, you’re a busy parent who only needs to cook one meal for the whole family.

A great rule to follow is: the parent decides what and when the child eats and the child decides how much they eat.

Offer a variety of foods as early as possible The more food variety children experience at a younger age the less neophobic (scared of trying new foods) they will become. Don’t assume they won’t like a food and then not give it to them. Give it a try, more often then not they’ll actually like it - follow rule number 1 and you know they’will eventually!

Keep it familiar Don’t offer a new food in a new environment.

Research shows that combining a new food with a new enviroment increases the child’s reluctance to try and accept it. As much as you can, keep meal times consistently at home.

Keep it stress free Kids have the ability to associate food with certain situations, whether they be good or bad. If meal times are stressful and you are cranky or distracted, you’ll create an atmosphere where your kids don’t feel confident enough to give the new food a try.

Turn off the TV When offering new foods and for meal times in general, turn off your TV, stereo, mobile phone and any other electronic devices. Too many distractions, noise and stimulation can make meal times more stressful than they need to be.

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Model healthy eating Research shows that a child must see their parent, especially their mother, eat and enjoy the food that you are trying to get them to eat. It’s about modeling good eating habits in general, as much as possible.

Ultimately, kids are going to learn the majority of their eating habits from their parents.

Tips for

FUSSY eaters

Many parents struggle with getting their young children to try new foods, eat enough vegetables and generally have some healthy variety in their diet.

Fortunately, there are some answers to your fussy toddler woes.

Canberra nutritionist, Kate Freeman, shares her tips for fussy eaters.

Harness positive peer pressure Research has shown that a child is more likely to try and accept a previously rejected food if they are eating with other children who are enjoying that particular food. Join forces with your friends and neighbours and encourage your children to try new foods with the power of their peers.

Resist the temptation to use food bribes “Eat all your pumpkin up and mummy will give you some ice cream afterwards”. Although this technique may work to get them to eat a particular food it actually makes them dislike the food they have to eat and like the reward food even more than they did in the first place. This will make it even harder for you to get them to eat the main meal in the future.

Reward your kids in other ways, stickers, stamps, star charts or a special story.

Always at the table Kids thrive on routine and consistency. Your children will respond better at meal times if they are up, in their highchair, at the dinner table with the rest of the family for most of their meal times as you can. Toddlers and even children should always be sitting down while eating, it’s never recommended to let your child wander around while eating.

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Give

ABILITY

Raising awareness of Cerebral Palsy

This Saturday 6 July is Give Ability Day - a Westfield initiative that raises much needed funds and awareness to assist children living with disabilities and their families in Australia. The program provides funds for therapy, equipment, respite programs that provide time out for families/carers, early intervention programs to deliver early diagnosis and treatment to young children and programs to inform and educate families and the community. . In Canberra, Westfield’s local charity is the ACT Cerebral Palsy Alliance - Lisa Berriman visited the organisation to see the great work they’re doing.

A

couple of weeks ago, I had the absolute pleasure of visiting the Cerebral Palsy Alliance to learn a little bit about what they are doing in the ACT. Before I visited the centre, I am ashamed to admit, I knew very little about cerebral palsy and the effects on families who care for those with cerebral palsy.

A FEW FACTS For those who don’t know a lot, here are a few important facts about cerebral palsy: Cerebral palsy is a physical disability that affects movement and posture.

It is the most common physical disability in childhood. Worldwide, the incidence of cerebral palsy is 1 in 500 births.

Cerebral palsy is due to damage to the developing brain either during pregnancy or shortly after birth. However exact causes are not known.

It is a life long disability, however there are many treatments that can help those with cerebral palsy and there are many interventions that can help reduce its impact on the body and the individual’s quality of life.

The Cerebral Palsy Alliance in the ACT works with around 70 families in Canberra (and another 50 families in surrounding areas).

For most of these families, the Cerebral Palsy Alliance is their only access to specialised treatments such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology specifically for cerebral palsy.

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The centre also has a great playroom where they assess the children’s abilities, and determine the extent and type of cerebral palsy. There is also a wonderful Toy Library where toys that have been modified to suit the needs of a child with cerebral palsy can be loaned out to families.

These toys are not only fun for the kids, they are vital to assist the kids to learn important developmental skills. These modified toys, services and equipment come at a very high price. Often too much for families to be able to afford. It is only through the work of the Cerebral Palsy Alliance that these families are able to access these services Sadly, funding is very limited so the team at Cerebral Palsy Alliance work hard to raise the much needed funds to continue the amazing work they are doing with the families. I met with Kellie Edwards when I visited the centre and was amazed to find out the amount of work she and her team do to raise these funds.

Cerebral Palsy is the most common physical disability in childhood, affecting 1 in 500 births.

HerCanberra’s Fashion Editor, FIona Keary with her sons Oscar and Max., who has Cerebral Palsy,

GIVE ABILITY DAY One of the key partners the Cerebral Palsy Alliance has in raising these funds is Westfield.

For the past few years Westfield has held Give Ability Day in their centres as an event to raise funds for Cerebral Palsy Alliance. This year it is going to be bigger and better.

On Saturday 6 July, both Westfield Woden and Westfield Belconnen will be hosting a fantastic day from 9am to 4pm. There will be will be jumping castles, face painting, petting zoos, a champagne bar, craft tables and live music. There will also be volunteers selling “helping hands” that you can purchase for $5 with all the money going to support this wonderful service.

If you live in, or near Canberra please visit these shopping centres and join in the fun.

Bring your families and invite your friends. If you’re keen to help, please call 02 6258 3200 or email Christine at cleruez@cerebralpalsy.org.au. If you are not in the area but want to donate visit https://donate.cerebralpalsy.org.au.

