The Witch is Dead (and Other Good News)

Ding dong, the witch is dead. Which old witch? The wicked old witch.

No more Trump guys! Okay, he's not a witch but the feeling's the same. From a satire piece I read the other day, I like to imagine that come January, he will disappear in a cloud of cheeto dust. And it feels so good. As a Brit, I can only be pleased that our own right wing leaning Prime Minister has lost his mate. Let us hope our next election garners us a similar result.

How Did We End Up Here?

Would help I guess if you knew where 'here' was huh, not least find out why I'm so surprised at where we are and how we managed to arrive? 

Just read that back and managed to confuse myself; let's start again shall we.

For those who may not know, or those who've forgotten during the massive break I took from blogging, my family is Hubs, myself and our two boys now 12 and 9.

A half South African and half English family, we moved to the U.K. in 2015 for lots of reasons but our plan was to start our second business, having sold our playground business in Johannesburg, and we got the boys in school and set about making our plans a reality.

Best laid plans and all that so now we fast forward to just a few months ago and Hubs and I are at our wits end.

Online Porn: Monitoring Our Kids

Well ... here I am. Over a month since my last post and I find myself inspired greatly to tackle a rather heavy subject this morning.

Over a month since my last post ... hang on, shouldn't I be posting pics of the kids and telling you all why I haven't posted in over a month? Isn't that the norm on WeezaFish??

It is, but then that doesn't help all the meatier posts I like to write that are backed up in my drafts folder right now.

THIS one here (which I will eventually get to, promise) has been lingering there for a while but then a story I read yesterday brought it bubbling and frothing right up to the forefront again, demanding to be finished.

In my head at least :)

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."

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.

Well I Never ... No. 4

Three Cool, Useful or Otherwise Interesting Things I Didn't Know a Month Ago.

1. Google Image Search Match

When you're doing an image search in Google, see that little blue camera there? Did you think it was just for fun, like me? If you click on it, you can upload or otherwise select an image of your own and then ask Googles Image Search to find any matching or near matching images. Cool ey? Uses? Er, I dunno, but it's fun! I guess if you were a photographer, you could use it to check if your pics are being used elsewhere or if you had a pic and you wanted to find the original source. If it can't find an exact match, the near matches it suggests can be amusing. It's a Google search after all.

Well I Never ... No. 3

Three Cool, Useful or Otherwise Interesting Things I Didn't Know a Month Ago.

1. Smartphone Barcodes

Get me, being all Techy on my blog. And I’m nothing but a user really. I love Technology, but I don’t get passed the user stage. Shiny, blinky lights and “it can do WHAT??!! Show me how, show me how!” is where I’m at.

My dear friend Clare however, is a true Techy. She doesn’t just use and drool over blinky lighted gadgets and technology, she understands the workings. She can even make Techy. Oh yeah. She told me recently that often when she chats to folk, their eyes glaze over and she realises she’s lost them with her Techy talk. It’s happened to me often. I bow to her superior Techyness.

Imagine then, my possibly over enthused excitement when she showed me this;

It’s a QR (Quick Response) Barcode. Have we all seen these yet? Am I, in fact, over here in Africa, the last to know? They make getting URLs, location coordinates, any text or contact information onto a phone as easy as you like. With a barcode scanner app installed you can scan them with your Smartphone and it’ll wop the info straight into your phone. Go on, try it! (To find a scanner application, Google "QR Reader" and the model of your phone). This barcode leads to mine and Hubbys business site. How. Cool. Is. That. If not already, you’ll see them soon printed on advertising and business cards, on TV ads. Everywhere I’m sure. And just think – you may have seen it here first. Well, if you live in South Africa. Or the Outer Hebrides. Love you Clare. And all your Techyness.

Well I Never ... No. 2

Three Cool, Useful or Otherwise Interesting Things I Didn't Know a Month Ago.

