Tuesday Tip

Don't allow time to get the better of you.
In the movie "About a Boy" our hero (Hugh Grant) with ample time on his hands, divides his day into units to get by faster. You on the other hand probably wonder where on earth the time went. I was heating hot water bottles the other (cold) night, it takes 3 min in the microwave. This is what I did in three minutes.
Dried the dinner dishes in the drainer. Filled an ice tray. Sorted cereal bowls for the next morning, filled a glass with water and took it through to the bathroom, searched for and found the elusive cat (more about her later).
So when a task seems too big, break it up into units, 3 minutes today, maybe 6 tomorrow. Nothing is insurmountable. As a customer once told me (regarding his debt)
"you can't eat an elephant in one go, you have to do it slowly"
This took 4mins and 12 seconds, not even an elephant's toe nail.

Missing you

Samantha emailed me "Beautiful Words of Truth"around 15 paragraphs begining with Maybe. It made me cry (I'm a softy)
This one is for all of you with loved ones far away, Australia, USA, Canada, UK, South Africa..........
Maybe...there are moments in life when you miss someone- a parent, a spouse, a friend, a child - so much that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real, so that once they are around you appreciate them even more.

Names

I enjoy names, personal, business, whatever they may be so, I think it's a great pity so many companies are opting to be known by their initials. When the children were small we passed a building site with a big board bearing the name "Lillicrap". They loved it. How about Savage & Lovemore, you couldn't make it up. If they become S&L the TV addicts might think it means Sex & Language. How about the funeral parlour called (I kid you not) "Human & Pitt". Haw & Inglis are now heading their boards H&I, no schoolboy fun there.
I like company names that spark the imagination "Well Hung" picture framers. "Licencetokill" exterminators, "Big Strong Boys" well, presumably big, strong, boys.
Names that tell it like it is, "Spar", save, Pick n Pay, that's pretty obvious. Checkers??? "Fishermans' Friend", only if you want your eyes to water.
Twenty some years ago my sister and I were in a surf shop in Australia, she showed me a bottle of mens "cologne", the name, "Sure F*&#".
Short and to the point as a good name should be.

Tuesday Tip

VOTE!

A wee bit of news

I have just read a sweet piece on IOL news. The headline
"Toddler rescued after potty drama"
It seems this three year old from Wrexham (and they are supposed to be quite smart there) put her foot through the handle of the new potty dad had bought and it wouldn't come out. I thought three might be a bit old to start toilet training but no doubt this poor child will be too traumatised to use the toilet for some time to come -not! The fire brigade were called in.
Ever on the ball google featured an ad for "3DayPottyTraining.com" who will now have to revise their lesson to include "How to remove a foot from a potty handle without calling in the firebrigade".
To the debutante potty users - be careful.

Fast Forward

Like most people (I guess) we see a lot of TV ads in fast forward and we certainly go through life on fast forward more than we should. Daisy and I had just come in from a bracing walk, Autumn is in the air, I was just in time to see the Cadbury chocolate ad.
There sits the gorilla, listening to Phil Collins, In the Air Tonight. A favourite in the car. He waits patiently as the camera pans down to his drum kit, we get the message. Viewers around the country are waiting,
"Da da da da da da da da da"
Such fun, thanks Phil, thanks Cadbury.

Goosebumps

I seem to be quite the chatterbox this week.
If you haven't already heard this amazing lady, please type Susan Boyle YouTube in the Google box and watch the video of her on Britain's Got Talent. I believe I was viewer number 15 million and ten or so.
I defy you to listen to this awesome voice without tearing up and perhaps getting full body goosebumps.
She's wonderful.

