Parenting - the one with the nonsense rhymes

MrsPdubyah and my Daughter was sitting around talking about her childhood, and some of the things she remembers, which is rich fodder for another time.

From that conversation I had a throwback to my own childhood, and a couple of the nonsense rhymes that I remember. I'm stretched to come up with more than 3, which is not to say that I didn't know many more or have a lot more fun a child.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Mary Had a Little Lamb (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

So we start with this on, but really in no particle order

One fine day in the middle of the night
Two dead boys got up to fight
Back to back they faced each other
Drew their swords and shot each other
I went straight round the corner
and saw a dead donkey die
I took out my dagger to shoot him
and he gave me a kick in the eye.

Which reminds me of this one

I went to the pictures tomorrow,
I took a front seat at the back.
I fell from the pit to the gallery,
And broke a front bone in my back.

Also or more completely a mash up the previous two perhaps?

I Went To the Pictures Tomorrow,
I got a front seat at the back.
I fell from the pit to the gallery,
And broke a front bone in my back.
I went around a straight crooked corner,
To see a dead donkey die.
I took out my pistol to stab it,
And it kicked me right in the eye!
A lady she gave me some chocolate,
I ate it and gave it her back.
I phoned for a taxi and walked it
And thats why I never came back.

or perhaps it ends...

A deaf policeman heard the noise,
And came to arrest the two dead boys,
If you don't believe this story’s true,
Ask the blind man he saw it too!.

And this one that reminds me of playing in the garden with my sisters for no reason other than it does.

Mary had a little lamb,
She thought him very silly,
She threw him up into the air,
And caught him by his,
Willy was a sheepdog lying in the grass,
Down came a bumblebee and stang him on the,
Ask no questions, tell no lies,
I saw a policeman doing up his,
Flies are a problem, wasps are worse,
That is the end of my silly little verse.

and the one that we told our own children!

Mary had a little lamb,
Her father shot it dead.
Now Mary takes the lamb to school,
Between two hunks of bread.

Then the one that made my children laugh

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy, was he?

Question : Where's The Movement For Howard Morgan?

There is a reason I think that this story will gather no mainstream momentum. It will be added into a list of things that African American "Black" people will feel rightly and justifiably aggrieved about.

And the thing that I think will stop this is the line

As you can see, Morgan is black. All of the police officers who discharged the barrage of bullets into him were white.

That the story is repeated on a few websites almost verbatim (churnalism),and that it dates back to 2005 might be the reason that there is no "Community Outrage".

Ok so I'm white. And I might be reading this incorrectly , or be over sensitive, but to have a story who's justice pivots on skin color, I'm black they're white therefore it's wrong, seems a little at odds.

Clearly America, and a few other countries, have issues with race and equality. But I'd be more sympathetic if they'd left the color card in the draw and let me draw my own conclusions.

I don't think there is a white conspiracy, because that is just to difficult to justify, is there a collusion and denial going on in this instance, possibly. Who knows for sure, apart from those that were there at the time, and they're not going to change their story. Were they all good ol' White boys, or were they Hispanics, or Asian Americans? or really all just White. Makes me think of a Jospeh Wambaugh novel.

And I'm in no way saying that "as presented" the case is a cut and dried example of a cover-up, conspiracy, or whitewash, what seems to be suspicious is that in 7 years not one bright up coming feisty for-the-cause lawyer has managed to make anything out of this.

Where's The Movement For Howard Morgan? | DrJays.com Live | Fashion. Music. Lifestyle.

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Parenting disaster - an ongoing series

Well I have to confess to really making a hash of this one.

Daughter has a car with a Mongoose Alarm system and a two button remote. We have two, just in case.

The remote button to the car  she uses needed the battery replacing, so she said, which you'd think would be within the capability of most parents with a small screwdriver and no fear of taking a small object apart. So here we go. Captain Dad;

1. Find Small Screwdriver


2. Took remote apart, a bit fell out.


3. Ignore small bit, she'll be right mate


4. Go back to garage get remote control for garage door, battery is the same as for the garage remote control as the car one.


