Hmmmm...

I stopped off at the library on the way home to pick up "Winters Bone" by Daniel Woodrell. Tara at Paris Parfait is hosting a discussion of the book for the online Third Day Book Club, so I am deciding whether to join in. Then I went to the shelves of the latest "read in the library only" magazines and sat down with Oprah for a while. It was the issue with a bunch of "how tos". Including "how to lose 4 - 6 pounds in two weeks." Well, OK - my wait loss plan isn't going that quickly, but it's a believable amount. Except that then the writer concerned claimed that she lost 4-6 pounds and one whole dress size. Hello?

Over the years I have put on 25 kgs. Actually, probably a bit more. 25kg is around 55 pounds. So by the above reckoning that should be 11 dress sizes! In that time I have gone from a size 12 to a size 18 (that's British sizing, various websites seem to be agreed that American sizing is smaller, but they don't agree on how much smaller). Anyway, by my reckoning that is three dress sizes. Apparently by some reckoning it's six dress sizes, but since you can't buy size 13, 15 or 17 I don't quite see it. Anyway, I have lost 6kgs so far - about 13 pounds - and I am still wearing the same clothes, and my pants haven't fallen down for want of a belt yet. So either the author is very short or there is something very strange going on.

And another thing - this week is Show Week in Christchurch. This is a big deal. Every other part of New Zealand celebrates the provincial anniversary day as a public holiday, but in Christchurch we ignore the provincial anniversary and have a public holiday on Show Day instead. And half of Christchurch also takes a de facto public holiday on Cup Day (yesterday) so they can go and dress up in fancy frocks and hats and get drunk at the races.

Anyway, the City Council apparently has a tent at the show (along with the sheep, cows and tractors). It will have information on, among other things, free things families can do in Christchurch. Except that to get this information, you have to pay to get in to the show. $16 for an adult, $8 for a child. There is probably a discounted family ticket too but I didn't investigate that far. I took the kids to the show one year and told them "that's it, you've been, don't ask me again." I let their teachers take them on school trips instead - so now I don't have to brave the crowds again until I have grandchildren. Which at the rate they are going will be somewhere the other side of never.

The above rambling is mostly because I can't yet post more holiday details. It is the 15th in the US but bookings for that date are still not showing up on the time share company's computer. However, the 14th is, so maybe tomorrow? And if I still have nothing to report tomorrow, well at least it is Poetry Thursday.