Is it just me?

As I drive everyday I try and memorise details about cars I see, things like make, model, colour, registration, just in case the cops need help to solve a crime and I can help them crack the case with my superhuman observation skills. I do the same with conspicuous people.

Is it just me?

Hey peeps

Thought I'd pop in to say quick gidday to anyone who bothers to stop by here and to have a quick lurk around some of my favourite blogs. 

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News in brief: Yours truly turned 45 a couple of weeks ago, took it hard I must confess. Much consumption of strong drink and funny smelling cigarettes was required that day/week (well it's ongoing actually). Speaking of ageing, life is cruel you know, I used to ingest chemicals to blur the lines of reality, now, all I have to do is take off my glasses. 

On the topic of cigarettes (a while back I acknowledge, stay with me people), I passed my 2 year smokefree milestone - yayyy for me!

On a more serious note I nearly lost another sister a  couple of months back but thankfully she survived the ravages of a terrifying affliction called Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Thank the gods that medical treatment is top-knotch (and free) here. 

Currently getting my head around the fact that I will soon no longer have school age offspring; the boy finishes high school in a couple of months then on to university next year - this is good and bad; great that he's miraculously not a drop out (statistically speaking 'they' tell me he should be a dole-bludging crackhead having been raised in the evil environs of south Auckland by a cash strapped single parent), not so great that I'm inching ever more quickly towards decrepitude (please forgive the age related whinyness; the birthday is still raw). 

I did almost manage to get away for a couple of weeks to South Pacific island (Fiji to be specific), the plan was to up the vitamin D quota over the long, dreary, wet NZ winter but finances just wouldn't allow it. Booked it all but had to cancel when a big unexpected bill arrived. I just know there'll be swim up bars and margaritas in heaven ahhhh. Not actually sure why I included that 'non news' in my news update - obviously not a lot of real news to share. Sad. 

That's about it for now folks, oh yeah nearly forgot, big fucking earthquake down country in the early hours of this morning, mucho property damage I hear though thankfully no loss of life. 

Spring has sprung here in the land of the kiwi (and various other flightless birds) and there are smiles to be seen about town again - onwards and upwards. Love Lou. 

PS Sorry about the surfeit of parentheses (an indicator of poor education so I'm told), I just can't fight it. Ohhh that reminds me yet again - I got my diploma (remember the one that I bitched on about for a year?), big double yayyy for me. Not a real flash diploma you understand - but an accomplishment by my standards. 

L

EDIT: PPS Not a good day for tourists in NZ, I hear that a small sightseeing plane has crashed and burned with none of the 9 passengers and crew surviving. 

Making a difference

Here’s my contribution towards Lori’s latest writer’s challenge. The subject matter this time around is;

Teachers Who’ve Made a Difference

I imagine that when a person decides to become a school teacher it’s a conscious choice, a vocation even, certainly not a career decision made lightly. We all know the difference that a good or bad teacher can make to an impressionable mind and I like to think that even the worst teacher started out with the best of intentions.

Saying that, my very first teacher in New Zealand was a shocker. I get that my five and a half year old brain might not be the most reliable source of information but the memories have stuck with me now for nearly 40 years and that must attest to some veracity.  Her name was Sister I* and she was 70 if she was a day. She got her kicks having the whole class make fun of my Irish accent. I recall being made to stand up on my desk and say the alphabet over and over and getting a whack with a ruler whenever a hint of accent crept in to my pronunciation. I didn’t tell my parents until many years later why my accent disappeared so quickly when we came back to NZ.

I was a good student as a child. I worked hard, desperate for the validation that good grades brought. I was lucky too I guess that I was an all rounder as a kid; I was athletic – good at almost any sport I tried – and I found school work unproblematic on the whole. That combination ensured primary and intermediate school was a relatively easy ride – lots of friends and mostly indulgent teachers. I had lots of male teachers in those formative years and I still believe that generally speaking men make the best teachers – less structured, more going with the flow. No offence intended to any female teachers who might be reading.

My favourite teacher from that period was the wonderful Mr A. By the time I knew him he was an old man and a widower. He was a fabulous teacher; he was unhurried; patient and kind and for the first time I truly understood that I was entitled to my own opinion. He made us laugh every single day but taught us to challenge what we read and heard; it was my first exposure to critical thinking.

