| by Bel | 10.21am NZ time |

A film from your childhood

Home Alone came out in 1990. I was 8 years old. My dad took me out to the cinema to see it, which would have been a treat enough in itself. But we were also celebrating my new glasses:

Yep.

...is pretty much the right response.

| by Lou | 2.20pm UK time |

Every time I see photos of myself from a social function I think "gosh I'm boring" as I never really move beyond eye-liner as my one and only "look". With a wedding coming up and Bel selfishly living on the otherside of the world so unavailable to do my make-up for me I've been doing some googling and trying to come up with some variety. (I swear this has nothing to do with the bride seating me next to that single heterosexual guy she's been wanting to set me up with for yonks.)

The interweb is telling me that for blue eyes I should be wearing browns (reiterated by Bel once putting some copper on me to great effect, but I can't track down that specific shade and am pretty sure I wouldn't be able to imitate her application). However I personally always prefer my trusty black-and-silver (which I have jazzed up by applying over a base of light blue). But then I wonder if I'm just really boring and don't like trying new things?

So dear readers, I ask you for your opinion - browns or black-and-silver?

I'm pointing at the black-and-silver

Further information: I will be wearing a royal blue dress, and my hair will probably be a lighter auburn colour.

Because I am taking this very seriously, here is a closer up shot. Which begs the question that has haunted my life - why do my teeth look so yellow in photos? I swear they're not yellow in real-life. And I don't smoke, and certainly haven't had enough cups of tea in my life to warrant it. Hmph.

Also why does it look like I have very little eye shadow on
when to me while applying it is practically bucketed on?

(I also don't yet have any shoes to wear, but that's not as easily solved via the interweb.)

| by Lou | 11.33am UK time |

A film from your childhood

My earliest film memories are:

The Goonies



imdb tells me that it would have been 1985/86. My family and I were on holiday with friends of mum and dad's who lived in a small Canterbury town called Geraldine. I thought they were funny as we all had the Southland rrrrrrr and they had a seeming inability to pronounce an r - therefore my brother Kirrrrrk became Kik.

During the holiday it was one of the Canterbury kids' birthdays and they made her a witch birthday cake from the Australian Woman's Weekly Birthday Cake Book, using those chip sticks you used to get as the broom bristles. The weather was really hot so we celebrated outside in a yard of brown fried grass.



Us kids were allowed to go to the cinema to see The Goonies. One of the Canterbury kids had to come late as she had a doctor's appointment due to having arthritis-like symptoms in her hands. The seven of us sat along the front row armed with popcorn and lollies and feeling like kings and queens of the world.

The film was awesome. I have always dreamed of finding a cave waterslide that leads into a hidden lagoon.





The Princess Bride



It would have been 1988. I had watched The Princess Bride on television and was so overwhelmed by its wonderousness that I promptly wrote all about it in my dinky diary. (It was a purple one that a friend had given me for my birthday.)

I wrote with breathless excitement about a film I had seen that was so great and I might never see it again so needed to get the plot down on paper lest I forget. At the time my brother and sister and I were big fans of wrestling, so Andre the Giant's role in the film just made it even better.



Years later I saw the film again and was absolutely delighted to recognise it as the film I had so loved when a child. Rewatching it as an adult I can't argue with the judgement of my 7-or-8-year-old self - it's a glorious film that captures adventure and romance in a way that nothing else has.

| by Lou | 2.52pm UK time |

Join the revolution: the Moon Cup is awesome. Honestly. From first try you'll wonder how you ever thought it was okay to wad yourself with cotton.




I bought one 6 weeks ago on a whim, mostly motivated by environmental reasons and a dodgy tampon experience. (Dodgy in this case being the mildly disturbing incidence of the cotton not all staying in one piece. One tiny little loose tuft is quite wrong when it comes to internal useage.)

First impressions: it's smaller than I expected, and seeing it in person made it seem so much more logical than thinking about it in the abstract. After reading the instructions about a thousand times I waited for the time to come to try it feeling still rather skeptical.

First time round I found it quite difficult to get out (as in ten minutes of OH MY GOD IT'S NEVER COMING OUT - but hey, now I'm much better aquainted with my vagina!), but after a couple of goes (and a lot of googling) I've now found a technique that's quick and easy. It is extremely comfortable, in that I didn't feel it at all. And while obviously for the first two goes I didn't trust it to not leak, having now used it a few times I feel 99.9% secure.

I felt so secure that I took it on a beach holiday. This is the ultimate test. And five days in a bikini/ retro one-piece using solely the moon cup has me totally and utterly convinced that it is the best option.

(It's an especially great option if you're irrationally afraid of sharks like I am. As it actually creates a barrier there is much less chance of releasing that miniscule amount of blood that will send every shark within a thousand mile radius heading your way.)




Here are my reasons why you should give it a go:

• Environmentally there is no question that a single reusable cup is a gazillion times better than constant disposal of wads of cotton.
  
  
• Economically it is way cheaper, with the bonus that you'll no longer be supporting corporations to make dodgy products and market them patronisingly ("Have a happy period!" FUCK OFF!).



• In terms of convenience, once the entry-and-exit technique is mastered it is an easy solution that cuts out that fricking irritating scenario of realising you don't have any tampons with you (and doesn't involve desperately looking around wondering where the fuck you're going to dispose of the used product because your old workplace only has open bins in the unisex toilets basically forcing you into the flush option which is soooooo bad for the poor waterways and sewage workers, but that's another story). However the only catch is that if you work somewhere that does not have a sink in the cubicle you'll need a bottle of water to give it a rinse. But having said that, I found that I could easily go 8 hours without having to empty it. And drinking lots of water is good for you anyway.



• It just feels so much healthier. Honestly - I was sticking wads of cotton inside myself? Seriously?? And especially when you get to that end phase where it's sort of tailing off but not completely so you sort of still need to use a tampon but at the same time it feels wrong because there isn't quite enough there... Yeah, none of that.



• It is thought that it reduces cramping, and based on my two months of useage I would agree. The theory is that it is allowing the body to shed the uterine lining in its natural way because it is falling down into the cup rather than immediately hitting a cotton barrier. I can't state it as a fact due to not having been using it longer, but usually for me at least one out of two times would involve horrific unbearable cramping and I have had none of that.



• Lastly, it's actually kind of interesting and makes the whole experience of menstruation feel like a natural thing rather than some female defect that needs to be mopped up with branded cotton wads.
  

Colour me converted.


EDIT TO ADD: I forgot to mention that it requires some heavy duty thigh strength to do an empty out in aeroplane toilets. But it is possible.

| by Bel | 4.12pm NZ time |

A sperm whale, a humpback whale, a second, larger, sperm whale, and a pod of 200 or so dolphins. All hanging out in the Pacific Ocean just off Kaikoura in the South Island. Yes, this can most definitely be ticked off the list!

Completed on July 22nd, with 878 days left of my Day Zero Project!