1. You Shouldn't use Boiling Water to Make Hot Drinks.

gallery.hd.org

I used to be one of those people who hovers over the kettle, waiting for it to boil. Usually because there's a wanting hubby or the rest of a movie waiting for me. Then I read somewhere that boiling water scalds, and if you pour it directly onto your instant coffee or tea bag, it affects the taste. It can also scald the milk. Hmmm. So I Googled a bit, experimented a bit and guess what? It's true. This is how I now make instant coffee; boil the kettle, but then let it stand for 5 mins. Put coffee, sugar and a little hot (but not boiling) water in the cup and stir it up so the coffee and sugar dissolve. Add the milk and then top up slowly with hot water, so the milk warms up slowly. If you can be bothered to stick a pan of milk on (I can't frankly) then warm milk is actually best. Coffee in particular tastes a lot less bitter made this way, and I'm using less sugar now. What does that say for percolators though??

2. Sand Dunes Hum.
They do! http://www.acoollink.com/sand-dunes-hum/ And the bods who spend their days finding out why, er .... well ... they don't know exactly why yet. I'm sure once they get their next multi billion dollar grant they'll suss it out though.

3. Oestrogen Works Like Valium.

Nora Batty

Dr. Oz said so. The reason we get less tolerant as we get older is down to the drop in hormone levels in particular Oestrogen, which amongst many other things, can control our mood. Oestrogen has been in popular use as a drug since the 1960's for many health issues including contraception, tiredness, depression, poor concentration, irritability, mood swings, skin problems, low libido, osteoporosis, heart disease prevention, and others. And men and women are effected pretty much equally by a drop in levels. You don't need an excuse or a reason to be a grumpy old git, it's hormonal my friend.

Well I Never ... No.1

Three Cool, Useful or Otherwise Interesting Things I Didn't Know a Month Ago.

I've added a number to this post 'cos I think it may be a good one to do regularly. Mainly to stop me forgetting the things I learn. I hearby promise to do a 'Well I Never' post once a month. Or thereabouts. Depending on how I'm feeling. Or whether I've learnt anything new that month or not. .

So with no further ado (drum roll too much?) here's the first.

1. Women Listen Differently to Men.

Okay, this is supposed to be things I didn't know a month ago, but it's now confirmed for me. Comes back to the skill women have to multi task (using multiple areas of their brains at one time) and mens tendency to be better at focusing (using one area of the brain). Also explains why my husband can't hear me talking to him when he's watching his favourite TV show, but his hearing returns to normal in the ad breaks. Whilst I can listen to him, the TV and both kids talking to me at the same time. We smell better too. No, not our body odours, sense of smell. Having said that ...

2. Crickets Can Throw Their Voice.

Or their 'sound' at least, and there's no link here because I couldn't find it on the net but I experience it when I try and catch one in the house. And Hubby told me, so it must be true. He thinks it's to announce there's a predator about, without the cricket giving his hiding spot away. In googling I also found out that the sound is only made by males by rubbing their wings together, other than to warn of predators it's mainly used to attract females. And the ladies can tell from the pitch of the chirp, how ..ahem... big the male is. Turns out 'Crickets Can Throw Their Voice' is the name of a band in Texas also. Who knew? Their fans probably ...

3. How Lightning and Thunder Work. 
I should have really learnt this in school but it was obviously one of those teacher/pupil moments when my mind got bored, wandered and went out the window. And I've worded it that way around, 'Lightning and Thunder' as opposed 'Thunder and Lightning', because I've just discovered that the Lightning comes first. Recently I read this explanation and it was like a proper 'Eureka' moment. I hadn't even thought about how the two phenomenom were linked before I read this. Doh! Lightning actually causes thunder. Simply (follow the link if you want more detail) lightning's caused by static electricity build up, brought about by water and ice particles in the clouds rubbing together on a humid day. And the rapid heating of the air around it (to as much as five times as hot as the suns surface) creates rapid expansion, which makes the loud noise we hear. It all happens in a split second but because light travels faster than sound, we see the lightning first. Closer the two are to each other, closer the storm.

Bad News Day

Hubby and I sat down to watch the early edition news on TV this morning, unusual in itself that we were both up before the kids but hubby got up early for work and I stirred and for once didn't nod back off to sleep.

It was quite nice, sitting together - me with my Earl Grey, him with his coffee - sans kids in a peaceful house.

Except it was one of those news editions that makes you despair and shout out to the TV "HAVEN'T YOU GOT ANYTHING GOOD TO TELL ME??!!"

The two main headlines today were both so shocking, it makes you wonder sometimes if us 'good folk' are in the minority in the world.