Friday, January 25, 2013

Kiwi hunter dog on Kapiti Island

Hello

Last summer I visited Kapiti Island for a day.  Kapiti Island is off the - wait for it, you'll never guess where it is! - Kapiti Coast.  It's on New Zealand's North Island.  The jumping off point (or in Kapiti Island's case, the 'sailing' off point) is Paraparaumu, about 45 mins from Wellington.  The Kapiti Coast is also on Highway No 1 as you're approaching Wellington from the North.  You have to get a day pass from the Department of Conservation (DOC)  to land on Kapiti Island.  The pass can be bought from any DOC office, or purchased online.  There's a boat that leaves daily and you won't be allowed on it without the pass.

On the day that I went over to Kapiti, the "kiwi dog" came with us on the boat.  He is a specially trained dog to sniff out kiwi bird burrows, so that DOC staff know for their records what the endangered birds are doing, how healthy they are, are their any little new-born kiwi chicks, etc.

Kapiti Island is a great untouched place to visit.  It's a steep climb to the top of the island, but well worth it.   Or you can just hang around on a lower level, or halfway up the hill.

You leave Paraparaumu about 10 a.m. and Kapiti about 4 pm.  There are all sorts of lovely birds on Kapiti that you might be fortunate to see.  It's a nice picnic day.

(Aside:  my sore ankles are improving. The sooner I can get rid of the stupid bandages, the better.)

Thursday, January 24, 2013

More improbabilities

Today I've been on edge waiting for my Kindle to arrive by courier.  I kept running to the window all morning checking.  Nothing.   In the pm I went into the backyard to do a spot of sun basking.  But just in case, I took a dress to quickly throw over my shorts and top.  I didn't want the courier to catch me on the hop.  No-one must see my flabby tummy and big fat thighs.  I have some pride.

By 2 30 pm, I decided to sink myself (mainly for the sake of my poor ankles) into a hot (bubble) bath.  I plunged down in amongst the suds, breathed out a sigh of contentment and then  - there was a loud banging on my front door!

"Just a sec!  Hang on!  Wait up-!"   Where was my dress?  My sarong?  Anything!    Oh dear, and I was bare footed, too, and hobbling.\   Finally, I found a dress, threw it over myself in a wet hurry, and  with bubbles still clinging to my arms and legs, and in a suddenly soaking dress I threw open the door.  Goodness knows what the courier guy must have thought? 

Out of all the minutes in a  24 hour day or maybe, let's say, a 12 hour day (because couriers probably don't deliver at midnight),  this courier picked to come to my house the minute I sat back contently in my bubble bath.  What are the odds?   Probably pretty okay odds when youre' dealing with an improbability queen like myself. 

I haven't tried out the Kindle yet.  What are the probabilities there, then?





random thoughts





My name is Lorraine, I live in Wellington, New Zealand, and I'm an addict - to a Kindle!  Ever since I 'elbowed' my Kindle, I have been in complete bereavement mode.  I'm trying like mad to get another one.  Dick Smith are sold out completely.  I've ended up buying one through www.trademe.co.nz .  Hope it comes soon.

After my fall the other day, I still have two very sore ankles, heavily bandaged - though I did go to the chemist and got proper ankle bandages.   Trouble is now I have to dress down to match my very obvious bandages  and this is totally annoying because I wanted to look cool when I go to Queenstown soon.   Now with my stick,  and two not-very-fashionable ankle bandages, I look like some little old lady - oh, wait, I am a little old lady!   I have the utmost faith in swimming however, that all the kicking in the water will cure my ankle, so I will try to swim today.  Providing there's no jellyfish about.

Saw "Django Unchained" yesterday.  What a good movie.  I did close my eyes during the dog scene, but small price to pay for enjoying the rest of it.   I've never really cared for Jamie Fox, but I must say he was rather sexy-looking as Django.  I liked all the characterisations in this movie, even Leonard DeCaprio whom I've never liked much either. 

Oh, and I finally got  around to seeing "Argo" last week.  Ben Affleck is a wonderful director.

My friend and writer, A J Ponder - along with Rona Gallery/bookshop in Eastbourne - is running an art competition for Wellington region artists.  Details can be got from  A.J.'s website:   www.anafflictionofpoetry.blogspot.com

"The Hobbit" is still doing great guns in Wellington at all the theatres.  Such pleasant memories of when I was in Matamata.







Monday, January 21, 2013

Improbabilities Part II - darn it!

