Mexican in talks to direct new Hobbit films

I have no problem with this - but two films? I can't see why the source material requires two films, beyond making punters pay twice to see the whole story. Particularly if they're both 3+ hours long.

Mexican in talks to direct new Hobbit films - Stuff.co.nz

Natural selection

I was walking along the beach the other day, as you do, when ahead I noticed 5 adults, one with a toddler on his shoulders, watching a young boy performing donuts on a small quad bike.

"Retards", was my first uncharitable thought, only that morning I'd been reading an article in the DomPost about quad & motor bike accidents on the beach.

Next time I looked over at them, the adults were all running over the sand towards the toppled quad bike which was now on top of the young boy.

He was alright though, they picked him up, and the bike, stuck him back on & urged him, with some taunting because he wasn't keen anymore, to get back out there making donuts!

Beach speed limit 'ridiculous' - New Zealand, world, sport, business & entertainment news on Stuff.co.nz

SunnyO: Spread the word, we've found Olive

RESULT!

Last October I reported that a neighbour's 7 year old black labrador was apparently stolen from outside his house.

Well early this week I saw him out walking her in the morning. Seems a few days before Christmas he got a phone call from the Lower Hutt dog control people to say they'd found a black lab matching Olive's description wandering the streets of Taita (Olive hails from Central Wellington).

It was her, about 10 kg heavier, but unmistakably her.

SunnyO: Spread the word, we're looking for Olive

Unfortunately, I'm told that there are notices up in shops for another black lab missing from the area.

Maybe they should take a drive around Taita this weekend.

Apostrophe catastrophy site of the day

The KIWI Party New Zealanders voting for themselves.

Have at it, pendants.

Oops

I resisted the urge to send this little story to Sideswipe, complete with names... and I describe the sorry tale with names & places changed to protect the innocent & the stupid. And me, since I might get sprung on this.

Friends up North, are about to head to Europe for a few years' secondment. One of them is already there, his family are still in NZ making last minute preparations to join him soon.

The one in Europe, he has a company car here, which he was due to pass on to his successor at the beginning of this week.

In the weekend, his father offered to take the children, including a 15 year old with a learner's license to the beach.

After they'd left, the wife had a thought, and rang the father in law:

"Whatever you do, don't let the fifteen year old persuade you that she can drive tha car home. It will have been a long day & she'll be tired."

A short while later, she called him again, realising that her daughter was argumentative & persuasive, to reiterate the point.

Later, she did so again.

Late in the afternoon, she got a call from a relative to tell her that she had the kids, and the grandfather at her place & they had been in some sort of accident.

Yes.

15 year old learner driver, had persuaded her grandfather that she was competent to drive her dad's company car home.

Somewhere on the Auckland motorway, she changed lanes, without looking.

You can fill in the rest. No one hurt fortunately, aside from a few bruised egos & two mangled cars. At least one outraged mother's temper lost in the aftermath.

I confess I have been told off for finding this hugely amusing.

I am scared

Not as scared as she is. Nor her sons & husband. Nor our mum. This is not the first time we've had to face the thought of losing her.

And it twists my gut that I cannot tell her it will be alright. Because I don't know. And I am scared,

Crohns is a vile disease, which will cause you to starve to death unless treated. Sadly, the treatments are barely less life threatening than the disease itself.

I am scared.

Have a Happy Festive Occasion!*

Light blogging for a month or so, while I swan around my orchard getting bronzed** & toned***

* Non denominational season's greetings.
** & *** Festive code for pissed & fat.

Govt wants feedback on new dog controls

Go to it!

Govt wants feedback on new dog controls - Stuff.co.nz

Armoured Bears

Since I read & loved the Hotel New Hampshire, I've often said that everyone needs a bear... I guess if underneath the hair & stuff they looked like Nastassja Kinski, it'd be a bonus.

The movie version of Phillip Pullman's Northern Lights (filmed as The Golden Compass) is getting mixed reviews. But I'm keen to see how Iorek Byrneson is portrayed.

