Didn't we have us lovely time

We went down to Tauranga yesterday to self administer our Morticia dose. See we need a good dose of Morticia every few weeks. Its good for the soul. The fishing was stuffed anyway. It might be good for the soul, but its bloody tough on the pocket. You see, Herself has these garden vouchers that somebody or other gave her probably for Xmas & they are burning a hole in the travelling trunk that she calls her handbag, so we went looking for pots. I would have preferred to exchange them for bait & boat fuel vouchers, but she wouldn't be swayed. We found some pots. This is them. We couldn't use the vouchers for THESE either.

So , out came the trusty old EFTPOS card yet again. I will admit that they were a bloody good deal, & even more grudgingly admit that I actually found the two white ones. If you look carefully , you will see that the one in the middle has a bit broken off one corner. Herself has a nose for deals like this, & regularly brings home pots with bits broken & glues em up & uses them. The place is like a home for old cracked pots.

After that, we went to Classic Fliers for a look round. Here are some pictures we took....




























Its a great place for a wander round. The one that herself is sitting in is an ex Rhodesian Airforce Hawker Hunter. I'm sat in an old Super Sabre of Korean War vintage. It really is amazing how basic the instrumentation is in these older planes. The one I'm stood in front of is, I THINK, a replica Kitty Hawk, but I'm not sure. Anyway, its a great place to lose an hour or two & possibly a few thousand dollars if you have them to spare for flights.

Looking at my world through a windscreen

So the old country & western song says. I tend to do that a lot. If its not a truck or a van, its a boat windscreen or Sherman's one. Either way, I spend a lot of time under glass. A bit like a goldfish really I suppose. Some times its really bad, like coming home from Coromandel on the Friday night of a long weekend with this endless succession of headlights flashing across your face as they round the interminable number of corners in the road.

Any view from a boat is good for the soul. Some times I feel genuine regret at actually having to stop & anchor somewhere & fish. Joy riding in Top Dog is wonderful. Just a shame that it now takes over $50.00 worth of gas to fill each of the three tanks that I carry.

I had a lovely trip home tonight from Coro. It was one of those wonderful hazy days where its almost impossible to tell where the water ends & the sky starts. A limpid blue for both today changing to a pale buttery yellow with the myriad islands standing out in stark relief, almost black. Couple that with driving our new Toyota van that handles like a sports car. Stubby little gear shift on the dash & a VERY responsive 2.5 litre diesel motor. A real pleasure to drive. Add to that mix some lovely morbid Country Music, ( I'm not allowed to play it at home. Herself says she would rather cut her heart out with a rusty razor blade than listen to it) & you have a picture of sheer bliss. The only fly in that particular perfume was coming round a blind corner to be greeted by 5 or 6 sheep on the road. I didnt hit any, but it certainly got my undivided attention.

If I had a thumb

And I could find the bloody remote, I would change channels. This looks more like a screen saver.. Hot stuff but...

Go ahead, you may as well. Everyone else has......

Well, they haven't shat on my head specifically today, just indirectly. To be specific, they have shat from great height, at great length & with consummate fluidity on herself today. She really hasn't had a good one. Firstly, she got a $200.00 ticket for having an expired registration on the herselfmobile. Fair enough, our fault , will grudgingly wear that one. Half an hour later, the same fucking parking nazi issues her with ANOTHER $200.00 ticket. This one for NOT displaying a registration certificate. She had it with her while she was checking to see if there was enough money in the bank to pay the rego, then go do it, using the old cert for the details. I am going to have someones testicles for that one... The irony of it is, that when I came home for lunch, sorted the finances & took her down to do it, we found out that the Herselfmobile wasn't warranted either. Fortunately our tame mechanic has rectified that so we can sort it out tomorrow..

Had enough yet ? Ohhh Nooo.... Somehow she has managed to misplace her bag. I feel certain that its in one of the shops that she visited, but she is upset that the gold watch that work presented me with was in it.

Give up ? After she got home Doofus went walkabout & got himself arrested by the Dog Ranger Nazi. She got him back after some harsh words & proving that he was registered.

After a day like that, naturally she was too scared to go anywhere near the kitchen, So we let Mac Donalds do the cooking. Fine right up to the point where she spilled her coffee. I kid you not.

Me ? I had a good day. I went to Coromandel, & got to see this....
I want one.. Its got a grunty big V8 under it....

Keep off the grass

We had a lovely weekend. Morty, Nushy & numbah wan son came up to stay. NWS wanted to go to the weekend of trains at our local small gauge club. The rest of us just wanted to yap & chill out. Nushy though, succumbed to the well known charms of the Coromandel & had her own version of a herbal high.. This is Nushy with a dose of the munchies....
Hevver an Woowiss stayed home & did whatever it is that teenagers with an excessive amount of hormones do. We all had a good time.. Groovy huh ?

Waiting for God.........

Found these two old beauties up a long drive in Coromandel today. The Bedford van was sorta fairly obvious as it is so close to the road. Its also sorta full up with rubbish. God only knows what sort & quantity of vermin have found a home there. I sure don't wanna know. The old truck is (I think) an old Austin. I only noticed it after I had done the delivery & was walking back to the van. I think it has a sort of quiet dignity about it & is trying to hide by burrowing under the rubbish & gathering up vegetation about itself. Its certainly blushing... Nice old "Doer Upper" if ever I saw one.

