SOUR GRAPES: Getting lost in Tuscany is made easier with beautiful scenery and delicious Brunello says Robert Rees.

Most men like to think they know where they are driving to. It’s a Mars vs Venus sort of thing and seems to be the ruin of many a marriage, or at the very least, a couple’s road trip.

Put four men in a car and the situation is compounded exponentially. Therefore, during one such driving trip, I was happy to sit in the back seat and self-medicate through the trials and tribulations of finding Uccelliera vineyard in Tuscany. One’s alpha spectrum has always been a failed mystery to me, and was ultimately abandoned around the time when my parents gave up on Boy Scouts for me because I refused to wear baby-poo brown.

The remaining dominant personalities debated on relentlessly. Choosing which arbitrary country road looked best in the pouring spring rain was made all the more chaotic through the “assistance” of not one but two live satellite navigation systems. One was a bloke who spoke in a clipped, preppy Oxford accent that seemed to become flatter and way more judgemental every time we went wrong. We went wrong a lot.

Plan B navigation system was not much help either. It was represented by the dulcet tones of a young Angelina Jolie. Whilst it was unanimously agreed that being directed by Angie on any given day was just fine, her automaton-version couldn`t pronounce Italian road names without sounding like Sylvester Stallone on a bender. Our two digital travelling partners became so much part of the trip that they were named Dick and Doris. This was no match made in heaven though as they seldom agreed on anything and were regularly rebooted and/or shut down in frustrated defiance.

I am still not really sure how we eventually found the place. I was content to drown out the directions, enjoy the scenery, and occasionally succumb to that time-honoured Italian ritual of snoozing as often as possible.

The first thing we encountered at Uccelliera (when we finally reached our destination) was an enormous pile of sharpened wooden stakes – presumably to drive through the hearts of anybody who dared ask about wine ratings and allocations. It’s a thorny topic for owner Andrea Cortonesi. Whilst he is obviously the pin-up boy for most of the leading writers, it was clear that he would vastly prefer it if they left him alone. He regards the vines as his children and with a client database that easily vacuums up each vintage on release, the opinions of some guru about the colour of his Brunello is the very least of his priorities.
We worked our way through his magnificent range of Sangiovese driven jewels and life was feeling and tasting pretty good as we bid farewell to Violetta, the cellar door dog, who had been keeping a wary eye on us all through the day.

However, my feelings of satisfaction soon abated when in the rapidly failing light, drizzling rain and what looked like some very serious fog, one of our navigators woefully announced that neither Dick nor Doris could find a satellite signal and he wasn’t sure if we should turn left or right outside the winery gate…

Robert Rees runs Sales and Marketing for wineexchangeasia.com. Originally South African, he lived in Sydney for a decade before moving to Singapore. (Views expressed do not reflect the views of the company).

MAD ABOUT FASHION COLUMNIST: Beck Dahl says a lack of seasons in Singapore doesn’t mean you can’t update your wardrobe.

This month marks winter for the Southern Hemisphere – which, let’s be frank, would be a welcome relief from Singapore’s persistent heat. Change of temps’ aside, a change of season offers us all an excuse to refresh our wardrobes too.

If you were back down in Melbourne, you would be pulling out last year’s boots, and maybe finding them a little tatty, and so hitting the shops to inject a wintery update. Just like that, an opportunity to do a spot of shopping would have occurred and would be easily justified too!

But not in the Lion City, not when next week will be just as humid as the week after. Not when the thought of pulling on boots instantly sends you into a profuse sweat. Does this one-dimensional weather make you miss updating your wardrobe for a new season?
It certainly makes me miss doing so. The change of season always brought a little spring to my step; steps which took me shop-wards to buy or upcycle.

However, the lack of seasons here has forced me to update on my own schedule.
I need to put life back into my everyday wardrobe otherwise I feel like I’m in Groundhog Day and who wants to feel like or resemble Bill Murray’s character, Phil Connors?!

These days, rather than seasons, I go by school terms. I start my Wardrobe Update by grabbing a British mag (summer edition!), scan a few of my current favourite websites (refinery29.com, editorialist.com, netaporter.com) and generally get very distracted, especially on Pinterest or Vogue.com.

