Eggscellent Easter - Why Easter is better than Christmas!

I love Easter. I love it more than Christmas. Shock! Gasp! Apologies to all the Christmas lovers out there.

For me, Easter is such a fun time. Don’t get me wrong, Christmas is still fun but on a different level. Easter is Christmas without the steroids, not to mention without all the painful relatives and stressful present shopping. Oh, and one more very important thing, without the cost. Calm down Christmas lovers, Christmas is wonderful, it’s just I like Easter better.

So I thought I would put together my top 10 reasons why Easter is better than Christmas.

10.        You get to eat chocolate.

Look, there is still chocolate at Christmas but there’s also so many other traditional foods which we indulge in. At Easter, you actually have a license to eat chocolate. All forms, all shapes and all sizes. Amen!
 

9.          The Sydney Royal Easter Show comes into town.

Okay, so this one is specific to the Sydneysiders but for those of you who aren’t a Sydneysider, it’s worth visiting Sydney to experience the Show.  This annual show is a smorgasbord of rides, food, show bags, animals, fashion, gizmos and gadgets. For many, a visit to the show is an annual ritual stemming from their childhood days. My favourite part of the show is the wood chopping. Oh and ladies, the wood chopping will be displaying some mighty fine eye candy this year.

8.          You get four days off work.

Whoohoo!!! Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. See with Christmas, it’s a bit hit and miss with the public holidays. Some years you get four days, some years only three and shock, horror, some years only two! Whereas with Easter, it’s a guaranteed four days every year. Some years, there’s even a bonus day if Easter falls late and around Anzac Day. All this without having to dip into your Annual leave. Really couldn’t be better.

7.          Hot Cross Buns (HCB's)

There’s nothing better than this seasonal tasty treat toasted with butter and jam. I know the fitness freaks and nutrition nuts are cringing right now. They’re yelling out how many calories are in a HCB and how many minutes of exercise it takes to burn off before this doughy delight dimples my thighs. So to them I say, “Dimples come forth, I’ve got 11 months to get rid of you!”. With HCB’s in so many varieties, it’s a guilty pleasure I’m proud to announce I indulge in. Before I move on to the next point, let me be clear, there are no HCB’s at Christmas.

6.          The Easter Bunny

This is the wonderful white fluffy bunny which comes to your house bearing lots of chocolate. Unlike Santa Claus this one doesn’t need any food left out. This is a great thing if you are parents. The Easter Bunny doesn’t find out if you’re naughty or nice. It doesn’t matter what you have been like, you still get chocolate anyway! Okay, the Easter Bunny doesn’t leave you as many presents as Santa Claus. But let me re-emphasise something, the bunny leaves you chocolate. What more do you need? Plus, mothers and children take note, there are no photos required on anyone’s knees. No child tantrums or mothers nagging as they insist on capturing that precious moment with Santa Claus. We all know those moments end in tears for everyone concerned.

 

5.          No cards need to be sent

How good is this! There’s no need to send any cards at Easter wishing friends and family, Happy Easter. Unlike at Christmas, where this process can be somewhat excruciating. Generally the annual Christmas Card writing process requires several alcoholic beverages and you painstakingly write cards to friends and family, wishing them ‘Happy Christmas’ and ‘All the best for the festive season’ and apologising for the fact it is now the end of year and you simply don’t know where the time has gone. Easter saves you from this laborious task and gives you back these precious moments of time to spend in much more interesting ways.

4.          Easter is cheaper

Unless you are a family which gives presents at Easter, generally the cost of chocolate in comparison to the cost of the average present at Christmas, is significantly cheaper. When you think of all the presents you buy at Christmas, it adds up and makes a pretty big dent in the credit card. Chocolate, by comparison is much cheaper and makes people feel much better.

3.          Chocolate takes up less space than Christmas presents

You know what it’s like. You have received some wonderful (or not so wonderful) presents and then you need to find room to put them all. Quite often, Christmas presents are just shoved in any old cupboard and only dealt with when you have a space crisis. Of course, a space crisis will occur the next Christmas when you face the same problem. The only room chocolate takes up is in your fridge and once you have eaten it, you get the space back. It’s a win, win situation really.  

2.          You don’t have to fake present happiness at Easter

We have all been there. Some relative (or friend) gives you a Christmas gift and it’s horrible. It’s so awful you don’t even think it will make the back of the cupboard. I mean, have you ever been unhappy receiving chocolate? No, not really. Plus, if you have received too much chocolate you simply take it in to work and let your colleagues feast on this delicious goodness. They will love you for it. A little hard to do with a crappy Christmas present.

1.         Easter Egg Hunts

Waking up on Easter morning and finding the Easter bunny has left trail of Easter Eggs which sends you all over the house and backyard. I love it! You are never too old for an Easter Egg hunt. Although things can turn messy if one child finds more eggs than the other child. Enter parents who have to step in and gently assist one child to find those tricky few eggs and hold back the other. With adults, it can turn downright ugly with competitive spirits in full action. It’s better than fighting over the last bit of pork crackling and much more interesting. Santa Claus doesn’t send you on a present hunt. No, this old guy just sticks all the presents’ in one spot. Now that’s not much fun is it?

