More Kiwi humour

Another YouTube video showcasing a touch of New Zealand humour which I saw on Shelley Munro’s blog:

 

 

I can’t imagine why people were offended when it first came out

Which are you? Early bird? or Night Owl? or Something In Between?

I’ve never been an early bird person. My eyes and my thought processes just don’t want to take it. The earliest I’ve ever willingly dragged myself out of bed to start the day was 4:00 am and then only to catch an international flight (the jetlag starts from the minute I wake up, I swear!) This week I had the questionable delight of getting up at 5:40 am as youngest progeny is trialling for an Open A netball squad at her high school. This wouldn’t be a problem if eldest progeny didn’t have an early class at Uni and had to take the kids car into Uni for the day, or if eldest progeny had her full licence and could take her sister up to school in time for 7:00 am training. And, since the man of the house came in early from night shift and was already in the depths of sleep (lucky fellow!), it fell to me to get my youngest up to school on time.

Now, you’d think that an hour and twenty minutes would be sufficient time for a sixteen year old to get ready and get up to training on time, wouldn’t you? Especially when she’d packed her bag with uniform, books, towel, bathroom gear, sandals, etc. last night. Well, wouldn’t you?

Suffice to say, my darling youngest child is not an early bird either. We made it at 6:59 am and as I drove back home, in the dark, listening to the news bulletin that I usually lie in bed and listen to before I get up in the morning I realised she must really really want a place in this squad to get up this early.

Of course there are benefits to getting up early. By rights, I should be able to get more writing done, and since both progeny finish school and Uni later, on this wretched early start day, I get a bit more time in the afternoon as well. But I’m so tired! Maybe I should nap instead

On the ‘bright’ side–I got to watch the most beautiful sunrise through my office window. There’s a bit of a cloud base and I could see golden/pale apricot rays in broad strokes breaking through the cloud here and there. If only the digital camera wasn’t in the bedroom with the sleeping man of the house I could have shared it with you all too. Maybe next week…yawn. But that will be my last shot because (yay) after next week eldest progeny will have her full licence and guess who’ll be chivvying youngest along to training in the morning! Ha! If that doesn’t get her ready in time, nothing will :D

I used to be a night owl, and there are times I still make it (usually deadline times) but now I think I’m very definitely something in between. So which are you, early bird, night owl, or something in between?

Dinner with friends

Sometimes we let our lives get so busy that we skim our friendships with others. I’m shockingly guilty of this and tend to withdraw very much into myself, staying home, writing. Socialising has become something I do very rarely so it was a real treat to catch up with a group of writing friends last night at a wonderful Italian restaurant (we won’t discuss the Neil Diamond/Frank Sinatra want-to-be solo artist) in Auckland’s Mission Bay.

But aside from the wonderful food and the great company and much laughter, it made me realise that while I don’t ‘miss’ socialising when I’m staying at home and writing, I really do still miss out on so much in my friends lives. I’ve become horribly insular. While everyone was deeply familiar to me, and definitely are people I feel happy and comfortable with, I felt as if I was, in many ways, a total stranger to what’s been happening with them in their busy worlds.

And how often does that happen? Too often, I think.

I’ve been cocooned in my own little world and not been in touch with people as much as I ought to and, really, there’s no excuse. Deadlines will always be deadlines, I still need to meet them, but I need to meet those other really important matters in my life as well. I need to make time for the important people in my life before I miss out on even more of what’s happening in their worlds, or worse, miss out on them completely.

What’s that word? Balance. I need more balance.

This week I had a contact from an old school friend, someone I haven’t seen or been in touch with for more years than I’m prepared to admit to in public, and we’re going to meet for lunch in a couple of weeks. I’m looking forward to it because we have so much to catch up on and so many memories to rehash.

What about you? Have you missed being in touch with old friends? Or are you one of these fabulous people (which I’m aspiring to be from now on) who manages to remain in contact within the confines of busy and demanding life?

What I’ve been watching: POSSESSION

How’s this for a tag line: The past will connect them. The passion will possess them.  I love it, and it encapsulates, in two short sentences the power of the movie.

