Hey it's good to be back home again..

As nice as it was to get away for a few days R & R, it's always good to get home again. There's nothing quite like your own bed & being able to do what you like when you like. Not that I didn't enjoy myself, I did. Had an absolute ball. Finally got to see Tane Mahuta & what a magical experience that was. Okay, so you go down a beautifully formed & maintained track with boardwalk when you get near the tree to protect the root system. But for me it was almost enough to see the beautiful unspoiled native bush on either side of the track. Coupled with that was the rain. I enjoyed it. There is nothing to me like the smell of wet native bush.. I stood & closed my eyes for a minute or two & it took me back further than I care to admit to when I prospected for a living & used to spend a week at a time out in bush like that.. Memories....

The only other thing we really did of any consequence we did was go & pretend to fish on the beach at Paihia. We didn't actually catch anything, but we didn't really expect to. It was enough just to have an excuse to sit on the beach & watch the world go by. And catch up with an old Fire Brigade buddy. What would be the odds ? We pull up, get out of the car & hear, "What are you two old bastards doing here?" all the more unusual in that we were talking about him only the night before. Good to see you Steve after all these years.

So home. It's always good when people do things willingly & gladly for you. Even more so when folk do things over & above the call of duty. Like when your stepson & his wife come down to care for their Mum while you have a well earned break. When you come home, you find that not only have they done a superb job of it, but have also had big tidy ups, getting a lot of the little jobs that you haven't had the time, inclination or general energy to do, & your house is that tidy that the cleaner grumps at you complaining that she has nothing to do. It gave me the incentive I needed to get stuck in & finish some sorting that needed to be done as well, with the upshot that just under 200 kg of rubbish went to the dump. There was a good breeze blowing, so I had every intention of round about 4.00 O'Clock to get the washing in & mow the back lawn which was dry enough to do at that point.

We all know what happens with good intentions though, don't we ? Shortly before I was going to haul my sorry ass out of this chair & do it, Jude came in, very obviously in distress. It's hard enough at the best of times to figure out what she needs unless she is using her ipad, but when she is panicking & something is very obviously seriously wrong & I am starting to panic as well, then it becomes next to nigh impossible. We sorted out eventually that some of the gunge that builds up on the roof of her mouth had dislodged & gotten itself into her windpipe. We ended up calling the ambulance, but by the time he got here, we had just about got her right. For all that , we decided that it would be best if she was transported to Hospital. So we spent the rest of the afternoon & part of the evening there while they checked her out & aspirated her mouth. A really great team up there & although it was quite a busy Saturday night, we got looked after fairly promptly & very well . The upshot of it all is that there is now an aspirator on its way over from Waikato, so we can sort problems like this out ourselves. I think that we will be using it on a daily basis rather than the sponges on sticks to clean the crap out of her mouth before it becomes a problem.

Chris phoned tonight. It seems he has been talking to someone at work with a nursing background & she has come up with what seems to be a good suggestion. Listerine apparently produce these little thin squares of mouthwash that dissolve on your tongue & freshen your mouth up. Going to check it out tomorrow. I have a lot of time for Chris. He devotes a lot of time & energy into trying to find ways of making his Mum's life that little bit easier. His wife, Melanie, supports him in this unconditionally. I count myself very fortunate to have the two of them on my side. It just makes my life so much easier. Thanks guys.

It's New Zealand Music month this month. This is what I'm doing for it.


Pretty cool huh ? I'm doing about an hour for each show. Have you got any idea how many songs you have to sort out & practice to fill an hour ? Its a lot. I have been combing You Tube for new takes on some of my old standards & there is plenty to choose from. I have restrung The Beast with a brand of string that I haven't used before, but had recommended to me. They are lovely. The base strings have a wonderful booming sound that I have looked for for years, so I am adapting some of the old standards to accentuate this. I'm also going to jump in at the deep end & do something that I have never done before, namely use my harmonica rack in public. Hopefully, it should go well. Fingers crossed. Also hopefully, I have left enough good songs for the second show. Don't really want to repeat too much.