Yawnnnnnn..........

I stayed up far later than I meant to last night. This was because my son contacted me via MSN & turned his webcam on to show me my new grand daughter live & mobile. Very mobile. Although she was 5 weeks early, she is catching up real fast & just an absolutely busy little body & a real fidget. It still amazes me that we can be so far apart & yet I can watch her on screen as if she were here . I just can't cuddle her though. Well, not yet anyway.

OTHER NEWS
This is a driveway that I had to negotiate yesterday. There were about 5 hairpin bends like the one you see in the pic & the whole driveway was this steep. Had my helper scrabbling for a seatbelt, but he gave up, because he reckoned if we fell off, we were going to die anyway.



This is the puddytat that works at Driving Creek Cafe in Coromandel. I don't know his name, because nobody was there. He had been shut outside. A state of affairs which he was most vociferous in his protest about. I think he is the feline meet & greet delegate.

I've changed runs.

No, this isn't anything about the peregrinations & vacillations of my lower colon, this is work related. I have actually been given the shuttle run up to Coromandel, on the medium to long term, which in my job, means anything from 3 days to 3 months. The folk are just as friendly there as they are in Whitianga. Friendliness is something that is endemic to the Peninsula as a whole I think.

The main change is that I am going from a sunrise run to a sunset run. Ie from the east Coast to the west coast.I have gone from hazy, shimmery blue mornings on a good day, & dramatic, windswept foggy vistas on wet days to incredibly dramatic sunsets. When I get the run sorted properly, I will show you some pics. The other evening, Coromandel Harbour was like a large pat of butter floating lazily in the sun. As I head for home, the sunsets give me dramatic red & orange vista's. later as the light fades, the view out over the gulf is reminiscent of one of those velvet paintings that were very fashionable in the 70's. Remember them ? Anyway, here is a pic of the first of my new animal friends. he is the resident rodent operative at Phoenix House, the local retirement home. His well heeled appearance is typical of his occupation.I think I'm going to like my new run....

This is the last image of my favourite rod that I wasn't allowed to download in my last entry.. Cool innit ?


In my series of animals with responsibility, I would like you to meet Zeus. Its not a real good pic, because its very hard to get him to stay still for more than about 2 milliseconds. Zeus is a one dog meet & greet committee at Shells Restaurant in Tairua. He takes this job very seriously, & as he is confined to the rear of the premises by a long length of string & doesn't actually get to meet all that many people, he greets those he does encounter with much enthusiasm

Final images from Whitianga

Well, for a while anyway, you see, Ive been shifted to a Coromandel run, which actually suits me fine as it means i'm away from the spoiled little mama's boy that I have been forced to work with for the last couple of months....

Anyway, on to the pics. Its the Beach Hop at Whangamata this week. A 4 day event that sees some extremely awesome looking hot rods & American muscle cars on the Peninsula. never thought I would be sick of the sight of 57 Chevy's or Mustangs, but its close, there have been so many of them around. One of the events was a run up through Whitianga to Coromandel & back. This is my pick of the rods that were parked in the main street of Whitianga lunch time on Thursday. Hope ya like 'em.....

Oink Oink..

I Saw this beast over at the Pauanui Shopping Center today. After I finished dribbling all over it, I took these pics of it. I even got to talk to the owner. A real nice guy he is. Its a Harley hard tail, & was put together in Orange County Missouri in '04. The dude that owned it decided to sell it to finance building a bigger better mouse trap. This guy just happened to be in the right place at the right time.. Serendipity rules huh ? Now aside from enjoying it on the streets round Pauanui, he uses it to promote sales of his Americana that he sells. It works. I was very tempted to buy a set of Betty Boop floor mats for Sherman. I know he would have loved them.. Only the dude didn't have eftpos. Such is life I guess. Sherman will just have to make do with his tatty old Tweety & Sylvester mats a bit longer. He can't complain really. His incontinence problem is solved & he has a new clutch. What a shame you can't get medical insurance for motor vehicles.

What did I do for ANZAC Day ?

Quite apart from having a think & a quiet weep for relatives & friends lost in & as a result of war, & a little meditate on the sheer futility of it all, I mounted an assault on the courtyard with the aid of a trellis regiment. this is the end result.

Looks pretty good huh ? Massive reserves of Browny points in reserve with herself for this effort. I'm fairly proud of it myself & all.

Amazing trust..

You might begin to think that I have a fixation with our feathered friends maybe so. But when you can get a wild seabird to perch on your hand like this, its a bit of a mind blow. The waterfront at Whitianga yet again....

Well hallelujah Brothers & Sisters

I'm going to start a new Church... No, really I am. You see, I get up at around 5.30 AM & the first thing I do... No the second thing I do is brew up a cup of coffee. Then I stagger into the office& contemplate the 'puter for half an hour or so. Thus physically & emotionally fortified, I stagger forth to don suitable worklike clothing & hunt something down in the kitchen to kill for breakfast & lunch. Part of this ritual is the arousal of herself so that she can follow her morning ritual preparatory to her morning walk with a dear friend. Part of her ritual is the preparation of some nameless goop in the microwave & the consumption of same in front of the television watching the BBC news on TV 1. Herself being herself, this also involves compulsive channel surfing during the ad breaks, even though she knows full well what she is going to encounter.

