Today’s sketch as we wait for a coalition government to be announced: the Genga Coalition

It’s now Tuesday October 31, 2023. Kia ora!

Yesterday I finished reading my book “The Red Hotel”, which I’d reserved from the library. It tells about the Metropole Hotel during the Second World War, when it was very difficult to get press passes from the major newspapers, and it was very hard to get visas to Russia. Stalin sought to influence heavily what the journalists wrote, and translators, always beautiful women, were engaged not only to restrict what news could be sent abroad, but also to spy on their targets. You end up with a very complicated web of spies masquerading as journalists, and the inevitable love affairs that ensued. The journalists were not allowed to report from the war front: any trips were carefully orchestrated and catered for, to demonstrate that Russian forces were doing far better against the Germans than they were initially.  It was an interesting, if very complicated book. There’s a harrowing story about a Russian Jewish woman who got caught up in Stalin’s Reign of Terror, and imprisoned for 15 years in the Gulag; attempts by people outside the Soviet system to help may well have caused more harm to her and her family. After the death of Stalin there was some relaxation and reconciliation, but in the current war against Ukraine Putin is employing similar tactics to control whatever information is allowed to be disseminated.

Today JD was meeting an old friend at 10 am at Bordeaux Bakery in Thorndon Quay; he dropped me off in Murphy Street to catch a bus to Brooklyn. I was navigating my way through controlled crossings, when a bus ran through one, even though the Green Man was showing!  I was so shocked that  I didn’t think to take the bus’s number. I caught a bus to Brooklyn, and had time to have a toasted cheese scone and a latté. I saw The Oak Tree, a BIFF film directed by Ken Loach, so I knew what kind of film it would be.  But it was a really good film, about a Syrian refugee family arriving in a north of England village, and the consequent anger and resentment amongst the locals as the refugees try to establish their new home.  The highlight of the movie for me was a visit (by the film) to Durham Cathedral, which I have long wanted to visit.

It’s now Wednesday November 1^st.

This morning hymn singing started again with the lovely pipe organ at the church.  I got up early, but it was really warm and sunny. Getting there was tricky:  Khandallah is still getting new water mains (thankfully!), but there was a queue in Boxhill. We turned left into Station Road, something we’ve been avoiding for the last few weeks, and went along Cashmere Avenue to Everest Street, and then down Ganges Road.   It was lovely to sing hymns together again. Afterwards I caught a bus to Johnsonville, and then a bus home.

In the afternoon we were due to look after our granddaughter again from 1 till 3 pm. I had looked out some things to take to amuse her, but she seemed a bit tired today.

Back home, I am catching up with today’s news.  I’m a bit upset because I listen to many podcasts using Apple, but I often get the message “Unable to prepare for playback”.  Spotify is my next choice, but I can’t always find the latest episode on Spotify. Moreover, it’s really annoying to see that a new episode is available, and not be able to listen to it.  Other players like Audible want money (I think) to use their platform, so I’m trying to avoid that, but it’s very hard to listen to all the podcasts I’d like to hear. Apple was a great engine because it would keep on working through a list of podcasts without stopping, something very useful when you’re trying to get to sleep.

In the UK, a panel is hearing evidence on the Tory government’s response to Covid 19. We knew it was dreadful – the UK and the US had some of the worst responses, but I think we’re all shocked to learn just how chaotic and unprepared Boris Johnson’s government were.  The then chancellor Rishi Sunak invited people to “eat out to help out” but this turned into Eat out to Help Covid, as many people got Covid and some died: it was a very serious illness in the first few months, before we had vaccines and medication.

It transpires that Johnson asked “Why are we destroying the economy for people who’ll die soon anyway?”, and basically didn’t care if people, especially older people, died of the virus. The government’s attitude was very cynical, as we already knew from the Partygate scandal. A further shocking fact is that then British Prime Minister Johnson was laughing at the Italians: remember how the city of Bergamo in northern Italy was very hard hit early on in the pandemic?  The UK government also talked about providing body bags, not about keeping those bodies alive. Eventually they did have a complicated lockdown, with some very confusing rules, but even as New Zealand locked down and closed its borders, planes were landing at Heathrow and passengers not being tested for Covid. Here’s a link to an article about this tragedy:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/04/when-britain-needed-a-decent-leader-we-had-a-derelict-at-the-helm-boris-johnson

Marina Hyde joked that Covid 19 was the wrong crisis for Johnson and Sunak:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/01/boris-johnson-dominic-cummings-covid-inquiry-no-10

It’s now Sunday November 5^th.

On Thursday morning I had my other singing, in the Khandallah Town Hall. Despite the traffic problems, there was a great turn out. Afterwards John picked me up and we went into town to the new Lego shop in Willis St. It was very busy! We couldn’t get the lego my grandson wanted for his coming 6th birthday, but we got two similar sets. I hope he’ll like them! I had hoped we’d have lunch at Smith the Grocer Café, but JD had put little money on the parking machine, so instead we went to La Cloche in the Old Hutt Road, where we parked for nothing. I had a smoked salmon and spinach filled omelette and salad; JD had omelette, salad and chips, of course; they used to have shoestring fries there, but they didn’t today. We had bought a strawberry tart to share, but we took it home for dessert. The omelettes were really filling!

On Friday someone came from Access to do some cleaning; I was very tired, I’m afraid. The next day we went shopping at New World in Thorndon; there were no raspberries, alas, but Jersey Benne potatoes have come in, and I got some Havarti cheese covered in peppercorns.

This morning a friend took me to church. The minister pointed out that November 5 is the anniversary of the Parihaka resistance. He pointed out that the peaceful resistance was followed by intense violence, but in 2017 by a formal apology from the government for the crown’s usurpation of Māori land.

The results of special votes in the recent general election here are in now, and amongst other news, Greg O’Connor has comfortably retained his seat. It seems that special votes favoured Labour, and National and Act have both lost seats, the Greens have gained one, and results are very close in two seats. Te Pati Māori has won six seats causing an overhang, and so Christopher Luxon will need support from Act’s Davis Seymour and New Zealand First’s Winston Peters to form a coalition government. Not only is Luxon new to government, he’s totally new to this kind of negotiation; I’m sure many of us are more than frustrated that Peters is again calling the shots.  It will probably take a long time, whatever the outcome. Hopefully that means we won’t lose any current “privileges” in the meantime.

It’s now Monday November 6^th.

Last night a friend picked me up to go to a Salvation Army Proms concert at what used to be the Methodist Church (a brick building) in Cambridge Terrace.  We went early and got a carpark in Kent Terrace; most of the right-hand turns have been blocked off, and, furthermore, although it was Sunday evening, the carpark had to be paid for!

I hadn’t been inside this chapel before, but it is really attractive inside and quite “cosy” unlike many churches. Someone has bought it, and restored it quite beautifully. It’s rather forbidding exterior belies the beauty inside, with fine light fittings (chandeliers), Persian rugs, and beautiful paintings. This concert was like a British Proms, in celebration of the coronation of King Charles III. The only nod to Māori was the New Zealand national anthem having the first verse sung in Māori!

So the concert was very British, while acknowledging some New Zealand places and composers.  There was a brass band, a choir, and some string players. There was some quite beautiful soprano singing, including several solos. I especially enjoyed Zadok the Priest and Men of Harlech.  They also sang the Slaves’ Chorus from Verdi’s opera Nabucco. Towards the end we joined in hymns like I vow to thee my country and Jerusalem, followed by Now is the Hour. Afterwards supper was served in a large hall behind the church, with sandwiches, cakes and savouries. This room had more fine paintings. Then my friend showed me the Board Room, with yet more beautiful paintings. There’s also a private garden outside.  You’d never know there were all these facilities. I wondered, somewhat naughtily, about the earthquake rating, but was informed that as this was a heritage building, it didn’t have to be strengthened.  Ha ha! But there were no warning signs, either! I guess if there’s an earthquake you get under one of the wooden pews (complete with kneeler), or the many chairs. What a lovely place! Evidently they’re going to do a Christmas concert there as well, and they do Easter celebrations too. All this was free – there was no fee for the concert, and not even a koha collection.

The weekly covid news was published again today, although you’d have trouble finding it. There have been 5872 new cases of Covid-19 reported in New Zealand over the past week, and 19 further deaths attributed to the virus. Of the new cases, 1364 were probable cases. Of the new cases, 2823 were reinfections. At midnight on Sunday 5 November, 212 cases were in hospital and five in intensive care. The seven-day rolling average of new cases was 838 per day.

New interim results from New Zealand’s Long Covid Registry show support measures for the illness are lacking, with people heading in to work unwell. Research lead Dr Paula Lorgelly said the study showed Long Covid was a debilitating condition.

Last week, Te Whatu Ora reported 3934 new cases and 29 further deaths. Covid is still with us, and it’s rearing its head again in the US too.

The situation with the war in Israel continues to be very distressing. What is even more upsetting, if that were possible, is that President Biden and Sir Keir Starmer (leader of the Labour Party in England), are losing support because of the stance, that Israel’s right to defend itself is supported, but, hey, they need to wind back the violence against Gaza – about 4,000 Palestinian deaths was the latest I heard yesterday.

Here’s a link to a thoughtful article from the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/05/in-middle-east-as-in-greek-tragedy-justice-must-prevail-over-moral-absolutism

It’s now Tuesday November 7^th.

An opinion poll in the US has come out showing Trump as having more support than Biden.  This is very distressing! Remember Trump’s Muslim ban, Palestine sympathisers?  Why do so many of you trust this man (Trump)?  How can American voters be so stupid. Mind you, one may well ask how can New Zealand voters be so stupid, as to again put Winston Peters in the position of kingmaker?  Does anyone trust him? Is he experiencing cognitive difficulties?  He won’t talk to the press, so the process of negotiating with him, however fruitless, is closed to us, the voters.  Luxon has said that Seymour’s proposed referendum on Te Tiriti would be “divisive and unhelpful”. On that, I do agree with him. I’ve been surrounded by a lot of National Party voters recently, and it has quite upset me. So everything goes on hold, including some environmental initiatives. Meanwhile, Chloe Swarbrick, combative and popular Green Party MP for Auckland Central, has espoused the Palestinian cause with a “River to the Sea” tweet, which implies that the state of Israel no longer exists. Chris Bishop, a National MP, has already been chided by Luxon for something he said.  An Israeli MP has called for a nuclear bomb to be dropped on Gaza. Netanyahu has suspended him. But really, people, what about the pollution? Israel is not a large country. The fallout would be truly more terrible.

Oh dear oh dear. In Ukraine, the brutality continues, with Ukrainian forces having some significant success while Putin’s cruelty continues with missiles fired seemingly at random, usually causing civilian casualties.