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Put on a

HAPPY face Sometimes, especially for working mums, there can be so many balls in the air that we struggle to juggle them all. And sometimes, appearances and reality can be very different things.

Emma Grey of WorkLifeBliss talks about how keeping it real can be the very best thing you can do for yourself.

I’ve recently had several emails from people thanking me for being ‘real’.

I appreciate that very much: mainly because I would hate to be thought of as ‘fake’ – which is the opposite of ‘real’, surely?

We tend to couch it in nicer terms: ‘reserved’, ‘polite’, ‘private’. ‘I don’t over-share’, ‘I’m discreet’, ‘My life is not an open book…’

That’s fine, but there’s a subtle and crucial difference between ‘not broadcasting every little detail of your life’ (hello, mother of North West Kardashian), and keeping a secret stranglehold on how you really feel, or what’s really going on, and pretending that things either aren’t happening when they are, or are happening when they’re not…

In short: you’re either putting up a front about your life, or you’re being honest with the people around you.

I’ve done both.

For a long while in my 20s and early thirties, I pretended that things were okay when they were far from it. My ex-husband and I (who now, along with his wife, I count as my friends) were the ‘Golden Couple’.

Behind our closed doors we lived a life of ‘quiet desperation’. It wasn’t golden. It wasn’t sparkly.

When we broke up, people didn’t know how to handle it. Some of them handled it very badly.

We handled it mainly very well, and partly ‘could try harder’.

At the same time, I was ‘happy/chirpy at work’, when in reality my job was sucking my soul. My heart sank through the floor every Sunday night

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and I was crying in toilets some days. I hated it.

Five years later, when I return to the same workplace to give quotes on corporate training, I feel mildly sick. (Even though the people I worked with were an oasis: I adore them.)

When I resigned, my boss freaked and tried to convince me not to. I had to.

I had a beautiful and well-kept home. When people came over.

Unfortunately my ex-inlaws dropped in on it unexpectedly once at 10am when their washing machine broke and they wanted to use ours. When my husband phoned to tell me at work, I cried from sheer mortification.

I will never forget driving in at 6pm the same day, seeing their car in my driveway and finding that they’d blitzed it back to live-able standards: after which I squeaked ‘Thank you’, to which they responded, ‘Why didn’t you tell us you weren’t coping?’

It was a very, very good question.

Back then, everything looked pretty great from the outside, but was quietly dying underneath.

For the longest time, I didn’t tell anyone. Not my best friends. Not my mum. Not my sister. No one.

I didn’t want to admit that I was trapped in a life that was fraying on every edge. I didn’t want to worry people. I didn’t want to set in train a reaction that would see me crumbling hopelessly… or worse, having to do something proactively to fix it.

It was my publisher who picked it up in the end.

She read the manuscript of my book and sent me an email that said: ‘There’s not much happiness.

Can you write some in?

Write some in? Was she serious? You can’t add a dash of happiness, like splashing salt to French fries or sugar to coffee.

I was 50% crushed and 50% forever grateful.

I could no longer deny that if something didn’t change – if lots of things didn’t change – I was going to be unable to keep up this pretense.

More than anything, I was utterly exhausted.

Those people who play the leading role in West End Musicals for a decade at a time have my utmost respect. It takes an enormous amount of energy to act in a certain role year-in, year-out and to convince an audience of your authenticity,

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LIFE

for their benefit and to keep you safe from difficult explanations.

I reached a point where I just couldn’t do it anymore… That was over a decade ago. These days, it’s very different, and here’s how: I call it like it is.

If I’m having a hard time, I say it. To my mum, to my sister, to my best friends, my colleagues, my clients and to the 2000+ people (about 1700 of whom I’ve never met) on my Facebook page.

When I’m struggling now I blog about it. I have it published on HerCanberra or Mamamia or in my book drafts or on the radio or on TV if I’m invited.

Do I still keep secrets? I think so. Probably about 5% of of my reality is still held close to my chest.

Most of that is what I’d term ‘gentle fudging’ to avoid hurting or inconveniencing a few people in areas that don’t matter much. (Note: this is different from saying to most people ‘no’, and ‘later’ and ‘have to change arrangements’ – all of which I do now, boldly.)

Being ninety-five percent ‘real’ is incredibly liberating. It means I can fail. It means I can admit I don’t know, or I was wrong, or I’m struggling, or I need help.

It’s about being naked (and, on that score: I’m overweight at the moment, with stretch marks from three pregnancies, and droopy boobs – and my hair was dyed too dark last time, and I have big feet.)

Is there anything left to say? I hope not. Because it’s SO MUCH EASIER putting it out there, ‘owning it‘ and letting it go.

So, when you write in and say ‘you’re keeping it real‘ – yes I am. Not because it’s easy. Not because I love sharing. Because I have to.

Without the pretense that things are going better than they are, I can be truly myself. Truly, Madly, Deeply Me. Flawed me. Struggling me.

And here’s what happens next… People say ‘Me too’. People say, ‘I thought it was only me…’

People say, ‘Thank you’.

Friends increase, anxiety decreases, peace flows…

Let it go and be real. End of. (ps. “End of ”. Agh! So ‘current writing fad’ – but I’ve never used it before, so here it is.)

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Let’s talk about

MENTALillness

Recently, Anonymous has been diagnosed with a mental illness as a result of a particularly traumatic incident in her life. She shares what she has learnt so far on this journey.

