MALA

 I walked to the New World Thorndon supermarket in Murphy Street this afternoon with my shopping buggy in tow.

It's only the next street over but I needed the buggy to carry home a 6 pack of beer and 6 bottles of wine.

On the way back I got caught up in an anti American imperialism in Latin America protest march. The US embassy is between Hobson Street and Murphy Street. The marchers were orderly and shouted out anti American sentiments which admittedly I agree with. A small police presence walked alongside them.

Near the US embassy I saw security (spy) cameras which would have recorded the marchers, using facial recognition software. I guess me, the old guy at the end of the procession was recorded too which will limit any future opportunity of entering those united? states of America. - not that I have any intention of ever doing so again.

"Make America Latin Again"

FEELING BETTER

I made an appointment at the doctors' surgery this morning. The receptionist asked if Doctor Yang at 2.30 would be suitable. I was tempted to say that I thought it was a doctors' surgery and not a dentists' but then thought that if she didn't come from Wainouiomata she would be unaware of those old jokes. Also, you never know what might be considered to be racist nowadays. The doctor's surgery is very close being a 5 minute walk to the next street over.

I then walked to The Terrace to Awanui Labs to provide blood and a urine sample.

At the 2.30 consultation Doctor Yang did a whole series of tests on me after a long discussion of my dizziness symptoms and concluded that it was very, very unlikely that I had a TIA (mini stroke) on Tuesday but most likely had raised blood pressure and dehydration from the extreme physical efforts I'd been undertaking over the last week. Living in a 3 level house is nice for space and views but a bugger when carrying up furniture and heavy boxes. His measurements showed that I'm still in AF as usual but my blood oxygen levels and blood pressure and pulse were back to normal. Whew!

I'm feeling a lot better this evening but a lot of that has to do with the reassurance.

I really hope that Richard's condition improves and that his 'readings' are normal.

With regard to old jokes

THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW WERE TRUE - PART FOUR

I've been a bit dizzy over the last couple of days which got me thinking about another dizzy person, John Banks Gillespie, aka Dizzie Gillespie.

John was born in October 1917 almost exactly two years after my dad was born. He died in January 1993 three years before my dad died. There's almost a coincidence for you.

Dizzie as he later came to be referred to was a bandleader, composer, music teacher and singer. whose principal instruments were trumpet and piano but is remembered mostly as a trumpet virtuoso and improviser in jazz. Gillespie helped to popularise bebop and his musicianship and showmanship made him an enduring icon with his beret, horn-rimmed spectacles, scat singing, bent horn, pouched cheeks, and light-hearted personality being well remembered.

As a young man Dizzie had undiagnosed heart problems that would have been picked up by doctors today. His erratic heart rhythm now known as Atrial Fibrillation or AF didn't cause him much of a problem but after taking up the trumpet the heavy blowing technique which 'blew out' his cheeks also exacerbated his AF condition. He experienced dizzy spells now known as TIA (or mini strokes) which often made him sit down during performances. Fortunately his second musical instrument of choice was the piano so nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

So now you know.

Dizzy Gillespie was a great musician. Here's a vid for your pleasure:

THE RIGHT STUFF - A POST COMPLETED

As I’ve yet to set up the computer (we don’t have a computer desk yet for the study and the dining room furniture hasn’t been delivered) I’m writing this post on my iPad. Script is OK albeit slow but inserting images and copy and pasting links and information is very difficult so this post will be completed later.

I've set up the study and activated the computer again but had to have a lie down afterwards due to a 'medical event'.

Nearly there

Well, I guess ‘stuffing’ might be applicable but I mean the right pillow.

We have our bed in the master bedroom set up and have slept here for the last two nights. Unusual for me though I’ve been unable to sleep well. I put it down to the fact that I don’t have my proper ‘sleeping’ pillow. Since moving down from Whangarei before Christmas I haven’t been using my favourite pillow and compromised with another one when sleeping in the apartment. My favourite one is packed away in a box somewhere and I’ve yet to find it. The compromise one, while not as good is back at the apartment in Cuba Street which I will retrieve today.

The right pillow with the right stuffing is important for a good night’s sleep. It can also circumvent neck pain. A stiff neck along with bac strain is what I have at the moment but … you don’t want to hear about that.

