Bewilderment Rules

It's 7.17 AM on Saturday morning. I have just finished work for a month. Herselfs youngest son & his wife are coming down to spend the weekend with us. My two sons in an amazing act of generosity & reconciliation have offered to pay for our airfares so that we can go down to Dunedin, spend some quality time with them both, get to know our new grand daughter & help my youngest son's wife celebrate her birthday. Apart from the weather, surely a time for celebration & rejoicing.

Unfortunately not. Let me explain. You see, for some time Herself has been exhibiting symptoms of having had a stroke of some sort, but we just put it down to other things such as ill fitting teeth. Finally a dear friend insisted she see a doctor about it, so we did. He sent her for Xrays & a CT scan, the Xrays being to rule out Parkinsons disease, which they did.

So on to the specialist, which we did on Tuesday. Since then, we have been struggling to come to terms with the fact that my beloved wife & best buddy has got a condition known as Bulbar Palsy, & as a result is going to have an extremely shortened life span. Since then, we have existed in a state of shock. The only bright spot is the support, offers of help & general compassion that has been freely offered from friends, loved ones & workmates. Thank you all

Now for something completely different

That Song is drivin me crazy

Well, not exactly crazy but this particular version of this song does evince a very powerful reaction from both Herself & Me.

You see, I have it as part of my CD collection on audio, although I have a cunning plan to add the DVD to my collection as well. Let me explain. I have the cd as part of my collection of copied discs that I drag around in my work bag, for occasions when I'm out of reception for what I believe to be an acceptable radio station when I'm working. I haven't listened to this one in a while, but I've been in a country/folk/bluegrassy mood lately, so I gave it a spin Monday. There is a few songs that evoke an emotional reaction for me, most of them are Irish. One other song is the ballad of Pancho & Lefty. Another is City of New Orleans. This particular version of this song came out of left field for me as emotive.

I happened to take herself with me yesterday. I told her to pick a CD to listen to & she surprised me by selecting "The Best Of The Band" After that had finished I dragged out this CD which is, if you were wondering, The Pete Seegar Tapes, by Bruce Springsteen. When this track came on, I surreptitiously wiped some rain that had managed to get into my eye through a closed window. I happened to look across to see herself having a good old blub as well, which really surprised me, as she is usually fairly fire proof to this sort of music.

Out of curiosity, I asked her what the pull of the song was for her. She told me that it conjured up memories of being a small child & spending time with her Grandmother in a small township down the line called Mangaweka. It would seem as though her Grandmother was really the only one of her elders who actually gave a shit about her & really loved her. From this woman , a little girl learned to love gardening, patchwork knitting & hand hooked rag rugs.

I can't say for certain what it does for me. It's a sad & gentle lament of a boy taken rudely from a home that he loved & thrust into the horrors of a civil war. He is pining for his river & his woman. Both unobtainable. I guess thats the commonality of it all. We are all reaching for things that are out of reach & sometimes out of sight. I'm not certain as I said, what it is in my case, but I think I know. I think it has too do with Grandparents that I never met. You know the continuity of the whole thing. Also I think it has to do with children & a grand daughter that live in another Island. The grand daughter I haven't met yet. I feel deprived I suppose of the whole family continuity thing. The only thing my father really passed on to me was a love of the out doors. None of the skills & interests that he really wanted me to have were of particular interest to me. That doesn't mean I didn't try; I just couldn't put my heart & soul into them. The things that consumed me as a teenager, namely reading & music, he just couldn't care less about. Family wise, I feel as though I am in a bit of a social vacuum.

Don't get me wrong here. I have two wonderful grand children in Auckland, but they function on a totally different level. I cant see them being interested in many of the things that I am. I will happily stand to be corrected though

Happiness is a hot Pipi Sandwich

I haven't had a decent feed of Pipi's for a few years now. Mainly because there has been a ban on collecting them from our particular part of coastline. The reason being that the stocks have had a hell of a hammering over the years & needed the time to build up again. Also nobody seriously heeded the limit of 50 per person per day, but is enforced more rigorously now. The big problem is that collecting pipi's is an addictive pastime.

