SUNDAY

The Old Girl went to Wellington on Tuesday so I've been 'baching' again.

The place is a tip so today, as my sister and family are coming around to play snooker, I've been doing housework.

With The Old Girl away though I'm not going to get any brownie points.

"Of course they say that a woman's work is never done ...............

Maybe that's why they get paid less."

          - Sean Lock joke.

******************* 

It's been 'a game of two halves' this weekend.

Yesterday it was Summer and today it's winter.

ALMOST

Yesterday I spent a few hours in the garden before playing golf in the afternoon. The day was warm, sunny, windless and beautiful.

Today we're being buffeted by a storm bringing heavy rain and the temperature has dropped.

Go figure.

I'm baking an apricot and walnut loaf for afternoon tea when the snooker players come around.

It's a good day for being indoors.

ROBERT'S GONE AGAIN

I wrote a comment about Robert last night and, reading it this morning I noticed a slight poetical quality to it.

I decided to trim the comment a bit and to rewrite it in poem form.*

Robert's gone again
The conflict was a bit too much.
His saviour had just arrived
The result of a National Putsch.
Todd Muller was Robert's dream
 Catholic and Trump man through and through.
He of course was not what he seemed
But, never-mind, he's still true blue.
Then something awful happened
Jacinda came to Robert's work
She was kind and dampened his reactionary view.

           He felt a bit of a berk. 

He wanted to follow Todd but then,
Jacinda made more sense.
"I love her. I hate her. What to do?"
He cried "Should I jump the fence?"
He thought of god and began to pray
........................... but then,
Like Judas he slunk away

          Robert's gone again.

* With apologies to William McGonagal

WHAT'S A WHALE'S FAVOURITE BOOK? *

In our bay - McLeod Bay - we get all sorts of marine life in addition to the abundant fish species of snapper, John Dory, kingfish, kahawai flounder and others.

Stingray patrol the beaches and the occasional seal turns up.

OWHA being friendly

Last year Owha the 300kg leopard seal (named maybe because if you get too close to her you're likely to exclaim "Oh Fuck!" as you get chased away) spent some time here sunbathing on the swimming platform.

OWHA being pissed off

It's not unusual to see dolphin and orca coming into the bay to chase stingray but this afternoon we had a humpback whale in the bay having a cruise around.

It's only a coincidence but I'm cooking fish (snapper) for my tea tonight.









* The Humpback of Notre Dame.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WAS THINKING - OR, WINDOWS 9

Richard, in a comment on one of my earlier posts, asked:

"When does the windows series kick off again?"

I ignored this, as you do, but today when walking about the house thought about it. I looked around and realised that in my popular series 'WINDOWS' I didn't actually cover all of the windows in the house. This has to be rectified.

I'd have to go through WINDOWS 1 through WINDOWS 8 to see which were missed but suspect that there were quite a few. I definitely don't remember publishing a picture of the windows in the door that connects the lounge with the hallway so, here it is:

Once again, sorry about that. When I have more time I'll cross-check to see which ones were missed and update you with new posts.







THE CURMUDGEONS Incⓒ - keeping readers informed and responsive to their requests.

SPOT THE KINGFISHER*

* Its name isn't really Spot.

NEW POST - THE MUSIC CURMUDGEON

OH YEAH

NEW POST - THE RELIGIOUS CURMUDGEON

ALTERNATIVE HISTORY OR THE TRUTH?

NEW POST - THE CURMUDGEON EXPRESS

CANTO III

NOISES ON

I took The Old Girl to the airport today. She's on her way back to Wellington and will be back at work in the Wellington office tomorrow.
For bloggers, the importance of this is that I can now get the study back and use of the Mac which is much better for writing posts than the lap-top or the iPad.

The lesser Curmudgeons have been taking a break for the last few weeks but now will have no excuses not to get some posting done.

