Officially halfway through our trek through New Zealand! This is such a lovely country with lots to offer the traveler. Roundabouts on all major (and minor) routes eliminate necessary stops, antics of newly born lambs jumping and cavorting at every turn entertain the road weary, vistas that rival the best in the world begging to be photographed. Dunedin is a medium sized city with a Scottish influence. Set smack dab on the Otago Harbour, it is buffeted by two seas separated by fingers of land with high ridges which offer the best views of the city, day or night.
We walked through Larnach Castle and were saddened by its history (the original owner spent 12 years having just the ceilings completed) of the financial ruin of William Larnach, his marital difficulties and subsequent suicide. The castle languished when he died, as there were settlements to be made which kept the estate from any of his surviving children. It became a ruin, a shell, with, at one point, roofs collapsing and animals and local children playing inside. Enter a new owner committed to bringing it back, buying the house in 1967 and restoring it and the lovely gardens to what they are today. She also purchased the house adjoining, completely renovating it into an upscale boutique hotel, the Camp Estate, which is where we are staying.
Tonight, the wind is blowing furiously outside our windows, and the fireplace here in the room is most appreciated. We are worried about our intended jaunt to Stewart Island tomorrow, and our trek through the southern most bird sanctuary in the world. I do hope the weather clears. The storms which are raging come up from the Antarctic, so they are cold and rugged.
We did visit the yellow eyed penguins today, what a treat! They are the most endangered in the world as they do not tame and do not survive in captivity. Larger than the blue penguin but smaller than the Emperors, they are somewhat antisocial. The area around the Otaga peninsula is stunning and the nesting grounds are quite the spa for these birds. The owners of the sanctuary are trying to help increase their numbers.
All for now. Stewart Island, Queenstown coming up next.
Babies are God's wish for life to go on...
Best Wishes for Mollie's Little Emma
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Monday, September 29, 2014
They Say You Can Never Go Back
Two visits to Pearl Harbor have impressed upon me that brief glimpses of the distant past are possible to us under certain circumstances. Twice I have come away feeling like I have revisited segments of my childhood in visiting an active naval base. Base housing has a look to it that one recognizes immediately. The area around Hickham Field felt especially familiar to me since the last base quarters I inhabited with my parents was 45 years ago in Charleston, South Carolina and those were built in the 30's & 40s themselves. Military public works departments are quirky. For example, in Quonset Pt., RI, the steam radiators were turned on by date, not by the actual temperatures prevailing. So you might be roasting on an Indian summer afternoon listening to the clanging and banging of those old radiators coming on and just shake your head in wonder.
Paint is bought by the shipload, so all buildings get a coat of whatever that surplus happens to be. It did not surprise me when we toured the relatively new Pacific Aviation Museum (begun in 2006 yet still a work in progress) and saw the hangars from WW II with the bullet holes from the strafing still puncturing various panes of the hangar windows. Certainly, it must have been intentional, but it struck me that the military keeps such excellent maintenance of the materiel which keeps its missions functional and safe yet at the same time, ignores aesthetics. Those restored airplanes are an exception to that observation, however. They are beauties. So well worth a visit. The smells of old leather and jet fuel, the mannequins with uniforms that had gold stripes on the sleeves and oak leaves on the hats, the descriptive epithets painted on the noses of the planes, the strangely shaped ammunition and fuel tanks welded to the planes all whispered "Dad" to me. Isn't that just the most ironic thing: that what typifies the military SOP (standard operating procedure), should be so deeply embedded as a memory of someone so nurturing to a child and young person? So for a brief moment today, I revisited some place hidden away from long ago. "You can't go home again," isn't true. You can, as long as it happens in short moments, triggered by a smell, an image, a "frisson" or shiver, as the French term it.
Paint is bought by the shipload, so all buildings get a coat of whatever that surplus happens to be. It did not surprise me when we toured the relatively new Pacific Aviation Museum (begun in 2006 yet still a work in progress) and saw the hangars from WW II with the bullet holes from the strafing still puncturing various panes of the hangar windows. Certainly, it must have been intentional, but it struck me that the military keeps such excellent maintenance of the materiel which keeps its missions functional and safe yet at the same time, ignores aesthetics. Those restored airplanes are an exception to that observation, however. They are beauties. So well worth a visit. The smells of old leather and jet fuel, the mannequins with uniforms that had gold stripes on the sleeves and oak leaves on the hats, the descriptive epithets painted on the noses of the planes, the strangely shaped ammunition and fuel tanks welded to the planes all whispered "Dad" to me. Isn't that just the most ironic thing: that what typifies the military SOP (standard operating procedure), should be so deeply embedded as a memory of someone so nurturing to a child and young person? So for a brief moment today, I revisited some place hidden away from long ago. "You can't go home again," isn't true. You can, as long as it happens in short moments, triggered by a smell, an image, a "frisson" or shiver, as the French term it.
