Techno Free Weekend November 10, 2009
Posted by surflife in Life, Parenting, education, nature.Tags: Grass Stain Guru, outside, swing, Techno free
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We have always been outdoor parents but living in the Middle East has meant that for a good few months outside play is just not practicle. With the arrival of cooler weather here in the Middle East ( and inspiration from The Grass Strain Guru) The Bald one and I decided that it was time to get back outside. We are limited as we live in a small shared compound with a small piece of grass and a communal swimming pool. However with temperatures sitting at around 30 degrees centigrade we decided it was time for the aircon to go off the doors and windows to be opened and from the start of the weekend all TV,computers and computer games were turned off. The initial response was not favourable , as I am sure you can imagine, especially as we have a no TV/Computer ban enforce during the week ! The were a variety of excuses – nothing to do, no space , the water is to cold ( I pointed out that as they would be outside they would get hot and so the water would feel great). We gave them a piece of rope, some string, duct tape and sent them outside with a picnic mat and towels. For the first 10 mins we got a lot of whingeing and come and play with us , we where outside ourselves but where cleaning the BBQ and the deck. We told them that they had to entertain themselves and once they realised we where not going to relent they started talking about what they could do – the hardest thing for us was not to interfere and make suggestions or offer to help!! We were not surprised by the fact that our two imaginative and bright boys came up with something , but rather at how quickly they did!
Tarzan eat your heart out!
James Bond to the rescue!
They built the swing in about half and hour and then spent the rest of the day swinging,adjusting for a better swing experience and at the end of the day did not want to come in! And unsurprisingly spent hours in and out of the pool as the lack of aircon meant they felt hot! The most interesting outcome of the weekend was on Saturday evening(end of the weekend here), Thing 1 said that it felt like they had been off school for days!
So remember live life to the max people as you never know what you can build when left to your own devices!
Education that changes lives November 1, 2009
Posted by surflife in Uncategorized.Tags: 826 Valencia, Dave Eggers, education, inspiration, Tedtalks
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I have spent the best part of 20 yrs in education and I have always felt that something was missing. I watched Dave Eggers and for the first time felt there was a way to make a difference. As a teacher I have spent a great deal of time in private schools and after my last stint I walked away knowing that this is not where I wanted to be anymore but the thought of not teaching anymore did not sit right. Seeing this has given me a new incentive , and new direction and I for that I am thankful to Dave Eggers and TedTalks – inspiration is priceless.
Men in Trees the new Northern Exposure October 26, 2009
Posted by surflife in Life.Tags: Men in Trees, Northern Exposure
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Ok for those who remember Northern Exposure – is it just me or is Men in Trees the natural replacement for it. I loved Northern Exposure and have fallen in love with Men in Trees.
Surf life to the max – Alaska is always there!
The passing of time. October 25, 2009
Posted by surflife in Life.Tags: aunts, family.Zimbabwe, Food, home, memories, mozambique, uncles
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Recently one of my uncles passed away. He has been ill for a number of years and was in his late 70’s so it was not a surprise by any means. He lived in another country and I have not seen him for some time but still felt a great sadness at this loss to our family. However, what I realised as I talked to my mother, is that for her it is not just the loss of a brother, but coming so soon after the death of a sister and another brother ,that for her and for all of us it is the end of an era. My mother is the youngest of 9 and for so long her family has been the centre of our lives. My Grandmother was the matriarch of the family, the lady we all looked to for help and advice. Like all families life happens and due to the political events in our home countries of Mozambique and Zimbabwe ,we have been scattered to the four corners of the world. But this does not change the fact that we are a family ,no matter how far apart we are ,we are always there for each other. My history is wrapped up in these people. My memories ,that can be evoked at the sound of a laugh or the smell of cooking , are all full of all my aunts,uncles and cousins. Full of a language that is a mixture of portuguese and english, of all the women sitting around the table making christmas food and us kids sitting listening to them and as we got older being inititated into the way of the table! I cannot hear the football commentary on the radio without smelling cigars and seeing my uncle standing out on our drive way with a transistor on the top of the car trying to keep the signal clear so he can get the score of his beloved Benfica. So large a part of who I am is because these people where such a large part of my life, and with each loss part of my history goes with them. I know time must pass and with it the people in my life ,but there are still times I wish we could go back to that kitchen in our house in Zimbabwe ,with the laughter of my Mom and all my aunt’s ringing around the room and all my uncles sitting out on the verandah with my Dad trying to teach him portuguese but really only teaching him all the swear words!!
Surf life to the max people – it is so short and memories of family gatherings,football matches and the passing of knowledge must be made!
Mean Mother Update October 25, 2009
Posted by surflife in Life.Tags: amazing, clutter guru, coffee, friends, Mean Mothers
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Still Mean Mother free. So many times in this day and age of the Clutter guru you hear that you have to create the space to allow new things to come in to your life. Since I have stopped meeting these women for coffee I have met two amazing ladies who make me laugh out loud and they are interesting and not the slightest bit interested in whether their children are doing better than mine! Oh joy!
