Wordless Wednesday

Playgroup Rainbow Cake + small children = 

Massive sugar hangover

Head on over to My little Drummer Boys and Faith, Hope and a whole lotta Love for lots of great wordless wednesday posts!

Christmas Fun

It has been so long since I blogged that I barely no how to get back into it (life got in the way), so I thought I would go with something simple.

I thought I might share with you one of my all time favourite Christmas sites - the Norad Santa Tracker.

Officially there are only  4 days until Santa leaves the North Pole and starts his journey! (yes, I am terrified that it is that close too). You can follow it online, with the Norad Santa tracker. There is also a Kids countdown village with lots of fun (and educational) games for kids.

I sometimes shun away from things that are overtly trying to make my children believe that Father Christmas is really true (issues with lying to them), but I find the Norad Santa tracker a little bit irresistible, and if nothing else has games on it that distract me from all the things I need to get done before christmas!!

You can use google earth to track Santa's progress, and apparently this year you can follow on Facebook, twitter, and there is also an App.

Do you have any Christmas sites that you particularly like?

MAC or PC Personality?

We have had a bad week and a half. Gastro took down all five of us, one at a time, and then shortly after I got tonsillitis. To add insult to injury, in the middle of it all, my computer died as well.

This was not entirely unexpected. It was getting old, gets worked hard, and has been on its last legs for a while. I had just been hoping to get a few more months out of it.

So once I had dealt with the fact that this time it was not going to come back on, I had to face the age old dilemma - Mac or PC*?

A lot of people feel pretty strongly about this question, and many strongly identify with being one or the other.

The Mac users I found were especially passionate about Macs. When asked 'Mac or PC?' They would all reply, 'Mac definitely'. 'Why?' 'Because they are better.' 'In what way?' 'In every way.'

I liked the fact that they were so confident, and obviously very dedicated to their chosen brand, but as Macs are relatively more expensive than PCs, I sort of expect them to be better, but wanted to know in what ways, and why I should pay a surcharge for Mac when obviously PCs work well for a lot of people. No one seemed to be able to give me a good answer to this, except that perhaps I would get a longer lifespan out of a Mac, and that if I decided to sell it, it would retain its value better than a PC.

I tried to do as much research as possible, and the one article that I came across that probably helped most in making up my mind is this article by Hunch. It is an article about a study done about the traits and characteristics of people who identify as a 'PC person' or a 'Mac Person'.

Some of the key differences were that Mac people saw the world in a light of 'sameness' and therefore 'express a need to be perceived as different or unique' whereas PC users see the world as different enough. This difference is reflected in their aesthetic choices such as Mac users being into retro design and one-of-a-kind clothing, whereas PC users are more likely to make practical choices to get the job done rather than making an overt design statement. Media choices are also likely to be different, e.g.; Mac users more likely to be into Indy films, PC users into more mainstream films and also sport.

So yes, when it came to investing a substantial amount of money in a piece of technology, I was most influenced by the fact that Mac and PC users have different aesthetic taste.

I am pretty conservative in many ways, but don't like to see myself as mainstream. I am attracted to handmade things, old furniture, and love op-shops and markets. I hate watching sport on TV.

So, I am now the proud owner of a new Mac. Am I happy with my choice? Change is hard, but time will tell whether I have made the right choice. So far it works, and that is a lot more than I can say for my old PC.

Do you identify with being a Mac user or a PC user?

Do you not identify yourself in these terms?   :)

* Obviously as PC stands for Personal Computer, they are all PCs, and it is in fact a Windows vs Mac question, but as most people phrase it as a PC vs Mac issue, I decided to use this terminology as well.

'24 Hour Rule' Fail

I have lived by the 24 hour rule all my parenting life and it has served me well, until recently that is. Do you live by the 24 hour rule? The rule whereby if your child is sick, you don't take them out or let them socialise with others for at least 24 hours after they vomit, have diarrhoea or a temperature. Most daycare centres and other places that children frequent have this rule, and it just makes sense, in order to make sure that they are over the bug and are most likely over the contagious period.

