Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letterbox

School is back in session after a two week break. The weather packed in this week and we've had torrential rain lately (usually whenever I'm on duty at school). I did manage to get all of my chores done around the house though - trees pruned and hedges trimmed - that sort of thing. We had Samantha with us for the two weeks break - she's now recovered from the wisdom tooth problem and back in Wellington doing her essays (or so her Facebook page says).

Just wanted you to know that I've been thinking about a number of you lately - those thoughts that meander and lead to other thoughts - Joan started at her new Headteacher post during the break so I've been hoping that's gone well, that leads to all the King John School people I saw recently. Thoughts of the UK lead to Randy and Pat in the shire and Christine and how Rochdale are doing and how she's doing. Then Arsenal and by word association football I bounce to my grandad (born in Rochdale) and the Purdy thoughts lead me to dad's research into my great great paternal grandmother - Emma and then back to Rochdale and...you get the idea. Whenever Jacky asks me what I'm thinking it's exactly this jumble/tumble of stuff!! Are you like that? I watched a live Seinfeld concert DVD during the week and part of his routine is - I bet you women are wondering what guys think about. The answer is...nothing! Yep. And my nothing is this rag tag of different shards of thoughts. Anyway - you should all be comforted that you're all in there somewhere.

During the week I also went to check my world clustr map (left column) and was staggered about the huge number of people who read this blog. Wow! let me just go there now and check again... Ok the current list of places from which people connect with my blog is -
New Zealand (NZ) 864
United Kingdom (GB) 162
United States (US) 93
Australia (AU) 78
Austria (AT) 11
Canada (CA) 8
Germany (DE) 6
Europe (EU) 4
Japan (JP) 3
Netherlands (NL) 3
Philippines (PH) 2
Russian Federation (RU) 2
Sweden (SE) 1
Ireland (IE) 1
France (FR) 1
China (CN) 1
Indonesia (ID) 1
Brazil (BR) 1
Singapore (SG) 1
Malaysia (MY) 1
Hungary (HU) 1

Is this scarey or what.

The weekend is coming up and my boys football team (under 15s) have their first game of the season. A few boys have never played football before and I'm a bit hoarse after our first training run this week but it should be fun. I'll keep you updated on our progress. I'll attempt to take some photos this weekend as well to spice up the next post. Meanwhile feel free to go to my other blogs for bling, bounce and bravado. http://googoogarjoob.blogspot.com http://shsprincipal.blogspot.com http://shakespearesociety.blogspot.com http://purdzilla.blogspot.com

Take care - love and peace - W

You can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need.

The Easter holidays are nearing an end and ANZAC day is looming. This last week has been tough on Samantha - she came up from University last week to get her wisdom teeth removed and recuperate at home. All went well but it's still one of those things most of us have to go through. She looked like a chipmunk for four days but the swelling has passed and she can almost talk properly again.

Jacky had an appointment for her shoulder in Hamilton over the last few days and so we took the opportunity to take Samantha up to visit dad and we also saw Keegan/Adam,Jenna and Ross and the family. Pictures include Ross/Hayden/Scott/Fanfa and train landscape that the boys are working on.

Nature watch hasn't been around lately - it's solid autumn weather - on our drive north we came across many beautiful scenes of leaves turning colour and in Cambridge the roads are already chocka with leaves. We've been doing autumn jobs - collecting and stacking firewood, trimming the barbary hedges and the house hedges/trees so that we get a good winter view of the mountain, moving animals around to make the best use of the remaining grass (horses are about to get their daily hay) and (if your Jacky) fussing about the falling leaves from the fig tree outside our lounge windows.

I will add a new post to my Shakespeare blog after the official birthday celebrations (23rd April in case you forgot), the principal blog also has a new post on Barack Obama and pregnant teenagers, and my music blog has a new post for Christine on ten recommended British pop albums (more to come soon!). Oh and new inspiration picture was commissioned by Jade.

Love and peace - W

I've looked around enough to know, that you're the one I want to go through time with

Let me take you back 25 years. Back to April 21, 1984. We're in New Plymouth at St Joseph's Catholic church. It's windy outside, hints of rain (we had to have studio photos as a result). The reception is ahead of us but we're inside the church facing our friends from the front.


