Ask Steph

#PrintChat ... That incredible weekly event that I am thoroughly addicted For a brief overview - here's my 40 second snap of what it is ... I've listed Print Chat times for the AU and NZ cities below the video , hope to see you there !

Caster Semenya is in the news again.  Again.  And not because she is a blistering athlete, who runs world record times. Not because she is a champion competing in the Olympics.  Nope. That ugly part of humanity has reared up again as she whooshes past the spectators on the running track.  That part of humanity , the one thinks it's OK to dehumanise and humiliate a young women in public by discussing her gentialia and body parts .  Funny how all the armchair experts are more annoyed by this young lady than they are by actual drug cheats.  Funny that.  There is something more important that taking a side in the Caster Semenya debate, and that is choosing not to participate in the debate at all. Especially if you have daughters.  Because what you say about Caster Semenya, will do more damage to your daughter and her self image than anything any other person or the media can throw at you.  Caster Semenya was subjected to humiliating reports on he...

Yeah That ugly 'something has happened back home' experience has reared up again this week.  My mom had a fall, and has broken her wrist . It's a clean break, but a bad one, and she may need surgery.  *speechless*  So it's on the mend , and the doctors are trying something to help it heal without surgery first , she will go back in a week for more X-rays to see if it's working, and if not, then into theatre she will go.  The most frustrating part of all of this - is that there is absolutely nothing I can do . Nothing.  Helplessness is not a feeling that sits well in my Type A , fixer, doer , go-getter mentality.  Sigh.  I can let go of many things ...my family, my friends and those I love being in pain isn't usually one of them.  Human emotions are such raw things, and it constantly amazes me how they smack us down so completely whenever we feel like we have a handle on this thing called Life. 

I woke up this morning to the news that a gorgeous women,  an Instagram celebrity in Pakistan had been murdered in cold blood by her brother.  The headlines screaming out about honour killings and so forth.  So how about this, collective Bad-Ass women of the world, how about we collectively refuse to call these things Honour killings.  It demeans and degrades the word Honour to do so, it implies that there is some kind of twisted honour in being a sociopath whose worth is determined by the behaviour of the property of your family. Girls are property in certain parts of the world let's not forget.  How about we all call it what it is , a murder that's all about male shame. A great big shame for the family for harbouring and promoting murder. Shame for the family because they think women and females belong to them.   Shame for the brother who right now looks sub-human to me, in my angry raging feminist tirade.  Can we stop implying there is something goo...

Oh my , it's tomorrow ! Following on from my previous 2 posts as I attempted to get some info on the smaller parties in my area : Candidate for the AJP , Summary of Twitter Kerfuffle This is my final pre-election post, chock full of last minute important info you will need to know. And a brief overview of the Science Party ( who really seem to have caught my eye )  As you go in to vote tomorrow remember the following  - Preferences do matter, especially if you're not swayed by the scaremongering campaigns.  -Voting for minor parties will not cause instability ( because of the beautiful aforementioned preference voting system) - Please for the love of God, DON'T Donkey vote ( seriously ...don't be a lazy eejot) - You must number ALL the candidates on the green ballot  - you must EITHER pick 6 parties (above the line) , or 12 candidates (below the line) on the white ballot   - You can get a fresh ballot if you make a mistake - just ask...

Ok then, so I'm still waiting for Lee Kavanagh from the Drug Law Reform Party to reply , and haven't managed to track down contact details for Trevor Bishop from Family First. I did leave a request on the Family First website , but they haven't responded. I could probably guess most of Trev's replies though, especially on his party's policies on treating the LGBTQI community with fairness and human decency. My inclination to defend your right of religious freedom strains when you start using your religion as an excuse to enforce your view of how other should live their lives, when it has no effect on you. I can only feel desperately sorry for you, that your marriage and relationship with your children is so fragile that the mere thought of 2 men getting married is sufficient to lay waste to those relationships completely. Also there are several studies , from people without any religious agenda, that backup the reality that children who are loved by their pare...

