We-Love-Peter-Jackson Rally - The Hobbit

Up until Wednesday night, along with, I guess, millions of ordinary New Zealanders, I was full of anguish, worry, and hurt for Peter Jackson, for The Hobbit movie, for all the movie workers in Miramar, Wellington, for everyone with jobs on the periphery of the movie industry ... Overseas, there might be six degrees of separation between people, but here in NZ it's said to be two degrees. If The Hobbit movie had been pulled from this country, practically everyone would suffer in some way.

I went to the rally on Labour Day Monday at Civic Square in Wellington. I estimated about 4,000 people there. No professional placards or obvious unionists present. Just ordinary folk (and Weta and studio workers). Folk with balloons and children, and everyone rooting for Peter Jackson. A lovefest, to keep The Hobbit' in New Zealand and not be taken overseas as Warner Bros seem to want to do. Every age group was present, including kiddies in hobbit cloaks, and lots of oldies. Everybody was in a happy mood; it's great to have like-minded people all together.

Sure, there were a few placards, but they were 'home-made' crayon or marker pen ones, with newspaper photos attached or hastily-drawn pictures. I saw this young man holding high a placard so I went round to the front to see what was on it: "My Arms Are Tired."

Richard Taylor (Weta owner) was the first (and last) speaker. He was brilliant. I could tell he cared so much. He is a truly lovely guy. He read a passionate letter from Peter Jackson. There were to be similar rallies all around the country and it was hoped that the representatives from Warner Bros would hear about them all and realise the enormity of taking the film out of the country.

And our Prime Minister came through ....!!!!! He negotiated a wonderful deal. The phones between my friends and myself rang hot after the announcement (just as the phones had run hot for about five non-stop hours between my friends and myself the previous afternoon, nothing but yak-yak-yak about the future of The Hobbit). We never thought for one moment that the PM would negotiate a deal whereas Warners would promote our country so magnificently. Thanks, John Key. Wonder when the tele-movie of the saga will come out?

- Oh, and swimming? We had our second October swim yesterday. 20 minutes. Repeat, 20 minutes!!!!!! We're home, baby..... (Could hardly move my freezing fingers for the next quarter of an hour, however.)

October Hataitai Swim

Well, we've done our October swim - Yippeee!! Yippeee! Yippeee! And what's more we were in that early October water for over 12 minutes. A very respectable time. My friend and I loved the swim. Three lengths of the cove. Towards the end, we were lazily swimming, truly enjoying ourselves. My friend brought along her entire family as our cheerleading team.



So, that's two swims (Sept and Oct) within about a week - quadruple Yippeeee!!! By rights now, we don't have to go again until 30 November.



By about the end of this month, many people will be swimming. But surely we're still the only ones doing it every month throughout a year ... in Wellington? ... at Hataitai Beach,? Congrats to us.

Sept Swim

Trying to go in the water every month for a full year can be harrowing, especially in winter. But we never thought we'd have trouble in September which, after all, is spring. But the weather was awful practically every day, and when it was sort of fine, then the tide was wrong and we wanted to go when it was high tide as it's easier then to plomp straight down into the water from the steps at Hataitai Beach.

So, we waited ... and waited ... Finally the last few days of September rolled around and we knew we had, like two days to do it in. We were very worried.

Finally, we did it! Yay! And what's more - wait for it! - we swam right across the bay and back again. No dilly-dallying to half way (like July) or quarter way (like August). We actually played around in the water, too and, dare I say it, didn't feel all that much like getting out. Wow.

October, here we come!!

My Las Vegas (Star Trek) Holiday

I went to the Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas at the start of August 2010. I should be in to knitting, and cooing over grand-children, and watching "Days of our Lives", right? Wrong. To heck with all that aforementioned stuff, I'm a "Star Trek" fan, in all its incarnations. I'm not a rabid fan, I just feel comfortable watching the shows.

So many stars. Seventy of them. From Shatner, right through to practically every woman Kirk had ever kissed on classic Trek (he was on stage in front of 15,000, the women were in the dealers' room hawking ancient photographs of their moment of glory). Attendees at the con ranged in age from about 10 years to, well ... me, and older (many of the stars would have topped me in age!)

What amazed me about Shatner on stage was how quick, witty, sharp he is. He ran rings around everybody. I thought his talk with Nimoy might have been scripted, but when he answered questions from the audience, he was just as quick and witty, running retorts out so fast that my head was reeling (we all have friends like Shatner, yes?: we love them to bits but within a half hour of greeting them, we just want to shout 'slow down, I've got a headache'; we couldnt possibly keep up with their sharp wit and intelligence on a longterm basis).

Present were Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Jeri Ryan, Jonathan Fraikes, Leonard Nimoy, etc.

I went to three "Beam Me Up Breakfasts" with about twelve stars, including James Darren (my childhood idol. He's still delicious). The breakfasts were like speed dating. The stars took turns sitting at every table (of about six) for five minutes. You had something like 15 seconds to take photographs at the beginning of the breakfasts. (In total, I took 169 photos, of which about nine came out, the rest were blurred because I zoomed in most of the time. Damn, my new Canon camera which I figure I hadnt learnt how to work properly!)

