My 24,048th day on earth

Today, August 31, 2017, it occurred to me that I should show you a typical day in the life of a New Zealand retiree. In the past, I have shown you grand adventures whenever possible, because they're interesting and produce great photos, but life is mostly made up of the mundane, day to day living. And really, each day should be viewed as an adventure in itself. Another step along the path of one's life. 

So, here it my view of one, fairly typical day. Maybe a little nicer than most, because we treated ourselves to coffee. 

We're leaving the house at about 9:00 a.m. It rained during the night, no surprise there. Note the drops of water still clinging to the leaves of the palms. Jeanne and I are going to walk to Henderson and, laden with books and groceries, take the bus back. 

This corner lot used to have a single family home with a huge garden on it. Now, two large homes are going up. They might be apartments. We'll see. 

We are on Sturges Road here, approaching Swanson. Traffic is heavy at this rush hour moment. We'll take a right up ahead. We'll walk about 1/2 mile on Swanson and then another 1/2 mile on Great North Road.  

You know me. I have got to try new things. On our way downtown, we stopped briefly at the Bulk Barn, and I noticed this sea salt with bits of dried kelp in it. 

Stopping at the library. 

And at Gloria Jeans. We needed a boost of caffeine.

Two small flat whites perked us right up.

There is shopping to do almost every day. 

This bus stop has recently been improved with the addition of three sections of enclosed seating. We're waiting for 143 that comes by at 7 and 37 minutes past each hour. 

Our bus arriving. 

Once we're home and the groceries are put away, it's time for a bit of diversion. 

I love playing Free Cell.  After our busy morning, I like to sit down to several games. 

It continues to be a beautiful day

Today was the first really nice day for quite some time. A day to sit on the deck for a while and watch the clouds go by, and watch how they change as they go. This photo and the next three were each taken about a minute apart. 

Then, off we go to pick up the boys from school.

It's late in the afternoon now and I check on the dancing ducks. You may remember that I mentioned in a side-bar note on some earlier posts that they had reached the 10,000,000 wiggles point on August 28, 2016. 

They started their solar-powered dance marathon on 3-28-16. That day, the boys and I had each counted the number of wiggles per 10 seconds and averaged the result. That worked out to be 25.75 wiggles per 10 seconds or 154.5 wiggles per minute. I then kept track of the hours they wiggled each day and recorded it, for months and months, until they reached 10 million.  

They have both continued to wiggle, on their designated place on a western facing window, right up to the present day, and show no signs of stopping. I figure that they passed the 40,000,000 wiggles points on August 28, 2017. An amazing feat for a toy that retailed for $1.99. And I am quite sure that my calculation has been, if anything, on the conservative side. If they had been carefully monitored the entire time, I think the count would be somewhat higher yet. 

As they continue to dance. I'll keep you all posted. 

Tonight, Allie and the boys are going to dinner at McDonald's for the soccer end-of-season get together. Jeanne and I are on our own and plan to have left-overs for dinner. It'll be an easy meal. No prep, no clean up. Well, hardly any. 

So, that's it. A look at one day, and a fairly ordinary one.

But, I'm forgetting one thing. We did get some books from the library and I started on one of them. It's The Murder of Mary Russell by Laurie King. If any of you are Sherlock Holmes fans, this one might be one you'd like to try. Actually, there are several by this author, and you should really start with one written earlier in the series than this one. Mary Russell is Sherlock's wife. You didn't know he was married? I didn't either until recently when I discovered this author.  (actually, Jeanne found her)    -djf

Spring 2017

In honor of spring in New Zealand, I want to start this post with a song. The blackbirds here 
are busy building nests. I have been hoping to see a nest of any species of bird started on the beam above our deck. We so enjoyed monitoring last year's cycle of life demo, but so far, the birds have chosen to build elsewhere. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDxfjUEBT9I

In my walks around our neighborhood recently, I have been admiring the spring growth. Here are a few pictures. 

Nice huh?  

This was a very short post. If you care to hear a couple of other versions of Blackbird, try this one and/or the next.      -djf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGd9TqjhANI

www.youtube.com/watch?v=miDL94CUyec

Election Day in New Zealand

Saturday, September 23, 2017 was election day here. Actually, voting was possible for about the last week at places all over the country. 

Each registered voter (including us) was sent a voting card. This card was given to a voting inspector at our local polling place. It was compared against the list of voters and our names and residence were asked. We then received our ballot and were able to vote for one party and one person. The parties were:

Act New Zealand
Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party
Ban 1080
Conservative
Democrats for Social Credit
Green Party 
Internet Party
Labour Party 
Mana Party
Maori Party
National Party
New Zealand First Party
New Zealand People's Party
NZ Outdoors Party
The Opportunities Party (TOP)
United Future

An example of a poster for Labour 

An example of a National Poster.  

