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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 2 (May 1, 1936)

Our Women's Section — Timely Notes and Useful Hints

page 57

Our Women's Section
Timely Notes and Useful Hints.

Of particular interest in the mannequin parade were the evening toilettes. Furs, velvets, satins, paraded in a glamorous mist of colour. Only by concentration could one escape the general effect and note a particular model.

First, I looked for line. Gowns were sheath-like, with or without floating draperies; bouffant from a fitted hipline; sharply cut by the line of peplum, blouse or jacket. Materials were such as suited the type of frock—chiffon, georgette or ninon; satin, crepe or matelasse; velvet, lame or brocade. Many of the filmy fabrics were threaded with metal in silver or gold. Colours ranged from pastel tints for the dainty double-pug-sleeved affair of the debutante, through the rich shimmer of renaissance shades to the dark lustre of velvet.

* * *

Try to picture a cabaret frock in burgundy, embroidered with gold thread; a slim skirt, lustrous in black velvet, topped by a blouse or tailored jacket in silver lame or brocade; a frock in clinging lace with a cape shoulder; a tunic gown, the tunic with its fullness held at the waistline and swinging out with peplum effect over the clinging skirt; a longer tunic, sheath-like, over a pleated underdress; a glorious gown in misty-grey finely pleated chiffon, held at the waist-line with cerise; a green taffeta gown swinging out at neck and hemline in stiff quilting; chiffon again with wing sleeves (fairly short and square ended, or else falling low to a point) effectively lined in contrast.

* * *

Evening coats, cloaks and capes are more interesting than they have been for many years. Among the furs, the short fur cape, especially in white, is prominent. A charming version had black ermine tail-tips in an unusual design at the neck-line. The capes may have a round neck unadorned, or a high collar giving an Elizabethan

For Evenings.

effect. A long white fur coat, plain save for ermine tails near the hemline, looked regal on a tall, dark girl.

* * *

Velvet wraps lead for richness and comfort. Black is usual, but any shade looks well. Many of the coats are long, from three-quarters to slipper length. Voluminous sleeves of the bishop variety are featured. One model had very full sleeves with shirring smoothing the shoulder-line and holding the fabric tight to the wrist. A hood, reminiscent of a monk, an Eskimo, or a renaissance beauty, frames the coiffure or is pushed back in soft folds round the neck. The very plainest wraps arc adorned by one large ornamental clasp of mediaeval design. Black cloaks are often lined with a brilliant colour.

* * *

Evening purses glitter with beads, sequins, diamente, jewels. Shoes match frock materials, or shine silver or golden to match trimmings, jewelled ornaments or belts.

A dinner-dance dress boasts a tailored jacket of silver lame. Have your evening blouse softly draped in lace, pleated in georgette, high-cowled in satin, gleaming in lame or brocade.

Looking Back.

One of the stock jokes of the world is the elderly club bore, who repeats, oblivious to the fidgetings and stifled yawns of his more polite acquaintance, anecdotes of his boyhood, youngmanhood or middle years. In all of these, be it noted, he figures as rather a fine person, the kind of person who not only has things happen to him, but makes them happen to others. “He's getting old, poor old chap!” we excuse him by saying—and continue our efforts to avoid conversation.

How much worse is it to meet the still fairly young bore whom old age, in the form of grouching, inertia, loss of ambition, has seized too soon; the man who looks back on what he did a few years ago and, with a brave attempt at self-importance, says, “Look! Such a man I was then! There were possibilities—I've never followed them up, but you see what I might have done.” Poor thing! He listens with a wistful look to the doer, the man whose life is so active that he can find time for even more interests, grasping them eagerly. The has-been thinks, “I started off on that road once” —and leaves it at that.

In all of us, of course, there is a sneaking admiration for what we were once. Perhaps the greatest pleasure of retrospection lies in glorifying our distant selves. But retrospection is good only in small doses. To the young bore we feel like saying, “Look back by all means—for a while. See what in you was admirable, and realise that you still possess those qualities. Decide to develop them, now! Look back in future only to measure your own rate of progress.”

The pleasure to be gained from being now is insuperably greater than that of having been. Take your place with the doers, the place that you know belongs to you by right of the qualities that are in you, the place for which you were shaping yourself those years ago when you admired yourself. Do that, gaining happiness in proportion to effort. Do that, and page 58 be to-day the person you were, plus what the years and your own striving have added unto you.

