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.

Swimming in winter

Hi there

It's difficult swimming between storms, no changing shed, lunches with friends, appointments, etc. But I have managed seven swims this month.  The last three swims have been soooooo cold.  For several hours after my swim, my fingers were soooooo freezing and stiff.  I felt that if I bent them, they'd break.

I'm beginning to think I'm too old for this winter swimming lark. I arrive at the beach in my bathiing suit and a bathrobe.  But it's so difficult to dress myself when there's no operable changing shed at Hataitai Beach.  After a swim,  I now wrap a towel around my bathing suit, a bathrobe on top, slip into my psuedo crocs (with fleecy insides - yay, I found them at No 1 Shoes), all of this done with fingers that won't work and a body so cold I think I'm standing in a fridge.   Then it's into the car and off home.   Freezing.  All I can hope is that my car never breaks down and I have to hike somewhere in my Sylvester Cat-patterned bathrobe.

The Wellington City Council changing shed/toilets at Hataitai Beach were supposed to be revamped by end of June.  The council have just now told us it will be end of August. 

City flowers

Hi there

It's so nice to get a sweet pretty place right-smack-dab in the middle of Wellington city.  It's only a small little garden, and it's between a couple of pedestrian crossings, with shops all round, but how great to spot prettiness where you least expect it.  Thanks, Wellington City Council.

My friend J is triumphant in her quest to bring The Good Life to hataitai Beach

Hi there

By now, my five readers realise that my friend, J, can get hot under her collar over several things.  The colour of the sea,  as a for instance.  Of course, she's completely wrong over that topic, but a few months ago she  started mumbling about the fading signage over the entrance to the ladies' changing shed at Hataitai Beach.

For quite some time the opposite sex, looking for a toilet,  have been wandering in to our shed by mistake, usually when J and I are hopping around trying to shove wet legs into damp trousers.  A couple of months ago,  J could stand it no longer, and sent a very nice email off to Wellington City Council, explaining the dilemma.

Her email was obviously too nice because nothing happened for a time.  Then 'voila!', or should that word be viola!'?  Maybe it's even 'violet!'?  - our reader who dances in France could no doubt tell me in a flash.  This week we noticed that not one, but two new signs have miraculously appeared.  The men's changing shed signage has had a brush-up, too. 

Of course J is beaming. It's not often WCC bows to a ratepayer's wishes.  Preen hard while you can, J, and bask in the glory.  The day will surely come when the rubbish truck misses out your street, or the road in front of your house springs forth a geyser,  or the guy next door blares out AC/DC at 2 am in the morning.   The response may not be as quick as a couple of months next time.

Oh, and the sea was so beautifully blue yesterday....

Lost in the Museum

Hi there

I went to a book launch last night.  It was an anthology of fantasy short stories, entitled "Lost in the Museum" and was (sub)edited by my friend A.J. Ponder.  The editor is actually Tui Merriweather, who actually doesn't really exist but is one of the characters in this story! 

The action is set in Te Papa Tongarewa (Our Place), the Museum of New Zealand, here in Wellington.  It's quite a fun book.  Peter Jackson's Big Baby film prop (that is now at Te Papa) has a whole story to itself, courtesy of award-winning writer, Tim Jones. 

Phillip Mann who is an Arthur C Clarke award nominee for this year has a story in "Lost in the Museum", as, too, does Lyn McConchie, a novelist with over 30 books. 

The book will shortly be for sale at The Children's Bookshop in Kilbirnie (it would range from Young Adult readers  to, I guess, 100 year olds).  The book was funded, in part, by a grant from Creative Communities, Wellington City Council.  It can also be reserved at Wellington Libraries.

Below are three of the writers whose stories are in the anthology.  Left to right:  Jenny Hammond, A.J. Ponder, Lilian Hetet.,

Below, signing session with writers and readers

Hataitai Beach Changing sheds...graffitied!

Hi there

It's so sad that there are folk who don't mind ruining other peoples' enjoyment of things.  The changing sheds at Hataitai Beach have been graffiti-fied.  And they were only freshly painted for the summer.  J's loved one was sitting against the shed wall whilst we were swimming this morning (Friday NZ time), and J and I kept making jokes about how he was responsible for it all, and where had he hid his spraycan?   The Wellington City Council tell me they are on to it ....

Another storm, more ceiling-leaking....

Hi there

How many storms over the period of a couple of months is Wellington going to be forced to endure?  I've given up counting.  The guy came the other day to fix my leaking skylight, whoopeee!, and now all I had to do was call the plasterer and painter to re-do my ceiling, and all would be set.

