It's time for a ramble-pamble blogpost!
Our medicals were couriered off yesterday, they should arrive in a few days (Fridayish), and then it should take a few days for processing and sending to DIAC, and then we are completely at their mercy!
Time is slow. It's a transition time. G and I were chatting Monday about 'waiting' for a change in circumstances. My point is that since we cannot enjoy where we are now (as in, living and working, and basically 'where' in life generally), we should wait and tolerate until we are in a better situation. He says not to think of it as waiting. My only consolation is that we're waiting and that this isn't how it'll be forever.
I recently discovered a new flavour of a type of chips we have here. Simba Twistees - chicken flavour. They taste EXACTLY THE SAME as Willards Flings did in the late 80s/early 90s. The taste brought such a rush of memories! Back in those days, when my sis and I were small, we'd go visit Gran. In those days, it seemed like a long trip, but in reality it isn't far at all. The skewing of distance-perception is perhaps caused by being small (when even the shortest wait is an eternity), having a very slow and sluggish diesel merc, and a father who did not believe in driving fast anyway even if the car was capable of high speeds (we never drove over about 100kmph, even on the freeway).
Anyway, we used to visit Gran, and on some occasions, we'd take Gran with us to the shopping mall near to her house. In those days, it was more 'respectable' than it is now. The place is very dingy and dirty nowadays. In those days, however, it was exciting and we looked forward to going there. There used to be a centre-court on the ground floor, with the floor above being opened above, and all the way around the railings above they used to have a racehorse themed display - the mall is close to a racecourse. There used to be an amazing toy shop there, with EVERY kind of toy you could imagine, it even had a model-train set running in the window, if I recall correctly.
There also used to be a sweetshop there, a proper sweetshop, not a 'kaffee' like those we had at home. When we went there, we usually got a prepacked selection of treats: an animal-shaped plastic bottle of cooldrink, a straw filled with sugar (or was it sherbet?), a lollipop, a small bar of chocolate, a small packet of chips, and a few odd sweets in a little packet. The chips were usually Willards Flings, and the flavour was so distinctive. They are not flavoured now as they were then, but these Simba Twistees - wow!
Talking about those chips though, I am considering emailing the company that makes them, addressing their marketing department: stereotyping IS NOT CUTE!
Putting messages on the packaging of products addressing MOMS! and telling them how, since they know how important it is that their family eats right/has clean clothing, they know how good the product is, IS NOT AMUSING! It goes for any company, in fact, not merely food/cleaning products. Do they not CARE that the world doesn't necessarily work in the archaic way that they picture it does? There ARE in fact single men out there who eat breakfast too, and sometimes (gasp!) wash their own clothes! Cooking and cleaning is not the exclusive domain of mothers.
There is a sauce we used on Friday - Knorr something or other. On the back of each sachet (they were the same flavour - the other flavours had a different one) was an insipid 'tale', supposedly penned by a mother who was delighted when her kid came and showed her his tooth which had fallen out, while she was preparing sauce for supper. Seriously, that sort of story is relevant to what percentage of the population exactly? What has it got to do with cook-in sauce? Would the packaging lose anything by NOT having a stereotyping message printed on it? I doubt it. Nestle earns my thanks (at least on a box of Multi-Grain Cheerios), because although they mention 'caring about your family's health', they don't imply that it is a mother's responsibility by addressing their packaging messages to mothers. I am SURE that G and I are not alien in that he usually cooks and we both clean. Seriously, can the world not move beyond stereotypes? Isn't it a bit propagandaist? A subversive way of normalising, by sending messages via a low-profile (and unmonitored?) sub-section of the media, the view that women are the ones who should be responsible for cooking and cleaning and looking after children? It is perhaps time for a world-wide campaign against it...
I recently discovered a new flavour of a type of chips we have here. Simba Twistees - chicken flavour. They taste EXACTLY THE SAME as Willards Flings did in the late 80s/early 90s. The taste brought such a rush of memories! Back in those days, when my sis and I were small, we'd go visit Gran. In those days, it seemed like a long trip, but in reality it isn't far at all. The skewing of distance-perception is perhaps caused by being small (when even the shortest wait is an eternity), having a very slow and sluggish diesel merc, and a father who did not believe in driving fast anyway even if the car was capable of high speeds (we never drove over about 100kmph, even on the freeway).
Anyway, we used to visit Gran, and on some occasions, we'd take Gran with us to the shopping mall near to her house. In those days, it was more 'respectable' than it is now. The place is very dingy and dirty nowadays. In those days, however, it was exciting and we looked forward to going there. There used to be a centre-court on the ground floor, with the floor above being opened above, and all the way around the railings above they used to have a racehorse themed display - the mall is close to a racecourse. There used to be an amazing toy shop there, with EVERY kind of toy you could imagine, it even had a model-train set running in the window, if I recall correctly.
There also used to be a sweetshop there, a proper sweetshop, not a 'kaffee' like those we had at home. When we went there, we usually got a prepacked selection of treats: an animal-shaped plastic bottle of cooldrink, a straw filled with sugar (or was it sherbet?), a lollipop, a small bar of chocolate, a small packet of chips, and a few odd sweets in a little packet. The chips were usually Willards Flings, and the flavour was so distinctive. They are not flavoured now as they were then, but these Simba Twistees - wow!
Talking about those chips though, I am considering emailing the company that makes them, addressing their marketing department: stereotyping IS NOT CUTE!
Putting messages on the packaging of products addressing MOMS! and telling them how, since they know how important it is that their family eats right/has clean clothing, they know how good the product is, IS NOT AMUSING! It goes for any company, in fact, not merely food/cleaning products. Do they not CARE that the world doesn't necessarily work in the archaic way that they picture it does? There ARE in fact single men out there who eat breakfast too, and sometimes (gasp!) wash their own clothes! Cooking and cleaning is not the exclusive domain of mothers.
There is a sauce we used on Friday - Knorr something or other. On the back of each sachet (they were the same flavour - the other flavours had a different one) was an insipid 'tale', supposedly penned by a mother who was delighted when her kid came and showed her his tooth which had fallen out, while she was preparing sauce for supper. Seriously, that sort of story is relevant to what percentage of the population exactly? What has it got to do with cook-in sauce? Would the packaging lose anything by NOT having a stereotyping message printed on it? I doubt it. Nestle earns my thanks (at least on a box of Multi-Grain Cheerios), because although they mention 'caring about your family's health', they don't imply that it is a mother's responsibility by addressing their packaging messages to mothers. I am SURE that G and I are not alien in that he usually cooks and we both clean. Seriously, can the world not move beyond stereotypes? Isn't it a bit propagandaist? A subversive way of normalising, by sending messages via a low-profile (and unmonitored?) sub-section of the media, the view that women are the ones who should be responsible for cooking and cleaning and looking after children? It is perhaps time for a world-wide campaign against it...
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