Another 'benefit' from T.O.G. being away is that I can get back to making noises. Lots of noises which apparently annoy her and distract her from work and her conference calls. She has hearing 'like a bat' and I'm going a bit Mutt and Jeff so there was a source of conflict there. The first thing I did when I got home was to turn the radio on and have National Radio playing at a volume that I can hear from most parts of the house. Beauty!  I've been missing this. This evening while cooking my dinner I'll play some music loud in that "you're not listening to your 70s music again are you?" category. Beauty!

HEY I'M WALKING HERE!

I'M WALKIN' HERE,  I'M WALKIN' HERE

We're all territorial to some degree I guess.

By the water, by our house lives a Southern Black-backed Gull

Southern black-backed gullLarus dominicanus Lichtenstein, 1823

Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Laridae
New Zealand status:Native
Conservation status:Not Threatened
Other names: karoro, kelp gull, dominican gull, black-backed gull, mollyhawk, seagull, blackbacked gull, black backed gull
Geographical variation: Five subspecies recognised; New Zealand birds are of the subspecies dominicanus.

I've named him John.

I was watching John this morning, gently floating on the tide that was nearly full. He was in roughly the same spot as when the tide is out, standing on the rocks and stones at the water's edge.

John has been here a while - I'm not sure how long. The life expectancy of Larus dominicanus Lichtenstein is about 14 years, roughly like the average cat or dog. We've been here for nearly 11 years so John might have been here longer.

John is usually on his own but occasionally is seen with a young gull - a mollyhawk who may be his off-spring unless John does foster care from time to time.

New Zealand Birds On-line - the digital encyclopaedia of New Zealand birds tells me this:

Breeding
Colonial or solitary; monogamous, with shared incubation and chick care. Nest a bulky collection of grass, small sticks or seaweed, or a simple scrape in sand or shingle. Clutch 2-3 large grey-green eggs with dark brown spots and blotches. Laying mainly Oct-Jan. Incubation 23-26 days; chicks fledge at about 7-8 weeks old, and are fed by adults for at least another month.

I don't know where Mrs John lives. Perhaps like me and The Old Girl, she works somewhere else so has a different second home and they meet up on weekends. (My Old Girl is off back to Wellington on Tuesday).

I like it that John is a familiar 'face' here. Rod, my friend and neighbour who rented our house for a couple of years while we were overseas, always brings down a titbit of food for John when he goes walking down our road. John, often sitting on the swimming platform, flies over when he sees Rod.

That's nice.










No religions or religious themes were mentioned in this post other than a subtle allusion to Richard Bach's book where the US self-help and positive thinking culture, which is a sort of religion, dominates.

JUXTAPOSITION OF OPPOSITES*

IRONY

     /ˈʌɪrəni/ 

nounThe expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect."‘Don't go overboard with the gratitude,’ he rejoined with heavy irony"
Similar:sarcasm, sardonicism, dryness, causticity, sharpness, acerbity, acid, bitterness, trenchancymordancy, cynicism, mockery, satire, ridicule, derision, scorn, sneering, wryness, backhandedness, sarkiness.

Opposite: sincerity

adjective The misused and malapropian description of an item of clothing that has been ironed (subject to hot pressing by a heavy metal object like a household iron). Most seen in blog posts written by Robert the Sinner as in "these pants are very irony"

* THE CURMUDGEONS INC. brings readers news, snippets of information, comments, editorials and items of interest that are near enough to the truth but we cannot guarantee accuracy, fairness or unbias. In the interest of satirical humour we expect readers to understand this.

WAITING FOR THE SCREAMS

Our nutty neighbours hired a wood chipper today to mulch up the tree trimmings as they clear up their property (hopefully to sell and move on).

I don't think they paid any attention to the warning signs on it:

As I saw both of them, at different times, putting their hands way into the feeding chute to push in branches.

It made me think of FARGO.

FARGO

.

