Fairlady Jan/Feb 2024

I’ve finally worked out that I’m never going to be able to stick to a New Year’s resolution that involves giving up something, not only because by the end of January I can barely remember the resolution at all, let alone act on it, but also because the concept is flawed. My view is, if you’re really serious about wanting to make a change in your life – whether it’s to start exercising, stop drinking or eat less – you’re not going to wait for a specific date to do it; you’re going to start immediately. If you don’t, it becomes an ‘I’ll start on Monday’ situation, and we all know how those work out. I remember once smoking as many cigarettes as I could possibly squeeze in before midnight…

Write to flmag@fairlady.com – and remember to put the word ‘letters’ in the subject line. WINNING LETTER Thank you peri much! I did not want to relate quite as much as I did to most of the articles in FAIRLADY HOT! but there I was. I found exactly what I was looking for, as I needed more literature on this new journey of mine. I am still in a bit of a shock, I think, as I have just been ‘diagnosed’. Hot flushes and hormonal acne started last year just after I turned 45, which should have been a sign. It went away, so I was good – for a while. It’s all back now: the hotness with a vengeance and face aches I can’t explain. I needed information and…

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Quiz night You had me at Awkwafina and Sandra Oh, frankly, but if you need more convincing to watch the sibling comedy Quiz Lady, the cast also includes Will Ferrell, Holland Taylor, Tony Hale and Jason Schwartzman. The basic plot is this: When their mother racks up a huge gambling debt, sisters Anne (Awkwafina) and Jenny (Sandra Oh) must work together to pay it off. To up the stakes, Anne’s beloved dog (Mr Linguini) is dognapped and held as collateral, so Jenny comes up with a hare-brained scheme to make a quick buck: turning Anne (who has watched Can’t Stop the Quiz every day since she was 4 years old) into a game-show champion. The two set off on a wild cross-country trek to win a truckload of money –…

In a world that’s all about staying connected, it can be hard to make significant real-life connections as an adult. Remember when making friends was as easy as swapping snacks on the playground with Sally? Ah, the good ol’ days. Now, between romantic relationships, moves, job changes and family-building, catching up with Sally might mean scrolling through her Instagram. It’s why more and more women are turning to women-only groups to curate their chosen family. We caught up with four sisterhoods who are redefining the friendship game. MySoulSistas Stacey King is the force behind MySoulSistas, a thriving community born from her own journey of self-discovery. In 2021, facing medical burnout from juggling four work roles, Stacey decided to hit pause and take a sabbatical. During this three-month sabbatical, she embarked…

The cousin who belittles your parenting skills. The colleague who leaves the lion’s share of projects to you but happily soaks up praise when the job’s done. The friend who routinely cancels at the last minute. The client who never pays on time. The partner who body-shames you as a ‘joke’… We’re all familiar with the disorienting mix of anger, self-recrimination, disappointment and doubt evoked by scenarios like these. We’re also familiar with the post-event frustration that leaches away happiness as we veer between promising ourselves this won’t happen again, wondering whether we’re making too big a deal of things, and wishing we could stop thinking about the issue altogether. The environments, relationships and details may differ, but all share a significant characteristic: a lack of boundaries. Or, as author…