A Spring Clean ....

Another post from the lovely Rebecca Harford of who runs the Love my Body Programme.

The weather is getting better and the days are getting longer, now is often when we give our house and gardens a bit of a clean out - well we should also do the same with our body.

1) Clean out your wardrobe: Try on your clothes- are they too big? put in a recycling pile to either be dropped off in the closest clothing bin ASAP or have a 2nd hand clothes swap party with friends. Have you not worn that item last summer- put it in the recycling pile. If there is clothes that you haven't worn this winter- put them in your pile too!! no point in saving them for another year and taking up space!! Check your clothes over- are they a little too loved or need mending (and be honest with yourself if you don't fix it tonight then put it straight in the bin!!)?? Make sure to check your undies and socks too- have a good clean out and then treat yourself to some gorgeous new frills- its amazing how great it makes you feel!!

Here's some good advice on when to bin your bra!!

1. Has the lace on your bra begun to pill, stretch or tear?
2. Do the straps on your bra hold their length without stretching?
3. Is the band that fits around your rib cage stretched? Does it still hold tight to your body?
4. Have you gained or lost weight recently, resulting in a change in your rib cage and breast size?
5. Do you notice any fraying fabric anywhere on your bra?
6. Are the moulded cups of your bra beginning to show signs of wrinkling or dimpling?
7. Is the fabric of your bra looking dingy, gray or stained from perspiration or everyday wear and washing?
8. When you wear a tight-fitting top over your bra, do you notice any bra bulge anywhere along your breast line and back?
9. Are you feeling any discomfort or pain between your shoulder blades or back?
10. Are you having to tighten the straps of your bra more often to give your breasts proper lift and support?

If you answer yes to one of these questions then you need to ditch that bra!!

2) Give your skin a refresh!!- Not the skin on your face!! now is the time our pearly whites are starting to come out and I'm not talking teeth!! SO its time to give everything a spruce up.

                 - Dehair- do whatever it takes and get rid of ALL of that unwanted hair no excuses!!

                 - Exfoliate- give EVERYWHERE a good scrub with a lovely exfoliant

                 -Moisterise, moisterise, moisterise- get a gradual fake tanner (like Dove summer glow its great!!)- having a bit of colour on your skin will make you feel more confident :)

Now you need to be doing this at least 2x a week- believe me you will thank me for the extra 15 mins a week you spend on this when you need to slip quickly into a skirt, shorts or singlet and your legs and arms look great!!

3) Clean out your makeup, skincare products etc etc- Have you been holding onto some nice smellies for another day??- well start treating yourself and use them!! IF you haven't used something for 6 months either pass it on to someone who will, use it yourself or bin it!!

Here are some tips for when to bin your make up and skincare products:

• Most powders, concealers and lip balms are anhydrous (they don't contain water), so they can last for a couple of years.
• Cleansers and moisturizers often contain fatty acids, which can turn rancid quickly. Toss after six months.
• Multiuse products such as 3-in-1 sticks and creams can spread germs from lips to eyes and cheeks. Wipe the surface before switching areas, and discard or replace after six months.
• Pencils can last several years unless you wet the tip with saliva or water. To be safe, sharpen before each use.
• Mascara should be tossed after three months without fail. The tube is a breeding ground for bacteria.
• Foundations can last up to a year if you keep your fingers away from the bottle. Instead, use a sponge to apply..
• Store cosmetics in a cool, dry place outside the bathroom to extend their shelf life.

Good luck and enjoy the results from your big spring clean :)

Post from Shirish Paranjape (standing for community board in Riccarton/Wigram)

The joys of democracy

Some weeks back, I decided to contest for the position of a community board member for Riccarton-Wigram ward.

During these past weeks of campaign and community interaction, I have experienced many aspects of our community, our city.

1.  Our local government structure of mayor, councilors, community boards: Many people, particularly those born overseas asked me to explain what a community board is, what it does etc. After listening to me, their unanimous comment was that this structure is such a nice one to have. Let us make this structure work for our communities!

2.   I found that most people were genuinely interested in discussions leading to positive outcomes for the city. The awareness level of local issues is very high, and people liked to discuss issues which affected them and others.

3.   Community support for the process of elections, including candidates’ campaign is very high and positive. House-owners and businesses not only gave permissions for signage, many actually made adjustments to accommodate the same. Businesses engaged in printing brochures, signs etc. supported with quick turn-around times. Media and community groups engaged actively and promoted good discussions.

Personally, I learnt a lot just through this process of campaigning, communicating, meeting people and visiting different parts of our city.

But I also learnt that the voter turnout at local elections is less than ideal, around the 50% mark!

