I'm a feline Casanova, hey man that's that (Stray Cats)

It's about time I updated the very patient blogosphere on the animal situation at Rochdene. 

All of you will remember that SWMBO and I went looking for an aviary a few months ago and came home with two cats.

Said cats, Scooter is the male, Flower is the female were part of the scaredy variety initially, but they've now become quite at home.

Scooter

Flower

Although he looks somewhat moody in the photo, Scooter is the well behaved one - using the scratching post and the cat door expertly. He's also much more outdoorsey.

Flower, however uses the carpet and couch rather than the scratching post and has no intention of ever learning how to operate the cat door. She's a tart, but a cuddly lovable tart.

Animal wise we also have a second horse to join Grace at Rochdene (a sign is still on the agenda). He's a weirdly put together neddy but very gentle with humans. He has established his male dominance of poor Grace and looks quite at home as well. Name - Beetle Bomb (from the Spike Jones classic skit) or Beetle for short.

Week 7 - Book 7: Orphan X (Gregg Hurwitz)

I needed some quick reads to keep me on track for my one book a week goal and so I grabbed this from Whitcoulls in Whangarei.

This one looked like it could be one to grip me after the last couple.

So far, so good. The jacket has a great line from David Baldacci which is about right after 26 pages. Thanks David!

Love and peace - Wozza

It took me years to write, will you take a look? (The Beatles)

Week 6 - Book 6: Read The Beatles (Edited by June Skinner Sawyers)  

Watching the English (book 5) turned into hard work and that means it took me nearly two weeks to read. I don't like that feeling - that reading is tough work. 

I should have stopped really but I was half way through it and past the point of no return. So it turned into a bit of a chore to finish. Hate that.

But as Mary Chapin Carpenter says - I take my chances! No remorse, no regrets.

Coincidentally, although kinda apropos nothing as well - my Seinfeld calendar for today has the following George quote: I got news for you, it it wasn't for the toilet, there would be no books.

Ahem, on to the next - I bought Read The Beatles last year, during a visit to see Jade in Palmerston North. We went for lunch and I had a minute to browse a bookshop. I walked out with this compendium of 'classic and new writings on The Beatles'.

A slight misnomer - it's divided into two parts - half the book is made up of writings on the Beatles, the other half is called 'Apart' and features writing about the Beatles' solo years.

I have quite a lot of this material already but it's fun to have in one edition and to read again. The foreword by Astrid is pretty cool too!

Sad and OCB? Mmm - probably.

Love and peace - Wozza

Knock down the old grey wall, be a part of it all (Badfinger)

No, it's okay, hang on - you haven't strayed onto The Purdzilla Show blog by accident. 

I wanted to examine this idea for a bit in Wozza's Place.

Confucius' take on injury's in the same ball park as the Latin motto of the Royal Stuart dynasty of Scotland - Nemo me impune lacessit (No one "cuts" (attacks/assails) me with impunity). William Wallace would understand, no doubt.

Interestingly, Lao Tzu's take on injury differs from Confucius. 

He says in the Tao Te Ching that '(It is the way of the Tao) to act without (thinking of) acting; to conduct affairs without (feeling the) trouble of them; to taste without discerning any flavour; to consider what is small as great, and a few as many; and to recompense injury with kindness'.

Seems to me, this is way harder than meeting injury with justice.

Close to the Jesus' maxim to turn the other cheek (...resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also), Lao Tzu proposes non violent resistance  similar to Jesus' stance which can be seen as a command not to take vengeance.

All up I like Lao Tzu's method, because it advocates kindness, no matter what. Something to aspire towards!

Love and peace - Wozza

All together now, all together now (The Beatles)

The newest iteration of my music room, Abbey Road Three, is now complete (readers with long memories will know that I had AR1 at Otane and AR2 at Waipuk).

The builders took three days to divide the garage and I took a week to paint it as well as I ever paint anything and the carpet went down a few days ago. Moving in took the best part of another week (I have a LOT of stuff).

Decorating was completed on the weekend and now...aarrrr...deep contented sigh...it's ready for use!

It's week five (of 52) of my goal and I'm up to Book 5 - Watching The English (Kate Fox).

On the shelf for ages, this one has now made its way to the front of the queue. It's sub-titled

'The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour' and it hits home often!

As our links with mother England are particularly strong for New Zealanders of my generation and earlier, we will definitely find themselves peering out of this book.

Basically it tackles our tendency to awkwardness, embarrassment, reserve and general social ineptitude and inhibition. 

Hmmmm.

Love and peace - Wozza

Into the great gramophone of puzzling existence (Lawrence Ferlinghetti)

Book 4 - San Francisco Poems (Lawrence Ferlinghetti) 

The final book bought on my recent overseas jolly comes from City Lights Bookstore.

Because of its concentration on San Francisco and his life there, it's pretty much a perfect collection of his poetry. 

As he himself says in one of his poems, Write an endless poem about your life on earth or elsewhere.

Thanks to an autumnal storm, we had a power cut last night and it brought home to us again how reliant we are on the flow of electricity. 

It meant no water (pump needs power), no light, no dinner (half way through cooking some chicken), no more setting up of my ART room (hard to read record labels in the dark), no phones (cell phones ran out of juice, land line plugs in), no showers, no television, no music...no Internet!!

Yikes - instead we reverted to candle power, a cold cereal meal, and early bedtime.

Thankfully, we're back on the grid this morning. Phew! Just in time for me to write and post this message.

Love and peace - Wozza

Therapy through hell (Macca)

Book 3 - Man on the Run (Tom Doyle) 

Again, this one came from that great little discount bookshop in Upper Street, North London town.

I'm about half way through it. Grrrr.

Which means, I'm behind schedule.

That's not Tom's fault, or Macca's for that matter. It's nobody's fault but mine, and two days away at a conference, oh, and a day away for school athletics.

Means I need to go hard out this week and read TWO books. Eek.

Love and peace - Wozza.

P.S. blackberry sequel: SWMBO made a pie!! It was yummy!

P.S. 2 - This edition is late - sorry. Blame it on the painting of my newest music room- Abbey Road Three. Builders came last week and sub-divided the garage - I have spent the weekend painting inside and out, ready for some carpet to go down during the week. Pictures at 11.