Seasonal defiance

With winter very much on the way in, rain and chill mornings now a certainty, I was delighted this week to find that there are some areas where there is a last ditch defiance against the encroaching season



We haven't yet put the heating on (to the amazement of a number of friends and colleagues), but I don't think that it will be long before we start, particularly as we are hosting the board gaming group for Phoenix Sci-fi this weekend, and it's probably not fair to ask friends to sit in the ice-box all evening...

The birds are starting to gather for their migration - I don't know which birds here are seasonal and which brave the winter through, but there is a definite congregation on the roofs of the office towers around where I work - not only does the block opposite ours look like it is auditioning for a Hitchcock film, but they are also gathering on the roof of our building. Right over my head. The squeaks and chirrups are at just the right pitch to trigger my sensitive hearing, and I think I will be glad when they have taken off for warmer climates!

Work and social life are busy in equal measures - we have also joined the Hutt sci-fi group, who do a video evening locally to us once a month, and also have a monthly "presentation" evening. There is a small "cross pollination" from the Phoenix group, but we actually were persuaded to join by the husband of one of the flautists from orchestra! We had a narrow loss in hockey, but given that we were a person short, had three players who hadn't played in a long time, and our star centre forward got concussed by a bad tackle mid way through the first half, I think we did very well to only lose 1-0. The pitch was all the way out in Paraparamu, which is about an hour's drive north from here, right at the end of one of the train lines. The coastline was spectacular - the bay round Hutt is so calm that I'd forgotten how stormy the sea can be. I'd definitely like to visit the area properly, but it may wait for the spring or summer (possibly even a train trip on the free Christmas train...)and the certainty of a nice day.

It's a quiet week in politics...

Well - following the British election from the other side of the world was interesting, to say the least. Although John and I didn't get to vote (we didn't sort out our proxy/postal forms in time), we were in good company, as nor did the rest of the ex-pats on this side of the world - the volcanic ash cloud also stopped all air mail (including postal votes) from getting through until it was too late. For myself, I have mixed feelings about not voting - when the election started, I really didn't care, as I didn't think I could make much difference, and it didn't feel right in voting when we are no longer living in Britain, and don't have any intentions to return (at least, for residency purposes) However, as it got more exciting (and we love the BBC Radio I-Player - we aren't able to access the TV version from outside the UK, but the radio is fully available - we listened to the News Quiz and the Vote Now Show, which kept us fully informed of the more interesting parts of the campaign), there was a small twinge of regret that we wouldn't be part of probably one of the most gripping UK campaigns to grace the political theatre in recent years. But, hey, we may still get a chance if there is a re-election in the next year or so! It was nice to be able to watch the results unfolding in real time (I was not alone amongst my colleagues in having the BBC Live website open on my PC throughout the day), even if the end result wasn't as decisive as the build up would have suggested.

The rest of this week has been pretty quiet - a draw in hockey (fortunately, a friendly, so it didn't count), but I did manage what has to be one of the more spectacular saves of my career, managing to knock the ball out of the air with my left (padded) hand as it whizzed past on a very acute angle. Even the opposing coach was impressed (as was I - I hadn't even consciously seen the ball move!).

We're starting to delve into the pieces for the next concert - we are doing the Shostakovich Jazz waltz, which I'm really pleased about. We've also got a very mixed bag of pieces, some of which are nice, and some which are less fun, both to play and to listen to - the most extreme of this is the Unanswered Question:



in which the woodwind, trumpet and strings are playing at different speeds, in different keys and with different bar lines. Not sure how well it is going to go down with a paying audience - it isn't going down well at all amongst the woodwind!

Winter is starting to grip Wellington - the temperature is definitely dropping in the evenings and mornings - however, it is still sunny and warm during the days (just a shame they are spent in an office!). I have been assured that the fine weather won't last, and we will get our share of wind and rain, but I will be happy if the depths of winter stay away for a wee while longer - I am enjoying the spectacular sunsets and the ever changing colours of the sea too much :-)

Another catch-up!

Well, it has been a long while since I posted (again!)
I can't believe that it has been 2 weeks since our fab Newcastle trip, where we headed up-North to visit one of John's ex-housemates and his wife. As well as a chance to catch up on the many years since we last saw each other (hey - we've all got married since then!), and fondly Jenny's cat, we also took the opportunity to expose my thin Southern blood to the chill Newcastle wind and head out into town. To get out of the knife-like wind, we walked over the tilting bridge (though sadly, didn't get a chance to see it tilt as the website with the times on it was wrong by a couple of hours...) into Gateshead, and went to the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.

It wasn't the first time I'd been in an art gallery, but it's definitely the first time I'd been in a modern art gallery. I can't say that I was overly impressed... I was a little bit amused by the display of the Fluxus art, where the description given ran along the lines of "These artists (especially George Maciunas, who founded the movement) felt that art shouldn't be contstrained by galleries or museums, and some campaigned for such buildings to be closed", yet the display was being hosted in a gallery...

I know that modern art is supposed to "speak to the soul", but I really think that if something needs to have an essay next to it explaining what it is about, then surely it isn't doing its job as art.

Getting out of Newcastle was fun... We won't mention the refusal to use the sat-nav, nor the getting on the wrong motorway...

The last couple of weeks have seen some interesting weather hit the British Isles; Bristol seemed like it was getting away with it (it *never* snows in Bristol...), then got smacked with a couple of inches at the end of last week. However, other people have posted on the snow (particularly UHDD who has some amazing shots of the Lake District), and as I think that it covers the worst of all possible weathers (being both cold *and* wet), all I shall do is grumble about the cancellation of a hockey match and two hockey practices (apparantly we had the wrong sort of snow for our "all weather" astroturf...)

I'm looking forward to the weekend - I've got my first TKD competition for a while over in Cardiff. Whilst I don't expect to do any better than I did last year (in fact, given that I've gone up a couple of belts, I do expect to fact tougher competition...), I'm looking forward to the challenge!

Still doing my sewing as well, though I'm learning the follies of overconfidence; after finishing John's waistcoat, I've had to unpick a *lot* from my latest top due to first of all sewing up the sleeveholes, then, through trying to be too clever (fitting in a lining where there wasn't one on the pattern), made the armholes too small... Ah well - all good experience!