This Psychology Today article that gives a rundown of the type of relationship strong, career-orientated women want now hits  nails on heads for me.

It makes a number of strident and true points. I’ve added my own thoughts to the mix too:

* “There is a new type of male/female relationship forming in our culture not defined by who is more dominant and successful.” Indeed, there is a new whiff to things right now. I don’t know that anyone really “knows” how all this plays out yet, but we “feel” that the old “push/pull” of sexual relationships is redundant somehow. Every relationship needs a balance of yin and yang, but it can play out in so many different ways. Masculine strength can be about being a rock or being the “provider” of emotional stability to a frantically busy career woman. Sometimes all we want is a guy who can say “everything’s going to be OK” at the end of the day while massaging your foot.

* Strong women want a man who will share the responsibilities at home and won’t get his ego tied up in a knot over it.

The Internet Chef recently posted a list of the top 30 health posts from the internet. They’re a great collation. Here’s my choice six snacks, plus some simple throw-together-from-the-pantry snack tricks I eat by. Enjoy!

* Tamari Pepitas

Toss some pumpkin seeds around a hot pan (no oil required; the oils from the nuts are enough to keep them from sticking). As they start to sizzle and pop a little, drizzle tamari over the the lot, stirring. It becomes a gooby mess pretty quickly, so remove from heat almost immediately.

* Frozen banana yoghurt

I buy bananas in bulk, peel them and put them in the freezer in a zip-lock bag. When I need a snack (I also eat this for breakfast) I pull one out, hack it into chunks and put in a cup. Then I pour some yoghurt over it and either mush with a fork or stab-mix in the cup. I then stick it back in the freezer. Within 5 minutes it’s the most sublime frozen snack ever. Sometimes I add chia seeds and cinnamon, or coconut water.

* Air Popped Popcorn (from my mum)

Put a small handful of popcorn in a brown paper lunch bag. Roll down top of lunch bag to close. Place in microwave for 2 minutes. I toss through some salt or dulce. No oil or butter required!! Use this no-fat trick for the popcorn recipes below.

Microwave potato chips by Nooschi

4 ingredients Granola bars- Kiss My Spatula

NOTE: This post has been amended!!!!

Wow I’ve been inundated with lots of interest. PLEASE if you’ve already emailed me your details, please refer to the application criteria below and resubmit your application attending to this details. Thank you!!

Well, my little business of one is expanding! Want to join my fun?

I’m looking for a super enthusiastic person to work directly with me, assisting me with the technical side of my blog and online offerings, as well as performing PA duties (coordinating schedules and my TV commitments, some research and banal things like going to the post office). So,  it’s a bit of a girl/boy Friday position. The role could also include writing work (with bonus mentoring!), depending on the candidate.

Ideally, you:

• are thrilled to work two days per week. Perfect for students or parents, or…
• are able to work at least one of the days with me from my Darlinghurst office (on Oxford St).The other I’m happy for you to work from the moon, or…
• own your own Apple laptop computer
• have had some sort of PA/office experience
• have a driver’s license
• are keen to start immediately

The position is a paid one. But also one that is about learning and growing.

The role would suit a multi-media/technology student, a budding writer/journalism student who’s proficient with blogging technology, or a PA who “gets it”.

How to apply (please read carefully):

I’ve been thinking for a while that I should be putting some energy to inspiring as many people as possible to ride a bike. I’m not sure how I’ll do this yet, but let’s make it a campaign.

Let’s call it A Campaign to Ride A Bike (unless anyone out there would like to pose a better name?). And as our mantra we can defer to HG Wells:

“Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.”

It won’t be a dorky campaign. Just the stuff that might get more people fired up and informed to buy/dig out a bike and get moving.

To start with a bit of an explainer about why I care about this issue:

* Riding makes you happy: I’ve ridden a bike since I was four and I believe this to be totally true. I started out BMX racing and, then, got my first mountainbike at 11. I’ve done downhill racing and 24-hour mountainbike races. I’ve toured around the world and pretty much every major holiday has been on a bike (Vietnam, Tasmania, California, Spain, New Zealand… I once rode Brisbane to Cairns just to kill some time). You see things on a bike. You smell things. It’s free and flowing and honest. Your skin glows on arrival. You have time to think. You can swoop through traffic. You’re alive to things, not a passive, dull passenger.

This week I find no reasons

I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed a stack of people have taken to the curious, quasi-spiritual belief that there’s divine logic behind every haphazard, unfortunate occurrence – from receiving three parking tickets in three days, to getting cancer.

Your girlfriend leaves you? It happened because your true soul mate is just around the corner.

You got robbed? You needed to let go of your attachment to possessions.

I met someone recently who missed her plane. “Oh, it happened for a reason,” she said. She reasoned she was meant to be stuck at the airport for four hours to meet her future husband. I know – totally unreasonable! But there she sat, at the gate lounge, scrutinising every man with a pulse who walked past.

We used to call such things bad luck. And move on. But now, “everything happens for a reason”. Have you noticed this, too?

Not that I make this pronouncement from a lofty pulpit. I say this kind of thing all the time. I got quite unwell at the end of 2007. Once all the doctors failed to give a medically watertight reason, I donned my alternative goggles and went diving for a deeper, metaphysical one. I mean, why me? Why now? There must be a reason under all these layers of onion. Was it bad karma? Or did it all go down to teach me a lesson. I’d been living my life unconsciously and without heart – working dumb hours, drinking too much red wine, running from relationships – and this was “the universe’s way” of getting me to amend my erroneous ways (people who think “everything happens for a reason” generally bring “the universe” into things at some point).

But what if there is no reason – logical, medical or cosmically ordained? What if it just is what it is? Or, as the bumper stickers used to say, “shit happens”. It’d be sweet bloody relief, would it not?

TED.com posted this from Seth Godin, one of the most favouritist authentic people on the plant, IMO. It’s a really funny rundown of stuff that annoys him because it doesn’t work. Mostly it’s stuff that’s “broken” because someone hasn’t put care or effort into it.

They’re the upshot of flaccid engagement or when a whole organistion kind of says ‘oh, that’s not my job’. Why isn’t it? Why not just do it? Seriously, it’s more pain to let something go that needs to be done. It pains me, when I’m on a job, to contemplate NOT doing something that would take 5 seconds to fix. Where do you stop caring? Where’s the line?

Or do you just care as much as you can, where you can? And don’t create a line?

A glaring example for me right now of this kind of ludicrous oversight: airport security. How long ago was 9/11? How long have we had to take our shoes off at airports? And how long have we had to do this in the most chaotic way, with no chairs, no systems? I watch old people who struggle, ladies in heels juggling bagss…it’s ridiculous. Why hasn’t anyone – from all the airports around the world – fixed this? Devised a set-up that makes the experience smoother and happier?

So confounding. I’m always noticing stuff like this, that makes no sense. What confounds you?