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.

I Painted a Pebble and I Liked It

I did, rather a lot actually. So here's a short and lighthearted (non-political, easy reading) post about my new found love of painting stones. I'm guessing some of you may have heard of the painting and hiding pebbles thing huh? I'm not exactly sure if it's popular further afield but certainly here in the U.K. it's become so in many parts of the country.

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.

Guess Who's Back

Well I'll be. Not sure what I'll be, not a monkey's uncle that's for sure albeit the correct idiom to express my shock and surprise at the fact that ... I am blogging again! 

Bit like riding a bike, I'll wobble and bump my way back in - bear with me as I find my voice. Possibly a new one hey, as we have all grown and changed since I was last here. So much so, I find some of my earlier posts make me cringe! Although I do manage to resist the urge to edit them.

Sporadic Blogging Causes Mixed Posts

I'llllllll just casually drift right back into my blog shall I? Sneak in by the back door and start writing a post, hoping nobody noticed I've been gone.

Do you know, there's so damn much going on in the world right now; choosing what to write about when I do find the time very quickly uses that time .... so we end up with mixed posts like this one.

But that's okay, it can be kinda cool. Just look at all the topics we can cover in one post if we try.

Positive Parenting: Saying Yes!

Since having my two boys, I have found myself becoming an advocate (in my own home and Social Media pages at least) of 'Positive Parenting'. Being that style of parenting that tries to focus on gentle guidance rather than punishment and critique.

Easy it certainly is not, but then no parenting - whatever your style, is. I've decided that my blog is another place, aside from my own home, that I can increase my advocacy so here's a light little starter post.

South African Ways: Things That Will Never Leave Me

I lived in South Africa for almost seven years and it probably wouldn't surprise you to know that it has kind of rubbed off on me.

Which makes it sound like a hairy dog that just brushed passed my leg and coated me with dog hairs, but the 'rub off' is actually a whole lot more pleasant than that.

Here, in no particular order, are a list of things that South Africa has given me that I will never lose. No matter where I am or what I am doing, I cannot see any of these not being a part of my life forever more.

Falling in Love Again: Happy Valentines

I’ve just fallen in love. Really hard and so deeply and truly, it takes my breath away.

Settling In

Howzit all! (Like I have so many readers ...).

Another quick post done on my phone, to let you know that we are settling in nicely in the U.K. Actually been here one month today, which has flown by.

Yes, it's a bit colder than Africa but you know what? We've had blue sky and sun for over a week now so I have high hopes for Summer. Even unpacked my flip-flops, oh yes.

We Made It!

Guess what, guess what? We have made it to the U.K. guys! And yes, It's frikkin freezing. Which I've written and told people so often, my phone now pre-empts 'frikkin freezing' when I type.

We have lots to organise, not least schools, jobs and home, but once we're settled properly I shall be blogging properly again. Woo hoo!

Back soon! xx

Interesting Facts: Well I Never No. 9

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

Look what I learnt recently!

1. We Go Wrinkly When We're Wet for a Reason

Via: www.gettyimages.com

You know you've been in the bath too long when your fingers start pruning, but it's not just a sign that it's time to get out. Back in our more hunter gatherer days, we were barefoot and we had many a terrain and weather condition to contend with in our nearly 100% outdoor lives. Now imagine it's peeing it down and you're trying to scale a rock face to get a clearer view of that wildebeest you intend on having for dinner. Or you're walking through wetlands, foraging and trying to pick up wet things. As we get wetter, our wrinkly fingers and feet work like tyre tread to give us better grip in wet conditions. Why haven't we evolved this away? Because we're generally a quite clean species, and we like like to get wet on a regular basis. Our bodies don't know that we're just having a shower, and not trying to scale a waterfall.

Spring is Coming!

My favourite time of year, my favourite time of year … doo doo doo, tra la la, Spring is coming guys.

WARNING: Fully expect now a cheesy post about Spring. Those of you about to enter Autumn, I apologise in advance because ... SPRING IS COMING!!!

The coming of Spring in South Africa is so frikkin tangible, I can feel it with all of my senses. And today is September the 1st, considered here the first day of Spring.

Winter is dry, dry, dry. Everywhere you look outside, you can see

yellow and brown. Even the trees with some green left on them have a yellowed tinge to them and the ground is dusty and cracking.

Dear Readers (dramatic pause) I AM BACK!

Hello! *waves frantically* Anyone there? Gee, there's cobwebs everywhere and look at the dust...

Not as Excited as Me. *

I've been without a computer (other than my teeny, but awesome phone) since February and you won't believe how excited I am to be sitting in front of my (secondhand) new one now, typing with all of my fingers on an actual real keyboard!! Which makes me sound a bit archaic, I know - I should be blogging from my tab, no? But then I don't have one of those either so you can see why ANYTHING other than typing with my thumbs while squinting at a teeny tiny screen would be welcome.