"Better wait till it rains, just to be sure," the window fixing guy said, sort of as a throw-away line as he was departing.

So, I waited for a week.  It poured last Friday and my ceiling leaked as hard, as fast, as furiously as the Victoria Falls.  Okay, okay, I exaggerate....    But I did get a half-a-bucket full of rainwater.

This morning, I had to drive to Kilbirnie.  In another storm.  Through the Miramar Cutting - surely the windiest place in Wellington.  I went through ever so slow, but still I felt the car try to swerve across lanes with the wind.   We're not called Windy Wellington for nothing!  You know, I can never understand why tourists want to come to NZ in winter or spring.  December (possibly November) up till March (possibly April) is the best.

Below is a pic I got (from the net) of The Cutting.

Oh, sometime between last Friday and Sunday (it's Monday 2 20 pm, NZ-time, as I type this), the hole in the deck on Hataitai Beach has been (temporarily, I think) repaired.  Did that electioneering would-be councillor, Sarah Free, who I complained to last week come through for me by stirring up the council?   I see she was elected in the weekend.   Mmmmmm, I'm going to keep an eye on this young lady ....

......or maybe it was all those phonc calls and the email that I sent the WCC that finally got their AintoG?

Third Swim for October!

Hi there

J and I have just completed our third swim for October.  It was such a lovely day today at Hataitai Beach and we spent a long time in the water, then we had a lovely picnic lunch sitting on the deck after our swim.  Oh boy, summer is on its way.

While we were chomping away happily, a woman (Sarah Free)came to us on the deck and started electioneering.  Can't make up my mind to vote for her in the coming Wellington  City Council elections because she had the gumption to approach us, or be upset that she disturbed me as I was savouring J's scrumptious marshmallow cake.  A guy wandered onto the deck but neither he, nor J and her beloved chauffeur, were actually in Sara Free's electorate.  I was in it, so she concentrated on me.

After a dramatic showing of the bruise on my leg and an equally dramatic rendering of "The day I stepped into the hole on the deck", Sara Free promised to report the hole to somebody or other.  We'll have to wait and see.  As I type this, it's now been 10 days, three phone calls, and one email since I reported My Spectacular Accident to the Wellington City Council.

Oh yes, sigh, J still goes into her giggling hysterically routine if she so much as even thinks about my-falling-down-the-hole-in-the-deck episode.  I believe she's told everyone she comes in contact with, but freely admits the tale takes a long time in the telling because she's laughing so much.

Honestly, some people.....

Breaker Bay Market Day, plus Hataitai Beach swim, plus Americas Cup-groan

Hi there

I had a stall at the Breaker Bay Hall yesterday (as I type this it is Sunday 3 pm NZ time).  My goodness, there were so many knick-knacks on the stalls.  It seemed like every stall-holder had decided to de-clutter.

What is it about hoarding?  As every month goes by, I get more and more  ashamed of all the Stuff that I have accumulated.  What on earth are my loved ones going to do with all of the clutter when I pop my clogs?    But do I stop buying silly little knick-knacks?  Not one bit of it.  All the determination in the world goes for nothing.  Yesterday, I went into the hall determined not to buy anything... and came out less $20.   The other stall holders were all seniors and all my friends.  I guess we just accumulate more and more stuff as we grow older, and never get around to getting rid of anything.  Maybe because of nostalgia.

A would-be-buyer picked up a 1920's plate that was labelled $30. One like it had sold on www.trademe.co.nz the week before for $52.

"I'll give you $10," he said.

"$20," I said.

"Nah, don't want it."  He walked away.  This sort of thing happened repeatedly,.

J and I completed our second swim for October this afternoon at Hataitai Beach.  There were four guys out there, too, all done up in so much wet gear that they looked like aliens from outer space.  Water wuzzes!  - J and I  felt infinitely superior in just our bathing costumes.  (Oh, the hole in the deck that I fell through 9 days ago has still not been repaired despite three phone calls and an email to Wellington City Council).

Okay, I better talk about the Americas Cup.... sigh.  We lost.  There was a big welcome and sail past for the team in Auckland on Friday.  I well remember, donkeys' years back, the very first time NZ participated.  We lost that time, yet we threw the guys a parade - and a foreign girl in my office was utterly perplexed.  She said to me: , "Let me get this right.  They lost...  And you're giving them a parade?"

bits and pieces

Hi there

My leg is still hurting like mad, with a bruise the size of a saucer, after my silly fall through the hole in the deck at Hataitai Beach last Friday.  The Wellington City Council still haven't repaired the hole.