Then I went to high school and everything changed.

To be fair, it wasn’t the fault of my teachers that things started to go wrong. In fact Mr B tried very hard to keep me engaged in the learning process but by the time I hit 15, I was failing his class (maths) and barely passing anything else. I then started skipping class until I was missing most lessons every day.

Somehow though I continued to scrape through with barely acceptable grades until my senior year at school when I was unexpectedly captivated by climatology and the hydrological cycle as shared by Ms M in geography class. She inspired me and suddenly I was attending all my classes again and actually rediscovering the joy of learning. She was an older woman who appreciated that at our age we had a choice about whether we went to school each day or not. She infused every class with visual aids to help communicate the subject. She’d travelled widely and had collected a vast library of photographs to help illustrate her point and she was all for laughter and fun and games in her classroom. Above all others, Ms M was the teacher who re-energised me with the wonder of learning. I’m eternally grateful as to this day I have never lost that joy.

*Names have been changed to protect the guilty.

Back again

Home again after another few days away. I’ve got sunburned yesterday (again) so I’m feeling a bit sorry for myself – I was being so careful with sun block but being in and out of the sea all day means it washes off so quick.

I’ll only inflict a couple of photos on you this time…

This was the view from my room, about 20 steps to the sand.

I took this yesterday mid afternoon. Gorgeous day, deserted beach.

Me hiding behind a big tree.

Another decade down

I know that purists will say that the decade isn’t over until the end of 2010 but it’s my blog and I say now’s the right time for a review of the first decade of the 21st century.

Here are some of the highlights according to Louise.

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2000: I started the year in between jobs but with definite prospects so no real concerns. I had a 7 year old son, no man (some things never change) and I had my eye on a house that I coveted for my very first ownership experience.  At one stage that year Rory got airlifted off his dad’s yacht after getting hit in the head by the boom – scary stuff, he didn’t know anyone for hours afterwards. The year ended with me and Rory settled into the new house, a promotion at work, a boyfriend of sorts and a brand new nephew. A perplexing choice (in my opinion) was made made by the American electorate but it was a very good year all in all.

2001: My best friend moved to Australia and the boyfriend became an ex. Horrible happenings in the US. The only bright side was that a lovely puppy, later named Bonnie, was born and adopted by yours truly. I quit smoking that year and lasted 8 months before falling off the wagon. Rory racked up over 40,000 kilometres in flights between Auckland and his dad’s place in Perth, Western Australia. I went nowhere.

2002: Met another cheating jerk. Swore off men forever.

2003: Menopause. At 37 years old. Rory turned 10 and to celebrate his dad took him to Africa to explore for 3 months. I cried myself to sleep every night from missing him though the grief did great things for my career as I worked 15 hours a day and earned another promotion. The US declared war on Iraq – I remember something about WMD? My older sister was very ill but thankfully recovered fully. I got away briefly at the end of the year to spend time (and money) with my friend in Victoria, Australia.

2004: Got to Thailand again this year – one of my very fave places to escape the kiwi winter. Also got in another visit to Victoria. Another nephew born – that made four but still no nieces. Everything else was bad that year - horrible happenings, this time in Spain and atrocities continued in Darfur. And then that catastrophic tsunami on Boxing Day to finish the year.

2005: Finally quit chewing my nails to mark my 40th birthday. Katrina struck. It was 10 years since we lost my sister so we had a party to remember her by. Rory spent Christmas snowboarding in Japan with his dad – it was my first Christmas without him and it was hard.

2006: Rory started high school. Saddam Hussein was hanged and Steve Irwin got stabbed by a stingray. Crikey.

2007: Sinn Fein and the DUP hammered out an agreement for a power-sharing government in northern Ireland. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. Rory’s dad moved back to NZ and for the first time ever we did the every second weekend part time dad thing – I started to remember what a real social life was like. I drank too much.

