Ranting

Hi there

I got a Rant Book ("a cathartic daily journal") over Christmas.  I love it.  This is a journal of practically all blank pages and whenever I feel like ranting over something, anything, I write the rant down.  For beginner ranters, there are quite a few sample rants that can be borrowed - the non-returner of borrowed items, people who leg jiggle,  phrases like "that's a very good question", etc.

But I can come up with my own rants, thank you very much.  I don't really like boasting but I can rant until the cows come home.   I've had my Rant Book for five days and I've already come up with 6 rants:  rants about having a head cold over Christmas to ranting about Wellington beaches being closed for a week because of a sewage pipe breakage.  There's two  rants about drivers who take it for granted that I can stop my car on a dime when they cut in front of me. And, hey, I'd really like to tell off the bus driver who decided he didn't want to turn up at my stop.

Taking medication

Hi there

Are other people like me?  Do they  have trouble finding time to fit in their daily medication?  And medication is such a strong word, especially when, in my case, it's eye drops.  Thank goodness, I've finished my 15 eye drops a day and am now back to four eyedrops.  But remembering to take those four is horrendous.  The Christmas holiday period is causing such havoc because my routine is upset.  I'm doing all sorts of things I wouldn't do normally.  Adventure waits for no woman over summer.

I have to take my eye drops at roughly the same time every morning, and every evening.  I have left reminder messages to myself, all over the place;  I ignore them.  I have set my eye drops in the middle of the lounge floor; I step over them and go merrily on to other things.  I have a timer that I forget to set off or I'm out at the clothesline and don't hear it.

Maybe three or four hours later, it's  "Oh, nooooo.  My eyedrops!"  But, whoops, too late ...

Christmas Mayhem

Hi there

And, oh, the stress of all that Christmas shopping -

My Mt Maunganui Holiday

Hi there

After my three nights in New Plymouth, I tootled across the North Island to Mt Maunganui (about 6 hours).  My car windshield developed a crack so I had to book for and get a new windscreen while I was on holiday.
,
Because I was right slap dab in the middle of my fifth head cold this year, I just went through the motions of Doing Holiday Things, and I felt pretty awful.  I sun-bathed, shopped, walked, swam.  I walked around The Mount of Mt Maunganui - there'd been some wash-out of the track some time back and to get around that washout, I had to climb 7 flights of steps.  When I got back to Wellington, and was watching tv, I saw that the flat route around The Mount had just been re-instated that day.  Grrrh, missed it by four days.

I went over to Ohope/Whakatane for the day. Went to my favourite Ohiwa Bay Oyster Farm and had a dozen fried oysters - yum, my fave.  Then I went to Julian's Berry Farm and and had a huge strawberry ice cream sundae.  And I shopped my little heart out.

I did get lost getting into Mt Maunganui and ended up going up and down the toll  Expressway twice.  Road workers at two roundabouts had taken down all direction notices.  Boooo....

 above:  Mount Maunganui.  Pilot Bay. I swam here twice a day.

above:  So many cruise ships come in to Mount Maunganui.  I was staying at Westshore Motel right opposite Pilot Bay (photo taken from my motel doorway) and I watched all the tankers, cruise ships, paddle-boarders jet-skis, yachts, kayaks, wakas...
The motel was so gloriously from the 1960's, I adored the place. Extremely clean, with wonderful owners.  Pilot Bay usually gets picnic-ers, families, swimmers.  Around the corner is Main Beach that gets surfers, lifeguards, boogie boarders, bikini beauties, young guys ogling bikini beauties, cafes where folk like to sit outside and be seen....

Yet another little holiday

Hi there

I've just been to New Plymouth for four nights.  Oh wait, no, it was three nights because ... New Zealand, country-wide, had severe storms last weekend, the day I was due to leave Wellington for New Plymouth.  Road wash-outs and slips everywhere.  I got about twenty minutes from Miramar to find Highway No 1  was closed because of flooding.  And it was just as bad further up the line.

So, I gave up and went home, furious.  Anyway, when I finally left the next day, the weather was great.  And I loved New Plymouth.  It's one of my fave places.  I walked The Coastal Walkway, swam, cycled The Coastal Walkway, shopped.  I stayed, as usual in an en suite cabin at Belt Road Seaside Holiday Park.  From the deck of my cabin, I had the most glorious sea and coastal views.

Happy Christmas shopping.  Don't get stressed out!

 above:  part of the view from my en suite cabin deck at Belt Road Seaside Holiday Park, New Plymouth.

 

above:  the new Len Lye Gallery to commemorate Len Lye and his art work.  His wind wands are in various places around New Zealand.  The gallery was built on the site where a picture theatre used to be.  I was ten and on Friday nights my parents took me to this theatre  There was always a serial  beforehand.

My Smart TV

Hi there

When NZ en masse switched over to digital tv six years ago, I bought a Smart TV.  It was wonderful to be able to easily see TVNZ On Demand and 3Now (On Demand) on my big screen.  But two years ago 3Now suddenly scooted away from my tv.  Oh well, I never watched that channel much anyway.

However last month, I got a warning on my screen - TVNZ On Demand were leaving me, too!  On the second of December.