The other woman

You know who she is. She's a little older than you, not as pretty. She clearly doesn't take care of herself the way you do, a little overweight, unfit and that hairdo isn't the best. One day you're walking in the shopping centre or perhaps in the unforgiving changing room at the dress shop, you look in the mirror and HORRORS!! you are HER. When did this happen? Was it because you didn't have the discipline to do yoga every day? You gave up dancing because the schedule didn't suit? Perhaps it was too many smoothies, that extra helping of potato salad with delish. Helmanns mayo? It doesn't matter, it happens to all of us.
I believe that's why we have winter. Under cover of those lovely winter clothes and bolstered by comfort food in modest helpings, we can fight back. So the love handles turned into tractor tyres, you can fix that, you just needed a nudge.
My new regime is back to walking Daisy twice a day, yoga three times a week, dancing every day even if it's only for ten minutes. I took out the Chinese dinner set that's never used these days and plan some tasty Eastern dishes that just fit into a medium bowl.
When summer comes I'm going to kick that other woman's butt!

Tuesday Tip

Ginger is a really healthy addition to your diet. If, like silly me, you wasted half the root ginger trying to peel it, (potato peelers just don't do the job and if you slice the skin off there's not much left to use) then do this. Take a dessert spoon and peel the ginger, holding the spoon as if it's a knife and the skin just comes away so easily you'll want to keep on showing off.

Mooo

It's no secret that I'm not Sporty Louise. I enjoy watching soccer and kurling. Do ice skating and cheer leading count as sports? or Cirque du Soleil? However, I really enjoy MotoGP and we're both Valentino Rossi fans, he came second yesterday. The race was quite good but what I found most intriguing were the cows. A group of spectators at the front were waving what looked to be big, blowup plastic cows and as the bikes came past the cows jumped around excitedly. In the midst of these cows was a lone blue dolphin, perhaps a lonely KZN supporter who had lost his way?
(I had to ask the experts if a. the dolphins are rugby or cricket and b. where they're from).
I'm just not sporty.

LG

It has been a good weekend, hard work in part but it's always good to be pressure-free. I'm making some covers for the grandchildren, we're not sure what to call them, so far it's toe-throws, I'm embroidering (machine of course)motifs on them. Olivia and Kelly each have different style fairies, Sara-Jane will have dolphins, Jeremy cookie monsters,Danielle Carribean Creatures and Jessica butterflies. We checked on designs this weekend and I'm having great fun embroidering.
Yesterday the family came over for the Easter Egg hunt, only two left to look for the Easter Bunny. The girls sat at the garden table colouring in. Colouring in is interesting to observe, as the person grows so does the style of colouring, I believe you can colour when you're in your nineties. DJ Jeremy was in the mix on the Casio keyboard, reving up bike sounds, planes etc. Our poor neighbours.
I thought, as no doubt did others, that the person who decided to hold Coke Fest over Easter weekend in Cape Town must be nuts, it ALWAYS rains over Easter. Surprise, they were clearly privvy to special information, I hope it's a success.
Enjoy the rest of April, the month where we get to complain about the loss of income due to the holidays while, at the same time, enjoying every day off work
Life's Good

Clap your hands

Yesterday was a strange day, so many things good and bad happened to so many people we know, perhaps it was the almost full moon. A friend was retrenched, another had bad news about her health, one was divorced. One received good news about her future, a business venture took off well for another. I didn't win the Lotto.
Olivia came to stay, gd number 4. She's been building a very nice fairy house in our garden and was anxious to look for signs of occupancy. Needless to say we didn't find much but we are both hoping that the fairies were hiding in the bushes and watching our efforts. Aside from the house we plan a waterpark, it's going to be very nice actually.
We made pizza which I was told wasn't as good as Butlers.
But we are confident that the fairies will come to visit, so, if you're a believer, clap your hands and say
"I believe in fairies"
They will hear you.

Tuesday Tip

Embrace joy. Don't be afraid or embarassed to feel joy, allow it into your being, dance and glow with joy. Don't be rigid, smile and laugh at trivia if it amuses you, no matter if no-one else gets it. Let you eyes well up at the sight of an amazing sunset, grin when the Guinea Fowl chase your car and in the face of adversity remember the many joys of living. So what if we're in a recession, you won't solve problems by being glum but perhaps you can lighten the day for just one person at a time with a smile and a kind word. And joy.