HERE WE GO AGAIN

The National party in Opposition has elected a new leader to replace the bumbling and bungling Simon Bridges. No surprise there but I am a bit concerned at his replacement - a sort of hybrid cross between John Key and Bill English. Should we be worried? I think so.

Todd Muller came to Parliament in 2014 at the end of Key's reign.
He was a Young Nat and assisted National PM Jim Bolger in his office which isn't surprising giving his farming family background.

His business background before 2014 was in agriculture and farming related business - specifically kiwi fruit and with Fonterra so he's well qualified to lose billions of dollars. Hold on to your seat folks.

Robert will be pleased with him as obviously he is a Nat but is also a big lover of USA politics. Maybe he'll promote a MAKE NEW ZEALAND GREAT AGAIN cap. The acronym isn't much cop though - MNZGA - which sounds like a drunk guy telling you he's a Minister.

Another reason for Robert to like him is that apparently he's a Catholic and is anti-abortion and anti-euthanasia. No doubt he takes the Catholic party line on those other Catholic and Christian issues too, (remember Israel Folau?) but maybe has too much political sense to say them out loud.

One good thing is that he is a Climate Change supporter and was National's climate change spokesperson, being at odds from time to time with some of the National deniers. In his Fonterra role however he took more of a company line than that of a Green spokesperson but that is par for the course.

I hope that I'm wrong about this guy but we've seen some shockers in the past leading National who've made money for the rich and trodden on the less privileged.

With luck he can be just a voice in opposition.

JOB DONE*

The electrician called around early this morning and we affixed the new snooker-room lights to the ceiling.

It makes a huge difference to the illumination of the table so I'm looking forward to trying it out at night.

The Old Girl and I will have a pool challenge tomorrow evening.
This is a regular event accompanied by a bottle of Champagne or Deutz sparkling.

The three lamp idea is just right for this room and table.

I'm happy.

I dismantled the 'Heath Robinson' scaffolding I built and got Rod to help me to return the plank to the neighbour down the road.

This time I made Rod walk in single file so we were able to keep to the side of the road. This was just as well as a car came along when we were halfway there.

Heath Robinson invention

*When the cords stretch out a bit I'll see about evening them up by use of a clip.

LISTEN UP!

My favourite weekly magazine The NZ Listener has folded.

This is a casualty of Bauer Media NZ closing its doors permanently due to "the severe economic impact of Covid-19" or so they said a few weeks back. I reckon that Bauer were in trouble and are using the Covid-19 lockdown as an excuse.

The government says Bauer didn’t seek help through its business assistance initiatives. Bauer NZ publications are were The New Zealand Listener, North & South, Metro, Home NZ, Your Home & Garden, NZ Woman’s Day, New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, The Australian Women’s Weekly NZ, Fashion Quarterly and Kia Ora magazine.
.

In March the government ruled that non-daily print media were not permitted to publish through the level four lockdown. Kris Faafoi, minister for broadcasting, communications and digital media, said that Bauer NZ  had not sought financial assistance from the government:

“I need to make clear that in conversations I’ve had with Bauer recently they indicated that they were not interested in looking at what assistance they might be able to call on from the government’s Covid assistance initiatives and that is entirely their commercial decision.
I note that Bauer is looking for buyers for its New Zealand assets and I don’t want to interfere in that process,” he continued. “I also note that Bauer had indicated for some time that they were facing challenges around viability of their operations here in New Zealand.
The media environment was facing serious challenges even before the Covid pandemic, which has only compounded those difficulties and I appreciate that Bauer’s decision today reflects that. Government is looking at the overall state of New Zealand media’s health and sustainability in light of Covid-19.”

So, I guess the full story will come out later but it seems that some damned good and long-established New Zealand magazines have expired from being caught in the crossfire from the government and a corporate.

The NZ Listener has been published since 1939

The Woman’s Weekly since 1932.

