Leave for Melbourne

Today the plumbers arrived at eight to do nothing but look at the stove. Matt made a big noise and I discovered he was the one at fault with the earlier leak. They had come to move the stove and fridge away to allow the lino man to fit the lino who was due at 9.30 but still hadn't arrived by nine-forty. Such are tradesmen in Wellington. Tomorrow, he said the dishwasher comes and all will be OK, finally.

Jonah's funeral at Eden Parkin front of thousands...

Pussy cats in the news

Enya out again, such a voice!

My great nephew needs to see this who is an inspired cartoon artist and story teller.

Amazing result, lucky for Chris Cairnshis life is saved.

Packed up and in Memphis for final coffee then off to airport to wait for my plane scheduled at 3.45.

They say get there one hour at least for international flights but really one could arrive half an hour early and be ok. But from past experience I arrive now always two hours early. Better safe than sorry.

Last night the euthanasia forum was excellent with some informed discussion especially from the Catholic director of the Nathanial Institute. John Kleinsman advocated better caution than a rash change of law which could bring in more elder abuse, amongst other odious outcomes.

Climate change summit in Parismaking headlines all around the world.

The big Haka for Jonah

Arrived at airport too early to go through the barriers. Only one hour in advance do they open so am having some chips in the lounge when I get a text from Niki saying she will change the lock to the front door as it is not working.  I thought such things might happen, she it a bit of a control freak I fear, and I'll have to be careful how she goes. The front lock is quite ok, but obviously she has a handyman friend she likes to give work to. I rang her immediately to say hold the change till I return please, and we'll talk. She is just trying a bit too hard and is also going to buy a birthday cake for Alice's birthday on Saturday. I wonder how Alice will take it?  Sometimes you can be too generous too soon, which is obviously one of her traits, as she gave a birthday present to Jennifier without ever knowing her. I may have to have a talk with her about her 'generosity'. She also tells me the diswasher has arrived and happily will be installed this afternoon and all will be finished. A good result. 

I now feel Niki's problem may well be that like many vulnerable women now she is alone with Alice. She needs more security and wants the back door permanently  locked and the front door makes such a noise when opened. However I will explain the eccentricities of the house, in that the very front door of the veranda needs to be locked most of the time because of the winds. Then the back entrance, which is the quieter one by far for all concerned, is much the better option. It's just that she doesn't  like it left unlocked, which we used to do all the time as the house is easily burglarable through the many windows anyway. 

The major point is, it is practically one hundred percent unlikely to be targetted as it is half-way up steep stairs and sixty-nine of them at that!

At airport café with businessmen...

Sydney Kingsford Smith Domestic Airportis very swish and busy with thousands of people passing through its security system. Although I must say when I disembarked  at the International Terminal I was first through the customs and quarantine and out in about five minutes, quite a record. Immediately I recharged my Optus Sydney phone card and am set for the two weeks I am in Oz for a $30 recharge fee, unlimited text and calls in Australia for fifteen days.

A quick bus transfer from International to Domestic Terminal 2, and as I already had my boarding pass I printed in Wellington I sailed through security and now just have a two hour wait till my flight to   Melbourne at 8.45. 

It is quite hot but pleasant outside the air-conditioning of the air terminal. I saw it is only 23 degrees in Mebourne but goes up to 35 on Saturday, quite hot indeed, by then I should be more used to it. After all, it is my country, and it certainly feels like it. I have real nostalgia for it as I have nearly moved back twice already, but something has kept me in Wellington. I think it is the quality of life and the adventures which I am still having there. I do have longer friendships here of course, and they are the ones that matter most, but  I am naturally building similar friendships in Wellington. Who knows what the future holds, I must just live in the present and the future will take care of itself. Things are certainly happening for me in NZ there's no doubt about that, but my personality lies in Oz I am sure of that. I am just a transplant, or a misfit, depending which way you look at it. 

Melbourne will no doubt have another strange effect on me as I dearly love that city.

Waiting....

.....and walking....

Monday warm and sunny, with Euthanasia

Last night I went to a tangi at the S and M bar on Cuba Street. A trans girl, only 58, gone too young, a famous drag Queen in Brisbane and whose ashes were returned to the bar where she had been one of their most famous Queens when younger, a beautful girl Yvette, who had a lesbian wife and was also a father to boot. Life is never simple for the trans people. Photo of her as a young drag below.

Amazing how the bad news always makes the headlines, it seems a specialty of the Kiwi newspapers. 

Call centre in Auckland,begun by an entrepreneurial Aussie, crashes with two thousand jobs gone just before Christmas!

But not at the Memphis...

Always with smiling Parras!

Another experienced climber lost for good...

Kiwis loses to Aussies....again. What is it with these aggressive bloody Aussies?

Today I am doing all the preps to leave tomorrow. This evening with Interfaith I am attending what could be a very interesting forum on Euthanasia and Assisted Dying. Have made some well stuffed asparagus rolls to take for supper. Nothing like roil before dying, assisted or not.

