On a quick shopping trip to New Lynn, I meet an old new friend.

Today, like most days, I had a little grocery shopping to do, but I felt just a tickle of wanderlust too, so I combined the necessary and the needful and went shopping in New Lynn. It's only about 15 minutes away on the train, but I hadn't shopped there for a while and it satisfied my need for travel.  

My pictures are mostly of the ordinary, as I walked to the train station and then shopped at New World. On my way back to the train however, I passed a man who was playing his mandolin near the mall.  

I gave him $5 and asked if I could film him as he played. He said that I could.  

I found that he turned 83 yesterday and has played his 90+ year old Russian mandolin all his life.  He was born in Dublin, but had lived since he was very young in Australia.  He came to New Zealand in retirement.  His name is Hank.  

Let me show you my shopping trip in sequence. Then, Hank will bring this post to a close with his very sweet, but slightly meloncholy tune.   

 In front of our house.  It's 8:40 a.m. and the sun has just cleared the rooftops. 

 The parking lot at the train station is full once again. The lot holds 170 cars. During the Covid shutdown, I counted an average of four per day.  

We are at the Sunnyvale Train Station. 
 Once there was a field here where Allie discovered the mother-load of blackberries. Then they tore up the blackberries and built these apartments. At least we still have a couple of jars of jam in our pantry.  

 A stylized sculpture of people carrying a canoe. 

Nearly back to the train station. 

Here is Hank. His dog, Lady Doo Dah, is 11.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBbbM-4nBtA

In this last shot, he is showing me the label inside that proves it's a Russian-made instrument. Unfortunately, the strings prevented the camera from focusing inside the sound box.  

-djf