Posts by Deborah
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I read My Brown Bear Barney by Dorothy Butler to my eldest daughter the day she was born, and we haven't stopped since, 'though these days we mostly read to her younger sisters. I didn't read to them the day they were born, but only because it was about 8pm at night before they finally arrived - I made up for it the next day.
My eldest daughter is a voracious reader. We find it hard to keep her supplied with books, but that's a good problem to have. It was very exciting watching her become an independent reader of chapter books, but the precipitating books were a noxious series of seven books called The Rainbow Fairies. Six and seven year old girls love them. Ruby the red fairy, Fern the green fairy, Violet the indigo fairy etc. were so successful that the author, the improbably named Daisy Meadows, has followed up with the 'Days of the Week Fairies', the 'Jewel Fairies', the 'Party Fairies', the 'Pet Fairies', and so on. Each set of seven flimsy little books (about 50 pages of biggish print, sold for about $10 each) is lapped up by eager little girls. The one redeeming feature of the books is that girls seems to launch themselves into being real readers on the back of them.
Nevertheless, so revolting and saccharine are these books, that we have been tempted to launch our own series of seven.... The Sin Fairies. There would be the lust fairy, the greed fairy, the envy fairy, the anger fairy..... much more entertaining. Although possibly not quite so suitable for little girls.
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Actually, dog trialling is the sport for old fellas.
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Bags (first!) - shortly after my eldest was born, my mother gave me a tote bag, which was small enough to use as a handbag, but big enough to carry nappies, baby wipes, and a spare set of clothes, and a bottle of wine. Very convenient for meeting up for the after-class sessions with the group of new mothers I joined. We were all very cautious at first because we were so anxious to be 'good' mothers, but after a while, when we realised that they wouldn't break, we broke out, the wine, that is. That bag is still lurking in the corner of my wardrobe, though it since been replaced by a succession of others, which in their turn are lurking in the wardrobe. My current bag is teal blue - lovely.
Matthew McFayden - lovely.
The sun - lovely. Winter still hasn't really struck us in the old country, and NIWA is promising us a couple more months of tolerable weather.
Lovely to hear some more from you, Jolisa.
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Ooops - of course, the other female voice around here is Fiona's.
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And now, a new feature of Radiation, which I probably pathetically will not be able to maintain, the weekly rundown:
This will be great. I hate reading a review of a show, only to realise that it has been and gone, and the point of the review is to say, "Ha ha. You missed out on seeing something fantastic."
What's with that, anyway? You would think that from the point of view of a TV channel, getting people to watch would be a good thing, so having a review come out, minus spoilers, before it aired would be a good thing too. Provided it's a good review, of course.
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But maybe this is the incentive I need to jump back in. If only to frighten David with more tales from the front lines :-)
please do, Jolisa - even those of us without kids are missing your writing, and I, for one, am dying to know how your big boy is.
It would be great if you can jump back in, Jolisa. The lack of female voices (Tze Ming Mok aside), in the blog posts, is something I really notice.
But I do understand, from the inside, just how difficult it is to balance work and partner and children. Something has gotta give, and best that it isn't your children or your partner.
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Congratulations, David. That's fantastic.
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The Last Post
Thank you, Russell, and thank you to everyone else.
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And I'm out of PA System. So long, everyone.
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Now, Deborah, I'm not going to insult your intelligence or mine with one of those not-very-apologetic 'so sorry you've got the problem' no n-apologies.
Me either, Craig. Ever heard the line, "Everything before 'but' is bullshit." People use it in non-apologies all the time - "I'm sorry but yadda yadda yadda." They aren't sorry at all.
So I appreciate what you have said, and I appreciate your sincerity in saying it, and I certainly agree that we judge people by what they say and especially what they do, not by their titles, self-chosen or not.
Thanks, Craig. Time to move on?