You spend a frantic hour or so racing the tide, scrabbling round on your knees in the sand unearthing the damn things. Its addictive in the sense that there is always a few more of them in the next handful of sand that you just HAVE to have. So you usually come home with more than you actually need. Not from a sense of greed, but just because the damn things are there.

This makes it hard when you get home. You see I'm the only one that eats 'em, so I have to cook em & shell 'em. Thats the tedious bit. The good bit is when they are in a bowl with some malt vinegar & a little black pepper. You then scoop up a handful & arrange them artfully between two slices of fresh bread spread liberally & eat. I had 4 sandwiches like that for tea & I still have enough for another sammy for supper. Its a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

ON THE HEAVY SIDE....

I see that the Pope has formally apologised to all the victims of sexual abuse by his priests in Australia. Well whoop de fucking doo. Thats really going to help the poor souls that have been used & abused by these hypocrites. I guess though, that you can't really expect normal behaviour from a group of people that are expected to live their life in a celibate state. Its an unnatural way for man to be, so I suppose that you can't really expect much else.

Ok,so we only caught one snapper

But we saw about half a dozen Little Blue Penguins & we got to see how they harvest mussels from the farms, & even saw the mussels we saw being picked on their way up to Auckland for processing. We burnt probably $50.00 worth of gas just mooching around enjoying ourselves. We had a good day.

Did I mention that I have all this week off bar one day & also pretty much all of August as well ? Never mind. I do anyway....

I get high with a little help from my friends

I found this little gem of a clip when I was trolling You Tube last night. It sorta fits with my previous post as two out of the three of them are gone now, although Gerry Garcia did last longer than Joplin. Rick Danko is still doing it. From what I can gather this clip was shot while they were on tour in Canada..
Groovy huh ?

Only the good die young

I had time on my hands after seeing what the final score from the rugby was last night, so i went for a stroll down memory lane on You Tube. I found some absolutely blinding live performances by Led Zeppelin there, & came to the conclusion that they were at their utter best playing live rather than in an impersonal recording studio. To me, the mark of a good artist is being able to successfully jam during the instrumental breaks, & damn.Led Zep could do it with style. I also came across such curiosities as a band featuring Eric Clapton, John Lennon & Keith Richards playing some knockout blues. I'm not going to give you the links for this stuff. If you are sufficiently interested, go find it yourself. It's there. I also found Gary Moore & Eric Bell (lead guitar for Thin Lizzie) doing the most amazing version bar none of Whiskey in the Jar that I think I have ever experienced.

All this got me to thinking about how some people have shaped the course of rock music simply by dying. What I mean , is that their deaths have either radically changed the sound of the band, or affected the other members of it so badly that they have stopped playing altogether. in the latter group, the name John Bonham springs readily to mind. John Bonham , as we know, was the charismatic & agressive drummer for Led Zeppelin. He was only agressive behind his skins though. I have seen an interview of his with Billy Connolly where Billy was hard put to get more than two words at a time from him. The details of his rather pointless death are well documented all over the net for those who don't already know. needless to say, his death affected the other members of the band that much, that it was only this year that they performed in public again, & then with "Bonzo's " son on skins.. A nice touch I thought.

The Who sort of lost their impetus with the death of Keith Moon for a long time & subsequently "The Ox" Although Townsend & Daltry seem to have recovered heart on the wave of popularity follwing the Live8 concert & subsequent use of their music in a TV show.

Lynard Skynard lost Ronnie Van Zant in 77 & never really reformed. although a tribute band featuring Ronnies brother Johnnie is still playing. To my knowledge though, as a tribute to Ronnie for a long time when they played Freebird, nobody would sing the lyrics, leaving it to the Audience.

