Ruby - Spring 2012

Editor

With a spring in my step Davina Montgomery

I

can’t remember ever having missed the sun as much as I have over the bleak months of winter this year, when the cold seemed to sink through your skin and lay its icy fingers on your bones.

But now, finally, the sun is making its return.

Do you feel different when the sun’s shining, dear readers? I know I do. So it is with joy and warmth in my heart that I welcome you to the spring edition of Ruby.

As those of you who managed to snaff le a copy of the winter edition of Ruby will know, I don’t deal well with the cold. I get tired and cranky, knowing that happiness is only a plane f light to a tropical destination with a pool bar and a steady supply of Mojitos away! In the absense of a pool bar and a cocktail I would settle for sticking my head under a blanket until it’s warm again outside.

It’s sad, I know, but it only takes a few sunny days for my enthusiasm for life, work and home improvement projects to burst forth – and they have.

Having cast off my metaphorical blanket (sadly, kids, husband and work didn’t agree with my blanket plan, let alone the tropical island sabbatical), I’ve hit the phones to organise tradies, am trawling through catalogues, magazines and websites for new products and

ideas and am once again f lexing my admittedly pretty basic handywoman skills.

In the process of all this, I have been inspired by the ingenuity and thoughtfulness of people in regional Victoria. Like many of you, it seems that every time I turn on the radio, f lick on the news or log on to a new site, there is another raft of doom and gloom stories about job losses and business closures. It makes for depressing and sometimes alarming news. Yet what I’m hearing on an almost daily basis are also stories of people who have chosen to ignore the negative news and make their own good news story in the form of a new career, a new business or a new way of conducting an existing business.

In the course of my research for a story in this issue, I had the chance to meet a group of very young mums. These young women – all under 21 year-old – weren’t just making a life for themselves, they were also making a life for their children. It was a humbling experience, and as I sat there listening to them, I had an insistent voice in my head reminding me that at their age my plans didn’t go much further than where we would head out for beers on a Friday, that my biggest struggle for the day was getting a uni assignment in on time.

There are online businesses that are booming, retailers that are specialising in niche products (often at a lower price point that can be found online) and just plain clever ideas. I love that it is often women in these businesses that are sourcing locally made, sustainable, ethically produced goods and services. Which just goes to show what so many of us already know – the world is a better place when women and men share the lead.

But new life has always been a catalyst for making plans, and with the season of new life upon us, there is no better time to dust off all those ideas that have been hibernating and putting them to good use. Which is why Ruby Living returns for this spring edition.

With that in mind, we welcome a new bloke to the Ruby fold, as Darius Sarkis (Head Chef at Baveras Brasserie, located at The Pier Geelong) shares with us his passion for food and some enticing spring

Finally, to all of you who have shared your kind thoughts on our beloved little mag, thank you, it makes us smile too!

RUBY, an Adcell Print Group publication, is mailed to more than 5000 businesses in regional Victoria.

If you would like to be added to the Ruby mailing list please contact us.

Ruby | 2

recipes. We also welcome writer and beauty blogger, Courtney Buchanan-Huhn, who has some timely tips for keeping it fresh this racing season.

Packed with advice and fabulous ideas for your home, we hope it gives you as much inspiration as it has given us putting it together.

PUBLISHER - Maureen Tayler ISSN: 1838-1456 MANAGER - Caroline Tayler EDITOR - Davina Montgomery davina@adcellgroup.com.au FOR ADVERTISING. Vinnie Kerr M 0409 427 473 vinnie@adcellgroup.com.au Trina Currie M 0402 268 624 trina@adcellgroup.com.au

Adcell Print Group.

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Ruby Spring

CONTENTS ///////////////////////////////////

Photo: Elisha Lindsay, elphotography.com.au

/ Ruby Tuesday

4

/ Psycholog y

6

/ Money

8

/ Spotlight

10

/ Ruby Shoes

15

/ UN Women

16

/ Ruby Travel - Mallorca

18

/ Ruby Reading

24

/ Ruby Beauty

26

/ Spring Fashion at Waurn Ponds

27

/ Toast to the Coast

31

/ Ruby Fitness

32

/ Competition

34

/ Ruby Living

35

/ Food with Darius Sarkis

37

/ Ruby Loves

40

/ What’s Hot!

44

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Ruby | 3

Ruby Tuesday

Just Another Manic Monday Tuesday Jones

I

n the event of a large-scale disaster, I like to think my family is well trained to cope. This is not because we are those type of highly functioning teams that has a plan for everything and a handy supply of emergency rations and supplies. What we do have in our favour is long practice at dealing with panic-filled situations – at least once a week, in fact.

Monday mornings in our house normally resemble an emergency evacuation scene.

Some of us will be scuttling around in different directions haphazardly throwing things in bags while others will be wandering aimlessly, choosing to deal with the mayhem around them by simply ignoring it.

By 8.15am the panic level is really ramping up. By this time, my dearly beloved will be late for work, hunting down a shirt to wear, during which process his mobile and/or wallet will go missing. In the meantime, the kids will have taken this break in concentration on the part of their parents to abandon their breakfast, and sneak off to play a last minute round of superheroes in their pyjamas.

By 8.20am, dearly beloved is out the door and I will race off to the bathroom to tame my hair and attempt a new PB time for morning makeup. Ten minutes later I’m either fist pumping my new record or in a flat panic because while attempting to brush my teeth, check my buzzing phone and apply mascara I have somehow managed to mascara my eyebrow… and that’s when I hear the tell-tale giggling that means the kids have done it again.

To the accompanying whines of ‘But I haven’t finished my breakfast’ I step up the Sergeant Major routine with firm and loud orders to brush teeth, find shoes and bags while I frantically search through the heaped basket of recently washed clothes, all the while shouting that we have to leave in ten minutes (knowing all too well that if we make it out the door within 20 minutes it will be a minor miracle!).

Throwing lunches into bags and searching for emergency changes of clothing (like I said, evacuation!) while juggling kids into socks and shoes is a learned skill that most working parents have down pat. Of course, our kids like to throw in regular challenges in the form of one shoe under the couch while the other is buried under toys in the bottom of the wardrobe.

By 8.50am I will be brushing teeth (kids) throwing the daily essentials into a bag (mine), and running around looking for reader bags (kids), laptop power cords (mine) and something for show and tell (kids again).

But this week, inspired by the dedication preparation of the athletes at the Olympics, I slapped myself readiness, packed lunches, found readers, filled water bottles, laid out clothes and still managed to get up early enough to have a cup of tea before the mayhem began. Feeling infinitely smug

Ruby | 4

about my newfound organisational skills, I greeted my family with a very cheery wake up only to be responded to with grunts (dearly beloved) and groans (kids).

In a testosterone-dominated household, this is hardly unusual, so I poured out some cereal in anticipation of the ‘I’m hungry’ calls – the traditional follower to the good morning groans – then skipped off to plug in the hair straightener and finish my tea. It was all going so well… which should have been the first warning.

Highly unusually, it was the eldest child that emerged first. He staggered to the bench, scooped in a few mouthfuls of cereal then belched loudly before delivering the lines that are the harbinger of doom in every home – ‘My tummy doesn’t feel good’. Uh oh, here we go. While I had equipped first son with the obligatory bucket, dearly beloved wandered out, croaked that he had a sore throat before staggering back to bed.

Things were looking grim. When second son made his way to the kitchen, declaring he wasn’t hungry and felt ‘funny’, I knew we were on the verge of an outbreak of the dreaded Man Flu. Yep, just when I had finally got my Monday morning act together it seemed the

I knew we were on the verge of an outbreak of the dreaded Man Flu. Yep, just when I had finally got my Monday morning act together... excrement was going to hit the cooling device anyway. Typical! Then it dawned on me: I’ve had this day before. The day where instead of revelling in the precious calm of my office, where nobody asks me to feed them, entertain them or find their toys/ books/phone/wallet, I end up ‘working’ from home with three almost sick males who are absolutely incapable of doing anything for themselves but still seem to find the energy to spend hours alternately seeing who can do the biggest jump off the couch and fighting over the Wii remote/ iPad/Spiderman toy (kids) and complaining loudly about the noise while turning up the volume on the TV (now even less dearly beloved).

Well, not today boys! I zoomed into the bathroom, answered the call of the straightener, set a new PB for makeup application before throwing on the first outfit I could find that would require zero ironing, before grabbing my (already packed – remember, I had been organised today!) bag, pulling out the packed lunches and putting them on the bench so that everyone to help themselves before blowing air kisses to all and running out the door.

I was free! Ha, ha, ha!

Ruby Business

Insert: Sarah Valentine

I want it all Sarah Valentine, Bellarine Business Women

I

want it all – is that ok? I want more family time, a better quality of life and a successful business that I am passionate about. And I don’t think I’m alone.

there was very little that offered that. So after a few months of searching with no success, I decided to start one myself. So I created Bellarine Business Women.

I meet women everyday who want the same thing women who strive to be great mums, partners, daughters, sisters and friends. Women who want to sing their song, be a role model to those around them and leave their footprint on this earth.

I was surprised at the number of women who own their own business who were also seeking what I was after – a place to meet like minded women.

Twelve months on, it is now a thriving community of women in business. There is something for every woman at any stage of business. From networking, to online classes, group brainstorming sessions and workshops, through to one-on-one business coaching. BBW member and Principal of WHK, Helen Butteriss says, “It’s been the most amazing initiative to hit this region. I’ve been astounded by the talent that exists and how many entrepreneurial women there are. I’ve met some great contacts for my business, attended various

How can we do it all on our own? Well, we can’t, and we don’t have to. I think the days of trying to be superwoman are long gone… we now realise we can have it all; we just need some support.

When I started my coaching and training business on the Bellarine Peninsula I looked around for places to meet other women in business. I figured other women perhaps shared some of the challenges I was facing. I very quickly discovered

development sessions offered to members and have already been inundated with new clients from the network. A must for women in business!”

Now in its second year, some new and exciting events have been launched. The first of these is “Let’s Do Lunch”. On Wednesday September 19th at Bellarine Estate Winery there is a luncheon open to all business owners. Along with lunch and glass of wine you will also hear guest speaker, Kate Engler, share some of her secrets to getting into the media without paying a cent.

Bellarine Business Women is for any woman who owns a business in our region.

For more information about Bellarine Business Women and to keep up to date with current events visit bellarinebusinesswomen.com.au.

To book your seat at the very first Let’s Do Lunch visit letsdolunchseptember.eventbrite.com.au

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Ruby | 5

Psychology

The Dreaded Expectation Zone Charmaine Morse, Psychologist

S

pring is here at last and it seems we have all managed to struggle through our winter hibernation and come out the other side, hopefully mentally intact. It follows then that perhaps we have been nurturing certain expectations to get us through those gloomy and overcast months. In essence then, we assume that our expectations will come to fruition along with the blossoms of Spring.

Expectations? Have you ever considered the definition of expectation? Expectation is what we consider most like to happen in the case of uncertainty - a belief projected into the future.

The key point however, is that the expectation/s may or may not be realistic and this is where we can have the tendency to fall down big time.

We all harbour expectations. Some we openly express to anyone who will listen, but some we hold very close to our heart. The nature of expectation is that we usually aim high. Well what’s the point of aiming low, I ask? Wouldn’t that be defeating the purpose of the exercise?

This aiming high thing can be a tantalising trap, with frustration, irritation and disappointment coming about when our exhilarating expectations inevitably fall f lat.

Shakespeare noted, “Expectation is the soul of all heartache.” So why do we inf lict this torment upon ourselves? Perhaps it is the degree to which

Ruby | 6

Expectation verses reality. We have expectations for everything from behaviour to performance;

this time around - and low and behold, they don’t? Goodness me, you have told them often enough. So what does that mean? It probably means it’s all about you then, doesn’t it? Really, the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour and yet your expectation is that it will be different this time. So, there you have it lower those expectations that give rise to emotional disappointment. But is it really that easy?

Expectation is what we consider most like to happen in the case of uncertainty – a belief projected into the future.

As children, the cultural, societal and the familial messages we receive may have had the potential to set us up to expect that we can have it all. We are all familiar with the long-running debate regarding women having it all and it appears to reside in the expectation that having more, striving for higher status and aiming for it all, is where happiness and success reside.

we do it - obviously the aiming far too high thing.

I wonder if somewhat lower expectations could mean more manageable frustration, irritation and disappointment. That all sounds a bit soul destroying though, doesn’t it? Like having our glass-half-full kicked over. But nevertheless being realistic with our expectations is obviously the key to success here.

and we also have expectations for everyone else, not only for ourselves, but for our friends, our children, our co-workers and even strangers.

Human nature seems to dictate that we have to do this thing where we expect all those listed above to behave in accordance with our beliefs and values.

Have you ever been in the position where you expect someone dear to you to do it differently

The women having it all paradigm has developed alongside the basis that women should not be excluded from any sphere in society because of their gender. But what does having it all actually mean to us as women? In today’s world, the having it all notion means different things to each of us and therein lays the answer.

The expectations placed on women in the 70s certainly have evolved across the ensuing decades. It seems to me that there is more f lexibility in our lives now and that the work/life

Psychology

balance is what it is all about. You can have it all, but it’s your definition of what the all is, that makes the difference. Also, it makes sense that our expectations will change along with the changes in our lives and happening in the world around us. It can f luctuate between worrying about having it all to holding on to it all, depending on the inevitable variation of our circumstances.

