Sunday, November 16, 2014

on dinnerware for the younger members of society, or if you like plates for kids

hi there

the rather shorter version of this is that my (considerably) better half said that we needed some more plates for the boys, which i promptly sourced at the shops - eventually. there's a little bit more to it than that, but if you would like to skip all the nonsense and just look at the pictures, well then there you go.

for those after the expanded version, then, here we go. the plastic plates that we have in place for the boys to eat from have proved, in the discerning eyes of my (considerably) better half, far worse for wear than she would like them to be. the boys tackle things with knives on them, look you see, so they are looking somewhat battered. i went off in search of some more, then, and was quite surprised to discover that plastic plates are a tricky thing to find.

yes, there was no such thing as a pack of four, or perhaps six, plastic plates for me to buy. i found some other ones then.



yes, the two above are the ones i found. you could argue, i suppose that this was a better thing to have done that found some round, circular if you like, standard plates in the pretty colours that children, from a marketing perspective, so dearly love.

smart these two are - boss, even, if you like. the boys are also rather impressed with them, which helps a very great deal indeed as they are the ones who will, for the most part, be using them.

the question remains, however, as to why it is one cannot buy a set of standard sized and shaped plastic plates for the kids. presumably it is a thing that they do not allow children to eat off plastic plates in England, and that is why i have been unable to find them. do i have some theories on why you can only find certain plates for kids here? why yes i do, here is a rundown on the types i have seen, and the thinking that is apparently in place behind them.

paper / cardboard plates -  presumably these are favoured for two reasons. firstly, the represent the disposable nature of the current world, where nothing at all is of permanence and everything is expendable. secondly, and for many more importantly, as a first world country there is an obligation to generate large amounts of trash and waste for landfills so that those in third world countries have something to complain about.

ceramic / glass plates - as used by grown ups. this no doubt harks back to a Victorian value where children are to be silent and are expected to have a maturity beyond their years. should they break, then the children should be beaten to within an inch of their lives and have sharp objects - pins, preferably - stuck into their feet to remind them of what their life as a chimney sweep will be like should they continue to break plates.

no plates - for what reason should children who have not earned the money to buy plates with be allowed to use them? they, if they are lucky enough to be given food, should eat it from their hands, and f*** them if they drop it or it burns them. no doubt a Victorian style beating should be administered if they do indeed drop any of the food condescended their way.

i disagree with the majority of the approaches apparently in place in respect of children and plates, to be honest. i have no issue at all with them having access to them, and further for conventional reasons and not as a conduit for a means of justifiable punishment.

that said, these ceramic ones i found were very smart indeed.



yes, they are plates with a face on, upon which one can craft their own look and style with their food. not playing with your food was, i seem to recall, another form of Victorian values imposed on children, so it's funny that it is encouraged with this more grown up sort of ceramic type of plate.

a brief break from things that one eats food off of and a glimpse into the current state of the life of Grant. Grant enthusiasts, starved of pictures for quite some time now, will no doubt be delighted to learn this, and happy to see him on here. well, then, here he is.



yes, indeed he is dressed as one of them Smurf things off that show, The Wombles or whatever it was, and has attempted to change his skin pigmentation to the blue preferred by them fellas on that show.

i do wish my midlife crisis could be going as excellent as the one Grant is having, and indeed most other people i know that share something of a generational era with me. mine is so very dull in comparison; almost truly like i am not even having one. it is not, is it, really much of a crisis of identity or confidence, sitting and reading on a bus.

did i purchase things that one can eat off of if you are a kid, but are not plates? why yes i did, as it happens. i figured, although i was neither charged nor mandated to do so, i could do no possible harm at all in getting bowls to go with certain types of the plates that i bought today.



monkeys are awesome, man. i would, if i could, buy everything that i do buy with an image of a monkey on it. now that i think, right, do you remember how for years and years them sort of scientist types made monkeys smoke to see what happened to them? why don't they take the brand of cigarettes that they made them smoke and rebrand them as monkey cigarettes? i would, like so totes, get them and smoke them. monkey fags would be one of the most amazing things, ever, man.

i am still not 100% sure why it is that they had all them monkeys smoke, to be honest. why would anyone care enough about what cigarettes do to a monkey to fund such comprehensive research into it? i mean, were so many monkeys smoking that some tree hugging do-gooder decided to see if it was good for them or not? i am not aware of such a thing. maybe all the monkeys that they got to go into space were smokers, and they wanted to see how their lungs held up, i suppose.

anyway, no doubt you would have something of an interest in seeing one of the above plates in, as it were, action. here, here you go, here's what William did with the face one. well, one of the face ones. 



rather smart, that is. no doubt, or if you like, undoubtedly better than what i could make.

actually, i have subsequently had a bit of a gander at this "internet" thing that people are talking about and it seems that one can get conventional, circular, somewhat round plastic plates in pretty colours that are important for marketing purposes with relative ease off of it. but i think the ones i have purchased already shall suffice in the mean time.

if you are presently in the market for some new plates and that, i really hope you "come right" and find some suitable ones.

and that will do for this, and indeed the weekend.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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