Whatever you see or read, don’t take it as gospel (including this!); they’re just ideas…Start with what you have in your wardrobe and eye it critically before you reach for the credit card. You may already own this season’s colour trend or look. Fortunately most trends are just rehashing previous season’s must-haves, so look with open eyes and an open mind as you search through your hangers. For this ‘seasonal’ change, it could be as simple as shaking up your colour combinations plus adding a few different accessories. Here’s my take on a fun refresh…

• Powder Blue, Terracotta and White are the new season combo I’m going for. I also love a Pink plus Red clash too!
• Change your ‘pop of colour’. No need to be radical, just a slight change of tone to a purse, earrings, necklace or shoes will take your outfits up a notch.
• Hoop earrings. I loved the fat gold hoops that were all over the catwalk and left me reminiscing of all the fun of the 80’s! Seriously, dig deep into your jewellery collection and reach for the polishing cloth – or visit Lovisa!
• Wide leg trousers. Full lengths are the most complimentary for most shapes or those that finish just above the ankle work well too.
• Head or neck scarves. A chic little ‘50s accent… also good at hiding that I’m-due-a-colour-but-don’t-have-time-during-the-kids’-holidays period.

There you have it, a few very simple updates that you can undoubtedly recycle from the depths of the wardrobe or some recommendations on classic additions to purchase.
Have fun updating your wardrobe this June! Beck xx

Beck Dahl is a stylist and fashion lover living with her family here in Singapore.

WANDERING YOGI COLUMNIST: Centuries of social etiquette and rules have made us more civil, but we may have sacrificied our ‘gut instinct’ in the process. Here’s how to get it back says Lee Carsley.

“I knew there was something wrong!”
Most of us have experienced this sense of ‘knowing’ before we know – you hesitate at a green light and miss getting hit by a speeding truck; on a whim, you break your no-blind-dates policy and meet your life partner.

Our gut instinct is very real, and managed by the most vital cranial nerves in our body – the vagus.

Unlike the other Vegas, what happens in this vagus doesn’t stay there. The vagus nerve is a long meandering bundle of motor and sensory fibres that links the brain stem to the heart, lungs, and gut. It also branches out to touch and interact with the liver, spleen, gallbladder, ureter, female fertility organs, neck, ears, tongue, and kidneys. It powers up our parasympathetic nervous system and controls unconscious body functions, as well as everything from keeping our heart rate constant and aiding food digestion, to breathing and sweating. It plays a major role in fertility issues and orgasms in women. There are two of them; in yoga we tend to focus on the left hand-side vagus nerve.

This vagus is the major emotional highway in our body transporting feelings from our brain to our heart and to our gut via the enteric nervous system (it’s like a major feeder road onto the highway). This ENS is sometimes referred to as our second brain. Western medicine now believes this nerve is an overall indicator of our longevity and quality of life. Traditional Chinese Medicine knew this for centuries. Which is why taking good care of your gut is so important.

Gut problems are epidemic – just check the stats. We know the physical steps we need to be taking for the gut – better diet, drink more water, less alcohol, no sugar. We also need to rid ourselves of those biases and experiences that no longer serve us. That way our instinct will serve us not just as a way to survive, but to thrive.

Just like fixing the set of traffic lights at the feeder road, and not bothering to maintain the highway, unless you get your vagus nerve (and your gut instinct) into shape, emotionally and mentally, you may end up on the road to nowhere.

Here are some simple things you can do to improve your gut instinct:

Compassionate meditation:
Sit silently, think compassionately about others, and repeat positive phrases about friends and family. Shown to increase positive emotions like serenity, joy, and hopes, which improves the vagal function.

Take a cold shower:
Studies show that when your body adjusts to cold, your fight/flight (sympathetic) system declines and your rest and digest (parasympathetic) system increases. Any kind of acute cold exposure including drinking ice-cold water will increase vagus nerve activation.

Gargling:
Another home remedy. Gargling stimulates the muscles of the mouth pallet, which are fired by the vagus nerve. You may tear up a bit which is a good sign and if you don’t, keep doing it until you do. It’s said to improve working memory performance.

Sing that bop-py song out loud:
Humming, mantra chanting, hymn singing, upbeat energetic singing; they all increase heart rate variability, acting like a pump to the vagus nerve.

Foot massage:
Stimulate your vagus nerve by massaging your feet and your neck along the carotid sinus, located along the carotid arteries on either side of your neck. Foot massages lower your heart rate and blood pressure and activate all energy meridians in the body (kind of like servicing for a car).

Do Yoga with the ANZA Wandering Yogis!
It increases vagus nerve activity, tones your parasympathetic system, clears the energy meridians. And it increases GABA, a calming neurotransmitter in brain. Especially helpful for those who struggle with anxiety or depression.

Lee Carsley is the ANZA Wandering Yoga founder teacher, and Yoga Alliance CE trainer. When not teaching yoga to students and other teachers, she also leads meditation workshops and bespoke yoga retreats. Be the light, show the light, and travel light.