Happy New Year

 Hi there

Well, its New Year's Day here in New Zealand (regardless of what this US website might tell you).  And, yes, last year was definitely a rubbish year.  So, in celebration of this new year, let's put on our dancing shoes, find our favourite happy music track, play it loud, sing with gusto, and dance around the house to welcome in 2021.  Nothing will upset us today; we are so prepared for good times.  Right?

New Year's Day, 1 January 2021

I went to Scorchng Bay today. It was cloudy, then it wasn't, then it was, then not ...

The beach was crowded -

Boxing Day in Wellington

 Hi there

I decided to go to the Boxing Day sales in town. I thought I'd take my car because it was a little bit cold and there was a hint of rain  Waiting at bus stops wasnt inviting.

I couldn't find a park down the Lambton Quay end of town, having to finally get a park in Tory Street.  I took the bus down to the Quay (free thanks to my Supergold card , thanks Winston).

The  pavements and shops were crowded.  I tried on lots of clothes in lots of shops but didn't buy anything; I am so proud of myself.

.

above:  this guy was saving a parking space for a friend who I think was about a dozen cars behind me.  The drivers of the cars in front and behind me were so angry with this guy.   

Another holiday

 Hi there

Yes, I've just returned from (another) holiday.  One week in Nelson.  I stayed at Tahunanui, just across the road from the beach.  

I went across to Kaiteriteri for a day, and got my back sunburnt!  Oh dear, for the next five days I had to wear a jacket when I was swimming or beach-siitting. 

I hired a car.  A beautiful white one.  It was so beautiful that I told myself "The next time it's parked in a good position, I'll take a photo of it in all it's magnificence."

And the time came.  I'd returned to the Tahunanui beach parking area and my car was glistening snowdrop-white in the sunlight.  I took a photo from this direction, and that direction, purring over what a wonderful photographer I was, and how great the car looked.

"Excuse me - "  A guy came up to me, his partner and two kids trailing behind, like ducklings.  "Why are you taking pictures of my car?"

Oops.....

Loaded in embarrassment I explained the situation, we all laughed and I slunk away to my (suddenly) quite plain, smaller and more dust-laden car.

above:  low tide at Tahunanui Beach (a 20 minute walk to the sea.  Can you see the sea?)

above:  Tahunanui Beach, dog-friendly area.  This dog was obviously digging for his bone!! 

above:  in the grounds of the River Cafe in Nelson, there is a water pistol.  I figure it was there to scare off the birds determined to filch food from the outside diners' plates.

Weeding

Hi there

My back garden is a jungle again.  I only ignore it for six months and I can't understand why the weeds are now at hip height.  

As I was hanging out the washing last week, I suddenly decided to try to tackle the garden, there and then.

I waded into the weeds in my dress and panda slippers.  I struggled to pull out a dozen hardy plants.  Then gave up.

That evening I discovered I'd been bitten.  Again and again.  Arms, legs covered in bites.  Ants, spiders, weta, tuatara, who knows?

Bring out the aloe Vera...

David Jones Department Store, Wellington

Hi there

 Recently, I was in David Jones Department Store, here in Wellington.  The mother store is in Australia. 

They have notices on every floor, giving all the Covid-19 rules as pertaining to their stores.  Now, you have to remember that New Zealand has been community-free over covid transmission for months - 

As a shop assistant approached me, asking to be of help, I  hurriedly glanced at my watch and said "Oh goodness, no, I've been in the store 35 minutes.  I have to leave, right now, immediately - I don't want to be arrested..."  I made to race away from the assistant.  It turned out that the assistant wasn't aware that, according to the notices, David Jones' 30 minute rule for shopping in the store was still officially operating.

I think I'm the only customer who has read the rules in a long time.   The rules were probably made for the Australian stores.  Everyone stays in the Wellington store as long as they like, the cafe is open, and keeping one's distance is a thing of the past.

above: christmas tree in the square beside David Jones Department Store, Wellington 

PS:  Its three days since I wrote the above.  In that time David Jones have taken down all their signs.

Drinking water in cafes

 Hi there

I've been to quite a few cafes lately.  They all deliver water to your table or the customer gets up and pours their own from a jug or an ice-cold water tap. 

I remember a hundred years back when I (okay, it could have been forty years back) was at the boutique style restaurant 'The Country Life' in Waikanae, about an hour away from Wellington.  

"Could I have a glass of water, please?" I asked the waitress.  I don't drink tea or coffee.

The woman went away to talk to someone.

On her return, she said, "Chef said he's sorry, but there  will be a cost of 4 cents, because it costs to use the dishwasher to wash the glass."

I can only surmise that dishwashers were a new thing forty years ago...

Baked Alaska

 Hi  

Way back in the nineteen sixties, the dessert Bombe Baked Alaska was THE dessert for the times.  It was always brought to a table where there were no less than four people.  A big dessert for a group.

When I was in New Plymouth a few weeks back, I went to Area 41 restaurant and on the menu was Bombe Baked Alaska.  And it was in individual portions!  I was so excited.

