Heard this retro classic on the radio yesterday. How is it that I’ve never actually listened to these lyrics beyond the chorus before? That’s what happens when you have time alone crawling in traffic. Love the message though! Don’t stop to ask, just do what you gotta do. Happy Weekend!
TMIDM
There is something to be said for children who wait until you reach in the bathroom to suddenly decide that they have problems that need to be sorted out.
New rule in my house for the gremlinz to follow that carries as much weight as no TV on weeknights Monday to Thursday and keeping your room tidy: DO NOT BOTHER ME when I’m in the bathroom! If there is the absence of fire or blood, in my mind there is the absence of the immediate necessity for my refereeing, detective or even basic listening skills and I could get at least five minutes, BY MYSELF TO BATHE MYSELF for crying out loud!!! I swear tonight I could have released the beast inside but thank God for the sanity that sometimes comes with a closed door.
TMIDM
NO joke. I fled work today like a bat out of hell. I’m currently sipping “tea”.
Dear Weekend,
Feel free to join me.
Love
TMIDM
*Flit: An old time insecticide in Trinidad and Tobago
Ebola is at the forefront in many ways than one and you know when things are bad in Trinidad and Tobago when people start making up jokes as a coping mechanism. So overheard a caller on the radio today: “You go by the doctor to find out if you have Ebola and the doctor tells you well hear nah, you don’t have Ebola but you’re HIV Positive! which then makes you shout for joy: Thank you Jesus Thank the Lord!”. The radio announcer says he knows he shouldn’t be laughing but it’s funny because the thinking is at least you can live with HIV…sigh….Imagine the biggest debate in Trinidad and Tobago regarding Ebola is if to cancel Carnival in 2015…-_- Carnival yuh know, dat is what people studying!!!
Everything is a joke in this country. That’s how we deal…..
This deadly disease is on my mind because germs are transmitted so easily as far as I see. No amount of pitchy hand-washing campaigns by the Ministry of Health and hand-sanitizers on sale in exotic fragrances of Japanese Cherry Blossom and Midnight Pomegranate can sway the fact that germs still bounce from here to there. People still sneeze and cough wildly in public, in taxis and buses and still talk animatedly over food being sold (watch your doubles vendor). Today I saw one of my students sucking her thumb and it dawned on me that it’s a habit that can exacerbate the germ-spreading much like biting the nails, both of which are mostly done so absent-mindedly, both of which are ever-present in schools….yikes….
I’m no germophobe but my mother always clued me in to germ-spreading when I was growing up so much so that I was forced to “see” germs being spread. So I used to press the button in the bus with my knuckle, open doors with my forearms/elbows, hold my bag on my shoulder when I have to use a public restroom, pump the soap with the corner of my wrist and I have hand sanitizer in every one of my handbags and my car. I’m not perfect with it and I certainly won’t reach my mom and her level of OCD where she takes grocery cheddar out of the plastic, washes it and then proceeds to slice……..yes…….I’ve talked to her about that.
My daughter Mam’zelle sucks her thumb, a habit she picked up before she breathed air. When she was born she was searching wildly for the finger by the mouth so much so the head nurse exclaimed “Aye Aye! She fass! Look she suckin finger! Chile yuh jus’ born!” I’ve never cut the habit with her because I too know the sweetness, so too my husband, same issue, same hand, (is thumb-sucking genetic?) and I figure she will cut that out very soon. She doesn’t do it in school which tells you the level of pride (or shame) that she has. So when I pick her up and I don’t hear her antics in the car, I know she’s sucking the thumb as though she suffered withdrawal and de feeling so sweet but then I have to yell about germs and cleanliness, rinse and repeat the following day. Sometimes she asks me “Can I suck my finger now?” or she would casually ask if I have hand-sanitizer as if we’re talking about the weather (“oh, by the way…”).
