See you later -

Hi there

And bye there .....


Lorraine, xxxxx

We're all going on a summer holiday (etc)!

Hi there

Whenever I'm nearing the start of a holiday I always break out ( very untunefully) into Cliff Richard's "Summer Holiday".  Today, I'm singing, dancing, somersaulting, walking on air because I'm off to Las Vegas next week.

My house-sitting friend from Auckland (plus husband) arrived last night.  I doubt if I'll see her much before I leave. This morning she's off to Te Papa (Museum of New Zealand).  She has all sorts of adventures planned for the days ahead, including Wellington on a Plate - she'll be scooting here, there, and everywhere, all around the Wellington restaurant and cafe scene.

You won't hear from me for about two and a half weeks.  Sorry, but.... wooo-hoooo!!!!

song lyrics- good? bad?

Hi there

I was at the gym a while back.  Vintage music was playing over the speakers.  I guess a nineteen-fifties thump-thump-thump rock'n'roll beat was considered highly motivational for all the fast moving that's required in circuit training..

The song was  "You've Got What it Takes".  The singer raucously vocalises about the faults in his girl-friend.  Apparently, she doesn't dress in the best of taste.  Oh, and nature didn't give her such a beautiful face -

"...but baby, you've got what it takes.."    Huh-?  What-?

How disparaging...

I loved the song when I was young, sang it with gusto, danced with my poodle skirt flaring around me (okay, it wasn't quite a poodle skirt - it had the name "Elvis" lovingly embroidered all over it by my own not-so fair hand and chain-stitched hearts and musical notes were interspersed amongst my declarations of love for The King).

Nowadays, I'm stunned by the writer's lyrics..  Sexist much?

###

Below are some photos I took a couple of weeks ago when there was a parade in Wellington for the arrival of the America's Cup.   Forty-five thousand people lined the streets to welcome the sailing team.    Yay, Hoo-ray!  We won the cup!  Thank you, Peter Burling, Grant Dalton, and the whole team.

Hobbies and interests

Hi there

Every now and then, I get the urge to try something new.  I remember when I decided to give tatting a go.  That hobby lasted a week.  Archery was a year,  vampire romance reads another year, collecting dolls' clothes, phone cards, and paper weights were a fast and furious few months ...

A while back I got the urge to paint shells.  Once they were painted I hadn't a clue what to do with them, unlike a friend who does gorgeous little paintings on small stones and leaves them here, there, and everywhere (I occasionally help her out by strategically sitting a stone on a fencepost at Hataitai Beach).

It's time to toss the silly shells out.

Anyone got an idea for a new hobby?

more winter swimmers?

Hi there

Wow, there are more winter swimmers?  And winter swimmers who are swimming just a few bays away from Hataitai Beach?  It sure is great to know there are others like J, The Young One, and myself . I expect there are pockets of older swimmers all around the coves and inlets of Wellington?

Hey Liz and Charles, do most people shake their heads in wonder and call you 'mad', like they do us ?  A few (very few) people have called us 'brave' which we rather bask in the glow of.  I very much like the word 'heroic' but sadly that hasn't been used yet, though I'm still hoping.

Thanks for your comments on our 21 June swim.  If we'd known you were around, we would have extended our shortest day Hataitai Beach invitation.  We should have pinned our shortest day flyers on other bathing shed walls, rather than just at Hataitai Beach (it was pretty difficult finding a way to get the flyer onto the wall in the men's changing shed - don't ask!).

Miramar Creative Centre

Hi there

There 's a new creative centre in my suburb of Miramar.  I'm not quite sure what a creative centre does, but as the building is almost next door to Park Road Post Production, across the road from some casting offices, around the corner from Weta Workshop, down the street from Stone Street Studios, and amongst a spread of graphic/digital offices, I rather figure that the new Miramar Creative Centre  is to do with acting, directing, editing, computer graphics, and the like.  I'm thinking that portraitists, landscape artists, ballet dancers, jugglers and bagpipe players won't get a look in.  The creative centre is a division of Victoria University.

Those Bus Phone Calls

Hi there

And what about those people on the bus who make phone calls?  Loud phone calls.  Somehow these folk think that their calls are extremely  interesting to everyone else sitting captive in that same bus.

Last week, along with twenty or so passengers, i was forced by sheer proximity to listen in on a young lady talking to some guy -

"How about Saturday?" she was saying.  "We could go out Saturday...  Or Friday?  ...  Tomorrow?"

The conversation progressed, with the young lady pushing to set up a date.  It was so obvious to all of us in the bus that the lad wanted nothing to do with her.  How come she didn't see that?

On another day,  i was sitting in the bus opposite a teen of about seventeen as, via the phone, she told her mother how sick with the flu she felt.  Her boss was sending her home where Mum was now obviously waiting with a hot water bottle and a jar of Vicks Vapour Rub.  For 35 minutes everyone in the bus had to hear about this teen's symptoms in excruciating detail, the words sprinkled in and out of sneezes and hacking coughs.

I came down with a terrible head cold a couple of days' later.  I'm not pointing fingers ..