I'm just a soul whose intentions are good (The Animals)

This one is about our animals. Sometimes it's tough to keep track of them all but here we go.


The before restoration Jimi front

 Starting with Jimi, or as Adam calls him - the dumpster cat!

The before restoration Jimi back

The story so far - you will recall that Jacky rescued Jimi from a miserable fate a month ago. He was lying in our garage looking next to death's door. His tail had been shredded, he was malnourished and dehydrated and was maybe a day away from systems failure and a painful demise. He looked miserable!

He spent a week at the vets, had his tail amputated and then we've spent the last three weeks restoring his health (on NZ beef, cooked of course).

Our aim has been to find Jimi a good home here with a western family. An aussie lady called Peta has been working on that and she's found an animal mad South African couple who have adopted wee Jimi.
He now looks fatter and healthier and we can feel good that we gave him a second chance at life. We said farewell to the lad today and wished him our best.

Here are the latest images of him. As you see he has come a long way.

The animals we left behind in Nu Zild with friends and family while we took off on our crazy adventure in the sandpit are still on our minds.

Our cavoodle called Dookie is being looked after by some of Samantha's friends in Wellington until she returns from San Francisco in a few months time.

Bazil, our border collie with a dab of springer cross, is back at his second home with Sallie after a brief stay with Jade. Baz loves walks through Sallie's farm, lounging in the Hawke's Bay sunshine and rain. He especially loves the dead things found on the farm from time to time. Here he is visiting my Buddha shrine which Sallie is also kindly minding for us.

And that's it for the NZ contingent. Sadly Soda (my cat) has been a casualty of our overseas adventure. Entrusted to in-laws, Soda unfortunately ran away to freedom. I hope he found his own Jacky like Jimi did!

But wait...there's more. The latest addition to this menagerie has joined this weekend.

Jacky has bought a horse back in NZ. His name is Strike Irish and we are busy thinking of a new paddock name for him.

Love and peace - Wozza

You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you (Roberty Bob)

We recently said, 'Halas' to for a while.

Season Six was excellent and a real come back from the shuck an' jive weirdness of Season Five. Unfortunately Season Seven is still a month or so away from release in the UAE (this according to the shopgirl in Mall of the Emirates' Virgin Megatore last week so who knows).

So we've moved ontoSeason Six.

Now - you need to understand that Bones is definitely a SWMBO series. I think she watched some episodes a few years ago with Sallie and really liked it so we started watching Season One on hire from the local Video Ezy store in Stratford or New Plymouth. I forget which one. This was a few years back.

It was enjoyable enough in a way and we kept watching it while in Stratford. Zac Addy was a great character and I watched it often for his scenes alone. He was a really disfunctional nerd (or 'squint' to use the show's own jargon) who had little conception of social phatic communion. He was brilliant during the first three seasons and so, of course, he was written out of the show via a preposterous storyline. Uh Oh daddio I thought.

The next season without Zac had a revolving supporting cast in his role. Some of the new characters were aces but we could have killed Nigel-Murray and Daisy quite cheerfully. We hate them, and not in a good way.

[You'll need to go back to my recent post on Grey's Anatomy Season Five - the Pam's Dream Season of the Grey's Anatomy series for a sec to understand my comments on Bones Season Six]

Season Six is a major disappointment thus far (we've watched 8 episodes so far). The season started with the most inept plot strangulation to get characters back into place that I've EVER seen. I WISH they'd used a Pam's dream device!!

Anyway...this has made us even more desperate to find Grey's Anatomy Season 7 when we hit the Dubai Mall tomorrow (haircuts and Burgerfuel here we come).

In the meantime here are two of my favourite scenes from Grey's so far.

This first one is the very affecting scene after George learns of his father's death. Yes - I found it very emotional too.



The second is Bailey's advice to Derek. Like everything about Bailey (yes Jacky - it's only a show) it is honest and bang on.



Love and peace - Wozza

Breaking up is hard to do (Neil Sedaka)

Two of the people I love ended relationships this week and I'm sorry that they are going through a tough time of it.