Here's a test:  what was I saying the other day about me being the improbability queen?  Yes, great, you did remember, head of the class for you.    For those who can't remember, I pointed out that improbabilities happen to me much much much more frequently than to anybody else, right?

Today, I went and got my clothes out from the washing machine in the garage, but I didn't make it to the clothesline.  I stumbled over the garage doorstep, and fell  hard down to the concrete path.  As I was falling - and it seemed to take hours - my brain was saying over and over again, "my-holiday!-my-holiday!-my-holiday!".  And just for variety, my mind added "Oh-no-I'll-break-my-leg!"

It's not bad enough that I have that plantar fasciitis thingee that has restricted my movement for the last two and a half months, but now both my ankles are hurting like Hades.

I sat on my path and cried.  I sobbed, and wailed so loudly  that my neighbour, from over the other side of the fence, yelled out "Is there anything wrong?"

I had to crawl on hands and knees into the house to open my front door to her.  Then crawl onto the sofa.  Both my neighbour and I agreed that I should sit with my feet in a cold bath of water, then bandage my ankles.  We didn't think I'd broken anything, or even sprained my ankles.  Probably just bad jarring.

When my neighbour left (thanks for attending me, Mary!) I did sit on the edge of the bath with my feet in cold water for about half-an-hour.  It's amazing what one can rummage up from this position.  I located  a) an ankle bandage, b) a roll of bandage from 1984,  c) a safety pin,  and d) some medical disinfectant I'd only bought the day before (yes, I'd grazed my knees, too).  I'll go to the doctor tomorrow if my ankles get worse.

So, what would be the improbablity of me hurting both my ankles when, at the same time,  I  had a sore heel?

Oh, and did I ever tell you that the doctor gave me, in reference to my heel,  a mobile disability card to flaunt in my car window when I'm parked by the door of the supermarket?    I wonder if there's a sort of two-for-one card special I can get?

 Now, what with bandages, heel pads, orthotic soles, socks, how will I ever get my foot into any shoes?  And I'm off to Queenstown soon.  Yeah, right, I'll really be able to explore that area thoroughly.  Not.

Oh, incidentally, J, my swimming buddy, fell off a stool she was standing on  yesterday (whilst she was burrowing in a high cupboard) and hurt her shoulder really bad.  She ended up with all her art gear sprawled around her, and an easel bouncing off her head.  It seems that not only are the two of us competitive in our winter swimming, we also like to 'fall down' together!  Hope you get better, J.



 

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Criminal Minds and me test rating it

Hi there.  In New Zealand tomorrow night (21 January 13) the latest season of "Criminal Minds" starts.  This is the episode that I saw as part of the test audience at the tv centre at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas last August.

We were all given a little hand-held dial with numbers on it.  If we liked the bit of the programme we were watching, we turned the dial up.  If we didn't like it, we turned the dial down.   If we'd have turned off our tv set at home at a certain point in the action, then we were now required to press a button.  One or two of the scenes were going to be digitally altered later on, especially some of the scenes involving a lot of blood.  There was one scene where I actually closed my eyes (well, we all know that 'Criminal Minds' adores its violence, don't we?).  I brought the dial right down to practically zero for a few minutes there.

At the beginning of the episode Garcia has just come back from the Olympics in London and the funny thing was that as I was in Las Vegas watching this test tv programme the Olympics were still on in London!

I also had to fill in (on a computer screen) a form about the episode and whether I liked each actor.  Goodness, it was so mind-numbing to think that I could have been responsible for some actor getting the sack from future episodes.  Jeanne Triplehorn was a new character and I like her in other stuff, for instance "Big Love".  I gave her a big tick.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

collections of things you don't want or need

How many people, I wonder, end up with whole collections of Things They Don't Want Or Need?  With me, it appears to be monkeys.  Now, I'm not a monkey person.  I don't hate monkeys, but I don't love them either.  To me, monkeys are just ... there.  I used to be able to take them or leave them.  Nowadays, if they're in bulk, I prefer to leave them.

A couple of Christmases ago, somebody gave me a toy monkey.  Mmmmmm, what to do with it? I put it on the window sill in my bathroom.

This past Christmas I received a pink monkey on a swing.  I hung that on a doorknob.