Because really, if you have to travel a dangerous wilderness, what better and safer company than a talking, armoured polar bear.

Rock on.



Update: "If I were you... I'd hire myself an aeronaut & an armoured bear."

Trailers here. The "teaser" one is best.

"I have a contract with the child!"

The film isn't doing so crash hot at the box office, Berardinelli reckons sequels aren't on the cards. Pity. It looks quite good.

Ancestry

My mum sent me some old photos of her family, that someone sent on to her. Remember I mentioned my mum's grandparents a while back? They lived up the mountain & they'd take the donkey a few hours up into the hills & get water from a spring?

Well here they all are:



These are my great grandparents on my mum's side, they're her mother's parents.



And this is them with their family - I believe I would have known some of these when they were very old. In fact, I think I visited the youngest sister when I was last in Wales, she was a spry ninety something. One of the reasons they lived up out of the polluted valley, was because she had TB as a child.

The hottie 4th from the left at the back is my grandmother :)



Now we're getting obscure - this might be the kids from above a little older - I daresay an email will swing my way soon with loads more details.... My grandmother is not in this photo however.



This is Great grandfather Levi on the left.



And here he is with his faithful donkey, Jinny, whose bones were unearthed on the mountainside not that long ago. Some animals, especially I guess, beasts of burden, live hard lives. I bet though, with that many kids at hand it had some good times too.

Notice the early Nike 'swoosh" on his pants? We're filing retrospective trademark suits as we speak.



And one more - purely because these dresses are remarkable.

Rainy Day

In an effort to make this visitor from the Hawkes Bay's day, someone clever photoshopped him into this picture of American actor Giovanni Ribisi kicking back at the Mighty Mighty last week. Damian was only recently saying that there should be more celebs in Wellington.

Meanwhile, off topic completely, this year's nut harvest at SunnyO is all over. Bar the drying. We stripped 6 trees (and have a slight suspicion there should have been another one ready to go somewhere), and harvested less than 20kg! This is a lot less than I expected, but they are biennial & this is the light year. That makes around 70 kg for the year.

I expect 5 times that next year.

And we rejoiced! For yesterday afternoon it rained for the first time in ages! And it rained all night! Our massive rainwater tank was half empty & I was slightly worried. Within two hours of rain falling theough, the tank was full again, as was every plastic bin & bucket I could lay my hands on.

It's gonna be a long hot & dry one folks. But we're ready.

I should have known it was going to rain, because I organised it by spending the day prior installing a simple irrigation hose in the berry house - of course it always rains when irrigation gets installed. At least we have the water to run through it.

In beast news... there was a rat in our barbecue when I uncovered it. Not on the cooking surfaces, down in the guts of the thing. And later, while I was watching buckets fill with rain, a rat darted past me & up one of the phoenix palms. Just where is our large predator when we need her?

I seeded the place with rat bait. That'll learn him.

Reconsidering getting a big air gun too.

Oh - and here's the real photo with Hadyn.

2nd Annual Wellingtonista Awards

Fantastic night - I think I may have met Bret McKenzie. Should my memory of the night return, I'll tell you all about it.

I spent a lot of the weekend mowing lawns

Well... some of it anyway. Spent Saturday night drinking, eating & making merry with friends. We were supposed to be greeting the 15 year old at around 7pm when she was to be dropped off from her Wanganui rowing regatta earlier in the day. We got a text at 6.30 saying they were just leaving...

No-one was keen to stay sober to go pick her up from the drop off point, so at around 10pm, 6 middle aged drunks & a labrador staggered 600 metres down the road & around the corner.

Mission accomplished.

For the next two days I struggled to get the mower to start twice in a row without having to recharge the battery. I got the lawns done, and the orchard, in the end.

While doing the orchard, something interesting happened. A large rat sauntered through the grass. I charged it, it moved away (the mower isn't very fast). I screamed at it! And wondered where my faithful hunting hound was.

