Travels in the deep south

The weather was amazing for our mini break in Nelson. Although colder than Auckland we had plenty of sunshine and blue skies.
Having not been there since 1991, couldn't remember much about the place and I was pleasantly surprised. Something about the light made everything seem brighter and more colourful, like in Scandinavia, or it could be we've had weeks of cloud and rain up north. The locals seeemd so much friendlier than Aucklanders too and the Saturday market was notable for all the creative goods on offer, not the same stuff we normally see.

Arriving Friday lunchtime we had lunch and then browsed in the town. Saturday we drove towards Marlborough Sounds and up as far as French Pass, through a lot of very winding hilly roads. On Sunday we went the other direction to Motueka and Takaka and beyond. A beachside pub served us a full roast pork sunday lunch with all the trimmings for $12 (about 4 quid) .

The best restaurant in Nelson itself was BarDelicious near the Cathedral - we had two great meals there. The place we stayed Warwick House is a grand old colonial manor house that has been restored since 2003. Our suite was the partially turreted "Tower Room".

Monday the flight wasn't until 5pm so after a leisurely breakfast we browsed in the town again and went to the WOW (World of Wearable Arts) museum.

A few of the pics....

Snow on the distant hills reminded us it's not yet summer
Warwick House. The turretted tower suite we stayed in is at the back
Mussel beds are part of the aquaculture of the area - the famous green lipped mussels come from around here

Being spied on by a local
View from the winding road
The waiting room for the ferry to D'Urville Island, complete with old style letter box
Strange what you see in the middle of nowhere ...
Man or beast? Across the road from the Penguin Cafe which serves a great $12 Sunday roast
Low afternoon sunlight hits the beach at Kaiteriteri
One of the classic cars on show at the WOW museum
and a river runs through it - man and dog leave their mark on the sands at Cable Bay

Since getting back to the big smoke, i had my hair brightened up.

Blood in my eyes....

To cap off a series of minor ailments, for the past week I've had red infected eyeballs that stopped me wearing my contacts and entailed squeezing antibiotic ointment into my eyes - yuck. I am now just about back to normal. (oh that bad you may say!)

It made me think of 'Blood in my eyes' - and this video - with Bob cruising around the Camden Lock area of London, in fact right past the venue where my wedding reception happened back in 1990.

Woke up this morning, feeling blue, Seen a good-lookin' girl, can I make love with you? Hey, hey, babe, I got blood in my eyes for you, Hey, hey,...


A great song - very slow and bluesy. It's the highlight of the 'World Gone Wrong' album.

Looking forward to the coming weekend, for we are flying to Nelson, at the sunny top of the South Island for a 4 day break.

Movie heaven

Two weeks into the International Film Festival, and just three days to go, with three more films for us to see.

Last night we went to Dogtooth, about a surreal Greek family where the three adult children have been kept totally isolated from the outside world by their over protective parents. Things start to go badly wrong when the father brings in a security guard from his workplace to perform sexual favours for the son. The trailer here gives a hint of the weirdness that ensues. Great movie. I love films that totally transport you into another world that is both surreal but plausible. It reminded a little of the Natasha Kamplugh and Josef Fritzl cases.

We also saw 'I'm Not Harry Jensen'- a locally made low budget film of the 'whodunnit' genre filmed in the bush and coast west of Auckland. We got comp tickets as Paul had provided the film's website, the Director/Writer being a friend of his from school days.

'Paper Soldier' was an unfathomable Russian film set amongst the 1960's cosmonaut community. It was made even more unfathomable by having white subtitles on a snowy Siberian background.

The last 2 days my eyeballs have been red and irritated, I wonder if over-dosing on movies could do this, or if I have been contaminated by another movie-goers toxic perfume...

Memories of youth

My headcold & cough seems to be waning, and I have regained my taste buds, thank goodness. Still not much energy though, so am having a lazy day today.

This clip always makes me smile, because Bob's having a laugh and because I can remember what it feels like to be this stoned...

Masked and Anonymous

On a routine visit to the GP for a repeat prescription for some sleeping tablets, I had to wear a mask in the waiting room, due to my head cold I've been sniffling with for the last week. I was also asked to sit at the far end away from the main seating zone. Kids eyes furtively looked me over, the creepy lady in the face mask!

On a brighter note, the NZ International Film Festival is underway. We've seen 3, missed 3 that we'd booked for (due to sickness) and have 8 more planned in the next 10 days.

The highlight so far is 'Big River Man' about the Slovenian Martin Strel whose hobby is swimming the length of the worlds longest rivers. This film is about the Amazon swim. Amazingly, Strel is not a super-athlete, but 53, overweight and a heavy drinker. After swimming the Danube, Mississippi and Yangtze, the Nile had been proposed as his next river, but Strel said, "I am not going to do the Nile. It's long but not challenging enough, it is just a small creek. The Amazon is much more mighty."

He barely survived the 66 days, 5000+ km in piranha infested waters. This is the trailer for the film.