Clay is my best man, Donna is Jacky's bridesmaid. I'm enjoying myself!! I'm focussed - this is not a day that has blurred in any way (getting dressed in Margo and Clay's hotel room while Gene Kelly is singing in the rain on TV - the details are forever there).

Many of you are there with us. For instance -

Pat - next to Jacky - is still part of the whanau.

Ross, Warwick, Michelle, Chris, Margo can be glimpsed here.

Roger and Deirge in this one.

...and Greg and Wendy.

What has telescoped has been the 25 years since that day - four children and the child rearing years, a series of different teaching/nursing jobs, 25 years of dreams and plans, different houses, life in New Zealand cities and the UK years, 25 years of new and old friends, the comings and goings of family along the way, 25 birthday and Christmas celebrations, and now the blogging years. The empty nest years are almost upon us. It's been a blast. Let's hope the next 25 are just as rich.

To get you back there here are some wedding photos from that momentous day:




In further celebration - here are some photos from the archives for you to laugh at (some you've seen, some you haven't):








Finally for this post - happy birthday to Jacky (on the 14th) and Sally (the 15th).

Love and peace - W

Oh to live on sugar mountain, with the barkers and the coloured balloons

A couple of old posts to catch up with - I noticed two that I had started as drafts but forgot to post. Doh! So here they are - this one plus an older one - you'll need to scroll down to March 9 for a picture of Samantha's flat and Adam/Jenna in Japan.

Jacky and I were in Hamilton a couple of weeks ago for my Principal conference (try http://shsprincipal.blogspot.com for the details). As we were in Hamilton we of course met up with Adam and Jenna for a meal and during the stay we picked up Adam -drove to Auckland, picked up Keegan and drove on to Orewa to see dad/grandad. We had to return to Hamilton so we had no time left to see other family/friends along the way unfortunately. Still - here are the pictures of our visit:








And while I'm at it here's another picture of Christine from our country walk.


Love and peace - W

In the white room with black curtains near the station.

This post is dedicated to our London friends in a hopeful attempt to get them to read my blogs - Randy Buckley and Patrick Cameron. As promised - here are the recent photos of Randy and Pat's pad in Highbury/Islington (nestled into Ferntower Rd - part of 'the shire'). That's Randy on the left and a dapper looking Patrick on the right. As you'll remember from an earlier post I had the blue room on the 4th floor - directly below me was the red lounge (housing the smaller organ and yes that is a huge TV) -


Below the red lounge is a landing housing the bigger organ

and then the white lounge (lots of music in here - piano, harp, guitar) and some great artwork from NZ




There we have it - a visual and aural experience - many thanks again guys for allowing me the chance to stay here and project manage the building site!

Love and peace - W

You're a bluebird on a telegraph line, I hope you're happy now

A weekend of very contrasting emotions has passed for us. Congratulations to Adam and Tina who were married on Saturday - although we couldn't be there we thought about you all day. Our thoughts are also with Roger, Deirdre and Diana Marbeck (and whanau). Roger delivered the sad news that his dad - Murray had died.
Murray is on the left and his brother Hayden is on the right behind the counter at Marbecks Records. This is appropriate because so many Aucklanders will remember them like this. I was incredibly fortunate in 1979 when I asked Roger for a holiday job helping out in the 'popular' shop opposite the 'classics' shop in the Queen's Arcade (Auckland) and he said yes (was he nuts? This was like handing over the keys of the asylum to a lunatic - I was in hog heaven!).

Murray and Hayden and Roger were just terrific to work with and for. I loved it and Roger was generous - each University holiday for the next three years I was back in heaven. It was tough calling Mr Marbeck - Murray (Hayden was easy by comparison) - because he had a different presence to Hayden. I always thought of him as a kind of Sir George Martin figure. Gentle, intelligent, kind, worldy, someone to respect completely (Hayden was like the impish favourite uncle to us all). My mother, who knew Murray when she worked at the record bar at Lewis Eddy's in Queen Street in the 1950s, always referred to him as Mr Marbeck. Murray and I had a few things in common - he was proud of being a Mt Albert Grammar Old Boy (as we all are) and he even had done a stint as a teacher there. He loved music unreservedly (although he may have had a stance on gangsta rap I don't know about). And he loved sharing his vast knowledge - he was a teacher!

He lived a wonderful life and he brought up (with Ailsa) two wonderful people. He leaves us the better for knowing him! May music always be in our hearts.

Love and peace - W