Journal. Caitlin

Yesterday Caitlin had to visit the local Coromandel doctor for a painful leg who sent her for examination to Thames, NZ hospital who in turn referred her to Waikato Hospital.

She has an infection from either a bee sting or an ankle scratch visiting a friend's farm. She is on a 48 hour antibiotic drip and is now waiting for a bone scan to check for futher infection.

She is presently in the children's Ward 52. Caitlin was with Gillian and Paul at the beach up towards Port Charles on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Gillian slept alongside Caitlin's bed last night in the hospital.

Anthony visited the hospital this afternoon.

Journal. Ashlee

Today Ashlee became one of the legions of the pierced ones... her belly button will never be the same again!

Journal. Christmas Eve

I got up early this morning, had my breakfast of one third of a tin of baked beans and bacon and then proceeded to make the stuffing for the Christmas turkey. I found a recipe on the BBC website for apricot stuffing from a noted chef, it was simple and straight forward. The lady chef will use the stuffing later after it marinates in the fridge. After finishing and cleaning up I was clear by 8 a.m.

We had an email from Ian this morning, he has his laptop with him down in Usk. He said he broke a tooth eating breakfast!?! So I sent him our news back... I had made the turkey stuffing.

Hosing cats and dogs this morning but the rain is forcast clear up later. Enough rain to top up the fish pond... one less job to do before we go on holiday on Boxing Day.

Oh, its heading for our midday and the sun is out once more.

Journal. An Interesting Site

If you want a good read and straight from the horses mouth try this site "Letters form Iraq"

Who knows when you read the the newspapers or view the TV news or CNN, whose slant is it?

And its usually doomsday stuff!

Journal PS

Sick of the expense of buying batteries for the digital camera. 4 AA batteries a pop and fade out at 1.2 volts. Bought 2 sets of rechargable batteries and a computer contolled charger.

Journal. Just Musings

I closed the Workshop from today for the Christmas and New Year break except for in hand work. Going to Whitianga on Boxing Day for 2 weeks. We are in charge of 2 teenagers. Lucky us?

Shirley O'Halloran was buried today, a staunch bird enthusiast, a friend of ours.

Took Friday off and went shopping in Hamilton yesterday, I bought another HTML book, good reading over our break. Purchased the last 4 concrete slabs to pave the glasshouse internal and external paths. The last expense? We miss the large station wagon for bulky load carrying. A car carries so little.

Ian and Vicky's Xmas card has just arrived. Yes Vicky, the glasshouse is almost finished, I will send a photo soon.

Love from us all and a Merry Chrismas.

Journal Our bad Weather

For the past 5 days NZ has been trapped between 2 almost stationary high pressure areas and these have been dragging down large amounts of moist air from the tropics giving us in the North Island heavy rain and almost 100% humidity at times with temps in the 26-30C. region.

These highs are slowly dissipating and moving away from NZ. A relief to everyone.

I heard at 5.30a.m. on the radio that Saddam has been caught. I couldn't resist getting up and trawling the Internet news sites. Read one site and the other sites are just an echo of the first one. The Sydney Morning Herald was the best one by a long chalk.

Telegraph | News

Look here for The Telegraph Report on Middle Earth and Wellywood renamed by some Orcland

Journal The Lord of the Rings

The 3rd of the Lord of the Rings trilogy The Return of the King world premiered today in Wellington.

The Return of the King is said by film industry insiders to be the best of the trilogy. I wonder if it will not only be nominated for an Oscar as the other were but this time Peter Jackson will take an Oscar? Or is Hollywood still a closed shop to viewed "upstarts"?

Wellington... Middle earth is now known as Wellywood.

Yesterday

Picked more Tangelos, juiced enough for 3 litres of juice and a glass left over. I doubt we will be able to use them all up before they deteriorate. We have taken only the best fruit so far from the top of the trees now 15ft. up. We have a photo of Mrs. Vicky Irving up the ladder during a visit some years ago.

Journal Tangelo's

A lovely afternoon so I picked a plastic shopping bag on Tangelo's from our 2 tree's, put them through the juicer and got just over 1.5 litres of fresh juice. I put the juice in the fridge to cool.

Tangelo's are a cross between an Orange and a Grapefruit and very, very juicy. We have had a bumper crop this year and looking at the tree's I haven't made a visible impression on the amount of hanging fruit yet.

Here in NZ they ripen in October, our mid-Spring and will hang on the tree's until mid- January and then they start to slowly dry out.

Definition: The tangelo probably originated in southeastern Asia over 3,500 years ago. It is most likely a result of insect cross pollination of the Mandarin orange and the pummelo (pummelo is the ancestor of the grapefruit).

Journal Ashlee

Gillian brought Ashlee over yesterday from Whitianga to sit her maths exam today for entry to Sacred Heart Girls College in Hamilton. She has been accepted but which stream should they put her in? Ashlee will enter the 4th form and board.

