Cold and hot

Here's something to warm the ladies up on a chilly NZ evening.

Jakob (aka son of his Bobness) is hot...

Here's another way of keeping warm tonight...

Yikes, its getting even hotter around here ...

Two spas in one day - oh what decadence

Well I did go to the gym, and managed to push heavier weights than last time, which was more than a fortnight ago. I passed on the swimming tho'. It is only a 2-lane lap pool and there were serious looking swimmers already in there (perhaps training for Beijing?). I don't like competing for space or getting in the way of the real swimmers.

Besides, I had a mission to accomplish today. I decided to pull out of the depths of a dark cupboard a box of old tapes from my video camera and try to transfer them to digital (Hard disk then DVD). I went through a phase of videoing which lasted approx. 1991-1995 and took virtually no photos in that time. I am saddened at not having pictures of my 1992 travels in Russia with Mari amongst other things. The first stumbling block is the camera refuses to play back the Hi8 tapes, but I think that is the camera playing up and not an indication that the tapes are bung (camera has been in a hall cupboard unused for over 10 years). I may get a cheap camera on TradeMe to play them back. My 2nd line of attack was the VHS tapes I'd made from the master Hi8 copies. These play back ok and I spent a good couple of hours watching some of them this afternoon. Next step is to try and record them digitally. Watch this space.

Val - I love the bit I filmed of you at Coro St where you throw your hands up in front and scream "Oh no, I don't have my eyebrows on" !

Apart from this, I had some serious pampering today. Again using the birthday spa voucher I succumbed to a 1 hour facial which included a shoulder, neck and arm massage as well as many types of delicious unguents massaged into my skin. I never thought having my eye sockets massaged could be so good.

After another hour or two in front of the nostalgia tapes I felt really cold (its been clear and sunny but hovering between 5-10C today) and in need of an instant warm-up. So I spent the next hour wallowing in our 38C bubbling spa pool underneath tall palm and ponga fern trees with a cup of tea and watched a grey-blue winter sky slowly turn grey-pink then charcoal. As the steam rose into the trees and various birds fluttered overhead my thoughts were with the city-bods starting their journey home over the harbour bridge - from the spa pool you can hear the traffic hum of the bridge when the wind blows from the south. Life is not so hard here. I could live being me, I think.

Rain, fish, health & happiness

Another typically Auckland day - rain- sun - rain - sun etc. You give up trying to predict anything and just live in the knowledge that you take a brolly or you get wet even when its looking really bright and sunny.

No throat problems today - my faith in non scientific based healing is increasing.

Try feeding my pet fish - click to drop some food, or watch them chase your cursor ...
SORRY - the pet fish had to go as my page-loading speed was too slow.

For those with some knowledge/interest in Dylan, here's a fun read. The discography at the end is also quite amusing. If you don't know much about his Bobness then this may just sound like nonsense - so best skip it.

I have been sleeping much better since my throat stopped hurting, am feeling so much healthier. All geared up to go to the gym and swimming tomorrow. Getting myself in shape for the marathon film festival that kicks off Friday. We've booked for 14 films and I may sneak the odd extra one in during the daytime on my non-work days. If a film stays in my memory bank long enough I will blog about it here and the forgettable ones will be left unmentioned.

When I was 17 ...

I can hardly believe it was 30 years ago this month that I went with my then boyfriend Tony and his friend Lester (known as ‘Mo’) by train into the depths of Surrey for the now legendary ‘Picnic at Blackbushe’.

It was July 15th 1978. I was 17. The show featured Eric Clapton, Joan Armatrading, Graham Parker and the Rumour amongst others, and was headlined by Dylan - my hero (he hadn’t yet turned to God - that happened in ’79).

Yes, thats me in the black t shirt. Playing with my camera, not rolling a joint!

I was so happy I managed to get the tickets. The fact that he had not toured in the UK since 1966 apart from a one off at the Isle of Wight in 1969 meant that there was huge interest. I had tried to go to the Earl’s Court gig the month before but they sold out within hours -the queues seemed to stretch across London.

The enormous crowd made it difficult to see the stage, the wind was blowing the sound around, (there were no large video screens in those days), finding your way to the loo and back was a dangerous mission and it took several hours to get out of the site due to lack of organisation. Still it was an amazing experience, my first large music festival and the camaraderie in the audience was fantastic.

Blackbushe remains the largest crowd Dylan has ever played to, at around 200,000+ and he performed a huge set that went throughout the evening comprising 34 songs. This was to be, although we didn’t know it, one of the last appearances of “Dylan-as-we-knew-him” as later that year in the USA he picked up a cross thrown onstage and therein began another chapter in his musical direction.

Many of the posters at ‘Expecting Rain’ must be younger Bobfans as they sometimes say things like “I’ve heard about Blackbushe, cos my uncle was there and he said it was magic” etc

I still have the ticket and programme. Recently, due to the wonders of the net, I managed to find a reasonable sounding bootleg recording of the Dylan set and downloaded it to my ipod. Reliving my 17th summer - in NZ 30 years on.





Here’s another view of the day.

This link has more info about the gig, and a photo gallery with quite a few pics of Bob in his top hat

Carl Shuker – free NZ fiction

Spent a lazy Saturday - had brunch on K Rd, followed by a spot of shopping. John bought 2 jackets that have the "Ten years younger" effect. We bought some 2nd hand books in St Kevins arcade then reatreated home out of the icy wind and rain, built a large log fire and settled in to some serious reading, toasting of toes and slurping on homemade pea and ham soup. Bliss.

