• I'm an E cup. When I was younger and skinnier I was only a C cup and could handle underwires. Then I got pregnant and discovered the bliss of maternity bras. Post babies and breastfeeding I went back to the wires only to find they poked me and now I've got 'birdseyes' in my cleavage. I cannot fathom the underwire. Obviously the person who designed it has never had to wear one. Having big boobs we're all encouraged to wear them, but now I'm old and fat they're far too uncomfortable to contemplate. I'm happy with my 'wirefree' bras. I figured that if manufacturers could make a maternity bra without wires that fitted perfectly and provided excellent support to lactating breasts, they could do the same for large, non-lactating breasts too. I found the perfect fit for me at a large chain store and bought the same type for years. Not terribly sexy, but comfortable and serviceable. Now I've discovered same large chain has a moulded cotton bra in large sizes. Better still, you can order them online when the sales are on and collect them from the store. Bliss! - BeansGran
  • Well put Sonya. I am so glad that you have created this documentary. Also, you have put forward a voice of reason backed up by compelling evidence & your own credibility. I am pro-vaccination, but I understand why it is an delicate decision for many parents. I haven't come across the anti-vax theories (I'd never even heard of the AVN until Mamamia kept writing & tweeting about them). I'd always just followed the immunisation schedule. But I have come across a lot of pushy pro-vaxxers and I have to say, it is a turn off. I understand that it's a passionate issue. But is it an effective way of increasing immunisation rates? Of course not. Some pro-vaxxers make it their full time job to name, shame & harass people opposed to vaccination. Is harassment going to change their position, heck no! Is it going to galvanise their anti-vac position, quite probably! I just think we need to be smarter about this. I know it is not a "debate" in the sense that the science is in on the benefits & general safety of vaccines. But it completely normal to feel uneasy about purposely injecting your child with something most of us know very little about. And then watching their every breath that evening as they process that vaccine. Sonya, I hope that your documentary is the beginning of the change in the way we talk about immunisation. Well done. - Kasey
  • I am very impressed by what you've set out to achieve and how you've come about it. Much of my work these days is in vaccination and I work hard to break down the myths and false beliefs people have about vaccines. I find listening to concerns, empathy and responding with good evidence based information has been the most successful manner I've had so far. I also reassure parents that it is always their choice, but I also share that I am a mum too and that I choose to vaccinate my child fully. And funnily enough that's usually the clincher. Respect, good information and empathy can go a long way. I really hope that many people watch your documentary and help absolve the many concerns and myths surrounding vaccination that are out there. You must be proud of your work :) - The Huntress
  • Not everyone has access too or any interest in the internet, you cannot drive a tractor and watch the internet but you can listen to radio, you cannot drive a car and watch the internet but you can listen to radio, you cannot wash the dishes, the clothes, yourself and watch the internet but you can listen to the radio, you can also lie in bed with Phillip Adams, half my University of the Third Age students go to bed with Phillip. Australia's best journalists were trained by the ABC. What I don't understand Gee is your palpable hatred, how can you be so angry all the time, just relax and learn that we are all different and some of us prefer the quiet nature of the ABC compared with the ranting and rage of radio shock jocks and commercial TV. Your phrase 'slash and burn' is shocking to me, no one I know hates anything, no one I know wants to destroy things or institutions, not even the IPA, why such violence of language? - sue Bell
  • [...] Science says vaccinate! [...] - LET'S TALK (NOT SHOUT) VACCINATION
  • Thankyou Emma for your good work and humanistic attitude towards others. I could not do your job and be nice to others at the same time, i'v e realized. The other ABC journo's et al should be taking notes.......all the best in your career! - louise
  • Why censor the pictures, Ro? Don't call them "young men" either. They are "vicious animals" as their act so clearly evidences. They are not human at all. Are you saying it is "justifiable" for ethnic Nigerians, who have never been to either Afghanistan or Iraq but grew up on the teat of the British Welfare State, to run down and then Halal butcher a complete stranger walking along the street and minding his own business? How can you possibly draw any connection between what happened in London and the alleged mistreatment of Aborigines in Australia? What a fine example of the "straw man" argument! Do you think NATO and other allies were "unjustified" in invading Afghanistan and liberating it from the Taliban? That same Taliban that banned girls going to school; regularly indulge in female genital mutilation and the sodomising of "dancing boys"; blew up ancient Buddhist monuments; regularly carried out executions by stoning and beheading as half-time entertainment at football matches in Kabul and Kandahar; undertook ethnic cleansing against Hazara muslims; banned music and dancing on pain of death; and provided a base for the racist extremists of Al Qaeda to operate completely unfettered? Do you think it was wrong to overthrow Saddam Hussein who had used poisonous gas on the Kurds of Iraq? Whose two mongrel sons crawled the streets of Baghdad looking for women to rape; who executed his own son-in-law after promising "forgiveness' if he returned from exile; who gained power in a coup and then personally executed scores of his own "party"? The problems in Iraq today have nothing to do with Saddam's overthrow and everything to do with the seething sectarian and ethnic hatreds that have plagued Mesopotamia since the Babylonian Empire. Why didn't those two vicious animals condemn the latest round of sunni-shia bombings and murders in Iraq? If muslim women are subjected to the regular sight of dismembered bodies, those bodies were provided by other muslims. Why is it that only this week we saw Syrian women asking Bob Carr why it is that the USA and the non-Islamic world is not interfering in their current civil war? The war is yet another essentially religious/sectarian conflict between a Sunni majority and an Alawi-Shia minority. Why should any young Americans, Britons or Australians risk their lives for these benighted, backward bastards who regularly tell us how much they hate us? Have you forgotten the spontaneous eruption of glee and happiness that occurred in Iraq, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the "Islamic world" when the 9/11 attack was carried out? It seems to me that you, like so many others, have forgotten the lessons of the period from 1919-1939. Appeasement never works. Trying to trivialise this disgraceful crime; saying that ...well, maybe, it was Britain's fault and maybe if Britain hadn't been and Imperial power 200 years ago and ... really, when you look at that and what happened to the Aborigines here, maybe they were justified in running over a total stranger, who'd done nothing to them or any of their family or relatives, and then hacking off his head with a meat cleaver. The white-washing, the diminution, the trivialising, the justifying has already started in media and the blogosphere. The appeasers and the white-hating racists are already talking this whole thing around so that in a few weeks they'll be wanting to give these two mongrels a medal and have them treated as Prisoners of War. I am so glad the British cops didn't shoot them dead. I want them to suffer in HM Prison System for the rest of their lives. But, knowing the way the British EHRC led by that treacherous hater, Trevor Phillips, operate, they'll probably be named and shamed and given 20 hours community service. - Jack Richards
  • Anyway. So long Latin. I know there will be people close to Hazel who will be feeling sad and confused today. Sad for who she was and confused because she is perhaps better off dead now. And then there is everyone else who were touched by Hazel's contribution to our lives. Thank you Hazel and her supporters. - ro.watson
  • Always thought that Hazel H. was too much in the background type of PM's wife.From the information revealed recently about her I've realised how essential and important she was to Australia. This deception was probably due to the limelight on her ex-husband/PM Bob .He might have been successful politically but how he maintained the persona of god's gift to women for so long, baffles me. He is just another ugly aussie male. He should show more atonement towards such an admiring woman as Hazel. Condolences to her children and their families. - louise
  • Perhaps I am projecting, but there really is something very special about the relationship between a regular cartoonist's work and their readers. A sort of mutual getting to know you abandon. - ro.watson
 
