(27th Wednesday January)
Up at 7.40am and to the gym, a good workout, and home by 9.30am and fruit for breakfast. The fog this morning was heavy, by the time I came out of the gym a lot of the fog had lifted. I worked on a synopsis for most of the morning, after lunch, I went down the library to print out what I had just written. Also, I took a few books back and brought out four more, two by Fay Sampson, one by Stephen J. Rivelle the other William Riviêre, my next four reads after the book I’m currently reading.
The sun came out for the rest of the morning and afternoon, but by the evening the clouds were back in force with distant thunder. So I think we are in for more rain before the sun comes back, but it’s still very warm, around 34 Degrees.
(8.50pm) Watching TV, and then to bed, log short and sharp today.
(28th Thursday January)
I woke late this morning, 9am, I was going to the gym but changed my mind, there were clouds in the sky and the forecast was for rain, but up until lunchtime there were clouds but the rain kept off, and for most of the afternoon so I went into town to the library.
Now (9.15pm) the rain is pouring down, there have been 20,000 lightning strikes so far today, nothing more happened today, so a short log.
(Friday 29th January)
I woke at 8am and the weather was sunny and decided to go to Napier. The car journey took me two hours, just follow highway 5 and it is straight into the city centre. The place is smaller than I expected, but the place didn’t disappoint, the town is next the sea, (Pacific Ocean) build in a grid fashion after the earthquake in 1931. Most of the town was destroyed in the quake and was re fashioned.
The houses are quaint, bright colours, and art deco type of environment. Many outdoor cafes line the streets with places to eat and take refreshment.
I sat in the memorial gardens, not a big place, quite small in fact, with small fountain, there is a larger one near the seawater’s edge. The flowers are in abundance. I sat, listened to birds sing, the place is tranquil, it makes one think. I listened to bells playing tunes – campanile I think they are called.
I walked around the town taking in the sights, admiring the houses, and it was fun, and wished I could have gone inside a few and seen how they looked from the inside. I took a stroll along the water front, a fete was going on, music, dancing, stalls, everyone enjoying themselves in the sun, I stay to listen a for awhile and then walked on. Further down there is an Aquarium, I paid the entrance fee and spent a pleasant hour there looking at what was on display. One tank has a huge turtle in it swimming back a forth. The creature looked magnificent but I did feel somewhat sad to see in caged.
These creatures travel thousands of miles in the open sea only coming to land to lay their eggs and then back to sea, they, like many other sea creatures are the gypsies of the sea, and here this one is stuck in a small tank. I have seen turtles in the open ocean, swam with them 30, 40 metres below the sea, once I hitched a ride on one's back and together we swam on for a few minutes. That experience immediately came into my mind as I stood and watched the creature, I looked into its eyes, and I thought I saw sadness there, but perhaps that was just my imagination.
The other exhibits were equally enthralling, the lot of the tanks have open tops and you can look down at the fish, a few had Cray fish, large antennas each side of their heads, for all my conservationism, I felt like picking one out of the water and eating it.
I travelled through a glass tunnel, fish overhead and all around me, sharks, stingrays, barracuda, jacks, were all there on display. Two swimmers moved on the water surface above the glass tunnel snorkeling, if you pay extra you could enter the large tank and swim with the fish. I didn’t, I’ve seen these fish in the open sea many times, and was not motivated to enter their artificial domain.
Leaving there I walked back to the car along the water’s edge for part of the way, the only thing I disliked about the place was the long straight beach being all small pebbles, no sand – but that was to be expected bearing in mind the history of the place.
From sun lotion to rain in a matter of minutes, but I managed to get back to the car in time – well almost, I was a little wet when I ate my lunch, a few crisps with a cheese and onion sandwich I’d made that morning.
At 3.30pm I started for home, the clouds were back in force, the rain belted down, still warm, but grey and I got into Taupo at 5.30 to see the sun again. There was no rain here, people bathed in the lake, boats crossed each other on the water. Picnics abounded on the waterfront. I know I’ve said it a few time before, but this country is still amazing, from sun to rain back to sun in an eye lash, from scorching sun to skiing in no time to thundering storms in the same afternoon. What a contrast, and I love it.
