"AGE SHALL NOT WEARY THEM ".......

........  Well, I'm not sure about that.

I grow old ... I grow old ...

I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

- The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock - T.S. Eliot.

Here's a couple of recent examples from the old duffers Richard of Richard's Bass Bag* and Robert The Inevitable Sinner:

DITHERING OLD FOOL

FAREWELL TO INTEREST

Hey!

Sorry - did I wake you up?

* An old and out of date bass bagging  site.

CONGREGATION OF THE PROPAGANDA FIDE

 

CONGREGATION OF THE PROPAGANDA FIDE

Robert, on his blog Medievil Renaissance 13th century Rob (don't ask) seems to have discovered a new term and concept - Naturalism. Have a look at his latest post here if you want: ARE NATURALISTS THE NEW ENEMY?

Richard replied to this post with one of his own: FOR GOD'S SAKE!

OK?

Right. I guess, like me you are wondering what naturalism is. I looked it up on-line and found a lot of gobbledygook from various christian and catholic sources that only confused rather than enlightened me.  Here's a couple of examples:

A central thought in ontological naturalism is that all spatiotemporal entities must be identical to or metaphysically constituted by physical entities.

- Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy.

Naturalism, in literature and the visual arts, late 19th- and early 20th-century movement that was inspired by adaptation of the principles and methods of natural science, especially the Darwinian view of nature, to literature and art.

- Brittanica.

Sorry- wrong references. Actually, those two weren't confusing at all. They are concepts from the real world. The ones that confused me are the ones that came from Robert's word - the world of catholic apologists (sorry) and various catholic journals. Here are a couple of examples:

Naturalism is not so much a special system as a point of view or tendency common to a number of philosophical and religious systems; not so much a well-defined set of positive and negative doctrines as an attitude or spirit pervading and influencing many doctrines. As the name implies, this tendency consists essentially in looking upon nature as the one original and fundamental source of all that exists, and in attempting to explain everything in terms of nature. Either the limits of nature are also the limits of existing reality, or at least the first cause, if its existence is found necessary, has nothing to do with the working of natural agencies. All events, therefore, find their adequate explanation within nature itself. But, as the terms nature and natural are themselves used in more than one sense, the term naturalism is also far from having one fixed meaning.
(I) If nature is understood in the restricted sense of physical, or material, nature, naturalism will be the tendency to look upon the material universe as the only reality, to reduce all laws to mechanical uniformities and to deny the dualism of spirit and matter. Mental and moral processes will be but special manifestations of matter rigorously governed by its laws.
(II) The dualism of mind and matter may be admitted, but only as a dualism of modes or appearances of the same identical substance. Nature includes manifold phenomena and a common substratum of the phenomena, but for its actual course and for its ultimate explanation, it requires no principle distinct from itself. In this supposition, naturalism denies the existence of a transcendent cause of the world and endeavours to give a full account of all processes by the unfolding of potencies essential to the universe under laws that are necessary and eternal.
(III) Finally, if the existence of a transcendent First Cause, or personal God, is admitted as the only satisfactory explanation of the world, Naturalism claims that the laws governing the activity and development of irrational and of rational beings are never interfered with. It denies the possibility, or at least the fact, of any transitory intervention of God in nature, and of any revelation and permanent supernatural order for man.

- Catholic Encyclopaedia New Advent

 

NATURALISM
Definition

The view that the only reality that exists is nature, so that divine grace is either denied or ignored. Philosophical naturalism claims that human beings were never elevated to a supernatural destiny; they will reach their final destiny by the sole use of their natural, individual, and social powers. Practical naturalism is human conduct that, by excluding prayer and the use of supernatural channels of grace, in effect says that the purpose of human existence is purely natural.

- The Catholic Dictionary

OK, I did warn you.

So why am I bothering with this? It's not really 'naturalism' that I'm interested in. I've noticed recently that Robert, after attending Sunday mass and listening to the sermons by his new priest Father Orange*, then comes out in his blog posts with 'new' ideas and arguments.

