OMG - the time difference...

I have made a rushed exit this morning as I was trying to skype L in London but to no avail. I slept in, dunno why, and was too late to catch her at 10.30 pm her time. We did have a try, but each time one or the other wasn't there . Me cooking a potluck lunch in the kitchen didn't help either.  Anyway there is always another day and tomorrow Saturday would even better anyway.

Last night at the PozGroup I decided to give everyone a taste of Thom Gunn and his poetry. They had not heard of him and unfortunately I left my book there so I am hoping it will be still there today. They liked his amazing words, straight from his pen, and his heart, and with the experience he had of living for quite a while with hiv and finally dying in California in 2004 it was still relevant to the group. 

A new person had arrived in an interesting situation, a married straight woman who only discovered her status by accident. Her hubby is also positive and I wonder how she may have contracted it, especially in this country of closeted men! Although it may have been a blood transfusion in 1990 when the blood bank was not yet screening against hiv infection. She said she still doesn't know how it happened and is not asking questions. Again, a sign of a New Zealand being behind the times in the medical arena. She was a lovely woman and coping quite well, much better than her husband who is in serious denial and apparently won't talk about it at all. 

Memphis with Gideon up and running...

The 'Jimmy Savile effect' has unearthed hundreds more of possible paedophile offenders.

Cardinal Pell in court denying bribery charges. He will probably escape as he is a Cardinal but this is where the rot starts. I believe he is guilty of this charge as the church was desperate to cover-up its guilty priests. Let's hope justice gets done, but I doubt it!

More news of Kiwis coming home and Aussies joing them over here. But I for one, am returning, but who knows what the future holds. This is a fascinating country after all!

Sport madness...this guy wants to play basketball so much he sourced a full face-mask from America so he could appear on the court..what will he break this time?

Moving along....

It's a drizzling day today, a good one to sit and write. Especially in  the Memphis Belle. I indulged again in a pain au chocolat this morning, something to spoil me. I am after all, swimming tonight at the Kilbirnie pool with Different Strokes!

Continued fallout from the Candlelight - people regretting they missed hearing Michael Kirby's speech, not knowing the event was on. The publicity certainly wasn't there for this year's event and it was the lack of Lesley's input that was obvious. Last year he did a lot of phone calls, well in advance, to ensure a good roll-up. Ah, well, it's over now, but they won't get MK here again. But perhaps in Auckland?

News today is interesting in showing the advanced thinking of the youth in an entrepreneurial fashion, proposing cheap home delivered alcohol. However I agree with the article which says is it not good to facilitate even more the binge-drinking culture which is rampant in this wealthy society, in particular with teenagers.

Cheap home delivery, free if $50 or more!

Rosemary McLeod is cringing as I was, at the ginger Prince's saturation press coverage.

Racism endemic in the country..local mayor wants to   have a separate Electoral Ward in New Plymouth  for Maori! What!!!

A world champion woman tennis player, never married,  also who never went to achieve her real worth at Wimbledon. This is how NZ fared in the days of impossible travel between the colonies and the Mother Country!

About time, some discussion between the Royals and Sinn Fein. What a waste of lives and awful bloodletting was that Irish war against their English oppressors. It is ever so slowly healing and will take another generation before it is fully done.

My favourite All Black, Richie, feet wrapped in bandages, smiling with best friend Carter; you couldn't get much closer than this eh?

BMW and Mercedes, the cars of choice in wealthy Wellington, owned by Chinese and Indian businessmen I observed.This is certainly where the 'new money' lies in New Zealand, in the Asian market and with Asian immigration. Perhaps not in the rural areas but certainly in the major cities like Auckland, Wellington and perhaps even Christchurch?

The times certainly are 'a changin' as Bob Dylan whined many decades ago now, and it is now the era of the Yellow Races to dominate world finance and also population. It had to come, as the white supremacist and imperialistic attitudes had eventually to die. We are not, after all, servant and master, we are all equal, and that is where the rest of the world has to be be heard and listened to. Billions of people just won't go away, although with the present proliferation of world disasters one can't predict anything, except that things will never be the same. I say, 'Bring it on', in a good way, of course!

On second thoughts....

Still ruminating about the results of Candlelight and the future of BP. Will I, or won't I, write Auckland a letter of heartfelt advice, or just let it float along in very troubled waters and come to its own sad conclusion? Things are not good in its financial state and any director/ CEO needs to have more locally attuned fundraising skills.  Should I, or shouldn't I? I think I will let the matter sit for a few more days while I get my business in order, as really it is no longer my business as I am not now on the Board. 

