Innehållsförteckning för TAK2346 från Take 5

When Rochelle got a message, it changed the lives of thousands of women Rochelle Courtenay, 52, Sandgate, Qld. My phone pinged with a Facebook message from a client, urging me to read an article. It was about women experiencing homelessness going without basic period products during their menstrual cycle. It was January 2015, and I worked as a personal trainer. Wanting to help, I set my clients a challenge. “For all of February, every glass of wine you have, buy a pack of sanitary pads or tampons,” I said. By the end of the month, we’d collected 450, which I handed to five homeless or domestic violence charities. They were thrilled, so I decided to keep going. In May, my friend Miriam who worked for a domestic violence service told…

Human colouring book I took my five-year-old granddaughter, Sophie, to the beach and she spotted a man who was covered in brightly coloured tattoos. She kept looking at him, and when he walked past, she said, “Excuse me. Did you colour in your drawings by yourself or did your mum help you?” Her question made him laugh out loud. Maevee Julianne, Proserpine, Qld. How embarrassing We had some friends over for a barbecue to celebrate my husband Roy’s 70th birthday. After a few red wines, Roy and his mates were dipping into the music archives and playing some classics from back in the day. When Message in a Bottle by The Police came on, they were all singing along when Roy suddenly belted out, “A year has passed since I…

I lived a lie to be with Bobby and our children Janet Shamroze, 81, Broken Hill, NSW. Standing on the street talking to my friend, I was distracted by the sight of a handsome young man with big brown eyes and curly black hair approaching. Just then, he bumped into me. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Let me buy you a Coke.” I accepted, and as we got chatting in the local cafe, in my hometown, Naracoorte, SA, I was instantly smitten with Bobby, 17. “Can I take you to the pictures tonight?” he asked. “Not tonight,” I told him. “But I can go on Friday.” It was 1957, and at almost 15, Fridays were the only night my parents let me go out. Bobby and I had a great time,…

Feeling stressed? It all comes down to cortisol… One buzzword we’ve been hearing a lot about lately is cortisol. After all, it’s a hormone often associated with stress – something that there’s no shortage of in recent years. Cortisol isn’t bad, in fact we need it to survive. However, there is evidence that an oversupply can lead to a host of issues such as weight gain, acne, low energy, insomnia, poor concentration, high blood pressure and irritability. “You need cortisol to function, but just not too much,” explains natural health and wellness expert Nat Kringoudis. “Too much cortisol elevated over a long period of time can have a hefty impact on daily life.” THE SCIENCE Cortisol is produced by our adrenal glands, which sit on top of each kidney. Like…

Our daughter Olivia has amazed us all Kelly Colbourne, 42, Bunyip, Vic. The paediatrician held up a model of a human brain, removing a section from the centre. I was sitting beside my husband, Nudge, cradling our four-month-old, Olivia. “The scans show that Olivia is missing the corpus callosum,” he said. “It allows one side of the brain to communicate with the other.” Soberly, he explained that Olivia’s neural abnormalities would likely render her a vegetable. Looking down at the beautiful child in my arms, who seemed to have nothing wrong at all, it was hard to believe what was being said. I’d only brought her in because she was having difficulty breastfeeding. The news was like a knife to the heart. “You and I are a team,” Nudge assured…

This book was somewhat unplanned. I didn’t think I’d ever write another 5 ingredients, but I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been asked to do so, especially by my wife, Jools. She told me to stop thinking about anything else. “It’s where people are at, when our lives are incredibly busy – it’s the book all the parents at school talk about.” Now I’ve never been one to revisit old territory, but it’s a sign of the times. People cook very differently today in comparison to 50 or even 25 years ago, when I first started – there’s just so much more we have to fit into our lives, and the way tech has grown around us, it has both given and taken time away. So, with…

Diabetes can cause a host of serious health problems, so it’s important to know your risk and get checked out regularly by a health professional. According to the World Health Organization, the number of people with diabetes is on the rise, with 108 million with the disease in 1980, compared to half a billion today. When left unchecked, this chronic disease can cause blindness, heart attack, stroke, kidney failure and lower limb amputation. Some symptoms of diabetes include feeling thirsty, the need to urinate more often, blurred vision, feeling tired and unintentional weight loss. But there are steps you can take to prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes. A healthy diet, regular exercise, maintaining a normal body weight and avoiding smoking all help in the fight against…

If you need to cool bottles of beer in a hurry, coat them in wet paper towels and pop them in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Elise Smit, Miranda, NSW. I recommendcuttingng herbs witha pizza cutter. Jill Laurent, Ellenbrook, WA. If you look downwards when you’re using a lash curler, your lashes end up with a better curl. Don’t ask me why! Juanita Taylor, Dandenong, Vic. When I’m travelling, I place wrapped bars of soap in my luggage to keep my clothes smelling nice. Marilyn Brown, Merrylands, NSW. I made pretty labels for the shelves in my linen cupboard so it’s easy to see which are for different sized beds and rooms. Tracy Evans, Tamworth, NSW. If you’ve got smelly shoes, sprinkle some baking soda in them and leave…

We started a band in lockdown Andrea Stokes, 56, Hamilton, NZ. My son Ryan placed his glass down on the kitchen counter. “Mum, I have a cool idea,” he said. “Jack White from The White Stripes taught his sister Meg to play the drums, so I thought I could teach you.” “I doubt it,” I laughed. “But I’ll give it a bash.” It was August 2021, and we were in lockdown. Ryan, 19, was in his first year at university and had to attend lectures online. My husband Lyndon, 59, and I worked for the council from home. While Lyndon and I adored music, we’d never learned an instrument, whereas Ryan could play the guitar and the drums. He’d become obsessed with rock and roll after we took him to…

Your dilemmas solved by fellow Take 5ers Hi Take 5ers, My boyfriend and I are ready to get engaged, but I’m not a fan of his oldfashioned opinions on the matter. I’ve told him that I want to be the one to pop the question, but he’s insisting that a proposal is the man’s responsibility. We’re going on holiday soon and I’m scared he’ll propose even though he knows I want to do it. What should I do? Bella*, 27 Are YOU in a tricky situation? Why not write in and let our readers help you out. We’ll pay $50 for every question printed. Our contact details are on page 73. Ask yourself if you really love him and actually want the marriage. Or if you’re out to prove a…