Back To School and BACK UP BACK UP!!!!

This isn't one of my Memories of posts, rather a recollection of a couple of days I spent in April helping Hubby with one of our companys playground projects.

Spend two days hanging out in a school playground? Twist my immature child-at-heart arm why don't you.

You can check the project we were working on here and here on the company blog (get me, the 'company blog'. Snort) but we installed several playground pieces in December and April and I went along to photograph the finished project and ... oh yeah, there was some sewing required to a large stretch tent we installed over the sandpit. 

ADD/ADHD and Ritalin: Time to Admit Mistakes

This is a serious post, about a serious issue. It’s a big one too, I didn’t want to leave anything out. Sorry if you came to me for short and snappy humour today, try this older post of mine on a remotely similar subject instead!

But seriously ...

I read a very good article in ChildMag last month entitled 'Rethinking Ritalin'. I rate the quality of any piece of writing largely on the way it makes me feel and this article made me feel like writing this post, so it must have been good. You can read the whole piece here, and I recommend it, especially to parents but it opens;

A mother describes what is becoming an increasingly common scenario in homes across South Africa and the western world. "My son was in Grade 1 when the teacher called me in." Says Lynne, a Mum from Johannesburg (could be me, could be me ...). "She said he had concentration issues and couldn't focus to finish work, he was getting bored and walked about disrupting class." Lynne immediately braced herself for the three letter diagnosis currently handed down to an estimated one in ten children: ADD, or attention deficit disorder. Then when an Educational Psychologist confirmed it, she braced herself again for the most commonly prescribed solution: Ritalin. "Today every other child seems to be on it" Lynne sighs. "But everything I'd heard made me totally against it. I was afraid and confused."

PC Nicked? Perfect Time for a Guest Post!

I should have known.  There's an old saying about bad things happening in threes so when, after over four years of living crime free in South Africa, we were hit twice recently - I should have known a third hit was on the way hey?

Last Friday night, our home and office were robbed whilst we were out.

Those mofos took everything, every scrap of clothing including the dirty laundry!!

We are currently PC-less.  Not ideal for business OR Weezafish - I can read posts and comments with my phone, but that's about it.  But never fear!
Normal service will be resumed very soon, there's no way this family will ever let the bar stewards get us down.

And in the meantime, you lucky, lucky peeps, my truly wonderful bessie mate, the lovely Kate from over at http://donotbreakthedog.blogspot.co.uk/ has graciously agreed to post this for me AND add a Guest Post of her own.

You know those friends you feel lucky to have met?  That's Kate.  Her writing, whether just an email to me, or one of her blog posts or kids' stories, her writing inspires me to write better.

So I'll shut up now and let the woman speak . . .

I've Been Elsewhere

Doing another post for The Indie Chicks, yay! Go see, go see (please). It's a post about being charming, what could be nicer than that? Ahem ..

Blatantly pleading for comments? Why, yes ... I do believe I am.

I have another WeezaFish post on it's way later also, just so I don't feel like I've been cheating.

In blogging terms of course.

Hooray for the New South Africa!

Political? Me? Not normally on my blog. Should I comment? I'm a Brit living in South Africa, and I have lived here for over four years with my Joburger Hubby who has lived through and therefore understands his country and it's people far better than I ever could.

But Hubby doesn't blog, so it's my half arsed opinion you're reading ha!

Two things happened recently, both first time occurences for Hubby and I since we've been together and living here, but by no means (far from it) unusual situations for an average South African to find themselves in.

Firstly, we got pulled over in our vehicle by the police last week. Let us just say, to protect the innocent and yet make clear the story, that we had just called on an 'aquaintance' of ours to make a ... 'purchase'. The police vehicle followed us as we left, and pulled us over less than five minutes down the road.

These cops were on a mission, and they were following a set routine.

First, they ask Hubby to step out and they search him. Then they ask me to step out, there's three male officers all now out of their vehicle, one of them talking to Hubby, one of them searching the car and the other now telling me to "search myself" as he's not allowed by law to search a female.