At APJ we have a Saturday Question. Everyone gets to chime in with an answer, chat with other responders and it’s a fun event each week. Taking sides never means taking offence and everyone keeps it respectful and light, even though we can sometimes trawl the depths.
The idea is you’ll see it on the weekend or chime in through the week. Hopefully you will come back regularly and see if anyone has responded to your comment and you can reply to them. The aim is to generate real conversation and connection even though we are scattered around the globe.
Imagine if your preconceptions are rerouted. Gay is normal and straight is feared, outcast, rejected and freakish. It is hard to visualise because we have never seen it but here in a 19 minute short film it all is. Played out as truthfully and darkly as real life often is for gays.
Cried my eyes out, this piece is haunting me as a near parallel to my own and my best friend through schools youth. Luckily it never got so bad as this for me but my friend Jason was picked on mercilessly by years above and below.
Please watch this and share it with your kids, families, siblings and friends. It may just stop one person from being victimised for something they have no control over because it is predestined by birth and genetics. We are all equal, no matter who we love, what religion we follow, what colour our skin, what sex we are or how we earn our living. We should all be equal in the eyes of the law and the eyes of our community.
With love to you all,
Portia xx
Imagine A World Where Being “Gay” The Norm & Being “Straight” Would Be The Minority! [Short Film]
We are cleaning the Perfume Room and giving it a new paint job. It’s quite a BIG DEAL so over the next couple of days I am dropping in some Video stuff that I’ve found interesting, educational or took me outside my box. Some of it is ONE TOPIC but some will also be TOTALLY OFF TOPIC!
Today I am introducing you to someone who changed the way I think about how I live my life. You may know I have had some low level depression over the years, nothing dramatic, just a buzz of blue flying low for a while that would disappear as it had come. Part of what my problems were was exactly what Brené Brown talks about here. Opening myself up to being vulnerable. Now Brené Brown wasn’t the first person to give me this blueprint for a happier life, though she does put it better and more amusingly than others, but as I was already beginning the road to change when I heard her speak the resonance was incredible. Give this smart, funny, insightful person a few minutes of your time and she may help you change outmoded behaviour patterns that you are using, or maybe just because it’s a very entertaining watch.
From Wikipedia TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, under the slogan “ideas worth spreading”. TED was founded in 1984 as a one-off event. The annual conference began in 1990, in Monterey, California. TED’s early emphasis was technology and design, consistent with its origins in the Silicon Valley.
TED Site <<<JUMP for anyone inspired, anywhere in the world, who would like to go and be a part of these amazing talks.
Here’s the thing. The last few days have been a bit wonky. I have been irritable, grouchy, whiney and generally being a big hairy poo head. I have let myself get overwhelmed by external pressures, people’s failure to do it my right, business, late payers, bills, friends, general life really. I felt like I was sinking and it’s not a feeling I relish. So I went to one of those feel better FB pages and stole some short sayings that resonated. Often it’s easy to forget that there is a big picture, a goal or that moving forward can entail change and NO ONE likes change that doesn’t move at a comfortable pace. So it seems that changes are needed, some of them will be painful and some will be easy, and you don’t get to chose.
The other side though, that’s where the payoff is, pain now, gain later. Really pain? Hopefully not but certainly discomfort.
It was Thanksgiving this week in America. Where they thank the Indians for teaching them how to survive in the new country, sadly many of the Indians did not survive their encounter with white mans germs, it was reverse War of the Worlds, the aliens survived. What do I have to be thankful for? So much, I am lucky and blessed on so many levels. What do I need to change? Well change has already been put in motion, there will be more….
I hope you like this little montage for hope.
Portia xx
Today AustralianPerfumeJunkies is dropping in early because we think this is a very important, wonderful and amazing offer from one of Australia’s fabulous Niche Perfumers Liz Cook at One Seed. I have stolen the ad copy exactly from the email but down the bottom there is a quick review of the fragrance HOPE
HOPE FOR HOPE – FRIDAY DECEMBER 7TH
On Friday December 7th, we are launching our first annual “Hope for Hope Day”, where ALL profits from sales of Hope perfumes and body creams will be donated to one of our favourite charities, Australia Hope International.
Hope for Hope is for one day only, so if you have your eye on a bottle of our Hope perfume, or you are looking for a beautiful gift (and one that gives twice!), then shop at http://www.oneseedcompany.com on Friday December 7th to make your purchase really count.
Australia Hope International works with the destitute people of Uganda & The Congo to bring hope and empowerment, and to change lives. Over 97% of funds donated go directly to the people in need. Australia Hope International is making a huge difference in the lives of tens of thousands of people in Africa. We are proud to be sponsors of this wonderful organisation.
Hope – Eau de Parfum
From the One Seed Website Fragrance Family: Soft, mossy & magnetic. A meditative blend of Australian sandalwood & dewy oakmoss, with a delicate undertone of lavender & cedarwood, and sunny citrus accents. Top notes: bergamot, lime Heart notes: cedarwood, lavender, vanilla Base notes: Australian sandalwood, oakmoss, musk ambrette
Hope is a beautiful, rippling and sizzling citrus that leads into a walk through the woods on a sunlit spring or autumn day where the shade is cool but the sun is warm. A delightfully dappled experience weaving between light and shade that is remarkably tenacious for a natural. The vanilla plays background but keeps a warmth running through the heart that remains slightly fizzy from the lime. A study in contrasts, Hope is interesting enough for a perfumista, pretty and wearable enough for a novice and world class quality. Better by far than many of the mundane offerings currently offered.
This is an awesome Christmas Gift and at the same time you will be helping the world and some of its less fortunate. Isn’t that what Christmas should be about?
Portia xx
Australian Perfume Junkies 