Baked Alaska is a tower of ice cream, with a biscuit base, covered completely in meringue and finished off in the oven ... and the ice cream doesn't melt! 

The Baked Alaska came to my table, had alcohol poured onto it, and then it was lit.  I felt so spoilt..

TYPIST IN CHARGE

 Hi there

I've decided that, maybe once a month, I'm going to do portions of my biography for you, in regards to my working as a typist (typist, what's that, I hear you say?  Hehehe).   Each portion will be looooong, compared to previous entries.  Here we go - 

TYPIST IN CHARGE

In December 1960 I trotted shyly behind Mum to an interview for the position of Trainee Typist at the Department of Education Head Office, Government Buildings, Wellington. I was sixteen.  Mum did all the talking, and she got the position - oh wait, no!! It was me who got it. The pay was 15 pounds ( $30) per fortnight.

On the day I started work, the elderly Supervising Typist-In-Charge, Miss Dorothy Hopkins - the woman who'd interviewed me - had in the meantime recycled herself and was starting back as a basic typist. The typing pool (Room 305) housed ten of us. 

My first day was not a success.  At Wellington East Girls' College, my manual Imperial typewriter had a short carriage.  At the Department of Education, the carriage (the contraption that holds the roller for the paper) was a long one.  I was bad at sums and to try and do mathematical equations to exactly centre the heading of a letter in the middle of a page, on a long carriage machine, was beyond me.  My waste basket overflowed by 10 am.  By lunch-time I had secreted half the overflow away to be disposed of in the bin of the ladies' room at Kircaldie & Stains Department Store.  The other half was burned in the sanitary disposal unit at work.

How did it go?" Mum asked that evening..."

" Um.. Fred, the liftman is nice," I said. .  "Oh, and Miss Hopkins told me about how there used to be a porter come around every morning to light the fireplace.  And during the war, the typists would sit around the heat holding up used pages of carbon paper so as the carbon would re-melt because it was difficult to buy any more ..."

  Mrs Rowley, Typist-In-Charge of the pool, checked my work.  Most of it was returned as a redo.  I am grateful the woman put up with me.  She nurtured me, stood by me, even when I threw a mini tantrum because I'd spelt the word 'alcohol' wrong on fifteen individually typed copycat letters.  I had followed an officer's spelling.

There were about nine steps on the typing scale of higher positions to aspire to, ranging from Senior Typist, through various levels of typist-in-charge and supervising typist, up to the highest-of-highest: Supervising Typist in Charge. Two things were needed to progress up the ladder: a good work record plus shorthand. I tried learning shorthand at Gilby's Business College evening classes, but couldn't grasp it. 

I temped in various sections. School Publications (School Pubs) was in an old house on Willis street.  One of the editors regardless of chastisements about public servants not taking part in protest marches, was not only a marcher, but usually helped carry the banner in the very front marching row. Another editor, wanting a late morning lie-in, put on his vacuum cleaner to simulate the noise of printing presses. He rang into the department and shouted he'd be in later because he was at the Government Printer. Poet and editor James K Baxter slept in the old house's bathtub when he got in a row with his wife. The young clerk liked to dress up as a cowboy, in chaps, stetson, and gunbelt. He would go down town to collect the mail in that outfit.

I can't tell jokes

 Honestly, I can't.  Tell a joke.  Someone will tell me a joke, and I think "Oh, that joke is great.  I must remember it".

I promptly forget most of every joke I hear.  I dither around the beginning of a joke, have to backtrack somewhere around the middle, repeat myself a couple of times, make up a portion, then completely forget the ending.

Oh, wait, no, I do remember one joke.  It's ostensibly the shortest joke ever, and was told by Miss Piggy in The Muppet Show -

" Pretentious?  Moi?"

Horse and the city

 Hi there

A couple of weeks ago, just as I was leaving  the town of Whanganui, I stopped my car at the  roundabout before the motorway.  A few cars in front of me was a young woman ( I think) sitting in the front passenger seat, holding reins leading out from the window and attached to ... a horse!  Her  car took off, very slowly, with the horse trotting beside the vehicle.  I think the horse would have been  frightened.  The car went to the right, I went to the left.  I hope the car would have been stopped  by a cop. Talk about animal abuse, and dangerous driving ...

The things people learn from movies

Hi there

Quite a while back I was having lunch with a group of varied-aged people.  We were in a nice restaurant.  The young woman sitting beside me confided that she had never understood how to navigate through a proper cutlery setting until she saw it demonstrated in the movie "Pretty Woman";  she now felt confident when eating out, she said.

Years ago, another young woman told me that she only  bought wooden coat-hangers because in the movie "Mommie Dearest", the main character, a film star, had berated her daughter because of the purchase of plastic coat-hangers. 

Don't tell me Hollywood can't be an educator ......  

New Plymouth images

Hi there

 I came back yesterday from four nights in New Plymouth.  I really like New Plymouth.  I stay at the Belt Road Seaside Holiday Park in a small en suite cabin, and with the most magnificent view from the deck; I sat on the deck for hours, just watching the ocean.  I walked The Coastal Walkway every day and goodness I was tired by each day's end.  