Righty oh . So I eventually tracked down some candidates from the lists that are available : there are 6 candidates standing for Goldtstein (the electorate where I live.) I've reached out via email to the people that get no airtime from the media, probably because they don't have the same budget as the big parties . Which is weird, because I could have sworn I lived in a democratic country with an independent media ... But never mind.  Below is the responses of Naren , from the  Animal Justice Party.  Naren's profile on the ABC's  website : http://www.abc.net.au/news/federal-election-2016/guide/gold/ What are your parties policies in supporting small local businesses to expand interstate, and internationally.  I am a small business owner myself Stephanie. My office is in Elsternwick and I employ three people. I'm in support of policies to help small businesses grow. What is your personal stance on tax incentives to promote local employme...

I've been here 6 years ... I've chosen to become an Australian citizen, and now in a couple of weeks time  I will vote for the first time in federal and state elections. I've done the local elections couple of years ago. Honestly was not impressed with who won, so I moved. That was a joke, we didn't move because a labor thug won our ward, there were a lot more pressing and urgent reasons why we sold the house and moved. But yes, as you can tell, I don't have much time for the labor party.  Here's what I've learned in these 6 years ( for my fellow dual nationals ) :  1) There are many more choices than liberal or labor, the media however goes to great lengths to ensure you don't hear about them.  2) Liberals and labor stand for very little beyond points scoring and keeping power. There are very few debates of substance , and if you want to know what they stand for you're going to have to do a lot of your own leg work.  3) Labor is ...

This is another gratitude post. And this one is a soppy, sappy, love fest for my Mom. My mom is amazing. If anything, my mom is the poster child for resilience. I have never met anyone quite like Cynthia Gaddin. Except perhaps for my friend Maxine Hearn, whose bravery in the face of the hurdles life throws up at her, reminds me often of the strength my mother has. My mom quietly gets up every morning and carries on with her life, facing all the same troubles and demons that leave her exhausted every night.  My Mom gives of her time, her energy and her love to anyone in need. Her daughter (thats me ! ) and both sons have been recipients several times over in the past of her last bit of cash, food, or any other resource that we may have needed along the way. And her grandson is bestowed with everything that Granny could possibly give him in love, attention, guidance, support.   She has very little herself very often, and yet , she will still give to those that...

Not to brag ... Oh who am I kidding, I'm bragging ;) . My Ice Breaker speech went excellently well I thought.  I prepared, practised over and over, even tweaking which stories about me I wanted to tell and how I would tell them.

Yes - World Environment Day is a thing. And it's happening today. Started by the UN, and hosted by a different country each year, this years hosts Angola, turn the spotlight onto poaching of endangered species : good on them !  You can read all about it here on The Global Citizen :  https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/most-poached-animals-world-environment-day/ If you're after a more specific bit of info about WED ( that's World Environment Day, not the day of the week ;) ) then go to : www.wed2016.com ( although be warned the website is a hit of jumble of TMI , and bad content management - but it is rich with suggestions on practical ways you can help today and all other days of the year)  And last but not least - the project closest to my heart : Breaking the Brand - saving Rhinos by tackling the demand for horns in Vietnam -  are still running their Pozible campaign to raise cash to pay the photographers for some new ad images. The campaign r...

Recently I did a round of visits to some clients North East of Melbourne's CBD.  While waiting in reception at the third company that I visited , I took out my iPhone, and proceeded to share up to the business Facebook page a photograph that I had taken earlier that morning at the first client I had visited.  Now, most of my clients are printers, and they almost all invariably have an old Heidelberg, or some other older antique piece of print history somewhere onsite.  The picture I had taken was of a really old original printers tray displayed in the reception area. It's not something you see very often. It was (at least to me anyway) a beautiful piece of history.  While I was  typing in the text and comments to go with the picture, waiting in reception at client number 3, they came out to meet me and saw me on the phone.  My client started laughing and said something about not playing on phones, and being present in the real world. To which I replied with...

This is a gratitude post ... Fair warning , there is no soppy , sappy , feelings here today ( although I do have those, and I do post about them when I'm feeling soppy and sappy... And there nothing wrong with feeling soppy and sappy ..,I'm just not in that head space today...ok?)  Right - moving right along  Today - I am grateful for this beauty :  That which you see there is the saver of my sanity. No mere washer or dryer, or washer dryer combo ... That is a washer dryer combo WITH time delay.  I cannot even begin to tell you how awesome it is , that as a super busy working woman, with side projects , network meetings, lots of countrywide travel, I can come home to tumble dried laundry , which is just finishing up as I walk in the door.  Sure - I have to load the thing in the morning, sure I a still need to take the laundry and fold and pack it away when I get home - but hells bells - it is so much easier to have clean clothes when you ...

