News and Blog

By Heidi Soholt

Nearly didn’t make it tonight – feel like I’ve been running around the place like a whirling dervish and am getting some distinctly swollen throat glands too……not to mention the sheer joy of contracting conjunctivitis from my one-year-old – it’s alright for her, she doesn’t need eye makeup!!!! The bed was looking an extremely inviting prospect about half an hour ago, but I’ve bucked myself up (with the help of a Creme Egg) and will soldier on with the weekly blog.

However, I guess that anyone who, like me, is feeling sorry for themselves in this freezing, dreary, bug ridden, a***e end of winter, need only take a look Down Under to get some real perspective. My dad, who lives in Tasmania (yes that is part of Australia), has thankfully not been affected by the devastating fires which have pretty much wiped out communities in parts of Victoria and South Australia. I read a harrowing account from a survivor which graphically described the unbelievable horror of staring Mother Nature full in the face. There literally was nothing he could do to escape the wall of flames descending on his home – only the fact that he had earlier moved his car away from the building meant that he and his family survived. Another, displaying the fact that the famous Australian dry wit survives just about anything, was quoted as saying “Fire plan? The only plan we had was ditch the fire plan and run.”

Dad wrote in his most recent email that the whole country has had unusually severe weather conditions this year. Queensland in the north has experienced floods so bad that crocodiles have been swimming along roads and in parks. The east has been so hot that crops like potatoes have been literally baking in the ground. And little Tassie, to the south, has had huge storms, with trees down everywhere. So, while we all complain about our weather – spare a thought for the poor Aussies. It does make you wonder whether their favourite ‘whingeing Poms’ phrase actually had a point…..

Anyways, the weather here today was glorious. Sparkling snow on the ground and eye-wateringly blue skies. I took my toddler into town for a bit of mooching and we had a fine old time of it. She has taken a recent dislike to her buggy and insisted, in her very commanding one-year-old way, that she would walk home. She is quite a good walker for her age but progress was slow on account of her stopping by every lamppost to give it a hug. Weird. She also likes to pick up litter and then hurl it down on the pavement when she’s finished examining it. It gets a bit tedious having to find a bin for every bit of rubbish she’s taken an interest in, but it’s also very embarrassing to have people tutting at you as though you’re bringing up the world’s biggest litter-bug when you don’t. Any ideas? Much appreciated.

The toddler has also perfected the art of escapology. Recently she’s got to grips with the zip on her sleeping bag and, having taken it off, realised that she’s much more agile when not wearing it. This has prompted some daring escapes from her cot – including hurling herself from it after we had removed a chair in a bid to stop her climbing out. So, being a clever sort of mummy (even though I do say it myself – someone has to) I came up with a cunning solution – reverse her sleeping bag so that the zip was on the back. She’d never manage to escape from that – ha ha ha – well she did. How she did it will remain a lifelong mystery, but I stumbled in to her room at seven this morning to find not only one disrobed toddler desperately trying to fling her leg over the top of the bars, but also one very dirty nappy tangled among the remains of her sleeping bag. Nice.

On that note I shall relieve you of my tales of woe. I hope I haven’t put too much of a dampner on your week, but if I have, you could always cheer yourself up by buying some bright, cheery vinyl labels from Labels4Kids – enough to chase even the dullest February clouds away.

By Ann-Maree Morrison

I must say I have also been thinking a lot about Australia with the fires near my home town.  All my family are still in Melbourne and there are some horrific reports.  It amazed me how long it took to hit the news headlines in the UK given that it is miles worse than the Ash Wednesday fires back in the 1990s and has been the worst disaster ever in Australia with over 1000 homes destroyed and over 200 dead.  A friend from France emailed to ask if everyone was ok atleast a week before it hit the headlines in Britain where we were all caught up on the snow down in England, 

I don’t think people in the UK can really relate to what it is like to be near such a thing as a large bushfire. I remember once as a child travelling to Geelong one evening with my dad and sister from Melbourne (the other side of Port Phillip Bay) and we were caught near a large bushfire and were turned back to Melbourne by the firefighters.  The whole sky goes black from the smoke and the heat is unbelievable. It is the scariest thing to be in the middle of the day and have the sky black as black and the smell of burning in the air and not be able to put down your windows on the car because of the smoke choking the air. The slow journey back to Melbourne was quite scary knowing the speed the fires can travel and how they can turn at any time and go the other way. 

I also remember the Ash Wednesday fires and being at school which has almost two hours away from the fires but even so there was ash and soot 2 inches thick on all the window sills and all over the corridors. 

Australians are very used to bushfires and also to arsonists finding it a thrill to light fires on high fire ban days. What is the saddest though about this one is that it has been so hot for so long and there has been a drought for 10 years now in Victoria, hardly any water in the reservoirs …and yet some nutters still decide to light a few more for fun! Very sad people and so they should be charge with murder if they ever catch them.

My sister emailed a sad photo of a poor koala who survived all the fires and was holding hands with a fire fighter who was feeding him water from a waterbottle to help.  One of the lucky ones with thousands of indigenous animals having been killed too.  Poor things.

On a positive note the Aussis will rebuild and soldier on. Aussis are very determined, so lets hope that everyone that has survived gets their homes, schools and offices back up in action very very soon. It is just so sad of all the lost personal belongings, photos, toys, you name it all in ashes.

On a more positive note all my friends and family are safe and the fires are getting under control for now.  Also we had a positive day here at Labels4Kids. Sarah and I managed to source a great new product for everyone and we call them press and click name tags. They are great solutions for socks and for outdoor clothing.  Name tags or name labels that have press and click fasteners to attach them to the clothing. We are even going to sell the press and click fasteners separately so you can use them with our woven sew on clothing labels as well. A big thank you to a customer who recommended we try this fantastic new idea which she says are tried and tested in the boarding school and are wonderful.

Another successful and productive day – time to put my larangitis to bed soon I think! Atleast I have a bed to go to.