Daily Archives: February 27, 2009

A family of swingers

Posted by Wendy on February 27, 2009 No comments

This past week we have been spendin some time plannin how to turn the back yard into a child friendly environment for the kids to play in.

Just a quick note to mention; that space of land you have at the back of your house – we Australians call it a backyard while in the UK they call it a backgarden. In our house I won the toss and we officially have a backyard.

Arnold is rather set on getting the kids a smallish swimming pool but having grown up myself with a backyard pool I know the costs involved with these things. You need flat ground, the kids need to be able to swim, you need to invest in solid aluminum fence installation to make the pool area safe…

So we canned that idea for a while and instead we went out and bought the kids a swingset. It came in a box. In pieces. Several  pieces. ‘Easy home assembly’ said the instructions. They lied.

Eventually we got the thing put together and it looks great, the kids had a lot of fun playing on it and then…

On the box it assured us ‘endless hours of outdoor fun’. It should have read fun factor – 30 minutes’. Oh well. But it sure was a hit when Mum sat on the swing and it snapped with Mum thudding to the ground on her ***.

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.

This little boy is a Hollywood star – and his Dad beats him up.

Posted by Wendy on February 27, 2009 No comments

Millions of people are flocking to see the hit film Slumdog Millionaire - this weekend I will be one of them – and last week you would have seen the film take a glut of trophies away at the Oscars including best film.

Did you see the film’s youngest stars, ten year old Azharuddin Mohammed and Rubina Ali, all dressed up on the red carpet? they were gorgeous and that night of glamour was worlds away from the less than ideal place they call home. The slums of Mumbai.

For the past week these two children have been heralded as stars and paraded through the streets of Mumbai, you would expect that life would be nothing short of wonderful for them from now on…

Not so. Young Azharuddin has gone back to living in the ramshackle slum he shares with his parents – this is no Hollywood set believe me. This is the genuine article.

The child was savagely beaten around the head by his father yesterday when curious onlookers came to stare at the boy outside his ‘home’ – the child refused to be paraded for them by his father and so ‘Dad’ proceeded to beat the little boy around the head until complete strangers had to restrain him.

This child will probably become the family mealticket and it is so distressing to see him treated like this when just a week ago he was all smiles and glamour on the Hollywood red carpet.

I don’t care what culture these people come from, there is NO excuse for child abuse – that man is out of order and I reckon he should pick on someone his own size in future. And I hope HE gets a thump around the head for his efforts.

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.

We finally have broadband – and a lot of complaints from the gallery!

Posted by Wendy on February 27, 2009 No comments

You may have noticed we are back into the regular swing of things here; we finally have broadband installed!

Previously we had to go and sit in the car park at the local McDonalds for a couple of weeks and use their free wifi – yep, you really can get away with it – madly typing away hoping that the battery would last long enough.

My son was all excited when the three little lights on the little Linksys router suddenly started flashing the other morning, meaning that BT had done their part of the job and connected us up…three weeks late!

Now he’s not too happy as we are unable to get MSN Messenger installed – takes up too much bandwith you see. I have Windows Messenger but that’s “not cool” apparently, and I have a feeling that playing Xbox Live is not going to be on the cards either…but I haven’t got the courage to tell him that just yet.

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.