Get in the mood for Santa

I was in denial about Christmas approaching, but this video has started to get me in the mood.

Also nice to see Bob dancing around like a sprightly young thing. I don't know if this song normally has reference to Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton or if thats Bob's addition?

In case you are wondering why your water bill is too high.....

Uh oh - where did the time go

I've been feeling increasingly bad over the last few days about the lack of blogging on my part. A bit like having a sick relative and putting off going to visit them - the guilt has got to me - as if there was anybody out there actually reading these posts. Ha!

October was a busier than usual month so I'll do a quick summary, catchy-uppy kind of post.

We were honoured by the presence of several visitors. Tamsin stopped over on her way from north to south , and I managed to exploit the opportunity to crack open the enhancements to my Alhambra game and give them a good workout. Dee and Bruce came for a night and took us for a delicious meal at Soul. They were on their way from Australia to Rotorua for Dee's mums 80th. Then 'Naki' Richard came for a visit and cheekily parked in the next-door neighbours where he used to live. We have more visitors lined up for this month and February. Great. I love having visitors.

It was Johns birthday and an excuse for a getaway so I rented a beach house just up the coast from Whitianga and we all 6 of us (Jaz, Mark, Paul & Kylie) packed up our cars and spent 3 days chilling out with each other which was lovely and relaxing. So lovely that I completely forgot to get my camera out - hence the lacks of pics but I can direct you to crafty Kylie's blog for a few images. On the Saturday night we had a beautiful meal at SALT on the waterfront, and were lucky to score a free bottle of bubbly due to a mix up with the booking. Although great food, I think it's the first (and last time) I will knowingly eat scallops served with chicken liver puree.

Since then we've been pretty quiet, continuing with the post-roof house renovations. We are up to door replacement - several had rotted frames and are now looking splendid again. We've been to see 'An Education' - which I enjoyed as it really evoked life in 1960's London. And 'Capitalism a Love Affair' - which is Mike Moore doing what he always does but with a different slant on it.

I've planted some tomatoes: 3 varieties plus mint and dill in preparation for yummy salads, and been trying to remember to do daily exercises with a broomstick and an imaginary spider to help counteract my frozen shoulder (I know not how I managed to freeze it but its quite painful).

Interesting dream the other day: Leonard Cohen was visiting as a Professor from Finland, but he died in my bathtub and I woke up worried what to do with him!

Christmas blues

The song says it all

Goodies from the earth and an a-llama-ing dream

It was nice to have the blue galactic monkey (aka Tamsin) stay for a few days on her way through from England to the South Island. We always have a good laugh.

Nice also to see our good friends and ex-neighbours, Richard and Patricia getting some recognition for all their hard work on the farm as this article attests.

Since they moved to Taranaki from Auckland 5 years ago they've been doing some really clever stuff incorporating biodynamics and growing all sorts of goodies including the little known yakon which I hope to have a taste of next time we visit them.

Patricia.



On a more alarming note I had a dreadful dream last week that made me wake up in a panic. I saw a llama that I assumed was a pet of ours (don't know why but dreams are like that). It was attacking our cat Noodle, swinging her around like a baseball bat and bashing her against things. It was horrible.

Yesterday I was visiting my homeopath in search of a cure for my thermostat problems when she asked me if I had had any strange dreams. So I told her about the vicious llama and she immediately associated the dream with the fact that Zappa had been attacked and killed by a dog last year. It had not occurred to me to link the two but in hindsight the episode had been on our minds again recently as we have discovered whose dogs they are and have warned him if they get out again we will report him to dog control. The other linking feature would have been this recent llama safari.

Strange, but it all makes sense.