YOU MAY NOT REALISE

Your friends may surprise you

The traumatic event that happened to me was almost four years ago now. And for the last four years, this mental illness had been taking over without me realising. Looking back, there were so many signs. But I didn’t see them, my husband didn’t see them, my parents and close friends didn’t see them. I functioned. But I wasn’t really there. In this period I got married, went on a honeymoon, bought our first home – but none of it really made me feel anything. I was going through the motions.

The last few months have left me feeling quite isolated. And not because this is part of my symptoms, but because I have really been surprised at how some close friends have (or, in this case, haven’t) supported me. It’s very rare that I turn to a friend and say “help me”. I’m stubborn, I sort things out myself.

It wasn’t until one symptom which had been building slowly over the years (anger) became particularly prevalent, that I sought help.

It’s hard to talk about It’s REALLY hard to talk about. No matter how outwardly accepting society is of mental health issues, it is really hard to say to someone that you are suffering from a mental health condition. Of course, not everybody in the world needs to know, but sometimes it would be nice to be able to say “I am not ok” to someone and not have them freak out, judge or ignore that I have even said it.

You need to create space When you are sick, you rest. But when you have mental health issues it seems you need to get on with life. But that ‘getting on with life’ has seen me fall in a heap. Of course, it’s been hugely important to keep involving myself in things I love. But I also ran myself into the ground trying to please everybody when I really needed to be taking time for myself.

So, now, I am learning to create space in my life – doing less – to let my mind heal. It will mean losing friendships as I can commit to less things.

But I figure those that I can’t explain it to probably aren’t the people I need in my life long term anyway.

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But this time I did, and I was met with deafening silence. This hurt. I have always been there to support my friends in tough times. And now, when I need these friends most, they haven’t been there for me.

The converse of this, of course, is there have been some people – perhaps not those that I expected who have been amazing. And those people have my undying gratitude.

Mental health services are not adequate I don’t need to go into this too much – suffice to say this: my psychiatrist appointments cost $180 a session, of which Medicare funds $80 for 10 sessions only.

My private health insurance covers $300 of mental health treatment per year. The maths isn’t great.

My doctor, despite drawing up a mental health plan, has made countless remarks which demonstrate her lack of support/understanding of the issue. There needs to be more support out there – but everyone knows this.

Where to go for help To anyone who is struggling at the moment, or their families / friends, I can really recommend Beyond Blue as a great starting point for information. Make sure you get the help you need. For local assistance, check out these mental health services.

And to my husband, thank you. For everything.

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Her

LIFE

Dear me...the importance of

SELF LOVE If you could write a letter to your 16 year old self, what would you say? What words of guidance, comfort, advice or other message would you put in it?

A few years ago, freelance writer, Joseph Galliano, was shown a heartbreaking letter that his partner was given by a troubled classmate when they were both teenagers. It made him want to send a reply back in time to say: “You’re just fine.” Fast forward a few years and his “Dear Me” letter idea has become a worldwide movement, the 2011 book featuring 75 letter writers including JK Rowling, Hugh Jackman, James Franco, Kathleen Turner, Stephen King, Alice Cooper and Jodi Picoult.

It made me think about what I would say to my 16 year old self. Number one would be “love yourself more…” So many of the issues I experienced throughout my teens and early twenties could have been avoided if only I’d felt more self-love. Eating disorders, too little self respect, too much worrying what other people thought…not enough about what was right for me.

It’s an issue I was recently talking about with Belinda Taylor, Managing Director of Samsara Women’s Health Club. The principle is central to Samsara’s 74

philosophy, yet it’s one that Belinda admits sounds “a little alternate and new age”.

Like myself, Belinda spent many years of her life in pursuit of happiness and acceptance of her body. She has explored every corner of fitness, participating in many different techniques and training styles, most which have been hard, high intensity and performed 6-7 days a week. At the same time, she has tried myriad ‘diets’ – from cutting chocolate from her diet to becoming vegetarian.

Sound familiar? There’s a whole industry out there aimed at promoting the ‘ideal’ body and the way to get it.

For Belinda, it was a journey that encompassed darkness, sickness and eventually led to health. And what ultimately helped her attain that healthy state was the realisation, for the first time, that “life was to be about gain, not loss.”

“I took it upon myself to research and educate myself – I so desperately wanted freedom from the constant thoughts of weightloss, exercise regimes, and what I could and couldn’t eat. I began to practice three simple things.

1. Breathing - particularly when I was eating 2. Stopping and being still – I became aware of tension within my body, even when I was just sitting.

3. Letting go of the need to please and doing things for others with the intention of feeling better from it.

Rather, I began to say ‘yes’ to me.”

Belinda says the key is to work with your body, rather than against it. It’s not about sweating to the point of exhaustion every day and straining to lift heavy weights. It’s about listening to what it’s telling you and listening to what it needs.

“I’ve realised that my body is not the enemy. It’s actually quite clever and simply responds to what it is I feel, how I feed and treat it. I truly believe the only exercise regime, eating plan and life plan, is one of self love.”

And that means changing from the inside out – taking an holistic approach to wellness, incorporating both the body and mind. ” They says that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. If someone has been punishing themselves for years through yo-yo diets and endless

high intensity workouts, yet never achieving happiness or self-acceptance, they need to make a change. And that change needs to start from within,” says Belinda.

Moving every day, talking about issues, and sharing the journey with supportive people can be the start of a new way of living and self-loving. Samsara holds a Monthly Motivational Meeting on the first Thursday of every month, welcoming members, family and friends to speak openly and honestly, in a space free from judgment.

“I continue to learn that by sharing and listening to others and their ‘real’ stories, I am able to clear my mind, release stress and worry and free my body from toxic chemicals simply through the expression of the truth. Taking aloud has encouraged my own self awareness and inner strength – knowing I am not alone, and that I can listen and learn to how others have overcome their personal challenges. It’s changed the way I think about fitness, food and my whole life.”

