What Jodie Reads

The New Zealand Woman's Weekly appeals to Shortland Street fans this week with cover girl Anna Jullienne explaining her "shock move" to Australia following her on-screen character Maia's exit from the popular soap.  It's really not that shocking that she's simply chasing her dream across the ditch.  Many of her fellow Shorty Street alums have made similar moves, and you never know... we might just see her playing a sexy American doctor in a new medical drama based somewhere in tropical South America soon like this guy .  Elsewhere in the mag, TV3's Nightline presenter Rachel Smalley speaks out about the importance of water safety - following a spate of tragic drownings around the country over summer.  She confessess a near-death drowning by a close family member led her to the pool with her son Finn at just three months old.  Along with the obligatory Royal story (this week it's Kate Vs Zara as "battling brides"), an Angelina to adopt ...

Every now and then a story comes along that touches your heart.  In July last year I caught a story on TV ONE's Close Up about Haiti earthquake survivor Nelsonian Emily Sanson-Rejouis and her daughter Alyahna.  They had both survived the massive earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010.  One-year-old Alyahna miraculously survived 22 hours trapped beneath the rubble of their Port-au-Prince apartment.  Now, I love a good story of survival (Castaway, Alive, 127 Hours) but, what broke my heart was the news that Emily's husband Emmanuel and two of her daughters, Kofie-Jade, 5, and Kenzie-Jaz,3, weren't as lucky and sadly lost their lives that day.  I wept.  Not only for the unfathomable tradedy of such an event, but for the incredible strength of this woman on TV speaking about the day she lost them, her grief and the miracle of Alyahna's survival.  She also spoke of her efforts to rebuild a school in her late-husband's h...

A quirky 1950s' caravan called Ngaire steals the show in the latest NZ Life & Leisure    (Jan/Feb 2011 $9.70).  The 1955 Starliner has been lovingly restored by her owners Mike & Victoria and in it, they talk of the adventures they've taken her on since finding her on Trade Me 4 years ago.  It's the perfect story to put in their summer issue with the tag line 'Away from it all'.  Editor Kate Coughlan and her team have pulled out all the stops to feature people in tune with their holiday environments and to identify holidays and homes that nourish the family without the need for heart-stopping mortgages.  There's the cottage by the river: a cleverly designed 'close up and tow away' cottage on the banks of the Waihopai River in Marlborough.  A yurt in the bush: glamping it up in Raglan - a unique way to get away from it all amongst a stand of huge nikau palms and centuries-old rimu and tawa. ...

I thought I'd start the new year off with some "good" resolutions, so I picked up the latest issue of this carbon neutral magazine.  It's made in New Zealand and it's masthead states "simple choices for a better life".  Sounds like a GOOD way to start the new year I say..... Good (Dec 2010/Jan 2011 $7.90) celebrates it's relaunch with a specially wrapped issue and bonus gift (the 'good shopping handbook' valued at $4.95).  New editor Sarah Heeringa says  “for me, the good life is about creating a healthy home environment, eating well and buying quality.  It's also about making jam, growing veggies and teaching our kids to be smart with the resources around us - and enjoying more of life's significant moments."    Opening this issue was one such significant moment.  The switch to luxurious, eco-offset paper matches the eco-fabulous vibe of the mag and thanks to the vintage style of Art Director Sally Fullam, the re-design/mak...

  Next Magazine - December 2010 $8.20  I've always wanted to try Bikram, aka 'hot yoga', but have always been put off by friends' tales of stinky sweaty armpits and other bodily smells mixed with the heat of a 40 degree studio.  Gena Tuffery's Some Like It Hot (p.166) has somewhat convinced me to give it a go.  Talk of devotees wearing next to nothing almost had me running back to the sofa, but as Gena explains "you don't wear a bear suit in a desert, and that's exactly how my cotton T-shirt feels".  So it looks like I'll be more worried about my outfit than the absolute certainty of me collapsing from exhaustion in a buggered heap by the end of it.  Why the heat?  It seems that warm muscles allow you to work deeper and safer, so you see faster results.  Sweating out impurities like last nights glass of wine can't be a bad result either.  So I'm going to give it a go.  Watch this space...... From talk of exercise to...

It might seem slightly ironic that I start my kiwi-centric blog with a commentary on the latest issue of the Australian Women's Weekly (New Zealand Edition).  You see, along with the gorgeous cover featuring rowing's golden girls Georgina & Caroline and an exclusive preview of Portia DeGeneres' highly publicised autobiography,  two fantastic articles particularly stood out to me.  That's what I love about magazines - the hidden gems that you find between the pages. Identity Interruptus can happen to the best of us and Danielle Spencer reveals her experience of motherhood (and her latest album) in an interview with Bryce Corbett titled So much more than Mrs Crowe .   As a mother of two young children myself, I can identify with Danielle when she talks about it: the best known but least talked about aspect of motherhood.   In the article, Corbett discusses how you can read a hundre...