Tuesday 30 June 2020

NEW SERIES - WOOD BURNERS*


* Just kidding.

I've been concerned for a while at the safety of the wood burners we have in our house. We have an old wooden house and, if there was a malfunction the whole thing would go off like a bomb.

I've seen fires in old houses before - in Papatoetoe in the 1980s and up here 5 years ago. They burn down quickly accompanied by the explosions of glass windows, gas bottles, dry timber and anything else flammable. Not nice.

I've been very careful over the last couple of years, preferring to put on an extra layer of clothing before lighting one of the fires but, just recently we've decided to improve some things around the house. One of the improvements is to maybe put in heat pumps and to get rid of the fires completely.
Before doing this though I thought about replacing the fires with newer models so arranged for a representative of a local fireplace retailer to visit and clean the chimneys and evaluate the safety of the installations.

The result turned out to be not as bad as I thought.
I was prepared to replace the lounge fireplace with a new model and to remove and dump the free-standing Kent in the second lounge. The inspectors arrived today, cleaned the chimneys and gave me the prognosis. The main lounge fireplace was generally OK - just some seals to be replaced and there's no need to stump up for a new one. The check of the flue that runs from the inset appliance up through the chimney though was less encouraging. "It's munted" he said "and, is loose and dangerous". He showed me and it confirmed my nagging fears and suspicions. This fireplace, over the 10 years we've owned our house has had a bit of use and we're lucky that it didn't cause the house to burn down. I told him to give us a quote for replacing the flue and fixing the other bits and pieces. This is pending.

He slapped a 'Dangerous' sticker on it.






The second burner, the Kent was the one that I thought was munted and needed to go to the tip. "No" he said "it's sound and, with some new tiles and a new air feeder it'll last a while. The flue is good to go as well. This fireplace got its W.O.F.




It looks like the exercise will be much cheaper than I originally thought it would be and, more importantly it gives me peace of mind and frees me from worry about lighting the fires when visitors are here.

Soon we'll be back to the cosy (and safer) scenarios of yesteryear.







Monday 29 June 2020

SPLISH SPLASH ......





I played 9 holes of golf today - some good, some bad.

On the 4th I went down to the creek - the source of many a good golf ball.
The rains we've had recently meant that the water levels were higher than usual and the stream that I can normally jump over was a mini torrent.

I got over one way, going a bit further downstream and making my way across on some big rocks and some concrete paving stones that were in the water. I found a few balls but as my golf trundler was just across from me, instead of going back down and around I decided to cross right there.
I found a large tree branch in the undergrowth. It was like a long log but of irregular shape. I struggled with it to the stream and dropped it to form a bridge. It looked OK.
Halfway across though the 'log' turned and I fell in to the fast flowing stream Splish splash!
It wasn't deep but I went in up to me elbows and knees making my footwear, golf glove, T-shirt and shorts all wet. 



It was a very uncomfortable last 5 holes.

I'm glad no-one was around to see.

RECRUITMENT




It's a sad state of blogging at present or, the current blogging community that this blog belongs to is at a nadir.

Take the latest posts from the other key members of the community for example:


ROBERT

RICHARD

Robert sees fit to complain about the shortage of bloody gum drops in his ice cream for Christ's sake and Richard takes up half of his blog wittering on about how to place a fiddle in a box or something. Jeesh!

We need more bloggers - real ones, not alter egos.
I've tried, unsuccessfully to recruit Tony and Mike but they claim that they're 'too busy'. I suspect that they think the whole thing is silly and, to be honest, if they have read the two posts in the links above they have a point.

Tom, are you there? Maybe you can join since you will be soon be joining the ranks of the retired.



Saturday 27 June 2020

IT'S NOT TOO LATE




I know I've been a grumpy old bugger recently as evidenced by my last post and the snide comments I've put on Robert's blog and in response to his comments on mine (not that he doesn't deserve it).

An interesting thing that Robert did put in his latest (probably soon to be deleted) post is a discovery of some types of signing. See: HERE

It was a pleasure to get something from him that didn't include Jesus, The Virgin Mary and the rosary.