* * *

Colour In The Kitchen.

Kitchen maids, dark cellars, black beetles, small windows peering out below the street level, great drab rooms whose activities revolved perpetually about the grimy wood and coal consuming cooking contraption so inadequately termed the kitchen range —all this has so often supplied the local colour in novels, depicting the Victorian domestic scene that even the post-war generation is familiar with it.

* * *

The revolution in kitchen affairs commenced, no doubt, soon after the introduction of gas for cooking purposes. It was found that gas was a much cleaner cooking medium than coal had been, and it was no longer necessary to have the kitchen walls of a hue “that wouldn't show the dirt.“Even the galvanized iron protective backing for the earlier gas-stoves, and the impressive “extinguisher” top were soon painted, as the washable qualities of paint were more and more realised. Strangely it was discovered that light, pleasant hues, even dead-white, were kept as easily clean as the drab colours.

* * *

The introduction of electricity hastened the change which was already under way. Gloomy skirting-boards and dadoes disappeared from the newer kitchens. Light crept into them. Slowly architects came to realise the importance of the workroom of the home. With the disappearance of long terraces of semidetached houses and the evolution of the bungalow, the kitchen became the subject of careful planning. Efficiency experts calculated how many steps a woman was required to take a day from cunboard to stove, from sink to table. Model kitchens were planned, with the aid of painters and decorators who supplied glossy-finish paints and enamels for walls and ceilings, and crisp, gay cottons for window drapes.

* * *

And now we have the modern kitchen, large enough for comfort, but small enough for step-saving, planned for efficiency with its electric refrigerator, heat-controlled cooker, fitted closed-in dresser, vegetable rack, folding ironing-board and table. Some kitchens boast a glass-topped table or a marble slab for pastry set in the bench. The tiled surround of the sink winks back at the glossy enamelled walls which heat, moisture and grime cannot spoil.

There are so many possible colour schemes. For a south room I suggest the palest of yellows for walls and cupboards, and ivory for the ceiling, with a contrast in blue or green for cupboard handles, linoleum or floor mats.

* * *

Floor-mats in the kitchen, for colour and cleanliness, should be of rubber. Throw out that grubby bit of axminster, even if it is warm under your feet on cold days. Rubber will insulate you just as well. Keep a rubber mat, too, for placing in the sink when washing up your best party china. Remember that curtains with a rubber finish can be bought for kitchen or bathroom.

For a room with a northerly aspect, or one where the use of gas or a coal stove may raise the temperature considerably, cooler walls in a soft shade of blue or green are advisable. A little judicious warmth of colouring may be introduced even in the saucepans, those of coloured enamel being very popular.

* * *

A kitchen of the modern type provides a cheerful environment for small meals—breakfast or a light lunch. The kitchen linen, of course, is part of the harmonious whole. Some homes have a dining-alcove off the kitchen. The alcove may have a colour scheme of its own, but I prefer to have it en suite with the kitchen, the whole necessarily being planned to look slightly less utilitarian.

* * *

Linoleum seems one of the best finishes for the kitchen floor. Buy for quality, and even then protect the space by sink and stove with mats (of rubber). The linoleum designers, of late, have given special attention to kitchens. A word of warning about checks—they look well, especially when the eye is drawn to checked gingham curtains to match, but their immaculate appearance is easily besmirched. An all-over mottled effect is better for the much-used kitchen.

A visit to an auctioneer will probably unearth an old office stool which, duly enamelled, will prove a boon to the housewife who so often, unthinkingly, stands to prepare vegetables, stir sauces, beat eggs. Remember that, in the kitchen, you are as young as your legs.

Health Notes.

Already we find a nip in the air and a shrink in the day, and although summer has not been too kind to us, we fondly hope that winter will favour us, for winter with its attendant ills is now not far away. Then let us put our human house in order so that we may the better be able to withstand the rigours of the season.

Nor need this preparation be on an elaborate scale as, given a normal body and a wholesome mind, the preservation of good health is a simple matter.

To those afflicted with illness or infirmity, more assistance is necessary. But even these people can con-siderably help by paying attention to the rules pertaining to the normally healthy ones.

