Posture and appearance

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“Stand up straight!” “Stop slouching!” 

Did you hear your mother’s voice or perhaps your grandma’s when you read that? It’s timeless advice that’s worth heeding. Good posture has many health benefits. Incorrect alignment of the spine puts extra stress on the legs and can lead to achy knees and feet. Poor posture can have a negative impact on circulation and digestion and may lead to increased headaches. Good posture is also essential to balance which becomes increasingly important as we age.

So, what does good posture look like?

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Image: Stanford University

Notice that in the image on the left, the model’s ears are directly above her shoulders. One of the leading causes of poor posture today is constantly looking down at phones and laptops. Did you know that your head weighs approximately 5 kg (11 pounds)? Every time you look down for an extended period of time its weight adds stress to muscles, joints, and nerves, especially in the neck and upper back.

But what does all this have to do with our appearance? Have you ever been to a fashion show or watched one online? Models, without exception, have great posture; shoulders back, chin level and hips neutral. There’s a reason for that. Clothing always looks better on a body with good posture.

I love to people watch and I can’t help noticing that people with good posture walk with more ease and grace. They look taller, more slender, more confident, happier, and healthier. So, as you put on your Christmas finery and head out the door to whatever special occasions this season holds, remember to listen to that inner voice that’s telling you to “Stand up straight!”

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Sixteen years of blogging!

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I published my very first blog post sixteen years ago today! It was also the shortest post I’ve ever written; a brief message announcing that hubby and I had just accepted positions teaching conversational English in Japan. The blog was meant to share that year-long adventure with friends, family and anyone else who might be interested. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that it would still be alive and well sixteen years later!

The title, Following Augustine, no longer fits the blog as well as it did in those early days, but since it’s what I’ve been known as in the blogosphere for more than a decade and a half, I hesitate to consider changing it. You can read about why I originally chose the title here.

Though I probably already had neuroendocrine cancer (NETS) when the blog was born, I didn’t know about it until several years later. When I finally received a correct diagnosis, blogging became a helpful way to process what was happening and to share the journey with friends and family. I also use the blog to raise awareness of NETS. I’m sure that this will continue to happen as I’ve recently become a member of a newly formed Advocacy Advisory Board that will report to the board of directors of the Canadian Neuroendocrine Tumour Society (CNETS).

When I started the blog, writing about fashion was the farthest thing from my mind. Several years ago, however, I starting following several fashion blogs and began to develop a greater interest in the topic. It was then that I decided to add the weekly Fashion Friday feature. At times, I find it a challenge to come up with a new fashion related topic every week, but it’s been a great way to connect with other women and to ensure that I post something at least once a week. Fashion Friday has a fairly small, but loyal following of interested readers, so I as long as I can continue to think of engaging content, I plan to keep the feature going.

As an avid reader, it was my passion for books that prompted me to add the latest feature to the blog, a monthly book review that first appeared at the beginning of February this year.

I refer to Following Augustine as a lifestyle, travel, and fashion blog, but in recent years, there hasn’t been as much travel content as I would have liked. First, the pandemic and then a number of other health issues, both mine and hubby’s, have limited our ability to spend as much time away from home as we would like, but our brand new ten year passports arrived in yesterday’s mail and we hope to be able to put them to good use in the future. If that happens, the blog will once again chronicle our wanderings.

Following Augustine will probably continue to undergo changes from time to time, but at this point, I don’t see it coming to an end anytime soon. Over the past sixteen years, I’ve published over 1400 posts and I expect that I’ll continue adding to that number until I’m no longer able!

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A day to remember!

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On December 1, 1923 my mother’s baby sister, Norma Pearl Raby, was born. On Friday, we had the privilege of celebrating her 100th birthday! What an amazing milestone!

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Auntie Norma and I have always been close. In fact, she often told people that I was the daughter she never had! For several years I’d been telling her that I planned to be at her 100th birthday party and I was only half joking as I knew that she’d had an aunt who lived to almost 103.

Auntie Norma has lived in Jasper, Alberta since 1953 and is now the town’s oldest living resident. Always active in the community, she lived in her own home until the age of 97 when she moved into the Alpine Summit Seniors Lodge. On Friday, the lodge staff went above and beyond as they prepared for her very special day. They set up and decorated a table in the common area for our family celebration and served us a lovely lunch. The table decor included photos from throughout Norma’s life and the pièce de résistance of the meal was the amazing cake baked and decorated by a member of the lodge’s kitchen staff!

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For most of her life, Auntie Norma was robust and physically active. In fact, we went hiking with her when she was 87 years old! Over the past year, however, she has become very frail. Now virtually blind and confined to bed or wheelchair, her once sharp memory has started to fail. She has good days and bad, but Friday was a very good day! Although she sometimes goes for days without eating, she had absolutely no problem polishing off two pieces of that delicious chocolate cake!