Whaaaat?

Tech people at the shop I bought my smart tv from informed me that the antique workings inside my tv could no longer cope with new updated apps

"But my tv is only 6 years old!" I wailed  -

The guy just shrugged.  It was the way of life now, apparently. 

Oh dear.  Anthony Newley, singer, actor, and songwriter from the 1960's was prone to shout, "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off!".  And I agree with that statement whole-heartedly.

cute puppy

Hi there

The Christmas feelings are abounding.  I luuuurve Christmas feelings.  I love the Christmas songs, the atmosphere, the baubles, the crowds, the happiness of Christmas.

I was in Kilbirnie suburb the other day and caught this cute little puppy sitting in the basket of a mobile scooter.  There was a skull and crossbones flag at the back of the mobile scooter.  I feel that, to go with the flag, there should have been a Rottie or other type of dog in the basket.  Just for the atmosphere, you understand ...

who cares?

Hi there

The thing about growing old is that you don't give a flying fig about things -

Sheets on the bed that don't match? - too bad.

Bra, knickers, camis are different colours?  So?

Sporting a silver bangle with a gold watch?  Wearing black and brown together?  A shoulder bag that's the wrong hue for my shoes?    Who cares?

My car still has a casette player?  I can't be bothered to update it.  Besides, Jerry Lee Lewis and Bill Haley can  sound pretty good after the 5,000th playing...  Maybe.

My home is full of clutter?  And ... well ok, this does annoy me.

Sigh ...

***

Just a note to warn people:  A guy came up to me at Hataitai Beach on Thursday and talked inappropriately to me.   He went to follow me into the changing shed and to my car.  Stay alert.

Coronation Street

Hi there

I remember when the British soap "Coronation Street" first hit our tv screens.  It was in the early nineteen-sixties, and i was still a giggly young lady slavishly devoted to The Beatles - I saw them at Wellington's Town Hall, twice - and bop skirts with layers of stiff petticoats, and stiletto heels, and Coca-Cola sponsored Saturday night dances...   Most of the contents of my fortnightly pay envelope was spent on long playing records.

My mother adored "Coronation Street".  I remember sighing, "Please let there be a second channel and then I wont have to watch this rubbish."

The second channel came, and a third, and a fourth.  I was still watching Coro.  And loving it!  Ten years, twenty, thirty, forty.  My mother had often wondered if she would be alive to see the last ever episode (nope).  I would answer her that I'd probably not live to see the end either (am I psychic?)  On my answerphone, was a message telling callers never to ring during Coro.

Then a plotline came that was drawn-out and boring (Shelley losing her mind).  I sneaked a peek over to another channel to see "The Amazing Race" and, for me, that was the end of Coro.  I discovered the world of other programming.

Coro is still running.  Its on later in the evening now, proably to wean the older viewer mainstay group away from it.  Is there anyone left at TVNZ, I wonder,  who remembers the time there was a NZ-wide outcry and petitions  to save the show when our tv people were going to throw it under the bus?  I dont think there would be such an outcry today.

The storylines, I have been told, have kept up with the times: male rape, bullying, me-too,  hate crimes.  But are such plotlines enough to save our tv people from finally canning the show, when confronted with a dwindling audience?  I wait with not-really bated breath for the outcome.

Ohope Beach ... again.

Hi there

I've just returned from a week at Ohope Beach , listed as "New Zealanders' Best Loved Beach".  For five days the temperature was 26c-29c, and for the last two days the temp was 22c-24c. I never saw a cloud the entire time. My goodness, this was magnificent for the beginning of November (still officially Spring).  I know that it's Ohope, and that Ohope has a great temperature at normal times ... but November?  Wow.  I was in the sea every day.  For the first time since my eye operation, I swam under water, under the wild waves.  Great!

Below:  I spotted these little kiwi sculptures here and there around Whakatane (5kms from Ohope Beach).  I went to Whakatane every day, mainly to eat (Julian's Berry Farm, yum, those large strawberry sundaes!)

 Below: This little kiwi sculpture was tucked under a bench in Whakatane's main street.

Adrenalin

Hi there

Everyone knows the story (myth?) about the slightly-built middle-aged mother who lifted a car up high, away from her son who was trapped under it.

Adrenalin gave that mother sudden strength.  Had she spent a few seconds thinking about the action, she would never have been able to do it.  What a feat, eh?

My little adrenalin moment hit me way back when I was a young government typist, and learning shorthand.  My TCB shorthand exam result arrived in the mail.

I had taught myself shorthand over a year of practising it at home every evening, and during tea breaks at work.    I was a nervous wreck as I opened the envelope.

"I passed - !!!!"  I whooped.  I jumped in excitement -

My mother said that my head bumped against the high kitchen ceiling.   And yet, I wasn't at all a sporty or fit  person.   I would've had a hard time even jumping rope.

...  Adrenalin sure is a weird thing.

Those Rubbish Trucks

Hi there

A friend and I went to a matinee at The Empire Theatre in Island Bay.  We came out of the theatre, got in my car, and I was about to drive off.  Then -

Oh, noooo ...  My driver's wing mirror was shattered!