Nasturtiums decorating my asparagus rollsthe table is not yet full.

Luckily I was home earlier to receive an impassioned but sad email from dear friend Malcolm in Woy Woy. He has had a crisis with bf D who was recently badly attacked at work and it has affected him in the longer term. His Pakastani Psychiatrist has told him he is going through a bad relationship and it is dead. So D tells M it is over, just to make M fall into a serious panic attack of not breathing. This man is not a good shrink and should in my opinion be struck off fhe roll. D reaffirmed later that he still has his love for M and now all is in a state of turmoil. Who knows who loves whom? I will be there on Saturday week to speak to them happily, but I hope things may have improved somewhat by then .

Yvette, aka Chris Langloislooking beautiful.

Niki's Move-in

Sunday on the wharf but not at my regular cafe, it appeared wrong today so am at Café Chalk, where the view is fabulous but the coffee not so terrific. Ooh well you can't have everything. Just spoke to the  landlord  and the kitchen  floor is being installed Tuesday when I leave for Melbourne, must warn the others it will be a whole day's work I'm afraid.

Am still thinking of the amazing Black Grace dance group of last night. I would change their name to Black Magic, they are that sort of group, just magical.

Am cooking a rare roast chicken today to welcome Niki who moves in about midday. Hope I can still do a good chook! Just tomorrow and then off to Melbourne. It's scary how time flies in Wellington. I have so much to do there, especially to see Maisie and get together with the Theorem people to retrieve an original copy of the documentary to show Richard in January. The one I have is slightly soiled and not totally presentable, although it would pass at a pinch!

The view from Chalk...

Chalk inside...

McCullum showing  just how good is he on the fieldthrowing a ball from the ground to hit the wicket!

The Grande Dame Malvina Major is retiring,I'm sorry I missed hearing her, live.

Christchuchreturning.

With style and Art I can't wait to go back one day.

Am home, lunch is ready at one o'clock when Niki was due, 12.30 actually. Just received a text, she is  arriving more like three o'clock with a lot more stuff than she had thought. Should I be surprised? No, not at all, just lucky I have turned off the chook and it can rest for an hour or two now till she comes. In the meantime I have ironed my shirts and packed them for the big  trip on Tuesday. I like to be well ready for this one, although my plane departs at 4.45 in the afternoon. 

With the news of the kitchen where Mr Patel told me they will here on Tuesday as they had a cancellation there is a Spiritual principle at work: I surrendered my will to whenever, even after Christmas, and I have it done now next week. Thank you Mahanta, my guide in these tricky matters of the lower worlds.

It is such a beautiful day Alice is sunning herself on the balcony and the bay is deleriously beautiful. Wellington on a good day is nearly unbeatable, as although Syney rivals it in water beauty, it also has a near intolerable humidity to go with it in summer. How lucky are we here!

In the sun...

Too hot outside!

Well Niki is successfully moved in and seems to be fitting in perfectly well. She is a lovely person andit will be a very interesting trip to get to know her over a longer period of time. She loves Mou Mou too.

Newtown and Black Grace

Saturday morning at Rubia's in Newtown. Tom joined me then through  the large windows I caught sight of Ron and Lesley so they joined us too for a cake and coffee.

Sunny day...

Lots of people looking in...

Awful news of Sharia Law insistingon beheading a dissident family of four teenagers. When will they ever change!

Great actress, terrifying subject of family child abuse.

Otis Herring with some fans after dancing his sox offat Pataka, Porirua.

Enormous queues to see Black Graceat a one-off concert. They were amazingly good and Neil Ieremia, the founder and choreographer, must become a Kiwi National Treasure. So happy to have seen them, my first seeing of Pasifika Contemporary Dance at a world class level.

Day in Martinborough

Meeting up early at the Memphis to go out to the Wairarapa with Tom on a most inauspicious day, with gale-force winds and some rain. However being a newly inducted Wellingtonian I am impervious to the whims of the elements and am ready for the exit to the country to savour its delights. The weather is not so bad on the other side of the Rimutaka range of mountains and we finally get to a delightful village called Martinborough, the centre of the big Taste Fest a few weeks ago when sixty thousand   people, yes 60,000, descended on this country wine village to celebrate the taste of this wine growing region, meaning lots of wine and good food were consumed.

The house Tom was hanging curtains in was a newly built kit-home adapted to an electric wheelchair so it had some resonance with me having lived with Sue in a wheelchair for a number of years.

After hanging some lovely drapes, we repaired to the village and discovered an excellent cafe where we refreshed ourselves, Tom with coffee and scone, and me with a minestrone soup which was quite excellent. We then did a tour of the very wealthy area with fine upstanding homes which Tom insisted were holiday baches, even a semi 'gated-community', with beautifully designed homes in easy reach of the local golf club. These are the people who inhabit this extremely rich patch of soil in the Wairarapa region. They are some of the richest people of Wellington in their country homes.

