Wordsmith Lane

A big book goal

So, we all know that I’m a pretty bad blogger. I know that my relationship and commitment levels to this blog would be deemed reckless abandonment, but just this once (or second time if you count my big absence of 2009) I have a justifiable excuse.

I have shackled myself to wordsmith headquarters (aka my desk) manically writing my novel. I’m so stoked that I am finally in the zone, which has been made all the better thanks to the morbidly depressing poems I wrote in highschool, Taylor Swift’s Fearless album, and the diverse array of teenage movies sitting in my sister’s bookshelf (it’s a young adult novel); and as such, I am desperately trying NOT to distract mysef too much from the task at hand.

My goal? Finish the first draft of my novel by March 1st. This practically gives me all of February to finish writing it, and even though I am only in the first quarter, I am pretty confident that if all goes according to plan and I am still inhabiting said zone, it will happen for me.

And then it’s off to getting it assessed, which is where the biting of the fingernails and the stressing out begins. Until then, I will try and drop by here and there to let you know how I am progressing with it in the midst of working full-time, but I can’t make any promises and even if I did, I know you wouldn’t believe me. At least the reason is worth it this time.

And if any of you are in the same boat, comment with some words of solidarity and hopefully we’ll all get our goals afloat in time to call 2010 a success Happy Writing!

Guest Post: Review – Making Money from your Writing

By Joyce Kwok

Review: Making Money from Your Writing

You write for the love of words. But you have to be honest – wouldn’t it be nice to make some money from your passion?

The Centre for Adult Education (CAE) in Melbourne conducts a range of short courses in writing, from freelance journalism to travel writing. In the midst of a vague New Year’s Resolution feeling ‘to do something with my writing this year’, I flipped through the CAE course guide until my attention was captured by an enticing title – ‘Making Money from Your Writing’. ‘Yes!’ I thought, ‘I want to make some money from the hours of research, thinking, drafting and editing that I pour into my writing’. And that’s how I found myself inside a classroom for six hours on a sunny Sunday.

The regular teacher Sheila Hollingworth was unable to take the class so the course was run by a guest lecturer, Carole Goldsmith, an international freelance journalist with over 20 years’ experience. The objectives of the course were to teach us how to:

• identify potential customers;
• generate marketable ideas for stories/articles;
• pitch our ideas and learn about the business side of getting work including query letters;
• work for commission and how to deal with editors/publishers, copyright issues and multi-selling articles; and
• promote yourself as a writer.

In actual fact what we did was spend about three hours talking about the types of writing (feature articles, news articles, media releases etc), how to write an article (have a catchy title and first paragraph, a middle and a conclusion) and sifting through Carole’s portfolio of published works and personal anecdotes.

Yes, it’s important to know how to write material that sells if you’re going to make money from your writing. But I got quite frustrated at the amount of time given to these topics. I mean, we’ve all read magazine and newspaper articles, we should have all learnt about how a three-part structure works in high school and I really wasn’t that interested in Carole’s numerous articles for Manufacturing Monthly. In my mind I hadn’t signed up to the course to learn about using active verbs and how to conduct an interview – I wanted information on how to market and sell my work.

We spent another hour or so talking about how to work with editors, all of which can be boiled down to one sentence: provide what you promised, on time. Seems kind of like common sense to me.

Having said that, I did occasionally pick up some nuggets of information:

• don’t get shafted! Get the date of payment (eg on publication, a week after publication), agreed pay rates and due date for submission in writing;
• the Australian Writer’s Marketplace ($49.95) is updated by the Queensland Writers Centre every year and contains the writers guidelines for many publications;
• freelance writing rates seem to be some secret that no one wants to share. So here it is: 20-30 cents is low, 50-60c for a beginner is ok, 70-80c is what Carole would be looking at for an Australian publication;
• who pays the best rates in Australia? Readers Digest, The Monthly and publications with large circulations such as national newspapers or magazines like New Idea;
• international publications generally pay more than Australian publications. The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance has 2010 guidelines for pay rates, and Carole has never heard of anyone receiving this kind of money. On the other hand, she regularly receives US$1 a word from overseas (online) publications;
• keep your copyright, get paid less but then re-sell the article for various publications. This is particularly worthwhile for travel articles. Incidentally, travel writing pays pretty poorly generally – $150 for 700 words; and
• the Copyright Agency Limited has free lectures throughout the year which might be useful.