Bauer Media is a family-owned German business that controls 600 magazines worldwide, with an annual turnover of about NZ $4 billion. It is believed it had been seeking to sell some or all of its New Zealand titles for some time. It’s understood staff were told that Bauer NZ put a case to the government to be classed “essential” and therefore be allowed to remain publishing from March 30 but the decision to close was made by the global owner.

For me I'm really sad to see the NZ Listener go down the drain. I've been a continual reader of this all of my adult life and have read many, many well constructed, non-partisan and informative essays, columns and editorials (no matter what Robert thinks).

I've looked forward to the weekly delivery of NZ Listener on Mondays and it's been a Monday afternoon habit to read the articles, do the cryptic crossword and enter the Caption and the Wordsworth competitions (I've been winner and runner-up on these a couple of times). I need my weekly fix.

It really pisses me off that an 80 year old publication gets trashed by the megalomaniacal greed of an overseas company. I hope that when the dust settles and they are out of it that they are never allowed to come in and fuck up any more New Zealand 'institutions'.

SCORE: 15 NIL*

We've had a run of good weather for a week now.
I played tennis yesterday and will do so again tomorrow.
Today I played golf and on Monday did some weeding with my excellent EGO line-trimmer.

Level-2 makes things a bit easier and enables us to do things that were either forbidden or heavily regulated like swimming, tennis, golf and driving to Auckland.

While it's sunny and warm, the water is cold now and I'm not brave enough to go for a dip.

* 15 golf balls found:none lost which is better than a last week where the score was 0:3.

KEEPING UP WITH THE JONAHS

We at The Curmudgeons Inc.ⓒ decided that it was time to make some calls to other bloggers to check on how they were doing  under the new Level-2 Lockdown and how they coped under Level-3 and Level-4.

We decided to start with that bad luck lot, the raggedy group that Richard supports.


AKISH THE PHILISTINE: Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring........ CLICK. 

No luck there, we'll try another.

ANGRY JESUS: CLICK ..."What the fuck do you want? I'm ...... "CLICK.

We'll give that a miss for today.

BIN'S BASS BAG: BRRRRRRRRRRRR - "This number has been disconnected".

OK, we'll try another.

BULLETPROOF MUSICIAN: BRRRRRRRRRRRR - "This number has been disconnected".

OK, we'll try another.

BUNNY'S CHEWING THE CARROT: BRRRRRRRRRRRR - "This number has been disconnected".

OK, we'll try another.

DIFFERENT TIME ZONE BILL: Ring, ring ... "Wheeeeooooooiiiiiiioooooooowheeeeeeeoooooooiiiiiiiiiiiiooooooooowhhhhhh" CLICK

OK, that's strange. We'll have to come back to that one

PHILLIP EDWARD NIS: BRRRRRRRRRRRR - "This number has been disconnected".

OK, we'll try another.

RBB BLOG POLICE: Ring, ring, ring - CLICK - BRRRRRR - RING - "This call is being transferred" - ring, ring, "Hello, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Atlanta office, how can we help you?  CLICK

Best to leave that one alone.

RETURN TO MURRAY ROBERTS: BRRRRRRRRRRRR - "This number has been disconnected".

BRRRRRRRRRRRR - "This number has been disconnected".

OK, we'll try another.

RICHARD's BASS BAG 2: BRRRRRRRRRRRR - "This number has been disconnected".

OK, we'll try another.

RICHARD"s BASS BAG 3: BRRRRRRRRRRRR - "This number has been disconnected".

OK, we'll try another.

SHAW THING: BRRRRRRRRRRRR - "This number has been disconnected".

OK, we'll try another.

TERRY MCDOUGALL: BRRRRRRRRRRRR - "This number has been disconnected".

OK, we'll try another.

THE FILL IN CURMUDGEON: BRRRRRRRRRRRR - "This number has been disconnected".

OK, we'll try another.

THE THE THE GUY: BRRRRRRRRRRRR - "This number has been disconnected".

