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EP: 10. Surviving Christmas and Sayonara 2023 image

EP: 10. Surviving Christmas and Sayonara 2023

S1 E10 · SEMI-PRECIOUS
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58 Plays1 year ago

It's that time of the year again! In this episode the Semiprecious sisters drink bubbles (loudly), talk over each other a lot, complain about first world privileged problems (mostly Amber) and make promises for the new year which involve our listeners (yes you!) to drink wine, wrap things and hike with us. Confused? Yes, so are we. But it's Christmas, tis the season to not know whats going on. Amber also try's to impart surviving the silly season tips though we are not sure there is anything particularly helpful unless you're into present tracking apps!  We also have a special guest on the show. However she's only special to us, so don't set your hopes too high. But she brings us chocolate cake that was destined for a party she arrived a week early for. Amber can't think of any semiprecious moments as her life is a constant stream of blunders (Jade may be paraphrasing) and Jade's moment was a weird umbrella describing incident. 

If you are wanting to understand more about Jade and her counselling practice or ADHD Coaching you can visit Awaken ADHD or on socials Instagram and Facebook

[email protected]

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If you’ are curious about Amber and her brand agency you can visit The Edison Agency   or follow her on socials LinkedIn or Instagram 

CREDITS

Producer: Amber Bonney and Jade Bonney

Hosts: Amber Bonney and Jade Bonney

Sound Editing: Jade Bonney

Social Content Creator: Amber Bonney

Creative Director: Amber Bonney

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Transcript

Acknowledgment and Introduction

00:00:00
Speaker
This podcast is recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurrung country and we wish to acknowledge them as traditional owners. We recognise First Peoples of Australia as the original storytellers of this country and pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging. You are listening to a semi-precious podcast hosted by Uncut and Unpolished sisters Amber and Jade.
00:00:29
Speaker
We are live. Hello, everyone. Welcome to semi-precious episode 10. We wanted to sneak one in before Christmas. This is called Surviving Christmas and Sayonara 2023.

Year in Review: Highs and Lows

00:00:44
Speaker
Today, we're going to talk about the highs and lows of the year, our tips for surviving Christmas, of which I feel like we're completely under-qualified to do. And we say goodbye, Sayonara, adios, and ciao to 2023. We do. I have a glass of bubbles in my hand. As do I. Ching, ching.
00:01:08
Speaker
There we go, and we're just starting. Excuse us, take a really loud gulp. It is past midday, so... It's acceptable. It's acceptable. Usually we do these things on Sunday morning and you're kind of like, slow and...
00:01:25
Speaker
I mean, you're not slow. Thank you. I mean, you're talking a bit more animated today. I am wearing a Christmas hat. I can't be unanimated and wearing a Christmas hat. That would be criminal. You kind of sounded like a radio DJ when you started the intro. That's my hashtag. Welcome to this episode. Yeah. Broadcasting. Watch out for traffic on the road. It's getting.
00:01:47
Speaker
Hectic hour. It's snowy outside. Maybe I'll just sing every episode. What do you think? Sure. How do you think that went down? I'm open. I'm open. Did you actually listen back?
00:02:04
Speaker
No, I still haven't. I listened to the beginning, that was it. Okay, good. So Amber cannot be counted as one of our seven listeners then, I guess. No. So we're going to do something as semi-precious first, this episode.
00:02:21
Speaker
You don't know what it is? Oh, yes. So we, my dear friend, our dear friend Claire messaged and said that her streaming service of choice, I don't know who she was listening to it through, said that she, that Semi-Precious was her number one podcast for the year. She listened to it multiple times. We've got some questions about this.
00:02:44
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. Because if you only listen to each episode once, that's only eight listens, how many? Maybe we're the only podcast she listens to. Maybe. Well, that's good, I'll take it. So we just decided that she was one of our top listeners, even though it really is only going by.
00:03:01
Speaker
Who cares? We'll take it. Who cares? I only need the data from one participant. Yeah, so she's going to come in and say hi a little bit later on and talk about maybe her highs and lows of the year. Yeah.
00:03:19
Speaker
Yeah. We'll see if we can crack a joke. Get her to crack a joke. Just Claire to joke. Yeah, maybe. Maybe it'd be a joke. She is a brewer. She's a brewer. Maybe a, I don't know, perimenopause joke seems to be where we're at. I'm not sure how funny that's going to be. All right, maybe. We'll give it a go. All righty.

Family and Health Challenges

00:03:40
Speaker
I don't feel particularly organized. There is nothing new in that exclamation. No, I do feel like I forgot how to do everything. I couldn't even function the mirror board this morning. Not sure who I am, but we'll just go for it. Yeah. So we're starting with the ups and downs of 2023. Is that part of your down that you don't know who you are or what you're doing? That would definitely be my down. What's going on? I've just given you a little hint.
00:04:08
Speaker
Are we going ups first or downs first? Do we want to end on a... Oh, that's tricky. Yeah. I don't know. Do you want to set the mood low and then lift them up? Lift them up. Yeah. All right. All right. What are some of your low points? Well, I've broken my notes into gratitude and what did we hate? So... Yeah, I did too. No, I didn't. I'll just read yours. No, there's only one, one post note here if yours. Yeah.
00:04:37
Speaker
What did we hate? I'd have to say the commonality. We have two commonalities of our pain points for 2023. One is that obviously we have the same parents.
00:04:52
Speaker
And with those same parents... They're not one of the listeners. No, who are thankfully not one of the listeners. We've had the joyous experience of moving one of those parents into aged care very begrudgingly and then having to clear out their house and move the other parent out. That's been the low of the year for me.
00:05:15
Speaker
That was definitely the lowest. Well, because it went on for nearly the whole year. Yeah, it went on for far too long. And it came with some messing around with medications and so on and so forth. So she was really, let's say, out of sorts. All my headphones just fell off because they can't sit on my head whilst I've got my Santa hat. All right, hang on, readjusting.
00:05:42
Speaker
Yeah, how should we say that? Kind of out of sorts? Psychotic? Yeah, okay. Well, I wrote psychosis, but I didn't know whether we were just going to go there. She's not listening. She's not listening. Okay. So a little bit of kind of drug-induced psychosis, I believe. That was really fun at three in the morning when all of the siblings slash children were receiving
00:06:04
Speaker
horrendous, hysterical messages. Yeah, it was a really fun time of which we didn't really get many answers or support from the multiple services helping her. So we'd just get, yeah, lots of really, really nuts messages and frightening. I think it was really quite frightening probably for everybody. So anybody who's been through that.
00:06:30
Speaker
You know the pain. Not fun times. Not fun. Packing up houses. I've packed way too many boxes this year. So with packing mum and dad out.
00:06:43
Speaker
That talk, I can't even tell you how many weekends. That was a lot. Then I helped my son move out and into a new house. That was a lot of boxes. Then we moved house yet again, so that was really three moves in the one year.
00:07:02
Speaker
Didn't need too many boxes for your move because we just kind of picked it up and almost walked it down to you. That was because I refused to get a removalist this time. I'm like, I can't mentally cope with the idea of having to get another removalist.
00:07:16
Speaker
Yeah, good times. So that was really, that was the big low point. Moving, packing, cleaning. Packing, cleaning, cleaning, breaking nails, cleaning again, cleaning. You did break some nails. Like a lot of nails. Speaking of nails, I'm back to... Metaphor coming.
00:07:34
Speaker
No, I'm just holding up my shabby nails. I couldn't find anywhere that actually did nails that would last or that were kind to me. You've got to ditch the kindness. Why? I want them to be kind to me when they do my nails. I feel like it's the wrong service to be relying on kindness. And also I can't sit still for that long. That's an awful amount of time to not be able to do anything.
00:08:01
Speaker
Anyway, nails, where were we? Sorry, I broke lots of them trying to help. We've also had other sick family members that have been quite stressful. Yes, I put sick family and friends and people just generally suffering around me. It's going to be a big year for that.
00:08:23
Speaker
It has been a big year for

