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Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien
One of my favourite bloggers, Peter, wrote a very thought provoking article today about Forgiveness. Do go and read it first, I will wait for you to return. Did you enjoy it? I very much did. It struck a chord in me. Today I was thinking about forgiveness, and forgiving ones self, which led me to think about past mistakes. We have all made decisions in our life that we have later regretted. Some decisions are life-changing, some are merely ones to be looked back on with regret, or with sorrow. I am generally an optimistic person, a glass-half-full type of woman. If you were to ask me…
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Introducing JUMP! Mag For Girls
It is done. The online magazine for pre-teen girls Jump! has launched. It has been a great experience, I have met fantastically talented writers and learnt lots about setting up and designing a (very basic) website, logo design and other technical stuff that I admit to being Not Very Good At. If Jump! takes off, I will certainly need help with that. For now, it is being read and shared, and that it immensely satisfying. For me and for the wide range of contributors who are giving up their time and talent to bring something new and exciting for girls. Do have a look, let me…
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I Demand An Apology
I enjoyed David Mitchell’s article in the Guardian about the demanding of apologies and I laughed at the story he told about his parents. It reminds me of being made to apologise as a child. I remember a specific occasion when my parents were furious with me for some reason. And I was furious with them. It was a standoff. They were demanding an apology or else, as I recall it, basically nothing was to be allowed in future: food, sleep, not eating all my food, not immediately going to sleep, going outside, being allowed inside, contact with the cat – all banned. It was a massive…
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Sex Ed and Enthusiastic Consent
I posted yesterday about women who find it difficult to believe that they had been raped, and since then other women have come forward to say that they too have been remembering incidents that they had pushed to the back of their minds. I have been thinking of moments in my life, that I had put down to a bad decision, which I now can see differently. I was not raped, but I was coerced into doing more than I felt comfortable doing. The women confiding in me were talking about incidents that happened in their teens or early twenties. They are older and more experienced now and are able to…
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Quotas For Women – For or Against?
Quotas for women – a vital step towards equality or demeaning and patronising? It is something that I was thinking about last week. Are we doing ourselves a favour when we insist on quotas for women, whether in the workplace, in politics, or in education. In this article from the Independent, Helena Morrissey argues that the impetuous from companies themselves, and the investors are more important than quotas set by governments or the EU. The attitudes of employers need to change, and this will not happen overnight. Recently a friend told me that her boss had remarked that it was good that she was a woman, because they wanted…
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Everything Will Be All Right In The End…
… and if it is not all right, then it is not the end. This was one of the central themes in the film that I saw tonight – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – a story of a group of English OAPs who move to a retirement home in India only to find the luxurious idyll promised in the brochure does not quite match the reality. The group slowly find themselves warming to the hotel manager, the eternal optimist Sonny and the fascinating country in which they have chosen to live. Any film with a cast list that includes Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Dev Patel and many…
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Survival
I’m a survivor I’m not goin’ give up I’m not goin’ stop I’m goin’ work harder The song blasted out of the speakers as Amelia gritted her teeth. The pain was almost enough to make her beg for a break, but not quite. Not when she was so close. “Dig deep, Amelia. We are almost there”, her physiotherapist implored. “I’m a SURVIVOR”, Amelia shouted breathlessly as she shuffled forward. Jane moved backwards, her hands outstretched. Not holding, but protecting from a potential fall. It was both a reassurance and an annoyance. Why should someone have to be ready to catch her all the time, why can she not do…
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The Secrets of Munich – Off The Tourist Trail
