FRANKthoughts

This week saw the launch of Movember for 2008 which was held on Wednesday 15th Oct at the Forum theatre in Melbourne and across several other locations around the nation

Held during November each year, Australian men and women register nationally for Movember.  With a clean-shaven face from November 1st, participating Mo Bros spend the month growing and grooming their mo’.  Along the way, Mo Bros and their mo’ supporters, including Mo Sista’s, raise as much money and awareness for male health:

• Prostate cancer – every year in Australia 2,900 men die of prostate cancer – more than the number of women who die from breast cancer
• Male depression – One in six men are affected by depression.  Most don’t seek help. Depression can have serious effects on physical and mental health

In 2007, over 96,000 enthusiastic Mo Bros & Sista’s raised over  $15 million for Movember, supporting the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and Beyondblue

So get united and register!

Its time to remove the scarf and hang up the beanie as spring is only days away and we all know what this means…warmer weather, Spring fashion, racing and much more!
Among these many loves is Melbourne Spring Fashion Week (1-7 sept) which we will see showcase the latest looks for spring/summer with more than 100 events to choose from including runway shows, panel discussions, workshops, luncheons, film, exhibitions, racing and parties.

To celebrate Melbourne Spring Fashion Week, Melbourne’s GPO will be racing into spring with a fabulous promote of shopping offers and fashion shows.  To help showcase these exciting events, we thought it would be a good idea to have a dedicated event page. There are some cool things to check out like special offers, competitions and the option to book tickets to some events in advance.

On WEDNESDAY 3 September join the Melbourne’s GPO “Racing Into Spring Fashion” Shopping & Shows, including:
- GPO Trading til 9pm  - Exclusive Retailer Offers & Specials
- Complimentary bubbly - 3 champagne bars - DJ Sean Wise
- 12:30PM & 1:30PM @ Alto Event Space located on Level 3.

SHOW 1: WEDNESDAY 3 SEPTEMBER, 12:30PM
AG Clothing, Akira, Ben Sherman, Fat, Hussy & Madame Marie, im, Leona Edmiston, Lisa Ho, Nicolangela
SHOW 2: WEDNESDAY 3 SEPTEMBER, 13:30PM
AG Clothing, Christopher Chronis, Digbys, Georgiadis, Gorman, Karen Millen England, Lella Smith, Max & Co Rodd & Gunn, Veronika Maine.

Entrance is free and seating is limited, so to secure your place please go to the events page and use the “Book Tickets” button on the right menu.

A hot topic for quite sometime has and is the water usage, and the water restrictions that are still currently in place.  Melbourne’s water storages are 39.3% (697,058 million litres) full today, after dry conditions saw storages drop a further 6,717 million litres this week from 39.7% full last week.
At the same time last year storages were holding around 17 billion litres more water, at 40.3% full (714,193 million litres).  This essentially means that although we have seen some rain here and there – storage levels are still down from this time last year.
Victoria has just experienced the worst year of drought and lowest stream flows in our State’s history & due to this Melburnians are reminded that Stage 3a water restrictions are in place until June 30 next year. Further details are available by visiting the Our Water, Our Future

A plan is in place by Melbourne water on a long-term solution. $4.9 billion will be spent in major water infrastructure projects to provide the biggest boost to Victoria’s water supplies in 25 years.

In light of the seriousness of this topic, I’ve recently become more aware of my water using actions and think twice about how and when I use water. Simple ways to cut down that I have started to do is:
 -turn the tap off mid cleaning your teeth – used to be guilty of leaving this running during the whole process
 -when washing dishes – try to do a big wash when dishes build up, rather than small wash ups which make you fill the sink each time. Similar to washing clothes
 - cut down the shower time!! An easy simple yet begrudged action that I have recently made an effort to do.

On a positive note – there are also cool and clever ways to save water on a larger scale. I was impressed with an ad I saw today in the latest edition of green magazine

Waterwall rainwater storage systems have come up with a groovy way to store water for laundry and toilet use etc… they are large water tanks which essentially look like part of the back yard - resembling walls!

It’s little things like this that will eventually become required by all house holds, and if there is a ‘funky’ way to go about it – the more people may react sooner rather than later.

Just a reminder – keep your water usage at top of mind…not back of…
 

For most of you, I don’t even have to explain what facebook is.  In fact, I find it hard these days to get involved in a conversation whether it be with a close mate or a complete stranger without ‘facebook’ being brought up somehow. ”Hi… my name is John Smith, how are you?… are you on facebook?”

Admittedly I have been a late adopter however the more I get to know and discover things on facebook, the more addicted I’m becoming.  Yes, it helps me keep in touch with current friends, and I have become re-connected to people I would never imagine. Let’s face it, it’s a small world.  There is always someone who knows someone who you know – 6 degrees!

What surprised me most was when I visited the state library for the first time the other week to see Karin Catt’s portrait exhibition (which was fantastic by the way) As I walked through the main area of the library, I passed the computers and those students who I dare say should have been studying – I reckon 8 out of 10 computers were completely facebooked.  Some flickr, seek and hotmail to be seen also but facebook took the cake.
It’s no secret now that social networking sites are transforming the way people are using the internet.  Email is declining for social purposes and daily online activities are certainly becoming more consolidated.  No longer a need to jump from site to site where single sites such as facebook caters for various activities such as sharing videos, pictures and songs
For example - September 2006 to September 2007 facebook increased its ranking from 60th to 7th most visited web site, and was the number one site for photos in the United States, ahead of public sites such as Flickr
So… for those of you who haven’t clocked on to the fact that this is the way of the future, I suggest you sign up and get with the times, as facebook just may very well take over the world.

Every now and then we see, hear or experience something that really makes us stop and think. Often these experiences are chosen to be kept to ourselves, however when I attended a very heartfelt and inspiring charity event early this week, I was so moved and inspired that I see no better way of sharing this with you.

Shoestrings came from the experiences of Emma Gee, who is currently going through rehabilitation post-stroke after being diagnosed with a congenital AVM (arteriovenous malformation).
“(Shoestrings definition of AVM: Em’s brain was like a heap of shoelaces…one just had a knot in it! All the blood pumped into that…instead of flowing through her normal laces…and the pressure of all that blood going into the one knot meant that surgeons had to clamp it to avoid it bursting!)”

The event I attended last week was to raise money for the stroke foundation who is backing shoestrings 100%. Photo’s were displayed of several people’s shoes & feet, and attached to these were their comments on how stroke has affected them, sometime and somehow – whether this be from their own experiences or of those around them. It was amazing to read of some people as young as seven years of age who have suffered from stroke. A silent auction of donated products was also included to raise additional money for this amazing cause.

It wasn’t until Emma Gee spoke so passionately & positively about her experience that really hit the spot. Not a dry eye in the room, but not for sympathy…for admiration. Overcoming challenges, seeing that the glass if half-full and embracing the fact that life is not ruined, just adjusted accordingly.

“like the trillions of ways one can tie their laces, our journeys have been made up of our individual ways of jumping different hurdles and however we learn to tie them we all end up laced-up and shoestring tight! And shoestrings, are the brilliant way of keeping shoes together”

Keep an eye out for Emma’s book – will be on sale at end of this year.