Socialising and a cyclone

 Preparations are almost finished for Sis arriving from Aussie on Wednesday night. All I have to do is run the lux (vacuum cleaner) over her bedroom and we'll be ready. Not that she will care if I don't get the floor done, but I will. Then after a week of catching up with people we'll both head over to the West Coast to our school reunion.

In the meantime it has been quite a social time here. We have a friend living in a rest home and her North Island family were down for a few days. I managed to catch up with them over coffee and cake one afternoon. Bob was coming but the man arrived just after lunch to install our new heat pump and was still here at tea time. Never mind, they'll be back again before too long I'm sure.

And on Friday we had a phone call from his sister. "Do you want to meet for lunch, we're on our way on the bus. It gets in just after 11." So we met them for early lunch, I was on duty at the shop filling in for someone, the reason for eating early, but we all enjoyed having a good old catch up on the family news. They usually come out when I'm not working and we can relax a bit more.

And talking about visitors from Aussie, we have friends over for the 50th Anniversary Otago Rally car event. This is the same couple who gave us both a run in his rally car when we were over there in August. I'm not really expecting to see them though as they are quite involved in the rally and now need to deep clean the car before it goes in the container to head home. But it would be nice :)

The weekend was quite eventful as well with Cyclone Vaianu bearing down on the country. It was due to make landfall around midday Sunday  over Auckland city but changed course tracking down the east coast and made landfall further south. I feel sorry for the people in the area, I think this is the third time this year they've been hit with some sort of weather bomb. Roads closed, trees down and slips. So devastating and demoralising for them, but thankfully no loss of life. We were very thankful as it was a big storm and covered the whole of the North Island and part of the South and we have quite a few family members up there. None of them reported any damage except for branches off a couple of trees, apart from that just some rain and not much wind. 

God is good. 

I think that is it from me just now.

Take care, keep well until next time

Diana

A couple of birthdays, a cyclone and orcas

A couple of birthdays seventy six years apart. 

Well that's our age difference. Young Theo turned one on Wednesday and I had my 77th birthday a couple of days before. 

Theo had a wonderful day, he woke to a room full of balloons and birthday presents from his Mum.

And after his Dad picked him up from daycare he came to his Granma's house for smash cake and more birthday presents. He's so loved by his rellies, inlaws and outlaws. There's an awful lot of us.

Smash cake, in case you're not familiar with it, is a sponge cake covered in cream or ganache which is just for baby to smash and play in. In this case leftovers went to Sassy, the dog, who thoroughly enjoyed it. There's generally other cake for other people:) He, Theo,  had lots of fun :)

 

Mum picked him up about 6pm and he went home for a party with Mum's family where he had a Micky Mouse cake - and of course more presents. I think he would have been a tired wee boy by the time bedtime came and I'll bet he slept well.

Diana had a much quieter day but still enjoyable. My friend Carol rang the evening before to see if anyone was taking me out to lunch and if not could she? So I said yes and we went up to Blend for a very pleasant lunch and chat before she had to head off to her exercise class. We had hoped to sit out in the garden area but the weather didnt cooperate.

In the afternoon Vanessa came over and fed my sweet tooth. She brought coconut ice and chocolate. The coconut ice is gone but the chocolate is still there. I try to limit my sugar intake these days or I may have to join Carol's class :) Maybe I should anyway, hmm.

In the evening we went over to Aaron and Sofi's home for a lovely roast dinner and they sent us home with all the leftovers which was enough for another meal each! They also gave me a voucher for one of the clothing shops here in town and a lovely card. 

My GKB and I are going out for lunch tomorrow which I'm quite looking forward to. At the Grange. My GKB hasn't been there before so a new experience for him.

image courtesy Bureau of Meteorology Australia

We've been watching Cyclone Alfred with interest. It's off the east coast of southern Queensland today and due to make landfall in the next 24 hours. It's fifty years since they've had a cyclone in the area. I have a friend and a cousin in the Brisbane/Gold Coast area so praying they're not too badly affected. When we first started watching it was off the coast of Mackay in north Queensland and we have quite a number of family members there so were quite relieved when it changed track and started heading south. Now it's just a matter of watching and waiting.

And something totally different - we have had orcas in the harbour! An adult male and a calf apparently. How exciting is that? I wish I'd seen them but have only seen photo's and video on facebook :(

And on that note I will finish.

Have a good week and keep well until next time.

Diana

Of cyclones, taniwhas, sunflowers and such like

A section of Mackay

Earlier in the week we were tracking cyclone Debbie off the north Queensland coast of Australia. She was due to make land just north of where my sisters and their families live in Mackay. Once she landed she became a slow moving category 4 storm bordering on category 5. Luckily none of our families were in the evacuation zone and had no damage to their homes either. So fortunate. One sister had a tree fall in the yard, missing the house by a few feet and the other only has water lying around. The nurse managed to get to work and did some long shifts while the other was too far out and stayed over with her son for the duration and had cuddles with the little grandkids and the four legged, furry family members. Now it is the people further south who are dealing with floods after the rain in the aftermath of the storm.

I went down the back of my yard a few days ago and saw a lovely bright yellow sunflower in full bloom. Unfortunately it was lying flat on the ground and as my GKB was about to start mowing the lawns I thought it might be wise to cut it and bring it inside. It's amazing how things get accidentally pruned by the lawn mower when you're not looking. Anyway I am enjoying it in my sitting room now :)

What you come across when you are sorting through old photos. This is a picture of my GKB and our best man in the days before I met him. They toured the country as a comedy mime act, The Teen Tones, performing such songs as My boomerang won't come back and Come outside. After we were all married it was a good way of supplementing the wages, doing evening and weekend gigs as well as weddings and 21st's. Eventually we moved towns and as families we lost touch with each other, sadly.

A new mural on a wall in town. A taniwha*. (A water monster of Maori legend).

This is a picture of the taniwha from local legend and I have taken an excerpt from Wikipedia to tell the story.

W.R. Kirk** repeated the later story of a taniwha (water-monster), the "familiar spirit or guardian of Te Rakitaounere (also given as Te Rakitauneke) a famous chief and warrior" who lost his master about the Dunedin hills, slithered down the Silverstream, 'Whaka-ehu', and 'lay down and left a hollow Te Konika o te Matamata' on the site of Mosgiel. The taniwha (named Matamata) wriggled down the Taieri, making its tortuous course, and when he died became the seaboard hills, including Saddle Hill. 

*taniwha

ˈtanɪwɑː,ˈtanɪfa/

noun

noun: taniwha; plural noun: taniwha; plural noun: taniwhas

1. a water monster of Maori legend.

**W.R. Kirk is a local author who wrote a book about the Taieri area - Pulse of the Plain, A History of Mosgiel.

And what am I reading at the moment? To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. Why do I do it? The prose is so tedious, so hard to read and enjoy but with just enough of a hook to keep you reading. It was the same last year when I was reading Portrait of a Lady. Same style of writing, nearly one hundred years since these books were written and writing has changed so much. This is supposedly her best book so I don't think I'll be looking for another one. 

Still I have just finished reading Child of the Covenant by Michele Guinness. So interesting, her story of growing up in a traditional Jewish household to her becoming the wife of an Anglican clergyman. I found it quite a fascinating read.

And that is my five 

this week for 

Five on Friday