Come join me, Tové Kane, for a free Chic Flick Movie Premier at Menlyn Park in Pretoria, Monday 24 November 2008. 

Go to the site below - just a heads up, it takes a while to load but once it’s there - have fun!

 http://www.kfcchicflick.co.za

 The Tové ABBBA Challenge today was: to write a fairy tale using ABBA song titles.

Gerda and Tové, two Super Troupers fighting in the battle of Waterloo, were on a secret mission to save the Dancing Queen who was captured by the Evil King Fernando. As they got to the Castle the gate was locked, but Tové remembered the magic words, Voules-Vous, given to her by the Fairy god mother, Mamma Mia, and by saying it out loud, she opened the gate. As they got to the Dancing Queen, Gerda sent out an SOS and the Ring Ring Ring Brigade came to their rescue and air lifted them out. As they flew away they said to each other: “The Winner takes it all!”

Well done Nicolene Olivier – you win R 1500 cash and tickets to “Bjorn Again” at the Lyric Theatre, Gold Reef City.

Remember Friday’s Challenge is to arrive at the Jacaranda 94.2 studios on Samrand Avenue off the N1 between Pretoria and Johannesburg.  Dress like ABBA and be a winner!

Pirates have anchored a hijacked Saudi oil tanker off the Somali coast, as the spate of hijackings gathered pace with two more ships seized on Tuesday.

Vela International, operators of the Sirius Star say this is the biggest tanker ever hijacked.  Sirius Star is carrying a cargo of 2m barrels - a quarter of Saudi Arabia’s daily output - worth more than $100m.

Two more ships were also taken in the Gulf of Aden, the narrow waterway to the north of the Somali coast.

The hijackings of the cargo ship and a fishing vessel bring the total number of vessels attacked by the pirates this year to 95.

Few things on Earth can survive being hit by speeding cars at 70mph and left for dead.

But this puppy is clearly a special case.

The one-year-old pooch was knocked down by driver Marco Menozzi on a side road in Cozze, southern Italy         But in an astonishing twist of fate, Menozzi hit the pup so hard - at 70mph - that he was embedded in the grill under the bonnet of the Peugeot 207.

There he managed to cling on until the car eventually stopped - 15 miles later.

He survived the ordeal with just a broken leg and some bruising.

‘He’s a very lucky boy,’ said one policeman.

‘He was saved because he was hit so hard. Any softer and he would have bounced off the car and been crushed under the wheels.’

Izabella Little is the author of the bestselling Life Talk for a Daughter and Life Talk for a Son (written with input from Patrick Wilson). Both books have been translated into Afrikaans. Based on demand from readers, Izabella formed the Life Talk Forum for parents and teens.

Izabella now works almost exclusively in youth guidance, and frequently appears as a guest on youth and parenting programmes on radio and TV.

Today on the Tové Tablopid, I ask Izabella what parents could do better for their teens.  Tune in at ¼ to 4.

Write to Izabella forum@lifetalk.co.za or izabella@lifetalk.co.za

Visit the website http://www.lifetalk.co.za

Do you even find yourself amusing?  What I mean is – you do something daft, and there’s an aspect of you that witnesses that behaviour and instead of being harsh and condemning, you actually just smile and what a loon you are. 

Maybe I chuckle at myself because I’m quite attuned to being a bit off the wall.  I think God’s ability to know and love all 6 billion (and counting) of us simultaneously is also an indication of a universal sense of humour.  We give our Creator such stoic attributes but if we are made in His image – I believe it’s worth contemplating at least that we have inherited an ability to laugh, at situations, the world and ourselves. 

I’m shaking my head at myself because for this whole year I’ve been struggling to read my BLOGs written first in Notebook and then copied into Word Press.  The view was set on some minimal percentage and instead of simply zooming in and increasing the view to at least 100 % (and more comfortably at 150 %) I’ve been squinting at my Macbook and making my life more difficult.