When you're asked to propose a toast, and there's no person that you're toasting. Well, first you panic. Then you write furiously, and then edit furiously. And then you scrap your first 2 ideas. And somewhere around the 2nd or 3rd draft of the final idea : this is what you end up with. At least on paper anyway. A couple of sentences got left out here and there to save time. But this is pretty much the toast I gave this week at my Toastmasters meeting.  I  recently met a woman online in a business women support group, who's business involves selling custom shoes online. She relayed to me the story of a Venture Capitalist who declined to invest in her company, because " women will never pay more than $500 for a pair of shoes" . She tells me that he did call her back the next day to take up the missed opportunity, after his wife educated him somewhat on the world of woman's shoes and shopping habits. It was too late however, as she had already taken investmen...

 Dear Virgin Australia... Last month I flew up to Brisbane for the day, to visit Visual Impact . It was a multi purpose trip, consisting of visiting the show, networking, spreading the word about International Print Day , meeting with clients, and making new connections.  6 am flight out,  and 5 pm flight back. No sorry, 4:55 pm flight back. That's important, that 5 minutes; and you'll see why later.  Now, there is really nothing dramatic that I can complain about, and truly the flights were mostly uneventful;  but, some small things have let you down. So much so, that I doubt that I will choose to fly VA again when given other options.  Let's start with the check in process.

So I found this one while frantically trying to think up really good Table Topics for a Toastmasters meeting this week. It was frantic, not because of the last minute - but because I am a new member, haven't even given my first speech yet. And these guys, are such a cool bunch of advanced speakers. I really didn't want to appear lazy in thinking. So whilst trying to tie in my Table Topics to the theme of the night , 'Find your Voice' , I stumbled across this word looking for a synonym for smoky or husky. Huh ? Smoky and Husky ? Voice ? Yes - Nina Simone. She of ' My Baby just cares for me' fame. And I found fuliginous. Meaning smoky, dusky or sooty. But not in the voice and sound sense. And there you have it. My fireplace would be fuliginous, if I had one, because I'm a pyromaniac. ;-) Word.

Yes, we all know in a perfect world, when you're checking Facebook, you would be able to savour every movement, and reply with great thought and care. You'd have the time to go to each I ntresting article or link and take your time reading and digesting. That doesn't happen though, particularly if you are super busy growing your entrepreneurial empire.  Facebook has a save feature , as in save and digest later. Kinda like wrapping up that muffin from morning tea to have at your desk later.  Here's how it works in the iPad app :  First up,  tap the little arrow on the right of the post you're interested in, and then tap the Save option on the menu that pops up .  This is the same menu you  would use to block or report a post , or hide a post  To find your saved posts and content later, tap the More menu on the bottom menu bar and swipe down until you see Saved :  Tap on the Saved to view and select what ...

I was accused of  'hiding behind my ivory tower' by a client in South Africa recently. I imagine my ivory tower would look like this, although in my head it looks better. Clearly Graphic Design isn't for me That's a first. Also, if I did have an Ivory Tower, it certainly wouldn't be big enough for me to hide behind, given my modest lifestyle. I am by no means wealthy, only barely reaching the edges of middle class really. (And yes, I know how that sounds given the extreme poverty in my country of birth and other places around the world.) Here's what I think of this Ivory Tower I am hiding behind. I work 7 days a week;  full days that start around 5 am and end anywhere between 7 and 9 pm. There is some flexbility around that, usually I average 12 hours a day at our busy times, and 9 or so if it's dead quiet.

Who would have known. I've been in Australia 6 years, long enough to acclimate and take up citizenship, and I only just saw my first real live possum in my garden this month. I have lived in fairly new residential estates up to now, and I've moved into an older more established suburb recently. Where the trees and wildlife have recovered somewhat from the trauma of installing a new suburb over an old paddock of grass or farmland.  And there they were, 2 furry strange looking buggers running up and down my fence like a double act marsupial Spider-Men. They kinda look like a cross between a kangaroo and a meerkat. But stranger looking. Two observations - first, they are a lot bigger than I thought. I've always had this impression of them as being somewhere between a small rabbit and a large rat. They were much bigger than that. Turns out, the ones I saw were bush-tail possums . Locally called Bushy's apparently .  Second - That tail is something quite impr...