I took three photos.  Interesting?  Disturbing?  

above: sculpture of four sitting nudes, with a gap between the third and fourth nude, leaving room for a person to sit and be photographed.  I saw a guy being photographed.  He was fondling a big and beautiful sculptured breast.

above:  something on the menu called a Sambo? 

above:  an Indian restaurant called "Arranged Marriage".  We have a campaign in the country at the moment trying to stop overseas arranged marriages of  child brides.

Future artefacts

 Hi there

Whenever I'm wrapping up leftovers to be put in the rubbish bin, or throwing out my old treasures,  I often wonder if some archeologist in a future millenia will dig my stuff up, analyse it, and put it in a museum, with completely the wrong interpretation of its history.  

What will historians make of my 1958 Cliff Richard & The Shadows Fan Club badge?  Will they think it's about a group of fan collectors wanting to keep cool?  

And how about all those diaries of mine?  Will my diaries end up like those written by Samuel Pepys, revered by generations because I wrote about normal everyday happenings?

I'll just bet the rubber wristband with "Live Long and Prosper" circled around it will really and truly stump future archeologists.  Maybe they'll think it a religious mantra?  And ... goodness, perhaps it is.

my fat diaries

 Hi there

I was cleaning out the garage, and came across decades of my old diaries.  I started a diary when I was about twelve.  I kept diaries till I was 40.  

What I can't get over is that practically in every entry in all the diaries, over all those years, I mention my weight and how I want to lose it, and I'm too big, and "I put on a lb today, oh no!".   Umpteen times, I write that I bought, say, a doughnut (that's how we spelt it in the 1960's) and felt so guilty after a mouthful that I threw the rest in the rubbish bin.  I rarely succeeded with any long-term dieting, putting on the pounds extremely quickly.

In a photo taken of my cousin and me at the beach - me, aged 13 - I tore off the bottom half of the photo, at the time, because it showed my "big fat thighs". 

When I retired I made a decision.  I threw out my measuring tape, my scales, and diet books.  I'd never eaten carrot cake in my life, never bought a block of chocolate, hadn't scoffed down a pie since I'd been at the Winter Show in 1960.  I didn't know what a brownie tasted like,  But everything was going to change.  I was going to taste forbidden fruits...  And I have done!

And that brings me to Judith Collins, leader of the National Party, and up for election this Saturday.  She intimated this week that fat people should use discipline when eating.  I tried discipline for forty years and was sad, hungry, and let watching-my-weight all but ruin me.  Sure, I'm fat now but I go to the gym every week, I walk almost every day, I swim in the sea in the middle of winter, I can bound up 40 steps with hardly a puff.  And how many other senior citizens can do one-arm push-ups?

  

Evans Bay Marina

 Hi there

I often walk around the Evans Bay Marina.  There's an overnight motor home park there now.  I think the drivers can only park for a couple of nights, but the carpark is near bus stop to town, short walk to Kilbirnie or Miramar shops, there are new toilets.  Oh, and on a wall, there's a mural of the cheekiest little Orca -

  

below: you can see the masts of the yachts in the background of the motor home park.

Swimming

 Hi there

A friend joined me swimming last Sunday.  Glorious.  I've been swimming solo since June but for various reasons, my friends couldn't join me this winter (first time in eleven years).

The water had been extremely cold over winter but with my friend last weekend beside me I didn't really notice the freezing seas.  it was because we were laughing and splashing and once my friend reacquainted herself with  the cold ("OMG, this is  FREEZING!!") we had fun.

What don't we know?

 Hi there

I often wonder if there's something I should know that I don't know -

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine told me about tying a double bow on shoelaces.

"I told the guy in the shoe store," she said, "that my laces were always coming undone and trailing on the ground.  He showed me how to tie a double bow.  Do you know how to tie a double bow?"

Of course I knew how to tie a double  bow.  I'd known how to do that, well, forever.  I'd often wondered how dozens of teen males managed with shoelaces dripping around their feet.  Did these guys not know how to tie a double bow?  Guess not.

Which leads me on to wondering what I don't know.  Is there some significant piece of information out there that could make my life more enjoyable?  Help me easily overcome some immense difficulty?  Get me around a problem that's been bugging me for years?

I wish I knew what I don't know...

Ohope Beach... Again

 Hi there.

All of last week, I was up north at Ohope Beach for a holiday.  Not a sign of anyone wearing masks. 

 I swam in the sea.  I went to the movies ("23 walks").  I went to cafes.  I bought two paintings (an indulgence, oh dear...).  I walked a lot.  I had fun finding little kiwi statues hidden away in Whakatane township (4 km away from Ohope Beach).  And I had a dozen fried oysters - yum, yum,  yum - from the Ohiwa Oyster Farm.  

above: Ohope Beach with White Island  in background.  With naked eye, I could see a huge plume of smoke coming from volcano. Scary.

above:  some years ago I had a photo of me in front of 'kiwi wandering" notice in Ohope.  Someone has since taken the 'k' off which now makes the sign 'iwi wandering' which I think is fantastic ("iwi" in Maori culture can mean tribe , or people, or nation. 

see above:  another little kiwi statue.  This one on the 

Whakatane foreshore.

