Friday, September 05, 2008

Head not above water (but not face down in the muffin mix)

Still not in a good enough mood to make light of my life at the moment.

The universe is normally quite kind to me, which is why I am quandrifying it all.

Obviously a lesson to be learned here. We have no choice but to learn, really - life lessons have a habit of ensuring they are thorough.

Of course, then you see that 200,000 are homeless and wondering where there next meal is in India due to flooding - and it all gets put into perspective.

I mean - we have a bumper parsley crop to keep us from the dogs.

And I do need to slim down a bit to move all those funky frocks from my performance days into contemplation for being wed (thus saving me from hard decisions involving either fashion or finance).

That means all the cycling in my future can possibly be filed under "pronoia".

Still working on the other issues. I am sure sometime soon I will be back blowing sunshine.



In the mean time - a whinge arising from Tuck Shop (because if you can't whinge about others there would be NO JOY in life)...

Last week, I was a heroine and stood in for the convenor while she partied with her family at the other end of the state.

One mother gave me a hand for an hour - and then it was me against the hordes - and the hordes were hungry.

I gave thanks to my three grade 7 helpers with leftover fruit salad and some oven baked nuggets I would have had to turf as I miscounted (don't ask - things were frantic).

Today I helped in tuckshop as usual and found out that one of my helpers (a rather overweight girl) had been banned from coming to tuckshop - because she had put on too much weight.

I had to ring the vice principal to advise her the truth of the situation.

The main reason I had given the girl this free fruit salad and nuggets for helping me last week was her lunch consisted of dry muffin mix! When asked about what "healthy" stuff she had, she said she had eaten an apple the previous day.

Obviously the focus should be elsewhere for that extra stone the girl had gained in the last month...

7 comments:

Debby said...

Oh, that poor girl! Dry muffin mix? Really, I was feeling really bad for you, because I hate it when everything sucks at once. But dry muffin mix?!!! I stopped feeling so bad for you and started feeling really bad for her.

Jayne said...

Dry muffin mix?!?
Um helloooooo that's classed as neglect and abuse and, in Victoria, must be reported to child welfare by the school immediately.

Crazed Nitwit said...

How many pounds in a stone? That's not on my nusing conversion chart. I'm here reeling from the lies the candidates are spouting in tv. They're definitly going to HELL. Talk about someone insulting my intelligence!!!!

BB said...

Jean-Jeanie... where to begin? Jeanie abuse and child abuse in the same post!! Too much for me... Remember: good things come to good people. Hopefully this girl will remember your kindness and you will be one of the good people in her life.

Sisterly hugs.

Anonymous said...

oh that poor girl!

So glad you stuck up for her. :)

Anonymous said...

That poor child.

I assume the tuck shop is part of the lunch room at school? Forgive me please as I am almost as American as they come and the Aussie lingo is something I'll need to keep asking about.

From what I gathered they banned this girl from helping make lunch or 'buying' lunch? I didn't realize that schools could do that.

jeanie said...

Deb - I feel very much for this girl - she doesn't have many factors going for her, and a very sad family life (which are NOT caused by her stupid decisions - she just happens to be the middle child of a large brood of unhappy souls)

Jayne - you know, I think her parent lets her pack her own lunch and there may well be other options - but there are some fairly large red flags that this childhood she is living is not exactly ideal.

Crazed Mom - apparently 14. Here is the wiki. Have I mentioned before that we get a bit overfed on the US election stuff here too? Its enough living through your own without other countries! To add to that, I live with one of your natives whose politics and mine don't always agree. Might be only every 4 years, but does it have to take up a good 2 of them?

Bush Babe - from your lips to the big guy's ears, eh? I just hope that some kindness from anyone in this girl's childhood resonates and gives her something, I don't care who. And thanks for the hugs and shoulder.

Bettina - thanks - not entirely altruistic, as it was my judgement as a grown up being questioned also!

Kari - we don't have the "lunch room" system as such, but kids can buy from a tuck shop if the P&C provide the service and the government legislates certain health regulations regarding fat and nutrition are heeded. As such, the girl was "barred" by her mother from buying or helping at the tuck shop.