A Neighbour's Notices

One of the residents of Rotowhenua Road doesn't mince his or her words. I play croquet with her but have never remembered to ask who devised the notices. In New Zealand a bludger is a person who lives off the efforts of others; a person who does not pay his fair share or who does not make a fair contribution to a cost, enterprise, etc., a cadger; an idler, one who makes little effort..

Bertie is Misty

On Christmas Day I blogged on the A New Arrival; the arival of Misty who was really Bertie. Well Today Misty who was really Bertie went to the Vet for innoculation. Bertie is really Misty. Just don't ask for the details. Needless to say we laymen are puzzled. The details are not for the faint hearted nor readers of this blog. But Bertie is now definitely MISTY.

A Tribute Concert

On Saturday we went to a Tribute Concert for Billy Joel and Freddie Mercury at the Askerne Winery. The acts had received acclaim in the press here and were excellent. My catholic music tastes extend very much to the music of Queen and not only was the artist a very good representation vocally of Freddie Mercury but he was very adept at getting in amongst the audience and getting them going. Yes it was well worth the suffering.

The suffering? The wind and the cold. The day until about 1500 had been very warm - about 30 degrees at The Cottage. The concert started at 1630 and by the time we were in our place the wind had got up and the temperature had dropped to under 20 - with wind-chill factor probably around 17. Anyway it was COLD. To those of you who would remind me that there is no such thing as the wrong weather only the wrong clothes, I would say in our defence that such a drop in temperature after days of heat, is very unusual and few were prepared for the change.

Our pitch, Catriona sheltering from the cold,
Ben, a friend, finding the inevitable computer game more interesting.

Well, it is Queen isn't it?

Time is an Illusion

A definition of Time is The inevitable progression into the future with the passing of present events into the past. Interesting. My (and my brother's for that matter) Mum used to say that the concept of time was man-made. This, however, is not really the place to start that debate and I merely included the statement because it came to mind.

Anyway yesterday morning time, man-made or otherwise, certainly came to mind. I rose later than usual (because I woke later than usual). I put the washing machine on and then followed my usual morning routine of switching on the kettle and Palin (my laptop who circles the world with me), attended to my ablutions and so on. After my two cups of green tea with lemon and emails I looked at the clock and saw that it was 0750. It did strike me as slightly odd because I thought I'd risen at about 0655 and seemed to have spent a lot more than an hour on my computer, putting out washing and doing 'morning' things. As I didn't have to be out until 0930 I got on with the ironing and went back to the computer where I realised that the time was, in fact, 0925. The clock's battery had lost power and although the clock had not stopped it had slowed down to a snail's pace.

Now losing an hour all of a sudden shouldn't really be a major issue in one's life but I have to say that the loss of that hour played havoc with my mental time-clock for the rest of the day. For the record I was out of the house by 0930!

OK so all that was a bit of an irelevant ramble but I thought I'd share it with you so that I could include a picture of my clock and the saying under it which was in my Christmas stocking.

The Bug Man Cometh

I am a peaceful man and I don't enjoy killing things. The only things I actively seek to destroy are wasps which I detest.

Be that as it may today the Bug Man came. Every year The Cottage is treated to deter the potential bug invasion which inevitably occurs without it. It is sprayed outside and in with something which, whilst presumably not beneficial to me, is less beneficial to the potential bug population. Well, actually, it doesn't stop the bugs entering my space but it does ensure that once they have entered they don't last long enough to do much damage.

The problem is that I live in the country surrounded by a myriad of bugs which find my space irresistable. Without the treatment I would spend my life chasing Gisborne Cockroaches (with which I am quite at peace when they are outside). From the magnificent (and huge) Huhu Beetle to tiny unidentifiable ones. Flies from minute sand and fruit flies to huge flies which, oddly, are no nuisance at all because they buzz (very noisily) in, bang against the windows and buzz out again and are not interested in me or my food. By far the most irritating (though they don't bite) are the common house flies (or whatever) which are determined to irritate me and crawl on every thing with which my mouth is likely to come into contact. Moths I can live with in reasonable numbers but when you can't see the (very large) TV screen because of them that's excessive. And the spiders. Oh the spiders. I've got used to the ones which measure less than 8 mm but anything over that is verboten and there were hundreds in the space above the deck: the last year's spray having worn off more quickly outside than inside.

