She had a kind heart, though that is not of much use when it comes to the matter of self-preservation (Penelope Fitzgerald)

Wie geht's?

Discovering a new favourite author is one of the great joys in life!

Before heading to Brave (a Hastings' wine-bar for an end-of-week drink with colleagues), I waltzed into The Little Red Bookstore and soon spotted a book called The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald.

Everything about the book appealed to me - the setting (a seaside town in Britain), a fascinating cast of characters, the cover, and the heft of the book - light and airy but with a 'short-listed for the Booker prize' tagline on the cover.

The first thing I skipped to at random was a lovely description of the town:

The town itself was an island between sea and river, muttering and drawing into itself as soon as it felt the cold.

And the main character, Florence Green, is perfectly described:

She was in appearance small, wispy, and wiry, somewhat insignificant from the front view, and totally so from the back.

It's the kind of book that rewards repeat looks (I am finding I am skipping back to reread passages because the writing is so good and I've glossed over things).

Penelope Fitzgerald is a new one on me and I'm kind of wondering how I've continued to miss her until now (she passed away in 2000 aged 84). 

She appears to have lived a fascinating life (Hermione Lee has written her biography), and I love the fact that she was still a teacher, aged 70.

She wrote nine novels (The Bookshop was her second, published in 1978) and I'll be tracking them all down, post haste!!

I think it's fair to say that I am smitten!

Love and peace - Wozza

You can go ooh-wakka-doo-wakka-day (Gilbert O'Sullivan)

Photo by Belinda Fewings on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

The three amigos (me, Greg and Kevy) are preparing for our latest Spotify playlist by researching the musical preferences of our immediate loved ones (spouses and parents).

Luckily, the three of us have a spouse each and two parents each. Greg is luckiest of all because he still has his mother, Joan, around.

The idea is that we each supply clues about what each loved one enjoys/enjoyed. From those clues we each choose 5 songs we think they will/would have liked.

No easy thing!

By no means are each of our targets compulsive/obsessed music fans like us. Only one of them is/was an actual musician - that honour goes to Kevy's dad.

So, the research is taking me WAY out of my musical comfort zone. And so far that only includes our first two loved ones: Jacky and Joan. BTW, this is a good thing!

Finding 5 songs for Jacky was straightforward for me (less so for GK and KS), but Joan is a dilly of a pickle.

As Greg tells us - Joan finds a lot of our rock'n'roll collections appalling! For her, artists like The Seekers, Nana Mouskouri, Roger Whittaker, Trini Lopez, Harry Belafonte, Engelbert Humperdinck, Ray Conniff, Herb Alpert, Peter Posa, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Mike Curb Congregation and The Carpenters had some appeal. 

I suspect the trick is going to be finding the intersection points between the loved one and me as I navigate my way through those Spotify best of lists.

I'll post the link when we kick into it!

Love and peace - Wozza

Blue is the colour, football is the game

Auckland F.C.

Wie geht's?

In praise of Auckland F.C.

Apart from being my birthplace (my mountain is Maungakiekie), Auckland is also the place I played a lot of football (I represented Auckland in youth grade football teams while playing for Eden F.C. and Mt Albert Grammar).

Auckland City is also home to Nu Zild's largest population and some of our teams like The NZ Breakers, The Warriors, and the Auckland Blues.

Sadly, an A-League football team hasn't managed to sustain itself in Auckland.

The Football Kingz (1999-2004), morphing into the New Zealand Knights (2005 - 2007), were both based in Auckland and both failed to establish themselves.

Now we have Auckland F.C. and my hopes are high. I have never been able to embrace the Wellington Phoenix (which grew out of the failed Knights), so I felt a dose of pride when Auckland F.C. kicked off their season with a home win at Mt Smart, recently.

I even decided I needed a replica shirt!* Go Auckland F.C.!

Love and peace - Wozza

It's eerily similar to Rochdale F.C.'s kit.

There's something mystic in the soul connection (Fat Freddy's Drop)

Many are called, but few are chosen.

Wie geht's?

I time travelled back to 1975 yesterday.