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She was alert and attentive as numerous residents of the lodge and visitors from the community came by after lunch to wish her a happy birthday. Her body may be failing but her sweet spirit and her sense of humour are definitely intact! It was such a privilege for Richard and I to share her special day with my cousins (or perhaps I should say my brother’s from another mother), Norma’s two sons and their partners.

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Now back home, my heart is full as I look back on such a wonderful day and consider how fortunate I am to have had this special lady in my life for such a long time!

Book of the month – November 2023

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The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

Lisa See

81URNOpF3vL._SY522_I read mostly for enjoyment, but I love a book that transports me to another place or perhaps another time and a book that teaches me something. The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane was such a book. Before reading it, I knew absolutely nothing about the Akha people, a minority hill tribe who live in small villages in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Yunnan province in China.

As the story opens in the late 1980s, the families of Spring Village are living a very traditional lifestyle without modern conveniences and with very little contact with the outside world. Traditional beliefs and rituals dominate their existence and their lives are aligned around the seasons and the growing of tea. When twins are born to a young village couple, the father is required to kill his babies and the couple is banished from the village.

That’s when I had to put the book aside to do a bit of research. Who were these Akha people? Did they really exist? Were they still living that way in the late 1900s? I learned that indeed they were. The Akha believed that only animals could give birth to more than one offspring, therefore until about 20 years ago, twins were considered an extremely ominous occurrence and were killed immediately, as were babies born out of wedlock.

Now, back to the story… Gradually, the outside world begins to encroach on Spring Village. Li-yan, daughter of the local midwife and one of the few educated girls on the mountain, slowly begins to reject the customs that shaped her early life. When she gives birth to a baby out of wedlock, she rejects tradition and travels with her newborn daughter to a nearby city. There she leaves the baby, wrapped in a blanket with a tea cake tucked in its folds, near an orphanage.

While Li-yan eventually leaves her village for further education, a job, and city life, her daughter, Haley, is raised in California by loving adoptive parents. Despite her privileged childhood, Haley wonders about her origins and across the ocean, Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. Over the years, each searches for meaning in the study of Pu’er, the tea that has shaped their family’s destiny for centuries.

Perhaps the well-researched story tells us more about the history and the production of tea than we really care to know, but it’s also an enthralling family saga; a captivating story of mothers and daughters, families, fate and love. A secondary narrative depicts what it might be like to be one of the many Chinese girl children adopted by American families.

My favourite quote? “Those who suffer have earned contentment.”

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Fashion Friday will return next week. 

Wearing the unexpected shoe

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Logo by SamSince well-known stylist and wardrobe consultant, Allison Bornstein, posted this video on TikTok earlier this year, the idea of “choosing the wrong shoe”, as she calls it, has gained popularity in fashion circles. The idea isn’t actually new; Allison just gave it a name. Personally, I would call it “wearing the unexpected shoe”.

Do you remember when no one would have considered wearing sneakers with a dress? Then, women started doing the unexpected and in time, it became accepted. But what about combat boots or chunky loafers with a dress or kitten heels with sweat pants? As Bornstein points out in the video, choosing the wrong or unexpected shoe can be an intentional choice that personalizes a look and makes it more interesting. The Germans even have a word for it. Stilbruch (literal translation: style break) is an intentional breach of style or a combination of clashing styles.

Wearing the unexpected shoe isn’t about deliberately looking ugly or weird. It’s about adding an element of surprise instead of wearing what everyone else would wear and it’s an opportunity to use what you already have in your wardrobe in a new and different way.

To illustrate, I pulled together a simple outfit from my closet; one that I’ve never worn before. It’s not the most flattering because this much black close to my face doesn’t work well with my complexion, but it’s the shoes that I want you to focus on today. Hopefully you can’t see the goosebumps on my legs. It was 0ºC (32ºF) when we took these pictures! It’s easier to get good photos outdoors, so hubby bundled up and I tried not to shiver! 

Let’s begin with an expected shoe… a classic black pump with a kitten heel. I’ve had these shoes for many years, but haven’t worn them for a long time. Now that kitten heels are back in style, I think that’s about to change. 

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One of the next shoes is a bit more unexpected than the other. 

Yes, I do have the same shoes in two different colours! It was a buy one, get one half price sale many years ago. Though it was the red pair that caught my eye at the time, I’ve actually worn the black ones more often. Now that wearing the wrong or unexpected shoe is on-trend, perhaps I should reach for the red ones more often. They add an interesting pop of colour to an otherwise neutral outfit. 

