life–just too hard. discuss.

i need a new drug.

It’s kind of funny, hey..
My three favourite series all play in hospitals, and yet, I really could not find it entertaining at all to spend so much time in the emergency services of our local hospital. At this point, my husband is hospitalized with a severe condition from still unknown cause but at least they found something! and will investigate further. (House would have been able to figure that out a bit faster, I suppose.. )
I am not even blaming them, but I find it kind of ironic that my blokey husband went to emergencies immediately when he had the first symptom, but it took a full month and him having excruciating (chest!) pain for a doctor to finally come up with the right idea.  Or so it seems.

Not to mention that I realize that I now live in a country where getting rapid access to specialized health care (doctors/examinations) is a luxury, and with my self-employed (but not super-insured) husband out of work, we are pretty much facing an uncertain future when it comes to our finances anyway.

All this came parallel with the recognition that Tornado isn’t just ‘quirky’ at times but has definitively some “neurobehavioral^[1] developmental disorder“ (yeah, chew on that!) that will have to be investigated at some point soon, before he is getting in more trouble at school or drives me completely mad at home. For the time being, let’s just say, he is ‘socially awkward’ at times.

So while I am battling my old demons, the exhaustion from this killer weekend and an increasingly pronounced anxiety about our somewhat blurry future with a wicked mix of caffeine, sugar, chocolate and valerian (might have to review that soon, it’s not really working) , I will probably not be able to be much of a fun mummy blogger. I guess.

I have been considering to start a new blog. that’s what I always do. But I kind of like my little ‘burp here. I still struggle with getting to personal, in public. And shit’s kind of getting personal here. My life just sucks too  much.
We’ll see. I just want those who did read to know that I am not just lazy. I am just too busy coping. Bear with me.

PS : the good news – we both have stopped smoking.
It comes kinda easy when your husband coughs up blood. Yep.

Remember the Easter Bilby ?

After 2 years in Australia (the first 2 were a bit of a blur to be honest) Tornado was just the age to enjoy a little bit of Easter fun and magic. As for Christmas, I will always mention the beliefs and traditions practised by people all over the world during these festivities, but we are not religious in our family. With many of the traditions having their roots in pagan beliefs and originating (well, yes) in Germany for both, there is still lots to talk about heaps of fun to have in both seasons.

I still struggle to think of a bunny or rabbit for Easter, having grown up with the idea of an Easter Hare. Hares are rarer, bigger and far less often seen as roadkill in Europe. They are incredibly fast (Their bodies are capable of absorbing the g-force produced while running at extreme speeds! whoa!) and have sophisticated stealth methods, so you kind of see why they first got the job.

Bunnies on the other side, while certainly qualifying by their explosive reproduction rate to be a symbol for fertility (that’s what Easter was all about originally, right, see also the eggs.. ), yeah, I don’t know…

It appears to me they are far to busy posing for internet macros, invading Australia’s plains or living as live plush toys at people’s home to be up for the task to go hiding all those eggs once a year ? (but yeah, they sure are cute..)

Always interested (and very alarmed) by the origins and occurrence of invasive species in Australia, and the unique, sometimes bizarre fauna of my new home country, I was pleased to hear about the ‘Easter Bilby’ campaign.

So here is the Bilby.
Yes, one could argue that it isn’t just as cute as the rabbit… Or as fast as the hare.
But they do have long ears too and it’s menaced by extinction and it needs some support.

Bilbies are slowly becoming endangered because of habitat loss and change as well as food competition with invasive species. Feral cats pose a major threat to the bilby’s survival, and it competes with rabbits for food.
Over the last 20 years, Australian conversationalists and some chocolate companies have picked up the problem and come up with a campaign to promote the ‘Easter Bilby’. I think it’s a great idea !  Sort of.

So while I do not totally reject the Easter Bunnies (aww, who could they are just too cute!!) and it appears that not all companies who have been involved in selling chocolate bilbies in the past were actually contributing to any wildlife fund, but why not talk to your kids about the bilby this year or make a direct contribution to known wildlife organisations.

Because they clearly need some help :

“Bilbies try to frighten their attackers by wiggling their bottoms, and waving their black tipped tail. Let’s just say it’s been unsuccessful against foxes and cats.” (Dr Tony Peacock,
of the invasive animals Cooperative Research Centre)

Cheap Cardboard Craft–the mummy

Yesterday, Tornado woke up with a scary hoarse cough, that sounded almost like ‘whooping cough’ and seemed to shake him up quite a bit. He wasn’t feeling sick otherwise but I could hardly send him to school like that, let alone expose my very pregnant carpool passenger plus her two kids to it in the car.
So I organized another driver and called the school for an absence.

