Lipstick on a Bulldog and other things

Lipstick on a Bulldog

I am so well and truly bonded to my new Croc slops that I have been considering sticking sequins on them to make them look a bit more eveningish. I am going to a birthday party tonight (friend Kevin turns 60) and the thought of putting my tender little feet into proper shoes is causing anxiety. The Croc slops makes you believe you are walking on marshmallows. They are so, so comfortable. Could someone out there invent something for all shoes that makes you feel like you are walking in Crocs…. And just a bit more glam please.

The Long Walk to Beit Bridge

On the subject of walking….. our friend Ray Chaplin has just completed a walk from Cape Town to Beit Bridge. And you may very well ask “Why?” (He tells me that just about everyone asks him that.) Why did he do it? Well, why not….. Ray is one of those people who just does extreme physical things. This is the sort of thing that keeps Ray alive and well. He just has to do it. He has also pulled a little Zozo hut thing from Cape Town to Johannesburg. This Sunday, after a week in Johannesburg, Ray sets off for Cape Town on a bicycle.

Ray is a big strong lad so I am don’t even ask about his fitness or ability to complete such a feat – it is a given for Ray and I never for a moment doubted that he could do this walk. I must confess to wondering about his state of mind though: did he get scared, did he get depressed, despondent, did he think of packing it in? Firstly Ray says (to quote Alex Harris) that once you reach the halfway mark there’s no point in turning back – you might just as well carry on. He doesn’t get scared but does get anxious sometimes – like meeting groups of aggressive locals on the road, cars that try to run him off the road – going so far as to chase him into the bush, the first few minutes camping out the bush with absolutely nothing around you. But, on the whole, he says it is a wonderful experience and he meets some very friendly people along the way. By the way, he pulls/pushes a little cart that holds all his goodies – tent, lap top, food etc. Does he get despondent? No – he says though, that he has some wild mood swings. He says he feels so damn happy at times he wants to cry and then sometimes he feels so damn down that he does cry – he walks along with tears running down his face. But, he says, he just lets these feelings run their course – he expects them and knows they will go after a while so he doesn’t get in a great state over them. His website is: http://www.raychaplin.com/

The walk from Cape Town to Beit Bridge took about 70 days.

Bracken’s Birthday

15 years ago we went to the SPCA to get a kitten. Bracken literally grabbed us by climbing up the chicken wire and sticking her skinny little arm out into the passage way at our shoulder height, clawing at us and yelling her scraggy little head off. We took her home only to discover she was riddled with ringworm, wasn’t house trained and she immediately put our other cat in his place. She learnt, within days, that cats went outside for the toilet, to eat whatever was put in front of her, to suffer being bathed 3 times a week for about 2 months (the ringworm) and, how to rule the roost.

It her birthday on the 1^st April – well at least that is the date we guessed she was born on. She can be a real clown at times. And wow, she has been a treasure, a much loved, very beautiful and charming cat. Happy Birthday Brack.

A Few Things

The first quarter

We are nearly at the end of March – the first quarter of 2010. I am sure I am not the only one who thinks, feels, believes this year is flying by faster than ever. The Naked Scientist said on radio a few months back that one of the reasons we think time is “going faster” is probably because of things like email, mobile phones, e-newspapers, the internet and so on. No more waiting patiently for a letter or even a fax to arrive, no more ordering a book via your bookstore – now you just download it, everything is instant. If you don’t reply to an email or voice mail within minutes you a get message asking if you have received it…….. Now is the time that everything is immediate….

Happiness TED Talk by Daniel Kahneman

Daniel Kahneman is a psychology professor at Princeton University and a Nobel Prize winner. I “discovered” him when I first started looking into the wonderful world of Happiness.

This is a link to a TED talk he gave in February 2010 about Happiness http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory.html It’s really interesting, lasts for about 20 minutes and he explains some of the everyday confusions about happiness, our experience and the memory of our stories. In a nutshell he says that it is true that money does not bring you happiness but the lack of money does buy you misery. And one of the dominant bringers of happiness is being satisfied with the people you like and spending time with those people.

Get at least one hymn under your belt

I went to a memorial service on Saturday for our friend Leila who died suddenly last week. There were heaps of people at the church and the minister conducted a lovely service. But as usual, when it came time for the congregation to stand up and sing, there was an almost deathly hush with a few little chirps and croaks emerging from the pews. Thank goodness the organist had a nice voice and microphone.

