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.

Did We Learn Anything From The Recession?

I did some Economics reading in preparation for this post. That was a daft idea. A HA HA HA HA HA! Ahem.

Maybe a smaller house ..

I was looking for an explanation of the causes of our recent worldwide recession and I found this on Wiki, which I was doing okay with until it mentioned the 'Gaussian Copula Function'. I wondered what it was and if I come across a word I don't know in a book I'm reading, I'm the sort of person who stops reading and looks it up. So I followed the link for Gaussian Copulating whatever-it-was here ... and then somewhere about half way through the document, I think my brain fell out. Or exploded or something. I'm not entirely sure but it hurt, and I decided I'd done enough research. (Let me know if you do any better, I still want to know what it is.)

But as this is my blog, I'll just come up with my own half baked theories and carry on with the post regardless. What the heck, I tried to get better informed.

What's Your Kids Bedtime Routine?

WARNING!! Mummy post alert!

I'm intrigued. We have a bedtime routine in our house, does everyone else? I'm not sure where it came from, or if my siblings and I also had one, but pleased and possibly smug sounding to report - it's working well.

Both our boys had turned two, youngest Nate recently, when we decided it was time for them to have 'Big Beds'. And the move from cot to bed made it seem apparent that it was also the right time to get them used to going to sleep by themselves. 'Self Soothing' as my UK NHS mothers manual used to call it.

Are some of you shocked? Reading back to make sure I said age two? It's apparently possible for a newborn baby to learn to self soothe, and it's all about teaching them early the 'correct' sleep associations, meaning the things your baby associates with going to sleep and therefore perceives it needs to do so. 'Correct' sleep association tools would be a bottle of milk, a teddy bear, a blanket. 'Incorrect' sleep association tools are, er ... well Mummy and Daddy apparently. If you cuddle and rock your baby to sleep, then your baby will perceive that they need you to do so. I remember dire warnings from the midwife and in bold in the manual something like "the longer you leave teaching your child, the harder it will be. ROCK YOUR CHILD TO SLEEP AND MAKE A ROD FOR YOUR OWN BACK!!!"

Well I Never ... No.5

Did anyone notice I missed this post last month? Ssssshhhh. Can you believe I was struggling to think of three new things I'd learnt? Shocking. I should be a total sponge for new knowledge, learning new things every day. Had I really not learnt anything new in a month? Sheesh.

And then Hubby, as he so often does, came to the rescue. Over the years, I've learnt a shedload of interesting and useful knowledge from Hubby, he's a great source. In the space of a few days last week, he'd taught me three brand spanking new things so without further ado, and as an ode really to Hubby and his fountain of uncapped knowledge ...

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

Get Me, I Did a Guest Post!!

Ah me, it's another link for that other WeezaFish who writes elsewhere.

Actually, it's all me wherever I'm writing. I like the idea of having an 'Alter Ego' blog where I swear lots and talk about my sex life too much, but I just don't have the attention to detail that I think that would require. Meaning I'd forget which blog was which, and end up sharing something I really didn't mean to on Facebook to my family. With hilarious consequences .....

They used to use those three words at the end of nearly every TV Guide review of a comedy show in the UK. "This week, Tom's car breaks down again and he gets in trouble with the law. With hilarious consequences".

I digress.

I did a Guest Post, yay! My first ever. Okay, first time asked too so call me a Guest Post Slut if you want, but I couldn't say no.

What's Going on Over at WeezaFish?

You nearly got a post then, but I realised in writing it last week that I was all inspired by my recent addition to the Indie Chicks family and it was really more of an Indie Chicks thing, so I sent it to them.

They posted it today, yay! Go see, go see. Comment if you please (not afraid to just ask for your comments me).

AND now the lovely Elle of Thisismommyhood has asked me too, would I post to her site A Nervous Tic Motion! Jeepers, it feels nice to be asked. Elle's another great writer I admire in blog world, and I love her 'other' site. And man she's nice, I call her Lady Elle. She is a Lady.

I sent her something today, I hope to be linking you to it on her site soon.

But I don't want anybody worrying that these new found writing outlets of mine are going to turn WeezaFish into a blog of links to other sites where my actual writing is. So here's a list, a sneak preview if you will, of my upcoming posts to WeezaFish. Indie Chicks, Elle you're very lovely and cool and all that but you can't have them. Listen to me, talking like I'm some big shot now. Snicker.