Anyway, that’s it for now. There’s news today of Trump’s cross examination in his New York fraud trial, which unsurprisingly, was not deferential. I’ll say no more for now. I’ll just say that any sympathy I might have had for his having such ignorant and offensive sons, is truly gone now. Slava Ukraini! (I have to confess that British PM Rishi Sunak is now using this phrase in the Telegraph’s weekday podcast Ukraine the Latest.  Still and all, you read it here first. Ngā mihi nui.

I hesitate to include this photograph, but somehow Luxon will have to work with Winston Peters and Dave Seymour to form a working coalition.

Today is Sunday October 22, 2023. Kia ora!

This morning I went to church at Johnsonville Uniting Church, where we were worshipping this Sunday. I’m not sure that everyone at Khandallah got the message, which was a bit sudden! They have a lovely minister there, and there were three texts: the one in Exodus 32 about the golden calf (evidently the Egyptians had a god in the form of a bull, I did not know that); Psalm 106, and the beautiful text from Philippians 4: 1-19, which is such a comforting text about the peace of God which passes human understanding; it also encourages us to think about beautiful things, not negative ones. It is good to be distracted from the dreadful conflict in the Middle East and in Ukraine.  The Middle East conflict seems to have aroused resentment and many anti-Israel protests.  Some sceptics are asking what President Biden achieved by hugging Netanyahu, who has favoured Hamas over the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) and been provocative rather than peaceful. Biden is seeking Congressional approval for a huge sum. Israel has apparently asked for $10 Billion dollars: for what, exactly? One hopes that Biden has some kind of leverage over Netanyahu, although I fear the latter is like someone else with his “reptilian cunning” and political survival instinct.  “Blessed are the peacemakers”, says the Good Book. “For they shall be called Children of God”. 

After church, I went to the Johnsonville Library to the café there and had an oat milk latté and a cheese scone. It was very busy, and the scones aren’t as good as Smith’s, but instead of finishing my book about Trieste, I read a very moving Guardian article about a still birth.  Then I caught a bus home.

The little bit of good news about the Middle East conflict is that despite all the death and destruction and terrible news stories, aid trucks are now getting through from Egypt to Gaza. There is a terrible sense though that the Israelis will be seen as being as brutal as Hamas in their desperate vengeance.

I was going to return my book about Trieste to the library, but I can’t quite bear to part with it yet. How I miss the UK Book Depository, where one could buy cheap books with free shipping! No wonder Amazon took it over and closed it down. Perhaps one of the second-hand bookshops in Wellington will have a copy.  Meanwhile, I should read some other books, but it’s hard to switch when one book has impressed one so much.

Today’s Guardian has an article about the Adriatic, including Trieste and Istria. Here’s a link:

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/oct/22/amazing-adriatic-the-top-five-places-to-visit

I wasn’t wrong to be fascinated by Trieste.

It’s now Monday October 23^rd, Labour Day in New Zealand, a public holiday.

JD had an appointment, so I decided to go an see the French movie A Great Friend at Petone.  The time for his appointment had changed, so he was able to give me a lift to Petone. Thankfully, there was hardly anyone there, so I decided to have lunch there: an oat milk latté, of course; an empanada, and a lemon and raspberry cupcake.  There was plenty of time for me to tackle the puzzles in my new Listener before seeing the movie. And I’m pleased that I saw it, although it wasn’t one of the best movies.

Afterwards I was going to catch two buses home, but the timetable was different from what my phone had told me – instead of the #83 bus being due shortly after the end of the movie, there was 20 minutes to wait, according to the information board.  JD rang me, and thankfully came to pick me up.

In the Middle East, more aid is getting through; the Israeli Defence Force is still firing missiles; and there’s enormous grief and anger in Gaza, and huge protests in other places, such as London and Australia. Meanwhile Biden is seeking more money to aid Israel and assist rebuilding in Gaza, after the Israelis have bombed it?  Despite the fact that many right-wing Americans support what Biden is doing, although most of them wouldn’t admit it, many others oppose helping Israel.

Locally, it seems that work to earthquake-strengthen the Town Hall is now going to cost more, and won’t be finished until 2027! And then the Michael Fowler Centre will be closed for earthquake strengthening or for demolition!

There is to be an Italian Film Festival. I try to print the program, but it is pretty confusing. There are some old movies, including Blow Up, starring Vanessa Redgrave and David Hemmings, which so impressed me when it first came to Wellington; also Fellini’s La Strada. There’s a film about Naples called Nostalgia, which I’d really like to see. And then there’s BIFF (The British and Irish Film Festival) which has awkward times for the films I’d like to see. I like the French film Festival, where I can rock up in the daytime using my Gold Card and there’s usually enough room; or one can book in advance. 

It’s now Wednesday October 25^th.

Yesterday JD dropped me off at the Terrace in town. I was due to have a blood test, but the SCL lab was very busy! I had planned to have the test, have morning tea, but changing plans, I caught a bus to Manners Street and went to Arty Bees second-hand book shop. They didn’t have a copy of the book by Jan Morris about Trieste; I also went to Pegasus Books in Cuba Street, but they didn’t have it either.  I then caught a bus to Willis St and had morning tea at Smith’s Café (a latté and a toasted cheese scone; and walked back to Unity Books. They don’t have the Trieste book, but they will order it in for me. By now, it’s so hard to get, I really want my own copy. They also have a Lonely Planet Guide to Taiwan (surprise!), but it’s quite expensive at $45, although it looks really interesting. Then I walked down Willis St and Lambton Quay back to SCL labs on The Terrace. Although it was lunch time by now, there were fewer people there, and I could sit on a two-seater sofa. By now I felt terrible, but having made it there, I was determined to have my blood test.

Afterwards it was raining outside, and it was really warm, so I took a jersey off and my scarf and got out a thicker tote bag.  I rang JD, and thankfully he came to pick me up – I was really too tired to get home using public transport, especially in the wet. I bought a package of petit fours cakes to bring home from the Bordeaux Bakery in Lambton Square.

This morning I had a Te Reo Māori class in Khandallah at 10 am. Future classes are to be at 10:15 am, thankfully!  It was fun – we played the card game Fish, and asked each other for cards in Māori.  Afterwards, I planned to catch a bus to Johnsonville. It was really cold now. There was nine minutes to wait for another bus, and I rang my cousin, who’d tried to ring me earlier. Consequently I managed to miss two buses to Churton Park, and had to ask JD to pick me up after all. We were really late by now for minding our granddaughter at 1 pm. I got some lunch from the Café at the library, and JD had a quick shower.

We minded our granddaughter for a couple of hours: what a treat!  She and I alternately read each other stories (she’s only 3, but has an amazing memory). And played UNO, which is a bit like Fish. It was great fun.  We also admired her soft toys, and she played with a wooden puzzle which I had brought. She did a drawing with her Grandpa.

There’s big news today. Two more hostages have been released by Hamas, but there’s been dreadful violence in Gaza and hundreds of Palestinians killed. A UN resolution for a ceasefire has been vetoed by the US. It seems to me that President Biden is getting himself in all kinds of trouble for supporting Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu, which would be supported by republicans except he’s a democrat; on the other hand, many, including Jewish people in America, are very frustrated by the ongoing violence in Gaza, and are asking, like myself, what is the endgame? What is the desired outcome? Palestinian lives in Gaza, whatever their government, seem expendable, as the humanitarian crisis worsens. A hospital and a mosque have been bombed. The hurt and destruction are terrible. BBC4 continues to file excellent if harrowing reports.

In the US, there are plenty of distractions. A MAGA guy, Tom Emmer, was proposed for speaker, but Trump said No, so he withdrew his name. Now another republican, Mike Johnson, (who?) has been put forward. Jenna Ellis, indicted by Georgia D.A. Fani Willis, has pled guilty, tearfully, saying that if she’d know the information about Trump winning the election was untrue, she wouldn’t have acted for him.  Another Trump ally, Mark Meadows, former Chief of Staff, has opted for a plea deal in Jack Smith’s election interference case.  Meanwhile Trump continues to make vile claims, and guess what U.S. also means “us” – who would have thought it? He also claimed, at a rally in New Hampshire, that Victor Orbán, the strongman leader if Hungary, was the leader of Turkey. That country also has a strong man leader, but it’s not Orbán, it’s Erdoğan.  Well, Biden may be old, but he’s not that dotty, and thank goodness he’s president during this crisis, and not Trump. It’s ghastly to imagine how Trump would have handled it.

In other news, Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, has testified against Trump in his New York fraud trial, saying that he was required to state the business and property values according to what Trump wanted, not what he or Allan Weisselberg (C.F.O. but not a qualified accountant), may have thought. Both men went to prison for Trump; Cohen obviously greatly regrets having lied for his former boss. Trump stormed out of the court saying that he had won. Actually, that is not the case.

It’s now Thursday October 26^th.

This morning our son rang from the UK! It was lovely to talk to him.  I had to bow out of the call to have a shower and go to singing in Khandallah.  It’s very windy today, and crowded with disruptions in Khandallah: a water main replacement is inching ever closer to the shopping village in Ganges Road, and there are detours and lots of cones, so it’s a challenge to get there but people come, nonetheless. Singing was lovely, of course, and I even managed to pick up a prescription in Johnsonville on the way.  Afterwards a dear friend gave me a lift home – she even brought her car outside the Town Hall to pickup another friend and myself.

Now, I’m trying to catch up with the news: in the US, Trump has been fined (again) $20,000 for defying Judge Engoron’s so-called “gag” order; Michael Cohen has taken the stand again; an a speaker of Congress has been elected, Mike Johnson – “Jordan in drag”, said Adam Kinzinger.  He’s MAGA of course,  an election denier and very conservative on abortion.

It’s now Sunday October 29^th.

There’s been another mass shooting in the US, this time in Lewiston, Maine, where such things never happen. Well, it’s happened now. I think 18 people are dead, and perhaps 50 wounded. There was a big search for the gunman (a disaffected veteran), until he was found dead, having taken his own life. Amazingly, the new House Speaker, said this wasn’t the time to talk about gun violence (so what would be the “right time”?), and that people had a right to be armed and to defend themselves. Except, in the Uvalde, Texas shootings, the police were afraid of the gunman, and who can blame them.

Of course we are devastated by the All Blacks’ loss to the Springboks by one point in the Rugby World Cup final. The refereeing was upsetting of course, especially when the captain Sam Cane’s yellow card became a red card, and he was off for most of the game!  Disallowed tries and a missed goal kick added to the misery. We watched it at our son’s house nearby, and I zoomed into the church service afterwards. Thank goodness for zoom, but sadly the sound wasn’t at all good this morning, although I turned up the volume on my computer. There was a visiting preacher, but I couldn’t hear much of what she said.  I think it was about the devastating effects of climate change, and an exhortation to us to do what we can in our local environment to be wise and to look God’s Creation. Of course, we’re encouraged not to be afraid, but it is hard not to fear for our children and grandchildren’s futures.

I went on my first ever church retreat over the last two days. They had held one at the Home of Compassion in Island Bay some time ago, and I had not been, but those who did go enjoyed it.