OK, we'll try another that's not part of Richard's band.

ROBERT THE SINNER: Ring, ring, ring CLICK .."Hello, Moera Catholic Church, Father Inifyouplease speaking. How can we ....." CLICK

Whew, that was close.

***************

Unfortunately this idea didn't work out. It appears that most of the various blogs that used to exist under the Bass Buggers Confederation have folded. We will remember them*.

* Not really.

THE PLANK

The Plank is an excellent short film featuring Eric Sykes, Tommy Cooper and other British greats.
It was made in 1967 and is about a couple of useless builders who need a plank to complete a floor they are making. Sykes wrote it  and it's a follow on from an earlier spot in his TV series Sykes and a ... from 1964. Well worth watching.

Why The Plank?

Well I'm getting set to replace the light fitting in the snooker room and set up the two Gorilla ladders and a Gorilla extendable 'plank' but it's high up and it will be difficult holding and affixing a cumbersome 3-light fitting while balancing on a narrow platform. For safety's sake I want another couple of ladders and a plank to go alongside the main one. This is so you can have a foot on each for balance. I have another stepladder which I'm using and I borrowed another from Rod. He dropped it off this morning. He didn't have a plank though so I've borrowed one from a neighbour down the road.
This was too long to fit in the car though so Rod and I carried it along the road back to my house.

Now Rod is unusual. This morning, after he dropped the step ladder off said he was off to town (30 minutes away) to get a WOF for the car. When he got there he realised that he was driving the wrong car. He had his wife's car so had to come back, swap cars over and head back into town.

This afternoon, when he was back and in a frazzled state he gave me a hand to collect the plank. Now normal people would carry a plank in 'Indian file' along the side of the road as I tried to do. Not Rod who is one of those people who must see you when talking to you and is a 'close talker' -  the last thing you want in a pandemic. Rod then was continually walking alongside me, in the middle of the road with the 3 metre plank separating us. Fortunately we live on a dead-end road which has virtually no traffic but, as we came around a slight bend two cyclists nearly rode into the plank and had to take evasive action. Rod cracked up and we discussed 'The Plank' as we both love old British comedy. Rod, when he was working in a bar in the UK used to serve Tommy Cooper with Cognac on a frequent basis.

We got the plank safely home and it's now in situ awaiting the electrician.

The plank in position on the left.

ACHIEVEMENT

We all need to feel that we've done something good - contributed.

Being a retired old guy I'm generally not doing this and most of what I do is leisure.

We went to Auckland on the weekend and brought back some paintings from the apartment that we've sold.
One of them sort of fell apart on the way back and I had to do some repairs today - stripping off the old tape and taking out the old framer's pins; taking out the glass and cleaning it; cleaning up the water colour painting; reassembling with new framer's pins and tape. Tickety-boo.

The original water colour painting is of Urupukapuka, Bay of Islands by Harold Coop. It has lovely colours.

Tickety-boo

A photograph of the painting image

OFF TO THE BIG SMOKE

AULD REEKIE - EDINBURGH

Why Is Edinburgh Called Auld Reekie? Asked Deborah Chu in Culture Trip.

Before Edinburgh was being lauded as the ‘Athens of the North,’ it was contending with a rather more… unsavoury reputation. The Auld Reekie, as Scotland’s capital city is still sometimes affectionately called today, means ‘Old Smokey‘ in the Scots dialect. But how did beautiful Edinburgh gain this rather unfortunate nickname in the first place?







Though the city may be renowned for its architectural splendour and the beauty of its natural surroundings today, the situation was much different in the 17th century. Beginning in the late Middle Ages, the entire city (today encompassing Edinburgh’s Old Town neighbourhood) was enclosed by a wall. These fortifications and the Nor’ Loch, a body of water to the north of the city, ensured that Edinburgh was well protected against threat of invasion.

