Walking Rosie

Rosie is a dog. An American Bull Terrier I think. She is pitch black except for one little white paw. She isn’t my dog, she belongs to my Neighbours but I take her for walks. I also take their other dog Maxie for walks, but this is about Rosie. She is one year old and quite a handful. So today we were walking together down by the river. Usually I hold on to her lead but occasionally I let go of it to allow her to investigate places I either can’t go or don’t want to go. She was sniffing around a small stairway with a gate at the top. Not far away, I saw an other man walking with his dog next to the river. In anticipation of preventing an altercation between Rosie and the other dog, I went up a few of the stairs to take hold of Rosie’s lead. As I picked it up, Rosie saw the other dog and bolted down the stairs, pulling me over backwards. I fell flat on my back on a wall next to the stairs. Still holding on tight to Rosie’s lead, she couldn’t really go anywhere so she jumped back up the steps and onto my chest. She was startled and puzzled at the same time. The man with his dog were also wide eyed and the man said “Are you alright?” Now in that split second, I thought well, you know I always lie flat on my back on a wall next to a staircase in public with my head and shoulders in the bushes and my legs dangling over the stairs with a startled dog on my chest. So I looked at him and in the most polite way I possibly could, I said “Yes, Im alright” and he and his dog did the right thing. They ran away. Fast.

This morning I was out driving in the traffic on a local main road. While stopped in the traffic I saw a young lady trying to park her very small car in a space large enough to take a big car. She couldn’t get it in there and after a while of trying, she just gave up and left the car sticking out into the traffic and got out and walked away. Apart from my disgust at what she had just done or not done I thought. My 80 yr. old Mom can park a car reverse parking much better than that and much more quickly than that too. What’s that young lady going to do when she gets older ? Luckily there is already a solution to the problem in sight. Self parking Motorcars. I can’t wait for them to become commonplace. That will have to be the solution because that young lady and young men of the same generation are not suddenly learn how to park a car properly.

Motorcars and charity

I’m in my 56th year now and since the age of three I’ve had an interest in Motorcars. I had a bedspread with vintage cars printed all over it and bedroom curtains with racing cars everywhere. Hundreds of Matchbox cars and trucks and tens of Corgi models. I so loved playing with them, in the sand patch, in the house and even in the driveway. Then as time went by and I was approaching becoming a teenager it was decided that the best thing for me to do with my huge collection of toy cars was to give them away to poor children. It was arranged that we go up to Groote Schuur Hospital Children’s Wards and hand over three big boxes full of my precious Motorcars to the Sister in charge of the wards. She was as I remember a very nice lady. She picked out three cars and I had to personally give them to three children she pointed out to me. They were all in their hospital beds of course, too sick to be up and about like I was. I’ve never forgotten that day and never regretted it either but I did miss my toys for quite a long time after the event.

At last !

It appears that I may have made some progress at last. I am so glad about that. Now on a completely different tack. I’m sitting outside on my patio at ten to twelve/ midnight. The weather here in Cape Town at this time of year is perfect for doing just that. I just have a candle in a lamp for light although there is a bit of reflected light from my bedside light inside too. As if anyone wanted to know that but Im being self indulgent and just rambling on, speaking/typing my random thoughts for now.