http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/angela-mollard/ Angela Mollard is a Sydney-based journalist who began her career at the New Zealand Herald before moving to London where she worked for the Daily Mail. She also wrote for The Sunday Times, the Mail on Sunday, Marie Claire and Harpers & Queen before moving to Australia. For the past few years she has combined motherhood with writing for magazines both in Australia and the UK. Thus, much to her dismay, she can tell you the name of any celebrity’s child. She is proud of never having read an instruction manual. She still supports the All Blacks. en Copyright 2013 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-best-jobs-are-the-ones-that-get-you-started/ It’s 1993 and I have a perm twice as wide as my head and a hunger to see the world so much greater than my pay packet will afford. Each week I stuff away $80, tallying in a notebook my painfully slow attempts to raise the 2000 pounds needed for a working holiday visa to the UK. I’m shiftworking every Sunday for the double time; dodging my round at the pub because I’m saving for my big “OE”. Then, weeks before I’m due to set off with a backpack on the overseas experience that feels so urgent when you’re born at the bottom of the world, the exchange rate plummets; my pounds are plundered.  I borrow $700 from Dad – the only time I’ll ever ask my parents for money. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Angela Mollard) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-best-jobs-are-the-ones-that-get-you-started/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-best-jobs-are-the-ones-that-get-you-started/#item10747 Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:40:27 +0000 Angela Mollard | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-to-raise-successful-kids-throw-the-book-at-them/ “At our beach,” he reads slowly, falteringly. “At our magic beach, we rock in the t … tan … tange.” “Good sounding out,” I tell him, as we sit outside his classroom. “Keep trying.” “We rock in the tang-er-rine boat.” His brown eyes seek approval. “Fantastic. Tangerine – do you know what that means?” He bows his head, embarrassed; at eight he’s already self-diagnosed himself as stupid. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Angela Mollard) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-to-raise-successful-kids-throw-the-book-at-them/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-to-raise-successful-kids-throw-the-book-at-them/#item10710 Tue, 05 Mar 2013 02:25:06 +0000 Angela Mollard | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/why-mucking-around-is-good-for-a-relationship/ “So,” I said to my husband, “there’s something I think we should watch on telly.” “I thought we weren’t supposed to be watching television.” He’s right. Last month, in a nutso attempt at marriage enrichment I’d suggested we spend the evenings talking or planning imaginary holidays or playing Scrabble. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Angela Mollard) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/why-mucking-around-is-good-for-a-relationship/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/why-mucking-around-is-good-for-a-relationship/#item10665 Sun, 24 Feb 2013 19:45:03 +0000 Angela Mollard | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Dad-gets-all-the-glory-but-im-the-captain-of-this-ship/ After four days of single-parenting, which included two birthday parties, a soccer match, a band festival, a dash to the chemist and a sleepover where the little minxes chattered till 11, the youngest makes an announcement as we walk to school on Monday morning. “Mum – not to hurt your feelings or anything – but I like Dad better than you.” My smile twists jam-jar tight; eyes prickle. You ungrateful brat, I think, filing it into the mental envelope of Things You’re Not Allowed To Say To Your Kids. “Yeah, he’s tops,” I say with Shire-worthy sincerity. “Why is he such a great dad?” feedback@thepunch.com.au (Angela Mollard) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Dad-gets-all-the-glory-but-im-the-captain-of-this-ship/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Dad-gets-all-the-glory-but-im-the-captain-of-this-ship/#item9312 Sat, 25 Aug 2012 19:45:35 +0000 Angela Mollard | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/My-throbbing-pulsating-desire-to-write-erotica/ Damn you, Fifty Shades of Grey, for keeping me up all night. And, no, it’s not what you think. While you were blushing and trying to co-ordinate your index finger (page-turning being somewhat challenging when reading erotica), I was having an ‘if only’ moment. OK, maybe there was a little ‘If only Christian Grey would ditch his linen shirt on my bedroom floor’ (I’m not explaining the plot for the three people living under a rock or too tight to drop $9.96 in Big W for what is, admittedly, one shade literary; 49 sensation). But mostly it was ‘If only I’d written that freakin’ book, I’d be a squillionaire.’ Everyone who strings words together for a living wishes they’d written a bestseller. I’ve often mused I was Jane Austen or JK Rowling, or even that drug fiend Enid Blyton. You’d have to be on some sort of substance to cook up The Faraway Tree and protagonists called Fanny and Dick. They were gifted at creating characters and getting them into trouble (although I’d have hooked up Lizzie and Mr Darcy 100 pages earlier, and left that brat Dick to languish in The Land of Spells). feedback@thepunch.com.au (Angela Mollard) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/My-throbbing-pulsating-desire-to-write-erotica/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/My-throbbing-pulsating-desire-to-write-erotica/#item9254 Sat, 18 Aug 2012 19:45:06 +0000 Angela Mollard | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/my-darling-12-things-you-need-to-know-at-12/ Tomorrow, my darling, you turn 12; a girl, still. But sometime when I wasn’t paying attention, the pudgy-cheeked baby skipped away and here you are, a soft sketch of the woman you’re going to be. I want to freeze-frame you so I can say all the things I’ve missed, that the words may be indelibly inked like a suit of armour around your soul. But soon it’ll be your own voice, not mine, that matters most. So here’s something to pop in your pocket or file on your bedroom floor: 12 things I want you to know on your 12th birthday. Your body is the only one you’ll ever have. How blessed are you, that it works perfectly and has barely given you a moment’s pain. Some people aren’t so lucky, so respect it – even when those around you are hating theirs. I can’t protect you from the stinging winds of the beauty storm about to strike your shores, but don’t take the weather with you. Photographs, as we’ve shown you, are not truth. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Angela Mollard) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/my-darling-12-things-you-need-to-know-at-12/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/my-darling-12-things-you-need-to-know-at-12/#item9198 Sat, 11 Aug 2012 19:50:06 +0000 Angela Mollard | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/anguish-pain-unhappiness-all-these-feelings-are-normal/ Remember when ‘happy’ was just something you were? Or weren’t. Good days, bad days, happy days, sad days – all jumbled in a life you lived rather than thought about too much. Today happiness is a commodity; a ‘goal’, a ‘revolution’, a ‘project’. It’s what we want for ourselves and our children. “Yes, please,” we’d say to the doctor if she could vaccinate against sadness, along with the usual measles and mumps. Anything to immunise ourselves against pain and unease. I write this because I’ve had an awful week – made somewhat worse by the book I’m reading (for work, not pleasure) called The Happiness Project. Ironically, as my world filled with woes, I read chapter after chapter about one woman’s attempt to “lighten up”, “be serious about play” and “keep a contented heart”. “I am happy,” writes Gretchen Rubin in her mega-selling memoir, “but I’m not as happy as I should be.” feedback@thepunch.com.au (Angela Mollard) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/anguish-pain-unhappiness-all-these-feelings-are-normal/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/anguish-pain-unhappiness-all-these-feelings-are-normal/#item9142 Sat, 04 Aug 2012 19:49:06 +0000 Angela Mollard | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/analysis-paralysis-im-spoiled-by-choice/ Two blue jackets – size small and medium; one pink jumper; a sparkly cinnamon tank; a pair of yellow jeans; one Peter Pan-collar top; the turquoise cami; the nude blouse; a grey off-the-shoulder knit. Oh, and an orange skirt, which is what I went shopping for in the first place. I carted these ten items into the Zara changing rooms expecting I’d have to leave half on the rack. But, no, you can try on a wardrobe’s worth of clothes and the army of shop assistants will happily grab more. Let’s deconstruct this: I don’t need a blue jacket; I already have a pink jumper; cinnamon looks best on apples; yellow skinnies scream 2012 – and may well make me look that old; you need a bob to rock a dainty collar; the turquoise was in fact icky jade; nude – particularly when worn on TV – makes me look naked; jumpers that fall off your shoulders are as pointless as a bikini in Thredbo. The orange skirt I needed – OK, wanted. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Angela Mollard) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/analysis-paralysis-im-spoiled-by-choice/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/analysis-paralysis-im-spoiled-by-choice/#item9080 Sat, 28 Jul 2012 19:50:55 +0000 Angela Mollard | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/i-am-eleven-and-i-can-change-the-world/ The year I turned 11 marked huge events in history: oil reached $24 a barrel, Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister of Britain, and China instituted the one-child policy. But I knew nothing of all that. I spent 1979 nagging my parents for the new Sony Walkman, watching Mork & Mindy and wishing Wayne from 6B might look up from his rugby ball and notice me. Fast-forward 30 or so years and I’m in a school hall listening to 11 year-olds speak about multiculturalism. In a week where the leaders of our country have neither the grace nor the wherewithal to deliver on asylum seeker policy, these kids blow me away. Not just with their ideals but their insights. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Angela Mollard) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/i-am-eleven-and-i-can-change-the-world/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/i-am-eleven-and-i-can-change-the-world/#item9021 Sat, 21 Jul 2012 19:50:55 +0000 Angela Mollard | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/feed-your-kids-with-dreams-not-clobber-from-cotton-on/ When my children were babies, we’d lie in the garden, bums in the sun (theirs not mine), and gaze up at the sky. As the clouds drifted, they’d suck their toes and I’d tell them the hopes and dreams I had for them. “Gobble the whole apple of life, darling – even the core,” I’d whisper into their ears, as they kicked and gurgled then peed on my leg. “Live big, even if you’re always small.” But as they grew older and we moved further from the ‘extraordinary’ of their births to the ‘ordinary’ of child raising, life became more transactional. “Eat your vegies, then we’ll go to the beach”, “Clean your room”, “Get dressed” became the dominant dialogue, and somewhere between making sandwiches (one with avocado, one without) and laundering, the dreaming disappeared. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Angela Mollard) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/feed-your-kids-with-dreams-not-clobber-from-cotton-on/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/feed-your-kids-with-dreams-not-clobber-from-cotton-on/#item8974 Sat, 14 Jul 2012 19:55:55 +0000 Angela Mollard | Author bios | The Punch