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This time, we’re back to black, but a bootie instead of shoes. Personally, I’m not as fond of this look, but I think it would work better with a more stylish looking bootie. Perhaps something like this. 

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The final look is definitely an unexpected one, but I like it! Of course, whether I chose this look would depend on where I was going. If I was wearing this outfit to a funeral, for example, I would choose one of the first two shoes shown above. This pair definitely takes the outfit’s formal look down a notch or two. 

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What do you think? Do you ever wear an unexpected or “wrong” shoe? Which of these looks do you prefer? 

 

An on-trend inVESTment

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I’ve always loved the tailored look of a menswear inspired vest (or waistcoat), so I was delighted to see them back on-trend for fall/winter 2023. When I found this one in our small town thrift store for just $2.50, I was thrilled! 

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In addition to being a versatile layering piece, it ticked another box for me. I usually wear longer tops, but I’ve been wanting to try the cropped length that’s so popular this season. 

I knew immediately that I wanted to style the vest with the same cabi blouse that you saw in this post two weeks ago, my dark brown button fly corduroy pants also from cabi, and my tall brown boots. I’m sure it will look equally good with jeans and I look forward to trying it with several other items from my closet.

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I love the boy meets girl, masculine/feminine contrast between the tweed look front and the lace on the back. 

Another plus is that the vest will take up almost no space in a suitcase should I decide to take it traveling.

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In addition to the vest, the blouse, boots, and necklace shown today were all thrifted. 

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NET Cancer Day 2023 and an update

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For those of us who have neuroendocrine cancer, every day is NET Cancer Day, but November 10 is the one day each year that is set aside to increase awareness of our disease and to promote improved diagnostics, treatments, care, and research. Unlike most cancers, neuroendocrine cancer (NETS) is often overlooked or misdiagnosed. Some patients, myself included, endure symptoms for 5 to 10 years before receiving an accurate diagnosis. All that time, the unseen disease is quietly growing and spreading which is why at least 50% of us, again myself included, have stage 4 cancer by the time we are diagnosed. At that point, it’s treatable, but not curable.

Why is this sneaky disease so easily missed? Why does it take so long to get a correct diagnosis? NETS starts in the cells of the neuroendocrine system which are found throughout the body. Neuroendocrine tumours can hide in many locations, but most commonly originate in the lungs, pancreas, gastrointestinal tract (specifically the large intestine, small intestine, or appendix), the adrenal glands or in rare cases, the brain, breast, or prostate. Without early detection, it spreads to other locations throughout the body including the lymph nodes, liver, peritoneal cavity, and bones.

Not only can the cancer be found in so many different parts of the body, but the symptoms vary and are often non-specific. They might include abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, heightened anxiety, fatigue, weight loss, skin flushing, chest pain, coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, and/or back pain. All of these are also symptoms of more common conditions, so it’s completely understandable that doctors don’t immediately consider a little-known cancer like NETS. Many have never encountered a case and know little or nothing about it. As a result, neuroendocrine cancer is often mistaken for other conditions including gastritis, IBS, generalized anxiety disorder, or even menopause. That’s why we need an annual NET Cancer Day and why we need to advocate for increased awareness amongst doctors and patients every day of the year.  

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Last year, on NET Cancer Day, I was happy to be able to report that my disease was stable. Unfortunately, this year, that’s no longer the case. Over the past year, my tumours (or at least one of them), which had essentially been dormant for several years, have been waking up and producing excess hormones again. One of the lesions on my liver has also started to grow again. Thankfully, however, NETS is usually a slow-growing cancer and we still have a number of treatment options available. The neuroendocrine cancer team at the Cross Cancer Institute meets on Tuesdays (I absolutely love the fact that they take a team approach), so they’ll be discussing my case next week and deciding where we go from here.

In the meantime, other than an ongoing headache that is probably stress-related, I have no symptoms and I’m able to live a fairly normal life. Considering that fact that I’ve had stage 4 cancer for over ten years, I feel pretty blessed. I consider every day a gift and I continue to trust that I’m not dying of NETs, but living with it! 

There will be no Fashion Friday post today, but stay tuned for a new one next week. 

Uniqlo comes to Southgate

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Logo by SamI fell in love with Uniqlo on our first visit to Japan in 2005. The popular Japanese fashion retailer is known for innovative yet functional apparel as well as high-quality, reasonably priced, easy-to-wear basics for men, women, and children. When we lived in Japan in 2008-2009, it was a short bicycle ride from our apartment to the closest Uniqlo store and later, in 2013, when we spent a semester in Dalian, China we were delighted to find Uniqlo a short bus ride from home!