My darling Rocket was quite sick on Thursday night (several times, hourly), and then once more at about 7am in the morning. He was off his food and lethargic on Friday, but no other signs of being sick. I let out a sigh of relief, and was thankful that my other two didn't seem to be showing any symptoms. On Saturday morning, Rocket was back to his normal bouncy self and had a normal breakfast. He then had a normal (if somewhat large) lunch, kept it all down and continued to be perky. It was well over the required 24 hours, so after assessing the situation we decided late on Saturday afternoon to head out to Ikea.

Molly May had for some reason decided to wear a nappy, which she hardly ever does out anymore. A few minutes into our shopping trip, she was standing in a corner behind a chair in one of the Ikea rooms when she looked at Papa, and asked 'Am I wearing a nappy?', Papa assured her she was and she let loose, except that for some reason the nappy didn't seem to catch any of it, and she left a sizeable puddle. I hadn't bought a change of clothes. We should have left Ikea at this point.

I headed quickly downstairs to the shopping centre and bought some new pants and undies for her. Upon returning to my family, I noticed a large red bump on her head - she had run full pelt around the kids section and come off second best to the edge of a baby change table on display that happened to be forehead height for her. We should have left at this point.

We did a quick circuit of what we wanted to look at and then decided to give the kiddies a quick bite to eat before descending into the market hall. Our famished little ones began to eat, and on the second bite of meatball, Rocket's stomach decided he didn't want his lunch after all, or his breakfast in fact, and let it all out over the table, the floor, and mostly himself.

I desperately tried to find a cleaning person who spoke english, which is apparently a challenge in itself in Ikea, but with a few choice hand gestures, they looked repulsed and hurried away. It took what seemed forever for someone to actually come out, while Papa Bear and I frantically clamoured for as many paper napkins as we could find to try and deal with the mess the best we could. After having dealt with it the best we could, and knowing that cleaners were now on the scene, we decided to leave.

I am not sure I will ever be able to take my children to Ikea again.

Do you use the 24 hour rule? Should it be changed to the 48 hour rule?

What is your worst shopping experience?

* One man I mentioned this story to said vomiting was a common normal male reaction to shopping at Ikea and had nothing to do with gastro at all.

Simple Handmade Gifts for Girls

Today I am guest posting over at Frog, Goose, and Bear. I met Emma earlier this year after we moved to Melbourne, and it was her blog that inspired me to move into the public realm of blogging after I had been blogging privately (for family and close friends) for a couple of years. She has also inspired me to experiment more with creative pursuits. I found leaving Adelaide really sad - leaving people who I had grown to care about so much, but blogging, a bit of craft and photography, and meeting some wonderful women at playgroup has slowing started filling the gaps that had appeared after leaving Adelaide. Life feels so much more positive, and Emma has played a big part in that. 
So head over to Emma's blog and have a look around - she is amazingly creative, and her blog houses the most wonderful collection of fun things for kids to do, easy recipes, simple handmade gifts and much, much more - you will love it!

Grateful - For Dogs...

Dear Bear, when we brought you home on January 15, you were a tiny pup;

You were interested in your new home, and your new family, and they were interested in you

You weren't so sure of the cardboard box we had for you to sleep in

You didn't mind the pats though,

But you were happier when the other puppies got in the box with you.

Your new big brothers were so excited to have you at last,

They had been pretty sad about leaving all their friends in Adelaide, but you made it better,

You were so loved, from the first moment.

There was even another toddler in the house to play with, who knew you preferred your food out of the bowl,

And would share her dummy with you, until you started chewing through them,

You grew so quickly, and became a close companion, part of our family,

You liked to look after Molly as she played in the bath,

and liked it when she gave you drinks of water,

We all grew to love you very much, and we are so grateful that you are part of our family

And you were grateful we took you to the beach, even if you got car sick on the way.  You are such a handsome boy!

