Day To Day: Calm Conversations with a Friend

#12 Escher and Zebras

• Jacquie Joy • Season 1 • Episode 12

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Ever stumble upon a quirky hotel with zebra-themed decor? Listen as your friend chats about sipping inventive cocktails beneath a glass ceiling at a rooftop bar reminiscing about those Escher-esque tiles that make you question reality. Jacquie discusses more unique hotel design and themes, immersive atmospheres in lifts, and then tests out the latest skin care serum in her routine. Finally, the conversation flutters into a magical realm as Jacquie ponders the possibility that Currawong bird songs might unlock universal secrets. This episode contains a delightful tapestry of calm experiences that promise to enchant and relax the listener.

Jacquie:

Welcome to the Day-to-Day Podcast, calm Conversations with a Friend, spoken by Jacquie Joy, and you are listening to Episode 12. You decide to check your messages. One new voicemail it's from one of your friends. You decide it's time to sit down, make yourself comfortable and have a listen. Hey, hey, so glad to hear you're back safely and that you're able to disconnect and enjoy every minute of your rather brief but sounds like a very relaxing holiday. Thank you for all the pics.

Jacquie:

Those incredibly ornate tiles were amazing. I loved all the different patterns and it's hard to imagine how much time and effort would have gone into placing and arranging those tiles many years ago. I know they're very old, but I sort of felt they had a bit of a modern feel, and I loved the visual illusions that they created, especially in some of the rooms inside of the house where the walls had the tiles and the ceilings were crazily shaped and curved, and it reminded me a lot of MC Escher's artworks. There was a couple he did. There was a couple he did. One was called House of Stairs and the other one, I think, was called Relativity. Anyway, in these two pieces, the perspective is super skewed and sort of confuses the brain. My favourite Escher work, though, is not a perspective one. However, it does show two points of view. As such, it's called Hand with Reflecting Sphere.

Jacquie:

Are you familiar with Escher's works? I'd be intrigued to know and, if you are, what's your favourite design or picture? But on your holiday it sounds like the food was extra super spicy and luckily you and your stomach were up for it. I think I would have struggled a bit and would have driven the waiters crazy, asking for super mild versions of each dish. It sounds like lunch is their main meal of the day and I love that idea. Anyway, it sounds like you're refreshed and back into work tomorrow, so I hope you have a great first day back.

Jacquie:

I think I was telling you last message. Yes, I was telling you that we were away for an evening and we had a bit of that in a fail, but I really enjoyed our hotel experience. The place had very funky lifts which had different video projections on the floor and ceiling and all of the walls, which was so much fun. The projections had images of animals like unsurprisingly koalas, of animals like unsurprisingly koalas, surprisingly zebras, and also random patterns like the colors and stripes I think I actually sent you a picture of that and also tourist attractions locally and other places. One of my favourites was the Eiffel Tower and I think there was a Leaning Tower of Pisa as well. One particular animal that was featured in the lift was this zebra. One particular animal that was featured in the lift was this zebra and it actually seemed to be the theme of the whole hotel. So I had some fun playing spot the zebra colours and stripes. There were zebra-style dishes and plates and pens in the room, striped black and white chairs throughout the complex. But my favourite was the zebra-inspired stripes on the tiles stripes on the tiles on the ceiling and walls and floors of the spa area, and I'll definitely send you a photo of that. It certainly reminded me again of all that Escher perspective craziness and it was a lot of fun.

Jacquie:

Another thing that was very fun that evening was the rooftop bar and the hotel gave us a couple of complimentary cocktails. I was half expecting that they'd have a specialty zebra style design drink but that wasn't the case. But they did have an extensive cocktail menu and it was very hard to choose a cocktail from. They were all so good. The two we ended up choosing were fantastic. The first one was called a Tropicalita described as tropical, fun and zesty, and it contained coastal gin, coconut husk, pandan which is a fragrant Asian palm leaf and that was sort of sticking out of the drink Vanilla and refreshing lime zest. So that was a winner. The other cocktail that we chose was called Liquid Sunshine and that was described as silky, sweet and perfumed and that contained vodka, strawberry, rose and saffron. Yum, so the place was really buzzing and it was a perfectly sunny afternoon evening, but interestingly, there was a really funky looking glass roof that opened and closed, so it was a weatherproof rooftop bar which I haven't seen before before that day. We also went to the Japanese spa, but I'll tell you about that next time. I know you love a great spa experience and this certainly did not disappoint. We actually went into a salt room, which I hadn't done before.

