Am I a street walker?

Well, no, not actually a street walker because I stand in one place the whole time.  More like a street stander.  Oh, okay, I'm a street collector.  You can find me half a dozen times a year,  fingerless gloves clutching a charity collection box.  Last week, the charity was the Mary Potter Hospice in Wellington.  About eight years ago - and after the first time collecting for them - I wondered if I should do it again because of the sadness associated with the charity -  many dear little old ladies told me, in detail  about how Mary Potter had looked after their dying husbands.  Or men would talk about their departed wives.  I couldnt bear to see the pain in these peoples' eyes.  
When I collect for the SPCA it's totally different.  I get in animated conversation about pets.  When I collect for a specific illness, say, multiple sclerosis, sometimes I've had foreign students or tourists come up to me and ask what 'multiple sclerosis' means.  Try explaining that debilitating illness in just a few words!

It's usually (extremely) cold, my legs hurt after about an  hour, I get bored with the same view, and lots of people try to sidle behind me, rather than in front of me.  I've learnt there are places not to stand.  Standing outside Starbucks for instance equals not much money.  The patrons are usually on the run.  If I stand outside Cafe L'Affaire (dont know if I've spelt that right),  my collection box overflows.  The silly Mary Potter cardboard collection boxes are like a jug and as more and more money is tossed into it, the jug gets harder and harder to hold, especially when I've got my sticker box as well - and at the same time I'm trying to plaster the sticker on someone's jacket (tip: if the jacket is suede or leather put that sticker on the sweater or shirt instead).  The jug I got this year was minus the handle (see photo), and this made the collecting much more difficult - wish I'd had three hands.  Because of the early-morning cold, I had so many clothes on that I felt like a womble!
The Cafe L'Affaire patrons are truly wonderful, always with a smile and a cheery word.  I often see celebrities entering the premises.  I spoke to the Governor-General and his wife two years' ago.

At last, I have a Blogging how-to Book!

Success could be, I think, around the corner re this blogging stuff.
My friend "A" set up this blog for me (she very cunningly put in links (is that the phrase?) to her poetry website. 
I have been like a skittish little colt writing my blogs because I have no idea what any of the icons mean.   For a few months there recently I couldn't see how to 'publish' and kept getting everything in draft form instead and I just couldnt get what I wanted.  So, in frusturation, I left the blogging.
As for seeing if anyone leaves me messages, I have no idea where to look.  Neither do I know how to judge if anyone is reading this - except 2 followers who I figure are my friends "J" and "A" .
When I thought I only had 2 people reading these blogs, I was happy, serene, but by accident I flicked into something else for a bare instant and I thought I read that 4,000 people had read a blog of mine sometime or other since I started writing them.  Heeeeeellllppp!  This scares me like crazy.  Especially as I truly only know how to type in the actual blog plus, if I'm lucky, place in a photo.
Today I got a book on blogging from the library.  Will I be able to understand it?  On quick flick through, there are parts that look distressing to me.  Honestly, computerese is a foreign language.

Anyway, we will see.  Maybe I'll eventually learn not to be frightened of touching any other button besides 'new post', 'publish' and 'image'?

bird-spotting (but only cute birds)

Okay,I admit it; I like cute birds.  Lots of times when I'm on guided hikes and everyone stops to stare breathlessly for what seems like hours at some plain old bird sitting on a branch or another bird that's dawdling across the track, I do tend to get bored after, well, 10 seconds.
But give me a cutie-pie chick or duckling and I'm all agog and can watch for hours. 
J, my swimming pal, told me that she always keeps a camera on her car, so I thought "Why not?  I have an old digital camera.".
In February on my way to Whakatane, I found parent swans with their babes (cignets?) on the shores of Lake Rotoiti.  The mama and papa were a bit scary ("Get away from me!  Get away!") but, oh goodness, I wanted to scoop the babies up and cuddle them to my ample bosom.

Last Sunday, I'd parked my car at the bottom of the (horrific) zig-zag to the right side of Lyall Bay beach, and was prepared to stagger up the zig-zag to get to the main track over the hills.  As I gathered up my drink bottle, backpack, rain-jacket, rain-pants, phone, cardy, beanie, cap, sunblock (after all, the hike would take me all of, perhaps, two and a half hours! - I had a bigger bag than when I went to England for  6 weeks - my bag then weighed only 3kg).  I glanced out the front car window and saw there was a huge amount of water in the gutter that was about three metres long- and there were a dozen or so birds - blackbirds, thrushes, sparrows - bathing happily in the water.  They were splashing and squeaking, and having a fine old time.   I just managed to get off one photo before a car came in front of me and disturbed them.

May 2012 swims, Hataitai Beach, Wellington

We've done 4 - four, count 'em, FOUR, FOUUUUUURRRRR!!  - swims for May 2012, at Hataitai Beach.  It was hardly worth mentioning that in April we did over a dozen.  But four - foooourrrrrrr! - during May is brilliant (in our opinion) considering that it's been quite cold this month, pertaining to both weather and water.
At the beginning of the year, J was all bravado and said, "let's do 3 swims a month during winter" and I never committed.  I just mumbled about how happy I was to stay with two.  But now that I've done 4 - repeat, four - in May, and it wasn't even by mid-May but the beginning of May, I am quite optimistic for June, July, and August.  When I think that three years ago, we were scared to do one a month (not in summer of course when we did dozens a month), then last year it was two a month and, now, 3.  This obviously means - as J is so fond of telling me - that, by the time we're aged one-hundred-and-something we'll be doing 30 or 31 a month in a Wellington winter.

