Wee Willie Winky!

Brew of the day: Chamomile ~ to soothe away life’s little irritations…
A life lived with integrity - even if it lacks the trappings of fame and fortune is a shining star in whose light others may follow in the years to come.
Denis Waitley


The girls and I have spent a lot of time at the local pool this week, what with all this fabulous weather! Expecting about 28C today…perfect for this little hot-house plant but strangely not hot enough for me to actually get into the pool. This morning Paul is having his turn there with the girls and I’ll go finish tidying up the garden.

Our nearest pool is in the next village about 2 miles from here so usually the girls ride their bikes and I walk briskly. I was actually really enjoying going there in the late afternoons and having our salad dinner there…but a few things have happened this week to suggest to me that it probably isn’t the best time of the day to be there!

As it is a community venture it appears to me that no-one is really in charge. Volunteers come in the evening to clean the changing room and collect money from the honesty box, but as for supervisors and lifeguards, it’s a no-go zone.

Some may think I’m a ‘contradiction’ in that I believe in freedom (free range kids, for example) but also I am quite clear on boundaries and installing rules if need be.

At Hunsonby Swimming Pool, which serves several nearby villages, there appear to be no rules of any sort to keep kids safe. There is one sign saying ‘no diving’ but that is clearly ignored by both the children and the parents who attend with them.

What’s concerned me is that all the teenage boys who dive-bomb seem to have no awareness for the different skill levels of the kids that they jump in next to. Not all kids have the ability to cope with being dunked. And all the kids seem to run full speed along the wet cement. Often the dive bombing is very close to the edge of the pool. Call me a control freak, but there is a fatality waiting to happen. But it seems I’m the only one sitting on the edge of my seat (well, grass actually) when all this happens or when little kids who stand next to the edge of the pool are pushed in by surprise. I KNOW it is all meant in good fun but there just seems to be no awareness for safety.

Bethany ended up having her nose thwacked during a dive bomb incident and screaming somewhat with her nosebleed.

Now, being an Aussie girl, I can’t say that I don’t swear, however the boys at that pool make me look positively saintly! Truth is I don’t want my young daughters thinking it is ‘normal’ for people to go around calling each other ‘you f***** c**t’. This is public area and something as basic as not swearing should be enforced.

To top it all off was when a thickly-set boy of maybe 7 or 8 years old (at the most) recognised Eliza from the documentary and started thumping her in the back; dive bombing her and yelling at her that he was going to kill her ~ that she ‘was dead’.

All the parents just turned a blind eye to this. One girl came up to me and said ‘he’s a bully, you just have to ignore him’. I mentioned this boy to a couple of the mums there and their attitude was the same ~ he’s a bully, just ignore him. But no-one is prepared to actually create a safe place for the 30 – 40 other kids who go to the pool. Is this the way of society? That we let our kids become even more cruel and nasty lest we infringe on ‘their rights’? I can see where it is heading.

I kept telling my girls to stay away from him but the Little Thug was like a bee to honey.

Eventually I asked who was the mother of this boy and when she appeared, fag in hand, black teeth, she more or less dismissed me and said she was taking him home anyway. She was soooooooooo not interested in hearing me ‘assertively’ say he was ruining it for other kids and that his behaviour was unacceptable.

Little Thug was NOT going to be taken home and kept running back into the pool. He knew she was powerless. She wasn’t getting in the water so he used this opportunity to do some more thumping (of my daughter). By this stage I was ready to jump in, clothes and all!! Tolerance level now at zero. Growl.

A teenage boy helped to get him out and while the thug kept yelling to Eliza ‘you’re dead’, his mother yanked his arm out of his socket and dragged him to a seat. When she had him sitting down he started eating a chocolate bar ~ and this is the really strange (dysfunctionally SAD) bit, he kept eating while she continuously slapped him around the head with one hand and yanking one arm with her other hand. Clearly he was ‘used’ to it and it probably explains why he didn’t flinch or respond to any of her ‘discipline’. As pissed off as I was with him, I can’t help feeling sad that he and so many other kids grow up with this sort of treatment every day.