I called into Woolworths for the weekly shopping, didn’t need a lot this week, and home. The evening saw me watching television and reading. And you got it, Taupo weather turned, there was one hell of a storm, rain lashed down, a virtual deluge, lightning, thunder, the Full Monty. I left the window blinds open and watched it overhead, and I enjoyed ever moment – there is something grand and mysterious in watching the power of nature unleash it fury, in bed by 10.20pm, read a little and straight to sleep.
(Saturday 30th January)
I wake a 6.30am, the mist was low, all the rain the day before left the place in fog. I was up and out almost immediately and went to the gym, but it was closed so I walked around the harbour and the lake, when I got back to the gym it was open. It is a twenty-four hour gym, but I am not on that tariff. I worked out for an hour and half: boy did I sweat, got back in the house at 9.30am. The fog had burnt off by then and sun was out: I was very warm, but the gym might have had something to do with that. A quick breakfast and then up to fetch my grandson to go swimming.
We arrived at the pool 10.30am and had a great time, loads of slides and swimming, we were there for 2 and a half hours, and then back to my house, a quick lunch and then his nap. Later we went to Woolworths, we needed ice cream – actually, my grandson insisted we need ice cream, so to the shops we went. He originally wanted to stay the night but changed his mind so I took him home.
The evening saw my reading. The latest E. Chadwick, `The Greatest Knight,’ William Marshal, to date I’ve read five of her novels. I’ll read the others when I get home in Wales.
I’ve taken the complete works of Jane Austin on loan, and I intend to read them over the next few weeks along with the other books I borrowed. I have read a few of her novels in the past, but this time I want to look at her writing from an academic viewpoint.
Her total output was, to my knowledge six novels, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, being the two most successful, her other four novels are Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Mansfield Park – her novels enduring success is down to her characterisation, and to a lesser extent her plots, but I intend to attach her novels with an open mind. So for the next few weeks I have quite a lot of reading to do. But I enjoy it so, it’s no great chore, but I will be reading other novels as well: Austin’s works I will be dipping into periodically - in and out of, so to speak.
The evening saw, rain, lightning and thunder back, and it lasted until I went to bed at 10.30pm after a few glassed of red wine, I read for a while and I slept like a log.
(Sunday 31st January)
I woke at 9am, I don’t thing I moved all night, after the exercise yesterday little wonder. I feel good this morning, energized - the clouds are around with a keen wind, but that matters little. I’m to have a day of rest today - listen to music and read – life is good, but time is moving too quickly for me. I’ll be the 1st of February tomorrow, and I need to start travelling a lot more over the next few weeks if I’m to do all which I have planned.
There is so much I wish to do, writing is but one of them and I need to make time for that also, but I can always do that when I get back to the UK. Normally I am very good at planning my time, but things have gone a little Topsy-turby since I’ve been out here, but I have read authors I would not normally read, so there is also a learning process going on, for me learning is a like owning a dog. It’s for life.
I’m cooking tonight for seven people, (12.20pm) but everything thing is prepared, I had intended making pork shoulder stuffed with apricots – a new recipe I wanted to try, with roasted vegetables, but changed my mind. I want to read this afternoon not cook.
So it’ll be spaghetti bolognas with potato wedges in garlic, oil, and herbs – I have this down to a fine art. For dessert, I am making a coconut cake with chopped apricot-raisin filling (sauntered first in a pan with a little raw sugar) with custard to serve. A tip: place a small amount of Vanilla Essence with the custard, it makes a bit difference to the taste.
(24.50pm) I just made the cake for dessert this evening: coconut with apricot chippings inside, the top of the cake (I’ll turn it upside down) dried apricots, which I boiled and grazed with raw blown sugar which are embedded in the top of the cake – in the over for around 25 minutes, the rest of the time I’ve read.
I’ve tried to get into Fay Samson’s novel, `The Silent Fort,” it’s a short novel, I’ve read 25% of it but that’s it, I can’t get into her writing, I have another of her novels `The Land Of The Angers,` but I’m not reading it, both I’m taking back to the library later this week.
The clouds are in for the day, wind also, the leaves on the trees are moving rather strongly in the wind, outside my window it’s all trees, it’s really beautiful, anyway, back to reading, and then I’ll lay out the evening meal, plenty of time yet.