One week later, I received two little intertwined monkeys, one white and one black, bearing crowns.  They had a little label attached telling me they were William and Katherine, and to confirm it even more thoroughly Will's and Kate's wedding date was also there (actually, these monkeys were sort of cute, and I figure they could be worth something in years to come!).  I haven't worked out where to put these monkeys yet.  Any suggestions?   What?  No.... definitely not there!

I have two friends who also got suckered into having collections.  One was given a little ornamental frog.  She sat it on the top of her computer screen.  A year later and she has fifteen of the little critters sitting around her work station.  Because of that first frog, people keep giving her more.  She has never liked frogs.

Another friend has accumulated a group of unicorns.  She says her mistake was putting on display that first unicorn present from her rainbow-teddy-Barbie loving mother.  From then on, it was open slather come present-giving time.  She has been inundated with unicorns of all sizes, shapes, and colours.   "I hate unicorns," she bleated to me. 

If I had just one monkey, it would be okay, but I'm scared that one monkey will breed and breed and breed, and I'll end up with hundreds.  I do hope I've seen my last monkey - to be fair, I can live with the ones I have now - but judging from the experience of my friends, I somehow doubt if my 'collection' is going to stop at three.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

The improbability factor

In "Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy", they ramble on about improbabilities.  Improbabilities happen to me a lot.   Not once, not twice, but three times over the last 6 days as I was getting out of my car, the strap of my shoulder bag got caught on the handbrake and yanked me back into the car again.

My shoulders are obviously the same height as lots of door handles because my sleeveless tops get caught up in them as I'm walking past, and I end up with a door handle sticking out from my bra strap.

If only one tall guy walks into a theatre lobby and I'm there, too,  I can swear on a stack of "Star Trek" DVDs  that he is going to sit in front of me during the actual show.  If I was in Las Vegas I could bet on it happening and come home with wads of cash.

Am I the only person out of thousands to plop down onto a sofa and my homing-pigeon of an elbow instantly finds the screen of my Kindle?  I mean, how much sofa space was there compared to how much Kindle?   Improbability-wise, my elbow had - what? -  20 times more sofa space to attack and yet it chose to find my beloved tiny e-reader.

Improbabilities, grrhhh!  I'm definitely the improbability queen.



Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Bucket lists

I've never really thought much about bucket lists, because if ever I think, "Oh, I wouldn't mind doing that", I just go right on ahead and do it.   I've:

tandem skyjumped;  paraglided;  white water rafted;  zip-lined;  around-lake-cycled;  mountain-hiked; extensively kayaked, taught myself shorthand and passed exams, developed plantar fasciitis of the heel (Oh, wait, no - scrub 'plantar fasciitis' from my bucket list, I didn't plan on getting that!)  ...  and there's probably other stuff, too, that I can't remember but I will maybe, within the hour, slap my forehead and shout, "Goodness, I've also done that!" 

There is one thing I wish I'd done.  Learn to play piano.  I did go to lessons when I was twelve.  I got as far as 'God Save the Queen' and "Home on the Range" on sheer memory power alone but when it came to actually reading music, everything was hopeless.  I gave it all up as a bad job.  Anyway, I just didn't seem to have enough fingers for what was required to do on that darn keyboard.

PS:  the new revamped American "Beauty and the Beast" starts tomorrow night on NZ tv.  It stars Jay Ryan, a New Zealander who somehow has managed to pass me by in all my tv viewing years.  He's been in a lot of Aussie stuff that's come onto our screens, of which I also seemed to have missed.



Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Oh, no, I've broken my Kindle!

Goodness-oh-dear-heavens-to-Betsy-ohhh-noooooo!!! I've broken my Kindle! I was on the sofa, reading a book on my Kindle.. It was truly a great book. Probably, one of the all-time greatest books ever written. Well,vampire romances are just about what every solitary person in our world are chaffing at the bit to read, right? Of course. The action was so good, my heart was pounding for the heroine caught up in the gorgeous hero vampire's clutches. But, honestly, the woman didn't seem to appreciate the pairing, she was squirming, and sighing, and screaming aloud about wanting to leave his apartment. However - a-ha! - I had access to her very thoughts, and I knew that she actually wanted to pop into the bedroom with this gorgeous guy. It's what I would want to do in her place. Tall, dark, handsome. Who cares if he's one of the undead. I decided to prolong the excitement by making myself an egg sandwich. I tossed my Kindle down ontto the sofa, made my sandwich and, then, threw myself back down onto said sofa, right on top of wait for it! - the Kindle! My elbow smashed - craaaaack! - right into the middle of the screen. There is not a new 3G Kindle to be had at a Dick Smith's anywhere in New Zealand for love nor money. I know, because I tried. Dick Smith is the only place that has the right to sell them, and they're sold out because of the Christmas rush. They're expecting a new type of Kindle in next month (I'm guessing it's the White Kindle). I can't wait until then. I mean, I've got to get at my vampire story, yeah? Does my heroine end up with my vampire hero? The book might be that one in, oh, I don't know, one hundred million squillion where the hero doesn't get the heroine. She might shout 'Lay off me, you big brute, I'm going home to Mummy", and stomp off into the sunrise (where he, being a vampire,naturally, can't chase her). Whatever, I have to get at that ending. So, I bought a Kindle on www.trademe.co.nz. (I'm trying like mad to put a pic of broken Kindle on this page, but as per usual Im having trouble. Also having trouble - grrhhh - with paragraphing).