It was a spontaneous decision. We were in Munich flat-hunting and were ready to head back to Geneva. “Shall we have lunch before we drive home?”, my husband asked. “Sure, why not. How about we have a look in Schwabing and see if a restaurant or café catches our eye?”. Schwabing is the cool, happening place in Munich. The place where everyone wants to live, in one of the stately town houses, whose ground floors are home to designer boutiques, cafés, and bars. While the foreign tourists scour the city centre for souvenirs, and get squashed and deafened in the Hofbräuhaus, the locals sit it out in Schwabing…
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The Long Goodbye
It has been several months now since we learned that we are leaving Geneva. Months in which we have slowly started saying goodbye to Switzerland. Is it perhaps a defence mechanism that we have started finding fault with our host country prior to leaving, or was it simply time to leave? I don’t know but the niggles are growing and I occasionally hear myself say, “Thank God we are leaving soon”. Which is a bit unfair to Switzerland as we have been very happy here. The past months though have shown our limitations. The Swiss are not great at welcoming new people into their lives – which is understandable,…
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Desperately Seeking…
… a new home. Blog is a bit quiet at the moment as I am busy with move stuff. Seriously. Was I really excited about this a couple of weeks ago? Had I forgotten how much there is to organise? Currently trying to find out what happens with our cars, book hotel for the last week of our stay in Switzerland, look for schools in UK, and find a flat in Munich. That last one is the biggest stealer of time and energy, even for someone like me who loves to surf the property websites. In Germany a lot of rentals go through real estate agents called…
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Protect Your Child Online – Dangers and Joy of the Internet
Protecting our children from danger in their day to day life is always a balancing act. How much freedom is enough for them to grow into independent and confident adults, while still keeping them safe. As much as we might like to wrap them up in cotton wool and keep them home, as they grow we have to loosen the apron strings and allow them to make their own experiences. Yes, they may come to harm, but that is part of growing up and all we can do is try to limit the harm. Just as you did when they were toddlers – you allowed them to crawl and walk,…
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Protect Your Children – The Danger of Stranger Danger
This is a post that I have been meaning to write for quite some time. For some readers, this post will be distressing or upsetting – Trigger Warning for discussion of abuse and abusers. I am reminded of it every time I read about the angst that many parents have, that their child will be abducted or abused. Often this comes up at times when there has been a high profile case in the newspapers. The worry is understandable, we all want to protect our child from harm. First, it is important to understand the risks. Stranger Danger The big fear is often “Stranger Danger” – that…
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Welcome to 2012
That will take some getting used to – 2012. Although if I am honest I find that it takes longer and longer to get used to the new year, perhaps because I don’t work at the moment so don’t write the date. Today is typically a day for taking stock, for thinking about what has gone before and what we want to change. I am not going to make any NY resolutions, but I did think that perhaps it would be a good time to review my Bucket List. My Bucket List 1. Publish a novel 2.Do a patisserie course to learn how to make cakes. I can do…
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Au Revoir Suisse
This was our last year in Switzerland. We have known for some time that we would be moving next year, and I must admit that I have put off blogging about it. Maybe in the hope that by not writing about it, it wouldn’t happen. Now that the moving date is set, I can no longer avoid the truth. The removal men will arrive the last week of February and pack up our belongings, which will initially go into storage until we find a house in our final destination. My husband is being moved to the Munich office, but the children and I are going to Scotland for a few…
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The Twins – A Short Story by My Daughter
i am going to tell you a story about 2 twin girls… it start’s now. along the old days when tv, telephone and electricity did not exist, there lived 2 twin girls 1 wose called Katy and the ather 1 wose called Anabelle i now that there names don’t rime bit they wore stil twins ! there wose just 1 problem katy wose a tom boy and Anabelle wose a girly girl ! katy wose more a girl that like’t this cind of sofe and anabelle this kind of stof evrebody sed that they wore not twins !!! bit they are just becose they aren’t exactelly the same it dose…
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Everything is Amazing and Nobody is Happy
