Author: Scottish Mum

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Who’s Calling?

I felt a rant coming on tonight, and I just had to share it.    I am sure you all really  really want to know all about it.   It’s not often that I get as annoyed with others outside my family (other than education and people who make fun of my kids – but that’s another story)

So, what has got me into a frenzy of absolute rant hood.  Well, I think you might have guessed by the use of the picture of the telephone in this post.  

Yes, the telephone is my first love, and also my first hate.   From an early age, the telephone played an important part in my life.  I remember my grandmothers big, black old fashioned rental phone from BT.   And yes, before someone asks, almost everyone rented their equipment from BT in those days.  I even remember the telephone number we had for it, and that’s not bad, considering it was nearly 40 years ago.

From then, onto teenage pain years, and the main telephone in the hall, which was corded of course.  Everyone else who was anywhere else in the house could overhear your conversations.  Cue early romances and  calls with phone mouthpiece cupped in your hand, as you whispered as quietly as you could to talk.  That’s got nothing on the daily dash from upstairs to get to the one phone in the house downstairs when it rang.  Those were the days.  The days when the phone rang when it was from someone who wanted to speak to someone for any reason that didn’t involve selling you something.

Fast forward, through the mobile phone craze, and the budding cold sales caller.  I can’t remember exactly when I received my first one, but I think I was about 18, and it was from a kitchen company in the local area.    It was quite amusing at first, but quickly became the bane of my telephone life.  With only one phone in the house, and having reached serious dating age, it was a time where no call could go unanswered as there was no answer machine to record calls.    Being upstairs when the phone rang meant a breakneck speed jump down four stairs at a time, just to reach it before it rang off. 

“Good afternoon madame, we are in your area……..”

What bit about stop calling on the last 10 phone calls did they not understand.  It just got worse, and worse, and worse.  I managed to set telephone preference a couple of times, and that did work for a while, but you seen to need to repeat that often enough.  I gave up having name and address in the phone book to try and stop the flow of double glazing, kitchen, bathroom, conservatory, or driveway salespeople.

Oh but it doesn’t stop  there does it??  I’ve had some fun with some of the callers, and turned the tables on them.  There is nothing like asking them if they want to buy something to make them hang up.    Now I know they are only trying to make a living, so I try not to be rude to them, unless they are rude to me first. 

I do have to say though, that the most recent calls about the “government scheme to write off all your debts” annoys me more than all the rest have ever done.  THEY JUST NEVER GIVE UP.   

They call several times a day.  They usually call from International, and they always seem to know more about us than they should.    When I see international on the line, I now just wait for the answer machine to pick up.   It’s usually a morning and tea time call that arrives.  I’ve asked about, ohh, say 100 times for them to stop calling me, and they just keep on a calling.

If anyone has any tips on how to get them to stop calling, I am all ears…….

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A Camera Dilemma – Canon v Nikon – A Shot in the Dark

I have had a really hard choice this week.  I have spent more hours than I care to remember looking at Cameras.  I have dragged my kids from pillar to post to weigh them up and potter about with them, whenever I could.  

I had decided on this one – the Nikon D90, and went to order it. 

Unfortunately I did something wrong somehow, and it ends up that it is out of stock at the moment, and will be back in stock over the next few weeks.    I didn’t want to wait for a camera – as I have serious camera envy at the moment – of ANYONE who has a nice DSLR.


I went and retrawled the shops, and came across this – The Canon EOS 550D.  I loved the video capabilities of it, and was almost at the point of purchase, when………the salesman graciously decides to tell me that there is a new camera coming out this week.

The Canon EOS 600D with the swivel screen.

At this point, I am tempted to hang up my camera seeking self for a week or two and then come back to it.  I now have no idea what to choose.

It looks like poeple end up being loyal to the first brand of camera they buy, as the lenses are so expensive.   It’s a minefield.   Who knew that buying a camera would be so complex.   I am so confused by them all, that I think I am just going to pick the cheapest one out of all of them and live with it.

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Housework Hatred

  Image: koratmember / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Now I have to be honest with this post.  I started thinking about it today, as it is the never ending cycle of domestic purgatory that exists in my world.   Dirty dishes, laundry, hoovering, floor washing, bedding to be stripped and remade, dusting, animal walking, and lots, lots more.  

And none of that includes the never ending cycle of kids bedrooms, perma toys all over the place, homework, night routines, la la la la la

I really really detest housework (WITH A PASSION).   Did you get that, or do I have to repeat it. 

