Raasens Thoughts

Then there was bowls

2015-07-27T21:58:00.000+02:00

Hello

2015-07-27T21:33:00.001+02:00

Last post, posted in 2013. I cannot believe that. Will have to check the postage stamp myself. So much to catch up on. Lets start....somewhere in 2014.

Salad & Water. Go together like...

2013-11-24T14:24:00.001+02:00

So Kid1 has a lunch plate with chicken, salads and garlic sour dough bread. Like the pic below. He hates salads, especially the leafy parts so he quips up: "I hate water. It tastes like nothing. Salads taste worse than water".

I made him eat it all. Wish I had a pic of him having that involuntary spasm that sometimes precedes throwing up.

SUPER Market

2013-10-16T13:11:00.001+02:00

Kid2 tells me, "Daddy, you are so fat, when you walk into a market it becomes a Supermarket"

Where's the peanut butter

2013-10-12T09:37:00.001+02:00

After spending quite a significant amount of time looking for the peanut butter, I ask the kids where it is. Both of them reply with their standard "we don't know".

I eventually found it. In the fridge. After spending some more time interrogating Kid1 and Kid2 we reach the conclusion that Kid2 enquired from Kid1 as to why the peanut butter is in the cupboard and not the fridge. That's it.... He did not seem to want to admit to actually putting it in the fridge.

For the Grandchildren

2013-10-06T15:12:00.001+02:00

We found this 35 year old chess set at the only place in our family you will find such old things.

Never been used...

Look Where I'm Going

2013-10-06T12:35:00.001+02:00

So Kid3 keeps on walking against my foot, precariously close to a very pointy looking pedestal. Thankfully her hands are always out and she does not knock her pretty head against the pedestal. I have moved my foot about 5 times and no matter where I put it she keeps on tripping herself up.

Eventually I tell her that she needs to look where she is going. She looks at me and says: "You need to look where I am going".

Ai... What am I to say to that?

Love, Marriage & Kid1

2013-09-30T19:26:00.001+02:00

Kid1 just out of the blue, while we were talking about marriage quips: "I want to get married when I am young".

So we ask him why. He says, "I want to be young and fit when I get married".

So we ask him why. He starts giggling...

The Kite

2013-09-24T21:17:00.000+02:00

So there we were, like almost all other Capetownians on a hot day amid the deluge of rain, hail, snow and general winterness we have had to endure over the past few weeks, on our way to do something outside the confines of our little home. Soak up the gloriously radiant warmth of the sun while wishing the sun could dry out the worsening exterior walls of our house.

The Eco Park turned out to be good spot to soak up some sun. Kid1 had dragged his skateboard with, Kid2 came along on his scooter, and Kid3 rolled up on her funky and now modernised motorbike. Gone are those little black plastic three wheelers. Now we have to contend with funky Harley look-a-likes and big monstrosities that could even possibly support an adult. Yes, i checked and it could definitely support me.

The big kid took his kite along but unfortunately, as is always the case, Kid1 wanted to fly it. So i let him. Kid2 also wanted to try but when he saw Kid1 being dragged about and the look of utter terror on Kid1's sometimes angelic face he declined flying the kite.

Kid2 parted by informing me that i need to buy him a smaller kite of his own. I have a smaller, more colourful one but right now it is a mess of mathematical tangles and no amount of pondering will help unravel the knots. Anyone who wants to help please do...

Creativity, schools and Kids

2013-06-16T10:12:00.001+02:00

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity #TED : http://on.ted.com/fdgL

School W and the 94.5 KFM general knowledge quiz

2013-06-11T08:54:00.000+02:00

So there we were, on the way to school. Kid1 turned up the volume so he could better hear the 94.5 KFM general knowledge quiz questions through the absolute racket being made by Kid2 and Kid3. I suspect Kid2 was teasing Kid3 by taking her toys away from her. I need to discuss that behaviour with him at some point but I will let it go for now. Kid3 seems to be holding her own for the time being.

The first kid got a score of 9 on the quiz. The second kid was from a school we have applied to for grade 8 for Kid1 so we were quite excited to see how exceptionally well he does. You see we have heard only great things about this school, lets call it School W. As an aside, we have applied to four schools and lets just call them W, R, P and S.

So this kid should have knocked that score of 9 out of the park seeing as he went to school W. The first question thrown at him was "what is 15 + 5". This should be a fairly simple question for any child in any grade above 7 or am I being silly expecting this? Kid2 who happens to be in grade 3 got this right. Kid1 got it right. Mind you, the question was not 15 + 6 or 15 - 6, it was a fairly simple, straightforward 15 + 5. Round numbers and all that.

The kid from School W got it wrong. He expertly, confidently and without hesitation offered the answer of 21. TWENTY ONE? I gave him the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he has heard the numbers wrong. The more I thought about it though the less convinced I was about that. FIFTEEN plus FIVE. Nothing there sounds like a six or seven or even a four. FIFTEEN plus FIVE equals TWENTY ONE? I suppose on some philosophical level where the exact nature and behaviour of infinity is regular discourse the answer to 15 + 5 can perhaps be 21. In relation to any child above grade 7, the answer should always be 20. Needless to say this kid from the exceptional School W did not best the score of the first child and went back to school empty handed.

So here we sit, in a salty pickle. School W is great. FIFTEEN plus FIVE = TWENTY ONE by a kid from School W. Perhaps I should only concentrate efforts for acceptance on School P, R and S? Perhaps he knows things normal other high school kids don't, like the very philosophical nature of infinity alluded to earlier? In this case I should concentrate all efforts on acceptance at School W. Perhaps I should strike School W from the list of potential school for Kid1. Damn....even Kid2 got the answer right, in the non-philosophical everyday sense of the word and the question.

What to do?

They did not mention the exact specie

2013-06-08T20:10:00.002+02:00

It stared back at me

2013-06-03T19:41:00.000+02:00

So finally after years of nagging, I allowed my better half to trade in the old dishwasher for a shiny new model. The old dishwasher was a Nesaar by the way.

I got it hooked up, water pipes secured, machine outlet all safe and snug in the little hole in the wall. I hoped the hole in the wall actually went to a drain of some sorts. You hear horror stories of people with baths that are not actually connected anywhere. They let water in but when you try to let the water out it just runs around on your beautiful bathroom tiles or heaven forbid, that expensive parquet flooring. The moment of truth arrived and I switched it on. Nothing bad happened. The machine whirred and clicked, lights mysteriously blinking on and off and I just stared at it. The scary thing was that it stared back, lights still winking at me beckoning me to try it.

Where to start I wondered until my better half came along and proffered what appeared to be a book of some sorts. Oh no, I have to read something now. The manual. The holy grail of advice and senseless store of instructions that no man seems to need. Before I could take it though my better half opened it and started telling me what I needed to do. I was instructed to touch a button, press another and slowly brush the play button. Yes the machine has a play button, sort of like that old cassette player your dad has stashed away in some recess in the garage in the hope that BASF tapes might make a comeback.

Water got sucked in and even though it sounded as if water was dripping somewhere everything remained dry and watertight, unlike that bastion of sailing the Titanic. Oops, my better half informed me that I had forgotten to hit the "use tablet" button. I was too happy to worry about informing her that she has forgotten to pass on that particular tidbit of information. Happily ensconced in thoughts of never having to wash another dish again I went to watch a bit of telly. Through the post hand wash bliss came the words of my better half, "It sounds like water splashing on the kitchen floor". Naaa, can't be I thought but let me meander over to the kitchen, I need something to eat in any case.

Damn bloody idiot machine. It was still staring right at me, light blinking and machine whirring but there was also a huge puddle of water lying on the kitchen floor. Why the dinges is there water lying on the kitchen floor? Happy thoughts were chases to far recesses of my currently occupied mind, replaced by images of washing dishes by hand while the machine still whirred away, spewing water, lights still blinking and still staring right back at me.

Kid nap

2013-05-30T22:42:00.000+02:00

So there we were, on our way to drop the kids off at school. 94.5 KFM was broadcasting the news and they were talking about the kidnapping of two South African citizens in Yemen. After the news Kid1 asked me how the word kidnap came to mean what it does. I launched into a veritable discussion of the origins of the English language, root words and some sort of gibberish about Latin. I thought the kids had understood what I had said when up piped Kid2, "Daddy what does the word word kidnap mean?" I launched into its meaning with gusto when he interrupted me midway through an intelligent sounding word.

"Daddy, they take the parents while the kids are napping", he asked. "That's why I never want to nap during the day Dad", he said.