Hairdressers should never talk politics, religion & some other thing

I have to vent here because Facebook might not be the place!  I'm thinking I should apply the code of hairdressers to FB as I imagine there are good reasons not to talk politics or religion.  But right now I'm wondering how I can be friends with someone who continues to vote National.  I have friends who are paying members of the National Party, & family who are no doubt still hard core supporters, but watching Hollow Men - I just wonder how someone could watch it & continue to think it's ok?  My Mum was a Labour supporter, as a kid I helped deliver Labour pamphlets on cold nights.  She once stood out Muldoon in the main street in Palmerston North & hit him up about his social welfare policies.  She was a hardworking solo Mum!  I'm thankful that my Mum had a social conscience, that she cared about people & that was reflected in her life & in her choice of politics, & it was absolutely a CHOICE!  My thinking is that there is still such ignorance largely because people are not in proximity to others different to themselves.  They base their opinions & beliefs purely on media, propaganda, prejudice & their choice to continue life in ignorance.  Unfortunately most people also typically vote according to what is best for their ownselves.  Rant, rant.  Watching Hollow Men I thought it was interesting that the women on the National front bench - Georgina Te Heuheu & Katherine Rich went because they couldn't support the policies of the Orewa Speeches.  Women who have consciences.  I'm not holding out any hope that Paula Bennett has any personal convictions of her own, I suspect she is happy to play puppet to the Party.  Then there's good ole Don Brash back again trying to give the 'winning strategy' another shot - aiming to appeal to soft voters by playing the race card, beneficiary card, & so on.  As we approach this coming election I have a growing feeling of dreed, a wrenching feeling in the pit of my stomach.  What to do? What to do?  I'll get back to you on that one.

I dont really think we'll be famous

Kids seriously just crack me up! When they're not seriously driving me crazy ofcourse - that goes without saying. Jakita & her friend made 'potions' involving lavender flowers, sunblock, healing cream, pva glue & water. They decided to stick it in the freezer & then become famous as a result of what they'd made. Jakita was convinced they were going to travel around the world being famous & showing people their wonderful potions - that weren't going to melt either because of the glue. That was Wednesday.
This morning, Saturday, she took it out of the freezer. Needless to say I'd forgotten the significance of the ice potion in relation to future dreams & possibilites. Jakita had not. "I don't really think we're gonna be famous" she said in an honest assessment of the situation. I couldn't help but giggle. "It's a bit too dull". In reflection the giggle was inappropriate. I should've said something really profound to reveal my parenting prowess & ensure she will go on to reach her big & crazy dreams. Damn it! I'm hoping she'll mostly focus on the great time she had playing with her friends. What's fame without friends anyway?

Whaddaya get when you cross a hungry Maori with a night at the Movies?

..I dunno, it's a slippery slope upward to a Mochacino? OK, OK, let's just get it out in the open.  I have a confession. Tonight I went to see Billy T te Movie. That's not the confession. Apart from wishing me & my friend Bron were actually in the other theatre with the Softball club fundraising ropu, rather than the theatre with not a Maori in sight apart from me (& accidentally half of Brons workmates from the Council), the movie was ridiculously hilarious.  Still not the confession.  The theatre audience was a bit dry - the movie was not.  We half expected someone to turn around & tell us to stop laughing, that it was inappropriate.  It's not the first time I've been in the wrong theatre audience during a movie.  This is still not the confession, in case you're wondering.  But, I think I need to get that out of the way now so as not to build it up any further.  It's nothing much really.  It started so simply. Foolishly believing I could have a mochacino.  But, before my mind had even registered I'd downed the jaffa & marshmellow on the side of the plate!  Once it occurred to me what I'd done & I realised I'd crossed The Line, no longer living below it, it was really only a matter of time before I purchased the icecream.  There it is!  I have backslidden, or upwardly slidden as the case may be.  Doing this is hard on your own.  I'm gonna try & Live below the Line again next week Mon - Fri & steal other peoples great menu's & be better prepared & stay away from my friends & not go out anywhere & really feel hunger & deny myself instead of trying to rationalise a cup of coffee. I'm sorry to all the children & people starving in the world, I'm sorry I slide upward everyday of my life & I don't think about you or make poverty personal.  I'm gonna read Ash's book, "Make Poverty Personal: Taking the Poor as Seriously as the Bible Does" & hopefully it will give me some perspective again.  But just so you know, my final confession. I am going to see Te Movie again & this time I'll be more choosey about my audience & I probably won't even bother with an icecream