But is that a cop-out?

A different view...

On the streets....

Reason's many comments on culture

Mark Reason again on the ball with valid opinions on this 'footy' movie, calling it a valid observation on the 'slow death of the New Zealand dream', bringing to mind John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and the suffering of the American farmers in their dustbowl centre. I don't think the comparison is absolutely valid, although the local climate change/drought has adversely affected many farmers NZ is still not in dire straits regarding its agricultural future. He does however, justly comment that the film's theme is one of optimism in the face of the global climate problem, or is it ignorance I wonder? In the film there was not a lot of intellectual analysis going on, more like how much grog you must toss back to achieve so-called 'manhood'.

Still Reason always writes an interesting article, citing the three main characters of Kelvin, Broomie and Peanut as using Rugby as the mainstay of their otherwise workfilled and simple lives.

Last night I had an important dream on the need to touch, in order to feel connected with the world, especially if you are not in an intimate relationship as so many are. And I questioned how much, or little, I physically touch other  people in my life. And I discovered I do, quite a bit, with my various activities such as dancing and Waiata singing (the Maori are very touchy/feely people), and even a lttle at the swimming pool which is a very physical place. So I feel I am in a very healthy situation, albeit, not in a committed relationship at the moment. Perhaps that might change on my return to OZ. Who knows, I am open to it and it is a significant return to my origins and a place for serious reflection and planning for my future.

Cuba Lighthouse

OI am feeling a little jaded, so a good movie appears to be what I need. Not the Little Princesses movie after all, but what is touted to be a Kiwi classic, called 'The Ground We Won'. Need I say it is not about war, but something even more serious, and even sacred, the Kiwi rural game of Rugby. It is a documentary, filmed in black and white, about a small village rugby club, with its drinking rituals and tribal initiations, its families and its farming, but overall the incredible importance of this weekly competitive game in the psyche and hearts of all the country-living Kiwis.

It was indeed wonderfully photographed. One can only wonder how exquisite it would have appeared in colour. But this bleak result of 'film noir' lends to the subject something even more gritty and realistic. The audience reaction was 'in the know', whereas I felt like an alien from another country, which, I suppose I am. It was also a lesson in basic cattle farming, showing vividly several deliveries of calves, in  some cases inert and useless. 

Its simple storyline was around a chubby young single Dad, and his twin, I think, six year old boys, keen rugby players of course. Dad was their coach and full time carer in a probably once-pristine hill-top home, reduced now to a bachelor's pad needing a good deal of housework. However there was a surfeit of love and it was a suitable positive centrepoint about which to weave the themes of brotherhood, bonding, and the challenges of manhood, albeit awash in a culture of  alcohol binge drinking.

It was an accurate snapshot of Kiwi rural life if the packed and rapt audience's attention was anything to go by. Entertaining as well, as the smart cameraman seemed to have shot unnoticed, gaining precious insights and truths which could otherwise have remained unseen. After seeing this film one can easily understand where the typical Aussie jokes come from about Kiwi farmers in their galoshes. The stereotype was never so well defined and one wonders where the future of rural New Zealand is going when the family farm these days is not often willingly inherited by the kids.

Quakes predicted- are we ready?

Dire news in the Dom Post this morning about the earthquake potential in these shaky isles. It doesn't seem, in so many ways, that the population is ready for such a catastrophe, as it certainly showed in the two recent Christchurch disastrous quakes where the city was virtually demolished and over a hundred people tragically died in earth-quake prone buildings.

And then we see news of inadequate health care in hospitals with people dying from lack of suitable care and wrong diagnosis. Are we a first world country, or a third world one? I do hear of Kiwis, wealthy ones of course, who routinely fly to Melbourne and Sydney for their superior health care. It looks like my Kiwi doctor in Gosford was right after all. There is lots of ground to be made up in medical and hospital infrastructure in these far-distant islands.

Looks ominous...

Big health care problems here...

...another example.

What is planned, but when? Another huge problem is road exits from cities, especially Wellington, in times of natural disasters. Will this wonderful bridge ever get built?

Cate's denial....yawn!