This began with an interview first, and then a dinner and workshop on the Friday evening.  JD came to pick me up afterwards, and we took another friend home, but JD insisted on doing a mystery tour of the Transmission Gully Highway to see where the exits were. I could have done without that!

On Saturday we were to start at 10 am, and as I had not had coffee, I got a take-away latté before hand. Two extra people joined us on the Saturday, making about twelve in addition to the minister and two elders taking this Pathways course.  We worked in groups, or on our own, and it was really good to get to know people better, and learn more about their circumstances. There had been several bereavements that I hadn’t known about.

After lunch there was a hour’s quiet time, to go for a walk, pray, rest, reflect; I was wary of this but went in the church where I could put my feet up. I read some poems, read some verses (Isaiah 40 and Hebrews 12); prayed, and then played music in my head: Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St Matthew Passion, and some hymns: O Master let me walk with thee, and Blessed Assurance. Then I joined some other folk in the sunshine.

We finished soon after 3:30 pm; I have to admit that I was very tired in the afternoon. I think I was glad I went, although I find it hard to say what I really mean in these situations.

Overseas, in Gaza, Israeli forces are stepping up their attacks; they have cut power and communications to Gaza, so the situation there is even more dire, as more and more innocent people and children are hurt, along with supposed Hamas terrorists; there have been protests including in Auckland and Wellington yesterday, marching for Palestinian rights.  What a desperately sad situation.

Meanwhile, in New Zealand, we are in hiatus as we wait for special votes to be counted in the recent General Election, and Luxon does the tricky job of negotiating with two Māori: David Seymour and Winston Peters.  It’s a kind of relief to be in this interim phase; although I remember we were in the US in November 2017 when Winston Peters announced his decision to form a government with the Labour Party, then headed by Jacinda Ardern, who was to become Prime Minister, and have her first child!  I had quite given up on politics; what a treat it was to have a Labour Government, especially through Covid, and how proud I was of Prime Minister Ardern.  Now, six years later, we wait again, not really expecting anything good. I just hope that our Super Gold Card privileges such as free public transport in off-peak hours don’t get removed.

The dreadful situation in the Middle East has quite distracted us from the war in Ukraine; there are fears that Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, will get involved, and that Iran is contributing to Hamas’ funding. This conflict could well spread. It’s such a sad and complicated situation. 

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

Beautiful Trieste is on my list for my next trip

It’s now Monday October 16^th, 2023. Kia ora!

Firstly, a Covid update. You have to search, but they’re still being published each week. There been 3816 new cases of Covid-19 reported in New Zealand over the past week, and 17 further deaths attributed to the virus. Of the new cases, 1735 were reinfections.

As at October 9 there have been 3571 new cases of Covid-19 reported in New Zealand over the past week, and 15 further deaths attributed to the virus. Of the new cases, 1603 were reinfections. At midnight on Sunday 8 October, 230 cases were in hospital and four in intensive care. The seven-day rolling average of new cases was 510 per day, up from 422 last week.

Last week, Te Whatu Ora reported 2968 new cases and 14 further deaths.

There have been 3816 new cases of Covid-19 reported in New Zealand over the past week, and 17 further deaths attributed to the virus. Of the new cases, 1735 were reinfections. At midnight on Sunday 15 October, 243 cases were in hospital and two in intensive care. The seven-day rolling average of new cases was 544 per day, up from 510 last week. Last week, Te Whatu Ora reported 3571 new cases and 15 further deaths.

On Monday’s episode of The Detail, University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker said Covid-19 has not gone away. “It’s our number one infectious disease threat… it’s really displaced influenza as our biggest single infectious disease killer.” And Baker warned the number of reported cases are probably well behind what’s actually out there. “[There are] 3500 or so reported cases every week, but we know that will be at best 50 percent of the cases in the community… maybe less than that… so we’re still looking at about 10,000 cases probably a week at least.”

It’s now Wednesday October 18^th.

Monday was not a great day. I had intended to go into town, but I did not. On Tuesday morning I was to look after a house where the family were to be away at a funeral. JD had said he would come with me; I hadn’t been there before, but we found it all right. It was a lovely house, with beautiful paintings and lots of interesting books.  The weather wasn’t great. Afterwards, JD had an appointment, so I asked him to drop me off at Pataka’s Kaizen Café.  It was lovely there, and not too busy. Afterwards I looked at the galleries and the shop, and then went to the library to wait for JD and read my library book. What a lovely set up it is! 

I didn’t have to wait long for JD.  Then we drove up the new Transmission highway to the Waitangirua/Whitby Gully turn off, since JD wanted to know where the exits were. Afterwards I wanted to go to the library at Johnsonville, to pick up a reserved book. It was just after 3 pm, and so really busy. JD parked in the Johnsonville Shopping Centre car park, not the library carpark, as I was hoping. Consequently I had to negotiate the car park, in the rain, and then cross the busy road to get to the library. My reserved book is a big tome, as they always tend to be!

This morning we were due to go to the Titian movie at Pauatahanui. It is one of the last screenings, and we both wanted to see it.  Although the car park nearby was almost full, there were very few of us to see the movie.  In fact, we were so quick getting there via the new Transmission Gully highway, we turned out to be early. I could have had my free coffee after all. JD had an ice cream and a peanut bar. I was looking forward to having something to eat there afterwards, but this was not to be

The film was pretty good – Titian was an amazing artist, and his sensuous women presage the coming of Tintoretto. Years ago, when we were in Boston, there was a wonderful exhibition of paintings by Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts which we saw three times! We bought the book, and a couple of prints by Titian, although I have to confess that I don’t know where they are now. What a treat!  Titian died, quite elderly, in another visitation of the plague, but at least he was quite intelligent in terms of maintaining an income; sadly, the woman he loved died in giving birth to his daughter Lavinia, who was later to die in childbirth herself. There were two sons too, one of whom stayed close to his father. Titian was born in Venice, and lived there for much of his life, so it was magical to see much filming of Venice.

The days leading up to yesterday I have been listening to and watching many videos and podcasts about the situation in Israel.  Americans are stressing Israel’s right to defend itself; but the view that this aggressive defence needed moderation was being voiced. Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, has been doing “shuttle diplomacy” around the Middle East; Biden is scheduled to go to Israel on Wednesday (that would be our Thursday).  But all this changed to day with news of the bombing of a hospital in Gaza, and area that was supposed to be evacuated (like, where to? And what to do with people in Intensive Care and other crises?) Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis worsens every hour.

Israel claims it did not fire missiles on the hospital, but it would be fair to say that the level of crisis just went up several notches. Many of us re wondering what to believe. Biden has reportedly cancelled his projected visit to Jordan.  The resentment has grown enormously: why should Palestinian people suffer, again? While the attack on Israel (which Hamas claimed responsibility for) was truly awful and brutal and Isis-like in its cruelty, what kind of vengeance, and hostage negotiation, is appropriate? 

So, this already scary crisis has just gone up a notch. The resentment and grief on both sides are understandable.

In addition, Trump claimed yesterday that Republicans eat their young. He said this twice. Although not a great deal is being made of this, I think it’s remarkable; surely this is some kind of “red line” for other republicans! It seems not.

It’s now Thursday October 19^th.

I think I wrote that the population of Israel is about 20 million If so, my sincere apologies, it is just under 10 million. It is not a large country, with a big population. Americans have some difficulty with this.

This morning I  had an appointment at Wellington Regional Hospital at 11 am. Consequently, we left by 10:20 am. JD dropped me off at the main entrance, where there is a convenient drive – through; a guide took me through the maze of escalators and corridors to a lift, that would take me where I wanted to go. That went fine, and I found my way down again to the main hospital entrance. A Mojo coffee stand has replaced Wishbone, and as I hadn’t had a cup of coffee, I waited in the queue for a time. But you could only get coffee in takeaway cups; there was nowhere much to sit; and presumably you had to wait until your order was called; so I gave it a miss and went outside to catch a bus into the city. There were plenty of seats, and I didn’t have to wait long, but dear me there’s a bike lane you have to traverse to get on the bus, after waving it down, and although bikes are supposed to stop for bus passengers, of course they go whizzing past. Oh dear, more obstacles. And this is outside the hospital, too.

I decided to go to Smith’s Café in the Old Bank Arcade again. I had a cheese scone (delicious!), an oat milk latté, and a lemon and passionfruit slice (which I brought home to eat). Then I went to Unity Books and bought a book for my eldest granddaughter for Christmas. I couldn’t find any Christmas cards there, it may be too early for them. I checked the travel section, and, amazingly, there was a Lonely Planet guide to Taipei, so I bought it. It’s a small book.  Then I went to the nearest bus stop to catch a bus home, noting, with sadness, that the Hush Puppies shop has closed. Hannah’s have Hush Puppies, but Hannah’s has moved out of the Johnsonville Shopping Centre to a where Warehouse Stationery used to be, a wee shopping complex that’s not that easy to get to.

It’s now Friday October 20^th.

Yesterday we awoke to news of rockets having been fired at a hospital in Gaza.  Israel insists it is not responsible.  Meanwhile, President Biden is going to Israel. Is this wise? Probably not, but he’s home now, thankfully, and addressing the American people (I’m listening now and he is speaking really well).  Jim Jordan of Ohio has lost a second vote to be speaker, by more votes against him that in the first vote. There is talk of installing a “pro tempore” Speaker, i.e. a speaker for the mean time as the US really needs a speaker to avert a government shutdown, and to approve assistance to Ukraine and Israel. Oh, and Sidney Powell pleaded guilty in the Georgia case.

The targeting of a hospital in Gaza, whatever the cause, has aroused further large protests across the Middle East. Arabs are, for the most part, against America which is allied with Israel.  The US seems to be calling for restraint, but it sides with Israel, stating Israel’s right to defend itself..

This morning I listened to an LRB podcast where the interviewer spoke to an Israeli and a Palestinian. This was very measured and interesting. The Jewish person made the point that everyone in Israel is descended from a family that lost people in the Holocaust, and consequently still has a fear of the Gestapo and the concentration camps. This fear may seem irrational to us, so far away, but Jewish people have always potentially been discriminated against and resented, and their safety is paramount. 

The Palestinian person made the point that in negotiations, Israeli rights always seemed to have priority over Palestinian rights.

For the last few days many people have been asking what is the endgame in Israel? For Israel? Who else is involved, and likely to be involved?

Biden has also negotiated for humanitarian aid to be delivered to Gaza via Egypt.

I have been reading the Jan Morris book on Trieste, called Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere. The library seriously wants it back, and I am a slow reader. But what an interesting book it is. I read a review of this book in the Economist, and the allure of Trieste has remained with me. It is a port city, and was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but was assigned to Italy after the Second World War. So it’s very cosmopolitan, with the people being mainly Austrian or Italian, or a mixture. There were many Jews there, but when Germany took over Trieste during WWII, they made a huge effort to get rid of them.  James Joyce was there; New Zealand was there, together with Tito of Yugoslavia, when the Germans surrendered at the end of WWII; the country adjacent to Italy at this point is Slovenia. Before the beginning of World War 1, the bodies of the assassinated Arch-Duke Ferdinand and his wife were driven through Trieste, with great dignity. Mussolini’s colleague Gabriele D’Annunzio was in Trieste. Trieste went all out for fascism. It’s a fascinating place.