Sermon: noun

1. FORMAL 

a talk on a religious or moral subject, especially one given during a church service and based on a passage from the Bible.
"I preached my first sermon on original sin"

2. INFORMAL
a long or tedious piece of admonition or reproof; a lecture.
"he understood that if he said any more he would have to listen to another lengthy sermon"

- Oxford Dictionary

Back in the day, when I attended Sunday mass the sermons were more of the formal ones as in (1) above. The priest would write up something over a couple of whiskies on Saturday night and present it to the congregation the next day. Every church in New Zealand would have had one of these happening and most likely around the world. It is highly likely that similar stories and themes were used in a great many of them but more by coincidence than design.

I suspect that Father Orange's sermons and those promulgated by all of his ilk in New Zealand and around the world are more like the informal example as in (2) above and all carry the same message by design rather than coincidence.

Is this proper? I think it's more like propaganda.

It was quite evident over the last four years of Donald Trump's presidency in the USA that talking points used by Republican senators and congresspeople were exactly the same. The same corny expressions or blatant lies were used by all when they spoke to media. The right wing media also used the same words and expressions (and lies) to the point where it was becoming a bit of a joke. This was organised and contrived by the Republicans led by the odious Mitch McConnell.

I believe that the catholic church has become more media savvy and has copied examples of instant worldwide communication misinformation as practised by political groups, financial corporations, Big Pharma companies, environmental lobbyists, environmental vandals, marketers - and hell - everyone in recent years. The catholic church though isn't new to worldwide communication misinformation as its whole existence has depended on the seeding of lies and complicated constructions (backed up by extreme violence and  standover tactics that Goebbels would have only dreamed of having). What's new is the immediacy of information communication whereby they now have and the ability to organise their missions around the world, in every city, town and village to carry the message of the week to the needy, the naive and the people who love them.

I'm unhappy to say that I think it's working going by the way that Robert, an educated and fundamentally nice and sensible family guy has embraced it.

PROPAGANDA

Politics

Roman Catholic Church
noun

1. Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view.
"he was charged with distributing enemy propaganda"

2. A committee of cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church responsible for foreign missions, founded in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV.

  - Oxford Dictionary

* Father Orange? Donald Trump was known as the orange man!

FRIENDS AND LOVE(R)S

Richard and Robert have been debating love and friendship, with Robert using some old teachings from the catholic church to try and explain that there are different forms of love, culminating in the one where loyal followers believe in a non-existent god:

Richard, not unsurprisingly contested this and said:

 "Maybe Robert needs to be clearer about what type of love he is professing - maybe he could add a qualification.

"I love you Richard, in a brotherly way."

"I love you Richard but I'm not prepared to go to Hell with you. I'm off to Heaven."

"I love you Richard but I don't fancy you sexually."

"I love you Richard. You are my god!""

He then went on to create a grading system for love that makes a lot more sense than the Graeco-catholic one and removes the possibility for misunderstandings:

"Telling everyone that you love them can come across as being a bit creepy and maybe even water down the true value of the word. I certainly wouldn't use it with an employer or the recycling truck guy.

Maybe the points system I mentioned earlier would help to make intentions clearer?
"I love you Richard. Three."
"I love spiders. One. They're fascinating animals."
"I love my dog, but I keep it to a five because he's only going to be around for about fifteen years and, when his time comes, I'll have to get over it.""

No doubt this little debate will be ongoing - I'll watch it with interest.

Meanwhile, this snippet from the excellent Ricky Gervais series 'Afterlife; came to mind.

'FRIENDS'

WILL WE REMEMBER THEM?

 I went to the 2PM ANZAC Day service at the club this afternoon. To be honest it was a bit limp - something was missing.

A few years ago I wrote of how there seemed to be a resurgence in interest in ANZAC Day commemoration with a lot more younger people attending. 

WELL, WE REMEMBERED THEM

This wasn't evident today nor at the last couple I've attended.

I didn't find today's ceremony satisfying. It wasn't the fault of the bugle player. He turned up well in time and performed well.

I guess I had a comment made by Richard in my head. He said, in his blog post today:

"I'm not totally sure how I feel about ANZAC Day - I watched a documentary about World War II a few weeks back and it really put me off celebrating wars - yes, yes, I know we're supposed to be remembering the soldiers, but maybe the ceremony should focus on not letting this nonsense happen again. Still, I do my civic duty."