It’s that kind of wisdom I wish my 16-year old self had possessed. If you could write a letter to YOUR 16 year-old self, what would you say?

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Why I love

RUNNING

Her

FITNESS

For some, the thought of strapping on the sneakers and going for a run is right up there with sticking pins in their eyes. But for those who have found the ‘zone’ or ‘runner’s high’, there are few better things. Jen Dawson explains why she falls in the latter camp.

Let me preface this ode-to-running by being completely honest about my past relationship with the sport. From my teen years on I loathed running, dreaded it, feared it.

I had always been really sporty – there weren’t many sports I hadn’t tried over the years and been fairly OK at (except basketball, but let’s not go there). But if you asked me to go for a run… no deal…

I couldn’t run for more than about one minute without feeling horrendous.

One summer back in my uni days, a friend and I decided to “get fit” and met at Lake Ginninderra for a run. I made it about a third of the way round before stopping to walk. My friend, concerned for my wellbeing, ran a second lap to find me. I was humiliated.

Running just wasn’t me. And then, about two years ago now, I stuck with it and it became the most rewarding thing in my life. This is why I love it.

It gives me goals In the last few years I have realised I am a fairly goaldriven person…and working 9 to 5 in a steady job, with a stable relationship left me relatively goal-less.

All was good and I was restless. Running provides me with goals. Every week I can aim for a certain distance or a certain time. I can set long term goals: 10km races, half-marathons and maybe one day even the full marathon. It brings focus to my life.

It’s my meditation When I run, my mind is still. I think it’s something about the physical exertion not leaving much room to think about anything. If I do think something, it’s usually quite simple, quite positive, and just sits suspended in my mind before disappearing. It brings me to calm.

I’m positive when I run I have been known to fist pump the air while running. It’s true. Sometimes, I set myself a goal I don’t think I can achieve, and I do. Fist pump. Sometimes 76

I get through the first 5km of a run and it feels easy.

Fist pump. Sometimes I look down at my watch and I see I am going faster than usual. Fist pump. When I run up hills and it hurts, I remind myself that my legs are getting stronger. The days I am finding the run hard, I remind myself how far I have come and I cut myself some slack. It’s one of the few times I am really truly nice to myself.

It lets me explore I have seen parts of Canberra running that I would never have normally seen. I have seen moments in the still and icy mornings I would never have normally seen. I see spectacular sunrises, I see birds and possums and impossibly calm lakes. And when I run, I have nothing else to do but notice these things.

When I travel, I bring my running gear too. Again, I have seen parts of the world that I never would have had the opportunity to, had I not gone out for a run.

Most runs, I am filled with gratitude for what I have seen.

It improves my body image Running was the first step toward a much better body image. Not because I lost weight, I didn’t (see next point). But because it shifted my focus from what my body looks like to what it can do. And it can do wonders!

It makes me hungry (no metaphor here) On Saturday mornings I go for a long run. I aim for at least 14kms in the wee hours, before breakfast.

And for the rest of the day, I could eat anything and everything. I love that. I love that when I meet my husband for breakfast after a run, I demolish my meal and only dignity stops me from ordering breakfast #2. Or sometimes, it doesn’t…

I do things I never thought I could And lastly, I love running because every single time I run, I am doing something I never thought I could.

Imagine if you could start your day off like that?

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As a nutritionist, one thing is for sure. Most people are confused when it comes to reading food labels.

There are so many aspects of the packaging to interpret. Nutrient claims (High in Fibre, Good Source of Whole grains, 99% Fat Free etc), health claims (aids in good digestion, calcium is good for bones and teeth etc), nutrition information panels, percent dietary intake (DI) labels, ingredients lists and other ‘words’ that in most cases have been slapped on the packet such a ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ in an effort to get that product in your trolley.

Good news consumers! There’s going to be a new front of pack label for you to interpret. A new voluntary star rating system…

In an effort to curb obesity and associated chronic diseases, Australian food labels may now feature a health star rating to assist consumers in making informed, healthier food choices.

The health star rating will be voluntary for the food industry and undergo evaluation after a one year transition and two year trial period. If the voluntary system is found to be unsuccessful, mandatory enforcement of the new labelling system is likely to be considered.

So what does this new health star rating mean?

Essentially, all processed and packaged food will have an overall rating from 1/2 a star to 5 stars so consumers can make informed food choices at a glance when purchasing their groceries as to what are the healthiest choices based on a particular criteria.

Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing, Shayne Neumann, said the star rating is underpinned by a modified Nutrient Profiling Scoring System.

Along with the politics between industry and consumer representatives that comes with a policy decision like this, is the extra layer of confusion that we, the consumers, face as we try to wade through the nutrition and health claims on food labels in an effort to feed ourselves well.

A voluntary system means there’s a possibility of only a handful of products taking up the new system and it becoming just another useless food ranking scale. The Percent (%) DI thumbnails is one of those voluntary front-of-pack labelling schemes that has confused consumers more than ever.

A percentage based on an average person’s estimated energy needs does nothing to help the individual.

Who is average after all? It doesn’t teach people anything about healthy eating, especially if they don’t 78

“In short, the more stars, the healthier the food. In addition, nutrient information will be provided for saturated fat, sugars and sodium and one optional positive nutrient information (eg. calcium) relevant to the particular food; along with an ‘energy’ icon, with the unit of measure in kilojoules.”

The new

STAR RATINGS informative or confusing?

