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Spotty McGrumpypants No More

You might remember a while ago I wrote about the little problem I had with the millions of pimples I had on my face. In summary for those who weren't paying attention - I suddenly got pimples, I went on Yasmin to help, which turned me into an irritable bitch from hell. So I was spotty and grumpy.

Well, I am pleased to report that I am now spot-free and (mostly) a lot less grumpy. I am so very pleased. It took only one month on the pill to stop the spots and to get used to the hormones.  

Just thought I would less you know.  Because I know you care. Heh.

Dear Internet

Dear Internet, I keep catching Max doing non-iPad activities like swimming, playing with water or riding his bike. I don't know what to do any more!? Please advise. 

Signed, Concerned Mother

(Yes I am taking the piss. Sorry. I will stop soon)

My children have iPads - get over it.

Warning: This is going to be a blog post about totally meaningless internet drama (albeit a small drama).  Do not read on if this type of thing bores you.

As you might know, we are a big iPad family. Before the iPad, I never used to be a big Apple fan, not for any particular reason but just because it seemed like all the trendy types had iPhones and Macs and I hate being a slave to any 'trend'. I am anti-trend. But everything about the iPad appealed to me and I decided to treat myself by buying an iPad when it came out two or three years ago.  

I loved the iPad from the minute I got it.  Before it became so popular, people used to ask me if I bought the iPad for business and I used to be honest with them - I couldn't even pretend I bought the iPad for work, it was 100% sheer pleasure.

The kids loved the iPad too, as did Marko. Soon I had to fight to get a chance on my own iPad and so I decided to get the twins their own iPad each. And then Marko wanted one too. And then I upgraded mine and we gave Adam's old one to Max and my old one to Adam.  And just like that we were a five iPad family. And we all absolutely adore our iPads.  The kids watch movies on the iPad plus play the games they each love. Kate has lots of games where you have to collect animals and feed them etc. Adam has games where you race cars. Max has games where you need to find pieces of a puzzle etc.  Plus we have loads of educational games that the kids love too. In fact, Max taught himself the entire Alphabet at two years old due to the iPad.  What I love about iTunes is that you buy the games / movies once and you can either load them all to all of the iPads or choose particular games per iPad.  Apps and movies for the kids are my absolute weakness, I have spent literally thousands on iTunes. Hello my name is Tertia and I am addicted to iTunes.  

Besides our beach bag, swimming costumes and body-boards, our iPads are our main holiday accessory.  When we were away on holiday in December, I posted a picture with a tongue in cheek caption saying: "Essential Albertyn family holiday accompaniment."  Instead of TV in the evenings they all play on their iPads for an hour or so. As do I. 

The picture was a self-depreciating joke as it makes us look like a bunch of geeks. Which we are, maybe. Well, I am. The rest of them are pretty normal.

Within a few minutes someone (who I assumes follows me on Twitter or else how would she have seen the pic?) posted a tweet saying the following:

Really?  You either don't know me at all (because if you did, you would know that my kids spend 90% of their time outside in the garden / on the beach / in the pool - have you seen how tanned they are!) or if you do know me and you still put that out there then you are a bigger troll than I thought. Also, yes that is a cowardly passive-aggressive sub tweet.

The conversation went on:

Addicted? Why would you assume from one picture (assuming you didn't know me - if so, why are you folling me on Twitter?) that my children are addicted? Also, for someone who apparently "hates judging" you are very judgy.   

And in answer to the question "why any kid under 16 (at least)" needs an iPad the answer is: no one *needs* iPad. Not me, not you. Certainly not a child. No child needs an iPad.  They also don't *need* 99% of the toys they have. My children have iPads because that is part of how we like entertaining ourselves. The other parts involve going to the beach, climbing trees, finding bugs, playing cricket and soccer etc.  

I hate how people are so quick to judge things that are not the norm or that are different to their lives. Yes my kids have iPads - why is your first assumption that having an iPad = total addiction? Believe it or not, there is such a thing as moderation and control. I have control over my children and I would not allow them to do anything to excess whether it is iPads or any other activity.

At first I thought it was amusing that someone was misinformed enough to tweet that but then it irritated me.  I suspect there may be an element of jealousy invovled too. But that isn't licence to act like a troll.  "Sub-tweet" - whatever! 

Believe me when I say that I know how fortunate I am that I am able to afford iPads for my kids. I don't take that good fortune lightly. I also know that it gets up some people's noses terribly that my kids each have their own iPad.  I know, and my kids know, how lucky we are.  Don't forget that we all have different priorities and different desires. Your desires might involve holidays / cars / clothes / eating out / whatever.  Our desires involve gadgets and electronics.  And other things too of course, but this is not a post about how much my children love the beach and how good they are at body-boarding and swimming. (they are AWESOME at it! Total beach bums.)

