The Perth Fashion Festival launched its program for 2009, detailing a 7 day calendar jam packed with fashion shows and events, from September 4 – 10 2009.

I braved a frosty Wednesday morning to attend the launch at the historic Perth GPO building. Guests entered along a red carpet and past a window display of live models adorned with a variety of West Australian designer clothes, all in a white ethereal theme.

The centre of attention for the morning was Emily Cattermole, The Face of the Festival, who was wearing this amazing white dress by LinPin.

And Tom Bull, another international model from Perth, was presented as the Youth Ambassador for the Festival. I just adored his outfit by Aelkemi, and the whole babyface-with-facial-hair look. So cute.

As I scoffed down some breakfast pastries and flicked through the program, I was most excited about the individual designer shows by Ruth Tarvydas, Wheels & Dollbaby and Morrison. Yay, can’t wait!

Check out the list of all the events here.

Images by the lovely Stefan Gosatti, Official Festival Photographer.

The other weekend my husband and I attended the annual Boobalicious Ball – a huge charity fundraiser for the Breast Cancer Foundation of WA.

Now with a name like Boob-a-licious, I must admit, it sounded a bit sleazy and indecent. But it was actually a really fun night out! There were dance performances, catwalk shows, singing, a live band, lots of charity auctions. Everything was enjoyably tasteful and entertaining.

The dress code for the night was “Black Tie and Dazzling Gowns”.

My main problem, was that the all “dazzling gowns” in my wardrobe didn’t fit me because I’m still carrying a bit of extra weight from being pregnant 3 months ago, and my proportions have changed slightly.

I was flapping around for few weeks saying, “Ak! What am I going to wear????”

My husband sighed and said, “Why don’t you just go out and buy something new…..” and I was out the door with my credit card faster than you could say END OF FINANCIAL YEAR SALE.

I made two shopping trips, but grrr, I couldn’t find anything.

And I wasn’t about to spend $250 on a dress that fit me NOW, when I’m planning to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight LATER.

So I put together a two-piece outfit and made something that looked like a simple, black cocktail dress.

I love prancing around in ruffles. It was a great night!

I wore a high-waisted satin ruffle skirt, from Forever New. A black cami from Myer. Metallic bead necklace from Myer. Beige fishnets from Myer. Shoes from Betts.

We watched it rise, and of course I couldn’t help but start snapping pics. I am always amazed by how fast the moon and sun rise and set when you really watch them – and their strange colours make the whole experience even more exciting. But then something else happened. The moon started to disappear again.

It was rising behind some clouds, but as the sun had just set, the clouds and the sky were all one blue-grey colour, so the clouds were invisible.

I was just so delighted by the accidental beauty of the movement of the heavens and the atmosphere.

And later on, after it was completely dark, the moon re-appeared much higher up in the sky, bursting through a break in the clouds, and created a completely different visual effect.

I love seeing new things for the first time! I’m so glad I didn’t stay in and watch TV.

I guess I didn’t feel the need to have one. I didn’t need my friends to buy me presents. I didn’t need balloons and baby shaped confetti.

I also wasn’t too keen on the idea of ME being the “pampered princess for the day”.

Plus the fact that I didn’t like the idea of celebrating a baby who wasn’t actually HERE yet.

So when I twigged that a few of my friends were trying to organise a SURPRISE baby shower for my current pregancy behind my back… I jumped in and took control of the situation. I don’t like surprise parties!

So I organised a baby shower for myself. It was more of an un-baby shower.

No sitting around in circles, oohing and aahing over little booties. No balloons or decorations. No oestrogen-inducing duckie blankets.

It was just a lovely, low-key, weekend morning-tea with 20 of my girl friends. Which was perfect.

I asked my friends not to bring any gifts, because I already mostly have the baby clothes, blankets, toys, and all the baby furniture and bits and pieces I need!

But some couldn’t help themselves, and one of my girlfriends even surprised me with a foot scrub, massage and pedicure! Ah, it was so so sweet of her.

Ok I did set up some baby shower games.

Guess the Substance in the Nappy!

Basically guests had to open up, smell, inspect the contents of the nappy, and write down their guess on a bit of paper.

I had a melted Mars Bar, wholegrain mustard, vegemite, crunchy peanut butter, mashed peas, melted Snickers Bar, melted Picnic bar, and plumped sultanas.

Guess the Baby Food

I bought 6 jars of baby food, in a nice range of sweet and savoury flavours. Soaked the labels off and relabelled with numbers. Guests had to identify just 2 ingredients.

