Monthly Archives: February 2008

Full Moon Rising by Kerri Arthur

Full moon risingFull Moon Rising book cover
By Keri Arthur
Piatkus Books, London, 2007

An action packed adventure story set in mid-twenty-first century Melbourne, this isn’t a book to easily put down. The plot moves along fast, but you don’t always know what is coming or where the plot will lead to, which makes it fun!

Similar to many crime books, Arthur makes it different by introducing non-humans as a known minority in society – and making the lead character a half-breed werewolf and vampire. As long as you allow yourself to believe in these creatures, the story is grounded in reality and is believable.

The most disappointing aspect of the story is that, although Australian, it is written for an American audience – the use of ‘butt’, “cell phone”, “miles” and “candy” is distracting, and the misspelling of favourite is annoying.

The sex scenes are not for the faint hearted, and there is a fair amount of violence, but is within the context of the story.

Overall, a fun way to spend a few hours!

A pocketful of sequins

Words from the heart…

To be diagnosed with breast cancer is to face a frightening, life-changing experience, and many women who undergo this experience demonstrate extraordinary courage, strength, humour, generosity and compassion on their breast cancer journey.

The National Breast Cancer Centre (NBCC), the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) and the Breast Cancer Network Australia (BCNA) came together to work with publisher Moonstone and author and breast cancer survivor Margaret Wright on the development of a book of quotations that would convey those remarkable qualities in an inspiring and moving collection of their quotations.

Women with breast cancer, their partners, families and friends contributed quotations, poems and musings. Illustrated by artist Julianne Lord, A Pocketful of Sequins is moving, powerful, humorous and ultimately very human.

Inspirational reading for yourself or as a gift, or encouragement when someone clsoe is facing difficult times, this is a book that gives to the reader and to breast cancer research.

For more details and instructions on ordering a copy, please visit the NBCF site.

Win a travel game – and some quiet in the car!

Any parent knows that car trips (as well as plane, bus, train and boat trips!) can be very long when there is a bored child or two with you. With an ickle kids travel game, the kids will have something to do  – giving you a break from “are we there yet?”

Simply visit the ickle kids site answer a simple question on the entry form on their site before 15th April and you could be the winner! Good luck!

Who on earth cares?

Who on earth cares that the planet is in danger, that we are destroying our home?

Actually, a lot of people care and are trying to do something about it. And those little things we do to save energy and water really are important. Just look at how we have reduced the amount of water used each day by the average Australian by about 50 litres in just 5 years.

Who on earth cares is a website that, amongst other things, is mapping where the concerned Australians live – are you on the map? Over 19,000 Australians are. By signing up, you can encourage others to help the environment and make it clear that many Aussies want action to save our planet.

It is free to sign up and only takes a few minutes. The sign up process also gives you the opportunity to make some savings – for example, can you commit to installing an efficient shower head, turning off your computer every night and washing clothes in cold water? The energy savings from your commitment is added to the total so you can see just how much difference you are making.

So if you care, put yourself on the map and consider writing to your politician – together, we can make a difference.

How do you feel about your business finances?

Running a business requires a time in a lot of different areas – not just in your specialty. Finances, including keeping accounts, budgeting and paying taxes, is a major component of a business’ functions, yet it probably the most dreaded area of business for those not trained in accounting or similar.

If you are running a business, do you feel in control of your finances or do they overwhelm you? Are there things you want to learn so you can do better – or do you just long to outsource it all?

The Business Mums Network is conducting a brief survey to find out how business mums feel about their finances. The survey will only take a few minutes to complete and the results will be released in the next edition of the Business Mums Magazine.

If particualr areas of business finance are shown to be harder for small business operators, then further information on those topics will become available through the network.

We’re sorry

As part of modern Australia, we are horrified at the existance of the stolen generation – especially that the practice lasted so long and as recently as the 1970s.

As part of Australia, we support Kevin Rudd’s comments this morning and aplogise that average Australians allowed the Government to behave in such a way.

We are sorry that those children were removed from their families, and sorry for those families left to live without knowing about their children’s whereabouts or well being. As mothers, we can’t imagine how hard that separation would have been.

Hopefully, the apology starts the healing process for us all and actions will follow on from today.

We will be searching the net for information and sites about the apology and reconciliation as our small effort towards a united Australia. For now, we are proud to share this link which replays the entire apology speech made by Kevin Rudd this morning.

And we would love to hear how the apology has affected you, and whether you stopped this morning to watch/listen.

Win! One of two magazine subscriptions

Business Mums Magazine - Issue 9The Business Mums Magazine is Australia’s only magazine aimed especially at mums running their own businesses. It is written by business mums, for business mums.

We are offering two lucky people the chance to win a 12 month subscription of this bi-monthly magazine valued at $25 each.

All you need to do to enter is visit the Business Mums Magazine page and tell us what was the theme of Issue 8?

remember, you must be subscribed to our newsletter to enter. Adding your answer as a comment in our blog will not count as an entry (and won’t be published to keep it fair for everyone!)

Full terms and conditions are available here. Competitions close on 9 March 2008.

Win a bottle of Joliv’s hand cream

Joliv’s nourishing hand cream is an exquisite blend of natural oils and essentials oils that create a wonderful easily applied cream that sinks into the skin leaving your hands feeling soft and nourished.

You can read a full description of the soothing and healing ingredients on the Joliv site.

We are offering a bottle of this luxurious hand cream, valued at $29.95.

and enter the competition – remember, you must be subscribed to our newsletter to enter. Adding your answer as a comment in our blog will not count as an entry (and won’t be published to keep it fair for everyone!)

Full terms and conditions are available here. Competition closes on 9 March 2008.

What is a RSS Feed?

RSS is one of those terms that you may see a lot on the Internet, especially if you spend time reading blogs. RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’. This is an easy way to distribute content to a wide audience, and can be used in a number of ways.

If you have a website, you can publish RSS feeds to your site, giving your readers access to headlines and information they may find interesting and/or informative. For example, an accountant may include an RSS form the ATO so that any tax changes are listed on the site immediately.

If you have a favourite blog, you can subscribe to its RSS feed so you can see new entries without having to manually check all the time.