Drawing a Cube

 Hi there

Most of my friends are learning to draw cubes.  The message has been relayed, via an older persons' secret network, that doctors are requiring patients to draw cubes to see how with-it these patients are.  Whether it's for an older person renewing a driving licence or for a medical assessment, it's the same thing : draw a cube.

I couldn't draw a cube to save myself, but now I think I've conquered it.  Okay, doctors. Bring it on!

THE HAT'S THE THING

In winter, I like to wear cosy woollen hats that lay close around the head.  Well-meaning knitting volunteers at charity shops must all work from the same pattern because I find such hats at OpShops all around the country.  I've bought half a dozen over the past couple of years.

It was a cold day a few weeks ago and wearing my latest little red number, I sailed into the SPCA charity shop in Petone. 

Success! -  I spotted a whole case full of the little woollen hats.  After I'd tried on most of the stock, and chosen one, I plonked my own hat back on my head and went up to the counter -

"I'll have this blue hat please."  I handed it over.

The guy put the hat in a recycled bag - good on him - and handed the bag to me.  "Don't forget to pay for the hat you're wearing" he said.

"What, no!  It's my own hat.  I wore it when I came in.  I bought it at the art-craft shop in Raumati.  I'm not a thief- "

I'm sure the guy didn't believe me.  I worried all the way home that he'd called the cops.  I visualised my face on wanted posters and all-points bulletins put out about me.  I would have to chase up a  statement from those arty crafty knitters in Raumati.

I'm innocent I tell you.  Innocent.

Coincidences?

 I've never thought much about coincidences.  But something happened to me a couple of years ago that truly spells out Coincidence with a capital C.  I may have told the story before -

it was early morning, I was still in bed and in my pyjamas when I suddenly decided to go to Taupo for a few days.  Within thirty minutes, I'd booked my stay, quickly thrown a cluster of clothes into a small bag, and taken off.  Yes! - I still possessed the super power of being able to pack perfectly in only a few minutes.

On reaching Taupo, I happened to glance down at my shoes, my trainers.  Oops, I was in one light blue shoe, and one white one!  And they were the only shoes I'd brought with me.  I was devastated, ashamed, embarrassed.

I'd have to buy some new shoes?  

But then, wait  - !

A street collector shook a collection box at me.  What was the charity?  And what was its theme?

What?

It was Wear Odd Shoes Day!!!!??

No?  Yes!  I did a soft shoe shuffle in front of the collector, showing off my trainers.  I dumped a huge handful of change into the collection box.

I was ecstatic ...

United States Covid-19

 Hi there

it's so sad that Covid-19 in the United States is at such a high infection rate - 16,563 cases for every million Americans.  Here, in New Zealand, we have 269 cases per one million people.  

This terrible illness is around the world and who knows when our world will be 'normal' again.  The Black Death plague in England wore itself out.  As, I think,  did The Spanish Flu.  Let's hope the same goes for Covid-19.

Oh, nooooooo...

 Hi there

Our country made it to 100 days without Covid-19 community transmission, and now ... a family of four in Auckland have the illness.  So, Auckland shuts down to level 3 lockdown until Friday as authorities try to contact-trace.  The rest of NZ will drop back to level 2.  Panic buying, everyone?

And, well, yes, I panic-bought.  A new fridge.  Throughout three lockdown levels, the freezer part of my old fridge just wasn't big enough to hold everything I wanted to store there.  So, immediately we got down to level 1, I rushed out and got my fridge.  

Purr -Purr -Purr...  Oh, I love my new fridge.  it's a work of art, a lovely thing.  I can't stop myself staring at it's magnificence.  I w ould take it to bed with me if I could lift it.

My blood test

 Hi there

I got a blood test done a couple of weeks ago.  It was roughly at the same time as a friend got hers.

"The doctor said my blood test was excellent," said my friend with, dare I say it, a hint of smugness to her tone.

Goodness, I figured my test results were going to be a miserable failure.  I should never have eaten all those packets of  Hundreds and Thousands Biscuits during lockdown.  Curse you Cookie Bear and your iced confections: the cholesterol part of my blood test would no doubt class me as a failure. 

The nurse at my doctor's surgery rang in.  My blood test results had arrived  -

"Your tests are very good,' the nurse informed me.

 "My friend's results were 'excellent'," I said.  Competitive Me was out in full force.   "Can't you 'up' my level a wee bit?  Please?" I added hopefully.

"Um... ". There was silence for a few seconds.  Then:  "Oh, look, your blood tests are ... Amazing!"

Yes!!  Imaginary high-five on my part.  I loved this nurse.  " I'll take it!" I shouted.

I just can't wait to tell my friend ...