I had pumpkin and corn, apple and pear, banana and custard, apple and berry jelly, a tomato vegetable and beef stew, and a vegetable and rice curry.

Overall I had a really lovely afternoon and it was just so nice to be with my friends!

I wasn’t interested in going to the standard department stores and franchise boutiques that I could find all over Australia. I was looking for a more local and unique mix of fashion, shoes and accessories. Shops with a distinct Adelaide vibe.

Prior to my trip, I asked a few people, scoured some forums, and did some quick research – the most recommended shopping district was Rundle Street, in Adelaide City.

So I’ve made my own list of must see shopping recommendations in Adelaide:

The Birdcage (pictured above)
Gorgeous little boutique with a nice assortment of fairly unique and pretty dresses, tops and skirts. Medium to high price range.
202 Rundle Street, Adelaide
08 8223 6026

The Birdcage also stocks the gorgeous Australian designer brand, Little Potty Red Shoes.

Tu Yu
230 Rundle Street, Adelaide
08 8232 0038

Botika Clothing
234 Rundle Street, Adelaide
08 8223 6062

Naked
238a Rundle Street, Adelaide
08 8223 7699

Miss Gladys Sym Choon (pictured above)
Very funky store! 3 levels of glam dresses, menswear, cheap shoes, rare finds, weird and wonderful accessories. Mix of imported and local clothing brands, including Ruth Tarvydas and Razak.
235a Rundle Street, Adelaide
08 8223 1500

Sooki
253 Rundle Street, Adelaide
08 8332 0704

Platinum Fashion
241 Rundle Street, Adelaide
08 8224 0214

Envy Clothing
Shop 1-2, 12 – 18 Vardon Avenue, Adelaide
(behind Rundle Street)

And if you have time a bit of spare time, check out these:

Dangerfield (pictured above)
Punk, rock, street wear, and funky accessories.
242 Rundle Street, Adelaide
08 8232 7766

Real Store
Street and skate wear for men
233 Rundle Street, Adelaide
08 8232 9396

The Gymnasium
Vintage fashion
Level 1, 240 Rundle Street, Adelaide
08 8232 7883

L’Amour Fashion
Fashion from Japan and Korea
Shop 4, 10 Ebenezer Place, Adelaide
08 7225 7832

Hero
Vintage fashion
Ebenezer Place, Adelaide
08 8223 1626

I love eating “Yee Sang” – a fresh raw fish salad that is served during Chinese New year. My husband and I have eaten it 3 days in a row now, and my mouth was STILL watering while cropping this photo.

We spent the weekend visiting relatives, eating lots of Chinese cookies, collecting red packets, practicing our Chinese words, eating Chinese food, going to the beach, swimming with the family and cleaning the house.

We also went to a Chinese New Year Ball – where I ate until I was about to burst.

I realised that my third child would be born in the year of the Ox — strong-minded, stubborn, individualistic, kind, caring, logical, positive, filled with common sense and feet firmly planted on the ground.

I also realised that my other two children are a Goat and a Rooster! Oh great! Lots of stubborn kids!

(Chinese Astrology from Wikipedia)

On the weekend, we went to visit The Perth Markets at the Perth Cultural Centre, in the shade of the old trees between the Museum and the Art Gallery in Northbridge.

It was the first weekend of The Perth Markets  as the new, regular weekend markets in the city, and it was very exciting to walk around and see the beginnings of a new local tradition.

There were all kinds of market stalls – fresh produce, organic products, herbs and spices, flowers, art work, jewellery, accessories, bits and pieces. There was also excellent street music, balloons and face painting. Perth’s inner-city multi-culturalism was really on display as well!

I think the best bit was that all their profits go to a charitable cause – helping Youth In Crisis.

The other night we attended a Perth Bloggers Meet Up. It was really nice to see heaps of news and old faces.

I had an excellent time meeting different people from all walks of life! There was a really nice vibe in the air and I had some great conversations. It was a good night!

I also met David and Ming, from Nuffnang, who kindly sponsored the event.

If you’re interested in attending future meetups in Perth, feel free to join the Perth Bloggers Meetup Facebook Group!

When I agreed to interview Lance Armstrong, I wanted to advise his Lance Armstrong Foundation of a few things.

Firstly, I’m not a professional journalist. Also, neither I nor my readers are particularly interested in the technicalities of cycling or professional racing! But I am very interested in doing something about cancer awareness.