Humor and Aging

00:08:25
Speaker
that. I feel like it might have been a bigger life for that, as last episode would have illustrated, but I think... Like stage him in. So, what do you mean a bigger life? As in that's kind of been a pattern throughout the life of lots of people around me. Oh, yes. Yeah. Suffering. And, you know, I think I did practice the leaning in, leaning out this year and trying not to be totally absorbed by each.
00:08:54
Speaker
big journey that somebody was going on while still caring and feeling really sad for some people that are really struggling with illness and really out of control and just trying to battle on.
00:09:11
Speaker
Yeah, I have probably the other significant one for me this year, which is the other one that we share, perimenopause. Jesus Christ. Even though I don't look older, I am a few years older.
00:09:29
Speaker
Yeah, the rage, the medication, all the other. Tell me about the rage. The rage. Well, I think if Apple documented the most used word for the year, it would probably be stabby. Oh, I was going to say fuckity fuck fuck, but stabby, yes.
00:09:50
Speaker
often fucky fuck fuck might either precursor to stabby or post. Yeah, I feel stabby today or just we didn't stab anyone today. Yes. Despite feeling homicidal.
00:10:02
Speaker
Yeah, so there's that and then, you know, just, I know not for you because you're, you seem to get skinnier this year, but my arse has continued to not get skinnier. So just the body battle. I've given up on the body thing in terms of like, I'm now just working on actual, the mental health benefits of exercise and trying to get some muscle strength.
00:10:24
Speaker
But I don't have the muscle strength, and I'm bloated a lot. My body just does not like things. On one of my low diets, it's that lactose intolerance just kicked in hardcore. That's the only post-it note, just by the way, that I can see of Jade's. There's about 55 orange post-it notes. Is my name attached to them on my Miro board?
00:10:47
Speaker
If you're not familiar with your own, it's an online collaboration tool. They don't sponsor us, by the way, but hashtag if they did, that would be great. And there's just one random green post at Signifying Jade and it just says lactose intolerance. Yeah. Well, I feel sad. I mean, there's cheese. I went to a friend the other night and she said, oh, I've got a really beautiful cheese board. I was gifted for my birthday. Come and share it. It does make me sad because cheese and wine, like what do you do? I'm two pieces.
00:11:16
Speaker
I'm very sophisticated. There's pate. Hashtag our clients. There's quince paste. Just quince paste and a cracker. Yeah, I mean I can put a slither on so I might cut a piece of cheese and then I'll like divide it up to four portions and it really looks like I'm watching my weight but really I'm just trying not to sit in the bathroom for five hours later.
00:11:39
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I'm going to move my lack of lactose intolerance up to gratitude because I can still eat cheese. Oh. Yeah. That's nice. And I will move my smaller ass into gratitude. Yeah, up to a touche. Sister, touche. And that comes alongside the lactose intolerance because I can't eat that much cheese. No. Okay. I did buy some expensive cheese when I say expensive as like not expensive according to you. It would have been on sale.
00:12:10
Speaker
Anyway, I bought some cheese. The expense is not important. But I'm only buying small portions of it now because cheese is expensive, right? It's super expensive.
00:12:27
Speaker
in general. And if I can't eat it, do I really want to pay for expensive cheese for somebody else to eat? Are we like not Coon, which is sorry, rebranded to Cheer. Cheer. Not that sort of cheese. No, no. Are we talking about French or? I don't know. I bought some cheese. I think I bought some King Island cheese. I don't know.
00:12:48
Speaker
But anyway, I'm getting a bit tired on the cheese because I can't eat it. So if you come over for wine and cheese, it's PYO cheese. I will provide the wine and the crackers and the quince paste.
00:13:04
Speaker
What about some cut up hair? Maybe some pate and some hair. I don't have pate, so you can park that. Oh, yeah. Why don't you eat pate? Oh, it's just gross. It's just like munching on a liver. You don't really munch. It's a bit of a smear. No, I shouldn't. The texture. Don't say smear. Smear. The texture just honestly makes me want to vomit in my mouth. The look of it is equally unappealing.
00:13:28
Speaker
There's nothing else that is that color. It's just like internal organ's color. Okay. Yeah, it's not pleasant. All right. So this is a VM, but it's not like- Merry Christmas for anyone who's listening to this and enjoying. Enjoying there, Pate. I didn't actually know that about you. I feel like I'm learning lots about you on this podcast. Back to the perimenopause, there are lots of
00:13:51
Speaker
low light. So one of my increased symptoms is obviously the overheating. I'm like, I'm never going to be able to wear a jumper again, I don't think, for a long time. But ringing in my ears. Oh, yeah. The ear ringing has increased to multiple times a day. Ear ringing and just if you squamish about ears, maybe you just don't listen to this bit. I get the sensation when I'm lying down that it's dripping. Oh.
00:14:21
Speaker
Like it's like water stripping. Out of your ear. Like in my ear. In your ear. I get the sensation when I'm lying down. If you are an ENT specialist and buy some strange chance, listen to this podcast. Yeah. Can I reach out? Because they just need to dumb down a bit because they use a brain tumor. I don't have time in my life to be making ENT appointments. Appointments. Yeah. So reach out. No, I get the feeling of that I'm falling backwards if I roll over in bed.
00:14:49
Speaker
Like the real dizziness. Have you been eating those mushrooms again? I would like to. Also, if you grow special mushrooms, not the ones that kill dinner guests, just mushrooms that make you feel happy. Also connect.
00:15:06
Speaker
If you're an ENT specialist and you grow mushrooms that make people happy, we definitely need to hear from you. And a perimenopause specialist as well. We'd also- You're married to a perimenopause specialist and you are a professional ENT specialist and you both also grow mushrooms. This is the couple we need. Yeah, we want to come and stay on your farm. Not for free them, just professional free advice.
00:15:31
Speaker
I'm snorting. That's come with age too. I can't really laugh without snorting anymore. I have two more downside things to talk about that are both vain. One of them, Invisalign, just been the bane of my existence.
00:15:48
Speaker
I wish you're not slobbering. I would definitely recommend if you are in any way neurodivergent, I would really reconsider getting Invisalign. I wish I'd just gone back to braces. It took so long. I lost. I kept losing them. It was like, I mean, appointments. Did your dog eat them? Yeah, just everyone ate them.
00:16:06
Speaker
Oh, they were everywhere in the washing. Yeah, that was really painful and highly unsuccessful. Yeah, that's been the bane of my teeth existence. The main reason, I mean, I had braces growing up. My teeth were perfect, but good old fashioned hormones and childbirth really kills that. It kills a lot of things. And then menopause can also change your teeth.
00:16:29
Speaker
Really? There's just so many different things I was not aware of. The other vein of my year was I decided to get very expensive hair extensions that were just a real pain in the ass and then also sort of ripped my hair out.
00:16:48
Speaker
That was an impulsive decision. It was very impulsive. I just went in for a cut in colour and I came out with over $2000 worth of hair extensions, which then made every hair point really expensive. I hope my husband doesn't listen to this episode. I'm really squinting at it right now.
00:17:06
Speaker
Anyway, so yeah, hashtag privilege life. Don't complain, but I kind of want to kick you in the shins right now through there. All right. Should we move on to what we are grateful for the ups of 2023?