I felt that the ceremony could have done with a bit of anti-war sentiment and readings from those great anti-war poets rather than the hymns and references to god and religion. I didn't sing along to O God our help in ages past or the National Anthem with its unnecessary and out of date references to god and I certainly didn't recite The Lord's Prayer with its inherent nonsense. It's about time we got rid of this crap.

In that earlier post from 2015 I said:

"The repeated references to god and religion in connection with the campaigns and losses is now offensive."

I feel even stronger about this now.

It was interesting that  a female Fright  Lieutenant who gave the 'Reflections' speech only briefly touched on Gallipoli, WW1 and WW2 and spent a lot more time on New Zealand's armed forces involvement in Korea, Vietnam and other more recent conflicts. A sign of the times? I think it's  a case of following a new line from the RSA and the Armed Forces and we will see a lot more of this.

The essential function of ANZAC parades as a funeral service seemed to have been downplayed. In that 2015 post I said:

"Over the years the ANZAC day commemorations I've attended have changed seemingly with the decades. In the 50's and early 60's there was silent patriotism along with naivety and pride. The true story wasn't really known and the day was sacred and almost magical.

In the later 60's and 70's the anti-war sentiment sparred with the still-living old soldiers' commemorations.

In the 80's and 90's people seemed to forget. Attendances were down and there was a danger of the day disappearing. Perhaps this was a reflection of the dying off of the WW1 and WW2 servicemen and servicewomen."

I guess we've gone past that point now and I do wonder at the relevance of the day and the 'celebratory' events.

NEW POST - THE MUSIC CURMUDGEON

 

MUSIC APPRECIATION

GOING INTO THE CLOSET

A couple of things.

Yesterday when listening to National Radio I heard a commentator lamenting the fact that many houses nowadays don't have hot water cupboards - the walk in kind.

I made a comment on Richard's blog post this morning, promising to write a post on our hot water cupboard: 

Well here it is.

First I did a search on my blog to check that I hadn't already written a post and found this: HERE

There was really only a passing reference to the cupboard which doesn't do it justice.

One of the things I love about our house is that, being an old villa with high ceilings and large rooms, space isn't a problem. Instead of a namby pamby cupboard our hot water 'cupboard' is really a closet - a fairly large one. It houses the hot water cylinder and lots of shelving for linen storage. It is located off the spare kitchen/lounge area at the end of the house.

You can actually walk in here and hide if you want and, if you or someone else closes the door while you are in there, there is a door handle on the inside. Disturbingly though, I've just noticed that there is a keyhole underneath the handle so the closet is lockable. I hope that The Old Girl doesn't find the key.

I AM

 I was pleased to learn that that Reb Fountain won the 2021 Taite Music Prize

DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM? - REB FOUNTAIN

Great news for this very talented musician..

The Music Curmudgeon gave you a heads up up about her in July last year. I hope that you paid attention although I know that Robert didn't: MAYBE I'M AMAZED

Anyway, the title of this post is I AM.

I am The Curmudgeon.

I am happy, which is I admit, not very curmudgeonly.

Why am I happy? After  a winter deluge yesterday, today is fine so I was able to take the very full trailer load of garden waste to the tip. After that I drove to VTNZ and had the trailer tested and passed for a new warrant of fitness (WOF for any pedantic old jokers out there).

The electrickery work I did on it the other day has been effective.

DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?

EXERCISE

 

The swapping gym membership for golf membership has only worked to improve my golf and the quantity of golf balls I have, not necessarily to get exercise. My dodgy knee limits me from doing long daily walks and as a result I notice my fitness declining. The Old Girl, who runs and walks every other day has been complaining of hip pain in the other hip (she had a hip replacement operation a couple of years ago). We've decided to get an exercise bike.

I'm looking online for one. They name the better and more expensive ones 'Spin Bikes'.

These things cost anything from $700 to $2000 to buy new and second hand ones anything between $400 and $1000. I don't want to end up paying a lot of money for a bit of junk that'll sit in the shed unused so have been looking at hire options. The idea is to hire one for a couple of months to see if it is suitable and then to buy one. This plan has proven to be easier in thought than action. In Whangarei there isn't a lot of choice in hire places and the offerings are quite ordinary.