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Lyall Bay Beach

Here's a pic of Lyall Bay beach, in the wind, with rough waves. Lyall Bay beach is officially at the far end of Miramar Peninsula and it is beside Wellington Airport. Oh, I'm still having trouble with pictures. And paragraphing. And spelling as per usual.

hobbit burrows, Hataitai Beach, bad-bad computer!

I dont know if these images will turn out or not as I'm having the most terrible time trying to include pictures in a blog. I know that there's at least three ways to do everything on a computer but this time around I must have discovered the hardest way to do something. Oh dear. I've had to go into some HTML route (whatever that means), and I cant actually see any pictures, just some crazy foreign hieroglyphics ( herirglphics? hieroglipics? Goodness, I think I've lost all sense of how to spell correctly, as well) I went for a swim yesterday at Hataitai Beach, with the wind roaring around me and the waves ultra-choppy and the spray flying out every which-a-way. I couldnt see anything cause the waves were so high. I swallowed so much water and I kept thinking that I might die from swallowing it because I vaguely remember The Ancient Mariner and all those other sea stories where people die or go mad from drinking sea water. I got out after only a couple of laps (no not lapping as in water, though that was very relevant. Lapping, as in across the bay and then back again). Mattress guy sunbathing on the deck greeted me with, "Nice swim?" and I wanted to slap him one (wow, maybe I should be a dominatrix?). Mattress Man is another regular who we've all been talking to for years. He still doesnt understand the rules of the deck. He will insist on laying out his mattress cross-wise, leaving not much room for others to sunbathe around him. And he always blares out the cricket from his radio.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Keeping my hair dry as I'm swimming


As I drove off the day before yesterday to Hataitai Beach, I was determined to not get my hair wet.  I had an appointment in half an hour and I would just have time for a quick swim before heading straight off to town.

I slipped into the water, from the deck,  with nary a splash, just sort of glided in.  My hair was fine... check.   The water was almost-flat.  If I  kept my head high and just did breast-stroke, I'd be okay.

I swam cross the bay.  Everything was great.  No probs.

Back again.  Still fine, check.   Half a dozen more laps.  Really, this not-getting-my-hair-wet was a complete doddle.  Even my ear-rings were dry. 

There was a family hovering on the steps leading up to the deck and I sort of saw them out of the corner of my eye.  A mother, a son about eight, and two under five daughters.  They didn't worry me one iota.  As long as they weren't in the water splashing me, I was content.

Mmmm, I swam lazily forward, after checking the time on my diamente (of course!) swimming watch.  I did a couple of seal rolls (my signature exit move) and glided up toward the bottom step of the deck to haul myself out from the water.  It had been a lovely swim.  My hair was completely dry.  Success!

With a kamikaze yell, the eight year old boy bunched his knees up tight, flew himself high into the air,  and.... landed - sperlaasssssssssshhhhhh! - right beside me in the water. 

My hair was totally drenched.

Still in the water, I glared up at the mother.  I yelled at her about my-wet-hair-and-my-appointment-in-town-and-how-she-should-have-kept-better-control-of-her-son-and-who-knows-what-else-I-hollered-in-my-anger. 

"Say you're sorry," she ordered her son.  He had now got out of the water. 

He hung his head.  "I'm sorry, "

His mum mumbled to me, "Are you okay-?  Can we do anything-?"

With a sigh, I hauled myself up out of the sea, wet tendrils plastered around my face.  I looked haughtily across at the boy.  "Slave, fetch me my towel," I said.  And I pointed to it on the deck.

And do you know what?   He went and got my towel.

