rachel.blog

Author: Rachel M

  • Butt plugs, deadly nightshade, and hookers

    Apparently a large, green, blow-up Christmas tree in the centre of Paris is outrageous and humiliating if you’re of a right-wing political persuasion. The sculpture, which was part of an exhibition of modern art, was vandalised by right-wing protestors. Why? Because it looks like a butt plug. I have to confess that I didn’t even know what a butt plug…

  • The Fly

    My children were fighting over dead flies yesterday. They came charging into my office arguing over why Elizabeth should have three dead flies and Daniel only one. I looked at them in disbelief and with more than a little exasperation said, “Children, you’re fighting over dead flies!!!”. Daniel immediately realised the absurdity of the situation and…

  • Hard or soft?

    We’ve got a new home: a rental but a really, really nice one. We got the keys yesterday but there are no beds here so I ordered some mattresses for the kids from an online store with the name MattressNextDay. Apparently mattress next day = mattress three days later. I also ordered a luxurious latex mattress…

  • My new home: Aberdeen

    Aberdeen is endearing itself to me. It’s the little things that make a difference. Like this front gate I walked past yesterday with a tin of biscuits for the guard dog. Just in case you want to rob the place and a fierce dog is standing in your way, the owners have helpfully provided the dog biscuits…

  • Jim Jefferies on gun control

    This is fantastic so I had to share it. Jim Jefferies is an Australian stand-up comedian and this is a very funny performance about gun control. It’s definitely worth watching 🙂

  • All or nothing?

    Some people have expressed concern to me that I’m punishing my kids by banning sweets. But the thing is, when I say I’m banning something, it does not mean I’ve literally banned something. I never take anything to extremes. I’m flexible with practically everything I do in my life. So what does banning sweets mean?…

  • A day in the life of a Happiness Engineer

    What does a Happiness Engineer do all day? I started my day today at 6:30am because I’m a morning person and I’m still a bit jet-lagged. Sometimes I start at 6am, sometimes at 7am. The choice is mine. I began by catching up on emails and replying to WordPress.com users via email. Then I started live…

  • Footdee, Aberdeen

    We went out for a long walk this afternoon to an old fishing village at the very tip of the east end of Aberdeen harbour. It’s called Footdee, or “Fittie”, as the locals call it. Aberdeen harbour has been hijacked by the oil industry and none of it is walkable to the public (not that…

  • Duthie Park, Aberdeen

    We’re in Aberdeen and still all a bit tired and jet-lagged but glad to have all the hard stuff over and done with. We ventured out for a walk in Duthie Park yesterday and it was wonderful. They have an enormous winter garden as well as some brilliant playgrounds. Can you judge a city by…

  • Nappy days

    When our babies were in nappies (nappies = diapers) we used cloth nappies. I rarely bought disposables: they’re way too expensive and not very biodegradable so we invested in some good-quality washable nappies instead. I have a tendency to get obsessed with things and I got very obsessed with cloth nappies. I look back on this now and…

  • Vegan blueberry & cashew cheesecake (gluten-free too)

    Since we’re about to leave New Zealand, I thought I should spend all my fly buys points. So I bought a cookbook I’ve been wanting for some time: The Revive Café Cookbook. It’s written by the owner/founder of the Revive Cafés in central Auckland. The book has exceeded all my expectations. It’s wonderful. I thought I’d share this recipe…

  • Creepers against climate change

    I’m feeling a bit disheartened. There were not very many people at the Auckland climate march. Maybe a few hundred? I feel a bit disappointed about this. Don’t people care? It feels a bit like that right now. Perhaps I’m just down because it’s the end of a week with lots of disappointing news. The people…

  • Congratulations to John Key

    New Zealand’s centre-right National party won by a landslide last night granting a third term to John Key. This is apparently an unprecedented result because often support starts to wane for a leader by the third term but he has more support now than in the previous election. I did not vote for him. I…

  • What’s a country?

    We’re planning to attend the people’s climate march in Auckland tomorrow despite having lots of other things to do like an open home to prepare for. I told the kids about it this afternoon and Daniel’s response was: “How long will it take? Will I still get some Minecraft mods tomorrow?” 🙂 The recent Scottish referendum…

  • An apology and Scottish independence

    I retweeted a tweet earlier that I thought was funny but was criticised for tweeting foul language. I actually regret retweeting that tweet now (and have removed it from my feed), not so much because of the language – I do have a bit of a foul mouth – but because I can see that some might find…

  • People’s Climate March

    Originally posted on …and Then There's Physics: I thought I’d temporarily hijack AndThen’s blog to write a quick guest post about the upcoming people’s climate march. There are going to be a series of climate marches around the world on the 21st of September which is this Sunday. Every significant social movement in history has…

  • Panic mode

    It’s time to panic and freak out. Less than two weeks to go before we leave for Scotland. Our house will be auctioned next week. We haven’t started any packing and I’ve only just listed our car on TradeMe today. How does TradeMe know more about our car than I do? Admittedly I know very…

  • Saggy bits

    I got this card for my birthday: It’s funny! But would it be just as funny if it was the other way around? Say it was a woman whose shadow had two huge boobs and the guy’s saying “If only”. Would that be funny? I don’t think I’d find it funny but perhaps that’s because I…

  • My birthday, computer science, clouds, pauses, and helmets

    I’m 39 tomorrow, boo hoo. Only one more year and I’m 40. That’s scary. Apparently a new computer science curriculum has been launched in English schools as a replacement for the old ICT course. I think this is wonderful. Teaching children how to create software is far more useful than simply teaching them how to use it;…

  • The 10 album challenge

    Inspired by Denise’s post over at Listen Watch Read Share, I thought I’d try to compile my own list of top ten albums. It’s not such an easy task because music preferences change over time, so I’ve tried to select music that I’ve loved for years and that I never tire of. This is certainly…