Squish’s school has just become part of this awesome program.
Over the holidays they have built a bike track around the school play area, and hopefully he’l learn to ride at school. Check out the video on the linked page, it looks like a really positive intervention for the kids.
And I have re-enrolled in uni. It’s going to cost me about $200 to sit each exam, but other than that I can continue to study from New Zealand, and still earn my degree in Australia.
Archimedes and Aubrey should have started preschool yesterday.
Not looking for sympathy or a shoulder to cry on. I just miss them, and I like to talk about them, and if everything was different, this page would be plastered with pictures of two little boys with mini backpacks and new lunch boxes.
Instead, yesterday Squish and I went to the osteopath (I have injured my sacroiliac joint), then went to Mahadeo, the huge Indian spice shop here in Auckland.
And tonight were making dal tadka.
http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/2015/01/14/dal-fry-dal-tadka/
Here is a picture of my kitten with a Hello Kitty face. To distract from the awful crap I am about to talk about.
A lovely friend just asked me to sign a petition asking for bail laws to be toughened so people like Man Haron Monis won’t be able to put innocent lives at risk in future.
I chose not to sign, because I believe that we must choose between a justice system that is there purely to punish wrongdoers, and a justice system that rehabilitates. If we believe in a rehabilitation model, then we must allow bail. And that will always carry a risk that someone will reoffend. Or, as in this case, take his vendetta against “the system” out on innocents.
Far better, would be a justice system, and a family court system that treats violence against women as a real crime. If his history of sexual assault had been taken seriously in the first place, is it possible that incarceration could have prevented these other crimes that he has been convicted of, and therefore avoided this siege in the first place (ostensibly in protest at he “wrongful conviction” for said crimes).
How is it that he faced more legal trouble over sending offensive letters than for the sexual assault of multiple women while in the role of a mentor and spiritual advisor?
Frankly, the last two days have really rattled me, but I think we are asking ourselves the wrong questions about why this happened. Let’s throw more money at refugee support services, mental health initiatives, and change the way we think about violence towards women.
And now, I am going to spend some time with a gin bottle, and search the internet for cute bunny pictures.
This image sums it up pretty well.
More pictures when Im not so tired!
Mark and Inigo playing minecraft as Gandalf and Bilbo
Darling Squishy,
Today, you are SEVEN! I feel so lucky to have had you around for seven whole years. You have always been beautiful, and funny, and sweet, but now you are also becoming compassionate, and creative and profound. Every day with you is an adventure, you keep me on my toes mentally, and every day I have to work harder to keep up with your left of field ideas and lateral problem solving.
You are everything a parent could want of a child, and I am so blessed to be part of growing you into the wonderful adult you are going to become. As I have watched you grow over the years, I have often thought about the saying that a child of seven is pretty much a small version of the adult they are going to become. And Ive wondered about who you will be at seven, and if my efforts to support and guide you will have been enough.
And today, I can say with confidence that you are perfect. If you grown into a man that is as thoughtful and caring and creative as the boy that you are now, I will be thrilled. Thrilled to know you and love you, knowing that you have survived and thrived under my imperfect parenting.
And lucky for each and every day that I have you in my life.
Disco Knitter 