Ms Fifikins

I really like commenting on blogs and when Blogger first started I was known to click ‘Next Blog’ over and over and leave random messages!

But I no longer have a blogger account. And to be quite honest, when I comment, I don’t really want to have to sign in with google as they know too much about me already! Plus I have an old google account linked to an old blog that I would rather not alert people too!

On some blogger blogs there is the option to leave a comment with your name and URL, but not all. There must be a button somewhere in there to change settings to make it more comment friendly?

I did like this I stumbled across this evening when I was trying to leave a comment…

Yeah, that’s what I think of your unhelpful platform blogger- it’s faucked!

It’s Monday meme time courtesy of Heloowl. Now who would have guessed Danielle collects owls? Oh yes, today’s theme is something you collect.

Well… I collect dust bunnies and laundry, but figured they wouldn’t make for interesting photos so decided to show you these…

They’re my teapots. Actually just looking now, it’s not all of them! But I’m sure you get the picture! You may notice in the background some of my teas- I am a bit of a tea fan!

The other things I collect are elephants! Now I haven’t photographed my elephant jewellery and elephant spoons, elephant keyrings and stuffed elephants, but I bring you…

My elephant tea cosy and stone elephants,

My beaded and wooden elephants,

my elephant batik (I know, a really bad photo, but you get the idea!),

my elephants painted on paper made from elephant poo,

my embroidered elephant cushion cover for which I still need to buy the right sized insert,

my drawn elephants, picked up a t a craft stall at the Kruger National Park gate we went through.

Finally, I wish I had done this myself…

My Beaded elephant wall hanging.

C’mon and join in the fun! What do you collect?

This post is part of my 101 in 1001 challenge.

Ah, Twilight. There are two ways I could go here- I could turn into a total Twihard or Twimom and rave about their perfection and the perfection of the romance of the two characters. Or I could turn into a Twinot or Twicritic and lament how bad they were. I think I’ll take the middle ground! Oh and if you haven’t delved into the books yet and are planning to, there are possible spoilers ahead…

I wouldn’t normally read teenage romance novels. In my day I was prone to a bit of Sweet Valley High or Sweet Dreams books and still remember reading Judy Bloom’s Forever, but it is not the typical genre I would seek out. I don’t mind a bit of fantasy, and even though they are full of religious overtones, I love the Narnia books. I have read all but the last two Harry Potter books (they are on my list to do!) and I haven’t really minded them, however JK Rowling is no CS Lewis!

So why did I read the series? Well Immy did. She hasn’t turned into the tween twihard some of her friends have, but she said the books were ok. And to be honest, the first one wasn’t that bad. Perhaps I should have left it there! Bella is a smart girl. SHe studies maths and science and hates PE. She is a clumsy adolescent. I think a lot of girls could relate to this! I can remember being 16 or so and thinking I was madly in love with a guy at Youth Group and then I was the 20 year old bride.

The second book was a bit cheesier. Emo Bella moping for a guy who had left her. Again, pretty adolescent girl stuff. Finding friendship with a hot guy who worshipped her, but she saw him as a friend. This is where I start to agree with some of the feminist writers out there- Bella enjoys being told what to do by men, or rather boys. Her father makes suggestions about what to do, and she ignores him. But I finished this book and thought meh.

The third book I found nauseating. So many times I went to just throw it away. Cheesy dialogue, cheesy storyline and well, let’s just say it did nothing for me.

If I hadn’t have put the last book on my to do list, I doubt I would have read it. Yes, it’s full or romance. There’s sex (necrophilia?) but it is not spelt out in as many words. It was the storyline of the last book though (I don’t feel comfortable calling it a plot!) that really grated. Here’s Bella a strong female who is basically powerless. She has no say in her wedding, gets taken on a honeymoon where she has no idea where she is going, but it’s ok as her sister-in-law has packed for her, and packed clothes that she and Bella know would not be the typical ones Bella would choose. Then Bella tries to get her husband to have more sex with her but her sexual frustration goes unanswered. Well not all the time, because lo and behold, she’s pregnant! Yes, just like you were told in sex ed at school, the first time you do it, you can get pregnant. Of course by this stage Bella has decided to wait to become a vampire, but no, that decision is taken away from her.

