Does parenting through a lockdown get any easier? Have you adjusted to the ‘new normal’ or has your adjustment just felt like a slippery slide into a very average, daily grind like mine? Stepping outside of my own feelings and frustrations during Auckland’s extended lockdown and I can see 8yo Nixon experiencing the same emotions and lack of motivation that has been hitting me in waves. Nixie’s 12pm online learning each day brings the social interaction, routine and structure that he desperately needs right now as well as the basic reading, writing and maths tuition that has all but disappeared ..read more

Oh mates. Dave and I LOVE kitchen small appliances and we’ve tried many over the years, but there has not been one that we have adopted so quickly and used as frequently as our Instant Pot, which was kindly gifted for review. A new arrival in New Zealand in 2020, the Instant Pot proved instantly popular, selling out quickly and leaving aspiring home chefs waiting (impatiently!) for the next shipment. Dave has fully embraced this fab slow-cooker-sized appliance, which totally suits our F45 diet (our family eats at least 6kg of chicken breast a week lol) and often rushed, harried lifestyle. The ..read more

Here in New Zealand, our kids are heading back to school tomorrow after seven weeks of online schooling during Level 4 & 3 Lockdown. SEVEN WEEKS! I’m happy for the boys as I know they have missed their friends, but, I’m a little bit (ok, a LOT!) nervous about the whole post-lockdown environment. We haven’t rushed back into pre-covid life at all, and there is much that we will leave back in March, as we are all about that slower, simpler life after so much time at home as a family. As we prepped school uniforms, books and bags today, I was thinking about sanitiser and general hygiene at the ..read more

Challenge 26 kicks off today and though it looks vastly different to what we have seen before (hello home workouts!) the cornerstone meal plan remains the same. In 2019, Dave and I ‘participated’ in two challenges at our studio, F45 Massey. We basically signed up for the scans to establish benchmarks against which to measure our progress through exercise/class attendance alone. Those who know me will already be aware of how life-changing joining F45 Massey has been for me, so my final scans after each of last years 8-week challenges were always positive and moving in the right direction. After ..read more

I’m not sure there could be a more perfect, ultimately modern-day novel than Adults. I’ve worked in social media for well over a decade, and what Unsworth has done by bringing Instagram out of the closet and into the light as the ultimate narcissist starter-kit is both clever and, quite uncomfortable, if only because it’s so very familiar and recognisable. It’s all here – I recognise and acknowledge Jenny’s mid-30’s angst and entitlement, the increasing volume of her biological clock, the association between self-worth and social media success – whatever that looks like?! What I think resonat ..read more

Lockdown times are HEAVY am I right? I hate food waste on any normal day but, when it’s literally dangerous to go to the store and a massive time suck (hello queuing for the supermarket) my food-waste policy kicks into overdrive. We had a few courgettes (zucchini) that we needed to use asap and there was a Zucchini Slice recipe on our F45 maintenance menu for the week so, I decided to zhuzh it up and see what happened. What happened was GOOD and it ticked the boxes for a good fridge clear out which makes me SO happy! So here’s the recipe, give it a go and mod as much as you want as ..read more

Things are starting to blur. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday who knows. Morning active-wear, afternoon jammies, let’s go for another walk/ride/, do another online exercise class, cook some more food….. Sunday was really flat, Nixon had a bad day yesterday but today we got back on track. I’ve stopped watching the news so much, turned notifications off on my phone, decided that checking the NZ Herald app 773 times per day was not helping anything, and I’m literally solely focussed on the day ahead and making it as smooth as possible for our family. Like any other day, there are the arguments ..read more

Oh my lord, where to start with this one. It took me ages to finish, and I really wanted to finish this book sooner rather than later. Shakti, by the author’s own admission, is a weird book. Its rambling narrative covers merely days but stretches on for e v e r . And ever. Here’s what I enjoyed about this book; India! I wish more local flavour had been included in the storyline. The modern, feminist heroine Jaya. Her internal monologues are humorous, insightful and provide (rare) historical context into her current situation. The ending! The final, very dramatic introduct ..read more

It’s Saturday here in New Zealand, our first Lockdown Weekend with a few more to come. It’s very typical late March weather, gorgeous blue skies, cooler temps throughout the day, I’m actually wearing sweatshirts here and there! That’s one of the nerve-wracking things I worry about, how bad is Coronavirsu going to be as we head into Winter? Imagine the paranoia of getting ‘regular’ sick and stressing that is Covid-19? Worries like these feel like a pot of popcorn on the stove, jostling and bumping each other, trying to smash the lid off so they can see the light of day and really kick t ..read more

I placed what will probably be my last click ‘n’ collect grocery order 8 days ago with today being the first available time slot. Dave is our designated Grocery Shopper (only 1 per household) so he ventured out into the wild to pick up the goods. The queue was uniformly spaced 2 metres apart, snaking the length of the carpark as people waited to be let into the store, one-in-one-out. I asked if it felt good to be out there, doing something quite normal? His reply was that it was the most abnormal experience ever. The shoppers were all pleasant and calm, lots of face masks, but so subdu ..read more