After the administration of one spoon of yucky Benadryl Forte Chesty (which my odd child likes!), he was still coughing but less often and more ‘normal chesty’ now, so I did not go to the doctor after all. I did verify his vaccinations though, we had enough trouble with the Aussie vaccination registration and their rejection of our ‘non efficient’ vaccinations (vacc plans are different from country to country and it appears in Europe they don’t know what they are doing ?! Ahem.). But he’s all good, internationally and double vaccinated, whoopie !

I felt a bit fooled by the now very happy and almost healthy boy, and our Sunday had been a bit lame and devoid of special activities, so we decided to built a cardboard Frankenstein. Yes, that was the initial plan, but then “we changed our mind now, ok” (as Tornado puts it) and we made : THE MUMMY!

Made after the principle of my FriendlyRobot (against nightmares, visible here) , we just got out a few boxes and toilet rolls, stuffed it all with newspaper, then used sticky tape and glue and finally rolled it first in some grey/silver party streamer (leftover from our marriage..) and then stripes of an old sheet. Tearing the tissue in stripes and bandaging the mummy was what Tornado found the most amusing. He thought a red eye would be “too scary” though. For stability, the mummy has some pvc tubes in her legs that are poked far into the body, and – important! – a few stones in the feet and about up to where the knees would be. Otherwise it could not stand up at all.

Once the mummy was finished, Tornado enacted a couple of scenes and made me photograph him, being chased by the mummy, grimacing ‘in fear’ etc..  It made me think of movie posters of early horror movies, really kind of funny!
The dogthing got interested, too, No! but  he was not allowed to touch it !

The boy just loves his mummy :

He loved the mummy so much, he even gave it a flower… It could also be that my sensitive boy wanted to tone down the scariness a little?
(It turned out later that the Mummy was not allowed to  sleep in his room. This rule also applies to the Thwomp, by the way. Fine by me.)

To finish, can I just show of the this superb dinosaur painting Tornado brought back from school ! It’s so big – awesome! Rahrr!

The gradual colour explosion is taking shape in the family room and this wildly painted T.Rex is a great addition on the (dirty!) window behind his craft table.

NB: For those who had the pleasure to meet Tornado being ‘sweet&lovely Boy with hair at the blog meet, we had a  fierce discussion (again!) over using (even ‘no tears’) shampoo the same evening and decided it’s best he has simply no hair for a while then which will also protect us from head lice…
(it is also possible that i tried to give him a shorter cut with my husbands clippers at first and simply failed with the total lack of cooperation of a rather ‘unsweet child’ so that we finally both thought it’s better we shave.. oh well)

We play at …

Adventure in the city: Blogger meet-up!

I went FAR out of my comfort zone yesterday when I went to Brisbane to assist – gasp! yes, really!! – a blogger meet-up, organized by Melissa from the colourful blog “Suger Coat It“ with the support from nuffnang, who nicely sponsored yummy pizza & drinks.

Now driving from the Bay into the City has become a rare and exiting excursion for me now and I was thrilled to see that after the floods, Brisbane looks good again, and seeing the City Cat ferries back on the river was a beautiful sight. (It still breaks my heart to think that our old ferry terminal, Sydney Street in New Farm, was destroyed. So many city adventures started right there! Not to mention our fabulous Riverwalk. Gone!)

Another big thing for me was to go back to the suburbs where I started my Australian life, not only good memories to be honest, but the Kookaburra Cafe was a great choice for a meeting.
I thought to be late, but in reality got the time wrong and so we spend a bit of time in the shops nearby. And some money. Uhm..
I bought a notebook..  of course.

Tornado obviously loved the ‘Teddy Bear Shop’, I almost fainted when i asked for the price of a small Steiff Panda bear!  Never mind then.

The Blogger meeting will be a little bit a ‘reverse experience’ for me because aside from Melissa, I basically wasn’t reading any of the bloggers present – this will now obviously change! It has to be said that in a way, meeting not only mummy bloggers but also (unknown) ‘anything bloggers’ was one of the points that made me even go to the meeting, so spontaneously (all part of my aggressive socializing behaviour I am displaying lately). I am sure most participants will be blogging about it, photos were taken, ‘business’ cards exchanged, prizes won and the husbands had some beers… It was fun !

Given my chronic ‘webanoia’ and need for privacy, the nametags and the photos were a bit of an issue for me (I saw that coming), but we talked about anonymous blogging too and I think everybody will respect each others wishes.

