If the week is dragging on for you, I’ve got a bit of good news. It’s Wednesday, and that means two things – firstly, it’s all downhill to Friday from here, and secondly, it’s time for Open Post! Come have a chat about whatever is on your mind and catch up on what’s been happening around Mamamia HQ…
Office life
According to the Chinese zodiac, it’s the Year of the Dragon. Well, I’ve renamed 2012 The Year of the Cupcake, because being at the office this week has been like being stuck at a sponge cake bake-off at the local country club. MM’s Managing Editor Lana brought in all the leftover treats from her son’s birthday – date slice, rocky road and a bright blue birthday cake (the cake was great, the colour not so much). And then Tuesday saw the arrival of some stunning Mamamia cupcakes which were devoured pretty quickly. Check out all the baked treats – and lots more! – in our gallery of what’s been happening around the office this week…

We're all still a little gaga over our Associate Editor Rebecca Sparrow's new baby boy Fin. And very jealous Mia got to fly down and meet him.
Social media site of the week
With all the social networking sites floating around – Facebook, Twitter, Linked in, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Google+, to name just a few – you might not remember MySpace. It faded way into the background when Facebook came along, with as many as 10 million users jumping ship from one site to the other within a single month. Well, MySpace is making a comeback. This from the SMH:
MySpace claims that it now has “an average of 40,000 new registrations daily” and says it has added more than a million new users since launching its new MySpace Music Player in December.
The site also touts its library of 42 million songs as the world’s largest collection of free music, signifying that services like Spotify — not Facebook or Google+ — may be its real competition.
“The numbers tell an amazing story of strong momentum and dramatic change for Myspace,” company CEO Tim Vanderhook said in a statement. “And the one million-plus new user accounts we’ve seen in the last 30 days validates our approach.”
Would you use MySpace as an alternative to the ever-changing, increasingly confusing Facebook? Or maybe you’re like me and suffering from complete social media overload, constantly trying to remember all your passwords for different things… thoughts?
Spunky Goanna Legs
What’s your pet name for your significant other? Babe? Sweetheart? Honey-munchkin-pants? The Telegraph has done a survey on the nicknames that lovers use, and you might be surprised at some of the things people are calling each other:
Spunky Goanna Legs, Anaconda Pants and the Minister of War and Finance, take a bow. You make up the honour guard of Australia’s unusual nicknames for lovers.
By contrast, those of you calling to “Babes” could find 20 per cent of any given crowd replying “Yes?” It’s Australia’s most common pet name for lovers.
More than 2500 people responded to our call to tell us their lover’s nickname. Women were slightly more likely than men to call their partner Babes, while men were much more likely to call their lover the 9th and 10th most popular responses – Chook and Pumpkin.
Others perhaps showed a strain in relations, Harvey Norman (No Interest for Years!) and Life At The Turn Of The Century among them.
I can’t even begin to imagine what the story would be behind “Spunky Goanna Legs”, although I’d probably appreciate that more than “Harvey Norman”… is your name for your partner in the list of most popular names (which also include bub, honey, bunny, pookie, princess) or is it more original? And if you don’t have a partner, what would you call your future significant other?
Wardrobe Week
As you might have read before on Mamamia, Wardrobe Week is part of our new approach to showcasing diversity in 2012. We often struggle to find appropriate images for our street-style galleries, which is why we want our readers to star in our posts so we can ALL start contributing to a more realistic portrayal of women in the media.
We want to feature anyone who’s happy to send us a few photos of what they’re wearing that week and tell us where it all came from.
We’re still looking for submissions, so here’s how it works. You submit a week’s worth of photos of yourself to wardrobeweek@mamamia.com.au and tell us what you’re wearing.
The key is to make sure the images are full-length and shot in the same place each day, preferably against a white wall. Well lit. 5-10 images are perfect (if, for example, you have two in one day) and make sure to include details of what you’re wearing in each shot.
If you’d like to see an example, we put together a gallery of some of the Mamamia staff and what they wear around the office – check it out:

Mamamia's Sales Manager, Vanessa, wearing Kookai jacket, Seduce top, Portmans skirt and shoes from South America.
So boring, it should be free
I spent $12 to go to a class at the gym on Monday, which didn’t fuss me too much until I started thinking about all the money I’ve spent at the gym over the years. An awful lot, I’d say. And in my opinion the gym is such a boring place that it should really be free – after all, I’m just going to attempt to get fit and be healthy – I’m not actually enjoying myself.
It got us back to thinking of what else is so boring that it should be free. What do you think – tampons? Socks? Getting a passport? Going to the dentist?
So that’s all from me – over to you. What’s been on your mind?







