Natalica adventa est

Very good preacher today, John Daniel, who is a member of Opoho church, and who serves as the regional ministry and mission resource person for the southern presbyteries. He talked about the two words for the future: the futuron, where wars and epidemics will happen and will be reported on to our unhappiness; and the adventus, the promise that signs of spring herald the coming of summer, and in the midst of turbulence there is always the promise of hope. He was enthusiastic about praying for Graham after the service and gave him a prayer of some length. There is some good in the evangelical tradition which he stands in. We are having quarterly communion and a potluck meal next week – bread and wine as Graham calls it. Pam, who brings him down from the community house of Grandview Crescent will arrange something for him to bring.

I must speak to Felicity today and ask her if he knows about the form of Presbyterian communion. Graham is a life-long Anglican.

I stayed on while Rev. Dr. Albert Moore showed images of Pre-Raphaelite paintings to the Adult Study Group. Lovely pictures, both promiscuous and repressed. He focussed primarily on the religious works, rather than the medieval maidens. I must make the point of going to see these at the Dunedin Art Gallery. They are here until the end of January.

Came home and after lunch finally got to write up entries for Friday and Saturday at Livejournal. There never seemed the time to stop and do this. I see that I am nearly at the end of creating my universal lexicon for a creole language.

The last day of spring and it is weather to herald that summer is a-cumen in. Time for one layer of clothing again. The second time I’ve attempted it this season.

After Joe got up with decided to go to the Warehouse. We both had things we wanted to buy. Bed linen for Joe, menswear for me. Joe picked a longer queue than I did, but it proved that picked the slower check-out girl.

Tessa must be part dog. Several times she has stuffed herself full of food until she was sick – usually in Joe’s room. Fortunately it has always been dry food. He thinks that she has been sick this way more times than the other two cats, including the previous six years that we have had Fremen. Behold, the Bulemic cat! I did not replace the Purina that we finished last week. Our shopping list was longer than usual. As it is they are all happy living off Go-Cats and canned food.

We got home and I made Lemon Honey Chicken for tea again, washing out a finished jar of honey to mix the sachet with. It turned out quite good. We watched The Thirteenth Warrior with Antonio Banderas on tv. I enjoyed it more this time than the previous time I watched it. It all depends on the company you watch it with. There are very few current movies out there which go out of their way to make Arabs look good.

Even week

Today proved to be busier than I initially imagined. There was no time all day to turn my computer on and write up Friday’s journal.

It was about 10 o’clock when I headed into the gym. There was music practice at church at one o’clock so I ended up coming home for that. While I was still eating lunch there was a phone call from Harry. While this was an even week, rather than an odd week when we usually meet for a game of Majellan, Harry had a friend visiting from out of town who wanted to be part of a session. So an hour later we were on the way around there. As we walked down Blacks Road I suggested to Joe that we drag Keith along with us. He was pulled out of bed and took 10 minutes to shower and breakfast before we continued on our way.

The session proved to be a crazy one involving a mad tea-making AI. Snafu’s fourth near death experience now means he is regenerated as a part-insectoid humanoid with a computer jack in his arse. Certain other characters are turning out to be nearly as strange. Everyone had an entertaining time. This could prove to be our last session for the year as Harry is holidaying in England over Christmas. The end of the world of Majellan has been postponed for at least one more session, unless we can find out how to save it from destruction. Brendon was visibly cringing listening to some of the events we had got into while he had been away in the previous session. Perhaps two new people will be interested in joining our sessions of Majellan next year resulting from this session, including Keith.

Afterwards we had a rule of Munchkin. Keith proved to be a rules nazi which added a little spice to the game. This didn’t stop one person from winning his second game in a row. We had pizza for tea, everyone joining in to pay for it, and the DVD of Men in Black was put on while we played: the Sci-Fi movie, not the All Blacks.

While we were out Mike had David Corner over for tea. He was gone by the time we got home. They had fish pie made with potatoes and bread for tea. There was still a little left over for us to enjoy.

