Strictly Bullying is Policy a Prevention

On April 29, 2010, in Strictly Bullying, by admin
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watcher
Creative Commons License photo credit: woodleywonderworks

I was saddened to read this report today about the death of a young girl, bullied to death, in that she took her own life after the school did not act against the bullies. It made me think though about duty of care, bullying, parental intervention and a whole plethora of associated issues.

Bullying may be a contributing factor to someone’s suicide, but there are also those of us who were bullied to within an inch of our lives and have lived to tell the tale, so what makes the difference?

The school is of course correct in formulating a zero tolerance policy, but again it’s after the horse has bolted, and won’t prevent other people from taking their own lives from peer pressure, or the pressures of daily life.

Some people, without being derogatory, are more sensitive than others, have more needs and react differently to what would be perceived as normal, which is, to man up and deal with it.  Some people just can’t do that, for whatever reason.

So through this policy, I see a crack of light, that maybe policy is changing to accommodate for those that cannot defend themselves, however we cannot lose sight of the fact that there were many more factors that contributed to this


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Strictly Suicide Prevention – The Number One Key

On April 28, 2010, in Strictly Suicide, by admin
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Perfect Makeshift Necklace.
Creative Commons License photo credit: Cameron Cassa

After a suicide you will hear phrases like “I never saw it coming”, “there were no clues”, “I didn’t know they were depressed”, “ouf of the blue”. So what is the key to seeing it coming, finding the clues and knowing what depression is? Hindsight.

What do I mean by hindsight? Hindsight is usually the knowledge and wisdom you get by looking behind you at the events leading up to the conclusion, in this case a suicide. So how can we use hindsight, as a tool?

Study your loved ones. If something seems out of character, unusual, they become quiet and reserved suddenly, or you notice it more and more, ask yourself what is going on now – don’t wait until after. This does not mean to turn into a paranoid nervous wreck, but it means to be aware.

Why do we ignore these changes in character? There are many reasons but I’ll outline the first few that I know.

1. We’re scared

We don’t like change.  We don’t like to face things that are hard.  We don’t want terrible things to happen to us or to our (more…)

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Strictly the Raw Prawn

On April 27, 2010, in Strictly Editorial, by admin
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Face to Face
Creative Commons License photo credit: Grantsviews

When we had kids, we came to an arrangement.  I would do all the poo and vomit and he would do the teeth and nails, because I’m totally squeamish about teeth and nails.  I know, I don’t understand it either, but there you are.

So now I’m on my own, I get the full joy of pulling out those wobbly bleeding teeth of my now ten year old, who thankfully doesn’t have many of them left, but I’ve dealt with the last five years worth of them.  Also the cutting of the toe nails which I can never do right and almost always ends in tears, both of ours.  The ten year old for nearly losing his toes, and me for causing him so much pain and anguish and for being the one who has to do it even though we had a deal.

Last night I made myself some prawns.  I saw a really quick nice recipe on Everyday Italian and decided to try it.  I totally forgot about the preparation that goes into prawns when I bought six green prawns from the fishmonger.   When I unwrapped the package I was face to face, literally, with six green bug eyed prawns that I would now have to de-head, de-vein and then cook.  OMG another deal breaker I had forgotten all about.  Whenever we had prawns together, he would always de-head and de-vein them and I would cook them.  No wonder I haven’t made them myself for so long.  Funny the things you forget I guess.

Anyway I so didn’t want to eat the bloody prawns after I succesfully de-headed them and cleaned their tracts.  I also washed them for good measure, because I don’t know if you’ve ever eaten a bad prawn, but I have, and I choose death over eating another one.  So I am super careful and very suspect about every single prawn.

I ate five of the six once I’d grilled them and sauced them with pesto and lemon.  They were delicious I guess but they

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Strictly Maintenance

On April 24, 2010, in Strictly Handy Hardware, by admin
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Schraubenzieher
Creative Commons License photo credit: Mario Spann

Another unexpected bonus of being on your own, is household maintenance.  I have been fortunate in this regard in that my late husband taught me well so I can turn my hand at almost anything.

This weekend I will be fixing the decking boards, getting on the roof to clean the gutters and trim an overhanging tree then using the guerney to clean off the deck and the back patio.  At some point I need to oil the outside furniture but I’m tinkering with the idea of actually painting one set a gloss cream.  My daughters say no, that means I will probably do it.

However there are a few things that I can’t do.  My fridge/freezer has been broken since just before xmas and I’ve been


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Strictly Starving

On April 17, 2010, in Strictly Editorial, by admin
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This link was in my twitter stream What the World eats – a photo essay by Time (love Time btw) and I found it fascinating for a lot of reasons.

The amount of packaged foods that are being consumed globally is quite staggering and frightening to me.  The amount of fresh foods in the weekly groceries can almost be equated to the national obesity statistics.

Interestingly, our weekly grocery bills are pretty similar for families, although in some countries the dollar definitely stretches further.

I’m still interested in childhood obesity and will again publish a series of articles on it, and having taken a snapshot look at the diets of some of the westernised countries, it’s easy to see why this problem is not going to go away.

With both parents working just to maintain a roof over the family’s head (so to speak) it’s easy to see why packaged food is so attractive.  Given my own circumstances (widow with three kids working full time) I”m also tempted to just grab some frozen crumbed unrecognizables to throw into the oven at the end of a hard day.  The only thing stopping me from doing so at the moment is that the freezer is broken!

It’s hard, no matter how many cooking shows you watch about how quick and easy it is to whip up a delicious nutritious meal for the family, to come home after a day’s work, decide what to eat, and then have the kids say they don’t want it anyway!

My compromise solution has been to have reasonably nutritious snacks available and to cut down on buying packaged food (quite easy on a single wage really because you can’t afford them anyway).

There is no easy solution to childhood obesity, but having fresh foods available has to be a start.

It’s strictly what I think anyway.

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Strictly Starting Over

On April 16, 2010, in Strictly Editorial, by admin
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After many months of toiling with databases, seo’ing etc. I have deleted the old database and am starting fresh, with all the knowledge in tact from my past lessons. There are new things to blog about, new things to learn about, so strictly anything is still possible here.

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