Thoughts I had while watching Harry Potter and the deathly hallows parts 1 and 2

I decided to rewatch Harry Potter and the deathly hallows parts 1 and 2 for the 50th time. Here are some random thoughts I had:

                     

                   HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1

• 'Your ministry remains strong' You have got to be kidding me!
• Oh my god Hermione you erased your parents memory! That takes some guts
• well Snape looks ominous doesn't he?
• How has Snape not punched Voldy yet?
• Oh stop bickering death eaters
• Oh Bellatrix how I love you
• Wormtail you snivellus little traitor! Get off my TV
• HAHAHAHA Voldy broke Malfoy's wand
• Oh my god Voldy you can't just go around killing people who don't agree with you
• That snake gives me the creeps
• Did the snake get so hungry it ate Voldy's nose?
• Stop being so grumpy Moody!
• Mundungus I hate you
• How freaky does Hermione look while changing into Harry??
• woohoo Daniel Radcliffe shirtless
• aww Hagrid I'm going to shed a tear
• damn death eaters
• Hedwig NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
• I can never tell Fred and George apart
• aww Ron and Hermione. Just kiss already
• Let's just take a moment to appreciate Fred and George's comic relief
• Moody's dead? Oh for god's sake. Let's go make Mundungus pay.
• You tell him Ron!
• I wish magic was real
• You couldn't have picked a better time minister? Do you know what goes into organising a wedding?
• Great one ministry! You lost the sword of Gryffindor. How very careless.
• Ohh a wedding. I love weddings.
• Times Ron should have kissed Hermione but didn't count: 2
• Why would anyone say anything bad about Dumbledore???
• Oh come on Harry, even I, a muggle, knows who Bathilda Bagshot is.
• Hermione next time try to appear on a footpath! Not a busy road.
• Who's going to clean up that mess?
• That waitress probably thinks she is tripping right about now.
• Hermione get your priorities in order!
• Aww that's so cute Ron and Hermione were obviously holding hands when they went to sleep
• Aww Sirius. I miss you. *cry* 
• How did Ron figure out who R.A.B was before Hermione???
• Aww how cute. Ron defending Hermione
• Stop being so cryptic Kreacher
• Bloody Mundungus. Can someone just punch him already?
• You go Neville although calling death easters losers, no matter how true it is, is probably not the best idea
• I HATE YOU UMBRIDGE
• Does Voldy even like Umbridge? That says a lot about your character when the darkest wizard in history doesn't even like you
• Times Ron should have kissed Hermione but didn't count: 3
• DOBBY!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!
• Just punch Mundungus guys!
• Is it such a good idea to go into the Ministry of Magic guys?
• How brave of you Ron
• They flush themselves down the toilets? Isn't there a better way? 
• Hermione maybe you should figure out how long the polyjuice potion lasts?
• To be fair, an umbrella is a pretty good suggestion
• Ron stop freaking out.
• Ron, If that doesn't work, buy an umbrella for the death eater
• UMBRIDGE I HATE YOU
• Why do you have moody's eye Umbridge? I will say it again I HATE YOU
• Yeah because Accio is going to work Harry. Have you not learnt yet that it's not that simple? It is a horcrux after all
• Don't get sentimental now Harry, You have important stuff to do.
• Umbridge being stupefied is very satisfying
• You are not supposed to kiss Mrs Cattermole Ron, You are supposed to be kissing Hermione
• aaaannnnnddd Mrs Cattermole's husband sees the kiss....well that's awkward
• RUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNN
• Aww Hermione's worry for Ron is kind of sweet
• Can Ron and Hermione just get together already?????
• Ron of course it bothers him. What a stupid question.
• Has Voldy ever thought to, I don't know, GET A NOSE?????
• Harry stop being so mean! Take the locket off. Listen to Hermione
• Hermione was it a good idea to wear perfume while hiding from death eaters?
• Aww Ron is getting jealous. Just tell her how you feel Ron!
• Oh Ron don't get jealous
• RON TAKE OFF THE HORCRUX!!!!!!!!!
• DON'T GO RON!!!! COME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Hermione's heartbroken....and so am I
• Harry and Hermione dancing is nice and all but I would much rather watch Ron and Hermione dance. GET IT TOGETHER YOU TWO
• Is it just me or did Ron and Hermione look like they were about to kiss?
• 'I open at the close' well thats nice and simple to work out
• It's all nice and everything that you don't want to go to Godric's Hollow as someone else but Hermione does have a point about the polyjuice potion Harry
• Harry's parents graves. Bawling right now.
• KILL THE SNAKE KILL THE SNAKE KILL THE SNAKE
• Harry's wand is broken. This is not a good thing
• Well that's just great. The sword is at the bottom of a frozen lake. Very convenient.
• Maybe you should have given the locket to Hermione.
• RON'S BACK! YAY!!!!
• Don't listen to the locket Ron. It's lying to you.
• Just destroy the locket already. Don't listen to it.
• I think Hermione is a tad upset with Ron. Just kiss him already Hermione
• Times Ron should have kissed Hermione but didn't count: 4
• That was an epic speech Ron
• DON'T GO TO THE LOVEGOODS. IT'S A TRAP
• The tale of the three brothers. Awesome.
• Good idea Ron. Get out of there while you can.
• Doesn't Harry get sick of people looking at his scar?
• Voldemort took Luna? oh hell no
• Why were the death eaters just standing around while Harry, Ron and Hermione ran? You have one job guys.
• Nice curse Hermione
• Ron is not Hermione's boyfriend. I know, it sucks. He should be.
• The Malfoy's manor. This can't be good.
• Yep, I was right. It's not good. 
• Death eaters arguing amongst themselves. Not a good look guys. You are supposed to show a united front.
• Draco really looks like he doesn't care if it is Harry or not.
• Bellatrix really does not look like someone I would want to be alone with.
• Awww Ron being defensive of Hermione. So sweet. And heartbreaking.
• DOBBY HAS COME TO SAVE THE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Yes Dobby, I like Luna too
• Oh Ron, you are getting more and more brave
• BELLATRIX KILLED DOBBY. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING
• Oh dear. Voldy has the elder wand. I don't like this at all.