Still Walking

Hi there

I'm determined to walk my bad ankle better.  Today I walked around Lyall Bay to Princess Bay , and return.   Flat pavement, and it only took an hour's slow walking, including stopping and oohing and ahhing over scenery, and sitting to eat an apple at Princess Bay.  There hasn't been any wind in 7 days, and how wonderful is that for Wellington?

Below:  Last week, I went to Grey restaurant (in the InterContinental Hotel building, Grey Street) for a lovely lunch.  My friend and I were determined to have cocktails.  We were each celebrating our birthdays (mine had been in lockdown).  My lip pouted involuntarily when I saw there were no mocktails on the drinks list (I don't drink).  But, wow, surprise, the guy at the bar made me a complimentary strawberry mocktail.  Lovely.

teddy bear flag

Hi there

During lower level lockdown, when I was swimming at Hataitai Beach, I looked over the road to a flag on a flagpole at a house opposite the beach.   I saw a flag that depicted three teddy bears.  How cute, especially when so many people were putting teddy bears in their windows,

(No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get a photo of all three bears on the flag. Curse you, Wellington wind!)

###
It's now been nearly 90 days without Covid-19 community transmission in New Zealand.

Walking Wellington

Hi there

In between my winter sea swimming, I'm walking around Wellington, still trying to get up and down steps and zig zags without my bad ankle hurting.

Below:  view from top of Hataitai hill, looking across inner harbour to Miramar Peninsular

below:  both pictures taken from zigzag leading down from  Maupuia hlll to Miramar wharf area.

Covid-19 - face masks and hand sanitiser

Hi there

During all lockdown levels, there were no face masks for me to buy.  The only ones that got into the country were given to essential services.  During level 2 lockdown when I took up our prime minister's plea for NZ citizens to go on a local holiday to boost economic spending - and I went to Mt Maunganui - there weren't any masks in sight at the holiday resorts.  Now that we're down to level 1*, I still haven't seen anyone wearing a mask.  Yet, judging by tv pictures from around the world, mask-wearing is everywhere.

And hand sanitiser?  A friend had half of a big bottle, left over from a year before Covid-19, and has guarded it with zest during  all lockdown levels.  Only when the country dropped down to level 1 did shops get in supplies for private sale.

Toilet paper is manufactured here, so we got that in abundence...


+++
*level 1 complete freedom in country, except for border control entry.
There has been no community transmission in weeks.

Doctors' appointments

Hi there

I followed the doctor into his surgery.  "I've come to ask the questions I forgot to ask at my last two appointments," I said.

Ever since a previous doctor had seen me bring  out a list and said that I could just mention one symptom because there was no time for the rest of the list, I've been too scared to bring out further lists.  Unfortunately I now rely on memory.

But I was rather proud of myself on this visit because I did, indeed, remember to ask about all my past worries.

The following day I remembered something else.  Something that was now, to my mind,  terribly, and I mean terribly, important.

Honestly, one should be able to email doctors, with one last question, within, say,  24 hours of an appointment.  Many minds would be set at rest.  I guess I'm going to save up my question for fhe next time I feel inclined to visit a doctor.  That's if I don't forget the question, of course...

Differences between New Zealand and the United States

Overseas travellers often talk or write about the differences between New Zealand and the United States.

They mention our no tipping, meat pies, slang, driving on the wrong side of the road, Lemon & Paeroa, hokey pokey, bare feet...

I have a standard lamp that was obviously made in the States because the turn-on switch  goes up instead of down.  And our wall plug outlets have on/off switches.

We stand on the left on escalators, walk on the left, drive on the left.  When I was in the States I found it so difficult walking on the right, especially when I would turn a corner; I craved  to run over to the left.

A few years back, I was bush hiking (I'm dying to say 'tramping ' instead of 'hiking', but Americans might raise eyebrows).  This middle-aged couple came toward me.  They were hiking my side of the track, and almost crashed into me.

 "Americans?" I grinned.

They burst into laughter, realising immediately they were walking on the wrong side ...

Been there, done that.  Lots of times.  In America.

okay, so I've got a torn cartilage ... that don't upset me much (fibber)

Hi there

My ankle is ... better than it was three months ago when I tripped over the kerb in Te Papa's carpark.  But ... I still have trouble getting down steps.

I'm leaping up those steps like a demented mountain goat.  I would most definitely pass the hospital's criteria (loosely interpreted) of  "we probably won't give you an operation unless you can walk up 40 steps without collapsing".    But I come down steps with a slow sideways crab-like motion that hurts like hell.  And it so annoys me that I have to place both feet on every step before I can progress further.

 I crave to be that demented mountain goat as I leap down the steps, as well as going up them.  I'm practising on outside steps around the Miramar area.  So, if any of my four readers see a fixated senior working her way agonisingly  (and cursing with it - bugger!), up and down the same steps over and over, well, it's just me.  Have pity.

above:  by public vote the "Bugger!" tv advert has just been deemed the no 1 favourite advert over the past ten years.