I went to Golden Leaf for the last time in the trial period and I was there for four hours today, listing Toshibas and Canons. David gave me a handshake before he left for lunch. There is a chance that I will be called back to do more work for them. It depends if Griffler Enterprises can get a good deal from Golden Leaf or not.

I came home and went back to checking items on the Australian site. The tv capture cards on the New Zealand site were also checked again. Jumpgate points out that I should be aware of travel time, but it is not currently an issue; and if I did get a work car then it would be a work car. It would not be a taxable perk. I don’t think this is an issue for a while yet, until I regain my licence.

Joe and I went down to the supermarket about seven o’clock. After we added a tray of lolly cake from the delicacies I got 5 flybuys points from the supermarket. Each point from New World costs £12/10 each. It all contributes to my trip to visit Nick in Wellington next Christmas. We got fish’n’chips from the takeaways for tea. Between that and the lolly cake, a very sweet confectionary with whole marshmellows in it, it was a full meal.

Our evening’s tv watching has picked up. We watched the pilot of a new cops-and-robbers series called Fastlane, a stylish series about two rogue cops going undercover, could prove to be amusing. That was followed by part one in a two-part episode for the beginning of the new season of Stargate, and since it was on straight afterwards we watched Futurama.

Two hours of work at Golden Leaf. David decided I could do four hours on Friday so I left at eleven. Tomorrow will be the last four hours of the trial period. I went to Bag End, but there was nothing in, and to the gym, which was busy at midday. Afterwards I bought tickets for the Saxman gig from Gentle Dental. That is next week and I surprised that there are still tickets available.

I got home after two o’clock so my time is not improving. The weather has been positively wintry today. For several mornings I have been able to see my breath. I did two and half hours of work for Griffler Enterprises today until Marion Strang phoned to remind me that I was visiting them for tea. I raced down the hill to catch the bus at the Gardens Corner to Lookout Point – and just missed it. My opinion of Dunedin bus services is not improved! Fortunately I had my cellphone with me and rang them to tell them where I was. I walked into the Octagon and Marion collected me from the corner of Princess Street.

They provided a pleasant meal of fish, salad, beetroot, couscous, and boiled potatoes and carrots. It is the last time that I shall visit them before a communion as they have moved across town. I have borrowed some books from them about Melanesian Pidgin English, so I will not lose contact with them as I will return the books to them. Pete had a meeting to go to after tea so he brought me home, and I still got home before Joe had started preparing tea for himself and Mike at eight o’clock.

I stayed out of the way while he did that. I don’t like being around other people while they are eating, and I’m not. It makes me want to join in. I went through to the living room after he had finished and watched Red Cap, this was followed by Absolutely Fabulous, and Posh Nosh, an amusing spoof of cooking shows about two thoroughly snobbish chefs.

I went to bed after that. Tao got told off because she was tearing at the loose wallpaper by the door looking for something to play with. Eventually as the night got colder she decided that she would join me under the blankets.

At home today. As well as checking the prices on the Australian store I added the video cards to the New Zealand store that I had listed at Golden Leaf the day before. And who says there’s no such thing as coincidence?!

Jumpgate is unhappy with the amount of time that I am loosing in travel time. Although it only takes me an hour to walk into Golden Leaf it will take me twice as long or more to walk home. This may include a workout at the gym, and a visit to the university library for new Brithenig words, if they are open. I can get away with this because Griffler Enterprises does not have me on a regular wage. Jump restrains himself to muttering under his breath every so often. If-and-when I go on a regular wage for Griffler Enterprises I should expect a serious change in my lifestyle as I make more time available to their business. This is not necessarily a bad thing. If I end up with a work car we can review where we want our household to be in the future.

Personally I would be happy if my workspace for Griffler Enterprises wasn’t at home. This is not going to change in the near future.

Latest absurdity from Slashdot is that Californian law has banned refering to primary and secondary drives on computers as ‘master’ and ‘slave’. My household tribe think that this is being a little bit too precious. I think in a future language I will add a word, an adjective probably, to mean to not be politically correct. Nobody I know uses political correctness positively. It is usually used to indicate that someone is not politically correct. Seems easier to me to go the whole hog and have a word that describes a person as ‘out of sync with perceived social mores’.