It reminded me that it's not too late to learn something new, particularly something that might come in useful some day. Maybe learning basic sign language for future encounters with deaf people (and Italians) along with CPR and basic first aid might be a good idea.

Food for thought.

*












* Even deaf American people can't spell properly.



CONFLICT





Last night I went to the club for dinner (fish and chips with salad) and a couple of glasses of wine.
Regular readers might remember me mentioning the club before and some annoyances I've had.

See: HERE

Last night was no different.
I was enjoying my meal, and wine, which was chilled, but it was a rose so that's OK. My enjoyment was broken though by a band of wild children between the ages of 5 and 8 who were rampaging around the club, running through the dining, entertainment (pool tables) and drinking (leaners and high chairs) areas of the club. They were chasing each other. At one point, as the band came close to my table I called one kid to stop and told her to walk. The kids eyed me suspiciously on their next rampage but soon were back to running about.

I tidied away my plate and utensils and left the dining area to finish my second glass of wine ( which was chilled but it was a rose so that's OK) and perched at one of the high tables in the 'drinking' area.
I would have been happy to go home then but was staying because of the weekly members draw which was quite a lot of money. From this vantage I spied where the kids' families were, in a corner of the drinking area and, when they were particularly raucous the mother of one of the kids, who was near the bar and me, told her kid to stop running. I took this opportunity to remind her that the kids had been running around like this for the past hour and that it wasn't a playground - they were on licensed premises.

This stopped the kids activity but, about 5 minutes later a man came up to my table to announce that he was the father of one (or two) of the kids. He asked what the problem was so I told him. He commented that I was the only person complaining and I was about to answer this when a mate of his - maybe another one of the fathers, came to my table as well and asked why I was making an issue. He demanded to know if I had children and was very aggressive. I was flanked by these two men so I put up my hands in a 'push away' motion and told them that I wasn't going to talk to them and that they could go away. I repeated this and then they went.

I hate conflict but sometimes you just have to do what is right. To me, at that time, what was right was telling the kids' parents that their kids behaviour was unacceptable at that time and in that environment. I was still finishing my drink when the first guy came back. He apologised for the behaviour of his mate and for 'ganging up' on me. I told him that I found it totally unacceptable that his mate joined in. We agreed on that and I explained to the guy that I had experience in the liquor industry and a knowledge of the sale and liquor act* and that even a 'family club' was still licensed premises and wasn't a cafe, school or playground. We agreed to differ and I told him that I respected his approach and manner.

On leaving I gave this guy a nod. We were OK.

Why though should I put up with this. It wasn't an isolated instance. I don't go to the club often but this is the fourth time in a year and a half that I've experienced disruptive children. I'm not a Grinch and this wasn't a public play area for children. It's a frigging pub albeit a members club, but licensed premises nevertheless.



I've decided to write a letter of resignation to the club and will not rejoin this year or ever again. I was annoyed at the children's running about. I was pissed off at being bullied by the two guys and having to have an argument over an issue that they, as parents should have been in control of. I was  angry that the club management did nothing about this and, being aware of the argument did not step in, and I'm disappointed that other club members (about 60 last night) did nothing themselves about this even though I could see that many were irked by the children.






* I didn't tell him about the three things that can go wrong with a bottle of wine with a cork closure though. Maybe I should have.

Friday 26 June 2020

ORDINARY CITIZENS AND THEIR CONCERNS, AS DISTINCT FROM MILITARY OR ECCLESIASTICAL MATTERS


Richard, in his latest and inconsequential suggested these as a weapon of self defence.


Well, like his blog this is a bit silly.

Why would I need a weapon of self defence when I'm in an organisation called Civil Defence.



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

It's a crappy old day here. We've had high winds, torrential rain and a thunderstorm. I'm going up to the club this evening for my dinner and a couple of glasses of wine.

This morning I went into town and this afternoon I've been indoors. Not a lot to report really. In that this is quite like Richard's latest post but at least it's one up on Robert's.