So would I recommend this course to other aspiring freelance writers?

I did find out some interesting information and attending the course has kick-started me to take some positive action about making money from my writing. However, I’d say only about 25% of the content was relevant and useful to me.

Frankly, I think you’d better off saving your $165 course fee (which includes the text ‘Mission Possible. How to Make Money from your Writing’) and spend six hours reading the same information that is available for free at excellent freelance writing blogs such as Freelance Writing Jobs, Fuel Your Writing, Word Count, The Urban Muse and of course Wordsmith Lane.

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Joyce Kwok is a Melbourne intellectual property lawyer who also writes and edits two blogs – MEL: HOT OR NOT The decisive guide to Melbourne (www.melhotornot.com) and BNE: HOT OR NOT The decisive guide to Brisbane (www.bnehotornot.com). The blogs review restaurants, bars, shops, culture, events and everything in between for locals and visitors to Melbourne and Brisbane. You can follow Joyce on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jetsettingjoyce

Yen: Generation Y Bother

Australia’s youth have been described as apolitical and apathetic, but in other countries, it’s the young leading the charge. Is Generation Y really destroying democracy?

The whole world watched as the woman lay dying in the middle of the street. The shot had hit her square in the chest, and within a couple of minutes, blood was pouring rapidly out of her face and mouth.  Death had given her more meaning than her life ever could have – because although a lot of people around the world saw her simply as a casualty in the wrong place at the wrong time, to the youth of Iran, she was Neda: Angel of Freedom.

We are talking about Neda Agha-Soltan, an ordinary 27 year old Iranian woman who was shot in the heart by a Basij soldier as she watched fellow young Iranians march in protest amid claims that their President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, won the June 12 election through fraud. Through the injustice of her death (even the doctor who attended to her at the scene fled to Britain for fear of government reprisal), Neda had become an icon of political activism in Iran, and a symbol of a new generation of young Iranians who would sacrifice anything to inspire change in their political system.

And Iranian youth have not been the only ones. In the past few years alone, while they were stereotypically branded selfish, lazy, technology-obsessed and unwilling to work hard for their objectives, generation Y has sought out a stronger political presence around the globe. American youth rallied behind celebrities to ‘rock the vote’, then passionately elected Barack Obama to lead them. In Eastern-European Moldova, students are constantly involved in riots and protests demanding freedom from the government controls in their post-soviet states. In Lebanon in 2006, after the assassination of their nationalistic former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, young people forced out Syria, which had been occupying their homeland for decades, through a series of constant public protests in what the press dubbed the ‘Cedar Revolution’.

But in Australia, research shows that a significant number of our youth are unfazed and apathetic with regards to issues of government, democracy and politics, something which could result in a problematic future for the “effectiveness and representativeness” of the Australian democratic system.

Over the past five years, together with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), Associate Professor Murray Print and Senior Research Associate Dr Kathy Edwards from the Centre for Research & Teaching in Civics at the University of Sydney, have worked with Dr. Larry Saha, Reader in Sociology from the Australian National University, to produce the Youth Electoral Study (YES) – a series of reports that determine the levels of generation Y’s “political interest and commitment to civic… responsibility” and its impact on Australian democracy.

According to the latest report, 20% of 18-25 year olds are not registered to vote, and close to half said they wouldn’t vote if it was not compulsory. A lot of the attitudes of those around the 18 year old age group centred around the fact that they were lazy, “couldn’t be bothered” and very much disinterested with voting in general. One male said that no one would take notice if he bothered to get active about political issues and voting, while another simply decided to enrol to avoid the fine which he thoughts was “heaps”.

So why the lax attitude? For Professor Murray Print, the lack of activism and participation in the Australian democratic system can be traced back to a few factors. For starters, the fact that young people are media savvy means they’re quick to notice the spin doctoring so typical of politics, and as a result, they come to regard political groups as “less trustworthy and less reliable”. This is evident in the first YES report which found that about one fourth of students agreed that parliamentarians are honest.

But Professor Print also attributes apathetic attitudes to a lack of association with many political issues, and limited education in schools on our political processes and institutions. “A lot of young people are still taking time to relate to politics” he says, “because research shows that there’s a strong association between politics and how it affects you directly. So the less it affects you, the less interested you are”. He goes on to explain that in the past, younger people were active because things like national service affected them directly, whereas today, more people leave school to study while working casual or part-time jobs, so there’s not a strong association with work and paying taxes.