We don't want a cheap and cheerful machine as past experience has shown that we won't use it. We want one that's serious with the 'bells and whistles' to encourage us to make proper use of it. I get bored using exercise machines and, to get through 30 or 40 minutes in the gym I would take a book to read while I pedalled. This requires some sort of shelf or platform at the front of the bike to support a book or an iPad. Cheaper spin bikes don't have these.

Now here's an interesting thing.* When I called in to Mr Rental to enquire about exercise bikes, although the offerings were ordinary he told me that there were none available for hire anyway. There is a waiting list. Apparently the hospital generally performs hip and knee operations in a two month period which has just finished. The patients, as part of recovery are encouraged to use exercise bikes rather than going for walks and, as such, at this time of year there are none available.

I may have to take the plunge and buy a second hand one at the top end of about $800 without having a chance to trial it. I'll keep looking at reviews though. I have an alert on Trade Me but to date there have been none available in Northland. I'll have to consider driving to Auckland to collect one if I purchase it.

Maybe I should buy two so that The Old Girl and I can go riding together.

* At The Curmudgeons Incⓒ we like to keep our readers informed with interesting things.

NEW POST - THE RELIGIOUS CURMUDGEON

 

ACT OF GOD

EGOMANIA

 I'm sold on EGO battery tools. I've already bored regaled entertained you with the stories of the EGO line trimmer and the EGO lawn mower I have.

Yesterday when cutting flax, brush and branches from trees I gave up on the crappy Black and Decker garden chain saw and went back to using a hand saw. The more that I cut however, the more I wanted to cut and realised that a few of those blasted monkey apple trees had to go.

Today I went to Mitre 10 and bought an EGO chain saw.

 

Uh oh. I had to assemble it but fortunately this time I had no spare bits left over.

I set to cutting branches - tentatively at first but soon realised that this nifty machine cuts through wood like a knife through butter. I progressed to thicker branches and even trunks. The beauty of it is:

• It's light
• It runs on the powerful EGO battery
• There's no fuel and starting issues. It just needs some chain oil in the oil filler.
• It's easy to adjust
• Its maneuverability allows you to trim away sticks and light foliage to get to the heavier branches.

It definitely has the WOW factor.

I've created another huge pile of garden waste that will fill the trailer once I've emptied it of the current load.

This will have to wait until tomorrow though as I'm a bit stuffed now. Only mad dogs and Englsihmen go out in the midday sun.

CHIEF OF THE ROAD

 

KING OF THE ROAD - ROGER MILLER

The trailer is full again
Weeds and junk up to the top

I hope I don't meet a cop
I ain't got  a current woff
Ah, but two hours of fiddling then
I got the wires working again
I'm a man who's got a way to fix things
King of the road

Actually my trailer's brand is Road Chief not Road King but, hey, poetic license OK.

Yes, the trailer needs a warrant of fitness - a woff. I re-registered it so it's legal and when applying that sticker I noticed that the WOF had expired. Bummer! I did a quick check over and all seems OK but - the electrics were a bit stuffed.

The rear lights seemed to work on both sides but the brake lights and indicator only worked on the right hand side. I set to fixing this.

Now, my idea of fixing things, learned from my dad is to take a hammer or the biggest spanner in the tool box and hit everything in sight. Sometimes this works. With delicate equipment like auto electrics though I thought that a hammer might be a bit OTT. No problem - I got out a pair of pliers and squeezed and pulled every wire in sight assuming that there were those plug-in/plug-out connectors. I was wrong. All I managed to do by squeezing and pulling was to squash the connectors and to munt the electrics.

A quick check on the result showed that instead of the rear lights working on both sides but the brake lights and indicator only working on the right hand side - now none of the lights worked.

"That's strange" I said to myself. "I'd better do this again".