5. Change the battery


6. Reassemble car remote, noting that it appears to need the small bit that fell out to make the screw work,never mind she'll be right mate


7. Try out newly powered car remote


8. Doesn't work


9. Disassemble car remote, no more bits fall out


10. Turn battery around it's now in the right way


11. Go to tool box, find an unopened super glue packet


12. Find tweezers


13. Stick fingers together


14. Stick bit that had fallen out back in again


15. Reassemble remote


16. Test

It doesn't work though.

Now in Pdubyahland this means that the remote has forgotten it's code, right and has to be re-learnt, so I get on the interwebtubes and find out how to learn the remote the code to the alarm.

Print that off, go to car, go through  the process, and I can't get it to work.

And this is where it's gone wrong.

I've managed to arm the alarm, but neither of the remote buttons now work. The car is disabled, the remotes don't work. The engine is immobilized. It won't start.

It's a holiday weekend, anyone that can fix it is on holiday. I'd disconnect the battery to see if that resets the alarm and there are thee outcomes

1. It won't matter, the car will still be immobilized


2. The alarm will go off as it thinks it's being tampered with


3. it'll reset itself

I'm not really a fan of 1-3 odds, and I can't see disconnecting the battery option working as when we got the car the battery had been flat for a couple of months.

lesson: Don't. Just don't.

Jolly Hockey Sticks - the College edition

[caption id="attachment_1684" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Rangitoto Hockey"][/caption]

Every year there is a pre-season Inter-College "tournament" at St. Cuthberts College in Remuera. It's called the Anzac tournament and is by invitation only.

As part of promotion the College hosts the ANZAC Tournament, which is an invitational festival competition of teams from through out New Zealand.

Rangitoto College are the only public school to be invited to participate.

There is a traditional festival dinner held on the first evening of the two day event. Rangitoto College girls broke with tradition a few years a go and dressed "formally" in school uniform for the dinner, and in subsequent years this has become the norm.

This year however having changed school uniform through the year to some new fancy affair the 1st XI Hockey Girls won't be able to wear a school blazer as the school "pool" of blazers is short the number they need.

Blazers are an optional item of school wear and they are not in common usage other than at formal events and occasion and the school rents them for use for events.

Daughter is besides herself. She feels that not being able to dress up for the festival dinner is a poor signal from the school in a couple of areas. Firstly she thinks that this is an indication of the "worth" of the Hockey team to the School.

The team is in the premier grade, and has won or been in Intercity and National Finals consistently for many years.

Secondly she feels that being able to dress up to represent the college carries with it more kudos and mana among what you could consider a list of élite private schools. She has pride in spades

So she wrote a letter to the head of sports, her coach, and a couple of other teachers in the school. All for the cause. Like I said to her "If you do nothing you get nothing"

I hope something comes of it, she thinks it's important enough, I hope the school does too.

5th of April update

Having presented her letter to he Dean and her Tutor, as well as the HOD Sports blazers became available. She's not taking any credit for it of course,  but I told her she should even if she doesn't believe it :-) My activist daughter, who knew!

Beer – #14 in a series – Lancaster Bomber

Tonight I shall be tippling the Thwaits Lancaster Bomber

yeah, they say :

This chestnut-coloured beer is brewed using pale ale and crystal malt, which gives it a full-bodied flavour. A finely balanced hop character is enriched by the late addition of Styrian Goldings as a dry hop in each cask to give a prominent floral hop aroma and warming aftertaste.

Styrian Goldings, well that could be Pork Scratchings to the ill informed.

IT is a hoppy full aroma beer with a wonderful olde English beer taste. IT's a less strong beer at 4.4 Alc/Vol and it comes as always in the pinty sized bottle. Poured with a nice head too I might add, always pleasant.

It is pleasing and pleasant and would be nice to have with company and around a file, it's that kind of beer, sipping beer not quaffing beer (for my taste)

On the arbitrary stars-o-meter this is 7 our of 10. but is pushing the 8. Score!

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