This post has waffled on long enough, even I am bored with it now. The main point I wanted to say (besides that the tweeter above is a total troll) is that do not assume that if a child has an iPad it means that that is all they do to the exclusion of everything else.  That is total rubbish. A child can have his or her own iPad and still spend 90% of their time playing outside.  Even I couldn't spend my whole day on my iPad and I am the biggest iPad lover ever.  A child having an iPad does NOT mean he is addicted to it.  That's just silly to assume that. 

PS if the worst thing I do is allow my kids to have an iPad then I am doing well. I have far greater flaws that could be discussed but we will leave the conversation as is ;)

PPS I don't know the person who did the judgy sub-tweet, someone who knows her sent the image to me. I still don't actually know who she is but she has admitted that she was referring to me. 

Watch 20/20 tonight (Friday 11 Jan)

20/20 did an interview with me a few months ago about the hoax - not sure whether they will use the interview or not.  But watch anyway :)

If I look like a total dork, do not feel obligated to let me know. Watching yourself on TV is cringe-worthy stuff.

"In 2012 Taryn Harper Wright, a Chicago commodities trader, used her spare time and energy to expose the Warrior Eli story — a heart-breaking case involving a boy with cancer whose mother died in an accident, with detailed descriptions and numerous photographs and Facebook pages — as a hoax perpetrated by an Ohio woman."

Watch the full story on “20/20: Faking It” Friday at 10 p.m. ET

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2013/01/warrior-eli-hoax-busters-6-tips-to-spot-online-hoax/ 

Best Christmas present by far

Best Christmas present by far - underwater cameras for the twins

Self portrait by Adam:

Kate underwater

Marko and Max

Nurse Marko Nightingale

On Wednesday night I posted this status update on Facebook:

"The glamorous side of parenting: just spent the last 2.5 hours knee deep in puke, poop, ER appointments for twins, 2x pharmacies, (super expensive) medication, puke buckets, toilet disinfections, linen changes, multiple hand washes, 1x hyperactive 3 year old plus a husband who chooses this particular moment to suggest the reason why the 3 year old is so naughty is because I am too indulgent. Having a great time, wish you were here."

It's been a shitty week at Casa Albertyn, literally and figuratively.  Adam and Kate were hit by gastro this week.  On Wednesday night I had to take them to the ER doctor and by Friday Adam still wasn't better so it was back to the doctor for him with a short hospital stay.  Both of them are thankfully recovered. But it hasn't been fun.

Marko, bless his annoying, master-of-bad-timing little cotton socks, is not a great nurse.  It is because he doesn't like to be nursed or showered with TLC when he is sick. Weakness will not be tolerated! If he is sick he will go into the bedroom and lie there, not talking or eating for 7 days until he is better*.  Me, I prefer a little bit of TLC and if not, perhaps just a smidgen of help. 

Yesterday the bug finally caught up with me - despite me washing my hands a million times a day, there was no escaping the body fluids that emanated from the kids this week (it hasn't been pretty).  So I was feeling really grotty and Marko wasn't exactly being soft and gentle.  In fact, I don't think anyone has ever used either of those words when speaking about Marko ever but you know - a little softness would be nice.

So I eventually snapped at him and told him that he must try to dig REALLY deep and see if he can actually be soft and kind.  If he thinks it is at all possible. Maybe just for like a second. 

I got to the bedroom later and saw that he had tidied the room, made the bed and laid these things out on the pillow for me - meds, iPad and aircon remote - all the things to make me feel better.  (My slippers were next to the bed).  I had to laugh.  This is Marko being soft and gentle. I'll take it. What a great nurse.

The Father Christmas? That is Marko being Marko, saying "I will be sweet, but I am not going to stop teasing you even if you are sick and a little grumpy". Actually, if those were his words he would remove the word 'little'. 

*When we first met, I took great offense to how he fobbed me off when I tried to nurse him. The first time he got sick, I made a bed by the TV, I made him tea, offered to make him toast, put a glass of water next to him, a bucket etc and I kept asking him if he was ok and whether I could do anything for him. He eventually told me to just leave him alone and he will get better shortly. I was so hurt.  TLC and nursing are clearly not his love languages. 