I abandoned the pliers that I was using - admittedly they were of the industrial size variety and rummaged around in my disordered tool box (I'm not allowed to go near The Old Girl's orderly toolbox) for something that offered a bit more finesse. I found a set of 'needle nose' pliers but these were rusted (some fool had left them out in the rain at some time). I liberally sprayed these with CRC and left them to dry and get better. I searched around in the house and selected a nail manicure set (mine thankfully and not The Old Girl's) and an old antique dentist's pick. I managed to lever open, with the dentist's pick, the connectors that I'd mashed with the big pliers but in the process broke off the point. That done however I was able to use some cuticle scissors from the manicure set to free up the wires inside the connectors. I then made sure that there was good contact between that various wires and the whatchamathingies that they are supposed to connect to and, taking the now reasonably functional needle nosed pliers I squeezed them all again to lock them into place. Job done. OK, not actually job done yet - I still had to make sure that they worked. To be honest I wasn't very optimistic but turned on the ignition, turned on the headlights, put a brick on the brake pedal and nervously went round to the back of the trailer to have a look. Voila! The brake lights were working. The tail lights were working and the left indicator was working. I went back to the car and moved the indicator to the right and went back to have a look. It was working!.

Yippee!

I immediately, while leaving the electrics on, got out some plumbing tape that I'd fixed the leak from the washing machine with and liberally wound it around and around all of the connections which were still working.

When I went inside I casually mentioned to The Old Girl that I'd fixed the problem with the trailer's electrics. 'Good man" she said. I was pleased.

The trailer at this stage was half full of weeds, branches, flax and other garden trimmings. I set about  pulling out more convolvulus, monkey apple, old flax and all sorts of other stuff to totally fill the trailer (overfill actually, I'll have to jump up and down on it to squash it down).

This coming week I'll drive the trailer to the dump and empty it and on the way home call in to VTNZ to get a new WOF.

NEW POST - THE WINE GUY

 

THROUGH ROSE TINTED GLASSES

COOL DOG

 

I found a photograph of Rosie the beautiful golden retriever cross that was part of our family some years ago. Richard has met her. He took her for walks when he visited us when we were living in Point Chevalier.

This photograph was taken at our place in Christchurch in the late 1990s.

Rosie joined in our activities and always wanted to be part of the action. I really miss her.

We decided, after Rosie died in 2008, not to have another dog as you have to make sure that you will always be home to care for dogs and frankly, the pain of having another pet die is too much. For this reason we won't get another cat either.

As it turned out, if we had replaced Rosie with another dog it would have been a problem when we went to live in Canada and England. With Willow the cat, it was a wrench for a couple of years but the tenants we had in our house willingly looked after her. It would have been more difficult with a dog.

NEW POST - THE RELIGIOUS CURMUDGEON

 

FINDING FAULT

SCOTCHED

 
SCOTCHED
to prevent something from being believed or being done.

- Cambridge Dictionary

When shopping today I was about to park in an angled car park at the busy Countdown supermarket - a park I had lined up on some time earlier and was just waiting for some pedestrians to move out of the way - when another car tried to nose in from the other end. It was one of those parks where you can drive in from a Western position and drive out to the East. I had lined up to face the same way that all the other cars were facing which coincided with the one-way traffic flows at each end. The other car kept moving even though my car had claimed (rightfully) two thirds of the park. I beeped and threw up my hands in the universal sign language of:

• Hey! I was here first.
• Back off!
• Robert might love you but I don't.

Having got the other driver's attention I noticed that she was an elderly woman.*

That didn't matter to me as she could clearly see that I had been waiting for this park and had been there first and she had approached it against the flow of all the other traffic. She backed away and I proceeded to finish parking and to enter the supermarket. I noticed that she gave me a hard look and muttered something though.

Luckily this was in Whangarei and not Lower Hutt where people murder each other over car parking issues.

I shopped for a half hour buying things needed that were on my list and a whole lot of other unneeded things that weren't. As I approached the busy checkout counters I spied one that was about to come free and steered my trolley towards it. Just then another laden trolley appeared and cut in. It was the same old dame who had tried to cut me up in the carpark. I caught her eye and smiled and waved her through. She also smiled in recognition and took the spot. I didn't fancy having any conversation so, instead of lining up behind her I headed off to the deli counter and bought myself a Scotch egg for my lunch.

I wonder if Richard bought Shelley a Scotch egg for their anniversary?

* About my age.

NEW POST - THE RELIGIOUS CURMUDGEON

 here's a teaser post from The Religious Curmudgeon.

REVELATION

When he manages to find a reliable link to the series he will post it but you are advised to seek it out NOW.

THE POPE HAS BEEN EXPOSED AS A MUSLIM FUNDAMENTALIST*

 * OK, did  I catch your interest?

