Coffee, cafes and unfilled desires
Coffee, coffee, coffee. I think I amy be drinking too much of it at the moment, but god it is a lovely way to start the day sitting at your local/favourite cafe. I love the relaxed nature of sitting in a place, feeling very comfortable, music gently in the background. It’s calming and believe me, on most weekends I need something to make me feel calm. Calm is good!
Having recently moved to Sandringham, I am now blessed with a good range of cafes within walking/driving distance. A 5 min drive gives me all of Kingsland/Morningside to play in and if it is a good day, this is only around 20 mins walk away. My favourite places are currently Cafe Crave in Morningside and Voila in Sandringham proper. Both have a great combination of atmosphere, good coffee and lovely food.
In me, is an unfulfilled desire to be a cafe owner. I love the people interaction and the concept of giving people a good cafe experience. Having never worked in a cafe, I of course have a somewhat rose tinted view on what the realities of what this world is like. I have not recently stood on my feet all day on a concrete floor, made 150 coffees, or listen to someone complain about the food they received because it was not how they “liked” it. This and being 41 and not all that risk orientated means I am unlikely to fulfill this dream though! Also, there are no shortage of people who are willing to tell me what a bad idea it would be to do it.
Anyway, all that aside, as I sit here this Sunday morning at Cafe Crave, having already had a coffee and croissant at Voila, I feel pretty relaxed about this morning. I am going to kick back, listen to some music and generally relax. I declare today about me!
Ciao!
Pressure… pushing down on me
So this week I joined the ranks of the daily medicated and have been placed on a low dose blood pressure medication. It’s been on the cards for the last few months and with my genetic family history, always likely to happen. Both my parents died of heart disease and my mother was on tablets for hypertension as long as I knew her. I have been conscious of the fact that as I entered my 40′s it would be harder for me to keep the blood pressure under control and it was likely I would end up having to take something.
I have been interested by my reaction to having to move on to medication. I guess I have always been rather proud of the fact that I have never had a major operation since my tonsils were removed at 9 years old and that I was well into my 30′s before I even had a blood test. My health has always been good and my immune system is great, so I have taken it as somewhat of a dent to my ego to now face the reality of needing some form of medication to be able to continue to live a healthy life.
This of course is ridiculous if I think about it for more than a few seconds. We as humans are already living much longer than our bodies were initially designed to do. The process of aging is inevitable and I should be thankful I live in an age when I can be prescribed medicine which will prolong my healthy existence and indeed ensure I have a good quality of life into a ripe old age. Yet, still, I am slightly depressed by my reality and I guess the reality of aging.
So where to from here? Well, I need to get my exercise up. I am by no means obese, but I do need to exercise more and I need to eat a bit better than I have of late. Also, I am conscious that I need to spend more time finding a spiritual as well as physical form of relaxation, so that I can help my body to naturally be calmer. If I am going to be taking medication, I do also need to be able to honestly say to myself that I am doing all I can to be healthy and not medicating to make up for my excesses or bad lifestyle choices.
The Battle of Hastings by Marriott Edgar
I have always loved this poem since my Classics lecturer (Charles Manning) recited it at a Classics evening
The Battle of Hastings
I’ll tell of the Battle of Hastings,
As happened in days long gone by,
When Duke William became King of England,
And ‘Arold got shot in the eye.
It were this way – one day in October
The Duke, who were always a toff
Having no battles on at the moment,
Had given his lads a day off.
They’d all taken boats to go fishing,
When some chap in t’ Conqueror’s ear
Said ‘Let’s go and put breeze up the Saxons;’
Said Bill – ‘By gum, that’s an idea.’
Then turning around to his soldiers,
He lifted his big Nonnan voice,
Shouting – ‘Hands up who’s coming to England.’
That was swank ‘cos they hadn’t no choice.
They started away about tea-time -
The sea was so calm and so still,
And at quarter to ten the next morning
They arrived at a place called Bexhill.
King ‘Arold came up as they landed -
His face full of venom and ‘ate -
He said ‘lf you’ve come for Regatta
You’ve got here just six weeks too late.’
At this William rose, cool but ‘aughty,
And said ‘Give us none of your cheek;
You’d best have your throne re-upholstered,
I’ll be wanting to use it next week.’
When ‘Arold heard this ‘ere defiance,
With rage he turned purple and blue,
And shouted some rude words in Saxon,
To which William answered – ‘And you.’
‘Twere a beautiful day for a battle;
The Normans set off with a will,
And when both sides was duly assembled,
They tossed for the top of the hill.
King ‘Arold he won the advantage,
On the hill-top he took up his stand,
With his knaves and his cads all around him,
On his ‘orse with his ‘awk in his ‘and.
The Normans had nowt in their favour,
Their chance of a victory seemed small,
For the slope of the field were against them,
And the wind in their faces an’ all.
The kick-off were sharp at two-thirty,
And soon as the whistle had went
Both sides started banging each other
‘Til the swineherds could hear them in Kent.