Gratitude and Self-Care

00:17:22
Speaker
I've got a lot actually, in spite of, I mean, percentage wise,
00:17:27
Speaker
the things that are down the bottom of those post-it notes that we've just talked about, did take a lot of physical and mental energy. But I've also listed quite a few things that I'm grateful for. Wow, you really have. Yeah. I feel like I'm going to have to think on the spot. Yeah. Do you just want me to kick off then so you can try to think live? Yeah, go for it. Still having my health, aside from the perimenopause,
00:17:53
Speaker
I'm constantly surprised that I haven't been diagnosed with a terminal illness and I don't say that dismissively like I am genuinely grateful. I am too. Lots of people in our age group or even just not even in our age group are very unfortunately diagnosed with things they were not asking for.
00:18:15
Speaker
And I do feel like it's just really pot fucking luck. It just seems to be pot luck. So that is the number one gratitude thing, that my family doesn't have to go through lots of hospital visits and I don't have to go through hospital visits. I feel very teary thinking about that, having recently lost our
00:18:34
Speaker
member down in Frankston or Dunkley member Peter Murphy only the other week to breast cancer and I was just trying to get a meeting with her with my daughter for an environmental cause for the Australian Conservation Foundation. Shout out. We do some volunteer work with them.
00:18:54
Speaker
I was about to email her receptionist and then found out on the news that she'd lost the battle. I think I too will go in and say, I feel very grateful and I am regularly groping my breasts out like a crazy person. There's a lot of boob feeling.
00:19:16
Speaker
Because I feel like that's the only one that I could actually have some sort of control over. So any of the others might get me, but I'm just going to at least be poking my boobs a lot. I will say though, it's very hard to know what feels like a lump and somebody did describe it as
00:19:38
Speaker
It was a very, very hard rock that you... A little pea. That's what I look out for. A frozen pea. A frozen pea. Very, very hard that if you... I think it was Gina Chick when I listened to the... Was she describing it? No, I don't know. I don't remember that bit, but I could have changed it. Yeah, as a rock that's unmissable. Because, I don't know, it feels like there's lots of lumpy things going on in there.
00:19:59
Speaker
Anyway, check your breasts, ladies. Yeah. I went to Japan this year to record a podcast for other hashtag bite big podcast. That was very exciting. I've never been to Japan. I'm very grateful for that. I recorded with episode number one co-host.
00:20:19
Speaker
Ali from Uber, and it was cherry blossom season. That was 10 days on my own in Japan is quite a luxury. You didn't end up in jail for having dex amphetamines. I did end up in jail because I did carry around dex amphetamines for half my trip until I realized they were highly illegal. Then she flushed them down the toilet.
00:20:40
Speaker
I did carry them around for a few extra days feeling brave. And then I'm like, I can be incredibly unlucky at times. I'm like, I don't really want to push. You really can sometimes. I'm like, I don't really, I feel like I've really, I got three customs. I mean, that is pretty good. That's quite the, yeah. So that was a joyous experience. Like there were just photographs and memories of the cherry blossoms and Kyoto that were just, yeah, breathtaking.

