Braemar Station trip, part 1

 

On my way to Lake Pukaki, I stopped for a breather at Lake Tekapo. This is the classic view from the little Church of the Good Shepherd.

 

 

Thousands of photos have been taken of this church, it has an almost magnetic attractiveness for people of all cultures, the sense of shelter and comfort in an indifferent universe.

 

 

A little way from the church is the sheepdog statue, a tribute to the animal that was so instrumental in farming this huge, empty landscape. The use of dogs to control sheep was brought from Scotland and Northern England by the early shepherds who settled in the area, and dogs are still used extensively throughout the NZ high country. Many of the place-names of the Mackenzie Country (named after a notorious 19th c. sheep-rustler) have Scottish origins. Hence Braemar, where I stayed. The nearby mountain range is called the Ben Ohau, a nice mashup of Scots and Maori.

 

 

And here's beautiful Braemar, looking across Lake Pukaki to the Ben Ohau range. Just gorgeous.

 

 

So still! Had a swim, delicious.

 

 

Looking up toward the head of the lake. All this area is old glacial country, the lake was carved out many eons ago by the Tasman Glacier.

 

 

 

The morning view from Hilltop Cottage, where I stayed. The house to the left is Pine Cottage, and there is also accomodation in the old shearers' quarters.  All are self-contained, with cooking facilities. Hilltop had a good view of Mount Cook/Aoraki, which I wasn't expecting. It really is a good getaway, quite a world of its' own.

 

Tomorrow: Sheeeeep!

Braemar Station holiday at Lake Pukaki

 

I've just come back from four glorious days at Braemar Station, near Lake Pukaki. Hot, hot weather; two swims in the lake. Stunning views, even of the top of Mount Cook over the trees. Lots of photos taken, here's three I took this morning on my way back to Lake Tekapo on the Braemar Road.

Eat yer heart out, Graeme Sydney.

Wish I wasn't so lazy

On holiday at the moment. I've got a list of chores to do, though, but haven't done any of them. Oh, the guilt! Spent the whole of yesterday reading a book. Funny how people talk about wasting time on the Internet; I've "wasted" great tranches of my life reading. I should have been making pots of money or compulsively DIY'ing, cleaning and... I don't know what.
     There used to be an advert on TV for DIY stuff that said "Make your home a showplace". Why? It's my home, not a booth in a Ideal Homes trade show.  I loathe those 'House and Garden" type magazines, where the very wealthy show off their wonderful lifestyles. Back in the 60s we called this skiting, but now it seems to be acceptable behaviour.

And what about poor Hillary Mantel? She makes a few innocent remarks, these are taken wildly out of context by the media (who created 'plastic' Kate in  the first place) and is now demonised (she's fat and childless so is obviously not allowed to voice an opinion on the thin and breeding) for telling the truth. Isn't there something disgusting about the media's use of the 'baby bump' phrase? Yes, she's pregnant - you'd think the media had never seen a pregnant woman before. And remember the endless discussion of Pippa's bum? Bumps and bums, that's all, folks.

A walk in Christchurch, 2

 

This pile of rubble is the Clarendon building. About 10 months ago I photographed the start of its deconstruction. The Cathedral roof can be seen in the centre distance.

 

 

This piece of land is all that remains of The Strip, the main bar/restaurant area in the central city. We now have no problem with car parking in the city. Pity there's no reason to go there any more.

 

 

Caffe Roma - still standing. Hope this can be saved. New cafes have popped up all over, but few have the ambience that this one had.

 

 

An artist painted a 'reflection' of the building behind the fence. This is the Government Life building, a sixties bureaucratic horror that will be demolished, although some people want to retain it as a good example of its type. (Modernist? International Style? School of Milton Keynes?)

 

 

Ghost building - wall of Caffee Roma

 

 

This pile of rubble was Farmers department store and car park, which took up most of the block. The wall at extreme left is the Christchurch City Library, which is also to be demolished. Many of my colleagues had their cars trapped in the car park after the February quake, it was very unsafe. The parking building canted over to lean against the back wall of the library.

 

 

And this is where we park the Mayor's spaceship! I have no idea what this is.

 

 

This is New Regent Street, which is soon to reopen to the public. It's a Spanish Mission style street of small shops, with a little Hollywood thrown in. There would be few people in Christchurch who don't like this, it's very unique, and a wonderful job has been done on the rebuild/renovations.