Shortest Day Swim

Hi there

Yesterday, it was The Shortest Day in The Southern Hemisphere.  So, mid-winter swim at Hataitai Beach -

Light drizzle.  Air temperature, at the time, was 10c. Getting in, was half the fun.  Or not.

Love at First Sight

Hi there

I wonder if my four readers believe in love at first sight?  I don't know if I do?

But when I was 17 years old I brought a friend, Rose, along with me to my archery club. I explained about bows, arrows, quivers, goals, and I told her about safety measures and distances to stand.  I didn't tell her anything about the dark-haired handsome young man at the end of the line waiting for the start whistle, bow and arrow at the ready.

Rose saw him.  She turned to me.  "See that boy, at the end there?  I'm going to marry him."

 Huh?

She asked him how he'd hand-made the shoulder quiver that held the arrows...

and she did marry him.   I was bridesmaid.

I guess you could say the pair were all a quiver (boom boom!) over each other.

Who needed Cupid?

Just swimming in the rain...

Hi there

Yesterday was a sunshine day but I didn't bother to go swimming and I regretted it.  So, this morning, I was determined to swim.

When I got in my car, there was a light-ish sky over Miramar, and the air temp was 12c.  As I was chugging along Cobham Drive, spits of rain were on the car window.  On my arrival at Hataitai Beach, it was pouring down.

Still, I was there, so I got in the water.  I was so angry at the weather that I didn't register the coldness of the water, even though I was just in my bathing suit with not a wetsuit in sight.. But as I swam, people scurried past the beach in puffer coats and cowering under umbrellas.

I hated that rain...

Buying a Scratchie

Hi there

Last week I was in the Paraparaumu Mall and I decided to buy a scratchie.

I pointed out the one I wanted and moved toward the Eftpos machine.  The woman behind the counter muttered something.

Huh?  What was she calling me?

"Cash cow," the woman said.

"Um.  Pardon?"

"Cash cow.  Do you want the scratchie called Cash Cow?"

"Oh."  What a relief. " I thought you were calling me a cash cow,"  I said.

And we both giggled.

After all, it was only a $5 scratchie...

My week in Mt Maunganui

Hi  there
I've just returned from a week at Mt Maunganui.  Our Prime Minister asked us all to go on holiday and bring mountains of money in to local businesses because, with no overseas tourists, the resort towns are striking out.  Naturally, I had to obey Jacinda.  I mean, like, come on, it was almost a royal order.

What a surprise it was at Mt Maunganui?   On a Sunday, there were thousands upon thousands of people all walking beside Main Beach.  It was a shock.  I'd been closeted away for months and, suddenly, to be confronted by crowds was quite scary.  The shops were going for social distancing but nobody walking beside the water was even giving social distancing a thought..

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 above:  Much further along from Main Beach where the sands were quite deserted.  That's Mt Maunganui in background.

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Yesterday, I visited Wellington Zoo.  It's free until end of June (bookings through their website).  The otters were so adorable.  Here is a little puddle of otters (actually, I believe it's a raft of otters but I like 'a puddle' better) -

PPS:  In NZ, today is the Saturday of Queen's Birthday Weekend and everyone gets Monday off as a public holiday.  Of course, the queen's real birthday is 21 April but we can't keep changing dates to suit whoever happens to be the reigning monarch.  I guess in a few years it will become King's Birthday Weekend.

Hey there, Dr McCoy

Hi there

What's a Starfleet nurse to do when Dr "Bones" McCoy is nowwhere to be seen"  

Beam down instantly, Doc, the world needs you and your fancy-schmancy futuristic equipment.

First day of level 2

14 May NZ Time

Hi there

This morning I went for a little walk at 9 o'clock.  I passed two gyms, one hairdresser, and a bus.  People at the gym were working out furiously.  The hairdresser had every chair occupied and a lady was going in for an appointment.  The bus seemed to be letting people in the front door, instead of at the back.  Cars were a-bustle in the street.

Social distancing is still A Big Thing, but fingers crossed, the country is on the way up out of the dumps.

I've been swimming practically every day of level 3.  Yesterday the beach was full of police scuba divers and a police boat.  Apparently they were looking for ... clues.  The police guy on the boat asked me to wait a couple of minutes while the divers spread out across the bay.  They worked their way out of the bay and around to Evans Bay Marina.

When I got in the water, it was glorious.  Best swimming day yet over the past two weeks.

photo, taken from www.stuff.co.nz

Level 2 Approaching

Hi there

The hinting is out.  If we're good as a country, we can move to level 2 on Thursday of next week.  Shops will be open, along with hairdressers, all schools,  gyms, cafes. We can travel around the country.  There'll be rules, of course, especially to do with close contact. 

I've had quite a few swims which I'm loving -

ABC Word Challenge

Hi there

Some of you might remember that a friend of mine wrote a little piece where the first letter of every word worked it's way through the alphabet in sequence.

Readers of this blog (well, one reader) were so overwhelmed with the concept they thought they'd have a go at coming up with a little 26 word story that did the same thing.  But failed miserably.  It's harder than it appears.