There was a note under a windscreen wiper.  Ah, wow, a witness to the accident!  It appeared that a rubbish truck had side-swiped my car.

 I rang up the rubbish truck company with all the information from the note.  The guy told me that lots of people rang him claiming that they'd been hit by rubbish trucks but, normally, they were fibbing (whaaaaat!?)  He would have to check with his truck drivers.

The accident was eventually admitted by the rubbish truck company, and they have paid me through my insurance company. I now have a pristine wing miror.

I've always been one of those people who have whooped happily about a cycle-way next to the pavement on The Parade in Island Bay.  The cycle-way has caused wrath and ire amongst the anti-cycleway people.  Cars park in marked spaces alongside the cycleway which means that rubbish truck drivers get upset being so far from the pavement, and mothers pulling babies out of back car seats, complain they could get bowled over by bikes.

I'm now beginning to think that the cycle-way is a bad idea ...?

I love it that I can see myself taking the photo in the shattered wing mirror.

Swimming

Hi there

People are already appearing, in drips and drabs, for swimming at Hataitai Beach.  I've abandoned the t-shirt over my swimming togs, a sure indication that warmer Wellington weather is approaching.  However, i still bound out of the water and immediately plaster myself against the changing shed wooden wall, crucifix-like: its so sunshiney warm if the sun has been on the wall for several hours.

In the winter my two swimming friends, J and The Young One, have been with me in the water.  With summer on the horizon - officially 1 December - we will be able to spend longer lazy times relaxing on the beach's sundeck, and purring like spoilt pussy-cats over the beautiful weather ("You Can't Beat Wellington on a Good Day").

Dogs

Hi there

Up until about five or so years ago,  I was frightened of dogs.  Big dogs.  Lap dogs.  Police dogs.  Airport dogs.  A neighbour's dog ...

I would freeze if a dog came toward me, duck down another street, have an anxiety attack.  When I was five years' old, I was bitten on the nose by a German Shepherd dog.  I remember thinking (in toddler language, of course), "I am not scared of dogs.  I'm not!  I will pat this dog and prove that I'm not scared of dogs.  So there!"

So, obviously this scaredy-dog thing was in my mind even before I got bitten on my nose.

Anyway, about five years ago, a friend asked if I would take her little Shitzu for a walk.  We were in a room full of people and I didn't want to come over like a grinch.  So I walked the dog.

Then I walked it a second time.  And a third.  And fourth.  Etc. Etc. Etc...

Now, I goo over dogs.  I like them.  I still put my arms behind my back as I approach them.  But I talk to their owners, ask the animal's name, age, make a joke about how a dog might be smiling.  Sometimes, I ask if I can pat it.

It took years and years, but now I can look a dog in the face and not be too scared.

... but cats are still my first love.

Baby steps, eh?

Alright, Darling?

Hi there

Here's a typical scenario -

I turn a corner and all but bang into a well-dressed woman in her thirties. We're both in a hurry.

"Sorry," we both say.

She takes on a concerned look.  She hovers an arm near my shoulder, one movement away from pat-style mode. "Are you alright, darling...?"

Oh goodness, she's one of those people.  Darling, dear, sweetheart, love;  I've heard them all before.  Lots of times.

As we age, and for some reason, complete strangers feel compelled to call us twee names.

I don't understand it.

If I were younger, this well-dressed woman and I would exchange a friendly smile, a "sorry", and that would be it.  We'd be on our way without a whiff of a 'darling' or 'dear'.

Hardly a day goes by when I don't get an endearment tossed to me by someone I don't know.  Shop assistants, bus drivers, baristas, government officials...

They're talking down to me, jollying me along, like I'm a five year old.  They want to prove to the gods-in-charge-of-old-people that they are caring and attentive.

It so annoys me.

Cat photo cute

Hi

Just because its so adorable ...

Awwwww...

And the below picture (Puss from the Shrek movies) is most definitely me playing The Old Lady Card when I'm forced to stand too long in queues, or want to reach a sullen bank teller's heart -

Rugby World Cup - starting soon

Hi there

New Zealand is a rugby nation.  I'm not a sports person (confession time!)  But it's hard to miss the World Cup atmosphere;  it's everywhere.  Even though the World Cup, this time around, is in Japan, it's practically all that New Zealanders are talking about at the moment.  The first games start this weekend.

Both Auckland and Wellington have artistically altered some bus-stops to represent a rugby grandstand and I dare say other centres have followed -

Apparently the New Zealand All Blacks team (current holders of the World Cup) are playing arch-rivals, the South African Springboks this weekend.  Our nation will be holding its breath.

My Auckland Jaunt

Hi there

This past week, I flew up to Auckland for two nights to see "School of Rock - the musical".  A good show, and very lively.   On the same night, a  Fleetwood Mac concert was in town, and the city was buzzing with thousands and thousands of Fleetwood Mac fans (all over age 40?  And all wearing black?)

 I walked around the Viaduct area.  It's full of super-boats and "In" restaurants.  The soon-to-be America's Cup  (yachting) races are centred here.  Emirates Team New Zealand will be defending the cup in 2021.

those long-back women's tops

Hi there

I was searching for a casual summer top.  The sales assistant kept showing me tops that have a long back and a short front.