Comments
303 Comments so far
Let’s see right now I use Facebook, twitter and instagram. Occasionally I’ll use pinterest if I remember!
I call my husband baby and he calls me love or other way round (like hey love or hey baby).
OMM – a trip back home to Australia I really miss it.
Also why things are so difficult here (paying tax, paying bills dealing with phone companies etc!)
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Cinnamon, I swear you could just post for me sometimes! I would love to go back, I even dreamed about hugging my dog at home the other day!
Everything is so complicated here, isn’t it? I filled out a W4 form the other day for my teaching job, I can’t believe they work out which sector you pay taxes to based on your circumstances before you’ve even paid them! Our system is much simpler.
Oh, and don’t get me started on phone companies. Grrr…
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Haha Rach I had a feeling you might comment
yes this stuff is def much easier in person! I had 2 W4s for my separate jobs and had to wait ages to get one of them. And the fact that you have to lodge one for State and one for Federal is annoying. Anyway that’s done now! And yes phone companies…it’s all about your credit history here right! When we first moved we got a prepaid deal with AT&T since we had no credit and it was bloody expensive! A few months later we switched to Tmobile, coverage not as good but cheaper and now we are back on AT&T on a family plan but found out they charge for incoming calls and text! So we switched of our SMS!
Paying bills is a bitch too! Some companies don’t allow certain credit cards (we use Amex) and who the hell uses checks! We pay our rent with check here! I’ve never used a check in my life! We use credit card for everything so it sux when u go to pay a bill and they wanna charge you a massive fee just to be able to use your card! Ok rant over!
And yes I do miss home lots! Can’t wait to go back whenever that would be.
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Oops not in person, I meant back home lol you get me!
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Checks (cheques)!!! WTF is with that?? We’ve been internet banking EVERYTHING at home for about 15 years!
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Question – best pre-paid mobile phone provider over there?
Mr W and I are going to get pre-paid sim cards once we touch down in LA so that we can text each other and text his brother over there and use all our apps (this was my idea, I am iPhone dependent it’s like a limb to me!). His brother reckons a pre-paid A&TT is the best way to go, and load it with about $100 will be plenty?!
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Hey yep I’m the same with my iPhone! And yes AT&T is the best option since better coverage. If you just wanna use it for text then $100 should be fine.
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A friend couldn’t get her iphone to work in the US even though it was unlocked.
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Whippersnapper, beware of AT&T because if you have a smartphone, data will NOT work on a prepaid SIM. For $60/month, you can get unlimited data, calls and texts with T-mobile (if you have an iPhone, it runs on 2G, but at least it runs!). I have T-mobile, and coverage is fine (I am not near a big centre either), but the data is a big plus if you are travelling!
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Holy shit thank u!!! Data is really important to me, I want to be using Facebook and my email and stuff! Will definitely query the phone place when I pick up a sim!
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is using wifi for data an option like it is here? Starbucks, maccas, hotel, etc?
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get t-mobile- im here on for 6months and am paying $60 a month- unlimited data, texts, calls within the US, as well as unlimited calls to australian home phones! I investigated at &t and the plan wasn’t anywhere near as good! unlimited is really important in the US, because if you run out of call credit for instance, your phone can no longer receive calls- so irritating!
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The Year of the Cupcake . . . for some reason that I can’t quite put my finger on, I really like the sound of that
Yesterday was an interesting day. No one at work received flowers (mwahahahaha). I had dinner with the lovely Miss T. We played Bananagrams and it was HILARIOUS.
I received a text from Gamer Guy (which is the nickname I shall give him when I want to speak of him) asking me if I was ok, and if I had a good day. Brought a smile to my dial
I guess he wanted to play games, but I was indulging in shenanigans without him!
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I used to experience that satisfied glow of ‘schaudenfreud’ when no one at work got flowers on Valentine’s Day. So I hear you sister!
Those smug princesses gloating over their Interflora funeral-esque wardrobe size bouquets would make me choke on my Nescafe.
(And yes, I was jealous)
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Bananagrams? Please explain?
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It’s kind of like scrabble… but not… and we wrote rude words.
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Yeah we did!
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Also known as ‘speed scrabble’ – there is no board.
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My friends and I play Banangrams and Rummikub. We alternate which game each time we catch up. It’s always lots of fun. Love a board game (except Monotony, oops, sorry, Monopoly)
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Haha Monotony! So true. Where do you find out how to play Bananagrams and Rummikub? Google?
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What’s on my mind?
Dreaming of New York (happens from time to time, I have never been)…
Questioning whether it’s too hot to go for a walk later….
Looking forward to music festivals coming up…
How I should do my budget but how freeing it feels when it’s not set up… Until the big bills come in (!)…
How I desire food so much of late…
How my valentine’s day was so so… but I did get to see The Vow with some girlfriends and really liked it and want to know the real story its based on!
