Blogging about disability - a chat on No Limits, Channel 31

Late last year I was invited back to produce and anchor an episode of No Limits on Channel 31. My dear friend Kath (director of the show) was interested in how blogging allows people with disabilities to have a voice, and she wanted me to discuss that.

So I invited some other dear friends - who I've met through blogging of course - to chat with me. Hayley, Michelle and Leisa came to the studio and were complete SUPERSTARS! We could have chatted about this all day!

You can watch the show on Channel 31's catch up TV here. (I am hoping to get a copy to embed soon, and I apologise if this link expires unexpectedly - I don't know how long the episodes are online for.)

It's incredibly important that people with disabilities have a voice, and blogging is a great way to allow this. Community TV is a great way too. Did you see my post featuring links to 50+ bloggers who write about disability in December?

Please let me know if you have a disability and are interested in starting a blog, or would like to know how to promote your writing further. As mentioned earlier in the week, I am developing a blogging course to be released this year.

The week in iPhone pictures

It's been a while since I blogged about the mundane. You know, every day stuff. And so here you go. My week (ish) in pictures. Not in chronological order.

Turning into a vain princess

I had filming for No Limits yesterday. The final shoot of the season. And last shoot I had my hair curled and a bit of lipstick applied. And in three weeks I have purchased three lip glosses and a hair curler. 

My face was a bit sore yesterday, and I have a mild cold, so being pampered was just what I needed. And it was so nice to have someone pay attention to making me look good - I find that really hard to come by with hairdressers.

Even though I was a lot redder than usual, the lovely make-up artist made sure my lippie stood out. Wow. I never thought the day would come when I'd get a little excited over make-up and hair.

No Limits fun

It is always fun on set! Yesterday it seemed pretty quiet around the traps though. We all arrived at different times. We managed to snap this photo between episodes. Pictured: Elvira, Phin and Louis.

And the cast and crew also did this recording/photo in support of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Once again I was a shrinking violet and hung back in the shadows.

Prawn tacos

I made the most wonderful mid-week dinner. Prawn tacos. I was inspired by Sydney Shop Girl, remembering that she'd made them, and so I had to google the ingredients and then go abd buy them after work. It's really easy.

Make a salad out of red cabbage, carrots, coriander and spring onions.

 I grated the carrots and chopped the other vegies.

 Cook the prawns - I cooked them in a little organic salted butter from Tasmania.

Mix up a dressing of mayonnaise and sour cream (and horseradish, but I couldn't find any) and lime juice. Mum bought me the cool lime squeezer. I also have a lemon squeezer similar.

Assemble tacos on a tortilla. I added some jalapeno salsa. Because I am addicted to the stuff and eat it by the spoonful.

 Fold in half and eat. Yummmmm.

Tweeting the the stars

I put a tweet out about Neighbours. And then to my surprise, one of my favourite singers, Bob Evans, tweeted me back!

And again! That's when good rockstars and fans become good tweeters. Indeed.

 Tweet of the Month

 

Speaking of Twitter, I was featured Tweet of the Month in Shop til You Drop magazine. They had a special about shopping away a sucky day - including what the buy when you have a broken heart. How apt. So I tweeted. 

My Tweet of the Month resulted in much teasing by my friends though. 

Mamasita

A friend and I went to the much hyped Mamasita restuarant. Wow. It was amazing. A bit of a queue. But so amazing!

Two margaritas on a school night. This one was citrus with vanilla salt.

Corn on the cob - the most amazing corn we'd ever had. And that salsa in the background - wow!! The corn had spices and cheese on it.

 Ceviche - market fish in coconut milk and lime. It was tart and refreshing and delicious.

Tortilla. This was the lamb one, with cheese and lemon. We stacked it with that salsa, which made it even better.

Goat and corn. It was great. Quite a big serving. My friend had two pieces of goat. I had one.

And this was fantastic - corn icecream with caramelised popcorn!

 Here is Mitch with our second serving of corn. We got hungry.

By this time it was already 9.00pm and we'd been there for over three hours. People were still queuing. We felt quite special to be there eating and drinking at the bar.

The service was attentive and really quick. The noise level was good. It was very trendy in there. The food was amazing - definitely not your Taco Bill type Mexican. I highly recommend eating at Mamasita. 

Mitch and I met in about 1993 when his brother was my wardmate in hospital. His family and I have been friends ever since.

Mamasita on Urbanspoon

Carlyfindlay.com launch

Carlyfindlay.com was launched in a 30 minute lunch break on Thursday.

My friend, work and uni colleague Jess created the site and social media strategy, and I provided most of the content. Here I am pressing publish.