A little customer feedback

As I get older, I get increasingly more painful. Which is saying a lot as I am coming off a high base - I was born anal, nit-picky and intolerant of bad / surly service.  But lately I have become even worse.  I abhor bad service and I refuse to tolerate it. I am a paying customer and I demand to get the service I am paying for. I am a huge pain in the arse. But I also try to give compliments where they are due - I am known for writing letters to management if I get exceptional service from someone. And when I get bad service, I tell over a 1000 people about it - the people who read my blog every week.  So here is my week's pick of the good and the bad in customer service.

First - the bad:  Last night Marko and I went out on our 'date night', a fairly rare occurrence but one that I am trying to do on a more regular basis as I have been very, VERY bad at speaking Marko's love language lately (ever) - his love language is quality time and physical touch - my two worst things.  But I am trying. Which is why we went out for supper last night.  For our rare date night we went to Lemon Butta at Willowbridge for some sushi. We went early (so that I could get home early - am horrible date) and the restaurant was about half full with most people sitting outside.  The owner of the restaurant called our waiter over for some sort of impromptu meeting, two tables away from us and for about 10 minutes proceeded to crap on this poor guy's head about missing a shift on the weekend or something like that - he went on and on and on. In a really loud voice. I thought he was really rude to the waiter, but besides his shocking people management skills I thought it was highly inappropriate to (a) be crapping on the guy in front of all the other staff and customers and (b) be doing so just two meters away from his customers who are there to relax and enjoy a night out. It was extremely stressful and spoilt my meal. I am so irritated by it.  Hence this blog post. As Marko says, perhaps the guy had a point but he didn't have to make it so loudly and so publicly.  He has an office just up the stairs.  I felt embarrassed for our waiter. 

Another bad: If you live in Cape Town and listen to Cape Talk, you will have heard the RAM couriers ad. It is on every five minutes.  The adverts must be fairly effective as when I needed a courier the other day, I decided to look them up on the internet and give them a call. I was put on hold five times for the sales department. Eventually the receptionist must have got bored with putting me on hold and informed me that the sales department were busy at the moment (no, really?) and that they would call me back shortly. It's been 6 days. Not a single call. I have obviously used someone else.  So their advertising might be effective but their service is clearly non-existant.  

Then, the good:  This morning I did some errands with the three kids.  I took them for breakfast, I popped in at the bank, I had a meeting with my accountant.  With all three kids, two of which were acting like terrors.  I only have one well behaved child and it is the child who I least expected would be my 'easy' child.  It was stressful, to put it mildly. My last stop was to pop into Dischem to get something which I can't tell you as it is too embarrassing and you will mock me about it (it is not what you think). I could have got it elsewhere but I chose Dischem because it was the easiest to park, walk to the shop and herd all three children through the shops without having tantrums (my own).  I got to the shelf and I discovered there was none of what I was looking for on the shelf. I was so annoyed - I exclaimed out loud "Oh no! I've come all the way to get XYZ and they don't have!" and I turned around and walked away. Through the check out aisle where I had to buy everyone a cooldrink and a small sweet. Because I am a sucker.  As I was paying for 3x cooldrinks and 3x small sweeties, the packer who was packing shelves ran up to me and said "are you looking for XYZ? I have found some for you at the back of the store".  How cool is that!  It saved me a trip to another store plus my sanity.  I called the manager over and gave him feedback about the packer. The manager said they have a reward system that he will nominate the staff member for. I am really impressed.  Thanks Dischem. 

Lastly, an update:  Remember about 18 months ago I posted about a coffee shop called Silver Spoon that had charged me two bucks extra to use their condiment sauces? I stopped going there after that but about a month ago I decided to go back because their food is WAY better than the other coffee shop in the same mini mall.  Because I am fickle like that.  I did feel a little anxious about going back - maybe they had read the blog post and would now either hate me or spit in my food, or both.  But then I thought they probably don't even remember me, never mind read my piss-willy little blog.  As I sat there, I could see the manager/owner looking at me and I thought "oh fuck, they do remember me. Hope they don't have germs in their spit".  The owner came over to me and said "Hi, do you have a minute, I would like to chat to you?"  My armpits got a little sweaty but I stayed cool  and said 'no problem'.  He said "you were here a while ago and you gave us feedback about our service. I just wanted to say that we appreciate your input and since then we have made changes to the way we do things around here, so thank you very much".  Awesome! I was so impressed.  I think that is really great service - admitting when you have made a mistake and trying to improve so that it doesn't happen again. So thank you to the young man who owns Silver Spoon. I will be back.  

So, I am a pain in the arse customer, but I do try to acknowledge and support establishments that give good service. 

 

Classic Marko. Also, questions for the dog people.

Me:  I don't know what is wrong with Fluffy* lately, she is acting like such a grumpy old bitch. 

