Sarah Wilson

my hunt for hot-but-sensible shoes…(check out these hot styles)

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I have really, really, really bad feet. No, no, no. Don’t try to compete with me on this. They are dead odd. The worst many podiatrists have ever seen. I have high insteps, high arches, bent toes and when I walk it’s a constant challenge to stay upright. My feet touch the ground at two small points – one  on my heel, another on the ball. My footprint on a beach is seriously weird if you were to walk behind me one day.

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I’ve written about my love of fit shoes before. My love stems from the fact they keep me upright. Mostly.

So, intriguingly, my life is split between wearing fit shoes/sneakers/no shoes. And wearing ridiculous heels for work, which make my feet swell and are slowly dislocating the joints in my toes. Totally serious medical diagnosis. (BTW, I was spotted in Syd Confidential’s “ispy” section wearing this outfit, striding through the city…but in sneakers…while carrying my heels).FXTL_15_REDCARPET_SarahWilson_BenSymons2010_48

But surely there’s a middle ground?!? A heel that heals?

Well. A few weeks back Sally from Children of the Revolution contacted me to chat feet. I wound up meeting her at her Rozelle store in Sydney, which stocks a hand-picked selection of the world’s best hot-but-sensible shoes that are also ethically sound (there’s also a Brisbane store). Here are some feet factoids we shared, before choosing some hot-but-sensibles:

* most people don’t need orthodics and inserts. (But if you do have to wear them…she has tips.)

* it’s important to have a “first thing in the morning shoe”... a comfy little number for schlepping around the kitchen in making porridge… so that you don’t have to go from a warm bed to a cold tile floor. The reason for that is that in Eastern philosophy, you never do anything in extremes. Which is a big deal for people who suffer from Plantar Fasciitis for whom getting out of bed can be very painful.

* it’s good to buy shoes that haven’t been chemically treated because said chemicals leach straight into the skin. Many of the styles at Children of the Revolution are clean and ethically sound. Dansko and el naturalista and Groundhogs are shoes that care and sustain and give back to the community.

* if you wear heels, go for strappy numbers. More straps, more stability, less toe clenching. Straps can look bad (create kankles where you had none). So my tip: get straps that incorporate a T-bar (a line that goes up the middle of the foot…this will elongate and counteract the kankleness).

Which is why I walked out of the shop with a pair of these by Miss Mooz:

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They feature extra support/room in the ball of the foot, which, if you’ve got a wide foot like I do, is just plain heaven. Strapped in, but not scrunched.

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study integrative nutrition for free! a special offer

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A while back I posted about the integrative nutrition course I’ve been studying via correspondence in New York. A number of you’ve signed up and the referral cash I got went to several charities. Thank you! Well, now they’ve offered me the opportunity to give one person free tuition. See the post I wrote on … Read more

an astral kick up the arse…then shift!

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My internet is down. Regular readers of this blog would know this happens a lot with me. Not in isolation. Always along with some other outage. This time my Foxtel is down, too. And my stereo is being fixed, so no radio. Also, my phone wouldn’t text or call last night in my flat. So I’m outta contact. In the past this has freaked me out.

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Now I laugh. One way or another it always happens when I’m in a space where I need to stop. Recalibrate. Listen. How friggen helpful! At least it is when I see it as such, and don’t freak.

I’m now at a cafe in Bondi working. A friend from yoga just dropped in. She’s not working right now because she’s been made redundant. Which was a good thing, she says. She hated the job, but couldn’t budge. So, the redundancy, as she puts it:

was all a fantastic astral kick up the arse.

When we get an AKUTA we freak because it hurts and we don’t know where it came from. But if we allow it to stop us, and we then take a look around, we can see it’s in keeping with where we’re at and is a bit of a punctuation mark on a downward spiral, or a messy, bored, unmotivated stage in life where we’re not making good, proactive decisions. A punctuation mark stops things. Get’s us to notice. And switch directions.

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the importance of being smart, single…and vulnerable

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Over the past week debate has been raging about a few studies and op-eds that – sigh – tell us that women who are smart and successful don’t score blokes. What do we all think of this?

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This Psychology Today report says people who’ve always wanted to be successful (since they were kids) grow up to be single.

“Those who were married valued meaningful work less than single men and women did…Those who valued meaningful work when they were in high school were more likely to be single 9 years later.”

Then the New York Times waded in with a story about female empowerment killing romance.

Now, as more women match or overtake men in education and the labor market, they are also turning traditional gender roles on their head, with some profound consequences for relationship dynamics.

It identifies three types of scenarios that play out for ambitious chicks

1. successful women in their 30s who have trouble finding a mate.

2. the alpha-women who end up with alpha-men but then decide to put career second when the babies come.

3. there is also a third group: a small but growing number of women who out-earn their partners, giving rise to an assortment of behavioral contortions aimed at keeping the appearance of traditional gender roles intact.

As much as I can’t stand these types of generalising stories that express a bafflement that things change when, um, we change things, it’s certainly been my experience. (Oh, and I HATE how this gender disconnect is blamed on female empowerment…!!! Isn’t it just because the world is shifting that romance has changed?).

I agree that while women now fight in wars and sit on boards, when it comes to relationships we revert to old-school roles. Women are still attracted to men who look/act like providers  – so they go after men with money. Men still like women who can be good child bearers – so they like chicks with boobs and happy to stay at home (read: not so big career plans).

