Lots of Music

Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir with their conductor, Dr Karen Grylls – rather wonderful

It’s now Thursday 25 September, 2025. Kia ora!

Yesterday I went to see Gaylene Preston’s documentary about Dame Jacinda Ardern.  I thought it was not good judgment for her to be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, but she appeared on Jon Stewart’s TDS (The Daily Show) on Tuesday evening (our time), and I was very impressed by the interview – Jon Stewart can be very tough, so well done Dame Ardern (just call me Jacinda).

I was so pleased that I saw the documentary. The Lighthouse Cinema at Wigan St was full, although it hasn’t been screened a great deal. I was so moved that I cried several times. What a brave and impressive young woman, and how well we were looked after during Covid, especially during the first lock down. It was interesting to see her in Boston, and at Harvard University: I’ve been there! Photos of the graduation where she received an Honorary Degree reminded me of our eldest son’s graduation at Yale!  Being reminded of all the major events of Dame Jacinda’s terms as Prime Minster was distressing, especially the mosque terrorist event in Christchurch and the explosion at White Island. I was also horrified when public opinion turned against Dame Ardern during the huge protest in Parliament grounds, which seemed to go on and on – a shocking event for Wellington!

On Thursday it was windy, but we went out to The Spruce Goose for lunch. It must have been a northerly wind, because the sea at Lyall Bay was calm. Being so close to the airport, we watched several planes landing and taking off.

On Friday the weather wasn’t great. We drove out to the Charles Fleming Retirement Village at Waikanae to see our friend again. On the way, it rained very heavily, and we were glad to be on the Expressway. This time we had lunch with him:  it was very nice, and very generous: I had salmon with hollandaise sauce, coleslaw, and new potatoes, and cheesecake for pudding. Afterwards we had coffee in his unit.  By the time we drove home, it was fine and only drizzling occasionally.

There’s a Singing Workshop coming up with Lala Simpson and Jonathan Berkahn, at the Home of Compassion in Island Bay. I keep getting reminders of this on FB, but it seems others who might be interested don’t know about it! So it’s been a bit of a mission getting the information out to others.

It’s now Sunday 5^th October.

It’s been quite a busy week. On Monday I went to Tai Chi; on Tuesday I went to Bible Study where we had a nice discussion about 2 Timothy 1:1-12.  Afterwards I went to Dunshea’s Deli with a friend where we had beautiful coffee and cheese scones. JD picked me up from there and we went shopping. On Wednesday morning I went to hymn singing. That was lovely: we sang All Creatures of Our God and King, and Jesu, Lover of my Soul, amongst other lovely hymns. Afterwards I met a dear friend for coffee: another oat latté and another delicious cheese scone.  Although the day had started out to be quite fine, it was now raining heavily and quite cold. JD picked me up; the next day I met several of my Thursday singing friends at another café – we had lovely discussions there. Afterwards it was again cold and wet, so JD picked me up (again!) and on the way home we bought lunch from Dunshea’s Deli. We bought very nice pies: chicken and vegetable and steak and Guiness, which we shared. They were delicious, and large pies, but the food was quite expensive.

That evening we were do go to a concert: Rossini’s Stabat Mater, with the NZSO, four soloists and Karen Grylls’ Chamber Choir, Voices New Zealand. What a wonderful choir! Karen is standing down at the end of this year; I don’t know who’s leading the choir in future, but I hope they’ll continue to be wonderful singers. After this the orchestra and choir played the premiere of a local work, another Stabat Mater by Victoria Kelly. This was a much shorter work, but lovely to listen to.  It’s nice to have an early-evening concert, at 6:30 pm; we don’t try to eat beforehand, preferring to have a light snack afterwards. Sometimes we even go shopping on the way home, as New World in Thorndon is open till 10 pm every day.

On Friday it was complicated with several events occurring. I caught a bus to town to meet my cousin and her sister from Auckland for lunch.  It was lovely to see them, although the weather wasn’t great. They go to the WOW (World of Wearable Art) each year – I’m afraid we’ve bever been! We had lunch at The Lab on Customhouse Quay – a café new to me; I rarely go to that rather windy part of town.  My bus was a few minutes early so I had a look at dresses at Farmers first.

Lunch was delicious: I had a favourite, scrambled eggs, which was absolutely delicious; my only quibble was that it came on multigrain toast, together with a wee capsule of olivani olive oil spread (which I like), but the toast was really hard to cut!  And impossible to spread, since the eggs were on top of it! Still, the eggs were so good one didn’t really need toast to go with them.

Afterwards I went with them to the Blue Illusion store, in Woodward St. I hadn’t been there before, but they had a sale on, and I ended up buying a beautiful cream top with short sleeves. It looks like what we used to call bouclé, with a bit of warmth for windy Wellington.  Two good friends of mine have bought beautiful clothes from Blue Illusion. They had a good discount during the French Film Festival, but you had to spend $150 to qualify for it!

