Binder2

my tap dancing career came to an abrupt end before I had even stared. Lucky for Len, this time he
was let off the hook because we were immigrating to Israel which became a great excuse and
reason for many of my discontinued talents and opportunities.
Tap Dancing Shoes -Part Two
A dose of sibling squabbles occurred on a daily basis in our household. You probably realize by
now, Len was always in trouble. He was very clumsy with everything and when you combine this
with a bad temper, (inherited from Gerry) matters escalated very quickly into “things going
wrong”. Everything and anything Len touched seem to break whether it was intentionally or not.
He was the black sheep of the family, and was the cause of most fights in the family but even if he
wasn’t the “sibling revelry” meant we enjoyed blaming him for everything regardless. You would
think someone who had just been caught red handed in the act of dismantling my Shirley Temple
tap shoes would be smart enough to get rid of the evidence. Len was too scared to do so, he knew
he would get a good old walloping from mum and dad, therefore gave up on the idea and accepted
his fate. His only option was to delay his fate so he hid the shoes in a cupboard hoping no one
would notice till we moved to Israel. One day Martin and Raymond were arguing with Leonard
they were standing at the far end of the bedroom. Leonard was screaming his head off at them,
when he instinctively grabbed the first thing at hand to throw at them. You guessed it... the
leftover red heavy weighted tap shoes. They were soon on their way mid air ready to hurt Martin
and Raymond with those metal Blakey’s! Lucky for Leonard no shoes or person were harmed in
the making of this tantrum. Unlucky for Leonard his younger brothers outsmarted him and dipped
down in the nick of time as the shoes were coming their way, missing them by inches. The shoes
then made a huge impact with the window that was right behind Martin and Raymond, smashing it
to smithereens. The shoes landed on a flat part of the house, looking like wounded soldiers sad
tormented and hacked for the second time. The shoes and the window stayed like that for a long
time, needless to say the curtains were drawn for as long as possible too.
Cat-Astrophic
I found the expression “No good deed goes unpunished” most appropriate for this story. To
understand my story I will explain what this phrase means, especially to the non-English mother
tongue members of the family and the dyslexics amongst us. When an action goes unappreciated
or is met with outright hostility. Also when a good deed backfires and results in a negative
outcome, this is when one would use this phrase.
I am one of the world - wide group of “cat ladies” who feed street cats On this particular occasion,
I was out feeding the stray cats in the small park next to my home very late one night, and as
usual, the cats all surrounded me as I entered the park, rushing round to make sure they were first
in line and at the same time brushing up against my ankles to show me how happy they were that I
had finally arrived. In all the mayhem, I accidently trod on the paw of one of them and
immediately heard a screech. I felt something sharp on my ankle as if I had been scratched but
when I inspected it there was no cat scratch so I decided it might have been a bite. The following
morning my ankle was swollen right up to my toes. I had difficulty walking and I was in a lot of
pain. After a couple of visits to the doctor and some antibiotics, which didn’t seem to be working,
I was finally hospitalized for 10 days for intra-venous anti-biotic treatment and steroid skin cream.
I was suffering from cellulitis, an excruciatingly painful condition caused in my case but not all,
by a streptococcus bacterium presumably from the cat’s paw or mouth After two weeks I was
back feeding the cats but wearing long socks and plastic gloves. That didn’t last long but I am
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