 

 

 

Isaac Theatre Royal, a beautiful old theatre that had just reopened after years of renovations. The quake of February put paid to these - deeply disheartening.

 

 

 

Just a few pictures from the Festival of Flowers in the Botanic Gardens, to cheer you up.

 

 

One of the booths - this is a mockup of a sixties beach bach

 

 

A trip down Nostalgia Street - this had all of us of a certain age saying "Remember those..."

 

 

And a dahlia from the dahlia border.

 

So a mix of the disheartening, the old, the new. the fascinating, the nostalgic and the beautiful. Pretty good walk, really.

 

 

 

A walk in Christchurch

Took a walk from the Botanic Gardens to Restart mall and back today.

 

Started at the Gardens' with some Festival of Flowers displays. This rock is part of a labyrinth created by St Michaels and All Angels school pupils. Each stone has a message of cheer.

Somebody watches Star Trek!

 

Topiary giraffe under the monkey puzzle

 

$13 million dollars of earthquake-proofing was deemed a waste of money ten years ago. This is the Canterbury Museum, still standing very much intact. Ironically the worst part of this building was the new section built in the 1980's which had to be closed for some time.

 

 

The Arts Centre, the old University buildings, had little or no earthquake proofing, so damage has been extensive. Repairs have now really ramped up on this group of buildings.

 

 

The Classic Villa, a BnB, part of a little enclave of surviving heritage buildings at the park end of Worcester Street, over the road from the Arts Centre. Pretty in pink.

 

 

 

Gable ends of the old Boys' High School building are being reinforced with iron strapping, before being refaced with stone. The original stonework will be cut away to a quarter of its depth and used as a veneer over the reinforcement, so that the visual appearance of the buildings is maintained but will be much lighter and safer in future.

 

 

Pop-up shops, mostly relocated from the Arts Centre. There is a good bookshop at the end of this row.

 

 

"Stand strong, Christchurch" - these bricks were made from the silt from the liquefaction that bubbled up during the quakes.

 

 

These chimneys on the Canterbury Club building are modern lightweight replicas. One of these old-fashioned chimneys could weigh as much as three tonnes. A Christchurch firm now specialises in producing these.

 

 

This is not a good picture, it's taken from some interpretative information outside the Arts Centre, but showing how technology has helped with the repair and reconstruction of the buildings. Laser images taken all over the building at 5mm intervals give a very detailed survey of the building, then used by engineers to plan the reconstruction programme. One of the good things to come out of the quakes is the use of innovative technology. Unmanned drones similar to those used in warfare were sent inside buildings to assess damage - these were used inside the Christchurch Basilica and the Cathedral. And we have found out huge amounts about Victorian and Edwardian construction methods, along with hidden historical items and buildings. It's as if we are going backwards and forwards in time simultaneously!

 

 

I think this is the original building of the Canterbury Club. The Club was renovating the building when the earthquakes struck, but now it's like new.

 

 

A forest of bracing at the back of the old City Council building, Our City/Otautahi.

 

 

More bracing on the Worcester Street frontage. I hope this can be rebuilt, it's one of my favourites, and an unusual example of an Arts and Crafts-style public building.

 

 

This is an amazing vista for those that know it well. The heritage building in the middle-distance is the old Post Office. The whole block between it and the view-point has disappeared; this is a view that has not been seen before. Would to God the excrescence on the right will be demolished. What was the architect thinking? Hideous. Should never have been built.

 

To be continued.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rose 'Double delight'

 

This rose has a wonderful scent. I have an old plant that is rather sickly but still comes up with a much treasured flower or two during the season.

Trailer: Twelfth Night or what you will

Hollywood just doesn't get Shakespeare. "In the tradition of Some like it hot, Tootsie and Priscilla queen of the desert" to the music of Macho Man, you must see this "sexy comedy"...i.e. if you like movies with cross-dressing, you'll love this. Ummmm...

Henri 3, Le Vet

Henri's depression deepens, with disturbing traces of a developing paranoia.

I so high right meow

Emma has her rhinotrachetis again. I made her some catnip tea, so that she could inhale the fumes and make her breathing easier, but cutting the catnip alerted Thomas to its' whereabouts. So the little stoner dude got mellow. Here he is, ripped to the tits.