Such a simple change yet its benefits are instantly gratifying.  A simple change in eating habits can be equally satisfying – who really wants to lug around great lumps of lard, swallowing Rennies all day because your heartburn feels like your entire alimentary canal is on fire?

Whether it’s habitual or not – at this stage in my G.I. Lean weight loss challenge, I’m finding it easier to stick to the foods I’ve come to know than to wheel and deal in cheats and treats.  A long time ago I said that we don’t cheat the diet – we cheat ourselves when we go off the rails. 

Now I’ve come to realize that going off the rails is actually truly beneficial for greater focus and more deeply entrenching my desire to lose weight.  I’ve been scrupulously honest about this or that temptation: some I’ve resisted and some I’ve simply surrendered.  Going off the rails has allowed me the chance to reset myself.  It has proven to me that weight loss is important; that it’s what I want more than the short-term pleasure of a chocolate. 

I’ve been the one to see the imminent twist in the journey, to notice myself going one way and my weight loss the other way.  The ensuing accidents haven’t been lethal but they have been serious enough to tell me that I’m not a passenger on this journey – I’m the driver.

Do I want to drive myself down a derelict mine shaft lined with cheese and chocolate – one that will have me stuck half way melon hips jutting roundly outwards jamming me between eternity and oblivion?

Or do I want to burn my own fat as fuel on my journey to thinner peace?  It’s true: nothing tastes as good as thin feels.  This weekend I went off the rails – the debris revealed this answer that I’ve been sensing but only now can articulate: I’m not a passenger – I am THE DRIVER!

I used to blindly follow patterns of behaviour that in themselves brought more pain and aguish than they relieved.  Now I’m in control, I’m conscious and I am willing and able to take myself where I’ve never been before – to truly being happy, healthy, thin and strong. 

Going off the rails has shown me that I prefer to be on them.  I prefer to have a plan, - a map for the journey ahead.  I prefer to set the pace myself and to know a little more than that little engine from nursery school rhymes that not only do I think I can – I KNOW I AM.

I DO find myself amusing.  And when I do something daft, like take weeks and weeks to arrive at an inevitable conclusion, there’s an aspect of me that witnesses my behaviour and instead of being harsh and condemning, I acknowledge that all of these elements in my journey are making me more capable of being who I truly am.  I hope that they are having the same impact on you – just remember every journey is unique.  If some of my ideas don’t resonate with you – simply ignore them.  I’ve been reading a fascinating book about just the subject: resonance – and I’ll share it with you tomorrow. 

Tickets to Chris Forrest’s new one man comedy show at The Tesson Theatre at the Civic, are available from Computicket - BOOK NOW!!!      

Others disagree but I believe there is reasonable evidence to suggest that illness of any description is the domain of the upset mind and bottled up emotions.  I’ve read numerous books that give detailed descriptions of common ailments aligned with equally common negative mindsets. 

One of my favourite motivational CD’s comes from Dr Wayne Dyer.  He describes being on a book tour and being collected by a driver who was full of flu.  He blesses her when she sneezes but quickly upsets her when he remembers that it has been 25 years since he was last ill. 

They enter into a debate about illness – something she regards as random.  He concurs that viruses exist and that they can cause severe illness but only if someone agrees to accept a viral attack on their body. 

The first time I heard this anecdote I was striding upwards on the steepest gradient and fastest walking speed on my treadmill.  I had a gym which was surrounded by framed posters of Madonna and all of her reinventions including concert images, publicity shots as well as fitness photos of her jogging in Central Park. 

I absolutely love Madonna’s arms – their strength and leanness is enormously appealing to me.  She blends muscularity with flexibility and femininity in an extraordinary amalgamation of what the female form can achieve in its pursuit of health and longevity.   Her strength in all areas of her life is evident in the conditioning of her body. 

Yes she has experienced failure: marriages, movies and emotional connections with friends who become enemies, granted – she is not perfect.  What she is to me: is power personified.  She is proof that anything is possible, that dreams do come true, that tenacity is essential to survival, that visualization manifests as actualized blessings when consolidated through time and attention and sheer unwavering belief that more closely resembles KNOWING. 

