Let's talk about the unspoken consequences of unemployment

When we hear about unemployment in the mainstream media we generally only hear about the number of people who are out of work. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported in October 2025 that unemployment was sitting at 4.4%. That number only gives us information about the percentage of people who don’t have any type of employment. It doesn’t however give us any details about the consequences of being out of work.

Today that’s what I intend to do. I will talk about what to do when you lose your job and then I’ll go into the effects of unemployment on a person’s life and here’s a hint. They aren’t just financial. The consequences extend far beyond that.

No matter what the reason for the job loss whether it’s due to downsizing, restructuring, redundancy or something else, losing a job will absolutely suck. Most people actually go through some or all of the stages of grief when they lose their job. They may be angry, or in denial, shocked, become withdrawn, lose their confidence or ask “why me?” The latter is most common when there was no indication that they were going to lose their job. 

These reactions are not gender specific, with anyone who has lost their job experiencing them. Even if there were signs you were going to lose your job you may still exhibit them, however the good news is that they are temporary, so they won’t last forever.

It’s even possible that losing a job could bring up other losses that you haven’t dealt with, for example you may have lost a friend or family member several years ago and the job loss brings it to the surface, which leads to compounding emotions.

 
The severity of how you react after losing your job will depend on if you’ve experienced job loss before, how you deal with general crises, whether or not you have support from friends or family and if you have someone to talk to.

Those are the common immediate emotional reactions to job loss but of course there are also financial implications to losing your job. If you do not have savings or unemployment insurance then you may struggle more than someone who is prepared. That means that you will not be able to meet your everyday expenses or if you can you will only be able to pay for your accommodation and will have absolutely no money left over. Worst case scenario you will be forced into homelessness and will either literally live on the street, or if you’re lucky then you’ll have friends or family you can stay with. The other possibility is that if you have a vehicle you’ll have to start living in your vehicle. Although the circumstances that may have forced you into living in your vehicle aren’t great there is actually an upside to what’s known as “Vanlife” and you can actually convert your van into a proper home on wheels, though you may not be able to make any modifications or upgrades until you have a new job.

Not having enough money can cause a person all sorts of problems outside of not being able to meet their basic living expenses. There is the stress that goes with having no money. Let’s look at a hypothetical person. When they were working they would go to the pub once a week with their friends, but now that they’re out of work they can’t do that so aside from having the hassle of trying to find a new job they now have the added pressure of being isolated and not being able to see their friends.

Basically in the worst case scenario they will be stuck at home in front of the TV or radio; or if they’re lucky then they’ll have access to a computer or mobile phone. While that sounds like it could be fun, it actually comes with risks. Sitting in front of a screen for any extended period of time is not healthy and has been linked to a number of conditions including depression, anxiety and overeating which can in turn lead to obesity. They are likely to watch TV because they simply don’t have anything else to do. It’s not like they have a job to go to and because they do not have enough money they can’t go out and see their friends or do other things either. The other negative to sitting in front of a screen is that people tend to eat more because they are distracted and less inclined to notice if they are full. They are also more likely to make poor eating choices when they are eating.  We'll chat about the importance of exercise in another blog.

While a person is unemployed in addition to not having funds and watching more TV (or a screen on another device) they are also at a greater risk of gaining weight due to poorer habits and not being able to participate in physical activity. This is a huge risk for someone who normally goes to a gym. When they have a significantly lower income they won’t be able to afford the gym and may gain weight and subsequently be at a greater risk of other health problems. Essentially, losing a job does not just affect a person’s financial health. It can also affect a person’s mental and physical health and that can take months, if not years to repair.

This is why sacking someone is actually one of the lowest things a person or a company can do. Unless a person has stolen from you or broken the law there is actually no reason to sack them. People can always improve and do better in a job but unfortunately a lot of managers are impatient and don’t consider the consequences that sacking someone can have on their life, either that or they simply don’t care. Whatever the answer is it’s a pretty low thing to do. There are companies in Australia who will literally sack a person just because they do not like them. Unfortunately Australian law allows this to happen but again, it’s unjustified and a really nasty thing to do because doing so doesn’t just affect a person’s finances. It also affects every other area of their life by isolating them from their friends, preventing them from exercising and harming their mental and physical health as a result of each of those things.

So now that you’ve heard about what the consequences of unemployment actually are, let’s talk about what you can do to minimise the impact.

1 - Maintain a daily routine. That may be that you get up every day at a certain time and then do your daily activities on a schedule. Doing so will help you maintain some sense of normality. Ensure you still get up at a regular time so that you can easily get back into a routine when you have a job again.