In addition, Professor Print says younger generations are not well educated in government, politics, and democracy, with “nothing in the school context that really encourages them to think about these things”. In fact, the fifth YES report revealed that 45% students surveyed did not find studies of Australian government interesting, with the overall group interviews suggesting that the study of civics and the Australian government left a fairly vague impression with the young people involved.

The study also found a strong link between student politics and political activity, with those who participated in school level politics more likely to engage in it after school. However, Professor Print also adds that there was a significant number of students who were not evident of this, particularly because they experienced a “disillusion” as a result of claimed “rigged” school election results at the hand of their teachers. For 19 year old Joe Phillipe, this is exactly the reason why he has no faith in politics of any kind. “Apparently, I was meant to be my school captain”, he says. “But a couple of teachers had a problem with it, and it was widely claimed at school that the results were rigged. It is reasons like this that I don’t have any faith [in politics]. There’s just nothing trustworthy about it”.

This lack of faith in politics and politicians is similarly echoed in the views of other generation Y’ers, who see politics as nothing more than a big game. When I asked for thoughts on the matter via the very Generation Y-oriented portal Facebook, similar sentiments echoed Joe’s feelings. 24 year old Alissa said she didn’t even know where to start when it came to her lack of faith and interest in Australian politics, whereas Simone’s response begged the question of whether I had ever watched Question Time, because it was “frightening to watch the way [politicians] behave like children”, especially considering their own “attitudes towards the youth of today”.

But it’s not all bad news. Professor Print says that to plenty of generation Y’ers, Australian politics is “a bit bland, a bit dull, a bit uninspiring”, especially considering that “our political parties seem very similar though they have their ideological differences”. Although this would explain 26 year old Emile’s Facebook comment, which was a rhyme about a political group in a foreign country where democracy has fallen short, instead of a comment based on this country, where he was born and currently resides, for others, like 22 year old journalist and keen politics fan Suheil Damouny, this is simply not the case. In fact, although like Professor Print he recognises that a lot of his generational counterparts find politics boring or too dishonest, this is what he believes makes it all enticing.

“I love politics because of the theatrics and the drama surrounding question time and seeing it in action is something that I wasn’t exposed to when I was younger. I think parliament is one of the few institutions where you can actually institute change”.

Suheil adds that a lot of generation Y’ers “don’t know how to get involved with politics”, which “may form part of the problem”. And for Professor Print, this is coupled with the link between life and politics. In fact, his research shows that once they hit their twenties, they become a little more responsible about their vote, and it is when they start working full-time in their mid-twenties that they start to see things correlation between work, taxes, and government.

“Really one of the issues is that a lot of political policy is not targeted to these age groups so they do not clearly identify with a lot of issues”, he says. “If [the government] decided they’re going to introduce national service, or double university fees, you’d get a lot more interest and activity [because it is] directly related to the group”.

But in reality, it seems our democracy does not have a lot to worry about. In addition to the fact that political attitudes change with aid, it is worth mentioning that there will always be some level of interest, especially when they are issues concerning certain trends. Professor Print says that a small number of generation Y’ers get active when it comes to trendy issues, which means their activity tends to, as he terms it, “fluctuate with time”. Furthermore, he adds that his research has shown that there is always a very small minority that is prepared to demonstrate with violence if need be, but that he believes there could be more of an interest in politics on a greater scale if younger people looked into the characters in politics, instead of just the parties and the issues, and this is perhaps where the Australian system falls short in comparison to countries like the US, where there is more of a focus on the individual.

But in the end, Professor Print says that it all depends on how you actually define activism. For some young people, it could simply mean signing a petition. Furthermore, Print says that this generation is “the most well accepting and integrated of all the generations in society”, which begs the question of whether it’s a matter of disinterest, or just, a go-with-the-flow, mellow attitude to life.

Even so, where one group falls short, there’s always someone to pick up on their shortcomings. In the report, one student was keen on enrolling to vote because he/she felt that there were “not enough young people having their say about the future of Australia and surrounding areas”. So there we have it – a generation made up of those who can’t be bothered, those who feel compelled to take it a little more seriously to pick up their slack, and the very minor rest who will demonstrate with violence for even the most mundane things, just for the sake of being heard. A bit like politics really, where generation Y is the party, and its members are all acting out their various roles in whatever way they see fit – not just to further their nation, but to further a life for themselves in the process.  Looks like our democracy and its representativeness is not really going anywhere, and the drama of politics will continue to be played out for generations to come.