For all the emphasis the storyline places on what a wonderful vampire Bella is, and her magical gifts, and the author has pointed out all of Bella’s free will, there is little free will. The portrayal of the love between Bella and Edward being so perfect is nauseating and the book being written in the first person does little for the imagination. There is something lacking in the fantasy. Take out the werewolves and vampires and you have a soppy teenage love story. If that’s your cup of tea, then go for it, otherwise I’m sure there are plenty of other books out there to enjoy!

My top drawer

Originally uploaded by fifikins

Er… It’s not messy, it’s just disorganised! This is my top kitchen drawer and I present it as part of My Place and Yours for this week.

I thought about using bedroom drawers, but the top drawers there contained intimate stuff, like bras and knickers! My office top drawer contains receipts and warranties- very boring!

So here is my kitchen top drawer. Please note the mix of old and new! A couple of corkscrews, microplane, crinkle cutter and glass swizzle stick at the top! I must organise it sometime!

In 1000 days I think people might be a bit sick of hearing about my latest project, but I wanted to share how I came up with my list.

I started wondering if I could commit to such a project a couple of weeks ago. I have had so much admiration for those that have tried the project and are currently trying it and wondered with me being such a procrastinator whether it would be a wise thing to do. Then I figured why not! Perhaps it will help my last minuteness!

I then debated about when to start it. I figured I would wait a couple of weeks. Then I programmed the data into the Day Zero website and figured that if I started on Easter Sunday I would finish on NYE 2012. I thought woohoo and then decided that it didn’t matter when I started or when I finished, as long as I started and finished at some stage.

I then set about the list. I compiled it over a week or so. Some things I deleted after a couple of days, some I edited and some I added to. As I said previously, I wanted the goals to be SMART- Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. I wanted to challenge myself, but I was also wary what I was prepared to share via this blog.

I decided against putting down items that would involve major purchases. I believe in the next few years I will have a new motorbike, but I know that at the moment the finances do not allow it and I can’t see that changing in the near future. I did put down travel and I was a little hesitant at that, but decided it was something I really wanted to do. I have enough frequent flyer points to get me back to South Africa, so a side trip to Namibia may be a possibility. It is cheaper to fly to Japan than Melbourne from Cairns so visiting state and territory capitals may prove my undoing!Using this reasoning I didn’t include going on a cruise, or starting to build a yacht, even though these are things I want to do in the future.

I included selling things on my list because I am a bit of a hoarder! Getting rid of things will be hard, no matter how much I don’t need or want them. I also put off financial goals on the whole. Yes, I would love to see a sizable chunk of my mortgage paid off and credit cards chopped up, but I don’t think I am ready to display my money management too much, except for paying bills on time!

I didn’t include work goals because I think I am quite ok at separating work and home, but I fear the waters might be muddied if there were work specific goals included.

The other thing I didn’t include was my thesis. I thought about a goal being to decide whether or not to finish it, but I then figured that would give me an easy out and I am not looking for that. Whilst I don’t want to teach in schools, I do want to finish the degree and writing the thesis is what I have to do. I am not doing it at present because of other constraints on my life and I am not sure when some of these may be over. The thesis would not be a smart goal!

Resistance to involve too many other people was also a factor in coming up with the goals. I cleared the cooking and reading with the kids with them before I added them, but told MIML™ I am teaching him to play Uno! Japs has offered to teach me to play chess and Immy to use photoshop.

I am thrilled with the positive responses thus far. I recently stumbled on this blog, and decided that I must be on the right track if some of my reasoning was similar to this blogger’s!

And from the start, I think the goals I will have most trouble with are:

• Going to bed before 10pm for more than 2 nights in a row
• Visiting every state and territory capital
• Packing a work lunch for a month
• Chin Ups
• Half marathon

But we’ll see!

February Edible365s

Originally uploaded by fifikins

Er… Yes, I know it is almost the end of March and it has taken me a long time to get this up, but still, better late than never! Plus it means I have gone back and re-tasted it all in my mind! Yum!