Maybe I should have been trained as a dominatrix?


PS:  Oh, no, I've lost the ability again of how to put photos into this blog.  I can't remember the roundabout way I did it last time and the little photo icon at the top of the page just keeps saying  something about uploading to phones and  albums and webcams and such, nothing about going into the 'pictures' on my computer.  Stay tuned for the next thrilling instalment of "Can she ever find out how to get at those darn Pictures".  Same bat blog.




Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Worser Bay, Miramar Peninsula, Wellington

 
I went swimming at Worser Bay the other day because of all the jellyfish at my usual Hataitai Beach.  And it was so nice at Worser Bay.  Lots of families were there.
 
(PS.  I've managed to get a picture onto my blog but I don't know which roundabout way I went to get it and now I'm having trouble with all my typing being centred.  Why can't things be simple?  Goodness, I am such a pathetic creature when it comes to computers.  Heeellllllppppp!!

Saturday, January 5, 2013

New Zealand actors

(I have still lost all ability to insert photos into this blog because the little picture icon doesnt seem to be getting me where I want to go, darn it.  So, we'll have to wait until I can rope in someone with a little bit of computer knowledge - are you reading this, A.J.? - to help me)

When I was a teen, I used to be jealous of Australian actors and presenters who made it big in America.  Why couldn't NZ actors make it too?   Since then, well, Anna Paquin has got there, of course.  So has Phil Keoghan (can't spell his surname?) host of the  'The Amazing Race' .  Martin Henderson practically made it.  Russell Crowe and Keith Urban are NZ-born.  Karl Urban  is a star ("Judge Dredd", and "Star Trek"  reboot).   Oh, and not to forget Grant Bowler (host of "The Amazing Race Australia" and narrator of "Border Patrol Australia".   He was in "Ugly Betty", "True Blood", and pops up in quite a few American tv shows.  Bowler also portrayed the late actor Richard Burton to Lohan's Liz Taylor (yick!).   There's Andrew Adamson (director "Shrek" and "Narnia"), and Richard O'Brien creator/actor/singer of the Rocky Horror/picture Show who now has a statue of himself in Hamilton,  in his RiffRaf costume.  James Cameron has just become a New Zealand citizen.  Sam Neill was in "Jurassic Park and the recent tv series that just got cancelled in the States, "Alcatraz".

Hopefully Antony Starr will be our next big name to make it in the American tv world.  He's in 'Banshee", produced by Alan Ball who brought us "Six Feet Under" and "True Blood" (starring Anna Paquin and guest app;earances by Grant Bowler - so Ball must like kiwi actors, yes?)

I adore Antony Starr.  Now, I never used to be a person to watch NZ programmes.  It's called "cultural cringe" and Americans have probably never heard the term.  But for years and years and years, I was embarrased by the way kiwis acted on t.v, so I stubbornly wouldn't watch anything NZ made.   I looked on the acting as amateur, the writing as pathetic, (why do kiwi writers fill the screen with naughty words - plus rampant sex?),  the sets absymal, and it was all a waste of time.   Only later on did I discover that what I figured was bad acting was really an all-out NZ way of acting;  it wasn't  bad acting, just different acting.

But then I watched "Outrageous Fortune".  A series about a crooked family trying to go straight.  Everyone talked about the series so much that I got the DVD out from the library.  I was hooked!!!  Absolutely.  Positively.    The cast were magnificent, the scripts fantastic, the setting was pure kiwi.  Heck, I didn't even mind the swear words or the sex because it was all such a big happy romp.

Antony Starr was my favourite.  I think every kiwi woman wanted him desperately!   He played twin brothers in "Outrageous Fortune", one was the good son, a lawyer whereas the other son was a small-time  happy-go-lucky thief who couldn't keep his pants done up.    "Outrageous Fortune"  premise was bought by America and redone, but the series flopped over there.  Of course it would flop, it's pure kiwi.

Incidentally, the above-mentioned Grant Bowler was "Wolfgang West" on "Outrageous Fortune", a crook and ex-con father.  What a bad boy!

Can't wait for "Banshee"  to hit our shores.  Hope it's successful.  But, honestly, I don't think Antony Starr could ever have better characters to play then the twin  brothers he played on "Outrageous Fortune".  Good luck to him.

Worser Bay swimming

Heavens, I am such a wimp!  Yesterday I went down to Hataitai Beach (Wellington, New Zealand).  I peered over the railing into the water and saw loads of the transparent saucer-sized jellyfish.  Yick.  I asked a woman who was getting out about it and she said she only bumped into seven or eight while she was swimming.