Insights from Jacinda Ardern

00:21:05
Speaker
Very grateful for that. And thank you, my husband, for managing everything else in the meantime.
00:21:10
Speaker
Holding the thought. Yeah. What else? Just, yeah, chime in, Jade, when you can think of something. When I can think of something. Yeah. I saw Jacinda Ardern live. I would chime in, but you just went over me. Yeah. Okay. Yes. I was very envious. That was really good. It was just great to be in the same space as her. I felt the good energy vibes.
00:21:32
Speaker
Any takeaway from there that you can think of just on this spot? I mean, she just talked a lot about authentic leadership and really how she, it was a, she's a real community server. Like one of those people has gone into politics, not for, um, not for glory or the politics of politics, but for the community aspect of serving community based on your beliefs. And it was.
00:22:01
Speaker
Interesting to hear the backstory of how it really was pure accident that she ended up in that role. Wow. So yeah, that was a joyous experience. Very grateful for that. Fantastic. I have down here, I'm glad you can't see mine because you can't like pick on them before. I can't curate them. This could go anywhere. I created a rock garden.
00:22:28
Speaker
You did. I saw lots of photos of that rock garden. Yeah. It does look good. Now it's covered in leaves. We need to post a photo of that now. Now I hate the leaves of the peach tree, which is a bit annoying. But there's rock garden
00:22:43
Speaker
meant that I just spent a lot of time in the garden and there was a period of time where I just was really going within and I would just sit in the garden realising that there's a whole heap of rocks that were underneath dirt somebody years ago had hurt.
00:22:59
Speaker
rocks all through the garden. And I dug them up sometimes with my daughter, my younger daughter, and then kind of dusted them off, sometimes washed them, and then relocated them. I did actually buy some fancy new rocks for the actual decorative part of the garden. I did buy some new rocks. But just sitting in the garden, I've never really been a gardener. And I don't know that digging up rocks like a potato farmer is gardening. No, I wouldn't really define that as gardening. No, it's not. But it was it was mindful.
00:23:29
Speaker
I felt like there was this real, I don't know, for me a sense of going within this year and I've been struggling and battling because I am quite a social extroverted person and I think there's been a balance of me choosing to go within
00:23:49
Speaker
And also wanting to stab lots of people, so also choosing not to go out. It was just best you went in public. Just me and my rocks, just me and my rocks. And so I really did enjoy just sitting in the garden and, you know, dusting off my rocks.
00:24:09
Speaker
Yeah. Summer Rock Garden. I started 2023 in Canada. I was looking back over the last 12 months of photos and I'm like, oh, well, that was a nice start to the year. Nice. Could you maybe like, nice. It's just nice. It's just like Canada.
00:24:25
Speaker
Yeah, the cafe down the road is nice. Is it? I don't know. Yeah, maybe not. Yeah, it was amazing. It was one of the best trips I ever did. Yeah, it looked fabulous. White Christmas in Canada. Yeah. She FaceTimed me from the spa on Christmas Eve, I think. My Christmas Day. That was a bit cruel. It was. It was a little bit cruel.
00:24:46
Speaker
So I was happy about that. I started the year, well I think it was March, a girls weekend in Womadlade. Oh yeah, that did look fun. For the music festival in Adelaide. I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't know about Womadlade, which was one of the biggest world music festivals. Yeah, well it's been going for decades. A decade, I don't know. I think sometimes I know things and then I forget them and then when I learn them again I think I'm learning them for the first time. Do you ever get that?
00:25:14
Speaker
Like it's just full. No, no, it doesn't happen to me. That was just imagining that it could maybe happen. Anyway, that was awesome. That was like four beautiful women. I ended up going for a week and it was so fun. I love live music. I've got live music on my list. Back into the.
00:25:33
Speaker
close to inner city Melbourne for the first time in 10 years and I was very excited to be back and one of the benefits of being back was a less four hours a day of commuting which was really painful and b being able to see more live musical musicals live musicals live musicals live music and musicals and comedy I saw Mary Poppins
00:25:59
Speaker
I saw the Twits by Roald Dahl, the Arts Centre. The Counting Crows, not a Massey fan, but went for my husband. Robbie Williams. Yeah, you have seen a lot. What else? I've got Kitty Flanagan, saw her again. Always good for a Kitty Flanagan show. That was fun. What else you got? The podcasts, really. I think for me, both fun and really challenging. For me, a highlight.
00:26:26
Speaker
I'm in a gratitude to you for helping make this happen and joining me on this journey. Thanks Sis. I'm halfway through my champagne now. So now she's liking me. I love you so much. But also just the courage, it takes a lot of courage to
00:26:51
Speaker
Listen to your own voice. Listen to your own voice, especially when you're editing and me editing when I can't even seem to make a new post-it note on a mirror board.
00:26:59
Speaker
Well, you've done a stellar job on the editing. Yeah, I just don't even know how... It's so good. And now we've gotten so good that your editing process is much easier. Or maybe we've just become more laxed in standard quality. I've become more laxed. I think I was really hypervigilant to begin with about it. And it's funny because it's called semi-precious, right? Unpolished. Uncut, right? We were setting ourselves up for mediocrity. But I was probably over editing and getting
00:27:29
Speaker
I don't know, just getting tangled in the process and not understanding what I was doing. And now I've kind of just simplified it and stopped trying to over edit.
00:27:38
Speaker
And it's working. I listen to a Brene Brown podcast from her dead elite. And it's like one person was in the car on the phone while she was recording and like the quality of a ship. Yeah, it's good. So, you know, starting the two podcasts, I have really struggled with the one that I'm doing on my own because there's no accountability person. So if anybody wants to do an ADHD podcast and partner up with me,
00:28:07
Speaker
Really, Awaken ADHD. I'm struggling to get the ball rolling because I really need somebody to... You started well. Yeah, I just need somebody to poke me. I'm not great at just picking it up. Gentle agitation. Yeah. Like a sourdough? Does that need gentle agitation? Sorry? Sourdough. I was just trying to find a metaphor. Sourdough. Yeah.
00:28:26
Speaker
I don't know. Whenever I think of sourdough, I just think of that globby starter and liquid. Okay. Yeah, no, that's a bad, just looks like an allergy flam. Okay, let's not go there. But yeah, starting the podcast. I was saying like a few years ago. And celebrating the podcast, that was fun. That was a fun night. Oh, that was super fun. That was absolutely brilliant. Definitely a highlight of the year.
00:28:48
Speaker