Well I have taken the plunge! Inspired by Elizabeth and Miriam, I have started a Day Zero Project. You can find my list of goals here. I have tried to make my goals SMART- Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. Some things I planned to do anyway, some I have been putting off- I have never cleaned the oven since I moved in here over 3.5 years ago!

I believe some of the tasks are going to be a real challenge- I have been trying to get below 100kg for a couple of years! I have also been trying to save money- but perhaps saving $25 for each task completed might help!

I will need a cheer squad, so that’s where you come in! Oh and if anyone wants to help me take care of task 100, please let me know

So far on day 1 I have 3 tasks that have been started. Here’s to the next 2.75 years. Oh I will say from the outset I will be pretty peeved if the world does end a week or so before I am meant to finish this project!

It is interesting that this post comes after the previous! A couple of weeks ago I tweeted the following:

What followed were several replies commenting that I must have been clucky! And it hasn’t just been on twitter people have been making comments. There seems to be a perception that the next logical step for MIML™ and I is either marriage and/or kids.

I have commented previously on marriage. Again, it is not something MIML™ and I are wanting to rush into. But as for babies… Having a tween girl and headstrong 9 year old does not enamour me towards more children! Yes, I miss the breastfeeding and closeness and of course don’t miss the sleepless nights and the stitches after pushing out a 4.9kg baby (10lb, 14oz).

But really, it is no one’s business but MIML™s and mine. I could comment on our awesome sex life, or remind people of my PCOS and subfertility, or the fact that I am 38 this year, but I shouldn’t have to! Somewhere it has become OK to ask people when they are going to pop out babies and get married! Perhaps my standard response should be something along the lines of ‘When are you going to lose 10kg?’or ‘When are you seeing the plastic surgeon next?’

Anyone else got any comebacks for me?

Tween girls provide a strange dichotomy. In the space of a week I have been told I am the coolest Mum on earth, the strictest, the nastiest, the nicest, the worst, the meanest, the grooviest and also the dumbest.

Instead of discussing the intricacies of positioning and post-structural philosophies with Miss 12 going on 22 (can you spell binary?) I have let it roll. I have been reading this book by Michael Carr-Gregg, the noted adolescent psychologist.

I could not recommend it more highly. It makes sense. It affirms some of the decisions I have made and reassures me that I am on the right path.

Consistency has been a big thing here. When I say something I mean it and I have to carry through. The hard part is when I am debated with. Yes, she has some very convincing arguments, however I have to put my foot down and make sure she follows orders. Orders may be too strong a word, however guidelines gives the impression there is flexibility and that can’t always be the case. And it is more than telling her what not to do or what she can’t do- it is making sure that when I have asked her to set the table, it is set.

We had a big battle here this week. When I was her age (oh here we go, I can hear moans!) if I disobeyed or disappointed my parents I was banned from going to Youth Group on Sunday night or from watching telly. It was the worst thing to miss A Country Practice. My offspring doesn’t go to Youth Group and hardly watches telly, so I had to find something else. Tuesday morning she was almost refusing to get out of bed and ready for school. We were late. All of us. I got grumpy, her brother got grumpy and she was more grumpy than usual. Plus she was continually back chatting and being a, dare I say, Princess Bitchface! So I banned computer after school.

Yes, she had a valid point when I was reminded that she needed it for her school work and homework. So I did the next best thing– I banned the Internet! She was horrified. She debated that she needed it for her assignments. I asked to see her assignment folder and pointed out the tasks she could still do without the Internet. She didn’t believe me.

I was getting dinner ready when I heard a YouTube clip coming from her computer- the ones she views all sound the same after a while. I looked at her and asked what she was doing. She figured that seeing I hadn’t turned the Internet off through the router then I must have overturned my ruling! I informed her that no, that wasn’t the case and she was not banned for Wednesday as well. Outcry! Back to getting dinner. And again I heard YouTube! I asked her what she was doing and was told that I had said no Internet for Wednesday now, not Tuesday! So Thursday was added to the mix and the router was turned off and the Ethernet cable taken away.