"No, no.  I don't want this type-"

"But they're all the rage," she said.

Obviously this woman had never ballooned up in weight in just a year (curses to all those cheese sandwiches!) " Long-back tops make me look ridiculous," I said.  "I'm sorry to all the manufacturers of long-back tops but for voluptuous and luscious women, like me, those tops just won't do.  When someone looks at me they think that my tummy is so fat that it's making the top I'm wearing hitch up in the front."

"Surely not," the assistant tsk-tsked. And she dug out half a dozen more tops, most of them still in the long-back style.   No doubt the woman was attempting to show me how wrong I was -

Nope.  In a case like this, the - cough-cough-ahem -  slightly overweight customer is always right -

grasshoppers in Las Vegas

Hi there

When I was in Las Vegas there was a grasshopper invasion.  Millions came at nighttime, were attracted to lighting.  When I woke up in the morning there were grasshoppers attached to the outside of my hotel windows.  With the sun, however, they dropped off the glass.  The hotels' staff did great jobs of cleaning up the grasshopper bodies but every morning there were still quite a few husks around all the hotels' main doorways.

I went to a show one evening and a grasshopper had got onto the stage area.  Two of the female singers kept leaping to different places on that stage, emitting little shrieks and cries whenever that lone grasshopper came near them.  The singers admitted to the audience that they were wimps when it came to the creatures.

As if the grasshopper plague wasn't enough, there was heat too, of course.  And not only was there heat in Las Vegas but when I was in Los Angeles, the elderly, children and pets were told not to go to the beaches, so I had to give up my plans for Santa Monica..

Then, I was sitting in my LV  hotel when I got a message on my phone telling me not to go outside because of a flash flood!

So ... grasshoppers, heat, flash flood.  Oh dear, talk about biblical plagues.

Keeping fit?

Hi there

Well, I try to keep fit.   I do try to slot in a gym workout twice a week and I power walk for 45 minutes practically every day.  And then there's my swimming ...

But ... I like food.  Especially after the gym.  Or a walk.  Or  swim.  My downfalls are bread, potatoes, and cheese.  I've often said that if I was going to  be offered a last meal, I would choose a sandwich made up of potatoes and cheese, and slathered in butter.   Come on, would it really be that fattening?  Sigh, yes...

Anyway, I noticed a gym in Hollywood that really takes fitness seriously  -

But I'll bet there's a secret elevator* under the stairs.



...and just in case one set of stairs isn't enough of  a workout  -

*notice that I said "elevator" and not "lift".  I so have a US vibe!

Las Vegas heat

Hi there

The heat was really bad in Las Vegas.  It got up to 40c.  It was so hard to walk outside without wanting to collapse in a big old heat puddle!  In Vegas I will duck in one door of a casino and out the far door to avoid having to walk outside,  but I still have to walk outside for a few minutes at a time, just to get along The Strip or cross a road.

And the wind is boiling hot. It got me  way more hot than the actual air temperature. Wellington is known as Windy Wellington but the wind in Wgton is chilling;  coat-wearing, scarf-snuggling, hat-enveloping chilling.

Now, let me tell you, my four readers, about the outdoor escalators in Vegas? - by the time the afternoon  comes  around, any escalator hand-bar has become too hot to the touch.  I talked to a woman who got a burn on her leg when she accidentally banged against the escalator step in front of her.

The ground was so hot, I burnt the bottom of my shoes -

above:  The Strip, Las Vegs

Flamingo Hotel Pool.  I stayed at this hotel.  I am always intrigued how nobody actually swim nowadays.   They stand in the water and talk. It's the same at beaches in Wellington.

More Los Angeles

Hi there

I had been to the Los Angeles Farmers Market before, several times, and many years' ago.  It's a big warehouse with street-food-like stalls and rickety tables.  I ordered fettucine from an Italian stall.

"You want any salad with it?" asked the guy behind the counter.

"Tomarto, please," I said.

"Tomayto," he said.

"Yes, tomarto," I answered.

"Tomayto."

"Tomarto-  Oh!"

Goodness, I love the Americans!

I hadn't realised that since my last Farmers Market visit, a whole posh restaurant/store/park area had opened up behind the market building.  If I hadn't wandered out a small doorway I might never have discovered it.  Such lovely-looking restaurants.  Wish I'd waited for my meal and had it here -

In Hollywood itself after I had visited the Hollywood Museum where I saw Liz Taylor's wedding dress from "Father of the Bride ...

....I went for lunch next door to Mel's Diner -

I am truly surprised that I came back from my holiday and had lost one and a half pounds in weight.

Me in Los Angeles

Hi there

I've been home four days and I'm still tired.  How on earth do those business people who cross the international dateline several times a month handle it?  Oh, wait, I know - they fly first class!

My first stop in the States was Los Angeles.  Within one hour of arriving in Hollywood,  where I was staying at the fabulously located bed and breakfast Hollywood Celebrity Hotel, I had a fall.  Oh, no...  Can I blame my poor eyesight?  Yes, I definitely will.   Even though the step had a yellow strip across it, I still came a cropper.  Hands and knees grazed.  Ankles slightly sprained.  Big toe bruised terribly.