Thursday 25 June 2020

ICONOCLASM




Cecilia Gimenez, from Borja in Spain fancied herself to be competent in art restoration and undertook to restore The Ecce Homo (Behold The Man) fresco of Christ painted on the Borja church wall by Elias Garcia Martinez in 1930.


On the left is the portrait in it's decaying but pre-restored state and on the right what it looked like after Cecilia  'improved' it.

See:  "WORST RESTORATION IN HISTORY"

It's a bit of a laugh really. Some might say that Cecilia's rendition is closer to what an actual Galilean Semite Jesus would have looked like.
A BBC series, in 2001 attempted to show what the true race and face of Jesus might have been, and documented in the Son of God documentary series. Forensic anthropologists constructed a head and face that suggested Jesus would have had a broad face and large nose, and differed significantly from the traditional depictions of Jesus in renaissance art.



This and Cecilia's renditions are likely more exact than the silly, prissy and romantic images that adorn churches, Catechisms and the imagination of Catholics,



Wednesday 24 June 2020

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

Tonight I was listening to some music and played Up Loud Van Morrison's 'Cyprus Avenue'





This has long been a favourite of mine and, indeed, is one of my 'funeral songs'.

I came late to listening to Van though, even though I liked THEM when I was at school. The early Van Morrison albums escaped me in my late teens and early twenties.

It was later, that the various albums with their edgy, jazz-type musicianship and evocative lyrics in the songs gripped me and still does. I get lost in them sometimes.

Cyprus Avenue is from the 1968 album ASTRAL WEEKS. In 1968 I was in the 5th form at St Patrick's College in Wellington. We were in a structured and academic environment where liberalism and free speech and thought weren't encouraged. I'd already given up on religion, and Catholicism in particular, but was still confined by family, tradition and authority so hadn't properly broken out. My music listening was either via the parents' gramophone and TV at home or my transistor radio which, while playing edgy classics like Cream's 'White Room' didn't open up to me the ground-breaking music that wasn't played on the airwaves but was on LPs. Until I went 'flatting; and had my own stereo system these weren't available to me.

In 1968 I was in a state of flux. I loved my family but wanted some sort of escape. I felt restricted by them and the school I attended. Ten years of religious instruction and convention had its way however. The only rebellion I did, I guess, was to give up. I coasted. I gave up on effort and cruised through School Certificate, University Entrance Accreditation and Higher School Certificate with effectively no study and minimal effort - a habit of a lifetime. I'm not proud of this - it's just a fact.

Tonight, while listening to 'Cyprus Avenue' I thought that, if I had heard this song and the other songs on the album, in 1968, would I have been brave enough, or at least encouraged to break out - leave home at 15 and forge my own path.

Who knows.

My life now might not be different but the path to here certainly would have been. What might have been.







IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Steve Schmidt, a US republican communications director with a long and accomplished history of GOP campaigning and support has just made an observation on Donald Trump that is more cutting than anything the Democrats are putting out.

This is pivotal.

"Donald Trump has been the worst president this country has ever had. And I don't say that hyperbolically. He is. But he is a consequential president. And he has brought this country in three short years to a place of weakness that is simply unimaginable if you were pondering where we are today from the day where Barack Obama left office. And there were a lot of us on that day who were deeply skeptical and very worried about what a Trump presidency would be. But this is a moment of unparalleled national humiliation, of weakness.
"When you listen to the President, these are the musings of an imbecile. An idiot. And I don't use those words to name call. I use them because they are the precise words of the English language to describe his behavior. His comportment. His actions. We've never seen a level of incompetence, a level of ineptitude so staggering on a daily basis by anybody in the history of the country whose ever been charged with substantial responsibilities.
"It's just astonishing that this man is president of the United States. The man, the con man, from New York City. Many bankruptcies, failed businesses, a reality show, that branded him as something that he never was. A successful businessman. Well, he's the President of the United States now, and the man who said he would make the country great again. And he's brought death, suffering, and economic collapse on truly an epic scale. And let's be clear. This isn't happening in every country around the world. This place. Our place. Our home. Our country. The United States. We are the epicenter. We are the place where you're the most likely to die from this disease. We're the ones with the most shattered economy. And we are because of the fool that sits in the Oval Office behind the Resolute Desk."
          - Steve Schmidt (CNN Alison Gordon transcript).


