Mud & Mischief

Now I don’t watch tv, but I’ve heard all kinds of awful things about a certain woman who’s preaching very very bad baby management practices on national tv. So, if you saw the ‘Bringing Up Baby’ program and was appalled at the suggestions of this self-styled baby guru who advocates “baby care” that goes against the advice of FSID, amongst others, there are two ways you can protest.

First is probably not the most effective way, but every signature counts: Government petition

The second is a little more direct. You can complain direct to OFCOM, which deals with programmes and their content and has a lot more weight behind it than a petition. I’m stealing this from Heather’s post on slingmeet and she also posted it on a yahoo list, so, apologies Heather, but I’m copying it as you put it so succinctly!

‘From the OFCOM website:

“The involvement of people under eighteen in programmes

1.26 Due care must be taken over the physical and emotional welfare and the dignity of people under eighteen who take part or are otherwise involved in programmes. This is irrespective of any consent given by the participant or by a parent, guardian or other person over the age of eighteen in loco parentis.

1.27 People under eighteen must not be caused unnecessary distress or anxiety by their involvement in programmes or by the broadcast of those programmes.”

So we have a case. To complain, go to:

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain/

Start by selecting ‘Programmes on TV/Radio’ in the righthand column. Then follow the steps as prompted by the website. It’s very easy and takes about 10 minutes. The programme is Bringing Up Baby, Channel 4, Tuesday the 25th at 9 pm. This is what I [Heather] wrote under ‘Description’ of my complaint:

“Baby ‘expert’ Claire Verity instructed parents to neglect, abuse, and place newborn infants at risk of short and long-term physical and emotional harm. Her instructions to leave babies unattended for long periods, despite being in clear distress, goes against current scientific knowledge of child development, and against the current recommendations of the Foundation for
the Study of Infant Death (cot death). The children taking part in the programme were therefore harmed during its filming. This clearly goes against OFCOM guidelines 1.26 and 1.27 for the protection of people under 18 in programmes.”

It’s not great but you’re welcome to use it.’

Spread it around, blog it, mail it, spam it - this woman knocks the contented little baby book stuff into a cocked hat.

Seeing as Nano is almost upon us, I thought this was a topical link.

86,800 words

The most popular words in the English language, in order.

Be careful - I got lost for hours on there.

I last checked on Thursday, 19th. Today is Sunday 23rd. That’s four days - and in those four days, they’ve signed up 2594 people!! There’s only 5568 in front of me.

That means they’ve gone from 163 folks a day, to over 640. Technically, I could get my invite in 10 days time. And no, I’m not completely obsessed with the idea either.

Honest.

Shall post those photos I was going to last Sunday. Ok, so that didn’t make a huge amount of grammatical sense, but you get the general gist. It is Saturday morning, after all.

Last Sunday we went to the Festival of the Plough at Epworth. It’s a little, one day agricultural show that happens each year on the pimple that is the Isle of Axholme which sits at the very top of Lincolnshire. And it’s all about ploughing. They have a horse ploughing area, steam engines, ancient tracked tractors doing their stuff, belt driven threshing machines, model steam engines, a huge Victorian merry-go-round that’s also steam driven, a poultry shed (have to get some Buff Sussex!) some craft tents, exhibitions of old tobacco tins and matchstick models and ceramic hot water bottles - you get the idea. And the girls love it. As do I, to be honest.

We also took a picnic and ate it in the back of the truck. At £2 for a paltry tray of chips and £3.50 for a beefburger, we learned our lesson the first year. RJ enjoyed his first Disco picnic. Note - he’s actually sat up! He’s been crawling for 6 weeks or so, but only decided that sitting was a viable option in the last week. Mainly as he’s figured out how to fling himself sideways from a sitting position and crawl, without falling over backwards and clonking himself on the head.

And one of the girls too. I don’t know how folks can say they all look alike.

Thought I’d post a quick picture of my sling stash, for folks interested in such things. Can’t remember who I promised a picture, but here it is anyway. From top to bottom, red Calin Bleu, pink Sybela, Malachite Didymos, Freehand Celtic Flowery, Tiramisu girasol shortie, Iris Didymos, olive Calin Bleu. They’re all wraps apart from the Freehand which is a mai tei type sling. Iris and the red Calin Bleu are my absolute favourites. James wears RJ in the Malachite, as it’s a size 7. All I need is a Lima Hoppediz and I’ll be happy.

And finally, one of my WIPs. It’s based on the Modern Quilt Wrap, but I’m doing it in merino, and have altered the colours ever so slightly. (didn’t like the gray). This is the first square of 24 and it’s going to be so snuggly. The bumble bee sock a few posts down is 3/4 finished too

On a more mundane note, I spent part of yesterday getting xrays and blood tests done. Have had a long standing problem with my back resurface now all the pregnancy niggles have gone away. Basically, I’ve not been able to walk properly for over a week now, and have been in a stupid amount of pain. Physio told me to go to the docs and get some pain relief. However, seemed I lucked out when I got an appt with a young doc, who, instead of just writing out the requested prescription and sending me on my way, asked me to start from the beginning. Upshot is, he sent me off to be examined, told me he’d make notes about an MRI scan if the xray didn’t show anything, gave me some cocodamol and said he wants to see me a week on Monday. I’m seeing my OPP physio on Thursday, so hopefully we can go through the xrays then as well. Could be any one of a handful of things, but the blood test is for ankylosing spondylitis. Nice. *sigh*

*accident update*
Amber has been released from hospital and is now back at home with her family. Maybe now the Press will leave them alone to try to come to terms with what has happened. Sending them all lots of love & support.