Up at 7.40am and to the gym, a good workout, and home by 9.30am and fruit for breakfast. The fog this morning was heavy, by the time I came out of the gym a lot of the fog had lifted. I worked on a synopsis for most of the morning, after lunch, I went down the library to print out what I had just written. Also, I took a few books back and brought out four more, two by Fay Sampson, one by Stephen J. Rivelle the other William Riviêre, my next four reads after the book I’m currently reading.
The sun came out for the rest of the morning and afternoon, but by the evening the clouds were back in force with distant thunder. So I think we are in for more rain before the sun comes back, but it’s still very warm, around 34 Degrees.
(8.50pm) Watching TV, and then to bed, log short and sharp today.
(28th Thursday January)
I woke late this morning, 9am, I was going to the gym but changed my mind, there were clouds in the sky and the forecast was for rain, but up until lunchtime there were clouds but the rain kept off, and for most of the afternoon so I went into town to the library.
Now (9.15pm) the rain is pouring down, there have been 20,000 lightning strikes so far today, nothing more happened today, so a short log.
(Friday 29th January)
I woke at 8am and the weather was sunny and decided to go to Napier. The car journey took me two hours, just follow highway 5 and it is straight into the city centre. The place is smaller than I expected, but the place didn’t disappoint, the town is next the sea, (Pacific Ocean) build in a grid fashion after the earthquake in 1931. Most of the town was destroyed in the quake and was re fashioned.
The houses are quaint, bright colours, and art deco type of environment. Many outdoor cafes line the streets with places to eat and take refreshment.
I sat in the memorial gardens, not a big place, quite small in fact, with small fountain, there is a larger one near the seawater’s edge. The flowers are in abundance. I sat, listened to birds sing, the place is tranquil, it makes one think. I listened to bells playing tunes – campanile I think they are called.
I walked around the town taking in the sights, admiring the houses, and it was fun, and wished I could have gone inside a few and seen how they looked from the inside. I took a stroll along the water front, a fete was going on, music, dancing, stalls, everyone enjoying themselves in the sun, I stay to listen a for awhile and then walked on. Further down there is an Aquarium, I paid the entrance fee and spent a pleasant hour there looking at what was on display. One tank has a huge turtle in it swimming back a forth. The creature looked magnificent but I did feel somewhat sad to see in caged.
These creatures travel thousands of miles in the open sea only coming to land to lay their eggs and then back to sea, they, like many other sea creatures are the gypsies of the sea, and here this one is stuck in a small tank. I have seen turtles in the open ocean, swam with them 30, 40 metres below the sea, once I hitched a ride on one's back and together we swam on for a few minutes. That experience immediately came into my mind as I stood and watched the creature, I looked into its eyes, and I thought I saw sadness there, but perhaps that was just my imagination.
The other exhibits were equally enthralling, the lot of the tanks have open tops and you can look down at the fish, a few had Cray fish, large antennas each side of their heads, for all my conservationism, I felt like picking one out of the water and eating it.
I travelled through a glass tunnel, fish overhead and all around me, sharks, stingrays, barracuda, jacks, were all there on display. Two swimmers moved on the water surface above the glass tunnel snorkeling, if you pay extra you could enter the large tank and swim with the fish. I didn’t, I’ve seen these fish in the open sea many times, and was not motivated to enter their artificial domain.
Leaving there I walked back to the car along the water’s edge for part of the way, the only thing I disliked about the place was the long straight beach being all small pebbles, no sand – but that was to be expected bearing in mind the history of the place.
From sun lotion to rain in a matter of minutes, but I managed to get back to the car in time – well almost, I was a little wet when I ate my lunch, a few crisps with a cheese and onion sandwich I’d made that morning.
At 3.30pm I started for home, the clouds were back in force, the rain belted down, still warm, but grey and I got into Taupo at 5.30 to see the sun again. There was no rain here, people bathed in the lake, boats crossed each other on the water. Picnics abounded on the waterfront. I know I’ve said it a few time before, but this country is still amazing, from sun to rain back to sun in an eye lash, from scorching sun to skiing in no time to thundering storms in the same afternoon. What a contrast, and I love it.