2 - Apply for jobs. When you’re unemployed it is much easier to feel in control of the situation when you’re actively trying to improve it rather than just waiting around for things to improve, and let’s be honest. Things won’t improve unless you work towards it.

3 - Don’t take it personally. Losing a job absolutely sucks but it is never personal, though in some ways that actually makes it worse because it’s just a matter of circumstance. In some cases it may feel personal but often it isn’t and often it’s a result of issues within a particular company. The most important thing to know is that Australian companies actually have a very high rate of sacking staff. Although it is impossible to find exact figures on the number of companies who have sacked staff, several articles published in various Australian mainstream media like The Australian and news.com.au show that around a third of them plan to lay off staff. 

There is also a huge loophole in Australian employment law that allows companies to do this but we’ll get into that in another blog.

Here's why I am so sick of AI and why it is a bad thing

I don’t know about you but I am truly sick of AI. It’s actually beyond a joke at this point in time. I’m not talking about things that make life genuinely easier like digital maps or having a calculator on your phone. I’m talking about the things that literally make you go WTAF.

Those things are of course copy and pasting other people’s information and palming it off as your own. You know what I’m talking about. I’m talking about students who use AI services to write essays or “journalists” and I use that term loosely because I read an article today that had basically been copied from Wikipedia, with the exception of a quote from the City of Sydney. The article was about Macdonaldtown, which is known for its train station and nearby suburb Erskineville, which swallowed up the former in an attempt to improve public opinion of the suburb after a number of babies were killed by a couple, John and Sarah Makin in the late 1800s.

That is just one area where the use of AI is getting excessive. In the last 24 hours Google has announced that they are now going to summarise emails. For those of you who don’t already know, Adobe Acrobat attempts to summarise PDFs. Now I don’t know who needs to hear this but I, and many others are perfectly capable of reading and writing. We don’t actually need or want a robot to think for us. I’m capable of thinking for myself as well and there is no way in hell I would trust Google to judge what I would and wouldn’t find important in an email.

Then there’s the matter of privacy. If Google is summarising emails then that means their servers are holding onto private data against people’s will and using that data to train AI.

I get it though. There’s a bunch of tech bros who can’t communicate and plenty more who don’t even know how to read and write but I really don’t see how stopping people performing basic tasks such as reading and writing is actually helping anyone. If anything it is actually going to dumb people down even more and lead to a greater decline in literacy rates. A report from the ABC on the 14th of July 2025 shows that generally speaking, young men are less likely to read and older women are more likely to read. This could explain why tech bros are so obsessed with removing the need to read and write. Getting back to the statistics, statistics show that only 10.1% of males aged 15 - 24 read on any given day. That figure is from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.  Gen Z teenage girls and young women were not far behind. On the other hand, 23% of Generation X read, compared to 12% of Generation X males. Across ALL age groups however women are more likely to read than their male counterparts.

Anna Burkey, president of book industry initiative Australia Reads told the ABC that part of the reason why boys and men have lower reading rates is because they don’t see themselves reflected. Well, I don’t know about you, but I would’ve thought the way to be reflected in these art forms was actually to participate in them rather than trying to completely obliterate them which is what these tech bros appear to be trying to do.

More alarmingly, 44% of Australians have literacy problems. Rather than relying on AI to solve something as basic as reading and writing, which just dumbs down future generations, wouldn’t it be better to actually educate people? Removing people’s need to read and write only harms the country generally speaking. There are grown adults in Australia who don’t even know the difference between he’s and his, as in words spelt he apostrophe s and h I s. They literally think these words have the same meaning. That’s just one example of Australians not knowing an English concept that is taught in primary school. The United States is not better than Australia, with 21% of Americans being illiterate.

What’s even more alarming is that literacy rates are actually declining. If people are not required to read and write for work those statistics will only drop further they will struggle with basic things such as filling out forms, finishing high school, completing university, accessing job training and building a progressive career. Ultimately that will affect their socio-economic positioning.

I’m getting sidetracked though, aside from the negative education and economic consequences of AI, there is also the consequence of not being able to access different views and information. How many times recently have you been doing a Google Search and you’re instantly struck with “AI Overview”. I don’t know about you but I find it so annoying. There is a way to avoid this though. When you search for something you can type the minus key followed by A I and you won’t get the AI overview so you’ll have the ability to view different websites rather than a summarised version, which may not even be correct.

Reading and writing aren’t the only areas that will suffer with a growing reliance on AI, so too will the arts, entertainment and customer service sectors. I’ll address each of those things separately.

