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Online Magazine

After ten years of producing the quarterly print magazine, YOURLifeChoices, the need for an online version of the magazine to complement the YOURLifeChoices website became apparent. The team behind YOURLifeChoices is pleased to present this new offering in an exciting online page-turning format delivered directly to your email inbox for FREE.

The key topics covered in YOURLifeChoices online magazine, health+wealth+travel+work, are where subscribers need to make the best life choices. Our mission is to simplify these choices by providing readers with objective, plain-English explanations of the options they have when managing their health, wealth, travel and work. In particular, to help them locate and book the most stimulating, high-value travel experiences.

Issue 6 - Cover Story - Bettina Arndt - What men want

Clinical psychologist, sex therapist and writer, Bettina Arndt has been a tireless campaigner for improving the sex lives of Australian men and women for nearly four decades. Most recently, her book What Men Want sheds light on the often misunderstood nature of male sexuality. We ask Bettina if the differences in what men and women want can ever be reconciled.

There are a lot of men who are unhappy about the gap between their sexual desires and their reality – particularly within a loving marriage. They are enduring a lifetime of grovelling for sex, or, having sex doled out to them like meaty bites to a dog, as one man put it.

I am not saying sex is essential for a happy relationship. There are couples where sex is not a priority. The problem only occurs when one person yearns for sexual intimacy and the other is not interested. Those who are yearning are mainly men, but sometimes it’s the women who are being rejected.

One of the major reasons men lose interest in sexual intimacy is the fear of failure. Many men are nervous about their sexual performance, so it becomes easier to avoid it than to risk failure. I hear this a lot with prostate cancer support groups, where I meet women in tears, who say they did not appreciate how much their sex lives meant until their husbands were unable to continue. Read more here.

 

Issue 5 - Cover Story - Maeve O'Meara - Eat, travel, love

Maeve O’Meara is a woman of many talents and roles. A food journalist, author, television presenter and owner of the Gourmet Safari travel company, Maeve juggles work, travel and three children on a daily basis. As they ask in the classics, how does she do it?

How do I do it? Not terribly well! But my life is never boring. I also feel daunted when I read about those women who seem to be able to do it all. I don’t identify with such high-flying personas. I spend most of my hours at a computer, not doing the more glamorous things. But my work is my passion so it means it is not a hard slog. I am on a delicious learning curve where people open up their worlds to me.

When I turned 20 I enjoyed a gap year overseas. I remember sitting on the Acropolis and imagining what life would be like. Mine is not a planned life but a happy accident one. It is actually

even better than if I had planned it. I have always been brave enough to listen to that little voice, that mad idea which takes me somewhere special.

I was born in Sydney. Mum was a journalist and Dad a compositor at the Sydney Morning

Herald; it was where they met. I grew up with my brother Matt on the lower North Shore in Sydney in an Irish-Australian household where we enjoyed a meat and three-veg kind of life. I still hold dear such good plain food, particularly bread and butter custard. But I have set off on a journey of taste buds. Read more here.

Issue 4 - Cover Story - Geraldine Brooks - An Australian abroad

When not researching and writing her best-selling fiction, Sydney-born Geraldine Brooks is enjoying family life in a 16th-century home on the American island of Martha’s Vineyard. On a recent visit to Australia to promote her latest book, Caleb’s Crossing, she shared her views on reading, writing and what we owe the next generation.

I let the story tell me what I need to know. It seems to take a couple of years to complete a novel from the time I sit down to write it. But first there is a lot of thinking and string gathering, then I discuss the idea with my husband Tony Horwitz. I write until I need to know a specific – perhaps the detail of houses in the 1650s, or how to build a fish trap – and then I research this point.

Jane Austen is the master as far as I am concerned. I read Austen constantly. I wish I understood human nature the way she did; she is so good at sticking the probe in, finding the foible and revealing it in such a subtle way. I don’t think I am anywhere near that level of mastery.

I also love people who can evoke a sense of place and nature and a very particular feel of natural environment. Annie Dillard would be my model for that in her non-fiction. The way she looks at the world is particularly inspiring. Read more here.

 

Issue 3 - Cover Story - Belinda Green - From queen to carer

In 1972 an unpretentious blonde with an “un-beauty queen’ page boy haircut was crowned Miss World at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The image of Belinda Green winking as the crown was placed on her head flashed around the globe. This lanky, slightly larrikin Australian had beaten America’s Lynda Carter, along with more than 70 other beauties, to the title of most beautiful girl in the world. Flash forward nearly 40 years and Belinda Green is still beautiful, still slightly larrikin, but much more at ease about what she has to offer.

“I was an atypical Miss World. For a start my hair was not long and flowing. My hairdresser had described my hair as ‘crap’ and cut it off. But it was probably the beginning of a more fresh and natural look in the competition. Initially the makeup artist had put way too much blue eye shadow on me and then stressed because Miss Italy had got the fake nails I was meant to wear. So maybe I won because I was more able to simply be myself. Read more here.

 

Issue 2 - Cover Story - John Waters - Renaissance man

Now aged 62, John’s first acting gig was at the ripe old age of 10.His father, Russell, a Glaswegian-born character actor, took him to visit the set of A Night to Remember, the original film about the sinking of the Titanic. John’sgodfather, acclaimed British actor, Sir Kenneth More, was playing the lead role and said “Let’s put Johnnie in a costume in one of the crowd scenes”. To this day, ‘Johnnie’ still can’t find himself amongst the doomed throng on the screen, but suspects he was travelling steerage and went down with the ship. Unlike his career which is as buoyant as any actor, entering his sixth decade, could hope.

In fact Waters personifies the true ‘renaissance man’ – a man of many parts, talents and interests. His first career started when he was in his late teens and played with the band The Riots in London where he then lived. Soon after he emigrated to Australia and has performed on stage, on television, in mini-series, in films, as an actor, a musician and a presenter with the occasional voice-over gig thrown in. Read more here.

 

Issue 1 - Cover Story - Noni Hazlehurst speaks out

Noni Hazlehurst describes herself as having a low boredom threshold. So it’s a good thing her work projects are so diverse, including theatre, radio, hosting concerts wit the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, her role as Commander of Crime, Bernice Waverly, on Channel 7’s City Homicide, aswell as occasional public speaking and teaching gigs. “I get twitchy when I’m not working – and tend to cause dramas at home,” she laughs. Home is shared with her partner of eight years, Ian Marden, and her 16-year-old son, William. Her other son, Charlie, lives nearby. After nearly 40 years in “the business”, with just three months out of work, she has no single favourite project.

“My life is completely unpredictable. My children have lived a gypsy-like existence which has brought amazing opportunities but also a lack of routine. It’s a constant juggle. But guilt is a condition of parenting. When the children were younger I made a conscious decision to cut back on theatre and films, which resulted in 10 years of life-style TV. I face the same challenges as many other modern parents, except that I’m fortunate that I don’t have to work from 7.30 am to 7.30 pm five days a week.” Read more here.

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