Joe’s turn to make tea, chicken, chilli beans, and corn chips it is then. John Allan rang to ask me if I would do his door duty for him, but it turns out that I am unavailable because I am on duty the same day as him. He expects to be away on his annual trip to the North Island by that time.

Our landlord turned up late in the evening and we signed a new lease for next year. Eleven months – we get December rent-free, although next year we will need to trump up a bond, which we didn’t do this year. It does not look like our rent will adjust, as is happening all over Dunedin.

Nick, my brother in Wellington, rang in the evening to wish me a happy birthday. That completes the set. I wished him a happy birthday also as his birthday is two weeks after mine. He is six years older than me. He suggested that the three of us, including my third brother, Tim, should consider buying the family home in Invercargill off my mother, who lives there alone, to ensure that it remains in the family in the situation that she should need to move out of it. That would mean that we would be responsible for it, and part owners. It’s an idea to consider. He hopes that we will accumulate enough travel points through Flybuys for the whole family to travel to Wellington next year for Christmas. Looking at the numbers now we could well manage it. Before we finished our call I pointed him to this journal so he could keep up with what I’m doing regularly. Hi Nick! That adds yet another reader to my journal

Friend-Link Discussion Group

I found that missing file. It was on a hidden file in the Temp folder. I couldn’t see how to access it. It took me half an hour to write it up completely again. Dave gave me a list of prices to do. That took me the rest of the morning.

On the way home I went to the gym again, a little slower on the machines, and stopped for a new word at the University Library. Todays word is mentionica, a lie or an untruth. Lunch was a couple of sandwiches and a meat pie that Joe wanted finished before he ate it.

I spent the afternoon checking items on the Australian store. Slow work: check who the provider is, is it there? If it isn’t who else has it? Should it be deleted? Can it be amended or replaced. A couple of items were deleted, but a couple were also added.

I’m not sure if the azalea is responding well to being sprayed for aphids. I used the same spray that I use on my rose bush. It seems to have put back its flowering. I shall see if it recovers after a fall of rain. On Joe’s advice I have put the catnip on the windowsill back into its chickenwire casing. The cats will just have to do without snack food in the meantime.

I stopped about half past five to make tea. I settled on making a mince chow mein with some egg noodles that I broke up. It turned out nice, although a small meal.

Joe has brought me a birthday gift, a tuff crate from KMart for £5. It is deeper that my old plastic wash basket, which is slowly falling apart and can be put out to pasture now.

After Joe had left for Tai Chi with Keith I walked down the hill with Mike to the Friend-Link discussion group. We sat down around some tables at Harlies, a bar in North Dunedin and chatted over hot dogs and chips. There were about twelve or more of us. I ordered a glass of Northridge Shiraz, very nice. It turns out that Felicity was caught up in a meeting of People First on Monday afternoon, so that is why she didn’t come for me. She will ring Robert and apologize.

It turns out that one of the volunteers at friendlink will be the Santa in the Santa Parade, which will be on the 7th of December.

Despite being seriously munched by Tao and Fremen the catnip plant is flourishing in this weather. It sits on the windowsill in the kitchen where it gets the sun from the north. Tessa doesn’t often jump on the bench but Tao and Fremen enjoy their salad. It’s being chewed back but it continues to grow.

I spent two hours at Golden Leaf today updating a spreadsheet of prices. At the end Dave closed it to email to his computer and the file disappeared. It didn’t show up on a search, even though it was saved somewhere on the system. It was very frustrating.

When I got home I listed a couple of things from Overclockers on the Griffler New Zealand Store, then I went to the Australian store and started checking prices, which had fallen way behind. It was slow work and I got through about 20 items.

I don’t know what happened to Felicity today. There has been no sign of her, and I haven’t been to see Robert.