But I soldiered on -

That very day was the premier for the movie "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood".  Still jet-lagged, I staggered to Hollywood Boulevard to watch the stars arrive.  Their cars stopped right opposite me.  I saw Chris Hemsworth, Brad Pitt, Leonardo Di Caprio, Britney Spears, Andy Serkis, New Zealand stunt actress Zoey whatshername, Margot Robbie,  and a host of other young stars I hadn't a clue about.  I felt so over-the-hill becuse in my youth I knew and adored every Hollywood star.

above:  that's Brad Pitt over on the left.  I take back every awful thing I've ever said about the guy.  He just oozed charisma. far more than on the screen (if possible).  Beautiful skin, looked so young.

above: the car from the movie

Some people had waited two days to see the street action.  Most of the celebrities came over to where I was standing, and I'd only been there for two hours.  It was fun...

I'm back from the States!

Hi there

Did you miss me?  Did ya?  Did ya?

I returned about one hour ago from a holiday of two and a bit weeks in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.  Coming home, it was one hour in plane from Vegas, then 16 hours from Los Angeles,  followed by 3 and a half hours from Melbourne.  All that flying, and I'm ultra-tired!

I still had to take 10 eyedrops a day.  Is it any wonder I was so worried about my eyes before I left home?  One week before I was due to leave, it was still dicey as to whether the doctors would let me travel?  Thank goodness, I'd taken out insurance and specifically mentioned that I had glaucoma.

I'll write about my impressions of the holiday later for you.  I'm off to bed now...

This little elephant was gorgeous

Hi there


I was going through some past photos.  Here are some elephants that I photographed at Melbourne  Zoo a few years ago.  How cute can a little elephant be?

When I was a child we got to ride the elephant at Wellington Zoo.  He later  died and there was a huge collection from the people of Wellington to buy a new elephant.  I wonder whatever happened to that money because we never did get that elephant?

Computers? Love 'em? Or Hate 'em?

Hi there

I remember way back when computers first came into the office where I worked. I took to them like a duck to water.  The word-processing package was my forte.  I made that computer sing.

Now?  Now, I've regressed.  My brilliant-ness is gone, faded away in the mists of time.  I wouldn't know how to do a simple grid if my life depended on it, let alone an organisation chart - the CEO used to came to me for advice on typing them.  Praise was thrown at me, like rose petals!

I like to think that my now lacklustre performance on a computer is because the keyboard has changed in some way.  Extra keys have been added, or changed, or a bad wizard  has hexed me; this has to be the explanation because I'm danged if I can even type the quick born fix..
the click brown fix jumps over the laxy ..  the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog (hoo-ray!).

I give up ...


###

...and the internal workings of my laptop are playing up (sigh).  I might have to take it into the repair shop.

Maupuia Walkway Wellington

Hi there

 Just above the suburb of Miramar in Wellington is the hill suburb of Maupuia where there's a lovely safe flat track that gives magnificent views of the inner harbour.  It's only maybe 40 minutes return and that includes taking your time petting dogs, sitting on seats, stopping and ohhhing and ahhhing over the view,  happily talking to strangers, etc.  Houses are higher up on the hill above you on one side of the track,  and the sea is way down on the other side of you.

The walkway was my first excursion out after my eye surgery ) and now I've been told the cataract in my other eye is bad and I need surgery on that - oh, no, not another round of 13 eyedrops a day!).  It was a beautiful day last week when I walked the track.  I talked to half a dozen dogs and their owners.

If a person is going to the walkway by number 2  bus from town, get off at the stop after the Miramar Cutting, climb the hill (about ten minutes and with a proper pavement) until you see a sort of (pathetic) little clearing ahead of you that's used for parking.  This is the start of the track.  Or ..catch no 24  bus from town, ask driver to put you off at the start of Maupuia Walkway.

above: looking down on the suburb of Miramar from near the Maupuia Walkway

above:  taken from Maupuia Walkway.  Hataitai Beach, where I swim, is across the water.

PS:  The Young One, J, and I went swimming at Hataitai Beach today.  I wore wrap-around sunglasses and was extremely careful.  The swim was fantastic. And, yes, it was very cold!

Buying sunglasses

Hi

I'm having trouble with the light on my eyes so I popped into the optician's to ask about wrap around sunglasses.

"I go through sunglasses like other people go through chocolate," I explained.  "My sunglasses break often.  I blame those thin cloth bags that the shop people give us to keep our sunglasses in.  Within a day of scrabbling around in my handbag looking for something I can rarely find, my sunglasses usually get broken.  Are there rubber sunglass frames?"

"We can do better," said the optician.  "We have ... " He paused theatrically -  "flexible frames!  They won't break."

Wow.  Show-me-show-me-

He picked out a pair of sunglasses and flexed the arms.  This way.  That way.  Pulling.  Pushing.  Shaking.  Forcing backwards ... forcing forwar-

Oops.  The sunglasses broke with a loud snap!    Right where the nose piece was.

"Um ... "   I'll think about it," I said diplomatically.

I exited the premises, chortling.  I did tell the red-faced guy that it was too good a story not to share with the world but to save him further future embarrassment I'd keep secret the name of the shop....