2008: Quit smoking again (18 months now and still going strong). Got addicted to Facebook. The Kiwis won the Rugby League World Cup and the hottest tennis player ever, Rafael Nadal, is ranked #1. Somali entrepreneurs found their niche in the piracy business. I met a man with real potential until the day he slammed Rory against a wall for looking at him sideways. Got a couple of long weekends away in Australia. Started new role managing projects at work and commuting to Wellington city twice a week.  Rory had a tumour removed from inside his jaw – it was benign. I spent most of the year exhausted. Bought new house and moved in just before Christmas. Whew, what  a year!

2009: Started the year with a new pastime – blogging. Met lots of wonderful new friends. There were terrible bushfires in Victoria so I went to console my friend. Witnessed a terrible car accident. Started reading about Tao Buddhism. Centre-right government elected in NZ for the first time in many years. I bought a lovely new car. A never ending cycle of study. Rory turned 16 and attended his first school ball, my mum and dad both turned 70, dad retired finally and my youngest nephew started school – still no nieces, have given up on that ever happening now. 

 

 

 

 

 

…and here we are nearly at the very end of 2009. That was my decade in brief; how about sharing yours?

 

 

Happy Christmas everyone.

Even more about me

I nicked this from Daniels blog over at The Pursuit of What Matters to Me. Thanks Daniel. Feel free to join in anyone who wants to.

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1. Do you have any tertiary qualification?
Yes I have. I also continue to struggle along with study – it’s a never ending process.

2. What was the amount of your last electric bill?
NZ$63 for a months worth of power. Not sure how this compares but this is considered a very modest bill here especially as I don’t have gas as well – I’m tight as all hell with regards power usage.

3. Do you have life insurance?
Yes (single mother and all that).

4. How many hours per week do you work?
Around 45-50.

5. Have you ever attended a Toastmasters event?
No.

6. Favourite place to attend Happy Hour?
Nowhere these days. Occasionally I meet a girlfriend after work for a wine but that is few and far between these days. 

7. How far is your commute to work each day?
When I am working in Auckland my travel is only 15 minutes each way but on the once or twice weekly days working in our capital city, Wellington, the commute is about 2 hours each way – yuck!!!

8. What time do you get up every morning for work?
We’re up at around 6am to get to Rory’s school bus at 7.10am. I then head straight to work so am there by 7.30am most days.

9. What is your definition of sleeping in late?
On a Saturday I can sleep and then doze until almost midday if there’s nothing I have to get up for. 

10. Do you check your cholesterol on a yearly basis?
Yes along with all the other checks that are deemed necessary.

11. How large was your first cell phone?
Not that big as I was fairly late to the cell phone game. Only flash businessmen or ‘out and about’ types like trades or sales people, had the bricks here in NZ. My first cell phone was in the 2G era, it was a Nokia that I got in about 1995 or 1996 I think.

12. Does your employer provide good health insurance?
No, that’s not something employers do here as we have a public health service that covers all New Zealanders. It’s not that great but it’s free.

13. Did you use the Internet to write a research paper?
When I was at university there was no such thing as the internet, well as far as I was aware of anyway.

14. Have you attended a High School reunion?
Yes. Had a few laughs but I think I’ll leave it there. Anyone I still like I am in contact with anyway so no further need.

15. How many jobs have you held in your career? 
I have had about 10 jobs over the years.

16. Have you ever been fired or laid off from a job?
No.

17. What is your favourite drink?
Jim Beam and Zero Coke in a tall glass with lots of ice. Yummmmm.

18. What’s the most expensive bottle of wine that you’ve bought?
Not much. I buy inexpensive wine – I don’t have a snobby palate.

19. Have you been divorced?
Nope.

20. How old were you when you stopped getting ID-ed for alcohol?
In my early 20s if I remember rightly.

21. Favourite casino?
None. Hate the places, they reek of desperation.

22. Are you happier now than you were in high school?
Yes and No. High school was great carefree fun but now is cool too.

23. Did you ever have a Hypercolor shirt?
Yes I had a yellow/green one though I didn’t wear it much. It always seemed a bit weird wearing a shirt that clearly showed that you were hottest under your arms and boobs.

