Hobbit Spotting

Mrs Dream-Pushcart noted that people don’t blog on LiveJournal as much as they used to. Hmmmm, guilty as charged. Nowadays I blog when I want to report in to people who wander through here, or if I have something to tell them. I came to the conclusion that I can network with people if I needed to. As for reading material I aggregate a lot of stuff on my akregator and read them off my computer. Evern there several busier blogs have been dropped from my reading list, because I don’t have time. This hasn’t stopped me adding more blogs to the aggregator.

It has proved to be a good week for meeting fleshbots. I had two encounters at the university library while I was waiting for an open lecture on Scottish emigration. When I got to the lecture I saw two more people I knew including one of our archives volunteers who has returned from overseas. Then while I was visiting a intellectually handicapped community house on the other side of town on Saturday I met up with a former member of the Otago Mediaeval Society whom I hadn’t seen for several years. That was a surprise. I liked her motorbike as well.

Speaking about motorbikes I have picked up my first Christmas present for 2010. My brother in Wellington, the Ghost who walks, paid for my first motorcycle helmet so I have it for when we travel down to Invercargill on Christmas day. Cool!

A friend invited me to the belly dancers’ end of year hafla. I have now been to enough of these that I’m beginning to enjoy what the dancers are doing. A selection of tunes they used include Istanbul is not Constantinople; Iko, Iko; an instrumental piece with tubas (yes, really!); a 9 beat Fusion to Rondo alla Turca (a piece I have seen before and enjoyed a repeat showing); and a charming piece that Tom Lehrer could envy called

Hobbit Spotting

Mrs Dream-Pushcart noted that people don’t blog on LiveJournal as much as they used to. Hmmmm, guilty as charged. Nowadays I blog when I want to report in to people who wander through here, or if I have something to tell them. I came to the conclusion that I can network with people if I needed to. As for reading material I aggregate a lot of stuff on my akregator and read them off my computer. Evern there several busier blogs have been dropped from my reading list, because I don’t have time. This hasn’t stopped me adding more blogs to the aggregator.

It has proved to be a good week for meeting fleshbots. I had two encounters at the university library while I was waiting for an open lecture on Scottish emigration. When I got to the lecture I saw two more people I knew including one of our archives volunteers who has returned from overseas. Then while I was visiting a intellectually handicapped community house on the other side of town on Saturday I met up with a former member of the Otago Mediaeval Society whom I hadn’t seen for several years. That was a surprise. I liked her motorbike as well.

Speaking about motorbikes I have picked up my first Christmas present for 2010. My brother in Wellington, the Ghost who walks, paid for my first motorcycle helmet so I have it for when we travel down to Invercargill on Christmas day. Cool!

A friend invited me to the belly dancers’ end of year hafla. I have now been to enough of these that I’m beginning to enjoy what the dancers are doing. A selection of tunes they used include Istanbul is not Constantinople; Iko, Iko; an instrumental piece with tubas (yes, really!); a 9 beat Fusion to Rondo alla Turca (a piece I have seen before and enjoyed a repeat showing); and a charming piece that Tom Lehrer could envy called

Hobbit spotting

Mum and one of her old biddies arrived last night. Fortunately she had booked into Tahuna motor camp. I had set up the arrangements for her. This morning we went and watched Das Rheingeld, the latest Met Opera on HD. Costumes were wonderful. They deserve a graphic novel with Bryn Terfyl dressed as Wotan. The set was amazing, they are going to use it for all four operas in the Ring Cycle over two years. I was expecting it to be more Cirque du Solleil, it was certainly son et lumiere. The libretta was a bit soporific, I dozed off in during Alberich’s curse of the gold. The music had moments of pure concentrated Wagner.

Reminds me yet again that I would love to piece together a story about how Alberich and Medb became Oberon and Titania; a German dwarf and an Irish warrior goddess become the king and queen of Faery-land. When I think about it that must be a seriously twisted place!

Afterwards I decided that at the supermarket I should buy an ice cream cake. I should do something to celebrate forty five years of being me.

I’ve got a load of washing out on the balcony. It’s a fine day although it’s probably too late to get it properly dry. Not bad for a Saturday afternoon. Now what’s on TV….?

Hobbit spotting

Mum and one of her old biddies arrived last night. Fortunately she had booked into Tahuna motor camp. I had set up the arrangements for her. This morning we went and watched Das Rheingeld, the latest Met Opera on HD. Costumes were wonderful. They deserve a graphic novel with Bryn Terfyl dressed as Wotan. The set was amazing, they are going to use it for all four operas in the Ring Cycle over two years. I was expecting it to be more Cirque du Solleil, it was certainly son et lumiere. The libretta was a bit soporific, I dozed off in during Alberich’s curse of the gold. The music had moments of pure concentrated Wagner.

Reminds me yet again that I would love to piece together a story about how Alberich and Medb became Oberon and Titania; a German dwarf and an Irish warrior goddess become the king and queen of Faery-land. When I think about it that must be a seriously twisted place!

Afterwards I decided that at the supermarket I should buy an ice cream cake. I should do something to celebrate forty five years of being me.

I’ve got a load of washing out on the balcony. It’s a fine day although it’s probably too late to get it properly dry. Not bad for a Saturday afternoon. Now what’s on TV….?

Like a needy machine

I ran into a friend at the supermarket a couple of weeks ago. A private person whom I won’t name. Anyway I got invited out to a dance evening because of it. At the end of the evening I was invited to join with the drumming troop that accompanied them. It was proof that I have terrible rhythm. I already knew that. I was sent a link to a video with the drummers but haven’t been able to watch it.

Since then I’ve been to the Shiel Hill inn to support another friend, Girl Thursday, who was raising funds for her choir. I spent half a pound on raffle tickets and one of them won me a new wallet and a big glass dish for serving Christmas treats on. The wallet was a good replacement for my old one which has been sent to join its ancestors in the waste paper basket. I got some answers that our group wouldn’t have got from things that I knew or that I had heard. Others I didn’t know. We got a respectable pass mark. We weren’t up with the big hitters.

It looks like at this stage I will be in Invercargill for Christmas, subject to confirmation about what’s happening for catering. Apparently mum thinks we are all invited to join with Boston T’s new girl friend. This hasn’t been confirmed! Note to Southern Dave: both Nick and myself are coming down, and looking for somewhere to stay on Christmas day.

Looks like I might be house sitting while another friend is overseas at the end of January. With cats who lick my eyeballs!

I’m beginning to think that TC and Bill the telephone from the Telstra-Clear ads are turning into the replacements for Spot the dog for the new millenium.

It’s November so I felt I should do some scribbling