At that hour of the day there is only infomercials & religious programming. Somehow, the ads always seem to involve incredibly fit young people, male & female, pounding away on various machines of fiendish design guaranteed to remove inches off your breasts/buttocks/abs/ thighs/whatever, so long as you follow the special diet that comes with the machine. The cost of these beasts of reduction is horrendous. On the other channels, equally earnest folk of varying age are earnestly entreating us to put our faith (& our cash) in the Lord.

Now here is my very cunning plan. Why not combine the two? I intend to form the First Church of The Holy Exercycle. Its a winner. You see, perspiring adherents will sit on these various machines & while they are losing inches off their flabby abs, I will be trimming sin & building up layers of salvation for their souls.. Can't you see it now ? The first church to ever cater to body & soul at the same time. Hundreds of bodies sweating away flab, all the while singing hymns, & shouting "Hallelujah" & listening to me proselytise. And of course paying me huge sums of money for the privilege while occupying one of the machines that will replace comfortable chairs & pews. I can't lose. Now where was that 0800 number again ????

I'm not one to brag, but.......

But damn, do I have the most drop dead gorgeous grand daughter or do I have the most drop dead gorgeous grand daughter......... This is Anna Jayne with her doting Daddy.. Neat huh ?

Well, whoop de bloody doo....

I watched with a certain amount of amusement a feature on one of our current affair programmes the other night. It would seem that there is this boys school down Hawkes Bay way somewhere that has come up with an incredibly radical concept that produces happy well adjusted, roundly educated boys. It would seem that all you have to do is come up with a curriculum that encompasses a good range of subjects including how to find your way round a kitchen & a physical education programme that IS a touch radical & make all subjects compulsory. The PT programme includes such radical activities as mud slides & a game called "Bull Rush" Those of you of similar vintage to me will know the game Bull Rush. Its a fairly solid contact sport that we used to play at school. I wont bore you with the details, but I did end up sporting a gold tooth from one particular game of it.

My point is this. Every other species on this planet is instinctively aware that for the adolescent male to grow up healthy & well adjusted, they need to go through a period of aggressive behaviour. There are a few that get hooked on the agression & carry it through life with them, the same as there are those that get hooked on alcohol & tobacco & have that as a burden for the rest of their lives. In this increasingly PC world that we live in, we seem to be doing our best to condition our young to a set of mealy mouthed values. Its "okay" not to want to win , its "okay" just to "participate." You don't need to keep scores with kids sports events like rugby & soccer. BULLSHIT...... Kids, especially boy kids love to compete & love to know if they have won or not.

Girls too. Herself still can't challenge me to the odd game of 8 ball without going for the throat. Trouble is she is so damn good at it that I have to play a very defensive game to avoid getting my ass thrashed. We have a lot of fun & it sure gets the adrenaline flowing. Its certainly much more fun than "just being Okay to participate"

My point is this. Well done that school for rediscovering the old values. I'm all for it. At present I am working with a young man who is very negative in his whole attitude to life. I think he was menopause baby & I know he had learning difficulties at school. This meant special tutors etc etc . This seems to have spilled over to his personal life, so that we now have a young adult who to quote the old Walt Disney movie , has an attitude of, "The world owes me a living." Nothing that goes wrong is ever his fault, he seems to have no initiative, & everything has to be done his way or he packs a tantrum. He needs putting over someones knee & spanking. But we aren't allowed to do that any more.

Maybe one school picking up the old values won't stem the tide. God knows that we have a whole generation of kids with mediocre values coming through. But it is at least a start. Maybe they can make the difference to the world that our generation wanted to. Sad but true, most of our really radical free thinkers got side tracked with music, free love & drugs.

Images from Whitianga

This is a pic of some classic Porches that were touring through Whitianga on Friday.. Beautiful arent they ?


Never let it be said that I don't have the birds eating out of my hand either....

Only in Whitianga

Would you find a sign like this in the public dunnies.God I love it... While I was there today, I saw a perfect example of adaptation in a wild animal. We actually managed to score 10 minutes or so to eat lunch & naturally enough had it on the waterfront. The usual crowd of seagulls noisily gathered to help us eat whatever we may choose not to. This included one adult bird who seemed to take an unusual amount of time to settle, & immediately lay down. This was due to the fact that although he had legs, he had no feet. I wondered how he would fare in the rough & tumble of group seagull feeding. It didn't take me long to find out. As I held the first bit of crust out the truck window, he was in the air in a flash, seizing the bread directly from my fingers & was gone before the other birds woke up to what was happening. He didn't come back. I wished that he would. i would have liked to reward his audacity with another bit of bread....

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.

A night at the Opera

Those of you who know me will know that I am definitely not an opera fan. I don't go much on musicals that you need a plot synopsis to understand what is being screeched about. It isn't that I don't acknowledge the years of dedication that it takes to be able to sing that loudly & memorise all those words in Italian or German or what ever, I do. I just don't see the point is all. Everyone criticises Dylan for his lack of diction, but at least he sings in English & if you actually LISTEN to him, you can understand him. Herself on the other hand is an opera buff.. She loves the damn stuff. We have reached an accord where she is free to listen to it as long & as loud as she likes, so long as its while I'm not home. We have reached an accord where she does that, & I listen to some of my more eclectic music under the head phones, generally while she is watching Miami CSI or some other programme that I find particularly mind numbing. You see, the monotone delivery that American actors seem to affect at the moment bores me shitless, But thats a whole other blog post in itself.

