What You Could Do With An Extra 2 Hours!

This is cool.  I wonder though, if I actually had the two extra hours would I use them productively.  There are some great ideas in this graphic though!

Gingerbread – winning warming flavour

A big slice of this is currently waiting on a plate beside me as I type.  It’s great stuff, the spicy flavour is just what you need on a wintery night.  I double this recipe, make two loaves and freeze one.  Perfect when your sister comes to visit, just like today, and you can whip the frozen one out and warm it though in the microwave, cut into thick wodges and slather with butter (or have with blue cheese if you like too, dried fruit is good, cream cheese – gingerbread goes with heaps of things).  If you wanted you could add some crystallised ginger to the mixture for extra spiciness. 

150g butter, 1 cup low fat milk, 1 cup golden syrup (or half golden syrup and half treacle), 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 tsp baking soda, 2 1/2 cups flour, 2 1/2 tsps ground ginger, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ground cloves

Melt the butter, milk, golden syrup (and treacle), and brown sugar in the microwave.  Stir until all mixed together.  Heat until it is all bubbling hot.  While it is heating sive all the dry ingredients into a bowl with the exception of the baking soda. Take off the heat and then stir in the baking soda (it goes irritatingly lumpy so give it a decent beating).  When it is fizzing stir into the dry ingredients.  Mix until smooth.  Pour into loaf tins and bake at 180 degrees C until the sides shrink away from the sides and the centre is firm and springy.  Don’t tip it from the tin immediately, leave in for a good ten minutes and then tip  onto a wire rack.

Le vent ballet in slow motion

This is pretty amazing.  Watch these dancers preform and gasp at the control, strength, preciseness and beauty.  The dancers are Marina Kanno and Giacomo Bevilaqua from Staatsballett Berlin.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgernstern

Well first I discovered the website for this book.  Have a look here (you’ll have to sign in with a Facebook or Twiter account) and tell me you aren’t a little intrigued.  A friend of mine had read this book and just loved and adored it so I thought “best I give it a whirl”  The Night Circus is the result of a challenge, a long standing competition between two magicians.  In this case a young girl, Celia and Marco a young boy in the early days, rescued from the streets and trained to high levels of magicianship.  The two have studied, trained and honed their skills, which are then shown off in the Night circus.  The mysterious circus all in black and white which arrives in a town in the middle of the night and then after a few days, just as mysteriously disappears only to turn up in another location.

This is however a love story, Celia and Marco despite themselves, fall in love.  This is not in the plan!  They have a dilemma.  They compete for superiority of magic within the confines of the circus, the performers and the public love the circus and don’t want it threatened, and yet there must be a winner in the competition of skill which will probably lead to the destruction of the circus.

It is a lyrical book, magic and imagination run wild in it.  I found myself liking it instantly but then getting a bit bogged down in the details in the middle, I put it down, wandered off reading something else for a bit, then came back to it and polished it off in an afternoon.  It is a gorgeous story, full of the mystical and mysterious and if you are looking for that in a book then this is bound to be a treat.  My favourite characters were the twins and Bailey.  Read it to find out who they are.  Book trailer below.

My Facebook Mini-Break

Wondering where I’ve been?  Probably not, but regular visitors will notice that there has been a long posting holiday.  I didn’t really mean for it to be that way, but when you give up Facebook and Twitter it seems you get out of the habit of blogging too!  Well at least I did.  For 6 weeks I stopped looking at, posting in and paying any attention to Facebook.  It all started at morning meeting one morning when I sat beside one of our staff who told me he was giving up online gaming for Lent.  I decided I would join in and give up Facebook.  Not for Lent exactly but because it was starting to really annoy me, and I wanted to know what would happen to my levels of annoyance if I took a break from it for a while.

What is it about Facebook that annoys me?