Tuesday 23 June 2020

"OLD AND MANKY - IT'S GOT TO GO" *

* No, not the Old Girl referring to me - she was talking about the old deck outside the bedroom and kitchen.




I was woken this morning by a large truck equipped with a crane that backed up the driveway.
It was delivering a load of wood for the replacement decking outside the kitchen.

Looking West to East

Looking East to West


There's a small section around the corner as well that has to be replaced but I guess you get the idea.


Here's the load of decking timber to go down once the old stuff is pulled up.



I'll store the old planks under the deck and, when sufficiently dried out will cut up for firewood and use some of the best lengths for a walkway in the ceiling once the attic ladder is installed.


How's your day going?



Sunday 21 June 2020

CONTAINER OF TREASURES

It's been a crappy old day in Wellington but we had a very pleasant outing at Te Papa* Museum.


Friend Rod alerted me to the fact that Te Papa today were hosting the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra NZSO so we dressed up warm and headed off. Luckily it's only a short walk from Egmont Street to Cable Street - one of the reasons we rented an inner city apartment.

The orchestra had split up into small groups and were playing in different parts of the complex. We sat and listened to a couple of Beethoven pieces before looking at the exhibitions in the museum and art gallery.

Magic.







* The Māori name, 'Te Papa Tongarewa', translates literally to 'container of treasures'. A fuller interpretation is 'our container of treasured things and people that spring from mother earth here in New Zealand'.

Saturday 20 June 2020

MEA CULPA


I owe an apology to Richard and Shelley for the selection of the red wine in the restaurant last night.
We had a really enjoyable night at our 'local' marred initially by The Old Girl breaking an elegant Champagne glass which was unfortunately half full of an excellent Champagne.
The food was great though and this restaurant has a fairly comprehensive wine list.
On a previous visit I noticed an Italian wine from Sicily and, intrigued I Googled it for information before the visit last night. 'Informed' and 'reliable' wine critics awarded this wine between 95 and 98 points out of 100. High praise that sets up high expectations. The wine is:

Frank Cornelissen MunJebel Rosso 2017


OK. Impressive packaging - threatening with the Mount Etna imagery and the name MunJebel I assumed was 'Devil Mountain' in Arabic but I discovered otherwise:

Munjebel is dialectal toponym for Mt. Etna, btw (akin the Sicilian Muncibeddu or the Italian Mongibello, meaning monte bello or beautiful mountain).
Thanks Aunty Google.

I had intended to just try a glass, or a small tasting glass of this but unfortunately had talked it up a bit before ordering so that Richard, Shelley and Lynn also wanted a glass of it so it made more sense to buy a bottle.

Mistake.

A taste would have cost a small amount and is what I should have done. This restaurant prices wines in 4 stages: taste, glass, carafe (half bottle) and bottle:

17. Frank Cornelissen, ‘MunJebel’, Nerello Macalese, Etna, IT 15 | 30 | 73 | 145

The interpretation of this is 2017 vintage - the wine - various prices depending on size from tasting glass to bottle.

The wine was brought to the table for opening and was cold as it had been in the fridge. I commented on this and was told that the distributors recommended that for this type of wine. I should have been warned but, full of the high praises that I'd read said it would be OK. Having been in the industry for many years I know that serving a red wine cold masks its faults. The wine was ordinary and, applying a tasting score to it I struggled to get past 85 points out of a hundred. I felt that I'd let the team down with my recommendation.

It was only later, at home when discussing it with The Old Girl and her mentioning the cost of the wine that I realised the second mistake I'd made. Stupidly, when reading the tiny writing on the menu in dim lighting I thought that the bottle price was $73. WRONG! The bottle price was $145! This wine is no where near worth this and I feel really sorry as Richard and Shelley went halves on the bill.

I'll have to make it up to them next time we dine together.

Thursday 18 June 2020

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF IT SO FAR?





Our Wellington apartment is good in lots of ways being right in the centre of town.