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, our world renowned opera singer, has caused discord in the Cathouse. You see , I find her comments regarding Hayley Westenra's style of singing extremely offensive. Herself, on the other hand, apparently believes that KTK has a direct link to God & can do no wrong. For the record, Westenra's style of singing doesn't really appeal to me either. Given my druthers, I would rather listen to a bit of down & dirty Joplin, or the dulcet tones of Joan Baez, or even a bit of hard rocking Stevie Nix.

I rate KTK's comments about on a level with kicking a Labrador puppy. Westenra has that "cute " factor that has little old ladies dribbling over her left right & center. OK, so the old Dame may not particularly want to share a stage (read limelight) with her. Maybe she is scared that Westenra may get a better reception than her, I don't know. The whole deal smacks of a large meal of sour grapes & professional jealousy. I mean here's KTK with all these years of training & a huge overseas career, (remember all the denigratory comments re her NZ heritage?) versus a kid from the South Island that was discovered by a country & western singer & has proved to be a huge local success, selling heaps of music.

Dame Kiri is welcome to her opinions, as are we all, but under the circumstances, I think she would have done her public image a lot more good had she just quietly refused the concert without the gratuitous comments. Kind of ironic that the whole deal was rained off anyway. Even Herself, after seeing the shitstorm that the whole deal has created, is starting to grudgingly admit that Kiri has screwed up badly on this occasion. Now THAT really IS something...

Nice ladies & little dirt bags.

It's not often that I am sorely tempted towards physical violence towards children, but today I would have gladly made an exception. You see today, I had an afternoon run up to Coromandel. I had one of our better little trucks to take & the sea was an absolute picture. I had a stop to do at one of the oyster companies, & when I went in to see where they wanted their stuff, the nice Maori lady was shelling oysters. On making suitable appreciative noises, she proceeded to give me 2 or 3 still in the shell.. Bliss... So after the last two days of hell runs to Auckland, I was a very happy little camper. Even more so as she came out with a little pottle that contained about a dozen raw oysters. Very nice they was when I got home & had them to the accompaniment of lemon juice, black pepper & a cold beer... Herself is bracing herself & hoping that they don't all work. Anyway, they tasted good & all was well in my little world

That was right up to the point when i was exiting a service lane after another delivery, & this green Toyota king cab ute came round the corner ahead in front of me. "No problem really" thought I, as we both had plenty of room so all was cool. Right up to the point where this arrogant little shit aged about 10, glared at me out the window & flipped me the bird. Did I mention that the whole uteload belonged to our major & very vocal minority group? I think it is very sad that the Maori youth of today is being preprogrammed into a conditioning of hatred towards anyone with European colouring. I also found it very sad that time, social conditioning & the fact that 3 of his extremely large cuzzies were also in the ute prevented me from going after him & smashing his nose into a bloody pulp.

An Oldy but a goody

Got sent this one from my old mate Hawkeye. Its an oldy but a goody, so I thought I would share.




>
> HELL EXPLAINED BY CHEMISTRY STUDENT
>
> The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington
> chemistry mid term.
>
> The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it
> with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the
> pleasure of enjoying it as well :
>
> Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs
> heat)?
>
> Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas
> cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant
> .
> One student, however, wrote the following:
>
> First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need
> to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which
> they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets
> to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how
> many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that
> exist in the world today.
>
> Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their
> religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these
> religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can
> project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are,
> we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now,
> we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law
> states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the
> same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.
>
> This gives two possibilities:
>
> 1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter
> Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell
> breaks loose.
>
> 2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell,
> then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.
>
> So which is it?
>
> If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year
> that, "It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into
> account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be
> true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen
> over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it
> follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct
> ... leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being
> which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God."
> THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+

I've had a good week

Monday, I did an early run to Hamilton, Tuesday I went to Whitianga, Wednesday was Whangamata, Thursday was Whitianga & Cooks Beach, & Friday was Coromandel. All this & I got paid for it as well. Saturday was unadmittedly a selfish day. I tore the manky old user unfriendly stereo out of Sherman & replaced it with one I bought second hand some time ago. I've been a little scared of this job as dammit, there are a lot of wires hanging out the back of new car radios.

But I managed it without blowing up or setting fire to Shermy & it works beautifully. I also took the CB set out of Herself's car & mounted that in Sherman as well. Another job I have been promising myself to do as well, but I couldn't do it until I replaced the stereo, as they both go in the same hole in the console. I put the original little cubby hole back in Herselfs car to fill the space. Now we are both happy. Me for obvious reasons & herself because she now has somewhere else in her car to shove essential crap. Never known anyone who carts as much essential crap round as her. I guess if you want to be pedantic about it, that could include me I guess, but hey....

Today, we went up to Auckland for Renee, my Grand daughters 6th birthday& had a lovely time. Here is a couple of pics of her & her cake.




Clever old sausage isn't she ?

Memories are made of this...

Got sent this link by a dear friend in the States. OK, so it is, of course, American oriented, but the music is great & if you an old fugitive hippy like me, its a groove...

http://objflicks.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htm

Thanks a heap for the link Kathy...