Maybe I could have mingled a bit more, but I was happy to sit across Madmother who totally hit it off with Tornado and even supplied a band-aid when a microscopic ‘BLEED!’ was risking to make my son’s incredibly sunny and lovely behaviour tilt into a wailing meltdown (note to self : restock superhero band-aid in handbag!).  But he stayed on his best behaviour and is also now convinced that he “won the Bingo” (he was only drawing the numbers, and not actually ours, but he had a lot of fun, so good on him. he’s a winner!).

I think the participants and the limited number made for an interesting and intimate blogger meeting and I am actually considering doing it again! It was a nice social outing for us and I think a success for Melissa. Thank you !

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This year continues to be overshadowed by natural disasters of apocalyptic dimensions.. I am starting to find it A LOT in a very short time. Upsetting.

Floods in Queensland and other states of Australia.
Cyclone Yasi, striking Queensland, only shortly after the floods.
Earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Japan now with an incredibly powerful Earthquake, that brought destruction and death with a huge Tsunami, Flooding and, as we hear, possible nuclear pollution? (this part is kind of man-made really)

I have to mention the Bushfire in Western Australia too, that destroyed 72 houses, damaging 32 more, but I just read it was caused by accident with the use of a grinder in strong winds and high drought. By a policeman? O_0 Indeed.
Not a natural disaster then, nevertheless, so many families have lost everything.

My heart goes out to all those who have lost loved ones, their home, their belongings, maybe their professional existence in all these terrible events.

Dog stink in the estate

I always wanted to make that big introductory post about my big, wonderful terrible puppy aka ‘the dogthing’. He’s got his own twitter, but I am posting only sporadically when, in reality, his very existence has brought a lot of change into our house. Not only for the better, this is true.

 If you love your dog you put up with a lot of shit. Literally. We are paying for the gardeners in our rent and before they come and cut the grass, I am basically picking up a few kilos of dog pooh on a fortnightly basis. (Rainy weather is really bad, any dog owner knows what I mean). But this is not a post about that kind of stink. I’m talking about trouble with the neighbours.

At about the age of 6 month, what was a surprisingly calm and balanced puppy (we actually tested for deafness!) suddenly became this completely crazy dogthing, with a lot of energy, who was out to devour anything that wasn’t cleared out of the way at night, including a $3000 Leather Couch and uncountable cloth items. He would start to serve himself from the kitchen counter – with me standing right next to him! It also became clear by then that his adult appearance would approach that of a Dane more than of a Rottie or American Bulldog (his parents ). And his voice also broke.

Now I have always preferred medium to big dogs and big dark dog voices. When this puppy, a present from Awesome, grew to what you see on the picture, it’s true, I wasn’t quite sure that a 70 kg dog is the appropriate walking companion for a 5’3 woman. We make quite the pair! I walk him with a haltie though which gives me super powers, and am also getting him used to a muzzle, just in case. But I love this dog and I also love that he sounds like the Hound of Baskerville when he barks to guard the house. It makes me feel safe.

I don’t need to feel safe though when my tradie husband (who works nights and thus also wanted me to have an efficient guard dog) lies right next to me, on an early Sunday morning around 6. When the dogthing was doing his “ImAKilla!” guard howl this week Sunday, at the crack of dawn, we both shouted at him, then sunk back to sleep. He went on a little, but then stopped. So I think!

Monday I had a letter from the estate concierge in the post :
“Noise complaint. Incessant barking of Dogs.”
Yeah, right, nice one, neighbours.

Now we had a lot of problems with this dog. Apart from slowly chewing up the contents of our house, early morning barking used to be one of them, it’s true(for people catching a nearby bus). He had to first learn when to guard, all dogs do. But he got sorted out every time. There is simply no way he’s ever been barking ‘incessantly’, also big dogs generally don’t DO the incessant bark thing. And the old lady dog, now retired semipro-guard dog  hardly ever does a peep! The ones that DO bark incessantly are our neighbours little mutts. They bark all day, that horrible tiny dog bark, I am really hardly going on my patio because of it. And that’s another story. Maybe another time..

Now Tuesday night, three or more cars got broken in in the estate. None of them was parked close to where we live. Where the dogthing lives and watches over the neighbourhood, that is. Obviously, the thieves checked out the area.

Am I right to feel just a little bit smug about this now?

How I like my male TV sociopath. And how I don’t.

If you have been on my (fabulous) About Me page, you will have seen, somewhere and if you have the patience to look at all the rather random stuff (not much to read, I promise), that I LOVE the series HOUSE MD.
So much so, that we had to buy all available seasons on DVD and I have actually watched and re-watched certain episodes up to 4 times. Yep.