But a few years ago, I couldn't even do a video blog without second-guessing myself and sounding really stilted and unnatural. You did have the sex worker
00:29:02
Speaker
Yeah. See, I have dropped Councillor Voice, right? And when I film myself slipping into it, I'm like, all right. You're out. Shake it out. Shake it off. So apologies if any clients listen because they may have found me on here. Who knows? Any point of connection is a good one. Is it? I don't know. I don't know.
00:29:23
Speaker
What's just wrong with it? My governing body would be happy with that. Anyway, what else is on one of your 50,000? I had another podcast launch, which you did an amazing grazing board for. That was a good launch. That was really fun. The highlight of that, to be honest, was...
00:29:40
Speaker
Just meeting six really incredible people that gather were fabulous do great things. Yeah, that was really exciting and we're about to work on Yeah, we start recording on season two, which actually I think we're gonna have eight episodes Wow them down and I don't think that you know, obviously bite big is about
00:29:56
Speaker
women brand leaders, women. That's not what we say on the internet. Okay, what do you say? Can you say it? Big, lost women, leading big brands. Okay, so you don't need to identify as a boss, woman, leading big brands to get so much out of every single episode. Yeah, it's not really about, I mean, there's probably the audience would be
00:30:22
Speaker
either people in marketing, so women in marketing, but just women in business and women in life. They're just really great. But just women. I don't even think you need to. So that was great. So two podcasts each, tick, tick. We can celebrate that. You don't have a rock garden. I don't have a rock garden. My daughter had to survive a new school and she has managed to do that, not without its challenges. So that's a bit of a... I'm grateful for that because that was a lot.
00:30:50
Speaker
managing that. If anyone who's had to put their child into a new school would know the pain of that. Well, my child's going into year seven, so next year, let's just see how that goes. No, it doesn't come with the resentment to the parents when you've ripped them out of one school and put them in another. Yeah, that's true. It's just a natural age transition. So she's not hating on me. I'll tell you another highlight, the Barbie movie. Oh, that was good. Did we post some Barbie movie
00:31:19
Speaker
I don't know if we did a year, but I'll put a little montage together of the things that we're grateful for. Basically, because I just wore the dress that I left my wedding in that. That was my going out dress, and I got married 10 years ago. You still fit into it. That little white dress. That should be a hashtag. Gratitude, just on its own.
00:31:39
Speaker
Yeah. Jade and I went to a movie theater. We took our Barbies, our original vintage 70s Barbies with us and put them in some uncompromising positions with our cocktails. And compromising. Yeah, they were in dresses that I would not be comfortable wearing anymore, but they were wearing them. Wasn't yours in a like just a long suit jacket?
00:32:04
Speaker
They put the underwear on. I can't remember, but it was... It was risque. It was risque. She was loving it. She was loving being out. I wore a pyjama top. My Barbie... I bought Peter Alexander Barbie pyjamas. I do love pyjamas in general. And I wore the top because it looked fabulous. And Jade's fluffy fake fur pink jacket.
00:32:30
Speaker
from when I was eight years old. When I say war, really only for the photos because I couldn't actually get my shoulders into it. I mean, it was for an eight-year-old and I have had it since I was eight. And I do have swimming shoulders. Do you have the green one that wasn't yours green? Yeah, no, I think Lisa gave it away, our sister. Yeah, that's a sore point. Damn you, Lisa. Damn you, Lisa.
00:32:50
Speaker
Does Lisa listen? I don't know, because we could bag her out a bit. We'll find out soon, probably. We love you, Lisa. When this is released, yeah. But that was a fun night. We went gold class. We bought expensive champagne.
00:33:07
Speaker
It was fun. Do you know what I did though? I made my first ever formal complaint. No, you did about the quality of the popcorn or was it? The quality of the popcorn. Yeah, it was horrendous. It was like, we could have taken in a bag of lolly gobbled wispoms. That's it. By the way, if anyone listening also is an ENT specialist, Grey's Mushrooms, has anyone who specialises in perimenopause and also has a connection to the manufacturing company of lolly gobbled wispoms, this would be our perfect listener.
00:33:36
Speaker
Because I like a lolly gobble bliss bomb, but I don't want to pay $18 for a tiny little cone shaped serving. They were mildly stale and we literally, I don't even think they were $18. I think they were like $24. I saw where they had them under the counter in this giant Tupperware, it wouldn't be a Tupperware, sorry Tupperware, it was just a giant fat.
00:33:59
Speaker
container, clear container of really awful popcorn. And I made a, I didn't just write the complaint in my head. I actually put it in an email and then had a really passive aggressive conversation for days with the person responding to me.
00:34:18
Speaker
No, it was actual conversation over email, back and forth with them. And yeah, anyway, I'm ranting now, but I've never written one of those letters. I don't know why I chose to do it. Maybe I was just inspired by the injustice and watching the Barbie movie and I'm like, damn it. Yeah. Well, that's sort of part of what we hated, but gratitude for the Barbie movie. Gratitude for the Barbie movie. Yeah.
00:34:44
Speaker
It was just beautifully directed and everything about it was really fun. It was fabulous. What else we got in here? I had a note about learning new things, so definitely the podcast piece, like that's editing software. That's important. I also had part of a client project of mine. I got to visit the Allen's lolly factory. I visited it many, many years ago.
00:35:10
Speaker
And that was really fun. Like I got to walk through and take photos and see how minties were made and it smelled delicious and I ate a banana fresh off the line like that. That was just a life goal right there. Yeah. I remember going through many, many years ago. It was so fun. It's kind of attached to a traumatic memory for me, but I still... It was. I'm sorry, but my gratitude is also a trigger alert for you. But I do remember those red frogs on the peppermint patties, like straight off the line, just going...
00:35:37
Speaker
were just so good we don't want very loud so all of my sensory okay can I just go back to she's just pouring me more bubbles trying oh god over to computers oh that's jade's that was the sound of mine let me get back what were we saying I don't know
00:35:55
Speaker
I got a cat this year. Oh my god, she didn't get a cat. She got a giant lion. I got a designer cat, not from a designer cat online marketplace, just from a cat shelter. I read a meme the other day and it said, oh, did you adopt that dog?
00:36:14
Speaker
No, it's my biological dog. He's your biological cat. Yeah. Chester, shout out to Chester. Shout out to Chester. He's five years old. He is a beautiful cat and a little bit more like a dog. I've spent most of my life disliking cats. Chester's a man though. He wags his tail ferociously when he is happy and he is huge. And also to the beat of music.
