Monthly Archives: July 2011

Current TV Viewing

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Freya has got a new favourite cartoon character: Scooby Doo. As far as I know there is no Scooby Doo revival at her school, so I assume she likes it because…well, she likes it. Whilst it is not in the same league as the wonderful choice of (peaceful) children’s programs offered on Bolibompa, it is a far cry from the irritating cartoons shown on Cartoon Network, which constantly blare out explosions, discordant music and high pitched screaming.

With Freya’s earlier favourite programs (Teletubbies, Dora The Explorer and Charlie and Lola) she has at least one piece of related merchandise; however, we have nothing of Scooby Doo and the gang at home, and neither has Freya asked. Perhaps it has something to do with the lack of merchandise available. Or simply that we have not bought anything for her 🙂

Hello Kitty, although not having her roots in TV or comics, is everwhere at the time of writing, with a myriad items available for purchase. Every other girl at nursery school has some piece of HK apperaI and the big clothes shops seem to stock a never ending flow. For the boys, Spiderman is the height of fashion – No gender bias there, then.

How retro-cool, then, it would be for Freya to start wearing a Scooby Doo t-shirt to school. I think I might try and track one down for Christmas, if her interest has not waned.

Freya’s Wishlist

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Freya has been quite excited about her upcoming birthday, and had long ago written a wishlist. Items include:

  • stick insect
  • laptop
  • perler beads
  • make up
  • books
  • scooter
  • Zhu Zhu Pets playset(s)
  • Littlest Pet Shop stuff
  • ice cream machine
  • sweet machine
  • Pokemon
  • Moxie Girl
  • Hello Kitty bag
  • Sim card for her phone

Most of the above items are the kind of thing that any child over the last twenty years might wish for, but I’m not sure how many would desire a stick insect. In all fairness, she has been asking for a pet for a year now, and at least a stick insect will not last for an eternity. Jo will probably not be allergic to it, either.

We have bought her a laptop. Thankfully we got hold of a pretty snazzy second hand computer, refurbished and, by the look of it, new. It didn’t cost so much (hoorah!) and is actually a fair bit more powerful than the computer that Jo and I have. She will love it. So will we, when she goes to bed.

The Price Of Communication

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My hand-me-down mobile phone is reaching the end of its life. The screen is deteriorating to the point where the scratches interfere, and, worst of all, it switches to camera mode whenever it feels like it, draining the battery very quickly.

I have made a cursory search for its replacement, and have been captured by a relatively unknown model (in Sweden, anyway): the ZTE Blade. As mobiles go, it has relatively high end specs, but only costs 1300 crowns (currently about 150 Euros). Which got me thinking.

This is an absurd amount of money when I think about it. I am a lite user, having maybe four or five people whom I regularly text or speak to; I do not have enough alone time to listen to music, and when I do I take my iPod shuffle for its ease of use; And we bought a compact camera recently to take with us on outings. So, is it really worth the money?

It probably will be. There are many apps and some interesting games to download. We invested in a DS lite a few months ago, after Jo’s DS finally gave up the ghost, and I don’t play that as frequently as I would like. The prices of the DS and the ZTE are similar, with the ZTE being more than a gaming machine. Plus, it’s a new area of technology I have yet to explore, which arouses my curiousity no end.

The only real problem is, as always, money. Currently we do not have the funds for me to splash out on a new mobile, regardless the condition of my ageing mobile. Maybe I will be lucky, and this year’s commision for the books that I have co-written will be enough to allow me the luxury of a new purchase.

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Three Years Old (and a few weeks, now)

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Our beloved daughter, Zelda, is now three years old. And very conscious of the fact, too.

She has stopped wearing a nappy at night time, much to our delight. The whole process went quickly and smoothly after we forgot to put one on her one night recently. Since then we have not bothered, and she has only had one accident during the last ten days or so. The only down side to the story is that we had just bought a new packet of nappies (hardly the cheapest consumeable), which are now gathering dust in the bedroom.

Her speech has also developed, and I am of the opinion that she shifts between English and Swedish far more easily and often than Freya did at that age. Though I could be wrong, and I do not trust my memory.