In life, we can become accustomed to positive or negative life experiences. These experiences then lead us along the road of imagining favourable or unfavourable expectations for our present and our future. It follows then that we develop our own idiosyncratic self-fulfilling prophecies.

A self-fulfilling prophecy is what you do when you make a prediction and it comes true due to the simple fact that the prediction was made.

Based on your life experience then, chances are you will predict an inevitable conclusion to your life’s dilemmas, but you won’t bother too much

about analysing whether your expectations are realistic or unrealistic. That doesn’t seem to come into it. You will probably generalise based on past experience… Welcome to the dreaded expectation/self-fulfilling prophecy zone.

Here’s one for you to ponder. When you buy your

Shakespeare, “Expectation is the soul of all heartache.”

So why do we inflict this torment upon ourselves?

Tattslotto ticket in the next 20 million draw do you expect to win? Well of course you do, otherwise you’d spend it on a coffee and a really nice muffin! What about this one - do you secretly panic if you forget to put your $5 in for

the weekly work pool tatts draw? It’s a yes, isn’t it? I bet you imagine that you’ll be the bunny coming into work on Monday to a vast empty deafening silence. No need to worry, your expectation won’t come to fruition and that selffulfilling prophecy won’t either. I mean, how many people do you know personally who have won first division? Come Monday morning it will be business as usual and you’ll breath a sigh of relief as you make a note in your diary - don’t forget Tattslotto on Wednesday.

But, if you find a blank page in the next edition of Ruby where this column usually resides, you will know that my not so secret expectation of scooping the pool materialised. I will be telling all and sundry - “I knew this would happen one day!” Then again, and more realistically, I will almost certainly be lamenting that I couldn’t win a chook raff le.

Either way, my self-fulfilling prophecy has it covered.

‘Partnering with you to achieve financial wellbeing’ Wellbeing Financial Solutions.

255 Moorabool Street Geelong, Phone: (03) 5222 7466 Email: info@wellbeingfs.com.au

Nicole Pertzel*CFP , DipFP ®

Financial Advisor SMSF Specialist Adviser™ *Nicole Pertzel is an authorised representative of Australian Unity Personal Financial Services Limited (ABN 26 098 725 145) AFS Licence No. 234459, 114 Albert Road, South Melbourne VIC 3205.

Ruby | 7

Competition Money

Getting the most out of your Accountant Renée Jovic, Jovic Bantacs Accountants

C

hoosing an accountant is an important decision. Everyone knows accountants help with tax, but few know the diverse roles accountants perform. There are many ways an accountant can help you sort out your personal finances or help you grow your business.

An accountant in private practice can help you foremost with compliance work and completing and filing your tax return. They can also help you with starting a business, setting up a bookkeeping system for your business, Commonwealth and state tax planning, business financial planning, advice and personal financial and wealth creation advice.

There will be many times throughout your career when you will benefit from the services of an accountant. You should find an accountant when it’s tax time; when you’re getting started in the workforce and need a long-term financial strategy; when you want to invest your money but don’t know where to start; if you’re earning multiple income streams and need advice on how to organise them efficiently; if you’re dealing with finance, expenses, creditors and debtors; when you’re planning your retirement; if you’re looking to expand your business or investments; or if you wish to buy or sell a business.

Your accountant will be able to do a better job for you if they understand how your business works.

There are a number of steps you can take so that you

accountant can give you a good idea of fees and how they will proceed. Take a summary of your current financial standing or business plan to the first meeting to discuss, or even forward them a copy in advance.

It’s a good idea to have a business plan before going into the meeting. If you don’t have one, summarise the following issues for your accountant: what your product is and what your expansion plans are; what the annual sales are likely to be; how many staff you require; what type of accounting system you will use; who your suppliers will be, how much you will purchase each quarter and what you will pay.

When choosing an accountant, you should look for an accountant who has a suitable qualification and who is a member of a professional accounting association (Google will help you here). You can contact these bodies to make sure the accountant you are meeting with is genuinely qualified, and participation in a professional association means that you have more protection and remedy should anything go wrong. Your accountant should have different licences for the different advice they offer.

For tax advice, they must be a registered tax agent and for financial planning advice, they must have an Australian Financial Services licence or be an authorised representative of a licence holder.

It may be worth considering using a firm that is comparative in size to your business. Small firms

Specialised Services

Renée Jovic

• Property Investment • Accounting • Taxation • Business Solutions

Level 1, 80 Pakington Street, Geelong West E: admin@jovicaccounting.com.au P: 03 5222 6962

often specialise in small business work and large firms are usually the first choice for big businesses. Find out the number of staff employed at the firm and how many of them will be looking after your concerns. It’s important to know that your accountant will keep in contact with you and that they will keep you informed about your assets.

It is also a good sign if members of the firm regularly attend industry conferences and classes. Your accountant should be up to speed with industry developments.

When it comes to getting the most out of your accountant, make sure you have a good record keeping system worked out with your accountant so it’s easy to review advice and how work is progressing. Make sure you keep files of all documents received. Even ask to see how your accountant’s filing system works, so you can be confident they are considerate of your business. You should also be able to have an open relationship with your accountant. Tell them when you’re happy with their service and when you’re not. If you are mutually informative, your business will benefit.

DISCLAIMER: This article is for guidance only, and professional advice should be obtained before acting on any information contained herein. Neither the writer, publishers nor the distributors can accept any responsibility for loss occasioned to any person as a result of action taken or refrained from in consequence of the contents of this article. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.

“Providing Solutions to Businesses, Individuals and Property Investors.

With a Personal Approach”

Web: www.jovicaccounting.com.au and www.bantacs.com.au

Ruby | 8

Money

Not so funny…

Melissa Vella, Allsure Insurance

Y

ou’ve all seen the video clip of a guy slipping on a misplaced banana peel and landing flat on his bum. Hilarious right? It’s great in a movie, but in the real world, the guy landing on his butt could land you in financial trouble. If that happened in your business or home, the reality could be broken bones, hospital bills, loss of income, pain and suffering and a nasty letter arriving in your mailbox titled “Notice of Intention to Sue”. (Lucky my name is Melissa!)

So, what exactly is Public Liability Insurance and why do we need it?

I’m sure you have seen it printed on one of your insurance schedules; it is usually in the millions.

This is the part of your insurance policy that will cover you if you accidentally hurt or injure a member of the public or damage their property.

Some policies come with it included; however there are times it is not automatically included.

Double check your insurance policy to make sure you have the right cover. Ask your Authorised Representative or Broker if you are unsure.

Here are some examples of where a liability claim could arise: On your home and contents policy: imagine if a visitor slips on a wet front step and hurts themselves; or your child rides their pushbike into the side of a car (I can recall at least three

occurrences of this in the last few years); or you are mowing the front lawn and a stone is thrown up damaging a passing car, or the house next door.

Domestic landlords need coverage because even if you have a unit in an Owners Corporation, where building and liability may be covered by the Owners Corp, the liability inside the property and any contents comes back to the landlord. Make sure you have your own policy for liability as a landlord (you can also insure your contents, carpets, curtains, etc.)

Commercial property landlords are still responsible for the liability relating to the building and surrounding premises, even if you don’t occupy the situation (Property Owners Liability).

For business owners: people can slip and fall in your premises. Food poising is another claim that can prove very costly to your business if you don’t not have the right cover - a recent case was made for in excess of $8 million dollars in claims.

Tradesman: whilst fixing, repairing, or building at a premises, if your actions then cause damage to that property, you are liable. There is the case of a bowling club suing the tradesman whose workmanship, they believe, started a fire at the club and are claiming for $26 Million in damages!

ALLSURE insurance Having the right insurance, is no accident.

When it comes to vehicle insurance, everyone worries about running in to the back end of a brand new Mercedes, but that might be a small claim compared to some other possibilities. What about your car running into the front of a house, or the front of a shop? Make sure you at least have Third Party Property damage cover.

If you are heading overseas, add travel insurance to your list of important things to do before you go. Not only will it cover you and your baggage, but your public liability while overseas. If you are putting up your umbrella while on a plain in Spain because of all the rain, and you inadvertently poke a local in the eye, then public liability cover can protect you.

When you next read on your Insurance Policy: Public Liability $20,000,000, (or some other amount in the millions) and you remember some of these examples, suddenly the premium to your public liability insurance looks very very reasonable!

Remember, having the right insurance is no accident.

DISCLAIMER: This article is for guidance only, and professional advice should be obtained before acting on any information contained herein.

Neither the writer, publishers nor the distributors can accept any responsibility for loss occasioned to any person as a result of action taken or refrained from in consequence of the contents of this article. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.

www.allsure.com.au like us on follow us on

InsureAllsure @InsureAllsure

P: 5278 6808 Ruby | 9

Spotlight

Ruby | 10

Spotlight

Who Am I? Clint Jennings

A

li, Sue and John are very different people.

They look different and have vastly contrasting manners and personalities. But these three people share a great sadness – they have all looked in the mirror and thought ‘Who Am I?’ because someone, somewhere, once decided to tear apart a family.

MacArthur’s farm, as the MacArthur’s had been the owners of her grandparents. In response to her questions about the origins of her grandparents she was answered with a vague gesture towards the vast continent of Africa. In truth, it was the impenetrable wall of slavery.

John was a young boy in England spending his first four years playing in the streets of London, but with the war brewing he, like many other young children, was sent to a safer place. Some children went to rural England, however along with hundreds of other confused children, John was shipped to Australia as a war orphan. He spent his formative years in the Northcote farm; a boy’s home -more as a cheap farm labourer than a student. It was a harsh and brutal education.

Some people in Australia are happy to have an undefined history, throwing out the statements such as, “I think my grandparents come from Wales or Ireland, or somewhere in Scotland”, but the choice is theirs. They are content to have a mystery and leave their origins undefined.

He firmly believed that his mother would come and get him and take him home. The story he was told is that she would come and get him, but it was clear that he had to wait to the end of the war, and then it got extended by the complications of rationing and finally devolved into, “We have lost track of your mother”. But buried deep in his thoughts, he knew that his mother would return for him one day. John could never live a normal life; he was perpetually waiting. He never wanted to make long term plans or commitments because he fully expected to pick up stumps and go home.

This inner torment ripped him apart. He struggled to hold to the real world. He would seek a family connection in cults and weird religions, but they could not fill the void of his missing family. He eventually discovered that his mother had actually immigrated to Australia and had a new family, not too far from where John lived. When he contrived a meeting, the outcome was desperately sad. His mother had moved on, and apart from a few questions as to his wellbeing, she was not willing to have a relationship with him. This fresh hurt burned deep into John’s soul.

There remain no clues as to Ali’s grandparent’s original home. These scars run deep. Ali had a brilliant career and amassed a fortune, but in her retirement she would catch herself looking in the mirror and asking, “Am I a Nigerian”? She travelled to Nigeria, but there was no racial memory. A recent trip to Zimbabwe also failed to provide a bridge.

Nothing will heal the hurt of a stolen past – a stolen identity for these people. It is a wound that can not be forgotten, nor diminished... but there is a start and there is a future.

It is a hurt felt by generations after manumission and its effects are still strong and pernicious.

Ali is different; she was an accomplished attorney.

She knew her parents and could count on their love and affection, she became an accomplished attorney and she knew her grandparents. But as a young African American, knowing her grandparents was as far back as her knowledge of her family extended.

Where did her ancestors come from?

Susie remembers growing up in Dimboola, in a little house by the river. She had little contact with white people; in fact, the few foreigners that she interacted with were the local Chinese itinerant farmers. Burned deep in her memory was the day that she and her siblings were taken. She tried to run from the court house, but she was restrained. Her last memory of that period of her life was of her mother – dress torn, bent in a mix of physical pain and heart wrenching anguish, sobbing inconsolably as she watched her children being forced into a van. The memory is grey and probably a little faded, but is still forefront in Susie’s mind.

Tracing her grandparents’ earlier lives led Ali to the

It took 48 years… Almost five decades of living to

someone else’s beliefs before Susie could return home to her interrupted life. Some would say that she had choices as an adult. But the young Sue of years passed got taught in an English speaking school; with no one to speak to in her language, and an entirely alien culture thrust on her, she lost the connections.

Slowly, choices were taken from her. Like Ali, she would spend hours in front of the mirror and ask the question, “Who am I”?

The Greek phrase of anomie, the pain of being totally lost and without reference or connection is described as being one of the most devastating psychological afflictions. Sue tried to work through that pain, and when her attempts failed, she turned to the false gods of drugs and alcohol. Her course was an all-too-common spiral down to a dark and gloomy place. She knew it, but there was no other alternative, until one day she found herself back in Dimboola.

Five decades changes things. The old house was gone, her childhood friends scattered on the winds, but there was something unexpected. One of the old people rested their dry and wrinkled hand on Sue’s shoulder and said, “Welcome home”. The tears flowed as if they would never stop. This stranger had reached into the hole in her heart and touched it. It was not an instant cure - they only happen in fairy tales and late-night TV shows. After all there was almost 50 years of pain to heal.

Time moves on and Sue is an elder now, the leader of her group. She has gone back to school and relearnt much of her lost language. She is a guardian of her culture and she serves as a bridge between two disparate cultures. She has created a dictionary and tells stories to the children. Now Sue is in the process of writing some children’s books in her language, so that the words and phrases and culture that have been around for 60,000 years will continue into the future, hopefully for another 60,000.