Hooray for CarlyFindlay.com!

Grit Media showcase - disability on TV

I recently spoke at a Grit Media showcase - displaying and celebrating the opportunities Grit Media provides. No Limits, The Boldness, screen production and training programs. It was held in the new space in the RMIT school of media and communication (my course's home) and we were treated to drinks and canapes. Plus it was good to catch up with the cast and crew and meet Grit Media board members. 

I had many an oyster. And many a champagne.

 There were pumpkin tarts and mini lamb burgers, and tiny pies. Catering was by Meals on Heels.

 Here is me speaking during the formal part of the event.

And with Kye - I guess he is the floor manager. He said he liked me enough to take a series of photos of me but not enough to use up all the space on his memory card.

A few people asked me how my speech went. Here it is for you to read. Thank you.

When was the last time you saw people with disabilities featured or even celebrated in the media, telling their own stories, specifically, on TV? I can think of a very recent example with John Hughes on MasterChef – John has cerebral palsy and was applauded for a courageous cooking decision rather than his courageousness that comes with having a disability. And I loved British Next Top Missing Model shown on ABC2 a couple of months ago. There has been Glee, The Librarians, the movie The Black Balloon, Packed to the Rafters, Summer Heights High and Angry Boys. But these depictions are just that. Depictions. It is not often people with disabilities can tell their own stories in the media with dignity, humour and intelligence. 

Disability on the screen often means stories of pity, portrayals of freakshows and ugly ducklings, and the celebration of the supercrip. It might be tabloid journalists telling stories on behalf of people with disabilities. It might be a sensationalist medical show convincing viewers that disabilities, chronic illness and body differences are shocking and gross out material. These types of depictions are sort of educative but they can also create ignorance in viewers. There have been a few TV shows featuring young people with a similar skin condition to mine - ichthyosis. Colleagues who don't know me well tell me they’ve watched the show and now know all there is to know about ichthyosis even though my skin differs greatly to the girls in the TV shows. Recently a woman in a store told me she's seen me on TV. Yes! I am on Channel 31's No Limits, I said, very excited that someone is watching! She said no, she's seen I have a sister (I don't) and that I scrub my skin for two hours a day (I don't). She’d been watched Medical Incredible over on the other channel. I told her to watch No Limits. 

No Limits celebrates disability though enabling a cast and crew with a wide range of disabilities and chronic illnesses to participate in the media. It accurately reflects disability in society. It is empowering, both for the cast and crew, and the audience.

I know my work on No Limits has had an impact on my immediate circle of friends and colleagues - most of who don't have disabilities. I had friends and colleagues willing to star in comedy sketches that I'd written. Friends watch me on TV. One friend said her whole family had a big discussion about whether they'd like to be cured of their illnesses after watching the No Limits cures episode.

I have been a presenter on No Limits since July 2010. In this time, I have learnt interview and research skills, spoke at length about disability issues, and I’m still working on speaking fluent autocue. I have learnt about a range of disabilities, the challenges faced, and how people manage them. The No Limits cast and crew are intelligent, dedicated, highly skilled and very supportive. I have also formed some valuable networks and more importantly, great friends, who understand the difficulties and milestones of having a disability or chronic illness. 

The work we do on No Limits is voluntary. Some of us have full time jobs in addition to our cast and crew member roles. We continue to do this voluntary work because we love to, and we know it’s educating the wider community about disability, and giving people with disabilities a chance to have a voice in the media. I volunteer on No Limits to make a difference to others through education, positive media, support, humour and fun. I want to help people manage and accept their own chronic illnesses and disabilities. I also want to influence the way people perceive disability and chronic illness. I may not be able to stamp out discrimination worldwide, but I may be able to make someone think twice about commenting on someone's appearance or ability, and instead, take the time to get to know them better. I hope season 11 reaches a wider audience of both people with and without disabilities. 

I am thankful for having this chronic illness. Often it’s a real hassle – it rudely interrupts my life and can be very painful. But it’s afforded me so many opportunities. And perhaps if I didn’t have it, I wouldn’t have the privilege to be a presenter on Australian television. I was once told that it is good that I am working and not locked away somewhere because of the way I looked. I only hope the woman who told me that happens to flick over and see me speaking on No Limits.

More back episodes of No Limits

 Here are some more back episodes of No Limits, which feature me.

Media - I wrote the script and researched this one!

Politics

Youth

Enjoy! And thanks for watching!

Dinner with Stella, and more food and clothes too. What's new?