Home was full of laughter last evening with 6 of us. Tahlia was present and Anthony visited us also. I think the girls like Anthony and his steady chatter and a little leg pull.

Journal Templates

Well I, at long last managed to crack the OldEric template code and have modified the template to suit with links. Probably simple to an expert but difficult to a novice trying to write HTML code.

Journal Sacred Heart Prize Giving

A week or so ago we were invited to prize giving by our granddaughter Tahlia who is spending 2 years of her education staying with us. The ceremony was for years 7, 8 and 9 students, or forms 5, 6 and 7 (to those of us who think in forms).

Tahlia wasn't too sure what prize she was getting and I think we were all thrilled to find, when her name was called, of the 2 maths prizes of Diligence and Excellence she had achieved Excellence. In her last 2 maths tests and with-in school assessed, she had achieved 100% in each test.

I'm glad she did so well, it will be a good boost to her moral, to show her the result of her hard work. Her previous school at Whitianga with a poor education record had let her down and her move to Sacred Heart Girls College has been this year, a difficult learning curve.

I'm glad to see that for all of Tahlia's trials and tribulations this year she still wants to continue next year at Sacred Heart.

We should all shout... WELL DONE, TAHLIA!!

Sacred Heart College Girls College, I see, still maintains a good traditional role of education. I was impressed when Fiona Sing, the head girl, completing her end of year speech, every student stood to acknowledge her and applaud her, the applause was sustained.

The only thing that bothered me a little was the emphasis of Maori and over emphasis of culture. We are ALL New Zealanders first irrespective of the many races/countries present. No race should be held above another.

Journal. Labour Day. Long Weekend

When Labour weekend arrives I think of it as hearalding the Summer. We go to Whitianga today Friday, early on a sunny day.

Caitlin goes to St. John's camp, Hinua this afternoon. We are to pick her up from school at lunchtime, wash and scrub her and deliver her to the bus at 2.30 p.m. She is exited, a fresh adventure for her. Her eyes sparkle through the bus window as the bus moves off and she waves until the bus recedes in the distance.

Saturday was wet and we just relax, talk and read. The sun is out once more on Sunday and Monday and we go home on Tueday in the rain.

Caitlin came home on Monday night still exited and eyes shining bursting to tell us of all the things she had done. Her energy is boundless. Dinner, a scrub in the shower and she is ready for bed and soon asleep no doubt dreaming of all her adventures. Up early on Tuesday morning, she readies herself for school once more and says goodbye to Pat and I.

Journal Birthdays

Phyl Cartmill's birthday today... 23 October. Pat took her out to lunch at the Ngarawhaia RSA.

Jim Gibson's birthday was yesterday... 22 October. Pat usually remembers.

Journal General

Last night we had a heavy rain warning and high winds forecast for over night. The rain arrived last night and ceased mid morning but the winds continued at reduced strength. I completed the construction of the 4 sides of the glasshouse yesterday and the tried to join the 4 sides together without success. The corner posts were mis assembled and, after righting these, the 4 sides fitted perfectly. The rain has prevented me from continuing this morning but the sun is now out so I should be able to continue this afternoon. Pat and I moved the glass house skeleton yesterday into its final position to square up and mark the corner post-holes ready for boring.

I have finished putting David's Story on the other weblog so that will be all until I get Part 2.

We again talked of Biggles yesterday. Pat still grieves.

Journal Our Glasshouse

Well on this wet windy morning our our glasshouse arrived in its kitset pieces. Transported from Auckland to the freight depot in Hamilton and then the local carrier brought it here to us in Huntly.

The glass for the glasshouse arrived by another freighter, a special vehicle designed to solely carry glass direct from Auckland. I was quite surprised everything arrived so quickly.

Now we have to get rid of the old clothesline so we can erect the glasshouse. We have the new rotary clothesline sitting in its kitset state in the garage, just waiting to be erected.

Its all very exiting! At least to us it is

Journal A Book of Poetry

At various times I have tried to obtain a book of poetry with not too much success, at least not the kind of poetry I'm interested in; a compendium of the famous poets through the ages.

One day in the late 1990s I was in a second-hand book shop in Hamilton here in NZ and whilst browsing, my eye came to rest on a dog-eared, with broken spine, maroon book entitled" The School Book of English Verse" by Guy Boas. I idly flicked through and it had inside its covers all I wanted, over 550 pages. First published in 1938 and this was a 1956 reprint.

The inside cover said it was once the property of Hamilton Boys High School and it had a large purple stamp "Do not Deface this Book" stamped inside.

I bought this battered book for the asking price of $5.50 and considered it a bargain. And 4 or is it 5 years later, I still prize my "bargain".

