She's my little deuce coupe (The Beach Boys)

A very huge happy birthday to Jade for today - 28th November.

Here's the proof that she's always been cute as a button:

In the pre interweb days of November 1991 I diligently put together a state of the 1991 world from newspaper cuttings and started a photo album for Jade.

It had film listings, the football results, the music charts - all the essentials (oh and news headlines).

These days the guff on 1991 is at the push of a Goggle button, of course.

Amazingly, if you check the November 28, 1991 wikipedia page you'll see a notification that Jade Michelle Purdy was born to proud parents Warren and Jacky on that date.

She is number four (of four) and so her brothers and sister had to get in on the act as well:

Adamski, Fanfa, KW, Jadey Wadey little lady.

Have a great day out there in the blogosphere and rejoice in the knowledge that Jade Michelle Purdy is part of life's rich pageantry!

Love and peace - Jade's dad.

We gotta move these colour TV's (Dire Straits)

A fun weekend to report. 

This one's about TVs, technology and planned obsolescence:

Abruptly, last week our Sky reception stopped while SWMBO was in the lounge watching news on Al Jazeera.

Sky technician came, saw and delivered the verdict - the TV was the culprit! It's one we'd brought back from Al Ain so it is only 3 or 4 years old.

Said technician swapped the A.R.T. room TV (bought while we were in Stratford, so a year or two older) and we were back in business Sky wise.

The 'new' A.R.T. room TV from the lounge is fine but the connection to my stereo wasn't. Appears it failed like the Sky connection. 

Yikes!! Inconceivable! Calamity! Disaster!

So I had to buy an 'optical digital audio out' cable (and a new home theatre sound system from Harvey Norman).

Seems in the last few years TVs are now using this optical bizzo and so, gggrrrrr, if I want to blast out Rage Against The Machine live in my A.R.T....

This next bit is a return to the smart phone scenario:

I was given a new smart phone by a student at school (she'd won it and it was surplus to requirements, with the helpful suggestion planted by a rather wonderful colleague - student passed the phone to me).

It's a brand new phone so a better prospect than Jade's Sony Xperia.

It needed a cover so I got in the Purdsmobile and pootled along to the Hastings Spark office (was Telecom but they rebranded - don't get me started), only to be told in a sneery kind of voice: oh no we don' have one, we don' carry this model phone any more - best try Trade me!

I'm so sick of this!

More and more, it seems technology is outdated within weeks, days, hours!!

I remember when (yes, I'm really going to start a sentence - I remember when)...TV's lasted years and years and years. Phones? Before cordless came along and WAY before cell phones, we had the same land line phone in the house for decades.

Now - if it ain't the lastest device like an iphone 6 (which renders iphones 1 through 5 obsolete) it ain't nothin'.

Landfills are filing up with discarded technology that dies or is updated after too short a time. Fer shame!

Bah humbug, and yet, love and peace - Wozza

You take what you need and leave the rest (The Band)

Recently, during a class, one of my Year 9 students asked me about my motivations for starting a blog in the first place. 

She was asking because I'm using the blogging facility on Schoology to get them all to write posts about their current work in English.

She has an inquiring mind and has no problem voicing her thoughts.

I dimly remember writing that first ever post on Wozza's Place in 2008 and explaining why I decided to start a blog, so I told her that - not thinking she'd actually find it, read it and tell me loudly that it actually didn't help her much.

Like I said - inquiring mind.

Intrigued I am heading back to the future to see if I can find that post which articulated my motivation... 

Okay - got it!

It was a tentative start in 2008 for sure - more like an email update - the main reason from those first posts was to keep in contact with my family. Back in 2008 my dad was still alive, Jade was still living at home, and home was Stratford. 

At the time I saw it as a one way monologue, as I said then...

 this is not an exercise in making you feel guilty - it's designed to  help my burden of guilt!

It's changed a lot since as my blogging has expanded beyond my need to only keep in touch with family and friends. Actually I'm pretty sure my family only dip into this blog from time to time (and ignore the other three).

So my reach has extended beyond that need.

In particular, Twitter has really opened my eyes up to other possibilities.

A student gave me a new smart phone this week - I was floored! It's meant I now have greater access to my Twitter and Facebook accounts. 

I'm sure the fascination will wane eventually but for now I'm thrilled to engage with complete strangers via Twitter on a daily basis.

Love and peace - Wozza

Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare (David Bowie)

I caught Ben Stiller's The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty a few nights ago and I can see why it only scored a 50% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The film is a remake of the 1947 film starring Danny Kaye, which was based on the James Thurber story.

Ben's good, the love interest is good, art direction and cinematography is good, with wonderful locations, the flights of fancy interesting but... the premise is bizarre and far fetched.

 My suspension of disbelief took a major hit as a result.

Best bits for me were the huge Life magazine covers and that Life magazine quote - the purpose of Life. First sighting in the film resulted in me going - WHOOAAA and pausing the playback to check it out properly.  

The film also peeked my interest in the source material. Apparently Jerry Stiller's son and the '47 film deviated from the actual James Thurber short story. So back to the 1939 story I went.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1939/03/18/the-secret-life-of-walter-mitty-2?currentPage=all

Interestingly, It's a very brief story. Interestingly, Stiller's movie 'version' has nothing in common with the source material beyond the idea of daydreaming.

The rest is a smoke and mirrors love story which is ultimately not convincing. Still- it's a harmless enough film and a pleasant diversion, and there's always that 'purpose of Life quote'.

Love and peace - Wozza

I may be paranoid, but no android (Radiohead)

Spot the difference...

 One was 23, other is plus 34.