Panic at the supermarket

I was appalled on Saturday afternoon to see how quickly (as Mo put it), the 'veneer of humanity cracked and fell apart'. I was shopping at my local supermarket which is within a small suburban mall when the fire alarm went off while I was perusing the avocados. For a few moments everyone carried on shopping, hoping it was a false alarm, but then the announcements came over the tannoy: "Everyone leave the store. Do not take your trolleys with you", and the mayhem broke out. By the time I got to the mall area where all the shops were rapidly shutting up and ejecting shoppers I decided that I had no time to wait (with guests arriving for a barbecue in just over an hour) and I would hop in my car and go to the supermarket in the neighbouring suburb.

No such luck. The travelator down to the carpark had stopped moving and the trolleys on it at the time were locked into the steel floor and moving nowhere. The crowd had backed up to the mall and was in a foul mood. I saw people pushing and shoving to try and get past the shoppers on the travelator. Old ladies were shoved sideways. One persons microwave oven was pushed of their trolley and landed on the steel with a thud. I decided to have nothing to do with the crowd heading for the car park so I went the other way, out of the main door to the street and rung John who came and got me and within 10 minutes I was peacefully shopping in Foodtown. We headed back later in the afternoon to reclaim my abandoned car.

Forget the 'Uncouth' shoppers' though, and watch our PM's appearance on Letterman where he lists the top 10 reasons to come to NZ... I agree with Nik's view, our PM looks like a schoolboy who has been hauled up on stage to answer questions by the headmaster.

The rest of the weekend was enjoyable, with Tamsin staying for a few days and friends over for our first barbie of the summer. I also played quite a few games of Alhambra, the current favourite board game of choice.

A Merry Dylan to one and all

Bob is releasing a collection of traditional Christmas songs next month.

I was extremely sceptical about this new release but having now heard the samples I agree with Lane Brown's view - it will be hilarious and a great antidote to Christmas itself. You can also hear the samples at this link.

Part of the hilarity is hearing the voice that I'm used to singing 'Desolation Row' and 'Working Mans Blues', singing a chipper 'HoHoHo', and part because its from the guy who not so long ago wrote & sang in Huck’s Tune, “All the merry little elves can go hang themselves, my faith is as cold as can be. I'm stacked high to the roof, and I'm not without proof, If you don't believe me, come see.”

Dylan is donating all the US royalties of the sales to the charity 'Feeding America'

Alhambra and the allure of alpacas

On Friday I was tempted out on a Llama safari north of Albany, by Mo.
We drove around until we found a paddock full of the beautiful creatures and managed to entice them over to our part of the fence by making various clicking and baa'ing noises (mostly me). They were so cute. Over lunch that followed we decided to form the North Auckland Lama Appreciation Society (NALAS). It wasn't until later I realised they were most likely alpacas, not lamas at all. Although cousins, they are physically quite different. Anyway, they were beautiful, and very friendly, and lunch was good too.





Saturday we hosted a Mensa games night at home, and had 8 or 9 people turn up. Everyone had to wear the false ears for a photo. We ate pizza and cheesecake and played Alhambra followed by Rage. The former was an enjoyable game, a bit like a cross between Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan.

The hostess with the mostest ears ...

Three Cool Cats

Here's a musical slideshow I made this evening of our three cool cats, set to a Coasters tune of the same name.

Yet more about windows

Another head cold and recurring eye infection has taken the wind out of my sails, I've had no motivation for blogging in the last week. I've been reading Malcolm Gladwell's 'Outliers' which I enjoyed.

We attacked and painted more of our window frames at the weekend. They are almost all done, just a couple of the more awkward to get at windows & doors remain unrenovated.

The weather is warming up quite a bit, and we've planned our first barbecue of the summer.

Last week a film scanning job turned into DVD creation to provide the customer with a slideshow of the photos for her mothers' funeral. In the process I upgraded our slideshow software to ProShowGold and I've been having a play. It's a lot better than the old clunker we were using before.

This is my first attempt at making a video to go with a Dylan tune - an old favourite 'Sign On The Window' from the 'New Morning' album. I was going to include some of my own photos of windows & doors but ran out of time today - unfortunately the dentist has an appointment with me. I have a few ideas in mind though, to make my photo collection come to life.

It's a gentle one, you can turn the sound up.