Over at Richard’s blog you will soon hear of his toilet capers but … you don’t want to hear about that.

At Robert’s resurrected blog he will tell you about his fishing problems and for the life of me I can’t understand why he doesn’t just ask his pal Jesus or his mother Mary to give him some fish seeing that Jesus has plants to spare and can rustle up some wine on call as well but … you don’t want to hear about that.

What you want to hear about is The Right Stuff, the excellent Tom Wolfe book that I plan to re-read.

This book concerned the pilots engaged in U.S. postwar research with experimental rocket-powered, high-speed aircraft  many of whom went on to join NASA's Project Mercury space programme. The pilots featured were interviewed and their stories told along with interviews with their wives and girlfriends. It's a great read and was made into an outstanding film.

Wolfe wrote that the book was inspired by the desire to find out why the astronauts accepted the danger of space flight. He recounts the enormous risks that test pilots were already taking, and the mental and physical characteristics—the titular "right stuff"—required for and reinforced by their jobs. 

Recently I read of the Artemis II programme which is a planned lunar  spaceflight mission led by NASA. It is intended to be the second flight of the Space Launch System (SLS), and is both the first crewed mission of the Orion spacecraft and the first crewed mission to the vicinity of the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. The launch is scheduled for around February 6, 2026. No doubt the crew have 'The Right Stuff'.

So now you know.

"HIACE, HOW YA DOING?"

 "Beudy mate".

"Story".

That's how I imagine truck drivers converse. Richard would know.

Today I hired a Hiace van and moved a lot of big boxes and some small items of furniture from the lock-up to the house.

I had planned to do 6 trips but the rain made the last one difficult so I did 5. Man that van can hold some stuff. I cleared out both lock up garages of all but the big items of furniture and the gym machines which  the removal guys will handle tomorrow.

I did this because parking is difficult in Hobson Street and, as we own the front townhouse, a truck in the driveway will block entrance and exit for the other townhouse owners. By clearing out all the 'rats and mice' stuff this leaves 2 beds, 3 dressers, 2 couches, 5 armchairs, 4 sideboards, 3 large sets of gym equipment, a couple of wooden chests, a china cabinet, a bookcase and about 10 heavy boxes. I'm hoping that they can unload those into the house in less than an hour.

I'm stuffed now. I just dropped the van back to James Blond rentals who are just around the corner from the apartment in Cuba Street. It was a good deal and the van performed well. After a hot shower to loosen up my muscles I think I'll have a big glass of chardonnay (one with a label on it - Mills Reef Elspeth Hawkes Bay. Yummy.

THANK GOD

 God? No, sorry, then some other important person.

Someone equally as important but good and caring. Thank ... Richard. that's it.

Richard, even though being a bit under the wether ... weather ...

... helped me out tremendously today.

We did 4 carload trips each of boxes from the Newlands lockup to Hobson street. This has certainly 'broken the back' (not ours hopefully) of the move allowing the furniture movers on Saturday to more easily access the beds, couches, larger boxes and gym equipment. A job well done.

The heavy rain forecast tomorrow will keep me indoors unpacking these boxes and putting the contents away in their designated places - a task made all the more necessary by The Old Girl being on-site overseeing proceedings. This will enable me hopefully and weather permitting on Friday, to use the van I've booked to move across the rest of the smaller items.

In recognition of Richard's efforts I promise to, for the next 20 10 5 blog posts of his, refrain from making sarcastic, snide, facetious or derogatory comments WHATEVER the content of his blog post! For those readers familiar with my usual comments this is a biggie so ... well done that man for winning this valuable prize.

No need to thank me.

SETTLEMENT DAY

Today we took possession of the Hobson Street house and can now plan to move all of our stuff in and to organise the next adventure in our lives.

I looked up 'Settling' in the on-line dictionary and found quite a few different meanings:

Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford Languages 

Settle
verb

1.Gerund or present participle: settling.
resolve or reach an agreement about (an argument or problem).
"the unions have settled their year-long dispute with Hollywood producers"


2. Pay (a debt or account).
"his bill was settled by charge card"


3. Adopt a more steady or secure style of life, especially in a permanent job and home.
"one day I will settle down and raise a family"
make one's permanent home somewhere.
"in 1863 the family settled in London"

4. Sit or come to rest in a comfortable position.
"he settled into an armchair"

But also ... (of an object or objects) gradually sink down under its or their own weight.
"they listened to the soft ticking and creaking as the house settled"
And, more alarmingly: (of a ship) begin to sink.
"the craft was settling nose-down in the water"

Hopefully our settling today will be of the number 3 and 4 variant without ships and houses sinking!