More and more social media content is being generated by AI, which is damaging to the arts. There is no creativity that actually goes into creating it and there’s no heart. Most art is generated through lived experiences. While AI can technically create content that is consumed, it doesn’t have the same soul that art that is generated by humans does because it’s not a lived experience. Then there is the fact that a lot of content that is created by AI doesn’t actually make sense. The stories tend to jump around and don’t have any cohesion. While some people say that AI allows those who can’t create art to participate I would argue that they would be better to spend the time living, consuming REAL art created by humans and practicing their craft. That is the only way they will actually get better.

Over the last few months there has also been commentary about an AI actress being in a movie, as a performer myself I can 100% say that pixels on a screen with an artificial voice do not constitute being an actress. Only someone with human emotions can be considered an actress or a musician. The same applies to writing. Only someone who writes themselves can be considered a writer. I really want to know why the arts are being specifically targeted by these tech bros and why people are trying to erase the arts.

The other thing that is suffering because of the increasing reliance on AI is customer service. How many times have you contacted a company to try and get an issue resolved only to be hit with an AI Chatbot? Here’s the thing. If the problem could be solved by a computer do these companies not think that we would have tried to do that first. Sending a message and forcing people to be in an endless loop with a chatbot is no substitute for human customer service.

People need to reject the increasing attempts by tech companies to kill the arts by refusing to use their services. I know I for one thing will never use the likes of Chat GPT, Gmail’s summarise feature or Google search’s AI overview. I would rather look at a range of sources to get the information I require and I would rather write myself than have a computer do it for me. These companies trying to force AI on us will soon go out of business if they don’t stop trying to force their AI garbage on us.

Here's the issue with the sale of two properties in Redfern

So I read on Facebook earlier today that Scape has paid $50 million to buy 1-8 Woodburn Street and 175-177 Cleveland Street.

For those who aren't familiar with Sydney, this is the location at 175-177 Cleveland Street. As you can see from this picture taken from Google Maps, there are two Scapes within a two block radius.

 

The second image shows where the next Scape on Cleveland Street is. The brick building is the only one that separates the Scapes. Undoubtedly the value of apartments in the brick building will decrease if it's surrounded by accommodation that can only be rented by students. The orange and green building at the back is also a Scape and is the former location of "the block".

  

The third picture shows 1-8 Woodburn Street, and the building does admittedly need to be renovated, however it would be much better to be constructed into LONG TERM apartments that can be rented by everyone, not just student apartments that do absolutely nothing to alleviate the housing crisis. The other point is there is absolutely no reason for FOUR Scapes to be within a one block radius of eachother.

 

The fifth photo shows Woodburn Street from another location and if this development, which I will be opposing proceeds another set of lights will need to be installed at the below location.

 

Next door at 179 Cleveland Street is Hotel Hacienda, which upon further investigation, the website shows the building's website as being managed by Scape, which increases the number of Scapes to five in a four block radius. How much is Scape paying the council to have these builds pushed through? This looks extremely fishy to me.

For those of you who don't know, Scape is an international accommodation provider that specifically targets students. You cannot stay in their apartments unless you are a student.  They compete against companies like Iglu, Unilodge, Accolade and Y Suites.

I've looked into what these accommodation providers offer and they are basically ensuite bedrooms. The average size of these "apartments" is 18-22 SQM. You get a hot plate, a microwave, a single bed, a shower and a desk and that's basically it. You don't have proper laundry facilities, nor do you have proper kitchen facilities. You also can't have guests over and you can't cook either. Basically the reality is that they are glorified boarding houses by another name.

Then there are the prices. To rent one of these ridiculously tiny "apartments" that are smaller than the average lounge you need to pay anywhere from $559 for a twin share dormitory to $919 for a 25SQM "ultra apartment". An Ultra Apartment will get you a double bed, a shower, a desk, a bathroom, a hot plate and a microwave. For context, that is smaller than the average apartment in Redfern and it is also more expensive than the average rental, which ranges anywhere from $300 - $800 for a room in a flat or $800 in a one bedroom apartment. Some apartments do go for more than $800.

That's not the biggest issue with these new builds. The biggest issue with these new builds is that they are not legitimate apartments. They are ensuite bedrooms that are marketed as apartments. They do not have private laundries or a full kitchen so if you want to cook your food rather than using Uber Eats or DoorDash forget about it. Forget about doing your laundry anytime you want. You'll need to pay $3-$10 for a single load and forget about having guests over because that's not permitted either.

The other issue with these new builds is that they can only be rented by students and the average tenancy agreement is only 44 weeks rather than a full 52 weeks. I'm sure that can be extended though should someone wish to but that's not the point. It's not just students who need accommodation in inner Sydney and people certainly don't need accommodation at artificially inflated prices. 