In an effort to curb obesity and associated chronic diseases, Australian food labels may now feature a health star rating to assist consumers in making informed, healthier food choices. Kate Freeman gives her opinion on whether they’ll be helfpul or just another point of confusion.

know what sodium, saturated fat, energy in kilojoules and the other tabs all means to them and their health.

If there is widespread take up by industry, is the system rigid enough to deter misleading claims that may result, especially if mandatory policy takes shape in the future? Certain brands aren’t going to be happy to put a 1/2 star rating on their products.

It’ll be tempting to look for ways to differentiate themselves. In the end, big food companies are all fighting for our ‘stomach share’.

I think that the right nutrients (energy, sodium, saturated fat and sugar) have been chosen to rank the foods. I would have liked to see fibre play a larger role in the ranking system as it’s also an important promoter of good health. However, fibre only naturally occurs in plant based foods which means it wouldn’t apply to all packaged or processed foods.

I can see why it perhaps wasn’t practical to be included on a widespread level.

My main concern is that when we put all foods under the same ranking system we are essentially comparing them and in many cases invalidly. Dairy shouldn’t be compared with vegetables, eggs shouldn’t be compared with fruits and whole grains shouldn’t be compared with legumes. We need a range of different foods for good health and one group isn’t more important than another.

An example: Raw nuts are high in energy, and in some cases contain more energy than other snacks like chips or baked goods. This may mean that they score lower on the star rating. Nuts, however, are an important source of healthy fat, fibre, protein, vitamins and minerals. To me they should be rated 5 stars as a healthy, whole food that should be regularly included in our diets. They may be high in energy (and need to be portion controlled, just like

all foods) but they are much healthier than chips or baked goods due to their nutrient density and really shouldn’t be compared to them. It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out and what sorts of foods end up with what kind of rating.

MY RECOMMENDATIONS We should be eating whole fresh foods, as close to their natural states as possible. This means the majority of your diet should come from foods that don’t come in a packet and thus don’t have a health star rating at all. Fruits, vegetables, lean meats, fish, eggs, raw nuts and seeds are all foods that you can purchase without a conventional ‘packet’.

Anything that comes from a packet, needs some good common sense analysis. Here’s an article I wrote on pantry items that I couldn’t do without, which talks about processed and packaged food that

I buy on a regular basis. We can’t avoid processed food altogether, we just need to be smart about it.

Will the star rating help with choosing these foods?

I hope so.

In the end, if you’re regularly buying and eating chips, pastries, muffins, biscuits, cakes, slices, snack bars, crackers, muesli bars, fruit bars, ice-cream, desserts, pies, noodles, jarred sauces, and other instant meals and snacks, then a 5 star rating is probably not going to change your eating habits in a hurry. People who are motivated to improve their health through dietary changes generally know that these foods aren’t helpful. Research is clear that ‘convenience’ trumps ‘health’ when it comes to busy people putting a meal on the table.

I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see the outcome of this new decision...

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The Mother-Daughter

CHAT

you have to have

There are lots of “chats” we need to have with our mums (and lots that we really don’t too, of course!)

It would be great if every woman had a warm, open relationship with her mum and could talk about whatever she wanted, but in reality not everyone is close to their parents or feels comfortable having personal chats with them. There are times when this kind of communication with your mum could really affect yours or your children’s health though, so if you haven’t already done so, perhaps it’s time to consider asking your mum some pointed questions about her family’s medical history.. Dr Kelly Teagle explains.

A common situation which always brings home the importance of this information is pregnancy. It is very important in planning a pregnancy to identify whether any family history of inheritable genetic diseases exists, like thalassemia or cystic fibrosis.

Knowing that there is an increased risk of your baby inheriting such a disease might allow prevention, early detection, preparation or intervention.

Another important factor to identify is an increased familial risk of breast or ovarian cancer. There are many online risk calculators available to help you determine whether yourself and other family members are at increased risk, but you will need to know which family members have had these cancers and at what age, etc. And more broadly, identifying and treating yours or your children’s cardiovascular risk factors will be made much easier by knowing whether your immediate family have had high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart attacks or strokes.

This article covers some important points to discuss with your mum or daughter which may impact specifically on your family’s women’s health.

As a woman, knowing some key things about your mother’s life journey can give you an idea of what to expect and what to keep an eye on. Some important questions to ask her are: “What have your periods been like?”

Women can experience periods very differently.

Your best ‘crystal ball’ is your mother. Ask if her periods are/were regular, if her bleeding was heavy or light when she was your age (it can change over time) and if she had much pain just before or during her periods.

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“When did you go through menopause?”

Your final menstrual period (menopause) is likely to happen at a similar age to your mother’s. If her periods stopped spontaneously (not due to surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy) before age 45, ask a doctor about protecting yourself against long-term health risks such as osteoporosis and heart disease.

“Do we have a family history of any disease?”

Your chance of developing common gynaecological conditions like endometriosis or polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is higher if a close female relative has it. Many older women may still not know they have particular conditions, so ask if your mother has/had a lot of pain with her periods, if she had any problems getting pregnant, or if she has trouble managing her weight or body hair.

“Have you ever suffered from depression?”

Depression can run in families, but this doesn’t mean that if your mother has experienced depression you automatically will. If she has, ask when and for how long. You may experience something similar, particularly if her mood was affected by her menstrual cycle, but your own life events and lifestyle (drug and alcohol use, physical activity, social support) are also important factors.

“Have you ever had high or low blood pressure?”

If your mother had high or low blood pressure later in life, it could well be lifestyle related, but if she was quite young it’s something you should ask your doctor to keep an eye on.

