Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Hot meat, hot rats, hot cats, hot rits (Frank Zappa/ Captain Beefheart)

Photo by Alexas_Fotos on Unsplash


Wie geht's?

Rats.

I don't like rats.

I love autumn. 

I love living in the country, without close neighbours. 

I love Maple Grove (our 3 acre lifestyle property with a 5 bedroom villa that is over 120 years old).

But I don't like rats.

Autumn, it turns out, does have a downside, even though I hate to admit it.

It's like the calendar ticks over to March 1st and the local rat family gets the signal to pack their bags and take shelter in our ceiling.

The first hint came a week ago with some scratching above us, so I reset all the bait stations (two under the house, one in the tack shed/garage, and one in the ceiling).

I'll need to check and refill them all this weekend, as the noises above and in the wall behind our bed have yet to abate.

The noises have woken us up each night (once, in our sleep state, we thought it was an earthquake). This is a pain, and needs to stop, and it does take time to get rid of the pesky visitors.

But, to be clear, I still love autumn.

Love and peace - Wozza

Saturday, March 9, 2024

The sky cracked its palms in naked wonder (Bob Dylan)

Gracie enjoying autumn at Maple Grove


Wie geht's?

Autumn has officially arrived and my spirits have revived considerably as a consequence.

We have wood ready for April's first fires at Maple Grove, the grass hardly needs a cut (cooler, darker days), leaves are starting to turn, shadows are starting to lengthen, and the garden furniture as well as the shade sails have been stowed until November.

It's all deeply satisfying!

Go here for more of my annual celebrations of autumn.

Love and peace - Wozza

Monday, March 4, 2024

The mystery man got nervous an' he fidget around a bit (Frank Zappa)



Wie geht's?

After finishing Ladder Of Years on the weekend, I picked up the next two on the overdue reading list: Mick Jagger (Philip Norman) and Bleak House (Charles Dickens).

I think these two will go together well. Jagger has always seemed like a Dickensian character to me (especially of late). There is, after all, a lawyer named Jagger in Great Expectations!

I've also been playing Hackney Diamonds (The Rolling Stones album released last year) on high rotate. It's brilliant and Mick's voice is uncannily unchanged after 60 years of performing.

How does he do it? I am hoping that Mr. Norman will give me some clues.

First revelation - Michael Philip Jagger was born on July 26th, 1943. My father was also born on July 26 (a few years earlier). Two more unlike people would be hard to find!

I am totally engrossed. I usually much prefer autobiographies but that seems very unlikely in Jagger's case, but this biography is superb.

Love and peace - Wozza


Wednesday, February 28, 2024

The four building blocks of the universe are fire, water, gravel and vinyl (Dave Berry)

Vinyl is in mt DNA


Wie geht's?

Just lately I've been buying care packages of records every couple of weeks from my regular haunts. The latest this week came from Marbeck's Records.

I mentioned this in the staff room when someone asked what I was looking forward to most this week. "Records from Marbecks", was my instant reply.

"Oh Marbecks", they said. "Why is that a highlight?"

So, I said, "Do you really want to know?"

And they said, "Yeah, it's a slow morning".

So I embarked on an explanation that took in my mother working at Auckland's Lewis Eady's in the record department and having to walk down to the Queen's Arcade where Marbeck's has always been, to see Mr. Marbeck about record orders; my own time working for the Marbecks family with Roger Marbeck in the jazz and pop side, during my university days; my taking my pay in records; our two growing families being close while our kids came along and grew up, and our taking holidays together; to today where I am still happily buying online from the greatest NZ record store. Not much has changed.

For the record (ha ha) the package included some Van Dyke Parks and War albums (a couple from when they'd finished their association with Eric Burdon).

Long live Marbecks Records!

Love and peace - Wozza

Saturday, February 24, 2024

Smoke and dust, the stuff of simple myth trying to be legend (Marcus Aurelius)

Photo by Christian Sterk on Unsplash


Wie geht's?

I rarely get deep and meaningful on this blog but I do start each day from that position. As part of my morning routine I read the daily entry in three deep and meaningful and cool books.

As long-time readers know, one is Venerable Master Hsing Yun's 366 Days With Wisdom. The other two are The Daily Stoic and 365 Days With The Saints.

Interestingly, they often coincide in their foci. Seldom all three, but very often two of the three focus on the same theme or idea.

Today Yun and the stoics were looking at the concept of legacy.

Marcus knew that no matter what we do when we're alive, it's like building a castle in the sand, soon to be erased by the winds of time.

Happily, Hsing Yun points out that a legacy is not necessarily something visible, solid or valuable to be left behind but by living well and enjoying the brief time we have and not being enslaved to emotions that make us miserable and dissatisfied, we can still leave behind our humane spirit and wisdom to our future generations (as Marcus has done, and, maybe, just maybe, this weblog).

Love and peace - Wozza

Sunday, February 18, 2024

I don't want to settle down, all I need is the right reaction (Dragon)



Wie geht's?

I've seldom been so happy to finally finish a book. In fact I feel a bit giddy with the feeling (or that could be the two Export Ultra low carb lagers I've just had to celebrate).

Yes, I finally put Roderick Random in the finished pile, ready to take back to a secondhand book shop.

Frankly, it's been a struggle re-reading this after 40 years, but I stuck with it. So much goes on in the novel - he's up at the end, but mostly he's either down, or really down throughout the 468 pages of small print.

I'd also forgotten there was an episode involving Random profiting from being on a ship transporting slaves towards the end of the novel, before he is reunited with his long-lost father. 

It's a gulp moment that must have generated a lot of heated discussion back in 1980 at Auckland University's MA common room. Sadly, I don't remember the nitty gritty of that phase of my education too well.

Tobias Smollett's The Adventures Of Roderick Random was first published in 1748, well before the odious practice ended, or even peaked. I'm sure this fact figured in our university tutorials in 1980.

It's a curious part of the adventure because, as well as sharing in some of the profits Random (Smollett) sniffily calls it 'the disagreeable lading (i.e. loading) of Negroes, to whom. indeed, I had been a miserable slave since our leaving the coast of Guinea'. So, Random and Smollett don't redeem themselves at all.

Anyway. On to Anne Tyler and some palate cleansing.

Love and peace - Wozza

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Win the rat race, you're still a rat.


Wie geht's?

Rinse and repeat.

Recently, that's how a colleague described the cycle of weekly morning routines>work>evening routines>sleep>morning routines>work>evening routines>sleep>...

It's a cycle (some may want to refer to this as a treadmill) that we all fall into some extent unless we've won Lotto, are Taylor Swift, or happily living without the need to pay for rent/ mortgage/ transport/ clothes/ food etc.

The trick to life, as James Taylor knows (Tay Tay is named after him), is to enjoy the passage of time. Even through the brainless drudge.

Actually, enjoying the routines and rituals of daily life comes relatively easy to me. As I've previously indicated, I don't mind mowing lawns, ironing shirts, or emptying dishwashers (I draw the line at vacuuming though). 

To me, that's good thinking time. My brain isn't mindful of the task especially. Instead, it wanders lonely as a cloud.

Okay. Blogpost done. What's next?

Love and peace - Wozza.