I REALLY REALLY DETEST HOUSEWORK (WITH A HUMUNGOUS GINORMOUS, PASSION)

With that in mind, I decided to try and work out which of those chores are my most dreaded.    What brought on this post of major grumpiness, I hear you wonder.  Well, if you really must know, the sun is shining.  It’s a nice afternoon, and with the sun streaming in through the windows, it should put me into a good mood – right. 

Did I tell you that my house has 27 windows, 28 if you include the garage.    I stopped smiling at the sun coming out a long time ago.  Why on earth we bought a house with so much wall space as windows is anyone’s guess.   Well, it did look pretty, on a dull winters day when we first bought it.    I had no idea, that I would be letting  myself in for window torture.

I don’t think this picture gives you the best indication of what happens when the sun shines on all these horrendous pieces of clear glass.  At best it looks manky, at worst, it looks positively slovenly.  Oh, yes, and we do have three rooms that have glass panels as well.  It just never ends. 

If anyone has a tried and tested method of keeping windows streak and grime free, I am all ears.  I’ve heard of stuff you can put on the windows, but I don’t know what it is, or how good it is. 

I’d love to know what everyone else’s pet hates housework wise are.  Leave a comment, or twitter on @scottish_mum

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Fill In The Blanks !!!!! Meme

I have been tagged by @jontybabe AND @helloitsgemma on twitter.    They are getting me back for tagging them last week (only kidding).

Fill in the blanks is as it sounds.  A list of words that I have to fill in the blanks of.

I am… 
Trying to be the best mum that I can be.  I know I am not perfect.  I know my kids actually wish me out of the way at times, and I know that sometimes I get things wrong.   It doesn’t stop me trying though, and maybe, one day, my kids will understand that there are rules for their own good.

The bravest thing I’ve ever done…
I’m not very brave.  I will challenge things that I don’t think are right, but I am not a gung ho type of person, not any more.  The kids took care of that.    In fact, bringing 3 children into my life was probably my bravest feat.

I feel prettiest…
Now this is predictable and corny for me.  Easy – I feel prettiest when  I am thin, and on the day I get my hair coloured.   At the moment, the first is out of the equation, but the second was done last week, so I’m still feeling slightly confident.

Something that keeps me awake at night…
Education struggles for one of my children and my childrens special needs sometimes does keep me awake for hours at a time.

My favourite meal is…
I don’t particularly have a favourite meal.  I have a love/hate relationship with food, but if pushed, it would swing from (proper) stovies with baked beans, milk and oatcakes, to chicken risotto.

The way to my heart is…
Through my children.  Treat them well, and my heart goes out to you.

I would like to be…
A fly on the wall in the education and council departments as they make swathing cuts to childrens services.

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Beautiful Blogs Collection

Beautiful Blogs – I have a page on my blog that is compiling a list of goreous blogs for me, and for others to share.  There is the option to share yours, just by filling in the form to add your link.  You can choose to add the code to a post on your blog, and then you will have the same list.

If you want to be added, but are struggling to get it to work, send me your email and blog address to scottishmum@gmail.com, or DM me it on twitter at @scottish_mum.

You have to follow me on google connect for me to keep the link to you in my collection.   Apart from that, I will google connect all those who sign up for the collection.  Take note, any blogs that sign up, and who are not relevant to my blog, or contain inappropriate material, I will be removing from the list.  If you are in doubt, send me an email to ask.

Go to my beautiful blog collection page which will remain permanently on the blog.  click here

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This is me.

Sticky Fingers has challenged us to add a picture that our children have drawn of us.   She is compiling them in a linky gallery.

In Tara’s words:
It’s so so easy.
Ask your child – their age doesn’t matter – to draw a picture of you.
Post it on your blog.
Pass it on to your friends/enemies if you want to.
(If you don’t have a fancy pants scanner, take a photo of it and post it that way!)

Then when you’ve done, go to Taras Post here and add yours to the Linky so we can all laugh. 

    THIS IS ME, by middlie

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5 Things That Make You Feel Good.

With all the juggling that we do on a daily basis, it seems to me to be a good thing to celebrate our womanhood, and what we like to do as women.   Not as employees, girlfriends, wives, mothers, daughters, or friends.   As I have been focussing on the negative aspects of my body and life recently, I wanted to move to the things about me that make me feel good.

I have seen lots of posts about what we struggle with, or things that we like to do, and I’d like to find out a bit more information about all of you. 

This is my way of doing it.     I am looking forward to visiting some of you on the blog hop.

What you cannot choose.  The Rules are Simple
We all know that blogging / facebook, & or twitter  is in our arena of what we like to do, so I am going to rule them out as one of the 5 that you can post about.  They really are not very girly.    Likewise, phones, computers, ipads are all out of the running.