10
Categories:  News and Opinion, Wellbeing, Your Community, Your Stories

MRS. MORLEY’S CASH MOB

By Julie Somerville
August 22, 2012

 I just took part in something special – something that reminded me that shopping should serve a purpose other than instant personal gratification and plumping up a corporate balance sheet.

I took part in a “cash mob”.

I had heard of a “flash mob” but a “cash mob”? The concept is the same but this one involved meeting at a local shop and spending $5 to support the retailer.

Via Facebook my lovely friend, Annie, invited me to Mrs Morley’s Haberdashery “cash mob”.

I can’t point you to a website because Mrs Morley is 99, she operates a tiny- and I mean tiny – haberdashery store in a little arcade between Whistler and Belgrave Streets in the Sydney suburb of Manly. Mrs Morley took over the store from a family member who passed away suddenly about 17 years ago.

Since then, she has worked five and a half days a week selling buttons, ribbons and threads. She works hard but she told me why she loves it: “Because I have to do something to stop me falling off the perch”.

Fay Morley in her haberdashery store. Photo via Fairfax media.

That comment made me chuckle at the time but it has replayed in my mind ever since.

I often get overwhelmed with the busyness of life – working, cleaning, school runs and kids sport – and  find myself dreaming of a life where I could wake up and meander through my day with no commitments. Mrs Morley’s comment made me realise that that dream may not actually be a good thing.