Interview: Lisa Dempster, Writer, Editor & Director of the Emerging Writer’s Festival

I first met Lisa Dempster when I was waiting to go up and talk about Trespass mag at the Emerging Writer’s Festival, and she was the perfect panel host. I was nervous and the fact that she made me feel a lot calmer was worth a lot in my book. That was 2009, and she’s come a long way since hosting that panel to be the festival’s Director for 2010. But that’s not all she does – in addition to copy writing, Lisa is also a writer, editor and author specialising in vegan food (a niche most of us would find limiting, but one that she has mastered the art of well). Check out her work and bio at www.lisadempster.com.au and read on as she divulges her plans for the busy year ahead.

Tell us (in a nutshell) about your wordsmith career path so far:

From an involvement in the indie publishing scene as the publisher at Vignette Press I started writing unpaid articles for various places, which led to co-writing a reference guide (Veg*n Shopper), which led to editing a restaurant guide (The Melbourne Veg Food Guide), which led to paid writing for various publications, which led to writing a travel narrative (Neon Pilgrim), which led to editing a creative anthology (The Words We Found: the best writing from 21 years of Voiceworks magazine), which indirectly all led to an involvement with the Emerging Writers’ Festival and my appointment as the Director of said festival. Oh, and I’m a copywriter as well.

What are some of your current projects, and who are you writing for at the moment?

Book proposals – I’m hoping to get some new projects off the ground in 2010. Plus I’m working on an exciting publishing project through Vignette Press.

You’ve had four books published so far. What was it like seeing your name on the cover for a first time?

It was a rush. The excitement never dies, either – I love that moment of seeing my books for the first time.

Was the experience of working on a big project daunting at first, and has it become a lot easier now that you have more than one title to your name?

Not really. Every project is different and offers unique challenges. My first book involved a lot of research but was straightforward to write, and Neon Pilgrim was more about mastering structure and narrative. I suppose I’m probably less daunted by a big project than I used to be, but I don’t think it necessarily gets easier.

One of your works, Neon Pilgrim, tracks your “journey from overweight dole bludger to intrepid explorer” in Japan. What inspired you to turn your travel adventures into such a unique book? Did you write as you travelled, or did you come back and revisit it all?

I knew right from the start that I would write a book about my trip on the 88 temple pilgrimage – I think most writers are constantly thinking of ways that they can turn their experiences into material. I didn’t write as I travelled but I did keep a detailed journal. Writing on the go would have been a disaster… I thought it was best just to let the experience unfold then try to organise it into a book later.

How important is your blog to you? Do you think it is essential for writer’s to have a webspace?

My blog is so important to me! I love writing it and I love the interaction and feedback I get from it. But I don’t think blogging is vital for writers; the medium suits some people more than others, and if you’re maintaining a website out of some sense that it’s important for profile then I would say don’t bother. There are plenty of successful writers out there who don’t blog.

What was it like to start of as a punter, then panellist, at the Emerging Writer’s Festival in Melbourne, and now, how does it feel to be directing it for 2010?

Exciting and nerve-wracking! I have been a massive fan of the festival for ages, and my continued involvement over the years has been a source of great pleasure, so being director really is a dream job for me.

Are there any particular aspects of the festival you are looking forward to more than others, or anything you’d like to change? The outgoing director was so fantastic, I’m inheriting a really wonderful festival. I’m currently looking forward to programming! I think that the fun part – and getting to see it all in action in May, of course. There will be changes, as it’s the challenge of any good festival to remain innovative and keep engaging its audience in new ways.

How useful do you find networking at such events, and how would you recommend Wordsmith Lane readers network for their career potential, without coming across as pushy or annoying? I don’t like the word ‘networking’, but getting involved in events like that is absolutely a good idea. If you have a genuine interest in the event and the kinds of people that go to those events then it’s not pushy at all – most people who go are keen to meet likeminded people. It would only be annoying if you were aggressive in the way you approached people or only interested in talking about yourself.

You seem to have carved up a little niche for yourself in the areas of veganism and healthy food. Do you find this limits the scope of where you can publish or are you happy sticking to books and guides, as well as your blog?

