July 2010

Fido can have a flutter!

by vix 20 July 2010

Fantastic news!

Just when I was wondering what on earth I could do with the poker playing pooch, a premier online gaming crowd, (according to the press release) have announced the top eight pet friendly casinos in the US.

Thank God! Our holiday plans are no longer in the craps.

As the media release states gleefully:

“We want to provide our members with the most complete gaming experience, and for many, that means having their pets around..”

Yeah that’d be what hard-core gamblers define as a ‘complete gaming experience’! Read more... (802 words, 1 image, estimated 3:12 mins reading time)

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The White Rabbit

by vix 19 July 2010

I fear running out of time.

Of missing a deadline I didn’t even know I had. Of waking up one morning and finding that the opportunity has passed.

Time is a fickle friend.

Oh she courts you. She’s gentle and encouraging. She tells you that she embodies patience.

There will always be time.

She says.

Time to sleep in the sun, and swim in the sea. Time to spend with family. Time for lovers. Time for friends.

‘There’ll be time later to walk the dog.’

It passes by. Read more... (575 words, 1 image, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)

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Where Weetbix Comes To Die

by vix 17 July 2010

We are a family of cereal killers.

Or should I say, they are. I’m not. I’m the kind of girl who would rather eat a nice croissant or a salmon bagel for breakfast. If I wanted to eat cardboard I wouldn’t coat it in honey, a variety of nuts and a myriad of exotic fruits. I’d just eat the box.

I’ve had some more unusual breakfasts in my life. Champagne breakfasts (no food was involved. Though we did have our daily fruit – fermented fruit), curry and roti, nasi goreng, even plum pudding! (What? Don’t judge it was Christmas!!) Read more... (792 words, 1 image, estimated 3:10 mins reading time)

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His n Hers

by vix 17 July 2010

In our household we have limited funds, income and time. So we need to carefully address how we are going to continue forward, by considering our priorities.

I’ve discovered there are some considerable differences between his view, and mine. I tend to emote most things, and over -dramatise the rest. He tends to be focused on what he needs to achieve, and operates on a basis that his love for me is a given. A certain plumbline.

I can’t be certain this is an accurate representation of his perspective and the voices in his head, but it is a (shamefully) accurate view of how I blow things up out of all proportion! Read more... (869 words, estimated 3:29 mins reading time)

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A very modern mother

by vix 16 July 2010

‘Can you see me?’

I move the webcam into view, and a hazy, fuzzy image comes alive on my laptop. Gosh is that what I look like?

When the signal slows it staggers and stalls, and then clears into view. It’s warm outside in Hampshire in June, but I can see that Dark Princess has a purple sweatshirt on. She suits purple. She’s keeping warm in the New Zealand winter.

‘I can see you Mum’ And she giggles self-consciously.

‘So how’s things? How are you? What have you been doing? What’s the weather like?’ Read more... (782 words, 1 image, estimated 3:08 mins reading time)

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Private School Reject!

by vix 15 July 2010

I’d finished Latin early, and had grabbed my lunch from the old school bag in the corridor and settled on the grass.

No one else was at lunch yet. My treat for knowing my cases.

Belli, Bello, Bellum….

Baking hot the sun poured out like syrup from the sky. Treacled heat. Ozzing down the back of my black watch tartan uniform. I sneakily pulled down my knee length socks, and raised the hem of my skirt so I could change colour. I lay back in the sun, closed my eyes and dreamt about the weekend. When I would put on my bikini, lie by the pool and baste myself with coconut butter. Read more... (753 words, 2 images, estimated 3:01 mins reading time)

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Mind Your Business Language

by vix 14 July 2010

Years ago when I first started out as a marketing consultant I had a client who was a bit of a nob.

He was in fact the very first (and last) client I ever fired. The beginning of the end all came when he asked me to write some copy explaining some highly complex technical principles. I did so, but I made a fatal consultancy error. I wrote them up in such a way that a reader could easily understand them. I figured that was the epitome of good print communications – so someone could read it. Read more... (1172 words, 1 image, estimated 4:41 mins reading time)

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Perspective

by vix 13 July 2010

It’s like magic. It comes and goes, ebbs and flows. It helps to colour in between the lines of your sometimes stark experience. The kind of unforgiving bony experience that digs into your stomach and winds you, leaving you gasping for breath. Starved, skeletal stark experience. Not an ounce of life affirming fleshy joy.

And then all of a sudden, there’s magical illumination. That gossamer mantle of comprehension.

Perspective.

The gift of seeing events in both spiritual and pragmatic context. Without it we are haunted by long shadows and distorted figures of mythical giants. We are controlled by fear. Manipulated by regrets. Weighed down and shackled by remorse. Read more... (708 words, estimated 2:50 mins reading time)

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Five go to Summerset!

by vix 13 July 2010

Of course it’s karma that your family camping trip should come just after a stonking marital!

There’s nothing more healing than a long car trip and two nights in a tent sharing an airbed to really smooth over the rough patches!

Driving through south Hampshire, our car was full to the brim.

The Labrador unhappily squeezed in between the biggest tent in the world, various bags of shopping and camping LEDs, dog bowls and kids. In fact I think there was even a dishwasher squeezed in the back there.

Dark Princess was devouring the Coke. Read more... (1191 words, 5 images, estimated 4:46 mins reading time)

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Hobbits in Hampshire

by vix 12 July 2010

Miss Ten came home from school, flustered and red-faced.

She tugged at the hemline of her school dress, but it did not grow magically to cover her thighs.

One more week. The school dress needs to last one more week before the end of term. I absolutely refuse to buy another lot of uniform until after the summer holidays.

She sidled up to me at the computer.

‘How was school?’

‘Ok.’

Welling tears cried out - ‘liar liar pants on fire!’

‘What happened honey?’

‘Some of the boys at school are bullying me.’ Read more... (392 words, 1 image, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

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