Sneezes and coughs

 Hi there

I've often wondered why I sneeze and cough more when I'm in two places:

1     the library

2     the bus

Once-upon-a-time I was a bridesmaid.  The bride, as she walked down the aisle, gave a delicate little sneeze - ch-ch...

When I sneeze, it's AHHH-TISH-OOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Dittto for coughing.  My friend goes:  cough, cough....

I go:  COUGH!!!!COUGH!!!!COUGH!!!!COUGH!!!!   COUGH!!!!COUGH!!!!   COUGH!(repeat at least 5 more times). 

Pre-covid, I hopped off many buses because fellow bus passengers stared at me in horror and shuffled in their seats while trying to blend in with the wall -  anything to keep away from me and the germs that I don't have.  Hayfever causes my sneezing, and the cough ....?  My doctor calls it an 'old lady cough"-  I've often wondered if he could have been more gracious and named it an "old person's cough"?

Librarians have never liked me either.  Is it the mustiness of books that causes me to cough and sneeze?  Who knows?

But after covid, everything's got so much worse.  I get glares from all around me.  Over and over again, I've stood up from my seat in the bus and all but screeched, "Hayfever, it's hayfever!"

Oh dear....

I got a black eye. But how....?

 Hi there

Two weeks ago I got a burst blood vessel in my eye and for some reason, I also ended up with a black eye.  My friends had the most hilarious time, making up reasons why I got it.  But, for the life of me, I can't fathom how the black eye happened.  

I did have a nightmare where I dreamed I was being attacked, and I woke up screaming and fighting.  Had I injured myself?  No, that was just too silly.....

I wondered if I should still be taking my Eye Clinic-prescribed eyedrops.  I went to a pharmacy at 9 am-

"Hello, I've got a burst blood vessel in my eye.  And a black eye.  I just want to know if I can still take my eyedrops?"  Easy-peasy for the pharmacist to answer, I figured.

"Um, better ring the Eye Clinic," said the pharmacist.

I rang the eye clinic.  "Someone will ring you back about it," a nurse said.

I waited.  And waited.  And waited for the phone call.  At 3 30 pm, I rang my doctor and got an appointment for 5 pm.

"Oh, I don't know about your eyedrops," said the doctor.  "I'll ring the eye clinic."

"It's Friday," I said.  "They close down early."

But she had the magic way to reach the on-call ophthalmologist.  "Take the eyedrops," the ophthalmologist said.

On Monday, I got a call from the Eye Clinic.  The nurse said, "I forgot to follow-up on your phone call to us.  Sorry." 

What a lot of trouble for such a teeny enquiry....

above:  Hataitai Beach area.  Because of my eye, I didn't swim for a week.  Pity, because the couple of days we've had lately without wind, rain, and storms were the days I burst the blood vessel.

H

Tourists to Aotearoa

 Hi there

I'm always confused when some northern hemisphere tourists are upset by our cold wet windy and, in certain  areas, snow-y weather - 

 "But it's August," I say.  What did they expect?

 " Yes, August is when we always take our holidays. "

 "But August is the dead of winter in New Zealand.  You should have come in February."

 " Huh? "

If I didn't want to be immersed in a snow-y Christmas card scenario I wouldn't visit the Northern Hemisphere in the midst of their winter, so why come to Aotearoa in August? ... unless these tourists want to don mittens and windbreaker jackets, and ski on our mountains (yes, NZ spawns world champion snow-boarders and skiers).

And don't forget that though we're officially in the South Pacific, Aotearoa-New Zealand is just about the closest country to the South Pole (though Argentina will dispute this)...

Election next week

Hi there

It's all go....  Our big political elections are next Saturday.  The two main parties - Labour and National - and a bunch of smaller parties are wearing themselves out, racing up and down the country, visiting schools, factories, farms, outdoor markets, etc.  The present prime minister came down with covid and had to stay confined at home for five days - what, no electioneering?; is there some sort of conspiracy theory here?

There's been lots of back-biting.  I remember times, in the past, when no one party would lower themselves to sling off so horribly about another party.  Nowadays ...  the gloves are off.  

One thing that I can never understand is why so many people vote in advance of official election day.  I would never do this.  What if, between my vote and election day, there was some giant scandal to do with the person or party I'd voted for?  I couldn't claw back my vote ...

  ***

I went for a return walk from Lyall Bay to Island Bay last week.  The sky was so beautiful.

 

In the centre/center of things

Hi there

When I was a kid in the early 1950's, my friend (Jean-Marie) and I went to the movies as often as we could.  Yay, bring on Audie Murphy who usually got shot at, like, 10 times in every western but still staggered around the town before killing the baddie and claiming the rancher's daughter.

But in those days, New Zealanders never said that they were "going to the movies".  They were "going to the ... pictures".