Interestingly enough, and contrary to the title’s suggestion, this movie isn’t about anything demonic. It is a wonderful romance featuring Gwyneth Paltrow, playing Maud Bailey, and Aaron Eckhardt, playing Roland Michell.

Here’s part of the plot summary, courtesy of imdb (written by C.D.):

Roland Michell is an Americian trying to make it in the difficult world of British Academics. He has yet to break out from under his mentor’s shadow until he finds a pair of love letters in the textbook that once belonged to one of his idols, a famous long dead Victorian poet. Michell, after some sleuthing around, narrows down the suspects to a woman not his wife, another well known Victorian poet. Roland enlists the aid of a Dr. Maud Bailey, an expert on the life of the woman in question. Together they piece together the story of a forbidden love affair, and discover one of their own.

This movie hit every level of enjoyment for me. It showed the development of a mystery, the growth of a modern day romance and managed to sprinkle a bit of skulduggery into the mix as well. Even my husband, who usually prefers movies packed with fast paced action and plenty of explosions, admitted to enjoying Possession.

Here a link to the trailer on You Tube:

The Haka…as you’ve never seen it before

I was cruising friends’ blogs today and came across this gorgeous YouTube clip on Nalini Singh’s blog. I tell you, if the All Blacks did it like the gingerbread men…well, maybe the World Cup results may have been better last year

Stranger things have happened…but I doubt it!

Being involved in the Diamonds Down Under continuity it has had the effect of making me even more aware (if that was possible) of advertising and news stories connected to my favourite sparkling stones, but colour me amazed when I stumbled across this website. 

As strange as it is, the concept is quite stunning. These specially created gems are certified high quality diamonds created from…wait for it…the carbon of your deceased loved one. And you’re not confined to the carbon of a deceased person, there is an option for pets too.

While this is a very interesting concept, I’m not sure that I would either (a) wear a diamond formed from the carbon of a deceased loved one, or (b) want my family to wear me once I’m gone.

What about you? Would you do it/wear it?

Bits and bobs…

I’m blogging over on Tote Bags ‘n’ Blogs today so pop on by!

New Zealand is reeling at the news of the death of one of our icons, Sir Edmund Hilary, who passed away at 9am this morning (11 January) NZ time. For tributes etc click here. We Kiwis like to make an impact on the world and I think his was probably bigger than most.

What I’m watching: The Covenant

As you may have guessed, we don’t go out to the picture theatre much, and watch most of our films on DVD. Thanks to the New Year clearance sales, members of the family have aquired a range of films that we haven’t seen before and amongst them was “The Covenant”. I have to say that I really enjoyed this movie but felt it really had the potential to go a bit deeper and even be a bit more scary. That said, the male eye candy was exceptionally fine in it’s various stages of dress or undress ;-).

Frivolity aside I did enjoy the concept of the film, especially that these powers were conferred on the male side of the family, and only one son in the family, when so often in books and films it is the women who hold it. It changed the dynamic considerably, from my point of view, and the thought that young men were coming into power at the age of 13 and ascending to full power at 18 is quite terrifying, especially when you learn how seductive the casual use of that power is and what the long term ramifictions of it are. I can’t say I know of many 13-18 year old males that I’d feel comfortable around with powers such as were exhibited in the movie :-).

The special effects were also excellent, in my opinion. The Darklings, though, I felt could have been explained in more depth and their fright factor used even more. Eeeuw, and don’t get me started on the spiders <shudder>! Guaranteed creep out material for me using something we all come across just about every day. And really, when you think about it, that really is scary. Something that’s as normal about your house and home or workplace as a spider… just think of the potential (sorry, I’m shuddering here again.)

Have you seen any good scary movies lately?

What I’m reading: Deborah Challinor’s FIRE

I thought I’d take a break from my usual romance reading to catch up on a story written by a well known and very popular New Zealand author, Deborah Challinor. Deborah is a freelance writer and historian who has featured in the number one slot on New Zealand’s best seller lists with great frequency.

