Tiah Beautement's Blog, page 174

Peace is not a simple word

This is not a cheery post to write; so, I guarantee it will be an emotional read. So by all means, give it a miss if you need to. Believe me, I understand. An old friend of mine lost his brother over the weekend. I have never lost a child, sibling, parent or partner – so I am not going to pretend I know how my friend feels. Those kinds of loss put you in a special club that I'm happy to not have membership to quite yet. But I have lost a relative to suicide; and, now, so has...

Answers

The questions from yesterday were part of a survey for an article, but time-zones + children's bedtimes etc means I missed the deadline. I'm sure the world is heartbroken. Anyhoo - The article.And my answers: 1) How do you think our world would be different with out a literary legacy? Books have become a basic thread of our social fabric, regardless if an individual considers himself or herself as a "reader" or not. Thus, our social fabric would unravel in to unrecognisable tatters. So while ...

It's my blog and I'll blab if I want to

So there. The "answers" to the "questions" posted below will be posted tomorrow as promised. Not that you all are rushing to ponder these things, anyway. In the meantime, life has had too many downs and not enough ups. Sad news from friends from my younger years and other unpleasantness. Then I'm tired. Not from anything bad - ball-skills and taking the kids swimming, all very normal reasons to be tired, but tired is as tired does. So I decided to cheat and not make dinner. Husband and I have...

Questions

Numerous blog posts have drifted through my mind: One started with me telling you how my Tuesday morning began by unzipping my daughter's pj's and discovering it filled with shi... Another to report that my US and UK police certificates are in. It appears the only missing documentation preventing me from turning in my visa application is ... my South African police certificate. So much to say, but I won't. Then there was another to let you all know that my daughter had her lip check up Tuesda...

Most of you own it

But did anybody actually read it?* Long Walk To Freedom, by Nelson Mandela The reason I ask is there was an article awhile back in The Guardian talking about books people claim to have read, but have not. In the case of the British reading public, it claimed that "61% of people having lied about reading a book they haven't opened." The article has had me thinking about what books, other than 1984 (which I have read numerous times, btw, and you should too) people lie about. I see this book on ...

Peter Brantley says, "No!"

A member of my blog's fan club wrote in about Peter Brantley's blog which is featured on Huffington Post. The reason - because Peter has a very clear stance on why the Great Google Library is a bad idea. To read his views click here. In other news, I took a copy of Wordsect to the volunteers at the Outeniqua Transport Museum. They graciously received it; and, then turned on all the model trains for the children to gawk at. Children were thrilled. (For anybody local wishing to go to the Museum...

I'm hardly a prude, but really...

A few days ago a well known South African blogger posted about these signs you can buy for your children's pushchair that say: "Please wash your hands before you touch mine." This led to numerous comments of parents thinking it was an amazing invention and wanted one, too. I was one of the few voices of dissent. Maybe it is because we don't use pushchairs that I didn't deal with this much in the newborn phase. My children were tucked right into a sling, cradle style, and if you tried to touch...

Don't judge

Yesterday I did a sweep around the house picking up the coke zero cans and putting them in the recycling. Various cans were scattered on the desk, in the waste basket, on the kitchen table, indicating that I might be over doing it. But it was when I reached my bathroom and noted not just the can sitting on the ledge outside the shower, but the one inside the shower, located between the shampoo and conditioner, of course, that I had to start laughing at myself. Addicted? I will be the first to...

Mother and daughter need to aquire guts

Even when perfectly executed life can still not go as desired, as proved yesterday at swimming. We brought all the right stuff, arrived at the correct time, and for thirty minutes the children and I were happy. Then it was time to hand over for lessons: screaming. If she would actually concede to enjoy herself and do her lessons she could probably be at her brother's level in two months. She is a tot-fish. When life was happy she spent the time diving off the steps into the water and swimming...

The upside of having very few readers...

is that there are less "bosses" to please. To explain, I recently received a newsletter via email and it contained the interesting debate on who writers work for. This question leads to the next thought: is the writer obliged to please his or her readers? Anu Garg from A.Word.A.Day* stated: A writer usually doesn't have a boss. On the other hand, a writer's boss is his readers. You could say I have 800,000 bosses. But this relationship is not so clearcut. Let me explain. From time to time a r...