The Saxons had best line of forwards,
Well armed both with buckler and sword -
But the Normans had best combination,
And when half-time came neither had scored.
So the Duke called his cohorts together
And said – ‘Let’s pretend that we’re beat,
Once we get Saxons down on the level
We’ll cut off their means of retreat.’
So they ran – and the Saxons ran after,
Just exactly as William had planned,
Leaving ‘Arold alone on the hill-top
On his ‘orse with his ‘awk in his ‘and.
When the Conqueror saw what had happened,
A bow and an arrow he drew;
He went right up to ‘Arold and shot him.
He were off-side, but what could they do?
The Normans turned round in a fury,
And gave back both parry and thrust,
Till the fight were all over bar shouting,
And you couldn’t see Saxons for dust.
And after the battle were over
They found ‘Arold so stately and grand,
Sitting there with an eye-full of arrow
On his ‘orse with his ‘awk in his ‘and.
I like SMUT
Yes I do. There I said it. There is nothing more fun than removing it from the brown paper bag, and leafing through it’s pages while lying on the couch where no one can see you.
Smut is a book of two short stories by Alan Bennett, and I really recommend you read it….
Hikuwai Weekend School
Well I am in week two of my holiday and I thought I would take some time to reflect on the Hikuwai Weekend School which we held nearly two weeks ago now.
The Hikuwai Weekend school was held in Tutukaka and ran from Friday 2nd March in the evening to Sunday lunchtime. It brought together people from the Hikuwai region for a weekend of learning and socialising, for the first time. We were also lucky enough to have people among us from Christchurch who we brought up specially for the conference and also some from other regions.
The concept for our weekend school came from a conversation about the fact that we needed to do more to assist our members with their professional registration journals and from observing the long running Bay of Plenty weekend schools and how successful they have seemed to be. We also were conscious of the fact that with Hikuwai being such a large area and so much of the population being based in Auckland, that our colleagues in the far North often do not get as much opportunity as they should. So on a trip to Whangarei to talk with people about their professional registration, the concept was born.
I am so happy that we decided to put the school together, and that it all came together so well. Marion from the Committee was the star of making it all happen, and without her I am sure we could not have had such a nice venue or great programme. This combined with the efforts of the rest of the LIANZA Hikuwai Committee has meant that we were able to provide a brilliant weekend, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
The Friday night was purely a settle in and socialising night, and with the learnings beginning Saturday morning after a Mihi Whakatau. We had a great range of speakers and topics which kept the programme varied and I think interesting for all. I certainly got learnings from some of the talks, and this combined with my journey in learning a reply in Maori for the Mihi Whakatau and generally ensuring the weekend went well, ensured that I have come away much richer for the experience.
It was a thrill and an honour (if somewhat scary) to be asked to do the reply in Maori. I believe strongly that if you are going to speak in Maori, you need to try to correctly pronounce the words and so I spent a lot of time over the week beforehand, repeating the words over and over again. Thanks to some wonderful guidance by Anahera Sadler, I think I did ok!
Ocean’s Resort in Tutukaka proved to be a fantastic venue for the event and now we are faced with the inevitable conversation about whether we should hold it in the same place next time or move it around the region. It would be hard to top the venue, so I suspect next time might be in the same place. However…. we shall see…..
A short one
A short blog this week. I am feeling pretty happy this morning as I sit here at Voila as part of my weekly ritual. It has been a busy week with Kat and I pulling out the hedge/fence at the front of our property. A doctors visit (watch that blood pressure Mr Haines). A colleague to dinner, Fire Engine bed assembly and various social media exchanges. I visited a new cafe yesterday (Cosset), which is on New North Road. It is a nice place. Definitely alternative in feel. I like it. Last but not least, let’s not forget the beard shaping exercise. I am pretty happy with how it sits, I will leave it like this for a week or so.
I should by rights be feeling slightly depressed that my week of leave has come to an end, but I am feeling strangely upbeat. What is that all about? I think I have a sense of optimism on the work front that several key pieces of work will now move forward, so that is great!
Voila! And now we are done!
Video of The Dresden Dolls at Auckland Libraries
A friend sent through the link to a newspaper story accompanying this video from the Dresden Dolls gig in the library, so I thought I would share it.
Let there be music
So for those of you who know me well, you will know that music has been a part of my life for a long time. As a teenager music took over my life at about the age of 14. The purchase of albums, singles etc was my hobby. My biggest delight on on a weekly basis (almost daily) was wandering into Cathedral Square in Christchurch to catch the bus home, and on the way stopping in at Echo Records to browse, listen to stuff, and when I had the means, purchase. I went on the typical path from extremely pop (Duran Duran, Howard Jones), through to more alternative music as my tastes developed (Bauhaus, The Smiths). I find myself now as a middle aged man (yes I have said it) enjoying such a wide spectrum of music because of all the journeys I went on as a teenager.