It’s now Saturday October 21^st.

It’s been a good few hours for democracy, I think: in the US, Jim Jordan has failed in a third attempt to get enough votes to be speaker; disgusting threatening taped messages have surfaced of attempts to intimidate GOP Congress representatives who voted against him. They have not worked to intimidate his opponents.  In the Georgia RICO case, Kenneth Cheesebro, who, like Sidney Powell, had opted for a quick trial, has, like her, pled guilty, having spurned an earlier plea deal. That eases the burden of trying many people at once, but it’s truly significant that two of Trump’s allies who helped him try to swing the election for him have agreed to testify truthfully. Neither will serve jail time, both will be on parole and have to pay fines and write letters of apology.

President Biden has returned safely from Israel, and given an amazing speech from the oval office of the White House. That is a flight of around 10 hours 45 minutes, not insignificant. Isn’t Biden amazing? Thank goodness he is safely back; some thought he was unwise to go to that dangerous place, where he would be a target of so many. Thank goodness he is over these negotiations! In this situation, having been around a long time, and having personal connections with many folk, is a big advantage. This morning I learnt that Hamas has released two female American hostages. Yet the Gaza humanitarian aid is still not coming through Egypt, and Israel continues to attack Gaza. No one is safe there. While stressing Israel’s right to defend itself, Biden and Secretary of State Blinken are warning against Biblical Old Testament-style vengeance; the so-called “rules of war” must be observed: as in if civilians get killed as a by-product of legitimate military action, that bad thing may happen; but you can’t deliberately target a place where civilians are known to be, like a school or a hospital.  So that’s all good. Oh, and in Poland, a right wing government has been elected out of office.

Meanwhile, the US Congress still has no speaker (this is the person next in line to be president after the president and vice president);  Humanitarian aid is still not getting through; Israel is still pretty trigger happy, it appears; and Putin has been to China and met President Xi.

I have several books that I’ve reserved from the library:  Sleepwalkers, The Red Hotel, and, of course, my book about Trieste. I want to reread Man Alone before sending it to my eldest granddaughter for Christmas. The books I wanted to get through about Ravenna and Ukraine will have to wait. Somehow the books I reserve from the library usually turn out to have a lot of reading in them! It is all so interesting.

JD tells me that Ukrainian forces are doing rather well against the Russians, using their new ATACMS from the US. I cannot find details in any newspaper! But that’s it for now. Trump’s so-called “gag” order, and his and a judge’s response, will have to wait. Slava Ukraini! Ngā mihi nui.

They’re both New Zealanders! The All Blacks played Ireland in this morning’s Rugby World Cup game in Paris.

It’s now Monday October 9^th, 2023. Kia ora!

This morning I am eager to hear (sensible) reaction to the surprise attack on Israel by Hamas, where many Israelis have been taken hostage, and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has vowed revenge.  The US commentators, usually so quick to rush into print/podcast when a new crisis occurs, are largely silent, still dealing with McCarthy’s ousting as Speaker of the US Congress, and Trump’s various legal woes.  But what I want to know is how Congress will allocate yet more funding to Israel, without a Speaker? There are immediate consequences of this debacle. I guess they thought there would be a breathing space until the next government funding crisis in November. But no, life goes on, and stuff happens outside of the US. So they need a new speaker right now. It frustrates me that this consequence is recognised by me before I see it anywhere in the media. I must admit that their limited perspective is frustrating at times. This is something that JD and I share.

I am listening to a most interesting podcast from The Rest is History about the start of the Arabian Empire, called the Baghdad: The Forging of Islam.

It’s now Tuesday October 10^th.

There are big repercussions for the attack in Israel; it’s being called a terrorist attack; hostages have been taken; and a music festival was attacked!  As expected, there is lots of discussion; as expected, Israel’s Prime Minister vows enormous vengeance; there are also voices about the misery of the Palestinians who live in the Gaza strip. I won’t attempt to take sides; I’m sure that many innocent folk have been and will be victims. Already the death toll is over 1,100 I think; so far 11 American citizens are known to have been killed. This attack by Hamas achieved surprise (where were Israeli and American intelligence?), but I am likening it to a suicide bombing, where the perpetrators expect to achieve their reward in heaven.

It’s now been echoed several times so far on MSNBC:  that the US Congress needs a Speaker! They are in recess for a week. Senator Tuberville still maintains that he will hold up military appointments. I thought that Republicans were amongst Israel’s biggest supporters?  Oh dear, what a very sad state of affairs.

In local news, election fever continues. It will be a relief when this is over. Among interesting points: an ACT candidate has died; some are saying that ACT peaked too early; and that Winston Peters timed his re-entry perfectly.  Judith Collins is nowhere to be seen; neither is former Prime Minister Ardern, although my Instagram feed tells me she voted early. National have wheeled out (Sir) John Key, and Labour Dame Helen Clark to assist their campaigns. I’m not particularly enamoured of either of them.

Last night there was (another) so-called debate between Grant Robertson and Nicola Willis about their financial policies. The front page of this morning’s paper highlights a saying by Cameron Bagrie, who, I understand, claims to be an economist: “And as an economist, there’s not a lot of confidence on either side”. What does this even mean? Bagrie is presumably an educated person. I know when I was marking, I would have taken issue with such a statement.  Does he mean that he doesn’t have confidence in either plan? Or they don’t have confidence in their respective plans? Who doesn’t have confidence?

Hipkins is out of isolation (now 5 days) for covid 19, but another Labour MP has covid. There’s a report by Michael Baker that New Zealand’s pandemic policies saved 20,000 lives!  And a great deal of fear and anxiety, I might add. Well done, New Zealand!  I doubt if that will happen again.

It’s now Wednesday October 11^th.

Yesterday afternoon two of my cousins came to visit.  One of them brought an Apple and Rhubarb Shortcake that she had made. It was delicious! We had it with honey-flavoured Greek yoghurt.

This morning I went to a Te Reo Māori class at the Khandallah Town Hall. I’ve missed three classes, I think, but it seems to be making a lot more sense now and I enjoyed the session.  We learnt about means of transport, and popular locations. There’s a lot of Māori versions of English words, so that makes things a bit easier. Afterwards I voted at the Khandallah Town Hall.  That was fine, although the marker pens are a bit large and blunt for the tiny circles to tick the party and candidate you wish to vote for.  Afterwards, there was no sticker, no exit poll. However I did get a robot call from Greg O’Connor last night.  This morning’s newspaper has a full front page advertisement for Prime Minister Hipkins and Labour, so that’s nice.

With regard to the terrorist attack in Israel, despite Prime Minister Netanyahu’s vengeful response, the attack is shown to have been truly terrible, and is being seen an Isis-like attack in its brutality. So that is very scary indeed.  It’s thought to be backed by Iran, and the US recently did a prisoner-swap with Iran for $6 million USD.  Of course, somehow the attack is the Democrats’ fault. The fact that there are so many Jewish commentators in the US doesn’t help – it seems most of them are Jewish, or Catholic; one has to feel for the Palestinian people who seem to be very poorly served by – everyone, including their leaders.  But it’s upsetting to see the Israelis being cruel by walling off the Gaza strip, and in effect doing to the Palestinians what the Nazis did to them. Now, I don’t want to get into an argument about this, since it’s desperately sad to see any suffering and destruction of the means of livelihood.  Of course conspiracy theories abound, but it seems that Putin was pleased to see the world’s attention focussed on Israel rather than Ukraine. What a desperately sad situation.

It’s now Thursday October 12^th.

It’s becoming ever more evident that the attack by Hamas on Israel was cruel and brutal, as details emerge of the cruelty. There was surprise, that people weren’t rescued and didn’t know what to do. Prime Minister Netanyahu is being criticised for not looking after the Israeli people (about 10 million). There are stories of babies being decapitated, a man with his arm cut off, many deaths and then there are the hostages. The Gaza strip has been under siege and the humanitarian situation is desperate.  Although people have been advised to leave, they cannot do so. As someone pointed out on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, there’s a difference between being militant and being a terrorist. The surprise attack by Hamas is being described as terrorism, whatever the provocations that may have led to it. The Israeli response is hopefully not terrorism.  The Rest is Politics podcast had a special episode, where Rory Stewart tried to explain in ten minutes the situation in Israel:

https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/the-rest-is-politics/id1611374685

That was a very cautious and measured explanation, I think.

Among things that impressed me were Alastair Campbell talking about the Good Friday peace Agreement, which effectively put an end to terrorism waged by the IRA.  Peace in Northern Ireland looked impossible, and there were very strong feelings on both sides, but it was achieved, and for the most part, the Peace Agreement has held firm. I doubt if many people realise just how significant it was.  And so, perhaps there is hope for the Middle East.

Yesterday afternoon I got JD to drop me off at the Johnsonville Shopping Centre. I didn’t find the book I was looking for at Whitcoulls, but of course I managed to spend some money. When JD came to pick me, he voted, and sent me shopping at Countdown. That is frustrating, since I don’t know my way around that store.

This morning my Thursday morning singing resumed after a break for the school holidays. There was a great turnout! And some fantastic singing. It was nice to be back.

 There are now 22 Americans confirmed dead, and several are among the hostages. 15 have not been accounted for.

It’s now Friday October 13^th.

It’s said there are still at least 97 hostages held by Hamas. The situation in Gaza is dire indeed, with no power now.  Some are wondering what the end game is, for Netanyahu’s war, What would success look like?  I remember Americans Congresswoman Barbara Lee (I think it was ) after the 9/11 attack, and the start of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying something along the lines of be careful not to become the evil you seek to avenge.

Oh, and by the way, Trump praised Hezbollah, and President Xi of China, and criticised Netanyahu for not helping with the assassination of Sulemani.

Apparently 25 Americans have been confirmed killed in the current conflict.

It’s now Sunday October 15^th

I guess by now everyone knows that National did far better than Labour in yesterday’s general election; still, Christopher Luxon will have to form a coalition government with ACT and probably N Z First. They failed to get 50% of the vote.  Greg O’Connor retained his Ohariu seat, thankfully.   This result is not really surprising, but I find it upsetting. It’s being called a bloodbath, but I think that is an exaggeration. What I find even more upsetting is that the Voice referendum in Australia failed to win, although it was thought to be a certainty a few weeks ago.  What strange decisions people make! Still, it’s a privilege to be able to vote, peacefully, and to be able to vote early in many locations.  And although I dislike the National Party and what it stands for, at least it’s not (at present) as far right-wing and crazy as in many countries.  National and Act only have a slim majority of seats; one seat, at the moment, and that could well change with special votes and other mishaps.