Big River Man - Trailer from KNR Productions on Vimeo.

Exposed, and covered

On the home front the roofing is complete. And the torrential rains we've had caused no drips at all which is a relief. The house smells less musty already and looks a good deal smarter too.


I was amused by the Air NZ safety video featuring staff wearing nothing but body paint. The video is "The Bare Essentials of Safety", part of the 'Nothing to Hide" campaign.
Cleverly done - you can just spot the odd nipple. View the video here.


I've been enjoying the CD Leonard Cohen "Live in London". Great renditions of songs I liked on the studio versions and also some I now like after hearing them live. This one is called Boogie Street. Beautiful vocals by Len and co-writer Sharon Robinson.



Great to hear his voice in such good tone at the age of 75. If only Bob's voice had mellowed as well.

Basil and Micky having a brotherly kip on the window seat.

Have a good weekend!

Song of the week

I accidentally hit the 'repeat' button on my car CD player (probably while trying to crank up the heater on a 3C morning drive to work). Today I realised that one song had been going round and round non-stop for about 2 days. Thats about 1.5 hours driving a day.

The song in question is the one below. It has really grown on me, and I can sing all the words now without prompting !

Possum Wars!

I didn't realise we lived in such a violent neighbourhood until tonight.

Sitting quietly by the log fire after dinner, browsing a book of soup recipes, as you do on a cold winters evening, I was shaken from my reverie with a loud squealing accompanied by several thuds just outside the front door. Thinking that one of the cats was murdering something on our doorstep, I ran outside to find two large grey bushy tailed possums wrestling each other on the rubber mat! They were locked in combat and carried on squealing for some moments until they realised a large human was standing over them at which point they separated. One took off down the drive and the other legged it indoors, down the stairs into the living room past John who was on his way up to see what the commotion was. Mr Possum tried to hide behind the furniture but we managed to get a towel over, wrap him up and throw the bugger out of the window into the bush to meet his fate with its possum enemies. All three cats were nowhere to be seen.

Too much excitement for one day!

A zen moment

A friend set me this link which looks like a useful zen site so I've added the related blog to the Blog list on here.

Our loos both blocked up again today, but John managed to free the drain and jump out of the way of the sewage spurt, all before I got home from work. Joy. Will it last.

Fun and games and exploding sewage

The roofing continues. It has been hampered alternately by non-appearance of deliverables such as chimneys and guttering and also by never-ending torrents of rain. I am over it and just want it to be over. Preferably all over the house. Currently we have 2/3 of a new roof, 1/3 old roof with some tarpaulins joining the gaps, no gutters (so the torrential rain goes straight down the windows and seeps in), a dysfunctional chimney (so we can't light a fire), and mess everywhere from the new skylights that have been 'cut in' to the ceilings.

Last week the builders removed and replaced the main sewage down pipe from our top bathroom (which is 4 floors up). While it was removed they must have dropped some rubble in the drain then cemented the pipes back in place. Three days later, we had a total blockage, both toilets filled up with brown water and the act of flushing the upstairs loo made the downstairs one fill up even more. We called the emergency plumber on Saturday afternoon while we kept our legs crossed and stopped drinking cups of tea in case there was going to be a 'no loo' situation overnight.

The plumber arrived a couple of hours later (I was starting to get worried). He cursed the fact they had cemented the pipe in instead of putting a proper rubber seal thingy on it, so he had to hacksaw the pipe near where it disappeared under the deck into the drain. As he started sawing, (I was stood behind proffering his cup of coffee), liquid spurted out and he muttered something about "a lot of pressure here". Then, he pushed the pipe off-centre and a fountain of sewage rushed down and up the outside, covering the man head to belly.

I was so shocked I didn't know what to do or say. I wanted to laugh but had to stifle it. We cleaned him up with a towel and offered him a shower but he bravely worked on to fix the blockage and re-seal the pipe. Afterwards when we were paying the bill (the best $300 I've ever spent on a plumber), I asked him if it was the first time this has happened to him. He said in a gruff voice 'No. I've tasted shit before!!"

Having a working toilet is a great relief. It makes you appreciate what life must have been like before civilisation as we know it. Also makes me realise how it all disappears at the press of a button and how shocking it is to see it all again several days later smothered across a strangers face!

It is now a year since I started this blog - and my posting has got less frequent. I still enjoy doing it so will attempt to keep it up for another year. I am over the daily reporting of details of what I ate and who I spoke to - so I will limit it to more newsworthy subjects. Hence, if a few weeks go by with no posts it either means I've dropped dead or am having a suitably boring life :-)

To keep my mind off winter, work, and the housing situation I've been alternately playing Sims Castaway on the Wii (it's a shipwreck game where you have to keep your Sims alive and try to get them rescued), and harvesting crops on my virtual farm at FarmTown. It's a sad life I know!

Things I am looking forward to:

1. The roofing being finished
2. The International Film Festival starting soon
3. A long weekend in Nelson in early August
4. Summer!

p.s. This has been a Dylan-free post but I will be back on form soon.