 

• Turns out it isn’t Facebook it is the users.  It is the people who post constant updates of their life, be it miserable, be it chirpy, chipper, boring, adventurous or whatever.  Constant updaters need to leave the rest of us alone. It isn’t necessary for us to know where you ate breakfast, that you have a new handbag, that you want a new handbag, that your child is the most beautiful ever.  Constant updaters appear insecure and seem to need the constant feedback that Facebook can provide.
• It is the people who share: the games they are playing, the quizzes they endlessly do, the highscores they just got, the online life they have.  Don’t do that people.
• It is the constant urge to share which news articles people are reading, which pictures you’ve looked at, what you liked on Pinterist.  Risist the urge to share on Facebook please.  I’m following you on Pintrest if I care about the things you like.
• It is the annoying, will not go away updates from games you used to play.  I blocked you once Bejewelled Blitz, how did you get back here again.
• The friend requests from people I barely know.  Seriously, I have 144 ‘friends’ if you are not amongst them, and you consider yourself my friend, then either you don’t have the internet, you haven’t seen me in a bazillion years, or we have fallen out and please, send me a message not a friend request, I love a message, it is like getting an old fashioned letter in the mailbox.  Facebook is great for catching up with people you haven’t seen in years, but sometimes you haven’t seen those people in years because you aren’t the same person you were when you knew them!  There is certainly space for new FB friends in my life but only if they conform to my ‘rules’ (see above) and below – click the image!

But there is the stuff I missed.

I missed getting the fantastic links from Radio New Zealand and Booksellers New Zealand.  I love finding out about new books from several publishers I follow.  I love the Matinee Idle group I belong to, I enjoy some of my friends who are witty, clever and dry, their posts always make me laugh.  I missed seeing the photos my partner posted.  I missed the collegiality of posting in a group I belong to for work.  I missed the laughs and sniggers.

I enjoy finding out about my friends holidays, good fun times, new babies, witty and clever comments.

So, I’m back on Facebook.  Not obsessively looking at people’s profiles (I know people who do this), not really looking at anyone other than my family and close friends photos and status updates.  My Facebook has been pared back, invisibility spray has been applied to most of my annoying friends, as I would expect it to be applied to me if I am really annoying.

Anybody else taken a break from FB?  What did you think of your experience?  Has it changed your FB behaviour?  Will you go back to FB? Has it changed mine?  Hell yes!   I will think much more before posting an inane comment.  Will only share links I really care about.  Will try to cut out the drivel, because actually drivel seems to be the largest percentile on Facebook.

 

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

Oh John Green, you are my book guy!  I have been desperate to get my hands on a copy of this lovely book.  I knew it would be great, I’d heard that it was sad and funny and yes it was all that.  But what sad and funny don’t capture is how deeply John Green makes you care about his characters.  He writes ‘real’ teenagers.  The kind of teenagers who aren’t in the media, aren’t on the tv, aren’t drawing attention to themselves through bad behaviour and weird stylings.  His teenagers are ordinary kids who have both ordinary and extraordinary things happen to them.  They live in unextraordinary houses in unextraordinary towns.  They are ordinary.  But they are also extraordinary.  They are quirky, they are wise and they are extremely funny.  In the case of the teenagers in this book they also have cancer, or are recovering from cancer.

The story is told by Hazel, she is sixteen and has been given a reprieve from her terminal cancer in the form of a miracle drug which hasn’t cured her but has given her some time.  She can’t go to school, she has to have an oxygen bottle with her at all times and she is bright, funny and a little lonely.  Her parents force her to attend a support group which meets at a church and she goes very reluctantly.  There she meets Alex, who has already lost one eye to cancer and is dealing with the fact that he will probably lose another, and she also meets Augustus.  Augustus who is handsome, a bit wacky and who has lost a leg to cancer.  Hazel isn’t too impressed by gorgeous guys, but she is impressed by great conversational skills, and Augustus has those in spades.  Hazel convinces Augustus to read a book she has read a gazillion times he gets as hooked as she is and they attempt to get the answers to the cliffhanger the author left at the end of the book.  Big themes abound in the book.  Love, death, the fact that a terminal illness defines the person and they lose their themness, loss of innocence in lots of ways, trust and truth.  It is all here.

This is a book to love, a book to buy yourself a copy of and to treasure.  My copy is kind of wavy on the edges because I cried so much while reading it.  Tissues will be required to accompany your reading.  It is a book to devour in a couple of sittings.  It is totally romantic, sad, quirky, funny and the writing is stellar.  I have no higher praise to give it.  Buy yourself a copy of this book.  There are some fabulous quotes from the book appearing on sites around the blogs look at this one, or this one, and on Goodreads too!

“That’s what I believe. I believe the universe wants to be noticed. I think the universe is improbably biased toward consciousness, that it rewards intelligence in part because the universe enjoys its elegance being observed. And who am I, living in the middle of history, to tell the universe that it- or my observation of it- is temporary?”
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Keep Calm and Carry On – the story!