I went to a dinner at the top of the Stratosphere (equiv to our Skytower) where several of the Star Trek stars did some filking (putting different words to popular songs). Armin (Quark) and Max (Rom) were brilliant, especially dressing up in their Ferengi 'heads' and singing "Viva the Nagus" (the Nagus is the boss of the Ferengi race) instead of "Viva Las Vegas" (see photo).

One of the most stirring moments was at the dessert evening when four (male) fans who couldn't sing, bellowed out to karaoke "Faith of the Heart" (Enterprise theme). Everyone joined in, waving arms to music, swaying cigarette lighters, etc.

The entire convention was worth double the price and is on every year. Next year it will be at the Rio Suites instead of the Las Vegas Hilton because it just keeps growing and a bigger venue is needed. I believe NZ's Karl Urban will be there in 2011.

August Swim

Yep!! Done it again! Because I was away on holiday (more about this in a later blog) my friend and I couldn't do our August winter swim until the last half of the month. The weather was bad, we were getting a bit worried that what with the cold and low tide, and friends at the gym badgering us about had we done it yet .... So on Saturday, with a temperature high for that day of 13c, and a nice high tide at Hataitai Beach, we took the plunge. My goodness, it was cold! We went to about quarter way across the bay but then I worried that I might get caught out with hypothermia and not be able to make it back. So we returned triumphant. At least we never do quick plunges in and out like most of the so-called swimmers do for the mid-winter swim. We actually swim! We did it!-we did it!-we did it! It should be plain sailing (make that 'clear swimming') from now on in. The water should be warmer in September, surely? We are determined to say that we've swam (swum?) every month in a full year. We are the champions-we are the champions-lah-de-de-dah....

My every-month-a-year swims!

Hey, was I stupid, or what? Nope, don't answer that. Let me explain: my friend and I, not wanting to be out-swimmed by the other, both agreed to pop into the sea every month throughout 2010. All very well if you live somewhere up the line or in Auckland, but we're in Wellington (so 'nuff said, yeah?)

It was okay in January, February, March and April, of course. We always swim in these months. I tentatively slipped into the water in the first week of May. Mmmmm, not too bad, lovely in fact. It was balmy weather.

During the weekend before the shortest day in June, we looked snootily down our noses at the majority of the mid-winter swimmers (me, from in front of my tv, my friend before actually coming out of the water to be interviewed by a tv reporter). Most mid-winter swimmers hopped in and out of the sea with such alacrity, they could scarcely have got wet. We were determined to beat this.

We went into the water on the actual shortest day (21 June) - see photo. Swam to quarter way across the bay, and back. We decided on another swim on the 22nd. This time we were determined to get to halfway across the bay. Boy, it was cold both days. Still, we grinned at the shore, pretending the cold icy water wasn't worrying us, just in case folk - younger folk! - were watching from behind curtains. Outside temps for successive days, 13 and 14.

And, now, we've just done our July swim. Cold-cold-cold-cold-cold.... Brrrrrrhhh.... Outside temp 10. I got to quarter way across the bay and then remembered an aquaintance telling me about her uncle who'd had a heart attack during his own mid-winter swim. I swam quickly back to shore.

The water's going to be probably colder in August (we're-going-to-do-it-we're-going-to-do-it-we're-going-to-do-it- there's nothing like positive reinforcement!). So wish us luck, huh?

Getting that new passport photo

Hi. I have to get a new passport, and this means getting a new photo. I've never had a good photo taken of me. How come people like actor Hugh Grant can look cute in mug shots when they get arrested and I look terrible when I actually pose?
I picked the most well-known photography shop in town. No slap-dash chemist-shop-across-the-road for me, no siree. Nothing could be left to chance to obtain the photo that naturally would be bad but, hopefully, wouldn't be utterly terrible.
Well, the photo was absolutely positively utterly utterly utterly terrible!
Was it truly me in the photo? It couldn't be. I looked ancient. My hair was... grey! (oh, thank goodness that was just the light but what sort of photographer allows a subject to have grey hair?) I had crow's feet. I had wrinkles. There was a sort of a wart-like lump under my eye
I had practised non-smiling for, well, minutes before-hand. Practise didn't help.
To make matters worse the photographer had said "No glasses allowed. Take them off."
"What?" I'd rather have taken off my top. "But my glasses are me. I can't take them off."
"New rules," said the photographer. Glasses show a glint. No glints allowed."
I hadn't plucked my eyebrows. The photographer moved in close. Real close.
He was loathe to let me look at the finished product. After I'd all but wrestled the digital camera from his hands, I understood why. He obviously figured I would run from the shop without paying.
I was told to return in 20 minutes for the photo. I perked up. "You can photo-shop it, yes?" I beamed. "Make me beautiful. Make me like Jennifer Aniston please..."
"Sorry," the guy said. "That's not allowed."
There's one bright light on the horizon. I'm going to the chemist-shop-across-the-road next week for another go at a passport photo. And if that photo's terrible, I'll try another place. Then another ...
byeeee