Mellow sounds

Dub? Reggae? Soul? I have no idea what to call it but I like it. To me Fat Freddy is the sound of the kiwi summer.

As It Is in Heaven

No spoilers.

I just finished watching the brilliant 2004 Swedish (subtitled) film As It Is in Heaven. It’s directed by Kay Pollak and stars Michael Nyqvist and Frida Hallgren. I first saw the film not long after it was released in 2004 – it was a huge hit here in NZ and ran for 52 weeks.

The story centres around Daniel Daréus (played by Nyqvist) who is a renowned international conductor whose life aspiration is to create music that will open people's hearts. Ill health forces him to retire to the home of his early childhood in the far north of Sweden, to the village where he endured a terrible childhood of bullying. There he reluctantly agrees to help with the church choir.

This is a beautiful film and I highly recommend it. Sometimes, inspiration is where you least expect to find it…

Don’t panic

This situation has to be close to one of my most worst nightmares; trapped inside a train, inside a tunnel, all night, UNDER the freezing English channel. See guardian.co.uk for the full story.

Yesterday nearly 2000 travellers were stranded for up to 15 hours after four Eurostar trains broke down between France and England. Many suffered panic attacks or fainted as they waited for help.

Eurostar management said the problem was caused by the contrast between extremely cold temperatures on the railways and a comparatively warm tunnel. A Eurostar train. Photograph: Denis Charlet/AFP/Getty Images

This situation just couldn’t arise here in New Zealand. For a start there’s nowhere to get to via tunnel; Australia is more than 2,200 kilometres away and secondly; even if there was another country close, all our trains are so old and crappy that no-one in their right mind would actually try and travel that far.

Missing the point

A local progressive Anglican church here in Auckland posts a billboard each Christmas to provoke debate about modern Christianity.

This years billboard, as below, was designed to make the point that many Christians and church leaders do not believe in the literal virgin birth, and didn't believe that was the true meaning of Christmas. They’re critiquing the outmoded idea of a male god impregnating Mary and the literalism of the virgin birth.Since the billboard went up a few days back, the more traditionalist god squad around the city have repeatedly painted over it and now an ‘elderly lady’ has apparently been so incensed that she’s slashed it with a carving knife. Archdeacon Cardy of ‘St Matthews in the City’ has now accepted defeat and has removed the billboard as he was worried someone was going to get hurt.

It’s distressing that increasingly some things can’t be openly debated with clear heads.

Friday flowers

Bougainvillea climbers are in full bloom right now and fences and walls around my town are beautifully adorned with a stunning shock of scarlet. Bougainvillea is a native of South America and the brightly coloured ‘flowers’ are actually papery bracts which surround the tiny white flowers of the plant. This one is climbing up the side of my neighbours house but this photo doesn’t do it justice – it’s the most fantastic colour you can imagine.

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.