MANNERS AND OTHER MATTERS

I am, You are, We are Australian...The Seeker s The Pinnacles, Western Australia  I am celebrating Australia Day tomorrow.  Over the last decade or so Australia Day has become an important holiday, in fact not unlike Thanksgiving in the US. Not only because we have a day off from work,  but because we Aussies respect Australia Day. It's a day which is marked by many with time at the beach, barbecues, and having a beer or wine with friends;  and it finishes here in Perth with the annual Skyshow....fireworks over the Swan River. We are a tolerant and multicultural society;  our Anglo Saxon roots no longer define us. In  fact, since I was a little girl going to school in the 60s most of my friends have always had family names which weren't Anglo Saxon.  Sharing languages and cultures is part of the Australian psyche. So what is it that makes me have a tear in the eye when I am choosing YouTube clips for this post?  What is...

It's the season for long, languid lunches in my courtyard Having had an afternoon cooking and simultaneously watching a cable cooking channel I have been annoyed by the number of presenters who use the " we" when speaking to their television audience: "Now we take our eggs, break them into our bowl..." etc. We, the audience, are not there with the presenter; they are joined by a camera operator, lighting operator and others to assist in their presentation, none of whom are helping with the actual cooking process. Prawns and oysters to start... By the time "We are now plating our meal" was announced, I was so removed from the whole experience that irrespective of how delightful the menu appeared, I was distracted and uninterested in its outcome. Language is continuely evolving, but irrespective of whatever language we are speaking, or learning, we should try to grasp the correct use of its grammar. The taste of summer... Television is ...

Over the past few weeks I have trained two teenagers through my program  Modern Manners for Today .  They are both highly intelligent young adults but in both cases their mothers felt that their social skills could use assistance, not only to encourage greater participation in the social life around them, but to help them in gaining confidence. The first client, aged 16, has been accepted to attend Magdalen College in Oxford this year.  She is extremely bright but socially very young for her age.  She is very pleasant but with virtually no social skills and a tendancy to say whatever comes to mind at the time.  She has few friends and spends a great deal of her time in chat forums on the internet with like minded people. A formal western table setting (photo LP) Perhaps the most surprising aspect of our day together was at the dining table.  Included in my program is a three course formal luncheon.  This young lady had never used a knife an...