Funeral and fine weather

Yesterday at Masterton in the beautiful Wairarapa was a great excursion into Kiwi life in the country, and a very interesting and touching one at that. The large Maori family unit was evident, and in a blended family with the father not a a good breadwinner to say the least. But the family was a solid and loving unit, with the variery of children in the remaining ten covering the large spectrum of diversity that exists today. And they know it.

Smiling at Christmas..cheap at $69!

A really happy three-legged letting us knowhow happy he is...

The scene of the Tangiat Masterton 

Mark Reason says the truth...McCullum was seriously flawed...

Happy punters at the Memphis..

...on a beautiful sunny day.

Baked new orange cake, not very happy with recipe, but we'll see.

Am escaping tonight to see the recent Star Wars spectacular, I am not sure I'll like it but everyone else has!

What can I say, I was never a Star Wars fan and now I really know why. An embarrassing HarrisonFord cameos in this latest JJ Abrams block-buster but it left me cold and I even went to sleep during some of the pyrotechnics.

For the die-hards, perhaps it's great, and many giggled at parts which I ignored. I am not a cognoscenti and that's about it.

Memphis cake

Niki joins me today for coffee at the Memphis, also with Anita. It's like that at the Memphis, very communal and always friendly. Tomorrow I'll bring the cake made for the Tangi ( it didn't happen!) and feed them all here for a change!

Gloria arrives at Memphis

He did it, as I thought, the next Bradman!

And Dan the Man, BBC Sportsman of the Year

A film about Richie, of course!

A rash idea for Shelly Bay....

A  great theatre I have yet to experience....

My life at 42 Evans Bay Parade is ongoing and interesting. Niki's new, read old, two-seater couch arrived today and it looks good in her large bay-windowed bedroom. She is forever changing that room as she has never had one so delightful I'm sure. I gave Alice her little 'cadeau' and she thanked me for it, a shampoo incident is now water under the bridge, to mix metaphors. She is presently overworked and underpaid, but has conceded she can come to Christmas lunch on Niki's invitation. Niki is extremely generous and would invite the world if she could. There will now be six for lunch on Friday and I will meet Pam for afternoon tea at four and then for dessert at Tom's a bit later.

In typical fashion, minds change, I just had a text from Kevin and now the Tangi is on, and at Masterton. Now have to decide if I drive out there or not, a one and a half hour drive to experience my first real Maori Tangi?

Well, I went to the Tangi, and the deceased who was Keri's Dad, was a pakeha, and as like many of us, he only wanted minimal procedures, if any.  So it was was a very modest Tangi, but heartfelt,  with twenty or so whanau attending and later at Keri's sister Gael's we went for tea and of course I  brought my orange cake, as I did bake it for this occasion. It was welcomed naturally.

At their wonderful full home, (Gael and Tim had eleven children but only seven live at home now!), I experienced the real feeling of a shared Christmas, and it was very touching. Little money, lots of loving, with as well one disabled son, but many to give him a good life. 

Quite a lesson in family giving... 

Countdown to Christmas

Today has already been a big one, with Tiwhanawhana to come to night and the news that two of our Whanau have lost their father in Masterton, about four hours drive east of Wellington. Tomorrow is the cremation, and it is Keri's dad, one of my favourites, whom I noticed last week behaving a bit differently with Karamia who was giving her lots of loving attention. This then was the reason, she knew her father was translating.

The morning was ordinary, although I did miss the 9.40 bus, with Trevor driving. So a morning at Memphis, quite normal, resulted in a more dramatic afternoon at home cooking for the 'taonga' tomorrow. Kevin has invited people to go with him, but I am no Maori so I don't expect to go but have quickly baked a gluten-free orange cake to send up. Let's hope it is a success. Perhaps I should take it tonight to give to Kevin just in case. I wonder if our evening tonight with be one of mourning rather than celebrating? In the mean time I baked a spinach frittata using sugar instead of flour... Is that a senior's moment or what? Oh well, I'll just say it is a sweet not a savoury spinach pie!