24. Do you remember when Michael Jackson was black and was attracted to older people?
I remember him as black, yes.

25. Do you remember when MTV actually played music videos?
No we didn’t have MTV in NZ until after it had gone to shit.

26. Have you had a will made?
Yes, within a month of Rory being born. Updated twice since then.

27. What music was in your cd/cassette player when you were 16?
It was a cassette player and it was Patti Smith, The Clash, Led Zeppelin and Simon and Garfunkel.

28. Favourite fancy/upscale restaurant?
Don’t have one. My favourite eateries are cheap and cheerful local Thai places.

29. Where were you when you found out about 9-11?
My clock radio went off at around 6.00am as usual on the morning of 12 September but the morning DJ crew I wake to each day were talking about something serious instead of the usual joking around. I got up and turned on the TV and was horrified.

30. Do you have any children yet?
Yes, one.

Onwards and upwards

I’ve been feeling really ‘bleh’ the last few months.

It wasn’t anything I could put my finger on; just fatigued, feeling a bit blue as well as inexplicably piling on weight. Actually it some ways it was rather reminiscent of the Glandular Fever I got as a teenager. My doctor just kept saying it was about working full time in a stressful role, being a single mother and running a household alongside juggling my study towards a Diploma in Business, but as of yesterday I have a concrete answer.

It’s kind of weird but it’s a huge relief to finally understand that my thyroid gland has stopped functioning well (aka Hypothyroidism). Apparently it’s a reasonably common condition (up to 3% of the population is affected) but it is often overlooked.

Today I have started taking replacement thyroxine, probably for the rest of my life,  but I am feeling very hopeful of a huge change in my outlook.  

Arrrgggh

I haven’t slept in 2 days.

I was hoping to be much better today and because I  didn’t want to bore you, my reader, any more than necessary, I avoided mentioning to you the fall I had on Monday. 

Now though it’s reached the point where my compulsion for oversharing dictates I must do so.

On Monday evening I fell. I bruised and sprained the intercostal muscles between the ribs on my left side. It hurts. The analgesic I was first prescribed made me vomit repeatedly so I’m now taking a new one which appears to be working though I still haven’t found a way to lie down AND continue to breathe.

I spent last night standing and/or pacing watching movies most of the night. I’m so tired it is health hazardous to come anywhere near me. I only lasted the morning at work before my team begged me to go home, a request to which I ungraciously acquiesced.

I’m going to try lying down again now – wish me luck.

Possibilities

It’s a long time since I woke up feeling the world was filled with possibilities. And not just for other people, but for me. It’s a great feeling though I must contain myself, not get ahead of myself.

It’s early days.

Things that make me go hmmm

Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realise you're wrong.

Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know" feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with? 

I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

There is a great need for a sarcasm font.

How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish writing a text message.

Lol has often gone from meaning "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

Bad decisions make good stories.

Whenever I'm in Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning.  546 pictures? Don't mind if I do thanks.

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save the changes to my 22 page report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

I hate leaving my house feeling ultra confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about 1 in every 10 songs.

Why is a school zone 40kph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for paedophiles...

Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

….and finally;

The other night I ordered takeaway Chinese food, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included 2 sets of plastic cutlery. Hmmmm. Someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least 2 people eating to require this amount of food. I was eating by myself.

Scary stuff

The lovely edder from I Don’t Care for your Tone came up with a list of  her fears. It’s quite the list though quite different from what scares me.

In no particular order:

1. Slipping on the edge of swimming pools. A friend broke her hip when we were 10 and since then I’m always very very careful.
2. Cancer.
3. Eels. I grew up swimming in rivers and occasionally in the deep swimming holes you’d feel something big and slippery against your leg. Things in the sea don’t scare me in anywhere near the same way.
4. Migraine headaches. Once the ‘aura’ starts the race is on to get home and into a dark room for what is inevitably 12 hours of vomiting and suicide inducing pain. Hell.
5. Something bad happening to my son.
6. Spiders. Especially those Camel Spiders that Moko told me about the other day on Twitter - check out a picture here. EEEEEEK.
7. Dying alone.

What scares you?

What’s in a name?

To learn about the origins of your surname check out this website, The Internet Surname Database.

My surname is Carroll.