In the past my advice to those in this predicament has been less than stellar. I remember a female student once confided in me after I could see she was clearly struggling with something. It was a break up and I immediately knew I was on shaky ground.

I did want to help her though and so I said something like the Oscar Wilde quote (The heart was meant to be broken) - that's what the heart is for. It's for getting broken and getting better and loving again. I don't think she appreciated that right then. I wonder if she remembers my moment of ill-judged advice like I do.

So I am heading into dodgy territory with this post. It might get ugly!

My own experience into the realm of the dumped and the dumper is fairly limited, as it only happened twice to me personally and even then the first episode was pretty gentle.

Back in the late 70s Phyllis and I were kind of going out together but whether we had reached boyfriend/girlfriend status together is fairly moot. Love wasn't in the air, and the guy she dumped me for has been her husband for many years now so that worked out well for us both.

Dallas was the second and worse dumper by far. As with Phyllis we had met at university (in the early 80s) and, compared to Wozza/Phyllis, we had definitely reached the boyfriend/girlfriend stage. So when she two timed me with a fellow student I was shattered. She definitely inflicted a wound and it took roughly two years for me to recover the self confidence to try again: luckily by that time I had met Jacky on February the 26th, 1983 and that was all she wrote.

In the latest cases that I mentioned above there was no third party involved - it was just a question of not quite. Not quite can be decided reasonably quickly or it can take a few years. Eventually not quite will end in sayonara. There's no other way with not quite.

What to say to the broken hearted? Clearly I need help in this area so I Googled that last question.

The advice is a mouse click away - but really all that I found were combinations of the things I understand to be true. A break up is painful for a while. It dents the pride and ego. It makes us question things about ourselves.

But after a while we realise that it wasn't meant to be, that for whatever reason it wasn't true.

Then we dust ourselves off and we get on with it again.

I've always loved the sentiment behind the song - Fools Fall In Love (for more on break up songs try my music blog in the next few days). I offer it here as a salve to the dumped.



Love and peace - Sgt Wozza and the Lonely Hearts Club Band

Time wounds all heels (Groucho Marx)

This post is dedicated to Dulcie Mary Purdy (23 April 1930 - 4 November 1983) because without Dulcie's world there would be no Wozza's world!

Bambino's new collection

Part one: Take me to my city by the bay (Train)

A mini whanau update first:

Regular readers will know that I sometimes use the expression, "you've got to take the crunchy with the smooth". On a similar theme is, "sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you". The Arabic version of  all of that is, "Yawm 'asal wa yawm basal - one day honey, one day onions".

Our heart went out to Adam and his girlfriend when we learnt that they came home yesterday to find their house had been burgled.

All his computer gear which he uses to compose his music was gone, as were clothes and other items. Definitely eaten by the bear with crunchy onions thrown in.

On an (literally) upbeat note, Adam had only just released his third Bambino collection called 20 Days, 20 Acapellas.

He has written some stunning music to go with some classic rappers. You can download your very own copy at http://bambino1.bandcamp.com/album/20-days-20-acapellas-2011
and then write a comment on this blog to tell him what a stunner he is!

One of his sisters - Fanfa, on the other hand, was oblivious to this as she landed in San Francisco to begin her latest American adventure with Jesse and his extended family.

Over to her:

So now i am here, sitting in the sunshine writing you this email. The weather is beautiful, the ocean sounds amazing and i have no studies to worry about= heaven. I'm currently at Mike and Karin's house- looking for a place to live online. There are a lot of cool places, but a lot of competition. House prices are high so everybody is looking to rent. Jesse it doing great, he is at work at the moment (hanging Christmas lights for big companies and rich people- he loves it).

Definitely eating the bear with a smooth honey marinade.

Part two: Funny, but it seems that I always wind up-a here with you; Nice to know somebody loves me (The Carpenters).

I have used the blog since day 1 to address important events. When the calendar rolls around to November 4 I get a little more introspective than usual.

My mother (Dulcie Mary Purdy) passed away on November 4, 1983. She had battled with breast cancer for five years before that and was finally released from her suffering.

