OMG

Has it really been 2 weeks!?!?!

Today is ANZAC day here. It is thankfully still taken in a solemn and serious manner generally, with a dishonourable exception for Whitcoulls (WH Smith for NZ) who sent out a decent email with "PS Don't forget our Jodi Picoult competition". Poor show and poor taste to you!

I fly out tonight for my week on a beach with good company. I intend to identify my preferred cocktails even if I have to try all of them. Dedicated like that, me. I have been so busy that I don't even know if I have swimming trunks or the like.

My bulk purchase of Mini Eggs is running a little low. As evidenced at the Karaoke the other night, I will not be able to sing for my supper so I have to keep working. Brings me back to a point from an earlier post: the storm has come. It was a metaphorical storm, rather than a meteorological one. Work has simply come alive. Presumably public pronouncements on such things are not really my thing, but suffice to say I'm enjoying it again, despite the quantity.

Quickie

It has been all work, work, work, apart from football, football, football, so not done much for the blog lately. However, I am off to Langkawi in Malaysia in 2 weeks and will hopefully have something to tell from there, even if it is only "weather good, book good, cocktail good, ahhhhhhhhhh". If you desperately need a fix of my doggerel, I am occasionally contributing to Marist Skins. Not a great start to our football season, but it is a marathon, not a sprint, cliché-lovers. Not for me, obv, mine's more of a wheezing shuffle...

Welly

Another crazy clouds day. I didn't get the colours across these picture the same, but I think they came out well... This is such a great location

Admirable Nelson

Visiting folks in different places gives a whole different perspective. Especially when their domestic arrangements are so different from one's own. But it can be so good, especially when the weather helps out.

Admittedly we didn't go salmon fishing at the farm because it started to spit with rain and I didn't want to be the one holding everyone up there. I think another time I'll give it a go: it is a pond at a salmon farm that is stocked with appropriately-sized fish and you are given rod, line and bait. Anything you catch, you buy. Nothing thrown back here. I can see this model being huge with Japanese tourists.

It is at a wee area with a petting zoo and eel feeding area. These are creepy-looking water dragons and no mistake.

The llama was especially keen on having its photo taken (I didn't enquire as to the gender, respecting its privacy)


The next day we went to Rabbit Island. Nice if you like that sort of thing. I do.





I'll have to go back, assuming Nessy and G will permit. Heh.

Calm before, eye of, or lull after?

It's still got that stormy feeling. Not so much the weather, which (apart from being a bit blowy today) has settled into a beautiful late summer siesta. But something else. Maybe it is the impending football season, maybe my procrastination over a host of personal things, maybe it is work. I don't know: but I do feel a storm may be coming...

But anyway, Rimutaka Hill a couple of weeks ago did look very, very good.



But now we have Waikanae looking especially fine...





And, joy of joys, there is finally a translation from Yorkshire: and here it is

The changing of the weather

Here's me still hoping for an Indian Summer, but it doesn't look too likely...




There is something in the air, I think. Photos from this phone aren't great. I need to carry the camera more.

Well

After fine work by the excellent physios at Capital Sports medicine I was cleared to train on Wednesday. Obviously I wilfully misinterpreted this to mean I could play. Hah. I'm glad I did. An astonishing 8-5 victory over what we consider to be about the toughest opponent in the division (division 1 that is).

I even pursued a social life this week, seeing the Shen Wei dance company and the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Neither of these were up to Dynamic Yunnan but each had their features.

Shen Wei: Any show where the Rite of Spring by Stravinsky is the most accessible feature has to be seen as somewhat demanding. The dancing was technically impressive: expressive and evocative. The costumes were also extraordinary. It was also uncomfortable and remote. I honestly still don't know if I enjoyed it
UOGB: Good old-fashioned fun. Great music and jokes that can presumably be used because they've passed outside the age limit of copyright. It was charming and utterly English. I heard a comment that wished they were more edgy, but it really wouldn't have suited, for me. Also, when they were a bit more modern - with a Miss Dynamite song - it didn't really work. Messing up well-known songs was a far better tactic.