This interesting and long-established surname, of Irish origin, is an Anglicized form of the name "O'Cearbhaill", a byname for a butcher or a fierce warrior, deriving from "cearbh", hacking.

There were six distinct septs of O'Carroll in Ireland, namely in Counties Kerry, Offaly, Monaghan, Tipperary, Leitrim and Louth. Carroll has a high position in the list of most numerous surnames in Ireland, approximately sixteen thousand, which range from Counties Cork, Tipperary and Waterford, to Kilkenny.

My given name Louise also means warrior so I guess you could say that I am someone not to be messed with. 

Miles from nowhere

On Monday edder, I don't care for your tone, published a great new meme idea. Now I see Bob, I Should Be Laughing and DuPree, chlorine in the gene pool have both joined in and seeing I’m still stuck in bed with the flu, there’s no excuse for not making an effort though it looks frightfully difficult.

 

The instructions are to answer each question using only song titles from one artist.

I chose Cat Stevens partly because he has a large repertoire but mostly just because I was a huge fan as a teenager.

OK here goes -

• Are you male or female? – Hard headed woman
• Describe yourself – Better bring another bottle baby
• How do you feel about yourself? How can I tell you
• If you could go anywhere, where would you go? 18th Avenue
• Favourite form of transportation? Peace Train
• Your best friend is? Sad Lisa
• Your favourite colour is? Rubylove or Bitterblue
• What's the weather like? Morning has broken
• If your life was a TV show, what would it be called? Wild World
• What is the best advice you have to give? The First Cut is the Deepest
• If you could change your name, what would it be? Sweet Scarlet or perhaps Lady D’Arbanville
• Your favourite food? Buddha and the chocolate box

 

 

 

Wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be though I acknowledge my cheat on the last question – Buddha is an album not a song.

 

 

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Treat yourself to something uplifting for a few minutes. Relax.

Stand up and be counted

The lovely edder over at I don’t care for your tone, just celebrated her 100th post belatedly and it made me check and find that my next post (i.e. this one) would be the not so auspicious but worth celebrating anyway, 150th.

I made a bit of an effort to post something from the heart on my 100th (see ‘A century without loss’ here if you’re interested), so I thought that surely 150 was worth some effort as well.

So here goes…

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ASIDE: The 2005 video below is of a local band The feelers singing a song that encapsulates the way I try to live my life every day. Not the greatest quality video but was the best I could find. 

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I wasn’t actually going to post about this event EVER as it casts me in a somewhat questionable light but what the hell. I’ve obtained the necessary permission on the proviso that I change the name of the other person involved.

Last Saturday I nearly got myself carted away by the cops. Again.

My immediate neighbour is a young Maori girl. She’s on her own with her 2 young kids after  she finally got the gumption to show him the door a few months back. He was no good.

Aroha* and I are not exactly friends though I respect her parenting style and choosing to go it alone rather than put up with crap. She works a fulltime job though she needn’t, the social welfare system in New Zealand provides enough to live on and is universal and is based on the belief that single parents are better off at home caring for their children until the children start school at least. That’s not her style though and when he left she started looking for a job. Luckily I was able to help her out through a friend.

She’s gotten herself in trouble with her rent over the last few weeks (for various reasons that I won’t go into) and her landlord was trying to evict her but without going through the proper legal channels. Aroha came to me for advice as she had no proper rental agreement with the landlord and he was obviously counting on being able to get rid of her easily. I talked to him more than once on Aroha’s behalf and tried to negotiate a rent schedule which would allow her to catch up while also reminding him of his legal responsibilities. All to no avail – D day was last Saturday and if she wasn’t out when he turned up at 12o’clock, “there’d be trouble”.    

This story is getting much longer than I intended so I’ll speed it up.

On my advice Aroha didn’t budge. I was there with her. The landlord turned up and quickly got threatening.  I called the cops. His ‘boys’ started moving furniture out onto the driveway. Her babies were crying. The cops turn up at just the wrong moment when I was venting a stream of invective at the scum lowlife bast**d and I got promptly frogmarched out into the back seat of the police car. Aroha was crying – it was freakin’ chaos.