Nothing will heal the hurt of a stolen past – a stolen identity - for these people. It is a wound that can not be forgotten, nor diminished with a politician’s apology, but there is a start and there is a future. Not a future gracefully given by perpetrators of forced separations because they now realise their stupidity and crimes, but opportunities gouged out and boldly taken by the survivors. But there will still be pain and tears. All strength to the survivors!

Psychometry • Tarot • Angel Card Readings Elizabeth Anne Rogers believes you can transform your life. Whatever you are experiencing, Elizabeth believes if you are unhappy with your life, you can do something to change it. Elizabeth has done this herself. With many forms of assistance available, it is important to choose one that is right for you.

If you would like to receive communication from your guides and angels, Elizabeth offers readings using psychometry, tarot and/or angel cards.

30 minute reading:

$45

60 minute reading:

$70

Ruby | 11

Spotlight

How old are you?

Davina Montgomery

T

he conversations are the same - comparing baby weights, diet, health problems, teething problems, sleeping problems, partner problems and family problems. They laugh over the funny stories, many of which involve vomit or poo, and commiserate over the sad stories. Not one of these mums is over 21 years old.

The meeting room at Barwon Health’s Newcomb Community Centre is a busy place at 2.30pm on a Wednesday. The usually large and airy room is filled with the sounds of children playing, babies burbling or crying, and mothers talking to each other and their children at the same time.

There are prams, nappy bags and toys littered around the room and there is a huge pile of boxed nappies against one wall.

Ruby | 12

There are young babies being nursed amongst the toddling one year-olds that crawl over, fall over, grab, laugh about and chew most things that grab their attention. And it all feels very familiar. Not so long ago, I was walking into a mothers group for the first time, a little apprehensive about what the other mums would be like, but desperate to get out of the house. But it wasn’t the same. I was 30 at the time, and by no means the oldest in the group. Like many of the other women I met that first day, I was in a long-term relationship, had been settled in my home for years and was absolutely ready to have a baby … well, as ready as you can be, anyway. I couldn’t imagine what it would have been like walking into a mother’s group at 18.

Glastonbury Community Services, is exactly why she started the group - to give young mums that same support that other new mums get at a mother’s group - it’s a lifeline out of the isolation that surrounds young women who are or become pregnant during or just after high school. The program offers peer support, as well as guest speakers who provide information on everything from early childhood health and development to housing and education options. While the information is incredibly important - with young first time mums otherwise largely reliant on their parents and the Internet for advice - it is the support and friendship that seems to have an overwhelming impact on those in the group.

This, says Kaia de Burgh, coordinator of the Young Mums Club, which is run in conjunction with

“Being able to talk to people,” was one answer to my question of what they get out of the group.

Spotlight “The babies keep themselves busy, so we don’t have to watch them as much,� was another. It was the same response around the room.

“I don’t see my friends from school because they want to party and stuff and I just want to sit at home with my kids.�

“I come here for me, I don’t come here for my child - I don’t think anyone comes here for the kids.�

“You guys are like the only friends I have.�

“I come because otherwise I would be going insane at home inside those four walls.�

Having young children can be an incredibly isolating experience. When you have young children and none of your friends have young children, that sense of isolation can be very strong.

And children - particularly very young children have an innate sense of what you don’t want them to touch, and immediately go and try to play with that thing in a game that often involves hitting it repeatedly on the floor and then throwing it at a wall! “Our house used to be clean, and then we moved in, and now it’s just not clean,� one girl moaned. “I cleaned my house on Monday and today (Wednesday) it’s worse than it was before I cleaned it. I have (my partner’s parents) coming over and now I have like two hours to clean the whole house,� another added.

It is part of Kaia and Belinda from Glastonbury’s role to help these young women cope with the usual - and the not so usual - pressures of life at home with a young child. There are welfare issues to be addressed, and the constant pressure of poor access to appropriate housing. There are relationship problems and emotional issues to be worked through, as well all that information about raising a healthy and happy child.

When I asked the young women what they thought would help support other young mums through those tough early months, their answers were almost unanimous - that there needs to be more government housing specifically for families with young children, and that all young mums should have access to peer-aged mother’s groups. It is hard to keep your friends when they are being teenagers and you stay at home with a baby. “My friends don’t talk to me. Except for the people here, I don’t talk to anyone,� one young mum said.

I asked the mums how they had heard about the group. Some had heard about it through their school (young pregnant girls are invited to visit the group to help prepare them for the arrival of their baby) and others through midwives or maternal health nurses. “My maternal health nurse referred me because I said I was lonely and all my friends had left me when I was pregnant. They just slowly stop talking to you, which is funny, because at the start they all said they thought it was awesome, that they couldn’t wait to meet my baby.�

Mortified, the young woman left with her children, only to be told later that the police had investigated the woman who had made the accusations and found she had a number of similar claims against her - that there would be no further action. “It made me feel like I was a bad Mum.�

Mother’s Groups are much more than just a social outing for new mothers. These groups - when there is a compatible, supportive group - become an incredible source of information and reassurance, as well as friendship. It is almost always the case that whatever problems you might be experiencing with your baby - and there are some strange, disturbing and just plain weird things that occur when you have a young baby - someone else in the group has been there too.

“I asked my school if they could find me some sort of group so I could talk to other girls who were having kids.�

“We’re always asking each other, ‘Is this okay?’ or ‘Should I be doing this?�

“If you’re a young mum, at the hospital you get the same midwife that is recommended for all young mums, and she suggested coming here.�

“You start off asking your parents, but then that just gets annoying, like they know everything. It’s better when you ask someone who is going through the same thing at the same time.�

Kaia said that just as it can be incredibly daunting for young mums trying to participate in a group of mothers who are sometimes significantly older than themselves, it can be equally confronting for a young pregnant girl walking into an established young mums group such as the one I met with.

The sense of judgement is just one of many shared experiences for the women in this group. One of them told of one extreme response to her as a young mum.

On her way into Kmart one day, she was walking her eldest child next to the pram in which she was pushing her new baby. When her daughter stumbled, keeping one hand on the pram, she grabbed her fallen child’s arm. An older woman ran over and began yelling loudly that the young woman was abusing her children and phoned the police. When the police arrived, they told the mum that the woman had also reported the children as dirty and inadequately cared for (because, like many mothers of young children - myself included - these children had a bit of food on their faces). The officers searched the child’s torso for evidence of physical abuse and took the mother’s name.

“Like with dummy rash.�

The group explained that without the Young Mums Club, coping with raising a child in a society where you are often viewed as a child yourself would have been really tough. “I would have gone insane, because not having friends is really hard, and having other people to talk to who are going through the same thing makes it so much easier.� “Finding this group and meeting the people here, actually having some friends, is so good.�

These mother’s are young, but they are all committed, loving parents, who have ambitions, hopes and dreams for themselves and their children.

Most have thought seriously about their options for further schooling and a career - all of which would need to be arranged around their children. But I believed them when they told me that without this group, and the support they have gained in it, it could have been a very different story.

For more information on the Young Mums Club contact Kaia de Burgh at Barwon Health Community Health on 03 5260 3333.

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Ruby | 13

Ruby Tips

Great ideas for small packaging Byars Flexible Packaging

H

ave you ever browsed around a packaging supply store? I have, and the feeling was a little bit like when you got to dig around in a friend’s dress up box as a kid – you want to play with everything!

Packaging suppliers are a great source for just about anything you use to put something else into. For instance, do you have a coffee machine at home or in the office and always forget your reusable coffee cup? Having a stack of takeaway paper cups handy means you can always have your cuppa on the run.

Have you ever made a big batch of casserole or soup, only to find you don’t have enough small containers to freeze it in? Or made a cake or dish to

Ruby | 14

take to a party, never to see that favourite (and often expensive) container again?

Packaging stores have a huge range of food containers – from takeaway food containers in varying sizes, to eco-friendly paper plates and platters. They even have cake boxes – so you don’t have to worry about your Tupperware going home with someone else!

When I was trawling around the store I found all sorts of amazing bits and pieces – like cute little containers to hold lollies for the lolly bar (so much more fun than cake for dessert!), noodle pails (great as walk and talk food containers at stand up dos, and super cute for dinner parties with a difference)

and even gorgeous wrapping paper and ribbons for the gift. It was like an Aladdin’s Cave of boxes, bags and bits and pieces.

Back at work, I was happily raving away about the great stuff I’d found only to find everyone else already knew about it and had been going there for years. “Where do you think all those lunch containers in the fridge came from?” One of the girls gets her clear plastic card sleeves for her handmade cards there. Another got heaps of boxes and packing supplies for moving house. A third stocks up on catering-sized cling film, foil and paper towel for the kitchen.

Seriously – why didn’t anyone tell me?

Ruby | 14

Ruby Shoes

Best foot forward Bridget Connor, Footique

W

hen hitting the field (the Fashion Field) that is this Spring Carnival season, it always wise to choose shoes that you will love, but that will also love you back. So put away the anklebreakers ladies and go for style AND comfort this Spring.

I have grown to totally love the spring racing season. Not that I ever disliked I… In fact, I have always loved the fashion side of the carnival and putting a few bets on here and there. But I was never one to get dressed up to the nines and hit up the big race meets.

But, for some reason, something has changed in me. Now when a hint of spring starts to fill the air, I’m filled with the excitement of the impending race season. Cup sweep - count me in! Charity race day - I’m there! Finding the perfect race outfit - I. LOVE. IT. And I’m finding many women share the love.

When I opened the doors of Footique last September, I stumbled head first into the allencompassing fun of spring carnival.

I was lucky to have lots of women visit me to find that special pair of shoes to grace their feet for a day out at the races. Dresses and/or hats would

often accompany their visit and together we would have a wonderful time finding the perfect wedges or heels to complete the look.

they not only look beautiful, but will also make navigating your way through a day at the track much easier.

It made me realise how much us ladies love an opportunity to get dressed up. And why shouldn’t we? After all, I see heading along to the races as the perfect occasion to unleash our inner fashionista. It’s a chance to leave our normal day wear at home in favour of a beautiful frock, a gorgeous statement hat and - of course - the perfect pair of shoes

The same could be said for the block heel, another big look for this spring. With a strong 70s boho influence, the chunkier style still works really well with a race frock . If you’re looking for extra height, opt for something with a bold platform to match the chunky heel and you’ll be bang on trend. Either way, the sturdier heel will have you walking the greens with confidence.

I may be a little biased, but I think having the right pair of shoes for a day at the races can make or break your day. There is nothing worse than finding your gorgeous stiletto heels slowly sinking into the grass as you try to elegantly sip champagne trackside. Or worse still, having your shoes put you in so much pain you are tempted to gulp - take them off!

Aside from the comfort factor, my biggest tip is to think about your complete look head to toe. I personally like to match shoes with the hat and coordinate from there with the dress. Others like to work head down and opt for a neutral shoe that lets an amazing statement hat or dress do the talking.

Luckily for us, this season’s trends should help us avoid such situations. Our love affair with wedges will continue - they’ll still be everywhere, in all different colours and heights, making finding the right pair for our outfit nice and easy.

You really can’t beat a wedge for style and comfort;

However you choose to put your outfit together have fun with it! Try something you mightn’t ordinarily wear. After all, the spring racing season is all about letting go a little, enjoying a day with friends, oh and the horses of course!

Bridget loves great shoes so much that she started the fabulous shoe boutique, Footique, on Pakington Street in Geelong.

Spring g has arrived at Footique Siren Si irren ren ‘G ‘Goldie’ G Heel ee

Diavolina Di avo av oliin na ‘Imogen’ ‘Imoge mogen’ Wedge We edg ge e

Sire Siren ire en ‘Joyce’ ‘Jo ‘ oyce’ oy e ’ Wedge We W dg ge g

Ruby | 15

Donate to the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women via www.unwomen.org.au UN PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER HERWIG

DON’T BE A BYSTANDER: SAY NO TO VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN As a young girl in Chile, I heard a common saying, quien te quiere te aporrea, or who loves you beats you.

I recall a woman saying, “That’s just the way it is.” Today as societies become more just, democratic and egalitarian, there is growing awareness that violence against women is neither inevitable nor acceptable.

- UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet

70% 1 in 3 1 in 5 of women experience violence in their lifetime.

Ruby | 16

will experience physical violence in their lifetime.

women experience sexual violence in their lifetime.

UN Women

UN WOMEN ENDING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN V

iolence against women denies women their most basic rights and freedoms, such as freedom of opinion, mobility, participation, access to information and opportunities.

systematically addressed, reduced and, with persistence, eliminated.

UN Women’s work to end violence against women across the globe is premised on the belief that this fundamental violation of women’s rights remains widespread, affecting all countries. UN Women believes that regardless of one’s country of birth, race, religion or background, women need strong laws, backed by implementation and services for protection and prevention.

By supporting actions where they matter most, the UN Trust Fund is uniquely placed to meet the most urgent needs of women and girls and their communities.

The programs supported by the UN Trust Fund also contribute directwly to the advancement of the goals of the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign on the ground.

Consider the Facts • In South Africa, a woman is killed every six hours by an intimate partner.

• Early marriage is a form of sexual violence which sees 60 million girls worldwide (31.1 million in South Asia) forced into marriage before the age of 18.

O: G

• Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting is estimated to have been performed on between 130 and 140 million women and girls alive today.

• In the Democratic Republic of Congo, an average of 36 women are raped every day.

• In a national survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 15% of Australian women said they had experienced violence by a previous partner and 2.1% by a current partner.

The UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women (UN Trust Fund) is a testimony to the global consciousness that violence against women and girls is neither inevitable nor acceptable.