As we have told you before, the ills to which the flesh is heir are usually caused by some agent of infection entering the body when below par. Now please note those last three words, “when below par,” and at the same time realise that if the body is at par, any invading organism has but a very poor chance of developing its “disease-producing” activities. Now, bearing this in mind, and when we tell you the simple methods by which you can keep your body tone at par, you will no doubt take steps to ensure a safe passage through the coming winter. The only trouble is, that as the methods are so simple and commonplace it is an easy matter to overlook them when busy or postpone them when disinclined.

page 59

Now, taking the daily cycle of 24 hours, the old wiseacres divided it out fairly well, except as regards remuneration—“Eight hours work, eight hours play, eight hours sleep, and eight bob a day.”

Taking these three periods seriatim:

1. Work:

It is essential that as far as possible the day's toil be evenly distributed over the working hours, thus regulating the expending of energy and conserving the vital forces upon which rush efforts are only an undue strain.

Maintain regular hours, as regularity is the keynote of good health, not only as regards work, but as regards every thing connected with one's life.

2. Play:

“He who knows not work, knows not the joy of play.”

We may not be able to choose our work, but we can, more or less, choose our play, and it is just as essential that we play, as it is that we work.

Here again, play has to be chosen and regulated in accordance with one's vital forces, and games and exercises must be in keeping with the build and physique of each individual.

Many plead lack of opportunity with regard to exercise, but this is not a valid excuse, as physical fitness can be well maintained by setting aside ten minutes night and morning for a few physical “jerks” which can be carried out in the confines of a bathroom. Naturally, the outdoor games provide a much more pleasant means for exercise, but if not attainable, an instructor will, for a few shillings, outline simple exercises suitable for the individual which can be carried out at home.

Here, again, remember that regularity is the essence of the contract, and that to be effectual these indoor exercises must be faithfully performed.

Above all, avoid the so-called “potted” exercise, by which we mean concentrating the week's exercise into the week-end; a proceeding which might dangerously strain and injure one's health, and which will certainly leave one with that “Monday morning feeling” more accentuated than ever. In other words, maintain your fitness by doing your daily “jerks” night and morning, then the week-end's play will leave you feeling so fit that on Monday morning you will almost go in and ask for a rise.

3. Sleep:

If regularity be essential in connection with work and play, it is almost more so in connection with sleep— that elusive state which blots out the worries of the day, rests mind and body, and fits one to wrestle with the problems of the day to come. Few people realise the value of the socalled “Beauty Sleep,” or, in other words, the sleep procured before the hour of midnight. The saying goes, “One before is worth two after”; nor do we regard this as an exaggeration, for sleep lost before midnight can rarely be made up by extra hours in the morning. Have a regular hour for retiring and a regular hour for rising, and in so doing you will ensure that sleep which is so essential for one's health of mind and body.

4. Eight Bob a Day!

No good, you say? Quite right, too! But remember this will increase in direct proportion to the attention you give to the fitness of your mind and body. You have been given something worth-while, but the onus is on you to keep that something worth while, and in so doing to make it even more worth while.

In summing up, remember regularity of routine is the keynote to health, happiness and prosperity, but at the same time we realise that an occasional “blow out” judiciously arranged does us all good.

We are just going off for one ourselves, and in our next month's notes will go further into the subject of the care of the body.

Recipes.

The following are good and tried recipes:—

Sardines Creamed.

Tablespoonful butter (or less), 1 ¼ cups breadcrumbs, 1 cup milk, 2 eggs.

When thoroughly melted, add 2 hard-boiled eggs chopped small and a tin of mashed sardines. Season to taste. Serve very hot on toast.

* * *

Fry and Bacon.

A tasty way of cooking fry and bacon is to wrap the bacon round the fry, cut in thin strips; fasten with a toothpick and cook in the oven for about twenty-five minutes.

* * *

Meats and Their Accompaniments.

Roast Beef (tomato sauce, grated horse radish, mustard and pickles), Roast Pork (apple sauce). Roast Veal (tomato sauce, onion sauce, mushroom sauce). Roast Mutton (currant jelly, caper sauce). Boiled Mutton (onion sauce, caper sauce). Boiled Fowl (bread sauce, onion, lemon sauce). Roast Lamb (mint sauce). Roast Turkey (currant jelly). Boiled Turkey (oyster sauce). Venison (currant jelly). Roast Goose (apple sauce, currant jelly).

* * *

For a recipe book I suggest the loose-leaf system. The book will lie flat when open. Pages may be removed, inserted or rearranged at will. A linen cover protects the book and will renew its freshness in any wash.