Surely ( "Don't call me Shirley!" ), this is the ideal challenge for bored households in lockdown -?
:

Alice began calypso dancing every Friday.
Gary had intended joining karate lessons  Monday nights.
Olive played quoits regularly.
Sally took up violin.
Wendy xylophone.
Yvonne zither.

going out during lockdown

Hi there

On Tuesday i walked to the chemist's to pick up some prescription medicine.  I got so excited preparing for the journey.

I threw open my wardrobe door.  I'm-going-out!-I'm-going-out!  Wow!!  Except for that one hopeless  time when I tried hobbling up the road on my bad ankle, I'd been stuck inside - without a street-walk - for over a month.

I rifled through my clothes.  Nope, a black business-like blouse wasn't suitable for my first trip outside;  I needed to pick out something that denoted sunshine, and rainbows, and hoo-ray.  Nothing that shouted Covid-19 or doom.

Perhaps a sparkly top that I'd bought in Las Vegas?  Wait-no, not that!   I didn't want to blind the chemist with all my fabulous glitter.

Jeans?  A dress?  A skirt?  A coat?  Jacket?  Ball-gown?  Tiara?

I pawed through my wardrobe, my heart happily racing, and throwing clothes left, right and centre, over the bed, the floor, the hallway.  No wearing of sweat pants, old t-shirts, and slippers with cute panda faces for me today.

It took an hour to find a nice ensemble to get me to the chemist's.  Okay, the chemist is only a three minute walk away from my house -  and I only came across two people whilst on my trek  - but in the old days I would've worn jeans and a sweater to get there, and today was new days for me, not old days.  I was stepping out in my leaving-the-house clothes, and with a jaunty stride.  On my way to Being Me again.  Move aside Covid-19, Lorraine is (almost) back.  See me, people, hear me roar ...

Whoopee, swimming!

Hi there

Today is day one of level three lockdown.  I am allowed to swim!

And I did.  Swim.  The sea at Hataitai Beach was flat, the sun was out, my ankle didn't hurt too much, and I felt great.  This will be my eleventh year of winter swimming, hope I get through the season.

ANZAC Day

Hi there

25 April, ANZAC Day

Because of Covid-19, there can be no ANZAC commemorative marches or services in New Zealand today.

This morning, 6 am, I stood at my gate, thinking of the brave men and women who have served my country through the years.

It was a very moving experience, knowing that maybe hundreds of thousands of kiwis were standing in silence, like me, in their driveways.

My minute's silence extended because everything was so peaceful.  My mind flipped into the images of photos I had seen of kiwi forces in peacetime and wartime.  And I shed a tear.

I didn't feel stupid standing there at dawn, with radio buds in my ears, listening to The Last Post.  I felt privileged because the future could so easily have gone another way.  If not for the courageous men and women who fought for my freedom, I might not be standing in the  driveway today.  I thank all kiwi warriors from the bottom of my heart.


Lest we forget ...

above:  Kiwis are encouraged to put a poppy in their windows today.   A friend took that encouragement to heart.

Lockdown Poem , by J

Hi there

We're over three score years and ten
Our house is like a holding pen
We've all been told to stay inside
Can't take the car out for a ride

Can't go down to the local shop
Here in the house we have to stop
Our shopping must be done on-line
We're stuck inside come rain or shine

Meanwhile we have to wait and see
When we can drop to Level Three
We've had four weeks at Level Four
And don't feel we can take much more.

- j

supermarket shopping

Hi there

above:  I'm off to the supermarket.


Hi there

During Lockdown, I've been walking round and round the backyard. My sprained ankle still hurts for the first five minutes.  But because I have to navigate over and around the hose, weeds, looose sticks, a so-called garden, sparrows, and a shed, I'm not going as fast as I really want to.

So, I decided to brace the unknown and venture out of my street this morning and my ankle hurt for the whole 20 minutes.  Maybe because I couldn't stop myself power walking?  The physiotherapist said it would be months before my ankle got better, so looks like it's a return to the garden path with an amble instead of a strut?

Happy Birthday to me!!!!!!

Hi there

... and how does a person celebrate her birthday in lockdown?  Improvise, that's how.  Besides, improvising takes up twenty minutes and that's twenty minutes out of boredom and  closer to release time.

Only another fortnight to go....

Covid-19 - Coping

Hi there

I still can't get it into my head that Covid-19 is slithering around the world.    It seems impossible, like some sort of movie-of-the-week.  But it's real life, and people are sick and dying, and it's all so unbelievable, and sad, and disgraceful, and ...  and ...  Nope, can't think of words that are heavy enough to cover what's going on ...

My fave country in the whole world is Italy.  It breaks my heart to read about what the Italian people are going through.  I remember the time I was lost in Rome, and in a panic, and this elderly woman stranger took me over, like a mother hen.  She walked me down the streets, pointed where I should go and when I tried to thank her, she told me that her son was overseas and her wish was that if he got lost, someone would help him.  I was 21 at the time, and even now, whenever I see an obvious lost tourist in New Zealand, I rush to help.

