No Worries

I know that graffiti is not to be encouraged but I was mightily amused by this addition to the town sign of Matata.  Matata is a small town (population less than 900) on the Bay of Plenty coast of northern North Island, New Zealand.

Surely there can be few readers who will not know of the phrase from the song in The Lion King where a meerkat and a warthog, named Timon and Pumbaa respectively, teach the main character, a lion cub named Simba, that he should forget his troubled past and live in the present.

As for the phrase?  It is a Swahili phrase that is literally translated as "There are no worries." It is sometimes translated as "no worries", although is more commonly used similarly to the American English phrase "no problem"

It'll not be too long now before I'm back in the land of my personal place where hakuna matata.  

Drawing Near

It's Friday.  It's the 14th October 2011.  It's raining.    I'm sitting in the kitchen looking out over the bay but in fact I can hardly see across the it for the mist and rain.  I have 23 sleeps before I'm back in my New Zealand home with my New Zealand family and my New Zealand life.  It seems such a long time.   At moments like this it can't come soon enough and yet.......

........and yet I still have so much to do here in Eagleton.  I only have 19 sleeps before I leave. It seems such a short time.

Therein lies a puzzle of my life.

My life never seems to be quite started nor quite finished with the tasks in hand.  I never seem to quite catch up with my croquet world (having missed various important club competitions already this year) and yet I still haven't managed to paint the bathroom ceiling in Eagleton (despite getting everything out and ready back in May).

But wotthehellarchiewotthehell it's a great life and I hope that I'll be living it for a long time yet.

I'll be seeing you soon New Zealand.

PS Don't forget to win the Rugby World Cup whilst I'm away.  I'll be watching the match in the comfort of my Eagleton home but my heart will be in New Zealand.