                  HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2

• I STILL cannot believe Dobby is dead.
• Dementors around Hogwarts. That is a bit unsettling.
• Snape gave Bellatrix a fake sword. You go Snape
• Ollivander seems to have quite an obsession with wands.
• Don't lie to Harry Ollivander
• Have some faith in Harry, Ollivander. Be optimistic
• Hermione as Bellatrix. That's just creepy.
• Breaking into Gringotts. This can't go wrong at all.
• They used an unforgivable curse! We are so not at hogwarts anymore.
• Griphook could have warned them about that waterfall BEFORE they went into Gringotts
• I agree with Hermione, I feel sorry for the poor dragon.
• Yes Hermione, climbing onto a dragon's back is quite mad.
• I take it the dragon is quite happy to be free
• It would be rather disconcerting to have Voldemort in my thoughts all the time.
• Of course Voldy is scared, so would I if people were hunting me to kill me
• The death eaters are only on your side because they are scared of you Voldy. That might be why you are angry all the time. You have no friends.
• Ummm guys doesn't going into hogsmeade seem a bit dangerous? I know you have to find the horcruxes but come on, take some precautions.
• I don't think Aberforth is too fond of his brother.
• NEVILLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Of course Ginny is excited to see Harry, Ron. He is the love of her life.
• I do love the way Snape talks. Sooo creepy.
• Nice words Snape but we all know you want Voldy defeated.
• Good on you Harry. You tell him.
• Yay for Professor McGonagall
• Oh be quiet you stupid slytherins
• Yeah Filch the students are supposed to be out of bed, get with the program!
• 'I've always wanted to use that spell' is one of the best McGonagall moments of the whole series
• That's right Luna, you make him listen to you!
• Oh dear, Voldy has arrived at Hogwarts. This is not good. Not good at all.
• Oh that's very helpful Helena Ravenclaw. Can anyone just give poor Harry a straight answer? He is trying to defeat the darkest wizard of all time after all.
• Aww Fred and George look a bit worried. I would be too if I was them.
• Good job Ron. You opened the Chamber of Secrets using fake parseltongue, Someone didn't get good security on the chamber.
• And the most inappropriate time to kiss award goes to........ Ron and Hermione
• Well, it took you long enough Ron and Hermione!!!!!
• Oh no, the death eaters can get into the school now. Get ready to fight everyone!
• Neville loves Luna. Awww how sweet
• There is a lot of stuff in the room of requirement Harry. It may take you a while to find the diadem
• The diadem is calling to Harry. How helpful.
• Oh here is trouble. Go away Draco
• Harry, climbing up a pile of furniture cannot be safe!
• Crabbe and Goyle, setting a room on fire while you are in it, not to mention nowhere near the door is, quite frankly, idiotic
• Harry is going back to save Draco. How noble. I'm not that nice. I would probably let him burn. He did call Hermione a mudblood.
• Voldy, killing random death eaters is not going to ease your anger. Go to an anger management class
• Stop being a suck up Lucius
• Awww Aberforth came to help after all. How nice of him.
• Voldy doesn't seem happy with Snape. 
• SNAPE IS DEAD
• FRED IS DEAD
• LUPIN IS DEAD
• TONKS IS DEAD
• Why are all the people dying? screw you Voldy.
• Aww Snape's memories are rather sweet. He so loves Lily.
• Annnnddd everyone suddenly falls in love with Snape.
• Harry's dad was kinda mean to poor Snape
• Awww Snape told Dumbledore about Voldemort's plan to kill Harry. How noble of him.
• Snape going to see Lily after Voldemort killed her. So crying now.
• 'After all this time? Always' My heart has been ripped from my chest!
• Harry must die???? I can't comprehend this. Harry cannot die!!!
• Harry going to the forbidden forest to face Voldemort. Heroic.
• Resurrection stone inside the snitch? Awesome hiding place.
• Lily, James, Sirius and Lupin appearing? I am in emotional turmoil right now
• Let Hagrid go Voldy!!!!!!!!!
• Voldemort used the killing curse on Harry twice...and failed twice. How bad do you feel Voldy??????
• Dumbledore is still helping Harry in his death. How sweet
• Narcissa, despite being evil and all, lying to Voldemort about Harry being dead is quite brave.
• Neville going against Voldemort is awesome.
• Voldy seems quite disappointed that Harry is still alive.
• Oh No, seems like Voldemort is winning.
• Molly Weasley killing Bellatrix. One of the best moments ever. Even though I do quite like Bellatrix.
• Neville chopping the head off Nagini = AWESOMELY BRAVE
• Voldemort falling apart is cool yet creepy.
• Harry broke the elder wand and threw it away. I would have kept it.
• 19 years later. The gang are sending their kids off to hogwarts. So sweet.