And men do tend to find fierce ambition in a woman unattractive. There I said it. It’s true. If it’s straight ambition, without any room for vulnerability… room for them…they run. And I say this as someone who pushes 99% of men away inadvertently. Over time I’ve worked out that men balk from smart chicks in part cos it all seems too hard. Being with a smart woman demands a man rise to the occasion.

But it’s also because it leaves little room for the man to be masculine. To be in his masculine role and feel himself.

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sunday life: does a power balance bracelet make you stronger, better?

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This week I test a Power Balance bracelet.

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So. I’ve been wearing one of those little silicone wristlets imbedded with two small holograms for a fortnight now. I felt compelled to test one. Power Balance bracelets are like Zumba – a phenomenon that crept up without my noticing. One day I woke up and everyone was wearing one. Or dissing them. Do they work? Do they make life better? I suppose I had to find out.

It’s been an interesting sociological experience. There are a lot of people out there who love to hate an energy adornment and tell you all about it. Day one, I was tyre-kicking at an open for inspection down the road and the real estate agent scoffed at me: “The only good thing about those bracelets? They help you spot a wanker”.

Oh, like Bluetooth earpieces, I almost said. But didn’t.

On the flipside, wearing a Power Balance bracelet is a bit like owning a vintage Peugeot. You attract other owners (who wave at you when they pass).  So it was that I kept meeting strangers sporting a PB who wanted to welcome me into their little club. They emerged at the gym, from behind the lat-pull machine, nodded at me, and asked, “How you finding it, eh? Performing better?”.

There are several of these energy bracelets on the market, but the Power Balance is the original and has attracted the most parochial following – Shaquille O’Neil and David Beckham wear one, so does, seemingly, every second AFL player. They’ve also attracted the most impassioned disdain. The Australian Skeptics seem hell-bent on exposing them as a scam, demanding scientific proof that they work, and Today Tonight has waded in.

The PB claim is that the holograms are ”embedded with frequencies that react positively with your body’s natural energy field” to improve flexibility, balance and strength. The company doesn’t reveal exactly how this occurs. But, as I write this column this morning (literally!), I received a press release announcing such claims contravene the Therapeutic Goods Act and the company have been forced to pull their advertising.

So. This aside, do I think they work?

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a guide to hot bike helmets (you asked for it!)

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OK, I’m back on the Campaign to Ride a Bike, a loose gee-up I’m waging on my blog – and beyond – to get more people riding. You can catch up on some of my rants here and also here.

But a big barrier for a lot of people is the goddamn helmet. How to preserve one’s vanity and the planet?

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(PS. The cat in a melon hat was sourced by my new (!) assistant Jo Foster who has an incredible knack for finding obscure factoids, cricket trivia and pictures for this blog. She also likes threatening me with Dance-off Tuesdays and Sing-a-long Wednesdays in my office. Performance terrifies me. Jo finds this funny…ANYWAY…)

I personally struggle. I promote riding unencumbered by style restraints. But helmets just ruin the whole flow, especially for a chick. Plus. Um. Confession: I don’t always wear a helmet.  Like when I scoot down the road for dinner, or to the beach in the morning. Illegal I know. And irresponsible. But I must come clean. I sometimes debate the protective worth of them (the Sydney Morning Herald ran a story recently on whether bike helmets do any good if you’re interested). And I rationalise things in my own head thus: I’ve been riding for 32 years (and have never pranged); if I have an accident, I want my brain to go along with my body; and riding sans headwear makes for some very defensive riding.

That said, if I’m going far, or cross-country, or racing, I wear one.

And I’ve recently found some styles that are getting me a little more excited about wearing them more regularly. I’ll share a few:

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a few generous things to do cos it’s Christmas!

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Christmas time, right. Time to care, really. In my family, we don’t do presents…which leaves a gaping hole for giving in other ways. Below are a few ideas, based mostly on some projects I’m working on… 1. give $2 to the homeless in your ‘hood. I’m an ambassador for StreetSmart. So, is Stephen Fry! In … Read more

Sunday Life: try this “push back” holiday out-of-office reply!

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This week I push back

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I know about a dozen people who simply don’t reply to email. I used to wonder how they got anything done, or sustained a social life. But they’re always at parties and are some of the most successful, adroit people I know.

OK, surely, then they’re in a permanent state of guilt-squirm. I mean, imagine walking around with that many unreplied emails hanging over your head! That’s a heavy karmic cloud, right there! But, nope. They’re unperturbed.

My friend James, one of the dirty dozen, says he feels justified in being so electronically AWOL “People think that because they’ve spent five seconds firing off an email asking something of me, they deserve a response that will take me 25 minutes to research and compose,” he says. “It doesn’t weigh up.”

In the past, he says, you’d have to compose a letter or pick up the phone, which required more considered application and was deserving of considered help. Which is actually a terrific point.

But isn’t he afraid important stuff won’t get done? No, he says. If it’s important to him, he does in fact reply (clearly mine rarely make the cut). If it’s more important to the other party, he says, they’ll find another way to a) get their answer or b) make it easier for him to give them their answer (eg: “Dear James, could you please advise which of these three carefully thought-out options works best?”).

Which sounds horribly selfish. But on consideration, it’s supply/demand theory applied to the time-poor economy. You want it more, you do the work.

Catching up with the Jameses of the world is bloody infuriating. But I wonder if they’re not the survivors… the post-nuclear fall-out cockroaches of this frenetic information age.

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