Griffin saves the day as Tinker-Balls

My boys have been volunteering (via Scouts) to assist at the Rotary Noddy Christmas Parties for the past 3 years now. They are usually Clowns or  Goblins - who play with the kids, provide entertainment and help with various things (fetching and carrying, handing out food, sweets, ice-creams etc.) It's a great way to do some community service and charity-type work, but it is also great fun for them. My boys attended the 'Uncle Paul's' parties (very similar and same format but at Groot Constantia) when they were little, so it is nice to be able to 'give back' and help to create that magic for other kids now.

Last year Griffin was selected to be NODDY for the 3 nights he helped. Which meant he was one of the stars of the show and got to drive up front in the Noddy car etc. and of course the little kids just love him - well until Father Christmas arrives anyway...

   

This is another friend from scouts as Noddy below, but gives and idea of what it is all about... 

Both my boys did their duties last Thursday with Quinn a Goblin and Griffin being Noddy again. Last night Quinn had a party to attend so only Griff helped. When I went to collect him at 21:30 there was a lady waiting for me in the parking lot. She asked if I could go around back with her.

I was like 'Okaaay...?'
She went on to say, 'Don't worry Griff is ok... but I just want to show you how we traumatised him.'
   
Wait, WHAT!?

Anyway we went around the back of the building and there all the rotary adults were having a braai and drink after the show and toasting Griffin 'or Foddy'* as they were calling him for being the star and saviour of the day. Then I saw he was covered in sparkly glitter.

What happened was he performed as Noddy and then the fairy (who is quite important to the script on the night and is needed to usher in Father Christmas, turn of the lights and hand out the sweetie packets did not show up, so they were in a complete pickle. They asked Griffin to be the fairy and he was willing to oblige. So they dressed him up as a girl and sent him out as the fairy! Now normally the fairy is a little ballerina girl in a  tu-tu.. I think Griff looked more like a Christmas Tree topping angel!

Apparently he did very well, but is not all that lady-like, sitting with his legs open and instead of waving his wand gracefully to turn the lights out, wielded it more like a Harry-Potter spell wand.

   
Apparently the Father Christmas slipped in a few little jokes during the course of the evening, like "Oh here's my fairly 'Tinker-balls!' "

Anyway, I was so chuffed that he was prepared to be cooperative and helpful and to not be hung up about 'dressing like a girl' (Quinn probably would have been.) It was so cute to see him the centre of attention afterwards and high-fiving all these grown men who were in admiration.

He was rewarded for his help by being given about 3 slabs of chocolate and a whole milk tart to take home.

I have asked them to send me photos, I'll share some if they do!

*Foddy = Noddy+Fairy

 

Dilemma - who gets to go to the Awards Event Gala Dinner?

So as mentioned my team was nominated and made it to the finals of the Recognition Awards at work for 'Best Team'.

There are 18 of us. 17 testers and myself as manager.We have been told that a total of 13 can attend. My boss - head of our division, our nominator, myself & 10 of the testers.

So if you had a team of 17 in the finals for a Team Award, and only 10 are invited to attend the award ceremony gala event dinner. How would you chose who gets to go and who can't?!  

First thing I did was send out an email with voting options:

- YES. Pick me. PICK ME!

- Maybe - I wouldn't mind going.

- No - I'll be washing my hair that night.

True to form, I have pretty much all 'Pick me!'s and just a small few saying they'll stand down if they have to but would actually love to go. Which then caused a spontaneous and united anarchistic 'all for one and one for all', 'all or nothing' 'united we stand' 'no one gets left behind' stance where they've decided if they can't ALL attend then none want to go.

Aaai.

Now I respect and admire that stance and THAT is exactly why this team IS Team Awesome and is such a good and strong and cohesive team. But the fact is we'll be farting against thunder. This is a big corporate and rules are rules and our team is fairly large and fact is we need 'representatives' at the event and my boss has said I mustn't take this on and fight for it. We have fought and worked so hard to be recognised and rewarded (as relative outsiders to the rest of the company) that now that we ARE being notices we shouldn't look to be difficult, demanding, ungrateful etc.

So I have explained to the team that we have to pick 10. And the award/prize will absolutely be for the entire team - not being there does not imply not winning or not being part of the team/win - and it doesn't have to be divisive. 

But what would you do and how would you chose...?

- On merit?

- Length of Service?

- Random Draw?

- Democratic Vote?

What I have done is draw up a spreadsheet with categories for:

Length of Service, receiving Nominations in our recent company awards, submitting Nominations in our recent company awards, and then who WANTS to go. Each is weighed into 4 segments with a number assigned to each.

I have tabulated and ranked accordingly. The answer is then scientific and in the maths. 

What do you think does that sounds objective and fair enough?

Would you be happy if it was you and it was done that way?

MY Team are OMEM IT Award Finalists!

I just found at that my Test Team aka 'Team Awesome' not only got nominated but also made it into the finals in the OMEM IT Recognition Awards for Best Team!

There were a total 5 teams nominated, and 2 teams are in the finals. So we have a 50-50 chance of winning it!

