fossil

Righto envirogirl. This a little girly but - what’s your favourite comfort food? 

Lasagna and hot chocolate. 

Celebrating Mother’s Day at the in laws today and a “friend of the family’’ dropped by for a chat. A 30-something career woman, fotf is not and has no ambition to be a mother, which is entirely cool. But she bitched and moaned for half an hour about “mother’s getting all the attention’’ and “why do mother’s get a special day, I work hard but no-one celebrates my achievements’’. 

I was thinking of explaining that your average mother – be they stay-at-home or career-women or mixture of the two – are pretty much on parent duty 24/7, 364 days of the year and that Mother’s Day was an opportunity for their families to say thanks and for them to have at least part of the day off.

But I couldn’t be bothered.

I just told her not to worry, every day is a celebration for barren women.

Arrrgggghhhh. She left soon after. Did I say something wrong?

This has not been my weekend for making friends.

Happy mother’s day mums.

Viv thought this made sense. I think it makes some kind of sense.

Why are ipods evil?

In April this year a tsunami hit the shores of the Solomon Islands approximately five minutes after an 8.1 magnitude earthquake shook the islands’ coastal villages. About 30 people were killed and another 6000 displaced – a big deal but small cheese compared to THE tsunami of 2004.

Following THE tsunami an early warning system was put in place for waters surrounding Australia.
In April, as the Solomon Islands were swamped, OUR entire east coast was put on high alert.

There was widespread panic but in the end our tsunami was just a 22cm swell. You could have paddled in it, if you weren’t busy panicking. Over the next few days there was widespread criticism of the warning system.

Why were we chased off the beaches for no reason? Why couldn’t scientists tell us if there was a REAL tsunami coming, how big it was, how far inland it was going to reach and what time it would arrive?

The answer to those questions is: BECAUSE THEY DON’T KNOW. Despite spending many millions of dollars on whiz-bang technology to measure the earth’s activity, the planet remains largely unfathomable. We can’t predict the erratic behaviour of oceans, the weather, the atmosphere, or even other human beings with any great certainty. But most of us THINK WE CAN.

Most of us think we know a lot more than we actually do, that we can control a lot more than we actually can, that science and technology can provide solutions when, in fact, they can’t. We are ignorant of our ignorance and that, I believe, breeds complacency.

FOR THIS I BLAME THE IPOD.

When I can walk around with 7500 songs in my pocket – more than two weeks worth of continuous music IN MY POCKET – I am ENTITLED to think that the makers of this extraordinary piece of machinery have ALL THE ANSWERS.

If THEY have all the answers then I don’t need to search for them – I don’t have to seek solutions to climate change, poverty or water shortages, THEY will find them because THEY are capable of anything.

I can just listen to my evil little ipod and sun myself on the beach and run when they tell me to run and get really pissed off when it turns out they were wrong.

Excuse the pun (if not the ishment)

He’s a scrawny little bugger, with no waist to speak of and longish legs. None of his pants fit him and he runs around kinder holding on to his waistband, resisting gravity’s best attempts to dack him.

He needs a belt but I can’t find one. Target, no. Kmart, no. Same at Big W and Dimmeys. A specialists kids’ store I hear you say.

Good.

Which? Where? Or are there alternatives to belting that i haven’t thought of?