Now here’s the thing: At just about every memorial service or funeral service I have been to there is one hymn that is usually sung – the very beautiful Psalm 23…. I am sure we all know it almost by heart now. So the challenge is: practice it in the shower, the car, and the wide open spaces. Get your voice oiled around this one hymn so the church can be filled with the sweet sound of singing voice – this particular hymn is easy to sing – no wildly high or low notes or trills…. And each verse is the same as the last. Give the person a good rousing send off.

Happiness Flags

A couple of weeks ago I was at a sports event and took a look around and wondered why everyone(big generalisation I know) does the same old, same old thing. Large feather banners that all look alike – conservative blue or white – branded umbrellas – ditto – and a bit of bunting here and there usually in red, white or blue rather like the stuff second hand car shops drape over their specials.

And I just thought that “things” needed to look different and more cheerful – there should be something that stands out and looks festive and people talk about

So, I made Lisa some Happiness Flags.

Well, I didn’t actually call them Happiness Flags – Lisa did. This is what she said: “I'm going to string up my flags later and I'll take a photo of them for your blog. I decided last night that because they are such fun and so joyous, they're 'Happiness Flags'.

She hasn’t sent the photo yet but I made some more for a friend for her shop. Bridget decided though that she would hang them up in her home – this is a photo of Bridget’s Happiness Flags:

Happiness Flags have multiple uses: birthdays, anniversaries; to cheer up the veranda, entrances, offices, shops, your office. Can you imagine tea parties with lovely pinks and blues, florals, stripes? Cocktail parties with acid greens and yellows…… the list is endless. I just see Happiness Flags everywhere!

Reading

Since I was quite a small I have loved reading. And I can shamelessly admit that I am a total slut about what I read. I am not all that fussy and have never limited myself to a particular genre, author etc. If the book is good I will read it. I will also read any magazine: You, Farmer’s Weekly, Time and anything else lying around. I toss a book aside after the first 50 pages if it doesn’t grab me. I will sometimes plod through the most atrociously written book thinking “it really can’t be this bad; it must get better” but it doesn’t. I seldom remember the names of the authors or even the name of the book. I usually remember if I had read it by the cover. My small book case (because I chuck books out) is sorted by the colour of the spine.

I do have my favourites though. I love a rolling, strung out story. I love the type of book that leaves you not wanting to read the last few pages so that you never have to finish it. I just love a good story! I love a good thriller, murder mystery (preferably English); I love biographies about Victorian women. And there are some Indian authors who spin such beautiful stories that I find myself taking on an Indian accent whilst I am reading.

So, I thought I would share a couple of books I have recently read, that grabbed me and kept me up till all hours of the night and early morning.

The Stieg Larsson trilogy: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. They are wonderful murder/mysteries and kept me on the edge of my seat. Couldn’t put the books down. Best read when you have a free weekend so you can just wallow in these really good stories. The author died just after he finished the 3^rd book…..hmmm

Elizabeth Gilbert’s new book “Committed” – the follow on from Eat, Pray, Love. I think she is an astounding writer. It is quite difficult to write 2 gripping, and thought provoking books about firstly: your lousy divorce and then whether you should get married or not. I don’t mean to sound as if I am trivialising her books – I am not. These books are unputdownable and there are many, many really good lessons in her writing. “Committed” is well researched and she explores marriage; its history and all the emotions and expectations involved in a committed relationship. Her exploration on intimacy is profound and enlightening. She puts across her message in an amusing, totally unselfconscious way and totally without self pity, victim or holier than thou attitude. She is mature and very honest. One little snippet I underlined is: “Sometimes life is messy and botched. We do our best. We don’t always know the right move.”

The third book I thought is very much worth mentioning, and I only finished this one yesterday is “Not Me” by Michael Lavigne. This is his first book… and after about the first 20 pages is also unputdownable. It is a story about an old Jewish man. But the twist is that his son finds out that he was actually a SS officer (not Jewish) in one of the WW11 death camps. And Wow, does this guy explore human emotions which leave you examining any ideas you might have had about forgiveness, retribution and so on. It’s such a good read and well worth burning the midnight oil over.

The last one takes a bit of a while to get through but is immensely interesting nonetheless. It is the history of the Fiennes family, written by none other that Ranulph Fiennes (he of Antarctic fame) and he calls it an expedition round my family. He covers the family history from 715 (yes, that’s not a typo) to present day. It is quite amazing; he had lots of ancestors manipulating kings, queens and affairs of state and lots of them losing their heads and entrails along the way. If you want to know, in a nutshell, something about English history then this is a pretty concise narrative. He skips through the centuries, doesn’t get bogged down with too much information and detail but you get the picture of the times. He spends a bit more time with more recent history and this is really interesting. By the way, the book is called “Mad Dogs and Englishmen”.