This security, however, came at a price. The Nor’ Loch, which today is the site of the picturesque Princes Street Gardens, was unfortunately the drainage site for the citizenry’s waste and effluence, as well as a popular site for dumping dead bodies. The foul smell that would thus rise from its stagnant waters was overwhelming, to say the least.

Compounding the loch’s reeking stench was the air pollution from the city’s chimneys and coal fires. As Old Town became increasingly overcrowded, the defensive walls prevented residents from expanding outwards, thus resulting in a dense concentration of homes within a small area. The smoke which billowed out created a thick, choking smog over the city. The combination of the Nor’ Loch’s stink and the noxious fog from the city thus became the origins of Auld Reekie.

These days, residents of Edinburgh have largely reclaimed this insalubrious title, with tour groups and cafés proudly adopting the nickname as their own. So the next time you’re climbing Arthur’s Seat and marvelling at the beauty of this city, take a second to try and imagine what it must have looked like centuries ago, and thank the heavens for how far Edinburgh has come since its reeking past.

Cutting, copying and pasting brought to you by The Curmudgeons Inc.ⓒ

******************************

I have fond recollections of Edinburgh but, we're not going to there soon. We had hoped to travel to Scotland next year but I doubt that there will be much international travel in our plans, post Covid-19 (if there is a post Covid-19).

No, we're going to Auckland today to collect some paintings from the apartment which has been sold. The key handover is at the end of this month.

Normally when we spend time in Auckland we go out for dinner but we won't do that tonight  even though Level 2 allows it. No, we'll go by Farro's supermarket on the way down and pick up some ready-made-meals for dinner and breakfast.

We'll only stay the night, leaving the apartment ready for the new owners. It won't really be missed as it was just a utility for The Old Girl to use while she was working in Auckland. The apartment I miss is the 2-bedroom one that we sold before buying the current one.

Current apartment

.

Previous apartment

GETTING IT UP

I'm finally doing something about the crappy lighting we have in the snooker room. The high chandelier lights don't provide sufficient lighting for the table.

I went to Lighting Direct yesterday and bought a set of 3 pendant lights that will do the trick.

I have the electrician coming in soon to replace a light switch so I'll get him to put in the snooker table lights.

We have very high ceilings in this house - over 12 ft so getting up to the ceiling isn't easy.
I've had an excellent Gorilla multi-stepladder for a few years and have found this to be very useful.
I went to Bunnings this morning (the Old Girl gets trade discount there through a work arrangement) and purchased another, slightly bigger Gorilla multi ladder and an extendable aluminium plank.
I set these up over the snooker table to see if the ceiling will be reachable.

It is and the platform will work but ........ the problem is me.

I've never had a problem with heights in the past and, when young, would cheerfully climb up scaffolding on the sides of buildings, trees, cliffs and onto rooftops. Since having the stroke though my sense of balance has been affected and I don't have the confidence that I used to have.
I climbed up on the plank and was able to reach to the ceiling but felt a bit wobbly. I can't see me being able to balance a set of lights to screw these in so I'm just hoping that the electrician has a good head for heights.

If not I'll have to get a cat to help.

SOME HORSESHIT FOR WEDNESDAY

If you have time AND WE KNOW YOU DO have a look at this video:

HOW JESUS SAVED HIS OWN PORTRAIT

I discovered this via a strange post that Robert made on his recently reappeared blog.

I guess he believes this shit.
I find it bewildering and pick up on some of the silliness like:

"When the crate was opened Akiane's original was all covered in sawdust, just like sawdust after crucifixion on a tree"

."..... many specs (sic) had become permanently embedded in the paint, a symbolic reminder of the scars of the crucifixion" 

I'd say God save us if that itself wasn't equally silly.

GOOD SONGS - BAD GRAMMAR

Thanks to Richard, the re-established "King' of The White Sport Coat and Pink Carnation Society see: HERE a classic of 20th century music was rediscovered.

