Diaries news

Like coffee? Like free stuff? Well May 3-18 is Fairtrade Fortnight and Starbucks have come on board by offering customers a complimentary cup of fair trade Joe. Head into your local outlet between 9 am - 11 am (just in time for morning tea!) tomorrow, May 8, to be treated to a tall size Cafe Estima blend coffee; a fair trade certified brew that contains a blend of Latin American and African beans. Nom nom nom. Co-ordinated by the Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand (FTAANZ), Fair Trade fortnight aims to increase community awareness and support for fair trade products to guarantee a fairer deal for disadvantaged Third World producers. For more info, head here.

Be inspired! Yes, we're calling upon all readers to get inspired this issue with the help of an amazing group of women who are well renowned both locally and internationally. We gathered advice worth keeping for life from talented women across all fields: the feminist, Germaine Greer; the actress, Jamie Lee Curtis; the journalist, Maria Shriver; the athlete, Layne Beachley; the activist, Jody Williams and the politican, Maxine McKew. It's a must read!

Another relentlessly successful women, is Leslie Feist or better known as the chick who sings 1,2,3,4 on the Apple iPod nano ad. One of YEN's resident writers, Fiona Killackey was lucky enough to speak exclusively to Feist about the progression of her musical career and how excited she is about hitting Australian shores to tour the Laneway festival in late February.

The pages of YEN are also layered with the 'best of fashion' to get you in the mood for the 'cooler' months. We've got the perfect clothes for a day out with your lover or magical night out with your friends.

Enjoy!! YEN xx

So I graduated on Tuesday night. That is me in the picture to your left. Yes I wore a very heavy gown and that funny little hat. Yes I got to shake some old dude's hand (a.k.a - the Chancellor) and yes my parents inundated me with a million photographs.
All in all it was a long, slow ceremony and I pretty much couldn't wait to leave. To make matters worse I didn't even score a free cookie or apple juice that was included in my graduation fee! RIP OFF! I blame it on the nanas!
Any who, so I now have a piece of paper with my name and the word 'journalism' on it. 3 years of study, thousands of dollars later and I am nothing but jobless.
Well not technically, but I wouldn't consider my grocery scanning job as 'real' or 'fulfilling'.
So, I guess my point is, why let so many people into uni, take their money and then hand them pieces of useless paper so that it's only use is to hang pretty on the study wall?
We all know the media/arts/entertainment industry is about whom you know, and above all luck, but I wish someone told me before I undertook this degree that finding a job would be near impossible. There is not much left to say at this lonely self reflecting moment of mine, but if you're some ultra powerful rich dude, with a bazillion contacts and you can pretty much move the stars, give me a holla. Until then, Merry Christmas. I hope Santa accidentally leaves an extra sack of presents in your lounge room by mistake. Oh the joys of luck.

I went to to my first ever book reading last week. And it was thanks to the gorgeous peeps - Nic and Susien - who are behind the fashion label Lover. They've started a series of events entitled Lover Loves... To kick it off they brought out the author of Dear Diary, Leslin Arfin, from the US to share her book with us Aussies. It was quite amazing that Leslie had everyone's undivided attention that night. But I guess anyone who is brave enough to part with all her juicy teenage secrets is worth listening to.

1974. My penniless mother, desperate to leave Kathmandu, was forced to sell hash for the last seat on a tiny propelled plane. “Terrified of flying, I’d smoked a bit of the stuff myself”. She only found it slightly odd then, that the plane was full of armed soldiers. They took off though the Himalayas wondering where the hell she was headed. “Everest”, replied an official. “Ooh, this is a bit good,” slurred mum, as they circled the mountain. She even managed to photograph it. Landing in India, a soldier pushed her back down in the seat. “You wait!” he ordered. She looked out of the window to see a red carpet unravelling. Just then, complete with entourage, the King of Nepal walked past her and disembarked. Why they allowed her on the plane is a mystery, but they probably just needed to ‘fill up the seats’.

                                       
Is it just me, or is anyone else feeling severely over-analysed?

Yes, I was born in the eighties and according to an endless number of reports that makes me a member of generation Y. This means my peers and I allegedly fit into a category of people that tend to be selfish, reckless with money, impatient and generally difficult to manage. 

Occasionally, there will be a report that mentions how passionate and tech-savvy Gen Y are but that's after employers or society are given tips on how to handle us.

Sure there are major differences between how my friends and I live our lives and how our parents did but if I wanted to be processed and put into a pretty package with my ingredients listed on the side I would have come into life as a pack of Cornflakes!

I recently read somewhere that Sydney has more Thai restaurants per-capita than Thailand itself. For those of you who prefer your food trivia a bit more high end though, you can delight in the knowledge that the waiting list for a meal at (famed Sydney eatery) Tetsuya’s quite regularly backs up into the months. Yes, whether it’s an $8 pad Thai from your local or $500 on a thirteen-course degustation menu, Sydneysiders love their food. No wonder then, that the Sydney Food & Wine Fair has over the past 17 years become one of the most important dates on the city’s calendar. Held annually in conjunction with the Sydney morning herald good food month, this year’s fair boasts it’s best ever line-up of restaurants, wineries and entertainment. Food plates will be going for as little as $5 and wine for $2.50, I also guarantee that this is the only chance you will get to dine on fare from restaurants like Buon Ricardo and Quay whilst wearing jandals. Proceeds go towards the AIDS Trust of Australia- which should make you feel a little less guilty about loosening up the old belt a notch or so.