Saturday, September 27, 2014
New Zealand Here We Come!
Watch this spot, as I hope to add posts often during the next two weeks, as we trek over to Honolulu and then down from Auckland to parts south.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Family Get Together
January has always meant one thing around here: birthday time! For so many years it was first Jim's mom's on the 4th, then Jim's brother on the 17th, Jim's on the 25th, then my dad and Mike's on the 27th. Now, that's a scad of birthdays to shop and cook and bake for. Now, we're of course two short, and we miss Jim's mom and my dad tremendously on their birthdays--doesn't mean we don't remember them. So, it came as a welcome treat to be able to throw a baby shower for Mollie, our nephew Ryan's wife this weekend. She will have a baby girl, Emma Rae, in March, and Meghan and I worked together to gather her friends and Jackie's friends over in Milpitas, where Meghan and Mike live. Their condo has a knock-out club room for entertaining for residents. I have shared a photo of Mollie's cake that we took with Meghan's camera. Oddly, we had a baby shower at work for two counselors who will both deliver within the next month or two, so even in the down economy, folks are still havin' babies, and the show must go on. Cheers to this hope for a bright future!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Ringing in the New Year
Happy New Year to all! How many weeks will it take the muscles in our writing hands to incorporate 2009 into the system? I always find my brain misfiring during the first two weeks after the change, sometimes even reverting back to some weird year long past. Visit Beloit College's website http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2012.php (or see below) for the list of cultural milestones for the Class of 2012. I'm not sure if this is the most recent one, but it works for students entering college for the first time this past fall and who were generally born in 1990.
For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.
Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.
Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
Their parents may have dropped them in shock when they heard George Bush announce “tax revenue increases.”
Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.
All have had a relative--or known about a friend's relative--who died comfortably at home with Hospice.
As a precursor to “whatever,” they have recognized that some people “just don’t get it.”
Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.
Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.
Martha Stewart Living has always been setting the style.
Haagen-Dazs ice cream has always come in quarts.
Club Med resorts have always been places to take the whole family.
WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.
The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
Students have always been "Rocking the Vote.”
Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.
We have always known that “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
There have always been gay rabbis.
Wayne Newton has never had a mustache.
College grads have always been able to Teach for America.
IBM has never made typewriters.
Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the National Anthem again.
McDonald’s and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking french fries.
They have never been able to color a tree using a raw umber Crayola.
There has always been Pearl Jam.
The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.
Pee-Wee has never been in his playhouse during the day.
They never tasted Benefit Cereal with psyllium.
They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
Authorities have always been building a wall along the Mexican border.
Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.
Employers have always been able to do credit checks on employees.
Balsamic vinegar has always been available in the U.S.
Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone.
Their parents may have watched The American Gladiators on TV the day they were born.
Personal privacy has always been threatened.
Caller ID has always been available on phones.
Living wills have always been asked for at hospital check-ins.
The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.
They never heard an attendant ask “Want me to check under the hood?”
Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.
Soft drink refills have always been free.
They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”
Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.
The Royal New Zealand Navy has never been permitted a daily ration of rum.
The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.
Michael Milken has always been a philanthropist promoting prostate cancer research.
Off-shore oil drilling in the United States has always been prohibited.
Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.
There have always been charter schools.
Students always had Goosebumps.
For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.
Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.
Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
Their parents may have dropped them in shock when they heard George Bush announce “tax revenue increases.”
Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.
All have had a relative--or known about a friend's relative--who died comfortably at home with Hospice.
As a precursor to “whatever,” they have recognized that some people “just don’t get it.”
Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.
Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.
Martha Stewart Living has always been setting the style.
Haagen-Dazs ice cream has always come in quarts.
Club Med resorts have always been places to take the whole family.
WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.
The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
Students have always been "Rocking the Vote.”
Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.
We have always known that “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
There have always been gay rabbis.
Wayne Newton has never had a mustache.
College grads have always been able to Teach for America.
IBM has never made typewriters.
Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the National Anthem again.
McDonald’s and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking french fries.
They have never been able to color a tree using a raw umber Crayola.
There has always been Pearl Jam.
The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.