The downside though is rubbish collection. At 4.30AM, every second day I think, two bloody great rubbish trucks come up the street which is more of a lane.



They collect rubbish and recyclables from the high rise apartments opposite us - right outside our first floor bedroom. At Four bloody thirty AM!


I took these photos from the spare room window this morning and sent them to the Wellington Council.
I've been communicating with the council over the last few days about this and querying whether the contractors operating so early are in breach of the District Plan rules.

Here is an excerpt from the not at all helpful response I promptly received.

"Thanks for confirming who the trucks belong to which are making the noise. Unfortunately there is not anything we are able to do in this situation as per the District Plan.
Please see the following information from our Noise Control Team: 

The council’s Trade Waste bylaw requires/allows for waste collection at all hours in the Central area where this address is zoned and daytime collection in the suburbs. Whilst I can understand waste collection can be noisy, by undertaking the task overnight significant traffic disruption is avoided, safety hazards are minimized and conflicts are avoided with daytime parking. Provided the waste contra ctors are taking the best practicable option they have to minimize the effects of noise when they collect waste, this activity is permitted and is not appropriate for the council to regulate against the activity being carried out at these times.Under the District plan the permitted noise limits in the Central Area are also set relatively high, being a compromise between noise-sensitive uses and the commercial sector. These noise limits ensure that the commercial sector is not forced out of the city and, providing apartments are adequately insulated, an acceptable internal level will be afforded to its inhabitants. The district plan now requires new apartment buildings to achieve an appropriate level of noise insulation. Unfortunately, there are a number of apartments that were constructed (or refitted) before the district plan change and consequently, these buildings allow higher noise levels within the building."
                              -  Service Improvement Officer | Customer Service | Wellington City Council


Living in the central city is exciting and handy but there are drawbacks.

Wednesday 17 June 2020

GLORY DAYS





Yesterday Richard and I, on our drive around Wellington touched on our school and university days and our successes, or lack of them with picking up women when we were in late teens and early twenties. We discussed how young people today have much better opportunities with bars and social spots open way later than in our day and that social networking sites including the odious and dangerous Tinder make it almost impossible to miss out.

We looked at each other and decided that if we had the chance to do it again, even if we had all that advantage, we'd still fuck it up and do the same things again.


You go back, Jack, do it again, wheels turnin' 'round and 'round
You go back, Jack, do it again

No matter though as we have both forged strong relationships with great women even if this takes him by surprise as in his comment on my previous post:

"Hey, today was good fun. I enjoyed your girlfriend stories but still can't understand how you managed to get a long term woman like Lynn. Was it my teaching?"

No, it wasn't his teaching - I put it down to luck and inevitability but we both deserve it.

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

Getting back to 'Glory Days' I think young people today have huge advantages that I hope they use to good effect. At school I had a natural ability at most sports but never properly took advantage of it.
I was good at: ball sports - rugby league, soccer, rugby, tennis, cricket and softball; athletics - sprints and hurdles; and had a good throwing arm. In the school year I, and many others would just rock up to the sports days or the start of the sports seasons without having done any practise or training during the Christmas holidays - no-one ever suggested this to us. We ran in bare feet or 'sand shoes' and had no special gear. I never took the opportunity to throw a shot put, a discus or a javelin although I know now, that I would have been good at it. I, like Richard did pretty well at sports getting into the track and field team and eventually, after abandoning soccer, a winning rugby team in the 7th form. Because I had an after -school job and couldn't attend Tuesday and Thursday practices, I couldn't join the cricket team but I was asked to play in a couple of second-eleven matches.

If I did go back to those days, not necessarily armed with flash sports gear and advanced training methods but just an awareness that a bit of fitness training over the school holidays is a good idea, I might have ben able to excel at sports rather than just being good at them.

Then again, I'm really a lazy bastard and probably still wouldn't do any preparation and would just  do it again- the same old thing.


Tuesday 16 June 2020

THANKS RICHARD

Richard of Richard's Bass Bag fame* visited today and we went for an adventure in Wellington.