With the number of Scape and Iglu buildings going up I have absolutely no doubt that these companies have bribed the city council and/or state government to get the buildings approved. 

Now these companies and the government would argue that the developments help with the housing crisis but they actually don't because as mentioned, they can only be rented by students.

If the government was really interested in fixing the lack of housing in inner Sydney they wouldn't keep allowing niche housing projects to proceed. They would instead increase height restrictions so buildings can have more levels and they would not allow developments that can only be rented by a small portion of society that don't even have proper facilities.

When I say proper developments, I mean the likes of Meriton Build to Rent or similar which are proper apartment size with proper facilities like a laundry, kitchen and in most cases a balcony. That would actually help with the shortage of housing in Redfern and other inner city suburbs.

People need to start writing to Sydney City Council and the state government because these developments should not be permitted and are not doing anything to increase the amount of suitable long term housing stock. 

EDIT: Based on the NSW Planning website, Scape buildings are co-living and do not meet the minimum requirements to be considered apartments. As previously indicated, they are lowering living standards in the area.

Shortland Street's producers need to get to a hospital fast - Top 10 changes I'd make

I've been watching Shortland Street since 1994. It's one of the first ever TV shows that I started watching and it is the whole reason I got into acting in the first place. Since 1994 there have been some good years during the show's production and some absolutely awful years. Despite that I haven't ever really stopped watching.

That was until last year. After a really bad 2024 the show was cut down to three episodes a week due to budget constraints and problems with viewing numbers due to the rise in the number of people streaming and not watching linear/analogue/live TV. Most people these days who have a television only have it for dedocation or just use the applications on it rather than actually watching live TV.

That is just one of the many problems with Shortland Street though there are many more and I will detail them in this blog post.  Before you ask why I still have a blog in 2026 when most people have vlogs, the answer is quite simple. I prefer the written word and would rather write content than read content. That's not to say I wouldn't start a YouTube channel, I do have one. I just don't feel like posting videos. The written word is way more authentic for me and there's less need to perform, which is weird given I'm an actor and ernjoy being on camera.

Anyway, moving on from that and into the purpose of the blog. Here are some changes I would make to the show to get it back to its glory days.

1 - Re-introduce non-hospital sets

While some drama absolutely takes place in the hospital, normally the ED department, the best place for drama is at someone's house/apartment, the local bar, the local cafe, the local school or exterior locations like a beach or the street. The show lacks a big financial budget so that's no issue. In 1992 Chris's apartment was first introduced. Two years later Grace's apartment was introduced but they were actually the same set refurnished based on whose apartment was being filmed in. It gets very boring watching a show with only one or two hospital sets.

Retire the Molly's set. It is one of the worst bar sets the show has ever had and is absoultely awful. There also hasn't been a cafe set since the 2022 season finale when there was the Ferndale fire.  A cafe set needs to be re-introduced rather than just filming the staff outside having lunch or coffee. Even having a caravan with a couple of seats would be oky if the budget doesn't allow for a completely new set to be built.

 2 - Reduce the number of medical storylines

If people wanted to watch Grey's Anatomy or some equivalent show they would. If they wanted to watch a medical documentary they would. Basically the excessive use of medical storylines becomes boring and there's no reason to tune in every episode. 

 3 - Re-introduce a family and personal relationships

People tune into the show for relationships and want drama. Without a family you don't have drama. Without teenagers you don't have drama. Without parents you don't have drama. Without interpersonal relationships whether that's romantic relationships, friendships or sworn enemies you do not have drama.  That also provides opportunities for weddings and funerals, neither or which the show has had in at least a couple of years. Introduce a proper group of teenagers so they can interact with eachother rather than casting a teenager and giving them adult storylines like they did with Cassie.

4 - Stop recycling storylines

It gets really boring seeing Esther pregnant basically every single year. Just because the actor is pregnant in real life does not mean that needs to be written into the show. Women can have storylines other than being pregnant. Ther'es opportunities for love triangles, career issues, attempted murder, mental health issues etc.

5 - Don't refuse to cast white women

The last couple of years the producers have been happy to cast white men, coloured men, but for some reason refuse to cast white women which is outright racism and reduces relatability. Look through previous cast photos and you'll see the cast was actually MORE diverse in the 90s than it is now. It's outright exclusionary at this point and the producers will aliente the few viewers they have left if they don't do something about this. Bringing back former cast members like Rachel and Libby does not count. There are no NEW white women being cast. That is an actual fact. Race doesn't need to be a character's sole identity either. Look back on episodes from the 90s and you'll see it was just a part of who they were but wasn't their entire personality. On that, don't pair characters just for diversity sake. The reality is Chris Warner would never ever look at someone like Selina, yet they've been paired and it just suspends belief based on the character's 33 year history.