It is not a new video, but I saw this for the first time, and it struck a chord. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itn8TwFCO4M&feature=related Everything is amazing and nobody is happy. There is a lot of truth in this, isn’t there? How quickly we have become accustomed to the advances of technology. My daughter recently saw a vinyl single and asked what it was. When I explained that it was what we used to listen to music, she was amazed and shocked in equal measures. What? Only 2 tracks, and you have to turn it over half way through? Now she plugs in her iPod and can listen to one of thousands of tracks,…
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Easy Christmas Dinner
Does the thought of cooking Christmas dinner bring you out in cold sweat? Don’t panic, I have a great solution. This is a meal that a friend and I prepared for Thanksgiving a couple of weeks ago and I am going to do it again for Xmas Day. It was pretty easy to do, and most of it can be prepared in the morning – or even the night before – and popped into the oven leaving you free to play with your new toys. When we shopped for our Thanksgiving meal, we were stumped by our local supermarket’s lack of a whole turkey. There were turkey escalopes, turkey breasts,…
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A Girl Needs A Dog
A girl needs a dog. The pictures above were taken by my daughter. Our dog is a patient and beloved photo model. A friend recently told me the story of her son at circle time (what the Americans call Show and Tell). She had gone into to Parents’ Evening and the moment her son’s teacher saw her, the teacher started to weep. My friend was alarmed, and thought that her son had been doing something very wrong in school. The teacher tried to compose herself, but all she could manage to say, between sobs was, “A boy … needs… a doooooog”. Apparently, each week when…
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Plätzchen Plätzchen
Further to my Advent Advent post, here is the result of our weekend baking activity. Lots of wonderful Christmas biscuits – called Plätzchen in Germany. The word Plätzchen (according to Wiki) comes from either the diminutive of Platz – round flat cake – or from the latin word placenta which means cake. Placenta means CAKE? Why had I never heard of this before? It makes sense though, because in Germany the placenta is called the “Mutterkuchen”. At the beginning of Advent, many families in Germany bake Plätzchen, often using old family recipes. My mother-in-law uses the same recipe for the Xmas Plätzchen as she does for the Easter biscuits, a…
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Paul McMullan – Are We Accomplices?
Has there ever been such an explosive and, quite frankly, entertaining witness at a public enquiry as Paul McMullan, ex News of the World journalist turned whistleblower? Picture Credit Twitter almost exploded this afternoon as McMullan gave evidence about phone hacking, journalistic methods and the ties between the press, the police and politics in UK. He admitted being proud of the Name and Shame campaign that led to a paediatrician being beaten up by yobs who misunderstood the difference between paediatrician and paedophile. He defended phone hacking as being a “perfectly acceptable tool”. He was asked if phone hacking was widespread at the NoW and if his editors know about…
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Apprenticeships – A Quick Fix for Youth Unemployment?
The UK government announced the Youth Contract Scheme, intended to get Britain’s youth working. Currently, there are over 1 million British youth on the unemployment register, and it is vital to get these people working. Is the new initiative likely to do this? Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister has stated that Youth Contract Scheme will not be paid for by one single tax or saving measure, raising the question of how it will be financed. That should become clear on Tuesday, when George Osborne announces the Autumn budget. Up to 410,000 work and training placements will be created in England, Wales and Scotland by giving employers wage incentives equivalent to…
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Advent, Advent …
… ein Lichtlein brennt, erst eins, dann zwei, dann drei, dann vier. Dann steht das Christkind vor der Tür. I know, I know. It is not yet December, and I have been ranting on Twitter about creating a vigilante group called the #grinchpatrol to wander around tearing down the Christmas decorations in shops. Christmas should not start in November. However, half of our little family is German, and one of the BEST things about Germany at Christmas time is the Adventzeit. Advent is not really marked in UK, aside from the calendars filled with pretty pictures, or if you are lucky, with chocolate. In Germany, the Adventszeit is almost better…
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Social Media Fatigue
Do you have an account with any of the following services: Twitter, Facebook, Mumsnet, Britmums, Linkedin, Klout, Google+, Pinterest, Foursquare, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, Blogger, WordPress, Flickr, Vine, AskFM, Kik… If you have answered “Yes” more than four times then you are in danger of Social Media Fatigue. I have accounts with 10 of these services, although I really only use Twitter, Facebook, Mumsnet, Pinterest and WordPress. I use Blogger to comment on Blogger blogs, and very rarely use YouTube except to watch videos. I realise that Mumsnet is not a typical “Social Media” website, but I included it as it is one of the ones that send most people to my blog, via the Bloggers’ Network.…
