Stars and stripes, stained glass, sketches and sets

Wanganui has been host to the rugby team from the United States of America - the traffic island fairly near our house looks to me like it has been planted to be reminiscent of the Star Spangled Banner. Nobody we know has mentioned it, we haven't seen it written about anywhere in the local press - so maybe I'm dreaming! Perhaps after the fiasco of the team's very reluctant paddle down the Wanganui Rivier in a Waka - the powers that be decided they wouldn't bother to tell them about the 'island flowers' in their honour!!

We took an adopted granddaughter to a piano recital/Chamber Orchestra performance at one of the retirement villages here - this is one of the stained glass windows in the Chapel at the Centre.
The music was mostly Beethoven  - Pathetique Sonata and a Concerto with the Wanganui chamber orchestra - who are in need of second violinists and have approached the author - have not decided yet - will keep you posted!

 Speaking of Beethoven, this sketch has winged it's way to Marike in South Africa for her birthday - busy on a set of composers - am wondering if the set will ever be complete - especially if the artist keeps giving them away!

When you live really far away and want to send parcels for little people - paint their name in letters! They are really pretty and really light for the postage!
Thanks to the miracles of technology we could enjoy Julia opening her present from us via Skype!

"New Zealand's biggest television recycling event! The Great TV Take Back, supported by the government's Waste Minimisation Fund will run from September 21st to October 4th and will enable Kiwis to return old unwanted televisions to 20 participating The Warehouse stores throughout the country. The sets will be recycled according to strict environmental standards. Televisions returned to The Warehouse would be recycled by an approved specialist recycler. (We have never met one of these in the flesh, but have to assume that they do indeed exist!)Recovery rates of the embedded materials in each television are estimated to be as high as 96%. To encourage participation, The Warehouse will also offer prizes and discounts on new televisions and digital receivers to anyone returning their old sets. The free recycling offer is available to all households with unwanted televisions of any brand - regardless of any intent to purchase."

We happened to catch a moment on telly about this recycling effort - haven't seen it since - and loaded up our old sets (it's a long story) and took them to The Warehouse in Palmerston North (our one is not part of the scheme!) where the chappies there loading up the container with the old sets told us that in three days they have collected about 750 sets!!
We done gotta voucher and they took 20% off a flash new flat screen for us - utterly necessary with the World Cup an' all!
Dis al!


Friends and Relations

Rugby World Cup has some unexpected surprises!

The author's cousin - pictured in the centre of the picture below, has lived in Australia (and the UK for a while) for almost as long as we have been 'all growed up'

This has meant that we have seen one another either fleetingly at sombre occasions like funerals, or not at all for the past (give or take a few) twenty years!

A busload of 'friends and relations' arrived here in Wanganui for a fleeting visit en-route to the next world cup venue and we joined them for a catch up, washed down with a couple of glasses of red wine!

 Evidently, no matter how long you live overseas, if you were born in South Africa it is unacceptable to root for a team other than the Springboks! Yay to that!

 Really special to be able to welcome 'cuz' and his two sons - to our quaint little town and even more delighted to see a Springbok rugby jersey being worn with such aplomb!

Fortunately, none of the younger set had to endure conversations about 'people they have never met, even if they are family' and so they could  stay captivated by the moves on the big screen - while keeping one ear on the conversation!

A really lovely couple of hours spent with folks from 'home' and family from across the ditch!

Thanks Gavin - was a fabulous evening! Kia Ora - and hope your stay in the land of the long white cloud is spectacular!

Dis al!

Tata-nano

Apparently, this little car is the cheapest one available in India (without all the bling that is)Someone, in their great wisdom, decided to commission some genuine goldsmiths and a couple of real-macoy jewellers to 'decorate' this 'cheapest in all of India' car as a publicity and promotional stunt. This particular version is now worth a couple of million and is covered from bumper to bumper (and all the bits in between) with genuine gold and jewels! The general hope is that the car will be perceived to be much more up market and their sales will skyrocket! One of our esteemed continuity gentlemen on NZ television - after reporting on this story - harkened back to a quote which the author may or may not have used in these ramblings before, which reads,"you can't polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter"

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Change of heart

 Remember the hullabaloo over the Wellywood sign - here's what they've done, for now!

Dis al!

An abridged version of the Happy Feet saga.