 Which is which? 

Hard to tell right? 

Scarey!!

Love and peace - WNP

I want you to rock me baby, like my back ain't got no bones (B B King)

This one's about mobile phones, smart phones and my Nokia.

I'm not a fan of mobile phones. I'm suspicious of smart phones. I have a Nokia.

I am aware that this fact instantly stigmatises me. No one these days has a Nokia (okay, I exaggerate - me, Awesome Greg and a guy in Helsinki - that's it).

I'm not proud of it: I shrink with embarrassment if I get a call from SWMBO in a shopping mall.

But there are reasons why I maintain the Nokia.

My Nokia is the phone Cognition gave me to use in the UAE when I worked for them from 2010 to 2012.

Of course it's a piece of crap but it's done me well up to now. Although the keyboard is small and the display is hard to see if it's daytime, the battery lasts all week, I can receive calls on it, I can text on it and it is idiot proof. Just.

I have a problem with mobile phones per se. They tie us down - SWMBO gets upset with my lack of availability (I won't take it to class) but I know they are a necessary evil in the 21st Century.

Smart phones worry me - they are basically  a scam perpetrated on us by big business (The Man is sticking it to us!). Telecommunication companies throughout the world are coining it and I don't have any hankering to add to their coffers.

I also worry about all the functions smart phones have, my ignorance means they can syphon money off like crazy like car mechanics. I also worry that I'll never understand them. As far as I can see- all the bells and whistles mean there are more things that can go wrong.

Remember- I'm Mr Less-Is-More.

But...still...but still.. the lure of checking my vitals (football scores, Twitter feeds, the cool apps to monitor your health) remains in the dim middle distance: a shimmery mirage haze that beckons me to walk zombie style towards it.

And the fact that I'm rapidly getting left behind concerns me. I am a long way from an early adapter to phone technology but, ironically, I do love gadgets.

After she upgraded, Jade gave me her old Sony Xperia. It's been sitting on the desk at home for a few days. I know that there is no turning back once I swap SIM cards and start paying money for data.

But there it is again - hark - Karl Pilkington's words are ringing in my ears as I think about the impending transition: "We've invented most of the stuff that we need and now we're just messing about" 

Hmmmmmm.

Love and peace - Wozza

We got married in a fever hotter than a pepper sprout (Johnny Cash/ June Carter)

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe (Anatole France)- the November quote.

Sam, Jesse, Ashleigh, SWMBO, Adam, me, Keegan, Jade.

On Saturday we (The Purdettes, me and SWMBO along with Jesse) celebrated Adam and Ashleigh's wedding in Auckland. They dreamed, planned, believed and on Saturday - they acted!

It was another quality family night on the town. Adam and Ashleigh (the latest Mrs Purdy) decided on a smallish number of attendees - that meant the Purdy and Hope families, and a simple ceremony with a marriage celebrant who was a friend of Adam's.

It was the wedding that they wanted to have and it was wonderful largely because of that.

It made me reflect, again, on the circle of life - we entered into the children-get-married era with Samantha / Jesse and now Adam / Ashleigh (the smart money is on Jade next). 

As Adam embarked on married life it also made me realise that in the scheme of things we only really spend a tiny bit of time with our children as adults. 

From 0 to 18 Adam lived with us but he's already lived away from home for 10 years - won't be long before our family time together will be in the minority.

Not a particularly profound thought but it does make me think of my own life and my time living with my parents - precious memories that are becoming more and more distant as this new generation of Purdys move further and further away from the nest.

Love and peace - WNP
  

Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy (Cat Stevens)

I have a post on http://googoogarjoob.blogspot.co.nz/ that my Wozza's Place blogosperists may be interested in. 

It features a recording (yes - a record!) my dad made in 1967. 

The actual process of putting the audio file on the post tested my skills. I used Evernote to record it off my speakers at home, then transferred it to an MP3 file using OpenDrive.

I really wanted the sound recording (okay, yes - audio file) to be on the blog so the whole post is rather cool! Technology can be great!

Love and peace - Graham Purdy's eldest son.

Now this journey appears before my candle (Jackson Browne)

All hail Adam and (saint) Ashleigh. 

They're getting hitched, spliced, joined in matrimony this weekend. 

Yeah!! That's a big deal!

Well done Ashleigh on becoming our latest awesome Mrs Purdy!!  

We head up to Auckland on Friday to be there for the wedding on Saturday.

Photos will follow but for now enjoy this irreverent view from my hero:



Love and peace - father of the groom.

You're gonna be the one that saves me, and after all - you're my wonderwall (Oasis)

Awesome weekend with a Purdy famly reunion for me and SWMBO to reaffirm our marriage vows.

For us it was all about celebrating our love for each other, saying thanks for the last 30 years (it's been our Pearl Wedding anniversary year), especially the last two which have been really testing at times, and receiving a blessing for our future including for our family and friends.

We had the bonus of doing all this in the wonderful chapel at Woodford House with Rev Joy.

During our celebration we had Jacky's sister read this fantastic passage from Corinthians:

Love endures and is kind. 

Love is not envious or jealous. 

Love wants not for itself. 

Love is not puffed up, nor does it behave wrongly. 

Love seeks not for it’s own. 

Love is not easily provoked. 

Love is not rude. 

Love thinks No evil. 

Love does not rejoice in wrong, but dwells in the truth. 

Love bears all things, believes all things, endures all things, and love never fails.

We rarely have the six of us together in one place so this was a valuable photo op as well. Left to right: Keegan, Jade, Adam, LOML, Wozza, Samantha.

Love and peace - Wozza