Pee-Wee has never been in his playhouse during the day.
They never tasted Benefit Cereal with psyllium.
They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
Authorities have always been building a wall along the Mexican border.
Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.
Employers have always been able to do credit checks on employees.
Balsamic vinegar has always been available in the U.S.
Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone.
Their parents may have watched The American Gladiators on TV the day they were born.
Personal privacy has always been threatened.
Caller ID has always been available on phones.
Living wills have always been asked for at hospital check-ins.
The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.
They never heard an attendant ask “Want me to check under the hood?”
Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.
Soft drink refills have always been free.
They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”
Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.
The Royal New Zealand Navy has never been permitted a daily ration of rum.
The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.
Michael Milken has always been a philanthropist promoting prostate cancer research.
Off-shore oil drilling in the United States has always been prohibited.
Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.
There have always been charter schools.
Students always had Goosebumps.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Christmas First
For the first time in my life, I think, I went to a movie on Christmas day! Steph wanted to see Brad Pitt's new movie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which opened today, and Jeff agreed to come along. Jim wanted no part of the crowd, so we'll watch it again on dvd later. He wants to see this, especially since we spoke at length about its merits.
Don't worry, no spoilers here. This is visually a walk back down through old time periods, both through New Orleans over the years, but also through three generations, our children's, our own, and even our parents, many of whom are gone already. Those of us in this generation, ie. the sandwich folks: caught between caring for elderly parents and still helping out the young adult children, will wince at some of moments, such as when Julia Ormond sits and sits with her mother in the hospital, short on words, with nothing to do but read aloud, and again most poignantly when Cate Blanchett switches to caregiver at the end.
Fortunately, there is some explosive (literally) comic relief. The movie audience will go uproarious on you when an elderly resident of Benjamin's home gives no less than seven hilarious visual images, steeped in sepia to highlight his very old memories, interspersed throughout the second half of the film. This is the part of the film that tugs at your heartstrings in the worst way, but this feeble man distracts us with his innocent popping out, almost in shotgun fashion, seven silent vignettes of the times he was struck by lightning. I'm still belly-laughing.
I love, love how in tune Benjamin seems to be with those around him: despite his abandonment by his father, he is able to bring him home to die on Lake Ponchartrain at the summer home. The brief affair, and this is not the best description of the relationship, and later recognition of the character Elizabeth, played by Tilda Swinton is just so "in the now"--isn't that how our memories are? We don't seem to have ever aged, but why are those around us looking so gray, weaker or getting up there? A theme evident in this section is "You're never too old to change," and much later, a wiser Swinton bears witness to that lesson learned through her experience with Benjamin. A second theme of "things don't last" in the film is made urgent with the use of Katrina as a backdrop, yet the home Benjamin grew up in lasted almost throughout the movie and was comforting to the viewer to see its architecture during the various points of Benjamin's journey through time. Cate Blanchett just isn't Cate Blanchett in the figure of an old woman gone grumpy and throaty at the end of her days. Yet, there she is lying there breathing those sometimes indecipherable words in her hospital bed with her left hand clutching her blankets, throwing out all those "darlin's" and "baby's" that honey-tongued Southern folks let flow so so easily. Contrast that with the smooth-faced beauty of the dancer she portrays in an earlier segment of her life and you'll be entranced by her performance.
Bring tissue! Go expecting to see the saga of a life enrichened yet its stumbling points magnified by the curious circumstances of an unusual birthright. It's a story that I would expect from F. Scott Fitzgerald as it portrays the 1920s, 30s and 40s so eloquently. Though it has been modernized to carry through into the year 2005, and though it is set in New Orleans instead of Baltimore, Fitzgerald's voice whispers to us posthumously. I give it two thumbs up.
Read/hear an interview with the writer, Eric Roth: http://www.collider.com/entertainment/interviews/article.asp?aid=10285&tcid=1
Don't worry, no spoilers here. This is visually a walk back down through old time periods, both through New Orleans over the years, but also through three generations, our children's, our own, and even our parents, many of whom are gone already. Those of us in this generation, ie. the sandwich folks: caught between caring for elderly parents and still helping out the young adult children, will wince at some of moments, such as when Julia Ormond sits and sits with her mother in the hospital, short on words, with nothing to do but read aloud, and again most poignantly when Cate Blanchett switches to caregiver at the end.
