Long walks on the beach and so on…

Okay…I wasn’t actually going to post this today. But after all the doom and gloom of my previous post/s I decided I better give you something positive to look at too or you might all run off and slit your wrists!

I think I mentioned that I had to go buy and read a improve-yourself type book for the imminent arrival of the BigBoss? Well the one I picked up had so many similar theories and “Keys” that initially I though that I had actually just wasted my time and money getting it.

However, upon closer inspection it appears that I may have been mistaken. What sets this one apart from some of the others is that it does actually have not only the “Keys” but also some handy scheduling suggestions on how to go about implementing all these wonderful ideas (turning those keys as it were).

So it’s with this mind-set that I set out this morning for a brisk walk along the beach. I am meant to be doing this or something similar for either 5 hours a week (exercise wise at least - it must be something that will make me breathe deeply), and I’m meant to spend an hour a day by myself thinking…ta-dah! For my next trick watch me multitask at spiritual enlightenment - Whoohooo! (Here’s to spending time breathing deeply while alone thinking! Look…don’t judge me…you try staring at a rose for 20 minutes as the book suggested and see what you prefer?).

I’ll keep you posted on how the turning of the other keys progress as I go along, but for now I thought I’d just share a few piccies with you from my walk today.

The Marvelous Month Of May…

Mmm…May is just round the corner and as you may or may not know, May is the month of exams (and discipline of some sorts) for me. Tomorrow night is the last night of April and I plan to give it a good send-off one way or another. For one thing I’m not going to be drinking again till the 13th of June (*cough-cough* that is 44 days without!), and Sparrow has promised to join me on this little quest. I feel I have a somewhat unfair advantage over him since I already know I can do it - but hey! who am I to complain? It’s actually going to nice to have some company along for the ride this time. And if he doesn’t make it all the way through that’s also okay - it’s very sweet of him to offer.

So while I was busy looking at all the significant and not so significant dates ahead for the next month I couldn’t help but notice that the “Special Events Calender” has some real whoppers lined up for May! (Freddy got me this cool calendar last year because I have this habit of celebrating the weirdest days that no one else celebrates - it’s amazing! it has a reason to celebrate EVERY single day! ). Here are the ones lined up for May - I’ve highlighted some of the more obscure ones for your entertainment.

• 1st - Worker’s Day (boring - every one knows this one already, also not a holiday for me this year so: pffft whatever!)
• 2nd - Scurvy Awareness Day (Not to sure exactly what that is, but I like the sound of being aware from a distance anyway - sounds nasty)
• 3rd - World Press Freedom Day
• 4th - International Firefighter’s Day (Awesome! Firefighters rock - and they have by far the sexiest uniforms if I may say so)
• 5th - International No Pants Day (Damn! I’m really glad this one is a UK bank holiday and I get to spend it at home - if I had to guess it’s probably a holiday for a different reason though)
• 6th - Dream Of Your Mom Day (Mine is saying she wants me to come home now, and it’s not just in my dreams - we’ve spoken twice about it this week already)
• 7th - Masturbation Day (US) - (You guys have a special day for this?! Mwahahahaha! Is this something you have to celebrate on your own?)
• 8th - Victory in Europe Day (It’s not a UK holiday, so how great was this victory really? Sorry, I’m still sulking about lost SA holidays this year)
• 9th - Lost Sock Memorial Day (I hear you…it’s been revealed though that they all run away one by one to a tropical island filled with other single socks)
• 10th - Whacking Day (The Simpsons) - (Not sure what this is all about, I’ll have to do some research on it, but it certainly sounds like it has potential)
• 11th - Have a Coke Day (It’s going to be a Coca-Cola month for me so this should be no problem)
• 12th - International Nurses Day
• 13th - World Fair Trade Day
• 14th - Dance Like A Chicken Day (since everyone who works at our company had to dance like a chicken in their interview I think this one may turn out to be quite special for us?)
• 15th - International Conscientious Objectors’ Day
• 16th - Wear Purple for Peace Day (Mmmm…perhaps this calendar went to press before purple became the colour more often associated with sexual frustration and other stuff?)
• 17th - International Day against Homophobia
• 18th - Visit Your Relatives Day (I have an aunt in the area, should be able to do this)
• 19th - Hug Your Cat Day (*sniff* I’m going to have to hug someone else’s cat this year)
• 20th - Eliza Doolittle Day
• 21st - Pity A Fool Day (Oooh! I know just which one I should pity already)
• 22nd - Buy A Musical Instrument Day (Nope, not going to do it - I haven’t even mastered the Diggy that I impulse bought a couple of year ago - perhaps I’ll just try and play that one instead?)
• 23rd - World Turtle Day
• 24th - Escargot Day (I think the turtles had a better deal than the snails - usually you only see them calling them escargot when there’s a garlic or something sauce involved?)
• 25th - Tap Dance Day
• 26th - Sorry Day (Australia) - (seriously, I need to know how they came up with this one? Oh yeah, and also this one is a UK holiday this year, so I’m not sorry at all!)
• 27th - White Guilt Day
• 28th - Hamburger Day (Whooohooo! I see a vanilla milkshake in my near future… :-D)
• 29th - End Of The Middle Ages Day
• 30th - Pick a Fight with a Petrol Attendant Day (don’t say I didn’t warn you)
• 31st - World No Tobacco Day (since I’ve given up smoking yonks ago, perhaps I should have a smoke on this day?…Nah…that would just be silly. I think I’ll stick to quitting for now)