 I am challenging myself to this, as I am really not a girly girly type of person, and I want to find that within myself.   It’s not all about power suits, filofaxes, ipads and designer phones.

If you want to pass this along, pick bloggers that you want to find out more about, and challenge them to write up their 5 secret passions that make them feel good.  The idea is to lift our spirits this week.  The fact that there is a linky added, just makes it all the more worthwhile in doing.

Here goes.

1 – I actually, really love my hair.  I pretend that I don’t, as its thick, tends to frizz with curl when it is humid, and can be difficult to tame.   What it can do, well, almost anything really if I really set my mind to it.  I can wave it, curl it, frizz it, or straighten it.  I choose to straighten mine nowadays as I like it that way, but in the 80’s, I used to have it like a poodle perm.  It takes colour beautifully (when I get time to go to the hairdressers), and I do tend to change my hair colour by the year.  Last year I was brunette, this year I am sort of blondish.

2 – I have no bunions, corns or callouses on my feet.  Yay me.  I hated my mother when I was growing up as she made me wear sensible shoes until I was old enough to buy shoes for myself.   She used to wear gym shoes as she couldn’t afford to buy both me and her shoes, but I didn’t know that as a child.  I so love her now for it, especially as I have internal foot problems with nerve damage, and I am grateful that the outside of my feet were never damaged by badly fitting shoes. 

3 – I love my pink epilator.  I used to spend a fortune on waxing, then I spied an epilator in Costco a couple of years ago.  It cost me £40, but has saved me hundreds of pounds on waxing.

4 – Shoes.  I have always had a shoes passion.  Unfortunately I can’t wear  most of the lovely things that are out there these days, so my passion has shifted to fitflops.   I can handle that.    It nearly broke my heart to sell the lovely Prada boots I had in my cupboard and the pair of Manolos that I had treasured, but when a couple of pairs of new fitflop boots arrived, I quickly got over my angst. 

5 –  I love make up and smellies.  You probably wouldn’t think so as I don’t go overboard with mine these days, but I do.  So many things are now free of the nasty stuff, that they are nice to try out.   I love scented oils, candles, perfumes, mascaras.   You can’t ever have too much make up choice, and a nice scented candle always makes me smile. 

I am tagging some people from twitter today, but anyone can join in, and add an old post that covers the same topic.  Lets find out a little more about each other.

 This will initially go to:

@crystaljigsaw @nettiewriter @kateab @superamazingmum @melaina25 @tara_cain @flutterbyrosa @softthistle @mummylion
@theboyandme @mrs_moog @jontybabe @jencull @mid30slife

Add your link to a new or existing post.   Grab the code, enter it into the html of your own post to see the same list as everyone else. 

get the InLinkz code


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Appetite for Disaster – My Fight with Flab

Ok, here we go.   For me, weight is an issue.  

I am not one of those people you read about in papers or magazines who say that they are happy in their skin and that they are comfortable overweight.

At the moment, I have three stones to lose to feel comfortable and get into the lovely clothes in my wardrobe that have been squirreled away for the last four years. 

I have been up and down, I lost two stones last year in January and February, only to put one stone back on again over the year.    This time, I want to lose the three stone. 

I started on January 1st, but there have been many more family issues this year than last year, and I am a comfort eater.  When I am stressed, I eat, then feel guilty, then I eat some more.

I have bad feet, so that rules out jogging, or cycling when they are bad.  I also have a child at home who is not able to be put into a creche etc, so I can’t do my exercise of choice this year, which is swimming. 

What I do have, is all of you.  @livingwithkids on twitter started a weight loss journey with a group of women who are all wanting to lose weight, and although I have not answered this week (sorry Liz, if you end up reading this), I have had an awful week.  I am hoping to do better next week.

The one thing that I really would like in my quest to regain my old body, and that is an appetite retrain facility.  If one of those was available, I can imagine that the person who made it up would be a millionaire overnight.

I have an awful appetite.  It’s not hunger.  Unlike some people, I do know what hunger is as I used to starve in my 20’s.  Not that you would know it now.  I regularly used to go for 2 – 3 weeks on end eating nothing, and I mean nothing.   Perhaps the odd cup of coffee with milk in it, and a cup a soup or two.  And I worked 12 hour shifts when I was at University.   Not once did I ever pass out, or feel faint.

This appetite is the overriding feeling of the fact that you must put that thing into your mouth, chew, and then swallow it, despite all that your head is telling you.  I used to starve without any thought of hunger or appetite.  Even now, I rarely feel hunger, although I recognise when I am peckish.    I don’t need it, I certainly don’t want it, but yet I still pop it into my mouth.  I also find it difficult to look back on the girl who starved for years, and understand how I did it.