Published with the permission of Jean Hailes for Women’s Health - www.jeanhailes.org.au - 1800 JEAN HAILES (532 642) 81

In. The. Middle. Of. The.

NIGHT

It’s that dreaded feeling. Your child is in pain and crying.

Outside of normal working hours. In. The. Middle. Of. The. Night.

Last year Kestine from Campbell found herself in this situation.

“I was in an absolute panic. My daughter, who is quite young, had a bite on her foot. At first we weren’t too worried about it so I put her to bed as I normally do. But suddenly she woke up crying and I saw the bite had doubled in size and was very inflamed and swollen,” said Kestine.

Kestine said as it was the middle of the night she didn’t know where to get the right health care after hours.

“It’s a scary feeling when it’s late at night and your child is so upset. I didn’t see it as an emergency, but I also wasn’t sure where to get help at that time of night,” said Kestine.

She just tried to calm her daughter and waited until the next morning when she could call her GP. “I just didn’t know what I should do and who I can call outside of normal working hours. But then a few months ago I received a fridge magnet in the mail which lists after hours health care options in the ACT. Such a simple thing that’s very helpful. I didn’t even know some of these places were available. I’ve now put it on my fridge—just in case,” said Kestine.

ACT Medicare Local recently launched a consumer awareness campaign so Canberrans know where they can access after hours health care options when health care is urgent and requires medical attention before the next day.

Check out www.afterhoursact.com.au to see which service to use after hours depending on your situation.

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AFTER HOURS HEALTH CARE OPTIONS General Practice Your patient-centred medical home CALMS Canberra-wide after hours GP appointments (1300 422 567) Pharmacy For minor health concerns and medication queries Health Direct Telephone advice from a health professional (1800 022 222) Walk-in Centre One-off treatment for minor illness and injury for patients over two years of age Emergency Department Keep ED for emergencies only.

Kestine and her daugher.

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Do you need a

Her

CAREER

CAREER

plan?

Despite having enjoyed a successful career as a senior public servant, and now being an Executive Coach, Kate Neser has never had a ‘career plan’. She asks whether it’s important to formalise your goals or if there are other ways to get where you want to be.

I’ve never had a career plan. My most feared question in an interview was always “where do you want to be in five years?” Until my current job, I had never decided that there was a particular job I wanted and made a deliberate effort to get there.

I had always just stayed in a job for as long as I was enjoying it. As soon as I was unhappy, or bored, I started looking around for my next opportunity.

Sometimes these came from applying for jobs, sometimes from being asked to work on a particular project, sometimes from putting my hand up for a job no-one else wanted. I always thought that my success was due largely to luck, having a positive attitude and working hard.

While I was always ambitious, and hoped to end up as a senior executive, I had never worked out how I was going to get there, or developed particular strategies, or had a dream job in the public service.

But having spent a significant proportion of the last year providing career coaching to innumerable clients, I have realised that I did in fact have a career plan. It just didn’t look how I thought it should.

My husband and I are almost constantly planning our careers. The thing is, that we can’t plan a career without planning a life. We re-assess a whole lot of 84

things in our lives pretty much every year, and generally make a few adjustments here and there, and then every three or four years we make a big life-changing decision that has a huge effect on our careers. These sorts of decisions are things like overseas trips, having children, working part-time, applying for a promotion, taking long service leave, or leave without pay, taking a step back career-wise (usually for health reasons), or even quitting a 20-year career in the public service to take a huge risk in starting a whole new career.

Each of these steps has taken a huge amount of planning. We have worked out our leave arrangements, our financial position, the kind of care we want for our children, and who will be the primary care-giver. It has also required consideration of other important life choices, such as: buying a house, managing our health, and general work-life balance.

And of course, in discussing all of these broader issues, we have also taken into consideration our careers. Our careers have always been an integral part of these decisions, and these decisions have always been an integral part of our career choices.

So once we have set the parameters in terms of financial goals, work-life balance, caring responsibilities, health etc, we have then each considered our career

goals. Personally, I have never stayed in a job where I have been unhappy for longer than a few months.

Over the years, I gradually developed a set of criteria for jobs for which I was compatible. In my experience, these criteria will be different for everyone, but common themes exist.

For me, my supervisor has always been key to my level of enjoyment for a job. Working for someone from whom I can learn has always been important – someone committed to their job, enthusiastic, and intelligent. This hasn’t always meant that I liked them. In fact, some of the best lessons I learned from a supervisor were from someone that I wouldn’t necessarily have chosen to work for, but he was intelligent and good at his job, and taught me a lot that I might not have learned from someone that was more like me.

Learning on the job has also always been important to me – having new challenges and being challenged, having the opportunity to get out of my comfort zone. I like working in a team – I am no good on my own, and easily get bored and distracted if left to my own devices. I like a job that makes me think, and involves problem-solving. But for me, I eventually worked out that content was important too – I like finance and numbers, and if my job doesn’t include

them I miss them (sad but true). I also like a fast pace, deadlines work well for me…as I mentioned earlier, I easily get bored, and deadlines are an antidote to boredom for me.

And over the years, I have taken deliberate steps to ensure that I am positioned well to be in the jobs I wanted. Once I had realised that finance suited me, I started studying part-time to gain qualifications in accounting. And when I decided I wanted to be an executive coach, I worked out what it took to become credentialed with the International Coaching Federation and started doing both the training and following the job opportunities that had me reach that goal.

If you put all this together, being clear about what I want from a job, along with a whole lot of life goals – I have finally realised that I am very rarely without a career plan. I just never write it down, and don’t call it a career plan.