Happy Easter everyone.

A Tweetastic Impression of 140 Seconds!

Let’s face it, first impressions count. It doesn’t matter what the occasion, the all important first impression is really critical. Whether you are meeting someone for the first time, presenting to a new client or in a job interview, these situations whilst send some of us into a nervous blubbering mess, are where we really need to impress. Sweaty palms aside, what you say, how you look and whether you turned up on time are a few of things which can leave a lasting impression.

As someone who works in HR and interviews for a living, I can tell you first impressions in a job interview are important to the product you are selling, yourself. So if you think it’s appropriate to chew gum, answer your phone or worse still, talk on your phone while the interview is in progress, it’s safe to say you will leave an impression, however it may not be the one you were hoping for.

Nowadays, impressions aren’t only face to face. Enter the era of social media. Through the realms of social space, first impressions are through words or pictures broadcast to our fellow facebook friends and twitter followers. On Facebook we find friends, like friends, like pages, and post on walls. On Twitter, we tweet away, retweet and hashtag trends all in 140 characters. It’s very simply, the world we live in. So when Pizza Hut combined a job interview with Twitter, I for one, thought it was genius!

So what is this genius? It’s a job interview where the candidates only have 140 seconds to sell themelves. It’s Tweetastic!  That’s right, Pizza Hut are after a Manager of Digital Media based out of Plano, Texas, and what better than to bring together the way we communicate on twitter today with a 140 second job interview. Since the job is all about social space, it’s quite a fitting approach for candidates to show their skills in a fun, concise way. This is all about first impressions, because 140 seconds is all you will have to make yours!

Oh....and what hashtag are Pizza Hut trending with this campaign #becauseimgreat   

So social media maestros, what would your 140 second spiel be to impress?  

 

 

Freaky Fashion Falls: These cringe-worthy moments don’t define you, how you recover does!

Women and girls of all ages love fashion. Our commitment and dedication to fashion plus our desire to snare a bargain drives us to become scary creatures that even we don’t recognise. What’s more, our love of fashion and of snaring a bargain means we sometimes end up with purchases that sit at the back of the wardrobe for ‘maybe I’ll wear it one day’ or ‘I’ll fit into it when I lose some weight’. Quite possibly, we didn’t even need what we purchased however the bargain was simply too amazing for us to do anything other than buy it. But more often than not, we will wear the item even if it’s just once. Purchased justified and we look good.

Ah, that’s right, looking good. Well, it’s fair to say we don’t want to just ‘look good’, we want to look amazing and to look amazing, we need shoes. Possibly the terms shoes isn’t acceptable. We need the most stunning, fabulous and highest pair of stilettos, pumps, peeptoes or anything else that takes our fancy and completes our outfit. Now, I’m going to say it to all the women out there, some of us (me particularly) completely missed the high heel gene. Yep, it passed right over to the next girl and left me wondering whether I would ever be able to walk without falling over and embarrassing myself. That brings me to “The Fall”.

The Fall. Definition by Jenster: An utterly embarrassing and awkward moment that changes the colour of a woman’s face. In the worst falls, they can actually tear ligaments, sprain or break an ankle or other bones. In short, the fall is every gals worst nightmare. It’s that moment when hours of hair and makeup together with the perfect outfit, gets overshadowed by a cringe-worthy moment which people around you always remember more than your dress, hair or makeup. It’s that moment when every gal wants to run and hide. We want to hit the rewind button and erase the moment altogether. Of course these moments can sometimes be helped along with a drink or two or three, but that’s a whole other topic for discussion.

Enter The Recovery. Definition by Jenster: The period of time immediately following the fall. This is the time when we need to recover from the most cringe-worthy moment and continue on. It can be quite a character defining moment. There are those gals who over dramatise the situation and send for ice and chair because the pain is too much. There are those gals who get themselves up and run and hide for the rest of the event. Then there are those gals who get themselves up or better still, accept help from those around them to get up. Once they are up, they simply laugh it off and confidently carry on.

Enter Jennifer Lawrence at The Oscars. Every woman watching cringed at that moment when she fell. Now, I’m not sure whether she fell because of the shoes or the dress or she simply missed a step, but whatever it was she HAD to continue on. She had a gold statue waiting for her. Not to mention all the eyes of Hollywood on her. Let’s face it ladies, most of us could continue on in any situation if Hugh Jackman gave us a helping hand. However, aside from Hugh helping her, Jennifer recovered and continued on with humility and maturity beyond her years. The fact she can laugh about it also suggests a comfortable confidence with herself. Go Jennifer!

Note to all of us ladies out there, that’s how to recover from a freaky fashion fall.