From one store in Hiroshima in 1984, the chain has spread across Asia and around the world. The first store in Canada opened in Toronto’s Eaton Centre in September 2016, but that’s still a very long way from my home in Alberta! In October of the following year, a Uniqlo store opened in Vancouver just a few kilometres from where my father was living at the time. Every visit to that city included a stop at Uniqlo! Then, in September 2019, Uniqlo finally came to Alberta! A week ago today, Edmonton’s second Uniqlo store opened in Southgate Mall and we were there!

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The chain has been very strategic in choosing new locations and if the number of people crowding the aisles last Friday morning was any indication, they’ve made another good choice.

Like the more than 2400 stores worldwide, Uniqlo’s newest store will carry business attire, leisurewear, intimate apparel, and some accessories. With winter’s sudden arrival in our part of the world, customers might be particularly interested in the brand’s HEATTECH line made of innovative fabric that absorbs body heat and stores it in air pockets deep within the fibres to keep the wearer warm. For additional winter comfort, the brand also offers cashmere sweaters, extra fine merino garments, fleece jackets, and a variety of ultra light down outerwear all suitable for our cold climate.

My favourite Uniqlo purchase has been the Ultra Light Down Vest which I’ve had for several years. The 2023 version of this Uniqlo staple is slightly shorter and boxier than the one that I have, but otherwise the same.

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Last week, I left the store with just one new item, the HEATTECH Lined Padded Scarf a cozy neck warmer that folds into it’s own little pocket for easy carrying. For someone who feels the cold as I do, I know that it’s going to be another favourite!

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PLEASE NOTE: This is not a sponsored post. I am not a brand ambassador for Uniqlo (although I probably wouldn’t say no if they asked!) I simply like the brand and want to share it with you. 

Book of the month – October 2023

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Iris & Ruby

Rosie Thomas

9780007173549-l19-year-old, Ruby, driven by her difficult relationship with her mother, runs away from her home in England and seeks refuge with the grandmother she hasn’t seen for many years. Her unexpected arrival on Dr. Iris Black’s doorstep in Cairo brings life and disorder into the elderly woman’s house.

After a lifetime of independent living, Iris recognizes in herself the early signs of dementia. Lovingly cared for by her servant, Mamdooh, and her cook, Aunty, she has become increasingly reclusive, but the arrival of her granddaughter changes that. An unlikely bond forms between the two as Ruby attempts to help her grandmother record her fading memories.

Iris & Ruby is a richly textured story of love, loss, and the power of family relationships.

Through Ruby’s experiences and Iris’ memories, the novel moves seamlessly between present day Cairo and the same city during World War II. Thomas’ writing is wonderfully descriptive drawing us into the glittering parties and the devastating wartime losses of the 1940s; the sights, sounds, and smells of the crowded marketplace of today; and the timeless and relentless desert that surrounds them both.

I was drawn to this novel by the fact that I would love to visit Egypt someday. While preparing to write this post, I discovered that Literary Tours in Egypt actually offers a Rosie Thomas’ Iris and Ruby 2-day tour of Cairo! What a cool idea!

Styling an old favourite

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Logo by SamThis week I’m featuring a garment that has been in my wardrobe since my teaching days. Far from new when I retired in 2007, it’s over 20 years old and now qualifies as vintage in the fashion world. Although I don’t wear it very often, I keep it because I love it and on those occasions when I do pull it out, as I did for church last Sunday, it feels like I’m wearing something new. 

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I’m not actually sure what to call it. Since it can be worn alone, I guess it qualifies as a dress, but I’ve usually worn it over a blouse. As a child, I might have called it a jumper, but according to the dictionary, a jumper is actually “a collarless sleeveless dress, typically worn over a blouse”. Jumper is also a confusing word in the world of fashion. This definition is North American, but elsewhere, especially in the UK, a jumper is what we would call a sweater. 

Whatever we call it, this garment is versatile. Not only can it be worn without a blouse underneath, but it can also be worn without the belt. Styled very differently, it first appeared on the blog in this post written over 11 years ago, long before I added a weekly fashion post. 

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Today’s photos were taken very hastily as I was freezing. It was only 3ºC (37.4ºF) outside, but I wanted to take advantage of the last of our beautiful leaves before they were buried in snow! Sure enough, there was snow on the ground when we got up the very next morning! If I hadn’t been so cold, I probably would have taken a moment to ensure that the front wasn’t puckered. 

The Classic Blouse is from cabi’s Fall 2019 collection and was bought second-hand as were the cute booties. 

And now, this morning, I’m off to the grand opening of the new Uniqlo store in Southgate Mall in South Edmonton! Maybe more about that next Friday.