So, if someone asked me now “where do you want to be in five years?” I would have a very clear idea of how I would answer it. Luckily for me, I’m pretty much there, but along with my husband, I never take this for granted, and I am constantly re-assessing if my career is working for me within the broader context of my life, and if not, seeking new opportunities.

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Sweet

SUCCESS

local author goes global

She may not be a household name, but Canberra author, Rebecca Hames is an international publishing sensation, her first novel, Beautiful Malice, selling in 52 countries.. Martina Hughes reviews it and her latest read, Sweet Damage.

When Beautiful Malice was first published in 2010, Canberra’s Rebecca James was hailed as ‘the next J.K. Rowling’ by The Wall Street Journal. The book sparked a frenzy among publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair, who called it ”a sexy psychological thriller”, a ”brilliantly plotted page-turner” and “Stephenie Meyer … without the vampires”.

Beautiful Malice has now been sold in more than 20 countries and translated into at least 13 languages.

After reading it, I understand what all the fuss is about.

What’s the storyline? Well, after a trauma that she can’t bring herself to think about, 17-year-old Katherine Patterson moves to Sydney to reinvent herself.

She starts a new school, changes her name and does all she can to seek anonymity. This is in complete contrast to the popular, friendly, party girl she used to be. While trying her hardest to fly under the radar, Katherine is noticed by Alice, the most popular, charismatic girl in school. Alice seems to be everything that Katherine is avoiding, yet she finds herself drawn into Alice’s inner circle and begins to let her guard down.

Have you ever had a frenemy? I haven’t, but this is exactly how I imagine Alice’s behaviour at the beginning of the nastiness. While Katherine has a past she doesn’t want to share, Alice’s secrets begin to emerge too…and they are way worse than you could expect.

Beautiful Malice has been described as “a potent, intense and simply unputdownable psychological thriller” and I couldn’t think of a better way to put it. Rebecca has a talent of building characters into people that you can either relate to or hope you never run into. Some of them are kind, some are some are malicious, some of them are just teenagers making bad decisions and you wish you could yell at them and make them choose differently!

Canberra author, Rebecca James 86

While I liked Beautiful Malice I actually enjoyed Rebecca’s second book, Sweet Damage, even more.

‘I still dream about Anna London’s house. In my dreams it’s as if the house itself has sinister intentions.

But in real life it wasn’t the house that was responsible for what happened. It was the people who did the damage ...’

Tim Ellison is a fairly easy going type of guy, the guy you would probably be friends with if you met him.

When his ex-girlfriend’s new partner gets tired of Tim sleeping on their couch he quickly needs to find somewhere to live, with cheap the main criterion.

Tim finds a sweet arrangement sharing a mansion in the most perfect location -the only condition is that he share with the owner of the house: mysterious, unfriendly and withdrawn agoraphobic, Anna London. Tim grabs the opportunity.

When strange and terrifying things start happening in the house at night, Tim wonders if taking the room is a mistake. Does Anna have problems that go beyond agoraphobia? Is she mentally disturbed? Is it safe for Tim to stay?

As Tim gets to know Anna better, his feelings start to change and he starts to doubt his own instincts. Then when her past comes back with a vengeance, Tim is caught right in the middle of it.

I love the way Rebecca James crafts stories of twisted friendships, people haunted by past tragedy ,and allows suspense to build throughout the book. I love that I have 25 different feelings on ‘whodunnit’ and still don’t guess it until right at the end. I devoured the book in a few hours, it is an easy yet engrossing read. Anyone who enjoys spine tingling suspense and psychological drama will enjoy Sweet Damage, 87

Ros’

TOP FIVE

DVDs of (nearly) every genre

As the winter chill sets in, it’s a good idea to have some suggestions for rentals up your sleeve for when you are confined to the couch. Even if that confinement is voluntary and owing to nothing more sinister than a desire to ignore the sleet and fog outside. Here are our movie guru, Ros Hull’s, top five DVDs of (nearly) every genre for those time when you just can’t shift from the screen..

There has been a bit of talk around the (virtual) HerCan office lately about Top 5 lists. Love them or hate them, they are a pop culture phenomenon that seems here to stay. I blame MTV. And microwaves. And David Letterman (well, why not?)

I enjoy them because they are a fast and dirty way to get conversations started on my favourite flickering image topic that doesn’t include killer stone angels, a transporter beam or girls wielding wooden stakes – MOVIES. However I didn’t think this piece would go anywhere if I just randomly clunked down a pile of titles, so I pulled together a focus group (actually just a daughter, a daughter’s boyfriend and a spouse over lunch).

We writers don’t have expense accounts.

This focus group then embarked on several gruelling hours of discussion (would you believe one gruelling hour? 30 minutes?) Discussion ranged across time and space, from one continent to another but, given the members, not into non-English speaking territory. Our loss.

Zombies The first Top 5 is the category that will not be ignored, shuffling to a cinema near you. ZOMBIES! Naturally topping the list is Dawn of The Dead, but it and Zombieland are the only US entries, the others are UK products: 28 Days Later, Shaun of The Dead and Warm Bodies (I suggested that one but it isn’t on DVD yet so let’s say Resident Evil).

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Gangster

War

Fantasy

The second, and not just for the boys, is GANGSTER movies: I like an East End wide boy and two of the best are by Guy Ritchie – Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch; for that classic feel The Godfather; for an actual classic, The Maltese Falcon (or pretty much anything where Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Chandler are combined); and for do-your-head-in fun The Usual Suspects.

Reservoir Dogs pushed for an honourable mention but there was an unexpected dissing of Goodfellas.

Then, in deference to Dad, daughter suggested WAR movies. To be fair, it is a worthy genre if you ignore Quentin Tarentino (and I always try to): Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down, The Thin Red Line, We Were Soldiers (back when Mel Gibson was still ok) and Tears of The Sun.