Then the hound turned up - Mrs Llew had heard me scream & came over in case I'd just mowed my leg off or something. The brave dog knew a rat had been there, but she ignored Mrs Llew's shouts to "Look this way" at the calmly retreating rat carrying a big macadamia nut.

Finally, when the rodent was nearly through the fence into a neighbouring paddock, Wilma spotted it. Man she moved fast. But too late. Too late.

I might get have to get a gun after all. I can ride shotgun on the mower.

Photos from November

That little white spot between the coast & Kapiti isn't a speck of dust! It's a whale!!



Meanwhile, here are some unposed pics of part of the garden. These were taken last week & if anything, the laburnum is even more impressive. But I couldn't be bothered taking more pics...











Chestnut tree in flower











And... the pumphouse, with an old bedhead secured to the wall.

It was the snowball

How do I delete my Facebook entry? I pretty much turned off all notifications, the snowball was the last straw - not that it was a problem or anything, I suddenly wondered "Why?"

So I turned all notifications off, severely limited what would appear on my page, then I came across "deactivate".

However, anyone know how to delete me from it completely? It says my account is deactivated, but will reactivate if I ever log in again. Hmm.

Complete. Waste. Of. Time.

And I should know, I'm gifted in this respect.

Touting Dumbarses

"Hi there, have you heard of Barnardos?"

"Yes"

********************************************
"Hi there, let me SHAKE your hand...... ...or not."

********************************************
"Excuse me sir, are you busy?"

"Yes"

********************************************
"What do you know about the Red Cross?"

"Lots"

********************************************
"Sir, can I ask you..."

"No."

"Don't you want to save the world?"

"WTF? NO!"

********************************************
"No"

Website ranks stupid holiday gifts

Hee hee... I reckon the Hillary Clinton nutcracker looks more like Ellen Degeneres

Website ranks stupid holiday gifts - Stuff.co.nz

Court decision could shut out Team NZ

That's what I love about yachting, it's all about the captain, the crew, and who's got the best & fastest boat. A sport of kings.

Court decision could shut out Team NZ - Stuff.co.nz

Yeah right.

More on the tree that did it.

This accident happened in Gore's Main Street (which hang on a mo' I'm guessing is Gore's main street), but it somewhat reminds me of visits I used to make to the deep south, a long, long time ago.

I was working for the coal mines at the time, my duties sometimes saw me winging to obscure provincial airports & then either being picked up by someone, or renting a car & heading into REALLY obscure parts of the country. Like Huntly, Westport, Greymouth and Ohai.

You've probably heard of all of those places except Ohai. Ohai's a tiny town about 50k north of Invercargill. There's nothing there but a pub & 5 or 6 coal mines. Or that was the case in the 1980s anyway. Back then there was a population of about 400. Goodness knows what it is now, but I recall that they were selling houses in nearby Nightcaps for $10 a few years ago.

What reminds me of these racers though, is a trip I took in a rickety old landrover driven by one of the locals, between Invercargill & Ohai. Once you're in the countryside, the route pretty much takes the form of long, long straight roads for miles, abruptly terminated by T intersections. As you approach each intersection, you cannot help but notice that directly in front of you across the road, is a massive tree.

The driver told me that loads of kids head for the big smoke each Friday, liquor up, and then drive at speed back into the sticks.

Every one of those trees and intersections, he told me, was responsible at some stage, for at least one high speed fatal collision - in the dark, it's easy to forget that a right angle turn & a big tree are looming up at 150km/h

I was wondering last night, as I did at the time, why they didn't remove the trees so that idiots would crash through the fences & maybe survive.

But then I figured they probably put the trees there to protect the fences.

Tree cops it for road death - New Zealand news on Stuff.co.nz

Cheney found to have irregular heartbeat

Doctors amazed he even had a heart.

Cheney found to have irregular heartbeat - Stuff.co.nz