Anyway, one of the cops sat in the car and got the full story from me which obviously changed the situation (not that she let me out of the car immediately – she thought I needed some quiet time to calm down).  The landlord was sent packing and a mediation session with the Tenancy Tribunal was booked for yesterday.

 

Aroha now has a proper and lawful tenancy agreement with the landlord and has committed to sorting out her finances and making sure she keeps up with the rent.  She and I have an ‘appointment’ later today to draw up a budgeting plan for her.

Sometimes we just need to stand up against what we know is wrong.

 

*Aroha is not her real name though it is a real Maori girls name. It means love. See the similarity to the Hawaiian language? Aloha can mean love/affection as well as hello or goodbye.

Joy Joy Joy

I’m inspired by the ‘joy lists’ published by edder from I don’t care for your tone and DuPree from chlorine in the gene pool.  I wasn’t tagged but I'm doing it anyway, just because…

Things that bring me joy;

• a roaring wood fire on a cold wet night
• a new hair cut and colour
• gently waking to birdsong on summer holiday
• the butterflies that go with a first date
• a comfy chair in a warm spot and a good book

• my skin tingling in the sun after swimming in the sea
• driving with the top down
• my girlfriends and a jug of icy margarita
• a good movie in a luxury cinema (one with recliners)
• a rollercoaster ride with a child

It’s all about me

The delightful and fun Joanne from Joanne Moving Forward – half speed has tagged me to share 10 things about myself that readers may not know.  Well any of you that read this blog regularly know that I compulsively over share almost everything going on in my life so this isn’t going to be an easy assignment.

I will tag three of my newest followers as I’m keen to get them sharing a bit about themselves. Please guys. I realise this is probably not your style at all but I’m nosey OK? Give a girl a break.

• Plashing Vole from The Plashing Vole - parataxis
• Al from Al in the country 
• Bard from The Lonely Bard Inn

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------OK, deep breath and  here goes…

1) I have blue eyes and fair skin. Gorgeous!

2) I’m somewhat wayward church wise but have given my own child a Catholic education. Hypocritical? Maybe, but the RC’s do good schooling and a bit of dogma never seriously hurt anyone.

3) I had a Norwegian Hooded rat named Seamus for years when I was in high school. I loved that rat.

4) My teenage son points out that I guilt him into doing stuff, yikes, I’m turning into my mother. Must work on that!

5) My favourite painting is Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. It takes my breath away. I have still never made to to the Uffizi to see the real thing but one day I will.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6) I am mathematically challenged. Even simple arithmetic ain’t simple to me.

7) I am shamefully monolingual. I used to gather as much as I needed to get by very basically when travelling but have never shown any commitment to learning a second language properly. Am thinking about starting night classes with my dad though and learning Italian. He already passably speaks 3 languages.

8) I will watch almost any sport on TV.

9) I can ride a motorbike.

10) On a cold and rainy winter Sunday afternoon (like today) I can easily stay in bed all day. Today is proof of that. I have slept, finished my book, dozed a bit, watched a DVD on my laptop and now written this post and it is now 3.15pm.  Rory’s out so I don’t intend getting up even now. Lazy cow.

The Emerald Isle

It was 3 July 1989 and a 23 year old kiwi girl boarded the ferry from Galway to the main island of the Aran group, Inishmore. She was the only passenger and she imagined herself as an intrepid adventurer – the wind was roaring and the Atlantic was at its angry best.  It was breathtakingly cold though it was the middle of summer. After tying up the boat, the man on the dock helped her off the ferry. She thanked him and hurried down the steps looking for somewhere to warm up. She headed toward a small group of whitewashed buildings where she fell into an easy conversation with the old man leaving the tiny post office. She was fascinated by his accent – she’d never heard anything like it despite her weeks already in Ireland. He thought she was South African and wouldn’t be convinced otherwise. They shared two fingers in the dark and smoky bar next door and he suggested she take his bicycle to explore the tiny island.

She almost laughed when she saw the bike – it was older than she was by years and though she hadn’t ridden a bicycle since she was a kid, she bravely pushed off and proceeded along the bumpy roadway.

It was a day to remember.