The day was wet, cold and windy as indeed, at some times so were we.
We drove to Karaka Bay Road and had lunch at Scorch o Rama at Scorching Bay (Richard thought we were at Breaker Bay but he is getting a bit old). This was great and then we had a nostalgic drive around the bays to Island Bay looking at all the places we used to drive the Murray Robert's delivery truck to in the 1970s.



Going through Berhampore, Newtown and down Adelaide Road threatened to be like one of Richard's (in)famous mystery tours but, to be fair, it was more me pointing out places of interest like old St Annes school where I used to throw Christine Griffin's beret up onto the church roof. We had earlier been discussing school and university girlfriends - Helen McFaull and Hillary McNamara for me (7th and 6th form respectively) although Hillary was unrequited as I was too shy to introduce myself to her.
Richard in turn had Mary Antunovich as a girlfriend at university and an unknown and unnamed girl he regularly watched through  the bus window when in the 6th form. Oh glory days!**

We went looking for a JB shop to buy a JBL GO2 speaker that Richard recommended, finally, after actually looking up an address, finding a store in Willis Street.


This little device is cheap, very portable and works well. Thanks Richard. I'll leave it in the apartment for Lynn. I'm listening to Steely Dan via Bluetooth and my phone at the moment. I might buy another one later ($59) for use at home.













* Or so he claims

** Not.

Monday 15 June 2020

STICK MAN

I bought a FIZAN Explorer hiking pole yesterday from Katmandu.


It's a nifty little bit of kit that was useful yesterday.

I had gone out to Petone - aka Robzone - to meet up with Richard and Shelley to watch the rugby on-screen at a pub. Hiking, exploring and Katmandu all were relevant words as the getting there proved to be a bit of a trek.

I left the apartment at about 2PM with plans to get to Petone by 3PM.
I went to the bus-stop in Manners street which is only a few metres away from the end of our lane. I waited, with other people for about 20 minutes for a bus, which is unusual for central Wellington, until someone came along and said that all busses were being diverted because of the 'Black Lives Matter' march.

I walked down to the end of Victoria Street and back across to Willis street and caught a bus to the station there. This bus joined stop-start traffic which was being held up by the march down Lambton Quay and took a half hour to get anywhere near the train station so I jumped off the bus and walked the rest. This jarred my knee a bit as I'd hurt it playing tennis a couple of weeks back. I arrived at the station to discover that trains were not running to Lower Hutt and were replaced by busses. I toddled along to the bus stop and saw the bus I wanted for Petone pulling away. The bus monitors said there would be a 30 minute wait for the next bus to Petone. After 25 minutes some busses arrived and I and others wanting to go to Petone were directed onto a bus only, after a 10 minute wait, to be shooed off because "sorry, this bus won't stop at Petone" and put on another bus and an obligatory 10 minute wait. Eventually I arrived at Petone Train station which, in the spirit of Monty Python's Cheese Shop sketch was uncontaminated by trains. I set off walking up Jackson street.

A little way along I saw a Kathmandu store which, no surprises there, were having a 50% off sale. I went in and purchased the hiking stick as I knew that this would help in walking and take the weight off my painful knee injury. I thought $39 marked down from $79 was a very good price and am happy with the purchase. The salesman put a street walking attachment on the bottom which will protect the carbon tip.

Good old Richard was outside the pub waiting for me (and missing vital parts of the game) as I arrived. While Shelley bought me a beer I successfully managed to distract Richard enough to miss a Wellington try (which were very scarce in this game against Auckland). I showed him my hiking stick and he was very impressed. I know he likes such things having been given some by an old geezer - see SLIP SLIDIN' AWAY

I didn't get much of a chance to try out the FIZAN Explorer as R and S kindly drove me back to Wellington. I'll get out and about today to give it a workout.

Sunday 14 June 2020

5:19

The weirdest thing happened early this morning.

No, it wasn't Richard's call at 9AM although that was weird enough, with him offering the 'famous bass bag tour of Wellington'. I've fallen into that trap before and had to discourage The Old Girl from accepting. The nearest way to describe this is being kidnaped by Muslim extremists in Beirut and driven around for hours looking at places that resembled bomb sites. Beware!