The UN Trust Fund is a leading global grant-making mechanism exclusively dedicated to addressing violence against women and girls in all its forms. It supports effective initiatives that demonstrate that violence against women and girls can be

To date, the UN Trust Fund has delivered more than US $78 million to 339 initiatives in 127 countries and territories.

Domestic Violence in Cambodia Violence against women, particularly domestic violence, is one of the most widespread and serious problems of postconflict Cambodian society, with one in four women experiencing domestic violence at some point in their lives.

Women in Cambodia are often socialised to accept, tolerate and rationalise domestic violence and remain silent about such experiences. According to a 2009 survey, 22.5% of married women experienced violence at home, and up to 89% did not report it.

80% of women surveyed in 13 provinces across Cambodia said they knew a husband who used physical violence with his wife. 67% of Cambodian women surveyed in 2005 thought that physical abuse was acceptable if the wife argued with her husband, disobeyed him or showed him disrespect. 64% of prostitutes in Cambodia have been forced into the industry against their will. 11% were sold into the industry by family members.

How is the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women helping communities in Cambodia?

The UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women assisted Youth Star in implementing a pilot program to engage Cambodian youth in the prevention of gender-based violence. Youth Star focuses

on peer education for youth in communities, creating space for dialogues on values, sexual rights and gender relationships.

The young volunteers working with Youth Star speak with members of their own community and educate their peers, families and friends about the negative effects of gender-based violence.

Volunteers prepared roleplays on domestic violence, often with more than 1,000 people attending. Many members of the communities in which the plays were performed then committed to preventing and speaking out against domestic violence.

“When the families came to see these performances, many of the adults started weeping. They saw themselves in the drama and their crying expressed their remorse and regret for past actions…They promised to change their behaviour and since then we have seen that a lot of domestic violence has now stopped.” Youth Star volunteer, Ms Chea Sa mphors (Bravanh Village, Pi Thnu Commune) “Before Youth Star came into our community, violence and criminal activities were very common. Up to 70 families in our whole commune had experienced violence… But with the coming of Youth Star, many improvements have been noticed.” - Commune Chief, Mr Mam Seng (Ponnereay Village, Choeung Doeung Commune) Violence Against Women in Australia A woman is killed almost every week in Australia by a male partner or ex-partner.

Family violence is the leading contributor to death, disability and illness in women aged 15-44 years, being a greater contributor than factors like high blood pressure, smoking or obesity.

Based on current figures, in ten years 750,000 Australian women will experience and report family violence, costing the Australian economy $15.6 million.

What can I do to assist women who have experienced violence?

If you are experiencing or have experienced violence:

Police or Ambulance: call 000 in an emergency for police or ambulance.

• Ask them if they need assistance or someone to talk to.

Speak to a friend, relative or work colleague you can trust. Explain to them the situation and tell them if there is anything you would like them to do. You can also call the following numbers:

Lifeline: call 13 11 14 for free counselling across Australia.

• Listen to them, be non-judgemental and assure them it isn’t their fault.

Kids Help Line: Freecall: 1800 551 800 for telephone counselling for children and young people.

• Respect their decisions.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732): 24-hour, National Sexual Assault, Family & Domestic Violence Counselling Line for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault.

If you have a friend, family member or colleague who is experiencing violence:

Explain to your friends, family and peers why you believe violence against women is unacceptable. Resources are available at www.unwomen.org.au to provide you with information.

Let them know that it is not their fault and that you are always available for them to talk to.

If you want to educate others about violence against women:

Ruby | 17

Ruby Travel

z

‘Do you want to come to Mallorca with me?’ Hmm, leave the family behind in the cold and wet of a Victorian winter for sunny blue skies and grand old Spanish towns?

Judy Baulch packed her bags for the trip of a lifetime.

Ruby Travel

I

’m floating in the Mediterranean, squinching my eyes against the brightness of the sun reflecting off the blue, with blue, blue water mirroring blue, blue sky. It’s not quite as warm in here as it looked from the shore, but I’m getting used to it. And hey – it’s June and back in Geelong it’s 10 degrees, grey and raining. As it was all the way to the airport on the day we left, whatever day that was, because they are all running into each other in a blur of sunshine, brilliant bougainvillea and oleanders, olive trees and sandstone and shutters and winding, narrow streets and every other cliché that might come to mind when thinking of Spain (or Tuscany, for that matter). But clichés are clichés

hour (give or take an hour or two) journey and the sprint from the plane to the arrivals gate (my sister hadn’t seen my niece for two years) through endless corridors populated by young German men wearing custom T-shirts that suggested membership of a buck’s night or footy trip; and even younger British women whose very tight black t-shirts advised us in bright pink lettering to Go Hard or Go Home.

The German boys, who kept us highly entertained on our last two hour hop from Düsseldorf, we find out later, are probably headed for Arenal– a resort popular with their countrymen. The British girls

Palma itself was founded by the Romans, built on Bronze Age remains, before the island was sacked by the Vandals, then conquered by the Byzantines and the Moors and annexed to Spain in 1492. because they’re true and I’m not complaining.

I have found myself here, swimming in the sea off Mallorca’s Playa de Illetas, after a decision that officially makes my husband the Best In The World. Putting aside his own long held desire to visit Spain, he generously offered to stay home in the middle of Victoria’s coldest winter for some years and care for the offspring while I jetted off with my sister to visit my niece who currently calls Illetas, a suburb of Mallorca’s capital of Palma, home. An excellent decision on her part, I decide, as I bob in the waves with the sun on my face.

We arrived here somewhat dazed from our 26

Ruby | 20

will be bound for Magaluf (colloquially referred to as Shagaluf, or as we christen it, British Bali. It brings to mind ‘The Villa’, the reality TV show from the 90s, featuring young Brits behaving badly on Mallorca’s sister island, Ibiza). We do a quick drive through one Sunday afternoon when the rest of Mallorca appears to be sleeping. Not Magaluf though … its Indian takeaways, Chinese discount shops and the Prince William Hotel around the corner from the Lady Diana Restaurant (I kid you not) are bustling with sunburnt tourists.

Like those other Spanish islands, the Canaries, Mallorca and its smaller sister islands in the

Balearic archipelago are a holiday playground for Europeans (and the odd Australian fugitive – yes, this is where Christopher Skase hid out) and I’m unsure how many actual locals we meet in Palma, although apparently more than half the population works in the island’s main industry of tourism. The waiters, waitresses and restaurant owners we met switched seamlessly between English, Spanish, German and French and could just as easily be Danish or Swedish as Mallorcan. But beneath the holiday atmosphere is a history stretching back to 6000 – 4000 BC. Palma itself was founded by the Romans, built on Bronze Age remains, before the island was sacked by the Vandals, then conquered by the Byzantines and the Moors and annexed to Spain in 1492. The stunning fortress-like cathedral (the guide book describes it as Gothic and I can see that it is, with its rose window and soaring arches, but it seems somehow fiercer than Gothic churches elsewhere in Europe) in the Old Town of Palma was built by James 1 of Aragon on the site of a former mosque, keeping a promise he made to God that he would build a cathedral to honour the Virgin Mary if he and his army were rescued from a storm preventing them from conquering Mallorca.

Although the cathedral once stood beside the shore, the sea has since retreated, leaving the building reaching proudly into the sky beside a modern, man-made lake. On the day we visit, the lakeside, the old streets surrounding the cathedral and the tree-lined Passeig des Born (the Born) are alive with tourists, buskers, street entertainers and vendors hawking the ubiquitous painted landscapes of the Mediterranean (all of them, of course, are selling the original). In the Born,

Ruby Travel

beside the graceful old buildings now housing Zara, H&M, Massimo and countless cafes and bars whose tables spill out onto the footpath, a full orchestra is playing under the trees, a couple is tango dancing in the square. Workers are setting up for some event – there is a big screen TV and scaffolding. Some kind of ancient, local festival?

No, just the soccer.

Trying to attract the attention of the people sitting at the cafes with their tapas and cocktails are African men selling “genuine” designer watches and handbags. They advertise the crazy hats and feathered mohawks they also have for sale by wearing several of them at once. I remember these men from my previous trip to Europe, but I somehow forgot about the beggars. We see two of them sitting on the steps leading to the cathedral, an old lady who mumbles her request for money into her bowl and a woman missing both her legs.

They are there for hours in the hot sun, each day that we are in the Old Town. Who carries them there every morning? Who carries them home?

We are driven around the island to see the sights in a battered blue Renault, grateful that we’re not the ones navigating the narrow streets and busy motorways on the wrong side of the road. The road infrastructure is amazing and, we are told, quite recent. The Mallorcans have embraced roundabouts like true Canberrans and, despite the crazy drivers, getting places is quick and easy. The Renault is battered for a reason, like 90 per cent of its dented, scraped and scratched fellow cars, and after we witness the local attitude to parking, we understand why. If you need to stop somewhere, then just park your car, whether that be in the middle of the road or between two other cars

where there is not quite enough room unless you engage in a little impromptu panel beating.

Clearly, Mallorcan parking inspectors are not as enthusiastic about their jobs as their Australian counterparts.

in them, maintaining their original dignity despite the electrical wire and telephone cables often strung like black bunting across their facades, and the radio towers, television antennae and satellite dishes mounted incongruously on slate roofs.

One day, we drive into the mountains to Valdemossa, a hill village of breathtaking beauty surrounded by terraces of olives and almonds, the blue green tower of its 14th century monastery dominating almost every view. It smells like jasmine. Despite the number of people and cars in the narrow streets, the town is hushed and

We have picked up a tiny bit of Spanish (I am remembering well from my one and only other trip to Europe the feeling of being hopelessly uneducated because I speak only English). We’ve learnt to ask for water - although we frequently mix up agua sin gas (still) and con gas (sparkling) and uno vino blanco, mojito, pina colada and Fly me to the Moon, a cocktail exclusive to the

peaceful and we feel disinclined to speak in much

We drive into the mountains to Valdemossa, the hill village of breathtaking beauty surrounded by terraces of olives and almonds, the blue green tower of its 14th century monastery dominating almost every view. It smells like jasmine. more than whispers. Maybe everyone is a little stunned by the sunshine. Maybe it’s the unconcerned chatter of the birds that evoke memories of still, childhood afternoons in the country, maybe it’s the vista after vista of sandstone and terracotta and olives and behind it, rising above it all, the mountains, their great outcrops of rock thrusting into the sky with gaps between them showing glimpses of the valley beyond. I feel like Frances Mayes wandering under a Tuscan sun, in another country entirely, I know but also one of cyprus and olives and ancient towns quietly existing around the people who live

Cappuccino Bar on the Born. “How do you say that in Spanish?” we ask the charming, good looking waiter (we think he may actually be Spanish!). “Ah, uno Fly me to the Moon, por favour,” he says, “it does not translate”. Hmm, a cocktail made with vodka, lemon, lime and possibly angostura, created in a Spanish bar named after an Italian coffee which is then christened in English. Cappuccino also has a waitress of indeterminate nationality who corrects us when she overhears us practicing our Spanish.

“No, no, that’s actually French…”

We practice hola and adiós, gracias and de nada

Ruby | 21

Ruby Travel

(thanks, Dora the Explorer!) and discover why people look confused when we ask for the baniyos instead of the baño (one means bathroom, the other is possibly not a word in any language). The etymology of inmobiliaria (real estate agency) remains beyond me. It’s amazing how my Italian, which I could not speak at all when in Italy, keeps coming out now and tripping up my Spanish, as does my Year Eight French.

It’s an incident in Valdemossa that brings home most strongly how language can separate people, stopping dead the simplest of conversations. We have wandered uphill through a winding street of

has his studio next door, at the top of a very narrow, steep f light of stairs, which a sign in English politely invites us to “raise” in order to see his exhibition. I ascend so that I can buy a postcard of one of his prints that particularly caught my eye in the tantalising display below and find myself in a tiny room whose walls explode with the brightness of his art. The diminutive woman behind the counter, who is herself dressed entirely in beige, greets us with a cheery buenos días and continues sorting through a pile of paintings. I stand with my purchases, but I have

I feel I’ve barely scratched the surface of this place, despite being privileged to see things this week that are off the normal tourist track and to have spent time with people who have lived here for years. cobblestones and walls adorned with pots of succulents and geraniums and under an archway to a square open at the end to the mountainside.

The lady in the shop that looks as if it might fall over the edge of the hill into the goat paddock below sells locally made soaps and homewares and ironic postcards that feature Spanish pickup lines (I add gaupa and gaupo - very roughly translated as “pretty” and “handsome - to my vocabulary) and one I can’t resist that says simply, “A postcard from Mallorca”.

An artist, whose name I will never be sure of now, although his work will adorn a wall in my home,

Ruby | 22

no Spanish except hola and adiós to offer her. I don’t know how to say, “I would like this please”, I don’t know how to say, “The paintings are beautiful, the colours are so bright”. I’m not confident enough to attempt the newly learned gaupo or gaupa, because pretty is not quite what I want to say, it’s not enough, and besides there is a feminine and masculine version, so which would I use? So I smile at her and hand her the print I have chosen and she smiles back and wraps it in brown paper. I hand her my money and she picks up a china pig from the shelf beside her, shakes it to see if it has coins in it and then

disappears through a door into another room.

When she comes back with my change, she says in careful English, “Pick another card, a gift for you,” and I am encouraged to say, “The paintings are beautiful”. “My husband,” she replies, “Such bright colours,” and then there is nothing else we can say to each other except gracias and adiós.