Now this is a big novelty for me who never had the consistency and the nerve to watch a series regularly enough to get really attached (DVDs certainly help with that!) and I do know that this hospital series is far from representing a true reflection of what even a diagnostics department anywhere in the world would be like! But if you like House, like me, then you will know how the mixture of factual medical wonders and disasters, the social behaviour of the rather limited participating staff and – above all – the borderline psychopath character of Gregory House is addictive and always entertaining to watch.

Yes, it’s true, I had a long hard Think about wether House finally getting ‘together’ with Cuddy and reluctantly taking on his role as a – gasp! – stepfather to Rachel is something that would be becoming to the storyline and our addiction to his sarcasms and the bluntness that only a single, miserable House could deliver. But it’s all good : The relationship is rocky (of course) and the episode where House babysits toddler Rachel and then secretly tries to find out if she did – or did not – swallow a BIG (and dangerous) coin under his supervision was one of the funniest one of season 7 for me.

But here is the thing : While I love Hugh Laurie for the brilliant actor he is, I know literally nothing about his private life – and I don’t care! He comes from comedy, he’s a friend of Stephen Fry.  He is obviously sharp and witty enough a person to live up completely to the complex role he got in the show.

Note : A role. In a TV show. When actor Hugh Laurie visited the Ellen DeGeneres Show last week, he was funny, friendly and dignified, although victim of what he described as ‘his first cold ever’ (?).  I personally thought Ellen’s questions were a bit random and not.. very interesting, sorry. Left hand side traffic and how whether he gets confused between his own British and his character’s (American) Accent? Who cares ? When he jokingly confessed he’d sometimes finds himself on the wrong side of the road in the UK, talking with the US accent, he certainly found an elegant and humorous answer to these questions but i would have really liked to know a few more series related questions .. or maybe other stuff he does or plans?
Yeah, never mind.

The only reason I am talking (am I gushing a little ?) about Hugh Laurie is that there is another, successful male TV actor who was all over the news this week with never-ending reports about multiple interviews displaying what any layman psychologist will clearly label as narcissistic rage and delusional public display of “losing your marbles”.
You all know who I mean : Yep, Charlie Sheen. (In my blog now too, indeed!)
I kinda used to like his show. For the LOLs. The character of “Charlie” in “Two & a half Men”, the goofy brother, the odd son, the housekeeper, Rose… Like many, their adventures, always circling around the same clichéd stories of womanizing, inappropriate parenting and so forth, amused me.
But I am just not amused anymore.

The  total overkill this “actor” (wasn’t he really always playing just a version of himself?) delivered via all kinds of news channels, and now – advertising! – on twitter, is beginning to seriously annoy me. Charlie hasn’t jumped a shark, he has jumped a fully grown blue whale, with his Tigerblood-Rockstar-from-Mars-has-two-girlfriends attitudes.
We are, like, getting it, Charlie. You totally rock (your own world). Winner?
First I was stunned, then I laughed like all the followers  (1 million on twitter ??) and sloth macro creators on the internets (never mind now, if you didn’t see them) but now I am pissed off.
I don’t care that the show is stopped and some people now might lose their jobs. That happens all the time in Hollywood.
But after dating porn stars, shooting at his girlfriend (accidently..), being accused of several drug delicts, acts of domestic violence and rioting incidents, in and out rehab and reportedly having lost all his teeth in the process too, you would think, it’s time for even the most delusional narcissist to wake up and see the damage done? Well, I’ve met some of his kind in my life and the truth is, they just can NOT stop themselves, once launched like a rocket. Until they glow out. Can really nobody help this man to stop?

What saddens me is that not less than 5 children will grow up to hear what a total wanker their father is (or maybe was soon, who knows, he might leave for Mars).
And the media will not forget. The internet will not forget. We all won’t.
Who remembers “Platoon” now ?
Tigerblood!! 2 girlfriends! “Dyin’ is for amateurs!”
It’s a bit like Britney without her knickers now.
Get out of the news, Carlos, and get back to reality. Show’s over.

Postcrossing- it’s getting started !

After signing up not quite a month ago and sending my first Koala/Kangaroo postcards to the world, here are the countries we have exchanged postcards with so far via the fabulous site postcrossing.com :

We sent postcards to :

And we received postcards from :

So? Did YOU know all these flags ?
Here is the solution…

(Also just found that you can just hover over each flag..d’uh..)

