Wie geht's?
Time to celebrate Jade's birth again this week - her 31st trip around the sun!
DLG was cute as a button as a caterpillar, but she's turned into a beautiful butterfly during those 31 years.
We celebrated her birthday with her yesterday in Palmy, but her real birthday is Monday 28th of November, 1991. Yes, 1991. I remember it well.
Have a great day today DLG!
If you want the back story you could revisit it here.
Love and peace - Dad
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| Jerry approves. |
Last weekend, we embarked on our usual rituals around putting up our Christmas tree.
We'll be away overseas for the Christmas period so this is for Jade and Asher, and Georgia, our house sitter, to enjoy.
First the familiar search for the best place for it to reside in our house. In the past we've tried extreme measures like relocating the TV and placing the tree there, but these have all been ultimate aesthetic failures.
So, having been there/done that, we ultimately went back to where we've always had the tree at Maple Grove - in the formal dining room.
Next is a division of labour - top tip - go with your strengths: I reassemble the tree and hang the lights (with a deliberate careful demeanor that my dad would be proud of), then Jacky takes over hanging the decorations with her brilliant superb artistic flair to the fore.
It's a well perfected recipe for success (a.k.a. no squabbles).
Love and peace - Wozza
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| Two crazy kids with Graham Purdy, 1984 |
Wie geht's?
My father-in-law (G Brian) has been working on transferring our VHS home movies into a digital format and delivered the first batch to us last weekend. I am truly thankful for his time and expertise.
Excited? For me, this was like waiting for Peter Jackson's Get Back documentary of the Let It Be sessions. I was itching to see what was on these tapes - some, like my dad's things, had been lying dormant for decades.
I was over the moon with the results. Jacky and I (with Brian, Sallie, Ross and Michelle in attendance) were looking impossibly young and getting married again in April 1984. The Purdettes were young again, family holidays with friends reminded me of fun times again. Jacky scowled at the camera again and again - every time it was pointed at her in fact. Ah - the memories! I had quite a few cushions hurled my way during these videoing occasions - let me tell you!
A few of the tapes starred people that dad knew but he's not around to tell me who they are any more. I did see Nita in a few of them so those are from the late eighties/nineties.
The footage of him from that time at his Taupo house in the garden and his preparations to smoke a trout are priceless. His knowledge of plants was amazing - he knew all of the botanical names! Predictably, he's dressed as if he's just returned from the office (business shirt, dress pants and a cardie). He never wore work clothes like jeans/ T shirts etc. Ever.
What I loved the most though was his deliberate and careful preparation for the fire and the process that was used to smoke trout. He was a chemist by trade and fastidious by nature so everything like wood, sawdust, charcoal is in neat, precise piles. The methodical detailing of the process had me spellbound.
At one point, I caught myself shaking my head and then...
With a jolt I realized how much I do the same thing! Like making an omelet or assembling a flat pack. I do the same thing dammit!
I may have picked up that trait from him gosh darn it.
I'm not sure if I've passed it on to the Purdettes. I may have.
Food for thought.
Can't wait for the next installment from G Brian.
Much love and peace - Wozza
Wie geht's?
When Jade was very young - for a couple of years around 3 to 5 years old, she loved to watch Dumbo, the movie, over and over again. She must have watched it about 200 times I reckon.
She never got tired of it. Every time she watched it she would cry at the same scene - with the mother in a cage arching her trunk out to comfort little Dumbo, who was outside that cage.
Next time she had a chance to watch TV, she'd ask for Dumbo again. As I say, this went on for a few years. Same deal - Dumbo, same crying, same request to watch it again.
This gave rise to the idea of Dumbo movies, books, songs - whatever. Things that could be watched over and over again with no loss of enjoyment.
Hold that thought.
For a while there, a couple of my mates and I were making Spotify playlists for fun. They're based around some themes, such as songs with a place name in the title, or a person's name, or with body parts in the title (a Kevy suggestion that one), or songs of the year - that sort of thing.
It was fun, but we've gone into a lengthy on-going hiatus (I know that's an oxymoron but it's accurate). Probably through exhaustion! The lists were big motor truckers. Over 200 songs for most of them.
Still, I loved making Spotify playlists.
So, I decided to make my own while on this hiatus. So far I've finished one and the other is a work in progress.
This's where the Dumbo idea comes in.
Wozza's Wonders assembles all the Dumbo songs that roll around in my brain. Again - there are over 200 of them. I feels good having them in one place.
The work in progress is called Wozza's Women - where I'm compiling a playlist of my favourite songs featuring a female vocalist.
And yes - I like alliteration, okay. A few more potential options are: Wozza's Wailings (heavy songs); Wozza's Waves (summer/beach songs); Wozza's Weaknesses (guilty pleasures); Wozza's Weather (songs about the weather obvs); Wozza's Wildlife (animals); Wozza's Whines (moany ones); Wozza's Winners; Wozza's Wise Wons; Wozza's Wordy Wons; Wozza's Workout; Wozza's Withdrawals (drug songs) and Wozza's Winkers (misprint). There's probably a few more I haven't thought about. So the lists could be going for a while yet.
But I digress.
For Wozza's Women, I thought it would be easy to put a song a year since 1957 on the playlist but it quickly became impossible to choose just one representative so I added the parenthetical bit (At least) to 'one song for ever year...'
I'm up to 1974 so I have a fair way to go. But even in those years from 1957 to 1973 I've rediscovered a huge number of brilliant female vocalists. You're welcome to join the journey.
Love and peace - Wozza
Wie geht's?
It's a funny old world innit!
Recently, I have been following the progress of the Houston Astros through their baseball world series with the Phillies.
I'm not that into American baseball but I was interested for two reasons: every year the Philadelphia Phillies have won it there has been a recession; but more importantly, furniture mogul, Mattress Mack (pictured), had a $10 million bet riding on the Astros.
So, what happened? Recession crisis averted - the Astros won. Which meant so did Mattress Mack - $75 million to be exact!!
Crazy.
Love and peace - Wozza
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| Photo by Doris Morgan on Unsplash |
Habits. Yes, I know I've written about this a few times but it's currently relevant, as you'll see if you hang in there.
My brain likes them because it equals efficiency in Wozza's world.
There is an old idea from 1960, by the delightfully named Dr Maxwell Maltz to be precise, that it takes 21 days to make a habit automatic, but this has been debunked over the years.
Maltz (I swear I'm not making that up) said, "These, and many other commonly observed phenomena, tend to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to gel.”
The modern bet-each-way vague take on things is that it takes between 18 and 254 days depending on loads of variables (with an average of 66 days). This is according to a 2009 study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology.
Sure sure. I'm inclined to stick with Maltz.Love and peace - Wozza