A new experience

A few nights ago I had a reading. I have always been interested in psychics and the supernatural. I have always been drawn to things that a lot of people brush off as 'nonsense'.

I will start by saying that Icy's Peace ( http://www.icyspeace.com/ ) knew nothing about me. I happened to be in the same facebook group as her and that's it. She doesn't know my past and there was no possible way she could have found out my past. Even reading my blog posts you do not get much personal information about me.

It started by her asking me if I wanted a general reading or if I had specific questions she could help me with those. I chose the general reading. I have always been cautious when it comes to tarot readings and the like. There are many people out there that claim to know what they are doing and take lots of money off people desperate for answers. I am happy to say that this woman is not one of them.

I will not be posting my reading here as it is very personal but I will say she was very accurate. She knew things that she had no way of knowing, things that I have never told anyone. I was completely blown away. What she said made sense. Things I had been questioning, questions I had not verbalised were answered. And she did this reading with love and compassion.

I do not know much about tarot cards or readings but I can say without a doubt that this woman is the real deal. I have included her website and facebook page at the end of this post. Seriously - check her out. This was a new experience for me and one I hope to have again. I felt a sense of calm within myself after the reading, I was happy I got answers to things I had been questioning for quite a while.

Here is Icy's Peace website and facebook page:

http://www.icyspeace.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Icyspeace/timeline

An open letter to my kids school

An open letter to my kids’ school,

I see many parents take to social media to air their anger and frustration at their child’s school, mostly, when I see an article or a blog post about a school it is quite negative. This is not one of those letters. I wish to thank you, for all you have done.

My kids started last week, in the middle of term, if that was not hard enough they had so many things in their lives change recently. Your school, the students, staff and parents have all made my kids and I feel incredibly welcome. You did not brush off the anxiety my daughter felt, you never once told her she was silly for having feelings. I appreciate that, more than you know.

You embraced my kids as the people they are, you did not try to make them fit in to someone else’s standard of ‘normal’. I feel this is an incredibly important message you are sending the students, and, if more schools did the same perhaps we would have future leaders who embrace all types of people, regardless of the way they look.