 6 - Quit with the time jumps

TV is supposed to be escapism. It suspends reality if there is a time jump between the season finale and the season return. It just looks like sloppy writing and leaves so many unanswered questions. If budget is the issue then film the season return at the same time as the season finale and THEN take the end of year break. It's also really anti climactic if there's a time jump and reduces possible drama. Shortland Street is a serial not a movie and shouldn't be written as a movie.

7 - Bring back the fun storylines

In the 90s there were some crazy storylines like a wedding ring being caught in a fish and arguments over who would have the trolley round. The producers needs to introduce the fun back  into the show rather than just having depressing storylines.

 8 - Don't butcher characters

There are so many characters recently that have been absolutely butchered like HarryWarner (this can be fixed by doing a stolen identity storyline like with Samara in 2001), Nicole Miller, Maeve Mullens and Harper Whitley. If a character has exhausted their usefulness then write them out. Don't keep them on the show just because you're friends with them. Keep them behind the scenes if you want to keep them employed but don't butcher them.

9 - Introduce a bartender and/or cafe owner

These two positions can actually be combined with the person working between the two or if a couple was brought back like Nick and Waverley or Caroline and Greg they could work in both. It would also open up potential for more storylines and give viewers a break from all the hospital sets which became really repetitive and boring after a while. 

10 - Adopt a digital first approach. Rather than targeting traditional networks simply make the show available on the TVNZ website at a small price for a subscription regardless of geographical location. Nobody wants to wait six months for a whow to be shown at a specific time anymore. That's simply not what people's viewing habits are anymore. Change with the times.

 There are so many other changes I would make but these are the top ones. 

 

Thoughts after six weeks of being a cycling food courier

At the start of September I was unceremoniously sacked from my marketing job. It wasn't the first time it has happened but this time it annoyed me more than usual because I had done everything I possibly could to ensure that the job was a success - putting in extra hours and doing whatever was expected but it wasn't enough. Being sacked came after months of being undermined and bullied by several staff members and my boss. My boss was subtle about it though. She was really underhanded.

Anyway, I spent a few weeks furiously applying for new jobs and going on interviews but given it wasn't the first time it had happened and given there was workplace bullying it left a really sour taste in my mouth, especially given how much I enjoyed the role and how good the pay was.

The day I lost the job I interviewed with a call centre that had a rule that you were not only not allowed to use your cellphone, you weren't even allowed to have it out of your bag. Combined with the Google reviews that company had received it was a massive red flag for me so even though I got that role and could have started the following Monday I decided against.  For context, the previous call centres I'd worked in were relaxed about the internet and mobile phone usage provided you met your targets. I quit those because they were mindnumingly boring though.

After rejecting that job I interviewed with other comapnies. One company did a phone interview and two face to face interviews and then never actually got back to me. I later found out from them that there are some internal changes going on so they can't make a decision yet. The downside to that company, apart from their disorganisation is the fact that they wanted five days in the office, which in 2025 is just unrealistic. Hybrid is the best option for employment.  That company still hasn't made a decision so I could still get it and if I did I would probably accept an offer but like a lot of job advertisers I don't think they're actually serious about hiring. 

Four weeks into not having a job I was truly fed up with doing nothing even though I also study acting so I had an idea to buy a bike and start doing food deliveries to take the pressure off while I continued the job search. In the past I would have relied on market research call centres as my back up but the pay is not worth it for the awful conditions. 

I started doing food deliveries just over five weeks ago and despite the pay not being the greatest the best thing about it is the freedom. I literally get to work when I want. If I want to work at 2pm one day and 10pm another day I can do that. It's also really up to me how much money I make. The more I work the more money I make, so I am gradually increasing the amount I work. There are some days when I can't wrok as much because of the weather. If it's raining I decide to stay at home and if it's too hot I won't work, but when that happnes I try to catch up on the lost income the remaining days of the week because I get paid weekly.

There are so many good and bad things about doing food deliveries. The best parts are that I am in total control of when, and how much I work and although there are customers I am not answerable to anyone. I have total freedom. I also love that I'm getting paid to exercise and that I now don't have to rush during the job search.