I often now, find myself pacing the floor to stop myself from eating.  The craving is so strong, that it is totally unreasonable.  I suspect it is a replacement for what I really need.  The only problem is, that I have not figured out what it is that I actually need.  My desire is to be thin, fit and healthy.  That’s when I feel good, yet I am the one that is doing so much to ensure that it doesn’t happen.

I am putting this out there, as a reminder to myself, that this is the year that I want to crack it properly.  I am resisting the urge to do a starvation session, and I am trying to do this sensibly.  It is taking longer to come off, and I am slipping back and forth with sticking to the diet.

I may need a kick up the derriere a few times this year to get back on the wagon, and the magical button to banish appetite is just not going to happen for me.   This years quest, is simply to be able to ignore it rumbling away in the background.

Maybe I should post a picture of me where I want to be, and have that looking at me every time I log in.  Hmm, that might just make me raid the biscuit tin……

Wish me luck.

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Education Cuts & Protecting the Vulnerable – Budget 2011/2012 – Aberdeen

 

10th November was the day that the council in Aberdeen voted once again on the budget  cuts.

The statement is here for anyone local to Aberdeen http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/council_tax_benefits/council_tax_home.asp

As with the other statements which will be being released up and down the country, they make for quite light reading, touching on issues, and promising to deliver on what looks like good practice.

Some of the main priorities in Aberdeen are :

  • providing services for the most vulnerable people;
  • ensuring all schoolchildren reach their potential;

Initially, the council were planning to remove 50% of the PSA (Personal Support Assistants)  in classrooms across the city, in both primary and secondary provision, and that is in an area where inclusion has been heavily carried out with PSA support.  This was after already losing 300 at the last round of cuts.

There are children being excluded for not being able to cope now.   How much is that going to increase when more support is taken away, is anybody’s guess.  Excluding is easy where the staff cannot, and will not take responsibility for the issues that arise from placing children inappropriately.

Our children in mainstream schools now share classes with the ASN children who would, probably in our generation have attended the stand alone special schools, or childrens institutes in the area.  We have a high PSA ratio in our schools, as they are now there supporting the children who need help.  I have heard many excuses surrounding why they should be cut, from people outraged that they are pinning up things to make classes look pretty, to sitting “babysitting” children with bad behaviour.

Both of these arguments are irrational.  Yes, teachers could pin up the sticker charts, the projects, the work that the children are doing, but then we are eating into teaching time.  What do you really want??    And as for the “babysitting……..    From my perspective, in a school where there are children not coping, there will be bad behaviour.

The other options for those children struggling without support are limited to quietly not receiving much of an education, and exclusion.  With the right support, they are living a full life, and integrating with the school.  I thought that was the whole point!!!!!!!   Maybe I misunderstood the point of integration / exclusion all these years.   Any arguments, or issues people have with PSA’s should be taken up with the individual headteachers who allocated them, and they should not be not used to denigrate PSA’s overall.

One of the options tabled was to cut music in schools and another was to amalgamate two secondary schools, which was sensible in terms of the school roll.   Both of these options raised high profile campaigns, that parents AND the children themselves fought.   The councillors very quickly decided that these options were going to cause them some problems, and might likely affect their future election prospects.  Both issues were taken off the table.

Taking those issues off the table, meant that for education, there needed to be cuts from somewhere.   The other potential eduction cuts that run deep in Aberdeen included

  • Increasing special school class size from 1:7 to 1:10  (this means losing approx 27 ASN specialist teachers)
  • Cutting PSA’s between 50 – 100%  in mainstream  (we are talking possibly 300 more support staff)
  • Not fulling educational psychologist positions (so reduced access to support for additional support needs)

Now, I am not being unreasonable to say, that doing all of this up front, without the training of the staff who are left to cope, is madness.  All I can see are the unsupported children struggling, and with no prospect of assistance.  These children then add to the social care system, but sorry, that is being cut as well.

And in the process, hundreds of thousands of people up and down the country are being made redundant in the name of paying back the debt our banks got us into).

Now who, in the cutting process, is going to be left to pay the debs off?

The demand on benefits is increasing with the redundancies.  With less money to spend, more people are having to give up their small businesses – oh wait, that means yet more on benefits again.

Now forgive me for being pessimistic, but the people making these decisions don’t live in the real world.  They live in their comfortable, well paid little bubbles, with their comfortable and well paid little friends, living their perfect little lives, with nannies, cooks, cleaners and bottle washers on tap.

Those of us in the general public can’t fight the upper classes, but we have  to live with their bad choices.  I have nothing but respect for the parents in the constituencies who decided to boycott school for a day in protest at the education cuts.    All power to them.