To my daughter’s year 3 teacher, you made my daughter feel welcome from the moment she set foot in your classroom, when I took my kids on a tour of the school, you took my daughters hand and took her around your classroom to show her everything, you did not even know if she would be in your class at that stage, but you still took the time to make her feel welcome. You sat with my son, who wasn’t even going to be in your year level and talked about dinosaurs with him. You made my kids feel incredibly welcome on that day, you did not know the effort it had taken that morning to get my kids to agree to tour the school, you did not know that their trust, as well as mine, in people had been completely shattered. You helped them, and myself, start to trust people again. I was so thankful when I found out my daughter was in your class. I knew she would feel a bit better, and hopefully be a bit less anxious with you as a teacher. You have a special way with kids, especially kids who are anxious and worried.

To my son’s year 2 teacher, you made my son excited about being in your class and learning from the time you met him on his first day. You ensured he had an activity he was excited about to do and made sure he was introduced to other kids so he did not feel lonely or left out.

To you, you were probably only doing your job but to my kids and myself the care, compassion and kindness you have shown has meant the world. I know teachers do not always get appreciation, that often parents will complain about something but know that, for this family at least, we appreciate you and your actions have meant the world to us.

Lynette 

The curious case of the missing keys

Something strange happened on Friday and I have not been able to get it out of my head. I lost my keys. I know it is cliche but seriously it lead to quite a few events and now I am seriously considering the possibility of teleportation.

It started off early in the morning, I had not yet had my coffee, I moved my keys off the table and put them down next to me, at least I think I put them down next to me. I went and gulped down my coffee and as I was finishing I decided that I would put my keys next to the door so I do not lose them, so, I went to get them and they were gone. I looked on the floor, under chairs, everywhere around the area I had put them and I did not find them. I checked my handbag, they were not there, I checked it again just to make sure and there were no keys to be seen. They seemed to vanish into thin air.

My kids were getting ready for school and my daughter walked in and looked at m with concern as she watched me look at the place I left the keys blankly and mime putting keys on the table. Then I had a thought, maybe I had already put my keys next to the door. I went to check. There were no keys. This was rather worrying. I decided I needed more coffee to make my brain function properly, so I went to make one while thinking about how keys could just disappear. It was way to complicated for my brain to work out so early in the morning.

I was starting to get worried now as it was pushing 8am and we needed to leave my 8:25am. I removed everything from my handbag and checked and they were not there, I checked every room in the house, I asked my kids if they had seen my keys, they had not. I sat down to drink my coffee, wondering where my keys were and I heard my phone in my bag beep. I reached in to pull it out and found my keys attached to the phone. I had checked my bag multiple times. How did my keys get in my bag? How did they just vanish and reappear in a totally different place to where I left them?

So, since Friday I have been trying to figure out if teleportation and the ability of invisibility is possible for inanimate objects. I hope I never lose anything again. I don't think my mind can cope.

Mothers Day Musings

Today is Mothers Day and it is bittersweet. This year will be ten years since my mum died. I have constantly thought of her today, very rarely a day goes by without me thinking about her. I thought about her yesterday while looking at the wombats at Healesville Sanctuary, which were her favourite animals, or when my kids do something funny or get a good school report or an awards, I know she would be proud of them. Holidays and special occasions I think about her more than normal. Mothers day, Christmas, Easter, Birthdays. I feel it start up in the morning with thoughts of presents I had given her and by the end of the day I am holding back tears.

This morning I woke up quite early, the kids were still asleep and I got up, had a coffee and took a few moments to think of my mother and miss her. I was 17 when she died and I wish she had lived long enough to meet her grandchildren, I know she would be as proud of them as I am. Soon my kids woke up, I was ordered back to bed while they did 'secret mothers day stuff' with my partner while I wasted time on social media.

Soon the kids came running into the bedroom with presents, which were actually quite nice. I got the black pair of boots I wanted, a lovely soft warm blanket and a puzzle which I can colour in, plus some cards the kids made at school and some store bought cards.  I stayed in bed a bit longer (in the sense of about an hour and a half) as my partner helped the kids make blueberry pancakes and my partner brought me a coffee ( At that moment I considered him a lifesaver). The pancakes were eaten (and were delicious) I got dressed and put on my new boots and have constantly been asked every 5 minutes if I like my presents. It was cute for the fist three times, now I want to stab myself in the eye with a fork whenever they decide to ask me. I have also received uncountable hugs and told 'Happy Mothers day" about 100 times. Which I have loved.