We love you SO much! Happy 1st Birthday Bear!!

(joining in with Maxabella's Grateful List)

Pink Tutu Headband - creative space

A few weeks ago I had a go at making a headband to go with the no-sew tutu that I made for my little girl. Have a look here for lots of other creative ideas!

First I covered a headband with ribon, securing it to the headband using hot glue

I cut several pieces of tulle into small lengths, about 12 cm long

I attached them to the headband using the same method I used to make the no-sew tutus

And this is what it looked like finally done. My little girl won't try it on, but when my little boy put it on it made him look a bit like the statue of liberty. Might need a little bit of a trim.

Wordless Wednesday

Visit here and here for lots of other wordless wednesday posts

Tiger Mothers and Sport

My boys have just started playing cricket for a local team who are in need of players. I am filled with apprehension. We have gone down this path before, with cricket and other sports, and failed. My boys don't seem to have inherited the sporty gene. I don't have it either.

So far, the cricket is going well, but the others all started that way too, then slowly deteriorated as my boys realised that they weren't as good as some of the other boys. Footy was a fairly short lived affair in this household.

I don't care about them being good, I just want them to have fun. But there in lies the dilemma: do you need to be good at sport to enjoy it? 

I know that the answer to that question is probably no. For adults I think it is definitely a no. But as a child who wasn't good at sport, I always felt like I was letting the team down. I remember when I was about 9 and playing netball. I knew I wasn't as good as the others, and the rhetoric was, it is just fun, we are all just here to have fun, and everyone will get rotated through the positions, everyone will get a turn. But I didn't. I was nearly always Goal Keeper, because that was a position that was mostly sedentary, and needed the least ball skills and running skills. Apart from not having great ball or running skills, my biggest problem was that I was too polite and had a tendency to stand back and let the girl on the other team have the ball. My boys seem to have inherited my politeness, they don't have the killer instinct that comes in handy when playing sport.

On the day of the Netball Grand final, for some reason the coach decided not to give me a turn on the court. I knew that it was this way would give the team the best chance of winning, and I didn't even really want to play. I didn't want to let anyone down, but the message it sent was clear - you are the worst player on the team, and we have a better chance of winning if you don't play.

That stuck with me for a really long time.

In year 11 I took up hockey for the school's bottom team and had fun in sport for the first time. We weren't a good team, but we were the best in the grade, and had a lot of fun.

I don't want to pass my bad experiences with sport on to my boys. I'm  not the type of Australian who thinks that sport is everything, but at the same time I can see that it is pretty important to our culture, and that being good at it is rewarding and satisfying.

Amy Chua, the controversial 'Tiger Mother', says that to enjoy something you need to be good at it. A good article on her can be found here.  I'm pretty sure Amy Chua wouldn't advocate sport at all, but I can see her point, even if I would hesitate to push my kids that much.

I just want them to have fun, and at the moment that is what they are doing. But if they stop having fun? Should I let them give up? Should I push them harder so that they might have a chance of becoming good, and therefore more likely to enjoy it?

Not another Halloween Post

The other day Allison Tait over at the Pink Fibro wrote this brilliant post about Halloween. This post, together with most of the 47 odd comments on it, really summed up my feelings about Halloween. It is not 'our' tradition. We are Australian, and it just feels like a purely commercial exploitation of our society and in particular the children. Alison wrote how last year when trick or treaters turned up on her doorstep she politely and cheerfully told them sorry, we don't do Halloween.

We have been lucky enough to have never had trick or treaters knock on our door.... until last night that is. I was so grateful for having read Allison's post, and I, too, cheerfully and politely told them sorry - we don't do halloween. That was all fine, except that my boys turned on me after they had left, pointing out that obviously 'some' people do Halloween in Australia. Sure, but we don't, I explained.

