Reducing the dress size

Is there a woman alive who never had reason to be concerned about her shape or size?  It's amazing how much is written about this dilemma, how many solutions offered, how much money spent on toning and dieting and garments that are slimming.  There is virtually not a magazine on the shelves which omits some comment on this topic, and cyberspace seems crammed with advice from fellow human beings or blow by blow accounts of their struggles on personal blog sites. 

Having spent my teenage years happily training on the athletics field, I managed to make it well into my twenties before even vaguely aware of unwanted bulges.  Even after Matthew's birth, my body slimmed down quickly as he demanded to be fed every couple of hours.  When three more children followed, the combined effect of frustration and lack of opportunity for physical recreation started showing in my body.  Now that I am approaching 60, I have decided to shed my unwanted kilograms, come hell or high water.  Now, this winter, starting this month.  My strategy is a combination of my homoeopath's diet, a daily visit to the gym (Curves, which demands only half an hour of one's time and is near the supermarket where I seem to spend most of my life) and lots of good cheer in the form of every available friend willing to distract me from fattening food.

There will be weekly rewards - either a piece of new clothing or a film at Cavendish Noveau or a ballet at Artscape - to keep me on my toes.  I am giving myself six weeks to lose ten kilos. 

Midwinter

We've just crept over the midwinter mark of the 21st June, and what a spectacularly beautiful day it was - sunny, with clear skies and not a breath of wind.  The College of Teachers at our local Waldorf school had promptly changed the St John's Festival to the 21st when they saw the weather forecast, because all the rest of the week we had rain and storms.  The St John's Festival is usually held at the end of the school term, marking the darkest night and welcoming in the longer periods of sunlight from then onwards.  The teachers start the evening off with a short play (this time about the rabbit which stole the fire from the beavers).  All of us sat outside and it was magical.  Every class at school make their special lanterns in the preceding week, and now walk in a long procession with these, gathering eventually around the huge bonfire, which is lit ceremoniously by the Grade 7s.  We sing songs and drink soup with bread, which parents brought along.  It was such a wonderful event, as if we were specially chosen to glimpse a piece of paradise.  The combination of small children's faces lit with wonder as they concentrated on holding their pretty little lanterns, the starry skies of the southern hemisphere, and the sense of community from gathering around a crackling fire while sipping soup - all of this was really special.