The WCC are also dismantling a block of flats on the corner of Tahi Street and Park Road in Miramar.  Dozens of owl-eyed little boys plus Dads were watching.

The Roxy Cinema in Miramar (around the corner from Tahi Street) has an exhibition on at the moment.  Some World of Wearable Art exhibits by designer Fifi Colston. 

The amazing outfit on display in the foyer is a WOW winner.  Ask at the counter if you can also go upstairs and look at the display up there. 

There's an outfit upstairs that represents the famous Mt Tarawera (Rotorua) disaster in the late 1800's.

When I was in Rotorua some years back I went on a 4-wheel drive tour over to Mt Tarawera.  You can actually go inside the crater and slide/stumble down to the bottom.

The famous pink and white terraces were destroyed in the volcanic disaster, hence the lava-looking appearance of the below costume.  This WOW outfit represents a Maori guide of the time.

Breaker Bay Hall Stalls:

Oh, the Breaker Bay folk have stalls in the Breaker Bay Hall in Breaker Bay Rd this Saturday,  5 October, starting at 10 a.m.  Lots of knick-knacky things, I believe..

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Fifth swim for September

Hi there

Well, in between all the bad weather and me falling down holes (just call me 'Alice') we havent managed to swim much this month.  Yesterday however, J and I got in our fifth swim for September at Hataitai Beach.  It was truly lovely in the water, and high tide to boot.  In fact, we hit the water at the exact minute of the heralded highest tide for the day.

As I type this, it is 10.50 a.m. on Sunday morning, NZ time, and the hole in the deck at Hataitai Beach has not been repaired yet.  I fell down the hole at noon on Friday, rang up Wellington City Council about an hour later to complain about it.  .I will give them till Mon afternoon to repair the hole ... then I will ring my councillor

Oh, for the benefit of my one overseas reader - we cannot sue in New Zealand after an accident.  We have something called Accident Compensation.  It pays for lost wages, and doctors' bills.  Every worker pays into it.  Everybody gets the benefit of it.   Just think, if I was in the States, I could sue for millions!

Oh, whilst I was on a movie locations tour around Los Angeles I saw the house used in the tv series "American Horror Story".  Here's my photo, followed by how the house looks in the series.

High Drama at Hataitai Beach

Hi there

Goodness, where to start ...?   J and I trotted down to Hatiatai Beach today to 'look at the water' to see if it was okay for swimming after the storm.  As we looked over the railing, I stepped sideways and my foot went right down through a hole that was already in the decking!

(Pause ...  for sharp in-drawn breaths from my four readers)

And it wasn't just my foot that went through a hole in the deck, but most of my leg went in too, right up past the knee.  I guess I was like some hilarious character in an old Keystone Cops comedy, with my leg dangling down above the water.  Ah, the sitcom queen strikes again.

I angrily yanked myself up from out of the hole, with the jagged end of the broken floorboard painfully scraping my knee.     Sigh, I should have kept up with my diet and I might've ended up with skinnier legs.

I'd determined to pull my leg out quickly regardless of pain because in the instant of it happening I'd got mind-pictures of  little kids with their heads caught in railings and the firemen being called to get them out ofr it, and photographers everywhere ... and I saw me surrounded by fire engines and cameramen, and amateur photogs and umpteen pictures of me going viral on youtube, and my never living the experience down, etc, etc..

Consequence:  1.  I rang Wellington City Council and gave them an earful.  2  I went to the doctor.  I have an extremely badly bruised knee and a big red graze going down the side of my leg that bled for a time.  The doc reckons the knee bruise will end up getting much bigger. He says by tomorrow, I'll hardly be able to move, I'll be so stiff and sore.

My friend J was laughing so hysterically that I figured she was going to wet her knickers if she wasn't careful.  And I'll admit, yes, I laughed, too.  J told me that one second I was the same height as her but then - voom! - she lost me!

It wasn't until I got home and the pain started to truly kick in that I didn't feel like laughing.

Oh, we never went for a swim..  Maybe tomorrow......

 

 

1st swim for September at Hataitai Beach

Hi there

Between bad weather and a round of head colds, there hasn't been any swimming for nearly two weeks.  Today (Saturday), however, we made it down to Hataitai Beach.   It was low tide, so we trooped out forever until the water got up to a reasonable height to allow us to low-dive in.  J and I felt so good.  It was extremely hard, however, to do a "Hi-1" to celebrate the first swim for September - we used index fingers!  We do prefer our Hi-whatevers to be in double digits.