We also see the inevitable photo of Aussie actor Queen Cate striding the red carpet in Cannes, being photographed for the zillionth time in a fabulous designer dress. She had recently told a reporter, quite sarcastically as she is wont to do, that she is quite experienced with women in real life as well as playing a lesbian in her most recent film. For some reason now she denies categorically that she said it, no doubt she has had second thoughts about the publicity for her husband and kids. And their Mum is a lesbian?? 

Cate, when will you ever learn to shut your mouth, sometimes you are blatantly embarrassing.

Post Mortem

The Candlelight is over for another year and the lessons have to be learned. We had the best speaker on the day, one of the most sought after in the world,  effectively, in Justice Michael Kirby, and the attendance was only around seventy. I mentioned this to my young friend Jevon on the bus this morning, and she nonchalantly said, 'Ooh, that wasn't too bad'. But that is from a Kiwi who doesn't expect anything too much. I expected a full house, after all, last year we had one, and it was only I who was the guest speaker. Michael Kirby, an accomplished orator, gave a great address and I hope it will go down on record that he did.

I must admit it was an exhausting day, as I picked him up at Wellington airport after midnight on Saturday, no problems there, the flight arriving half an hour early but I had checked it beforehand. I then dropped him at the Copthorne Hotel on Oriental Parade and went home but couldn't get to sleep till about 4am. Took a valium but it didn't help. Up at seven to be the chair at the Q & A breakfast Body Positive had organised at the hotel. I got there early and everyone, except Michael, was there. He had slept in!

Anyway, the Q&A went well and everyone was happy and we repaired to Te Papa to hear the dissertation on the AIDS Quilt and prepare for the morning's ceremony. But yet again, Te Papa failed as no chairs were in place - Nikkie said she was short-staffed. Not good enough I'm afraid. That museum has got a serious problem with its staff. Luckily our volunteers got together to put out the chairs and about twenty minutes late the Quilt Project began.

On to the main ceremony and all speakers, including the choirs, performed very well, with the standout speech being Michael's, followed closely by Dame Margaret Sparrow speaking humourously on the history of contraception and the role it played in the AIDS epidemic in New Zealand. Lots of stories about female condoms and how they were not used.

We finished off the morning with a quick cup of tea and some heavily iced cup-cakes in the ante-room, cakes that were too sweet for some, including the newly vegetarian Michael. We were both tuckered out and I was then to ferry him back to the airport for his return trip home. But first he politely requested to spend a few quiet minutes on Oriental Bay beach where he wanted to say goodbye to his Spanish lover, with whom he had spent a honeymoon about fifty years earlier at this same place. The Spaniard had only last weekend passed away with pancreatic cancer in Madrid. It was a touching moment of remembrance for him and one he wanted to spend alone.

I had suggested to Ron that Body Positive give him a small gift, but he refused my offer of Jack Body's recently published biography saying that he was passionate about Bach cantatas, so today I am seeking a suitable CD to send to him in Sydney where one day on my return, we may catch up again.

All in all, the Memorial had a modicum of success, but not in numbers. I would not think he would be likely to return to this event in 2016 given the few people who showed up so I may suggest that next year Auckland might invite him as they have a much larger population of people affected by hiv/AIDS and there is a greater need for someone like him to speak. 

But thank you Michael for making this somewhat arduous trip to deliver an excellent timely reminder to the few who were there, to remember our passed-on friends and colleagues from this once terrible, but now manageable, AIDS epidemic.

Jack Body, justly eulogised again

The streets are for spectacle, not real social progress,

with bullying continuing at schools.

A 'selfie' on Oriental Bay beach

Michael's speech at te Marae

Our own Tiwhanawhana in the wings

Day of reckoning

A cool day again, and after a coffee at rhe Mediterrranean it was on to an ECK planning meeting, followed by an important exceptional Body Positive meeting with the Auckland bosses down for the Candlelight Memorial. But it turned out to be a crisis damage-control meeting as they are running on empty, financially, and may even consider closing. The ED hasn't received a salary for a while it seems, which is certainly not the way it should be going. It turns out that he has been left a  'poisoned chalice' in the funding area and he sees no way out. The meeting was inconclusive, but predicted changes are imminent. Food for thought.

Eighty year old  destroyed by floods

Passing of Kiwi music Icon

I'll miss her concert unfortunately!

Valiant dog recovered...

A new writer from AUS favourably reviewed in the Dom Post.

A young Aussie Neil Sedaris?

Tomorrow I'll talk about the success of the Candlelight Memorial, with Aussie Justice Michael Kirby giving a great speech, as always.