Alana Adye

1. Failure baking.
You know when everything just seems to be a bit wrong? And then you can't sleep and that makes things that little bit worse? Baking challenging new things at odd hours - 'failure baking' - has curative properties for me.

2. Eating apples.
They're in season and, really, could there ever be anything better than a crisp apple at some inappropriate hour of the morning when you've had a beverage or two, but are still far from bed? Carry an apple in your bag and you're sorted.

3. Downloading MoMA audio
New York is far away, but MoMA hosts great guest speakers. The lovely internet brings some of this arty excitement to my waiting ears at the click of a mouse.

4. Browsing Craigslist (New York)
I've been told that it's one of the better ways to find a place to live in NYC, but really I just love reading the often hilarious descriptions ("I have ten cats. Don't bother if you don't like cats. Seriously." etc) that accompany the vacancy posts.

5. Listening to Shag's playlists
My friend works in radio and has cultivated the wonderful habit of compiling playlists of songs he's currently enamoured with. Listening 'Shag's picks' never fails to have a positive effect on my emotional wellbeing (thanks Shag!).

Alana Adye can bake her way out of a bad situation and has enough cinema-savvy to shame the most screen-glued critic. In fact, she's off to New York later this year to buff up her film knowledge even more. (Another smartie lost from Sydney, sadly.)