A BIT OF FUN

We went to see Much Ado About Nothing at the Pop Up Globe in Auckland on Friday.

The Pop Up Globe is a great new institution. It started in Auckland last year as the world's first temporary working replica of Shakespeare's original theatre. The 2017 pop up has a 3 storey Jacobean-style stage front, hand-painted ceiling and a larger stage than the 2016 version.

The building stands only as long as the season (3 months) and is then dismantled.

We had great seats, eye-level with the stage. Everything is nicely hokey with scaffolding and bench seating and close to the stage. This is how Shakespeare theatres were in the day without all the musty-fusty pretentiousness that has arisen over the last half a millennium.

Much Ado is a farce so was a lot of boisterous fun. The original setting is a Mediterranean island, this production is set on a Pacific island with accompanying 'Laughing Samoan' type references. I'm sure that old Will would have appreciated it.

BREAKING NEWS

News* has just cone to hand that the leading human recognition of superhuman controlling power blog - Geremy Watkins the third has had all its posts stripped. See here:

GEREMY WATKINS THE THIRD

There is a strong rumour that the entire blog may be removed soon. This reporter has decided to investigate the reasons.

Having accessed the blog  Geremy Watkins the third it was immediately obvious that there were no posts to be seen. Using the links lead me to a geographically close blog Petone Ponderings.  The author of Petone Ponderings is very reclusive seemingly going into hibernation for long periods and only occasionally surfacing to witter on about local events, meeting minor celebrities and of course the seasonal status of her garden but she was able to provide some insight into the status of Geremy Watkins the third.

"Geremy Watkins the third is a front for the Moera chapter of The Holy Ghost Appreciation Society. Sometimes going by the alternate name of Geramy The Lesser (yes, I know the spelling is atrocious) the blog bangs on attempts to inform the reader about the existence, form and relevance of The Holy Trinity to our modern lifestyle. No wonder it has disappeared. It has been bringing a bad reputation of naivety and frankly dumbness to our Petone community. Thank God that its base is in Moera or as Geremy/Geramy likes to call it 'Petone Heights'." 

The Petone Ponderings spokesperson then descended into an obscene and blasphemous diatribe about Geremy/Geramy and his predilections that this writer has decided, in the best interests of all, not to publish.

Calls to the Archdiocese of Lower Hutt proved unfruitful (despite what is promised in all of those prayers) but a call to The Tablet, the official media outlet for the Catholic Church in New Zealand brought this insight by its editor Ima Arssey:

"Yes, we are aware of Geremy Watkins the third and are relieved that the posts have been suspended (voluntarily) . We warned Geremy/Geramy that propagating Catholic Church bulls....dogma is the responsibility of The Tablet as the Church's official organ and that claiming sole ownership of the Holy Ghost and stating that he/she/it resides in his house in Moera is frankly preposterous. If The Holy Ghost was to choose to live anywhere in New Zealand then he/she/it would surely live with me. We have four bedrooms, two bathrooms, 3 carparks and are on a nice quarter acre section that is North facing for all day sun. Any offers over....... Sorry. As I was saying we are aware of Geremy Watkins the third and are relieved that the posts have been suspended and if they start up again we will take strong measures to see that the blog is terminated. Amen."

* Brought to you by Fake News the fastest growing media platform.

ANZAC DAY TOMORROW

I'm not in Auckland so won't be able to go to the Dawn Parade tomorrow. That's a shame as I have always liked attending this when I can.

My sister no doubt will be there playing drum in a pipe band. Good on her. I should have given her dad's war medals to carry.

I'll go up to the local club I belong to for the 2PM service. It is good but the later-in-the-day services don't have the same edge that the dawn services have.

Richard, bless him. will be playing trumpet (bugle?) at two services tomorrow. I hope that he doesn't ruin his lips so he can't give Shelley a kiss when he gets home.

I don't know if Robert will be playing at any ANZAC services. In my experience there's not a great demand for fiddle players - although I might be wrong. He'll probably be busy selling illegal cakes at a fair and arguing with Seventh Day Adventists or Mormons or someone anyway.

Anyway, enjoy the day but not too much as the day is after all a remembrance of fallen soldiers.

WINDOWS 9

Windows 9?

No, just kidding.

I'd like to post a lot more windows but a grumpy old sourpuss from the Lower Hutt electorate has complained. Sorry about that.