This morning we got up early and went to watch the rugby match at my son’s house. The All Blacks were playing Ireland, in Paris, at the Stade de France, for a place in the quarter-finals. It was a very exciting game, which the All Blacks won by 28 – 24. There were some odd decisions by the referee, Wayne Barnes.  There were two yellow cards! And yet the All Blacks won. That should cheer us up!

I have been listening to several podcasts about Hamas’ sudden attack in Israel, and watching some very good videos from BBC News and Channel 4 News. I have been learning more about the history of Israel and the Middle East this century. I have heard from many Jewish people who worked towards achieving peace in the region, only to find, as many have done, that Prime Minister Netanyahu has been a deeply divisive figure, plagued by scandal. Like his authoritarian counterparts, he continues to escape the sanctions of the law.  He does not seek peace or unity, it seems. And there are several questions: why did he take so long to address the nation of Israel after the crisis? Why were the famed Israeli intelligence service (Mossad) not only unaware of the attack by Hamas, the I.D.F. (Israeli Defence Force) failed to act on it. It seems that there was little security at the music festival in the desert near Gaza, from where many hostages were taken.  It seems that after the attack, there was no official guidance for hours and days.

The attack by Hamas was really well planned, and evaded the Iron Dome defence and Israel’s other technological defences. While there is no question that the massacre was extremely gruesome, and affected many, many Jewish families, there is also little doubt that the way Israelis have treated their supposed enemies has been and continues to be with Biblical, Old Testament rage and cruelty. The New Testament says “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God”. Now I don’t want to offend anyone, and I’m learning more and more about this situation, but it seems hard to defend Israel’s response in Gaza to “raze it to the ground”. Are any leaders of Hamas even there? It’s a huge humanitarian disaster, to evacuate 1.1 million Palestinian citizens, who have in all probability done nothing wrong.  And where are they to go?

We are waiting now for Israel’s response, and one wonders how easy it will be for the US and other countries to defend this response.  It’s been compared to the Japanese attack at pearl Harbour, and America’s 9/11, but it’s known that while the Japanese Ambassador tried to warn President Roosevelt, he was kept waiting; while the 9/11 attack came as a huge shock, there were many intelligence warnings that were ignored. I guess when an “unbelievable” attack occurs, the intelligence is even more unlikely to be believed.

Whatever the wrongs of the attack, one has to think very carefully about the response, whatever the desire for vengeance. The US response to 9/11 was pretty drastic, and it was under the Obama administration that Osama bin Laden was finally tracked down and killed. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour got America into the Second World War, which was probably a good thing, all things considered.  But it’s so terribly sad that innocent people, who didn’t contribute to any division, who may have actively sought peace, must be made to suffer anyway; it’s as though their lives don’t matter. The response of President Zelensky, also Jewish, of Ukraine has been very different: he has rallied Ukrainians to fight for their country, and face unimaginable hardships in so doing. For a long time, Ukrainian forces resisted any attacks on Russia, although Putin had invaded without being threatened or invaded himself. The cruelty of the Russian attacks and subsequent kidnappings and torture are similar to the Hamas attack, although for Hamas they’re no doubt aware that they’re on a suicide mission, with their reward due to come in paradise. I’ve never been quite sure how that works, especially for the 40 virgins, but there we are.

And what might be the consequences of this attack, and retaliation? Was Iran involved, and, if so, to what extent? Are the Lebanese Hezbollah likely to get involved? Are the Russians involved? Will nations still be prepared to support and supply Ukraine, remembering that they are suffering on the democratic world’s behalf.  Now there are two great conflicts – Ukraine and Israel, both with the potential to become greater.  Meanwhile, in the US, Republican-dominated Congress still lacks a Speaker. Many are saying that there is chaos in American politics. It makes our issues in Australasia pale by comparison.  There is danger in chaos, though. Some are saying that Israel was in a chaotic state before the sudden Hamas attacks, what with the huge protests against changes to the legal system, and the difficulties in forming a far-right coalition government. Still and all, we’re fortunate to live in Aotearoa.

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

The Trinity test at Los Alamos, showing the traditional mushroom cloud

It’s now Friday October 6^th, 2023. Kia ora!

Yesterday we were due to meet up with our daughter and her friends, but arrangements were a tad haphazard.  Instead, the cleaning lady turned up – I had not looked at the schedule, and again, Access had tried to change my weekly schedule from Friday to Thursday. I repeat, Thursdays are no good for me. I go to singing or to Tai Chi on a Thursday morning.  I don’t do much, but this is really important to me, as I’ve explained to Access more than once.

In the event we had kebabs with them for tea at their Airbnb.  They were staying nearby in Paparangi. The house looked quite attractive on Google Maps, but it was down a really narrow cul de sac, and not that easy to get to.  Furthermore, access was difficult, with an overgrown sloping path and some steps with no handrail. Surely this is not legal?  The house was quite nice inside, and I guess getting somewhere that sleeps 7 is quite a challenge to find.  Still, they may have been more comfortable staying in a motel! Inside there was a sunny conservatory and deck, and a modern kitchen. We took some paper towels and picnic plates and some lemon iced tea.  One of our sons called in to see his sister while we were there. They were to go to the WOW show that evening, and leave to return to Hawkes Bay early this morning. Our daughter always had big smiles for JD and myself and her brother. Evidently she enjoyed the WOW show, although it was quite intense.

Today someone came from Access to do some cleaning, and accordingly, I changed the towels, tidied up, and put some washing on.

So, in the US, Trump’s “My Kevin” has been ousted as Leader of the House of Representatives; and Trump is growing increasingly unhinged as his business is threatened in the New York civil fraud trial. Whose Kevin is he now?  Trump did not support His Kevin in this crisis.  This fraud seems to be the trial Trump finds most threatening, since it strikes at the core of his professed personal wealth. Forbes have taken him off their Rich List; and he’s now quoting from Hitler’s Mein Kampf.  Wise people are talking about the Weimar Republic (you know, the one that was failing when Hitler was elected to power); and about the famous film Cabaret starring Liza Minelli; there’s also talk about the Fall of the Roman Republic, or perhaps the Roman Empire.  Having watched the film Path to War with Michael Gambon as Lyndon B. Johnson, I can see how so many Americans have distrust in the institutions of their government. Still and all, I want to be able to renew my passport! You need some institutions of government to achieve that. It seems many Americans do not have passports.  In an island country like New Zealand, literally at the bottom of the world, you need a passport. Also, it’s a recognised form of id.

Apparently Trump’s been given 7 days to submit a list of firms that will lose business licences.

The general election in New Zealand is coming up soon, Our Easy Vote cards arrived in the mail yesterday, but, sadly, they’re not perforated. Meanwhile, it’s pretty sure to be close, with popularity among the major parties not changing much over the past few weeks. Prime Minister Hipkins is out of Covid isolation now, and says he’s feeling fine; there’s still a lot of changes to public transport with many trains replaced by buses on account of staff shortages and other mishaps.

Trump has withdrawn his case against Michael Cohen, on the point of being required to testify under oath. Trump’s fraud trial continues, and Jeff McOnie (I think) has confirmed that Eric Trump was fine with him greatly augmenting the values of various Trump properties. The trial is to be delayed for a few days; but Trump has been asked to nominate businesses to be ruled out of order.

But the most stunning Trump news is that he told Australian billionaire Pratt about US nuclear powered and armed submarine capabilities. Pratt bought his way into Trump’s club at Mar a Lago, chatted to Trump, and subsequently told several people about his discussions, including three Australian Prime Ministers – Scott Morrison, Paul Keating, and Malcolm Turnbull, I think.  Whether these highly confidential details were true or not is beside the point; there is no classified document involved here, but Pratt has been interviewed by prosecutor Jack Smith, who evidently wishes to establish that Trump was very careless about classified information. He had a very short attention span, but he paid enormous attention to details of how the nuclear football worked, it is said. Furthermore, he called for the shooting of his former Head of the Joint Chiefs, General Mark Milley, expecting that someone would take him up on it. To date, no Republicans have denounced this shocking call.

By the way, the Aussies reneged on a submarine deal with France. Just saying.

It’s now Sunday October 8^th.

Last night we went to a 5 pm screening of Oppenheimer at the Penthouse Cinema in Brooklyn. The film is unusually long, at three hours, but there were several people there, including a very restless person behind me who continually jabbed at my seat.

The film is very good; Cillian Murphy does a fine turn as Dr Oppenheimer; Matt Damon is fine as General Groves; and the rest of the cast are uniformly excellent. I found the film a bit theatrical, with frequent interruptions of loud and colourful eruptions.  The music, if you can call it that, was awful.  The story is told in terms of the questioning of Oppenheimer by the FBI and the senate after the Manhattan project’s success, about his supposed communist origins.  I found this upsetting, given that it parallels the American legal system as demonstrated in the current Trump trials, but then we learn of Trump’s supreme carelessness about classified information! Anyone else would be in prison!

Still, it was good to see the Manhattan project in action under Groves and Oppenheimer, in New Mexico; it was interesting too to see his misgivings develop as the outcomes were taken completely out of his hands, as in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the development of the arms race, MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction), and the Cold War. It was pointed out that when the Manhattan Project started, the Americans were in a race to establish an atomic bomb before Germany did, since it was known that Germany was eradicating Jewish people, and Hitler’s hatred of Jewish people had been know for a long time. After the bomb had been tested, Germany had surrendered and was no longer at war; the main enemy, it was thought, was Japan. It later became former US and UK allies, the Soviets.

There was no mention at all of the British development of nuclear power at Cambridge University, as documented by C.P. Snow in his Strangers and Brothers series of novels, where his brother Martin is a scientist heavily involved in the development of nuclear power in England. The scientists there had similar moral qualms about the monster they had created:  they were shocked when a nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and then on Nagasaki.  Their similar moral unease, coupled with radiation sickness, was not mentioned at all. Still, Christopher Nolan has produced a fine and memorable film, like his Dunkirk and 1917 films were memorable, for telling human stories against a background of much larger events, and doing a pretty good job of it. Actually 1917 was directed by Sam Mendes. My bad.

There was a lot of mention of Prometheus (the film was based on the book American Prometheus), the Bhagavad Gita (“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”), and yet the project was named Trinity.  The Rest is History podcaster Tom Holland spoke about Frankenstein.  Evidently Trinity refers to a sonnet by John Donne which begins “Batter my heart, three-person’d God”. Oppenheimer called the test Trinity.  Americans do love historical analogies! I guess many of us do, too, although it’s frustrating when they’re used incorrectly. I think of the Trinity as a Christian concept, not a Jewish one, so calling the test Trinity is something to know more about. Evidently Oppenheimer and his mistress liked the sonnet.0

I guess it’s good to be reminded that nuclear power presents a threat as great as that of climate change. Somehow, despite the proliferation of nuclear weapons, amongst several countries, and several near misses, many of us have survived to date, and we hope and pray that our children and grandchildren will survive.