This seminal album set off the chain of events that formed The White Sport Coat and Pink Carnation Society (I hope that he wiped the cover properly). The Pop standards on the album were to feature strongly in the society's social events and some had a deep meaning for members.

Here's the song selection with some notes. Not all of the songs were meaningful but most, nevertheless were good.

A1 - Mitch Miller With His Orchestra And Chorus* Yellow Rose Of Texas

A2 –Johnnie Ray I'll Never Fall In Love Again

Not really applicable to the WSCPCS members at the time as they hadn't managed this the first time around

A3 –Johnny Mathis The Twelfth Of Never 

A forecast as to when Richard might ever see female breasts

A4 –Marty Robbins A White Sport Coat 

The theme song for the society and a great favourite amongst the lads who were all dressed up but had nowhere to go

A5 –Johnny Cash Don't Take Your Guns To Town 

A Richard favourite and adopted by Tony who was a pacifist. It didn't stop him from making trouble though but he generally escaped it leaving other members to take the punishment.

A6 –The Four Lads Istanbul (Not Constantinople) 

The song that kicked it all off with Richard embarking on a lifetime quest to find out what the Turks were up to.

A7 –Louis Armstrong Mack The Knife 

The stand- out song on the album. The Kurt Weill/ Bertolt Brecht song given a great jazz rendition by Satchmo (who incidentally signed my autograph book for me when I was little).

A9 –Frankie Laine High Noon 

A10 –Guy Mitchell Singing The Blues 

B1 –Stonewall Jackson Waterloo 

B2 –Johnny Mathis Wonderful! Wonderful! 

B3 –Johnnie Ray Cry 

This should have been the WSCPCS anthem

B4 –Tony Bennett Young And Warm And Wonderful 

Kind of like how the guys would like their women to be if they ever got their hands on one.

B5 –Guy Mitchell Heartaches By The Number 

Enough said

B6 –Doris Day Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera) 

Quite prescient really as evidenced by the ZOOM call where it was shown that all 'Four Lads' finally have their own personal women

B7 –Frankie Laine Jezebel 

Yes, this came to pass in some relationships

B8 –The Four Lads Moments To Remember 

Well, none actually at the time

B9 –Les Paul & Mary Ford Goodnight Irene 

This was my favourite song when I was about 5 y.o.

B10 –Patti Page Tennessee Waltz 

A great C&W standard - one of the best, handy at the end of the WSCPCS evenings when the lads were left alone.

"I REMEMBER WHEN .....

...... I remember, I remember when I lost my mind"

GNARLS BARKLEY - CRAZY

It was 12 May 2020.

Today's news is full of the reports of the change of lockdown rules from the short-lived Level - 3 to now Level - 2. While this is planned to be a staggered change, bars, and restaurants will be open next weekend.

Are they crazy?

When all you lovely things are out partying:

And I hope that you are having the time of your life
But think twice
That's my only advice

The same news feeds today are full of the horror stories of the deaths in New York, the White House as  disease-ridden and a new outbreak of COVID-19 in Seoul after restrictions against meeting in bars was lifted.

And our government is going to lift restrictions?

Come on now, who do you
Who do you, who do you
Who do you think you are?
Ha ha ha, bless your soul
You really think you're in control?
Well
I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy

A LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU

OK, the title of the post might sound pretentious but it refers to that excellent, if unreadable, treatise by Marcel Proust - À la recherche du temps perdu.



Begun in 1909, when Proust was 38 years old, À la recherche du temps perdu consists of seven volumes totalling around 3,200 pages (about 4,300 in The Modern Library's translation) and featuring more than 2,000 characters. 

Well, old Marcel was a bit tedious and, as he started writing when he was 9, was also a bit precocious.

Why did I select this work as the basis for this post you might ask?

