Doggie Weight Watchers – yes we’ve signed up

Telling me my doggies are overweight is a bit like telling me I’m overweight!  Yes people, it doesn’t go down to well. 

But I have to begrudgingly admit my boys do need to lose a couple of kilo’s.  We’ve tried all the low fat products on the market and even resorted to cooking chicken and rice for them, but nothing has helped.  They even spent 2 weeks at the Vet’s kennels - we were away – during which time, the Vet assured us, the boys would shed some kilo’s.  Nope, it didn’t happen.  So much for your IP Mr Vet man.

Anyway, after a recent Vet visit, they twisted the old arm to a point of dislocation, and managed to sign us up on the Hill’s weight lose program where we will be guided and tutored and encouraged to not give the dogs any treats whatsoever.  Goal weight lose for both boys is 5kg’s. This is going to be tough.

Wednesday is weigh in day, and I’m already starting to feel my chest tightening.  After 7 days they should have lost about 300gms each.  Doesn’t sound like much, but if they haven’t lost it, I might end up on the floor sobbing and wailing on my boys behalf. 

This past 7 days has been hell.  I put down a few measly pellets and have to turn away from my boys emotionally pained faces.  Thier eyes droop, tails are between their legs and they stare…at me, and then the bowl.  I can read their minds, it’s sorrowful, I’m sure they hate me.

…going off to make some dry toast and hot water for breakfast, if they can’t have something nice, I feel I shouldn’t either…SOBBING AS SHE GOES…EVEN MORE SOBBING AS I CHOKE ON A CRUMB

Hijacking, Rooibos Cappuccino and Constantia Village

Wow, so didn’t I just have an exciting Saturday morning.  There I was cruising down to Constantia Village to meet some new friends from my writing class, when all hell broke loose.

As I drove towards the Exclusive Books entrance, a huge black Mercedes Van cut me right off, zooming like an idiot in front of me, ignoring the typical manic parking of a Saturday morning.  I hit the hooter, but before the decibels registered, the vehicle was gone.

Still pissed, but relieved I hadn’t hit the van, I saw a parking bay and started pulling in.  There were a few ladies milling around the space and one turned to me and started yelling that I couldn’t park there.  I’m like “huh, why?” 

“You can’t park here,” she continued to shriek as people started to gather… Perplexed, I tried to pull out, but there was no way I could, cars were driving in and out and I was boxed in.  You know what it’s like with women determined to park and shop – comparable to pumped up soccer hooligans on the rampage.

Finally a very stressed lady came to tell to my window and explained that from that very space, that very van who nearly connected with me, had been hi-jacked!  Holy moly, the “jackers” put a gun to the lady owners head and took her car.

I don’t think Constantia Village has ever had so much excitement.  The place was buzzing, huddles of folk telling what they’d witnessed, sharing their own experiences of misfortune and shop keepers coming out to look.  Even as I walked around the centre you could see further huddles of blinged-up Constantia-ites sharing crime details.

Phew, after all that I needed my coffee.

Heart still pumping, I met some new friends from my writing class, and of course I had to share the “jacking” story as soon as we’d said our hello’s.  They were of course horrified, but managed to pull me back to the reason for our meeting, and we sat down to enjoy a good couple of hours of non-stop chatter about our course.  It was delightful.  None of us had met before, we’d only interacted on the course forums, so it’s always a little daunting to meet face to face for the first time.  But I needn’t have worried, it couldn’t have turned out better.  We got on so well, that when we left we had a already diarised our next coffee meeting.

As well as meeting new friends, I also tried a Rooibos Cappuccino.  Have you ever had one?  When it arrives, it’s a cup of rooibos with all the froth and milk of a normal coffee cappuccino.  it looks a bit odd, as the outer edge of the froth is a deep red colour, but overall it was quite pleasant.  You’re offered honey to sweeten rather than sugar, and I suppose it’s a little bit more healthy that caffeine? I thought a bite to eat would be good and asked for 2 biscotti’s.  Goodness, what a laugh. They were a single bite size and did nothing to quell my hunger.  Oh well, there was too much talking going on, so a mouthful of food probably wouldn’t have been a good idea anyway

And that folks was my Saturday morning… how was yours?

Blog via Blackberry

Well this is certainly interesting, blogging from my Blackberry!

Tomorrow I’m meeting 2 ladies from the on-line writing course I’m taking. This is a big step for me as I try really hard to stay anonymous, mostly because I’m quite shy!

So tomorrow it will be deep breaths and plenty of shaky knees around 11am.

The course is for non-fiction writing and the convener is Mike Nicol – he of crime novels fame. I’ve learnt a huge amount over the last 9 weeks and met some interesting people from around the world who are course learners with me.

At the end of the course I will have produced a 5000 word piece, which I’m considering posting on my blog.

Will let you know how coffee goes tomorrow.

somewhere over the rainbow on my way to work

Learning new skills and plenty of scratching of the head…

Here we go then, this is my second WordPress Blog attempt.  Must say it’s quite a challenge to set up the site and sort out the difference between the widgets and tags and sidebars and footers.

The comments section is not really working for me yet.  How do you display the actual comment and not just the visitor’s name and blog title? 

All tips are most welcome, thank you Sarchasm for your input, it is very much appreciated

I’ll be back later to tweak my page, but now I’m off to find the rest of my LD family…

In the meantime, just in case you ever wondered how I look, here I am with my Dad and brother

Me, Dad, and Keith