Small boys, food, work and other joys
November 20, 2007 Leave a comment
Here are the boys, before breakfast, doing a bit of drawing. Sebastian loves drawing and practising his writing, Jude is starting to draw things rather than just scribble and Zachary just wants to do whatever his brothers do…
You might also note the sculptures in the background – a "pirate ship" from Jude and a "castle" from Sebastian.
November 17, 2007 Leave a comment
It is truly hard to beleive that we live in a world still where a woman who has been raped can still be sentenced to being lashed. Sure, it is not because of the rape, but because she was in a car with a man alone. the idea that something as innocent as that can bring down this sort of treatment is just intolerable and unbelievable. The idea that lashing people is part of any judicial system is hard to believe itself. I really don't care whether people want to try and justify it on religious or cultural grounds, barbarism is still barbarism. What particulary irks me is that this sort of barbaric treatment of women has been used as one of the justifications of the military intervention in Afghanistan, and yet, because the Saudis are important allies of the US, it is unlikely that either the US or Australian governments would even protest publicly about this sort of thing in Saudi Arabia. I know these aren't particularly original or amazing sentiments, but it does make me angry. I know, what a surprise, governments are hypocritical and pragmatic – I guess we can continue to hope for something better.
November 17, 2007 Leave a comment
Sebastian and Jude are playing with their lego oil refinery. I believe James may have assisted in its original construction. It is amazing what can be built – sometimes I think they actually prefer the free form building rather than the specific vehicles. The boys had been playing like this for a while this morning when I got up. We now have a system on the weekends – I leave them out muesli bars so when they get up they eat them and then play for a while. I usually leave one for Zachary which his brothers provide to him. Of course, eventually Zac wants to get out of bed, especially when his brothers head downstairs to play and he is left alone in his cot. When Jude and Seb choose to play in his room, we can sleep in for quite some time!
November 17, 2007 1 Comment
EASY!! Anything by Joss Whedon. Buffy got to finish its story arc in a graceful manner, the last season of Angel was in some ways better than those which had immediately preceded it and of course Firefly, unjustly, barely got started. At least we can now hold out hope that Dollhouse will be just as good as the previous Whedon experiences!
November 16, 2007 Leave a comment
Like his brothers before him, Zachary has discovered the joys of housework. he is big with the sweeping but also likes taking plates out to the kitchen when he and his brothers have finished with them and mopping up his own little spills with paper towels or tea towels. Of course, this phase of their lives is always short lived, and generally before they cann be truly useful in this respect. Taking plates out is good though. Sebastian is now learning to help out around the house though and is quite good at unstacking the dishwasher – at least the items for which he can reach the appropriate cupboards. Even Jude will set the table, although with his own creative approach to the location of the cutlery.
November 15, 2007 Leave a comment
I can't believe that the media is now obsessing about whether Julia Gillard owns a skirt, because some farmer named Bob had an old-timer rant. I mean, really, aren't we past the time where women have to justify what they wear, and the idea that a professional woman should be questioned over whether she owns a skirt or not is just so inappropriate.
What annoys me the most is that our aspirant Prime Minister can't see the inherent sexism of this whole line of questioning, and rather than just dismissing this or addressing the fact that a woman's worth as a politician has nothing to do with her wardrobe, he has to make some more ridiculous a sexist comments about women and fashion and not wanting to get involved. I'm sorry, but please, this is 2008 and WHO CARES?
…obviously enough people to make running away with the story seem worthwhile, clearly…..
November 15, 2007 Leave a comment
I can't remember what my first single purchase was, but I do know that my first album was (shamefully) Racey's Smash and Grab. Somewhat woeful, but at the time I couldn't resist "Lay Your Love on me" and its other greats. Of course, Racey disappeared into obscurity, and I'm not entirely sure what happened to the album. It could be here, but, more likely, is lurking somewhere at my parent's house, possibly never to be played again. Much of my early music taste following the Racey, like Duran Duran and so forth, still remains featured on my iPod, but I'm afraid Racey never made the cut. I guess I was only 11 and can be forgiven for such lapses of musical judgement.
November 14, 2007 2 Comments
Because of the whole going to New Zealand thing, I have had to organise passports for the boys. It, ofcourse, involves endless paperwork, document collection and presentation and…the photos:
Zachary looks his cute little self, but with the unsmiling headshots, Jude and Sebastian's photos do have something of the mugshot about them. This is particularly emphasised in Jude's case by his aggressively spikey hair (Jude and Sebastian had their hair cut the day before).
The process of getting passports could not be straightforward, but I could not beleive the lack of customer service ethos shown by Australia Post. At 2.15pm, after having been lined up for five minutes or so, I got to the counter to be told:
"Nup, not until 2.30pm…"
"where does it indicate this" I innocently asked
"Doesn't have to!" responded my friendly postal worker. "Most post offices won't do it between 12.30 and 2.30pm. That's how it is. It says on the Australia Post website." (Actually, I have now checked. It doesn't – at least not anywhere obvious)
'it doesn't mention it on the passport webstie" quoth I
'why would it?" Mr I-love-the-power-of-my-job Postal Worker responded, yet again unhelpfully.
At this point I left. Clearly a constructive discourse on the need to inform one's consumers adequately was not going to eventuate. This was already my second visit to the post office with the passport applications. I had arrived in the morning and realised I didn't have Zac's birth certificate. Then, when attempting to lodge Sebastian's application, I was told my passport wasn't good enough, because I had obtained it after Sebastian was born. Yes, that's right folks, they uncovered my cunning plan. After learning of his birth, I changed my name, by Deed Poll, to the same name as his mother, stole his birth certificate and faked the passport application in order to falsely get Sebastian a passport. Tarnation! So Jude's passport application was lodged in the morning, Zachary's was lodged at 2.35pm and Sebastian's is yet to be lodged as I spent all day today going from meeting to meeting and had to scarf down my lunch in 15 minutes. So tomorrow I'll visit the post office, but clearly not between 12.30pm and 2.30pm!
The Life and Times of Bossy Boots 