Awards

If I'm really honest I'm not a great one for awards.  I'm really thrilled that some people enjoy my blog and my photos and it's a lovely compliment to be given an award.  But then there are the conditions or stipulations.  I've not had time to think about awards recently but Scriptor has just completed his 35 answers and on a whim of mellowness (it must have been the green tea with lemon and ginger I had earlier this evening - please don't tell anyone that I was drinking tea in the evening) I've decided to post on the awards I've received.

Firstly I should say that I apologise if my attitude seems ungrateful.  I hope that you don't think that.  I am.  It's just that, well, I can't really explain.  I'm just not an awards sort of person.  Unless, of course, it's Croquet.  I like getting Croquet awards.  But then I suppose I feel that I've really earned them and I'm never sure that I feel I've earned ones for blogging.  C'est la vie.

Anyway (sorry, I use that word a lot) the first one was from Scriptor Senex at Rambles From My Chair.  He gave me An Award For Photographic Excellence on 4 October.  It came with no stipulations nor imprecations nor strings.  Thank you Brother.

Next on 14 October Dawn Treader passed on the Honest Scrap Award With or Without Stipulations saying: 'To GB at Eagleton Notes because his very honest blogposts and comments marked by British humour always make me smile and sometimes laugh. If you don't find him at home there, try his New Zealand blog, because he is about to travel again soon.'  So really I'm acknowledging it on the 'wrong' blog.  With this I am supposed to tell you ten things about myself that you don't already know.

And then on 5 November Pauline at The Paddock passed on in her posting Yey!! I'm a Real Blogger! the Your Blog is Over The Top award on the grounds that 'I like his cheerful, positive outlook on life and, oh boy, does he ever take good photos. And it's nice to know another blogger in NZ.'  With this one I am supposed to answer 35 questions:

I am supposed to pass each of the last two awards on to another blogger.  And here I have a problem.  I know an extremely small number of bloggers all of whom are well known to everyone else on my blog list.  It's very incestuous.  I don't have the huge circle of blog friends that many others have.  I don't visit blogs outside of my small circle.  What never?  Well hardly ever. (With apologies to W S Gilbert).  So I can't really pass them on even if I were so inclined.

But I shall indulge myself and tell you ten things about myself that you don't already know:

1 The only thing that I can think of that I can do equally well with both hands is use chopsticks.

2 All my swear words relate to bodily functions (Friend Who Knows Too Much pointed that out). I never use the F word and I never blaspheme (Wot never? Well, hardly ever).

3 I drink two mugs of green tea (usually with lemon or something else) when I get up, earl grey or lady grey with breakfast and red bush tea with lunch. Any other tea drinking is random. I drink black coffee without sugar the rest of the time.

4 I was born with my pension book in my hand. (So my Mum said).  I didn't become young until my 61st birthday.

5 I have a love of pictures with people with their back to me looking out of windows.

6 I cannot conceptualise.  I have no ability to hold an image in my head.  I cannot 'see' images in my head.

7 I will not eat sweets shaped like Maltona Drops (Boiled round sweet with an indentation in top and slight malt flavour) ever since I got one stuck in my throat as a small child and nearly choked (I don't eat toffee either but that's for the rational reason that they pull my fillings out!)..

8 I've had a mobile (cell) phone since they were the size of a brick on wheels and I've always had the same number (apart from alterations to the prefix when numbers have been increased in size due to demand).  Notwithstanding that it's only in the last 5 years or so I've been able to remember it.

9  I can remember the phone number of our home 65 years ago and my first car and the frame number of my bike when I was 11 (71512TH) but not the number of my current car here in NZ.

10 Happiness is dancing naked in the warm rain (preferably in the dark!).

When God Made Man

In the post Out of The Mouths Cynthia commented   "Society for ages and ages has portrayed God as patriarchal, but left out the obvious matriarchal qualities of a God who was brilliant enough to create women, too."    When I was a young man a friend said "When God made man She was only practising".  'Nuff said.

Spectacles

We had finished dinner and Catriona was pointing something out to me on the television whilst I was clearing the dishes (Where am I going wrong?  When I was that age it was my job to clear the dishes.).  Suddenly she turned to me and looked up earnestly into my eyes.  "Please,"  I thought "not another question I can't answer."    "Your glasses look silly."  Return to television.  "Excuse me, but why?"  "The frame doesn't fit the lenses."   No they don't.  But why do children have to be so logical about these things?

All that part of my life when I've worn glasses I've worn conventional ones: often nylon supras or rimless ones.  Last May when I decided I needed a spare pair I chose these on a whim and within about 50 seconds of looking at choices.

They have elicited all sorts of comments - usually favourable - from friends and strangers alike.   Daughter of Friend Who Knows Too Much said when she first saw them "Graham, those glasses are so unnecessary."  Thinking this was a compliment (modern slang so rarely means what it might be expected to mean and she's such a lovely person it didn't occur to me that it could be anything else).  I mentioned it to someone who remarked that that was rather an unkind remark.  Oh.  Unnecessary actually meant unnecessary.  Ah well.

At least they are not boring!