After I got up and dressed, I was on my laptop and scrolling through blog posts and facebook where I saw a lot of posts about mothers day. It got me thinking. Why do we only appreciate our mothers on mothers day? Why do we not appreciate them on other days of the year and show it? I am not taking about presents, I am talking about simple things such as hugs, saying things like thank you and I love you and doing little things like helping with the housework. I know I am guilty of not always appreciating my mother when she was still alive, I was lazy, expected her to clean and cook and very rarely thanked her for all she did.

I was also thinking about people who do not get along with their mothers, who do not have their mothers in their lives for various reasons. I wonder how they feel about this day? Do they feel sad? Do mothers look at their own kids on Mothers Day morning and wish their mothers had made an effort? Or that they had made more of an effort with their mothers?

Show appreciation to your mother this Mothers Day, Thank her for all she has done, appreciate her and continue to do so once mothers day is over and, if you are like me and your mother is no longer on this earth, I am sending you a big hug. I know your pain.

Happy Mothers day.

Total, utter exhaustion

Today there is not enough coffee in the world to keep my brain awake enough to function. It is not yet midday and I am counting down the minutes to bedtime already (or I would if my brain would function enough to do the maths). It was an early start with unmotivated kids and an even more unmotivated me. It started in the early hours of this morning. Here is a list of what has happened so far today:

• Pirate Monkey decided he needed to get into bed with my partner and myself at some horrible hour during the night. This would not pose a problem except, well, Pirate Monkey decided the best way to get to me was to try and go though my partner so I had a fun time trying not to fall out of bed as Pirate Monkey took up more and more room. We ended up all being awake and up before 6am. This is just horrible.

• I had had a sore back because my partner has limbs and was squashed up against me. See above point.

• Pirate Monkey and Tinkerbell decided they wanted to have a conversation about what animals we will see tomorrow at Healesville Sanctuary (which I had optimistically promised them earlier in the week when I wasn't so tired). I had not yet finished my first cup of coffee and my brain was not functioning so I mainly stared at them blankly, trying to comprehend what they were talking about.

• My partner left for work ( for the record he has ridiculously early start times) and I informed Pirate Monkey and Tinkerbell they needed to go brush their teeth. I found them a few minutes later staring at their toothbrushes like they had never seen one before.

• I got the kids shoes out. When I asked the kids to put on their shoes, one of Tinkerbell's shoes had mysteriously vanished within the last two minutes. We finally found it, after ten minutes (It was under the table - no, I do not know how it got there)

• I gulped down another coffee while Pirate Monkey asked for The Final Countdown to be played on repeat

• I told the kids we were leaving for school in ten minutes. Tinkerbell made some unintelligible sound as she drew, Pirate monkey shrugged his shoulders as he continued to play with his leggo. 

• 5 minutes later I told the kids they needed to pack up and get their bags for school, I went to get dressed. When I came out at 8:25, which is the time we need to leave for school, they had still not moved. I told them to go get their bags and cleaned up their toys.

• We walked to school. Pirate Monkey saw a dead mouse on the footpath. Tinkerbell refused to walk over it, next to it, around it or anywhere near it. Pirate Monkey gleefully talked about the dead mouse as we crossed the road. Tinkerbell told him to stop talking. I just wanted to throw up.

• Got to school. I was still half asleep, the principal came over to say hello so I had to pretend I could talk coherently. I failed.

• Came back home. Played Candy Crush  Was extremely productive.

• Am now ready for a nap

• Am now counting down to bed time

Now I must go hang up the washing, fold washing, make the beds, clean the kitchen and clean up the lounge. Excuse me while I go curl up in a ball somewhere. I need coffee.

Anxiety: A timeline

This weekend I was very anxious. My older two children were flying as unaccompanied minors on a flight from Adelaide to Melbourne for the first time. Here is a timeline of my anxiety which started on Saturday and ended last night.