We are going for a day trip across the island, so we pile into the Renault and head for Campos and its Saturday market. It’s warm, and the Renault’s air conditioning no longer works, so with windows down we whiz through tiny stone villages, past tidy rows of olives and almonds in neat square paddocks of pebbly red dirt.

Australian olive trees have not had enough time to twist around themselves like this. We’re told that people come from everywhere around Europe to cycle and rock climb in Mallorca – it’s not surprising given those mountains. They’re completely indifferent to the centuries of human activity that have gone on in them, around them, on the patchwork plains below them. Their dragon spines slice into the impossibly blue sky and all the Spanish clichés spin past the windows – the trees, the stone walls, the crazy, impatient drivers…This is why people sell everything and move to Spain. Why wouldn’t you?

Like probably every tourist before and after me, I am keeping an eye out for properties for sale and picturing myself shopping at the local markets, learning how to converse with my neighbours (who, let’s face it, would probably be more likely German or British than Spanish), wandering these beautiful streets as a native, not just another foreigner passing through. I feel I’ve barely scratched the surface of this place, despite being

Ruby Travel

privileged to see things this week that are off the normal tourist track and to have spent time with people who have lived here for years.

I get lost in the sky and the stone on the 40-minute trip to Campos, and then lost again in the old streets that seem too small for cars. At the market, in a tiny square under the shade of several large trees, we are overwhelmed with the range of fresh produce – every fruit and vegetable possible seems to be in season at the same time, including numerous varieties of tomatoes, apples and stone fruit, some of which I have never seen before. Old women carrying baskets and wearing scarves chat to each other, old men in baggy pants pushing bicycles call out greetings to equally old men. There are lots of families with brightly coloured prams (it seems to be the go to use a jaunty parasol to keep the sun off junior, as well as a hood) and, as the market stretches away from the produce area in the square and down the street, increasing numbers of our friendly African men and stall holders selling everything from gigantic beach towels to gigantic underpants. Anything, it seems, can be turned into a souvenir if you just print Mallorca on it somewhere, even beach towels featuring a full length picture of Hannah Montana.

We sit a while at a café to eat a traditional Mallorcan pastry called ensaïmada with de crema (custard cream) and watch the crowds go by, then it’s back to the car and off to Cala d’Or on the coast where the houses are white instead of sandstone and bring to mind the Greek isles. At Porto Colum, where the houses on the waterfront are painted in pretty pastels, there is a sandy cove amongst the pine trees with a rustic bar perched

on the shore. On the beach, a little girl toddles towards the water, following the universal principle that’s ok to be naked at the beach as long as you wear your hat.

On the way home, Sant Salvador Sanctuary, a majestic former monastery, sits 510 metres above sea level. Our trusty Renault zigs and zags up five kilometres of hair raising bends and rewards us with 360 degree views of the island, watched over by a soaring stone cross, an incredibly ugly haloed statue of Christ, some furtive feral cats and a radio tower or two. Sant Salvador’s 300 year-old roof bristles with aids to modern

stayed up late last night at a little bar under the trees just down the road from our hotel, reluctant to admit the holiday is over and face up to another 26 hours of travel home. I have a slide show of memories to sustain me – tumbling houses drenched in sunlight, the sparkling sea, the startling juxtaposition of old and new on a suburban street: an All American Steakhouse, a supermarket, a Fitness First Gym, high rises and an ancient stone church with one bell missing and grass growing from its roof. I am saturated in beauty and utterly relaxed in the holiday atmosphere, but still, that is only the surface.

Our trusty Renault zigs and zags up five kilometres of hair raising bends and rewards us with 360-degree views over the island, watched over by a soaring stone cross, some furtive feral cats and a radio tower or two. communication. “Well, why shouldn’t the monks be able to access the internet?” my sister asks, but there are no longer any monks here – the monastery is now the Petit Hotel Hostatgería Sant Salvador and the bright blue and yellow umbrellas of the outdoor café are eye-wateringly out of place. Although the sanctuary itself holds the peace of its past life safe inside its immense stone walls, modern glass doors and hotel signs do detract from the atmosphere. Nothing, however, detracts from that view.

It’s still dark when we leave for the airport on our last day. We’ve had four hours’ sleep; having

Until my niece moved here, Mallorca was neveron my radar, but this island in the sun is now high on my list of places to return to, to scratch below the surface.

On the motorway, we pass through an area of high rise f lats, bath towels hanging over balconies, roof top clothes lines, bicycles hanging from hooks on the walls. It reminds me forcefully again that people actually live here; that they lead perhaps the same kind of life my friends and I lead, that maybe I could meet new friends when I return…

by Judy Baulch.

Ruby | 23

Ruby Reading

SWEET TOOTH Ian McEwan

T

he beautiful daughter of an Anglican bishop has a brief affair with an older man during her final year at Cambridge and finds herself being groomed for the intelligence services.

The year is 1972 and Britain is confronting economic disaster. The country is being torn apart by industrial unrest and terrorism and faces its fifth state of emergency.

A compulsive reader, Serena is chosen for a mission that takes her into the literary world of a promising young writer.

Compelled by his writing, Serena soon finds her feelings towards the man taking an unexpected and potentially dangerous turn.

How long will it take Tom to see through the veil of fiction behind which she is hiding her undercover life, and does she want him to? Can you still see the truth when you are living a lie? How can Serena answer these questions without breaking the first rule of espionage - trust no one.

Sweet Tooth is a deft and dazzling story of betrayal, intrigue, love and the invented self.

EDITORS PICK

RUBY BOOK CLUB

A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar

All My Enemies

Wake

Suzanne Joinson

Barry Maitland

Amanda Hocking

I

n 1923, two lady cyclists are travelling the Silk Route to the ancient city of Kashgar to help establish a Christian mission. Lizzie is following her faith, while Evangeline is riding away from a bourgeois life. In present-day London, Freida doesn’t really know what she’s doing or what she wants until two things collide to give direction.

She finds a man from Yemen asleep on her front landing and finds she is the next-of-kin to a dead woman she has never heard of.

This lovely book is all about finding your own path in life, wherever, whenever, or whoever you are.

Ruby | 24

F

or those days when only a thriller will do, this latest book in the Brock & Kolla series might be just what you’re after. I should start by saying that this is my first foray into the dark and disturbing world of Detective Chief Inspector David Brock and Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla and was satisfied with how easy it was to slide into the story. An unlikely lead in a grisly murder case takes DS Kathy Kolla into an amateur local theatre group.

Unravelling fact from fabrication will take all of her nerve, instinct and skill. A slow burn thriller with with genuine surprise factor.

P

enn, Thea and Lexi are different from other girls. Beautiful, fearless and dangerous, they arrive in town for the summer and everyone is watching them, especially Harper. Harper’s 16 year-old sister is entranced by the girls, and is drawn to them by a shared love of night swimming. But when Gemma wakes up on the beach after a late night party at the Cove, she knows something has happened to her – she is stronger, faster and more beautiful than before.

But will she surrender to her new supernatural powers and leave her family behind?

Ruby Reading

The Devil’s Cave

The House I Loved

Curses & Blessings For All Occasions

Martin Walker

Tatiana de Rosnay

Bradley Trevor Greive

B

P

runo is the local Chief of Police in a small village in the Perigord region of France.

For Bruno, usually, life is good. He has his beloved basset hound, Balzac, and a steady stream of eating, drinking and romantic engagements.

aris in 1869 and the old city is being torn down to satisfy the Emperor’s desire for a modern city.

But all of a sudden, there is a pall over Bruno’s life, his dog is gone, as are his lady friends, he is dealing with a domestic violence and allegations of fraud against local developers.

When the body of a woman, naked and marked with a pentagram drifts into the village on a boat, it’s almost more than an honest, upright policeman can take.

She stakes her claim in the basement of the house on rue Childebert. To stave off the loneliness of her protest, she begins writing letters to her late husband.

While others flee as their homes are sacrificed to Haussmann’s boulevards, one woman, Rose Bazelet, is determined to fight the destruction.

And as Rose delves into her memories she reveals the secrets held within the walls of her beloved house.

A

treasure trove of blessings and curses for our times with which to heap praise upon the worthy or smite your enemies from the New York Times bestselling author.

May your excuses for avoiding tedious social engagements always sound credible; May your corpse be museum worthy; or May your yogurt be teeming with bacteria; are mixed in with as many respectable curses for good measure: May small dogs exploit all your insecurities; May a bomber formation of incontinent geese fly over your sunroof; May all dairy items in your fridge be of questionable vintage.

Moranthology

Dodger

Joseph Anton

Caitlin Moran

Terry Pratchett

Salman Rushdie

I

n this latest offering from the bestselling British columnist Ghostbusters, Twitter, caffeine, panic attacks, Michael Jackson’s memorial service, Doctor Who, bingedrinking, Downton Abbey and pandas get the Moran treatment. “I go to a sex club with Lady Gaga, cry on Paul McCartney’s guitar, climb into the TARDIS, sniff Sherlock Holmes’s pillow at 221b Baker Street, turn up late to Downing Street for Gordon Brown, and am rudely snubbed at a garden party by David Cameron – although that’s probably because I called him ‘a C-3PO made of ham.”

I love this girl!

Due out September 2012.

M

aster storyteller and creator of the phenomenally successful Discworld series, Terry Pratchett returns, this time with a tale of dark deeds in Dickensian London.

Pratchett combines rapier sharp wit with gutter humour, pointed and poignant insight into social and societal inequities with moments of sublime silliness.

He takes you from this world to another that is really a lot like ours, only makes more sense.

Not for everyone perhaps, but my inner reader does a joyous cartwheel every time I see his name on the ‘coming soon’ lists.

Due out September 2012.

H

is is an extraordinary story. For the first time, Salman Rushdie gives his account of living under a fatwa. On 14 February 1989, Salman Rushdie was told that he had been ‘sentenced to death’ by the Ayatollah Khomeini. For the first time he heard the word fatwa. His crime? To have written a novel called The Satanic Verses, which was accused of being ‘against Islam, the Prophet and the Quran’.

So begins the extraordinary story of how a writer was forced underground, moving from house to house, with the constant presence of an armed police protection team.

Due out September 2012.

Ruby | 25

Ruby Beauty Are you a lipstick girl?

Choose a hydrating lowmaintenance lippy such as L’Oreal Paris Colour Riche Made for Me Nude...

They even tell you which one suits your hair colour!

Avoiding the makeup meltdown I

love spring racing. The fascinators, hatinators (a fascinator-hat hybrid), hair, makeup, shoes and champagne, make for a rather fabulous day out. Over the years my race-day beauty routine has evolved dramatically. When I was 18 I thought it would be clever to match my purple-grey dress with a metallic purple-grey smoky eye and fire engine red glossy lips (what’s not clever about that?).

I left the house at 10am feeling Sasha Fierce, but by 11am felt more like Ronald McDonald crossed with a Panda. My metallic eyes had turned into molten lava and spread all around my eye sockets above and below – and my glossy red lips had bled and stained all around my mouth giving me a clown-like appearance.

Here are my top tips to avoid makeup meltdown on race day. / Face Don’t skip primer today, it’s a must. Try The Body Shop Skin Primer 02 Matte It, $26.95 (25ml). This clear gel glides on and mattifies giving your makeup a long-lasting fresh finish.

Follow with a mineral foundation such as the SheerCoverTM Mineral Foundation, $39.95 (4g) each (available in seven blendable shades). This unique 4-in-1 formula mineral foundation has a buildable coverage and has the added benefit of SPF15 to help protect you from damaging UV rays. / Eyes

No amount of touching up could fix this one. Furthermore having forgotten my SPF, it wasn’t long until I had a red nose and shoulders to match.

Choose a neutral wet-to-dry eye shadow such as Prestige Mono Eyeshadow in Champagne (how appropriate), $13.50 (0.08oz).

Let’s face it, after a day in the sun, a few too many champagnes, and not enough H2o hydration, it’s unlikely you will remain as glamorous from am to pm. So ditch the detailed disco-face and embrace fuss-free makeup. The only thing that should be heavy duty is your primer and SPF.

For a perfect line try the smudge-proof and waterproof Maybelline NY Eye Studio Master Precise Liquid Eyeliner in Blackest Black, $13.95 (0.35g). Follow with lashings of black mascara, my pick is Maybelline NY Volum’ Express The Falsies Mascara in Black Drama, $19.25 (9.2ml), for a dramatic effect.

Courtney Buchanan-Huhn

/ Lips Are you a lipstick girl? Choose a hydrating low-maintenance lippy such as L’Oreal Paris Colour Riche Made for Me Nude, $25.95 (available in 11 shades). They even tell you which one suits your hair colour!

If you’re more into glosses try Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss, $21.95 (5.9ml). Available in six pretty shades: Shine City, Nude Lustre, Peach Petal, Pink Afterglow, Pearl Plum, Firecracker; with the added benefits of Aloe Vera and SPF 15 to protect your pout. / Mini handbag saviours Keep a packet of Proactiv® Oil Blotter Sheets on hand to instantly absorb oil without disturbing your makeup, $18.99 for 130 sheets.

Avene’s mini Thermal Spring Water is super cute and can be spritzed throughout the day to hydrate skin and revive tired makeup, $10.95 (50ml).

With potentially hours of sun exposure, having SPF on hand is an absolute must.

Keep Cancer Council’s Everyday Sunscreen SPF30, $4.95 (35ml) in your clutch to slip, slop, slap throughout the day.

