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"My mind is blown": MasterChef winner crowned!

Billie McKay has been announced as MasterChef Fans & Favourites winner! The seventh season winner was up against Sarah Todd, who came ninth on the sixth season of MasterChef. The pair went head-to-head for the glorious $250,000 prize money on Tuesday night which saw Billie beat Sarah by just a few points. This makes Billie the first person to win two seasons of MasterChef. The first round of the grand finale gave Billie and Sarah the option of choosing between a mystery box or to cook a dish that was both sweet and savoury. Both Billie and Sarah opted for the latter and made cumin panna cotta with rosemary and rhubarb and sticky chicken wingettes with glaze respectively. Sarah was praised by the judges for “hitting the brief” with Melissa Leong describing it as a “very well-balanced plate of food.” She received 26 points. Billie’s panna cotta unfortunately did not set in time which saw her accept the “major fail”. “I am so disappointed for you. It’s the foundational aspect of this entire dish and it’s not set – that’s a really tough pill to swallow,” Melissa said. While judge Andy Allen said it was “delicious – but it could be better with a set panna cotta.” She received 21 points. The second and final round was tough for Billie who was already five points behind Sarah but the pair rallied on. Guest chef Heston Blumenthal arrived and gave Billie and Sarah five hours and 15 minutes to replicate his epic dish, taffety tart. Both contestants were faced with a few mishaps along the way before placing their dish to be judged. Once again, Sarah went first with judge Jock Zonfrillo saying her dish was “just as good” as Heston’s. Melissa called it an “extraordinary effort”. Andy however pointed out a few issues which gave a bit of a window for Billie. Sarah received 30 points out of 40 bringing her total score to 56. The judges' tasted Billie’s dish and were in awe at the precision and taste. Andy described the dish on “another level of precision and finesse”. “Everything is there, present and correct. My mind is blown,” Melissa said. Billie shot to the lead when she received 37 points out of 40 bringing her total score to 58. Image: Channel 10

“It has stayed with me”: Using fiction to explore trauma

Content warning: This article mentions sexual assault. Those who experience trauma can seek help in various ways, through therapy or creative outlets, and fiction is no exception. In fiction, traumatic events are often depicted as a jumping-off point for a protagonist or hero’s story - whether that’s watching Bruce Wayne’s parents die before he can fight crime as Batman, or witnessing the attempted murder of Uma Thurman as the Bride in Kill Bill before she seeks revenge. These depictions of traumatic events are often the precursor to a character’s descent into revenge, madness, or both, but they don’t have to be the only stories we see. In her <a rel="noopener" href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022167817749703?casa_token=s_BbuJyDvjAAAAAA%3Apewb-trbcPxlbO0uGRYKAqOf_cchsFgT1CCpbRZQvODADU7rWimX6gaj1of76-A1cM1u61nak6K1L40" target="_blank">doctoral thesis</a> published in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Dr Lynn Gumb defines an ‘ordinary hero’ that can emerge in fiction as a “person who, despite the challenges of trauma, continues to live an ordinary life” and doesn’t follow the well-worn path to madness or revenge. Instead, the individual can choose to “alter the landscape of their own lives” after trauma and pursue recovery. P. J. McKay, the author of <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.pjmckayauthor.com/shop-1" target="_blank">The Telling Time</a>, uses traumatic experiences from her own life to explore this recovery process, as women from two generations navigate the Croatian immigrant experience, family secrets and backpacking as a rite of passage. “I know that my personal experience while backpacking in the 1980s, especially in a country like Yugoslavia, where there was such a chasm in the way men viewed Western women (fuelled of course by Western movies and songs) would be familiar territory for many young women,” she told OverSixty. “For me, novels that speak of shared experiences, or situations which feel believable, resonate most. “The backpacking experience has been a rite of passage for many, particularly in Australasia and I know many have experienced unwanted sexual attention. My experience was a close call. It has stayed with me and has felt like a significant turning point in my life.” <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> Our discomfort and resulting tendency to retreat into silence only adds to the power of perpetrators. — Grace Tame (@TamePunk) <a href="https://twitter.com/TamePunk/status/1464790576323170305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 28, 2021</a></blockquote> As difficult as it can be for survivors to witness these moments, stories like The Telling Time keep these traumatic situations at the forefront of our minds, especially as these situations continue to happen. “I thought it was important not to shy away from the reality of sexual assault and to explore the impact of this on friendships and why sometimes (often) it seems best to hold close and not disclose what happened,” McKay adds. However, some argue that the focus of recovery stories should be on what happens after the traumatic event, and how individuals can find truth and healing despite their experiences. “There seems to be no doubt that trauma can stand in the way of finding truth and healing,” McKay says. “It remains to be seen whether society today, with its broader expectations and openness around sexual relationships, and less traditional male and female roles, will alow for more open conversations by those who have suffered trauma, particularly sexual trauma.” In an interview with ABC’s 7.30, American activist and founder of the #Metoo movement Tarana Burke said conversations around trauma should shift, as the retelling of traumatic events comes with more costs than benefits. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"> "We urge survivors to share their story, so you're re-traumatising not only the person but the person hearing that. There's not a tremendous amount of value in hearing the story, there's so much value in the hearing what happens after." – <a href="https://twitter.com/TaranaBurke?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@taranaburke</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/abc730?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#abc730</a> — abc730 (@abc730) <a href="https://twitter.com/abc730/status/1450386432757927947?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2021</a></blockquote> “We urge survivors to share their story, so you’re re-traumatising not only the person but the person hearing that,” she said. “There’s not a tremendous amount of value in hearing the story, there’s so much value in hearing what happens after.” As the conversations around trauma continue to change, it may be that having to witness these events becomes less necessary, and that we no longer need to share them to prevent future generations from experiencing them. Image: Getty Images