Monday afternoon October 21 2024 found me in a staff meeting after school. Four Year 12 students were interviewed for the Head Boy 2025 position. They did really well but I couldn't help that déjà vu feeling.

October 2024 and October 1975 overlapped in my brain and I flashed back to when I was among a bunch of lads being interviewed to be a prefect at Mt Albert Grammar for 1976.

I don't recall the specific questions, but I distinctly remember waiting in the room beside the upstairs staff room (Ron Hemus' room) with the other guys. 

We were individually called up and had to enter the inner sanctum of the staff room. Seated in the middle, the questions were tossed to us by Morrie Hall, the Headmaster.

Now here I was, October 2024, sitting in the staff room at Hastings Boys' listening to four guys giving prepared statements on a variety of questions to the staff, which included me - 49 years after that distant event.

Life seems strange and those numbers make no sense to me. No sense!

Love and peace - Wozza

There but for fortune (Joan Baez)

Wie geht's?

Joan Baez' autobiography - And a Voice To Sing With came out in 1987. I came across it in Arty Bee's for $16 a few weeks ago. Back of the net!! 

I didn't know it existed. But it does. And it's wonderful. The front cover has a pull quote from the Washington Post - A prose voice of rare timbre...a book worth devouring. 

That's no idle boast. She writes as well as she sings!

How about this:

We lived in a beautiful little house across from an open field of hay which was piled into small hills after it was cut. There is a picture of my mother and father straddling their bicycles in front of that field, young and smiling, the sun in their eyes, the wind blowing wisps of hair from my mother's braids, and across my father's forehead.

Wonderful.

Loads of revelations and I've only devoured 100 pages so far. Seems the whole world has been mispronouncing her surname all these years.

As she points out - it's not Buy-ezz, it's more like Bize.

She explains that she gave an interview to Time magazine and explained the correct pronunciation but it still came out wrong and has been pronounced Buy-ezz ever since. Eek.

The book is great - I appreciate her talents even more.

Love and peace - Wozza

What one loves in childhood stays in the heart forever (Mary Jo Putney)

Wie geht's?

Mary Jo Putney's quote came to mind as I watched a documentary on NZ musician Martin Phillipps recently. It's called The Chills; The Triumph & Tragedy of Martin Phillipps. Martin passed away a few months ago.

He is seen in the documentary trying to sort out his toy collection. It's vast and, at the time, he didn't want that burden to fall to his relatives after he passed away. It's pretty sad - not that he collected the toys, that he knew he didn't have long, so he felt that compulsion to provide order to his collection.

He looks and sounds very childlike as he's engaged in this deeply personal exercise. I really felt for him. It was heart-breaking because he was emptying the deeply precious items from his life, but he was also being pragmatic.  

Like everyone, I have a number of books and items from my childhood that I keep. I even have things from my mother's childhood. I couldn't bear to part with any of them. However, they are things that would not have much significance to anyone else. As Martin knew - someone else would look at his collection and dismiss them, but to him they had real significance.

So, while we are here, they remain as an important tangible connection to our past.

I wonder where Martin's toy collection is now.

Love and peace - Wozza

Above the blue and windy sea, when I come home to you, San Francisco your golden sun will shine for me (Tony Bennett)

Wie geht's?

Some great sport happening for me at the moment, and I'm not just talking about Arsenal F.C. in the Premier League.

Being on holiday on a Monday means a chance to overdose on NFL games. There were some beauties this week - some really close games that went down to the last seconds.

The San Francisco 49ers played the Arizona Cardinals in the crazy heat of Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara and Brock Purdy was awesome throughout the game, except for the last minute and a half, when he threw an interception.

That means after 5 games the 49ers have won 2, lost 3. Shock horror!!

Steelers (3 and 1) up next versus the Cowboys (2 and 2).

Being a fan of the 49ers is natural, given my love for the city by the bay (and Brock Purdy is the star Quarterback), but Steeler love goes way back to last century - living in Wakefield and the Sivak family. 

Come on Steelers!!

Love and peace - Wozza

P.S. Boo hiss - the Steelers also lost in the last minutes of their game (17 - 20). Although neither of my teams looks like Superbowl contenders, it was great to watch those games, and I'll be following their progress closely.