1st Swim for August! - off to Vegas! - Te Papa Tongarewa Museum

Hi there

Today I went to The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa to see their new exhibition "Colour and Light".  Impressionist paintings:  Renoir, Monet, Cezanne, Degas, etc.  I loved that many of these artists, close up,  seemed to have gone very 'dotty' with their work.  But when you stand back, the scene comes in to perfect focus.  I was deliciously happy to discover an etching by my just-about fave artist, Tissot.  There are only two other Tissots in New Zealand.  I have several books on the guy, and I love his work.

Then I rushed to Hataitai Beach for a swim with J,  Yay, number 1 swim completed for August.

This will be my last message for three weeks.  Off to Los Angeles and Las Vegas.  I have tried to persuade my friend/ house-sitter to do a few blogs for me, but she refuses to take over, even when I offered to write her a couple of brilliant scripts!  Oh, these old people, you just can't teach technology to us-er-I-mean-them....

As usual, I am worried about several things when I arrive in the United States:

1  Looking like a country oaf when I keep both the knife and fork in my hands whilst eating.  Americans look so elegant, eating with just a fork.  They have been trained to place the knife down on the plate when they don't need it.  Darn us kiwis, with our British way of eating.

2  My accent.   I am a very-fast-talker-and-no-one-out-ofNew-Zealand-can-really-understand-me unless..... I ..... talk ..... very ..... sloooooow.

3  Tipping.  I feel so embarrassed attempting to do it.  I never know how much to give or exactly how to go about doing it.  We don't tip here unless we are in a really really really high end restaurant.

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu.
Adieu, adieu, to you and you, and you.....