I read this guys post today:


RICHARD BASS BAG ITALIAN RUBBISH

He bangs on about visiting Wellington's waterfront which is a pretty brave thing to do at any time of the year except in the 2 weeks of summer they have down there.

He also recounts how he went into an Italian wine shop and bought a bottle of Bardolino which he apparently drunk before creating his blog post. At least that makes sense. He finishes the post by saying:

"Now I am a little bit pissed. Ma chiva piano va sano e va lontano."

Which I think, given my limited understanding of Italian, means "My Piano has been drinking" a line that he stole from the great Tom Waits:

THE PIANO HAS BEEN DRINKING

Now this piano obviously liked a drop or two I only hope that it had the good sense to drink a decent Italian red wine like a Barolo, a Chianti Classico, a Barbaresco, a Barbera d'Asti, a Gattinara, a Brunello or Harvey's Bristol Cream..

WINDOWS 8

Not this

I'm excited at the acceptance of my new 'Windows' series. It's smashed all records - ha ha, did you see what I did there? Smashed all records. All of my blog followers have now created their own 'Windows posts although I seriously doubt their dedication and stamina so they will probably fizzle out.



Quite frankly, if they hadn't shown so much interest by copying the theme I might have discontinued it.

I took some more photographs of windows in the house and today will show you another one.

This one is of a door in one of the spare bedrooms. It leads out to the path at the side of the house.
I'm not sure why this was ever installed but will come in handy if we do the Air B&B thing so that a guest can have an additional exit/entrance.

I like this doorway because it has a really nice Nikau palm tree outside set in a garden of ferns. It is on the west side of the house so the afternoon sunlight filters nicely through it.

Good news is that I have a lot more windows in the house and will keep taking and posting photographs for your enjoyment.

COLD, COLD, COLD

COLD, COLD, COLD - LITTLE FEAT

 Boy what a change of weather last night and today. Yesterday I was swimming but last night had to put an extra blanket on the bed. Today has been 'freezing' (at least in Northland terms) and had to wear longs and a sweatshirt.

The Old Girl came up today and worked in the study all day with the wall heater on. I was wondering why the cat was in the hallway trying to get into the study. She knew it was warmer in there.

This cold and rain spell is forecast to last for a week. I hope we don't get another cyclone

WINDOWS 7

Not this

I've been a bit remiss in the Windows series lately. Sorry about that. Easter and the necessity to mock Robert's religion got in the way.

The window that I'll show you here isn't actually in the house although we've had it for about 20 years

I bought it at a demolition warehouse in Christchurch when we were living there and had planned to install it in an internal door in the grand old house we owned.

It has nice celtic/Irish features in coloured glass that catch the light really well.

The motif along the edges match a similar motif we have in the glass at the top of the back door of our current house. I should put my home handyman hat on and create a door from the kitchen to the hallway with this panel installed in it......


....maybe not. The Old Girl gets nervous when I get the toolbox out.

BEING OPEN MINDED

This is a great interview with Michael Palin, John Cleese, Malcolm Muggeridge and an Archbishop debating the film The Life of Brian.

Robert should watch this and listen to the reasoned argument coming from Cleese and Palin.




PALIN, CLEESE, MUGGERIDGE AND SOME JOKER IN A PURPLE DRESS


The viewers comments after the film clip are a hoot:

“There's a man in this video wearing a purple dress because he thinks he has acquired some position given to him by an imaginary being”

“Catholics do tend to know a lot about fourteen year old boys”

“It (the Catholic Church) has also produced countless wars, torture, the Spanish inquisition (nobody expected that), burning at the stake, massacres, forced conversions and treating non-believers across the world as inferior, mass child abuse and murder covered up by its institutions and supposedly holy leaders, support for ruthless dictatorships"

OK, BUT JUST BECAUSE MY EASTER HASN'T FINISHED YET

LIFE'S A BEACH

Yesterday I went to Ocean Beach, the surf beach that is close to where I live.
It was a nice day, a bit of cloud but sunny and the waves were still a bit violent after the storm of a couple of days before.

This is a magnificent beach looking out westwards towards - Argentina? - I don't know but there's a lot of big water out there.



One of the nice things about this beach is the interesting rock formations and the small islands that lie just of of it - Hen and Chickens and others.

There was lots of birdlife (and I don't just mean the surfer chicks) to look at. These little guys let me get quite close before I disturbed them and they flew away.