Hello again, everyone. I’ve decided that I shouldn’t really say “Good morning,” as by the time I post this, those of you in South Africa are usually already well into the afternoon.

Yesterday at the gym, I was on the treadmill, walking briskly uphill to nowhere, at about 7 kms an hour.

My iPod was playing Josh Groban singing some really beautiful songs in Italian, but all I could hear in my mind, as I scurried along, was the White Rabbit’s song from Alice in Wonderland:

I’m late, I’m late for a very important date
No time to say “Hello”, “Goodbye”
I’m late, I’m late, I’m late, I’m late
And when I wave, I lose the time I save
My fuzzy ears and whiskers
Took me too much time to shave

I run and then I hop, hop, hop
I wish that I could fly
There’s danger if I dare to stop
And here’s the reason why
You see, I’m overdue, I’m in a rabbit stew
Can’t even say “Goodbye”, “Hello”
I’m late, I’m late, I’m late

It’s a good thing I managed to restrain myself from singing out loud, or they might have called the men in white coats to come and take me away, haha. Whatever song was playing on my iPod, I just couldn’t get this irritating singing rabbit out of my head. The song then lodged itself firmly in my mind, popping up again at intervals right throughout the day. I’m sure it’s happened to you all on occasion. Such songs are really sent to torment us.

After all the exertion, I decided to go for a bit of pampering, so went off to the nail salon. Whilst I was waiting my turn, the bag under one of the women’s chairs suddenly fell over, came to life, and started shuffling towards me. “Mitzi, come here, its owner called,” and tiny Mitzi coyly peeped round at me, seeking approval. This cute little bundle of white fluff, obediently trotted back to her owner, who was trying to dry her nails under the machine, and I was left with the bag, which I was told was Mitzi’s airline travel bag. I asked a few questions of course, and found out that one is allowed to take small dogs on American local flights as long as they stay in the bag under the seat. Interesting, especially if they they need to use the toilet during the flight, but I didn’t get around to that question

All the manicurists were Vietnamese, both men and women. They chattered together incessantly in very musical, sing song voices. (I was just reading about their language, and found out that the sing song effect is because Vietnamese is basically a monosyllabic language having six tones, and the same word can be repeated with any one of six tones to indicate six different meanings.) My manicurist didn’t really speak English, but when she buffed my feet underneath, she said the word, “tickle,” and laughed even more than I did. “You want flower?” she asked, as she painted my toenails. “Why not?” I said, although I’ve never had a flower on my toenails before. It looks quite pretty, don’t you think?

Maybe for Valentine’s day, I’ll get a couple of hearts painted on, just for fun.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about Sarchasm, and all the help he’s given us in the move to WordPress. I really appreciate his willingness to share what he’s learned with all of us. I was reminded of the Bible story about Moses leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, into the promised land.

It’s beginning to look as though Letterdash has abandoned us to wander in the wilderness of spam for the next forty years, so I suppose as the saying goes, “God helps those who help themselves.” Maybe I’ll be proved wrong and they’ll suddenly sputter into life again and do what they promised. What do you think?

Have a great weekend everyone. Chat again soon.