00:36:42
Speaker
Sorry? He wags his tail to the beat of music. To the beat of the music? Yeah. Really? Yeah, we've put it on different songs. Yes, tail wags, different paces. Yep. Oh, I want to see this. Chester the Golden, Chester Wilbur the Golden Retriever also wags his tail when any conversation about Chester and then they're both wagging their tails together. So I've turned into a cat lady. Not all cats, just
00:37:08
Speaker
What about Jett? Jett's a cool cat. Yeah, I really like other people's. You like Jett? Children or cats. You like my kids? Do you like my kids? I do like your kids, you're related to them. And then friends' kids that I care about, but in general. We did have an episode of not really liking other people's children.
00:37:26
Speaker
I had to go to my kids Christmas concert. There was a lot of kids there. It was 31 degrees in ridiculous wind. Sorry, I digress. I started my PhD application. I am not as progressed as I would like to be.
00:37:40
Speaker
But that's exciting. It is exciting. Yeah, I am excited. I've narrowed it down to two topics. So by the end of this year, I'll have narrowed it down to one, hopefully. I got to Brisbane for a design conference this year. TDC, shout out to them. That was really awesome, actually. It was very rare that I take the time to go to these events and it was like three days out of a normal
00:38:02
Speaker
working day. And it was amazing. And I've met some really amazing people through that conference. So, gratitude for that. And I did just get a message from one of my absolute dearest friends, Miley. Can I read it? Yeah. She asked how I was doing. And I said, I was coming in here to do this. She says, woohoo, have a great night. But it's day, but doesn't matter. Congratulations on this amazing, amazing project to both you and Amber. I'm super impressed and admire your drive and brain. Poor Ali, she admires my brain.
00:38:32
Speaker
She might have been talking about me. Yeah, she could have. She could have been. I feel very lucky to have you as my friend. Love you lots. Good friend and also she's just adorable. She's just adorable. Shout out to Ali. Ali and she came to our, I've got a really great shot of Ali from our podcast launch. We'll have to put it up there. Shout out to her. We love you lots too.
00:38:58
Speaker
Thank you, Miley. Topic number two is about surviving Christmas. Now, to be fair, Jade didn't know we were talking about surviving Christmas, so there's just a blank grain posted on the board. There is. And also, just to say that this Santa hat is actually that combined with the bubbles has given me a massive hot flash. Can you see how red I am right now? OK. Do you want to take the hat off?
00:39:22
Speaker
I know. I feel like I need to stick it out. All right. All right. Firstly, yeah, we probably aren't qualified to... Does anyone actually survive December? Even if you don't celebrate Christmas because you've evolved a different faith or you're just, yeah, really anti... Surely you're still caught up. You're still caught up in the, like you cannot not be involved in the drama of December.
00:39:49
Speaker
I get this. And I do it every year. And every year I say, I'm not going to do it. That I look at the gifts that I have for each of my children. And you just have a panic that you haven't got enough. And I have a panic that they're not fun enough or there's not enough. And is it equal? Because of course, I've got two girls, three years apart, just like Amber and I. And honestly, the has to be equal is a really big part.
00:40:14
Speaker
And so I panic every year and then I go to the shops. I spend far too much time in a shopping center that leads me to such sensory overwhelm. That's what we're talking about before the bubbles. I was about to say that perimenopause has increased my neurodiverse
00:40:31
Speaker
sensory overwhelm experience. So going to the shops, I'm wearing like a hat, sunglasses, earbuds, and then looking through everything, not being able to decide, coming out with nothing and then going through the same cycle again.
00:40:45
Speaker
Yeah. I haven't actually been Christmas shopping in shops thus far. I've decided that I'm the sort of person I like, outdoor strip shops. Yes. Like the high street. I said that to my daughter. I'm like, you just need strip shops and she didn't understand. And me are not friends at all. Well, she probably would have gone somewhere else. I shouldn't have said strip shops to a 12 year old. They're not fun. We did mention in another episode, going to some of those like Westfields, but being sedated, like that is a good idea.
00:41:15
Speaker
Just a glass of wine beforehand. I took my daughter there to look for a graduation from grade six stress. And both of us, like I was trying to hold it together for her, but she was pretty much just sitting on the floor of the changing room going, I can't do it anymore. And then we couldn't get out. It was so I went up to one of the info desks and I said, OK, I need to get to this point. And she's like, oh, yeah, that's on the other side. Yes.
00:41:41
Speaker
No, but my car's there, I need to get there. Yeah, it's about a 10 minute walk. I'm like, how? Where? And she's like, oh, so you go down to the end here and you turn left, then you go up one flight of stairs, or escalator, and then you have to turn left there and then go right. You know what you need to do? If you go into your map, it says find my car. But I wonder whether it would have walked me through the shops or if it just would have taken me through the air or something. I don't know. It's that shopping center that goes over the road as well.
00:42:10
Speaker
Oh, Southland. I would have loved to have just gone outside and found my way. Anyway, surviving Christmas. My friend Julie, if you're listening, love Julie. Julie loves Christmas. She's my old next door neighbor. We really miss her. She got me to download an app called Santa's Bag, not Santa's sack because that could be something else. Just Santa's Bag.
00:42:33
Speaker
And you can track your gift ideas slash presents by idea, by purchase, by delivery, by are they wrapped or not wrapped. You can categorize them. I just think it sounds beautiful, but I just would never do it. I've been religiously doing that.
00:42:54
Speaker
Ad hoc. I do buy different Christmas paper for each of my children, though. Oh, do you? Yeah, so then... I know. Thematically, though, do they match? Because that would just... Yeah. I'll go, like, a pink gingerbread one. So one's in. And a blue gingerbread one. Okay. Pink and blue don't really go, but... Okay. They do. They look good. Okay. I need to see a photo of this. Okay. I'll show you.
00:43:18
Speaker
So start rapping early. I've got a little post-it here. I've rapped. Start rapping early, drink wine and enjoy the process. And as I wrote this post-it note, I then thought- She was drunk. No. No, it was this morning. I actually wasn't drunk. Like that's actually going to be an idea for next year. We're going to do a semi-precious wrap and sip session where we bring our presents in. And I actually think there's a business model in that. You know, like a paint and sip.
00:43:46
Speaker