At the time I was living in New Plymouth, flatting with two girls - Anne and Moira. I'd been in New Plymouth since the start of the year because I'd started work at New Plymouth Boys' High School. My first English teaching job.

On February 26, 1983 I met a girl called Jacqueline Smith. I met Jacky (a.k.a. SWMBO, a.k.a. Umm Keegan) at a fancy dress party amid celestial choirs, cupid's darts of love, blinding light, and other cosmic revelations.

We started spending time together and started getting to know each other's families along the way. F'rinstance, I flew down to Invercargill to meet her mum, Pat, and the Southland branch of Jacky's family.

I had also taken Jacky to meet mum and dad in Auckland.

By November of that year it was clear that mum's cancer was taking a big toll.

Mum, me, Deedoo, Ross, Grandma

I got the call from her doctor the week before she died.

The school was very good about giving me leave and Jacky and I travelled north.

Mum had been hospitalised at the Mater Hospital and I will never ever forget the stairwell and the walk to her room each time we went to see her.

I will never forget the last time I saw her and said goodbye and went spinning from her room into an unknown world that didn't include her.

She was my buddy and had been around for my first 26 years.

The serene and beautiful Jacky has been around for the last 28 years. I would say I have doubly blessed.

It was very fitting that I've just watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy where the Cristina Yang character says this to her patient's child:

If your mum dies you feel a lot of things. First you'll feel like you could have done more to help her but it's not true. You did everything you could. Won't feel that way but...let me tell you this - you did everything you could. And it'll hurt every time you think of her. But over time it will hurt less and less and eventually you'll remember her and it'll only hurt a little.

They certainly got that right - there will never be a time that it doesn't hurt!

Love and peace mum - Warren

I got the rockin' pneumonia and the boogie woogie flu (Johnny Rivers)

I've had to take two sick days in a row this week with this stoopid cold. I really can't remember the last time I had to do that.

Yesterday was the peak day - sweats, heavy cough and nothing stemmed the nasal flow and, believe me, I tried - three different types of cold and flu tablets!

Today it's just that heavy feeling, a sore nose because of yesterday and a cough. Should be back to work tomorrow.

Being at home with a cold is weird. It's not relaxing but not boring either. It's a between time. A pause. An enforced rest.


Davy Jones and Frank Zappa's cameo in Head.

 I've been reading (Die Trying by Lee Child) and watching some videos (Head by The Monkees and Grey's Anatomy Season 6 episodes when Jacky's been around).

Whenever I'm sick and recovering I have an urge for marmite and lettuce sandwiches. This is from when I was a kid and mum would make those for me.

What else? Well I have also been watching some TED talks online and I've done a couple of posts as well.

Jimi has been keeping me company too. He has stuck close - either the other side of the couch (he didn't appear too impressed with Head), or in the shelf of the desk while I use the computer (he's there now). If I go to the kitchen to make a cuppa he follows me out and then follows me back.

[By the way - we've worked out that he's been owned by Arabic speakers rather than westerners. He looked at Jacky blankly and disdainfully when she saw him try to scratch the couch arm and shouted, "NO". But the Arabic version, "LA" - as in lar, got his attention immediately.]

Another in between activity has been taking some more photographs of him to put on the blog.

He seems to blend in to the surroundings so let's play Where's Jimi?.

Love and (cough) peace - Wozza

The road has got me hypnotized and I'm speeding into a new sunrise (Golden Earring)

This post could also have been titled 'Okay - I think I may have seen everything now' if I wasn't wedded to the-song-lyric-fragment-as-title idea..

I don't think I've spoken/written much about driving in the Middle East yet have I?

Allow me to correct that for you.

First though you need some context.

Here is a picture of part of the Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai. I include it to show the way roads are laid out in the UAE (and Qatar).

Please note that the main roads are bisected by a median strip - usually crash barriers of some sort. On the left you can see four lanes heading south. On the other side of the median strip (to the right) are four lanes heading north.