Here is the story behind the now ubiquitous posters.  Great story!

It came to me via Neatorama

Muddy Creek Cutting

Muddy Creek Cutting is the home of my friends Kevin and Ross.  It is on the Central Otago Rail Trail about 1 km from Lauder and I heartily recommend it as a place to go and spend a quiet night or two soaking up the Central sun, biking on the rail trail or driving around the local sights at St Bathans, Oturehua, Ophir and the Maniototo.  Lauder is only about 25 minutes drive from Alexandra, which is my home town.

On the website for Muddy Creek you can find all the details about the fabulous homestay but what you won’t find is an indication of how peaceful, beautiful and calm this place is.  Among it’s charms are the food and the art.  The food is prepared by Kevin, and there is a photo of the menu board below, the meals are just fantastic.  Lots of flavour, hearty servings and with freshness being the big focus.  Kevin and Ross tend gardens all summer which produce almost all of the produce used in the food and also farm chickens, ducks and sheep.  Then there is the decor, Ross has beautified the old homestead so that it is lovely, colourful and full of interesting treasures.  His art decorates the rooms and it is all very homey.

If you are Central Otago bound then do stay at Muddy Creek Cutting.  You will get a comfortable bed, lovely service and one of the most picturesque places on the planet.  While you are there please go and have a sauna in their home sauna.  It is just so mind clearing and you will feel all sparkly clean afterwards.  They also have a brand new Facebook Page.

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I won’t give up by Jason Mraz

Oh this is just lovely.  This guy sings songs that make me go all melty.  Singalong with him.  I admit it is a bit hymny but oh well it makes me go all gooey and that works for me.

Tomato Kasundi

This is magnificently hot.  Hotter than a January Central Otago day. Hotter than hot sauce?  Well about the same as hot sauce. It is an Annabel Langbein recipe and it was recommended to me by my friend Judith who thinks it the best thing ever.  Thought I’d make it as the glut of tomatoes is ever present at the moment.  After I’d made it and frightened my taste buds a bit by it’s hotness, I had to find ways to use it.  It has a great deeply curry spicy taste.  So far we have had it with corn fritters, in guacamole, and to spice up a pasta dish.  Lots of uses and very tasty.

The quantities of the spices are really large.  Check your supplies before you start!

225g green ginger – grated, 100g garlic cloves peeled and chopped finely, 50g green chillies – I used red – sliced in half, seeds removed, 2 1/2 cups malt vinegar, 1 cup canola oil – I always use ricebran – 2 tblsp turmeric, 5 tblsp ground cumin, 3 tblsp chilli powder, 5 tblsp mustard seeds ground to a powder, 2 kg tomatoes chopped, 2 1/4 cups sugar, 3 tblsp salt.

Puree the ginger, garlic and chillies with a little of the vinegar to make a paste.  Heat the oil in a very big pot or preserving pan.  Add all the ground spices and fry until they exude a fragrant aroma.  Add the pureed paste, tomatoes, the rest of the vinegar, sugar and half of the salt. (Check near the end of cooking to see if more is required.) Cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until the oil floats on the top – about half an hour (I cooked it a lot longer).  Bottle in steralised jars while hot with a thin film of hot oil on the top of each jar to prevent the top from drying out.  cove with screw top seal lids.  Leave for a couple of weeks for the flavours to develop before using. Store in a cool place until you want to use it, it lasts indefinitely.  Makes about 2 litres.

Cinnamon Oysters – go on just try them

A childhood favourite, I remember these as being very special occasion goodies. Recently we were going through the house of a very elderly lady recently on a house hunting expedition, and there they were in the garage sale going on outside, cinnamon oyster tins. The lovely lady selling them game them to us because they were about all that was left of the treasures and I was thrilled and delighted. Now that I have whipped up a batch of these and realised how incredibly quick they are to make, and how much people love eating them they are going to be made regularly.  Light, fluffy, a little air filled morsel with yummy cream filling.  Ooooohhhhhh.

2 eggs, 1/4 cup of sugar, 6 tblsp golden syrup, 6 tablespoons of plain flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, whipped cream to fill them sweetened with a little vanilla and icing sugar.