Saturday morning:
Highly anxious. I was needing to book the tickets for my children and I was working out finances and actually going to book the tickets all the while coming up with various scenarios including:

• Realising I do not have the money for the tickets
• Having the money for the tickets but not having any seats left on the plane
• having seats left but not taking unaccompanied minors
• Flight centre suddenly closed and I couldn't book the tickets, despite checking online and seeing that it was open all day

What actually happened was I had enough money, went in to flight centre and a very nice man called Jesse happily booked the tickets for me. You would think I would learn from that and be perfectly calm and relaxed right? wrong.

Saturday Afternoon:
Was relieved for quite a while. I had the tickets and emailed my ex with the details. I had some lunch and forgot about it for a while, then I started to think about it again. The following thoughts came into my head during the afternoon:

• My ex would have a horrific car accident and my children would be seriously injured or worse
• There would be horrible traffic and my ex would be late and miss the check in deadline
• My kids would be terrified and refuse to get on the plane
• My ex would not take them to the airport
• My partner and I would be late to the airport and not be able to pick the kids up
• I would not be able to find where I needed to pick the kids up from

My ex told me everything was sorted and he would drive the kids to the airport the following day.

Saturday night:
My partner and I tried to relax and I actually did until I went to sleep. Then I had horrible nightmares of running around Melbourne airport, which was completely empty besides myself, which just would never happen, unable to find my kids.

Sunday Morning:
I was extremely anxious for the following reasons:

• I was impatiently and anxiously calmly and patiently awaiting 3pm when it would be time to leave for the airport
• I was absolutely certain my ex had not out them on the plane
• I was certain my kids refused to get on the plane

My ex messaged me and told me when he got to the airport and after writing a blog post and spending a lot of time on social media it was time to go. On the car trip I was very very anxious. The following thoughts crossed my mind:

• My ex hadn't really gone to the airport. He was only saying it.
• My kids had not gotten on the plane despite my ex telling me they were on the plane
• The plane would crash
• We would crash and not get to the airport
• We would get hopelessly lost and spend the rest of our lives driving around lost despite my partner knowing Melbourne pretty well and having a GPS.
• My kids would be terrified and have massive anxiety attacks on the plane

Once we got to the airport:
I was the most anxious when we were actually at the airport. We checked the arrivals board and saw the plane was due to land twenty minutes early, we had ten minutes to get to the gate. The problem started when we needed to go through security. There was a long line and I was sure we would be there for a long time. We got through very quickly and got to the gate with about five minutes to spare. The staff at the gate told me the kids would be the last ones off. Once the plane arrived I was sure they were not on the plane as I waited for about ten minutes millions of hours for all the other passengers to get off the plane. Then, finally, I saw them and relief spread throughout my body. I signed the form stating I had picked them up and we headed home. The relief was amazing.

I really hate anxiety.

Reality TV - What the???

This morning I got to thinking, what is with 'reality' shows? I have watched a few, and was just struck by how unrealistic they actually are. It seems there is a reality show for everything these days - cooking, house renovations, people famous for no particular reason ( the Kardashians anyone?), people watching TV (which is actually quite entertaining - the comments are hysterical). Some are supposed to be quite light hearted, others attempt to be serious.
I was originally going to write a post about cooking shows and how they are more about the drama than actual cooking but something has greatly annoyed me lately. Two reality shows have enraged me and I ranted to my partner about it (which he called me adorable which I AM NOT i was angry but that's not the point) and if my partner reads this he is likely to call me adorable again.

  

I am talking about the two reality shows Married at first sight and Seven year switch. I refuse to watch these shows. I do not like what they stand for. These shows make light of marriage and relationships. Let's start with the first one Married at first sight. For those of you who have not heard about this show, two complete strangers meet for the first time at their wedding. They get married in front of their friends and family to a complete stranger and suddenly find themselves living with someone they do not know. A few things about this concern me:

1. These people do not know each other. What is to say that one of them is not a complete psychopath? How do they know these people are not some crazy serial killer? Just because they have a clear police check does not mean they are not. It just means they have not been caught.

2. These are basically arranged marriages. Now I realise that in some cultures arranged marriages are part of the culture but not in Australia. Everyone has the right to choose who to marry.

3. These people seemed more concerned about a wedding and being on TV. That os not what marriage is about.

There are many more points I could make if I could bring myself to actually watch the show and well this is a blog post so now onto the second show.

Seven year switch made me quite angry when I first heard about it. To me, this show is condoning cheating. What sort of message does that send to young people? This show is saying if you get bored, go and find someone else. If you have problems in a relationship, do not go on national TV and air it, talk to each other privately, go to couples counselling, do something privately. The whole of Australia does not need to see your problems. I can't see problems being sorted this way.