No, this weird thing happened at 5:19AM.
We went to see a late film at The Embassy last night and, by the time we went to bed it was after midnight. The usual rambling Wellington idiots screeched and yelled from Courtenay Place, Manners and Dixon streets and even in our lane for a while but we must have been asleep by 2AM.

We were awoken at 5:19 by a very strange rattling. I turned the light on to see that a framed picture on the bedroom wall was visibly moving, rattling against the wall.




I said to The Old Girl that there was an earthquake coming, but the picture was the only thing moving. I went to the other bedroom, on the other side of the wall in case some intruder was there, but the room was empty. Back in our bedroom the picture was still rattling so I took it off the wall.
The 3M picture hook was loose and about to detach itself from the wall.



The picture must have been slipping, mm by mm down and bumping the wall but doing so continuously and almost violently.

I had been awoken from a dream in which a friend who died last year featured. In it, when I saw him sitting in my lounge I greeted him saying "Mate - it's good to see you alive". Then I woke up.

OK, just a coincidence but these things can be creepy. See: WAKE UP CALL





Saturday 13 June 2020

AN UPDATE*

I took the train to Paraparaumu yesterday to spend the day and visit my sister.
The train travel was free with Metro continuing free fares until the end of June. While this doesn't affect me financially, as I have a Gold Card for free travel, there was an advantage in that the time bracket for oldies to travel is suspended. Usually this means having to travel between 9 and 3 - ie. outside of rush hour.

I enjoy travelling by train as it is generally comfortable and there's lots to see out the large windows.
The trip from Wellington to Kapiti coast is nice with much of it with the sea as a view. Yesterday the sea was wild with fairly big waves crashing in around Paekakariki.

My sister was well and I helped her out with some shopping before heading back into Wellington.
I'd dressed warm expecting much colder conditions but had to take my pullover off as I was too warm.
My knee was giving me a bit of gyp - I hurt it at tennis a couple of weeks ago - and am hoping that it'll come right soon. One of the things I look forward to in Wellington is walking from one side of the city to the other - exploring old haunts, discovering new things and hopefully, keeping my fitness up.

I brought my laptop along so that I can blog on it. This is much better than battling with an iPad as obviously it has a decent keyboard and all the functions that my desk-top computer has. I'll leave it here in the flat for future use.



It will be ideal for editing the newsletter for the old folks organisation I'm involved with.

As you can see in this post I can download photographs from my phone, something that I haven't mastered with the iPad. This of course is all in the interest of keeping this blogging community up to date and interesting - something you won't find from the now defunct Robert's blog and Richard's Bass Bag which is becoming like one of those annoying advertorials on TV - "Buy now!" rubbish.








Thursday 11 June 2020

TOWN GEAR*

* What the 'man about town' wears in his city pad nowadays'.

I arrived in Wellington last night and, compared to up north where I normally live, found it to be a bit cool. Not 'cool' like the 'man about town' but cool as in temperature.

Today, when walking around the city, when stepping in shadows or into a cold wind I decided to buy some warmer clothes.
I don't want a lot of new clothes as quite frankly, like most people of my age, I've got enough to last me until I 'pop my clogs'. At home I get by 10 months of the year in shorts and T shirts so don't want a lot of extra, warm stuff. I was looking for some warmish track pants - ones that can be worn both indoors and outdoors. I was a bit disappointed at the selections I saw in the three or four shops I visited. To be fair I was visiting the budget end of the market or those stores that mark ordinary stuff uP ridiculously highly and then discount back by 50%. Nothing suited so tomorrow or on the weekend I'll go to some higher quality shops.

I did find though, in Farmers, some 'lounge pants' and matching shirt. Up north I have 'house pants' that I wear in winter. These are a wool/cotton blend in tartan that are just the thing and don't look too out of place if you wear them outside to the letterbox or to put the rubbish out. I draw the line at going shopping in town though as they have a loose and rather dodgy fly.

The ones I found today are the Mazzoni brand.