The steps leading from the changing sheds down to the water are re-built.  Thank you, Wellington City Council.  We are breathlessly awaiting the arrival of the repair guy to water-proof and splinter-proof the steps, and to add rims.

The bottom step of the new steps doesn't quite meet up with the concrete step that's already in the water.  The consequence is that it's now one big leap for (wo)mankind.   We oldies don't look so elegant stepping(stumbling?  leaping?  jumping? crawling?  falling?) down into the sea.

4th swim at Hataitai Beach for August

Hi there

J and I have completed our fourth swim for August, and that was our minimum number per winter month, so every swim from now on in is a bonus swim.

 The Wellington City Council seemed to have come to a stop re building the new steps at Hataitai Beach.  But good on them for making such a great start.  J and I are a bit worried that the steps look raw and prickly-wood;  they might splinter our tootsies.  Still, I expect WCC have some under-water varnish or something.  Also let's hope they attach a rim to the edge of each step (like previously) so as we swimmers don't slip.  Oh, goodness, and while you're at it, WCC, we'd like a cafe bar in the changing sheds, a four-jet shower, and heated floorboards (hehehehe...).

The outdoor statue of Gandalf the wizard, from Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit has been placed in the new little plaza outside the Roxy Theatre in Miramar.  I think it was the statue that was in the Weta Cave for a while, and also in the foyer of the Roxy.  I'm sorry to say the pigeons have got at the statue already.  Also, I'm thrilled to see that in homage to my latest visit to Las Vegas, glitter capital of the world, the lamp-posts in the little Roxy plaza are sparkly glittery silver.

Oh, and here are three trolls that are outside the Weta Cave/Weta Workshop in Miramar.   If you're in the area, don't miss out on a visit to the workshop.  I think tours are something like every hour and can be bought from Weta Cave.  My swimming pal, J, is a great expedition leader, but when she went recently to the Cave, she failed to read the notice that said visitors could also tour the workshop.  Tsk.tsk.

More about my trip to Las Vegas later this week.

 

 

I'm back from the United States!

Hi there

Did ya miss me?  Well, there was a big earthquake in Wellington last Friday that I certainly missed.  I was desperate whilst I was away to find out if there were any earthquakes in Wellington that might send my house-sitter reeling back to Auckland.  There was no news of anything about earthquakes on American tv.  It was a BBC-watching Las Vegas taxi driver who told me about the above-mentioned one.  I was so worried until I got home and found my house intact even though my house-sitting friend wasn't so much intact.  She was very stressed out and glad to be high-tailing it back to Auckland.  Still, not an ornament dropped or a picture fell off my walls.  I have been so lucky compared to workers in the city where it was quite nerve-stressing.

My holiday started off a bit chaotic.  Well, of course, it would.  Aren't I the sitcom queen?  I arrived at Wellington Airport at 4 a.m. ready for my 6 a.m. flight to Australia.  I cleared security, thought "Oh, yes, I'll just go into the loo before I start the journey" ... to discover that my trousers were torn!  There was a biiiiiiiig rip right across the down-below area.  Rather akin to the back flaps in pyjamas that little boys used to have in the old days. 

Heavens-to-Betsy, what was I going to do?  Well, I couldn't do anything.  If I was in the pre-security area, I could have rushed home, changed, and still been back at the airport in time to catch my plane but, as it was, I had to wear those stupid torn trousers on the plane to Australia, hang around Brisbane Airport for 3 hours, then on the plane to the States for 14 hours.  I had to remember not to bend over,  accidentally tuck my shirt into the waistband of my pants as I exited the plane toilet, or do the chicken dance in front of anyone.   Luckily my t-shirt and jacket were long enough to cover everthing!

I stayed at the Hollywood Liberty Hotel in Los Angeles.  Imagine, perhaps, a Taihape motel dating back to the sixties and you'll get the idea of what the place was like.  But it stood right next to the famous Loews Hotel which charges a minimum $450 a night.  The Liberty was, like, a 1 minute walk to Graumans Theatre and the Hollywood Walk of Fame (through a short and safe little tunnel that took you straight into the posh Hollywood and Highland mall) and was an extremely cheap stay for the area.  Loews Hotel is where successful actors go to do their 'backstage at the Oscars' interviews - see, now you've learnt something really interesting ... the interviews are not really 'backstage', after all!  The stars leave the theatre and trot to an upstairs floor at Loews.