I’m glad we saw the film. Oppenheimer was a linguist – he gave a lecture in Dutch, and was learning Sanskrit!  The beginning of the film reminded me of my eldest seriously brainy son, who is a mathematician, a fine linguist, and a fine musician. Seriously brainy people (and I’m not putting him in the same class as Einstein or Oppenheimer) have a degree of autism, perhaps, or unusual behaviour, on the edge of normalcy. He also has a beautiful wife and two beautiful children.

We had agreed to have dinner in town after this. The Salty Pidgin looked pretty busy, so we drove into town and again found a car parking area off Cuba Street, where we had parked the other night.

We had dinner at Loretta, again: JD had a glass of Neudorf Chardonnay (always a treat), and I had a grapefruit mocktail. I was really thirsty after the long movie. We had flatbread and white bean dip, a rather strange main course, (I’d thought the servings were really small after the other night!), and delicious desserts – again: an affogato with Kahlua, and a chocolate brownie with Cointreau ice cream. They were both delicious. We should have shared a pizza for our main course!

As we waited for our food, I commented on the fact that there hadn’t been a nuclear war, yet, although of course there’d been the Chernobyl disaster. JD had been looking at his phone, however, and said that the Palestinians had fired several rockets into Israel. Sadly, this morning, this has become a drastic situation, with Israel declaring war on Palestine. Middle East peace, one of President Jimmy Carter’s hoped for legacies, is not to be, although he’s had huge success with eliminating guinea worm. So there’s another war, and another crisis. Strangely, the famed Israeli intelligence service did not have forewarning of this attack. And where was the Dome? It happened on a Sabbath (Shabbat) day, and many are reminded of the Yom Kippur War in 1973 50 years ago this week , when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel. Yom Kippur means atonement, by the way.

Afterwards we came home, having left the heat pump on. As JD insists on closing all the doors, it’s not much use leaving the heat pump on!

This morning I listened again to the two The Rest is History podcasts about Oppenheimer.  The film sticks pretty closely to the truth, here. Oppenheimer was a seriously intelligent and unusual person, and yet he managed to hold the unwieldy team of brainy people0 together and pull off delivery of the atomic bomb. There was contention: Edward Teller thought it would be best to develop a hydrogen bomb. After this amazing feat, what happened next was taken out of Oppenheimer’s hands, and he was vilified for possible communist party connections in that peculiar American way. By the way, the spy Klaus Fuchs was a member of the team delivering the Manhattan Project, and Oppenheimer had nothing to do with his appointment. Senator McCarthy was gaining influence, President Truman was newly president, and the very shady J. Edgar Hoover was head of the FBI.  What a strange country!

This morning I went to church. The texts were about the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20: 1-20 and Matthew 21: 33-46), and a parable about the owner of a vineyard. It strikes me as significant that to deliver the Ten Commandments to Israel, Moses must go up the mountain where God remains unseen in the cloud. No one wants to risk God’s anger. In the New Testament, the vineyard owner sends his only son, and the other guys say let’s kill him, and seize his inheritance. In The New Testament, God is love, and it’s human beings who are angry. So in the Old Testament the one God, El, is unseen, and you must not make an image of him, but in the New Testament, God sends his Son Jesus to earth, in the form of a man, and even when people can see him, they despise him, mock him, and call for Barabbas when given a choice as to who is to be crucified.  Yet again, this desperate act of cruelty, led to our salvation, and Christ’s resurrection from the dead. So there is a wonderful progression.

An interesting verse in the Matthew’s Gospel text is about the stone: in chapter 21 verse 44. Going on after speaking about Jesus being the cornerstone, it says: “The one who falls in this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls”. The minister said that the first phrase referred to Isaiah 8, and the second phrase to Daniel 2. Being very interested, I looked these up. The Isaiah verse reads as follows: “And he (God) will be for a sanctuary, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, to both the houses of Israel…”. The Daniel 2:34 verse reads as follows: “Thou (Nebuchadnezzar) saw till a stone was cut out without hands, and it smote the image upon its feet of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces”.  This is when Daniel is brought in to interpret King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.  Matthew, being a fine Jewish scholar, often demonstrates his extraordinary knowledge of the Old Testament when writing his gospel, and so it is here.

The attack on Israel, by Hamas representing the Palestinians, seems to have been quite intense, with many Israelis being taken hostage.  In the walled enclave, walls have been taken down. Does this remind you of anything?  I guess one can try to understand the grief and upset on both sides, but surely violence does nothing to solve anything, in this day and age.

Well. That’s enough for now.  Slava Ukraini! Ngā mihi nui.

John Donne’s Sonnet:

Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you

As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;

That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend

Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

I, like an usurp’d town to another due,

Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,

But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue.

Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov’d fain,

But am betroth’d unto your enemy;

Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,

Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

I have hesitated to use photos of this guy, but seeing him looking angry in court is different

It’s now Friday September 29^th, 2023. Kia ora!

This morning started out warm and sunny, but it grew colder as the day wore on. Someone from Access came to do some cleaning, which was greatly appreciated.  Other than that, it’s not a great day for energy. But I tidied up before she came, as I usually do.

We have a general election coming up in about two weeks’ time. It certainly isn’t over yet:  Chris Hipkins did rather well in a debate with Christopher Luxon; as Luxon expounds on his financial plan, Labour are pointing out holes in it. To the rest of us, they look alarming. And his deputy, Nicola Willis, does not want to be in coalition with Winston Peters. META (formerly Facebook) had a nice photo of Greg O’Connor with his son Michael, who is also at Hōhepa. It’s evident that Christopher Luxon has been photoshopped to make him look more attractive.   So it’s not over yet.

Meanwhile, there was a protest today. What are they protesting about? Asked one news media outlet. Indeed, one wonders why. Evidently the protesters came and went and the police are thinking of removing street closures sooner than expected. So the protest was rather a damp squib.

There was another anti co-governance protest on Saturday, but the number of protesters were outnumbered by those who support co-governance. Go figure.

It’s now Monday October 2

So what’s been happening?  On Saturday evening we went out for dinner! This was a “Dinners for 8” function arranged by my church; actually it was dinner for six, with us being picked up by a couple I know who live locally, and driven out to another couple who live at at Summerset on the Landing. The host couple used to live not far from us in Churton Park. I knew them all, to some degree, but JD did not know them. There had already been several attempts to arrange this get-together, a lunch being preferable; but my recent sickness and different dates of being away made it very hard to organise. We were to take dessert. We made a nice fruit salad, and I wanted to get something chocolate to have afterwards. The ideal thing would have been chocolate peppermint thins, or sticks, but although we looked in two New World supermarkets, it seems they only come on the market before Christmas. So we settled for a chocolate caramel slice. JD is not a caramel fan, but he had to admit that this was delicious, fortunately!

Despite my nervousness, we had a lovely time, and JD enjoyed it, too. We had lovely cheese, crackers and grapes to start with, followed by tomato soup brought by another guest, She’d also brought beautiful soup bowls and plates that she’d had from her mother.  For the main course we had a chicken and leek casserole, asparagus, and a potato and tomato dish.  I wondered if I should have taken pouring cream, or ice cream, but I think there was no need. The Summerset on the Landing complex at Kenepuru is huge, but our friends have a lovely spacious house, and some beautiful paintings, including one by Philip Markham. He’s one of my favourite artists – I also have a small water colour painting by him.

The next day, the church service was to be followed by a pastoral lunch. Although there weren’t many of us (it was the middle of the school holidays, after all), there were two kinds of delicious soup, helpfully served in mugs, and rolls with savoury fillings, plenty of food. We were asked to bring something sweet to share afterwards, so I brought the rest of the chocolate caramel slice.

In the afternoon I wanted to see an Artbeats film about Venice. It was on at Petone, a cinema JD does not like, but he took me there. I was pleased to have seen the film.  It had some modern aspects, but wonderful views of St Mark’s  Cathedral, and an outside view of the Doge’s Palace (Hey, I’ve been there!)  There were lots of views of the Grand Canal, of course, and the Rialto Bridge.  There was a view of a J M W Turner painting, very impressionistic, which I have not seen before. Although I’ve seen several Turner paintings, I have not seen this one, and I did not know that he’d been to Venice (three times, evidently).  We watched a biopic about Turner, but it did not mention his going to Venice, as I recall.

Last night we watched Michael Gambon (later Sir Michael) starring as Lyndon Johnson, during the Civil Rights legislation of the Martin Luther King Jr days, and the politics of putting more troops into Vietnam, into a war which America would lose.  It was a very good film, and Gambon is excellent as Johnson; Path to War was the name of the movie.  It’s very long, and finishes with Johnson’s speech in which he says he won’t stand for President, and won’t accept his party’s nomination as candidate for president.  Shortly after these very sad events, we have the assassinations of MLK, followed by that of Robert Kennedy.  Then came Nixon and Kissinger, and more protests, and lots more war.

In local news, Prime Minister Hipkins has announced yesterday that he was diagnosed positive for Covid 19.  The Post is representing this as really bad news for his campaign, but perhaps there’ll be a sympathy vote for him?  I feel very sorry for him.  I’m wondering if my recent malady was the new variant of Covid 19, although the four RAT tests I did were all negative. Somehow, things don’t taste as good as they should; or perhaps my taste buds are growing older. 

It’s now Tuesday October 3^rd.

Early voting has opened for the general election, but our Easy Vote cards haven’t arrived in the mail yet. Of course, we could go and vote anyway, and I’m minded to do that.

It was very cold this morning, with a high of 10°C predicted, but after some rain it turns out to be fine and sunny, if rather windy. I went to Bible Study this morning, which was about the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20). There is another version (the same) in Deuteronomy 5. I have to confess it’s hard to get a word in, and a great deal of patience is required.  I went, though, because a friend of mine was going to be there. In the event, she didn’t come. Afterwards, JD picked me up from the supermarket. It was far to cold to catch a bus, or even to sit outside the supermarket entrance to wait for him. I had been going to wear my really warm puffer coat, but seeing the sun, I thought it would be too hot.  It wouldn’t have been! I ended up searching for my woolly hat and gloves to wear while I waited for him.

Yesterday JD had to go to Johnsonville in the late afternoon, and so I went to the library. Both my reserved books were there:  one reserve had been extended, thankfully, since I wasn’t notified that it was there; I returned one library book but held on to my book about Trieste, which I need to finish reading. It spoke about nationalism, which really does not make sense when one is from a melting pot of nationalities, or one’s parents are. It’s a very right-wing thing to be obsessed with patriotism, I think. During the Second World War, Italian fascism under Mussolini was rather obsessed with patriotism; but Trieste is one of those parts of Europe which has been under various nations and various governments during the last few hundred years. For example, Trieste is a port and was an important part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for many years; at the end of WWII, it was determined it should be part of Italy. So it really is a melting pot.

