You Can Never Be Too Careful

Well you can't can you? I mean who knows when it might just start to rain for 40 days without stopping. Who will have the last laugh then I ask you? I saw this today in Whitianga & just HAD to have a picture of it..

An interesting day........................

To say the least of it. This morning at the market, I scored a DVD copy of Blazing Saddles. I love that movie. At 12, we went & said goodbye to an old family friend who passed away at the grand old age of 93. I had known Sam since I was 14, & have worked the farm as a lad, shot rabbits there, swam in the river, listened in awe to Sam's stories about the old days of pack horses & bullock teams, got introduced to garlic, (boiled mutton in a garlic white sauce) by Sam's old Mum, & been royally drunk on the sherry that they used to brew & sell commercially. The grape vine is still there to this day. It is near 100 years old & has featured in a national magazine, though I don't remember which one. Rest in peace Sam, it was a pleasure & a privilege to have known you & to have called you a friend.

This evening, me old mate Hawkeye rang. He actually timed it right for once, so we had a great old chat for God knows how long. Its always good to talk to him. He has mellowed so much over the years, & is one of the few old Fire Service buddies that has consistently kept in touch. After he hung up, Leong rang. haven't heard from him in literally years. He is coming down tomorrow & would we like an accupressure massage. Do bears shit in the woods? Leong & his wife are Malaysian. She is a sweety & Leong is very full on & intense. Just absolutely chock full of enthusiasm for what ever he is into at the time. We are looking forward to their visit. They are staying for tea, so I will probably do something dreadful with some fish, coconut cream, curry powder, fresh vegetables & rice. It will be interesting to say the least. Will keep you informed.. Later All...

Of Air Plants & Brussel Sprouts.

It must be our weekend for meeting nice people. You see, thanks to a friend, who shall remain nameless, although I can probably THINK of a few names relating to a recent transaction involving peanut butter jars for storage, Herself has developed a fascination for Air Plants. I know why, its because she has run out of garden space & flat surfaces for pots & so is planning to nail these puppies to vertical surfaces where ever she can.

Anyway, I phoned through on our local radio's Sunday morning garage sale for her & got a response from a nice lady out at Ngatea, the upshot being this bloody great bag full of the damn things that can be split up & attached to all sorts of groovy surfaces. She didnt want payment for them either, which we found really nice. While we were there, we got to chatting, & it turns out that the gentleman of the house is a cabinet maker by trade who contents himself with a bit of restoration work these days but has built some pretty amazing pieces of furniture that he was happy to show us. He also used to collect gemstones & work them & has some pretty amazing mosaic pictures that he has made from various gemstones. Turns out we have a few acquaintances in that field from days gone as well. Also, herself works with their daughter in law up at our local hospital.

Turns out that he grew up on one of the Channel Islands between Britain & France, & was a lad during World War 2. Hence the Brussel Sprouts. You see, him & his friends used to fire them at the German fighter pilots with their catapults as they overflew the island on their way to attack the mainland. I don't believe that they actually managed to hit any, but they were that low that they could see the pilots in the cockpits. I can only imagine the amusement that this must have occasioned these young men on their way to kill or be killed. He also used to steal his Dad's cigarettes to swap with the German POW's for their badges. The island was also on the flight path for the V1 buzz bombs, with gun emplacements all over the island who used to try in vain to shoot them down.

Some older folks that reminisce can be quite tedious to listen to, but this particular gentleman was absolutely enthralling to listen to. We came away with a sense of regret that we couldn't stay longer, but we had to get home. I still had a boat to scrub down & put away & Herself had tea to cook. And a shitload of Airplant to sort out.

Next time we go out over Cooks Beach, if the weather is right, we will probably go out to the Great Mercury Islands. Yesterday's trip has shown me that they are well within safe range if we don't piss about sight seeing like we did yesterday. Thats if the weather is right of course. I'm looking forward to it.

I'm Tired..

Its self inflicted & I've enjoyed the process, but that don't change the fact that it's only halfway through Easter An I'm stuffed... We got up early & went fishing yesterday in our usual spot. We were on the water by 0730 AM & back at the ramp by 1100 with our limit of 18 snapper. Today, just for a change, we got up even earlier & went fishing, this time over the other side at a place called Cooks Beach. This is where we fished.

Its called, strangely enough, The Hole in the Wall, & lies off the end of Opito Point, which is the end of the peninsula that forms part of Mercury Bay. Nice innit? The reason that its called Mercury Bay is because Captain Cook stopped there to observe the transit of the planet Mercury in his seventeenth century travels. Of course, there wasnt quite the variety of restaurants there then, so I guess he just had to make do with salt pork & beef as usual. What we found refreshing was the variety of fish that we hauled up. The fishing wasnt spectacular, with a take of only 3 snapper, but this is a pic of herself reluctantly holding a 2 kg John Dory what she caught.