I called into Woolworths for the weekly shopping, didn’t need a lot this week, and home. The evening saw me watching television and reading. And you got it, Taupo weather turned, there was one hell of a storm, rain lashed down, a virtual deluge, lightning, thunder, the Full Monty. I left the window blinds open and watched it overhead, and I enjoyed ever moment – there is something grand and mysterious in watching the power of nature unleash it fury, in bed by 10.20pm, read a little and straight to sleep.
(Saturday 30th January)
I wake a 6.30am, the mist was low, all the rain the day before left the place in fog. I was up and out almost immediately and went to the gym, but it was closed so I walked around the harbour and the lake, when I got back to the gym it was open. It is a twenty-four hour gym, but I am not on that tariff. I worked out for an hour and half: boy did I sweat, got back in the house at 9.30am. The fog had burnt off by then and sun was out: I was very warm, but the gym might have had something to do with that. A quick breakfast and then up to fetch my grandson to go swimming.
We arrived at the pool 10.30am and had a great time, loads of slides and swimming, we were there for 2 and a half hours, and then back to my house, a quick lunch and then his nap. Later we went to Woolworths, we needed ice cream – actually, my grandson insisted we need ice cream, so to the shops we went. He originally wanted to stay the night but changed his mind so I took him home.
The evening saw my reading. The latest E. Chadwick, `The Greatest Knight,’ William Marshal, to date I’ve read five of her novels. I’ll read the others when I get home in Wales.
I’ve taken the complete works of Jane Austin on loan, and I intend to read them over the next few weeks along with the other books I borrowed. I have read a few of her novels in the past, but this time I want to look at her writing from an academic viewpoint.
Her total output was, to my knowledge six novels, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, being the two most successful, her other four novels are Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Mansfield Park – her novels enduring success is down to her characterisation, and to a lesser extent her plots, but I intend to attach her novels with an open mind. So for the next few weeks I have quite a lot of reading to do. But I enjoy it so, it’s no great chore, but I will be reading other novels as well: Austin’s works I will be dipping into periodically - in and out of, so to speak.
The evening saw, rain, lightning and thunder back, and it lasted until I went to bed at 10.30pm after a few glassed of red wine, I read for a while and I slept like a log.
(Sunday 31st January)
I woke at 9am, I don’t thing I moved all night, after the exercise yesterday little wonder. I feel good this morning, energized - the clouds are around with a keen wind, but that matters little. I’m to have a day of rest today - listen to music and read – life is good, but time is moving too quickly for me. I’ll be the 1st of February tomorrow, and I need to start travelling a lot more over the next few weeks if I’m to do all which I have planned.
There is so much I wish to do, writing is but one of them and I need to make time for that also, but I can always do that when I get back to the UK. Normally I am very good at planning my time, but things have gone a little Topsy-turby since I’ve been out here, but I have read authors I would not normally read, so there is also a learning process going on, for me learning is a like owning a dog. It’s for life.
I’m cooking tonight for seven people, (12.20pm) but everything thing is prepared, I had intended making pork shoulder stuffed with apricots – a new recipe I wanted to try, with roasted vegetables, but changed my mind. I want to read this afternoon not cook.
So it’ll be spaghetti bolognas with potato wedges in garlic, oil, and herbs – I have this down to a fine art. For dessert, I am making a coconut cake with chopped apricot-raisin filling (sauntered first in a pan with a little raw sugar) with custard to serve. A tip: place a small amount of Vanilla Essence with the custard, it makes a bit difference to the taste.
(24.50pm) I just made the cake for dessert this evening: coconut with apricot chippings inside, the top of the cake (I’ll turn it upside down) dried apricots, which I boiled and grazed with raw blown sugar which are embedded in the top of the cake – in the over for around 25 minutes, the rest of the time I’ve read.
I’ve tried to get into Fay Samson’s novel, `The Silent Fort,” it’s a short novel, I’ve read 25% of it but that’s it, I can’t get into her writing, I have another of her novels `The Land Of The Angers,` but I’m not reading it, both I’m taking back to the library later this week.
The clouds are in for the day, wind also, the leaves on the trees are moving rather strongly in the wind, outside my window it’s all trees, it’s really beautiful, anyway, back to reading, and then I’ll lay out the evening meal, plenty of time yet.
Where are you Tomkinson? You haven't written for a few weeks, where are your ramblings?
ReplyDeleteBert.