Here’s the back cover blurb (a well-written one ) for FIRE:

Allie and her friends Louise, Irene and Daisy all work at Dunbar & Jones, one of the country’s most glamorous and sophisticated department stores. Allie’s a salesgirl in the dress department, Louise works in lingerie, Irene is a typist in Accounts and Daisy makes hats in the workroom out the back.

As they make their plans for the summer of 1953, their friendship is strained when one of the four begins an illicit relationship, and Allie finds herself attracted to handsome Sonny Manaia whose best mate is a leader of a notorious motorbike gang.

In the week before Christmas 1953, as the country prepares for a Royal Visit by the young Queen Elizabeth and the store is crammed with wealthy shoppers, smoke is discovered drifting from the basement lift shaft. What happens next will sear the heart of the city, tearing families apart and testing friendship, love and loyalty, opening wounds that will never heal.

FIRE delivered on every promise in the back cover blurb and, as I know many of the streets and suburbs mentioned in the book it really took on another life for me. I’ve even been in some of the stores mentioned in the book as a child and my mother even worked in the ‘counting house’ of a store much like Dunbar & Jones.

I almost felt as if I was watching a TV series while I read the book, with vignettes of the characters lives intertwining until they all tied into a knot of terror as the fire took hold of Dunbar & Jones. Deborah Challinor’s writing was honest and vivid and, to be totally frank with you, the final scenes in the book left me reeling. I have a rather vivid imagination and some parts of the story, I believe, will remain locked in my mind, as visual images, forever.

If you’re keen to read a slice of 1950’s New Zealand you really must get a copy of this book. It’s published by HarperCollins Publishers and was inspired by the fire at Ballantynes department store in Christchurch, which occurred in 1947 and resulted in the loss of forty-one lives.

Don’t you just love a LIVE SHOW!!!

 

We went to see WE WILL ROCK YOU on Saturday afternoon at Auckland’s venerable old lady, the Civic Theatre. Now, I have very fond memories of the Civic from my childhood–the star spangled ’sky’ ceiling, the blinking lions at the front (I’m still not convinced they’re not just dormant…) and there is nothing in today’s world, in my mind, that matches the absolute splendour and extravagance of a bygone era.

 

But I digress, as I tend to do.

I always felt that MiG was robbed when he wasn’t chosen to be the front man for INXS in 2005, but now, having seen him play the part of Gallileo Figaro in WE WILL ROCK YOU, I am so grateful that he didn’t make the band. He is absolutely awesome to watch and listen to. There’s a quality to his voice that remains with you long after the last notes of the show have died down.

The show itself, is spectacular. A feast for the visual and audial senses and for “Queen” lovers, of which I am proudly one.

In a nutshell, the musical is a futurist adventure set in the year 2350, a time when live music is banned on earth, but the kids are in rebellion, fighting against the all powerful Globalsoft Corporation which controls their lives and feeds them a diet of synthesized pop. The show features 24 of Queen’s awesome and legendary hits including Bohemian Rhapsody, We Are The Champions, Radio Ga Ga, Another One Bites The Dust and Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Honestly, until you’ve seen Annie Crummer in the role of Killer Queen you really haven’t lived.

I sat for a while this evening looking through the programme we purchased and relived again the wonder of attending this spectacular live show and I reminded myself that all too often we don’t indulge in true pleasures like this. Not since (during life before children) seeing a live production of the Rocky Horror Show  (featuring one of NZ’s late Prime Ministers, Sir Robert Muldoon, as the Narrator) have I enjoyed myself more.

It’s time we had alot more of this sort of thing. Fun. And yet, as much fun as it was, some of the ‘fun’ the writers poked at current musical trends put me in mind of a comparitive essay #1 progeny has been working on about films like Gattaca, S1M0NE and The Truman Show, and what we’re losing control of as individuals. Yeah, okay, I’ll admit to overthinking on this, but it just all seemed so pertinent, while being totally tongue in cheek at the same time.

So what about you? What’s the best live show you’ve ever seen? Was it a concert? A musical? A play? Tell me about it.