Progression with my glaucoma surgery

Hi there

I hate takng all my eyedrops.  I have a timer that I set between drops and I also have a chart listing all the times I take the drops, and I tick off that chart (oh no, have I taken the eye drop in question or did I just forget to tick it off?}. Thirteen drops a day.

I've got photophobia.  I can't stand light.  My eye is just closing automatically, and it's driving me crazy.  I can't read my Kindle White because, well, it's white.    So I got my Kindle Fire and listened to an audio book instead.

And all around my eye socket is painful.  Whinge-whinge-moan-moan-whimper.

Oh, goodness, somebody save me...

I've had my glaucoma surgery!

Hi there

21 June

Right up until the last minute, the hospital staff were examining me for the dreaded lurgy.  All through the previous night I'd put myself through an intensely long session of self hypnosis/meditation/positive thinking/call it what you will.  I kept telling myself that from the moment I walked into that hospital I wouldn't have a stuffy runny nose.  And when the time came,  I didn't! 

My blood pressure, heart, pulse were all good.  I padded into the operating room in my Wellington Hospital robe, pj' s, chiffon booties, sideless shirt and shower cap. But I felt so cheated because in movies the patients are always wheeled in on comfortable beds accompanied by gorgeous George Clooney-looking doctors whispering sweet nothings in their ear and a full orchestra somewhere on the sidelines playing the theme from Titanic.   Well, that's how it should have been, anyway.

Everything worked out ok.  But my eye felt like there was a load of grit in it for hours afterwards.  The after-care is going to be intensive.  I will be taking thirteen (count 'em, thirteen!) eye drops a day for goodness knows how many weeks, and there will be quite a few visits to the hospital.

####

Shortest Day swim today, and I couldn't go. My swimming pal J went, and I was so jealous.

Raumati break

Hi there

Sunday, NZ time

Last week, I spent a few nights in Raumati, about 45 minutes "up the line" from Wellington.  I went for lots of lovely walks on Raumati Beach, visited several cafes, caught another cold....

I cannot believe that I was four days free of my last head cold and, then, I come down with another one!  I figured I was free of a cold for my glaucoma surgery on Wed19th, but now I'm in the fifth day of a stuffy nose, I'm beside myself with stress.   A decision by the hospital will have to be made over the next day or two.

As I was walking along Raumati Beach, passersby kept telling me about this weird tree stump that had recently washed up on the shore, with some sort of living shells on it.  One little boy said the tree stump was like a seal.  When he touched a shell, other shells sort of shrunk away.

below: view from my rented holiday home at Raumati Beach.  That's Kapiti Island.

What Age is Old?

Hi there

This morning I was reading a fiction book.  The main guy was congratulating himself for taking a chance and hiring a 50 year old woman as his secretary.  He hadn't thought she would be able to do the job well, because of her age.

What? 

Seriously ...  Whaaaaat??!!?!!

The end of the golden weather...

Hi there

Sunday morning 5 am, NZ time

I just looked into the weather temperature from Metservice - "7c,  but feels like 3c".  Oh dear, I hate it that the 1st June is officially winter.

And I still have a hacking cough and a blowing-nose.  I doubt my glaucoma operation will take place.  I think my head cold will be embedded inside me for life.  I will be still coughing my lungs out and hugging a large box of tissues to my bosom when I'm aged 102 (of course I'm going to live that long - what, you think I can't?).

My forthcoming eye surgery

Hi there

Wow, what a past few days.  I have caught yet another head cold.  And the words 'head cold' never seem dramatic enough, do they?  It's not 'the flu', which are the words at the very top of the spectrum, nor is it 'the common cold'' (heavens to Betsy, we  snobs don't want anything that's 'common'!).

Anyway, I went to the hospital yesterday for a second pre-assessment before my glaucoma operation next month.  I had previously rung up and said I had a cold and did they still want me?  "Yes," I was informed by the admissions receptionist

But when I arrived, I was given biblical leper status and immediately handed a medical mask to wear because I might pass my cold on to other waiting patients.

I was also informed I couldn't have my 19 June operation because of my cold symptoms that would take a long time to peter out.

Given all the hacking coughs, and the hundreds of daily tissues that I've blown into, and the not being able to eat (yay, one good point, I've lost weight!), and not being able to talk because of my sore throat (my friends are probably very happy), I guess postponing my operation by a week or two - subject to a  confirmation oath by my GP attesting to my state of health, and probably to be signed off in my blood - was an inevitability.

Update - several days later:

Ooh, pistols to be drawn at dawn?   My GP disagrees with the hospital.  He says my cold will work itself away well before the scheduled operation date.  So is the op on? Or op off?  Stand breathlessly by for further breaking news ...

Glaucoma operation

Hi there

We are so excited because the changing sheds at Hataitai Beach are open.  As my swimming friend   J  screamed out to me in her phone text,  "Whoopee!!"

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I've just been told I've got to have an operation for my glaucoma.  It's next month.  Which means of course that I'll be weighed at the hospital pre-assessment session that I'm going to today.  I've been franticially trying to lose hundreds of kgs over the past month.  I also signed the form that said I could climb forty steps (including landings).  So I've been bounding (yeah right, more like staggering) up and down every set of outdoor steps I could find on the Miramar Peninsula. If you see me, give a wave of encouragement...