"I used to play my guitar as a kid
wishing that I could be like him
But today I changed my mind
I decided that I don't want to die
But it was a normal day for Brian
Rock and Roll's that way
It was a normal day for Brian
A man who died every day"

Thus wrote Pete Townsend on the death of Brian Jones. His estrangement from The Stones & subsequent death are well documented by better scribes than I. Just let it be said that his musical genius provided a depth & range of instrumental ability that was breathtaking. I'm not knocking Ronnie Woods here, because he is a very capable axeman, but it was said of Brian Jones that he could pick up any instrument & be able to play it well within half an hour. Wikipedia has this to say on the subject....

Throughout his career, Jones showed exceptional musical aptitude, able to play an array of instruments on Stones' recordings. As soon as the Stones earned enough money to record in professional studios like Olympic Studio, the RCA, and Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles, and influenced by The Beach Boys 1966 album Pet Sounds and The Beatles experiment with Indian music (notably George Harrison's sitar and tamboura), Jones started experimenting with wind and stringed instruments.

Throughout his years with the band, he played stringed instruments (guitar, sitar, tamboura, Appalachian dulcimer), keyboards (organ, mellotron), wind instruments (recorder, harmonica) and several other instruments such as the xylophone and marimba. In fact, sources say that Jones could pick any instrument and learn to play it in less than half an hour. [14]

Jones' main guitar in the early years was a Gretsch Double Anniversary in two-tone green, but Jones is known for his signature teardrop-shaped prototype Vox Phantom Mark III. From late 1965 until his death, Jones used Gibson models (various Firebirds, ES-330, and a Les Paul model), as well as two Rickenbacker 12-String models.

Jones contributed to the 1960s sound of the Stones, playing slide guitar on "I Wanna Be Your Man", "Little Red Rooster" and "No Expectations", harmonica on "Come On", "Dear Doctor", "Prodigal Son", "2120 South Michigan Avenue", "I Just Want to Make Love to You", "Look What You've Done" and "Not Fade Away", tambura and sitar on "Street Fighting Man" and "Paint It, Black", organ on "Let's Spend The Night Together", "Complicated" and "2000 Man", marimba on "Under My Thumb" and "Yesterday's Papers", recorder on "Ruby Tuesday", saxophone on "Child of the Moon", appalachian dulcimer on "I Am Waiting" and "Lady Jane", accordion on "Backstreet Girl", harpsichord on "Sittin' on a Fence", harpsichord, saxophone and oboe on "Dandelion", harpsichord on Lady Jane, mellotron on "She's A Rainbow", "Stray Cat Blues", "We Love You" and on "2000 Light Years from Home", tambourine on "Can I Get a Witness" and "Tell Me (You're Coming Back), and autoharp on "You Got the Silver".

There are others that I could talk about, not only band members, but individual artists that have succumbed over the years to the temptations offered by sudden stardom & a free & easy lifestyle. I just can't help but wonder at the music the bands that I have mentioned have produced while at the top of their game & speculate in vain what they would be turning out now IF they had survived, & IF the members of their respective bands had managed to weather the turbulence that their lifestyle engendered. Damn, there is gonna be some big reunion concerts in Heaven.....

Hoots Mon...

I met these two fine wee chappies at a house just out of Paeroa this afternoon. happy little fellows who gave me a most enthusiastic greeting. Don't ya just LOVE the wee jackets the puir wee bairns hae gotta wear.. Shit I laughed...
Now for breaking news... In an attempt to circumvent rising fuel costs. Coromandel Couriers has gone nuclear. Yes folks, a steam turbine powered by a nuclear reactor has been fitted experimentally to one of our trucks.What are we gonna do with the spent fuel rods ? Oh any old convenient water course.. Who really cares if a few locals glow in the dark....... Either that or pack em all up & send em down to Parliament.. Now theres a thought...

Just a better pic

This is Rocky a bit more relaxed & settled. handsome little bugger isn't he? He's definitely master of the art of diplomacy, being very deferential towards Tig's even though he is way bigger. He still has to work on relationships with the dog & also his appetite, although I suppose you don't survive for 5 months on the street by passing up any opportunity for a feed. All in all, I think he will settle in & adapt quite nicely.