Peter Pan, the boyness of the man

This week I've been reminded how wonderfully affectionate boys are.  My nephew is one such lovely boy & sensitive too.  It's easy to think girls are the sensitive ones, & yes they are, some more than others, but I think our boys are particularly so.  I'm sure this is something that parents of boys already know.

I've also been reminded how truly funny, silly & giggly they are, which often makes them a fun & good time.  Ofcourse, that is unless you are their relieving teacher & trying to get them to learn something.  Sheesh.  Then, the fact they are constantly distracted by their need to make their fellow mates giggle drives one slightly mad by the end of a day!  What hasn't kicked in yet is the ability to gauge what's appropriate & when!  Actually, as I think about it WHEN does that kick in for boys,.. I can think of a few blokes still suffering a similar lack of self-discipline many years on.  Perhaps it is the Peter Pan syndrome. 

I grew up in a family of all girls, the oldest of 4 sisters, with hardly a testosterone in sight.  My life is a testament (not a testostement) to mana wahine, with a mum who was the backbone of the whanau & sisters who lost their mum when they were young, then had their own kids while still teenagers.  It has been my nephews who have shed a little more light on the nature of the boyness.  I don't mind a bit of Pan in my life, he keeps me young, makes me giggle too & isn't adverse to a thimble or cuddle every now & then.  I am grateful indeed. Long live the Pan, I crow! 

What the Hell am I thinking??!

What the hell am I thinking this week? Attempting to Live Below the Line http://www.livebelowtheline.org.nz/ while a full week of teaching.  Teaching tweens & starving at the same time does not a sane woman make! Actually nor does staying up late.  2 days of headaches & it's not because I'm cold turkeying off the tea, coz I'm not.  I couldn't go that far.  Discovered that making 'roti'.. actually, it's just flour, oil & boiling water then dry fried.. is really easy & quite delicious.  Jakita loves roti, so she's not complaining about that, though she wasn't looking fwd to a week of Living Below the Line. She said she wanted to eat somewhere else for the week - "Yep, you & over a billion other people in the world my darling".  Well, at the very least we'll have $30 or so to donate to the fundraising & will have empathised ever so pathetically with those struggling to feed themselves & their families.  Perhaps I may also continue with some cooking in the kitchen.. don't hold ya breath. Going to bed now, very late,. with only silverbeet & potato soup in my puku that was consumed several hours ago.  Good chance I'll have gastro heartburny thingey sometime through out the night.  But, I'm feeling very grateful & very rich, very very rich indeed!

A collection of Blogs... How many blogs is too many?

I'm starting a collection of blogs because I like to have collections.  I'm not sure what really constitutes a 'collection', whatdayou reckon?  It's possible hoarding is being very loosely vieled as a collection, but I don't think so.  I have thermai (more than one thermus), teacups/teapots & dishes, stones, shells, bits of wood, musical dolls, rocking horses, etc & most recently toy wardrobes (thanks Viv).  At this stage I'm unlikely to buy another one of any of those things, so perhaps that's why I'm starting a blog collection.  Really I just wanted a better blog page & I don't know how to change the settings on this one.  Also, I thought perhaps to separate my ponderings.  I want to do some writing on more faith related things, biblical, spiritual, etc & think I might do that some where else so as to be able to pontificate more freely?!?  On the topic of things spiritual.