The things I don't like are that some stores are really rude to the food couriers. I don't think they're actually aware that we are picking up for their customers and that there is still a customer behind the order. Sydney also does not have enough cycle lanes and there are some roads that are simply too dangerous to ride on. Neither pedestrians nor motor vehicle drivers respect cyclists. As I'm on a push bike I can't take all orders and some supermarket shops are extremely heavy and push the limits. Some customers can also be really obnoxious and don't realise that you can't go faster than the traffic conditions will allow.

While out delivering I have also had some random people comment that I must be fit to do it and are genuinely surprised I'm doing it on a push bike.

I don't plan to do this forever but it fits with acting, everyday is different and I'm getting paid to exercise. I also still don't want to work for anyone right now after those previous bad experiences.  I do know one other thing though, when I do eventually work for someone else again though I will only be taking part time work. There is no way I want to rely on just one source of income.

My final comment for this particular blog is that it's like any work, you can earn as much as you want to and when I build up more I will be able to earn a full time income doing it. That isn't an instant thing though because that is based on my fitness levels and cycling speed. Before I started I hadn't ridden a bike in several years, probaby since I was a kid and now I'm riding upwards of five to six hours a day. For further context, that's much more exercise than I've ever done in a day at the gym. My max at the gym is about four hours. 

It is also region dependent. Since I've started I've gotten into a rhythm where I'll reject orders that will take me away from shops or restaurants. By the time you get there and back it's just not worth it. I try to be 500 metres to one kilometre of those at all times so that I can get orders. If you're in a regional area it wouldn't be suitable but for those in a busy metro area it can absolutely be worth it and it's a really great job while you're job searching. 

I'm also only using one of the apps at the moment because there's one app that I just don't like. You can't have your phone on low power mode and the app isn't as user friendly as the one I use. The one I use also pays more on average per delivery. 

It's a damn sight better than sitting at home doing absolutely nothing other than dealing with rejection after rejection after rejection and not having an income. 

Album Review - Taylor Swift: The Life Of A Showgirl

I started a blog post a few weeks ago about Sabrina Carpenter's new album but I couldn't put into words what I thought of the album.

That is not at all the case with Taylor Swift's The Life Of A Showgirl, her 12th album. 

I will start by saying that I went into this album release with absolutely no expectations other than knowing it would be a happy album, with only 12 songs and that my favourite Taylor Swift albums are The Tortured Poets Department and Red (Taylor's Version).

I like 1989 but it is not my favourite album and there were comparisons to that before The Life Of A Showgirl was released just a few hours ago.

I'm going to do a track by track review.

The Fate Of Ophelia

It starts with a drum beat before going into a more mellow vibe. It's obviously about Travis Kelce. I think it's a great choice for the first single and the chorus is raw and vulnerable with her singing, "You dug me out of my grave/and from the fate of Ophelia". The beat in this song is generally speaking very catchy and I can't fault it.

Elizabeth Taylor

Apparently this was the first song written for the album and there is some anxiety about her relationship with Travis, but given it was the first song written that means it was written in the early stages of their relationship. I can't fault the beat or production in this song either. It's a little bit slower than The Fate Of Ophelia. She reflects on her past relationships in the song. 

Opalite

This has a drum beat but lyriucally it's not strong. It's very simple compared to her last few albums and almost feels like a dumbed down version of her music. I do like the pitch transitions. They are the best part of the song. It is of course another Travis song.

Father Figure

Father Figure is one of my favourite songs on the album. I would say it's a down tempo song compared to the rest of the album. I like the lyrics and again, Taylor's pitch transitions are strong. Her lyrics on this song are also quite weak with "my dick's bigger". That lyric just feels really cheap and tacky.

Eldest Daughter

I went into this song with no expecations but it's also one of my preferred songs on the album. I like the piano in it. It's a track 5 so of course it's a deeper song. She sings about how she struggles with fame and wanting to eet people's expectations. It could have easily been on Reputation or written while she was trying to re-record Reputation - before she bought back her masters. The lyrics, "You know, thе last time I laughed this hard was/On the trampoline in somebody's backyard/I must've been about eight or nine". Again, her singing is very strong on this track.

Ruin the Friendship

I wasn't expecting to like this song but it's also one of my faves and is about how Taylor learned of the death of a guy she went to high school with and that she wishes she'd kissed him. It's about making the most of the chances you have. It's one of the more relatable songs on the album. This could have easily been track 5 for that reason as it's a major plot twist in the song. 

Actually Romantic

It's a sarcastic diss track. I like the lyric, "Boring Barbie" and I like that it's sarcastic and basically her singing "fuck you" to someone she really hates. I think most people can relate to hating someone. I would say this is a more adult version of "Bad Blood", "Mad Woman" and "Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me?"  The production of the song is very strong.