Out of The Mouths

This afternoon I was looking after 8 year old Catriona when she suddenly looked up and asked "Graham. Why are we alive?"   I'm not equipped to cope with questions like that.  Wendy is an Atheist so I'm not sure the standard answer would be approved of.  I suggested that it wasn't easy to answer and suggested "Because we are."  She considered that patently inadequate.  I told her that many people believed that we are because God made us so.  She considered that and said "But that doesn't explain why we are?"  How true.  Quite a reasoned discussion ensued which left both she and I at a loss.  After all I haven't a clue why we are.

The Disney Channel eventually rescued me. Either that or I can even bore an 8 year old into submission. All in all it was an interesting afternoon.

 

I fared better as a cooker of dinner!

Whilst we were having it she asked what I would wish for if I were allowed one wish..  Now I take these things too seriously and I have absolutely no idea what my wish would be.  So I said so.  Not the right answer!  "Why didn't you just wish for unlimited wishes?" was the reply.  Yes.  Well.  Why didn't I think of that?

And if I was allowed three wishes?  I took too long. "I would wish for The House and The Cottage to have two storeys.  Then I would wish that the stairs were escalators.  Wouldn't that be awesome?"  I was so dumbfounded that I can't for the life of me recall what the third wish was - if, indeed, there was one.

It's interesting being a grandpa albeit a surrogate one.

A Sharp Knife

One of the things that I really really (a 2-really is seriously really) like in the kitchen is a sharp cooks knife.  In my Eagleton kitchen I have an 8" Victorinox cooks knife which has doen sterling service and is as sharp as a razor.  I've never been able to find one in Napier.  When we were passing through Palmerston North on Sunday Jayne and I stopped to stretch our legs and went into the shopping mall in the centre of town.  I didn't even know that it was there!  As we walked through there was a shop in the centre of the precinct selling, yes, Victorinox knives.  So I now have my treasured Victorinox here too.

I did wonder, mind you, at the law relating to offensive weapons and the carrying of knives.  There I was walking through a busy mall carring a very sharp knife with an 8" blade (in a bag, of course).  I think that in the UK now the very act of carrying a knife with a blade longer than a certain length is an offence per se.  How do you get your knife home?

Anyway that's academic.  I have my knife and it ain't goin' nowhere.

Food In A Minute

One of the reassuring things about New Zealand television is its predictability.  For a long time - years - Food in a Minute has been an iconic advert just before One News at 6pm.

Le Pauvre Chien

Would you do this to a dog that you loved?

Before and After

Wee Misty has been clipped. She is no longer a furry rugby ball with legs!

Before

After

I Don't Know Where To Start

This last two weeks has been a real rollercoaster.  I've arrived back in my New Zealand home to a special family and a special welcome.  I've been away to a croquet tournament for which I was totally unprepared.  Two people who have touched my life have died.  I have not spent a single evening  alone in The Cottage.   I have not spent anywhere near as much time as I would have wanted in Blogland.  I have not seen as much of some friends as I would have liked.  I have made adventurous plans for a weekend away exploring new places.  I haven't sorted the Study yet and I haven't finished the week's ironing.  The fact that I've done no housework pales into insignificance.

The two services for those who had died were completely different: one a full requiem mass and the other a celebration of a life.  Bother men were very popular.  Both men were loved by many and deserving of that love in a way that few are.  Both services were attended by more than an ordinary large church could hold.

I cannot pay a personal tribute to Nick.  I did not know him well enough.   I can say that I admired him very much because I knew him by reputation and all that he did for people and for his wife, Colleen whom I know.  The eulogies at his mass were very moving. 

Ralph touched my life directly for a few days:  days in which I learned a lot and admired much.  For that I was privileged.  He was a remarkable man.  A man of letters, a teacher, a coach, a breeder of successful racehorses, a husband, a father, a grandfather and a friend to name but a few of his achievements.  The celebration of his life took place at the Awapuni Racecourse Silks Lounge in Palmerston North.  There was a picture show, films of races, stories and memories by his children and grandchildren and friends, a song by a friend and grandson, and an opera singer to mark his departure from the lounge carried by his family.  There can have been few dry eyes.  There were many laughs.

So I returned this evening after a round trip of 400k with Jayne (a friend from croquet and a mutual friend of Judy, Ralph's wife) for company.  I arrived home in time for One News at 6pm.  What did I find?  Wendy had been round with the ride-on.  The flowers that had been placed here when I arrived home (two weeks ago!) had been replaced by new ones.  And the carpets had been vacuumed!! 

Once again I count my blessings.

Hawera

On our way home from New Plymouth last Monday Jayne and I stopped at Hawera for coffee.  Hawera is a small town of 1100 population.  The town centra was actually larger than I expected and there were quite a few shops.  Or so it seemed.  There were plenty of cafés, some of which looked really inviting.  But as far as we could see only one - a barn of a place - had a washroom.  There were, however, lots of op shops (charity shops/goodwill stores) and we bought a few books between us.  Jayne summarised Hawera rather aptly as lots of op shops but no plop stops.

However it did have one absolutely splendid piece of sculpture: