See you round like a rissole

As we lay in bed together the other evening, Henry, Maya and I were having a grand time coming up with "see ya later" sayings. Some of them old and tested, some of them just made up by us. Of course "see ya round like a rissole" was one of them. Henry was laughing so hard I thought he might fall off the bed.

The following morning as I was leaving for work I said to him "see you round like a rissole". He turned and scowled at me and said "Mum, you don't say that, you only say it in bed". So there you have it. Never try to use it at any other time.

Buzz Lightyear to the rescue

Henry has become a little bit obsessed with Buzz Lightyear since he saw him acting like the big hero he thinks he is in Toy Story. Because his GP has one in her waiting room he has also become obsessed with making up excuses to see Dr Helen. Just the other day he came out of his room clutching his ear saying "Mum, my ear really hurts, see, feel it. I'm going to have to go to Dr Helen". Of course I was concerned and asked him all the right questions to which he seemed to know all the right answers. Then he says "I'll have to go to Dr Helen and get Buzz Lightyear, that's why my ear is really sore". I asked him if he was just pretending to have a sore ear. As though expecting that a positive answer was in his best interest he excitedly replied "yes, of course I'm pretending, how did you guess, now we'll have to go to Dr Helen's and get Buzz Lightyear".

Yesterday I happened to have an appointment with my GP, who is also called Helen, and Henry was going to have to tag along. I warned him about where we were headed and of course suddenly his ear became very sore. He believed we were going to his Dr Helen and would not hear otherwise. No matter how many times I tried to tell him he would not accept my answer so he did what all three year olds do when they're not getting their own way and threw himself on the floor. I somehow managed to bribe him into the car but all the way there he was agitated because were were going in the wrong direction and further away from Buzz Lightyear. His screams from the back seat sounded like this "But Mum, my ear is really sore, don't you understand that? I need Buzz Lightyear!"

On days like that when he is determined that he will be right I find my patience is severely tested and I would quite happily hold my head in a bucket of sand until it passes.

Terrible Christmas Tree

Henry: Mum, why are you putting another shirt on me?

Me: Because it's a bit cold and I thought it might help keep you warm

Henry: (with arms held out) But I look like a terrible Christmas Tree. I'm all blue and brown.

Fishing!

We've just spent three days at the beach with our First Best Friends. We decided to take Henry fishing. Henry tried hard but really he was a major pain and I'm sure it was him who scared all the fish away. We didn't catch a thing all day. Henry eventually got bored and decided to get wet despite the cold winds and the fact that I only had three changes of clothes with me. A young boy by the name of Jacob happened by with his great aunt and had a go too but even he didn't catch anything. Of course the only thing to do was retreat to the comfort of home and open a bottle of warming red wine.

Work Experience is real.

Back when I was in school, which is a long time ago, work experience meant that you chose an industry you thought you might like to work in and you went there for a week to do such important jobs as filing, making coffee and sweeping floors. In my home town there weren't many places to choose from so it made no difference where you went. You'd still be filing, sweeping floors and making coffee. This week Maya has been doing work experience at Rave Magazine - a widely read music review publication.

I fully expected to hear on her first day that she had been given the important title of "General Office Assistant", meaning she would be filing, sweeping floors and making coffee. I wasn't prepared for the excitement I was greeted with when I picked her up on her first day. She had done anything but the usual jobs earmarked for work experience kids. She had transcribed interviews, written band interview questions (which will be featured in the next issue), proofread interviews and copy, written a band review (which will be featured in the next issue)and filed (yes a little) all the free CDs they receive and she was able to choose any she wanted to keep.

She's been on cloud 9 and the whole experience has made her feel very proud of herself. None of her friends chose to do work experience and she's now feeling as though she's experienced something they won't - an opportunity to work on a widely read music publication and be really involved.

The Rave Magazine shopfront isn't much - it's an old house set in amongst office buildings in an industrial area which is located in a thriving multi-cultural suburb. There's only a few employees but all of them dedicated to what they do. The first day I collected her I made a joke about having her sweep floors and make coffee. They all looked at me as though I was mad and they didn't get the joke. They told me they prefer properly brewed coffee from the coffee shop around the corner and that someone comes in to sweep floors. They seemed to genuinely believe that if you have requested work experience in a place such as that you should have the opportunity to see how it really works. Maya is now convinced more than ever that she wants to be a music journalist and has even asked if she can stay in touch with them to occasionally write freelance reviews for them. She does a great job and is so much more sophisticated than I was at her age. She makes me very proud.

Welcome to the New Financial Year

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to try to continue to work in paid employment and still bring home enough money to feed your family. Along the way you will be given set challenges, the first of which will be to absorb the 17.5% increase in your childcare fees. Next you will be required to search out the cheapest fuel in your nearby suburbs or risk selling your car (beware - the increase in fuel costs will be used to justify an increase in all other expenses). If you are still standing there will be the increased cost of groceries, electricity, and car registration to contend with. And if that's not enough to keep you in the game there's always the threat of another interest rate hike or the rise in private health insurance to keep you second guessing yourselves. All of this without an increase in your take home pay. Never mind...life was meant to be challenging right?