Slip roads on either side control the exits and entrances to the lanes. This is the only way to get from the north lane to the south lane.

It is, I repeat, impossible to get into a lane going in the opposite direction. Even if you could, this would be suicide given the next bit.

Traffic speeds are usually up to 140kph on highways. I cruise at 120 (the stated speed limit, the speed cameras are set at 140).

The third piece of crucial information you need is the mentality of the local drivers. They are...insane!

The UAE has the seventh highest road death rate per 100,000 inhabitants per year in the world - 37.1. The other 6 above them are dirt poor third world crazy paving states like Niger 37.5, Angola 37.7, Iraq 38.1, Afghanistan 39, Cook Islands 45 and top of the heap is Eritrea 48.4 (apologies to the lovely Cook Islanders reading this, not sure how you ended up being second, what the heckfire are you doing on your roads??). By contrast, Nu Zild's rate was 8.6.

Basically the drivers here don't care. Generally because, as I say, they are nuts. Mainly young guys in over powered cars with unlimited money and time on their hands. Recently the traffic accident statistics fell for a day by 45%. Why? The Blackberry links went down.

So I have got used to no signals, frequent lane changers, cars racing each other around me, being passed while doing 130kph and so on.

Okay...got all that? Right...

So today I'm driving to school at about 11am having dropped a colleague back home because his wife was ill.

I have the new Mastodon album in the car's CD player and it's really LOUD!

I take the Al Ain/Dubai Rd to Al Foah. It has three lanes and the speed limit is 120 kph. Unfortunately there are no speed cameras on this stretch of highway so you can be passed by maniacs travelling up to 160kph but at least you don't have to worry about pesky (and dangerous) roundabouts. Most accidents happen on the roundabouts.

I'm in the fast lane going past a truck, the extreme left lane next to the median barrier. There are two lanes to my right (the slow lane is hard right). Like this:

Looks and sounds weird I know but with a left hand drive car it makes sense.

Out of nowhere I see headlights flashing on and off ahead of me. But something's wrong. Usually I see this in my rear view mirror - it means 'get out of my way, I am driving a Land Cruiser and you are in a piece-of-shit Tiida, I repeat - get out of my freakin way!!'. This time, though, it is AHEAD OF ME.

They are the main headlights. My brain tells me that this is impossible. This means a car is coming TOWARDS ME!!!!!

The headlights continue to flash on and off in front of me.

A thought: I figure it must be a cop trying to get to an accident scene. As it gets closer I understand that it's a Toyota Ute.

I am travelling at 120 Kph. I can do one of three things, only one: dodge the oncoming car by moving to my right somehow elbowing the truck out of the lane; slow down and go behind the truck; stay where I am and play chicken with the Toyota Ute that is closing the gap between us rather quickly.

I move to my right. Luckily the truck next to me sees the situation (thanks to those flashing lights) and pulls over to the right as well.

In a blur Toyota is gone (I catch a slow motion glimpse of two Emirati men in the front seat, amazingly they appear unconcerned).

The rest of the drive to school is a similar blur of thoughts.

I have no idea how or why what had just happened, happened.

I don't understand how he got to my side of the median strip. I don't understand why he is there. It was all a bit like I'd just glanced out my window and had seen an Emirati riding a polar bear up a sand dune waving his cowboy hat.

I was completely non-plussed.

I think I've now seen it all.

Love and peace - Wozza

Take me down to junior's farm - take me there Jimi! (Wings)

Latest on the Jimi - his stumpy almost tail is repairing itself slowly and the NZ mince and chicken scraps that SWMBO is feeding him have resulted in the start of a Jimi tummy.

Jimi was down but Jimi is getting back up again - he's obviously feeling a lot better now given that he has started to swat at my ankles as I walk by!

His sleeping possies are in the computer desk (yes - in) while Umm Keegan does her emailing and horse perusing, on a chair in the dining room in the mornings, and guards my CDs by our stereo in the evenings (Jimi recommends the latest from Intronaut, Opeth, Dream Theater, and Mastodon by the way).

Love and Peace - Wozza