Journal A Clothesline and a Glasshouse

Well our new rotary clothes line is now in place and in its original position where the aviaries used to be. It has a turning circle of 4 metres (circa. 13 feet) and it is galvanised then painted environmental green. With plastic line which we were not too keen of at first but it does have tighteners to take up any slack of stretched lines. The lines too are green. It has a 10 year guarantee and is an Australian Hills product much respected for over 40 years that I'm aware of.

I borrowed our neighbours post-hole borer and soon had the 2 ft. 6 in. hole in the ground to take the centre post. Then a bag of pre-mixed concrete, Pat holding the post and the spirit level and hey presto there it was in place. Oh, and the centre post base is in a sleeve socket and the whole rotary line can be easily lifted out of the ground if need be.

I have started building the glasshouse from the kit set which is all aluminium construction and everything fits together like a glove... so far. I have 4 sides constructed, no roof or door on yet and of course no glass fitted. I am building it on the concrete pad of the old aviaries, or at least the half pad that is still left. Then when I get the 4 walls joined together Pat, Tahlia and I will hopefully be able to lift it and fit the glassless glasshouse to its final position and complete the construction.

We have had a few fine days this week so I have been able to get on with the work. But rain is in the offing for the next 2-3 days. Rain showers mostly with the equinox winds still persisting. At least they are from the tropical north so the temperature is up around 18C. most of the time. The garden is growing rapidly.

Journal A Glasshouse, a Clothesline and a Dryer

Today I ordered a Glasshouse. I have been considering one for a while now. Deciding to retire soon and as I like gardening I will get lots of pleasure from the glasshouse, I think. It will be initially be 6 x 8 feet with provision for extension later if I so wish. To erect the glasshouse I need to move our large rotary clothesline to fit the glasshouse in. The clothesline is 15 feet across, the winding mechanism gears for elevating it have long since broken and the upright pole is bent at an angle from our son(s) and their mates swinging on the bars in their young days. So we will dig out the concreted in pole and pension off the clothesline for it must now be 40+ years old now. We moved into this house in 1967 and it was well worn even then by the previous owners.

We will get a smaller clothesline; again it will be a rotary one and erect it where our aviaries used to be. It will be one of those ones where a piece piping is inserted into the ground with the top of the pipe set at ground level and the clothesline piping can be inserted into the ground level pipe. The clothesline can then be pulled out and tucked away when not in use for we only use the clothesline now for large articles, sheets, blankets, washing Venetian blinds... we have many and other such things. The rotary arms fold away when not in use. Or will we be lazy and just leave it mounted?

I shall be sad to see the old clothes line go, it does bring back many memories.

The life our electric drier has also come to the end of its life the noise from it became unbearable. The appliance mechanic thought it was just the tumbler drum bearing worn out but when he came to repair it he found a piece of flexible curtain wire lodged internally probably many years ago and it had slowly worn the stainless steel drum rivets down until they popped out.

The drier was purchased in 1976 but as the appliance mechanic said this old drier was normally just like the old Holden car, they usually run forever. For those who don't know the Holden it is an Australian designed car, which would go round the mileage odometer and still give good service. They now belong GM Motors. Well another little piece of history to look back upon in a year or three.

Back to Secondary School tales next time.

David Letter

Hello David and Moira... thought I would drop you a line and let you know we are now safely back in NZ and have reverted to our usual quiet way of life.

It is our winter here now of course and our arrival home was marred by wet and cold. But for the past ten days we have been blessed with frosty cold nights and lovely sunny days with temps up to 15C. by lunchtime, surely it can't last much longer! Spring is now close and the first willows will be showing colour by the end of this month, August and the daffodil's are out now, the snowdrops have been out for sometime. Our winters aren't very long... about two months maximum. Some plants grow all the year round.

We enjoyed very much our trip to the UK most especially our visit to you. We wished we could have stayed longer. Of course we didn't quite know how the situation was with you and we didn't want to impose. The high light of my visit was our excursion down to South Shields. How the place has changed, I couldn't find anything familiar until we worked our way down to the harbour entrance area and there was Ocean Rd., changed but recognisable.

I think brother John has been in contact with you, David. I'm glad I mentioned to him the proof reading and return of the second part of your memoirs. He had misunderstood. I hope when you finish them that I could have a copy. I read a few exerts from them and I found them most interesting. When you have finished them I have a question(s) for you regarding various Brough family members. Not now but later. I will not burden you with them now.

Since arriving home I have sat down and read your book, David and enjoyed it very much. Our eldest son, Ian read parts of it too whilst we were in England and found it most interesting as well. I hope you won't mind if I make a copy of your book on to computer and if any family members are interested I can pass it on. Not only is it a record of the Brough and the Bell families, I realised it is also a social history record of a way of life long gone and unknown to our children and those who will follow them. We came in at the tail end of the old way of life and grew up in the early beginnings of life as we and our children know today. H'mm, this getting a bit heavy.

