Shopping For Blokes/Dummies

Shopping is not something that comes naturally to us blokes. This would especially be the case with shopping for clothes. If it were up to us we would get around in track pants and t-shirts everyday. While very comfortable these outfits don’t present you in your best light.

There are benefits of dressing well. It gives a good impression as it shows you want to look your best and that you take care of yourself. Looking more presentable to the opposite sex is not a bad by-product either.

But us blokes need some help. From someone who knows what looks good. Someone other than your mother as there comes a time when she shouldn’t be selecting your clothes. Although my options were scant until this year when I found Val.

Val is a friend I met a couple of years ago when I joined her bible study group. She used to work in advertising but is currently making cakes. As a stylist she is so good that she may have to start charging. She’s very stylish herself, I don’t understand how she chooses her outfits sometimes but this is due to male ignorance, as she always looks great.

Val read my very random blog posts on fashion (A Fashion That’s Growing On Me 19/7/07, Girls In Skirts 11/3/07, Fashion Beefs 13/11/06) and was impressed with what I had to say, despite the rebuttal from others. It came up again in conversation then, surprisingly, she agreed to be my fashionista stylist for a day of shopping.

Some tips for blokes in preparation for a day of shopping:

• Do a cull – offload stuff that you don’t wear or is worn out. Send good stuff to op shops, while old t-shirts make great rags.
• Know what you want/need – for me I had a lot of daggy polo shirts from when I was teaching and needed more smart casual pants, shirts and shoes.
• Know how much money you have to play with – you have to be willing to drop some dosh. Although it is possible to shop economically, you just need to pick the right shops. I took a liking to shops like Just Jeans, Jeans West and Cotton On.
• Go with an open mind – some suggestions might never have crossed your mind due to your shopping novice status. I was surprised with a few articles that Val chose, yet she was right about all of them.

Who knows, you may even enjoy it and learn something.

Shakespeare

“Shakespeare” by Bill Bryson

I like Bill Bryson’s writing so much that I would almost buy anything that he writes without actually knowing what it was about. Initially he grabbed my attention through his travel book called “Down Under” obviously it is about Australia.

So when I saw a book that he has written on Shakespeare I though that he would turn a potentially dry subject into something interesting. I was not disappointed.

From the beginning it was evident that Bryson had done so much research about Shakespeare and the era in which he lived. This allowed him to write in his trademark witty style that I enjoy. He is as informative as he can be here, as there is little that is actually known about the life of William Shakespeare. We learn more about the era and the popular legends about the man than about his actual life.

Turns out that his works is the main remnant from his short life. Even that can be described as a miracle. Even his works though have caused a lot of interesting discussion for the last 400 years. The works of Shakespeare have been attributed to many other people in the theories of researchers. Unfortunately none of their conclusions has more weight than the current popular opinion that William Shakespeare was the sole author of the finest plays from his era.

A very interesting read.

Not Bitten By The Travel Bug

I requested a book from travel company, Bunnik Tours, and received it in the mail yesterday. Despite the book being filled with great looking tours around various regions of the world nothing really excited me.

If I were to do one of their tours I would be traveling purely for the sake of it. There seems to be a perception that ‘society’ expects a young single bloke, like me, to get out and see the world (while he can). Yet the world doesn’t really interest me, at least not enough to travel for the sake of travel.

I have been overseas twice, both times to America. They were centred on a specific purpose. The first was an opportunity to work at a summer camp in Massachusetts. The second was an opportunity to play footy in America at their national championships against their national team. My inspiration and motivation to travel seems based around specific opportunities. If they work out then all well and good.

Maybe I’m boring or maybe it’s the simpler trips that excite me. For example:

• Ride on the Indian Pacific to Perth with brother Danny
• The PUFWE trips to Melbourne with friends in 2005, 2006 and 2007;
• The house sit for friends in Melbourne that coincided with the Swans premiership in 2005
• The ultimate football weekend in 2006
• Visiting friends in Canberra and seeing the sights in 2008
• The same day fly in / fly out trip to Melbourne to see Swans play the Hawks with a friend this year

Obviously going to Melbourne really excites me, and it’s more than just the thick presence of my favourite sport.

There is a common theme running throughout my trips. Even if overseas a main goal is to see a sporting event. In my trips to America I have seen minor league baseball in Bridgeport Connecticut and basketball in New York City.

Most tours are focused around scenery. I am usually after experiences, just check every post in my travel section. Although I did enjoy Niagara Falls, which is both scenery and an intense experience rolled into one. Although I could be converted if the ‘right’ person took me somewhere to appreciate scenery.

Kiddy Christenings

This weekend there was a baptism at a previous church I was visiting. I was reminded of all the baptisms I had witnessed when I was a regular member of the congregation. What interests me most is that the families had not been seen prior to baptism and rarely had they been seen afterwards.

I would understand if parents want a celebration of the birth of a new child, and children purely are a blessing. But it’s baffling that parents would bring their child to a church they have never been to. In the prepared script they state that they want to bring this child up with faith in God when it seems they have no intention of being part of the church community. The congregation responds by saying they will help to raise this child as their church family.

If you want a party then you can have a civil celebrant perform a ‘naming ceremony’. Everyone can gather, meet the baby and have a good time together.

It is great that church welcomes all and ultimately there is nothing wrong with letting parents baptise their baby at a church, regardless of their previous or future attendance. Any firm stance on who can bring children for baptism would do more harm than good.

I just don’t understand the parent’s motivation.

The Next Step

I can only hide behind being a ‘proby’ for so long. The first year has gone so quickly and reality set in quickly. It would soon be time to take the next step in my career. At this stage I also had to wrangle with the possibility of being sent rural. I got lucky though and was assigned to Parramatta. This information was dispensed on our first day back at the school. I was very grateful to stay in Sydney, to get a station 15 minutes from home was a bonus.

There were the expected anxieties amongst the class about the day one exam. I was confident as I had a full week of solid study prior to the exam. If I didn’t know it by then I would never know it. Others weren’t as confident. These people had to be avoided as they insisted on expressing their lack of confidence. I wasn’t going to let them wreck my confidence. Most of them ended up passing well anyway.

Everybody seemed more relaxed when practicing new assessable skills. Most of these skills would have been performed on road under the supervision of training officers. It was also reassuring to learn that the ‘as per skill’ element was relaxed and the main goal of the skill became the focus. Being able to practice cardiac arrest drills and splinting unsupervised was a great plus.

New theory had to be taken on board very quickly as it would become examinable within days. A familiarity with the lecturers helped with becoming sponges to new knowledge.

We had finally made it, no longer ‘probys’, but now there is nowhere to hide. It will be an interesting couple of years.