Excuse Me While I Rant A While....

What in the freaking hell is wrong with people?
I have come across two news articles in the last two days that have made my blood boil, and made me vigourously shake my head at the gall, insensitivity and stupidity of some people. I'd say " of some humans " but i dont think these examples ( at least in the first story ) can be classified as human.

Why do i say that? Earlier today i was reading the daily news on http://www.ninemsn.com.au/ and read about two small children having acid splashed in their faces. Their mother was just walking them through a carpark when two " youths " just tipped an acid-like liquid off the roof and onto the children, who are now in hospital being treated for chemical burns. Its thought that this was a completely random incident, rather than a deliberate attack... so what in the hell? What kind of person just decided one day " hey, maybe i'll throw acid on someone today ? " It would be wrong enough if it was a revenge attack or something like that, but to just randomly want to throw chemicals at someone? And small children no less? That families life is changed for the negative now. I would assume there will be countless medical procedures, treatments to be kept up at home, and physical deformities that will no doubt see them stared at in public and teased at school. And for what ? So some sadistic arseholes could get their jollies? And the bit that gets me the most is that you know the justic system in Australia will fail these people. If those " youths " happen to be minors they'll cop a year or two in the juvenile system ( at the most ) and then be allowed back into society. Its more likely though they'll get a slap on the wrist, some community service, and made promise not to do it again. It.Makes.Me.Sick.

And on to scum bucket #2 - this Canadian woman who faked cancer so that she could swindle people out of charity money. Thats right, a woman who figured an easy way to make cash and be given free holidays was to fake a serious illness and prey on the sympathies of other people. Cancer is yet to touch the lives of anyone in my immediate family ( thank goodness ) but its universally known that cancer is a horrible illness, that causes much pain and suffering, both to those who are burdened with the disease and their families. Yet somehow this woman thought nothing of shaving her head, plucking her eyebrows right off and losing weight so that she could " benefit " from cancer and the generous charity it would afford her. That a human being could live in this world and know as much about cancer as we do, and STILL scam people in this way is beyond my scope of understanding. She claims she did it not for the money but for the attention, to be noticed. For fucks sake lady, dye your freaking hair! Wear a mini skirt! Do a nudie run around your local mall! Falsifying cancer is a despicable thing to do.

So i guess my basic question is why ? What has happened in society that people are not only coming up with these disgusting ideas, but acting upon them ? And if these are lines people are willing to cross, where does it all stop?

Goof Troop!

Time again for another challenge over at Blog This!. This week is a photographic challenge entitled " Goofing Around ":
Come on! We all do it! Show it, flaunt it!
So, in the spirit of all things goofy, here you go:

Thats my sister and i on our first annual Sisters Day - 2008 i believe. Yep, thats right, we invented our own holiday. We buy each other a present and spend the day together ( if we can ) to celebrate our sisterly type relationship. If you feel ripped off that you havent yet celebrated and you actually have a sister - Sisters Day is on June 15th every year. Go goof troop!

Friday Flip Offs Time

Hello there readers and hello Friday! Time again to release this weeks annoyances into the cyber world and off of my chest ( thanks to Gigi over at KludgyMom ).

To international shipping - you suck. I had the brilliant idea that i could get myself some great summer clothes from the Gap and Old Navy while they were on sale ( you know, seeing as the northern hemisphere is coming into colder weather just in time for me to get my summer clothes ) and due to our awesome echange rate it would be cheaper than buying full price clothes here in Australia. And it was - until we factored in shipping. I had $80 worth of clothes in my basket - a bit for me, a bit for Flynny - and then bam! $64 shipping?! That international shipping flushed my whole idea down the toilet so now i cant have that cute pique polo shirt dress i had my eye on. Screw you international shipping charges. Either get cheaper or FLIP OFF!

To the person who delivers the catalogues in my neighbourhood - or, i should say, the person who USED to deliver the catalogues. I'm one of these people who actually likes getting junk mail and i havent received any for the last 2 weeks. I didnt get the BigW baby sale catalogue that i knew should have been coming and i got nothing this week either. How am i supposed to flip through those flimsy pages and dream about what i would buy if i had the money if you arent going to get those flimsy pages to me. What am i going to have to do - go online? Umm no .... i want my tangible, hold-in-your-hands, mark-the-pages type of catalogue. So get yourself together, get those catalogues folded and into my mailbox or FLIP OFF!