Good.

Here's a new post.

Okay, I'll explain those chords here, just for you Robert. 7th chords are made up from root (1), 3, 5, 7 of their particular scale. The 3 most common are major 7th, minor 7th and dominant 7th. In C major these would be... Dm7 - DFAC G7 - GBDF Cmaj7 - CEGB. Dm7 - G7 - Cmaj7 is really a perfect cadence but in jazz it is called a II V7 I progression. The 5th in each chord (unless it is altered to #5 or b5) is the least interesting note and the root is not really an interesting choice because the bass usually has it covered. The leave the two most colorful notes - 3 and 7. These can be used to play 2 note chords (double stops on the violin) that give nice jazzy colours. Try playing these 3,7 chords over Dm7 G7 Cmaj7. There are 2 voicings for these chords - you could play C above F, B above F, B above E OR F above C, F above B, E above B. You should transpose these to all keys. If you are improvising over a jazz tune, you can drop in these 2 note chords to make you sound jazzy.

Oops, no, not that. That's Richard from Richard's Bass Bag wittering on about something. I mean to write a golf post which will be slightly less boring.

I played golf this morning - 9 holes.

I played the best golf round that I've had for some time. I ended up 3 shots over par without any 'cheating'.

What I mean is that normally I just play on my own and, if I play a crook shot I hit another ball as the score isn't important. I'm just trying to play some good strokes.

Today I started off by getting a par 3 on the first hole. On the second, after some nore good shots I got a par 4. I got a par 4 on the third hole and thought 'this is good" so took it seriously.*

Golf is a funny sport. Often, using a lot of power on a tee shot doesn't work - or at least not for me. Just gently swinging the club nice and evenly can send the ball further, and straighter, than really bashing it. That's why tiny players like Lydia Ko can play so well.

I got another par 4 on the fourth hole, a par three on the fifth and then just missed getting a par 4 on the sixth. One over the card after 6 holes.

I got a par 4 on the seventh hole and a par 5 on the eighth which is a long and difficult hole. I was most pleased. I 'blew up' on the last hole though. I teed off well on the ninth but 'skyed' the ball with a fairway wood on my second shot. This left me well short of the green. My wedge shot ended up just to the left of the green meaning that the next chip on was my fourth. It took two putts to end up with a six - two over par.  Three shots over for the 9 hole round which is extremely good for a hacker like me.

Are you OK with that or do you want to hear some more about 7th chords?

* This didn't stop me checking out the creek alongside the fourth hole though where I found 13 good golf balls (there had been a tournament yesterday). I banged my head on a tree branch though which has made my head bleed - a fact that didn't go unnoticed by The Old Girl who immediately on seeing it accused me of searching for golf balls. I said that a magpie attacked me as I was in the centre of a fairway but she didn't believe me.

NORTON

 NORTON - MIKE MCGEAR

Well, not that but .....

"Norton's still a pansy boy, Norton's still a pet
And if he gave me half a chance, I'd wring his bleedin' neck!"

......... this lyric's appropriate.

I've been having trouble with Norton recently. Norton is a computer security tool that's supposed to fix virus issues and offers an extra firewall for your computer.

"It’s more than just antivirus software—it’s peace of mind
Defend yourself and the entire family against the latest virus, malware, spyware and ransomware attacks while staying on top of your privacy and identity."

            - Norton McAfee guarantee 

Well, that's what they say in their advertising.

I first used Norton about 13 years ago after leaving full time employment where the company had its own computer security systems. Alarmed by all the internet chat about hackers, malware and viruses I subscribed to Norton for our home computer.

After buying an Apple computer which has its own security system I discontinued Norton. When I went to the UK a few years ago and needed a laptop, I took a HP one with me and signed up again with Norton anti-spyware system. I kept this going for this machine but as it's been turned off and sitting in a cupboard unused, I recently deliberately didn't renew the Norton subscription. This has led to hundreds of emails from Norton imploring, cajoling and finally demanding that I resubscribe.

Here's an example:

I send these straight to the SPAM folder but I'm getting really tired of this and wonder when they will give up. Going through the 'unsubscribe from email' process is  a waste of time.

Have you had any similar problems?

FUCK OFF!

