JAZZ UP YOUR LOVE LIFE

This edition’s theme is Sweet Embrace – now isn’t that just perfectly romantic? Following on the red-heart delirium of February, this is a gentle décor theme inspired by Dulux’s colour of the year.

The colour is described as soft, like wispy clouds, with a feeling of warmth and familiarity. The name itself conjures love in all forms: from toddlers gripping you around the neck, to first year students leaving the comfortable circle of a family hug, to lovers entangled in a doorway.

Embracing is so much more than hugging, don’t you agree?

Do yourself a favour and listen to Embraceable You as sung by Sandy Lo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iU2CBYYZLI). Feel yourself wrapped in that sweet embrace on a dance floor. This jazz song, composed to be sung by a female voice way back in 1928 by Gershwin, with his wife Ira writing the lyrics, surely hit a soft spot in all hearts.

Your hips will sway and your eyes will beckon. It’s sheer instinct. Allow the lyrics to transport you into Romance 101:


If you could wrap up all these emotions and pour them into a paint tin… what colour would you come up with? The trend forecasters at Dulux wanted an optimistic, soothing hue. “In today’s busy and complex world, it’s more important than ever to carve out our own special place; somewhere we feel we belong.”

No doubt when taking this route, the Dulux team were feeling the pressure of the two current wars which could very well merge into WW III. Cheers to them who feel the need to build collective hope. Theirs is leadership to be admired. “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs… You’ll be a Man, my son.” So said Rudyard Kipling in his poem IF in circa 1895.



With the stark possibility of a global war looming, colouring a room or two to make us feel at home and happy is not a frivolous thought at all. This is a year of mourning our late president, of facing election promises spewed on the home front and nations ping-ponging missiles like mere toys on the international front.



Painting that wall may just be the most sane thing you could do right now. Apart from embracing your loved one on the dance floor.

Christine Stoman