I’m sure there must be a quick way to reply personally to each comment that is left on this blog, but I’ve never been able to find it.
Which is a big fat bore because I would so like to thank each of you separately for the lovely, heart warming, very personal and supportive messages you left beneath my last post. (Cue bugles.)
I keep expecting the morning to dawn – or more like the 4 am high anxiety breathless wake up – when I am consumed with depression over the ending of the column, but so far the black dog has stayed in its kennel.
I’m sure it’s your warm messages that have helped me avoid it.
You hear in the news people going through personal tragedies, saying how cards and notes from strangers keep them going, and now I understand what they mean.
On the scale of what life can throw at you, this is an irritating – and hopefully temporary - career reversal, not a life crisis, and your support has helped me to keep it in that perspective. If it doesn’t sound too cheesy, I feel cocooned in a big fluffy cloud of kindness.
Thank you all so much.
And if anyone can enlighten me how to reply instantly to individual blog comments, please tell.
PS I have added these images in the spirit of that most optimistic of songs 'My Favourite Things'.
Maggie I was very pleased to read that - you dignified fabulous woman you!
ReplyDeleteFeel free to keep sharing your favourite things. As long as they are more pics of George.
x
I do not know how to action the thankyous of which you speak (I needed a whippersnapper to set up my blog and show me how to do it) but I am very very cross with those B*stards from the SMH for doing this and ruining my otherwise happy reading moment on a Saturday morning. Please write another book immediately in your Georgian Tower because I've finished Shall we dance and as soon as I've finished India's Knight's Comfort and Joy (roll on end of Nov release date)I'll have nothing more to look forward to. Everyone will miss you x
ReplyDeleteMaggie, I have to concur with "This Mid 30's Life" (great sign in name btw)- you have shown nothing but grace and dignity.
ReplyDeleteI, on the other hand, do not feel much of either at the moment. SMH have axed my two favourite columnists; yourself and Lisa Pryor. I looked forward each Saturday to reading both of your words. I am feeling quite bereft! I rely on my Saturday paper for a bit of educated information and good writing. It usually lasts me all weekend as i can not read the Sunday paper - it is pulp, as are the so called light/ lifestyle comments within it!
BTW - I really enjoyed your short story about the woman who could pick up pieces of people's lives from the clothes in the vintage store. A lovely tale well crafted.
xox
so sad to hear your column is ending but you seem to be taking it in your stride. i love your books. i'm hoping i can help with your reply to comments dilemma. To be able to respond via email, you need to go to the moderate comments section of your blog settings and select the box that indicates that you would like to moderate all your incoming comments. That way, you will receive your comments via email first (and publish them once read) and this is how you can reply to each and every one of your adoring fans xx hope that's helped xx
ReplyDeleteHi Maggie
ReplyDeleteStay strong :-)
SSG xxx
i don't think you can: thst functionality is one of the reasons I switched to Wordpress, Sorreee, LLGxx
ReplyDeleteLike Mira Narnie I moderate and then reply when the email comes in (mostly!) unless it's one of those dreadful noreply addresses in which case I try to leave a comment on my own blog to answer those. Hope that helps
ReplyDeleteAdored Shall We Dance but as usual read it far too quickly so now it is over...damn!
Keep writing here and I will keep following.
Maggie, you are the epitome of grace under fire. Just wonderful.
ReplyDeleteMy all time favourite column of yours was the one where you used the phrase "Itch my eye" in reference to little things that bother us. The phrase has become part of my vocabulary and sums up the situation perfectly.
♥
hi Maggie I follow you but am not always up to date. I too am sorry about your column being axed. That's media for you. Not necessarily about quality but about numbers and space and demographics. Arrgghh.
ReplyDeleteIn blogger you can't 'reply' like you can with Wordpress. The best you can do is monitor your comments (and make them subject to your approval) then when you publish them you can also put a little comment response in at the same time. Hope that helps. If you need more instructions just email me.
JANE
I bit the bullet this afternoon and told my 82 year old Mother that your column was finishing.
ReplyDeleteShe was (as I expected) horrified!
She said ...I always read that column first.
My Mother is an avid reader ...never misses the herald ..
She's going to write in and complain.
I knew she would!
She will be delighted I have told you now.
Dear Maggie
ReplyDeleteI have just finished the luxury that is reading the Good Weekend in some long awaited Sydney sunshine. I was quite shocked to discover that your column is ending. To me it has always like the perfect chocolate treat after eating a fabulous main course. It has always been a good feeling to know that your column was there waiting for consumption in the last pages of each GW issue. Not the main part of the meal but the essential complement to complete it. The cherry on top.
I have to say that sometimes (and especially during stressful life crises - such as my sister's darkest hours of breast cancer treatment) you would make me really bad tempered that you would blather on about the perfect cotton handkerchief or some other inanity, when there really are more important things to worry about .... But over the years I have taken much enjoyment from your feminine commentary, witty turn of phrase and shared love of good face creams and cardigans. These things are not what makes the world turn, but they do make a girl feel good (like your lovely George pics), so you have contributed in some small way to the happiness of many. Take comfort that there are few people who can make that claim.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and you will go on to create another glorious chapter in your life. I wish you good fortune, warmth and happiness and send you sincere thanks for providing many of us with something to smile about over many many Good Weekends.