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Vegetarianism vs Fussy Eater
This is not something I thought I would have to be addressing but as time goes on it is becoming clear that my 9 year old daughter is getting closer to full vegetarianism. She is still quite inconsistent – she will not eat ham but will eat bacon, will not eat beef but does eat burgers, does not eat pork but still eats chicken (unless her brother makes chicken noises, as that makes her think of the poor chicken and puts her off). While not being worried about her, it is making life slightly trickier as I try to find things that she likes. She is a vegetable fan, so…
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The Balance of Motherhood
“She is Just A Mum. I imagine she sits around all day in her PJs, drinking tea and eating chocolate biscuits” “Oh, she is a working mother. Her children are in nursery all day, the poor things” Is that it? Are these the only options? How much do we give up of our lives, our hopes, our dreams when we become mothers? And when is it ok to say, “Right. Enough. I am not Just A Mother” Today, I read a post on my favourite parenting blog FreeYourParenting about nurturing yourself. Clare talks about the every day stresses of family life, and how we can get away…
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Daily Mail and German Bashing
I know I have promised to stop reading the Daily Mail. I even considered installing the wonderful Kittenblock as recommended by @ivan_jelical but this time it was my husband’s fault. To keep up with the gossip from his home country, he skims the Bild Zeitung daily. It is a populist tabloid belonging to the Axel Springer publishing house, read by almost 2.9million Germans and highly influential. (pic credit) Yesterday, he remarked that the Bild had an article about the Daily Mail and then he clicked on the DM website to read the article in the original English. “Bloody hell, it is even worse than the Bild Zeitung”, was his first comment…
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Guilt Free Breastfeeding Advice
Breast is best! Breastfeeding improves children’s IQ Breastfeeding prevents obesity Formular Feeding mums are lazy Formular Fed infants are more likely to develop illnesses Is anyone else fed up with this? Occasionally I will come across a website that states this and more (I am not going to link to these websites as I don’t want to cause trouble with other bloggers and to be quite frank, I can do without the hassle of my blog being invaded by militant breastfeeding activists). We all know that for the best start in life, breastfeeding is truly advantageous. There is no disputing this fact. For some women, breastfeeding does not come…
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Why You Should Avoid Operation Christian Child
When I wrote this article in 2011, I would not have believed that years later, I’d update it with the information that the leader of this charity was a supporter of President Trump, and that they shared similar political goals. That’s not the only reason to avoid Operation Christian Child, but it’s one that is hard to dismiss. I’ve rewritten this post and added new information, including some alternatives to Operation Christian Child. If your child’s school is planning to collect shoeboxes this year, let them know who is behind this charity, and suggest some alternatives. When we lived in Germany one of the parents at Kindergarten sent out…
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Ghosts – The Grey Lady of Glamis Castle
Glamis Castle is on my home turf, not far from my parent’s house and has always been one of my favourite castles. Not just the look of the castle, which with its turrets and towers would not be out of place in a Disney movie, but also the extensive grounds, the charming tour and the massive scones in the Victorian Kitchen Tearoom. There is a wooden playground for children next to a field of highland cattle. Throughout the year, Glamis Castle welcomes visitors with various activities and exhibitions. This summer, inspired by the Royal Wedding, saw a fascinating array of wedding dresses from past times, including the one…
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Family Bingo
Are you already dreading visiting the family for Christmas? I am incredibly lucky. Both my parents and my husbands parents are genuinely lovely people, but even lovely people can get on your nerves sometimes, especially when you are cooped up in an apartment with them for several days. The old fish/guests adage was never more true. Little niggles, that would normally not bother you become vitally important and we find ourselves fuming at something as irrelevant as mother Not Putting The Lid On The Jam Jar. It is important to remember that everyone does things slightly differently, both in the home and in regard to child rearing. I touched on…