To the sore throat that has developed out of nowhere overnight - get.lost. Seriously, a sore throat is never just a sore throat, it always develops into something else and seeing as i'm breastfeeding and the pharmacists wont let me take any cold/flu medication, i do not need the " something else " you'll develop into. You following me? I don't need you, i don't need the cold and/or flu you will inevitably become and i most certainly don't need you passing yourself onto my fiance or my son. Especially my son - babies with sore throats do not make for good sleep. So take your itchy, scratchy, yucky tasting self and FLIP OFF!

I've Been, I've Seen, I've Zumba-ed!

And yes, this time i mean Zumba, the dance fitness craze, not Adriano Zumbo.

I know you all know what i'm talking about but just in case you dont want to admit to having watched the infomercial a hundred million times here's the rub: Zumba is a Latin-inspired dance/aerobic fitness method, created by a Colombian trainer/coreographer back in the 90's. There is an infomercial for the home DVD packages on tv somewhere in the world approximately every 15 seconds ( at least, thats what it feels like ) and trainer-lead Zumba classes are popping up at gyms and town halls all over the country. Like i said, its hard to escape the Zumba infomercials and when my mother saw an ad in our local paper for a class being run at a primary school hall she thought she'd like to give it a go. Only she didnt want to go it alone - she said she would be too embarrassed to go by herself and didnt want people to laugh at her lack of co-ordination - so i said " hell, why not ? ", i'd give it a go too.

And i'm glad i did - it was fun! Sure, i wasnt exactly awesome at it ( i mean for some routines i had me some awesome rhythm, some i looked like a grasshopper on a barbecue.... ) but it didnt matter because no-one else was nailing it either. There were girls there who looked about 8 years old right up to ladies who were possibly in their 60's, and not a single person had it downpat - but neither was there a single person not laughing. Zumba does what it said it would do - it gets you moving, it gives you a workout ( as evidenced by my lack of breath and red face by the end ) and it's fun. And, happily, i havent woken up too sore this morning, so thats always a bonus. My mum said she enjoyed it too, so we're heading back next Wednesday night. I reckon if you've been curious about Zumba and tossing up whether to try it out i say go for it - worse scenario is the you run into the person next to you, fall over and sprain your ankle, and can't go to work for a few days. But hey - at least you did it with a smile on your face ( and you get a few days off work )!

So Wednesday nights are now Zumba nights - buh-bye baby belly, hello Zumba abs!

Celebrity Advice For National Breastfeeding Week ( If You Choose To Take It )

Ah celebrities - they say the darndest things. And celebrity mums say even darndier ( ok, yep, not actually a word ) things. I had planned on doing a post for National Breastfeeding Week , but after reading the news this morning, and finding this post on Holly's blog , i've decided to change my original idea up a bit. First celebrity on my chopping block? Gisele Bundchen.

Gisele has made headlines today for saying that she believes an international law should be passed decreeing that women MUST breastfeed their babies for at least 6 months. You would think this something that would be supported during Breastfeeding Week but... i gotta say, the whole notion is a bit silly ( for lack of a better word ). Let me just start by saying that i believe that what Gisele is saying comes from a good place but, in reality, its just not do-able for everybody. Not every woman is able to breastfeed, and those that are able arent always able to keep it going for 6 months.There are many complicated factors in whether a woman can or can't breastfeed, whether she chooses to or not - to then pass a law which would only make this decision all the more harder ( and then make a criminal of women who are not able to breastfeed through no fault of their own ) is just ridiculous. The last thing new mothers grappling with mastering the skill of breastfeeding need is the added pressure of worrying whether or not they're going to break the law. I admire Gisele for her passion for the good old booby juice - that was until i read the part of the article where she implies that one of  the other good reasons for passing such a law is because breastfeeding helped her keep her figure. I think her willowy, gorgeous Brazilian supermodel genes may have played a part in that too....

