A date with Sarah-Kate; Kate’s home truths
Sarah-Kate offers some super-savvy advice
Ilearnt a really good new thing this week, so I thought it was about time I updated my annual older and wiser pearls of wisdom. Most things you will already know, but if you’re anything like me, you need to learn some things five or six times before they take. So ...
Never buy shoes that are too small. It’s amazing how convincing a delicious heel and a half-price sale can be, but take it from someone who’s had to give away a lot of footwear – unless you amputate your toes, your tootsies are never going to get smaller. So buy the right size even if it means paying full price. The same goes for all clothes, actually. I have a pair of jeans I bought in 2015 still with the price tag on and still a size I am unlikely to ever be again. Some things need to be done the minute you think of them. This includes going to the loo, shaving your armpits and putting petrol in the car. If you put off these boring but essential chores, you risk wetting your pants, being forced into a sleeveless top while wearing a beard under your arm or running late for the most important meeting of your life because you had to go to the gas station. And there was a queue. And it was raining, so you ruined your hair. Trust your instinct. If there’s a little voice inside you that says, “He’s not right for me”, “It’s not my best look” or, “This job is sucking the life force from my soul”, it pays to listen to it. And better still, to act on it. Never throw away a coat. I learnt this one about 15 years ago, and am still wearing the coat that inspired the advice from someone even older and wiser than me. Also, I really regret the bottle-green one I got rid of in 1998. Let go of the green coat. Some regrets have a life span and things like the green coat should definitely be one of them. Get into cold water backwards. I’m a wuss when it comes to venturing into a pool or the sea. It takes forever as I inch my way deeper and deeper, but I have just discovered that if you turn your back and throw yourself in in reverse, it feels much warmer. Use hairspray on a comb to calm down frizzy flyaways. This is possibly the most life-saving bit of advice you’ll ever get. Just spray the comb, then gently run it over those pesky bits of frizz that ruin an otherwise sleek-ish ’do. Do unto others as you would have done unto you. However – and this is the clincher – if others prefer to do unto everyone else whatever the heck they feel like, don’t get bitter and twisted about it. In fact, don’t get bitter and twisted about anything.
this is the most important one of all. Never listen to advice from someone claiming to be older and wiser, especially if they have frizzy hair and look like their feet hurt.