There are lots of dress-up characters parading around Hollywood.  Here's a picture of Tinkerbell.  Of course I had to pay her hard cash for the photo.  She wouldn't accept pixie-dust.

And here's a pic of a guy being arrested in Hollywood, just across the road from Tinkerbell.  I'd watched him run out into traffic, and start abusing the drivers and banging on their cars and making a nuisance of himself in the road.  Maybe he was on drugs.

J and I went swimming yesterday.  I was tired, bleary-eyed, hardly able to concentrate.  I'd flown from U.S for 14 hours, stumbled around Brisbane for 12 hours, flown another three hours to Wellington, and felt dead!  But, still, a swim is a swim.  And, guess what? -  the Wellington City Council have started re-building the steps down into the water at Hataitia Beach.  Yippee!  Thank you,  WCC!   Good thing, too, because today - yes,we went swimming again today, 3rd time this month - I forgot my winter swimming booties and I had to hippity-hop and stumble and tippity-toe, cursing, as I made my way across all the pebbles, and sharp stones, and prickly seaweed to get into the water.  J, naturally, had remembered her booties.

Second swim for July at Hataitai Beach, Wellington, New Zealand

Hi there
Yesterday, we had our second swim for July at Hataitai Beach, and this time we got much (much) further than the previous day.  We are hoping for four swims this month.  I hope we can manage it.  But once we make up our minds to do something,  both J and myself get ultra-upset if we can't reach our goal.  So, excluding extreme storms, illnesses, holidays, locust infestations, and alien attacks, we intend to let nothing stand in our way with this month's 4-swim-minimum.  Oops, at this late date in the month have we committed ourselves...?

Most of the steps and surroundings that broke away from the deck during The Big Storm have been cleared away by Wellington City Council, but there were still, maybe, half a dozen bits of woods floating in the water around the shoreline.  Some of these scraps of wood had vicious-looking nails attached.  Yesterday, I forgot my swimming booties (aside:  I only wear them in the winter) and I was so scared trekking out into the sea from the shore.  Without my glasses, I'm as blind as a bat.  Who knew what nailed atrocity I might step on.

Here's a pic that J's fearless pet photographer took of us in the water.  As you can see, we have the moves down perfectly.  Esther Williams, eat your heart out!

There was a sort of rolling earthquake (tremor) this morning in Wellington.  I was talking to my friend, A.J., on the phone.  She fearlessly kept on talking as I hared into the dining room and cowered under the table. 

swimming, Hataitai Beach

Hi there

Well, J and I have had a little bit of a glitch re our swimming, but we're now happily back on track.  Today we went to Hataitai Beach.  It was weird having to do the long wade (trudge?) into the water instead of plunging straight down from the steps.  The steps leading from the changing shed deck down into the water are no longer at Hataitai Beach because of The Storm. I hope Wellington City Council will rebuild them before summer. Wouldn't it be awful if they decided swimmers didn't need them any longer?  We didn't stay all that long in the sea because I think I have a bit of a cold coming on.  Usually, after my swim, my hands and feet usually turn into ice blocks for, at least, two hours.  Today, though, not at all.  Maybe we should look seriously at cutting down on the length of our swims at this time of the year?   Or not....   The trouble is, J and I are so competitive. Neither of us can bear (bare?) to be outdone by the other one.  It only needs one of us to wonder aloud about doing another width of the bay, and the other shouts something like "You're on!" and is off like flying fish.,

One of the regulars was there.  But he's not a swimmer.  He washes his clothes in plastic bags from the tap on the deck, then hangs the clothes somewhere to dry.

I went to the New Zealand annual science fiction convention last weekend.  I was roped in to sitting on a panel and when I agreed to do this I didn't realise that, time-wise,  the one session I wanted to see was  directly opposite my panel:  this was the session given by the guys at Weta!   Drat....  So, I was grumpy the whole weekend.  Especially when it also meant that because of the convention, I missed on hoofing down to see the NZ premiere of "At the World's End", with guests Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, Martin Freeman, and Benedict ('Sherlock' and 'Star Trek') Cumberbatch .

Here's a pic I took of  a a guy from The Shire of Darton, the Medieval and Renaissance Society.

.

Hataitai Beach Storm damage, Wellington, New Zealand

Hi there
Roving reporter J, and her accompanying ace photographer T were passing Hataitai Beach at low tide yesterday.  J was devastated to see that the storm had caused havoc on our beloved steps that lead down into the water.