Surf life to the max you never know where it might take you!
Maybe we are doing something right! October 25, 2009
Posted by surflife in Life, Parenting.Tags: bakugans, design tech, origami, pancakes, parents
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As a parent there are many times when I wonder if I am getting it right and times when I knows hands down I have got it wrong. But then my kids will do something that make me realise that maybe we are getting it right most of the time. The Bald One is away at the moment and Thing 1 made me pancakes and coffee one morning so I could have breakfast in bed. He had to pick a project for Design Tech in school and he has decided to make his younger brother a box shaped in his initial out of wood so that Thing 2 can have somewhere to keep his prize Bakugans – and its a surprise! Thing 2 came home today and in his Origami Club has made all these little boxes – when I asked him what he was going to do with them he told me he is going to surprise his big brother and buy little presents and give them to him in the boxes he has made. And then tonight they spent most of the evening curled up on the coach together watching TV and reading – no mean feat as at 12 and 9 they are all legs!!
So tonight I will put aside a mother’s guilt and give myself a pat on the back for a job well done and when I get it wrong I will try to remember that there are lots of times we get it right!
Surf life to the max all you parents this rollercoaster is not over !
I Gotta Feeling October 15, 2009
Posted by surflife in Life, music.Tags: Black Eyed Peas, dance, Oprah, smile, song
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Every now and again along comes a song that makes you get up and dance. You have to smile when you hear it no matter how grumpy you are and if you are on the treadmill thinking you are going to die you suddenly have to energy to run another mile. All I can say is I love this song!
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Plastic Poison – Blog Action Day October 14, 2009
Posted by surflife in Life, Parenting, nature.Tags: blog action day, Captian Moore, East Pacific Garbage soup, planet, plastic, platic bags
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We are poisoning our planet for convenience. A family of four people will use 332 plastic bags every year. It is estimated that over 1 trillion bags are used a year , with less than one percent being recycled. The cost of recycling a bag is more than it costs to make a new one so from an economic stand point this is never going to work and it still has a huge environmental impact. If we all started using cloth bags we could stop the:
Release of toxins into the ground water from landfill sites
Stop them being in the environment for hundreds of years while they break down
Stop them getting into the food chain through animals that ingest small particles of plastic
Stop wasting energy during the manufacturing process
Stop killing any of the estimated 100,000 marine animals that die each year of plastic pollution
Plastic bags are merely the tip of the iceberg with plastic waste from hundreds of products ending up in the Pacific Ocean and creating a garbage dump twice the size of Texas.
Please can someone explain to me how governments around the world can stop us walking our children to school, ban bake sales because of obesity fears but decrease exercise and play time for children, legislate against parents helping each other out with babysitting but are unable to ban plastic bags and are not prepared to tell industry to find a better solution to plastic. The cost to our planet is enormous and if we do not make a stand as citizens of the planet and refuse to use these products then we have only ourselves to blame.
The Separation of War October 14, 2009
Posted by surflife in Life.Tags: Afgahnistan, army, cat, seperation, war
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BBC Radio 4 has a series running at the moment on Degrees of Separation. I heard this story today and it brought back so many memories. I have to say that every time “Angela” phoned or came to the door I wanted to hit her, I even yelled at her when she came to the door – “What are you doing!!”. When my Dad was in the army he would write once a week, back in the days before email etc , but his handwriting was so bad we could never read them. Mom would put the letters on the mantel piece and when he got home we would have a letter reading night. We would all cuddle up on the couch and Dad would read them to us. If you go the following website http://www.bbc.co.uk/ class=”hiddenSpellError” pre=”">radio4/womanshour/ and listen to the program for the 13/10/2009 and it is about 20 mins from the end.
The Irony of it all October 13, 2009
Posted by surflife in Life, Parenting.Tags: drunk driving, healthy eating, stranger danger
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My sons came home from school the other day with a letter informing parents that there would a Healthy Eating talk given to all year groups. This comes less than a month after a talk on the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases that was given to the older kids in the school. Now don’t get me wrong ,I am not against either of these or any other similar education program. I did however think back to when I was at school and I could not think of a single social education talk that we were given. I have only been out of school 20 yrs so we are not talking the middle ages here. This got me thinking about the current generation of children in the majority of western countries. They have had every talk, seminar and lesson on the dangers or drunk driving, unsafe sex, unhealthy eating, Stranger Danger, Road Safety , cyber awareness , Drug awareness and hundreds of other educational programs that make them by far the most informed generation ever.
Is it not ironic ,therefore, that they are a generation of virtual shut in’s with restrictions on everything they do – yet they are probably better equipped to face the so called threats out there compared to many of their parents. If we are going to educate them then we should trust them with the knowledge we have given them. Our children are not stupid!!
Surflife to the max because we cannot control it all.