It limits the scope of what I can publish, but that doesn’t matter because I wouldn’t be interested in writing about steak or whatever anyway. Sometimes I wish there were more mainstream opportunities to publish vegan stuff but in the end it doesn’t really matter – over the past few years I’ve helped to create a robust vegan media in Australia, which has been enormously satisfying. In a lot of ways my niche topic has been a boon to my writing career, as I’m not competing with lots of other writers to get the jobs!

What were some of the difficulties you encountered when trying to establish yourself as a writer? Did you rely on any tools, mentors, groups or writers centres/courses for help?

Difficulties include trying to balance work with time to write, feeling frustrated about the industry, dealing with rejection, lack of confidence that my work is any good… some fantastic people along the way have helped a lot. I think I’ve achieved success because I’ve put myself out there, by becoming a publisher (Vignette Press) and going to events and being a participant in the industry as a whole. It’s an active process – getting involved, meeting people – rather than the almost-passive action of just sending things off and hoping to get picked up.

Are there any other writing goals you’d like to pursue? Like creative writing for example?

Yes, loads of goals. I’m writing a novel which is one in a series, and am pursuing more opportunities to do essay-writing, and would love to put together a cookbook. I’d get bored just working on the same style of thing all the time.

What are some of the difficulties that you encounter when working on a big project such as a book? Is it a big process that tends to go back and forth between yourself and your publishers/editors?

It can feel pretty epic. I’m working on the next edition of the Veg Food Guide at the moment and it’s a big job coordinating the 20-odd reviewers and editing the 200 reviews and getting all the end matter and intro and production stuff going at the same time. There is always a lot of back and forwards between everyone involved. With Neon Pilgrim the crazy time happened at the end, when the manuscript was going between me and the publisher and the proofreader, while the typesetting and design were all happening too. It can be a bit mental. But it’s a buzz – I love it.

What are your primary reasons for blogging? Does it get your ‘juices flowing’ in a sense?

I don’t really see blogging as writing practice. I view a blog as a self-publishing platform, a way for me to report news, broadcast my ideas and connect with other people.

What is a typical day in the life of Lisa Dempster, Writer & Editor?

Very varied, depending whether I’m at the Wheeler Centre working on the festival or working from home, or doing freelance work, or doing Vignette Press work… Everyday I get up early and walk my dog though, which is about my favourite time of day, and a coffee once I hit work is essential. Every day is different, which is important to me.

What are some of the perks associated with your job?

Getting to meet and hang out with all sorts of writers, and doing different things all the time.

And what are your career aspirations?

I’m not really aiming towards anything. Mostly I’d just like to be happy with whatever I’m doing.

What advice would you offer to aspiring freelancers and wordsmiths who want to follow a similar career path?

Every career path is different so don’t worry about it too much, if you work hard and put yourself out there it will happen.

Ten in the Hot Seat:

1. Describe yourself in one word: Ridiculous.

2. Biggest accomplishment to date: Hiking 1200kms in Japan.

3. You wish you wrote: Too many to mention!

4. Can’t leave home without: My bike – I ride everywhere.

5. One thing you are currently writing: Copy.

6. First thing you wrote: I was the first person in my prep year level to attempt to write in full sentences.

7. Addicted to reading: Travel books are a particular weakness.

8. Top spot on your goals list: Get another book deal.

9. If you were a character in a novel, you’d be: Ellie Linton from the Tomorrow series.

10. The best thing about being a wordsmith: Writing!

A simple code to live by, and love

It’s easy to let our new year plans and resolutions to fall by the wayside. Before we know it, we’ve gone off the wine and the holiday high, ventured back into work woes and stress sources, and become the person we were a year before, albeit a little older.

As much as I love a good resolution or few, as you’d have seen by my Christmas/New Year’s posts, I daresay they’re not as good to my holistic view of health, wealth and happiness as those beautiful old codes which the universe expects us to live by. You know, those basic principles enshrined in the major religions and simple belief systems of the world, where we’re supposed to love others, live simply, fairly and honestly, refrain from judging, and so on and so forth.

But with all that there is to believe and follow and know, practising these old codes in the midst of this hectic, modern and ever-changing world gets a little too challenging. It’s so easy to be torn and confused by everything that’s out there, especially as we struggle to do the right thing while other people are not, and as good as it feels, we don’t want to be the last ones to get that car or be the worst done-by.