Then home for a quick recovery nap and to prepare for the HU song tonight at Flashdog studios. 

Drunken teen and young people violence on Courtenay Place.

Tom arrives for a quick coffee...

While others stay longer...

Street in Martinborough...

..the local pub.

Arrived later at the Cuba Lighthouse to catch therelease of the Lance Armstrong biopic called 'The Program',which should be at least interesting. 

Will Thursday be good?

Last night was a bit traumatic, as well as very interesting. My housemate-to-be was supposed to have made a bank deposit to secure the room but on non-receipt of it I discovered she may well be a bit impecunious which created a somewhat sinking feeling as payment of rent is the most important part of having a reliable housemate. She has since said it was an oversight and made arrangements for a coffee today at Memphis to talk. As the French say, 'on va voir...

The good part of last nightat the Penthouse Cinema at Brooklyn, where a twelve minute documentary was shown about an amazing ceramic artist/sculptor, Robert Rapson. The film was made by Leonardo Guerchman, a friend from swimming and it was the subject of his special naive sort of art which was fascinating. I would like to own one.

The evening at the Penthouse also showed the French movie 'The Belier Family', a feel-good comedy about a deaf farming family with one hearing daughter. I soon realised I had seen it before but it was so good I enjoyed it even more the second time. Arts Access who sponsored the evening as a fund- raiser also auctioned some art works which raised some much needed money. I am now wondering if the showing of 'Theorem' could be used to the same effect.

Some Rapson ceramics, or scupltures?

A ship...

...bsed on these?

The Museum Art Hotel's origins as it was being gently carried across the road to make way for the building of Te Papa. The owner bought it for a dollar and paid for the move, very successful btw. It is now one of the smartest and most popular hotels in Wellington. I would love to stay a night or two there one day. Who knows?

Arts Accessdoing its stuff well. 

Just back from seeing Richard Benge at Arts Access and we will get together in the New Year, he is away soon and back in January. Also good news Niki is here and moving in on Sunday...both rooms I just Spring-cleaned, and on Niki's request I took down all my pictures which are now in the 'salon'. Nice renewal, but no news yet from Marty the Czech chef about the little Flower Room. Patience is my biggest lesson these days.

The day is wild with wind and my swimming tonight at Kilbirnie will be very welcome. Tom has invited me to go with him for a morning in Martinborough tomorrow in the Wairarapa while he does a job. Should be nice to get away.  Then comes the weekend and I'm practically in Melbourne! 

Memphis Belle day

Today I realised Memphis Belle was the name of the this fighter plane in the first WW, with obviously a film made about her. The pin-up girl on the fusillage is also painted outside the Memphis Café. So there, now I know.

The poster on the wall...

Runway extensions very probable...

Is this true, I wonder?

The UK Uke orchestra which I am missing this Saturday in lieu of Black Grace, the Maori Dance group from  

Auckland who are performing at Porirua.

This is hard to believe, but who knew, men can soon have a baby!

Lydia Ko, Queen of women's golf at only eighteen!

Donald Trump,front runner Republican, is hard to credit with his out-and-out racism. The US elections next year must have a Democratic winner whoever the leader.

I forgot to mention a great blast from the past yesterday at Memphis. I had written a quick email to Arts Access Wellington, to their CEO Richard Benge, whose name sounded familar from Theorem days in Melbourne. Their organisation is putting on the short movie tonight by fellow swimmer, Brazilian Leonardo Guerchman, at the Penthouse, followed by 'The Belier family', about a French family of all deaf people, except the daughter who sings. I am looking forward to seeing both at the fundraiser night.

Well Richard remembered me and Aldo very well,  Aldo especially of course, and he immediately came down to the Memphis to meet me. I will see him again tonight and hope to pass on to him my DVD of Theorem for him to reminisce over, although he says he had left Melbourne before 'Theorem' happened. Apparently we knew each other when I lived with Aldo in Sydney and Richard was an activist in the Chilean Pinochet dictatorship times. He is now a Wellington success story, so although he seemed excited to catch up, I felt it will be a rare moment in his very busy life running Arts Access. Still it was a welcome return to my past life which is, for the most part, totally forgotten over here in these windy isles.

Haven't heard from Czech Marty, he may well have found a pad much nearer to Floridita's where he works. Well so be it, proximity to work is important,  but I would have loved him to move in, he has a good energy.

This afternoon at the Medical School, yet again, to welcome the visiting Chicago speaker, Dr Phoenix Matthews, leader in the field of Stigma in all its guises, and Activist Researching in Academia.

She was impressive and made great sense, especially coming from the racism that breeds in the US but is with us in a more hidden way here at home.

Martin Luther Kingon stigma...

Mani, Phoenix and Keri...

Two of Phoenix's friends here with herfrom Chicago.