Beat eggs and sugar until thick. Add golden syrup and beat well, Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and ginger together.  Fold dry ingredients into egg mixture.  Spoon small amounts of mixture into greased sponge oyster or finger tins.  Bake at 200 degrees C for 10 to 12 minutes or until the surface springs back when lightly touched.  When they are cold cut the oysters open with a sharp knife and fill up with whipped cream, dust with sieved icing sugar.

This is basically the Edmonds Cookbook recipe with more cinnamon in it.

 

Superheroes – this is what they’re really like!

I’ve stopped giggling now – well enough to type.  Having watched this video at least twice I’ve decided that lots of people might like it.  ”my mask has cat ears and covers my nose”  ”doo doo”  ”easy peasy”  LOLOLOLOL.  Made by Aardman Animations, of Wallace and Grommit, Chicken Run and assorted very good goodies.  Came to me from here.

Classy Ambrosia

Nectar of the gods, ambrosia is heaven on a spoon

Summer deserts are all about fresh fruit for me.  This is a made up recipe, well it is really just a method and you can play around with it as you wish, adjust to whatever fruit you have available, you could make it with apricots (and apricot yoghurt), rhubarb etc.

In a nice big bowl put in the bottom good thick berry yoghurt, over the top sprinkle some marshmallows, over these layers add a pile of berries, it doesn’t matter what type and I used frozen this time but fresh is best.

In another bowl mix together whipped cream and a small pottle of cream cheese with a couple of desert spoons of icing sugar and some vanilla, this is your next layer then repeat the layers in so far as you have room.  Ending up with a good layer of the cream cheese mixture on the top.  Decorate with some spare marshmallows.  I have a new microplane chocolate grater so everything I make has grated chocolate on it at the moment, therefore this desert has grated chocolate!

 

The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin

It’s been about 8 years since I read an Ian Rankin novel.  I loved his Inspector Rebus character who is now departed, I’ve now been prodded to read the latter ones of that series having read read The Impossible Dead. This is the second of his books featuring his new guy, Malcolm Fox, who works for The Complaints department of Internal Affairs, investigating police irregularities.  I’m a bit keen on Malcolm, he is a genuine, straight up, hard working nice guy.  Lots of stuff going on in his life, a Dad who is suffering from altzheimers, a sister who is bitter that  Malcolm is paying for his Dad’s care but who doesn’t have the time to spend with him (or her), the fighting between Malcolm and his sister feels really genuine.

Plenty of things to deal with in his personal life without the re-connection with a woman he had a brief fling with, and who is useful to him in his current case.  A case which harkens back to the past.  A past where Scottish politics were rife, where the lines had been drawn and where activists were involved in all kinds of illegal protests, guns, bombings and more.  The case the Complaints is investigating brings up lots of these tensions from the past and it seems that the hatchet may not have been buried.  Fox and his team from The Complaints are in unfriendly turf and dealing with a case which threatens the police team which are hosting them.

There is a lot going on but it is told in such a gentle way, this book just grabbed me and swept me along.  A really great crime novel and I’m now looking forward to reading the first Malcolm Fox book The Complaints, Foxy and I are going to be firm friends!  If you want to see a rather nice interview with Ian Rankin have a look at the video below.

 

Look at Me by Jennifer Egan

Having really enjoyed A Visit From The Goon Squad last year I thought I’d have a go at this one by the same author.  I was helped along in this decision by the fact that Kobo had it for about $2 for the download so that was the decision made, very quickly and smartly.  It was off to a cracking start.  We meet Charlotte, a model who is getting a little long in the tooth for her job, she has been in a car accident and after extensive plastic surgery and rebuilding her face is being held together with 80 screws, on the outside as she slowly heals she looks like a totally different person to the model in her portfolio.  She is recovering in her hometown which puts her into contact with her sister, who is married to a man she cannot get along with and the location also stirs lots of childhood and teenage memories of her friend and the brother of her friend.  This brother becomes a central character in the story, as does another Charlotte, the daughter of the friend.   We will meet a detective who is researching a guy Charlotte knew before her accident, a shady character with murderous intentions.  Somehow these disparite characters will tell the story of how Charlotte (the younger) and Charlotte (the more senior) are linked and we will witness the soul searching of all the characters.