The other day, I re-read the prayer of St Francis of Assisi, the rich noble who shed his all his wares and devoted himself to the poor. While I don’t plan on shedding myself of the likes of Chanel and Louis Vuitton, I know that epitomising the words of his prayer could make for a happier me, and a happier earth — especially if we all did the same.

And although this is a Christian prayer, its principles and codes are fairly akin to those preached in belief systems far and wide — whether the ancient tablets and scrolls of Judaism or the modern words of humanitarianism, or even the karma principles of Buddhism. Christian or not, it’s easy to be optimistic about words that encourage you to find solace in the fact that you reap what you sow, and that’s what justice, fairness and simpler, happy life is all about.

So if you need a little more inspiration to keep you hanging on to your plans to live a better life this year, here is the prayer for your reflections. Substitute Lord and Divine Master if you wish, because the message and the intention will be the same…and so will the turn for a greater good in yourself, in others and in our beautiful world. Perfect material for new year, and for all our inspiration walls.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Lovely Little Luxuries

In my last post, where I gladly bid sayonara to 2009 and prepared to usher in 2010 with much excitement, I wrote of a few resolutions that I planned to keep for the year that would enable me to live a little more happy, well-rounded and stress-free.

This morning, while doing my usual browsing of news sites, blogs and links from twitter, I came across a competition run by the lovely girls over at SheSaid. The comp shed light on a study recently run by AMEX, which found that one in five Australians belong to a new type of people the study has labelled ‘potentialists’ — individuals who aspire to mix traditional career successes with a more well-rounded life filled with the pursuit of new experiences, personal enrichment and the building of new hobbies and skills to make life a little more exciting.

I immediately knew that this is the kind of existence I was mulling about when I wrote about my resolutions and goals for 2010. And I am proud to say I am already on to it. Despite spending my holiday break at home the past couple of weeks, I decided not to shy away from investing some time in little luxuries that would not break the wedding-budget. Here were my top three:

1. Dinner & Dessert in Sydney’s Newtown: Fiance and I were bored. He wanted dinner, I wanted dessert, we both wanted to get out of the house and go on a date. We had limited funds on account of the $50k+ wedding we were having a year later. The solution? A night under $50. First stop was Basil, an Italian restaurant on King St, where we  tucked into a delicious family size pizza of proscuitto, parmesan, mozzarella, mushroom and olive (and it was so huge we didn’t finish it) and a great rocket and parmesan salad (with walnuts and pears). Delicious meal, complete with a 10% discount because we were students. And because no meal is ever complete without dessert, we walked a few shops over to Max Brenner, and indulged in hot chocolates and an amazing souffle with ice-cream. And yes, all under $50. Enjoyment on the cheap, and a fabulous night at that. So far, so good.

2. Luxurious afternoon at home: After a few days lazing about at home and not feeling particularly jazzy, I needed a pick-me-up. Considering I had just spent my Christmas money on a Christmas tree for 2010 (because obviously I’ll be moving out when I am married and I will most definitely need a tree…perferably one I can get for 50% off even if it means keeping it in storage for 11 months) I couldn’t indulge in anything too pricey. My solution? The latest edition of UK Tatler (and a special edition at that) for $11.95, a copy of Daily Candy (which I had recently purchased from eBay for $8, and which I loved and was re-reading), and a glass of Trilogy Sparkling Rose ($12). Combined with Friends & Sex and the City repeats on Foxtel, as well as a plate of cheese, fig crackers, quince paste and cherries,(and thanks to my future mother in law, a santa sack of yummy Darrell Lea chocolates) it was a perfect afternoon. Luxury needn’t be pricey, for me, it was all in the finer details (like serving in crystal glassware), cheap things that scream fabulous (pink chapmagne always does the trick), and the things that I love and calm myself to.

3. Move night with the girls: Had read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and needed to see Peter Jackson’s interpretation of it. Was not disappointed. Drove to a faraway cinema where nobody knew us, purchased cheap, packaged and less-buttered popcorn from Woolies and a lemon ice-tea, and my movie ticket ($14 because, again, I am a student) and zoned out for a couple of hours with a great film and great company.

Little moments of bliss with little havoc on the wallet. Luxury catered especially to my reality, and not lost on me at all. And all without compromising my promises for the new year. So far, so good.