Jean-Marie and I read Archie Andrews comics.  Archie talked about 'movies', not 'pictures'.  So, we did too.  Everyone looked on us as if we were mad -

"Hey, Mum, we're off to the movies -"

"You're what?"

"The movies." Mum looked puzzled.  I sighed.  "The pictures!  The pictures, okay?"  

And today ... I got to thinking about word spellings from the United States that have completely taken over from New Zealand's english heritage language.

For example:

English -  gaol

US - jail

English - capital

US - capitol

English - centre

US - center

English - pyjamas

US  - pajamas

In the fifties, I loved doughnuts.  They were big balls of dough, split by cream and jam and covered in icing sugar.  So delicious, with a crispy skin.  I would have a "Harry Met Sally" moment (the junior non-naughty version) whenever I ate one.  

Now we have 'donuts', circles with a hole in the middle and with icing on the top.  Nice and tasty but nowhere near as yummy as a "doughnut". 

And what about the word 'programme'?  It's on the way out. 'Program' is on the way in ....

Of course, it can go the other way around.  Way-back-when New Zealand had an everything-except-groceries department chain store called:  Woolworths.   I used to think it was part of the famous United States chain (think Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton, the Paris Hilton of her day) until a friend pointed out to me that it was all about the apostrophe.  NZ had the apostrophe after the 's', ie Woolworths'.  In America it was "Woolworth's".   Goodness, did we blatantly copy-cat?  And Woolworths Supermarket from Australia arrived here some years ago.  It disappeared for a few years but is now due back again within a few weeks.  Don't ask me to sort out the do's and don'ts of the name;  I've given up....

  

Walking

 Hi

Last week I was determined to walk from Miramar to the Ataturk Memorial, by way of Wellington Airport.  If I were coming from town, I would catch the Airport Bus.  If driving, I'd pay the toll and (return) drive straight through the airport to the sea and onto the memorial (or drive via Lyall Bay for free).

it's a 22 minute walk from my house to the airport terminal, and once I got there, I thought, um, should I go into the terminal and have a little nosey around?

Nope!  I must not deviate from my plan.  Samosas and kebabs, get out of my brain!

From outside the main doors of the airport terminal, I walked straight south through the airport grounds, past car parks, freight buildings and a sewage plant, to reach the sea at Moa Point (about 15 minutes from terminal). Maybe I should turn right and do a short walk through a tunnel to Lyall Bay to watch the surfers (and eat at Spruce Goose)?

No!  I turned left and walked jauntily past the dozen houses at Moa Point, past several pebbled coves, and round about quite a few flax bushes.

it was a narrow rutted and, in parts, stoney track.

After about a half an hour I wasn't walking quite so jauntily. Some puffing was involved.  

There were a couple of times that necessitated my running into a sometimes busy road when the track was not passable.  It was no more than 15 seconds-a-sprint, but I was a little miffed at having to do this.

Finally after about an hour from leaving Moa Point (I had stopped to take photos, and sit down once [okay, twice, but I was eating my picnic lunch so who's counting?]), I reached the bottom of the hill leading up to the Ataturk Memorial.  The Memorial commemorates all the fighting dead from the first world war, Gallipoli.

 I'm sure there is no shame in admitting that by this time I was a bit of a red-faced sweaty, puffing mess. 

Oh, bugger...  I just didn't want to climb the hill to the memorial.  Besides I'd been up there loads of times.  It was only about a five minute hill hike but ...

I prodded back home the way I'd come. 

Quitter..........

above: photo taken from Moa Point, just around the corner from southern end of Wellington Airport.

above: Ataturk Memorial.  stock photo

The quiet(?) after the storm

 Hi there

Well...  The wild gusty winds certainly hit Wellington last night.  My kowhai tree blew completely out from the ground. My neighbour lost her fence. Electricity went down in many areas.

I was so stressed out because I didn't know how on earth I was going to get rid of the tree from slap-bang in the middle of my front lawn.  I couldn't get around it or over it, I couldn't open my bedroom window, I had a little garden lopper that could only cut twiggy branches. Many branches were as thick as my thighs and if you've ever seen my thighs you would be horrified at their thicky-ness.  The kowhai tree's trunk was even thicker.  How on earth was I going to chop it up and cart it away.

This morning I lopped off as much as I could from the tree, but truly it wasn't much.  But then - miracle of miracles! - a neighbour arrived with a chainsaw.  Whoopee, my lawn was soon tree-free, with blocks of branches safely tucked away for me to gradually feed into my wheelibin.

Wow, thank you, neighbour....

above: a stock photo of a New Zealand tui bird in a kowhai tree.  I will so miss watching the tui sipping from the kowhai flower, and my listening to its beautiful singing voice.