I hadn’t read a single thing about this book before I started it, and I’m pleased I hadn’t because I think that I would have read the book with a different eye if I had read the reviews which focussed on the terrorism factor in the book.  Yes I saw it but it wasn’t the main thing I saw in the novel which it does seem to have been for many of the reviewers.  I was interested in the two Charlottes, the journey back to wellness for one and into self awareness for the other.  There are some great scenes in the book, particularly I liked the interactions with Charlotte (the younger) with her friends.  I could also see lots of ideas in the book which are further explored and developed in Goon Squad.  It is a good read!  It could have been a great read.

 

Ginger Biscuits – so easy!

This ancient recipe has been around since well before my kids were mixing up biscuits in the school holidays, turning the kitchen into a floury, sticky mess, but this is one of the recipes we used to make together.  They are perfect for the beginning baker, melt, mix and cook.  The measurements are in old measurements on my original recipe so I have changed them to metric measurements.  Eat lots of them with big mugs of milky tea!  Tip: Castor sugar will mix in better than ordinary sugar, but it doesn’t really matter much in the end.

Morning Tea on a rainy summer day

Melt together, mix, then cool a little:  125g butter, 1 tablespoon of golden syrup, 1 cup of sugar.

Add:  1 beaten egg, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 3 teaspoons of ground ginger, 2 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda, you can add some chopped chrystalised ginger if you like a stronger ginger taste.

Roll into balls, do not flatten.  Bake at 180 degrees for about 20 – 25 minutes until golden.

Walk Off The Earth – Somebody I used to know

This great Gotye song which has been on repeat around here has been given a new touch with five people and a guitar.  These guys are awesome, there are lots of great examples of their fabulousness on YouTube on their Channel.

Lime and White Chocolate Brownie

This recipe started life as my friend Carole’s chocolate brownie.  You might notice that the photo below of my version bears little resemblance to a chocolate brownie, I felt like a brownie, I only had white chocolate buttons and I happened to have a lime begging to be used, so voila Lime and white chocolate brownie was born.  It has a lovely soft centre and chewy edges. Yum!

This would make a great desert with yoghurt to cut through the sweetness or even some rhubarb.  We however ate it as the consolation prize for a very disappointing first course most of which ended up in the bin!  This saved the day!

Melt these together gently: 100g butter, 1/2 cup of white chocolate buttons.

Whisk in: 2 eggs, grated rind of a lime and it’s juice and 1 tsp of vanilla.

Stir in: 1 cup of sugar, 3/4 cup flour.

Pour into: a tin lined with baking paper.

Bake at: 180 degrees C for 25 minutes.

Ramblings on the iPad

I’ve had my iPad2 for a few months now and have deleted all my half written musings on it.  I’ve come to realise they were written far too soon after it’s acquisition.  Now, a couple of months on I have become a better iPad user and have learnt some tricks and found the pure joy that an iPad can bring.  I am that woman who will play Pyramid HD for days on end.  In fact I have even discovered the joy and pain when a game gives you ‘iPad finger’ from stabbing those little Egpytians to get them to move faster to build their pyramid in a bid to get a golden scarab, I know it’s sad but there it is!  iPad finger can occur when you are playing Find It games, time management games or enjoying the coolness of Zinio or Fliboard.  The reason I bought the iPad was for reading.  I wanted a piece of the reading action on an e-device which also did all kinds of other stuff.  I already had a dedicated e-reader (a Kobo) which I’d had great reading experiences on, but I wanted all the rest of the functionality, a laptop without having to drag a laptop around, to be able to read on the plane but also to search the web, answer my email, listen to my music and use to take notes in meetings.  The iPad does all that and plenty more.  So, here is what I think so far.

The Pros

It is lovely to hold, it isn’t uncomfortable to read on in bed at night.  Slightly more awkward than the Kobo just because it is bigger and heavier, but the reading experience itself is great.  I use the Kobo app or the Kindle app both are pretty much the same.  I can share my library with my partner, we can both read the same books and each buy books on my account (well, actually it is me buying the books on there but that’s fine.)  I like the night reading setting for when the light is out and you want to read in the dark.

Great for games.  In our place the games are all about finding stuff, building stuff, and Bejewelled and matching games of that type.  We are not hard core games.  But last week I clocked a solve the mystery game in two days, just because it was so easy to play it on the iPad wherever I was – on the couch, at the table, in bed.  Terrible.