The Chances of anything coming from Mars

Are about as likely as Hollywood doing a remake of a classic story & not butchering it badly. I came home last night after a 15 hour day at work, yes its absolute bloody madness there at the moment, to a wonderful tea. Herself had really excelled herself. Steak, homemade chips, sweetcorn, & beans picked freshly from our own garden, all helped along the way with 2 or 3 really cold beers.

Afterwards, while relaxing (blobbing out actually) on the sofa, I saw a leader for, "Tonight's Blockbuster Movie on 2, War of The Worlds." "Oooh," thinks I. "Lovely way to finish a stressy day seeing as I don't actually have to get up in the pre sparrow fart hours for work the next morning,"Gotta watch this." Turns out that its the Tom Cruise "What if" version... What if we shift the whole story to the US & modernise it. This means we don't have to spend big bucks on sets, & lets make TC an estranged crane driver with two kids to a remarried ex wife, Blardy blardy blah...

Dammit, I may be old fashioned, but H G got the story right when he wrote it. The original worked then , & it still works now. Ok, so I knew what was coming, because I had already wasted money going to see it on the big screen, but that was before I went to see Jeff Wayne's musical version. Now there was a version that ROCKED, but I think we have already been there . I guess I'm spoiled now forever.... Sighhhhhhh.

Paradise is twice as nice

This is the view from where herself & I had a picnic lunch in our boat today. A lovely little bay on the seaward side of Whanganui Island. As you can see it was lovely & sheltered. We had a wonderful day. came home with 10 nice pan sized snapper, & I had a real adrenaline rush when I hooked up on a Thresher Shark about 6 ft. long. This is what they look like although this pic doesnt do the colour of the beast justice.It was the most amazing shade of violet on top. It was making huge leaps out of the water & stripping line off the reel with the most amazing ease. I tightened the drag in the hope that it would either bust off or chew through the line but no. When I finally got him close enough, I could see that he was hooked in the corner of his mouth & no way was he chewing through. In the end, after about 6 runs away from the boat, I finally got him close enough for herself to cut the trace down by the hook. He sat & rested for a second or two before quietly swimming off. I suppose I could have gaffed it & got my hook back, but he really was too beautiful to hurt any more. Herself managed to get a shot with my camera of it, so when the film is developed & if it turns out OK, will post it here .

I want a breeding pair of these..

No, seriously, I really do. Then I can call one Morris, & the other one Minnie.

I'm reading Jeremy Clarkson's latest book at the moment. Its called "Don't stop me now." Its an entertaining read, being a series of car reviews in a fairly humorous style. In his one on the Ford Ka Sports, he mentions a couple of ads that have since been pulled, but I found em on You Tube & they are bloody funny. Here they are...

On being a new Grandad

Ok, so as most of you already know, I already have two very cute little grandkids that i love dearly. They are, however, from Herself's side of the family. Doesnt really make any difference to the way I feel about them. They are our grandkids & I love them dearly.

But at round 9.30 pm on the 9th of this month, my eldest son's wife had by caesarian birth a wee baby girl, 5 weeks early & weighing a mere 4 odd pounds. Damn but there is something special about that 1st blood grand child. Here she is.. Anna Jayne Leslie. The living proof that miracles do still happen.
What else ? Oh yeah! we went fishing yesterday, come home with 6 snapper. Tea was whole fish wrapped in tinfoil seasoned with lemon grass, parsley & butter. Eat your hearts out. Today, I got bored & for the first time in 12 years made a pizza. Everything from the base upwards. That tasted pretty good as well..

To the dump to the dump, to the dump dump dump...

Well , OK it's a refuse transfer station actually, but that really doesn't go terribly well with the William Tell Overture somehow. Anyway, we had a trailor load of green waste thats been sitting around for a week or so nicely drying out. Add to that the current lot of lawn clippings & herself's final mad frenzy of weeding & you sorta get the idea. So, there we were unloading next to this guy with a tandem axle trailor & considerably more stuff than we had, & we got to talking to him as you do under such conditions. Our dump is a very social place to go to pass the time of day.

Turns out this guy is an Aucklander. Among other things he told us, it turns out that he has worked for the same company up there for 32 years. He is a supervisor. What he actually supervises is a bloody great machine that puts foil covering on packets of food product. Personally, I can't imagine ANYONE doing a job that mind numbingly boring for that length of time. I've had jobs that were similar, but they were part time jobs when I was in the Fire Service & i didn't last much more than a week at them.

It turns out that with the advent of Kiwi Saver, they all cashed in their company super & started up with Kiwi. not a move that I think that I would like to make, but its not my choice anyway. He & his wife have bought an old house about 20 minutes drive down the coast. Its a bit run down. The previous owner had it rented out for the last 5 years & hasn't done anything to it, so you get the idea. So here he is with his 4th trailor load of green waste. His good lady wife (bless her) is more concerned about clearing the section, while he has been trying to rejuvenate the bathroom.. A lot of rotten timber that necessitated stripping the weatherboard from the exterior to replace timbers. The house is the original farm house for the area & still has the original kauri plank, scrim & wallpaper interior that was common in that era. His plan is to completely reline with gib, tidy everything up & retire down here . By the time he has done all that, he'll bloody well need to retire. At least he has family that can help him. I suppose that all this work during the holidays makes a pleasant change from watching foil covered packages spew out of a machine.