She marvelled at the ancient beauty of the place and stopped often to talk with islanders going about their business. A farmer stripped to his waist and clearing rocks from his field offered to share his lunch with her and she gratefully sat with him on the low stone wall and accepted a slice of soda bread and half his lump of cheese.

They talked while they ate and he told her with pride that every square inch of dirt on the island was created from seaweed and manure over the last 1000 years.  His grandfather’s father had moved his family to the island more than 80 years earlier and though his own son was now at university in Dublin studying “the law” , he hoped that one day he might return to the island permanently with his own family. As the shadows lengthened and the sky turned pink, she knew she must end her exploring and head back to the village as the last ferry back to the mainland left each evening just before dark. There was no sign of the old man so she left the bicycle with the woman at the post office.

As the boat pulled away from the dock the young woman looked back at the island and held her hair from her eyes. The sun was setting and she was almost overwhelmed with the sheer joy of being able to travel to places of such raw beauty and to enjoy the simple hospitality of such warm and open hearted people.

“…when she was bold and strong”

My mate Tim published his current top 10 songs over on his blog, The Fat Man and his efforts inspired me. 

Trust me on this, it’s not a simple exercise.

My first draft has taken a couple of hours on and off this afternoon between the chores. After initially building to upwards of 50 tunes I’ve finally managed to prune it to the required 10. Don’t be surprised that the 70’s and 80’s are over represented, after all they were my formative years.

In no particular order;

1. Better man - Pearl Jam
2. A little is enough - Pete Townsend
3. Run to the water - Live
4. Because the night - Patti Smith
5. Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin
6. Fishing for Lisa - The Feelers
7. Imagine – John Lennon
8. Numb - Linkin Park
9. Creep - Radiohead
10. The Boxer - Simon and Garfunkel

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I’m finally getting back to work tomorrow after nearly 3 weeks off. It’s great to be feeling better but I’m somewhat dreading what I’ll have to deal with at the office.

It’s all about meme

This meme is unashamedly stolen from the blog of the ultra sophisticated edder, “I don’t care for your tone.” Join in.

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The 7 deadly sins

Pride: What is your biggest contribution to the world? My enormous capacity to take the piss out of people who think they know it all.  There aren’t that many of us who actually do.

Envy: What does someone have that you wish were yours? Abs

Gluttony: What did you eat last night? Enough panzotti to feed a modest sized Argentinean village followed by half a family size block of Cadbury chocolate (which perhaps explains the sans abs situation).

Lust: What really lights your fire? Porn

Wrath: What really pissed you off?  The fact that every single time I try to plug in a USB device it’s upside down. How is that even possible when there’s a 50:50 chance of getting it right? It’s a freakin’ conspiracy and I can prove it - it involves a grassy knoll and a fake moon landing.

Greed: Name something you hoard and keep from others: Old newspapers – I have 3 rooms full of them now. I’m considering leasing a storage unit so I can extend my collection.

Sloth: What’s the laziest thing you do? When training new workers, I always give incomplete or misleading instructions as this ensures weeks of hilarity as they seriously f**k things up.

I’ve lost my voice

Figuratively that is.

I’ve been sick and was finally discharged from hospital on Saturday afternoon after more than a week. I’m still off work for another few days but I must be feeling much better because I was getting excruciatingly bored by yesterday.  To break the monotony I’ve come to hang out with a friend in Christchurch for a couple of days. Christchurch is a couple of hours flight south of Auckland (latitude 43°S).

My hotel is right in the middle of town and my room looks down on the square, the sculpture and the cathedral as below. If I remember rightly the sculpture lights up and looks quite cool at night so I’ll try and get another shot of it after we get home from dinner. 

Since I got home from hospital, I’m finding myself with a crisis of confidence - I haven’t been able to think of anything worthwhile to post about. Everything I write seems so banal. I’m hoping that a bit of a break from Auckland town might nudge me from my malaise.

Thanks to you all for your well wishes over the last couple of weeks. Every single message was truly appreciated – thanks heaps. I have a lot of reading to do over the next while to catch up on what I’ve missed, but not tonight – I’m off for a quick Thai meal before an early night as the flight etc has taken it out of me. I must admit to still feeling a bit fragile.

Good night from the deep (and freakin’ freezing) south of New Zealand.