That did it for me, I was off like a jet plane, away from Hataitai Beach.  I went over the hill to Worser Bay and I had a really lovely day, with a deliciously cold swim.  The weather was nice and warm.  Not a sign of a jellyfish.

Today, I didnt even check in at Hataitai Beach, just went straight over to Worser Bay.  I must admit I do truly love that gorgeous tingly cold feeling of the waters at Worser Bay.   It was extremely hot today.  I had two swims.

I discovered later that there were virtually no jellyfish today at Hataitai Beach.

I've been so happy lately with my foot seemingly better.  So for ease of getting along the beach, I wore my Crocs.  No inner soles or gel heels like the doctor told me I had to wear.  I paid for it later on though.  I was limping like mad.

I have plantar fasciitis of the heel.  Apparently a very common ailment.  I do so hate to have anything that's (shudder) 'common'.  Oh, that so reminds me of  snobby Penelope Keith in either "To the Manor Born" or "The Good Life" where she was absolutely horrified to have a 'common' cold. 

(Oh dear, I am trying to put in some photos of Worser Bay but when I hit the little scenery picture at the top it says something about uploading JPG,  GsomethingF or PNG files..  I used to be able to just go into my 'pictures' area and choose the pic I wanted.  Now I don't know how to get into my 'picture' area.   Without being able to get into my pictures, I may as well stop this blog - sigh.  I'll try again another day.  Maybe miraculously it might have sorted itself out. )






Thursday, January 3, 2013

Ohope Beach and cute cat

I was staying at Ohope Beach, just out of Whakatane for two weeks at the beginning of December.   I do love it there.  I was walking along the beach there once and I saw, of all things, a cat having a frolic in the water.  Apparently this cat loved it's daily wander in the shallows.  When it's mistress is searching for shellfish, the cat is tied to the shellfish bucket on the sand.  The cat saw a big dog one day and chased it like a maniac down the beach, tugging the shellfish bucket behind it, with the cat's mistress sprinting along in the rear.

The cat also travels, in the summer months,  around New Zealand in a converted bus.  Loves every second of it.

P.S.  Only one jellyfish slithered over me at Hataitai Beach today when I was swimming, but there were a lot of them on the shore apparently, a fact I did not realise until I got out of the water - otherwise I would never have got in!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013!!!!!!

Well, another year has gone by, and another year ahead of us.  So, happy new year to the two people who read this blog!  If I thought for one moment that more than 2 people were reading this, I would scream with embarrassment, quickly slam shut the laptop lid ,and never sign in to the site again.

Every year, more and more of my fave film stars and singers that I loved as I was growing up, are dying.  They were all, maybe, just a little bit older than me, or the same age.  How sad.

When I was a young teen, I fell in love with James Darren. I first saw him in "Gidget".   Goodness, I loved him so much (he came third, in my estimation, after Elvis Presley and Sal Mineo).  I was so happy when he got a leading role in a Star Trek series.  When I was in Las Vegas three years ago, I paid (yes, yes, I did, I did!!!) to have a Star Trek "Beam Me Up" Breakfast with him and about 50 other fans.  He moved from table to table to talk to us, a bit like speed dating, probably.  Because the others on the table knew how much I adored him, they let me monopolise him.  And, do you know what?  He is just as gorgeous now as he ever was back in the early 60's.  I also went to a show of his where he sang a whole lot of Sinatra-type songs, and he was totally divine.  (Totally divine?  Goodness I've retro'd back to the 40's).

I've been doing a lot of reading these holidays on Kindle.  For the first 6 months I only bought free books, then I wandered up into the $1.99 league and, oh dear, now I'm spending $2.99.  Where will this addiction end? 

I went swimming this morning (January 2, NZ time).  The waves were ferocious around Oriental Bay and there was nobody there, but at Hataitai Beach it was quite calm.   If J and I are swimming separately we try to write messages on the floor of the changing sheds to tell each other that we've been there.  Last week, apparently, J spent some time sculpting her initials with twigs and shells and leaving it on one of the seats in the changing rooms - a piece of artistic work I missed completely. 

We've completed our "at least 5 swims a month for 2012.  I am so happy and excited about this.   J presented me with my certificate - she has one, too - and the annual cup.  What a weight of our minds.  What will be this year's challenge, I wonder?