I picked up the keys shortly after midday and took a load of stuff (old wines from our cellar mostly) to the new house and stored them away in the garage. Fortunately the garage has some built in cupboards and shelving which I will add to and managed to stack these away tidily.

After than I returned to the apartment and loaded the car with some bags of clothing and took to the house. The Old Girl met me there after work and approved of the house (but not the cleaning job they did) and we 'walked' it to decide on extra furnishings we may need. That done we returned to the apartment to change clothes and went downstairs to Cuba Street to celebrate the purchase. A glass each of Louis Roederer Champagne and a glass of rose for her and chardonnay for me along with some tempura oysters and some monkfish toast entrees sealed the deal (probably covered by numbers 1 and 2 in the Oxford dictionary meanings).

Job done.

The next part - moving in will be hard work though. Fortunately Richard will help me tomorrow with the smaller boxes and. over the next couple of days I'm hoping to have the way cleared for the removal guys to bring the big boxes and furniture from the lock up to the house on Saturday. It'll b nice to have things to sit on.

What will also be nice is for the retail suppliers to deliver the fridges and freezers we bought, the dining room table and chairs, a sideboard, a TV stand and an extra couple of armchairs. Then we will be settled and will move in properly at the end of the month.

TALKING OF STUPID

 

Has anyone read Robert's blog Bob's discombobulate Bobadilish?

Maybe not, seeing that he now puts all his creative effort in to his Facebook page of which I'm unsure what the title is. Somethings are better not to have gone there.

Bob's discombobulate Bobadilish is bad enough as seen by his blogging ID image:

This is 'Bob' in church (probably St Mary of the Angels) communing with the Holy Spirit who somehow imparts its knowledge to 'Bob' and gives him ideas for his posts.

An unkind (er) person might suggest that it shits on his head which I admit might be the same thing given by the content of his latest post where he wrote:

In the first reading Ramathain has two wives. He loved one, Hannah, more than the other but Hannah was crying because she was barren so Ramathain said "Aren't I worth more than ten sons?". So it goes.

That reads like bird shit to me alright.

 

STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES

 Beyond most people's belief, the USA is being run by a bunch of idiots who are on that level of dumbness where they think that they are clever.

No doubt you have, many times over the last year, heard Donald Trump say that South American and African countries are emptying out their prisons and mental asylums and sending the inmates to illegally reside in USA.

Most of the time when the orange idiot spouts this nonsense it is ignored by the press and the public as he makes so many outrageous claims and tells so many lies.

The danger is though that it becomes 'true' by being repeated so much and that his lackeys start saying the same thing as well. The toadyish and rather stupid Justice Secretary Pam Bondi repeated the lie recently:

Where does this lie come from? It comes from ignorance and stupidity rather than deliberate mendacity.

Somewhere along the line someone told Trump that amongst the people from Venezuela and other South American and African countries seeking citizenship in USA were a lot of asylum seekers. The illiterate idiot in his mind interpreted this as people coming from mental asylums and insane institutions. No doubt he and the lackeys have been told of the error by someone with an actual brain but they choose to keep the misinformation going and to continually lie about it to the red necked, red hatted and red toothed idiots who swallow such garbage because, well, they don't have properly functioning brains.

And these people think that they are running the Western world?

Sheesh!

STAND AND DELIVER ...

... or, in Richard's university holiday job at Murray Roberts and Company it was a case of sit and deliver given that he was a delivery driver.

In his latest post he wrote this:

Speed reading through his post as I do and it is recommended, I misread that as Dick Turpin being an early relative of his. Sorry about that.

I can see Richard as a highwayman though given the demands he makes on other bloggers to proofread and update their blogs.

Good luck with the practice tomorrow. It will be interesting to see the video that comes out of it. You can take your guns with you but please, leave that Murray Roberts' poem at home son.