Okay it's a bit late, but what other way to say Merry Christmas beats a animatronic hip hop dog just plain getting jiggy? Nothin' that's what!



Thanks to my sister who bought this little fella at the post Christmas sales for a measly $5! Yeah, I'm not sure if that's value or not, but it fills my last post for the year, since I don't have an animatronic elephant dancing to "Auld Lang Syne" to ring in the new year.

Catch you on the flip side - 2009!

 

I mentioned the pond in my backyard a couple of posts ago & there have been a few revelations since as to the various creatures residing there.

I heard a faint splash one night a while back & thought I might have finally discovered the leak which is plaguing my water bills. After spending a considerable amount of time with a torch, scanning the edges of the pond, I finally discovered a frog laying eggs.

A couple of nights later, I managed to find both the mother & father of the litter sitting on the edge.





The male of this pair makes a sound similar to tapping quickly on wood, but really loud! Loud enough for me to be talking on the phone inside & having the person on the other end questioning what the background noise is!

I'm glad I had found the frogs before they started making noises because the first time I heard it in the early hours of the morning, I thought it was the ringing of some old fashioned telephone. Then it dawned on me the frogs were the culprits.

They've laid their eggs in a pile of bubbles which floats on the surface. This first batch was attacked by the goldfish, who had a great time chasing the newborns around the pond. The frogs (I thought) had learned their lesson & laid more eggs in the second pond without the threat of fish. It seems though that ants love the taste of taddies & made quite elaborate paths across the plant life to get to the eggs. Most seem to have survived though & are thriving.



The frogs went back to the first pond to lay a third batch which were once again devoured by the goldfish. So it seems I'd given too much credit in thinking they'd worked out where to safely lay their eggs!

Both frogs disappeared for a week or so, but now the male is back making a racquet & hoping for another female to hop on by.

If the noise of one frog is anything to go by, if all these tadpoles grow up, I could be in a bit of trouble. Might have to find a French restaurant in the area & make a bit of money!! (No, I wouldn't really!!)

 

I don't pretend to know how all this shit starts & if ignorance is bliss, well, I'm just happy to go along ignoring as much as I can.

Unfortunately, some of the crud gets through the cracks & sends me troppo with rage, but that's okay, because someone found me a really good excuse!

Apparently, I'm traumatised due to teachers using red pen to mark my schoolwork back in the 80's. According to the Queensland Health Department, the colour "Red" can be seen as aggressive & hence the mental wellbeing of students can be adversely affected. The news report is here.

A great new range of t-shirts which are appearing in stores with the letters "HTFU" sums up this whole scenario - "Harden The Fuck Up".

It all started with outlawing caning in schools, which I can understand (but that doesn't mean some of these kids shouldn't be punished in such a form!).

Then we went to the first extreme of outlawing a teacher being able to comfort a child in distress by giving them a hug. Even though the world gets a little more messed up every day, I'd be pretty confident in saying that the majority of teachers are not paedophiles getting their kicks by hugging a crying kid!

We also began to get rid of Christmas because it upset the Islamic children (according to their parents!). As far as I'm concerned, if you don't play by our rules, don't live here. I have an issue with anyone forcing their religion on anyone else & whilst I'm not a fan of the holiday season at all, if the kids enjoy a bit of tinsel & a fat guy named Santa, what's the issue. Oh, that's right... Santa say's "Ho, Ho, Ho!" which is highly offensive to Women & was to be avoided by all the Santa's sent to Australian department stores to spread the cheer.

I suppose the precursor to the Red pen scenario was the change to report cards which made teachers directly liable for the comments they made about their students. Unless a comment was constructive & positive in nature, the student & their parents could sue for slander.

Bloody Hell, I should be so messed in the head due to all the hardship I was put through during my schooling, I should have topped myself years ago!!

The irony is, the children who now get treated with kid gloves are those who are on copious amounts of depression medication, turn emo & slice themselves to relieve the pain of the real world. Yes, it's time to step back & let the current & future generations HTFU.

(Hmmm...., probably shouldn't have Googled "emo" because I found a "How To".)