Unfortunately to a 9 year old boy, getting dressed up in scary clothes, walking down the street in the dark and getting lots of lollies from strangers is pretty close to perfection. He was devastated that I wasn't going to change my mind. As I tried to console him, and as tears rolled down his cheeks, I thought that it is a bit like breaking a habit. People say that you can't get rid of a habit, you need to replace it. Maybe that is what I (or maybe we - in Australia) need to do. Instead of the American version of Halloween slowly creeping in to our culture to the point that it becomes virtually impossible to say no to our children, because 'everyone' else is doing it, perhaps we need to start our own 'tradition'.

Many people who commented on the post at Pink Fibro pointed out that it comes from a Pagan celebration, another person said that it also had roots from Mexican tradition. In fact, it is something that is celebrated in many countries around the world in some way, and is probably a combination of Christian and non-Christian traditions. Most countries around the world have a day or festival that honours the dead. Australia is possibly unusual for not having one.

When I lived in Sweden, I found their tradition of lighting candles in the graveyards that burn for a week (in the dark, snow covered graveyards), to be beautiful, sombre, and magical.

I'm not sure what I would like 'my' version of Halloween to be look like, but I am thinking of things along the lines of a sombre supper remembering the people who were close to us who are no longer with us. Sharing the memories of my Dad and my grandparents with my children, with good food, candles, soft music. Perhaps also dressing up in costumes (to keep my 9 year old happy).

What are your thoughts on Halloween? Do you think it is just a bit of fun? Do you dislike the commercial nature and Americanisation of our culture?

Do you like the idea of starting your own celebration? On your own terms? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

My (first) Creative Space

Today I am joining in here with Our Creative Spaces. I have been pursuing creative things more this year, especially in recent months, largely inspired by Emma from Frog, Goose and Bear.

This week I have finally made something which I have been planning on making since I saw it on Maxabella Loves when she started making rainbow tutus for her little girl's party.

Unforunately Molly won't try it on, so I don't know if it fits her, and I can't show a photo of her in it.

French Carbs, and other Joys of Life...

I am sitting here eating, at 6pm, some of the remnants of brunch. It has come straight out of the oven, and it is burning my thighs, as it is carefully cradled on a tea towel in my lap. What I am eating was meant to end up being a cinnamon scroll, but for some reason it didn't rise. The recipe failed me for the first time ever. So, instead of being a cinnamon scroll for breakfast, the dough has just been baked into rolls (without cinnamon), and is delicious, sweet and rich, and flaky (in a good way). Like a cross between brioche and croissants. Mmmmmm.....

This morning I had one of my oldest and dearest friends and her mum for brunch. I have been using my thermomix more frequently in the past couple of weeks, and starting to become more comfortable experimenting a bit. So, I was pretty excited about the prospect of visitors. I decided to make some cinnamon scrolls (which failed me! -  not in the thermomix), some brioche in the thermomix (I turned half the mix into cinnamon scrolls, and they were ok); I made some scones (not thermomix) made some butter to go with them in the thermomix, which I think I did for too long, as it was more like whipped butter, but still good. I also made some hummous, some dukkah, and we had some shop bought cheeses, and lots of fresh fruit. I just love brunch.

And it doesn't exactly fit in with brunch, but I have always wanted to make a Lemon Meringue Pie, so decided that today was the day. I was pretty happy with my first attempt.

What is your favourite Brunch food?

Do you like to experiment with your cooking?

Arachnophobia

I am not scared of spiders.

I don't particularly like big nasty looking spiders inside since I have had children. The first time I remember actually bothering to remove a spider was a couple of weeks after my first baby was born, and I found a whitetail in the kitchen of our studio apartment. Up until that point, I would have actually happily co-existed with the spider, but I felt a little protective of my baby, and decided it would be better for the white tail spider to live outside. After child birth, I also drew the line at huntsmen if they decided to live on the ceiling or wall above my children's beds.

Oh, and the time my hand discovered one under the car door handle, I squealed like a girl. Apart from that, I am pretty cool about spiders.

My husband grew up on farms, he couldn't care less about spiders.