We live in the Te Atatu area so if we voted Labour, this would be our candidate.  

 We voted here. 

This is right next to Summerland School. 

The voting booths. I asked permission to take this photo. It was allowed since no one was voting at the time.  

I'm writing this on Sunday afternoon, the 24th. The results were:

The National Party got 46% of the vote and  therefore 58 seats in Parliament. 
Labour got 35.8% and 45 seats. 
NZ First got 7.5% and 9 seats. 
Greens got 5.9% and 7 seats.
ACT got 0.5% and 1 seat.

Obviously, the election process here is very different than at home. I am by no means an expert and hesitate to try to describe how the system works. A much better way to find out about it if you are interested is to go to the link below. It has everything you'd want to know. -djf

http://www.elections.org.nz/events/2017-general-election

I've got to run to the store for some bread, want to come along?

There was a day (well, 35+ years of them) when I worked for a living. I got up early and went to work, many times for 10 hours or more. That was the focus of my day. 

Things have changed. Oh, there are still busy days when I help Jeanne with laundry, pick up around the house, or change a lightbulb. Or wash dishes, act as vegetable peeler and cheese grater. And I always shop.

Today though promised to be a day on the quiet side. Jeanne had only one load of laundry on, and it didn't sound as though I would be needed. The ever-present shopping list was minimal, and consisted of only those supplies that would be needed soon and not for today's meals, oh, except for some bread.  

I had some choices. There is the Palomino Superette in one direction and Sokol's Market in the other. There is PaK'nSave at the foot of Great North Road or Countdown in the mall in Henderson. Hmmm, let's think outside the box. Today's weather looks good. Partly cloudy skies and no chance of rain. The train is free. Downtown Auckland is only about 50 minutes away in a comfortable, gently rocking seat. 

Why not hop the train and pick up some Real bread from Pandoro on Queen Street? It's an Italian bakery that makes the kind of bread that I wish we could eat everyday. Okay, let's do it. 

You're coming along right? You ride free too. After we get the bread, let's take a quick look at the waterfront before we come home. I like to keep track of what's happening there. 

 Riding the rails...not steam, but electric, and in NZ. And I never sing on the train.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-p5bTHT3e8

 Look familiar? You've been here before. Just off the train at Britomart. 

 Convenient times for our return trip. Departures for Swanson run on the hour and at 20 and 40 minutes past. 

I'm taking a short cut through the block. A little cafe with minimal lighting offers a quiet refuge in a sort of tunnel between the streets. I hope their business picks up soon. 

In this shot, I'm just exiting from the cafe shown above on to East Customs Street. 

The traffic lights at this intersection allow you to cross just one street, or on the diagonal across both. We're going on the diagonal toward the mirrored building.

We're in the middle of the intersection of Queen and Customs Streets, looking up  West Customs.

The panetteria is about 1/2 a block away now along Queen. 

There it is. I think I can already smell it. Yeasty. Oh boy. 

Just a narrow little place, but they know bread. 

And quiches and sandwiches,

...and goodies. 

But we came for bread. Darn, they're out of large Italian loaves, I'll have to get a small. But I'll get a ciabatta too. 

Now, with our bread tucked away in my backpack, (no, I won't squash it) let's head down to the waterfront and see what's going on there. 

The end of Queen Street has disappeared. The new train line connecting Britomart to Mt. Eden is in process far beneath us and extending out to our right. I don't know if Queen Street will ever be a through street again. 

 I wondered if there might be a cruise ship in port, and there is. Looking at it from the end doesn't do it justice. Let's walk a couple hundred yards up Quay Street and admire it from the side.

Wow, that's big. They have it docked on Queens Wharf. It won't fit on the Princes Wharf. 

Looks like The Hilton got a new paint job.  Big improvement. I thought it was looking a little seedy. 

They're cleaning up all over the place I guess. Here some window washers are at work. 

You know that if I'm in Auckland, I'll have to include at least one picture of the Sky Tower right?  Especially when there is somebody up there climbing around outside it. 

Here's a close up look at the safety harness system that lets people walk on the platform that surrounds the Sky Tower. That group is about 800 yards from me. (Yes, I measured using Google maps and did some math besides.) That was taken at around 48 power. I'm amazed at what cameras can do these days. 

The construction companies are all working overtime in Auckland right now. 

Well, I love wandering around and sight-seeing, but if we leave now, we'll get home just about lunch time. Let's head back to Britomart.

There's our train waiting for us on track 3. (the one straight ahead) 
Jeanne is making swiss steak for dinner tonight and either kind of bread will go well with that. Thanks for coming along. Wish you could stay for dinner.    -djf

......Ridin' the rails...ridin' the rails...dum, dum...ridin' the rails..............