So I'm sorry but the Bug Man came and in the morning the deck will be littered with bug corpses. C'est la vie. En fait c'est la mort.

I Lost My Identity

My blog identity disappeared! I looked at my blog this morning and something struck me as not quite right. Then I went to make a comment on a blog entry and discovered that I had no identity. I was signed in but my name was ******. This struck me as odd because my name is Graham and not ******. "Ah well" I thought "that's OK. I'll just go into my settings and re-name myself". Ah but it were to be that easy.

I generally use Mozilla Firefox as my browser for these blogs but, because I have a number of different blog identities for different blogs and one can only sign in with one identity at a time, I also use Google Chrome (I am a great fan of Chrome) and Safari. For some reason Internet Explorer and my computer have never seen eye to eye so I rarely use it and if I do I can expect that at some time my Computer will freeze and that's irritating 'cos it's time consuming.

Unfortunately I often have problems with Firefox and Blogger. Today was an example. It woild not allow me to re-enter my identity and save it. I could re-enter. But when I saved it reverted to ******. So I went to Chrome and re-identified myself no bother.

But how, I asked myself, did my identity disappear in the first place? I suppose that, as with the theft of my Amex identity recently, I'll just never know.

A Bridge At Waipawa

Like very many bridges in New Zealand this railway bridge at Waipawa spans a much greater area than the river generally covers. As readers of this and the blog of my last stay will know in New Zealand a lot of buildings are painted with pictures and designs. I cannot before, however, recall seeing a bridge so enthusiastically decorated.

Tuscany?

When out walking down the road recently I looked up and saw this scene. All at once I was back in Tuscany. I'm sure that if I had access to my Tuscany photos (pre-digital and therefore stored in Scotland) I could find an almost identical scene.

Evening Light

On Tuesday at Croquet everyone was commenting on the eerie pink light of the previous evening. This was it from my deck. Eerie it certainly was. Pink it certainly was. There is an artist who painted landscapes in a similar light but I can't recall who it was. Any ideas?

What is worth your time?

"There have been a few times when someone or other said something that brought me to the conclusion that what I do at the computer is of no worth, like it's a waste of time. They can find much more realistic and usable ways of spending their time."

My brother, CJ, follows many blogs and writes very interesting ones as well. In fact I'd feel really devastated if , all of a sudden, his blogs disappeared. His blogs and emails are my main point of contact with him whilst I'm on the other side of the world. In fact they are my only means of contact given that he would never speak on the 'phone - something I do with other friends (sic - my brother is one of my very best friends) frequently and at length. As a result of that Simply Heather commented on one of my postings recently and I, in return, visited her blog. The quote at the start of this posting is from her posting What is Worth Your Time?

This blog tends to be more of a diary than anything more serious and I rarely comment on anything but the fact that Simply Heather feels that someone is suggesting that she is 'wasting' her time blogging or being 'on the computer' is an affront upon which I feel the need to comment and the 'comments' at the end of her posting really doesn't leave me enough space or freedom. Most of us receive comments from time to time on how we spend our life.

I iron my sheets. In fact I iron most of my washing including my tea-towels (but, for the record, not socks nor underpants!). Many people tell me that life's too short to iron (implying that I should have better things to do with my time). I don't sweat the small stuff. And almost everything is small stuff. People telling you how to lead your life or spend your time is, however, not small stuff. My time is very valuable to me because I have so very much I want to do and so very little time in which to do it (ok I have more than most because I don't need much sleep but that's still not enough). One of the things that gives me joy is nice cool crisp sheets and crisp shirts. So I iron. And it's not a chore. I don't expect others to iron nor do I expect them to tell me that I shouldn't. This is, though, I admit a minor matter compared with many others.

How a person spends their time, provided that it is not in a way which inconveniences or is inconsiderate to others is up to that person. Just as a person has the right to their own beliefs provided that they don't impinge on the rights or beliefs of others. I could go on....and on.... But I won't 'cos I'm sure that any reader of this will, by now, have got the drift.

So, Simply Heather, when anyone says you are wasting time on the computer be assured that, if you think you are not then you are not. I'm sure that, with your smile, you'll find the right words and that they'll get the message. And all your fellow bloggers will be agreeing with you.