Anyway, our dump has now put in a weighbridge. This is a much fairer system than the old one. That used to involve some fairly complex calculations involving an eyecrometer. It also involved knowing the guy in the office or not, with resultant wild variations in charges. Now you get weighed coming in & weighed going out & pay accordingly. Thats how I know that Sherman towing my little trailor weighs 2100 kg's. Also, my modest little load was only 56kg & only cost me $2.00. Under the old system, it would probably have cost me nearer $10.00.

New Year , all in all was better than Xmas. I caught up with an old mate that I haven't seen for about 12 years. He used to be a mechanic, which is good, because he sorted out a couple of issues with the motor on my boat which were a little worrying. The highlight of his days fishing was catching a small hammerhead shark. There are heaps of em about at the moment, & weight for weight they are bloody good little fighters & I always carefully let them go. In my opinion, anything with optical problems like that need all the help they can get.

It was Jeff's birthday New Years Eve & his brother in Auckland had made arrangements for him, so we reluctantly bid him farewell. Alison & the kids came up & stayed a couple of nights. Its always good to see them & we saw the occasion in with all the flair, aplomb & dignity that one could reasonably expect. In other words, we ate too much, drank too much, talked a lot of crap, & generally enjoyed ourselves.

Well, thats about it. I am hopeful that I will get some proper holidays a bit later on. I have a Grandchild due mid February, & my baby boy turns 30 on the 28th of Feb. Both events are happening in Dunedin. God, I wish that they were a little bit closer than that. Still, a holiday is a holiday I guess.

From Hamburger to Ham.

I worked today, unlike those many thousands of folk whose bosses run businesses that hold a non essential place in our community. A courier company has got to keep the wheels turning. In my case, I did a van run to Auckland & picked up a staggering amount of bread, meat & vegetables. Enough to fill a Ford Courier Jumbo in fact. All this to contribute in part to keeping the myriads of tourists that flock to our part of the world well, if not expensively, fed.

One of the drops that I did on the way home was a delivery of bread product to a roadside restaurant that we do regular drops to. In an effort to gee up my somewhat jaded Xmas spirits,(the reason for that is a whole different ballgame, & not one that I want to share at this point) I bid the lady in the kitchen "Merry Xmas," & asked her what her plans where for the day. "Work," she replied. "Surely not in here," sez I. "Nope," sez she, "Home cooking Xmas dinner." "Oh." sez I. "Hamburgers to ham, huh?"

This did, at least, raise a smile on her face. She was as busy as. Heaps of traffic on the road, burger orders backed up,hot as hell in the kitchen & just herself & the ditsy blonde teenager manning the counter out front. At least I brightened her day a little I hope.

We are on the road early tomorrow for a two hour drive to spend Xmas with our daughter & the grand kids, so I can empathise with her in that I too will spend part of my holiday doing the same thing that I do for a living, namely driving. It does have its rewards though. i will have herself with me, I will be driving Sherman, & when we get there, I can relax & have a beer or two or three with the obligatory after dinner nap.

So where ever you are & however you spend your day, enjoy it & be safe. Also spare a thought for those who have to keep the wheels turning regardless of how much they want to be with their loved ones. I have been in that situation & could relate some truly horrendous Xmas Eve & New Years Eve anecdotes, but I wont. I prefer to keep those sort of memories in the dark place where wild things roam.

So from Herself & me, have a truly great Xmas & enjoy your special time with your loved ones. I know we will, & thank you all for taking the time to read my ramblings. merry Xmas all.

Xmas lights

Herself, bless her, really enjoys Xmas with all the trimmings. She really gets into the whole deal. I have managed so far to restrain her efforts to the interior of the house, being ever mindful of the high cost of strings of lights, cute Santa's on sleighs, Elves on seesaws, Xmas trains etcetera, not to mention the hazards to aerial navigation all these flashing lights imply. You see, we do live under the flight path of the local airfield & I, for one, don't really fancy the concept of an aircraft, even if it is only a two seater Cessna or something, mistaking my bloody roof for a runway because of them.

The look of disappointment on her face when I said "No" this year was too much for me though. So I worked very hard while she was out the other day & really set things up. Can you imagine the look on her face when she came home & saw this absolute little Wonderland of lights...

Politically Correct Holiday Greetings

Guarded Holiday Greetings to Everyone

I wanted to send some sort of holiday greeting to all of you, but it is so difficult in today's world to know exactly what to say without offending someone. So I met with my team of human rights lawyers yesterday, and after taking their advice I wish to say the following:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the holiday, practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with due respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or of their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you all a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make my or your country great (not to imply that UAE, Pakistan, China, Singapore, the US and Thailand is necessarily greater than any other country) and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

By reading this greeting, you are accepting these terms:

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal without notice and is without any risk, liability or engagement on my part. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no
promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Disclaimer: No trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced.

James [ surname deleted in accordance with voluntary code of practice against nationalist symbolism and gender discrimination ]

So this is Christmas

and what have you done ?

So begins one of the most haunting Christmas songs that I know. John Lennon sure knew what he was doing when he penned those words. I hope that you are doing more than the mean spirited assholes that left this crap & rubbish with the Salvation Army Shop in Waihi as donations for Xmas presents for kids in need. People may be poor, but they still have pride.. isnt it sad how condescending & self serving some folks can be. Good on ya Sallies for highlighting this...