For 3 days I put up with the constant moans and criticisms. I was the worst mother in the world. I didn’t get it. I was so strict. It went on and on. Oh and she now tells me that she is going to get a D for her assignment and it will all be my fault. Meh.

She spent the weekend with her Dad and I made sure this evening when she got home, I turned the router back on for her computer. I have this awesome you beaut router thingy that means I can create firewalls and stuff! She has had the Internet timed on her computer for months now- she knows it goes off at 8.30pm and comes on at 6am. In the past I have made it so she cannot access YouTube. I now have it so she can’t go near Chat Roulette, not that she has tried!

I am one of the meanest mothers too because I won’t let her sign up for a Facebook account. Facebook has rules that no one under 13 can open an account. Her 11 and 12 year old friends have of course. They have lied about their age. It is hard for my Miss 12 to see that what she does online now will be seen my employers in 10, 20 even 30 years time. There are rules. Some set by me, others set by outsiders that need to be adhered to. Some can be bent from time to time, but others offer less flexibility.

These boundaries are important. She has the brain of an adolescent. She is growing up and usually she is a top person to be around, well except when Princess BF is here to visit! One day I hope she’ll understand! Parenting can be the hardest job.

Almost 6 weeks ago I had a ganglion cyst removed from my wrist. I tried to do a fair bit of research before hand into recovery times, but there was little I could find. Most gave a rough estimate of 2-6 weeks. I figured it would be a simple procedure and I would be up and running, or at least using my wrist, in no time.

Er… Well let’s start at the beginning. Before I had the ganglion removed I didn’t have a lot of pain. I did have a fair bit of discomfort however and it stopped me from doing things I wanted to do, like push ups and tricep dips and other exercises that required me to extend my wrist. And that annoyed me. From early December I wore the secksay brace, which I blogged about previously. But the brace really restricted things, like riding Xena Queen, the Suzuki GS500 wonderbike!

I figured I would be in the group that had things sorted in 2 weeks. I saw the surgeon after a week and she said things were looking good, but suggested I not use it for around 4-5 weeks to let it recover fully and not give it any excuse to reoccur. I wasn’t happy, but I agreed.

And I went to Brisbane for work. And I wasn’t using my wrist, but even if I wanted to I couldn’t have. See I got this giant lump where the cyst had been. Caught up with friends down there, one of whom works as an Occupatinal Therapist with wrists and scars. She suggested lots of massage over the scar and binding it to keep pressure on it and hopefully reduce the swelling. A few days later, just as I was preparing to come home, I decided to ring the surgeon. She saw me later in the week and, well, was a little concerned.

I was sent for an ultrasound to check the cyst was not back. She surmised that where the cyst had been had been filled with fluid, either as a haematoma or as a return of the cyst. I didn’t want to believe that it could be back, let alone back so soon. So I dug out ye trusty olde wrist brace and put it on again. And I made an appointment to see a friend up here who is an OT who specialises in hands and stuff.

This was the best thing I have done for the recovery. I have been weekly and had ultrasound and laser therapy and dipped my hand and wrist into hot wax. Almost as good as a beauty parlour! And my OT gives great massages too, even if they do hurt a bit! I have done my homework each day as required and there has been some improvement. My OT even gave me a vibrator to use one it. Er… well it is a small massager, but the label says vibrator and it makes me snigger and will ensure my blog gets blocked in more places! And it is awesome- it makes my skin wobble and ripple and stuff.

I saw my surgeon on Friday and she is happy with my progress. She says that the ultrasound didn’t show a defined mass, so it is probably a haematoma that is getting rid of gunk, gunk being my medical term of choice! I have a little more movement in my wrist than I did, but not as much as the other wrist. The doc said that I should speak to my OT regarding returning to exercise with the hand/wrist/arm. She also said that I would be able to ride my bike around the block, but not up the Kurranda Range for a while! Tried to get her out on the weekend, but the battery charger hadn’t worked. May have to just go grab a carton of milk at some stage, just to go for a spin!

So advice for others- don’t expect to be up and running in 2 weeks. I think this is rather rare. Whilst my haematoma may be a little on the more unusual side, the advice to not use my wrist for 5-6 weeks post op is probably sage. And make sure you go see an OT!