Those in NZ may have read the review in the Listener Jul 5 edition “Endless Audacity – Carl Shuker’s online novellas are a thrilling ride”. Well, I read “The Depleted Forest” today and can recommend it. Set in a (slightly) futuristic yet believable Japan where all the concrete buildings have a cancer that turns them to dust. The plot twists and turns through its edgy 55 pages, and left me keen to read parts two and three. Grab these while they available as free pdf downloads for a short time (this month only). The first two parts of the trilogy are currently available from this site.

My throat has been amazingly good today - no pains or burning sensations. Fingers crossed the hocus pocus pills may be doing something :-)

Two small pills, with massage, bacon hock and gospel

I managed to do a full day at work yesterday, feeling a bit better, at least I’m not coughing much now but my throat still gets bothersome in the evenings.

This morning I went for my appointment with a local homeopath. She spent over an hour asking me all sorts of questions about my health and also what sort of dreams I had as a child (I told her the recurring dream of my mum walking into the sea until her hat was floating) and if I craved certain foods (of course, the usual suspects, crisps, cheese & chocolate). After the talking, she rummaged around in another room for a few minutes, came back with some books which she hummed and haaa’ed over while asking several more questions and eventually gave me 2 very small pills to dissolve under my tongue. I’m to call her next Tuesday to tell her if there has been any effect. The logical rational part of me says it cannot work due to the extreme dilution, whereas a part of me hopes it will work, not just to feel better but to be able to say “ha – its not medicine as we know it but it works!”

Still quite cold & damp here. But I spent the afternoon having a full body massage at a spa in town. I had been given the voucher for my birthday way back in February. Very relaxing, and my back and neck feel especially loose and mobile now.

Came back from the spa thinking about a bacon hock and some hearty soup. So now, there is a large pot of 'pea and ham' bubbling on the stove.

If you can’t stand Dylan, blog stops here today. Bye.

The first Dylan video is from 1980 – the religious tour. Many people were put off Bob in the late 70’s due to his god bothering, (me included). It is only recently I’ve come to appreciate his gospel music from that era. ”What Can I do For You” is one of those.
You can leave God out of it or not, its up to you - it’s a great song anyway.




Next, here is THE best ever (Dylan) song – the words are mesmerising...
It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) ....
While them that defend what they cannot see
With a killer's pride, security
It blows the minds most bitterly
For them that think death's honesty
Won't fall upon them naturally
Life sometimes
Must get lonely.




And finally, another favourite, Tombstone Blues...
Now the medicine man comes and he shuffles inside
He walks with a swagger and he says to the bride
"Stop all this weeping, swallow your pride
You will not die, it's not poison"

Playlist - top tracks I love to listen to ...

Cheering up with Green Wing

Spent a couple of hours this afternoon watching the DVD Series 1 of Green Wing. This was shown on NZ tv but I missed most of the episodes. I bought this set a few weeks ago. It is recommended viewing for cheering up to. Here is a clip where the two Hospital HR madwomen compete in the bathroom mirror .....




I decided to top up the spa pool which looked rather low when I went out to add the weekly dose of chlorine. Then I watched TV and sat at the computer and forgot I had left the hosepipe running, I found it again 3 hours later overflowing. Now I need to get in there and splash about a bit to get the water back to its proper level.

I managed to get Mari on the phone at last (after confirming her number by email). She thought it was very funny that I had sung to a stranger. The old number was for her brother Albert's office where she stayed when she arrived in Poland. It was also funny hearing her English translation of the Polish birthday message I had created using Google translator the other day. Apparently I had "appreciated her day of giving birth" and "wished her cakes filling all her descriptions"! Mari is excited about the upcoming start of her house being built and is thinking of starting a blog to record progress. Go for it Mari!

Still Ill

From that famous Smiths song...
"Does the body rule the mind Or does the mind rule the body ?"
Well today the body wins. I'm staying home. The antibiotics must have not fully kicked in yet.

Called round to see Mo yesterday late afternoon, we spent a couple of hours sipping rooibos tea with honey, sampling Mo's homemade bread with Boursin and chatting about everything from Cuban healthcare to the state of the economy. Upon leaving my car got stuck in the muddy grass on the verge and I managed spin the wheeels a few times before I moved off. In the light of morning I realised my car is splattered from front to back with dried mud, even on the windscreen. It looks like I've been hooning around on some 4WD adventure instead of having a sedate cup of tea and sit down with a friend in the neighbourhood.

Tried to call Mari now she's back home in Lublin. I started singing "Happy Birthday" with a croaky throat as soon as the phone was answered, only to find, after 2 full verses, that it was not Mari at all but another very confused Polish lady. I apologised and hung up.

Noodle proving that cats can find warm spots even in winter...

A roof, a WOF, a cough and a burnt out heater

Another bad sleep due to my ticklish throat and coughing. My car needed a WOF, so took it up the road to the garage. It went through no problem, good old Mitsubishi. Spent an hour folding and enveloping the company's monthly invoices for John. Then I spoke to the pain-in-the-a** roofing company and finally reached agreement about the reduction in price I would pay for the re-roofing of Pension fund No.1. This company are unbelievable - the dramas I've had could fill several pages, but to put it briefly they took 10 weeks to do a job that was supposed to take 2-3 weeks and in the process managed to decapitate a beautiful old cabbage tree that (used to) grace the front lawn of the house AND to top it all (no pun intended) they roofed the whole house with the wrong colour tiles (blue-grey instead of green-grey). So, for the past month I have been in dispute about paying the full bill. If anyone reading this needs to know which large Auckland roofing company to avoid I am happy to fill you in on the details.

As I was sitting at the table listening to music and enveloping, I sniffed a burning smell that defintely wasn't toast and then I noticed puffs of white smoke coming from the back of the electric heater. Jumped up and knocked the switch off before it burst into flames. Lucky I was in the room at the time it happened. So I've just been out and bought a new convection heater, but I think it will be cold enough for a log fire tonight. Feet up, roast chicken and a night of telly is on the cards.