Keith visited at about five o’clock. We spent the evening chatting in the study. I showed him the Discworld GURPS books that I had collected and he had great delight in reading out character descriptions from them. It was after ten when I decided to retire for the evening. Joe wanted to do some work so it was at that time that Keith departed loaded down with books. Fair’s fair, I borrowed some of his the day before.

Faith, Stepping Stones, and Bridges

The weather is not conducive to sleeping at the moment. It is too warm. At the moment I am down to a sheet, a couple of bed covers and a duvet on my bed and I’m still too warm to get deep sleep. It means that I am waking up tired.

The preacher today, an retired minister from Dunedin South Parish compared our faith, and its applications, with stepping stones across a river, and with bridges. Stepping stones are the things that allow us to cross the water, the loves for god and humanity, prayer, bible-reading. Bridges are acts we take to connect us with society, they are for the people who come after us.

Mick, our landlord, had been in the morning. He had mowed the lawn while I was out. I rang him to say that we will be renewing for next year. He was delighted to hear that.

In the afternoon I added more words to my romance creole lexicon. I on email-writing avoidance again. I made kedgeree for tea which was successful. I am fond of the recipe.

After tea Joe and I visited Keith at home to see if he could help with the current problems I am having with Mozilla. It turns out that he is an occasional reader of the Irrefutuable Proof. This struck me as odd, since he is a sceptical rationalist by self-identification and I am an actively religious person. It turns out that what is interesting to him is that I am a chronicler of our household, so he can keep up with what we are doing – and he is a fan of Munchkins too. He loaned me his copy of the Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook (third edition). Cool! Time to play!

Joe has tracked down a copy of Mozilla 1.0.0 and degraded my version of Mozilla back to this release. It doesn’t crash when I create a new item page in Mozilla, which is what I needed. Keith was horrified when Joe described to him how I could have Konqueror, Mozilla, Kmail, Quanta, Kcalculator, Logjam, Ksirc, and a few Gnome items all running on my computer of Very Small Brain. I keep it all in harmony while I’m working.

I did not get to the gym today as there was a work bee at church. I went along with my yard broom which proved to be useful in sweeping up cuttings and clearing drainage channels. The lumber was cleaned out of the vestry. I looked at the stuff they were throwing out and nobbled a black cassock which proved to be a good fit. The sleeves need some repair, and it is long enough that the hem comes down to my heels, but it is a good fit across the shoulders. I think it would be perfect to wear to a Resurrection party or something similar. I’m pleased to grab that.

We visited Harry in the afternoon for a session of Majellan. While Joe was showering and getting ready I had time to top up the soil in my sage pot, spray my rose bush and attack the convolvulus in the garden.

Somebody has removed the post box from North Road. I passed a friend who was looking for it unsuccessfully to post a letter. The situation seems to be heading towards control-alt-delete as an unavoidable change to the world seems to be a precusor for something yet more ominous. We sampled a glass of Galliano Sambuca each. The evening turned lazy. Harry returned us home. Joe and I had a steak pie each for tea. Most of the rest went into the freezer. We had made room by finishing the ice cream the night before.

Friday

I listed a page worth of new items at Golden Leaf today. We are beginning to find out what I can do for them. People are beginning to notice that I have had a haircut, which is funny. I returned a book to the library on the way home, but I didn’t find anything that I wanted issued to me.

When I got home I found that the new upgrade of Mozilla and Firebird that Joe had installed on my computer crashed when I wanted to create a new item on Interchange for the Griffler store. That was the end of my work for them for the day. It was enough to make wish for the Windows workbox that Jumpgate has promised to send me. Joe has looked at the problem and has promised to degrade to an older version of Mozilla so it will be more compatable with Interchange. I hope he can do it before Monday.

After we had gone to the supermarket Joe and I watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on tv, followed by a disappointing action movie/airplane disaster movie where Muslim nasties hijack a plane and actors who could do better go slumming. That covers our tv-watching for the week.

The heavy rain caused a puddle to form in the laundry. It leaks through the window. We discovered the puddle when we trod in it.