Marko (under his breath): Sounds familiar

Me:  She keeps snapping and growling at Shelley, I feel so sorry for her 

Marko (mumbles): I can relate

Me: Maybe it is hormonal. Do you think it will help if we have her spayed?

Marko (with deadpan expression): Well, I had you spayed and it made no difference to you.  I am not sure it will help.

Cheeky bugger!!  (Only part of that is true, I am 'spayed' but I am not a grumpy old bitch! Not really. And anyway, I do not growl. Often.)

Serious question for dog people - Fluffy is two years old and really has become grumpy lately.  She used to adore Shelley but now she seems a bit bipolar - one minute she loves Shelley and the next minute she wants to bite her head off. Literally.  Shelley is spayed, Fluffy is not. Do you think it will help if she is spayed? Why do you think she is acting like she has PMS lately?

Another serious question - Fluffy is a rescue dog. She was rescued from the township when she was a young puppy (8 weeks).  She has been with us for two years where she has always had plenty to eat and yet she still behaves like every meal is her last meal which someone (Shelley) might take away from her. Do you think that is just because of her personality or is it because of her origins? 

*Kate has elected herself as official 'giver of names' to all the pets.  She is not great at it, but no one is prepared to challenge her for the role.  Fluffy is the most unlikely name for the dog. Firstly, she is not at all fluffy, her coat is short and fine. Secondly, she is a mix breed pavement special with rottweiler and staffie in her. Plus a dash of German Shepard and heaven knows what else.  She looks pretty scary.  Not exactly the cute and fluffy type.

Kate and Fluffy:

The ever patient Shelley waiting at the side of the pool with the grumpy old bitch (not me this time) lurking in the background.

Apparently this is what I look like at night.

(Sitting in front of my computer shouting "it is time for bed")

PS I wouldn't have to look so cross if everyone listened the first time I issued the instruction. 

Spotty McGrumpypants

Although I have never had fabulous skin, it has been relatively pimple-free over the past 30 odd (give or take a year or two) years or so that I have been alive.  A few months ago I got a pimple around the time of my period.  Not just a tiny blemish but a full-on pimple (the one where you know you shouldn't squeeze it but you do and then you are immediately sorry as it leaves a big permanent mark on your face - that kind). 

First it was one pimple, then it was two. Then a month ago I got THREE pimples! Cause enough for concern, however what was particularly alarming was that it was nowhere near my period.  I immediately googled "Adult Acne" and discovered that I had late onset Adult Acne probably due to early menopause. Of the 475 symptoms listed on Google, I self-diagnosed 474 of them.  This was Serious.  I was obviously menopausal and maybe even dying.  With acne.  (This despite a visit to the gynae a week before who saw lots of eggs in my ovaries indicating that menopause was still a way away). Google knows best. 

I booked myself in for a slew of blood tests including: menopause screen, fasting glucose, platelets, thyroid screen, hormone levels and a cancer marker screen. Because you never know when acne might kill you.

The results all came back fine. I didn't have a thyroid disorder, I was not menopausal. I am not diabetic and I am not dying. Yet. I do however have pimples.

So I booked in to see a dermatologist. Who said that it does look a bit like adult acne (told you!!) which was probably hormonal due to my poly-cystic ovaries.  I told the dermatologist that this was obviously a very Serious situation which called for swift and proactive measures.  Apparently there are several courses of action we could take including reacutan, going on the birth control pill, trying an antibiotic or hiding out in my home and never going out again.  The last one was my suggestion.

We decided to try the pill for a few months to see whether that helps. Which means I am back on the dreadful, horrible Yasmin. I know everyone loves that pill but OMG it turns me into a grumpy, irritable bitch from hell.  It makes me SO ratty!!  I read back on my blog archives to 2005 when I last took Yasmin and I see it turned me into a bitch from hell back then too.  I am going to do my best to stick it out for another 2 months or so, but I am not sure whether anyone around me will survive.  My poor husband is bearing the brunt of my extreme irritation.   It is a hard choice I am making - risking my husband divorcing me vs getting rid of the acne.

I jest, but actually it is quite depressing getting acne. I am feeling really ugly and very self-conscious about it.  I am trying my best not to care too much, but it's hard.  No one likes to feel ugly.

I would appreciate any insights or advice anyone has on adult acne and / or going crazy on Yasmin. (My sister takes a pill call Oral-Con and she says it is wonderful - should I give Yasmin a chance for another two months and risk divorce or should I change to Oral-Con - I think my sister and I are pretty similar so if the Oral-Con works for her, it might work for me)

PS I now have 8 pimples on my face.  The Yasmin is really working well so far.

Yours in irritation and acne, 

Spotty McGrumpypants.