/ Stockists Body Shop primer available at The Body Shop in Westfield Geelong or at www.thebodyshop.com.au; SheerCoverTM and Proactiv® available at Proactiv® Kiosk in Westfield Geelong; Prestige available at Priceline in Westfield Geelong or at www.prestigecosmetics.com.au; L’Oreal 1300 659 359; Revlon is available through selected pharmacy, variety, specialty and department stores throughout Australia or phone 1800 025 488; Maybelline is available through selected pharmacy, variety, specialty and department stores throughout Australia; Avene is available at Chemist warehouse, Priceline, Priceline Pharmacy, Terry White and leading pharmacies nationally or call Toll free 1800 678 302; Cancer Council available at ww.cancervic.org.au/Shop

Ruby | 26

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Ruby | 27

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Ruby | 28

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Ruby | 30

Ruby Events

Get excited ladies Toast to the Coast

R

uby readers, we are giving you fair warning, now is the time to lock in your babysitters, book up your friends and prepare to celebrate all that is good about local fine wines. Geelong’s major food and music festival, Toast to the Coast, returns for the 11th year this Melbourne Cup weekend – November 3 and 4, 2012.

Better still, during September, event organisers have released weekend pass tickets for sale at only $30 instead of $40! A ‘Toasting’ ticket includes a $10 commemorative Geelong Wine glass – your entry to all host vineyards and passport to free wine tastings throughout the weekend.

Chair of Toast to the Coast and Geelong Winegrowers Association (GWA) marketing executive, Lyndsay Sharp, said Toast to the Coast was a brilliant excuse for friends to get together amidst wines, vines, great food and entertainment.

“With more than 30 wineries on board, this year’s Toast to the Coast Festival is already shaping up to be huge and spectacular – and once people attend for a first time, they are hooked! The Early Bird tickets are a great opportunity for wine and food lovers to secure discount tickets to a signature Victorian event.

“Toast to the Coast is a true community celebration of all that is wonderful about the Geelong Wine region’s premium wines, fabulous local produce and talented entertainers. Across The Bellarine, Moorabool Valley and Surf Coast, wineries will be pulling out all stops to showcase the Geelong winery ‘experience’ in a weekend of sensational wine, food, music and fun.”

Mrs Sharp said Toast to the Coast was one of the biggest events of the year for the Geelong region, attracting thousands of wine lovers, locals and tourists alike.

“It’s a brilliant event that sees our wineries, local tourism authorities, producers, providores, accommodation providers and entertainers work together to showcase the multi-faceted bounty of our great region.

“Geelong wines are firmly established as amongst the best in Australia – the Toast to the Coast weekend is definitely a time to be proud of the Geelong region and all that it offers,” she said.

Early Bird $30 tickets can be purchased via GPAC www.gpac.org.au. Event information, touring maps and shuttle bus details online at toasttothecoast.com.au.

Ruby | 31

Ruby Fitness

Going for Gold Anna-Marie Hughes

W

as that it? The Olympics I mean. Yes, yes, there were some amazing races; we had talent; and, phew, thank goodness we weren’t the biggest losers (just don’t mention the swimming).

But now that it’s all over and done with, what do we do now?

After all those years of whipping us up into a frenzy of excitement, were the Olympics good for you? (I can see it coming: 50 Shades of the Olympics!) But as we all lie back and think of England (London, actually) and how jolly and pleasant it all was, what are the Olympics going to do for us here in Geelong?

Apart from generating gazillions of dollars worth of media income and some television ads that will hopefully never be seen again, the measure of success for The Olympics – or any sporting event for that matter – should be a huge surge in participation at various sporting clubs all around the world. This is known as the ‘trickle-down effect’ and it means that we lesser mortals might be inspired enough by a gymnast or an archer or a rower to get off our fat behinds and emulate the successes of our sporting heroes.

Isn’t ‘trickle-down effect’ an unfortunate name? It just reeks of urine which, granted, goes hand-in-hand with most major sporting events. Pity that ‘urine testing’ and the thought of ‘something trickling down’ didn’t also occur to some opportunistic but dopey London courier drivers doing the ‘Olympic-to-Lab’

Ruby | 32

anti-doping express route, who decided that storing their packed lunches in the same on-board fridges as the 6,250 athletes’ urine and blood sample bottles was a really good idea.

And it is doubtful whether the trickle-down effect happens at all any more. We’re all fatty boombahs, apparently, and we don’t believe we can win gold for our country.

But sport and gold go so well together.

The Olympics – or any sporting event for that matter – should be a huge surge in participation at various sporting clubs all around the world.

In 1971, 12 year-old me watched Evonne Goolagong win Wimbledon and was so impressed that I went to an op shop in East Geelong, and bought a wooden tennis racquet for 20 cents. I brought it home and made the astonishing discovery that my physically handicapped mother had been a fabulous tennis player in her youth. She taught me how to serve in our backyard and applauded me when I split

the weatherboard on the old shed. I joined St Mary’s Junior Tennis Club and then moved away and played social tennis in England, memorably and rather disconcertingly got mistaken for Chris Evert by a tour group at Heathrow, and came back to Australia and joined another tennis club and met this gorgeous guy there and married him. One 24-carat wedding ring … Gold for Australia!

As secretary of a tennis club in Melbourne, I would be bombarded with membership applications during each Australian Open.

The attrition rate was high, but every year we would manage to keep a few of these new members.

I remember trying to join an archery club in Belmont, I think it was, in 1976 after the Montreal Olympics. They never answered my phone call so maybe Australia and I were denied a certain Gold.

I’m kidding of course, but isn’t it nice to think that maybe right now, somebody is writing down the phone number of one of the local athletics clubs, or putting their toe in the water at one of the local pools, and taking that first leap into a love of sport that will fulfil their lives and let this nation live the dream and bring the excitement of winning Gold to our proud sporting cities.

Ruby Fitness

Get the water advantage Andrew Danebergs, Club Manager, Jetts Fitness Torquay

W

hen it’s been raining cats and dogs outside it’s easy to think that water is not your friend when it comes to exercise, perhaps more of a hindrance than a help! Here are three simple ways to use water to your advantage when training: / 1. Walk in it. After a long run, ride or hard leg session in the gym you will have generated micro trauma or tiny tears in your muscle fibres. Cold water causes blood vessels to constrict, which in turn flushes out the metabolic debris that has been left by your intense session and reduces swelling and muscle breakdown. Take a 5 to 10 minute walk

in thigh or waist deep water between 12 to 15 degrees and your legs will thank you for it (that’s why the footy players do it). / 2. Swim in it. The non-impact nature of swimming takes the pressure off your joints and will work all your muscles against the resistance of the water. Adding a water session to your training program every now and then to aid recovery will help to ease and sustain tired muscles and joints and can also be a great workout in itself. / 3. Drink it. Muscles are largely composed of water and function optimally when well

hydrated. It’s important to maintain appropriate hydration levels before, during and after exercise, both to maximise performance and to reduce the likelihood of cramping. Drinking small amounts of water throughout the day, everyday, guarantees you won’t be left high and dry.

No matter how you train or what you’re training for, what you do to recover your body in preparation for your next session is vital. Water offers simple and incredibly effective support to the recovery process, and it’s right at our fingertips, so what are you waiting for!

THE GYM THAT WORKS

OUT BETTER

No contracts. Low fees. Open 24/7.

Jetts Torquay Geelong West T. 5261 5380 T. 5222 8945

1300 JETTS 247 | jetts.com.au

Ruby | 33

Competition

F more iinformation For f ti on Derby Day on the Pier, visit thecityquarter.com.au.

To enter: Log on to the competition page of our website adcellgroup.com.au and fill in your details.

It will be festival of Black and White fabulousness at Derby Day on the Pier in Geelong on November 3rd, and courtesy of the EMC Group we have 2 double passes to the event and a $100 dining voucher for Baveras Brasserie to give away.

Ruby | 34

Derby Day on the Pier is a new event, celebrating all the fun, style and frivolity of Derby Day, at City Quarter Bar on Cunningham Pier.

It will be a fantastic day filled with live music, DJ, live auctions, prize giveaways, and the chance to spend the day with your friends

whilst watching all the racing action from the Spring Carnival on the live screen.

Supported by Ray White & Barwon Health, proceeds of ticket sales will be donated to support Barwon Health’s Andrew Love Cancer Centre, supporting local women.

Photo: Berkowitz

Where is the love?

Davina Montgomery

I

am hopelessly envious of people who have the decorating gene – that instinctive sense that tells them one thing is going to look beautiful put on another thing, that with that other thing behind them creates a perfect vignette. It’s these finishing touches that turn a house into a home, and mine just isn’t there yet.

Like many others living in a housing boom area, when hubby and I decided our former home was no longer suitable for our growing family we made the decision to sell up and move on. It had taken a solid 18 months to finish off our renovations, most of which meant weekends and nights spent painstakingly painting walls, timber windows, doors, veranda balustrades to the point where neither of us wanted to see a paint can or brush again. When everything on the market that came close to meeting what we were after also came with an extensive list of renovations that needed doing, we gave up, bought a block and started to plan a new build.

‘It won’t be that bad’ we thought, and, for a while, it wasn’t. There was all the excitement of choosing kitchens and finishes and paint colours that someone else would be doing all the work on. Why hadn’t we thought of this years ago? Even while the process dragged on, and on, there was the tantalising thought that soon we would actually be in our new home, a home built just for us. Then the reality hit. What we had built was a really nice

house, it had a lovely kitchen, very nice finishes and someone else had done all the painting (not to our by now very high standards, but hey, we didn’t have to pick up a paintbrush, so we tried not to complain). What it wasn’t, however, was a home.

I should point out that our last home was a modest three-bedroom one bathroom with no ensuite, no dishwasher, a garage that was too awkward to drive into and a big set of steps that I had spent the past ten years hauling shopping bags, workbags, baby bags and children up – and many times all of those things at once. It was far from perfect, but I loved it. I had loved it from the moment we walked into it. I loved its flaking timber windows, I loved its lightness, I loved spending sunny days sitting on the veranda hidden by the trees we had planted, and I loved that I could look out over the hills while I was doing the dishes. But most of all I loved the way it felt when you walked in the door.

It was a house that had been loved, a happy house, long before we moved in.

Our new house has everything the old one didn’t.

It has spare rooms, a kids play room, a big kitchen with the long-awaited dishwasher, it has a garage with internal access (no more steps!), a big ensuite and walk in robe, a big pantry, heaps of storage space and everything is new, new, new. It has all those things real estate agents will tell you add value, but what it doesn’t have, at least not yet, is character. It hasn’t been loved yet, and I am now

more than ever convinced that both happiness and unhappiness seep into the walls of a home – that over the years, a house develops a character of its own.

While much of that character takes time to develop, but bringing in things that you love things that say something about the people who live there - help to create a home. That is the process that we are going through now, and I don’t mind saying that over the dark and dreary winter months, I lost all enthusiasm for decorating. I stopped buying home magazines and gave up searching homewares stores and websites.

But spring has returned, and as the mud dries out to mere dirt, we are once again planning – planning decks and gardens and that familyfriendly yard that this whole process was supposed to be about. We are coming up with ideas to turn dead spaces into cosy and functional nooks. I’m also inspired again to search for lamps and cushions and objects and art that will help turn my very nice house into a home I can really start to fall in love with.

Now, where to look for the perfect lamp base to go with that gorgeous Missoni lampshade I just found…?

For all of you who, like me, seem to have missed the decorating gene, we bring you Ruby Living, filled with great ideas for turning nice houses into homes you will love.

Geelong owned and operated since 1999 138 Ryrie St, Geelong Mon - Thurs 9am - 5.30pm, Fri 9am - 6pm, Sat 9am - 4pm Ph: 5229 9923 (Parking also available at rear)

Ruby | 36

Shop 10/240 Pakington Street, Geelong West Mon - Thurs 10am - 5.30pm, Fri 10am - 6pm, Sat 10am - 3pm Ph: 5221 6305 (Parking also available off Spring St)

www.chefsessentials.com.au

W

ith springtime produce starting to appear in all our markets, now is the time to excite our tastebuds with the new season produce.

When choosing produce, try to stick with what is around during the season, as it is normally cheaper to buy, the taste is better as it is fresher and the fruit and vegetables will contain more nutrients.

Fruit and vegetables will start to lose their nutritional value as soon as they are harvested so it is always better to pick what is freshest. Always try to pick local produce as they will be fresher than something that has had to travel across the country or even overseas.

During spring in Victoria, there is a huge abundance of fruit and veg in season. Look

for new season artichokes, legumes including green beans and broad beans, peas, zucchini and squash, parsnips, spinach, broccoli, as well as cucumbers, chillies, and the last of the season’s cauliflower.

The warmer months signal the beginnings of berry season and the imminent end of the citrus season – but over spring, with good conditions, we can get a bit of both, so enjoy!

Sunnier days also mean more days spent outside and entertaining friends, so here are a couple of simple crowd pleasers that are easy to prepare – leaving you more time to enjoy the sunshine.

Darius Sarkis Head Chef, Baveras Brasserie

Photo: Elisha Lindsay, elphotography.com.au

$19.90* s 1 course & a glass

of beer, wine or soft s In & out in the hour

Catch up over the water with an Express Lunch Open 7 days for breakfast, lunch & dinner (except Sun evening).

