I recently heard a too-long joke about two guys trying to one-up each other about all the features in their respective cars. Finally Rolls-Royce guy knocks on the window of his rival’s car, noticing that it’s all fogged up. He brags about whatever amenity, and the rival just shakes his head and says “you got me out of the shower for that???”
But neither of them mentioned having a turntable in the car. So I don’t know how popular the 12” vinyl edition of Drivetime Variety I really was. But it did have the Hill Street Blues theme, so that’s something I guess.
ANZAC Day, which is basically a counterpart of US Veterans Day, always starts with a Dawn Service. This year I attended a different kind of morning ritual… but we certainly counted our blessings that the war stories we told over breakfast were about big fish we saw or jellyfish we narrowly avoided instead of something more somber.
Later in the day I went out for a bit of metal detecting. Here’s what I posted to the Facebook group dedicated to that hobby…
“Went to the beach for an ANZAC Day hunt. Found a few items with a military theme as the Warbirds flew overhead: .22 shell casing, a lead soldier, and a Ukrainian 5 hryvnia coin. Among the crusty coins I did get three silver thruppence, so that’s a win.
“The gold ring rang up as a 34 on my Deus 2, which is normally the foil liner from a milk or juice bottle. But it was a strong tone, so I figured it would be shallow and I could get it off the beach. I went through the whole spectrum of detectorist emotions and reactions when the ring came out… excitement of course, followed by suspicion because of that low VDI number, then furtively looking around to see if I need to hide my treasure from marauders (luckily none were spotted), then hopefully but oh so casually looking for a hallmark, then sadly concluding that it rang up like a piece of foil because it sure ain’t gold!”
The Northcote Pétanque Club had its annual general meeting last week. Lee (L) is Treasurer, Richard is President and Heather is Secretary, for another year anyway.
We again scored tickets to see a taping of 7 Days a couple weeks ago.
Still a fun time, although they’ve made some tweaks to the format and maybe it’s not quite as good as it was a few years ago.
This guy was part of the crew, and the shirt was great and topical. Our new Prime Minister made some dumbass comment about how we should be more like Estonia as a justification for his government’s reduction in public sector jobs. And that was fodder for a long bit in the show. For example, NZ could definitely beat all of Estonia’s nearby neighbors at cricket.
Somehow lately I’ve been struck by how often the sky turns amazing colors. This one was subtle… Hudson River School, southern edition.
The classic sci fi and fantasy illustrations of my youth often featured impossible skies — too many colors, too many moons, spaceships, dragons — but lately I’ve been thinking a lot of the colors at least weren’t so unrealistic as all that. (I guess it also shows what a nerdy kid I was that I even noticed the sky, given the picture almost certainly featured a very hot girl in a very exotic space-bikini)
It’s been a really good year for fruit in NZ, or at least that’s how it’s felt to us. Abundant, tasty, cheap (or at least cheap’ish).
Produce in the supermarket is much more seasonal than in the US… while we do get imported fruit and veg from around the world, the supply chain isn’t as robust as in the States. So prices skyrocket in the off-season, or things just aren’t available.
But we got a couple of thoroughly unremarkable peaches recently. Luckily, we had golden syrup and sprinkles on hand. Et voilà! Delightful. Sometimes I have all the culinary sophistication of an 8-year-old.
We are now a 2-Honda family. We got this 2006 Fit this weekend and so far so good… easy and fun to drive.
Although I have been holding out for an electric car once the van gives up the ghost, now that Lee has started driving we occasionally need a second car. Plus, this one gets nearly twice the mileage as the van and costs way less than a driveable electric or hybrid. It’s not as good for the environment, but it’s a better financial deal for us.
Older used cars in good condition can be gotten quite cheaply here. Many of them are imported from Japan, as this one was. It seems the Japanese take good care of their cars… both of ours have looked great for their age.
My return to running continues, and so far the joints are holding up. It still feels faintly ridiculous to take so many little tiny steps, but the results are good.
The rainbow in this picture looked way more dramatic at various moments, but somehow by the time I got my phone out it mostly hid away.
But I figure any metal detector/ rainbow composition is enough to convey the symbolism… in both cases the big score is just over there somewhere that you can see but can’t quite reach.
Again this year I joined the Devonport Swim Club’s Around North Head swim.. 4th time I think.
This is the one where you have the option of swimming out to a boat with your suit (togs in NZ, swimmers in AU) on, stripping off, and retrieving your clothes just before exiting the water. And again, despite keeping my eyes peeled as carefully as any randy teenager, the reality of all that nudity proved way less R-rated than you’d think.
Normally this swim is one of the earliest summer events, but this year it was postponed due to a massive sewage leak. Our new government’s answer to the country’s problems— to everything actually — is to cut taxes for the wealthy, so I guess we’ll see how that translates into billions of public dollars to repair Depression-era infrastructure.
I was extra slow this time due to inconsistent training and a lack of killer instinct in the crowded spots, but I had a good swim anyway. And because I forgot to start my watch, I wasn’t fiddling with it for the finish line pic like I usually am!
Our friend Isabella celebrated a milestone birthday with a big mix of friends and family last weekend. The invite featured a picture of Iris Apfel (who sadly died before the party), so it was game on for bright and big and bold.
Isabella lives busily in several worlds of work and hobbies, old friends and new, family born and built, and she did a wonderful job of bringing them together. She — and we — reveled in the connections and conversations among all these groups. And ate cake.
Last weekend, a couple of our Bay2Bay members who live a ways out of Auckland invited the group up for the weekend. I had too much else going on, so carpooled up with a van load for just a morning swim.
Mangawhai Heads is a dramatic rocky promontory (and a village of the same name) about an hour and a half north of Auckland. We swam 6 km up the estuary on the tide, which took about an hour and a half of not working very hard. It’s definitely fun to swim with the tidal push… it feels like walking fast on the moving sidewalk at the airport.
There were big sand dunes, deep parts with fish followed by spots so shallow we had to walk a bit… fun and different! Here’s a map, as I note that Google directions doesn’t include swimming amongst its modes of transport.
At the end, we carefully climbed up the boat ramp (sharp oyster shells ouch!!) and changed clothes in somebody’s backyard. I got the feeling that life for many Mangawhai Heads residents is sort of like being in a co-op: hey later on we’re gonna use your house for the swimmers ok?
And then … all within 100 metres of leaving the water… we wandered through the Saturday outdoor market and had a drink at the tavern (one of the non-swimming spouses who got roped into driving the shuttle car with all the gear asked how to find the tavern. “There’s only one” was all the answer needed).
Then a BBQ lunch and home in time for the rest of the day. Wonderful!
We’ve been growing these little mushroom forests lately out back under the dragon tree. We guess the spores came along with the mulch laid down a few months ago by landscapers we hired to spruce up that part of the back garden.
There are a lot of mushrooms in the world! Somebody who sounds confident on Reddit says they might be in the genus Parasola or Coprinopsis. They shared a link to a site with all the deets on how to tell one from another… but it’s tiring just to look at.
They appear and wither in a day… quite beautiful in the morning but blackened, ripped and contorted by nightfall. Apparently they digest themselves to better spread spores.
Brattleboro Adventure – the Auckland Edition 