In my neck-o-woods it’s going to be a scorcher this weekend. The water here in Sydney is 23 degrees. Blimey.

Which has posed a dilemma this week. I just got my hair coloured – darker for the cooler months. But my hairdresser has asked me to stop swimming so much, because it’s making my hair dull. I ignored her, but it does make me wince a little when I look at my salty, ratty mop just now.

Therein lies my dilemma as a girl who hates beauty regimes, doesn’t brush her hair, hates shopping etc, etc etc…BUT who works in an industry where she has to look and play a certain part. Square peg, round hole?

I tell you it’s exhausting. What to do with running top tan lines when you have to wear a strapless dress? I have a scab on my nose and shoulder today from running into a wall on my bike…and have to film on Monday. Oh dear.

My first day at Cosmopolitan, I arrived on crutches.

I wrote about Neil Pasricha’s new book 1000 Awesome Things a few days ago. And Gala Darling.

This is Gala.

The two unite. Gala interviews Neil about all the kind of stuff I want to know from people who do sweet, off-beat things.

I liked this (because it’s so damn refreshing to know that NOT EVERYONE works to efficient systems and rules and mantras, and that being rather chaotic is awesome, too):

Do you write down awesome things as you think of them? Is there an awesome spreadsheet? How do you keep it organised?

Ha ha, I wish! I’ve actually got a giant pile of old receipts, scrap papers, and bus transfers sitting beside my computer with awesome things written on them. I’ve also got a running memo pad in my cell phone and bits and pieces floating around my email. I am definitely not a study in organization. I say once again for effect: You can learn nothing from me on this subject. (Honestly, I envy your Moleskine list-making-and-crossing-out nature. I’m the guy with a bunch of notebooks sitting around with exactly one page used with some grand title on it like “My Plan To Get Organized” or “To Do After Graduating”)

This post was updated 1 Dec 2011.

I’m super glad Greenpeace has put out this Canned Tuna Guide guide. Here I was thinking Sirena was best. Amazing how an idea can spread, and how it sticks…

Canned tuna is the biggest selling seafood item in Australia. As supermarkets sell more and more of this profitable product, tuna stocks are in a critical condition. Greenpeace is now putting pressure on supermarkets and consumers to take responsibility for this problem. Overfished species such as Bigeye and Yellowfin Tuna are ending up on Australian supermarket shelves. Greenpeace is encouraging supermarkets to switch to sustainably caught Skipjack Tuna.

And fishing methods introduced to protect dolphins kill endangered turtles and sharks. But consumers would not know this from the label on the can.

As of 2011, Greenpeace’s new revised list puts Fish 4 Ever tuna on top as most sustainable. It’s available in health food shops, and has a gorgeous label design. SInce I first posted the guide, Safcol has made massive improvements and now offers Australian customers canned tuna caught using a sustainable fishing method. Most brands have also ruled out using threatened Yellowfin Tuna.

For an interactive image with more information on each brand, go here.

Yet there’s a long way to go. In the UK, every major canned tuna player has stopped using destructive fishing methods, but Australia lags behind.

It’s time Australian brands change their tuna.Take action now!

Big special thanks to Vanessa for alerting me to this overview of how CO2 emissions stack up in the Planes v Volcano debate, from information is beautiful. And it is, beautiful, isn’t it!?

Don’t you just know these two scenarios, drawn from 1000awesomethings, a blog that’s been turned into a book of 1000 awesome things, published on Friday:

#997 Locking people out of the car and then pretending to drive away. My Dad was a big fan of doing this. Most Dads are.

#527 The night before a really big day.

Stare at that ceiling. Sweaty palms, white knuckles, deep breaths in bed.

Maybe the ring’s stowed away and the reservations are made. Maybe the results are coming in and everyone’s coming over. Maybe you’re buttoning down for a new job or following your heart and leaving an old one.

As the moonlight shines in your window excitement bubbles in your brain.

It’s almost here.

Love this. I get excited the night before Big Things. I hope I never stop getting excited in this way. Christmas Eve, sleeping on the family room floor at home, I get that sense of  anticipation and specialness described above. Kind of dorky. Yes.

Before a big, scary job, I’ll go and stare at the sky, or sit in the dark, and think about the enormity of things. And the incongruency.

Me?!! The Bigness? !! Wow, how does this fit? The fact that I’ve been plunged into Something Big feels so incongruent that I just can’t put it down to my own doing. It feels bigger than a work of my orchestrating. It feels inevitable, preordained, destined by a force bigger than me. And very, very special.

The world works in mysterious ways. When we need a lesson, we get it.

How’s this.

According to The Times:

The grounding of 63,000 flights over the past four days has saved 1.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, more than the annual emissions of many developing countries.

And this:

The total environmental benefits of the grounding of aircraft may be far greater because millions of business travellers have had to find alternative ways of communicating — and some are likely to change their working habits permanently.

Some of you might say, oh, but the environmental fall-out from the volcano exceeds any CO2 savings from grounded planes. That misses the point, no?

The point is, look what happens when we’re forced to shift. We cope. And adjust. And it has huge ramifications.