New Page!

I've put a new page up and I'm posting about it because I really wanted it be a post. But entitled 'Things That Make Me Lose My Cool' I think it'll get regularly updated in a "and there's another thing that really cheeses me off .." kind of fashion.

So it's better as a page methinks.

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.

COP 17 - Get Ready for That Ice Age People

For those who don't know (shame on you) the Climate Change Conference being held in Durban, Cop 17, has just finished. It ran a day or so over schedule and according to press achieved "just enough in its dying hours" to make good. The Kyoto Protocol, which holds Developed Nations to emission reducing targets, was extended to 2018. And the Green Climate Fund was agreed on. $100bn a year for developing and least developed nations to help them make change. - What determines what makes a Nation 'developed'?? Good transport? Education? Government in power who don't kill their opposers?

I dunno. A quote I read somewhere springs to mind, something about no big ideas or world changing inventions ever coming as a result of meetings. And my days in the Office Worker World come back to me also, boooooring meetings yada yada yada ...

It comes down to action. I have been feeling greener of late which has much to do with having COP 17 rammed down my throat on TV for the last month or so I'm sure. And it’s cool to see and feel a growing awareness in an already very aware country to green and specifically climate control issues.

But I wonder, can we really make enough of a difference or should our efforts and attention also actually be elsewhere?

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.

Coke in a Wine Glass

Life’s been interesting the last couple of weeks. And by ‘interesting’ I of course mean “AAAAHH!! KARMA, WTF IS GOING ON??!!” No matter how hard we worked, how right we did things, they just kept going wrong. Putting out fires all the time and not getting anywhere.

But interesting yes. Due to one very bad step, I found myself off my feet and forced to take a step back from the madness. I had to view it all from the outside fringes of the sofa. In turn, it helped me to realise what was going down in our little family at the time.

As I sit now at four in the afternoon, while the rest of the family sleep, I feel relieved that things have at last taken a turn for the better and life’s stopped being so darned friggin ridiculous. I’m catching up on some blogging and sipping coke from a wine glass. Might seem a bit odd to most but as someone who rarely drinks alcohol (and that’s another post some day) but loves pretty wine glasses, it works for me.

Most of the problems were caused or hindered by family illness and it’s made Hubby and I rethink our health a little. We’re working hard; we have two young boys who are just as affected by our stress as we are. And we never get enough sleep. I nearly typed ‘rarely’ there but that would have been inaccurate. I’ve already made huge changes to my health, weight and diet in the last ten years (see here) and I find it easier now to spot problems connected to my eating patterns, although I’m no better at keeping things up. Always slipping back to my old ways in times of stress and when we’re tired also then we just crave those instant fixes that instant and unhealthy food gives us. A week or so of this and we start dropping like flies ..

Big Shout Out to all the Mummys ... Now Go Easy on Yourselves

I don't know what category my blog falls into, or even that I need to think of it in that way, but I do remember when starting it that I didn't want it to be another Parenting or Mummy blog. I think of my family and friends reading when I blog, not the WWW. Overly excited though I am to read that someone in Malaysia and Russia is reading mine. But I try and keep mine more general so the folks at home don't get bored. Not that my parents would ever tire of hearing about the kids.

And just the fact that I have to try, think and pre plan what I write to make sure that I don't just write about being a Mum, is a testament to how much being a Mum has taken over my life.

And not that there's anything wrong with Parenting or Mummy blogs, I like reading them. One of the most wonderful things that social networking (and I'm a huge fan myself) has brought about is connection with more people. Nothing helps us validate and understand ourselves more than other bods going through all the same crap.

I search out the blogs that excite and interest me and they're at times inciteful, intelligent, well funny but often also very stressed and sad writings.

And Mum's everywhere are blogging like ce-razy because they at last have an outlet for their previously hidden thoughts and feelings about motherhood. I say it's a good thing me. May blogging do for this and future generations of mother's what Valium and Prozac did for those past. Ha!

I'm Trying to be a Little Greener

No, I'm not talking about this ...

partywiththis.com

I'm talking about this ...

Hubby and I run an Eco Playground company, Yippy Toys using as much recycled material as we can and I'm trying to think of ways to improve my own carbon footprint. I'm not normally such a Goody Two Shoes but methinks this is important. The planet, our future, our kids future. No, really. Sadly for me, it's got to be easy and not remotely time consuming. If I can't fit it easily into my life then with all the best intentions, it just ain't gonna to happen.

Note - This isn't the first and wont be the last I'm sure UK/SA comparison on my blog. Sorry, I blog what I know right? 

In the UK like with a lot of things, the Government kinda take over and do it for you. Zzzzz :) Each Council (like a Province) is rewarded by weight for how much recycling they produce each year. And guess what? Your recycling is monitored too and if you don't recycle enough, your Council bill will be higher than your greener neighbours. Oh yes.

Repeat After Me

I found this text here and had to post it, it could be my daily chant!

But don't envisage me down on knee praying, with a sweet and placid, perfect Mum smile on my face. More like muttered under my breath, through gritted teeth, few added expletives - as I investigate the surprisingly calm sounding call from my hubby "baby, I think our boy just said he tipped a tin of paint all over the back yard, don't you wanna go check? ...."

Oh give me patience when wee hands
Tug at me with their small demands
And give me gentle and smiling eyes
Keep my lips from hasty replies
And let not weariness, confusion or noise
Obscure my vision of lifes fleeting joys
So when, in years to come my house is still
No bitter memories its room may fill

Four Year Olds Thoughts

I might make a page of things the kids say, been done before I know but sometimes they're just so damn, heart tuggingly cute.

And sometimes they're so funny or so surprising, I spit my tea out. Usually whilst simultaneously snorting it up my nose. Not many people can claim to have that affect on me.

Todays created a small amount of tea spray-age and snorting and was sweet enough for me to want to pop a post up...

I was talking to my four year old about him starting a new school soon and he was concerned about missing the family while he was there.

"Be alright Mummy" he concluded "I'll find a little boy that looks like my brother, a little boy that looks like Daddy and a little girl that looks like mummy. I'll play with them all the time so I won't miss you".

Just a Thought ...

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade right?

This is what I said to myself last night when preparing dinner. I don't have much currently in the way of kitchen appliances or stuff and found myself trying to chip carrots for frying with a large meat cleaver.

I've never been able to 'chop chop chop' with big knives at high speed like chefs and trying to hold the large blade like a small veg knife just wasn't working and frankly, I was fearful for my fingers.

So I stopped, I had a think and then stood a piece of peeled carrot, not unlike a tree branch in shape, upright on the chopping board, stood back and started axing my carrot as if I was making firewood.

It worked, and it was a heck of a lot more fun than I normally find preparing carrots to be.

Now I just need a check shirt and a chain saw and I'm ready to tackle the spuds ...

My New Kitchen Knife