Sarah
PS I have never written on a blog before in my life, so it shows that I feel strongly about this!
I've read your column every week of those 12 years and will miss you sorely. Never buying the Age again! Thanks for all the insights. You were spot on the money so many times. Will buy your new book so you don't starve. And will read your blogs, have added to favorites. Xx
ReplyDeleteMaggie, I always saved your column to read last after I'd read all the worthy things I felt I had to read to stay educated and current. As others have expressed far more eloquently than me, it was most certainly the item to be savoured like a piece of delicious macaroon or other sweet- not necessary, but mouth wateringly enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteHaving just made the move to my own laptop, instead of sharing the one that's used by the man of the house for game playing, I feel like I made that move at just the right time. But of course feel sorry for those like my dear mother who will need to depend on regular supply of print outs. I know she will see this as another sign of the end of civilisation.
Jo
Hi Maggie,
ReplyDeleteI own two cars, a V8 and a high performance turbo thing. I like to drink beer and bang nails into things.
I loved your column, even though I didn't 'get' the clothes/fashion thing, because you write well and can communicate so very well. Passion for things is always interesting.
I am surprised you were cancelled. All the best!
ps: I have red, dry Celt skin and have seen many specialists and tried many drugs. Olay Pro-X is the best I have found for dryness, other than scrip Cortisone cream, which has many problems. Doesn't help with redness though. Do you have a thread on this topic on your blog? Must have missed that column.
Your column is absolutely the first thing I turn to in the Good Weekend. When I read the Last Post on Saturday I literally got teary, felt like I was losing my very best friend.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your wit, grace, charm, humour, intelligence. And your books! Even though I'm in my sixties now, your words and fashion advice always hit home.
(PS. I always think of your column when I peg my clothes on the line - your tip about pegging the underarms was fantastic. )
I too shall miss your column in the Good Weekend Maggie - my gay best friend texted me and said without you the magazine in now officially unreadable!
ReplyDeleteI loved Shall we Dance and I eagerly await your next book - keep 'em coming.
Lastly, cool pic of Keef (I've just read his book too! What an eye opener!). And George...in the words of Carrie Bradshaw, he's a classic who never goes out of style!
Maggie, I only realised yesterday what has happened to your column. Just had to write to say that like so many others, your column was my favourite read in the SMH, not just GW but for the whole week. How disappointing for all of your readers and a huge loss.
ReplyDeleteSorry to see you go, Maggie. I too loved your tip about pegging the underarms, although my mother refused to be swayed and continues to have peg marks on her clothes!!
ReplyDeleteHi Maggie, just wanted to say I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU ARE GONE! Seriously, each week i dive straight for your column even though i am an extremely unfashionable dag! Those really boring issues with 52 weekends away will now have NOTHING to redeem them. Thank you for making me laugh and cry and really i reckon they will be swamped with calls to bring you back - hopefully.xxxx
ReplyDeleteHi Maggie,
ReplyDeleteStupid Good Weekend. There is no point buying it now! Will miss your lovely column. Chin up. I'm sure something so much more wonderful will come along. In the mean time I will follow your blog, buy your books and enjoy your tweets!
Lisa
I wish I could reply to all of these personally.
ReplyDeleteJust to tell you that you can now read my column every Saturday at my new blog http://maggiealdersonstylenotes.wordpress.com/
On that site I can reply to each comment... xxx
Maggie
ReplyDeleteI love your column and am an avid fan of all your books. I couldnt believe that this is your last column, so much so that last week I had a double check in the Good Weekend to see if it had been a cruel joke - Saturdays wont be the same and the SMH definitely has something to answer for.
Hang in there and surely commone sense will prevail and you will be back! We can always hope.
I still remember anecdotes from your columns from years ago - I remember one saying that you had spent all the time whilst you were renovating looking forward to the time when you could do the soft cushions and furnishings and by the time you got to that point you could face it - I went through a similar experience myself. Or the pleasure one gets from putting order into one small cupboard or drawer - as a Virgo I can appreciate.
Thanks for putting that little but of sweet into each Saturday!
Adrien (Early 40's Virgo)
PS I have also never posted on a blog before
Maggie,
ReplyDeleteI have missed your column dreadfully since moving from my native Australia to your native UK almost 6 years ago. I have been luckily in Australia when each of your two most recent books have been released there, thus avoiding the extra months wait here in the UK. I was over the moon to discover this blog.
Please, please, please do keep posting. 'Style notes' or some re-booted, ever-more-marvellous version thereof *needs* to be shared with the world (or at least this avid, displaced fan).
Oh dear, I've just noticed the new blog address... Rightio then - see you there!
Idiots. What fool made that decision at smh? I'd love to know the reason, surely not because you now live in the UK. Honestly, the SMH is getting more and more parochial. With the onset of children, one who is 4, the other 8 weeks old, my reading of the Saturday paper had shrunk to your column. It was alway the first thing I read anyway in case I didn't have time to get to the rest, which, now I don't. And Spectrum books (the only other bit I ever read) has gone to the dogs too. Thank God for this blog so I can get my reading inspiration from a trusted source. I'm ashamed to say I haven't read any of your novels, although I have read and loved your short story about. The vintage clothes shop. Christmas present to self this year: Shall We Dance. Keep up the fabulous posts and thank you for the last 12 years.
ReplyDelete