RIP CHLOE

Mistress of The Lounge, Terroriser of Ginger Ninja's, fresh fish, cheese & bacon afficionado extraordinaire. You were originally intended to be my Mum's cuddly sit on the lap & purr sweetly cat to comfort her in her old age. Instead you turned out to be a perverse old Tart that refused to sit on ANYONE'S lap, but would on occasion curl up beside you, or wait expectantly in front of you for a gentle skritch under the ears.

The last of the great conversationalists, you could always be relied upon to pass the time of day with me when I got up at some ungodly hour to go drive a truck. Your grip of the English language when talking to the Ninja's was legendary. Even I, as a trucky was shocked & dismayed by some of the language that you used.

But, like all of us, old age &, in your case, cancer, finally got the better of you & you ended up suffering more than we could endure so you had the final trip to the vets & was gently put to sleep with the dignity you so richly earned. Goodbye old girl, I'm gonna miss you. Our life has been so much richer for having shared life with you. May the Heavyside treat you kindly with soft warm beds, plenty of fresh fish, a selection of bacon, both raw & cooked, a perpetual cheese board, neverending milk at room temperature & as much love as you had here.

Everyone should

at least once in their life stand naked in the rain somewhere. It 's a remarkably energising experience, especially after a long dry spell. Sorta helps put you right back in touch with nature at its most basic. The main thing to remember is that unless you live a long long way away from other houses, its best to do it at night time though.......

More Justin Timberwank

on the front page of the Herald ?????? Excuse me while I go mug a walrus for a bucket to vomit in........

Today, we raced

Well in theory we didnt . In theory, we had a controlled run up Lake Karapiro & back doing a poker run. But when you get 40 odd boats in a running shotgun start,(literally) then its not surprising that the old testosterone gets flowing & the throttle gets nudged further & further forward & to hell with other lake users.

You see, we participated in Fish City's annual Poker run. The idea of this is that you circumnavigate a course collecting sealed envelopes with playing cards in them. When you return, the scrutineers open them & make the best hand they can, with you having the option of buying up to 4 extra cards. Its an annual event in memory of a young lad that worked for them & died of a melanoma & the monies raised go to cancer research. This year it was leukemia.

Anyway, we had a ball. Top Dog showed a clean pair of heels to a surprising amount of boats, the only low point being a loss of power on the way home & we had to limp in at a mere 35 km/h. Fortunately it was only loose screws holding the cover plate on the fuel pump & is now all fixed. One of the treasured memories of the day is the water skier who panicked when he saw about 10 boats bearing down on him at a rate of knots & arsed off. It was quite beautiful the way we all peeled off round him.

The halfway point was a particularly beautiful little bay where we all lounged around, drank cold drinks,(non alcoholic) & swam. My excuse for wearing a life jacket in the water was that I had never been in the water with one & wanted to see how well they held an old fatso like me up. Nothing whatsoever at all to do with the 50 ft of water under me....

Then it was back to the clubhouse for the awarding of prizes. I won a spot prize of an outboard motor cover, about 3 sizes too big for my motor. Didnt win the main prizes, but thats Ok.. We had a great day out....

Nice one, NZ Herald....

I see the Heralds lead story this morning is a revue of the Justin Timberwank concert... Why ???? The conceited git has only ever put out two albums & neither of them particularly uplifting.. The last three shows that I have been to, Dylan, Steely Dan & War of the Worlds were all reviewed as well, but you had to hunt for them. Wheres your taste in musical appreciation guys ????

Well, this is me

Just SOOOOOO happy to be off to work yet again starting at 6.00 AM yet again on a run that I don't particularly like yet again.... The only consolation that I have is that Dave is back tomorrow from his paternity leave & he can have his run back.. He is definitely in no danger of a takeover bid from me....

I want to ride my bicycle....

Herself is in the process of losing weight & getting fit. I'm rapidly running out of excuses as to why I shouldn't join her, so any help would be appreciated. Her latest thing is that she has decided to ride a push bike round to her friends place that she walks with. I find this very laudable. After all, our carbon foot print is probably quite big enough what with a petrol powered car, a diesel 4WD, a boat with a 2 stroke outboard & God knows how many electrical appliances.. Global Warming ? Burn baby burn, I say.

Anyway, back to the push bike. I dunno why exactly they are called push bikes, because under ordinary circumstances, unless the chain comes off, or you get a flat tyre, or your going up a steep hill, you don't push 'em. You bloody well PEDAL them don't you. Anyway, thanks to the on air garage sale run by our local radio station, we got her a push bike. Just yer basic 10 speed road bike, although the gears won't get used a lot. The only fly in the ointment is that herself hasn't ridden a bike for more years than she is prepared to admit to.

You know the fluttery feeling that you get in the pit of your stomach when your kids, or grandkids first take to the footpath without trainer wheels ? Well, herself wouldn't even let me fit trainer wheels. She was happy with the new pump & the gelpad seat cover, & the little red bell with "I love bikes" on it, & the flash ergodynamically designed hand grips, but trainer wheels ???? Nooooo thank you. Luckily, our drive is quite long & flat so that she can practice. Getting on & off is fraught with hazards, & those initial first few feet untill some momentum is achieved, is definitely a bit wobbly, but she was getting there. Right up until the point that she mucked up getting off the thing & gracefully collapsed into a heap with the bike on top of her.