I will continue to boycott these shows. What have we come to that we consider these sorts of things to be entertainment? other people's pain is not entertainment and should never be treated as such.

Technology and I do not mix.

I do not like technology, or, rather technology does not like me. Technology annoys me. If the device I am using does not do what I want then I get quite irritated. I also suck at fixing any sort of problems, learning anything new and well, doing anything really.

This morning I had to take photos of some documents on my phone to send off for a course I am doing. That sounds simple right? It should be simple but this is me and I have an unfortunate habit talent for making even the most simple tasks quite complex. So I got my birth certificate to take a photo of it.

Taking a photo of an inanimate object should be incredibly simple right? And it was simple, if you know if you consider taking 100 million photos to get one that is not blurry is simple. I got agitated. I decided I cannot possibly do this course if I cannot do something as simple as take a photo.

I was also supposed to take a photo of two other documents. I didn't. My will had been broken from attempting to take a photo of the first document, so i made a coffee and played Candy Crush instead. I told myself that I would just have a coffee then continue with photographing the documents. That was at 9am. It is now midday. I may have been distracted by another piece of technology, my laptop.

The stupid windows on my stupid laptop decided it needed to update just as I was playing candy crush doing something incredibly important, so I had to then wait with as much patience as possible for windows to update, while drinking more coffee. I would also like to mention that after windows had updating it changed absolutely nothing on my laptop so I am unsure why I needed the update in the first place, I am convinced my laptop is out to annoy me.

So now, it is half way through the day and I still haven't photographed the other documents I need, or emailed them off and all I have done is play candy crush, drink coffee, read interesting blog posts and write this post. I should probably attempt to get something done. I really hate technology.

I will say YES

I have been reading Shonda Rhimes' book Year of Yes. It is amazing. It is funny, honest and a lot different then most books written by celebrities. It is not about how amazingly famous she is, or how much money she has. It is not about how amazing she is - and she is truly amazing - it is simply about Shonda facing her fears. She is human, she admits she has fears and flaws and she admits she is not perfect. I like that. She has made me feel a lot more normal. Especially the chapter I read last night.

In the chapter I read, she talks about being a mother. She talks about how she isn't any less of a mother because she doesn't bake things from scratch, or do crafty things with her kids. I love that. Every mother is different and no one has the right to judge. She talks about being a single working mother of three and how it is hard. She doesn't claim its easy, she doesn't claim she is superwoman. She is just honest. And I love that.

Shonda describes in her book how she made a promise to herself to say yes to everything that scared her for a year. She describes how it has changed her life and she is a lot happier.
This book has come into my life at exactly the right time. In the past 8 months I have seen amazing highs and devastating lows. These past 8 months have been the hardest of my life and it seems now this hard patch is coming to an end. I have made a promise to myself. I am going to be like Shonda. I am going to say yes to the things that scare me, that challenge me. While Shonda's challenges included giving a commencement speech at Dartmouth College and appearing on Jimmy Kimmel, my yes's will be a lot different. It will be to a much lower scale. Perhaps I will say yes to working and studying at the same time. Maybe it will be a new experience I am worried about doing. I don't know yet, but I will be spending the next year challenging myself and saying yes to things I normally wouldn't. It is worth a try. After all, I could change my life, just like Shonda.

I made a mistake....

I lay down in bed last night rather excited. I looked at the cover of a book I have recently bought, read the blurb and lovingly opened the cover. It is a book about Shonda Rhimes, frequently called the most powerful woman in hollywood because of her success with Grey's Anatomy, Scandal and How to get away with murder, she is one of my favourite women. This blog post is not about Shonda though, it is about the author of her biography.
I started reading the book, excited to learn all I could about the genius who created my favourite show. The first page was alright but I was getting more and more annoyed the more I read. The grammar in the book was atrocious. I got rather annoyed. I had to stop reading, and I hate stopping reading, I try not to, which accounts for the lack of sleep I have had since I was a child.