This attitude has been passed down to our two boys. Our eldest has never shown to have any issues with spiders (or any creepy crawlies of any type in fact, often collecting them and letting them live in his bedroom). Our second boy went through a stage of really not liking spider webs. He would visit his grandmother and happily point out all the spider webs she had missed in her dusting. It is quite amazing how different the view of furniture is for a 3 year old!

However, my little girl, is quite a different story. She is two and a half, and at the beginning of the year
she started saying 'spider! scary!'. She would have trouble getting to sleep, because she was sure that there were spiders crawling up the wall next to here bed. There were none that we could see.

I bought a 'lift the flap' type book, that happened to have a picture of a spider that you could lift the flap of. She had very happily lifted the flap of several pages, but baulked when she got to the spider, and flat out refused to touch it.  Even though it was just a picture.

Today we went to the Melbourne Museum to their Bugs Alive exhibition. She found it all pretty interesting, but when I lifted her up to get closer to the window of the tarantula display, she arched her back and pushed away with her feet. Their was no way she was going to touch that window. She then said that they would crawl all over her. Later I asked her about it, she said she didn't like seeing the spiders, but it was okay because they were in their 'homes'.

I find it pretty fascinating, because I don't think she has been exposed to people who outwardly talk of being scared of spiders. Could her fear be innate? The psychologist in me finds the nature/nurture debate fascinating, and since becoming a parent, my viewpoint of much of it has definitely changed.

Do your children have phobias? Are they things you expected?

Are you scared of Spiders?

What is your opinion on the nature/nurture debate? Has becoming a parent changed your feelings on it? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Wordless Wednesday - After the storm

Really want a macro lens so I can do raindrop reflections properly!!
Playing along with wordless wednesday here

Chaos

I haven't been particularly good with blogging recently. I have lost momentum. Big time.

I am just not managing to do everything, which means that I feel like I am not doing anything well.

One of the reasons I am finding it hard to get things done is because of my terrorist toddler. She is going through a very '2' year old phase. Which is perhaps fitting seeing as she is 2. However, my second child didn't have a two year old phase, never had a tantrum, was always good at reasoning, listening, doing what he was told, etc. I stupidly, (and smugly), thought it had something to do with parenting. My third child has taught me that I was mistaken in this belief.

Rocket got the wrong box out of the bookshelf while looking for the Wii games. He mistakenly removed the puzzles and games box from the top shelf (where it can't be reached by little people), and put in on the couch (within Molly's reach). He then came and puzzled to me that he couldn't find what he was looking for in the box. Two minutes later I came out to help in find what he was looking for - this is the chaos that had ensued in the meantime.....

An afternoon spent putting puzzles back together to check we had all the pieces before putting back in the box. Not fun, and didn't feel productive. Puzzles are not my strong point, even ones that are designed to be simple enough for preschoolers.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday with Faith Hope and a whole lotta love

Hollandaise - daze

Perfectly soft poached free-range eggs topped with a good dollop of hollandaise is one of my favourite things in life. When out shopping on weekend mornings, I glance longingly at cafes where people are eating Eggs Benedict (hollandaise and ham), Eggs Florentine (hollandaise and spinach), or Eggs Atlantic* (hollandaise and smoked salmon).
Yum. All things good.

However, I barely ever go out for breakfast. It is something that has to be done in relative peace, and you should be able to linger. Linger is no longer something I am able to do now that I am a mother. At least not at places I want to linger.  Apparently we can linger at the toy store however.

So go alone I hear you saying?
I know I could, but it is just more satisfying going with someone else. Weekend breakfast has everything to do with love, and should be shared with those we love, our friends and our family.
It also feels like an overindulgence to go alone, and that takes the gloss off a little for me.
So, it just doesn't happen.

The other day however, I decided to attempt Hollandaise at home. I was nervous, figured it would be a disaster, and that I would be the only one who would eat it, even if it worked.

Imagine my surprise when....

