Why don’t kids ever listen?

Posted on September 27, 2007
Filed Under Australia - The land down under, Stupidity and randomness, Breaking news, They never should have let me be a mother | 10 Comments

Today, I was barely in work for 10 minutes when I get a phone call from Brian.

“Connor has pricked himself with a syringe that he found on the way to school.”

After willing my stomach back into it’s usual position with great difficulty I managed to hear the whole story.

Apparently, on the way to school, Connor saw something shiny in the grass and without even thinking about it, he leaned down and picked it up at which point it jabbed him in the thumb. Upon realising what he was holding, he looked around further and saw the cap for it, which he placed on the syringe and then left it where he found it.

He told his teacher what had happened as soon as he got to school and they sent another teacher to retrieve the offending object and called Brian to advise us what had happened.

Brian then called the Medical Centre nearby who recommended that he go to Princess Margaret Hospital. When he called the hospital, they said it’s really not that urgent and to take him to the GP to get blood tests done to check for Hepatitis and H.I.V. among other things.

What a panic. I’ve been carrying my stomach in my knees most of the day and can’t help but worry about the slimmest of slim chances that he may have contracted something that could affect him the rest of his life and even the duration of his life!

I remember having many conversations about not touching strange objects on the way to and from school. We’ve been over it a million times! There have been syringes found before in the bush that borders the school as well as snakes and other nasties that could potentially be harmful.

“GO TELL A TEACHER .”

“DON’T TRY TO GET IT YOURSELF.”

“NEVER TOUCH ANYTHING THAT YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT IT IS.”

“NEVER STICK YOUR FINGERS WHERE YOU CAN’T SEE THEM.”

Now we have an agonizing week-long wait to get the results of the blood tests.
Why don’t kids ever listen?

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Lookee what I found

Posted on September 25, 2007
Filed Under Australia - The land down under | Leave a Comment

Not the clearest shot, I know, but any time I got closer, she bolted and I had to wait for her to come back.  This is in the corner of our pergola and I have to assume she’s got eggs in there as the only time she leaves the nest is when she’s scared away. As much as I would love to leave the nest there, it is situated very close to the table on which we eat all summer…:(

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Advertising gone too far?

Posted on September 23, 2007
Filed Under Australia - The land down under, Stupidity and randomness | 2 Comments

A little while ago I had to take the train to and from work for a week while the old car was in the shop and I
noticed this banner on the inside of the rail line across from the platform on which I caught my train.

I was surprised by the ‘In-your-face’ photo of a man with an amputated arm warning people of the dangers of crossing on the tracks to reach another platform rather than using any number of stairs, escalators and bridges. I would have thought that common sense would dictate that people don’t run across live tracks in front of regularly passing trains but I suppose there are always a few idiots who’ll do anything stupid in a hurry or on a dare.

I find it amazing how adverts have changed over the years to use images that would simply not have been tolerated 10 years ago. Images of cancer riddled lungs and ulcerated mouths on cigarette packages, crack addicted teens with thinning hair, revolting teeth and jaundiced pock and scar marked skin in anti-drug commercials and dead, mangled, bloody bodies in drink-driving ads.

I know the intent is to shock us into the proper behaviour of upstanding citizens and healthy adults but is it really helping children learn or just desensitizing them to the world around them? When I was 12, if I had seen someone who had just been in a car crash with broken limbs, head trauma and masses of blood, I would have been in terrible shock, probably close to vomiting but my kids are so blase about these ads…they barely even register!

So, has advertising gone too far? Or do you reckon it’s an effective method of stupidity prevention?

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Fund-raising is hard work!

Posted on September 22, 2007
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Brian is once again president of the North Beach Cricket Club, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, and one of the duties of the committee members is to come up with ideas for fund-raising. This year, one of the wives came up with a pretty good idea.

Delivering the white pages.

Yep, I mean the phone book. Apparently, because it’s a once a year thing, they allow people to deliver to earn money for their sporting clubs (among other clubs of course.) So this morning, Brian, Chelsea, Connor and myself set out in the ute with a pallet (about 300) of books and set out to complete a section of North Beach. Lots of club members volunteered to help and we split up each suburb into manageable portions.

We finished ours in about and hour and half with a little mucking around and the kids and I certainly weren’t sprinting. Brian has gone to help some of the guys in other suburbs. As much as we’d like to help, we don’t run as fast as the athletes do and would more than likely slow them down a bit. This weekend there is about 3000 books to deliver spread out over a few suburbs. Next weekend we tackle our suburb, which is the largest and has about 6000 residences.

I think we’ll all be a little sore and a little pooped but will have earned quite a bit for the club. This means better training equipment, a coach and more events for the cricketers families and friends, which in turn earns more revenue for the club. Not bad, hey?

I must admit after delivering phone books this morning, (we started abound 8am) shopping for Chloe’s birthday (coming up on Wednesday) and washing the car…I am knackered and it’s only 1:40pm!!

I’ve completely thrown my diet du jour out the window and rewarded myself with some strawberry cheesecake ice cream.

YUM!

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Spring has sprung…

Posted on September 16, 2007
Filed Under Australia - The land down under | 1 Comment

And the grass is rise.
I wonder where the birdies is?
The birdies is on the wing
But that absurd…
Because the wing is on the bird!

As a child my uncle used to say this little poem to me every year and I thought it was so funny. Amazing what makes a child laugh. Maybe it’s because it was usually accompanied by tickling…lol.

The point I was making is that, this morning, for the first time this year, Brian and I enjoyed our morning coffee outside on the back deck. At 6:30am it was warm enough to sit outside and be comfortable (still in PJ’s of course).

We were able to relax for an hour enjoying the music of the birds and the warm sun while we chatted about the upcoming day, our plans for the gardens and other non-crucial, early morning topics.

I can’t think of anything more enjoyable to do with my husband on a balmy Sunday morning while the kids watch morning cartoons and play quietly in the games room.

Summer is on the way!

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