Table of contents for TAK2442 in Take 5

Scrolling through the Seeking Arrangement dating website, James’s profile caught my eye. He’s terrible at taking selfies but seems nice, I thought, staring at the blurry photo of a silver-haired man with a nice, friendly smile. It was 2019, and, aged 25, I’d just moved to Melbourne to complete the last semester of my social work degree. Four years earlier, I’d started working as an escort to help me through university and had been dabbling in sugar baby work for the past year. The lavish dinners, all-expenses-paid holidays and extravagant gifts were a nice perk of the job, and I’d enjoyed the company of some of the sugar daddies I’d met, but I wasn’t looking for anything serious. I’d broken off an engagement shortly before I became a sex…

Next time you make meatballs, use an ice-cream scoop to create the perfect portion sizes. Nia Sharma, Wollongong, NSW. If your tomato pasta sauce is too acidic, add a carrot to the pan. It will add a little sweetness. Miranda Webb, Gosnells, WA. Place an open box of bicarbonate of soda in your fridge to absorb any food odours. After three months replace it and pour the old one down the kitchen sink drain with a cup of white vinegar and hot water. This keeps the sink smelling fresh. Ann Rooney, Sale, Vic. Egg slicers will cut up mushrooms and olives into perfectly even slices. s. Tina Esposito, o, Castle Hill, NSW. I use a couple of old beach umbrellas in my garden to create shades for my plants during…

Knitting needles clicking away, I finished the final stitches on my latest creation. “Done!” I said proudly. Many years had passed since I first picked up knitting needles in 1940, at eight years old. Back then, I was living in Montreal, Canada, and WWII was underway. Red Cross volunteers would doorknock asking people to knit beanies for soldiers. My grandmother and my dad, Patrick, both skilled knitters, passed on their knowledge to me, and I was whipping up beanies alongside them in no time. In 1958, my family moved to Australia, and knitting gifts, like blankets and jumpers, became a great way of forging new friendships. As the years passed and I started a family of my own, nothing brought more joy than making presents for my loved ones. When…

Don’t be put off by the fact Bilbao is an industrial port city – it’s still deceptively beautiful. The 10th largest city in Spain, Bilbao boasts a population of more than 347,000. It’s famous for its Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, but there’s so much more to this Spanish city… BITE-SIZED BLISS As I take my seat at the bar, I can’t help but feel a little guilty. It’s early evening in Plaza Nueva, a public square in Bilbao, the largest city in the Basque Country, where locals and tourists alike have come to indulge in pintxos. This Basque tradition of sampling small plates of finger food in bars and restaurants is something entirely new to me, and as my guide, Xabier, explains what it involves, I wonder if I’ve…

Being breast aware is important at any age, but as we go through life the methods of detection we need can often change. For example, free mammograms are seen as a rite of passage once you turn 50, but some women may also opt to have them when they’re in their 40s. Associate Professor Cleola Anderiesz, CEO of the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF), says that if you’re unsure, it’s always best to chat to your doctor. “Early detection is really important because it gives us the best possible chance of detecting a breast cancer early and the best chance of survival,” she explains. SHOULD I HAVE A MAMMOGRAM? If you’re aged between 50 and 74, you will receive a letter from BreastScreen Australia every two years, inviting you to…

There was a light tap on the back door and then the familiar sound of an engine spluttering on the path outside my home. “That’ll be your dad,” smiled my wife, Kim. I poked my head out of the kitchen window and sure enough, there he was, with his head under the bonnet of an old car. “Fancy a cuppa?” I asked, and he nodded and smiled. It was lovely that my dad, Danny, lived near me, Kim, and our little boy. Dad loved to tinker with engines, and he was round at our house every day, working on his latest old banger. Recently, he and his partner Rebecca hadn’t been getting on, so it gave him an escape. Rebecca came into our lives in 1999 after my parents had…