Basically, I wanted to ask Lance questions that were from the heart – issues that were perhaps a bit more thought provoking regarding cancer, personal strength, fundraising, and cancer awareness.

Lance Armstrong is one of the world’s most successful cycling champions, who has used his fame to create LIVESTRONG – a movement to raise funds and awareness for cancer research. It has an incredible online resource for people who are dealing with cancer and its effects – both for the actual person who has it, but also for the people who love them.

When I finally met Lance, it was late in the afternoon. He had spent the morning riding up and down several nearby mountains as training for the big race in a few days. He was very relaxed, and radiated a very charismatic energy. We chatted about Adelaide, the hills, Perth, being pregnant, and he seemed really nice and easy-going. And then I asked my questions.

Karen: You’ve been quoted as saying that you would never have won the Tour De France if you hadn’t had cancer. Can you say why that is? Was it just that winning a bike race (even the toughest one in the world) seems easy compared to beating cancer?

Lance: It doesn’t have to be cancer, it could be anything devastating that reminds you of the fragility of life, the fragility of your career, and of your potential.

I had a decent perspective on my sport before, but after the diagnosis and the treatment, I realised that cycling was truly special to me personally, so I redoubled, recommitted myself back to cycling in a much different way than I did before.

Karen: Your media persona makes you seem like a very tough, direct, forceful guy, and winning the Tour de France so many times tells us you have a lot of self-discipline. But what was your lowest emotional moment with cancer. And how did you get out of it?

Lance: The lowest moment…hmm…yeh, that’s a good question. It would be hard to compete, in terms of the lows, with the actual diagnosis, because that was such a surprise. This fear rushes in, and uncertainty rushes in, and the immediate thought or question is “am I going to die?”. That’s a natural reaction.

After that, I kept getting more and more bad news, but it didn’t compare to the initial diagnosis. The way you deal with that, at least I did, and I think most people do, is through friends and family, this strong support structure that ultimately lift you up.

But also, I put a lot of faith in my doctors and nurses. I realised I was going to find the best doctor in the world, and the best medical team in the world, and we were going to throw everything at this disease, and if it didn’t work out…it wasn’t meant to be.

Karen: At what point did you realise you were going to do something as big about cancer as LIVESTRONG. Was there a single moment where you realised you should, and could?

Lance: No, this all started around a little table in a restaurant, just talking to friends, thinking we should do something to raise a little bit of money. LIVESTRONG wasn’t even in existence at that time, it was just the Lance Armstrong Foundation. LIVESTRONG came about in 2003/2004.

Karen: It must be a huge undertaking, organisationally, to get something a big as your foundation and LIVESTRONG rolling. How do you start something like that?

Lance: The same way we got through the low points of the cancer itself. Friends and family and myself sat around and said “we gotta do something”.

So the very same people who helped me through the tough times, the low points of the diagnosis and treatment, were the same ones who were there to start the foundation.

Karen: I know that cancer research is enormously complicated, and expensive, so fundraising is very important. I also know that most people feel like there is nothing they can do about cancer, because the size of the problem is so big.

What proportion of funds raised by your foundation comes from small donations like 5 and 10 dollars, as opposed to big benefactors? How important is it for ordinary people to give a little?

Lance: A lot, a lot. I would say that the bulk of the money we have raised, going way back to the beginning, is from small amounts. If you go way back to the beginning, and consider that we have raised more than 300 million dollars, the biggest single component of that was from the sale of the yellow wrist bands, which was 60 or 70 million dollars, which is a lot of money. But all of that was people spending one dollar for a yellow wrist band.

So 70 million people gave us a buck. They said – “here you go, here’s a dollar.” So that built a brand, and a movement.

There is a lot of five dollar, ten dollar, and even twenty two dollars and thirty six cents kind of donations, which to me is really cool, I rather have a lot of that, because that represents a movement, an army of people, whereas if you had ten rich people giving you a bunch of money, you couldn’t say that you speak for an entire constituency of people.

Karen: I get really discouraged when I get hate mail – and it happened to me right after my first little fundraiser for the Red Cross. How do you deal with the detractors who question your motives, especially when you have such a public persona?

Lance: Anyone who is in the public eye who has a measure of success will have detractors, will have naysayers, will have non-believers, will have haters. And that has been amplified now, in the current generation, because there is so much output in terms of the media, like magazines, blogs, message boards. Anybody who goes onto a message board and reads about themselves is going to go crazy.