If we look to the Yequanna (as written about in Jean Leidloff’s wonderful book The Continuum Concept) I believe we find a model of ideal society. It is rare that anyone in their society acts like Little Thug, but if they do they are separated from everyone else until they are ready to be part of the harmony which exists. I believe this boy would learn very quickly about co-existence if we applied the Yequanna ideals.

When I recounted the story to Paul he asked me who the boy reminded me of.

Geoffrey Purdham!

I’ll write about Geoffrey in another blog. In a nutshell, he’s a farmer in the next village who farmed land adjacent to an orchard we had. He’s a bully known for miles around who met his match with me…As Paul so ‘kindly’ tells people when introducing me, ‘this is Veronika and she doesn’t take s*** from anyone!’.

Well, after a childhood of bullying, I make no apologies for knowing what is acceptable and what isn’t.

Meanwhile back at the pool, at a different time of day, there were just a bunch of toddlers (with mums of course!). Talk about good contraception. Toddlers are so busy, aren’t they!?? Beats me how I ever got through life with two toddlers. Sheesh.

Anyway, one of the mums was telling her boy it was time to go and to come and dry his WINKIE.

What is it with women in this country giving their boys a name for their penis which will do nothing for the self-esteem or respect for that part of their anatomy? I’ve heard all sorts of names over the years and they all seem to represent something weak and insipid!

Widgi, willie, todger, winkle, tiddler, wormy, winkie…

Sorry, but I can’t say I’d want a winkie or a wormy near me!

All the good mums at the pool liberally use suntan lotion on their kids’ skin. They’re GOOD mums, unlike me!

Yesterday on local radio, our esteemed announcer very kindly and ever-so-caringly begged his listeners to put on sunscreen when they went out that afternoon.

So when I emailed to tell him off for encouraging ‘poisoning’ he was quick to stick me in THAT basket…you know, the one where you put the Veronikas of the world…the people who say things which cut straight through all the propaganda and other bullshit subsidised by various industries.

So here’s something straight from the scientists (rather than from me). Fish all around the world are changing gender and it most often happens near sewage outlets. Why? Because the huge quantities of the chemical oxybenzone found in sunscreens are washed off bodies in showers and pass through the sewage into the sea. There are alarmingly high levels of octocrylene and 4 methylbenzylidene camphor (in sunscreens and lip balms) in gender-bent fish. And not only are you putting this crap on your skin, but if you eat fish you’re receiving these chemicals again!

The skin is our largest organ. We should never put anything on it that we aren’t prepared to eat. Use a cold or stone pressed-oil if you want to lubricate your skin but NEVER sunscreen lotion.

When coming out of the winter months, build your resistance to the sun slowly. Use common sense, that's why we were given a brain! If you’re fair haired and skinned, then use a wide brimmed hat and cool, loose, long clothing. Make use of the shade.

Norwegian researches have shown a dramatic increase in skin cancers despite no increase in the ozone layer there in the last 30 years. The increase in sunscreen products, however, is huge. See any link?

Finally, I would also say that our nutrition plays a huge role in our susceptibility to skin cancer. We need to eat chlorophyll-rich plants which helps to protect from ultra violet radiation.

Studies show that a diet high in cooked fat and processed foods leads to skin cancer. When the body is polluted with waste, it pushes toxins out through the skin. If it doesn’t get eliminated then it gets FRIED and it mutates when exposed to the sun’s rays. (read this again)

It’s time we all woke up and realised that skin cancer isn’t CAUSED by the sun but by what we ingest…whether that ingestion is via the skin through sunscreen poisons or internally via processed foods and OUT of the skin.

So, stick me in that fruitcake basket if you like Mr DJ. I’ll stick to my dark green leafy vegetables and lack of sunscreen and enjoy this gorgeous, glorious weather knowing it will nourish me and that Nature’s gift of Vitamin D will allow my body to metabolise calcium and phosphorus and to convert dietary calcium into bone.

Right, my garden awaits!

See you next week, same time, same channel :-)))))

~ Veronika ~

"In matters of style, flow with the current, in matters of principle, stand like a rock," said Thomas Jefferson.