Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they've gone (Sunscreen)

Photo by Meg on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

The advice about knees comes in Baz Luhrmann's Sunscreen and it's a key piece of the puzzle. 

It's advice that's always worth bearing in mind, as I sometimes forget to look after my knees. Yesterday, that message flooded back to me in a torrent of emotion as a rush of blood to the head had me running through the rain for about 50 metres. 

I immediately regretted it.

Friend and colleague Clare and I were heading to the main staffroom to get essential supplies for the maths/English departments' staffroom (tea, coffee, milk, sugar). 

Unfortunately, we needed to go across the field to get there.

Now I need to explain about the asbestos. 

Ongoing building improvements to our school library have revealed the presence of asbestos. Apparently, on the long weekend it somehow got loose and now poses a health hazard. A wire fence has been extended to contain the outbreak.

I can't believe I just wrote those last two sentences - as in, it all looks and sounds totally implausible. I'm shaking my head in disbelief.

Anyway - our usual avenues of access have been forbidden, hence our going cross country in the rain, hence my knees being savagely abused. 

Damned asbestos!

Love and peace - Wozza

Whispering grass, don't tell the trees 'cause the trees don't need to know (The Ink Spots)

Wie geht's?

Thanks to strike action (Thursday), Hawke's Bay Anniversary (Friday), and Labour Day (the coming Monday) - you find me in the middle of a five-day weekend! Weird.

The recent stormy weather and high winds have left plenty of branches and even a couple of trees down at Maple Grove. Consequently, we've spent a few of those days cleaning up. 

The most dramatic example was a large pine, centimeters from our boundary, that crashed down onto the road, wiping out power lines on its way down.

Again, I'm wondering about the decisions made long ago and far away to carry power to people overhead via poles and strands of wire, where they're vulnerable to damage from mother nature. That seems absurd, but what do I know.

After the local council workers cleared the road and the power people restored the lines, our neighbours cleaned up all of the damage the next day (big tractors help). We did our bit by picking up three bags of pinecones that had embedded themselves in our lawn. It's an ill wind...

Love and peace - Wozza

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men gang aft agley, An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, For promis’d joy! (Robert Burns)

 

Wie geht's?

Recently, we almost sold Maple Grove, and almost bought another house. 'Almost' is a tricky word. It's not quite, very nearly.

It's a state of being where things don't quite work out the way you'd planned. That feeling has generated a large number of idiomatic phrases. Robert Burns captures that idea well.

• Don't count your chickens, until they are hatched.
• It's not over until the fat lady sings.
• It's not over till it's over.
• Don't get your hopes up too soon.

Those idiomatic phrases all express that vague warning but still, they don't quite prevent that empty feeling when plans don't quite work out.

But, as I have said many times: 

• You have to take the crunchy with the smooth.
• Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you.
• You can't always get what you want, but sometimes...you get what you need.

Recent events mean that the maple leaf has landed, and Jacky's cute nose is feeling warmer.

Love and peace - Wozza

Instinct is the nose of the mind (Delphine de Girardin)

Photo by Alexander Krivitskiy
on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

House selling is such a stressful activity. We had Maple Grove on the market for almost a year with no luck so we took it off the market and relaxed. All that presentation prep without reward equals stress.

Six months goes by...until, out of the blue a couple who had viewed it in January reignited their interest - stress returns!

According to last night's news, your nose gets colder when you're stressed. Huh! The nose knows. In the current situation, Jacky told me she thinks her nose is going to fall off! She has a really cute nose so this would be a tragedy.

Hopefully, we'll have a resolution one way or the other a.s.a.p. and her pretty little nose can warm up.

Love and peace - Wozza

Every thought I send with love (Shade Smith)

Wie geht's?

Jacky and I enjoyed a date night last week at a Readers & Writers event as part of this year's Hawke's Bay Arts Festival. Both authors (Diana Wichtel and Ali Mau) read from their recent work - Unreel (Diana), No Words For This (Ali).

It was great to see an old friend (Diana) and hear them both talk about their creative process. I had previously bought both of Di's books, but I also seized the opportunity to buy Ali's memoir book about her family.

This part of Hastings by the Opera House has really improved its ambience. On the night we visited from Maple Grove, there were portrait artists, a live band, shops open beyond their stated trading hours (go you good thing Little Red Bookshop) and loads of families enjoying a Rush Munroe's iced cream on a warm Friday evening in town.

Lovely warm fuzzy feelings!

Love and peace - Wozza

Jenny Wren will sing when this broken world, mends its foolish ways (Paul McCartney)

Wie geht's?

I've been mowing through the reading pile of late - thanks to not buying any new books for a while (apart from Suzanne Lynch's terrific autobiography - Yesterday When I Was Young - which I bought as a birthday present to myself and immediately read). 

Recently, I've also had two weeks of study break so that meant some increased reading time.

Which means I can no longer put off reading Dicken's final novel - Our Mutual Friend. Over the last few years, I've been buying a lot of his work, and they've often sat in the reading pile for a lengthy period, until the moment is right.

That's not through a lack of enthusiasm but they're often big novels and the idea of reading Dickens can be intimidating. However, as soon as I launch into one, I'm immediately caught up in his world.

So, it's the turn of Our Mutual Friend. Why that one? Easy answer is Paul McCartney. Specifically, his song Jenny Wren. Jenny Wren being a character in OMF.

The story opens with a deeply impressive scene on the Thames with two figures in a rowboat scavenging for what they can get from the muddy water. Okay, I'm on board (pun intended).

Then chapter two introduces a plethora of new characters and does so via writing that is quite challenging (very different to Suzanne). Probably didn't help that I was reading it during my Sustained Silent Reading period after lunch with my Year 13 students.

I shall persevere and report back.

Love and peace - Wozza

I'm glad it's your birthday. Happy birthday to you (The Beatles)

Love this photo!

Wie geht's?

The ancient concept of celebrating an individual's completion of a year's trip around the sun came to Nu Zild with the European settlers.

Apparently, one reason for the birthday celebration was that, just as the actual moment of birth is a dangerous thing for mum and baby - so the annual celebration of that moment with friends and family helps keep away any evil spirits lurking around. Which is why it's important to wish a person well on their birthday. I like that idea!

Of course, having a party is also part of that tradition - especially when we're young. Those kids' party years are pretty brief, though.

I love that photo above with all my family present and correct. Dad was right there - he took the photo, Ross is looking on/ helping me celebrate as he still does, and mum is the one holding me back/ protecting me - maybe she was concerned that I was going to dive into her cake without blowing out the candles (I do love cake), but I prefer to think she was watching over me, as she still does. 

Thanks mum.

Love and peace - WNP

P.S. huge thanks to friends and family who helped celebrate with me - I really appreciate your good wishes and your ongoing efforts to help keep those evil spirits at bay.