I told someone the other day, I thought that Tina Faye summed it up best when she accepted her award at the Golden Globes, she said “For all of you out there who are just starting to feel good about yourself, there is this little thing out there called the Internet.” And then she listed off the names of people who’ve said bad things about her on the net, and then at the end of it all, she thanked her husband.

At the end of the day, it helps to ignore it, but also if you want to, you could also say some mean things back. (laughs)

Karen: An obvious possibility with having cancer is that it might come back. I know my husband gets very tense while waiting for the results of every blood test. How do you deal with the fear of recurrence?

Lance: I think that fades over time. My big ones were one month, two months, three months, every month in that first year. One year was a big deal, two years was a big deal, and then five years was just a huge deal. And really, I don’t think that much about it, so when I go in for my annual check-up twelve years later, I don’t know, maybe it’s a bad thing, I don’t get that nervous.

But in the first year, or two years, I was just a ball of nerves. I think that’s totally normal.

Karen: My husband has had testicular cancer twice, and he says it was a very different emotional experience second time around. How do you think you will deal with it differently if your cancer comes back?

Lance: Oh my god, I can’t even imagine. Hopefuly that won’t even happen, but it certainly can.

It’s hard to say. It’s like if you’re totally healthy and someone says how would you deal with that the first time, you can’t respond to that.

I know that just like before, we would work hard to find the best options, go into it with the best attitude, and throw everything at it. It would be different now, because I have kids.

The first time, I was a twenty five year old kid, and if I left, the only one who would be really sad was my Mom, but it’s a lot different now. I don’t even like to think about it.

Karen: Twenty years from now, would you rather be famous for being the world’s greatest bike athlete, or for creating LIVESTRONG?

Lance: Even today, I’d rather be known as the founder of LIVESTRONG, and so obviously, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now, till we don’t need to do it anymore, the same would apply. If I could pick what goes on my tombstone, LIVESTRONG would be higher than athlete.

Karen: It’s safe to say that your story, both in sport and with cancer, has inspired lots of people. But who inspires you?

Lance: My Mom. She’s always been a hero in life, and a hero in the example she set for me. She’s a tough woman who believed in a certain set of things when she was young, and had an incredible work ethic and drive and motivation. Even today, she 55 years old, and still a young lady, and we are very, very close and great friends.

…

We ended my interview, and then it was his turn to ask me questions.

I told him my husband’s story, how it affected me and our family. And shared some thoughts about cancer awareness in Australia, and what Australians can do to spread awareness of cancer and help activate communities.

Overall, I was really impressed with Lance’s answers, and the way he answered them. Directly, strongly, confidently, with real interest and passion.

I was struck by how similar his views on his cancer are to my husband’s, and how he freely admits, like my husband, that it was his family and friends who got him through his cancer.

A few days after meeting Lance, I had lots of thoughts. I feel that my own plans to do something to raise awareness of the need for improved cancer prevention and treatment are probably not ambitious enough!

After all, Lance Armstrong is just one person, and although he has had a lot of help, he has been the one individual who was the focus of it all. So one person can make a huge difference! I’m inspired!

On Wednesday night, 21 January 2009, NuffNang Australia are putting on drinks and nibbles at The Brass Monkey Wine Bar.

Nuffnang is Asia Pacific’s first (and possibly largest) blog advertising network and community. They have 80,000 bloggers under their wing from Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines – they have recently launched here in Australia. Nuffnang Australia are keen to let Aussie bloggers know about them and spread the word.

Nuffnang also prides itself for nurturing a strong, local blogging community – spoiling their members with competitions, prizes, giveaways, movie tickets, and seasonal events. I especially like that they are charity minded too – donating advertising space to charities for free.

During my trip to Singapore in July, I met two of the Nuffnang crew, Ming (pictured right), co-founder of Nuffnang, and the lovely Davienne (pictured middle). Ming is coming to Perth just to attend this meetup, as is David, the Sydney based Nuffnang Australia Manager.

The agenda for the meetup is just a quick welcome and introduction by Nuffnang, and then everyone can indulge in some free drinks, food and friendly chat.

So if you’ve never been to a bloggers meetup, or have always thought about attending one… you should definitely not miss this one! Please pass the word around the blogging community.

I hope to see some of you there!

Event: Perth Bloggers Meetup sponsored by Nuffnang

Date: Wednesday, 21st January 2009

Time: 6pm

Venue: The Wine Room (The Brass Monkey) at the rear of the Grapeskin Wine Bar, Corner of James and William Street Northbridge.

Theme: Nuffnang New Years Welcome

Food platters and a drinks tab provided.

No RSVP necessary.