I did return to Italy a few years back.  Beforehand I took a six day 'Tourist Italian" course.   I learnt and understood navigation of streets, shops, menus, transport, hotels, everyday phrases, etc.   For example, I would ask someone (in Italian) where a pharmacy was and when the answer came back, "down two blocks, through the traffic lights, then turn right", I would understand.

New Zealand Lockdown

Hi there

I'm exercising as much as I can, what with a sprained knee and a torn ligament in my ankle.  Twenty minutes around the backyard every second day, followed by hand weights.

I guess we have to have "Faith of the Heart" (a favourite song) -

First Day of Lockdown

Hi there

Well, yesterday was the first day of Lockdown.  I have an exercycle, rebounder, aerobic step, weights, dumbells.  So I guess I'm covered for exercise - if I feel like doing it.

And I wrote out a menu for the whole of my first week in prison - oh, wait, no, I mean 'Lockdown'.  If the queen works out her forward menus whilst she's lying in bed eating her muesli and scrambled eggs, then I can do the same thing.  I now feel as if I have some control over my life by plotting out my menus.   I have enough food to get me through the 4 week Lockdown, even though a lot of it isn't that appetising.  The worry is that, of course, I will shortly run out of fresh food, but the supermarkets have said that they will bring in a lot of fresh stuff to the detriment of unnecessary sells.

Be kind ...

Hi there

Well, from Wednesday midnight, New Zealand will be in lockdown.  Isolation.  Especially for older people.  Four weeks minimum, maybe four months. 

And I only have a teeny deep freeze: stick in a couple of loaves of bread, a packet of fish fingers, a lamb roast, and that's about all the darn thing will take.  I can see that dieting is on the cards.

I wish everyone around the world pleasant thoughts, and the wish that we emerge unscathed.  Be kind to each other.

Melbourne and After

Hi there

I was so scared taking the plane to Melbourne because I still have this cough, left over from last November.  I had my doctor write me a letter saying it was an acute cough and nothing to do with the Corona Virus.  Luckily, I got through Melbourne Airport without coughing.

However, I was wearing this clumpy ankle brace (stupid sprained ankle).  The brace had the maker's logo in some sort of metal on the front of it and I got stopped in Melbourne as I went through the x-ray machine.  Staff came running.   My brace was swabbed for explosves, then I was taken to the side and swabbed twice more for drugs.  I was highly indignant.  I would have enjoyed it more if they had been filming for "Border Security".  Darn.

Melbourne, itself, wasnt that spectacular for me because I couldn't walk very well.  I went to three shows, two of which I had a seat in the dress circle.  And no lift to get up there.  I tell you, my four readers, that I took for.....ever to get up and down those stairs.

Tell you what, though -  thank you, Thin Lizzy concealer:  you saved my days, otherwise I would have been walking through Melbourne with two black eyes.

###

This weekend is the first anniversary of the horrendous killings at the Mosque in Christchurch.  I cannot understand how some people can have no empathy for others.  My heart goes out to the community.

On dear..

Hi there

Remember when I said that I always seem to get injured or ill just before a holiday or while I'm on holiday? Well -

I was in Melbourne all last week, but four days before I left, I tripped over a little curb in the Te Papa Tongarewa (Museum of New Zealand ) carpark.  Flat on my face, terribly sprained my ankle (yes, yes, it was less than a month since I sprained the opposite knee!).

I didn't know right up till the day of travelling whether I could manage the trip.  So with a brace on my ankle, Thin Lizzy concealer covering two black eyes, and att-i-tude in my heart,  I hobbled onto the plane.

***
PS: the black eyes got worse than in the photo.

I love being near the sea

Hi there

Below:  Worser Bay, Wellington

Below: Oriental Bay

I love that there's so many swimming beaches around Wellington.

I can walk over the hill to Worser Bay or walk along Cobham Drive to Hataitai Beach.  In the car, it takes about five minutes to get to either of these beaches.   At weekends, I can catch the return East West Ferry from Seatoun Wharf to take me across the harbour to Days Bay.  Oriental Bay is a hop, skip, and a jump away from the CBD.

going to the gym

Hi there

I've now been 30 years going to gyms.  I used to go to Aerobics and I got very thirsty.  Thirty years ago, however, it was considered sissy and weak and not-right to want to take a drink during an intense aerobic class.

I didn't care one bit.  I momentarily slipped apart from my centre-of-the-room class to gulp down some water.  I got lots of snobby looking-down-their-noses looks from other aerobicisers/

Funny, isn't it, how now in gym classes we're encouraged to take drinks of water between or during exercise?   Oh, yeah, I am such an innovator...

Valentine's Day at Hataitai Beach

Hi there

I was happily swimming at Hataitai Beach.  I looked over the road to see which flag a nearby house-owner had flying today.  I love it that often I see other countries' flags as well as the New Zealand one.

But today -   Hey, what the - ?  Which country's flag was that  - ?

Oh of course.  Today is Valentine's Day, February 14!  And NZ is one day ahead of the rest of the world.  Yay.

I love this house-owner...