Yet through all this, although I did sing for myself and was pretty confident I had an ok voice, I never made the step into bands. In many ways this was because I was kinda a shy kid and also because I just never fell in with “that crowd”. There was, is and has always been a yearning to preform and sing, but for years this has played second fiddle to other things in my life.
When I moved to Auckland around seven years ago, I met up with a work based acquaintance who would later become a good friend. She was a singer and at her encouragement I decided to take some vocal lessons and just find out how good I could sing. I can still remember that first lesson. I was extremely nervous and as we chose what song I would work on, I was floundering. We chose Stevie Wonder’s My Cherie Amour and those first weeks hitting the high notes was a real challenge. This is a great yard stick for me, as I now sing it with ease without any warming up.
This led to singing for a few years in various vestiges of an acappella group, which was fantastic for my voice and ear. However, I was never truly at home there as I prefer to be a lead singer. When it was time for that journey to end, I started going to voice lessons with Caitlin Smith (one of the best choices I have ever made). Caitlin immediately challenged me on other levels. She challenged me to become a song writer as well as a singer. Also, in truth, it was a lot harder to coast with her on my case. My song writing still has a way to go, but the time I spent working with her, truly made me a better singer.
One of the best experiences with her, was when I entered, and was chosen to appear on Stars in Their Eyes as Phil Collins. I was nervous as hell when I told her and asked her to work on the song with me. I thought that in all honesty she would laugh me out of the room and refuse to be involved. Instead, she immediately supported me and took me along on the journey which saw me delivering what I think was one of my best vocal performances. Phil hits some high notes and again I found myself going from not being able to get there, to knowing how to get there. Also, she challenged me to to analyse the song and how he sang it. Something which I would have been a lot more casual about, without her.
The past couple of years, I have focused on other things, with a rather hectic work life, getting married, buying a new house and just generally not finding time or inclination for singing. Also, I realised it was time to stop doing vocal lessons as I was not even sure why I was doing them. I had not been able to find people to sing with. Despite several attempts I could not find that right combination. In many ways I had decided it was NEVER going to happen.
Well that was until last October anyway, when out of the blue I got an email from a guy who had found an advert I had placed on The Rock Shop website in 2007. He was asking me if I wanted to still sing with a band and gave this great description of 3 guys in their 40′s who got together on a Sunday and played. A couple of email exchanges later, and a meet up with Al (the guy who had emailed me), and I found myself (nervous as hell again) arriving at a strangers house to have a practice with 3 guys. CLICK, it all fell into place for me over the next 2 hours. Our personalities seemed to fit, our musical tastes seemed to fit, and quite frankly we seemed to have a good time.
I still pinch myself when I play with these guys, all of them very talented musicians who have been playing for years. They take songs and just make them sound great, and I feel blessed to be able to sing with them. Also, I have begun playing percussion with the band, something which I would never have anticipated. I am loving it, it seems to come naturally and it gives me a feeling of really contributing to the band musically and not just being the singer.
Now with two gigs under our belts, a name (The Comfy Chairs) and working on a spin off one night only trio for a wedding comprised of Malcolm the keyboardist from The Comfy Chairs, Nick my brother in law and me, I feel like music is all over my life. It is a wonderful feeling quite frankly and I am getting so much stimulation from the interactions and opportunities I am pretty bloody happy.
It looks like my 40′s are going to be very strong musically and I like that.
I am currently reading….
I’m not a conservative moron but…….
Well I guess you could say Colin Craig has done us all a wonderful favour by coming out early and exposing to the entire country what ignorant twat he really is. It seemed to me that at the start of the week he was positioning himself nicely as a potential successor to the rather sad and pathetic ACT party, which was lying in tatters with only the lonely figure of John Banks keeping them afloat and bringing them down even further at the same time. However, his comments this week on the promiscuity of New Zealand women, really blew the lid on who he really is and indeed the sort of people he stands for. I am reasonably confident that his chances of election anywhere are now close to nil.
I won’t go into a rant and counter attack about the problems with his statement, as I think it has all been said this week before me. But let me just say, that it takes two to tango and even more importantly, let’s not make being sexually active some sort of terrible thing. Also, I will point out, that we live in a society so that we can all benefit from the things this brings. Why should we not do as much as we can to assist and ensure where possible that the conception of children is a planned thing which will result in a wonderful result for both parent and child. Surely, everyone will be better off with that outcome. I will also note this should be at the individuals discretion and through a conversation with THEIR medical professional. Not as a way of the government controlling the more vulnerable parts of society.
I do not subscribe to the conservative clap trap argument that always goes something along the lines of, ” I don’t use it or want it, therefore I should not pay for it”. That’s not living in a society buddy, that’s living on your own island and I suggest if that is your attitude then you piss off and go to one.
Save to say that the above, combined with his views on gay marriage and apparently short people, I think will relegate him to the ranks of the lunatic fringe, where he rightly belongs.
Here ends the rant…
Tags: Colin Craig, conservative, contraception, moron, sex