Words of wisdom

I found this on Elder Daughter's Facebook a few weeks ago and saved it. Today, I thought I would share it with you:

LETTER FROM A MOTHER TO A DAUGHTER:

"My dear girl, the day you see I’m getting old, I ask you to please be patient, but most of all,
 try to understand what I’m going through.
If when we talk, I repeat the same thing a thousand times, don’t interrupt to say: “You said the
 same thing a minute ago”... Just listen, please. Try to remember the times when you were little and
 I would read the same st

ory night after night until you would fall asleep.
When I don’t want to take a bath, don’t be mad and don’t embarrass me. Remember when I had to run
 after you making excuses and trying to get you to take a shower when you were just a girl?

When you see how ignorant I am when it comes to new technology, give me the time to learn and don’t
 look at me that way... remember, honey, I patiently taught you how to do many things like eating appropriately,
 getting dressed, combing your hair and dealing with life’s issues every day... the day you see I’m getting old, I ask
 you to please be patient, but most of all, try to understand what I’m going through.

If I occasionally lose track of what we’re talking about, give me the time to remember, and if I can’t, don’t be nervous,
 impatient or arrogant. Just know in your heart that the most important thing for me is to be with you.

And when my old, tired legs don’t let me move as quickly as before, give me your hand the same way that I offere
d mine to you when you first walked.

When those days come, don’t feel sad... just be with me, and understand me while I get to the end of
 my life with love.

Santa Gangnam style

If you are yet to get into the festive mood, maybe this will do it!

On the other hand, maybe it will just remind you of all the shopping still to be done!

Making things, including mistakes

Yesterday, Keith spent about eight hours making ... something. The reason for the lack of detailed information here is that the electronic stuff he does means little to me, to say the least; not that I reject it as not being worthy of notice, simply that for me, it is like presenting me with a book in Mandarin Chinese. Anyway, revenons a nos moutons, as the French say. I gather it was some sort of circuit and he spent a lot of time bent over his work station, interspersed with staring at his computer screen, but finally, he had done it.

It had been a bit of a steep learning curve and had involved a few mistakes and setbacks, but, as he commented,

"I have learned far more by making mistakes than I would have done if it had all gone smoothly."

Words of wisdom, I think.

Sorry?

Much has been written about the tragic events following the hoax call made by two presenters of the Australian programme, 2Day FM Radio. The presenters in question, Mel Greig and Michael Christian have been taken off air and it is said that both are receiving  counselling. Despite trawling the internet, however, try as I might, I cannot find anywhere any indication that they themselves, as opposed to the radio station,  have actually apologised for their little'joke' or offered their sympathy to nurse Jacintha Saldanha's family.
Admittedly, neither could have anticipated such an outcome to what started out as a stupid, juvenile prank, but part of being a grown up is taking responsibility for your actions and apologising when the occasion warrants it. Running away and going into hiding can come afterwards.
Let's hope the 'intensive counselling' they are reported to be undergoing enables them to understand this.

French sperm

It was reported this week, or maybe last - time flies by so quickly these days - that, as a nation, the sperm count of the French is going down. Leaving aside how on earth
 a) they know and
 b)they care,
 I give you for your delectation and entertainment this offering, courtesy of News Thump, which, as you will gather from its title, is a serious, heavyweight publication aiming to defer to no-one in its quest for the truth.

eg. "The study also discovered that although there was a precipitous fall in French sperm count, the gallic feeling of self-importance was as strong as ever amongst the subjects."

You read it here first, folks!

Stop talking, I'm interrupting!

BBC's Radio 4's Today programme is a daily current affairs programme which airs six mornings a week from six to nine o'clock and has something of a reputation for taking no prisoners. I generally listen to it for the first hour, whilst contemplating getting up and starting the day and on Thursdays I hear more between eight and half past, on my way to my Welsh class.
Today Evan Davis was 'interviewing' George Osborne. You will notice that I have placed 'interviewing' within quotation marks and if the definition of interviewing is talking over/interrupting/patronising/condescending, or any combination of the aforesaid, then that is undoubtedly what he was doing.
Accepting that a politician actually giving a straight answer to a question is rarer than a barbecue summer in Britain, most people, I think, would nevertheless expect to hear some attempt at answering a question posed by the interviewer, if only to wriggle out of it and, whilst I am no fan of George Osborne, I was almost beginning to feel sorry for him.
At every attempt to speak, he was accused by Davis of refusing to answer the question, even to the point of being told, "Well, I know you're not going to give us an answer on that." At one point, it even led to Osborne actually begging to be allowed the answer the question! When he did manage to get a few words in edgeways, he was repeatedly cut off mid sentence by Davis.
I have to say that, by the end of this farce, I was quite impressed by Osborne's calm, polite response in spite of being repeatedly goaded. I can only assume that Davis is intent on making his mark as a 'cutting edge' interviewer with a reputation for cutting to the chase, but the result this morning was nothing short of loutish, ill-mannered rudeness and he should be ashamed.

Hyperemisis gravidarum

So, the Duchess of Cambridge is expecting but is now holed up in hospital with hyperemisis gravidarum and just in case anyone out there is shrugging their shoulders and muttering, "Oh, just morning sickness then" I can assure you, from personal experience, it certainly isn't!
Hyperemisis gravidarum is apparently the result of an extreme reaction to the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) and can vary from mild morning sickness to the more extreme, debilitating reaction that Kate is suffering from at present.
During my first pregnancy, with Elder Daughter, my morning sickness rapidly escalated to the inability to keep anything down, even the smallest sip of water. I was still working, of course, and dragging myself into a classroom of lively three and four year olds soon became beyond me, although I had to work hard to convince my head teacher (childless) of that!
In those days, the late seventies, a drug called Debendox was prescribed. I was assured by my GP that there was no danger of side effects, unlike Thalidimide, which had been the drug of choice in the previous decade, so I trusted him and took it and thankfully, there were no ill effects with that or my subsequent three pregnancies. Yes, I put myself through that three more times!

So, I wish Kate a speedy recovery and, if she's reading this, (Would you doubt it?) it's worth it in the end, when you hold your baby in your arms. I couldn't wait to do it all again ... and again...!