 Happy Feet was discovered in June, wandering around on a desolate beach on the coast of New Zealand - thousands of kilometres from where any self-respecting king penguin with an operational 'GPS' system should be.
Unfortunately, being a bird of Very Little Brain, he consumed vast amounts of sand and beach debris in an attempt to feed, and was a Decidedly Lucky Chappy to have been found by a concerned local who alerted the authorities and had him picked up and transported to Wellington Zoo.His gender was eventually established, the sand and other junk was pumped out of his gut and he was rehabilitated and housed in a specially created snow and ice palace for the visitors to the zoo to enjoy until a scheduled boat was leaving for his part of the ocean on which he could hitch a ride.

The chief vet in charge of Happy Feet's rehabilitation and release is a South African lass pictured here on the boat approaching the release point. Happy Feet had been fitted with a plastic box housing a GPS system (a fully operational and confirmed to be working one) and these pictures show the guys preparing the slippery slide which was draped over the side of the boat and dipping into the welcoming waves of the ocean.
Here you can see the big 'specially designed' crate which housed Happy Feet on the journey from Wellington Zoo -  and just below, you can see His Majesty - Happy Feet emerging from the crate and approaching the slippery slope to freedom.

Apparently, this penguin was not about to look too enthusiatic about being abandoned in the big ocean and it took a gentle nudge(!) to get him sliding down into the sea. The press was in attendance in vast quantities and we were treated to all the pictures on the six o'clock news (and beyond - each day a map showing the progress that Happy Feet has made towards reconnecting with his home colony way down South) - there were some moments of concern, but he seemed to be heading in the right direction as it were.

It appears that tragedy has struck - the fitted and fancy GPS in it's indestructable plastic housing, has stopped sending signals back to New Zealand and the worst is feared.
It took approximately 'five minutes' for the picture below to be flashed around most of our e-mails.

It's comforting to know that there are no polar bears in that part of the world!! We assume that there are huge, hungry sharks and other such penguin-eating fishes in that part of the world though!
Dis al!

20 competing nations

This house is a couple of kilometres from where we live! We drove past there this morning and although the World Cup has officially begun, the proud owner of this establishment was still hard at work putting the finishing touches to his masterpiece! The wall at street level is actually PAINTED with (we presume) permanent paint in the colours of those flags! Notice the special board beside the house with the Stars and
Stripes - the team USA is being hosted by our town, so that is perfectly fitting.

We will assume that the printing on the grass between the house and the fence is the team which he is supporting, since he has an All Blacks flag (Silver Fern on a Black Background) as well as the New Zealand National Flag on it's own flagpole beside the words! For those of you who don't know, the flag beside the South African flag which looks somewhat like the New Zealand flag, is the Australian flag - it's a darker blue background and has an extra couple of stars!

We like this logo a lot!
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Earthquake hours

Apparently there have been in the region of 7,000 tremors/aftershocks in Christchurch since the initial event on 4th September last year - the big one being of course on 22nd February 2011.

The resilience of the folks who have stayed has been admirable - this picture giving an indication of how a touch of humour about the situation can raise a smile - even for those who are in the midst of it all.

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The Eagles have landed!

For those of you who were wondering about whether the 'welcome the USA's' memorable moment in a waka went off well - as you can see from the photograph, there had clearly been some discussion about how one is expected to conduct oneself when honoured with this kind of ceremony! Nobody is staggering about, clutching beer or worse, in a state of undress (besides the traditionalist hosts who are required to be so) and the whole event appears to have proceeded with maximum decorum and without a hitch!

(Dankie June vir die mooi fotos!)

Dis al!

Thumbs up for Obikwa wines!

We had a 'not so great' bottle of merlot wine from the Obikwa range a couple of weeks ago and were dissatisfied enough to contact them via the Internet. Lo and behold, the very next day, a reply and a request for our address to send six fresh bottles to as a gesture of goodwill! Now we are usually not too terribly impressed with gestures, but in this case, we were delighted to accept the aforementioned 'gesture' and opened one forthwith to enjoy with a couple of savoury snacks!
There was a personal letter included and this covered all our questions about the unsatisfactory bottle - not a computer-generated-general-reply-for-pains-in-the-butt-customers.
So here's to you Obikwa wines - as my grandfather would say "Ole, Allie Oops, Vrystaat and Jolly Good Show"