Perfect, creamy, prehaps just a little more than a dollop of delicious-ness on a plate....mmmm...heaven.....

What is your favourite breakfast food? 

Do you have things you love to eat when you are out that you don't attempt when you are at home?

*At least that is what our local cafe calls it. 

Do you Geocache?

Found! Yay!

This week a friend of mine suggested we go Geocaching. Geocaching is a relatively new thing, as far as I know, and I had never come across someone who knew much about it, but when I first heard about it last year, it sounded seriously fun, so my answer was 'definitely'!.

Geocaching is described as a global treasure hunting game where participants locate hidden physical containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share their experience online.

There are quite a few Geocaching Apps, but we used one called Geocaching.com. Apparently Geochachers have hidder Geocaches on ever contintent from Antartica to North America. I was really surprised to hear that there were quite a few in our suburb, including one at the top of our street!

Can you see it under the leaves?

We found two Geocaches, before the smallest two in our group began to fade a little, and we decided it was time to retire for the day. Inside the Geocaches are small items that you can swap with items of your own. The children swapped for tiny dice, pencils, rubbers, and stickers. It was all very exciting!


It's a great way to spend some time outside, and there are some little people in our house who are looking forward to doing it again soon!

Wordless Wednesday

Playing along here

Mindblogging

Well, it has been a long time since my last post. Things got hectic a couple of weeks ago, between the last week of school, a house inspection, many visitors, our 10 year anniversary, that I took a slight break, planning on making up for it last week when we were on holidays. We rented a holiday house in Phillip Island for a week. I figured I would have plenty of time to catch up on blogging. I hadn't counted on access to internet being mostly non-existent.

So, during the last two weeks, I have been spending a LOT of time mindblogging. Do you do that? I asked a IRL friend blogger if she mindblogged, and she said, 'ALL.THE.TIME.'.

My most productive time for mindblogging is doing the dishes, when I have my rubber gloves on, and there is no way I could write down the ideas I have.

The thing is, I find it really hard to remember the ideas I have of what I want to blog about. Even when I do remember, I often find it hard to get it down onto the computer, mostly because I know it was so much better the first time. When I wrote it in my head.

I am wondering, is this a common problem?

Do you have a solution?

Write on Wednesdays - First Paragraph Re-written

This weeks Write on Wednesdays prompt was:

'Write on Wednesday Exercise 14 - The Mighty Mighty Rewrite...

Zanni: I did a workshop with literary author Mj Hyland, who teachers Masters in Creative Writing at Manchester University. She asked us to choose our favourite book, take the first paragraph and then write our own content into the paragraph, keeping the structure, tone, language etc. It's really helpful! '

The book I have chosen for the exercise is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, By Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.
My version of the first paragraph is first, the original is below: 

8^th January, 2011

Mrs Kate Wilkinson,

Throsby St,

Exeter, NSW

Australia

Dear Kate,

Peter Simmons is a wonder. I really didn't think that Henry would even turn up to the appointment, let alone be positive about it when I talked to him. But much more exciting from my point, was the fact that he seems to be more up-beat this week since the appointment. He has been getting out of bed by 8am, none of this laying around until mid-afternoon; and even starting to show a bit of joy and interest in things he used to find pleasant. We even went for a picnic in the the forest last weekend. I can hardly believe the change in him! Peter managed to convince him to meet up with some old friends, and Henry has made an appointment for another session with him next week. Henry has always been so against the idea of therapy, but it seems to be making such a difference already. Do you suppose that this time he might get better for good? I scarcely want to let myself consider the idea. 

The original first paragraph from the book is:

Mr Sidney Stark, Publisher, 

etc...

...

...

Dear Sidney, 

Susan Scott is a wonder. We sold forty copies of the book, which was very pleasant, but much more thrilling from my standpoint was the food. Susan managed to procure ration coupons for icing sugar and real eggs for the meringue. If all her literary luncheons are going to achieve these heights, I won't mind touring about the country. Do you suppose that a lavish bonus could spur her on to butter? Let's try it - you may deduct the money from my royalties.