Fortunately, there is some explosive (literally) comic relief. The movie audience will go uproarious on you when an elderly resident of Benjamin's home gives no less than seven hilarious visual images, steeped in sepia to highlight his very old memories, interspersed throughout the second half of the film. This is the part of the film that tugs at your heartstrings in the worst way, but this feeble man distracts us with his innocent popping out, almost in shotgun fashion, seven silent vignettes of the times he was struck by lightning. I'm still belly-laughing.
I love, love how in tune Benjamin seems to be with those around him: despite his abandonment by his father, he is able to bring him home to die on Lake Ponchartrain at the summer home. The brief affair, and this is not the best description of the relationship, and later recognition of the character Elizabeth, played by Tilda Swinton is just so "in the now"--isn't that how our memories are? We don't seem to have ever aged, but why are those around us looking so gray, weaker or getting up there? A theme evident in this section is "You're never too old to change," and much later, a wiser Swinton bears witness to that lesson learned through her experience with Benjamin. A second theme of "things don't last" in the film is made urgent with the use of Katrina as a backdrop, yet the home Benjamin grew up in lasted almost throughout the movie and was comforting to the viewer to see its architecture during the various points of Benjamin's journey through time. Cate Blanchett just isn't Cate Blanchett in the figure of an old woman gone grumpy and throaty at the end of her days. Yet, there she is lying there breathing those sometimes indecipherable words in her hospital bed with her left hand clutching her blankets, throwing out all those "darlin's" and "baby's" that honey-tongued Southern folks let flow so so easily. Contrast that with the smooth-faced beauty of the dancer she portrays in an earlier segment of her life and you'll be entranced by her performance.
Bring tissue! Go expecting to see the saga of a life enrichened yet its stumbling points magnified by the curious circumstances of an unusual birthright. It's a story that I would expect from F. Scott Fitzgerald as it portrays the 1920s, 30s and 40s so eloquently. Though it has been modernized to carry through into the year 2005, and though it is set in New Orleans instead of Baltimore, Fitzgerald's voice whispers to us posthumously. I give it two thumbs up.
Read/hear an interview with the writer, Eric Roth: http://www.collider.com/entertainment/interviews/article.asp?aid=10285&tcid=1
Sunday, December 21, 2008
The Ghost of Christmas Past
Okay, I'll admit that I'm a sucker at Christmas time for reminiscing about the past. As I wrote my Christmas cards this year (which gets harder to do each year because it seems as though fewer people do so anymore) I felt inclined to rummage through some old photos and lo and behold, found some that pulled at my heartstrings.
Do you remember your first set of wheels? I do! Fly back in time to Christmas, 1955. She was the prettiest light green Schwinn with the fat tires and I rode the wheels off of that bike up and down Iroquois Avenue in Jacksonville, Florida. I loved the rustle of the wind in my hair so much that I named her "Wendy", intrigued by my play on words. This photo shows my older brother, Tom, holding a model airplane in his spanking new Cub Scout uniform and l'il sis Cathie looking on with the face we always liked to call "snagglepuss", though it usually referred to one of us missing teeth. I'm also including one of my Dad's first "wheels", bought together with my Mom in Great Lakes, Illinois in 1946.
Not all Christmas reminiscences are this joyful and mirthful, as Ebenezer Scrooge reminds us painfully each year, but let's remember the good ones and record them for posterity. Here's wishing you and yours the most meaningful and warm Christmas ever.
Christmas tunes send me back, too, and if you like them too, be sure to visit my sister's blog here: http://cogitashuns.blogspot.com We have this thing about "Feliz Navidad" that she explains there quite well.
Do you remember your first set of wheels? I do! Fly back in time to Christmas, 1955. She was the prettiest light green Schwinn with the fat tires and I rode the wheels off of that bike up and down Iroquois Avenue in Jacksonville, Florida. I loved the rustle of the wind in my hair so much that I named her "Wendy", intrigued by my play on words. This photo shows my older brother, Tom, holding a model airplane in his spanking new Cub Scout uniform and l'il sis Cathie looking on with the face we always liked to call "snagglepuss", though it usually referred to one of us missing teeth. I'm also including one of my Dad's first "wheels", bought together with my Mom in Great Lakes, Illinois in 1946.
Not all Christmas reminiscences are this joyful and mirthful, as Ebenezer Scrooge reminds us painfully each year, but let's remember the good ones and record them for posterity. Here's wishing you and yours the most meaningful and warm Christmas ever.
Christmas tunes send me back, too, and if you like them too, be sure to visit my sister's blog here: http://cogitashuns.blogspot.com We have this thing about "Feliz Navidad" that she explains there quite well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