2kg is a fairly respectable one of these & actually, it was more of a joint effort, as it still had my bait stuck in its throat, & it was too heavy for herself to haul in on her own. They aren't really red, thats just the reflection of my shorts. We had it for tea tonight, pan fried with home made chips & a rather tasty ( I made it ) lemon & parsley sauce. We enjoyed it.

Not to be outdone, I caught this, a 2 kg Kahawai. I thought I had a kingfish on at first when I got to see it in the water, it was such a good size, but it was a Kahawai. I caught it on a little keeper hook, which promptly snapped when I grabbed the trace to lift him out of the landing net. Here he is...



See what I mean about the red shorts? Thats my favourite Bob Dylan tee shirt I'm wearing too.

While we were out there, we stopped to pass the time of day with another couple, Colin & Lesley, who were out fishing. They came in round about the same time we did & stopped for a natter & a fish bin comparison. They were impressed with Judes Dory as well. We were going to dig out the thermos & have a cuppa before we wended our way home, but they invited us round to their place. We stayed for a very pleasant hour or so, swapped addresses & parted with them issuing an invite to come & stay for a few days if we wanted. Lovely folk that they are.

The only thing I fucked up with for the whole day was misreading where the bar was & wasn't at low tide to get into the estuary where the boat ramp was. I ended up getting washed sideways over it in about a foot of water. I haven't got any photo's of that. it was a bloody silly thing to do, especially in front of about 6 other boats who ALL knew where to come in. I'm going to bed now. This enjoying yourself is hard work. I've saved the most exciting bit till tomorrow. One of the disadvantages of a Fibreglass boat is that they show salt marks something shocking, so a good wash is well in order. After that, probably 3 hours of Star Trek.. Who knows & Night all.

We had a good weekend

Arguably, any weekend is good, but we did particularly enjoy this weekend. On Saturday, we had a wander round the Heritage Day at Victoria Park. Most of it was the same old stuff that they trot out for occasions like this, but we did sit & thoroughly enjoy these guys.

They call themselves The City of Sails Chorus, & are a collection of barber shop quartets that have been singing together since 1979, originally calling themselves The Motat Chorus Having formed to sing at the Museum of Transport & Technology. Lovely it was to hear all the old songs.

Sunday, instead of being sensible & vegitating in front of the telly for 3 hours of Star Trek, we piled into Sherman & dragged ourselves off to Tauranga to see the Adams Family. This is Nushy having a grape time...
Nushy is the only dog I know that can hold a green grape in her mouth for a good minute & then spit it out still in pristine condition. WE had a great time too, even though I do have the shits this morning from all the grapes I ate. Thanks a bunch Allie....

A question for you all.

What famous 1964 movie contained the line, "You can't fight in here, this is the War Room." And ended with the line, "Mien Fuhrer, I can walk." No prizes for guessing, I found a copy of it at a market stall today & still think that its an incredibly good movie.

Confessions of a late night trucky

I haven't been listening to Dylan much lately. I have thought about it & I think that its because after seeing him live, somehow a disembodied voice is a little anticlimatical somehow. Also we have been hellish busy at work & when I DO listen to Dylan, I like it to be uninterrupted. I actually have 3 cd's here that I haven't even heard yet.

One of our drivers packed a little tantrum & decided that he wasn't going to come to work any more. As its a truck & trailer run normally, the Boss did it a couple of days & then when it became evident that this guy wasn't going to come back, flicked it off to me. I do have my T & T license, & am quite happy to do certain things with it, but draw the line at round town pickups in Auckland. The Boss was going to restructure the whole Auckland thing anyway, so yours truly has ended up doing the late run in the pick of our 6 wheelers. Its a long , low 6 wheeler, good for old crusties like me to get up & down onto the deck of. It also has a syncromeshed 8 speed Road Ranger gearbox, which really makes it a no brainer to drive, but its most redeeming features are air conditioning & a relatively good CD player.

So being in an expansive & generally good laid back mood on the way home last night, I dragged Dylan & the Dead out of my CD case & flashed it up. God its a great album. What a great guitarist Gerry Garcia was. Truly a shame he is gone now. With the advent of tours by every so called artist & group that ever cut a disc & still has at least one member alive & playing, THAT is one band that I might not sell my soul to go see, but I would at least take out a mortgage on it.

Unfortunately, that is what I would have to do, as Gerry & at least two of the other members are no longer with us, & somehow, The Grateful Dead without Garcia just wouldn't cut it. So I will just content myself with CD's & the $9.95 Warehouse DVD that I have.

Anyway, to cut to the chase as they say. The reason I was in a good mood last night ? Well, it was Friday for chrissake, but the main reason was the date. The 29th of February. Herself phoned me after she had finished her thing at the Hospital, & after she had done the groceries & after she had put beer in my beer fridge for me. Its the sorta thing she does you know? Rings for a chat cos she misses me. At the end of it all, she asked me to marry her. I of course accepted with alacrity. I think its pretty special that after 20 odd (Very odd some of them) years that she still loves me & wants to be with me. That makes you feel pretty good inside.