October - November 2008

The weather has gradually warmed up and we’ve enjoyed eating cauliflower, courgettes, fennel, celery, lettuce, spinach, lemons, herbs and nasturtium flowers from our garden as well as fresh bamboo shoots from friends’ land. Our pool has warmed up enough that we don’t shriek when getting in and we’ve even been in the ocean swimming and riding the waves. Summer is beginning!

I’ve been up to my usual mischief: We clowned at the end of a 200km bicycle race, the K2, entertaining kids and sweaty cyclists and handing out baloons. We also handed out sweets at the local bonfire night and provided a bit of colour while people were waiting for dark and the fireworks. This is another Northern Hemisphere festival that doesn’t work so well here as it wasn’t dark until 9pm. Clowns also provided a circus skills evening for the foreign students at the language school where Alistair teaches. It was good to see them relaxing and having a go with hula hoops, diabalos, rola bola, poi, devil sticks, spinning plates and juggling balls. Sorry, I didn’t get any photos.

If you’ve known me for long enough, you may remember my punk days in Manchester when I played bass and sang in a band called the Spurtz. An enthusiast living in the USA called Chuck has tracked down 1977-82 indie bands from round the UK to produce compilation CDs; Messthetics 106 includes 2 tracks by the Spurtz as well as other Manchester bands that I used to know – fame at last? For more details or to get hold of a copy go to www.hyped2death.com

I’ve had a couple of dive trips out to the Aldermens with my dive buddy Vanessa. Dive Tairua have sold their operation so our favourite skipper, Dave won’t be running the trips any more. Vanessa has been round for a couple of meals and has been brave enough to cook for us too. Not many Kiwis manage to cook vegetarian food, but this isn’t a problem for Vanessa as she’s another escapee from Britain! We’re warming up for December’s Dive Festival, which is going to be in Whitianga this year.

My World Dance sessions are continuing monthly in Kuaotunu Hall and December warmth will allow us to start dancing in the pool again too. Middle Eastern dance classes have finished for the summer, but we had a good time dancing with sticks and veils this Spring. Our teacher, Iris (aka Suher) hit 50 in October and invited her dance friends to a wonderful party in Tairua. I enjoyed dancing with people from all around the North Island and doing some of the choreographies that Iris has taught us over the years. I also had chance to remember some Tribal Dance, which has common moves and steps that can be improvised with anyone else who’s learned them. This meant that I could dance easily with women from Taupo who I’d never met before. Iris got many dancers to perform individually too and I taught everyone a favourite Kurdish dance of mine: Ayir Govenk. It made a great change to be leading a line of 50 dancers and of course we were all in costume. Sorry I didn’t get any photos of this either, but there is one in the Gallery of me in my costume.

Since our return from Borneo, the choir here has a new leader. Katrina drives over from Whangamata and has taught us a good variety of new songs as well as reinvigorating a few more familiar ones. I am mostly singing tenor although I do sing soprano, alto and even bass in some of the pieces – I try to be versatile and am much better at hitting the right notes than in my punk days! Our choir is preparing for a concert on December 8th. Many things here build up to an event in December and then finish for the summer, so my evenings have been busy, but soon I’ll just be swimming or walking after getting home from work. Oh yes, work is still happening and getting busier as more tourists bring their money to Whitianga and locals can afford to get me to rid them of aches & pains!

Of course the highlight of this period has been the arrival of my daughter Cara. We went to Auckland to meet her and enjoyed a lovely Thai meal with relatives Bruce & Caroline the night before. It’s wonderful to have family on this side of the World and to get a chance to catch up with news and hear of plans like my Great Aunt Cynthia’s 90th birthday party next year. Cara arrived on the evening of November 15th after 30 hours + of travel and was pleased that we had a hotel in Auckland for her to sleep before our 3 hour drive home. Being shy, she wasn’t so pleased about the big welcome board (see Gallery) I was holding at the airport or the garlands of flowers I put round her neck when she arrived. Ah well, at least I didn’t dress up clown-style as I’d planned! I just wanted her to see how happy I was that my beloved daughter had decided to move over here.

I hardly let Cara’s feet touch the ground before she’d opened a bank account, registered for an Inland Revenue number, got an NZ sim card for her mobile phone and gone for some job interviews as well as coming to a Pilates session with me to stretch out her muscles after those long flights. We’ve also enjoyed walks, hugs, swims in the pool and boogy boarding in the ocean. I’ve straightened her bones out too with a couple of treatments and given cooking lessons making some of her favourite dishes. I think our cats have been a great joy for her (see Gallery) and suspect that they played a big part in attracting her to move here.
Cara is making up for our lack of photography by being snap-happy with the scenery here, plants, us (see Gallery) and of course the cats. She has started going to the gym, had a trial evening as a waitress (which she didn’t enjoy), is cycling my bike confidently and waiting to hear about a few jobs that she’d like to do in town. More news next time……….in the meanwhile,
Enjoy the Festive Season!