Saturday was a quiet recovery day. The weather was rubbish too – sadly my copy of The Post was delivered but very wet, so it had to be dried out (selectively).

On Sunday I went to church in the morning; afterwards JD picked me up and we went to see a movie together: The Man who Promised the Sea at 12:30 pm at the Penthouse Cinema and Café in Brooklyn. We had to park way up Todman St; despite its being school holidays, and the middle of the day, the café was pretty quiet.  I think the lovely theatre could do with a bit of TLC and general upkeep! Still, we had time for coffee and something to eat before the movie. I even had an ice cream, which I don’t usually do.

The film was in Spanish, with subtitles, and explored events around the Spanish Civil War before World War II. There were two plots: a granddaughter searching for her great grandfather’s remains, and a teacher in a village who taught using the Freinet method. He promised to take the children to the sea: they had never been! Of course he had trouble securing parental approval; but sadly he was arrested, tortured and later shot before the trip could take place.  No wonder no one wanted to speak about this incident. The teacher had a printing press, and the children produced several books, most of which were burnt after the teacher’s arrest. All the books had to be given up, although thankfully some were hidden. And there was a connection between the two stories, of course.  Book burning was something the Nazis did in Germany before World War 11; it’s also happening in the US now, and has been for some time.  I think most of us would be more than happy for young people to read, even works like Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which was banned for many years. I think Lady Chatterley’s main indiscretion was to have sex with her gardener, rather than another member of the British aristocracy.

The teacher was an avowed atheist, so he fell foul of the local Catholic priest; he was from Catalonia, a location of anti-fascist activity, and he used the Freinet method of teaching, which scared local parents, who mainly wanted their children to grow up to be just like them. It was a harrowing film to watch.

It’s a busy week coming up, with it being the start of Term 4, when Thursday morning singing restarts. Te Reo Māori starts up again on Wednesday morning; and there’s a Singing Workshop at the Home of Compassion in Island Bay next Saturday. This is a big day for me, but very enjoyable to sing with many other strong voices. A number of my friends are going, and we’re car-pooling, with some details yet to be determined.

A cousin of mine from Christchurch is part of a group coming to Waikanae in early November, with lots of exciting activities planned. I was going to join them on the Wednesday for lunch, but one of the party can’t come for health reasons, and so I’ve been invited to join my cousin instead of her friend. Wow!  That is so exciting.  I am looking forward to it.  I do enjoy stimulating activity, but I get terribly tired.

Speaking of tired, I’ve been invited to take part in a stroke-medical-care discussion that’s being run by an Auckland University team. Although it’s testing to go back to my own Sep/11 (September 2011), the questions look very pertinent, and I would like to think I can contribute something to the study.

It’s now Sunday 12 October.

Yesterday I went to the singing workshop at the Home of Compassion in Island Bay. Unlike the previous time when some of us went, it was foggy, overcast and drizzling with rain all day. JD took a friend and me to the Ngaio Town Hall by 9 am, where we met the friend who was giving us a lift to Island Bay. I thought it was a very early start, but we had to pick up another friend in Northland, so we ended up having a “Cooks’ Tour” through Wilton, Northland, Highbury, the Aro Valley and Brooklyn, Mornington and Berhampore, before ending up at Island Bay.  

We were almost the first ones there, but we were singing ina different room from previously, and it had not been set up. It turned out that there were only about 18 of us, and no men. I think with this workshop being at the start of Term 4 many people did not realise it was on.

We broke for morning tea, and several of us retreated to the Cloister Café there, which was open. Although we had 20 minutes, it took ages to have our order taken and coffee served. When it came, it was delicious – my oat latté and pain au raisin. It was just a shame there wasn’t more time to enjoy them!

 The singing was very enjoyable, although somewhat marred by the fact that someone brought her dog, which pooped on the carpet! Several kind people rushed to clear it up, but it certainly interrupted our singing.

Later we had an hour’s break for lunch: a delicious roast kumara, carrot and lentil soup, with bread that you could toast or eat fresh. They were delicious.

After lunch there was more singing, and then soon after 3:30 we went to the Chapel to sing the songs we’d learnt again. This was quite a different atmosphere! We weren’t in our natural groups any more, and it was more difficult to sing in the Chapel, for some reason. I found I was extremely weary, by this time, and found it hard to sing at all. Then we drove home, again in the drizzly fog. JD met my friend and me at Ngaio Town Hall again, and we went home with relief. What fun, though! I was pleased that I’d been.

Today (Sunday) is overcast again, drizzling with rain, and with low cloud all day. It is extremely windy. Every morning now I pick up camellias that have blown into the driveway, and there ae always more. There are lots of blossoms on the drive, although still lots on the cherry tree.

That’s it for now! Slava Ukraini! Nga mihi nui.