Who knew I would miss the blogging world so much? Oh ... okay, I knew. Anyone that knows me could have figured it out too but yoh, it feels good to be back!

And after months away, you'd think I'd be bursting with post ideas, have notebooks full of notes and drafts huh? But it surprised me how much it effected me, knowing that I couldn't actually POST anything. I stopped wanting to write anything, went into a writing lull if you will. In fact, when I first sat down this morning I couldn't think what to say at all!

WeezaFish 2013: A Photo Review

Guys, I swear to you I have been sat here for the last hour deliberating over this post. Okay, to be fair I 'killed time' in between deliberating by catching up on some blog reading and Twittering a bit also. BUT STILL!

Isn't it the done thing? Doesn't EVERY SINGLE BLOGGER IN THE WORLD write a end of year review post? No?

I'm such a stubborn so-and-so. As soon as I felt I really should write a '2013 in Review' blog post, I of course didn't want to.

I convinced myself that I hadn't done enough post writing to MAKE a year review. Can you imagine? "So january we, er ... didn't seem to do that much ... MARCH there was a Birthday! April, May ...no, June the dog got sick"

But guess what? I almost managed to post once every month last year so that excuse wasn't going to work.

I sat down and imagined pretended that by saying 'NO!' to the Review Post I would be released instead to write other posts. Of great interest, importance and OMG-this-girl's-so-funny humour.

Then I chastised myself for acting like a kid with three hours Maths homework to do and came up with this brilliant (and very lazy) idea to use photo's. Please understand, the time I have just saved myself (and you dear readers) will allow us ALL to do much, much, MUCH more exciting and valid things.

Ta-ta, Tata Mandela

('Ta-ta' in some dialects of English is an informal and friendly 'Goodbye'. 'Tata' is the isiXhosa word for 'Father')

You've heard, right?

One of my heroes passed away just recently. He was, of course, many MANY people's hero so at least I need never feel alone in my sadness.

South Africa, for the last week or so has been an understandably emotional place to be. There's been moments of great celebration and moments of great sadness. And the warmth and love of all the other people around the world who are sharing South Africa's sense of loss is tangible and comforting.

And for the most part, South Africans are united in their sadness at Madibas passing and keen to continue in his stead and with his example as their guide. The Head of opposition party the Democratic Alliance put it so simply:

“He has handed the baton to us and we dare not drop it" 

Time to Leave South Africa?: For This Family, The Answer's a Mixed YES!!

I am guessing this will come as much as a shock to you *taps glass* lovely peeps out there as it did to the family and friends back home but .. have you heard? We're moving back to the UK at the end of January!!

I know man :)

Er ... yeah, we'll be on a plane but go with me.

It wasn't quite as shocking to us (obviously). We had in fact discussed the very same plan for many months, even off and on throughout our years out here but it's not the kind of discussion we felt we could share with the folks back home. My darling Mum would have heard, and got excited about, the possibility of us coming back many, many times over the last six years. So we felt it best to say nothing until a definite plan had been made.

Which it now has. Woo hoo!

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 :)

8 Cool Facebook Pages: Facebook's Still Cool, Right?

If you use Twitter or have any friends or family members under the age of 25 then you'll have probably heard the theory that Facebook is just, well ... not cool anymore.

I'm 42, which means I no longer get a say on what's cool of course.

Ha ha ha yeah right.

But I beg to differ and give you the following Facebook pages that are all cool to Like. Well, I think so anyway.

Note: A lot of them come from websites originally and I'm not including my Blogging friends in this list, mainly because there's so many good ones out there that they deserve a shout out of their own some day.

Just Writing

I've got three posts (yes, three) in my drafts and today I don't find myself wanting to finish any of them.

But I do want to write, so this could be interesting. I wonder what I'll write about? At this point ... I have no plan! Blogging by the seat of my pants.

Photo Credit

It reminds me of a post I read on Mistys Laws this week, 'The Neverending Nothingness', in which Misty ... simply writes.

And another post I read recently by Becca on 25toFly called 'Blogging Bureaucracy', in which Becca questions why and when the love for blogging and writing themselves, get overtaken by the want for a larger audience?

They both hit home with me. I too have fallen prey to being so busy trying to gain followers, please who I thought was reading (sooo ... my best friend and my Dad?) and SEO the hell out of my posts, that I forget sometimes just to write.

And so today, I just write ...

We're Having a Smashing Time

That's a terrible pun, that title. Which you'll realise fully if you read on.

This is one of those 'OMG you won't believe what happened to us!' type posts. Although to be fair, it happened to Hubs and he gave me his blessing to make a post of it. "It would make a good post" says he.

It also fits perfectly with a want I had to try out my newly downloaded Blogger App. I often have better internet on my phone, so if I can master and make use of this app, we might just have a more frequent blogger here. Hooray!