Cunningham Pier, 10 Western Beach Foreshore Rd, Geelong. (03) 5222 6377 reservations@baveras.com.au www.baveras.com.au

(*Available Mon-Fri, 12pm-3pm)

Baveras

@BaverasThePier

Ruby | 37

Main Photos: Elisha Lindsay, elphotography.com.au

Ingredients

Method

3 Green chillies, deseeded and roughly chopped

Place chillies, coriander, fish sauce, cumin, ginger, red onion and peanut oil in a food processor and process until ingredients come together as a smooth paste.

1 Cup Fresh coriander leaves 1 Tbs Fish sauce 2 Tsp Ground cumin 1 Tbs Peeled ginger, finely chopped 1 Red onion roughly chaopped 2 Tbs Peanut oil 500g Chicken thigh fillets, large dice 250g Potatoes peeled and quatered 1 Cup Chicken stock 1 1/2 Cups Coconut milk 1/2 Cup Cashew nuts toasted 3 Kaffir lime leaves

Heat a saucepan over a medium heat, add a little splash of vegetable oil and add the paste. Fry the paste off for around 5 minutes, constantly stirring or until paste is fragrant.

Add diced chicken to saucepan and cook the chicken for 2 minutes, ensuring that all the chicken is coated with the paste.

Add the potatoes, chicken stock, coconut milk and kaffir lime leaves to the saucepan then bring to the boil. Once reached boiling point, turn heat down so you get a gentle simmer.

Cook the curry for about 20 mins then add the cashew nuts.

Continue cooking curry until the chicken is nice and tender and the sauce is thick.

Serve the curry with lightly blanched Bok Choy and Steamed Jasmine Rice.

Ruby | 38

Ingredients

Method

Brownie

Preheat oven to 180Ëš.

100g Dark chocolate roughly chopped

Brownie

125g Unsalted Butter

Place chocolate and butter in a saucepan over a low heat and melt until the two have combined and are smooth.

175g Brown sugar 2 Eggs 2/3 Cup plain flour 1 Tbs Dutch cocoa Caramel Crunch

440g Caster Sugar 125ml Water 125ml Cream 50g Unsalted butter 70g Puffed rice Chocolate Ganache

300G Dark chocolate 125ml Cream

Place sugar, eggs, flour and cocoa in a bowl with the chocolate mixture and mix until well combined and smooth.

Pour mixture into a 20cm square cake tin lined with baking paper. Bake for 30-35 min or until set. Place brownie to the side and allow to cool to room temperature.

Caramel Crunch To make the caramel, place the sugar and water in a small saucepan over a low heat and stir so that the sugar is loose.

Add cream and butter and stir until everything is well combined. Stir through puffed rice and pour mixture over cooked brownie.

Smooth the top down and set aside for 30 minutes at room temperature or until it is almost set.

Chocolate Ganache To make the ganache place the cream and chocolate in a saucepan over a low heat and stir until the two are well combined and silky smooth.

Pour over set caramel and allow to set at room temperature.

Note - For a better result keep brownie in an airtight container out of the fridge. It will be fine to keep for 3 days.

Once sugar has dissolved, increase the heat, bring to the boil and cook until syrup is golden in colour (mixture needs to reach 160Ëš on a sugar thermometer).

Ruby | 39

Buy w well, buy less Shop with w a clear conscience and become a “consc “conscientious consumer” – Ruby brings you some of the be best in ethical e-shopping, from fashion to food.

www.firstray.com.au – Organic, fair trade, sustainable First Ray aims to make great organic, fair trade and sustainable food accessible to all Australians, from tea, coffee and chocolate, to dips, spreads, pastas and condiments and Australia’s most sustainable fish range - Fish 4 Ever, which includes pole and line caught tuna, sardines, salmon, herrings, mackerel and anchovies in organic oils and dressings. New products are continually added to the range, with mueslis, granolas and porridges coming soon.

www.oxfamshop.org.au – Upcycled materials, downsized poverty Offering a huge range of items, including homewares, toys, food and fashion accessories, Oxfam Shop products are sourced from individual workers, craft bodies and fair trade organisations in developing countries.

Oxfam Shop is registered as a Fair Trade Organisation by the World Fair Trade Association and shares its goals of commitment to fair trade, transparency in business practices, ethical workplaces, equal employment opportunities, concern for people and the environment and education about and advocacy of fair trade.

www.ethikl.com.au Eco friendly, organic, upcycled and fair trade products Ethikl is an online marketplace for buying and selling handmade, fair trade and ethically produced products made by artisans and independent producers around the world, allowing buyers to make positive buying decisions that favour ethical products, whether they’re fair trade, cruelty free, organic, recycled, handmade or produced locally.

Founder and director Peita Gardiman describes it as “a marketplace for conscious consumers … just like wandering through your local weekend market and stopping for a chat with the local producers, except Ethikl provides them with the means to jump from their local farmers’ markets to the virtual store shelves.”

Ruby | 40

www.purepod.com.au – Be aware of what you wear Pure Pod is one of Australia’s pioneer ethical, sustainable eco-fashion labels with all garments made in Australia from high quality, eco-friendly and sustainable fabrics including bamboo, organic cotton, pure merino wool, lyocel, hemp, soy, silk and linen.

Founder and head designer Kelli Donovan creates chic, contemporary, stylish and ethical collections with an urban influence, proving to the fashion conscious consumer that, “There is no need to sacrifice fashion for sustainability.”

www.ethicalliving.net.au – Buy products you know people are paid fairly for making Ethical Living searches the world to find unique homewares, jewellery, toys and stationery that not only look great, but help change the world in positive ways.

The company philosophy is that individuals have the choice and the power to end world poverty that through making the decision to shop and live ethically, we can all help to feed, clothe and educate children, provide dignified work to women who may otherwise be exploited, reduce human trafficking and support the producers in providing for their families.

3PECIALISED FURNITURE -!$% 4/ /2$%2 #ONTEMPORARY 4RADITIONAL

'ORDON !VENUE 'EELONG 7EST \ 0HONE

Ruby | 41

Take another look Berkowitz

B

eautifully made, high quality furniture that will last for years to come does not have to blow your decorating budget. The new Berkowitz is packed with modern styles from some of the best names in Australian and international furniture, including Tessa, Moran, Molmic, Stressless, IMG, Carezza and La-Z-Boy. Step inside the store and you will find beautiful and stylish leather and fabric lounges, chairs and sofa settings, modern timber and traditional timber dining settings, occasional and accent furniture and accessories. Feel the difference that quality makes when you relax into gorgeous lounge

finished in the finest quality durable leather or beautifully textured Warwick fabric. With gorgeous décor pieces, you will be amazed at what you will find at the new Berkowitz.

For the ultimate in comfort and style, the Stressless reclining chairs and sofas have taken the furniture world by storm. Combining comfort, form and style, these extraordinary pieces of furniture will change the way you think about relaxing.

Seated in a Stressless® you’ll instantly recognise the true meaning of comfort. It’s the way it glides back smoothly adding perfect support in all positions. It’s how it gently swings – with effortless

ease and stability. It’s the finest leather covering the soft, yet supple cushion, and it’s how the adjustable footstool completes the total feeling of relaxation, all the way down to your feet. Every single detail is designed with your wellbeing in focus.

Imagine being able to lie down, read or watch TV and always feel that your neck is comfortably supported. The stress lumbar support and headrest are progressively syncronised with the glide mechanism, meaning that you are always looking forwards, never upwards. But to truly understand how good they are, you simply have to try them.

Better quality. Better value.

GEELONG 480-492 Moorabool Street Phone 5222 5667 Visit berkowitz.com.au for more information and showroom opening hours.

Ruby | 42

Seated in a Stressless® you’ll instantly recognise the true meaning of comfort.

It’s the way it glides back smoothly adding perfect support in all positions.

It’s how it gently swings – with effortless ease and stability.

It’s the finest leather covering the soft, yet supple cushion, and it’s how the adjustable footstool completes the total feeling of relaxation, all the way down to your feet.

Every single detail is designed with your wellbeing in focus.

We recommend you try it.

Photo: Berkowitz

Ruby | 43

Brax Window Treatments 332 Pakington St, Newtown Ph: 5221 5533

/ LUXAFLEX® Pirouette® Shadings Soft horizontal fabric vanes can be flattened for privacy and room darkening, slightly raised while maintaining privacy, or fully open for clear view. Single sheer back reduces glare and filters harmful UV rays. The revolutionary Invisi-Lift System suspends the shadings’ soft vanes for variable light control. Two fabric ranges, two vane sizes and a stylish colour palette, all available in semi-opaque or room darkening opacities. Continuous loop cord or single retractable cord with the ULTRAGLIDE® Operating System. / LUXAFLEX® Ventura Awnings Folding arm awnings, fully retractable awnings, designed to shade your outdoor living areas.

RUBY WHATÊS HOT! / Exclusive to In 2 Linen, a huge range of locally made cushions. / 100% cotton knit throws, $34.95 each.

In 2 Linen 5/184 Pakington St, enter via Weller St, Geelong West Ph: 5221 1999

Outstanding Timeless Timber.

Made to order designs in a variety of sizes and finishes. / Free form Blackwood dining table.

Furniture by Design 4 Gordon Avenue, Geelong West Ph: 5229 8605

/ Ergonomic high performance motion furniture.

Available in many different configurations.

Individual chairs, 2-3 seaters, plus home entertainment motorised options available.

Ruby | 44

/ Industrial antique pieces East Indian Walnut, timbers reclaimed from farm villages in Java.

Berkowitz Furniture 480 - 492 Moorabool St, Geelong Ph: 5222 5667

Clockwise ckwise lef left: eft: Hand stitched Once in a ‘Alice in Wonderland’ chair made lifetime ‘A from old fa fabrics in India, Traditional stitched Indian ‘Love Seat,’ quirky hand stitch hand stitched stitch ‘Aztek’ style designer chair.

Interior Vast Inter 130 Torqu Torquay Rd, Grovedale Ph: 5244 22244

/ Outdoor iron frame garden bench. Add a splash of colour with beautiful cushions. / Oversized vertical mirror with red wooden frame to brighten any space.

Lifestyle4U 2/20 Pakington St, Geelong West Ph: 5222 8035

/ Decorative pot & artificial flower (assorted), $14.99 / Gift book (small), $8.99 / Gift book (large), $10.99 / Cream Birdcage, $29.99 / Quartz ‘red telephone’ clock, $12.99 / Electro Bird ((silver),), $7.99each This An That Shop 906, Waurn Ponds Shopping Centre 173-199 Pioneer Rd, Waurn Ponds Ph: 5244 1847

Chef’s Essentials 138 Ryrie St, Geelong Ph: 5229 9923 10/240 Pakington St, Geelong West Ph: 5221 6305

a diffuser / Paddywax scented candles and f i the h names of a range of range featuring great literary writers. / Grey wool flannel, and aqua/white cotton cushions.

/ Made in Germany, Silit is the tou touchstone for top quality cookware and their range of Silar Silargon pressure cookers offer modern, versatile and exquisitely designed cookware featuring the world’s most innovative and unique Silargan Ceramic coating. Available in 4.5 and 6.5Ltrs. / Balti Dish (15cm). Balti involves the fast cooking of marinated meat and spices over a high flame. Vegetarian versions of Balti are also prepared. The cooking and serving method ensures that the flavours of all the spices are retained.

Three Oh Two Willows Home & Living 302 Pakington St, Newtown Ph: 5229 9230

Ruby | 45

An Aladdin’s Cave of Linen In 2 Linen

O

ne of Geelong’s hidden retail treasures, In 2 Linen has become a destination point for many customers who enjoy a great range of products sourced locally and imported from quality overseas companies.

In 2 Linen has a huge range of pillows, doonas, quilt covers, sheet sets, cushions and much more. With a regular client list including interior designers, holiday home and rental apartment decorators, hotels, aged care facilities and even government departments, this little gem is just another great reason to head along to the In 2 Linen Manchester warehouse.

Since opening their doors in November 2006, In 2 Linen has built a strong reputation based on a wide range of quality products and exceptional customer service.

In 2 Linen is a treasure trove of linen and manchester finds. We love the exclusive designer range of 800gsm zero twist pile Turkish towels. These beautiful towels come in a huge range of colours and are guaranteed not to lose their shape or colour. These gorgeous towels are luxurious with an affordable price tag. Also high on the must-have list are In 2 Linen’s own range of Australian-made beautiful microfibre pillows, goose down doonas and huge range of locally-made

Ruby | 46

cushions and cushion covers in designs that are unique to In 2 Linen. A genuine find, this range was developed in response to a gap in the market for high quality, affordable staples such as seasonal weight doonas and quality pillows.

You really will be amazed at the quality and the prices!

It is easy to see why interior designers and DIY decorators are flocking to the store.

The Manchester warehouse is packed with fantastic bargains, including current and clearance lines, with new stock arriving daily.

From modern contemporary to old world classic, from retro fun to formal, In 2 Linen has any and every personal style covered.

So, the next time you need to replace some linen, decorate a new space, need a gift for that hard to buy for person or just want to spoil yourself with something new, drop into Geelong’s hidden linen gem.

In 2 Linen is located at Shop 5 / 184 Pakington Street (enter via Weller Street), Geelong West. Ph: 03 5221 1999 The In 2 Linen Manchester warehouse is surrounded by an abundance of off street car parking for your convenience.

Towels: 800 gsm zero twist pile Turkish cotton towels.

Pillows: Australian made microfibre pillows available in firm, medium & soft.