Mind

5 minutes with author P J McKay

In 5 minutes with the Author, OverSixty asks book writers about their literary habits and preferences. Next in the series is <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.pjmckayauthor.com/" target="_blank">P J McKay</a>, a novelist and mum-of-three based in Auckland. After training and working as a food scientist, McKay began writing while undertaking her Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Auckland. During her studies, McKay was inspired by her travels through former Yugoslavia to pen her debut novel, The Telling Time. After winning the 2020 First Pages Prize, McKay’s novel is now available. OverSixty sat down with McKay to chat about representing New Zealand’s Croatian community, her current reads, and the role cooking played in her novel. O60: What book(s) are you reading right now? My current book on the go is Betty by Tiffany McDaniel — insights into the Cherokee Indian culture are an added bonus and despite the tough themes I’m enjoying cheering this resilient young woman on. And I have just finished two novels: Crazy Love by Rosetta Allan — A love story with a twist. A triumph of love conquering adversity. A no-holes barred insight in the realities of supporting our mentally unwell. This is Rosetta’s third novel. She manages to inject humour into what’s a tough subject to tackle and never allows the story to wallow. And for something much lighter, Take me Home by Karly Lane — transports the reader from Australia to Scotland. A feel-good story with a dash of romance. O60: Does your training in food science influence your writing in any way? Great question! There are a few food descriptions peppered through The Telling Time. My love of cooking (and consuming food!) has most definitely influenced this. Some reviewers have noted it as a bonus to be transported by these descriptions. Any reference to food is of course relevant to the era and/or the setting but given the aroma, taste or even just the sight of food transports us to different settings it can be a useful and fun tool to employ: think Greece and Mediterranean dishes, or traditional Australasian sweet treats — lamingtons for example — or food which is typical in Croatia, such as črostule, njoki, špek or the local wine on Korčula, Pošip. As an author I invite the reader to use all their senses when imagining my characters in scene. If I get their taste buds watering then that’s a bonus. O60: How did you start writing historical fiction? It’s the genre which I enjoy most as a reader and my background roles in research were also very helpful. The nugget for this novel came from my own experience when backpacking in the late 1980s tied in with my interest in the immigrant experience and for The Telling Time, the Croatian diaspora. I also wanted the novel to encompass the mother/daughter relationship, hence the dual timeline that includes the late 1950s and 1989. It’s scary to think that these two eras now count as historical! When researching for a novel like this it means going back even further in time. The Telling Time references events from the early 20th Century, WWIII, and the events that followed afterward, particularly in the former Yugoslavia. I love that historical fiction often gifts the reader information they didn’t previously know. This for me is the joy of historical fiction writing; finding those facts to thread through the fiction to ensure the ‘world of the novel’ is credible. O60: The Telling Time was inspired by your travels and the connections you made with the local Croatian community. How did it feel to represent this community with your novel? I feel privileged to have been privy to stories from the Croatian community and delighted to shine some light on what makes this group unique, but also what unites their stories with other immigrant groups. It is always tricky finding the balance when representing a community that is not your own lived experience. For me, it was important to observe and listen at the local Dalmatian club when attending club nights and events. There were excellent resources to draw on at the club — their cultural museum and language tutor who checked my use of Croatian words/phrases in the novel — and having the novel reviewed by Dr Nina Nola from the University of Auckland’s English department was another essential step. Nina’s mother immigrated to New Zealand from Hvar in the 1950s. This is a novel, and therefore a work of fiction, but staying true to the culture and customs is an essential component and the feedback from readers of Croatian heritage suggests I have succeeded in getting the balance and details right. Of course, when Croatian publishers Znanje d.o. bought the translation rights for the novel earlier this year (to be published there in June 2022) this was a further seal of approval. I felt both proud and delighted that I would soon be able to gift copies of the translated novel to the club. O60: What book or books do you think are underrated? That’s a curly question! The Lost Lights of St Kilda by Elisabeth Gifford is a gentle historic novel, published last year which I thoroughly enjoyed but don’t hear a lot about now. And I’ll put in a plug for fellow New Zealand author, Rosetta Allan, mentioned above. Along with Crazy Love, her two other novels, Purgatory and The Unreliable People, are both fabulous reads that deserve more air-time!! O60: How do you deal with writer’s block? I found the best solution was to chat more. By this I mean nutting out a problem with trusted friends or asking a question which then often provided a lead, or new tangent to explore. There was one dire moment of writer’s block when I was desperate to get my character, Gabrijela, out of the house. I asked Mum for ideas about social events in the 1950s and she told me how popular a day at the races was along with a personal story about backing an outside runner called Red Glare. Bingo! Guess where Gabrijela was now off to! Critique was also a valuable tool, especially during my Masters in Creative Writing year at Auckland University. It challenges you to think harder and strive to improve, to iron out the creases waiting to trip the reader out of their suspended disbelief. O60: Which author, dead or alive, would you most like to have dinner with? Has to be Janine Cummins, who wrote American Dirt. Images: Supplied