Jacquie:

Anyway, I love our skincare chat and it sounds like your routine is just super simple but really effective and, as you say, if you end up having a complicated routine, your skin can just get confused in the end and that can result in breakouts or feeling too oily. Okay, that's what happened to me last year. I think my skin just felt overloaded and strangely with the amount of product I was using, it wasn't actually feeling that hydrated. Also, it got a bit confusing to me in the end, because I had so many different bottles and tubes of things for different parts of my body. I did notice the smaller the tube, the more expensive it was too. How how does that work out? It began feeling like almost a part-time job really. So I love simplicity and, yes, this snail, I'm still using it. It's great under my eyes and on my neck and neckline, feeling very hydrated, and it does feel glowy as well. I don't know if that's actually a word, but that's how I feel, and so I probably don't really even need the serum of plenty or not on those spots.

Jacquie:

Anyway, I think I can use it in other areas of my body as a bit of a fix up, though, particularly on some areas of my body that have seen a little extra sun, like the back of my hands. It's interesting that the customer base loved this product but weren't keen on the new formulation because it seemed not to be as effective and they didn't like mixing it themselves at home. Apparently, it's the same formulation, but because they're using this 15% of high-quality vitamin C in the formulation because it's very potent and effective for especially skin that is ageing, but it is unstable and without preservatives it does tend to go off rather quickly. So by mixing it now, it should last for about six months. Some of the reviews are saying people are getting initial reactions, so I'm going to patch test this first up today, and also my plan with this is to use it on the back of one hand for one month and see what difference it's making, and that's actually what the company recommends as well. So I'm going to get it out of the box. I've got a towel here because I'm a bit messy. Just I think I'm going to spill it. I hope I don't, okay.

Jacquie:

So I've got the activator and the main bottle. Apparently I need to squeeze the entire contents of the activator into the plenty bottle. Okay, that's step one. Wish me luck. The bottles are rather small. Okay, the main bottle has a bit of a dropper and the other one is the squeeze bottle. Here we go, squeezing in. Oh, it looks like the bottle of the vitamin C activator is white and looks like liquid. So, like it's, I expected something clear and syrupy, but it looks like cream. So squeezing it in. Okay, I had to pause that because it took a couple of minutes to do and then it bubbled over. So now I'm on to step two and I'm shaking the serum bottle apparently for 30 seconds to activate and dissolve the powder. Oh, and step three is to use. It's now activated. I'll see what colour it is. Apparently, from the reviews, it actually oxidises over the coming month and starts turning a golden colour, but at the moment it's looking sort of quite clear with white bubbles. I hope I've done that correctly.

Jacquie:

Apply to clean, dry skin every morning and or evening. I'm going to put a couple of drops on the back of my hand. There we go. Okay, it feels nice and cool. I'll rub that in. Certainly feels very refreshing too, so I'll keep you posted on how that goes. Actually, that's very different to the snail cream. Actually, that's very different to the snail cream. The snail cream feels lovely and velvety afterwards and hydrating, whereas this has just sunk in very quickly and my skin feels a little, not rough, but dry afterwards.

Jacquie:

I must say I've just smelt it too and I don't like the smell. It's sort of it's a bit stinky. I'm not going to smell it again and describe it to you because I didn't like it. But the good news is I can't smell it if my hand's away from my face. So I don't know. We'll see how that goes. It will have to be very good for me to put up with that smell. You'd be interested in this.

Jacquie:

Tilly just sent me a clip of a carawong call. I'll dig it out. The carawong is a medium-sized bird native to Australia, and it looks a bit like a crow because it's black, but it has yellow eyes. Interestingly, it has a very distinctive call, which is believed to carry messages from the spirit world, the spirit world. It's often seen as a sign of guidance or protection from higher powers. Apparently, it also represents magic and mysticism.

Jacquie:

I love this. Some people even believe that the bird holds the secrets of the universe within its song. So I'll play it for you, okay. It for you, okay. It's time for me to go. I do have a lot more I want to talk to you about, but I'll have to save that till next time. I do need to get a little bit of work done today on my new computer setup. Also. I think I'm going to have to go and wash my hands off or stand outside for a while because I think I put too much of this serum on my hands. Looking forward to hearing how your week goes, I hope your recording goes well, take care. Looking forward to chatting soon and bye for now you.