It Ain't What You Do

I've been having fun with my Blackberry Touch 9900. Taking pics and videos of my Little. I edited a video of her and her antics. 

Enjoy!

So Sweet!

She doesn't wanna...

Picnic and Puppies in the Park

Saturday afternoon was spent under the trees in one of the many parks in my area. We had to escape the buzzing inferno that is the heat wave. We had bought goodies from the new Pick 'n Pay Food Studio and took our spread to the lush lawns. Puppies, ball throwers and half tennis ball in tow... we were packed. What an awesome lazy Saturday afternoon. Bliss!

What I Finished Reading

So a few posts back I spoke about the fact that I had crawled into the pages of 'The Help'. Well with determination and utter engagement, I finished the book. My first in about a year. I finished in just in time for the movie release. I finished it on the Saturday night and saw the movie on the Sunday evening. What young girl is home, reading on a weekend night you may ask, well, I follow the traditions of my Jewish family and it was the breaking of the Yom Kippur fast. That meant we hosted a dinner at our house on the Saturday night. Phew. Felt I had to make up for my reading on the Saturday night thing. haha. Anywho, I loved the book, 5 million copies sold can't be wrong. Dealing with the interaction between white home owners and their maids during the 60's civil rights movement, all put in to a Mississippi pot and fueled with hairspray. Very interesting.


The movie was sweet but fluffed over a lot of the dark aspects in the book and refused to deal with the core issues. Which left me feeling unfulfilled. I also felt that the book did this in a lot of ways. She created such full, wholesome characters and story lines, and then as the book neared the end, the stories thinned out on detail and seemed to wrap up without reason. I hate it when that happens. Slap dash writing as far as I am concerned. Doesn't seem she was writing to a deadline as she approached over 60 publishers who turned her down, and it took her 5 years to write the thing. Perhaps it was a series of different editors with different editing styles. Either way, it seems thrown together towards the end. I loved it, but the ending could have had a little more power. As they say, some books are worth the read for the final paragraph. I just wish this one had been one of them. I felt like it could have gone on, but then the argument stands, when does it end.


So this is where I end. I have made my point. I enjoyed the book, the movie was well cast, well acted, the set and costume design was flawless. My only issue was the marrying of the book to the screenplay. Kathryn, I know you had a part to play, it seems you got played.

Losing

So I started Weight Watchers about a month ago and to date (today's weigh-in) I have lost 4kgs in total. Not bad I say. Considering there have been celebrations of note. Including no less than 2 birthday celebrations, my mother's and my own, Jewish new year (2 dinners), a fast and the breaking thereof, this filled the house with left overs and other goodies. Needless to say my waistline shrunk and did not expand as I had anticipated. On the off days (the ones where I was not indulging in cake and pasta), I was meticulously counting points and weighing fruit and veggies. This has spurred my weight-loss spirit on and I am determined to hit the 10 kilo goal come December. 

Favourite snacks

• Judy's cocktail gherkins (free food)
• Simply Delish Jelly (free food)
• Fruit (as fruit salad)
• Grilled veggies
• Small packet of Beigel Beigel Pretzels
• Sugar free soft drinks - low cal passion fruit cordial is yum!
• Soda Water (get a soda stream!)
• Carob and Yoghurt covered rice cakes
• Grilled chicken breasts done on the barbecue or gas braai.

Those are just some of my favourites at the moment. What I love about the plan is it teaches moderation i.e. that you can eat whatever you like as long as you account for it.

Tornadoes in South Africa?

This weekend two tornadoes hit Gauteng (Duduza on the East Rand) and the Free State (Ficksburg near Bloemfontein). Apparently this is not unusual for this time of year with the high winds and hot weather. It is caused by a low pressure system called mesocyclones which can cause severe storms and thus tornadoes. I thought SA would be exempt from such crazy storms, obvules not! Sites say that the tornado that hit Duduza was a F4. This means that winds reach between 333 - 418 km per hour causing "Devastating damage: Houses and other small structures can be razed entirely; automobiles are propelled through the air" - HowStuffWorks

This is a video of the tornado that hit Duduza