And the second celebrity to step up to the plate ? Jacinta Tynan, an Australian newsreader and part-time author. Ms Tynan is a columnist for one of the Sydney newspapers, and published an article this weekend entitled " The Big Easy "  , in which she writes about how easy she has found motherhood. I wont delve any further into the details of the article ( i'll let you read for yourself ), and i know i'm not the first blogger to post about Ms Tynan today, but i had to say my piece. And what i've got to say is - i didnt like it. I'm all for celebratng motherhood, and on my own blog i'd like to think i give a pretty balanced view of how my mothering experience is moving along. I love to hear stories from mums about all the great things they've done and times they've enjoyed with their bubbas but... i dont want to hear how you think the whole mothering gig isnt hard. The tone of the article, and its written in the first person so it must be representative of Ms Tynan's personal opinion, is that being a mum is not hard, and that anyone who believes otherwise is a whinger. She comes across as a quite smug and arrogant, and as if she believes that women who do find motherhood hard, regardless of their situations ( single parent, post natal depression, more than one child ...) are making a fuss. Its fine to be happy, and to love your child, and to enjoy the whole experience even when it does involve sleepless nights and crying jags, and its wonderful that you arent phased by it all - but dont dismiss the women who are. Don't dismiss the first time mum who, after 6 hrs of constant crying, is curled up on the lounge bawling her own eyes out because its HARD to listen to the child she loves suffering, knowing that she's tried everything she can think of to make him stop. Don't judge the mother who is struggling in the first few weeks of breastfeeding, crying in pain because learning to breastfeed successfully is HARD. And don't look down upon those mothers who maybe suffering PND and find everything so overwhelming that its HARD to even look at their baby.

Mothering is hard, but its also joyful and amazing - or so i've learned in my first 7 months. We need to be told about both sides of mothering, both good and bad, but we need to appreciate them both, no matter our own experience. What a pity that Gisele Bundchen and Jacinta Tynan couldnt appreciate that....

I'm A Quirky Turkey!

Its time again for another Blog This! challenge. This weeks challenge is asking:
Share with your readers three things you do every day without fail. Your little quirks.

Or focus on one. How did you come to do it/them?
Does anyone think it's funny or strange?
Do YOU love it or not?

You'd think that for someone who is self-proclaimed as " quirky " that this one should be easy for me. But the more i thought about it, the less i could come up with. Sure i have my quirks, but there isnt so much that i do religiously, obsessive-compulsively, day-to-day. The only thing that i do do every day - and if i dont do it, i feel out of sorts - is get on the internet, very first thing in the morning.

See, I HAVE to check at least my email/Facebook/blog before ( i whilst ) i eat my breakfast, otherwise the whole day just feels off to me. This habit started when i was working as an au pair in the US - i had to be up and ready to start work at 8am, but because of the time difference between New Jersey and Australia, first thing in the morning was the best time to catch my family and friends online. So i'd get up just before 7am, shower, and then eat my breakfast in front of the computer, checking to see if i'd received any good emails, or if any of my loved ones were on MSN Messenger ( yes, Messenger. How old school of me ). I didnt have Facebook back in 2005, nor a blog, but i participated in forums on a site called Bolt ( which i dont think even exists anymore ) and on Hi5. I'd check all that type of stuff and then head to the kitchen to get breakfast for the boys, make school lunches for the older two, and send them on their way.

I found its been a tough habit to break, which is why its one of my quirks now. I give Flynn a breastfeed absolute first thing, but after that his happy to sit and play on his mat for 20 minutes or so while i jump on the net. If i cant get on the net - like my provider has screwed up again ( that means you, Telstra ) or im away from home and dont have web access - i just feel a little out of sorts. Anxious even, until i get a chance to peek into my inbox, or check on blog comments. Its not like i have anything majorly important to look forward to, not like the world would end if i didnt get my pre-breakfast internet fix, but then most quirks are like that. Trivial. I guess thats what makes them quirks....

What Cheek!

Because i really want to post, but am lacking in an actual topic ( or at least an interesting one - i could blather on with a heap of crap but i wont subject you to that ) so i'll just post this:

If you look closely you'll notice not only is my son poking his tongue out at me, but he's also flipping me the bird....