I signed up on August 1, 2007. On the 29th Aug, there were 11597 people are ahead of me in line. (see post ‘Waiting, waiting’) At the time there were 7232 people behind me.

Today, there are 8162 people are ahead of me in line. And 11500 people behind me!

So that means 3435 people have been invited in the past 21 days. That’s 163.5 folks invited per day. And if there’s still 8162 in front of me, that’ll take at least 50 days until I get my invite. 8th November.

Which, actually, is shortly after we get backfrom Croatia. So I should have lots of sock photos to post

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lincolnshire/7000213.stm

The 8 year old girl died this afternoon. However, the 9 year old is awake and eating and talking non-stop. Myf is distraught as she was as thick as thieves with both girls - at least in the morning I can tell her the 9yo is fine.

That leaves 6yo boy and 4yo girl on life support. We have candles burning, covens sending energy, church groups praying, everyone sending love and thoughts and good wishes and support. We can but hope.

Thank you to everyone who’s mailed/MSN’d/commented.

I had a lovely blog of happy Sunday happenings, with pictures, ready to write.

Then this happened: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lincolnshire/6998001.stm

We know them. The little girl who died was called Willow. They’re good friends and I’m stunned and now I can’t see straight to type. They’ve all bounced on our trampoline. We’ve been to Land Rover shows and had BBQs with them.

And somehow, I have to tell the girls.

So I finished the first pair, knitted in Town & Country 4ply.

They look a bit weird lying flat.

But great on the feet!

And this is my second pair - well, the first third of the first sock of my second pair. Yummy scrummy Rainforest Opal, in Hummer (Bee).

Note my current favourite mug, a generously sized duck egg blue (not normally my favourite colour!) with Eeyore (definitely my favourite occupant of the 100 acre wood). There, I used the word favourite three times in one sentence.

And a gratuitous backside shot. Because I can.

The little bugger was standing up today - pulling himself up on the furniture! He’s not even 8 months old. I wonder if he’ll beat Myf to walking - she took her first steps at nine and a half months old. So much for having a little baby… *sigh*

By Matilda. Or her mom, Anna anyway.

Eight Things About Me

So here are the rules:

1) Post these rules before you give your facts.

2) List 8 random facts about yourself

3) At the end of your post, choose (tag) 6 people and list their names, linking to them

4) Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged.

My Facts:

1) I’m a blood donor. I’ve got my bronze badge and it’s one of those things I feel quite strongly about. If you can, you should. You never know when you might need it. As soon as I’ve finished having babies, I’m going back to donating twice a year.

2) I have dual nationality - I’m English and Canadian. Which means twice the normal number of dreadful passport photographs to have to deal with, but hey, it’s a price I’m willing to pay to be able go back here any time I want to.

3) I’ve turned into a fairly crafty kind of person over the past few years. I can knit, spin, crochet, sew, embroider, cross stitch, know the rudiments of weaving and a few other things. I’m also handy with power tools, hammer, saw etc. Which leads me to number 4…

4) I love putting flat-pack Ikea-style furniture together. ‘Nuff said.

5) I love languages. I’ve taught myself a smattering of a handful of languages, including Russian, Croatian, Spanish, Arabic and my latest interest, German. No idea what my accent is like though.

6) I have a little brother, who is actually 6′ something tall and pretty wonderful now, but I was fairly horrid to him on occassion whilst we were growing up. Just watching Myf with the little ones makes me cringe when I see myself in her general horridness. But I still feel guilty about the beach in Morocco, and if I ever get enough money, Rob, we’ll go back there and you can ride the horse.

7) I have aspirations of the Good Life. Those who know me will be rolling their eyes and going ‘no shit Sherlock’ or words to that effect. But my Good Life is not so much Tom and Barbara as organic earthship/cob/straw homestead - with a polytunnel!

8) I was born in the wrong era. Either that, or the last place I was was 1940’s Europe and I brought it with me - I’ve got the wartime mindset of waste-not-want-not and I know I drive James and my mother to distraction with my whole ’save it in case we need it’ attitude. That goes for food, outgrown clothes, stray bits of paper; frugality is not a necessity, it’s an artform. I darned a pair of Tea’s grey school tights and Mom was rolling her eyes about that for days. And I can make a chicken do three meals. Might be why I have a large number of wartime cookery books on my shelves - along side the clearing the clutter books, the ‘$50 homestead’ book, the zillion self-sufficiency type books… Did I mention I have a fair number of books?

So, I’m off to tag Sarah, Nikki, Jax, Tim and Bronwen and try to think of one more, as I’m quite sad and don’t read a huge number of blogs. Consider yourself tagged. Mom, go start a blog. Tag, you’re it too.