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.)

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.

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.



 

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.

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.

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.