Firstly a huge thank you for all of your kind words and support in response to my previous entry about the teens on the train taking photos of me. I was saddened to read that similar things have happened to some of you, but am glad we can empathise with each other. Your messages on this blog, Facebook and Twitter mean a lot, and make me feel so valued. Thank you!

A funny thing happened on the way to dinner tonight. Well, it's another one of those 'sunburn' moments, but funny in light of what happened last night.

I crossed the road near Federation Square in Melbourne while the man was red. No, he was not sunburnt. (Hahah that wasn't the funny bit.)

Suddenly there was a rush of oncoming traffic coming from around the corner. I quickly ran back across the road to avoid getting hit by a mass of cars.

When I reached the median section of the road, a lady looked at me and said 'what happened to you?'

'Nothing', I replied.

She 'mmm-ed' and then I added 'well, I was just nearly hit by a lot of cars'.

She wasn't impressed with my joking way of not explaining why I am red.

She looked at me disapprovingly then took a step away from me and told me to be careful!

Stella Young, editor of Ramp Up and former host of No Limits, thought this was hilarious! So did I.

I had dinner with Stella tonight at Chocolate Budda in Fed Square.

This is what we ate:

Grilled eggplant skewers (my favourite of the night)

Gyoza dumplings

Inside out pumpkin and tempura nori rolls

We also had tempura vegetables which I failed to photograph as Stella and I were talking enough to generate energy to power a small country. I am surprised we actually had time to eat given our level of conversation. I am so glad we became friends - we have a lot in common - not just disability but our love of music, fashion and writing. She is awesome. And great hair and make up.

I ordered a drink - lychee liquer with lemonade - delicious. The bottle was so tiny, Stella called it 'Stella sized'. See.

I loved the bottle so much I kept it. I couldn't keep Stella though but I will see her again.

This is what I wore to work and dinner today. A colleague asked me whether I feel pressure to wear something cool to work every day. I said no, but photographing outfits for my blog does make me become more creative.

Today I epitomise chainstore chic. Or chainstore Carly. I am wearing a cardi by Cotton On, skirt by Valley Girl, leggings by Kmart, shoes by Diana Ferrari (I have three pairs of the same style in different colours - I love them! All $15 from the outlet!), necklace by Wiyomu at Etsy, headband by Witchery and top by Target. Carrying an Olga Berg purse.

This was my main meal yesterday. Breakfast at 2.00 pm.

Pancakes filled with blueberries and topped with icecream, strawberries and maple syrup. It was sort of delicious if it the pancakes didn't taste like scrambled eggs. Looks much better in the picture.

I also ate a slice of citrus tart and had a glass of wine. Some chocolate mousse topped yoghurt by Yalla - my favourite brand of dairy. And that's about it. I'm definitely not weight conscious on a Sunday.

Oh yeah, this is what I wore on Friday. You can't really see the detail of the dress, but it is very pretty - floral and lace, pink and purple. I am such a girl.

Just in case you want to rush off to the shops to mimic my outfit - I was wearing a dress by Temt, top by Sussan, shoes by Diana Ferrari (as above but in a different colour), headband by Mimco and bangle by Diva. I also had stockings on. I never get around in bare legs. Ever.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

No Limits back episodes

Here are some back eps of No Limits featuring me and some other talented No Limits cast:

Youth 

 

Cures

Thanks for watching :)

New Years Eve in Melbourne

My New Years Eve was spent on the banks of the river in the city of Melbourne with a few close friends. It was lovely. The stinking hot day had cooled down so the temperature was pleasant. There were swarms of people in Crown Casino's foodcourt and on the promenade, but once we navigated those crowds, we had a spacious grassy spot with full view of the midnight fireworks. We toasted to good friends and a successful 2011.

I arrived home, by free and surprisingly reliable public transport, at 1.20 am. My neighbours were having a rocking karaoke party - singing to Blink 182, Pat Benetar and Roxette. I wanted to join them, despite not knowing their names, but my post mosquito phenergan had kicked in and I was soon asleep.

The beautiful Elvira.

My toes were painted and my tummy lined with a hearty carb-laden meal of pizza and butter chicken curry - for responsible drinking.

Me with the gorgeous Pauline from Just the Messenger.

Apparently I was a show-off in front of the camera? Who would have thought?

My first foray into drinking in a public place.

Group shot - Allana, me, Elvira, Riki and Pauline.

I discovered it is difficult capturing fireworks on camera, so here are some pictures from The Herald Sun:

Here is some TV coverage of Melbourne's fireworks.


And Google's happy 2011 logo:

(source)

Welcome to 2011 everyone! Happy New Year!