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When you get around to going to New York, the dreams will only get worse. I was intensely sad for a month after I left!
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I am so glad boxes of chocolates don’t arrive at my office. I would be in BIG trouble. Zero willpower…..
Love the Miss Piggy on Rick’s desk- looks like you all had a fun, productive week!
http://www.champagneandchevron.blogspot.com
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She is my spirit animal
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You’ll have to let us in on a secret…how do you all stay so slim with such amazing food in the office all the time????
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I don’t…
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Ah, nicknames. Not lover-related but we call my sister Miss Health and Safety because she panics over absolutely everything. Within one minute of missing her call, she’ll have created the most bizarre scenario of what’s happened to you. Yesterday’s went something like, ‘Thank God you’re alright. I thought you’d been kidnapped by those people from Taken and sent to Russia where those men in furry hats sell your spleen to gypsies.’
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Hahaha that’s hilarious! We call my friend the Fun Police for the same reason, and when she’s being particularly stressy we make police siren noises. Childish, yes, but funny!
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Laugh! I thought Pinterest was something you used on ezhema!
Cry! My wonderful mum passed away last week. Telling my little man about her death was a tough gig
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So sorry to hear about your mum xxxx
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Thanks Lana xx
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Oh LJ, I’m so sorry for your loss. Big fat Evil Cupcake hugs being sent over the interwebs . . .
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So sorry to hear about your wonderful mum, LJ. Lots of love xxx
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Thanks everyone……much appreciated xx
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So sorry about your mum LJ. Sending best wishes.
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Oh LJ, I am so sorry! If you need to talk to someone, you can always talk to me!
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Om nom cupcakes!
My brother calls me Snotface (from Drop Dead Fred) and has for years. I love it. It gets some weird looks when we’re in the shop and he bellows ‘snotfaaaaaaaaaace!’ from off in the distance but I wouldn’t have it any other way
Partner calls me darling’ and I call him baby – nice and easy.
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Oh Drop Dead Fred! I forgot that movie even existed. Need to find a copy – and make some mud pies.
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Dog poo on the carpet! Dog poo on the carpet!
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Hahaha! ‘oh! Cobwebs’
Teehee. What a classic.
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I adore that movie … must find time to watch it again
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Now I feel like a cupcake.
I love that there is a random Miss Piggy doll on Rick’s desk.
On my mind – Is 26 old? I feel like I’ve kind of wasted my life up until now just floating along and now it’s too late to change or start over again. I feel like at 26 I should have my shit together and have traveled, have a clear life direction etc. I feel sad about all those years I have wasted since high school just sort of cruising along not doing anything special like I thought I would…
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I’m the same age and have those same thoughts. Although I am trying to look at it a different way because sometimes it just gets me down. I studied, am working FT, but do I really want to be where I am? I try to remember that its never to old though to start again…….I often wonder to myself where this need to know what I am doing with my life came from? I think it’s great to try new things, so why not apply that to life? It’s ok not to have travelled and not know exactly what you want to do, those opportunities aren’t locked away from you forever, and especially not when we are only 26 (so I tell myself!)
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I guess I always thought my life would be a huge fabulous adventure every single day, and I did the same uni to full time work thing, and now I’m just like… what now..
But you’re right, there is no reason things can’t change now!
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No MJ, 26 is not old
I felt the same at 25 and I’m about to turn 37. Trust me, you will do so, so much over the next few years.
And at least you’re aware of it! I have a friend who is having the same revelation now. He’s about to turn 40.
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It’s not old at all! What do you wish you had done that you can’t do at 26?
Good Luck
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Holy crap that is an awesome way of looking at it! There is nothing I wish I could have done that i can’t do now!
Yessss that is genius
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Stoked I could help MJ- Keep us posted! xx
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26 isn’t old!
I don’t think anyone ever has their “shit together”, no matter how old they are.
As long as you’re happy with when you’ve done so far in your life, that’s all that matters. If you’re NOT happy with what you’ve done- it’s never too late to do something different, make a big decision and change your life.
There’s no such thing as wasted years, trust me.
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I turn 26 in 5 weeks, and after completing a degree and schleping it in the workplace for 3 years, I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be ‘when I grow up’. If 26 is old, then I’ve got some worrying to do
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Are you a Pisces cusp Aries too KJ? I feel as though I’m sometimes this terrible combination of the two signs, being born on the 20th!
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I’ve always considered myself an Aries as I’m born on the 1st of April, but perhaps I need to look closer at the characteristics of a Pisces! Might go a bit further to explaining why I’m me
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I’m 26 in, gulp, just under 5 weeks and I am holding on to 25 with my nails digging in and clinging for dear life! I feel like I haven’t achieved much and I drifted through my early 20s at uni, having a good time and since I started working full time, I have felt more “lost” than I did as a uni student!