I'm standing there with visions of trips to hospitals racing through my mind, but she held up both hands & said,"I'm all right." Probably my imitation of putting the boot into her ribs at that point didn't really help a lot, I don't know. Anyway, she is still determined to master the damn thing. I'll probably have to think about getting one for myself soon I suppose. Life can be very cruel sometimes..

We saw dolphins yesterday

Its not like we haven't seen them before. I have been to the dolphin place in Napier & seen them perform, I've seen them on TV as you do, & seen them swimming past the boat while we have been fishing, but this was up close & personal.

You see, Herself & I went fishing yesterday. We usually fish from Te Puru, but when the tide is low there, it can be a little tense getting the boat in & out of the water, so lately, we have been fishing from Waikawau. This ramp offers an easy launch into a river mouth & now that it has been dredged, it offers at least two feet of water under the keel even at the lowest ebb. We are still ,however, finding where the fish are in that particular area. So we went out & ended up catching 4 snapper & deciding to have a look round, as that area offers some very picturesque scenery with bays & little islands & such, so we went all the way up to Deadmans Bay, which is the start of Coromandel Harbour. On the way back, Herself happened to see a big splash in the water , so we investigated.

Imagine our joy when it turned out to be a pod of about 30 dolphins, some up to about 15 ft., in length. They put on a lovely show for us, leaping out of the water in pairs & all sorts of things, all impromptu & all without any human bribing them with dead fish. They were doing it for the sheer joy of being able to, not as part of some routine necessary for food. They even had babies with them. Some of them came that close to the boat you could nearly touch them. God it was fantastic. The only sad bit was that I didn't have any sort of camera with me, so I can't share the experience with you. maybe next time...

Requiem for a friend

RIP WETI

You may have noticed (or not) I know I didn't, a report in the Waikato Times about a trucky who was killed when his truck rolled on State Highway 39 out the back of Hamilton at a place called Whatawhata. I didn't, & my work hours for the last week have been such that I haven't been able to keep up with TV news & I don't usually buy The Waikato Times. It doesn't really matter all that much anyway, because Weti is dead.

He was driving for Five Star Freight, with a full load of timber on his truck & trailer, when he rolled it.

As a trucky , you get to meet all sorts of people, most of whom you wouldn't recognise if you met them in the street. Put them behind the wheel of their rig though, & they are instantly known. "Aaah, there's the guy in the brown Freightliner that does the evening linehaul from Auckland to Hamilton." That was how I first got to know Weti. We used to do an evening linehaul from Auckland to Hamilton & you could usually count on seeing Weti somewhere around Huntly, heading north in one of Road Freight's 6 wheel curtainsiders. Some truckys acknowledge your wave with a casual lift of one finger, others have their own distinctive wave. Weti was one of the latter. I used to fear for his safety at first, because Weti used to launch himself bodily at the passengers side window with a hearty wave & a grin like the front bumper on a '57 Chevy.

Later on, he started doing the Roadfreighters run to our depot in Thames, so I got to meet him in person. Nothing was too much trouble for Weti. he was always happy to do an unofficial delivery for us on the way home if it would help out. Later, when we started doing our own linehaul out of Hamilton & bought our first 8 wheeler & trailer, Weti helped us there too. The boss was doing it for a while & hurt himself badly in a stock car mishap, & Road freighters lent us Weti for the duration. He enjoyed it so much that he eventually came over & worked for us a year or two.

But, Weti being Weti, eventually he decided that a truck full of fruit & veges was a far more attractive proposition to drive, so he left. But we still got to see Weti, because one of his stops on that run was our depot. He left there too, & since then, like the proverbial bad penny, Weti would turn up in the most unlikely places, usually driving something different each time.

Rest well old friend. There probably aren't that many big rigs where you are, but I feel sure that knowing you, you will be able to cut a deal with St. Pete somewhere along the line for something to drive, who knows.

The devil made me do it...

I had occasion to deliver to a bottle shop today. As I was waiting for the signature, I noticed a new item on his shelves... Pina Colada Slushies.. Just add white rum & freeze.. Mundane you say ? So what you say ?? Yes, maybe, until you see the accessory for it. A little container of... Wait for it.... Rimming sugar... For the perfect cocktail.. I kid you not..

Arthur

Tonight, I met Arthur....
Arthur is a large, very genial Maori guy....
Arthur would be about as big as me & herself put together
Arthur drives an eight wheeler & trailor for one of the companies we deal with....
Arthur comes from Wanganui...
Arthur can parallel park his rig into a gap only 10 meters longer than his truck & trailor
I know, cos I measured it.
I think Arthur is pretty cool..
And one helluva good driver...
Better than I could ever hope to be

On the subject of fireworks. Since the banning of bangers & sky rockets, the pyrotechnic capabilities of the light fuse & retire to a safe distance variety of device has gotten louder & more spectacular every year to compensate. When small children are getting severely burnt as a result of this dollar greed, its time to call a halt to public sales. Even experts in the field got hurt this year. This is bad Juju. Anyway, why should we celebrate a failed terrorist from a different country ? In the light of recent Police actions, surely this is a prime example of double standards.. And thats all I've got to say about that..