Flipboard, this is just wonderful, tailored to your interests you get fed articles you are interested from all over the internet.  For me that is stuff on reading, libraries, books, education and publishing.  But you could be interested in anything from bumbebees to surfing and tailor it to your interests.  Zinio, Zite, Pulse, all these will be your news and magazine friends.

Games, try em, buy em and become an addict.  I’m hopeful this addiction problem will wear off but that is part of the reason that posts on this blog have been infrequent!  Majong Towers, Pyramid HD, anything from Big Fish Games,

There are so many great apps, tools and Bridget’s little helpers online, with new ones coming along every day that a girl could be forgiven for getting lost for long periods of time just in the App Store!

The speaker is decent.  Not awesome, but decent.  I use my iPad all the time at work to listen to TED talks while I’m covering books, to listen to conference presentations, podcasts (Nancy Pearl and BBC Books) and it works really well.

Cons

It is hard to share a book you’ve loved when you only have an electronic copy of it sitting on your Amazon or Kobo account.  We don’t have access to iBooks here in NZ!

It is not always 100% reliable at hooking up with the work wifi, not sure why but it doesn’t really matter because I am mostly using it offline at work, it is a slight pain though.

Um Um.  Trying to think of cons.  My fingers are too big to type on the tablet keyboard…. it isn’t much is it?

Therefore

There you go.  Some not very coherent musings and really just an advertisement for my lovely iPads cool factor.  It is the toy which is a tool but which still feels like a tool.  I belong to the iPad group at school, and remain unconvinced that learning happens any quicker, better or deeper with an iPad, but I do think that they are user friendly and a nice way to integrate really fast technology into school if you can afford to buy em and sort out the management of them in your school in a way that works for everyone.  As a personal tool they are just awesome and I’ve only just begun to dip my toe into these deep rippling waters!  What lies beneath?

How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran

Where to start.  Right, I bought it for the cover.  I just couldn’t help myself, there she was staring straight at me from the cover, a stroppy woman, I could tell, I knew I’d like her.  As I launched myself at this book, snorting with laughter by the end of page 1 or possibly 2, I knew I had spent my money wisely.  It is an account of the life so far of the very untraditionally raised Caitlin Moran, growing up in very un-wellheeled circumstances, in a council house in Wolverhampton in England, taking care of five younger siblings, running away from bullies, having nothing to wear – actually nothing, and maintaining a good sense of humour.

She headed out to work at the age of 15, and it’s been a whirlwind since then.  She worked in the coolest job someone like I could have imagined when I was a kid, working for a music magazine.  She had a miserable relationship with a bloke and came out the otherside thinking hard about her girly bits and how easily abused they are and became a kind of feminist.  But don’t read this book if you are looking for the new feminist treatise, read this book as a kind of British Tina Fey, witty, funny, and full of good ideas, with stuff to say on modern culture and our obsessions and written in a really accesible and amusing way.  This is basically a look back a her diary over the years, lots of juicy bits, and a bit of a fright from time to time.

She writes hilariously about getting her first period. Her need for a bra.  Her discovering that the love of her life was sitting right behind her every day at work.  She is also very very good on the culture of celebrity, I just adored her comments on Rhianna.  Her outing with Lady Gaga was hilarious.  Her comments on how we are simultaneously titivated by and yet horrified by the invasion into the personal lives of women celebrities, who have allowed us into their world but by doing that have made their lives miserable and us so judging of them I found resonated with me.

Other chapters deal with abortion, the terror of being a parent and marriage were great.  This is a laugh of a book, not all the way, but huge chunks of it.  I’m sorely tempted to buy a copy for each of my girls.  Read it for her interesting views on modern women, read it because it is a hell of a fun ride, and read it because Caitlin Moran has written a book for women right now.

But, there are the fashion rules – I loved her shoe advice.  What you need in your handbag, given I have finally purchased one.  On fashion, Leopardskin is a neutral, You can get away with nearly anything if you wear the thing with black opaque tights and boots.  3.  Contrary to popular opinion a belt is often not a good friend to a lady … 4. Bright red is a neutral.  ….  There are more but these ones particularly work for me!  Thanks Caitlin, you’ve confirmed what I thought.

Want to read a great interview with her?  Diana Wichtel wrote this for the Listener.  And this one is Kim Hill talking to her on Radio New Zealand.