Your Essential Lockdown Guide: 10 things to read, watch, listen & eat this week
Let’s be honest, 2020 forced us all into submission, including yours truly. I’ve felt it all: melancholia, lethargy and procrastination, lots of it. It’s still pretty hard to believe that this is our reality now and that we only have four months to make this mare of a year suck a bit less. I mean, no pressure…
Why single-use plastic takeaways make me sick
When the average human being leaves their home, they take the essentials. Wallet. Keys. Cell phone. Maybe a snack for the road or a spare cardigan, just in case. When I leave my home, it looks a little different. Wallet. Keys (if I’m not on my bike). Cell phone. Definitely a snack for the road, always an extra cardigan because I live in Auckland after all, but what’s that clinking in my designer tote bag? A reusable drink bottle, a collapsible coffee cup, a stainless steel takeaway container, bamboo cutlery set for me, spare cutlery set for him, cute cloth napkins your nana probably used to own, and since you’re wondering: sometimes the kitchen sink.
How to handle a Redundancy
Work-life is tough at the moment. It might be about to get tougher with wage subsidies and other goodies about to be cut.
If you're not already part of a business that's restructured or soon to be, there's news all around that the economy is about to take a dive and potentially rob us of our jobs, our clients, our sales and business dreams.
It’s a scary old world, but (and there’s always a but) I’ve been inspired by some of the downright amazing businesses and people out there. People, places, and companies have been pivoting all over the place - they’re adapting and showing the world just how resilient they can be.
25 to Life
I’ve just spent the past weekend catching stars with my best friend, I watched the sunrise and rudely fall over and over again, I almost lost count.
I’m 25 today and I’ve spent the entire day watching paparazzi videos of washed-up celebrities on YouTube, it’s been amazing.
I’m a proud Leo, purrrrrr, every day is about me, so today’s inevitable lockdown casualty hasn’t really upset me. I turned my phone off and patiently waited until I could scrape together enough energy to get this off my chest.
The art of ghosting
I’m a serial ghoster, I have also cried enough to overflow a Great Barrier water tank because low-grade, weasels have ghosted me. I guess, it comes hand in hand when you’re actively dating. Sometimes dating claps you right back in the face – good thing I wear several thick moisturisers because ghosting is ruthless.
Sauce x Mumm Giveaway
In partnership with G.H.Mumm
An open letter on stripping
I’ll be honest, this is my first time writing anything with the intention of getting it published. And I am beyond ecstatic that it is about something I have fallen in love with, dancing, otherwise known as stripping.
Abortion
I have had two surgical abortions, the first at 22 and the second at 26. In many ways I think I tried to ignore the reality of the first pregnancy and its subsequent termination and that is the way it somewhat remains to this day. There wasn’t a shred of doubt in my decision the first time around.
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
I was first diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) when I was 16
Miscarriage
Last year I had a miscarriage…
Cooking with Alex’s Kitchen Story
I have been so excited to create this recipe for you guys! Sauce challenged me to make something extra saucy so I thought I’d come up with the below recipe, Sauce’s Ultimate Green Sauce, which you can honestly use on anything.
Losing your grandparent is underrated
On the eve of my Grandma’s one-year departure from the reality I currently reside in, I wanted to share with you all where I’m at. Losing my grandma split me like a banana, her absence ripped open an abyss I can’t quite seem to fill, I’ve tried to overflow it with piping hot cups of tea, but tea doesn’t taste the same anymore.
The ugliness of Barbie
I was really lucky as a child. I owned over 100 Barbie Dolls. Every time my dad returned from his travels to a different part of the world, he would bring home a brand-new Barbie doll. A limited-edition piece, exclusive to that country. My favourites were the South African Barbie Doll, the Spanish Barbie doll, the Japanese Barbie doll, and of course, the traditional all-American Barbie Doll. Her tiny waist, luscious hair, sleek figure and smiling face all represented a vision I had for my own life, a dream I held for a future version of Sanya.
No caveats to happiness
If I had to explain it, I’d say it feels like I've just left the school disco in grade six. I’m in a cold sweat but the air is mild and endorphins are rushing through me at breakneck speed. It seems almost criminal, I think. I might have been roofied with something illicit earlier today. My barista could be dropping hallucinogens into my soy latte. Did someone embellish my danish with methamphetamines instead of blueberries? I can’t be sure. This feeling is foreign but welcomed and all-consuming. It courses through my body and filters through my lungs. It’s like someone’s rinsed out my brain and cleared the harddrive from all the corrupt files I’ve been storing in there. I feel light. I feel happy.
Stuck in the middle: Racism & being mixed race in Aotearoa
I exist somewhere between two races, two realities, and two histories. For my whole life I have been classified on government documents as an ‘other’. Growing up in Aotearoa, there has never been a neat and tidy tick box for me to belong to. My mother is New Zealand Pākehā and my father was African American. I am mixed race, neither here nor there. Ambiguous. Inbetween.
Black-owned New Zealand brands to support now & always
I’m Siposetu Duncan, a South African born creative, stylist and model. Auckland’s currently my home while I figure myself out, ya know? It was a pleasure to round-up just a few of my treasured black-owned local businesses.
Latifa Daud on South Asian diaspora, decolonising colourism & examples of allyship
When I was nine years old, my friend who is Indian, like me, went to Fiji for a holiday. When she came back, she said to me “you’re so lucky you have fair skin”. I was shook.
How can we bring the slow back into our new normal?
Our society has become one of an instantly gratifying, short-cut, fast-paced, power-walk, rush. A successful day is determined by how busy and productive you’ve been, by how many goals you’ve achieved, how hard you’ve hustled, and by how many tasks you’ve ticked off your to-do list. But recently, due to circumstances out of our control, we have had to pause, reflect and re-adjust.
Instant gratification in the age of isolation
An espresso martini at whim from a hot bartender. An interstate flight booked for tomorrow. Flipping the table and storming out of a shitty job to find a frilly new one. We want it all now.
I quit so I could fly
I want to vouch for the quitters, I want to stand up for the people who impulsively fall, I think there’s something empowering about vacating dead dreams.