Choosing new glasses

 Hi there

Several weeks ago, I bought a couple of different glasses from Specsavers.  It took me nearly two hours to pick out the frames I wanted, especially when each pair I tried on had to be taken away and cleaned after every try-on because of covid .  I must have tried on a hundred pairs. The staff surely loved me.

I went and collected my completed glasses today.  I tried on the first pair.

" I hate them! "

I tried on the second pair.  Immediate flashback to one minute before.  " I hate them! "

I told the lovely assistant that I wanted to change them.  She said I had three months to make up my mind.

" No. No-". Now! "

An hour later I'd picked out another couple of  frames.  Specsavers allowed a straight swap.  Good on you, guys.

As I left the shop, the assistant called out.  "No more 'swapsies' allowed ..."

She was busy cleaning the fifty pairs of frames that I'd rejected.

Sing-alongs in Rest Homes?

 Hi there

above: singer Madonna.

When I was young I visited a rest home with my mother.  The residents were gathered around a piano for a sing-along.  

With great gusto the oldies blasted out "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do..."  Daisy's boyfriend, poor guy, could only afford a "bicycle built for two" instead of  a carriage.  I felt for him.    

Then there was the stuttering farmboy who shyly asked the love of his life - "K-K-K-Katy" - to meet him "at the k-k-k-kitchen door.."   Would that song be released nowadays or would stuttering be classed as too sensitive a subject to sing about, I wonder?

Oh, and not to forget "Cruising Down the River".  This little ditty was so popular the rest home retirees sang it half-a-dozen times.  It was obviously the thoughtfully magnificent choice of rhyming that they marvelled over:  moon, June, tune, afternoon, honeymoon .  Mum and I happily sang along.

All the songs were from my mother's generation but, of course, I knew them too.  I mean, the Sunday afternoon 2ZB request session was full of such music.

I remember idly wondering what song I would be singing when I was in a rest home.  Probably the same stuff I reasoned.  Come on, they were classics. 

Many years later Madonna released the song "Like a Virgin".  She sang about "being touched for the very first time..."  And I thought,  "My goodness, is this song a new classic?  In the future, will it be sung lustily in rest homes?  Will I be singing it?  Oh dear..

Rapping?  Twerking?  Who knows what oldies in rest homes will be doing and singing by the time I find my way into the likes of  the Rita Angus age care facility in Kilbirnie?  I must brush up on my Eminem and Kanye.  And can anyone teach me how to pole dance?

 

 

My opera singing debut

 Hi there

Years ago, I visited the city of Milan, Italy.  I visited the famous and historical La Scala Opera House. 

I stood in a posh box and looked over the auditorium.  Wow, how magnificent.   The world's top opera singers have performed in this theatre, including our own Kiri Te Kanawa.  

And me.

As I stood in that box, I spread out my arms, gave a deep breath and let forth a loud operatic-type trill:  "La-la-la-laaaaaaaaaa.... "

I do get great delight in telling people that I've sung at La Scala  ...

Those "Typing Pools"?

 Hi there

I belong to a community centre drama-improv-without-an-audience group for seniors.  Just for fun we make up, on the spot, tiny spurts of  silliness.  Either in a huge or small group, or individually.

During one such action, where everyone was ostensibly working away at a suggested job, one of our number called out "Typing Pool".   All of us retirees immediately became typists sitting at imaginary desks and typing frantically on imaginary typewriters.  I swear I could hear the carriage-returns dinging.  Honestly, I thought we were brilliant!

Then our instructor, a lovely young professional actress in her twenties,  asked "Why are you all typing in a swimming pool...?"

Goodness, I've never felt so old ...

Worser Bay Wellington Swimming

Hi there

I've been swimming a lot at Worser Bay nowadays.  I'm not around too many people there, what with covid and all.

Last week, Wellington Airport was fogged over, and so was the entrance to Wellington Harbour.  From Worser Bay, there was a lovely view over the water -