They are 60% cotton (the rest being some synthetic crap) and are a nice navy blue. That's not me modelling them above but I imagine that I won't look any different. Anyway, who cares as I won't be going out in them.

The top is also navy blue and in the same material.



Again, not me, and certainly not after the severe haircut I got today.

Now some of you might ask why the items weren't sold and advertised together. I will then remind them that THESE ARE NOT BLOODY PYJAMAS.

OK?

WELLINGTON

I'm in Wellington today having come down last night.

It's a lovely day here - for Wellington that is where, on a sunny early winter day you can get by only wearing long trousers and two or three layers - if you stay in the sunshine and out of the wind.


The Wellington city designers however, in their wisdom laid out the city so that 3 or more of the major shopping streets run north to south - Willis Street, Featherston Street and Lambton Quay. These are lined with tall buildings that have the effect of creating wind tunnels that all too readily bring the wonderful Wellington southerlies to pedestrians. Travelling east to west along a link street and then, turning a corner into one of the north to south streets is like visiting Siberia.


I'd just had a haircut snipping away the few hairs that I have left and the cold blast reminded me of my time in Toronto.

Richard from Richard's Bass Bag* rang as I was battling my way along Willis Street. I couldn't hear him until I discovered that I had the volume of the phone turned down. Even after I rectified that and ducked into Chews lane it was still hard hearing and being heard. I was yelling into my phone at my end, drawing worried glances from passers by and he was doing the same thing at his end - apparently sitting in the car waiting for Shelley.

This is the start of a 2 week adventure in Wellington. All good so far or will be after I've bought some winter woolies.








" Which Richard claims to be the original bass bagging site which no-one has bothered to fact check.

Monday 8 June 2020

"WE SKIPPED THE LIGHT AND DANGLED" *


I played 7 holes of golf this afternoon - BRILLIANTLY.
Sometimes I manage to put together a really good round and this was one of them.

  • Every tee shot of the 7 was near perfect. 
  • I didn't lose any golf balls. 
  • I found 6 golf balls.
  • My approach shots were spot on.
  • I putted well.
  • I ended up 1 under par having birdied two holes
One of the birdies was on a par 4 hole that I've never birdied before. There's a great big oak tree just short of and left of the green that makes hitting it in two difficult. My drive was great and so was my second shot which was curving around to the green until, as usual it hit the tree. This time though it managed to bounce through the tree and land on the green close to the pin. One putt and bingo! A birdie.

The reason for the reference to 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' is because on  one of the holes the opening lines came into my head, or, at least, the misheard line "I skipped the light and dangled'.
This was because my drive went into the pond but, due to the low trajectory, the ball skipped off the surface of the water and landed on the fairway allowing an easy shot to the green.







I used to mishear this line of Procul Harum's from 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale'.
It was really: We skipped the light fandango.

Misheard song lyrics are called 'mondegreens' which seems appropriate.

Saturday 6 June 2020

WHAT I DID THIS EVENING


Ya ..... revved up the cafe racer, got the back-warmer to hold onto the bitch bar and we blatted off to the club ....






Actually, I was going to walk to the club but the knee was a bovver so I drove the 4 wheel racer (Toyota Corolla).

I'd booked for the club dinner with Jazz - the jazz being John Leigh Calder with a couple of locals to make up a trio.



I'd seen Calder in his quartet a couple of times at the club. He was due to return to the UK to catch up with his family in March but got caught in the lockdown and, as he said, he's been stuck on his own in a room for the last couple of months. It was good of the club to arrange this 'do' which was very good.

I have some nice clips but Aunty Google won't let me upload them to this post.

Never mind, here's a picture of tonight's moon rising above Mount Manaia instead.



The club is just below this mountain.

BORN TO BE WILD*






I was checking file boxes today looking for a particular photograph and obviously discovered many old ones I haven't seen for a while..
I may use these in future posts **YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED**.

Here's a couple of me in Aitutaki in the Cook Islands.

"You looking at me?"

"You still looking at me?"




I guess I was just 'born to be wild' and started early as this photograph shows.
















* Not really