Communications

One of the things that I (and not CJ) have inherited from my parents is my need (for it is a need) for telephonic communication.  My parents had a telephone (Stoneycroft 1936) in their first house around the time of my birth  and they were never without one and had the same number when they eventually left the house they lived in all their married life until they went to live with CJ and Jo.  Well I say the same number.  The prefix had altered variously until it expanded to 0151 (for Liverpool) 228 (one of the numbers for the former Stoneycroft area) and the original 1936.

I have never been without a phone either and, since the late '80s early '90s when  it had a  brick-sized separate battery, have had a mobile or cell phone.  I still have the same UK mobile number as I had when I got my first phone although the prefix has again altered to accommodate the huge rise in number of mobile phones.

One difference between my parents and me is that I have had many land-line numbers.  In fact I now have a number for each 'home' and a second one provided by BT in Eagleton for cheap calls via broadband.  I also have  two NZ cellphones (Vodafone and Telecom because coverage used to vary so much).  In addition I use Skype.  All a very long way from the single, operator connected, telephone which Mum and Dad started off with 65 years ago

The other difference is that today we take for granted that we can text or speak to anyone with a phone almost anywhere in the world simply by dialling their telephone number.  We are also beneficiaries of the magic  (OK it's really technology) which allows us to carry a cellphone and be contacted almost wherever we are in the world.  Do you remember when Star Trek used flip communicators?  It seemed so fanciful at the time. Now we all have one: the cell-phone of today.

As some of you may recall I have no broadband provided by the ordinary phone service and, like Adrian and one or two others of my fellow Blogland community, I rely on the cellphone network for my broadband connection.  It seems amazing that the little dongle on the left can connect me to anyone in the world on the Internet.

In New Zealand Telecom have just updated their network to 3G. and called it XT.  It features improved performance, better global roaming and a wider range of handsets compared to the older Telecom network. The XT Mobile Network differs from the old CDMA network because it features SIM cards (which most of us are used to) which allow subscribers to readily change handsets. Telecom also now advertises fast USB devices for mobile broadband for use on the XT Mobile network. So I decided to upgrade  my old broadband and at the same time upgrade my cell phone.

I used to use the most sophisticated business mobile phone until I retired and finally left the business world behind.  I then went onto the simplest flip-phones that I could put into my pocket.  But these days buying a simple phone isn't that easy. I have always stuck to Nokia phones because the logic suits me and has been carried over in all their phones though the years.

However I decided, as a Nokia flip phone isn't available for NZ Telecom, to buy a Sony Ericsson.  I am so pleased that I did.  It is so much more intuitive than the Nokias I have owned.  And now I am back to collecting my emails as well as texts on my phone.  I can also access the Internet and even use Googlemaps to find my way around.

Yes.  Modern technology is wonderful.  And I would do without a lot of things before I would give up my cellphone and broadband Internet.

Silvereye

I very often hear a particular birdsong very close to The Cottage but have never in three years been able to identify it and the bird book's description is far from helpfull.  Yesterday the mystery was solved.  The call ocurred right outside my open ranch sliders.  I reached for the camera and managed to get quite a few shots with the Silvereye, for that's what it was, taking absolutely no notice of me standing there about 4 metres away.  I had seen plenty of Silvereyes before at a friend's house in Auckland but never been aware of their call.  The Silvereye or, in Maori, Tauhou (Zosterops lateralis) is an abundant native passerine.

Afternoon Tea

On New Year's Day Wendy decided that we would all have proper afternoon tea.  Her Grandmother's cups which had never, to Wendy's knowledge, been used were taken out of the cupboard and used.   Wendy made sandwiches with the crusts cut off and we ate and drank our afternoon tea in the relaxed style in which it truly should be taken.  As I looked around the table the only thing that would have seemed slightly incongruous in the UK was the fact that everyone was barefoot.

 

Wendy made wonderfully light scones and we had butter (Wendy chooses the healthy option as a rule), jam,  cream and strawberries

 

Fraser decided to have a little extra and awarded himself the prize for the most innovative sandwich: banana in rice crackers.  Hmmm.

The Morning After

Everyone was up bright and early on New Year's Day which was quite surprising given the fact that bedtime was after 3am.  Fraser was taking it easy at morning coffee time.

A New Year's Eve Party

I've celebrated New Year in various cultures and for many years!  As a child we saw it in at home with friends and with games and Mum playing the piano whilst we all sang.  It was much the same when I was in my teens as Scriptor has reminded me in his posting New Year's Eve.  When my wife and I moved to the Outer Hebrides of Scotland it became clear that New Year could be an all night event - if one let it.  For many years a group of us met at our house for the New Year's Eve celebration.  After that things became a bit random and it's been like that ever since - for the past 20 years at least.  I'm not one for people -  inevitably more drunk than sober - calling at 3am and staying until dawn.

