We've had rain......

Not an absolutely torrential downpour I will admit, but enough to wet the plants & the concrete down. Hopefully enough so that herself won't feel compelled to water the garden tonight. I always feel guilty when I look out the window & see columns of water waving indolently back & forth courtesy of the sprinkler. Herself loves to water by hand so she can commune with her plants, but lately the communion has taken back seat to winter olympics.

I must confess to feeling slightly guilty about the whole watering thing though. I keep expecting to see a row of little Ethiopians or something lining up with buckets to fill & carry 10 km back to their huts. I wonder if they got any rain to help put out the big fire in the Taiere Girge down Dunedin way...

Its nearly finished

Herself has been following the Winter Olympics with great enthusiasm. It really doesn't do a lot for me, but I'm not saying much as i don't know how many more she will get to see. I've been having natural healing lately. I don't think that you can really call it massage, because the lady that does it is incredibly gentle. What she does is very gentle manipulation coupled with light pressure. You just sort of float away while she is doing it. Regardless of effect, the pampering is wonderful. But you do get effect. You feel like absolute crap for a day or or two, but then you come right. Only a little bit at a time but the effects are tangible. I'm starting to feel better. Less tired.

We both had a session with her yesterday, so we didn't have much in the way of time to do anything much. It sort of ate up the whole day. Today was a different story though. We have had half a load of greenwaste on the trailor for a week or more. All Lorna's from next door. i've been promising myself that I would collect up enough stuff for a decent load. I have been promising myself to do it for a week or so. Anyway, today I did it. Ventured into the potting shed & emerged resplendent in leather gloves & armed with secateurs & attacked the rose bushes. For some reason, Herself rather likes the sort of rose that tends to grow like a Triffid. You know, great long shoots heading in all directions. Anyway, I managed to prune/mangle the bushes so they look relatively respectable, throw it all on the trailor & deliver it to the dump.

Not to be content with that, we then went out to the mill. You see, I have noticed that the days are getting shorter very quickly now & our firewood heap is looking quite sad, so between Herself & me we loaded up both Sherman & the trailor with nice dry firewood. Some of it is too long for our firebox so needs cutting up. I have emptied Sherman & put the long bits on the trailor, all set to be cut up in the morning.

All this doesn't really sound like a lot , I know, but coming from someone who has been finding it exhausting just to cut lawns lately, it's a significant improvement. Tomorrow, after I have dealt to the remainder of the firewood, I think I will have to get some groceries in. Herself will probably help with the wood. Thats if I can drag her away from the Winter Olympics I guess.

We went to Hamilton today

Herself is back on Her patchwork kick. She's making cushions out of some of the innumerable bits & pieces of patchwork that she has floating around in the end room. I'm happy about that. It will be nice to finally see some results of some of her work. The reason for the Hamilton trip ? Well, she just HAS to have foam rubber chip to stuff em with no common or garden Dacron for her. So nobody in Thames actually stocks foam chip. The nearest place was Para Rubber in Hamilton. I couldn't get through by phone for some reason yesterday, so I sent a slightly (For me) tongue in cheek email of enquiry. This elicited a reply of one pleasant email & 2 very nice phone calls.

So off we went. They were just as nice there in person & were very helpful. We asked them about somewhere nice for lunch, so, naturally enough, they directed us to a restaurant next door called Momento. It was a lovely place & whats more important, they actually had dishes on the menu that Jude could order from. Not just one dish but her choice of 3 or 4. Its nice to go somewhere like that. There is also a large area outside. I think the reason for the extension is to take the turn from Victoria street into Hood Street a little wide to stop trucks from hitting the veranda. For what ever reason, it makes for a very spacious area to sit & watch the world go by.

And go by it does. All sorts go past. Harried Mum's either carrying, walking or pushing in strollers their brood of little ones, office ladies of all shape & size, some looking at home & absolutely stunning in high heels, others looking very unhappy & awkward in 'em. Lady's a word of advice. I know a nice pair of heels tightens your calf & bum muscles up & makes your posture a lot better, but if you aint comfortable in 'em don't wear em. Nothing looks worse. Personally, I can't understand how they ever made a comeback. I have a nice pair of dress boots with Cuban heels a bit over an inch high. I love em to bits & have had em for years. Love wearing them, but God am I glad to get em off. How you ladies cope with 2 & three inch heels is beyond me. Madness. Still, I have to admit to being very partial to a well turned pair of legs in black stockings & stiletto heels, but maybe we should stop there & get on track again huh ? Lots of business men in long trousers, long sleeve shirts & ties coming in for their coffees & pre made sandwiches with folders in their hands & earnest looks on their faces. Was wonderful just to sit & watch it all unfold.

So we're home. Tomorrow is our grand daughter, Renee's 8th birthday. Happy Birthday my sweet. We will see you on Saturday. Have rearranged my baby Wharfedale speakers for a sweeter sound in the lounge. Herself , bless her, just sighed & rearranged her stuff around them. Vast improvement it is. Also gave me the oppotunity for this photo.
Beats the hell out of a little black & white dog staring into a gramaphone don't it ?

Happy Anniversary Baby

Got you on my mind, as the old song goes. It's round about 21 years ago that I plucked up enough courage to admit to my Mum & Dad that my first marriage was irrevocably over & that I had met someone new in my life. Valentines Day was the day that Jude & I climbed in our car & made what for us, was a very long & tense trip from Titirangi in Auckland to Thames to introduce her to my parents. It says a lot for my Mum & Dad, that only having been given about 24 hours notice of all this, that they welcomed Jude into the family with open arms.

A lot of years have passed since that day & a lot of things have happened one way & another. I do know this though. No matter what she has had to face up to since we have been together, she has done it head on without complaint. Thats something that she is still doing. I loved her then & I love her even more now. We may not have as much time together as we hoped, but we have had more than some & been happier so far than a lot of others. Each day now is a treasure. I love you Babe...

Shoes & Ships & digital cameras..

One of the disadvantages of my new digital camera is that it doesn't have an optical view finder, just the digital picture type. This is most disadvantageous when the sun is bright & you wear self tinting glasses. This is what the sea looked like where we were out fishing yesterday, about 7 kilometers off the coast. Looks inviting doesn't it? Almost looks good enough to swim in doesn't it ? I wouldn't though. What I was actually trying to take a picture of was a shark fin that sadly is just a little out of picture. Judging from the size of the fin & the distance between the dorsal & the tail fin, it would have to have been a good 10 foot at least. Like us, I think it was just enjoying the day on the water, although the shark would have been substantially cooler that we were. Damn it was hot. Even with the 5 to 10 knot sea breeze as forecast, it was still uncomfortably hot out there.

We weren't the only ones enjoying the day either. We must have seen at least 10 penguins puddling along doing their thing on the way out. Them & a nice little pod of Mr & Mrs Dolphin out for a stroll with junior quite made our day. I take my hat off to Auckland Coast guard though. Talk about busy ! Hundreds of trip reports & a variety of emergency calls ranging from a snagged anchor in the Rangitoto Channnel to a fire on board off Cleveland. A very busy day for them. Must have been about 200 boats out just from the ramp that we use.

One of the beautiful things about our gulf is that even with the amount of vessels on the water. we could still find our own little patch of water & catch enough fish to feed us & to give some away to friends. Both the cats gorged themselves to a standstill & Jude enjoyed two nice little fillets off a gurnard that I caught. I made up a butter & white wine sauce for it & she really enjoyed it. She enjoyed her day out too. That makes it all the more nicer for us both. Yet another day to treasure & remember.

Well, you wouldn't read about it....

We did the boat trip up the Waihou river today as far as the Puke road Bridge. We did in this boat, all 37 of us that went, the M.V. Kawhau. She was originally built in 1952 & rumbles along contentedly at round about 10 or 12 knots or so. Its a very leisurely way of seeing the sights. You have to go quite a distance out in the gulf so that you don't run aground on the mud banks. Even so, the trip can only be made on a spring tide, which limits the number of trips you can do in a year. Six days this year so far, & weather & seasons play a part as well.


This is Paul. He's the Skipper &, I suspect, the owner of the company. A really nice guy who provides a very knowledgeable commentary spiced with his own particular brand of humour. He has, by his own admission, does this trip 134 times







He is ably assisted by his partner, whom I suspect is his marital as well as his business partner, Cathy. She does the morning tea, lunch & afternoon tea & also brings the car down so that they can go home every day. She has only missed one trip, so they fit together like a comfortable pair of shoes.




This is the main reason we did the trip. So that we could see the bridge open. Its a tribute to the old timers engineering that the opening segment is that beautifully balanced that it has to be wedged closed otherwise a strong wind will actually blow it open.






Very awe inspiring. The whole thing only took about 5 minutes. The old boys really knew what they were doing as after quite extensive tests it was found that the only place they could build the new bridge was right alongside of the old one. Because The Waihou river is legally a seaway, Transit New Zealand have to provide passage for any boat that wishes to use the river. This means that the new bridge will have to be high enough to allow passage. The old bridge truly is amazing. Some of the pylons that support it go down 98 feet & still don't hit bedrock. All that holds them up is the friction in the mud, a scary thought.

From then on in, its a fair amount of this sort of scenery.


I've driven the roads through here, but it was interesting to work out where you are. This gave me time for a good old natter & wouldn't you know it. One guy I ended up talking to at great length was an ex Firefighter like myself, who is semi retired & living in Paeroa now. We didn't actually work together, although we both worked at Hamilton at different times. We had enough mutual acquaintances to pass a very pleasant hour or so chatting about this & that. As I said at the top. You wouldn't read about it. What would be the odds against two old Fireys in 35 people, let alone them discovering the common bond while talking. I do like a good old natter now & then. Jude & I used to talk a lot, & although we still communicate, I do so enjoy a bit of good old intelligent two way conversation.

Anyway, this is where we ended up. A little jetty by the Puke road bridge. From there, we were whisked back to the Thames wharf in the air conditioned comfort of one of Murphy's Buses. All in time to be home for the second part of a two part Star Trek, Next Generation tribute to Gene Roddenberry, featuring the inimitable Mr Spock working with Data. To quote MrSpock, "Interesting."




Tonight also saw the conclusion of a two part mini series, The Day of the Triffids. I have seen a few adaptations made for film & TV of John Wyndham's classic sci fi epic. This was a modernisation of the story & I'm usually sceptical of such things. In this case, however, I doff my hat. The producers have done a wonderful job on updating without losing the plot of the original. Full marks. Currently reading Stephen King's latest novel, The Dome. An intriguing plot. One that as per King, you have no idea where its going to end up. He still writes a very good story.

Tomorrow marks the start of Jude getting back into her routines. There is a morning tea at St. Johns that she has been invited to. I have been invited as well, but I think I will pass. They are, after all, her friends. It will give me some of the down time that I haven't had over the last month or so as well. Friday, she is back to patchwork. Don't want to go there either. Time to do a couple of little jobs that need doing on the boat I think...