Sunset from Miramar

Hi there

When I lived in the suburb of Strathmore I used to see wonderful sunsets.  Now, that I'm in Miramar, I don't get to see so many of them, because of houses, and trees, and hills blocking the way.  But last week, there was a glorious sunset -

Hataitai Beach changing sheds upgrade

Hi there

We winter swimmers are waiting for the workers to finish with re-roofing the changing shed and toilets.  We have heard on a grapevine that the shed might be finished next week.

A few days ago I was waiting at the beach, in my car, for a swimming friend to arrive.   Idly, I was looking at the two portaloos - one pink, one blue.  It was so funny because all the women who decided to use them went to either the pink or the blue one.  It didn't matter which portaloo.   Ah, but the men, they wouldn't go anywhere near the pink portaloo.  They waited patiently for the blue portaloo to become vacant rather than enter that pink one!

Flashback!

Hi there

I wanted to call this Deja Vue but I can't spell it!

Do you remember last winter when the changing sheds at Hataitai Beach were closed whilst there was an upgrade?  The upgrade was supposed to take six weeks, and in the end it took three months?  In the interim, all the winter swimmers had to change on the beach (in the freezing cold, with icy fingers that wouldn't do up buttons or zips, and toes like icicles).   Or they had to dash into their cars in soaking bathing suits.

Now ... the same thing has happened this year!  I arrived yesterday  all kitted out for my swim to find the changing shed door bolted, chained and padlocked.

The Wellington City Council are putting a new roof on the changing shed/toilets. A sign says it shouldn't take longer than a month.  I wonder, does this mean two months?

I pointed out to The WCC that in tv house renovation programmes, a roof could be put on in one day -

"- but there's asbestos in our ceiling, so it will take longer." the WCC bloke told me.

So, beloved readers, should we say a wait of a couple of months?

Above: photo taken pre last year's renovation.  Note there was no showerhead.  The WCC confiscated it  during the summer water shortage.

Still swimming

Hi there

Only a few hardy people are coming to Hataitai Beach.  A pity really because the Thursday and Friday air temperatures were 20c and 21c.  Brilliant for end of April.  I think I got a little sunburnt yesterday.

However the shadow is creeping over the beach and sun-deck from about 2 pm now.  Soon it will be completely over the water in the bay, and winter swimmers will have to go out further in the water to feel a fraction of the sun's winter warmth.

My swimming friend, J, and I had a wonderful time in the water yesterday, laughing, joking, singing songs - "Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside" and "the nearest thing to heaven ...".  We do love the sea.  But will we be saying that come the end of July when it's so cold our fingers have got numb, our tootsies are like icicles, the water is in deep shadow, and we don't feel like singing?  This will be our tenth year winter-swimming.  The Young one is still swimming - she's been cold weather swimming with us for about five  years - but  she cant make it as often nowadays because, you know, work intrudes...

Crown Lynn Pottery

Hi there

When I was a kid, all the young marrieds of the time got given, or bought, New Zealand Crown Lyn crockery .  Cups, plates, bowls, etc.

When I was at the Queenstown Saturday market, down on the foreshore, I found this bloke who was making pendants out of broken bits of Crown Lynn.  I'm so glad that the old defunct Crown Lynn crockery is being recycled into something pretty.

below:  a glimpse of the market.

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HAPPY EASTER!

Table etiquette

Hi there

Years ago, I read about the proper etiquette surrounding table serviettes.  'Napkins'  (hehe), if you're American.

Did you know that when you temporarily leave your seat in a restaurant, you are supposed to drop  your serviette onto your chair?

No, I didn't know that either.  But when I was in Melbourne recently, I was determined to give it a try.  I went to lunch at the posh Conservatory buffet restaurant.  Somehow, I don't think Miss Manners thought of buffets when the idea was first thought up.

I left my chair seven times.  Each time I put my serviette on my chair in an artfully-dropped casual  bundle.  Each time when I returned with a laden plate, my serviette was on the table where a lovely and attentive but truly misguided waiter had put it there for me.

Tut-tut,  the dowager Duchess, operating out of Downton Abbey, would be much displeased.

+++

PS:  a 'napkin' or 'nappie' in British-speak is what Americans call 'diaper'.

Come and smell the coffee?

Hi there

Way back when I was a naive young typist in the Department of Education typing pool, I used to travel to and from work by bus.  Every now and then I would be sitting next to someone who so obviously didn't wash.  They smelled.  The odour was horrendous,  revolting to me.  Hadn't these people heard of deodorant?

After a couple of years of sitting beside some obviously smelly (but mainly well-dressed) vagrants, one of them, a woman of about fifty years sniffed the air - and I thought, oh my goodness, at last, one of these unclean persons can finally smell herself. The woman said to me (with a smile, no less) :

"Isn't the aroma of ground coffee beans absolutely delightful?"

What?  Whaaat??  What the - ?!

My eyes goggled as, with a majestic  flourish, the woman pointed to a bulging paper bag in her shopping basket.

Coffee beans!  That was the dirty-washing smell that had been assaulting my nostrils for upwards of a half-dozen years?  Coffee beans, grinded, roasted, whatever, had been sneaked into the country.  Tins of Nescafe Instant were on the outer.

 I still can't stand the smell of coffee, still want to gag when the aroma hits me.  Often when I collect money for charity I stand outside one of Wellington's most iconic coffee shops, a place that I'm pretty sure grinds its own beans, or roasts them, or some such thing.  I am nauseated by the smell coming through the doors.  When well-meaning patrons offer to buy me a cup of coffee, I smile radiantly, tell them what a lovely thought, but decline.

Oh dear, how on earth do I manage to exist in this modern world?

those short haircuts!

Hi there

"I want my hair cut short," I said to the stylist.  Summer was approaching and my long-ish locks needed cutting.  I was going to swim a lot and long hair was not conducive to daily sea-swimming and quick-drying.

But like millions of people before me, and no doubt millions of others after me, I ended up with ultra-short hair.   I was devastated.

The next time I went to the hair stylist, I said, "I want my hair cut short.  But not too short."

"I understand," said the stylist.

I got ultra-short again.

And I remembered that years ago a work colleague got her hair cut so short, a buzz cut if you will, that she immediately ran out of the stylists and across the road to a department store to buy a wig.  She arrved back at work from her lunch-break, in tears and trembling.  "I only asked for my hair to be cut shorter," she wailed. "I didn't want to be bald!"

Ever the optomist, a few months ago I was determined to try again -

This time I said to the stylist, "I just want a trim."

But I got an ultra-short haircut.

Sigh.

More Melbourne

Hi there
I walked my feet off around Melbourne;  the malls encourage it.  I discovered Chadstone Mall which is a little out of Melbourne CBD but there is a free return shuttle bus that leaves many times a day from the side of Federation Square (just behind the Hop On Hop Off bus stop, look for a sign standing on the curb).  The driver points out sights along the way and he even drove us along the F1 track, lined by tiers of seats and road markings etc.  The race would be on after my Melbourne visit.  Chadstone Mall has over 550 shops from top end Tiffanys, Gucci, Prada etc to Target, KMart, and $2-type stores.  Tons of eating, fresh fruit .... and walking, walking, walking.

I went on an afternoon tour to Botanical Gardens, St Kilda's famous and yummy cake shops and beach, and Brighton Beach -

  above:  Brighton Beach, with beach huts reminiscent of those in England and put up by early British settlers to Australia.  These huts are classed as heritage.

above:  I guess I'm in the heritage class as well.

above.  I went on a punt in the lake at the Botanical Gardens.  I forgot to take my own picture, but here's the couple in front of me.  We were given parasols to use.

below Botanical Gardens,photo  taken from punt

This dark day in New Zealand history

Oh, no, no, no ...

Like our Prime Minister, I am in agony over the Mosque attacks today.  The worshippers attending these mosques are, indeed, "us", as Jacinda has said.

I am sad, and angry, and ashamed, and sorry-sorry-sorry that my country, their country,  has let these people down-

They were attacked because a shooter has said it is to show that no country in the world is safe.  That's the reason why the Australian shooter planned all this?

My love,  my heart,  goes out to the community

I'm back from Melbourne ...and Harry Potter!

Hi there

Thurs pm NZ time

I got back from Melbourne, Australia, on Sunday.  As per usual (well, as per last year anyway) I arrived back from overseas with a ferocious head cold.  I've been sleeping, almost coma-like, for the last few days, in between all the coughing and sneezing.

I was totally well for "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child".  It was a two parter that I saw over two nights.  It can be viewed twice in one day but I figured that would be a bit too much.

Like any true Harry Potter fan I'd read the script of the show a few years ago and, honestly, hadn't thought much of it (not many fans did think much of it), but I figured that with all the special effects involved, the play would no doubt rise above the mundane script

I was so right!  The special effects were magnificent.  Split second timing involved with every one of them. There'd been a complete do-over of the Princess Theatre, from new seats and new carpet (with the Hogwarts crest on it) to what must have been dozens of secret alcoves, chutes, trapdoors, ceiling apparatus, workable scenery, moving staircases, etc.     The polyjuice character change, to me, was the most spectacular special effect.  But I was so scared of the dementors that I hid my face in my hands (what a baby...).

I loved all the cloak swirling and the accompanying music.  The actors gave their all.  It must be so
athletic and exhausting for them.  NZ actor George Henare was great in his one role where I recognised him instantly.  It wasnt till I got home and read the programme that I discovered he had a second pivotal role as well.  Good actng, George, you sure fooled me.

The programme tells us not to spill the beans, to keep the secrets so I guess I have to do that, but anyone who's read the script (most of the audience?) would know the main surprise anyway.

above:  as we entered the theatre we saw an almost empty stage except for a clock shining down on some suitcases.  We would shortly be seeing, acted out live, the final scene in the final Harry Potter movie:  A grown-up Harry Potter and Ginny are farewelling their two children on the Hogwarts Express as they leave for school.  Hermione and Ron are also seeing off their daughter.  The story moves on from there.