The one thing most celebrations had in common in England and Scotland was 'first footing'. In British Folklore, the first-foot is the first person to cross the threshold of a home on New Year's Day and a bringer of good fortune for the coming year.  The first-footer must not be in the house at the stroke of midnight in order to first-foot (thus going out of the house after midnight and then coming back in to the same house is not considered to be first-footing). The first-foot is traditionally a tall, dark-haired male; a female or fair-haired male are in some places regarded as unlucky.

The first-foot usually brings several gifts, including perhaps a coin, bread, salt, coal, or a drink (usually whisky), which respectively represent financial prosperity, food, flavour, warmth, and good cheer. In Scotland, first-footing has traditionally been more elaborate than in England, and involving subsequent entertainment.

It is many many years since I took any notice of first-footing and even longer since I made a New Year's resolution.

Anyway last night Wendy and Martin had a party.

Everything's ready - now we just sit and wait

 
Party venues don't come much better than this

 

A few of the gathering after midnight

The fire brought warmth and focus

At 3 am I decided that enough was enough.  By 3.30 am I was in bed and asleep.

Happy New Year

It's now 2010

(well it is here in New Zealand)

 :

May your life be rich

 :

May you have

food on your table

wine in your glass

and

friends with whom to share it.

:

May you have good health

and 

a happy heart

One of Those Days

On the whole most of my days are Good days but occasionally I have 'one of Those Days' which could have been slightly better.  What surprises me is just how unphased I seem to get by Things these days.  Today, for example, had its moments.

Firstly it's been a wonderful, hot day with a really good breeze this morning.  I've caught up on quite a few blogs. I went to town.  I cancelled Sky TV and got a Freeview box and installed it - in reverse order, I'm not sure why I didn't write it the other way round.

On the way into town an Aussie lad in his step-mother's car drove into the back of The Handbag. He did no damage to The Handbag but hundreds of dollars worth to her car. I almost felt sorry for him. Mind you I did have the advantage of modern technology when I stopped (a woman stepped onto a crossing rather unexpectedly). He was a good way behind but the skid marks were three or four times the length of his (large) car so heaven knows what speed he was doing. Glad Game: he didn't have an airbag. Replacing it would have been greater than the value of her car!

Then I left my car keys in the lock of the boot of the car and went off into town. A kind chap took them into the nearby police station.  The constable left a message on my phone. Fortunately I went into the Police Station first so no-one had to bring the spare keys out to me.  Glad Game:  well, what's not to be glad about that one.  The kindness of people is all about us.

And last night I sat on the deck on the 'phone from sundown until the moon lit the land:

And then I went up to The House and I looked at the moon through Martin's telescope.  I love the moon.

Christmas Dinner: A Reflection

Christmas Dinner as seen through the reflections in Jamie's sunglasses.  It was a wonderful, warm, sunny day and we had Christmas Dinner outside. 

 

 

 

Eutopia

When Pauline was showing me around Northland we arrived in Kaiwaka in a torrential shower.  I wanted to go into the famous cheese shop there.  We parked in the area between the Eutopia Café and the Cheese Shop. I managed to get a photograph of the café despite the rain but it was closed. It's definitely somewhere to revisit.

You Just Never Can Tell

This morning I wrote to a friend  saying that I thought it was going to be a Very Strange Day today. This morning the air was really heavy. The temperature last evening fell to about 8 degrees despite the fact that it was raining. This morning it was still sort of raining and the air was filled with the scent of the country after the rain.  It pervaded every nook and cranny of The Cottage. I like that. The temperature had soared to the dizzy heights of 18 deg on the deck and the ranch sliders were wide open. The birds wear vying with Sibelius for the attention of my ears.

Just before lunch I decided that I had to pop into Taradale to post a packet to Scotland - a pleasant 15 minutes drive. Taradale, that is, not Scotland!  I really must be more careful about my grammar.  It was still threatening enough for me not to put the hood down - and that is unusual if it's not actually raining.  I popped into the supermarket on the way home for a couple of odds and ends.

As I came out of the supermarket the sky was showing decided signs of improvement.

I've been doing some housekeeping this afternoon.  The mood took me.  How can one person create so much dust?  Oh yes.  I live in the middle of a pasture and orchards.  Despite the fact that the carpets had looked clean I took two complete empties of the vacuum cleaner off them!  That's a LOT of dust and pollen and whatever makes up all that dust.  Anyway you really didn't want to waste valuable blog reading time reading that nonsense.

The real point of the (rather pointless) story is that it is now 1730 and we've had 5 hours of full sun and the temperature is 32 deg C (90ish F).  I thought living in the Outer Hebrides was the place to live for unpredictable weather.  They say you can get four seasons in a single day.  You can but there's not that much difference between the seasons!   So why am I writing this and not sitting in my new sun-lounger with a cool drink in my hand doing a cross-word?  Yes.  Why indeed?