But you bring your presence in. There's wrapping stations. Because wrapping, I enjoy wrapping. It's cathartic. It's not a chore. But you've got to actually have the right setup because what I find is my shoulders hurt because I'm like wrapping in bad positions. You've got to have everything there ready.
00:44:03
Speaker
And you can just wrap a few. And it's a very cathartic process, especially when you have the ritual of you've got the wrapping, but then you have multiple papers to choose from. Plus you've got all the ribbons that match. I mean, that's just me.
00:44:18
Speaker
Yeah, I was just doing it on my ottoman and it was a little bit more haphazard. Yeah, I was watching Virgin River in my pajamas. I do like pajamas. They had the Christmas special. Yeah, I haven't watched that yet, so that might be tonight.
00:44:35
Speaker
It's one of those shows that's so average that you can't not watch it. It's joyful in a very generated way. Not for our ENT specialists. No, no. Now, delegating the mental load of children's stuff, this is the month that if you have children, there's just a lot of shit on. It's like final celebrations of every one of their activities. Oh, Claire's here.
00:45:01
Speaker
Is she here or is she just? I am here. Oh, okay. You go and get her. I'll just keep rambling. She's just going to keep rambling. Okay. Okay. Delegating the mental load of children's stuff. That's really important. If you have a partner to delegate to, if you don't have a partner to delegate to, just, yeah, another family member. Delegate to someone is what I would recommend.
00:45:23
Speaker
Also, not a good month to try and think of new business ideas while also just trying to execute your current business. I am prone to constantly thinking about new ideas. So December is, yeah, just try and suppress that urge to over-invest in new ideas.
00:45:42
Speaker
Hi Claire, say no to more things, try and conserve your energy. That's the other tip for the month. There's come with chocolate. This is exciting. Cake. Oh, chocolate cake, sorry. Yeah, I saw that it was cake, but my brain just said chocolate.
00:45:56
Speaker
All right, so conserving energy, saying no to more. We now have Claire here. She's going to give us something. I don't know. She bought chocolate cake. She bought chocolate cake, isn't that a giving? Yeah. And she listens to our podcast, so they're really... She does. Does she grow good mushrooms that don't kill us, though? Do you grow mushrooms? No. I have tried all the time. All right. Well, look, that's her up. Claire, what have you got given you're our listener of the century?
00:46:24
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like I'm getting a different perspective because I've known you both so long. And a lot of the stories, I'm like, yeah, I remember that. And I know who you're talking about. And, you know, it's a little bit voyeuristic, even like J feels like that, just listening to my story. She's like, I didn't know that about you. So do you want to call bullshit on anything that I've recounted? Like, no story. No, sorry. No, no. True enough. True enough.
00:46:55
Speaker
It's been quite truthful and insightful. We'd all love to be able to rewind our lives and play back some of the things that we regret doing the way we did, but we all learned from it and we make better choices now because of the dumb things we did.
00:47:16
Speaker
I liked the super advice. I shared that last night at the work Christmas time with a young person. I said, super, make sure it was super easy. Yeah, no, you're super. Throwback to last episode, really. It's not really a throwback. Not a great throwback, but just a little toss over the shoulder.
00:47:33
Speaker
All right, so have you got any surviving the Christmas period? I'm a real planner and list maker. We were just talking about Santa's Bag. Have you heard about that? It's an app that you get to track all of your gift ideas and purchases and stages of wrapping and delivery.
00:47:54
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like my two children are going to compare. What did he get? Yes, we were just talking about that. It's even and that's really hard when you just do random shopping. Yes. That kid would like that and you buy it and then you're like, oh, what am I going to get the other kid to balance that? And they've got completely different interests now.
00:48:14
Speaker
But also when they get older, don't you just find like the purchases are so much harder? Because they like bigger, more expensive things that you can't just like stocking fill anymore. Yeah, there's no longer just little stocking fillers. What about boys? It must be worse, right? Yeah, so Nina, I'm buying you all these little makeup things. Whereas Ryan, he doesn't want anything like that. Barely washes himself. My stepson's over you.
00:48:42
Speaker
I don't think he listens to this and we'll find out soon if he does, but he's just the hardest to buy for every year. And he also has a birthday on the 29th of November. So his birthday has just finished, which is hard enough to try and find things to buy for him without just giving him cash. And then we've got to back it up for December.
00:49:00
Speaker
Can I just say I bought your husband's birthday present, who is also on a really, really inconvenient day. Boxing day. Very inconvenient. Boxing day. Terrible day for a birthday, but I'm like, I'm going to buy his present before I buy his Christmas present. In fact, he might not get a Christmas present, but I bought him a birthday present. Well, I spoke to his mother today who said, look, on Boxing Day for Michael's birthday, it's OK if we keep lunch light.
00:49:28
Speaker
or just don't stress about it. And I have to be honest, I haven't even thought about Boxing Day, his birthday lunch. I'm like, oh, just a cheesecake shop cake. But now that we live in a city, there are no cheesecake shops. Oh, make him a cheesecake. Oh, yes, do. Because I can make him want to bring it on Christmas. Yeah, yeah, do that. That's good. All right. So I have to do it now because I just said it. Yeah. Flashback. Yeah. One birthday when Jade was in her 20s and she said, for my birthday, can you make me a pecan pie?
00:49:57
Speaker
I'm like, yeah, I can do that. I can do that. I can make that. Did you make that? I did. It took me more than four hours. Yeah, that sounds complex. I'm demanding. Have you ever had another pecan pie? I don't think I've had one since then, actually. So that might be the best pecan pie I've ever had. Because it's the only one I've ever had. I do remember that. Claire has a better memory than me. That is definitely something that is true. Let's pass through our notes. 2024?
00:50:24
Speaker
Okay, so I'm gonna ambush Claire here, and she's gonna be joining in, assuming she's not away. I've decided that, okay, this is embarrassing, yesterday we did our annual shortbread making with the family. Yeah, the bake-off. The bake-off, we call it the bake-off, we make shortbread. Shortbread dough, squidging, kneading, squidging, kneading. Kneading, I'm pretty sure. It's really, really hard.
00:50:52
Speaker
Right? Every year I say, no, I don't think there's enough butter. And I question my sister, Lisa, and every year Lisa or Sharon says. Yeah, I did the same thing. There's enough butter. It's been dry for a long time. Keep working it. I've woken up this morning with a really sore upper back and arms and even my hands. Like I feel like I've been using one of those. I do three batches and I don't have that on. I did one. Right. So I'm saying my arms got sore recently changing the fitted sheets on my bed.