My daughter and some of her house-mates and carers are due to come to Wellington for the WOW show. There’s been an emergency, though: the carers who were going to come are unwell, and thankfully others have jumped in to replace them. One of them is a good friend and she has been to our house before, so that change should be fine.  There is a lot of Covid 19 about again: not only has Chippy got it, but it’s in several rest homes as well.

In the US Trump appeared in his civil fraud trial in New York.  Among several revelations, including Trump’s obvious anger, and Don Jr’s laughing about GAAP standards, the most startling revelation to me was that Allan Weisselberg was not a qualified accountant!  Trump cast doubt on his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s credibility, but since Cohen was proved to have lied in his defence of Trump, that would seem to be, well, an interesting claim! It is kind of interesting to see Trump in a court, where he does not rule the roost, and he’s not looked up to by adoring MAGA followers. It’s a scene not under his control. Of course, he threw his CFO, Allan Weisselberg, under the bus, again. That, too, adds to the fraud – the valuations and accounts were not taken seriously.

It’s now Wednesday October 4^th.

The comedians are back!  Last night we watched Stephen Colbert, Seth Myers, and Jimmy Kimmel. There is some frustration, I’d have to say, but much joy and laughter, and you always learn something new. It’s good to have them back! They each summed up what had been happening politically during the five month Hollywood writers’ strike, and summarised events around Trump, the gift that keeps on giving. Strangely, not much has changed, apart from a series of indictments, as it seems to anyone who tries to wean themselves off US politics.

This morning lots of things happened, as I woke up to more and more news. First, Congressman Matt Gaetz proposed a motion to oust Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker; the vote went against McCarthy (there were some who thought he would survive the first vote to remove him as Speaker); he lost, and evidently won’t stand again. So that’s one crisis, having just deferred the government shutdown to November.

My phone keeps popping up with advertisements starring Winston Peters, authorised by somebody else.  Peters has been a politician like, forever, and what has he achieved, apart from (sometimes) free public transport and the Gold Card? Not that we aren’t grateful for that, of course. But other than that, he’s been a divisive figure. The other annoying factor is ads in an American accent. Duh!  I received an email from the Khandallah Community Centre saying that they’re a voting centre. I replied that I hadn’t received my Easy Vote card yet. They said No matter, there is some delay with NZ Post, ha ha. They should have used DX mail!

In the US, Trump continues to cut an angry figure in his New York civil trial for fraud. This won’t be a jury trial, apparently partly because Trump’s lawyers (only the best people!) failed to request a jury trial. It’s also supremely ironic that Letitia James, a New York D.A., brought these charges, which may have the most impact on Trump – how dare anyone suggest that he’s not “really rich”? or that he fabricated his wealth?  It strikes me as supremely ironic that it is a black woman of some seniority (like Georgia D.A. Fani Willis and New York judge Tanya Chutkan) who is charging or judging Trump. Black women are dishing it to him, via the process of law. No matter how much he tries to discredit it, the process of law, however flawed, still stands.

Furthermore, a “gag order” of sorts has been placed on Trump. The event which finally inspired it was a photo of judge Engoron’s clerk with Senator Leader Schumer on Trump’s Truth Social, claiming she was Schumer’s girlfriend. Accordingly, this post has been taken down.

And furthermore, in the UK the Conservative/Tory Party is having its annual conference in Manchester. Apparently it’s in some disarray, although the American news is, as usual, taking up all the oxygen (to use another cliché). Ominously, there are some who favour a return of Liz Truss. No, really.  I think a return of Boris Johnson would be preferable to that. He didn’t quite wreck the economy. But Sunak is in all kinds of trouble, over climate denial, the indeterminate stopping of HS2, and Suella Braverman’s upsetting comments on Unwanted People arriving in Boats.  As with the US, it’s a case of there are so many crises that one tends to forget some of them. I just remembered the waterways crisis, which is not minor, either.

Back here, my daughter is coming to Wellington with three house mates and three carers.  This is a brave venture, seeing that the lovely ladies who were going to bring them are unwell, and substitutes (whom we know) have been appointed. There are question marks over the arrangements, so we are on tenterhooks. Meanwhile, one of our sons brought his children over for a while in the early afternoon. Our granddaughter was rather scary – she was into jumping, which we thought rather dangerous!  She decided to play Hide and Seek, instead. Grandpa wouldn’t play, but I did.  Our house is really good for playing Hide and Seek.

Prime Minister Hipkins has Covid 19, and not only him – there is rather a lot of Covid around, with several rest homes affected. So where is the next/new vaccine? I fear that a National Coalition government will not be nearly as protective as Labour has been. There is a lot of talk about Freedom, whatever that means to each individual. For me, personally, I want to be able to renew my passport, so I can travel outside New Zealand to visit my children and other members of my family. That is really important to me. I know there are other views, and I don’t know what kinds of link ups there are between various computer systems that keep tabs on us, but there is some good and bad in most things, and compromises to be made.  Accordingly I regard vaccines as life saving, although they’re not perfect, and there are some risks involved in using them.  We live in a far from perfect world. “As for God, His way is Perfect” (Psalm 18:30). I know I’d far rather pay tax for a degree of civilisation – sealed roads, public transport, a health and education systems, and a somewhat healthy liberal democracy, which I suppose we are here. The health system, whatever one’s complaints, kept me alive through several near-death experiences, although perhaps the Good Lord kept me alive in spite of its deficiencies! If my SAH had happened several years earlier, I doubt that I would still be alive, or my brain functioning as well as it does. 

After sliding in the polls, Labour seems to be strengthening its position again.  This will be an interesting election, that’s for sure.

My daughter and her group have arrived in Wellington, and we are to meet them for dinner tonight at an Italian restaurant. That is rather brave, I think, but it’s not my decision! I have been there before, and although it’s not my favourite, it was rather good when I went there last. Wellington is not Hawkes Bay! But perhaps it’ll be tolerant there.

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

Some of the amazing artwork on display in the Egypt exhibition at the Auckland Museum

It’s now Saturday September 23^rd, 2023. Kia ora!

We have come on a small road trip north. We left on Wednesday, driving to Taupo. It was fine and warm, with little traffic.  We had lunch at the Church Café in Sanson. We had stopped there four years ago, en route to JD’s mother’s funeral in Taupo, and had good memories of it. Today, it seemed rather rustic.

We also stopped at the Army Museum in Waiouru.  I couldn’t find what time the café (the Mess Tent) closed, but it was still open when we went there. We had oat milk lattés, and then I went to have a look at the shop. I found some beautiful scarves, and JD bought me one of my favourites.  Having done that, he then decided to buy one for his sister too. I was very glad to have the new scarf, as it turned out. It goes with everything, is quite fashionable, and adds warmth.

We had a wonderful drive over the Desert Road, with fabulous views of the mountains, and not much traffic.

In Taupo we were staying somewhere we hadn’t stayed before in Rifle Range Road.  It was much cheaper than other options, and I thought, ah well, it’s only for one night. En route, I got a text message to say that the key was under the mat. In the event, it wasn’t, and the unit number was incorrect. But the motel was just fine: it was quite roomy, with plenty of plugs, a power board, and a small spa bath. The towels were rather thin, and there were only two of everything, with no view of the mountains, but that didn’t matter. On the way we had had a beautiful view of the mountains, cloudless.

We had dinner at Portofino, which was nearby; it was empty when we arrived but soon filled up.

The next morning we got on our way to Auckland. This was a rather trying drive. There were many timber trucks. We waited for passing lanes to pass them, but they were like ants: we’d overtake three, go around a corner, and there’d be three more. Thankfully they turned off before Tirau for the Tauranga Port. We didn’t stop in Tirau; JD wanted to stop at the Bombay Hills; I thought we’d have to turn off the Southern Motorway to go to one of the two cafés there. Consequently we turned off the Waikato Expressway to go to Cambridge. We found our way to the town centre, and struggled to find a parking place. We then walked back to a café for lunch. I tried to get Google Maps to tell us how to get back onto the Waikato Expressway, without success. A waitress gave us instructions. It was quite a long way, but we went past St Peter’s Church, and then St Peter’s School, followed lots of cones, and eventually lo and behold we found our way onto the Waikato Expressway again. The speed limit was 110 kph, and there was lots of traffic, but we enjoyed speeding past Hamilton, Huntly, Pukekohe and other places. 

I used Google Maps to find our motel. We were instructed to take Exit 432, but it was a bit hairy following the computerised voice’s instructions. There was masses of traffic, and some tricky lane changes. Google took us past St Cuthbert’s College, along a narrow road with cars parked both sides, where school was just out. Still, we were almost at our motel – Cornwall Park Motor Lodge. We were able to get a unit on the ground floor, thankfully.  Our unit wasn’t quite as big as the one we’d had in Taupo, and doesn’t have a spa bath, but it’s very good and we’re quite comfortable. The towels are better!

That evening we walked up Manakau Road to Da Soldi Sette, an Italian restaurant where we’d been before. It was crowded and noisy, but very good. We had some cheesy pizza bread to start with, and gave half of it away, although it was delicious; JD then had a risotto and I had scallopini parmigiana, delicious tender pork steaks crumbed and covered with tomato (Napoli) sauce and parmesan cheese. Afterwards, we shared affogato with Tia Maria, and a yummy tiramisu. The best! Then we walked back to the motel, thinking this was perhaps a rather stupid move. Of course, it didn’t seem as far walking back.

The next day was a big day. I was due to meet my cousin for lunch, and JD had a Hōhepa Foundation meeting in Takapuna; afterwards, there was to be a dinner, but the arrangements were all a bit vague.  We went early to the North Shore, and bought a copy of the NZ Herald (the Post was unavailable), before buying coffee at the Movenpick place.  Then JD dropped me off. The French Rendezvous Café was beside the Pumphouse, the Bruce Mason playhouse on Lake Pupuke. JD dropped me off at the top of the drive, after driving along a narrow street. I walked down, and found the restaurant. My cousin came a few minutes later. I hadn’t been here before, and I hadn’t seen Lake Pupuke either. The brick playhouse was rather wonderful to see

It was lovely to see her again. I had what was called a galette, which was really a large buckwheat pancake with smoked salmon and spinach and some yummy tasty blobs of sauce; it had a cheesy filling too. She had gnocchi; we finished with affogato for her and a profiterole for me – delicious, with ice cream and chocolate sauce. Afterwards, she took me back to her house in Milford, and I looked at wedding photos for her only son. We talked about the novel A Gentleman in Moscow, which I had read myself, and been totally impressed by it. Then I had a rest before JD picked me up soon after 5 pm. 

