Tuesday Tip

Slow dance with the one you love. Whether it's to Nickelback or Chris de Burgh, with your partner, child, best friend or the family cat, it's good for the soul.

Go Canada

We caught a few snippets of the winter Olympics last night on TV. They are so much more interesting than the summer Olympics and the athletes all look healthier and happier. Must be all that snow and fresh air.
Curling is my favourite (bear in mind I don't do sports). It's such fun to watch and frankly the ladies, in particular, are so skilled. The Chinese and Swedish teams were doing well when last I checked. Was I wrong or is one of the U.K. team called Andy Capp?
Downhill racing, ski jump, snowboarding - wowee. they are all so brave and crazy and happy and having fun even through the pain. There is a discipline called skeleton - only for the nutsy ones. A skeleton of a frame which is pushed on the slope and then the rider dives on head first and charges down hill. Crazy but fun to watch.
It's very clever of the organisers to arrange for good weather and crowd participation seems to be full on.
We haven't seen any ice skating as yet but perhaps we'll find some tonight. I see the Brits are pinning their hopes on a brother and sister team so I shall watch out for them.
So, from 30 degrees c. in Cape Town, have a great weekend.

Bike Me!!

Travelling to and from work the traffic is usually heavyish, not bumper to bumper I'm happy to say but busy. How annoying it can be to be stuck behind a motor cycle. Now, I'm not talking a 340 horsepower, supercharged Harley, I'm talking about those small, irritating 0 to 60 in 5 minutes jobs, often pink.
You know how it goes, you (all) pull away from the lights and Pinky slowly, slowly picks up speed while the drivers in the queue behind start to get a little tense. Gradually we're all able to pull into the righthand lane and overtake the bike, being good drivers we slip back into the left lane and all is well until, we reach the next set of traffice lights.
As we patiently wait for the lights to change, Pinky buzzes through the two lanes of traffic, right to the front of the queue and the whole sorry saga starts again when the lights change.
To add insult to injury, she'll be parked dead center of the last parking bay when you arive.
Oh my!

Tuesday Tip

Stand up straight.
During my working week I meet and watch a lot of people and I'm amazed how many have to lean on something while they queue, chat, whatever. How shopping trolleys stand the weight of some is beyond me, at my favourite post office the small tables where we queue are coming loose from the strain.
It seems quite logical to me that as we were designed to work in a more or less vertical fashion, we should try to maintain the design. So, please, unless you have some awful affliction that prevents it, stand up straight, feel tall, look the world in the eye and love life.

Two virgins

We went to see Avatar (finally) yesterday evening. WoW.
It's the first time Rowland and I have watched a 3D movie, as a friend remarked "isn't it nice to do something for the first time" It was an absolute treat and we were quite blown away by the 3D effects. I choose to believe that James Cameron believes what he has written about people, animals, plants and nature. Movie events such as this one and things like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, are an interesting observation of our fellow women and men. With some movies the audience demographic is predictable but show something more sci-fi or fantasy and then the true fans come out.
I can't wait to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D .
I missed the Tuesday Tip deadline as my computer is giving such trouble, but no doubt it'll be sorted soon.
A site I really enjoy is Laptop Lunches, give it a try. Today I followed some of the links, very interesting.
People Towels, not as it turns out, made of people.. What a good idea, basically , take your own towel when out shopping, dining etc and reduce the amount of paper used.
Another link was about a village school built out of 6000 plastic bottles. Some people just keep on doing and giving.
A site about the right way to eat (I forget the title but you'll find it there). His best tip, "Eat real food, not too much of it and more plants than meat".
I'm off to Sion on the way home to work on my web site. I am way too dumb to do this on my own but the webmaster will have no problem getting me up and running. I'll keep you posted.

Evocative

It's Saturday and all is good. The housework is done and before I finish Kelly's duvet cover I'll blog. I've been listening to two of my favourite classical albums, "The Greatest Clssical Show on Earth" and "The Best Classical Album in the World - Ever!". No doubt there is somewhere an album called "Now! That's What I Call Classics" who knows . But, almost every tune brings an occasion or person to mind. All music does that (for me anyway) but with each genre the pictures may differ.
We started with "Also sprach Zarathustra",also remembered as the theme from 2001, A Space Odessy. When number one son was younger he owned an Uno which was basically a sound system on wheels. He and his pal would enter sound-offs, where the best/loudest/whatever, car sound won. Theirs almost always did. One day Sion sat me in his car and started the music. Thus Spake Zarathustra. Well, as the music began, the car gave a gentle tremor, we had the "dum, dum, dum, dum etc" of the big drum and the car shook some more, as we reached the crecendo - accompanied by the sound of a space rocket taking off (the movie version) I truly believed we were headed for the moon.
Next up, The William Tell Overture which I can't hear without smiling and remembering a silly joke featuring naked ladies, the Titty, Bum song. Big smiles.
"Air" is a piece of music which never fails to bring goosebumps. How amazingly talented the composers were, they made such music with no modern help.
I shan't bore you with all 77 or so, next up is "Sheep May Safely Graze" the title of my first ever blog, "Trumpet Voluntary" always a reminder of my dad, an awesome trumpet player.
Pieces of music sometimes known only for their presence on a movie soundtrack but no less valued by millions.
And so to sew.