Wi$h Li$t

This is my least favourite song on the album. She sings about how she doesn't want fame or money. She just wants Travis. I get that some people are annoyed about this song because it's tone deaf but she just has a different set of problems now. The production on the song is good but again, the lyrics are weak. The chorus also has weird production.

Wood

It's an uptempo song.  She sings about how she doesn't have to worry about her relationship with Travis because she knows it's foever. Remember, this was written BEFORE they got engaged. In this song it's almost like she's gloating about her relationship. Again, the lyrics are not her usual standard and in some areas are really cheap and tacky.

CANCELLED!

This could also have been on Reputation or inspired when she was trying to record the Reputation. It's as though this is the other side of Reputation and she doesn't care. I do like the reference to Charmed with "something wicked this one comes". The production on the song is brilliant and I like that she's using her higher register again.  The song seems to be about her friends.

Honey

Another love song to Travis. the note transitions and higher register suits her voice way more than when she used the lower register on her last few albums but it's yet another cringey song that doesn't have lyrics that are her usual standard.

The Life Of A Showgirl (Featuring Sabrina Carpenter)

I was edpecting this song to have a more country vibe based on the leaked lyrics I had seen. Lyrically I like it. It's written like a country song but doesn't have country production at all. It's yet another song that's unrelatable. Sasbrina has more of a feature than Lana Del Rey did on Snow On The Beach.

In short, the production on this album is flawless and every song is upbeat. Lyrically it is her weakest work ever. Given I LOVE The Tortured Poets Department I wasn't expecting to love this album but it feels like this album was just written for the industry and wasn't written for the long term fans. Anyone who cares about lyrics is going to be disappointed and it's missing that x factor that makes Taylor albums so good. It's just not relatable and that's a major issue with this release. It does get better with each listen though but she's lost her edge lyrically, at least on this album. I knew Travis would stunt her creatively and she said that in interviews years ago that she wasn't sure if she could write when she was happy. This album answers that question.

It will win Album of the Year at the Grammys in 2026 but it really shouldn't because it's too short, not relatable and just doesn't have any long term hook. All that said though, I've had it on repeat since it was released so on some level I must like it but it really feels like a dumbed down version of Taylor and it is also way too short. 12 songs is nowhere near enough. The album feels like it was written for the general public and the reviewers not the actual Swifties.

I can reluctantly only give it a 3/5 because it's lyrically weak and Travis has stunted her creativity. Joe and Matty were much better muses than Travis.  

I don't want her to be unhappy but I would love to know what a divorce album would sound like. I think it'd be brilliant and it would have way stronger lyrics. For more context, my favourite Taylor albums are Red (Taylor's Version) and The Tortured Poets Department so it's no wonder this isn't my favourite album. I am glad she worked with Max Martin and Shellback though and that she's finally using her higher register again but Travis has stunted her and she's dumbed herself down for him and the industry who didn't understand The Tortured Poets Department (yet that was the album that should have won Album of the Year).

Album ranking:

1 - The Tortured Poets Department

2 - Red (Taylor's Version)

3 - Taylor Swift

4 - Lover

5 - Reputation

6 - 1989

7 - Folklore

8 - Fearless

9 - Speak Now

10 - Midnights

11 - The Life Of A Showgirl

12 - Evermore 

 

Taylor and Travis's engagement announcement

You would have to have been living under a rock this week to not have heard the news that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are engaged. The announcement was made in a low key Instagram post where she referred to herself as an English teacher and Travis is a gym teacher. 

 

A lot of Swifties have been rooting for this engagement since they first announced their relationship in 2023 after he famously wasn't able to give her a friendship bracelet at the Eras Tour. Afterwards they met and the rest is history.

For the record I found out at about 6am when I woke up to a message from one of my Swiftie friends so I immediately went to Taylor's Instagram page to see if it was real. I have this rule where I don't believe anything about her unless she herself announces it. This is why I am not fooling for the rumours about her doing a half time show at the Super Bowl or a Vegas residency and the fact she is simply way too big, but more about that in another blog. 

Waking up to the announcement came right after I'd had a dream about Taylor. She was in the Tortured Poets dress and then suddenly the song, But Daddy I Love Him came on in the dream. IYKYK so to wake up to this news was almost a premonition.

On the 13th of August, Taylor went on Travis and Jason Kelce's New Heights podcast, and while I've thought their relationship was a PR stunt in the beginning it became clear to me that simply because she chose to merge her career with her relationship that it was more than likely end game.  There's simply no way she would have announced her new album, The Life Of A Showgirl on the podcast if it wasn't going to be forever and always. 