Last night Uke-a-mama's watched Insatiable Moon, Sharms $3 well spent at the library.  I'm so glad to have seen it at last & although I've read the book twice, typically I can hardly remember a thing...not even chapter 6! The sexy chapter 6... actually probably wasn't chptr 6.. so don't bother turning straight there.  Am interested to know my friends thoughts on it over the week following. My thoughts.. Norms final question that if he stops drinking will he still be able to see Arthur? The alcoholic, the alcohol, uninhibits, opens up, seeing, speaking, thinking, hearing, feeling things that without the alcohol one perhaps does not see, speak, think, hear or feel.  How do we become more real so that the true inside is the true outside too, without the alcohol?  What makes a collection a collection?  What makes 'normal' normal & crazy crazy?  I like the idea that we are ALL 'maladjusted' in some way, be it emotionally, spiritually, mentally, socially or whatever.  We are ALL maladjusted, we are all flawed but it is our flaws that help make us our unique selves & who we truly are.

Once in a Life time events

What makes something a 'once in a lifetime' thing? All of the motu has had 'snow' from the polar blast sweeping through town & it's sent all into a delightful childlike 'flurry'.  This afternoon, not long after Jakita had left the whare, it started snowing.  Really beautiful silent, soft & serene snow. I had to ring to ensure she was enjoying it & ofcourse she was.  Outside in it with her siblings, helping collect snow for Hami to build an igloo.  What fun, what wonderful memories.  I remember snow in Upper Hutt as a teen.  The family driving to the first sight of a pile of snow.  Our play at the side of the road was short lived when Amelia, who was very cute in her head to toe snow suit, almost disappeared in a pool of mud thinly disguised as snow.  Two chubby snowpant legs completely covered in thick mud & one rather upset 2yo.  Not even time for a snow fight much less a man, but memorable no less.  This blast of snow should be more than memorable for Jakita who only a month ago 'wished it would snow in Petone'.  We were driving to UH on a wet & average winters day when Jakita randomly pondered upon the weather around the world.  "What would the weather be like in India now?"... I rant some explanation she's mostly not listening too.  She responds with "I wish it would snow here".  No sooner had she finished her sentence & looking out the window we see piles of snow (perhaps hail) gathered along the River road.  What the hey?! Is that snow? Nah, can't be... It bloody well is you know.  As far as I'm concerned it was & snow becomes just one more reason for Jakita to believe in God & ofcourse fairies!

The Prodigal Return,..It's not easy finding your Blog again...

... man, trying to negotiate the internet aint easy.  Took ages to find my blog again.  But, all good, finally made it back.   As I did to Petone Baptist these last 2 Sundays, after quite some time.  I like to refer to it as THE church that I don't go to.  As in "Yeah, that's the church I don't go to too".  Anyway. Was a good time taking a crowd of 'folk' through a powhiri alongside Mike R & Mike P.  Doing the karanga, which is not my forte' is always a challenge but I try to say 'yes' rather than 'no'.  To acknowledge the karanga as a taonga & a privelege.  Interestingly, some people assume they see me in my element in that role.  I am soooo not in my element. It is possibly one of the few things I occasionally do that I really wish someone else was doing!  But, in the situations I find myself in, there is no one else, so, there I am.  Anyway, 3 Sundays in a row & a Disco at church on Saturday night.  That'll do it.  I do feel challenged again to prioritise the learning of Te Reo Maori, Te Reo Rangatira.  No point talking about it!  Gotta get on & just flippin do it!

I Te Timatanga - In the Beginning

Every journey, every haerenga, begins with a first step and so this one has begun. My first blog. No point wasting time wondering why anyone would bother reading it, especially as I don't particularly have much of importance to say, so decided to write because I want too, for myself.  Ofcourse, it's not a very private 'diary' if one writes it on the internet... so best be mindful of an audience.  Simply, it's a collection of musings and pontifications, wonderings & insights, opinions & epiphany's.  A record of journeys lived, started & yet to be undertaken.  I'm not sure of the protocol for an audience.  How many words?  I think as many as I can be bothered to write at anyone moment in time.  So it begins & ends for now... coz I have to commit my karanga to memory for apopo!

The Blogs Beginnings has Begun

Heio ano