Analyze This

So, in my dream I'm driving down a steep road, one I travel every day, I'm happy. In front of me are a dog and a cat on skate boards. When we reach the fourway stop (this road does exist) I take them into a pub (which doesn't exist) and buy the cat a glass of Drambuie. The dog looks on happily, his tail wagging.
The love of my life wakes me with a cup of coffe so I don't know what happened next.
Have a good weekend.

Perception

Today Olivia is 11 years old. She wants a treble marimba for her birthday, she's in the Marimba Band at school and is very good. amaAmbush are, I think, the ones who teach at school and out. They are promoting an African music style and it's really great. Do take a look at their web site.
You may recall that Olivia also took part in the Great Potato Challenge, an exercise in patience and gardening skills. We scored full marks for patience but sadly our skills came to nought.
I was the first to uproot my spud on account of the fact that it appeared to have drowned, poor thing. Olivia was proclaimed the winner until she dug out her sad excuse for a potato. Clearly we have a lot to learn about growing potatoes but, we will persevere. Sara-Jane was a late starter in the race so we have yet to see her prize veg.
My potato (yes, there was only one) is only slightly bigger than a marble, or slightly smaller than a human eyeball (euch). However, as I am fond of making dioramas and have one of a garden shed, I have placed my minute potato into a box in the miniature garden shed and voila, it looks like a prize winning huge spud.
I'm quite proud of it now.

The times they are a'changing

We have family members and friends who live happy active lives despite the fact that they are in their late eighties and early nineties. The oldest relation, my aunt was born in 1917. Can you imagine what these people have seen in their lifetimes, the inventions, the wars, the good and bad times?
Heck, in 1917 they probably hadn't heard of extra terrestrials and now in 2010 they can watch Avatar in 3D. Mind boggling.
Back in the early 70's everyone in South Africa (or so it seemed) went to the cinema (or bioscope) to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Everyone, that is, except Rowland and I. Suddenly the movie was banned, undesirable or too saucy or whatever so we had no hope of seeing it.
In those days we would hire movies on video from a dubious place in Long Street or a lady in Wetton. One day my enterprising husband came home with, guess what, the BANNED movie on VHS hired from Wetton lady (under the counter no doubt). We watched the film, it was good, couldn't understand the banning, that was that.
Until (rather like Alice's Restaurant) a few months later Rowland was contacted by.....The Vice Squad!! "Had he hired the movie?" well, duh! how else would they have his name? Wetton lady foolishly kept records. Anyhoo, he didn't get into trouble, they just confiscated all illicit videos from her and that was that.
How times change, now we watch that same movie on TV with no age restriction.
Up the road from our workshop is a place that used to be a home for unmarried mothers - shock, horror. Sad young ladies from out of town would be sent there before the neighbours could see that they were with child and after the birth the baby was given for adoption and sad young lady was sent home. Nothing wrong with the adoption part, a friend of ours wouldn't have two daughters if not for that home. How times change, now half of Hollywood waits until after the birth to get married - or not.
Which brings me to my clever cousin Brenda who sent me a newspaper clipping about palindromes. It points out that the first palindrome sentence was no doubt "Madam I am Adam" followed by some nonsensical sentences and one I rather like. It started out as "A man, a plan, a canal: Panama" but was enlarged upon to read "A man, a plan, a cat, a ham, a yak, a yam, a hat, a canal, Panama" Shoow!
Progress and computers have now given us a sentence over 17 000 words long, thankfully I shan't be typing that one, but the article ends with
"Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era?"
And so we are, thanks Brenda.

Tuesday Tip

I believe we ladies are pretty good at keeping an eye on our health but sometimes the men - you know who you are - are a bit slack. We have the lady bits checked out on a regular basis but mention the boys parts and there's nervous laughter. So, please, tell all the men in your life over the age of forty to go for a check-up. It's a good feeling to be given a clean bill of health but equally good to catch something sinister at first bud. My man has always been good about the annual doctors visit and because of that his heart condition was caught early on and the prostate cancer likewise.
The bottom line (sorry) is that prevention is better than cure and an hour a year isn't a lot to ask when it means keeping the men we love so much around for a while longer.

About Face

Today is a palindrome, 01022010. I just love them. A friend of mine had something like a seven word sentence as a clue in a crossword puzzle, the answer being palindrome, quite cunning. Does anyone know one of those?