Specialising in quality manchester

100% Cotton Quilt Cover PUJS\KPUN WPSSV^ JHZLZ 300 thread count “Paisley Blue�

Also available in other colours

Egyptian Cotton Sheet Sets [OYLHK JV\U[ (]HPSHISL PU 8\LLU HUK 2PUN

Microwool Doona <UPX\L ISLUK VM ^VVS HUK TPJYVĂ&#x201E;IYL Ă&#x201E;SSPUN 5VU (SSLYNLUPJ Machine Washable (]HPSHISL PU NZT HUK NZT

Exclusive â&#x20AC;&#x153;In 2 Linenâ&#x20AC;? cushions Locally made /\NL YHUNL VM \UPX\L JVSV\YZ HUK Z[`SLZ

5/184 Pakington Street (enter via Weller St), Geelong West VIC 3218

Ph: 03 5221 1999 Trading Hours Mon - Fri: Sat: Sun:

9.30am - 5.30pm 9.00am - 5.00pm 10.00am - 4.00pm

100% Cotton Quilt Cover PUJS\KPUN WPSSV^ JHZLZ 300 thread count â&#x20AC;&#x153;Madison Greyâ&#x20AC;?

Also available in other colours

Does your home tell a story?

Vast Interior

G

reat interior design tells a story about the people living in that space. What you fall in love with when choosing pieces for your home says a lot about the person you are, and you should love where you live.

Falling in love with beautiful pieces that tell a story is what the Vast Interior collection is all about, and the stores have become the go-to destination for handcrafted, intricately detailed and eco-friendly statement pieces. And with pieces like dining tables crafted from timber salvaged from a shipwreck in India and occasional chairs covered in recycled saris, finding the perfect furniture to bring character and individuality into your home has never been easier. These wowfactor pieces are perfect for bringing warmth and character into modern homes, whether you’re after a touch of stately world style, an edge of safari chic or simply a quirky piece that makes you smile.

Owners of the Geelong store, Rowan and Debbie Kent know all about falling in love with wonderful furniture and homewares, and have taken on the concepts of sustainability, originality and cultural designs by using natural, vintage and recycled ecomaterials as their guides to sourcing furniture and homewares. The store reflects the couple’s passion for travel, although Debbie said Rowan had to convince her to join him on his latest trip by promising her a Lady Di moment of quiet (and

Ruby | 48

elegant) reflection at the Taj Mahal! “There is so much stimulus there – beauty in places you would never expect. It’s a charming mix of chaos, colour and random happenings,” she said of her trip.

Their large range of dining tables, buffets, sofa tables and coffee tables are made of sustainable timber from Mango trees at their factory just out of Dehli – made by hand, eye and heart these tables can take up to 48 man hours to produce.

One of the many beauties of Vast is that although

We do know that where we are taking our product from doesn’t have a detrimental influence on the environment. these rare finds are one offs – as direct importers their product is still affordable without compromising on quality. “We have incredibly good relationships with our suppliers, so we know exactly where our furniture comes from and what materials have been used,” Rowan and Debbie said.

The Kents’ passion for the environment is evident in their choice of products and material.

Magnificent old doors from temples and old

buildings in India are tastefully and respectfully transformed into stand out sideboards and bookshelves. The recent arrival of some spectacular one-off fabric chairs they designed made from old saris and fabrics in Jaipur have that absolute wow factor. These are products exclusive not only to Vast but also the Australian market.

This dedication to the quality, sustainability and individuality of their products was recognised in recent months with the store winning the title of Best Store, Highest Achievement and the “Gold Logie” for Rowan for his contribution to the group at the Vast AGM. The Kents are in the middle of planning for their next foray into India with many more new and exciting designs and products on their radar and under development. The sojourn to the subcontinent has given them a firm belief in the goodness of humankind - jointly they have established a sponsorship program educating children from the townships from which their products are drawn and produced. Medical teams are also funded into some regions to help support the health and wellbeing of the people in those communities.

Rowan and Debbie have also recently opened another Vast Interior store in the busy Point cook town Centre.

Look forward to a bright future Green Earth Electrical

W

ith financial pressures on both households and businesses increasing, we are all looking for ways to find some certainty about our financial future. When it comes to electricity bills, the only certainty is that they will keep going up, which is why so many Australian households and businesses are looking to solar as a means of future-proofing their home or business against rising bills.

Making the decision to look into solar for your home or business is the first step on the way, then the challenge becomes finding the right information that explains what your options are and which will best suit your needs.

Investing in solar technology is no different to any other investment, and you should carefully consider what you are investing in and what you can expect in the way of a return. Unfortunately, the solar industry is littered with “quick fixes” and

“incredible deals to save you money”, which can be traps for consumers that are not armed with the right information. Robbie Nicholls of Green Earth Electrical says, “Customers should be looking for a solar provider that takes the extra steps to first meet with their clients and assess their individual requirements and situations to ensure the best product is matched to each client.

This reassurance means your investment is tailored to your needs and not the big corporates.”

When it comes to installing a solar system, there is no such thing as a one size fits all solar plan, and not all solar panels are equal in quality and efficiency, both of which affect the return you see on your investment.

With ads for solar systems on TV, on radio, and even in your letterbox, it’s not always easy to know which companies are operating to the highest standards. Robbie Nicholls says membership of

industry peak bodies such as Clean Energy Council, AUSES and National Electrical and Communications Association (NECA) Ecosmart will help to identify professional, knowledgeable and experienced electrical providers with expertise in energy efficiency and solar.

At Green Earth Electrical, we know our customers are our business and that’s why we take pride in our work and commit to an ethical, friendly, affordable service, providing you with well-researched information to make your own informed decisions. We pride ourselves on reliable appointments and keeping you informed of changes prior to our scheduled attendance.

The fact that 95% of our business is by referral speaks for itself.

Call Green Earth Electrical today and look forward to a brighter future.

• Solar design & installation • Residential & Commercial • Free on site quotes rec 18859

• Highest professional accreditation

“Saving the Earth one Globe at a Time”

• All inclusive service

414 Thompson Road, North Geelong P: 5242 8814 F: 5242 8610 E: VMÄJL'NYLLULHY[OLSLJ[YPJHS JVT

www.greenearthelectrical.com Ruby | 50

Connecting you to a more sustainable future

Award winning leading ladies in Real Estate.

Professional, Dynamic, Passionate

Michelle Winckle 0416 117 978

Laura Berry 0401 609 904

De-cluttering for sale Michelle Winckle, Hayeswinckle Agent

Sarah Stanford 0420 584 216

O

ne of the easiest and most cost effective ways to showcase your home in the best possible light is to de-clutter and reduce excess. Not only will it make your home look fabulous, it will give you a sense of accomplishment and empowerement just in time for those open houses.

The first thing you will need are boxes and, depending on your spending habits, lots of them! Set out to do one room at a time - if you look at the big picture it can become quite overwhelming.

79 Barrabool Road, Highton Ph: 5241 1488 www.hayeswinkle.com

Start by asking yourself these simple questions: Do you like it? Do you use it?

Will you miss it? If you answer NO to these questions, start packing!

This could be a good time to have a garage

sale or sell online to recoup some of the money you will now realise you have spent.

Donations to charities are always welcome, as are magazines to doctor’s surgeries.

Check with your local playgroup if they are in need of well-loved toys.

There is now shortage of people wanting stuff; as they say, one (wo)man’s trash is another (wo)man’s treasure. There will also be things that you can’t bear to be without, and these treasures can be packed in boxes and hidden in cupboards or drawers, or, even better, at your friend’s house.

Remember, the cleaner and more organised your home is, the more spacious it looks and the easier it will be to sell.

So, what are you waiting for?

Ruby | 51

Transform your outlook with window films Torquay Tinting

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ooking for an easy and affordable way of making your home more sustainable, private and safe, not to mention reducing those energy bills?

Energy saving window films are one of the most effective passive solar devices available to home owners, and they come with some big added benefits.

Window tinting improves the energy efficiency of homes by reflecting, absorbing and reradiating solar energy, helping to keep the heat out in summer and helping improve heat retention inside the home in winter.

Government and industry modeling has shown that for an average home, solar control window film can result in a 30 per cent drop in cooling air

conditioning usage â&#x20AC;&#x201C; this equates to a 10-15% reduction in your homeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual electrical costs!

Of course, views into your home can be just as important as the view out. Forget leaving the blinds down all day, window films are a great privacy solution, and also increase the break strength of your windows - helping to increase both the security and safety of your home.

Did you know that window film blocks over 99% of harmful UV rays from coming through your windows? Not only will this save your expensive furniture, window furnishings, artwork and floors from fading, it also helps prevent ageing and skin cancer, which is important for every member of

your family â&#x20AC;&#x201C; even the four-legged family members. With solar window films, you, your family and your pets can make the most of those sunny window spots.

Window films require no special cleaning, offer far more value than many other products designed to reduce energy loss through windows and, as a retrofit option, work in easily with existing blinds, shutters and other passive solar devices. Films are environmentally friendly and offer a negative carbon footprint.

Call Torquay Tinting and find out more about how cost-effective window films can transform your view and your home.

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Call Vinnie 0419 304 610 Ruby | 52

SERV IC GEEL ING ONG SURF , AND COAST BELLA RINE

www.torquaytinting.com.au

In search of the ‘Wow!’ Lifestyle 4 U

OUTDOOR FURNITURE | HOMEWARES

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ou don’t have to break the budget to create real wow factor in your home.

Kellie from Lifestyle 4 U furniture and homewares says one of the easiest and most affordable ways to add wow factor to a room is to find one standout piece that you love, and let it shine in its own. Too many wow factor pieces in one space will only compete for your attention, instead go for subtle style and leave to wow to one showcase piece.

In fact, quirky, unusual and interesting cabinets are a fantastic way to create wow factor, and people are being much more inventive with how they use these showcase pieces. Where once a cabinet would be confined to a bedroom or perhaps a formal dining room, now they are being used as sideboards in meals areas, they are adding a spark of interest as cabinets in lounge rooms or as bureaus in studies. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

A common misconception about that allusive wow factor is that the brighter and bolder you go, the more wow you will create.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The first rule is decorating is to choose pieces that suit the space.

Mirrors in all shapes and sizes are very popular at the moment, and can be a focal point on their own. An oversized mirror in a distressed frame and really open up a dark hall or entrance, look amazing over a cabinet or sideboard and brighten up a dull bedroom. You will also see a lot more mirrors being used in alfresco areas and gardens, and when surrounded by foliage can add a wonderful touch of surprise in an outdoor area.

That oversized lounge may look fabulous in the store, but unless you have a cavernous room at home, chances are it will make the space look cramped and overdone. Scale is the first key to creating a wow factor room.

s 7ATER &EATURE s 7ALL 3CREEN s 'ARDEN 3CULPTURE

Large variety of ornate orn wall clocks

Next on the checklist is style. The beauty about choosing wow factor pieces are that they can be of almost any style. Putting a recycled, textured sideboard in an otherwise modern and sleek room can look amazing – adding a lovely sense of character and interest.

Making the most of a not-so-great situation.

Almost every home has it’s dark corners or dull south-facing rooms. A clever way to add an instant sense of lightness and brightness is to add mirrors, and I don’t mean just on your walls. There are some amazing mirrored furniture pieces around at the moment, and beautiful set of mirrored drawers will reflect light around the room, and yes, will add that wow factor you are after without overdoing it.

With outdoor spaces now just as important as indoor spaces – even in cold old Victoria – people are wanting to create individual, interesting zones for eating and entertaining outdoors. A under-utilised corner in your yard can be made instantly appealing with a bright and colourful three-piece outdoor setting and a few plants.

So wherever space you have that is lacking a bit of wow, give in to your creative instincts and look for detailed, textured, mirrored, recycled, quirky, glamorous or just plain fun pieces that you really love. Because chances are if you love it (and don’t overdo everything around it) then everyone else will love it too.

At Lifestyle 4 U on cosmopolitan Pakington Street in Geelong West, you will be surprised at how affordable wow factor can be.

Decorative useful trays.

Assortment of designs and sizes available.

20 Pakington Street Unit 2 Geelong West Ph: 5222 8035 | Mob: 0439 562 203 Mon - Fri: 10am - 5pm Sat: 10am - 4pm www.lifestyle4ufurniture.com.au

Ruby | 53

WAURN PONDS SHOPPING CENTRE

FREE HOLIDAY FUN

WEEK 1 SCHOOL HOLIDAYS AYS Mon 24 – Fri 28 Sept, 11am m to 2pm daily d Activity Centre located outside Target.

Enjoy the all new Sesame Street Activ Activity vity e’s favourite e red Centre and meet everyone’s ms the centr re.

Muppet “Elmo” as he roams centre.

© 2012 Sesame Workshop

WEEK W EEK 2 HOLIDAY SCHOOL HO OLIDA AY FFUN UN Mon 1 – Fri 5 Oct Oct, t 11am to 2pm daily Both activities located outside Target.

Kids can get ‘hands-on’ at daily craft workshops with different activities every day. PLUS back by popular demand – Hop aboard Thomas The Tank Engine as he takes short trips around the centre. © 2012 Gullane (Thomas) Limited. © 2012 HIT Entertainment Limited.

Find Waurn Ponds Shopping Centre on Facebook & Twitter Visit www.waurnpondssc.com.au/news/whats-on/ for the full schedule of daily activity.

äÎÊxÓ{{ÊÓxnäÊUÊ173 - 199 Pioneer Road, Waurn Ponds 3216