When I first heard this, this was indeed a surprise, as this did not match the active community involvement I had experienced otherwise.

I wondered about the reasons, which perhaps include.

1.    Lack of voter awareness about candidates

2.    Some candidates not forthcoming about providing detailed information about themselves.

3.    The website www.vote.co.nz run by Local Government New Zealand is an excellent resource but very few voters know about it. Perhaps the publicity is not adequate.

I feel that to improve democratic processes, indeed the effectiveness of democracy itself – widespread community participation is vital.

Let us look at countries such as Egypt. Hundred have laid down their lives in an effort to get democracy.

We in New Zealand are much luckier. We do not have to go to such extremes. All we need to do is to participate in the elections in big numbers.

We do not even have to leave the comforts of our homes.

Let us make Christchurch as the city with (near) 100% voter turnout.

Let us do it together. Let us make it 100%.

Shirish

Halswell Market - What's happening?

The Halswell Community Project are going to try to put on three market days over the coming summer (Sunday 13th October, Sunday 24th November and Sunday 16th February) on a a small site (St Lukes Church) to test the feasibility of setting up a market in Halswell.  These days will help us find out what people want from a market here and also whether the community are interested in the market idea. 

We set up the Halswell Community Project in February this year, and amongst other things we have been finding out more about what we need to do to set up a market.  In that process we also learned about markets that have failed around Christchurch and the reasons why they failed. 

Lyttelton Market 2013

To run a weekly market, you need:

• A good venue, 
• A consent to trade,  
• Reliable vendors who are selling things that people want to buy, and 
• Many customers who come regularly and buy from the vendors. 

Venue
We are working on the venue and have had talks with a few people around the place.  We have been told by the Council that doing it on Council land is difficult and something to be avoided, and we have talked with the supermarket manager and he is not keen to have a market in his carpark because it will create congestion issues.  Schools are a good place to run a market and we are working on that but this will take us some time to sort out.

Consent
To run a regular market, the Council requires us to have a consent, in which they assess things like noise levels, parking, effects on the neighbours, effects on traffic and a number of other things.

A consent costs several thousand dollars which includes Council costs and the cost of paying a planner to work with us to put the application together.  We expect that it will also be a major investment in our own time - both in finding funding and in doing what is needed to put in an application.

The rub is that a couple of new markets in Christchurch have failed, so funders are going to want to know that we are sure that we can get a market up and running if they are going to give us that amount of funding.

Vendors and buyers - how markets fail
To run a successful market you need a good number of reliable vendors and a good number of reliable buyers and the vendors need to sell what the buyers want.  Without ALL of this nobody comes!

 Having a good number of buyers
Last year we ran a survey to find out how interested people are in the idea of a market. Perhaps the most important aspect of that was how many people chose to go and fill in the survey.  We put 4000 fliers into letterboxes around Halswell and about 390 people filled in the survey.  We know that some people do not have access to computers, but the question is if only 390 people were prepared to fill in our survey how many would actually come to a market (something that arguably takes more effort).  At this stage, we are unsure exactly how interested Halswell people really are in a market and what this might translate into when we actually run a market.

Without a good number of buyers, vendors don't want to come back

Vendors. 
To get a good number of buyers, you have to sell what people want to buy!
People are most likely to want to buy food on a regular basis. If you think about it, many of us do buy food each week but we don't spend nearly so frequently on other goods and services.  So a good market needs things like eggs, bread, good fruit and veges, and food that people can eat on the spot with a coffee.
There are a relatively small number of vendors around Christchurch.  Vendors selling things like bread, cheese, pastries, pies or preserves (for example) need to be licensed.  Vendors that sell veges either need to be reasonable sized growers of a variety of veges,  or commercial operators who buy from the grower, so they have enough to sell at a regular market.  Many vendors attend more than one market and while some might be keen on a new option (if it doesn't clash with a market they already attend) some may not want to come to another market.
We'd love to get new, local vendors but new vendors may need time to learn what it takes to run a good stall and whether they really want to do it. As such there is a little more risk in getting new vendors to a new market, so we need a way to manage that.

Why market days?
We've decided to run three community market days this summer to see if we can find vendors, to give vendors a chance to test the water here,  and to see who comes along.

We hope to find out:

• Whether we can develop a good set of vendors,  
• How to locate and work with vendors and 
• Whether people in Halswell are likely to support a market - by coming along to it.    

Doing this is also a way of proving to potential funders that we are worth supporting if, and when, we decide that we can go ahead with developing a weekly market.

So you can help by coming along, making suggestions to people who might make good vendors.  If you have some ideas about the latter, then contact Phil at communitymarket.halswell@gmail.com