Daphne being chased by Apollo (from Ovid’s Metamorphoses)
Today is Wednesday 5 August, 2026. Kia ora!
It’s been really cold again this week. On Monday morning I thought I had a GP appointment, but it turned out that it hadn’t gone through – the medical centre weren’t aware of it. They blamed Manage My Health. So that was really frustrating! I hurt my back – what kind of exercise, if any, should I do? I also need to arrange another Aclasta infusion. I had waited over a month for this appointment; now I’ll have to wait another two weeks. There was 20 minutes to the next bus, so I went to have morning tea at Common Ground. It was actually fine that day! That was an oat latté and a very crumbly date scone.
The next day, Tuesday, was extremely cold. We went shopping at New World in Thorndon as we usually do, and there weren’t as many people there as usual; those that were there were really well wrapped up. I wore an Aran jersey and my heavy puffer raincoat, which I only wear when the temperature is below 10C! And I wasn’t too hot.
As we drove home the weather worsened, with showers of sleet and then snow; we’re so thankful to have internal access to our house. The hymn singing session for Wednesday morning was cancelled, a wise decision, I think, since more bad weather was expected last night. Today (Wednesday) it’s not so bad – still really cold, and there’s a bit of wind and rain, but too cold for an expedition. Generally JD drops me in Khandallah in time for hymn singing, and I can then make an expedition of the day: perhaps having morning tea in Khandallah, catching the #25 bus into town, and then perhaps seeing a movie: it’s senior Wednesday at the Penthouse and the Lighthouse Cinemas, and you get free coffee at a Lighthouse Cinema on a Wednesday. I do wish they’d upgrade their food offerings, though! The Penthouse isn’t bad, but the Lighthouse cinemas could do far better in terms of offering food to hungry patrons.
So I’m at home, again, in the warm-ish: we need to get the heat pump serviced, and the top drawer of the dishwasher leaks! The bottom drawer still seems to work all right, but of course one has to bend down to load and unload it! When they’re both working, I mainly use the top one, and keep the bottom one for pots and larger Pyrex dishes.
Yesterday we got our water bill from Tiaki Wai. I haven’t kept up with this new agency, although there’s enormous upset about the size of the new bills; apparently water costs are now separate from our rates. I guess we need to wait for our next rates bill, which, I presume, will be less now that water costs have been billed separately.
Then we ended up going to Hawkes Bay for the weekend. On Wednesday we heard that the eldest son of friends of ours, a resident at Hohepa, had passed away. The funeral was to be at 11 am on Monday 10 August, so we drove north on Saturday and back to Wellington on Tuesday. It was good to be able to go, and it was a bit warmer there in the daytime, although very cold morning and night.
We drove up through Feilding, taking time to visit our niece there. It was nice to go a different way. We had lunch at Taper Eatery in Levin on the way, where we’d eaten before, but it was sad not to see more people there. Once we arrived at Havelock North we had our evening meal at Alessandro’s. sharing a pizza and tiramisu for dessert. It’s always nice to go there. Although we sat outside, we were beside a heater, and not too cold.
On Sunday we took our daughter to Community Burgers, where they do gluten-free burgers; our daughter is gluten free, but also on a low-histamine diet, so tomatoes, citrus, dairy products, spices, chocolate, caffeine and many fruits are not allowed. That’s a huge challenge! On Monday, the funeral was held at Hohepa (at Poraiti) and it was beautifully done; it was a lovely fine sunny day too.
We took our daughter to Hapi for lunch after the funeral. The food is fine, but they use a lot of spices, which aren’t recommended. But we found a place on Marine Parade with dairy-free sorbet (and ice cream and gelato), so we enjoyed those goodies in cups rather than cones.
JD and I ate dinner at Diva two nights running: the first night we shared an antipasto platter and sticky date pudding for dessert; the second night I had fish and chips with tartare sauce and salad: this was really delicious, seeing the fish was pan-fried, not battered, and the chips not intense. On Tuesday morning we went to the lovely shop at Hohepa and stocked up on Danbo cheese, apricot jam, quince paste, and Dijon mustard. Then we drove back to Wellington.
On Thursday afternoon we went to see Christopher Nolan’s new film, The Odyssey at the Roxy Theatre in Miramar. There were only a handful of us in the luxurious leather armchairs: oddly, there was no handrail in the cinema we went to.
What a movie! It was striking and intense. The way the Trojan Horse was presented was very clever, as was the Cyclops giant, Polyphemus. The depiction of Hades and Teiresias, the blond prophet, was very good too. A visit to Teiresias in the Underworld is an obligatory part of an ancient epic poem!
I noticed how Penelope, Odysseus’ faithful wife was presented as being behind a screen, while her suitors lived it up, eating and drinking and hoping she’d choose to marry one of them. So she was a prisoner, too; finally Odysseus turns up alive after twenty years; I wonder how a marriage works after twenty years apart? Penelope, played by Anne Hathaway, seemed quite old, and certainly not a ravishing young woman. Odysseus says he wanted to see his homeland, Ithaca, again, but I did not hear mention of his wife and son!
There was an interesting interlude where Odysseus’ son, Telemachus, visits Menelaus with his wife Helen, now retrieved from Troy, resides in what has always seemed to me to be rather boring domesticity. Helen’s face is marred. I have always wondered just what did she want? Did anyone ask her?
Like Helen, Agamemnon’s wife Clytemnestra is played by a black woman too, and we see the ghastly scene of his return home, to be murdered by his wife in the bathtub. She’s been having an affair with Aegisthus in his absence. This sounds dreadful, but Agamemnon had sacrificed one of their daughters, Iphigenaia, before the Trojan War. Nevertheless, his death is (has to be) avenged by his son Orestes. And so it goes, tit for tat, the gods fight amongst themselves as do the humans, with a bit of godly interference along the way. The Rest is History podcast did two episodes where Tom. Holland tells the story of the Odyssey, as told by Homer. OF course, it was myth back then! Anyway, it makes for a rather wonderful movie, and has resulted in lots of discussion.
On Friday it was our wedding anniversary. Although we’d celebrated on our trip overseas, buying special mementoes as well as having the wonderful trip, we had lunch at Loretta in Cuba Street. Sadly, there are very few restaurants that look out on the sea, which is a missed opportunity, I think. Those that do a pretty rustic, and we wanted something a bit more upmarket. JD had a glass of Neudorf chardonnay and I had a glass of prosecco, with our chicken liver parfait, fish and spinach risotto, and chocolate mousse. It was pretty good, although I think we had a slightly better food last time we went there!
Last Friday I attended a classics group for the first time. It was from 10 am -12 noon in the CBD, and was about Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 1. I ama not very familiar with Ovid’s poetry, having neither studied in detail or tutored on it, so I did quite a bit of preparation. Having said that, it was quite a mission for me to attend a two hour session in town, as well as having someone from Access come to do some cleaning in the afternoon. I was supposed to meet JD for lunch afterwards, but just as we were leaving home JD had a a phone call which changed his schedule for the day. I ended up making my own way home; this was frustrating too, since a Churton Park bus did not show. But thankfully I did get home before the lady from Access came. She often comes earlier than scheduled, but not today!
I have yet to make up my mind about future attendances. I am tempted by association with other academics: as well as loving classical literature (as in Latin and Greek), all the people there are all highly qualified and experienced, and most have taught at a senior level. On the other hand, this group does not seem to operate as I would expect! I guess I shouldn’t pass judgement after attending one session.
That’s it for now. Slava Ukraini! Nga mihi nui.
Classic Barbarian 