Great Alexander

 

Rereading Mary Renault's trilogy of Alexander. Three novels, Fire from Heaven, The Persian boy, and Funeral games, make up this trilogy about the "greatest of the Greeks". Such fierce times, little quarter given, a culture that thrived on endless squabble.  This is my battered old copy that I bought at the library booksale. I love Renault's writing; like Le Carre, she never compromises herself for the sake of some desire for popularity, and I think, understood the heroic ethos of ancient Greece better than any other writer. But don't read her novels if you are afraid of homosexuality. There is little explicit sexual writing, but she approaches the subject as the Greeks themselves would, as a  natural fact, hardly worth reporting.

I was going to go to an outdoor performance of Twelfth Night this evening, but decided to stay home with Alexander instead. I can always watch Twelfth night on youTube, the lovely Trevor Nunn version.

 

"What country, friends, is this?

"It is Illyria, Lady."

"What shall I do, in Illyria?" 

Thurston Harris - Little bitty pretty one (LOYC tv series)

Remember this? First time I ever saw Ewan's face... so young, so sweet.

On being nice

My job is customer service. This means being nice to people, professionally nice, for hours at a time, to people who are frequently stupid and sometimes objectionable. As the end of the week looms, it becomes harder and harder to be nice to people, even if they are perfectly nice themselves.
      Customer service, as a profession, is packed with women of a certain age. It's the customer service ghetto, a place where most men and any women who want to be called a bitch seldom venture or stay long. That's because women have been indoctrinated since infancy in the art of being pleasant, and helpful, and turning a blind eye to the faults of others. These are the qualities that are valued in wives, mothers and sweethearts. We were told (usually by our own mothers) that a person would catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, though why anyone should want to catch flies at all is a bit of a mystery. (Unless it's to make jam of them; we were taught that too, and how to make silk purses out of sows' ears). I've been to countless "how to shine at customer service" training courses. These are usually facilitated by a man or a woman from HR, a person who has never, ever, been at the sharp end of the coal-face.  The theme of these sessions is always "know your place". You must be servile with a smile, you must "go the extra mile" for your customer, put the Wow! in the "customer experience".
      I only know, that at the end of a long day in customer service, I wish I was in some other line of work. A nice, quiet nunnery or enclosed order would suit. But sadly, I've missed my chance to be Pope.
      I wonder if he's tired of putting the Wow! in the customer experience too.

Pope retires!

 

Pope Benedict is the only Pope I've seen, so I sort of feel as if he's my Pope. Here he is in Venice - we happened to be there at the same time, but his lodgings were probably a bit more splendid than mine, although I did stay in a convent. I don't know why he's wearing red shoes. Perhaps he's a Friend of Aunt Dorothy? I saw an Italian film not long ago, which was about a cardinal who is elected Pope and decides not to take it on, thus creating huge problems for the church. Not being Catholic myself, I don't have strong feelings about the Papacy and its purpose. Perhaps they will elect a black pope? I'd like to suggest they elect a woman, but that really is totally out of the question. Which is a puzzle. If being a priest is a spiritual calling, why should gender or sexuality enter into the equation at all? The Christian church has always held that the body is inferior to the spirit, so why should it matter what physical form that spirit inhabits? The Anglicans are creating a special 'silo' for those male priests who cannot stomach the thought of working in the church alongside ordained women. These priests will not be forced to hobnob with disgusting creatures who have nasty vaginas instead of holy penises. Utterly pathetic and totally insulting, considering that congregations are usually mainly women. Bloody men.

In the garden

 

I've got plums this year - first time in about six years. The little green and yellow thingy in the middle is a cucumber, LoL.

 

 

Weird cucumber - not enough watering I suspect.

 

 

The pear tree is super prolific again this year. 

 

 

 

Caught this zucchini before it turned into a marrow. Yes, that is my elegant little tootsie.

Valentine's Day

  Yet another opportunity to make money for retailers. "Go out and buy something for your loved one -it's quicker and easier than doing something real for them".  It's always better for the economy if you buy something, yah?
   What a crock of shit.

Puss-puss

 

This is Thomas and his new friend Puss-puss. Puss-puss lives across the street, and likes to come over and chase Thomas around. He's a grey marbled tabby and the fiercest kitten I've ever known, probably because he lives with young children and has learned to defend himself.  Pick him up and he goes berserk.

 

Sneaking in to the house - wonder what's in here?

 

Guilty little puss-face

 

Got ya! Snapped in the spare bedroom while casing the joint. I'll have to discourage him as he might start spraying - not sure if he's been fixed.

 

 

The fierce tree-tiger in action. Thomas and Puss-puss play chasing birds up in the pear tree.

 

 

Thomas - my pretty boy.