Buddy from The Muddy

This is Buddy, from the Muddy River Cafe in a little place on The Waihou River called Turua. Its run by two freinds of mine, Carole & Chris. The food there is excellent, so if you happen to be passing call in. I'm not sure what Buddy's official capacity is there apart from supernumery & official food taster, but as you can see, she is well cared for. She gets more use out of the treadmill than Carole does, & she is well catered for, with a gas heater should it get too cold, a fan heater should it get too hot & a nice selection of cold cuts & warm milk should the exercise regime prove debilitating... Aaaaaaah... Lucky Buddy.

Not sayin that its been cold the last couple of mornings, but yesterday, I couldnt open the side door on my van because it was frozen. This was the world through my windscreen heading out over the Hauraki Plains at about 8.00 AM yesterday morning. A good healthy frost it was.

Finally summink for Morty...
A nice little Chrysler Crossfire Rag Top. Be a bit cool at the moment though...

Introducing Rocky

This is the latest addition to our family. We don't know what his name used to be, but I have decided that his name is now Rocky. I think I got conned more than just a little bit. You see, it was pretty much a done thing when I got home from work. He had moved in care of herself.

Seems his original family shifted 5 months ago. The had someone lined up to take him, but it fell through, so he threw himself on the charity of a lady about 5 houses along who has two Burmese. Unfortunately, she travels a lot, so can't afford another cat, but she has been feeding him. The SPCA is full, Animal Rescue is full, so old softy bought him home threw him on my mercy. Of course I said "NO!!!!!!!!!" & threw him out into the cold cold snow... Yeah right...... He purrs, he smooges he dribbles & he eats cat bikkies like there's no tomorrow. In short, he's a cunning old bastard of a neutered Tomcat who can see a couple of soft hearted patsy's when he see's them.

Tigs on the other hand is not so easily convinced. We've had a couple of dustups under the bed in the spare room already, which has prompted me to fix the latch on the door so Rocky can have some peace & quiet. Hopefully, he will integrate fairly easily. now all we have to do is convince Tig's that he is really a nice guy...

Knob Ends in abundance

Yesterday, in case you hadn't noticed, or live anywhere other than our sainted isles, the weather was absolutely atrocious. Relatively fine periods with strong winds interspersed with these savage squalls that if one was sailing, would have one reaching for the halyards to haul everything in & disappearing below for a mug of hot toddy.

Sadly, when I'm working, I don't have that option. In my job, it's a bit like the US mail,(Or any other mail for that matter,) it's got to go through. It made for some very interesting driving conditions I don't mind telling you. Bearing that in mind, you can imagine my amazement on rounding a corner coming in to Te Kouma (look it up) & seeing about 20 or so cyclists gathered at the intersection getting ready to do the last leg of their ride into Coromandel. Now this bit involves a ride along a straight that is renowned for the wind gusts that roar up the harbour & slam into your vehicle with no mercy pushing you over the white line if you're not careful.

So here's me in my van with a layer of polar fleece & the heater on(the latter MOST unusual for me) & here's these knob ends on their pushbikes clad in nothing but a layer of Lycra in various garish hues, stupid little polystyrene helmets & generally the most inane, idiotic smiles that you could ever imagine. The kicker is that they were actually PAYING to have various parts of their reproductive equipment frozen off. Yes folks, they were part of one of these "Adventure Holiday" deals that you see, where somebody drives along in front of them in a van with indicators flashing & generally pisses the rest of of the motoring public off highly. Now me, if I was going to pay for not enjoying myself, would probably book a visit to Madame Monika's House of Pain. At least it would be warm there I suppose.......

OTHER NEWS

In these days of rising fuel costs etc, one has to do what one can to conserve the stuff. personally, I'm thinking of buying one of these if they ever hit the general market. Not only would they be energy efficient, they also recycle as well

Not too sure about towing the boat though...

While on the subject of knob ends out in inappropriate weather, we be off to Albany this morning. Its our Grandson's 8th birthday. Also, hopefully, the first time in 10 years that herself's 3 kids will be together in one spot for a photo. Yes, we will drive with care, specially on the Harbour Bridge....