Books

"Can't unsee this": Baby's rude PJs leave mum in hysterics

Anna Armstrong, UK mum, has been left in hysterics after she realised a pair of pyjamas she bought for her son had a rather rude design on the front. She bought them for $7 and didn't realise the mistake until she came home. "I didn't notice the blue ones until I got home and put them on him, " she tells Essential Baby. "I thought it was pretty obvious and had a good giggle and then sent a pic to my fiancé who was at work. He laughed too!" She found the funny side in it all and shared the incident on Facebook with her friends. "Has anyone else got this outfit from Sainsbury's for their little one? Didn't notice till I got him dressed this morning but now I can see why it was in the sale. Oops." <img style="width: 500px; height:281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7840410/baby-1.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/42078739636e44d79bd4b6d54929996b" /> <div class="body_text redactor-styles redactor-in"> Luckily she wasn't the only one, with some commenting that they bought the pyjamas as well! "No, but we have the sleepsuits with the same lion on. It just looks like it is covered in little willies." "I saw it right away before I even read what you said," laughed another. The design can also be found on sleepsuits and bibs. Photo credits: <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.essentialbaby.com.au/baby/life-with-a-baby/mum-in-hysterics-over-xrated-find-in-babys-7-pyjamas-cant-unsee-this-20210322-h1urzn?utm_source=nine&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=homepage" target="_blank">Essential Baby</a> </div>

Family & Pets

Gladys responds to savage attack from Jodi McKay

<div class="post_body_wrapper"> <div class="post_body"> <div class="body_text redactor-styles redactor-in"> The NSW Parliament resumed for the first time after NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s ex-partner, former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire, finished giving evidence to ICAC. The ICAC probing was whether or not he abused his parliamentary power for personal gain. This was not left unnoticed by Labor leader Jodi McKay, who hammered the NSW Premier during question time. McKay asked Berejiklian the following: “In July 2018, you knew ICAC was investigating Daryl Maguire’s dealings with Country Gardens and his commissions from property developers. We now know he told you about Country Garden, and we now know he told you about the commissions. Why did you not report this to ICAC as you were legally required?” The Premier responded: “I reject the imputations of the question, and secondly, she asked me the same question last week.” “And thirdly, we should allow the integrity body to do the work it needs to do while I do the work the people of NSW expect me to do: have the best COVID recovery plan in the nation, have the best and strongest economy and the best health administration.” The heated question time session came after a scathing tweet from McKay. “For the last year, I’ve looked (the Premier) in the eye when I’ve asked questions – believing she too wanted politics to be the best it can be. I respected my opponent. Today I’ll see a woman who has diminished the role of Premier & set an impossibly low standard. All respect is gone,” she wrote. The Labor MPs have also seized on comments made by the Premier to radio host Ben Fordham, saying she didn't take any interest in Maguire's business deals as MPs are allowed to make money from side deals. “That’s the key thing, rightly or wrongly. MPs are allowed to do deals and make money, as long as they disclose it in the right way,” the Premier said on the 2GB program. Deputy Opposition Leader Yasmin Catley said that the Premier's comments on 2GB amounted to saying that corruption was "acceptable". “It is quite clear that she feels there is nothing wrong with members of this parliament receiving sales commissions from property developers,” Ms Catley said. </div> </div> </div>

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