 I received this in the mail today and am returning it to sender (to the P.O. Box number on the reverse of the envelope).

This crap really annoys me in its presumptuousness.

Catholics are bad enough and now the damned (hope they are) Jehovah's Witnesses are  giving me crap like: 

"Jesus (sic) death opened the way for humans to have their sins forgiven and receive endless life without sickness death or suffering."

I should send Robert's address to them. At least Robert will be more in tune with their spelling and grammar.

I received another letter from these idiots in October last year. See: HERE

They deserve retaliation like me sending them a link to Evil Doctor Richard talking nonsense on Richard's blog or any of Robert's posts.

How's your day going?

THANKS FRIEDRICH

 Friedrich Stowasser (December 15, 1928 – February 19, 2000), better known by his pseudonym Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser, was an Austrian visual artist and architect who also worked in the field of environmental protection. Hundertwasser stood out as an opponent of "a straight line" and any standardization, expressing this concept in the field of building design. His best known work is the Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna, Austria which has become a notable place of interest in the Austrian capital, characterised by imaginative vitality and uniqueness.

          - Wikipedia 

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

Our magnificent Hundertwasser museum in Whangarei is nearing completion.

Here are some pics of it as it stands today:

The Hundertwasser Museum is based on designs by  Austrian born NZ artist and architect Friedrich Hundertwasser and is located in the stunning Basin area of the city.

HUNDERTWASSER ART CENTRE

This beautiful building will be a place to visit for locals, a drawcard for visitors and will become an icon for Whangarei. I can't wait for it to be finished. It will add vitality to the basin area and should encourage spin-off of arts, craft, quality cafes and boutiques to the area.

That said of course there are a lot of naysayers to the project.

 It has been a long battle with silly old farts wanting something 'traditional' and, or a Maori experience instead. WTF! There's as much Maori experience as you want in Northland and there is an excellent Maori history visitor centre at Waitangi. New Zealand has plenty of boring traditional buildings for some people to gawk at, what we lack is unique, challenging architecture.

/ˈklɔɪɪŋ/

 "Cloying a bit" said Richard in a comment on my last post just because it was sweet and nice.

Oh well, who cares? Here's some more 'cloying' stuff in the hope that it might soften his bitter (fascist) heart.

Today Geoff and I went to Ocean Beach. This is a large surf beach that's just over the hill from where we live.

This is from the ww. web.

On the pacific coastal side of the Whangarei Heads you will find the magnificent 5km long Ocean Beach. The Beach is surf patrolled throughout the summer months and is a well known beach for boogie boarding and surfing. The water is crystal clear during the summer months and there are fantastic views from the sand dunes at either end of the beach. There are some great rock pool exploring to be had at low tide at either end of the beach. This has to be one of the most spectacular beaches in NZ. It will take you approx 35 minutes to drive out to this beach from Whangarei and approx 15 mins from Parua Bay. Highly recommended!!

It takes about 7 minutes for us to get there. 

We parked at the end of the road overlooking the beach where there is a memorial to the sinking of HMS Puriri, the only New Zealand navy ship lost to enemy action in New Zealand waters. This happened in 1941 when five of its crew were killed. 

HMS Puriri was a merchant vessel commissioned into service as a minesweeper. It sank after striking a mine about eight nautical miles northeast of Bream Head, Whangarei, on May 14, 1941. The mine might have been one that had been laid by that bastard German raider Orion which was responsible;e for the sinking of The Niagara. See: HERE

We set off walking northwards. along the magnificent beach. This is at least 5KM long  and is very wide with beautiful soft white sand. At the Southern part of the beach by the carpark and the Surf Lifesaving club rooms we saw a half dozen people. Along the way we walked we saw no other person.

The weather was ideal with blue skies, lots of sunshine and a nice breeze.

This is a surf beach and the waves came in relentlessly, washing up small sea creatures that the waiting birds - gulls, oystercatchers, dotterel etc eagerly sought.

We walked nearly 4kms along the beach which is broken up into three sections, each separated by a small rocky point. As we had to get Geoff to the airport later in the afternoon we didn't complete the entire walk of the beach and turned back. The there and back walk was nearly 8 kms which was fairly taxing walking on sand.

Here are some 'cloying' images: