Tuesday 22 May 2012

Sewing... the ultimate relaxant!

With exams starting next week and most of the past few weeks spent writing final assignments for a couple of classes, I am enjoying relaxing for a few hours each night after dinner to take my mind away from the books. Normally I would just watch some T.V, but maybe its just me but there does not seem to be anything very interesting on at the moment................................ besides Packed to the Rafters!!!! So I have been getting back into sewing.

I run my own little hair bow business (Sunny Beez Bowtique) so I sew regularly, but for the first time in my life I have decided to attempt a quilt. Totally loving it so far, and it has been a great relaxant from the stresses and dramas of being a law student & mum!

Hope anyone who is actually reading this is having a great week so far! & If you have a blog and would like to share a link. Mummy Vision has a FB page where you can share a link to your page! I will be sure to have a read as I love all things in the blog-world!!!

Peace Out!!!

Friday 18 May 2012

Entitlement & the Modern Day Law Student

I am sure most of us have read with a sense of disgust this week about former Geelong Grammar student, Rose Ashton-Weir who is suing the school for failing to gain entry to her first preference, being to study Law at the University of Sydney.

For those not in the know the LLB at The University of Sydney is one of the most prestigious law programs in the country, and entry to this degree would be the ultimate honor after a final high school year filled with hard work. It is hard work that gets you a place in any law degree not money.

When I read this story for the first time two days ago and first I was really angry. How dare this young girl claim to be entitled to a place. How dare she not take responsibility for failing to reach her goal and how dare she simply pass the blame onto someone else and not look for an alternate pathway to achieving her dream! I simply fail to understand how an 18 year old could feel entitled to a place simply because she went to one of the better high schools in the country.

I will use myself as an example.

I certainly did not attend an exclusive school. I grew up in a small town to working class parents. I attended a catholic school as opposed to a state school because my father worked 14 hours a day, everyday and my mother worked at night so that my brother and I could have every opportunity to do whatever we wanted with our lives.

I have always wanted to study law! Ask anyone I went to school with, it was all I have ever wanted to do. Yet I didn't get the marks to get into law at the completion of high school. Was that my schools fault? No, of course not! My school nurtured me like every single other student enrolled there to reach our full potential. I worked hard in year 12 but obviously not hard enough. But there are many ways to skin a cat.

I moved on, yet I never lost sight of my dream. I enrolled in an Accounting degree for 18 months but hated it and I met my husband during that time and began working full time. He was an apprentice and we struggled for money but we got through it and he is now a carpenter which was his dream. After having 3 children I decided I wanted to pursue my dream of studying law. I enrolled in a Bachelor of Legal and Justice Studies degree at Southern Cross University and was told by a course advisor that should I work hard enough and obtain a Distinction average I could be considered for a course change over to the LLB. Well I am very proud to say I made it. Southern Cross gave me a chance, a way in to my dream and I grabbed it with both hands and I have not look back. I may not be a University of Sydney law student but I am very proud to be a Southern Cross student and I don't believe that I will be any less of a lawyer because I hate not attended a prestigious law school. In my mind any University in the country is prestigious and any person who completes a degree in anything is special. It's a major achievement and I would have been proud to be a law student at any school in the country.

I am not going to lie, law school has not been easy. I now have 4 children and I am at the point of the degree where I can see the end. I have got there through hard work and because I have never lost sight of my dream. Even if I never practice law I hope my children have learned the lesson that through hard work you can do anything and that there is always another way to achieve your dream.

Rose Ashton-Weir I do feel some sympathy for. What is she ever going to achieve in her life if this is how she handles a disappointing situation. Life is full of disappointments but its how you deal with them that determine whether or not as a person you are going to succeed in life.

Her parents should be ashamed for assisting her in this quest. They have clearly brought her up to believe that things get handed to you on a plate and if you throw your money around and attend a prestigious school is gives you some sort of divine right to be entitled to things as opposed to earning them.

Her school attendance was poor, she was regularly absent, she only attended a term and a bit before moving to another school, she had glandular fever and she was internally suspended by the school on more than one occasion...... I fail to see how she is entitled to anything. She should really count herself lucky that she is attending university at all after all that.

All in all, this girl is on a fast track to nowhere. To everyone from law students to members of the public she has become a joke. and that really is sad and I honestly believe if her dream really was to be a law student she would have had enough sense to take a good hard look at herself and re-assess. She could have taken another path yet chose the easy way out pushing the blame of her failings onto someone else.

To everyone reading this, please tell your children they can be whoever and whatever they want to be. We are so lucky to live in a country where there are endless possibilities, where we have access to some of the best educational facilities in the world. Please tell them that it doesn't matter if you come from money or the working class they can do anything! All it takes is hard work!!!

Follow your dreams people and don't let people like Rose Ashton-Weir put a dark cloud over the fairness of education in our country.

Sunday 13 May 2012

Wake up Australia..... NZ citizens are tax payers too!!!

Firstly,

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!

So on this special day where we celebrate all mums, I thought it would be a perfect time to discuss the circumstances of a dear friend of mine, who is a New Zealand citizen living in Australia.

As a mother she made the decision with her partner to move to this country a few years ago to have a new life, filled with greater opportunities for her whole family. Being NZ citizens they are allowed to come to Australia and live and work here for as long as they like, however they are not entitles to receive a lot of benefits that the rest of us (including myself) take for granted.

Currently she is facing the situation where she would like to return to school and study Nursing at University and 2 of her children are also reaching that time in their lives where they are getting towards the later years of high school and thinking about their future, which also includes tertiary study. Yet whilst the rest of us who have just been lucky enough to have been born here are entitled to government funded support such as HECS-HELP, FEE-HELP and VET-HELP, where lets face it we got to school do our degrees and pay for them later, they cannot access such schemes without jumping through ridiculous hoops.

Now, don't get me wrong, I completely understand that we can't just open up the system so its at a point where NZ folk just jump on a plane (with or without a few sheep) enroll in University or TAFE, receive a degree funded fully by the Aussie tax payer and then bugger off back home, but when people genuinely want to make a commitment to this country, when they genuine, do we really need to make it so hard?

For my friend, financially its impossible to move back to NZ for 6 months, uproot her children from school, close down her partners business and just leave for a while. Surely the system should allow her and everyone else wanting to live here forever the courtesy of at least applying for citizenship or residency whilst living in this country. They pay tax like the rest of us... so why the problem??? Why do we need the drama??

A current Affair on Channel 9, aired a story a few weeks ago about mail order brides. Aussie men who were on their third or fourth marriage to predominantly Asian women. These women marry, stay in the marriage for as long as legally required and then wallah!! citizenship!! What a farce!!

Perhaps my friend would be better off splitting with her partner each of them marrying an Aussie for five minutes, just so they can be given a fair go!

Wake up Australia!!!

Tuesday 8 May 2012

The split!

In case you missed it, Grant Hackett and wife Candice Alley have split. The swimmer famous for his olympic gold medals in the 1500m is also rapidly becoming just as famous for is alcohol consumption and wild behavior that appears to go hand in hand with it.

No I am not one to take sides at all as the general public never have the real truth about what goes on behind closed doors, but if I was Grant Hackett I would be pissed off at Alley too.

She "let" him by a $380,000 Ferarri on his retirement......... um what? She "let" him! Wow how generous of her to let him spend HIS hard earned dollars on a car that he had always wanted.

Clearly she has no idea of what being a professional swimmer involves! If I had busted my arse for my entire life, earned a substantial amount of money, enough to retire etc, my husband would not be telling me what I can and can't do. How does it really effect her anyway?

Yes, I understand that he got rid of it because Alley became pregnant with twins, and clearly babies cant travel in Ferarri's, but if he can afford a multi-million dollar penthouse and a Ferarri he can just buy her a pretty SUV and the matter should be closed! Everyone wins!

But NO! not this celebrity couple!

Everything's a drama!

They sell the pregnancy announcement, the baby pictures, stories about their relationship and then ask for "privacy" during this difficult time in their lives!

ummm like hell we are going to give you guys privacy. You have both relished the attention for years and what now the fairytale has come unstuck you want the media to take a hike..... seriously!!!

These two need to spend some cash on purchasing a brain!

& Channel 9, this clown is going to be on your commentary team at the London Olympics later in the year. London Town + Aussie Expat Booze Fest + Grant Hackett = The next Dancing With The Stars contestant. Seriously, save time, drama and money and just dump him into the next series of the Celebrity Apprentice!

Friday 4 May 2012

The world of whinge!

I am 110% sure that I whinge just as much as the next person, however is it just me or does it seem like everyone in the world had something to whinge about?

In fact with this post I suppose I am also in a sense having a whinge about people whinging!!!

Agghhhh!!!

See we cant help it!

Lets all do the world a favour..............................

Think before you whinge!!!!!

 


Thursday 3 May 2012

All kids need a pet right?

My husband and I have spent what feels like an eternity deciding on what sort of pet to get our children. He is of the impression that all kids "need" a pet, and whilst I agree with him, I really thought in our case it would be more appropriate to wait until our children were a little bit older. Our oldest is 6 and our youngest is 14 months so I really thought maybe another 12 months would have been better timing.

BUT!

He came home from work a few weeks ago with the name of a man who owned a farm and had some kitten for sale. I was still against this, but I was fighting a losing battle so we took the drive about an hour from where we live in order to pick out a kitten.

When we arrived our girls instantly fell in love with ALL OF THEM! How were they going to chose one? We need not have worried as this cute little all grey little fur ball jumped straight into my Daughter Blaize's lap and he was THE ONE!

These past few weeks have seen me eat my words completely! My 2 older girls have been pretty much looking after "Sooty" on their own. We do its little tray every day but everything else they seem to love doing, to the point where they fight over who's turn it is to feed it.

I hope the novelty never wears off, but it is amazing to see how much love and excitement one tiny little cat can bring to the lives of 4 children. In my opinion all kids certainly need a pet of some sort!

Wednesday 2 May 2012

Disappointed..... Jessica Simpson does not give birth to Elephant.

Finally! Jessica Simpson is no longer pregnant!

Maxwell Drew Johnson has arrived weighing 9lb 13oz. A beautiful baby girl... not an elephant as previously predicted.

I am slightly disappointed as an elephant would have made such a great story. Even better than the latest story of the Octomum filing for bankruptcy! I wonder which will make front page news!!!

BOTH!

As we, the public, otherwise known as sheep, just can't get enough of this stuff!!!




Tuesday 1 May 2012

World Asthma Day 2012

Today (May 1st) is World Asthma Day and this years theme is "You can control your Asthma". Whilst I don't suffer from this condition myself, it is a condition that I have been surrounded by my whole life, as my father suffers from Asthma. In his case the condition is chronic and he has lived with this condition for his entire 54 years.

However I am very proud to say it has never stopped him doing anything in life and he is a true example of the fact that "you can control your Asthma"!

When I was 12 we took a trip around Australia and we climbed Ayres Rock together. It was a challenge for him but we did it. We also walked the entire way around the base, on the same day! He has also always played sports, gone deep sea diving, he enjoys fishing and gets up at the crack of dawn every morning to spend an hour walking. Asthma is merely an after thought in his every day life.

There have been a few times in my life when he has been hospitalized with a serious attack, but those times are becoming few and far between and to be honest I can't even remember a time in the past ten years where that has happened.

My dad is certainly proof that controlling your Asthma can have an extremely positive effect on your life!