Sir Sam Neill

Rest in Peace, Sam.  A great kiwi.  A great actor.  A great person.

Matariki Public Holiday in New Zealand

 Hi there

HAPPY MATARIKI!!!  

Wish upon a star (thanks Disney).

Horror!

 Hi there

When I was about sixteen years, I loved going to those Hammer Horror movies, the ones that usually starred Vincent Price.  Then I saw "The Fall of the House of Usher" and I was so scared I ducked down to the floor. I vowed after that movie to never see another horror film as long as I lived.

And I haven't.

So ... I moved over to horror books.  Wow, all those early Stephen King horror books were great. 

Until ....  He wrote "Gerald's Game".

The woman was handcuffed to the bed and couldn't get out of the situation.  Her husband was dead beside her.  And the dog was shut in the house with her....

I vowed never to read another Stephen King book.

And I haven't.

I'm such a wimp...

"Shotgun!"

 Hi there

When I was a kid I loved cowboy movies.  The more intellectual folk called them 'westerns'.  I always wanted to ride 'shotgun' on a stagecoach.  You know, that's the guy sitting beside the man with the reins?  The guy on the lookout for robbers? With a shotgun?

Or woman?  I mustn't forget Calamity Jane in that musical with the same name.  Doris Day as Calamity rode shotgun on a stagecoach.  Goodness, while she was doing it, she even sang about being on "The Deadwood Stage'; talk about versatility?

I rode shotgun on a western stagecoach.  It was years ago.   I was on a guided tour in the USA and we stopped at a replica of a western town.  A stagecoach ride was on offer and I bagged the position up there with the driver.

I didn't have a rifle but that didn't matter. This clattering, bouncy, uncomfortable ride was heaven to me.  I was Audie Murphy, Roy Rogers, Lash LaRue, John Wayne...

In my early teens my father used to drive my friend Shirley and myself to the movies in town.  Every Saturday afternoon. I always held open the car's back door for Shirley to get in first.  I followed her.

After a while Shirley asked me, "Why do you always sit with me in the back seat?  You leave the front seat empty?"

"Because it's polite," I said.  "I can talk to you easier in the back seat."

Shirley shrugged.  I didn't think about that front seat for many years.

Not until a little while back when I was watching TV, and modern characters starting yelling at each other that they wanted to ride 'shotgun'.

Oh ... the phrase meant that you wanted to sit in the front passenger seat of the family car, and because you yelled "shotgun' in advance of your siblings, you got it?

Duh?  It was a modern equivalent of that western stagecoach rider.

Being an only child, I hadn't known that "I bags 'Shotgun'" meant "Get out of my way, Sis, That front seat is mine."  It was a plum prize.

My mother always had that seat, no fighting involved.  And, in that seat, it was easier for her to back-seat drive....

Mid-Winter Swim 2026, Hataitai Beach, Wellington

 Hi there

... and a great time was had by all.

The rain stopped just before the swim started, hooray!

I couldn't attend.  About 40 did.

Our lovely Angelina pulled it off.

MID-WINTER SWIM, HATAITAI BEACH, 2026

 Hi there

MID-WINTER SWIM, HATAITAI BEACH, WELLINGTON

11 am,  SUNDAY  21 JUNE 2026.

be there or be .... dry?

Uh, oh, New Plymouth Again

 Hi there

I was in an independent ' I-don't-need-no-driving-licence' mood, trying not to feel sorry for myself, and so I did what I always do when I'm feeling irked by life ..  I shot off to New Plymouth for five nights.  This time, I went by Intercity bus, eight hours each way.  'Nuff said?

Yay, I stayed at the Devon Hotel:  two dinner buffets, one buffet breakfast, and two room service meals - the roast dinner of the day was a true feast.  I almost collapsed under the weight of the huge plated meal as I took it from the wait staff member who delivered it to my room.  

I also went to my fave Asian buffet where the creme brulee was superb.  And I know what you're thinking - "an Asian restaurant serving Creme Brulee, never?" But it was to die for and I always make a beeline to this place for dinner-with-creme-brulee when I'm in New Plymouth.

I swam in the Devon Hotel pool every day.  But - oh my - the pool temp was 30c. ( wasn't acclimatised to such heat. The sea at the moment in Wellington is somewhere around 12c. 

And I did something totally daring ... I got a free bicycle from the Devon Hotel and  cycled up and down The Coastal Walkway.  Goodness, it was exhausting.  I got off the bike more than I was on it.  It was all those mountains I was supposed to pedal up, and ended up pushing the bike over them instead.  Mind you, the passing walkers who I grizzled to, informed me that they were only small rises, not mountains at all.

I also wandered in and out of lots of charity shops down the main shopping road, Devon Street.

And that reminds me of a story my friend once told me -

My friend took a doll's house into a Wellington charity shop to donate.  She had spruced it up by painting the window sills and adding new shingles to the roof.  It was near to Christmas and my friend was positive there would be a little girl somewhere who would love to have the doll's house.

"Oh, no..."  The charity volunteer shook her head.  "We already have one doll's house.  We don't need another."

So my friend's husband lugged the doll's house back to the car.   They ended up giving it to a neighbour's son who loved it to bits. 

And this little story brings me back to New Plymouth.  Inside one charity shop, there were notices plastered  eveywhere asking for more donations. I also saw the same sort of notice inside other charity shops   Good on you New Plymouth.

I walked The Coastal Walkway, as well as cycling it.

As you can see, the above photo is up to my usual professional(?) standard of photography.