Hi Take 5ers, I’ve been happily married to my husband Rob* for 20 years. We’ve had a great life together, with two beautiful kids who are starting families of their own. The last few months Rob started hinting that he’s grown bored of me, and last week he sat me down and said that he wanted to experiment with other people. I’m absolutely devastated that he feels this way. He’s found a swinger’s club and wants me to come with him. I don’t want anyone else, but I don’t want to lose him after all these years. Should I give it a go? Rosie* 54 So, he wants to cheat on you and he wants your permission to do it. You should never do anything of a sexual nature that…

Crawling around the house on hands and knees, we checked for every hazard. “Do we really have to do it like this?” my partner, Chris, 26, asked. “We have to see what a kid sees to make sure it’s safe,” I laughed. It was 2018 and we’d just moved into our new house with our little boy, Harvey, one. A year later, we welcomed our second child, Archie. By the time Archie was two, the boys were thick as thieves and Harvey was always looking out for him. One night, in June 2021, after putting the boys to bed, Chris and I turned in for an early night. At 4am, I woke up to Harvey shaking my arm. “Archie’s in the bath,” he cried. “He needs help.” “What happened?” I…

My husband, Troy, 32, looked at me as he held our baby boy, Cody, in his arms. “No more,” he said, making me chuckle. When we’d met, I’d told him I wanted to have 10 kids, but I was happy being a mum of four. We also had Jordan, 10, Troy, six, and Hayley, four. Cody grew into a caring little boy. At primary school, he became best friends with a little boy with Down syndrome called Danny. “He was being left out so I sat with him,” Cody said. They’d been best of mates ever since. Three years later, in 2009, Cody moved to a new school, and we saw how much he missed Danny. Then, one day, I found him sitting at the computer, looking at the National…

Our inner child is the part of us that has been picking up messages long before we could fully process what was going on, emotionally and mentally. They are a part of our subconscious, which holds our memories, our emotions, our beliefs about the past, and our hopes and dreams for the future. The inner child helped form us into the person we are today, but can also be a wounded part of us, and may cause us to react emotionally to certain scenarios that others don’t find as triggering. They’re someone we need to meet. WHO IS THE INNER CHILD? Our inner child remembers all the good and bad experiences we have had since we were little, often leaving hints for us of what these may be, such as…

TAKE A SOAK Nothing says relaxation quite like a dip in the tub. Great for soothing tired muscles and enhancing the skin, fill yours with warm water and generously tip in some bath flakes or salts. 1. Epzen Soothe Soak Magnesium Bath Flakes, $15 2. Circa Bath Salts Jasmine & Magnolia, $18.95 TREAT WITH A SHEET For your next night in, indulge your skin in hydration with a sheet mask. Jam-packed with all the good ingredients like collagen and hyaluronic acid, pop it on for at least 20 minutes to reap the benefits. 3. Polished Body Brightening Sheet Mask, $12 MASTER A FACIAL MASSAGE Kick back on the sofa and give yourself an at-home massage. All you need is face oil and gua sha, which you can gently sweep in…

I woke up in the morning to a message from my neighbour Nick. Can you take my bin out? he’d asked. Always the joker, I typed a response back that made me chuckle. Sure no problem – any particular place… Movidas, Bavarian, Rabbit Hole? They were all pubs in our hometown of Mackay, Qld. Then I had an idea. That’s precisely what I’m going to do, I thought. I’m a photographer, so I grabbed my camera and decided to give Nick a laugh by taking his bin out around Mackay and sending him the pictures. It was 2021 and during COVID, so I knew my Facebook friends would also appreciate the laugh if I uploaded the photos there. Walking into Nick’s garden, I grabbed his bin. “Today is your lucky…

Movie greats In reply to a reader’s recent question about go-to movies, mine is Shirley Valentine. Whenever I feel that my life has become humdrum I watch Shirley Valentine and get re-inspired to embrace life and take risks. I’ve watched the movie 50 times and I even visited one of the sets in Mykonos in 2013. Sylvia Berger, Penguin, Tas. Angels on earth WE PAY $100 FOR EACH LETTER PRINTED Reading Olivia Pawlak’s story in issue 32 about how she was inspired to become a paediatric nurse after her own experience as a child with leukaemia reminded me just how amazing our nurses are. My father spent years in and out of hospital with a serious heart condition, and my mother battled numerous types of cancer, so I spent a…