Arm fatigue on only my second set of reps would be dismissed the moment I set eyes on Madonna in casual pose, not even flexing but looking magnificently toned.  Yes of course I’d play Madonna CD’s in my Madonna gym but I also love personal development CD’s and on this day, steaming up my imaginary hill, Wayne Dyer’s proposal that choice is involved in sickness was intriguing to me.

Most of us tend to accept that we will be sick 2 or 3 times a year: runny nose, sore throat, cold or flu.  Dyer rejects the notion that we should expect to be unwell and worse, that we should tolerate anything but perfect health.  For a person who suffers from severe headaches and razor blade pains in my throat every few months – his point just about stopped me in my tracks.

You’ve seen music videos, pranks or other such silly stunts where people lose footing on a treadmill.  They hit the moving deck hard – often scraping their chin – moments before they are spat out by the speeding track, ejected like a human cannonball backwards until another piece of gym equipment or indeed, a solid brick wall stops them abruptly.  Given that I seem to be a walking hazard you can be sure that I have done this not just once but several wall crashing times.

I managed to avoid my rapid assault against the wall, mid-stride on my steep slope only by pulling in my safety chord by mistake.  I’d reached forward to track my CD player backwards a little to hear again what Wayne Dyer was saying.  I’ve never forgotten his conviction that indeed viruses do land on him and he simply rejects them and sends them on their way. 

Could this be possible?  I was tired from my workout and my mind was already justifying why I could stop when Dyer went on to say that every day for years – uninterrupted – he runs 5Kms.  I resumed my climb and resolved to be more effective at viral rejection.

The day before yesterday I noticed a dryness in my throat which preempted something I know only too well.  A sore throat.  In my field – where my voice is my everything since I use it: for TV voices, to MC, to sing, to deliver motivational seminars and of course – for my radio show.  A sore throat is my worst nightmare.

Spiritually what does it mean?  Holding back on things unspoken.  Yes – there are a great many things I want to say and can’t, won’t or shouldn’t.  That happens to all of us.

I think it’s worth a bit of introspection – when we’ve been so focused on the way things appear on the outside.  I’m not at Wayne Dyer level but I’m at the starting point where I can acknowledge that I am involved in my sore throat to a degree.  I know that I can be part of the solution.  Dyer explains that on the spiritual plain, good health isn’t something that exists.  What he means is that – spiritually speaking – health is an absolute – there are not degrees of health.  Health is perfect. 

My Blog today is about recognizing that disease is not something we should expect and certainly it isn’t something we should condone.  Metaphysical teacher, writer and publisher, Louise Hay suggests – it is “dis” “ease” – a disruption of the natural flow of things.  Begin to recognize what your body’s ailments are trying to tell you.  There is a symbolic meaning that lies close to the location of the pain, understand it, address it and embrace whatever you need to change.

This sore throat is coming to me via a postnasal drip that is seeping into my body and making me feel nauseous.   I am looking at what it is that makes me feel blocked up, what it is that I feel I can’t say and what it is that makes me feel sick to the stomach.  Also this whole process presents me with a challenge.  It is a test of my resolve. 

I could stop my weight loss process with G.I. Lean, give up, turn to comfort food that I tell myself might make me feel better because my body is clearly suffering.   I could listen to my mind that says I could just take a break, a brief break.   It’s not good to exercise when you are unwell – do you know much strain that puts on the heart? 

Yes, yes, I hear all those things.  I see the challenge and I raise it with a challenge of my own.  No, I won’t do heavily aerobic based exercise but yes I will still walk and stretch and no I won’t eat junk food since it is junk and what my body needs is nutrition from the outside and the inside to make me feel better.  Next time you don’t feel well, think about what’s wrong with YOU or even WHO’S wrong with you and you might be able to ease the sickness by dealing with what it means.