Well our visit to Ponteland and meeting you both again was one of the highlights of our trip. I would like to think we can do it again sometime. I would also like to think we could get hooked up by email and I could send you some of the short pieces of 1-2 A4 pages I have written about my life and the people I've met along the way. Nothing on Aspatia...yet, but plenty on Ullswater and my RAF days. I hope to knit them into a composite piece one day.

Well I will say goodbye for now, and bye the way, I always remember Ponteland when I have a shower. Pat brought those lovely pieces of soap and you both usually come to mind as I shower!

Love and best wishes from Eric

PS Our Email is pat.eric@xtra.co.nz or olderic1934@yahoo.co.nz or if you are near one of the family computers look on my small web-site olderic.blogspot.com

Journal Flanders Fields

OldEric says (:-]. Should you read this poem read it slowly, and savour it. The poem tells a poignant story.
On 2 May, 1915, in the second week of fighting during the Second Battle of Ypres Lieutenant Alexis Helmer was killed by a German artillery shell. He was a friend of the Canadian doctor Major John McCrae and it is believed that McCrae began the draft for his famous poem 'In Flanders Fields' that evening among the carnage.
Each year on Remembrances Day this poem is repeated, and the dead and dying of all wars are remembered with tears. This is the time when men and wives and lovers and sons and daughters, weep for lost husbands, fathers and grandfathers, lost in the carnage that was Flanders fields and in all battle fields since, both remembered and forgotten.
I was a boy of 6 when WW2 started and 12 when the war ended. I remember the poem since that time, each time I hear 'In Flanders Fields' the words never fail to bring a lump to my throat. Each time I read the poem I always read the last verse again, the last verse says it all, when you think about it. Evil in the world still abounds and will continue to exist into the future; we should be strong and face Evil.

In Flanders Fields

by John McCrae, May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep,
though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Journal Waitangi Day

OldEric says :-) Like most people we don't support Waitangi Day, if Waitangi Day falls on a weekday.... it was Thursday the 6th this year.... we just use it as another public holiday.

This Waitangi day we used it to erect our new bird aviary, a kit set. Everything was prepared in advance, Tony came down from Hamilton to help and he was here by 8am and by 8.30am, we with great confidence started our project. Pat, Tony, then Tahlia came and me.

Within a short time we struck problems, The damn thing wouldn't fit! We pulled the two erected sides down, restacked them on the base and went and had a coffee. Did we really want an aviary? There's one going cheap at 26 Dudley Ave in Huntly. Or maybe we will try again next year.

I hope Tony didn't have anything planned otherwise, it was a wasted day for him. We will take him out to dinner and celebrate my birthday this Friday. Shall we go Indian, Singaporean or just plain old Kiwi??. Or shall we go on Thursday instead.... decision,decisions. We will be taking Tahlia too, better be Friday.

Journal Wembley Towers

OldEric says :-) Well Wembley demolition is starting at last. See link.

Journal Gillian's visit

OldEric says ;-) Well today Gillian came over from Whitianga for an appointment with the Dean of the 5th form of Sacred Heart College to confer with her regarding Tahlia’s education and to satisfy herself that things are going well. She arrived at 10am and we chatted for an hour with her before she had to leave us.

Yesterday was Waitangi Day and another Public Holiday. Gillian worked yesterday on the accounts of one of the firms she does her part time work for to bring them up to date so she could take today off.

Tahlia will go back with her to Whitianga for the weekend and she will get an early morning ride back with someone from Whitianga on Monday who will drop her off at the school gates.

Tahlia seems to have settled in with us ok and seems happy, at least she has no complaints to Gillian so we are pleased. Apparently it was purely Tahlia’s decision to go to Sacred Heart and had asked to do so. She seems to be putting a positive effort into her education so far, does her homework willingly and freely acknowledges that she has to catch up.

Tahlia got a surprise the first day at school by being asked to remove her ear-rings and something else, I’m not sure what now. The only adornment to be worn is studs or sleepers in the ears, a cross round the neck or a tiki…. Tahlia wears a greenstone tiki so that was ok.

The other surprise was no talking in class and no talking when the teacher is talking. Tahlia found the quietness, in her words…. Scary! For the first few days until she got acclimatised.

The last teaching Nun has now left and all the teachers are lay teachers. In Gillian’s day it was a mixture of Nuns and lay teachers. Gillian recognised some of the techers names from her day. Today was swimming sports day so no doubt Gillian will have a look in if she has time. Tahlia isn’t taking part, which is a pity as she is a strong swimmer.

So in a nutshell we are very pleased with Tahlia and are happy to have her. Pat is enjoying having someone to look after and worry over again.