This post was originally going to condemn the author. I was annoyed and I wanted to publicly out him as a bad author. I was going to complain about him, but then this morning I stopped to think.
Why should I condemn him? What gives me the right to label him as a bad writer? I don't know how hard he worked on that book. I don't know how long it took him to write it. For all I know he spent many late nights, giving up time with his family to write that book so people like me can read about the person who created amazing shows, shows people love to watch.
It got me thinking. Not just about how unfair I was to this author but how sometimes everyone can be unfair to people, whether it be friends, family, celebrities or strangers on the street. I see it all the time, people assuming things, people do not agree with someone so they condemn them. It recently happened with my partner and myself. A friend of his did not agree with a decision he has made, so he decided that my partner must have been manipulated, because he would not make the decision himself, and that is okay. He doesn't have to make the same decisions as my partner but he also does not have the right to try and cause trouble either, same as I had no right to condemn this author.
The best thing about people is we are all unique. It is okay that we all do not want the same things. It is okay for someone to make their own choices. It is not okay for people to be condemned for making different choices, or for trying something such as writing a book.

It is time that we all let everyone be individuals, we need to stop criticizing people. We need to embrace people's individuality and support our friends and family to be the best that they can be.
I was mistaken for the things I said and thought about the author of that book. I was not right to judge him, It was not okay for me to label him as a bad author. He did the best he could. I am grateful that I thought about it before i wrote a judgemental post about someone I do not know. I am going to try and keep this in mind whenever I feel myself starting to judge someone.

The negativity of social media.

I have watched the comments section on many posts on Facebook over the past few weeks. I have been shocked. Very shocked. Everyone seems to be an expert when it comes to news items on social media. Everyone claims to know what happened and know intentions of strangers by reading one news article. This annoys me a great deal. I know it shouldn't, I should not care about what a bunch of strangers say about other strangers. I should not care that I have witnessed grown adults use petty name calling if someone disagrees with them. I should not care that people have threatened the lives of someone's family or dealt out rape threats or acts of violence. But I do care. I  care a great deal.

At a time where cyber bullying is rife, where young teenagers are taking their own life due to bullying, isn't it time for adults to stand up and say that enough is enough? How can we expect children and teenagers to stop the bullying and be kind to each other when they see adults bullying and belittling people on social media constantly? How can adults teach children respect for others and kindness and understanding when adults will not do the same?
Since when is it acceptable for people to gang up and bully the most vulnerable? When did it become okay to disrespect someone else's opinion?

I was reading a post about prostitution last night. It was an article about how prostitutes are commonly abused and there are limited places to turn. I made the mistake of reading the comments section. There were some very kind comments, comments I was grateful to read, comments that proved to me that human decency and compassion still exist, Then there were negative comments. The negative comments annoyed me greatly. What gives people the right to judge someone based on the job they have? Why should the sex industry be exempt from protection from abuse, both physical and mental?
It is time to step up and not accept this behaviour. It is time people learnt that they can have a difference of opinion without resorting to bullying.
I have made a promise to myself. I will no longer read comments on news items. Life is hard enough without adding extra negativity to it.

Social media can be a wonderful thing. We can keep in contact with friends and family that live interstate and overseas, we can recommend movies and restaurants and festivals. We can easily invite a large number of people to an event. We can share exciting news quickly with friends and family. I think it is time to go back to that, not using it as a platform for bullying and threats.

It's been a while.

It's been a while since I have written anything. I have just spent the last few hours transferring my old blog posts to this new blog. I don't know why. I needed a change. Change. It is a word that has been used a lot by me lately. I have entered a new relationship. My kids have all had birthdays, There has been Christmas and Easter, my birthday, new experiences and new friends.

Tinkerbell is now in year 3. She will be nine years old next month. I can barely believe it. She still loves reading. That hasn't changed. Pirate Monkey will be eight this year. He is in year 2 and He is going well. Mate is four and attends kindy. He is still totally insane and loveable. Bubba is not a bubba anymore. He has just turned three. He has discovered his favourite animal, lemurs. He is obsessed with them.

I no longer have anything to do with my family. I will not go into details about the reasons and I will not badmouth them on a public forum. I have changed a lot of my friends and cut people out of my life who did not have the best intentions. I now see the world in a very different way and a few of my beliefs have changed.

I went through quite a bad patch over the last few months. I will not get into it on this post. Perhaps another post, on another day, but not here.
Change can be good or bad. Change can just simply be different. Human beings change as they get older. It is part of life. Some people change for the better and some change for the worse. Sometimes we think people change when in reality we just see their true nature. I have learnt this lately and it is a very painful lesson to learn.