This month we put our t-shirts on top of our bathing suits, our concession to winter.  Still, we're not in wetsuits.  How hardy are we?!!!
P.S.  I don't think that's a shark behind us.  It could be a sting-ray because they're known to be at Hataitai Beach (but usually in summer).  -  Nah, only kidding;  it's floating seaweed!

Yes, WeightWatchers, I'm looking at you!

Okay, yes, I'm on another 'cutting down'.  I hate to say 'dieting'.  I've now been on my .... okay, diet .... since end of Feb, and detest every second of it.  I dream of chocolate, cake, and oven chips, the things I have had to give up.  When I pass the bakery section at 'Countdown' I have to shade my eyes from the sight and mutter to myself, "no-no-no-no...".    However, I can't give up cheese or bread.  If I was going to be hanged tomorrow and was asked what my last meal would be, I would have to say 'a cheese sandwich please'. 
I don't weigh myself, instead I measure myself every few weeks.  Talking in old style language (because my tape measure is in inches), every inch overall lost (ie, waist hips, thighs in my case)  equals 5lbs lost. 
Anyway, every now and then I buy a WeightWatcher meal and add a salad to it.  Yesterday, I bought a Beef Hotpot.  Oh, my goodness, how sad it was compared to the picture on the box.  Wish I'd taken a photo before I wolfed the meal down (I won't say anything about taste, because when I'm ... dieting ... even cardboard would taste brilliant).  The writing on the box mentions mashed potato.  Mashed?  That's a joke.  It was puree-ed.  Most of the meal looked puree-ed (wish I knew how to spell that word; it doesn't look right).  There were two little strips of meat sticking out of the puree liquid.

WeightWatcher meals are passable, but the picture on the box never matches The Real Thing.  The None of the WeightWatcher meals that I've tried seem to equal the box photo.  I'm wondering if I should go to Fair Trades Act?  Sigh.

holiday injuries, Las Vegas holiday, Hobbit

     Well, as usual I arrived back from my holiday at the end of Feb 2012 with a physical injury.  No, scrub that, with two physical injuries.  1) the ripped cartilage in my (other) knee, and  2) I've torn a cartilage attached to my rib.  For six weeks I've had this sort-of-pain under the rib and finally went to the doctor.  What is it about me and cartilages.  Two knees, one rib, and still counting.
     My next holiday is - wait for it - Las Vegas again.  What is it that an elderly solo spinster finds exciting about Las Vegas?  Well, I love the vibe of the whole place.  I love mixing with tourists, I love the glitzy bubble that is The Strip.  But this time I have to resist buying anything glitzy and sparkly.  I must remember that when I get home I won't be able to wear glitz and sparkle anywhere.  Hard, but I hope to be able to get away without buying that bling that is forced on one everywhere in Vegas.  I will have to recite the mantra "I am too old for glitter-I am too old for glitter".  Darn, I wish I wasn't too old for glitter.

The set of 'The Hobbit' can just be seen over the top of the Stone Street Studio gates.  Here's a pix.  I figured because they'd put plastic across the gate, I could edge in closer for photos.  If I couldn't see them, they couldn't see me, right?   Wrong.  This disembodied voice rang out, "No photographs please."

my summer holiday(s) Jan/Feb 2012

Well, I've had a week at Ohope, 5 nights in Eketahuna, a week in Nelson, a week in Taupo, a week in Mt Maunganui, 5 nights in Raumati, and a week in Queenstown! I am such a traveller...

But, funny thing, I was homesick most of the time. I just wanted to be home to my beach friends, and Hataitai Beach. I wanted to wear all my nice summer clothes, instead of the few chiffony-easy wash stuff I took with me I missed my house, my library, my suburb. Silly, eh?

Having said all that, I truly enjoyed Ohope Beach. Next summer, I'm not going to be so greedy. Just one (or two) destinations, yes?

I was boogie boarding at Mt Maunganui. There was a truly ferocious double wave, I got tossed under water, and my leg went to a weird angle. I thought "oh, no I've broken my leg". But when I surfaced, my leg seemed okay. But within days, my left knee got really bad. Same symptoms exactly as a few years' earlier when I tore a cartilage in my right knee. Yep, doctor at home confirmed it. Darn!

I went over to Kapiti Island for the day, climbed to the very top (see photo, view from the topmost point), very tiring and my body sort of gave up as I was climbing down afterwards. I took double the length of time getting down than I did climbing up. Saw lots of beautiful birds. Here's a photo of a weka that haunted me as I was eating my lunch (we were told that wekas can hear the zip of a backpack at 2kms away). And what is it with Raumati? When swimming, you're in amongst loads of twigs and sticks. Hopeless.

In Queenstown I went down four ziptreks (flying foxes). They were set out in zigzag style with a tree platform between each trek. Quite fun...and scary. In Q'town I also went up the gondola and had a lovely buffet lunch. I swan in the lake at Q'town. Only one in water. All the scaredy-cats sit on the shore, sunbathing.

In total, I saw sun for about 5 hours during the entire 5 weeks holiday. I am positive I am the goddess of thunder clouds. It only rained two days but those damn clouds!