Riley, the Receptionist

This is Riley, a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel. he mans the front desk at Coromandel Small Engines & Hire. Mostly he does this when the boss is doing welding out the back. he reckons that if he took Riley home with arc eye, (look it up) his life probably wouldn't be worth living. The rest of the time when he is not on the front desk, Riley is in charge of customer satisfaction, a job that he excells at.

God I love Billy Connelly's Humour

This is a copy of a chain mail letter purportedly originated by him. I think he may have done it originally as an onstage routine...

Hello, my name is Billy and I suffer from guilt for not
forwarding 50 billion fucking chain letters sent to me by people who
actually believe, if you send them on, a poor six-year-old girl in
Scotland with a breast on her forehead will be able to raise enough
money to have it removed before her redneck parents sell her to a
travelling freak show.

And, do you honestly believe that Bill Gates is going to give
$1000 to you, and everyone to whom you send 'his' email?

How stupid are we?

Ooooh, looky here! If I scroll down this page and make a wish,
I'll get laid by a model I just happen to run into the next day!

What a bunch of bullshit.

Maybe the evil chain letter leprechauns will come into my house
and sodomise me in my sleep for not continuing a chain letter that was
started by St Peter in 5AD and brought to this country by midget
pilgrim
stowaways on the Endeavour.

Fuck 'em!!

If you're going to forward something, at least send me something
mildly amusing.

I've seen all the 'send this to 10 of your closest friends, and
this poor, wretched excuse for a human being will somehow receive a
nickel from some omniscient being' forwards about 90 times. I don't
fucking care.

Show a little intelligence and think about what you're actually
contributing to by sending out these forwards. Chances are, it's our
own
unpopularity.

The point being?

If you get some chain letter that's threatening to leave you
shagless or luckless for the rest of your life, delete it.

If it's funny, send it on.

Don't piss people off by making them feel guilty about a leper
in Botswana with no teeth who has been tied to the arse of a dead
elephant for 27 years and whose only salvation is the 5 cents per
letter
he'll receive if you forward this email.

Now forward this to everyone you know. Otherwise, tomorrow
morning your underwear will turn carnivorous and will consume your
genitals.

Have a nice day.

Billy Connolly

PS Send me 15 bucks and then fuck off.

Lets Do The Timewarp Again....

Yes folks, today in 1973, The Rocky Horror Show premiered at the 63 seat Theatre Upstairs in London.

After two previews, The Rocky Horror Show premiered at the 63-seat Theatre Upstairs on June 19, 1973 and ran until July 20, 1973. The theatre was run by the Royal Court as a project space for new work. Veteran stage producer Michael White produced the play. The production was a critical and commercial success. Record producer Jonathan King saw it on the second night and signed the cast to make the Original Soundtrack Album over a long weekend which was rushed out on his UK Records label. King was heavily involved in the initial promotion for the show as well as being the other 20% backer of it financially with White. The production transferred to the Classic Cinema on Kings Road from August 14, 1973 to October 20, 1973, a run-down 270-seat venue scheduled for demolition. Transferring again to the Kings Road Theatre, a 350-seat converted cinema, the production ran from November 3, 1973 through March 31, 1979 with many cast changes, until plans for the theatre's demolition prompted another move. The Rocky Horror Show transferred to the 820-seat Comedy Theatre on Panton Street in the West End, the legitimate London theatre district, running from April 6, 1979 until September 13, 1980, closing the play's initial run of 2,960 performances. After occasional productions in the early eighties, the play was revived for the Theatre Royal Hanley tour in 1984, and is still performed regularly in the UK.

1975 saw the now famous Rocky Horror Picture Show being filmed starring Tim Curry as that "Sweet transvestite from transexual Transylvania." I was lucky enough to catch it at the old Hollywood Theatre in Avondale, & NO I did NOT wear suspenders & fishnets.....

Naff is Good

Don't you think ????

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....