Being part of a community is a good thing.

The cash mob was organised by Katy Plummer, the owner of the neighbouring second-hand book store Desire Books she set up a Facebook page for the event and the word spread.

The goal was simple – come together and show Mrs Morley that she is a valued part of the Manly business community. The result – a long queue of people snaking down the arcade, the buzz of strangers making small talk about how great it is to see someone still working at 99, the clicks of a few press photographers and a strong sense of community – that lovely heart-warming feeling when you feel a connection; when you are part of the village of life.

The point of this story?

Not to shout out about a particular “socially conscious product” but a simple reminder that supporting small and local business builds communities.

The cash mob showed me that there is a whole community of small business in Manly that I didn’t really know about. I had walked past Desire Books many times, but never been in.

I have driven to a sterile “supa centre” to buy buttons when I could have ridden my bike to Mrs Morley’s.

The little photos on this page were taken by a local fashion designer Beattie Lanser who handmakes all her clothing in a workshop at the back of her shop in Fairlight. A store I have driven past but never entered.

I will now – I feel I have a connection and I want to foster it – I want to support local businesses more; yes it supports the local retailer but I will benefit too – I  will make new connections, I will continue to be inspired and I will probably learn something too.

Do you have a local business you support – how does it make you feel?

RELATED ARTICLES

When I die, bury me at Barney’s

Down with the Duopoly

Why shopping’s out of favour

 

*Julie Somerville is a 40-something wife, mother of three and lawyer from the northern beaches of Sydney who blogs about socially conscious shopping in her (absence of) spare time. She started blogging this year after being confronted by the contrast between the gluttony of a pastrami on rye during a MasterChef episode and a news feature on the African food crisis. Her blog www.nomorepastrami.com is her way of giving back and encouraging others to spend in a way that benefits others.

 

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10 Responses to this article

  1. Mez August 22, 2012 Reply
     
     

    This is so lovely, Julie. One of the current affairs or morning shows (?) did a story on her when she was robbed of her rent money. What a treasure she is.

     
  2. Beth August 22, 2012 Reply
     
     

    What an absolutely fantastic idea

     
  3. annabelle August 22, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Wow, a haberdashery store close by!
    Such is the stuff that dreams are made of!!!
    What an amazing woman!

     
  4. Ellen August 22, 2012 Reply
     
     

    When I got married five years ago I decided to use local businesses as much as possible to put my wedding together. Apart from the church, reception venue and strangely enough my shoes, everything (husband’s kilt included) was sourced locally.

    I met some lovely locals and kept the running around to a miminum.

     
    • julie August 22, 2012 Reply
       
       

      Good on you Ellen – must have made the wedding preparations that little bit more special!

       
  5. florally August 22, 2012 Reply
     
     

    love this !! I tend to have a habbit of supporting my little locals, this little piece was so affirming- thanks

     
  6. Carolyn August 23, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Great story and great idea! I do love that this woman wasn’t just on A Current Affair recently but also Today Tonight – and both shows reimbursed her the money she had stolen in the robbery. She’s having a very good month on the books (and so she should!).

     
  7. The Huntress August 24, 2012 Reply
     
     

    How wonderful! I purposely choose to support all of my local retailers – after having lived in a small country town I know how important this is. I am lucky enough to have independant, butchers, bakery, newsagent, pharmacy and supermarket all within walking distance of my home. I support my local Aussie Farmers for fruit, veg and all my basics. I love the community feel of going to my local shops and the people who all smile and ask how you are when they recognise you. It’s really cool :)

     
  8. Amanda August 24, 2012 Reply
     
     

    What a wonderful woman. I hope that I get the oppotunity to be part of a ‘cash mob’ one day. I would have been hard pressed to stop at $5 though. Mrs Morley must have some awesome treasures in her shop.

     
  9. Rhoda August 29, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Wonderful woman – and long may she reign there in her little haberdashery.

     

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Comments

  • BeansGran: I'm an E cup. When I was younger and skinnier I was only a C cup and could handle underwires. Then I got pregnant and d...

    Reply|Read all

  • Kasey: Well put Sonya. I am so glad that you have created this documentary. Also, you have put forward a voice of reason backed...

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  • The Huntress: I am very impressed by what you've set out to achieve and how you've come about it. Much of my work these days is in vac...

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  • sue Bell: Not everyone has access too or any interest in the internet, you cannot drive a tractor and watch the internet but you c...

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