What?  We won't be able to plunge from the deck steps straight into the sea?  We (shudder) will have to plod out into the water from the sand?    But ...  But ..we don't want to go through the slow freezing torture of wading out!  And we certainly don't want  grubby wet gritty sand and shells and dead sea creatures and used condoms and ice block sticks jammed between our tootsies as we trek that extra freezing minute from the water  across the sand and back into the changing sheds after our swim!  Oh, Jiminy Cricket! - my life is ruined.    We were so spoiled with our steps.

I guess Wellington City Council will want to repair the streets, and prune the trees, and see to their blown-off roofs, and alter the water temps in their swimming pools before they look at the steps at Hataitai Beach.  We'll just have to not-grin and bare-oops-bear it!

And, just think, we were all set to ring up this week and ask WCC if they would please scrub the slippery slime off the aforementioned steps....  Sigh.

Wellington Storm aftermath

Hi there

Yesterday and today I went for a walk and I was shocked how much in the way of branches,twigs, leaves were up and down and over and across every street and road.  It seemed, also, that there were loads of work crews out and about pruning trees and clearing up after Thursday's big Wellington (New Zealand) storm.  I am very appreciative of Wellington City Council.  On The Big Storm Day, it was too wet and windy for me to take my recycling wheelibin out to the footpath but, heavens-to-Betsy, the recycyling guy came into my property, took the bin out, emptied it, and returned it ... all in a howling gale.  Thanks WCC, that was appreciated.

Miramar's two main roads - Miramar Avenue and Park Road - are lined both sides with Pohutakawa trees.  For my one overseas reader, the Pohutakawa tree is sort of New Zealand's national tree.  It is called the New Zealand Christmas Tree because it blooms around Christmas.  Maori legend has it that if it blooms before Christmas we are going to have a good summer, and the opposite if it blooms after Christmas.   Anyway, there was a load of Pohutakawa debris all around Miramar.  Here is a Pohutakawa (okay, I cheated - it's not a Miramar Pohutakawa.  I took the photo at Ohope Beach last year).

Whilst I was out walking I could see the Stone Street Studios from an opposite hill.  Unfortunately the sun was shining right into the camera, but you can get an idea of how big The Green Screen is.

The second photo is a studio security guard box at a side entrance in Stone Steet.  Apparently the guard box blew right over in last Thursday's storm.  Note how it had to be anchored down by two large concrete blocks ,and ties, in case it blew away again.

 

 

 

Above is a photo I took today of the main entrance of Stone Street Studios in Miramar, Wellington, New Zealand, where The Hobbit Parts II & III are being currently filmed..  We now have a myriad of Camry Hybrids zipping around the area, ferrying VIP stars here, there, and everywhere.

"The Key is Love" - Marie Osmond's book

Hi there

Yesterday, I went to the Miramar Library.  Yes, I'm forcing myself to go back there and not rely on my Kindle so much (very, very hard to do). 

I got out a book that was written by Marie Osmond (and her pal Marcia Wilkie).  Pub April 2013. 

When I saw the book on the shelf, when I took it down, when I got it checked out, I had no idea what the title was.  Both the library ISBN number sticker and the Wellington City Council Libraries' sticker were plastered on the spine of the book ... and the front cover. 

Because of the front cover sticker, the title now read "The Key ........ove".   It must be 'The Key of Love", I figured.   Oh, wait, perhaps, it was "The Key is a Dove".    Or "The Key is Above"?   Something about a glove?  

I looked at the spine.  The title read "The Key............", with the sticker blocking the last few words, so I wasn't any the wiser there.  This sort of thing happens often.  When my friends ask if  I've read a certain book, I sometimes have no idea because I've chosen a library book for it's cover and author only.  Titles are obscured a lot.

When I got home, I discovered from the frontpiece that the title was "The Key is Love".  I had been pretty close, but - as my one American reader would  no doubt tell me - ..... 'close but no cigar'.

It was a nice comforting book to read.  One part truly resounded with me.  Marie's mother was sick in hospital, struggling to talk and very weak (p.66).  Marie was upset for her.

Olive, Marie's mother, managed to write on a notepad:  "I love every breath I take."

Wow.   I have decided to try to live by this creed.  I am going to so enjoy the life that is ahead of me.  My full determination may only last a month, or a week, perhaps even an hour, but from here on in, I have decided that there will always be, at a minimum,  a little bit of enjoyment for life inside me.  Because I'm a retiree I probably haven't got that many years ahead, but, goodness, right now I truly am hell-bent on loving every damn breath I take.  Thanks, Olive.