Right, so plenty of stuff to celebrate in May. This doesn’t even include all the birthdays yet! A quick count reveals that I have about 20 relatives and friends who celebrate birthdays in May too…it seems you Taurus people out there are real honeys and easy to get along with?

*clicking on the image will take you to DeviantART where you can learn more about the artist and the art

National Cleavage Day - Dedicated to (un)HooX

Today is Wonderbra’s National Cleavage Day in South Africa…and as promised I hereby dedicate this day to HooX.

Whether you are showing some off today or just admiring the view, there’s no denying that breasts have a very special place in our world. For some a thing of beauty, for some a part of their identity as a woman.

It’s a sad statistic that breast cancer is becoming so prevalent that one out of every 8 women suffer and or die from it (sorry I could only find American stats, but you get the idea right?). Take the time to do regular self-examinations, early detection could save your life! If you’re not a Do-It-Yourself kinda girl, get a boy-person to help out…rumour has it that most of them are quite eager to participate.

Now for the dedicating part of this post…

This Cleavage Day I would like to dedicate to HooX, who has always been an avid admirer of the female form as can be observed by his regular Tuesday postings.

HooX, hope you get to spend your day in place where the custom of Cleavage Day is well established and enthusiastically embraced by all the locals. I’ve taken the time to put together a little selection for you just in case that’s not the case.

Happy Cleavage Day!

For those of you who still don’t know about HooX’s NCD (National Cleavage Day) project, please go have a look over here and here. If you’ve got it then flaunt it for this worthy cause.

A couple of announcements

There are a couple of noteworthy events coming up in April that I wanted to tell you about…

1. The South African Blog Awards for 2008 are being held at the UCT Tennis Club on the 2nd of April, and if you want to attend you need to visit (and update) this Wiki here. I am going to do my best to get there on time to see the whole ceremony, and I’m looking forward to meeting new bloggers, especially the ones that author blogs I already follow.
2. It’s official! HooX has received confirmation that the 4th of April is Wonderbra’s National Cleavage Day for 2008. So be prepared! Also HooX is running a special project on his blog again where he undertakes to donate R10 of his own personal money to a worthy cause (probably something along lines of a breast cancer awareness campaign or something?) for every cleavage photo sent to him, provided it’s your own and that he’s allowed to post it on his blog. Photos need not have your face in them, plus all photos will be posted anonymously. I promised to dedicate Cleavage Day to HooX this year, so I’m busy cooking up a special post about this myself - but if you have the cleavage to flaunt and the inclination to support a good cause head on over to his site for more details on how to go about doing this…see if you can get some friends and co-workers to participate? It would be nice to put another decent dent in his wallet for this cause too.
3. I’m making my first trip to Johannesburg since I moved down to Cape Town. Actually to be more particular - I’ll be spending the middle weekend of April in Nylstroom(if this town has been renamed I am sorry but I don’t know to what yet) for Denise’s wedding, but I’m going to be in Johannesburg on the Sunday if all goes according to plan. Anyone interested in dropping in on Sunday please let me know by e-mail louisabouwer@googlemail.com - I’m going to try and see everyone (or as many as possible!) on that Sunday the 13th. Sorry for the squeeze, I’ll try to work in a longer trip closer to June again.

Every man for himself

Even before I moved I knew that living with vegetarians would be different. But I feel I have been grossly mislead as to what vegetarians actually eat. Except for the mushrooms in the mac & cheese of the first night here I have yet to lay eyes on a single vegetable.

It seems the staple diet of my two vegetarians consists mainly of toast and cookies, and it’s every man for himself instead of the typical family dinners that I am used to.

Okay…I guess I can live with that. Just needs some getting used to.

Now, make no mistake - I am not a vegetarian…not by any stretch of imagination. But I have undertaken that for the most part I’ll eat whatever they are eating and have meat when we go out for dinner or when I have other meat eater guests visiting. This seems to suit everyone just fine.

However, I can’t live on toast and cookies. And since I have no idea how to cook vegetarian it seems the time has come for investing in just such a cookbook. This is the one I selected:

Amazon gave it a really good review and from the description it seems like average food that you won’t need a list of ingredients as long as your arm to make, and which will hopefully taste good, be healthy and filling and contain no meat.

Wish me luck…this might be the acquisition of my very first new skill: I will learn to cook vegetarian.

* We are apparently doing the big dinner (and vegetables) tonight it seems - I’m really looking forward to it! This does not however deter me from my mission at all.