It’s all well and good with the common cold and sundry other mutated forms of viruses that I can battle with doctor visits, meds, excessive talking and frenzied harping and hand-washing but Ebola??? Who am I against a disease that is dismantling West Africa, is one-up in the US, crept into Brazil and made it’s way into Spain and Germany’s news headlines? I am praying to God that Ebola doesn’t make its way into Trinidad and Tobago because we are studying Carnival and at our very best I don’t think we are anywhere close to handling it the way we should and if it’s one thing about this country, ting does realll spread.
Stay safe and be wisely informed. Pick sense from nonsense.
Bless up
TMIDM
Moms of the world, this is the absolute greatest thing I’ve read all day thus far. This is THE RECIPE to share with the rest of your family. It will change your life.
Bless up
TMIDM
I never wanted to be a teacher. As a matter of fact it was a topic of contention between myself and my parents because they considered it a profession that is respectful, stable in the long term in terms of gratuity and pension and of course what else would I do with a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish right? sigh…another topic by itself….
After various rewarding job opportunities in the private sector I ‘landed’ in the teaching profession. I will not say I have regretted it and I often wonder if my parents saw something in me that I did not see in myself. Thus far it has been a roller coaster ride, 100 feet in the air some days, 100 feet at the lowest of the low on other days. I guess this is like any other job. But teaching is really more than a job, it is indeed a vocation because you literally have to envelop yourselves into the lives of students and their wellbeing. It may not be even be all your students, it may be just one and that one may be enough.
On this day, I’m grateful for my school teachers (Mrs. Olton you were the best!), I’m grateful for my work colleagues who are truly a great group and on whom I can sincerely rely and I’m also grateful for my colleagues who I don’t work with but from whom I’ve learnt a lot.
So people, keep us in your prayers as we do our best to ensure that your child and by extension the next generation is moulded in the best way needed to develop the country.
Bless up
TMIDM
I heard on the radio this morning somebody said this is “$500 weather”. (See here) Lol trinis yes….
Anyway, this song was in loop in my head today as it usually is when the rains come in torrents like this.
Wherever you are, stay safe.
TMIDM
Some children these days seem not to be taught how to be responsible for their actions. They exist with a sense of deniability and YOLOness that prompts them to be so capricious and carefree that there is almost no thought to their actions far less their consequences. By children I mean young teenagers, the ones in secondary school who should be focusing on getting their education who to my mind are still children as they are under eighteen.
I say this mainly out of frustration because I’ve endured a day where the new 11-13 year olds seem to be under the impression that they are ‘running tings’ in the school. The behaviour is so appalling and outright boldfaced that I wonder if their primary school teachers were happy to see them go. Parents have been called to the school left, right and centre and it continues tomorrow. Most parents are in agreement that the children need to settle down and get on with their work. They yell at them about ‘makin dem shame’, give warnings and threats and keep massive leather belts in their bags but the youth themselves are in such a headspace where they don’t care….in the mean time, I am tired. I just want to teach and go home, not deal with repeated discipline issues from children who should know better because they are old enough to know right from wrong.
I think that the powers that be have become so ‘child-centred’ that they have lost sight of the fact that as they progress in age, children (teenagers) ought not to be babied and coddled into a sense of dependency,expectancy and entitlement. How is it right for society for young adults not to feel ownership to the development to their country and to feel as if they are entitled to everything? In addition to this, there have been years and years of government handouts to compound this. Now, don’t get me wrong. I absolutely agree with the rights of the child and their right to be protected and the role of the government and the educators in this. I absolutely agree with providing relevant resources and technologies particularly to children who are in low-income families which is the vast majority at my school. But should I have to TELL you not to put porn on your laptop? Or not to fight over girls? Or not to eat the meat out of the boxed lunch and fling the rest of the food in the bin? Steups…..Sometimes my role of ‘in loco parentis’ is one that I would prefer not to accept because I need to preserve my energies for my own gremz but then again, I am the one who signed the paper right? Sigh…..
TMIDM