There is speculation about the exact timing of the engagement. I personally believe that they were already engaged when they filmed the podcast and had been a short time but like other fans have said, they wanted to wait to announce it. 

I don't want to comment too much on her exes like Joe Alwyn and Matty Healy who inspired The Tortured Poets Department or Jake Gyllenhaal but I can imagine that Joe in particular has been having a rough day because he kept her locked in the basement for six years and didn't let her shine like Travis and his family does.  

So what music can we expect on The Life Of A Showgirl?

Well, on the podcast Taylor and Travis both said that the album was full of absolute bangers which isn't surprising since it was produced by Max Martin and Shellback who are the masterminds behind some of the 90s and 2000s biggesthits like Britney Spears' Baby One More Time, Backstreet Boys' I Want It That Away and Katy Perry's Hot 'n Cold, plus many others.

There are of course questions about her future music given we clearly won't get anymore heartbreak songs for a while, but that's not to say the music won't be relateable. Taylor's written about her grandparents, friendship, fame, success and sickness in the past so I'm sure she will still be inspired to write. We can expect a very different tone to previous albums though and I guess the last song on The Tortured Poets Department, The Manuscript really did say it all - to move forward she had to look backward.  

When it comes to their wedding, while I would love for it to be televised, and believe me, I would take the day off for it I don't think it will be. I can only say that I hope that fans don't try and crash the wedding. Taylor made it very clear in But Daddy I Love Him that we will not be invited, so like the engagement, I hope they get married privately and then they share the photos in their own time, much like Delta Goodrem did when she recently got married to Matthew Copley.

I've had many convos with friends today about this engagement and we're all pretty much set on them having children together. All of that said, I have had at least one friend say they should have kids immediately because having kids older is hard. I hate to break it to people but Taylor is a literal billionaire. She probably froze her eggs years ago and she and Travis and can afford all the help they need. It's not going to be hard for them. In saying that though, whether or not she and Travis have kids is none of our business but if they do I can imagine her naming a daugther Andrea and/or Marjorie after her mother and late grandmother respectively. It's like Taylor sung about in Lavender Haze, people really need to stop projecting their own beliefs onto her. If, and when they have kids (and let's not discount that they may have fertility issues like Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox) is up to them, and people saying they should do it immediately need their heads checked. This is the year 2025 and people are having kids later in life, even into their 40s, but with the money they have, they can wait as long as they want. I personally think though that she won't want to jeopardise her music career, which is what having kids could do. A lot of her fans are kids themselves and so if she were to write songs about motherhood it may not be as relatable and could harm her career. That said, I do not subscribe to theories that she will quite music. Music is way too important to her to do something like that. If anything she would likely have paid help and Travis would step in, but in 2025 women, especially billionaires like Taylor do not need to quit working just because they get married. I can't believe people are actually still staying rubbish like this.

Another logistical thing is that I really hope they both get a prenup. They have worked way too hard over the last couple of decades to not protect their intellectual property and after what she went through with her masters she would be foolish not to get a prenup. 

What can we learn from their love story? It's really quite simple. It is better to stay single than to be with the wrong guy and you should never settle for anything less than the best. The fact Taylor was in a relationship with Joe Alwyn for six years and he wasn't once proud or happy to be with her, and locked her in the basement and never proposed showed that he didn't see her as the one. If he'd wanted to marry her he would've. The reality is, nobody is going to find love on dating apps, if they can even be called that. Apps like Tinder are just hook up apps and they are devaluing relationships and dehumanising personal interactions. That may be a sign of the times. In the mid 2000s, dating culture was so much better than it currently is. I'm still not Travis's biggest fan but the majority of guys could take a leaf out of his book on how to get the girl. 

The other thing to add is that while Swifties are known for being a little parasocial (we label Taylor our emotional support popstar and our close personal friend, even though 99.99999999999999% have never met her). we are so excited about this because we've watched Taylor be heartbroken over the last 20 years and we've all had a Jake or a Joe in our lives. Her engagement announcement gives us all hope that if she can find love in her 30s then maybe the rest of us can too. Maybe there is no set timeframe and that it happens at the right time for YOU.  

And ladies, it is so much better to be single than to be with the wrong guy, so don't settle for less than what you deserve and that includes not sacrificing your hopes, dreams or career for any man, no matter how much you think he's the one. So to steal a quote from Sex and the City, the most important relationship you have is the one with yourself. Work on that first. I think it's very clear that's exactly what Taylor did when she was writing The Tortured Poets Department (which I still maintain, should have won a Grammy for Album of the Year).