00:51:19
Speaker
So what I'm saying is I'm not very strong or fit right now, and I have not been focusing on that this year. And so next year, focus, fitness, some physical challenge. And I thought if I put the, oh, headphones gone again. Santa hat, destroying headphones, wearing capacity. Don't look at me like that sister. I thought if I put a challenge out here,
00:51:45
Speaker
Did you actually achieve it? I might achieve it. I was looking up physical challenges and saw one that was a hike for Beyond Blue. I'm just trying to open my computer. It's in April. It's in April. It's a hike for Beyond Blue. Down in Dalsford. Really, you're just trying to get...
00:52:06
Speaker
close to an area that we could hire a really good Airbnb, also drink wine, but be achieving a day hike. Because I'm right up for that. There's no criticism there.
00:52:18
Speaker
I don't know. I felt like judgment. No judgment. So I thought the 50K one day challenge and you have to get a team and here's what I was thinking. Get a team. Claire's obviously part of the team because she's here now. She didn't know about it, but she's coming. You've been running. You've been moving. You're fit. Yeah, you are fit. Yeah, you can do it. She looks good. Claire, you look good. I thought we'd just do the one day because I really don't want to push it. If I can't do bedsheets right now, then maybe two days.
00:52:45
Speaker
What if we just like get the data of all of the people that have listened the most and just drag them into it? Well, yeah, for sure. And what I was saying is, right, you have to get a team of five, one person being your like driver sort of support person, support group, but then you can add as many individuals to your team. So we'll just get any of our listeners that want to join, we'll sign up, we'll let you know when we have, and then you can just join our semi-precious
00:53:15
Speaker
crew. I like that idea. And do a walk. And if anybody has a different walk or event that they feel would be better, please. There's news somewhere that has a really great winery and hot springs because we need that because my muscles will be sore. So that's important, not just a charity.
00:53:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's a weekender. April, yeah, I'm writing for that. Yeah, so that's really on for me. That's my goal, is to go right. I'm going to do a physical challenge. How many episodes do we want to aim for next year? Well, if we did 10 and we didn't start till... A dozen? No, when did we start? That was a question that I stopped talking and you were meant to fill it in. Yeah, I'm just moving to the solution, which is 12. Really? It's like one a month. 13. Are you saying one a month? Yeah.
00:54:05
Speaker
given the way our brains work, eight in one month, and then the other scattered. That's pretty much it. Let's say 10 to 12. Let's commit to that. 10 to 12. Got it. Commitment. We're definitely going to do the business idea that I talked about, which was the some sort of nibble wrap
00:54:28
Speaker
sip. That could sound rather horrendous, but Claire, the proposition is that like a sip and paint, but you start in kind of late November and you take all your Christmas presents in and you wrap them together and drink wine and it's quite a cathartic process. Or if you're into non-Alx, like we can do some non-Alx too.
00:54:57
Speaker
I was thinking when you said rap that you were talking about the sandwich, like a rap. Then I was thinking about like a really bad dance. Not that rapping is bad dancing, but it would be if it came from me. Yeah. That should be like a semi-precious party next year. That could be a goal. Now we're just talking over each other. We would have to charge people because I would have to curate the rapping
00:55:21
Speaker
the quality of the wrapping paper and the ribbon. I've got an idea. If you just don't make any impulse hair extensions for the year, you could probably fund the wrapping.
00:55:33
Speaker
I'm just trying to monetize this. What if you made it more sustainable and asked people to be reusable? Oh, recycles? Yeah. Who could just be like, does anyone read a newspaper and not listen to it, but read it? No. But like cloth fabric things you can bring in? Mm, cloth. I really do like doing the, isn't there a Japanese style of material? We've got heaps of material that we pull out of my mother's
00:55:56
Speaker
Oh. Material storage. No, no, like. Just going somewhere. No. It's waiting for you to say womb and then. Oh, God, where are you going? I don't know. I just almost finished her bubbles. We'll start again in maybe January, February. Mm hmm. But we didn't do a semi-precious moment. Do you have one? Yeah, I just couldn't. I just every day I've got dozens. I can't even think of one.
00:56:15
Speaker
You can't, you got none? I had one, an old one, it's pretty lame, but I did ask my daughter to put her umbrella into a different shape because I couldn't find the word to say close your umbrella and then I did like charades.
00:56:33
Speaker
Like, make your umbrella a different shape. So you were thinking this is some sort of origami exercise with an umbrella? Yeah, so it was open, so it was like an umbrella shape. And then I wanted her to put it into like a long, pointy shape. Okay, sure. That's pretty much how I worked. That's your old semi-preciouses. Do you have any semi-precious?
00:56:54
Speaker
Have you done anything? Oh yeah, your daft thing. I lost a week in December. I feel like I'm a week ahead of where I should be. It's because you're so into planning. And I'm panicking that I haven't done stuff. I did everything a week early. She rocked up to a Christmas party. She bought chocolate cake only to realise it's actually next week. So we have
00:57:14
Speaker
The chocolate party. Chocolate cake for the party. That is now. This is a party. You know my love in sevens and my recent Instagram post about... That was really confusing. Did you see her Instagram post about the number seven? Okay. But now we have 1,777 followers. So we do haven't, but we have three sevens. Yeah. So I don't know. There's no point to that other than like I love sevens and the three of them.
00:57:44
Speaker
OK, that's fantastic. All right. All right. So we don't know what next episode is. Is that what we're saying? No, yeah. Jan Feb. Well, we'll bring it out in Jan. But what are we going to do? I don't know. Worry about that. We'll say what our New Year's resolutions are that we're not going to follow through on. Probably. Yeah. What are the things we say we're going to do and never going to do? Yeah. Other than this challenge of getting getting us all out hiking and then drinking wine. Yeah.
00:58:11
Speaker
Yeah, sounds good. All right. All right. If you would like to listen to more of our ramblings, please follow and subscribe on your podcast platform of choice. And thanks for listening. Until next time, embrace your uncut and unpolished selves. Sayonara. Adios. Bye. Bye. Well, thanks for having me. This podcast represents the personal opinions of Amber and Jade. No content should be taken as advice or recommendations.