Well, Richard reminisced about his early university days in his latest post and said this about a club that he, Tony, Mike and I put together at Uni:

This extremely successful university club was started in the early 1970s, at Victoria University, by three very intelligent students and one from the St Pats G classes and fulfilled several purposes. It ran packed out social events that all the most beautiful female students rushed to attend and it kept the student newspaper Salient supplied with letters to the editor. One week alone the club wrote 60 letters. The young G class student pronounced himself king; incidentally, this was to be the only time that an affiliated club at Victoria University had a king. The whole idea for a club was inspired by a record called 20 Solid Gold Hits Of The 50s (this was to become their Holy Bible) and the society took its name from one of the songs that was sung by Marty Robbins. The four founding students made it a devotional practice to memorise the words of most of the songs on the holy record. The WSC&PCS, as some called it, was always happy to help out other clubs with their events and is officially on record for the work it did at a Music Department Club event. Unfortunately, as happens, the Music Department Club grew jealous of the WSC&PCS's success and started a cruel chain of events to have the very successful club closed down and banned from the university campus. The four founders could have contested this ruling but, as their holy bible told them, "Don't take your guns to town." As is the way, the legend of King Richard and his three brave knights of the public bar lives on and, like a prophesy from The Holy Bible, the 12th of never will become a reality this evening as the four founders meet up online for a reunion.

The old guy embellished the truth a bit in fact he decorated, adorned, exaggerated, embroidered, polished, refurbished, rebuilt, gilded, garnished, bedecked, bejewelled, festooned, bedizened, bespangled and touched up the story. Maybe his memory is failing.

"I think my name is Marcel"

It kind of reminded me of old Marcel's reminiscing only thankfully shorter.

I doubt that Richard has read À la recherche du temps perdu. In fact I doubt that anyone has actually got through it all - I certainly haven't.
It's a shame if he hasn't though as the work is described as having a musical structure with one biographer saying:

 In Search of Lost Time, like many great literary works, is a quest whose structure resembles that of a symphony. The novel's major themes—love, art, time, and memory—are carefully and brilliantly orchestrated throughout the book.

NOISES OFF

Explosion in Lower Hutt

BREAKING NEWS

A science and research facility in Lower Hutt today was obliterated by an explosion.

Police and fire services joint spokesman Captain Sam Moke said that early investigations indicated that the explosion originated in the men's toilets in the office area of the facility.

"Fortunately the event happened in the early hours so no staff were in occupancy. Oh, there was a commercial cleaner hanging about" he said and showed the press this security photograph:

"We're not sure what he was doing at the time but yesterday other cleaning staff reported strange noises coming from the ablutions area and of a pungent, irritating odour, like the smell of bleach along with a yellow-green gas seeping out from under the door.

"Robert was in there quite a long time " said ISS supervisor Brenda Ossy but as he doesn't have the best diet and had raced off to KFC for some takeaways earlier we thought that nature was just taking its course."

Meanwhile the cleaner is missing and his local priest Father Ambrosio del Rosario was seen 'blessing' the rear of what remains of the building.

"Oh dearie me" he said while buttoning up his cassock "I was, umm, just caught short there. Umm, yes, our faithful servant Robert, he of the rosary habit - a good habit though - could have taken the wings of an angel. We are going to have a prayer meeting and a mass and are hoping to hear from him from above. We are ...." 

"Hey. Father. Can you get me down?" A voice came from above. Father del Rosario was heard to say "Oh dearie me" as he fell away in a dead faint.

Captain Moke organised a ladder to retrieve Robert The Cleaner from the limbs of one of the large trees that overlooked the facility.

"As happens with cleaning companies they never ask if Ammonia Chloride and Hydrogen Peroxide should be combined. One touching the other can act as a catalyst. My cleaning company also provides Hydrogen Peroxide and Sodium Hyper Chloride. Mixing them results in pure oxygen and Chlorine gas. I  just wanted to show these idiots how easy it is for some inexperienced fool to mix these. With ease!  " said Robert before fainting on top of Father del Rosario