Admittedly, I thought Taiwan looked different for some reason, and I did not have a clue about the flag for Belarus either. But I am quite secure on the European Flags, been around there long enough .
Germany seems over-represented (yes Belgium is somewhat the same colours, but it’s NOT the same flag, just upside down, look closely!) and it’s seems that this is the same for the US and, curiously, Finland. I haven’t checked the ‘no repeat option’ on the site, which you can do if you want only new and different countries.
So while our collection is growing and people seem to pick up on the fact that they are writing to a 5 year old too, we are busy looking up all these known and unknown countries on our world map poster and we find the flag in our list! It’s fun and we both learn a lot with it too.Some of the cards are interesting, some more your usual view postcard; once i have a bigger collection, I will show a few special ones like Amanda from ‘Tea & two biscuits’ . For now, we stick them all around the map and focus on the different countries..

Links:
You can download a complete set of 258 country flag icons in .ico, icns or png format and in different sizes for FREE.  HERE!
Sign up for postcrossing HERE.

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Betty Draper discovering a caterpillar while walking prettily in her suburb.
(from the fabulous show MadMen)

It appears that sometimes I need to drop off the blog for a while. Blogging can take the airs of an addiction where it comes to reading, posting, thinking about the next fix etc.. Oh you all know that!
Sometimes it’s good to let it all go a little. So while others are participating in ‘blog once a day’ comps, seek out prompts and – forever – challenge themselves to ‘give better blog’ to the world, I recommend you to take a little break and – offline – take time to consider what it really means to you to blog your life or your opinions online.
Blogger, take a break and breathe deeply.

That’s all. Back soon.

Bean Boozled–I never liked jelly beans anyway.

Do you like Jelly Beans? I don’t.
I mean, not really.

Although I like it sweet, and I kind of like the look of them (especially the freckled ones), I just never really got into it. Didn’t grow up with them either, but they remind me a bit of ‘Zuckereier‘, cheep confiserie the German Mommy Bunny dropped in our nests to add some colour – and pure glucose sugar – to otherwise chocolate made Easter treats. I always found them rather sickening, even as a child. Even more so now.

But I am a bit of a sucker for novelty in the treats department, and the other day, I came across Jelly Belly’s “Bean Boozled” Pack in our local IGA. Mmmmh.. Oh, what the ..?

Check out those wicked  flavours !
Booger, Toothpaste, Rotten Egg .. Vomit ??
(It has to be said, while this sounds a bit like Harry Potter, I don’t know who had the idea)
The colourful packet comes with a twist, you never know if you will get a regular Jelly Belly taste, or one of the fun (?) yucky ones, as you can see on the back “menu” :

Today, I started sampling. Jelly Bean degustation. My verdict ?  Well, I still don’t like Jelly Beans, not even the “Original Gourmet Jelly Bean”. I’m only half through the packet , but so far : the 8 flavours that are part of the regular 50 flavours Jelly Belly produces today, don’t strike me as so much better as, for example, “Toothpaste” (kinda minty, quite ok) or “Black Pepper” (interesting actually). I thought that “Moldy Cheese” is a bit of an insult (read why here) and the other “yucky” tastes, while fun on the packet, didn’t really make me retch enough to make this a full blown sensorial experience.
Oh and by the way, “Baby wipes” tastes not too bad, kind of like Rosewater.
And I’m really not sure if I have come across the infamous “Vomit” beans yet?
(I’m a lousy tester, I know)

So I did a bit of research, and found that – at least in the US – Jelly Belly also produces “Sports Beans” with Electrolytes, and “Extreme Sport Beans” with Caffeine – now you’re talking! (See the whole range here, including temporary “Rookie” flavours, it’s all very well thought through from a marketing point of view, that’s for sure..)

Obviously, this wide range of flavours has inspired others, on a blog I found this little cartoon :

(I reckon “number 7″ is particularly amusing. )

(more fun facts here on the company’s website..)

Although this is a sweet(s) post, let’s not forget that my monthly cause is “Too much Salt?”, and if you go back the Nutrition Information of this 45g snack-sized package (a bit smaller than a regular cigarette packet), you will notice that one serving (understand : the whole pack) while containing 32 g of sugar (obviously) also comes with 34 mg of sodium, representing a around 5-10 % of the recommended daily intake for a 4 to 8 year old child (300-600 mg/day, according to the National Heart Foundation of Australia).
It all adds up! 

“Ah! Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans! I was most unfortunate in my youth to come across a vomit-flavoured one. And since then, I’m afraid I’ve lost my liking for them. But I think I could be safe with a nice toffee… Hum! Alas! Earwax.”
—Albus Dumbledore

Links :
Jelly Belly’s Beanboozled
Oh, and  (just found) a more ‘serious’ test of the Harry Potter Bertie Bott’s Edition

I am dedicating this post to and her little jelly beans.
and it’s