Wednesday 21 January 2009

Back to school


In this neck of the woods every retailer who has any remote relationship to the needs of school students is currently doing their "back to school" promotions. The five weeks of summer school holidays finishes next week and of course everyone wants to make a buck or three. The whole back to school thing amuses me.
Does a student really need to be fully kitted out just because the school year is starting?
Do all school shoes become miraculously too small or too worn in the second last week of December so that they need to be replaced in January?
Did every pen that worked five weeks ago stop writing?
Did the glue dry up?
Were the erasers all used and did the pencils wear to stubs in December?
Or have all the school kids been studying like crazy through the holidays, taking advantage of long hot days in order to brush up on quadratic equations?
What happened to the lunchboxes that were ok last year?
What happened to the drinkbottles and the pencil cases?
Is all of the stuff bought at this time of year intended for five year olds starting school for the first time ever?

16 comments:

  1. First.

    Nope.
    Nope.
    Nope.
    Nope.
    Nope.

    Need I go one?

    Nope.

    Love you baby!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kia ora Kylie,
    Same boat here in Aotearoa. I am sure you have asked a six year old where jis lunch might be - the look you get is like you asked him a question about quantam physics! Never mind the teen agers. Have a great day.
    Ka kite ano,
    Robb

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's just a conspiracy to get your money.

    How's Zakky?

    ReplyDelete
  4. suze,

    why were you up at that time?

    no, forget i asked.....

    xx

    ReplyDelete
  5. robb,
    i find it all fairly stomach churning really, i guess that people need to make a living but the message is all wrong.....

    as for lunches, i wonder how my lot can have an apple in their bag and "forget" it's there for so long it becomes a shrivelled shadow of it's real self!

    ciao
    k

    ReplyDelete
  6. cece,
    it is absolutely a conspiracy. they wont get my money so easily but they are doing a good job of convincing my girls of the "neccessity" of all this stuff.

    zakky still cant walk but he seems happy, he has attitude, he eats and he grooms what he can, he greets his buddy jet.
    he is in danger of flystrike in this heat but altogether, with good care, i think he is ok for the short term at least.
    it's a horrible thing but i guess life must go on....

    you are seeming good, its good to see.
    i like your nc 17 post, just havent commented because i have to toddle off to work

    love
    k

    ReplyDelete
  7. It is a conspiracy. I have the nine billion colored pencils to prove it...and crayons for the next millennium...

    ReplyDelete
  8. The answer to all questions is no -- well not really.

    In any case there is a unique answer to the quadratic equation. Upon solving them there are always two yes 2 answers when a quad is solved!

    Remember when we used to view the snow capped Ruahines from your grandparents home in Ellis St
    Hastings?

    Your 50% Maori cousin probably still does!

    ReplyDelete
  9. hey megan,
    you have 9 billion coloured pencils?
    i must have the other 91 billion

    ciao

    ReplyDelete
  10. dad,
    i think i was 6 when last at ellis st and all i remember is jumping up & down in pa's trailer :)

    k

    ReplyDelete
  11. It's all the fault of the Americans. Our summer break is at least three months long so we have a longer "build up" of anticipation.

    Yeah, it's all our fault.

    And no, you don't have 91 billion colored pencils because I have 78,461,284 of them in my desk drawer and 29,503,398,236 at home which leaves you with 61,418,140,480 to deal with.

    ReplyDelete
  12. It's also our fault, like Queen Goob says, because if something is used it's no good. We have to have shinny new stuff to make us feel good about ourselves. It's not working though...

    ReplyDelete
  13. @RC - No, it is not working. But maybe we are coming around to understanding why it does not work...

    ReplyDelete
  14. goobie,
    did you actually count them?
    wow

    xx

    ReplyDelete
  15. random,
    i have to agree that they wouldnt pedal it if we didnt buy it!

    cheers
    k

    ReplyDelete
  16. megan
    you are so generous.
    i havent noticed that there are many people at all who truly understand that material goods wont make them happy.
    things might be starting to change....

    ReplyDelete

go on, leave a comment or four.