Excalibur, Lord of The Rings (of course I am going to say that), Harry Potter (and that too – think about it, Harry alone will fill an entire weekend), Neverland and Dragonheart. I want to put Big Fish and The Fisher King in this list, too, but I am not sure if they qualify.

Sci Fi

We really should have put Maltese Falcon in a WHODUNNIT list but that would have involved deep thought and this was a frivolous focus group.

I kept mentioning The Hurt Locker and The Great Escape but no one was listening by then. The chatter spontaneously combusted into movies we loved as kids, TV we loved, and so on and so on.

Later, once again in seclusion on the Sofa of Sickness I considered other Top 5s that could be enjoyed with a mug of cocoa and a blanky. However I chose to ignore romance or rom-com lists. I was too grumpy and somehow kissing and coughing up a lung just don’t sit well together.

Tearjerker The group, in an unexpected spirit of fairness (or sympathy for the sick mother), then suggested TEARJERKER as a couchworthy list: Little Women (Gillian Armstrong version), Red Dog, Lassie Come Home (both double threats as they involve animals), Shadowlands and Toy Story 3. Don’t question this last choice unless you have seen it – ok?

Sport ...but I only came up with Remember the Titans, Bring It On and maybe Chariots of Fire.

Musicals

Horror

Just FIVE???

… And then discussion went right back to HORROR and whether we should subdivide it in to Slashers and Supernaturals. Not a huge fan, so I’ll just note the Top 5 that surfaced first: Wolf Creek, Insidious, It, Poltergeist and Suspiria (no wait, that’s Italian and this is a xenophobic list) … um, The Thing, that’ll do.

Singin’ in The Rain, High Society, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Chicago and Hairspray! And Grease and The King and I and The Wizard of Oz… Can I blame fever for my inability to count?

(Argh! I can think of 10 right now but they need to be available on DVD and not too nerdy): Star Wars (don’t argue with me, don’t do it, limbs may be lost and we have invented regenerator technology yet); Terminator 2, Enemy Mine, I, Robot (if you can ignore the product placement), Sunshine (because it is Danny Boyle in space), and because this is my favourite genre I get one more. Don’t argue, I’m making up the rules. And I’m sick, humour me: Titan A.E. (Seriously, which led me to...)

Animated Anything by Pixar (so technically that’s only one pick, right?), Iron Giant, Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, The Triplets of Belleville, Porco Rosso. Animation is a huge topic, maybe ANIME should be separate?

I can feel myself sliding down a rabbit hole … list after list after list …

BIOPICS? ACTION? WESTERNS? Could I make a STEAMPUNK in movies list? And then I woke up.

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Z

world

war

Zombies go mainstream.

For the preview of World War Z at Dendy Canberra, the wait staff were in ghoulish makeup (full commitment points to the girl wearing the milky contact lense) and there was even a bloody axe and blood spattered backdrop for photos.

So zombies have gone mainstream.

Or even worse, respectable. Having a megawatt star like Brad Pitt make a movie about zombies could ruin their underground street cred … maybe. But if the online geeksphere is anything to go by the pressing issues seem to be whether this movie is actually about ‘zombies’ or merely ‘the infected’. And how far it deviates from the well-loved novel it is based on.

I can’t speak to the second issue as I haven’t read the book but a lot of people seem to have their panties in a bunch about ‘the truck scene’. The action was so jumpy and fast at the start of the movie I am not completely certain which scene this is so I will wait for someone who has read the book to clue me in.

As for the zombie/just unwell debate – I have to say the critters in this film move a helluva lot faster than your standard Walking Dead zombie. That coupled with their single-minded determination to chomp does make them don’t-meet-in-a-dark-alley material.

There are scenes of the zombies flinging themselves at walls, climbing over their own dead (undead) in great pyramids to reach their goal. Allegory anyone?

For a brief but telling explanation of the difference between zombies and infected see this page on imdb.

Regardless of what they are I was comforted that they still responded appropriately to the removal of their heads. Although there is one scene where a whole room has been turned to ash and there is still one finger moving – ugh.

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United Nations employee Gerry Lane traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments, and threatening to destroy humanity itself.

Ros Hull reviews World War Z.

Wherever you stand on the infected/zombie debate the sound of teeth clicking together is now in my lexicon of really creepy sounds.

The film looks great. There is lots of money up there on the screen - it is definitely a big budget glossy action film. The street scenes as the infection spreads depict mindless terror and thinking on your feet very well. I was certainly involved with what was happening – but if I had not had to cope with 3D glasses I think I would have been more invested.

The action is very layered, the camera jumps and swings and those zombies move fast. So in 3D it d oes all blur together, unfortunately.

The story is quite good and certainly felt as if it had been lifted from a more comprehensive work. The producers must have decided to opt for more of the hero’s story than the apocalypse story because the military commander’s scene noting which centres have fallen that is in the trailer doesn’t appear in the movie. Still, the world after an apocalyptic event is well known to their target audience – they (we) watch Falling Skies, The Walking Dead, Defiance, Revolution, Resident Evil … and by focusing on the hero maybe they hope to reach a broader audience.

He is Brad Pitt after all.

He has certainly given me some good ideas about what to pack in my ‘go bag’ for the zombipocalypse!

I did also love that the resourceful hero is not a cop or a soldier but a UN negotiator and stay-at-home dad.

I said that zombies have gone respectable at the beginning of this article and that is the one word I would use to sum up the movie too. Respectable actioner, respectable story, a few respectable scares and I am sure it will do respectable business at the box office.

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