On the Sunny Side Up

I pulled in at my local petrol station a couple of days ago, to see all the petrol attendants in plain clothes (they are usually in a dark blue and red uniform). I thought maybe they were having a casual Tuesday, who says only Fridays can be casual, but it turns out they were in disguise. Due to the strikes taking place in the petrol industry they could not reveal that they were still working or they stood a good chance of being attacked and even killed. Here is a bit of their story. I wake up to the smell of burning wood and tires. It is cold this morning and my neighbours have made a fire in an old paint tin. I can see when I step outside for a cigarette that the mountains are white on top, like icing on a cake. The hot, bitter smoke warms me from the inside. It is not much but at least I am warmer for a small minute. There is trouble around me. The people are fighting and the people are scared. They want more money at their jobs. We all want more money. But they are looking to...

Que sera, sera In a world with multiple inputs telling me what and how to be, I sometimes feel like it’s easy to be mislead. I may choose particular inputs to lead me in a direction I think I want to go. Some folks enjoy being lead by emotions; others choose reason as their compass. Religion, education, social order, what others think of us – these are all examples of powerful motivators. So which one is the right one? (Is this even an acceptable question to be asking?) How do we know which direction to turn and which motivator to believe? I believe that acknowledging each input is important but to single out an exclusive one to direct all our actions, thoughts and feelings would be close to fundamentalism – the source of many fanatical mistakes. Also, it lends us the illusion of control. If you’re a mildly-anxious, subtly-manipulating control freak like me then you will understand what I mean. As an example, let us look at emotions. Have you ever felt that your own emotio...

A minor dedication to this lovely little princess I au pair... the girl just dazzles!! 'Of all the gals I've met so far, The coolest one has the name of Lar. She loves to smile and sing and dance, And if you give her half a chance, She'll dazzle you with terrific flair, And a cheeky flip of her gold-flecked fair. I love this girl and all she is To my life she add pop and fizz!' xxx

Parents nowadays are scared of their kids. The snotty-nosed, precocious tiny humans have managed to manipulate parents the way MacDonalds sells Coke Zero with a supersized meal to dieting obesitites. I love children. They are enraptured with life, they have an unfathomable imagination and they have a way of pointing out the truth that would make even the Dalai Lama cringe. But man, have things gone topsy turvy these days. I recently read a couple of articles on the way parents pick on teachers and the enormous expectations they place on the classroom leaders. In similar conversations with close personal friends (and teachers) I have received similar feedback. Now how do we expect the kids to understand and internalise values such as tolerance, patience, understanding and responsibility when the primary role models are not reflecting the very moral fibre they demand. Teachers are already responsible for the imparting of an educational foundation (as questionable as modern educat...

Being involved in the childcare industry, I tend to hear some superb snippets of wisdom from the tiny humans. However, maybe due to how different children are with regards to how they see the world, they also produce some extraordinarily bizarre theories. As the case generally is in school, so truthfully reflected in today's American kids' sitcoms, certain hierarchies and rites of passage need to be adhered to to be elevated to the podium of 'cool'. However, nothing, not the tiny skirts, nor the lumberjack shirts nor the neon flooding the nightclubs prepared me from the conversation between three 9 year old girls in the back of my car the other afternoon.  'I want braces.' Now begging the obvious, which is what are 9 year old girls wearing pants with braces for, I had to actively work the muscles in my face not to ask any questions. Instead I listened further to confirm my suspicions - that the young ladies were in fact talking about oral apparatus and not mensw...