Wordless Wednesday - my mind is holidaying in Europe

Joining in wordless wednesday with Faith, hope and a whole lotta love

The Path Less Travelled

I have been blogging on another site, where I have been trying to do posts of a holiday we had two and a half years ago. We were living in England at the time, and got a good last minute deal on a two week Mediterranean cruise. I have been wanting to document this for the boys, as they were only 3 and 6 years old when we went on it, and I would like to help them have as much of a memory of it as possible.

This is one of the pictures that I just came across, that I am fairly sure my husband took, probably of a sunrise. Not enhancement of colours, no filters, this is pure.

This is the stuff dreams are made of.

I sometimes, during the drudgery of day to day life, look at other families and feel like I should be 'keeping up with the Jones', ie, that we should have bought a house by now.

But when I look at pictures like this, I realise that we have just made different decisions.

Our journey has been a scenic and winding one. 

I don't regret any of it. I feel privileged to have had so many choices and opportunities, and for us to have chosen to take the path less travelled.

I hope that I manage to live the rest of my life like this. 

What about you? 

What are some of the really special memories you have?

What are some of the things you have done that have made no financial sense, but you wouldn't trade for anything?

Down, Down

Have you ever been waiting (for what seems like an eternity) in the 12 items and less queue at a supermarket, that happens also to be the check-out closest to the 'service' desk, when someone starts waiting at the 'service' desk? And instead of you being served, the check out 'operator' serves them first?

Seeing as this has happened to me many times, I am assuming that it is not just me, and that it in actual fact happens fairly frequently.

Now, I know that most of us are probably glad that some of the major supermarkets have 'service' checkouts for the times when something might go wrong, like buying out of date products.

However, most of the people I see at the 'service' counter, are in fact buying cigarette and tobacco related products.

OK, ok, I am trying really hard not to make this a rant.

But....

I happened to go to a major supermarket last night at around 6pm to buy some bread. I had a toddler with me. She was getting hungry and tired. I had 3 bread items, and joined the 12 items or less queue. A while after we had joined the queue, a man (I'm guessing in his 50s) appeared at the service counter. The check-out attendant finished serving the customer in front of me and then served the man at the service counter. He bought cigarettes and a lighter.

I actually didn't feel cross about someone being served in front of me in this way, because it has happened countless times before. It is just how they do it.

But it got me thinking, and I couldn't help think that it was wrong. That a man alone in his 50s buying a cancer causing, addictive, luxury item would get priority over a mother with a toddler buying bread on a Sunday night at dinner time.

I know they can't 'afford' for staff to solely attend the service counter, they barely seem to have enough staff to serve on the registers, but why don't people buying cigarettes have to line up in the queue? 

Am I being a bit petty in feeling that this is an issue? Or do you think that people buying tobacco related products should have to join one of the regular lines, even if they are only buying cigarettes?

Honestly, I would love if they also served milk and bread from the front counter, so I didn't have to line up. Or maybe chocolate for that late night craving? It might even make me buy more..

Write on Wednesdays - A great one liner

Write On Wednesdays Exercise 13 - A Great One Liner...This week you need to come up with one good line to describe a part of your day. It can be 'real life' or fiction. But it must tell us 'who did what'. It has to be an amazing line, like a tiny little paper plane that must travel a big distance (figuratively speaking) with only a few folds ... Every word in that line must earn its place, or be cut as excess baggage. Let's get thinking about each sentence as though every word counts, like working one group of muscles to show how much weight they can carry. 


My one line -

She grasped her swollen belly and crumpled to her knees in despair onto the cold bathroom floor where her husband lay lifeless with a trickle of blood at his temple, gun still in his hand.

* If you are interested in a bit of a follow up of last week's WoW (not done as a writing task), you can find it here

Wordless Wednesday - Mostly Black and White

 

Other wordless wednesday posts can be found here and here