I have two university degrees, work in a “pretigious profession”, a wonderful boyfriend of nearly 4 years (though we have had some serious downs lately and I still wonder whether I’m his “one before the one”) and am about to embark on a big trip to America and I STILL have no idea what I’m going to do when I grow up!
I’m crippled by these thoughts that I’m never going to work out what I’m going to do with my life and when I think of something, like, what if I wrote a book or something, my negative side says “oh yeah right, you’re not creative, don’t bother you wouldn’t get a book deal”.
I think it’s called a quarter life crisis and I’ve been going through it for awhile too!
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We all go thru this in our 20′s, 30 and 40′s!! One thing that really helps me is a book by Jack Canfield “how to get from where you are to where you want to be”. it is so fantastic and whilst he’s American it’s not one of those cliche self improvement types.
That and the Goals book by Brian Tracey has made huge difference to me.
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I’m 37 and a half. At 26 I had just started a new career that I’ve now been in for 12 years. I had just met my husband who I have now been married to for almost 11 years. In the last 11 years I’ve had 3 kids, 4 miscarriages, travelled, moved houses and countries, made a home, made new friends, found old ones, loved people, lost people, gained weight, lost weight, had long and short hair, started singing in a band, learned the ukulele, started singing in another band, given up smoking, taken up running, given up sugar, taken up sugar again, given it up again, watched my parents retire then come out of retirement, been to probably 20 weddings and four funerals, watched my sister get married, rejoiced in babies coming, mourned babies lost, stopped work, started work, stopped again, started again, travelled a bit more, argued with my husband, made up, watched a hell of a lot of tv, joined facebook.
Don’t think there is a way you should be. Life never stops changing, and you will never stop changing either.
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26 is young, young, young! Though I would say 50 is young too
I’m 27, married, first bub on the way, have a degree, work in a good company with decent pay, went o/s for the first time for our honeymoon and then again for a month in europe just last year. The reason I’m telling you this is because before each event I felt like I hadn’t “got it together”, that I didn’t know what direction I was heading or what my focus should be. These things always change, sometimes in a matter of moments, sometimes months.
The funny thing is when I was “in it” so to speak I wasn’t thinking yes great this is what my goal is or what direction I want to head it, I was and am just enjoying it. Whatever the latest “it” is.
My mum went overseas for the first time at the age of 62 and my great uncle changed careers whenever he felt like it. Determination was his key to these changes being successful ones.
A friend of mine who passed in december was a lady of 50 who was loved by everyone in the yoga class I met her in. She seemed to radiant happiness and calmness and on paper certainly didn’t have her shit together but people would go to her for advice, comfort, someone just to chat with. I think your attitude to life is far more important than your age or what you’ve achieved.
Enjoy 26! And, 27, 28, 29……
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Nawww well shucks guys! Thank you! I feel so much better now
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MJ!!!! 26 is tiny baby young. When I was a little bit older than your age I split up from my significant boyfriend who I had thought I would marry, moved to London and started over. I went from working in one career to another and had years of success. I met my now husband in London. That was when I was just about to turn 30. We have been together for 18 years – 15 years married – and have two gorgeous children. So believe me when I say – 26 is very young! Enjoy! Prosper and enjoy!
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MM, I don’t know why, but I can’t scroll through the picture gallery on internet explorer 8 – if I click on a picture, it just opens up the one picture and doesn’t flick through!
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ditto
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Same for me and I’m on a mac using Firefox 10. It’s been like this for ages
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The galleries never work for me on internet explorer either. I use Google Chrome if I want to look at them. That works for me.
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OMM: My son went on camp this morning and I forgot to pack a hat. I hope it rains everyday while he is there.
He was so happy to go – so excited to be with his friends and on a bus. With a TV. But I miss him already
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Lana, don’t worry. Am sure your son’s school will have spare hats. The Year 7 kids at the school where I teach have just gone on camp today and we packed spares of EVERYTHING for the kids. Including hats. So am sure your school will do this as well. A teacher will notice he has not hat and help him out.
He will have a wonderful time – kids love camp and talk about it for years
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ZOMG cupcakes!!!!
Re: nicknames. P-Daddy calls me Monkey Face. I call him FatHead. We do love each other, really….
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HA! Monkey Face and Fat Head, sitting in a tree…
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Using those nicknames has become so second-nature that we don’t realise we’re doing it. One day, LittleDude couldn’t get my attention: “Mama mama mama come on, Monkey Face!”
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All those readers over the years for uni come to mind…Loving those pink shoes Mia and the cupcakes yum!
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