Busy at Memphis with regulars..

A columnist who says it clearly,Te Reo Maori should be a compulsory school subject.

The PM is a twit, he cannot close his bog mouth.

NZ Ballet a 'force majeure'

Another amazing Kiwi achiever... Monkhouse giving electric rail to Moscow in 1900s!

This is the next Bradman for NZ!

Sunny Sunday

Café Chalk on Sunday is a nice experience, even the coffee ain't bad. The wind is chily and the sun warm but you always need a jacket in Wellie. People are out however in sunny gear, but they are tougher than I am. Wellingtonians just love it when the sun appears and they take off their clothes to get a full dose of vitamin D. Not so me I'm afraid, who avoids the sun's ray like the plague having grown up in hundred degree temperatures in Oz getting horribly burnt in the process. I hope to have avoided melanoma and skin cancer as a result.

The priests or rabbis having coffeeat Chalk...

...and ice cream too.

Putin is not all that honest I'm afraid...

Ngahuia Piripa with daughter Owaireaa real Maori actress who is fluent in Te Reo and practises her Kapa Haka regularly 

Sunshine and strollers on the quay..

Hamish's Seatat Mt Vic. was the venue for some evening fish 'n chips with the DSW swimmers. Although I arrived late, after a swim, they were all there chatting and a having fun. I was glad I went as it was the last catch-up of the year and also a nice discovery to see the sun set over Mt Cook. 

Wellington is a beautiful city even on a cloudy day.

Saturday before Christmas

I am at Café Rubia in Newtown. Always good coffee and croissant. I am interrupted with constant texts fom Niki about dinner plans and for also Christmas, which she is taking so seriously.

I will just go with the flow, as she loves to do everything but can become a little distracted. I'll have to watch just how much she does on Christmas Day so she is not under any pressure. She has big plans and I have little ones lol!

Great photography in early sixtiesI recognise my generation.. 

The boss, at Rubia...

Still NYC insider-trading fraud....at only twenty-eight but caught a great cost.

And Christine Lagarde up for neglicence too!

Cecil Rhodes being re-assessed.....as a racist colonial.

The late great Aussie, Prof Davies said that sound was the origin of the creation of the universes, just as the ECK has always said btw.

Oriental Bay in 1961,much the same today.

Protestant NZ had a tough time educating the young about sex and my Scottish dancing friend Dame Margaret Sparrow was a pioneer also.

Still wet and cold in Wellie!

Just had coffee with P. H. and heard his news of the arrival of parents from London.

Today is quite cold and I left home without a sweater and now am feeling it.  Now some shopping to do for food and home to get warm. LJ, which I will be calling him, is still settling in so I want to bake a chook for dinner tomorrow night, at least he will see we are a little communal in the house. So far it has been each to his own!

Memphis bopping...

P.M. Key flopping.......again with bad-taste jokes about rape in prisons. This man is another Tony Abbott!

On a cool day...

In wonderful Welliethis girl has real talent - Antonia Prebble...

Flag debacle at least bring forth the Republican debate.

Nicky Hagar vindicatedbut police won't apologise for illegally searching his home. So there are some problems with the police force after all.

Tonight I need a good movie so will catch a preview of 'Spotlight'about the Boston paedophile atrocities by the Catholic Church; it looks excellent and is on at the Penthouse at Brooklyn.

Finally after a quck meal and chat with LJ who liked his new sobriquet, I am at the Penthouse for this preview of the much awaited 'Spotlight', a movie which soon could well be made about the current Australian Royal Commission into child abuse by the clergy. It will be chilling viewing I'm afraid but necessary. 

Just out of what surely will be an Academy Award winning movie, on several counts. Gripping story, beautifully directed and superbly acted, it's a must-see for any thinking person. It is film which shows the Catholic Church in all its lies and hypocrisy and will doubtless do it great and justified damage. Aussie Cardinal Pell should have many sleepless nights when he hears about this movie, as he is one of the many guilty parties involved, going right up to the top echelons of the Vatican. It is a damning indictment, and a timely one, of the the vows of celibacy imposed by the Catholic Church. A film well worth five stars. 