The winners are going to be announced at a Gala Dinner event at the end of Jan 2014. :)

My team ROCKS! 

Go

Quinn's Gr 7 Farewell

As Quinn rapidly nears the end of Grade 7 – his final year of junior school – excitement is mounting for the big farewell.

 

It seems the school goes all out to provide a big farewell for them in the form of a formal themed dinner with the parents (or in my case parent – can you believe I have been doing this 100% single-parent gig for 5 years now!?) anyway the big reveal of what they were going to be doing was made a couple of weeks ago when a big carnival arrived at school in the form of the teachers and entire Grade 6 class dressed up in Rio Carnival theme to deliver the invite to the boys.

The gallery of photos from this is HERE.  A video is HERE.

The invites were personalised 'Plane Tickets' and 'Passports' complete with 'Visas'. They went to so much effort. I am hugely impressed!

 

I can't wait for the big event when I get to take my big boy on our trip to the 'Rio Carnival'!!

3 Pet Peeves

Just for today, cos I am PMSing like nobody's business.

When there are like 12 toilet stalls in a row, why for the love of god do 2x consecutive people have to come and use the one right NEXT to mine, when ALL the others are free?? WHY!? Especially since I went in there to 'escape' the world for a short while...

Why when you want to be left alone does everyone feel the need to comment on everything you do? I bought a lunch-box of frozen soup to work yesterday. I had half for lunch yesterday and half for lunch today. So I just get it warmed up and come to my desk, and guy comes up to me. 

'Oh what are you eating..?'

'Soup'

'Are you on some kind of soup diet?'

'No, I am just having soup for lunch'

'You eat soup every day'

'No. I had soup yesterday and I am finishing it today. I last had soup about 2 months ago.' (Now fuck off so I can eat my soup!)

Finally. My phone rings, so I answer clearly and politely: 

'Hello. Jane speaking'

'Hello, can I speak to Jane.'

'JANE speaking, that's why I said 'Hello, Jane speaking'!' (Fucktard!)

Ok, vent over.

Feel free to add your own!

Scott Adams - Fall from Grace and other Internet whoring

I used to really really admire Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame)*. I rated him as one of the most intelligent and insightful people of our time.

Sadly, as I have read his blog consistently over the past few years he has revealed himself to be a self-serving, self -promoting narcissistic capitalist.  He only ever does anything for fame/attention/money and is inflammatory and self-righteous at the same time.

Not very attractive qualities and not very admirable either.

I am over him completely.

On that note I also have no respect or admiration for the 'nominate/vote for me' blog begging either. Or the trite and vacuous claims to LOVE products endorsements and give-ways when freebies are given for free blog advertising. Seriously those plastic flip files are pretty pedestrian, I can't see how anyone's life was changed by those. BORING! *yawn*

vent over.

* I won't bother to link to any of his sites, since he doesn't deserve any more attention and has enough whoring of himself on the internet already.

Max the Cat - 2 years on

Griffin got Max the Cat for his birthday 2 years ago.

Max is a big, fluffy, friendly and fairly affectionate guy. He is very relaxed and easygoing  He is also pretty lazy. He'll lounge around our yard, and if he feels the urge to play will rough and tumble with Roxy a little bit. He never bothers to venture out of our yard, and I have never seen him fighting with any other cats - or even chasing a bird for that matter. he is a home boy and likes his easy and simple life from what I can tell.

He is a lovely cat and I like having him around.

It is hard to get a photo of him, as he doesn't stay still or keep his eyes open for the camera. But this was him being loving with Griff the other day. As you can see he is not a small boy!

Griffin's 12th & Crown Birthday

It was Griffin's 12th Birthday on 12 November. So it was his CROWN BIRTHDAY. Something he was quite excited about.

He got a PC as his birthday gift, which he was quite pleased with. We decided to do a small and personal but fun party this year - he didn't have a party last year, instead we did have a full day of fun activities as a family  - as he has recently made some new friends and we wanted to include them in his birthday celebrations.

He chose the Muizenberg waterslides. It really is a winner venue for a party. It is so easy to host a party there and reasonably cheap;y too, as the entrance fee is not high, the kids stay entertained for ages, so much so that catering can be minimal because they barely stop long enough to eat or drink. And all the kids are guaranteed to be pooped afterwards!

This year I also decided I was not going to spend hours and hour making the cake. I do like doing the cake myself, as it's part of how I celebrate and commemorate their birthdays and express my love and care for them. But I just did not have the 5-6 hours on hand that last year's Angry Birds cup cakes took. Instead I kept it simple and did a plain vanilla-sponge (I bought a piece of the pre-baked slabs Pick 'n Pay makes... best tip ever!) and then iced it myself with blue butter-cream icing to make water and stuck on some jelly sharks and hey-presto, cake done. Griff gave it his approval and we were all happy!

We had 12 boys and my sister and her little just turned 3-year-old munchkin at the party. It was no trouble at all for me to single handedly cater, supervise and entertain on my own. Even able to lounge in the sun with my feet up half the time!

I was pleased that the boys polished off nearly all the food and guzzled most of the cake too, declaring it delicious!

Another successful party done.