A few awards going with this one!

All done, what next?

Another cloudy day but no clouds on the horizon for me with Laurent Jean Pellissier having softly moved in last night. He made an immediate decision and when we met at Memphis it was an immediate connection. He is young, 29 in February, enthusiastic and obviously comes from an excellent French family who escaped from Morocco after the war of independence and now are successful organic farmers in Nîmes, having the biggest lettuce and tomato production in the country he said. Et alors! And he loves his small room and he has an excellent Toyota campervan as well. In all, a replete man and very mature in his twenties. He has a girlfriend living in China and is a top IT programmer it sees. He said he will help me with me computer problems if I have any. 

What's not to like?

Lydia on way to be Sportsperson of the Year

Sydney under storm....

Dixon Street cloudy...

But not for AJ and Eddie...

I left the house this morning with N and A still asleep in bed and the new boy not even having met them.  I will leave them all together to get to know one another and I feel that the French connection should work well. It has immediately changed the dynamics of the household, for better I am quite sure, and I look forward to seeing how Christmas now eventuates and we may even have a lunch at home. Although I have promised Tom to go to his place in the evening, I have no intention of eating all day. Perhaps, I'll have lunch with Niki and her friends and call in to Tom's for dessert later, but he may not appreciate that.

 Truth is, I am not a Christmas person and it will take a while to change that while I am still a single person. I am still getting over years of cooking and putting up with others having too much to eat and drink and then sleeping all the hot summer afternoon. Really I just need to leave the country for Bali or somewhere that Christmas is not celebrated, or bastardised in my opinion. Although I have always enjoyed Christmas in snowy London funnily.

Or am I just a grinch, as Dom Post columnist Rosmary McLeod claims she may be? I hope not.

This obsession by the Japaneseabout toilets is only right as we still haven't got it right in the West. Toilet bowls should be lower, with water easily available  for washing instead of wiping, thus saving paper and trees, and which also is much more hygienic.

The european bidet is excellent but is another piece of furniture which needs more space which may not be there. We don't need heated seats like the Amaricans insist we do, just the correct squatting height which experts know is of primary importance, and perhaps warm water for douching. 

Simple, ay?

Readng lesson at Library Café......

Wellington at its smallest..Tom joined me for a coffee at Memphis, yand just before Niki had spied me and popped it to say hullo. She was on her way for an interview for another teaching job a so had a painting under each arm. She is intrepid to say the least.

Later in exiting the Memphis I bumped into my new housemate Jean, and had a chat with him on his way to the French Embassy for some expensive and complicated piece of paper work, but it didn't seem to phase him at all.

I also wanted to visit the Sallies today as I hadn't been there for a while, and on my way to say Happy Christmas to Angela, my pharmacist at Alexanders. She is always a delight. At the Sallies I chatted with my good friend and server and also managed to see Kayla from the NZPC,who is a regular there. Also had a chat with Nobu and then on my way out Lee who had made an errand and wasn't at the NZAF when I had popped in to say Hi. So there is  Wellington, always someone you know somewhere, today I bumped into seven people I knew! 

Then on to the City Council to check out the availability of rooms for our Interfaith monthly meetings. A nice Maori man showed me the possible room and itlooked excellent and he then gave me a card to ring to make the booking. He also said the Library had a room downstairs that was always popular so I must compare it with this one, but I have the feeling the first one will be much better. At least I now have something concrete to present at the next meeting which I can't attend being in Auckland.

At the Library I called in for a decaf and another muffin, spoiling myself today as I may even go for a swim tonight, Thursday being my regular DSW night, I am missing the exercise.

The café in the library is always interesting, and today is no exception. The young mother opposite was giving her two year old a reading lesson from a book called 'The Haunted Farm'. They start young with ghosts here and then progress to monsters...!