We were to have dinner at Tok Tok at 5:30 pm; we had drinks first, after finding a carpark, and finding where to pay for it. Then we walked to the restaurant. It was very busy, but service was efficient and attentive. Again, I had a nice mocktail drink. We had the $65 per person special, which saved making tricky choices about foreign (“Asian fusion”) food. The food was delicious, for the most part. Afterwards, JD brought the car to the restaurant, where he had offered one of the party a lift to the older suburbs of the city, supposedly closer to where we were staying. We had fun with Google Maps’ animated instructions.  It being dark, we couldn’t see where we were going. We seemed to end up in an industrial area, after a few wrong turns – it’s so hard to see street names in the dark. Eventually we were at the given address, and there were two apartment buildings. Our party wasn’t sure which one she was staying at, but her friend came down to meet her, so that was that. Then we had to find our way to Cornwall Park, where we were staying. I was extremely tired by this time. But we did get there, thankfully.

The next day (Saturday) I had plans that we should go to the Egyptian exhibition at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, visiting Maison Vauron in Newmarket on the way. There was an opportunity to buy tickets online for the exhibition, since entry would be restricted, but we didn’t bother with that, since I didn’t know how long things would take.

We found Maison Vauron, with the help of Google Maps; it was along a narrow street, off Khyber Pass Road, but it had its own parking place at one end of the street. It was drizzling with rain. The shop was very busy, and there wasn’t much room to sit. There was a rather scary staircase upstairs; I didn’t feel like going up. I looked at some of the products for sale, but they were very expensive. One couple left, so I sat down and we ordered morning tea: two long black coffees, and two Danish pastries.  It was delicious, but the store was very busy, and it rained even harder outside.  JD backed gingerly out of the car park, and we tried to follow Google Maps but it often had us making right turns into busy roads, not easy to do.  Many cars wouldn’t let us into the traffic; eventually a kind driver did. We found our way to the Auckland War Memorial Museum, quite nearby, and went into the carpark, where we found what JD calls a “fraud” park. We had entered the car park, only to be confronted by a Carpark Full sign, however we had to keep going and we did find a carpark. We went upstairs, and bought tickets to the Egyptian exhibition for just over 30 minutes later. The museum was extremely busy, but we made our way to the main restaurant.

The menu was rather strange, but we ordered oat milk lattés and a platter. It was very good, with ciabatta, crackers, grapes, cheese, pâté, olives, prosciutto, onion jam, and salami. Of course it was far too much, but JD obtained two boxes to take away the leftovers.

Then we saw the exhibition, which was very good indeed.  I am glad that we saw it. Afterwards, we drove to Royal Oak to the shopping centre where we tried (fruitlessly) to get copy of the Post from the lovely Whitcoulls store there.  I haven’t found anywhere you can get a copy of the Post in Auckland.  It one googles the Post, one can only get NZ Post outlets.  I rather wish they’d kept the old name, the Dom Post. That evening we had the leftovers from the platter we’d had at lunch time, before retiring for the short night heralding the start of Daylight Savings.

The weather was wild during the night. We set off to travel south, but the weather wasn’t too bad – just drizzling. We drove to Taupo, and had lunch at Victoria Café. I had fluffy lemon pancakes, which I could not finish, since JD had got me a delicious chocolate brownie with cream. I did not need this. I felt bad about being unable to finish the delicious pancakes.

Then we set out to drive to Hawkes Bay along the famous Taupo-Napier highway. It was fine, actually, although it was a bit trickier at the Napier end, with heavier rain, some fog, and widespread evidence of destruction. But we got through it, and to our motel in Havelock North.

It was much cooler than I expected everywhere we went. On Friday, it was about 18°C in Auckland, and I wore black trousers and a long sleeved top and was quite comfortable. But it was much cooler in Hawkes Bay, and mostly wet. On Sunday we walked up to Divo for dinner (really good – entrees and dessert); it was drizzling. We ate shrimp cocktails (a throwback!), arancini, and bruschetta, followed by affogato and tiramisu. It rained much harder the next day. I had intended to walk around the shops in Havelock North, but it was too wet for that. It’s quite slippery when it’s wet, as well as wetting your clothes, despite wearing a raincoat. We drove into Napier, where we bought a copy of the Wellington paper; I looked at Farmers, and then we drove to Hōhepa at Clive where I went to the lovely shop. I bought some Danbo cheese, and some quince jelly, but they didn’t have any jam available.

Driving from Napier to Clive we were amazed to see that not only have the railway line and main bridge been fixed, but there was a good train using the railway line! That is quite wonderful, since the railway line in the Esk Valley is still destroyed.

That evening we took our daughter out for dinner. She was beautifully dressed, and I was glad I’d taken a warmer top and a velvet bomber jacket, so I felt nearly as dressed up as her in her long black skirt, pink top and black velvet jacket. We went to the Thirsty Whale in Ahuriri, where we’ve been before several times, in fact, we had her thirtieth birthday party there.

The food was delicious!  Although it was very wet outside, and the drainage seemed insufficient. Thankfully, we got a car park right across the road.  There was more yummy affogato for dessert, this time with Frangelico. Our daughter had Berry Ambrosia, which looked good too.

Today (Tuesday) we drive back to Wellington. JD had a meeting with the General Manager of Hōhepa Hawkes Bay, and we went to the Clive site, but he was up at Poraiti, at Hōhepa School, so we drove up there.  What a lovely site it is, and how Harris and Cunningham houses, newly being built, have come on since we were last there at the end of May.   What a great job they are doing, although there are always challenges, of course.

We didn’t get away till after midday. We stopped in Taradale where I bought a copy of the Listener, and we managed to track down a copy of the Post, in the third shop we tried! I guess it’s good to know people are reading the Post in Hawkes Bay!

We had lunch in Dannevirke, at a café I hadn’t been to before. The one I thought it was, was closed on a Tuesday. Never mind, the Māori woman serving us was eager to please, and the food was good. Then we set about the drive back to Wellington. It was pretty uneventful, although the rain was stronger, and there were wind warnings on the Transmission Gully Motorway. And so we arrived safely home.

It is really cold in Wellington.  It feels colder than it did during the main cold of winter, although at that time we had heaters on and were wearing warmer clothes. Lately it had become much warmer and I was wearing much more summery clothes. It seems to take a long time for the heat pump to warm the house. We still don’t have the promised remote control to turn it on when we reach the Expressway into Wellington, now just north of Otaki.

It’s now Wednesday September 27^th.

We have very little food left in the house. Last night we had soup and toast, and watched the new series of Annika.

This afternoon we went shopping in Thorndon. A protest (with a long name beginning with Coalition) led by Brian Tamaki, and another protest, are due in Wellington tomorrow, and accordingly some streets have been closed off and adjustments made to public transport. Really, what is the point of protesting just before an election? If any party takes the protesters seriously, and says so, many people who don’t support it will be seriously annoyed. What’s more, it’s very cold and not great weather, although I’m sure Brian Tamaki will be staying somewhere comfortable.

The supermarket was not as full as usual, perhaps because it was late afternoon, or perhaps because of the much anticipated protests causing transport disruption.  JD got antsy and so I had to hurry around, which I found really frustrating, since there were some things I wanted to look for.  He has ignored my discomfort so many times when I haven’t been able to sit down, or use a restroom, and have had to stand while he talks to someone at great length. Perhaps I need a safe word to indicate when I’m distressed.

There is a General Election coming up on October 14^th. There were hoardings up the north island, by far the most of them being for the Act party and David Seymour. Evidently he’s been haemorrhaging support recently, and it seems as though Winston Peters may again be the “king maker”. I have to remind myself that he chose to go with Labour back in November 2017, and this we got Prime Minister Ardern for almost two terms. 

The local MP, Greg O’Connor, told my husband he expects Labour will lose the election, Furthermore, this view has been published in the local newspaper! He claims his main opponent, Nicola Willis, deputy leader of the National Party, is standing in Ohariu too. Evidently she has an impressive organisation, although she hasn’t been in touch with me. Greg puts failure down to the long shutdown in Tamaki Makaurau in the latter part of 2021, and to co-governance. Well, Greg, you shouldn’t be throwing in the towel! He’s not even a list MP! It’s not over till it’s over.  I cannot imagine any Māori people choosing to vote National or Act, although there may be a few.  Even if New Zealanders don’t like things Māori, in all likelihood Christopher Luxon will have to form a coalition with a Māori – either Winston Peters or David Seymour, like it or not. I think a coalition with Peters’ NZ First would be preferable, Acts’ demands are so scary.  Still, I guess it won’t make too much difference to us, as we’re both over 70 years old, and raising the pension age is unlikely to affect us.  It’s also unlikely to happen, since the older demographic are more likely to be National Party donors and supporters.

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

The wharf at Days Bay, Wellington

It’s now Sunday September 10^th, 2023. Kia ora!

Yesterday some consequential things happened in the US.  Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff when he was president, has lost his bid to have his trial moved to federal court.  A judge made this ruling, which was unsurprising.  Another thing that happened is that it was revealed that the Georgia grand jury had voted to indict Senator Lindsay Graham and several others, whom Fani Willis has not charged, as yet.

It’s now Wednesday September 13^th.

This morning I had my hair done, i.e. had some highlights and a hair cut.  This is the first time I have really been out for several weeks, apart from going shopping and to the local café.  After this success, we went out to Days’ Bay for lunch, where I had a whitebait omelette, and JD had a burger. Afterwards, we enjoyed oat milk lattés.  I am hoping to go to my Thursday singing tomorrow morning. I am feeling a little better now, but I still forget lots of things.

We have been watching I, Claudius again on television; admittedly, a hard watch.  Last night we watched an amazing performance of Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony, by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti.  The music, and the performance, are extraordinary.  It is a real puzzle to agree what to watch at the moment.

It’s now Thursday September 14^th.

I did go to my Thursday morning singing in Khandallah. Nearby streets are still blocked off, so it’s a challenge to get there. Afterwards, I had coffee and a sandwich with a friend, before JD came to pick me up. I was very tired afterwards, but the voice behaved quite well – until afterwards when I tried to speak!

We have a General Election coming up on 14 October. So, in addition to the annoying stories in the media, there are daily polls, for some reason. Labour’s support is “plummeting” (how often can that exaggeration be used, I wonder?); but on a closer look I find that the two Chris’s are neck and neck in the preferred prime minister stakes.  You’d have to look beyond the screaming headlines to find that information.  Another poll places Winston Peters as king maker, again. I guess the media love this kind of stuff.

I looked on the RNZ website, and the weekly covid 19 stats are being published, as in the number of new cases, and the number of deaths. The numbers are going down, at last, thankfully, but covid 19 is still out there.  People are still getting it, some again and again, although you see very few masks, and the isolation requirements have gone, it seems. But it also seems that our immunity is reduced by having had Covid 19. That does not surprise me, somehow.

At the hairdresser’s yesterday, I read a Mindfood magazine, which extolled the virtues of cruising. It sounds very appealing, and, again, I have to remind myself of the disadvantages, aided by the news that a cruise ship with New Zealanders on board has run aground in Greenland; it also has passengers on board with Covid 19.  Then there is the fact that I have a very small appetite these days; I’m sure I would not take advantage of all the food on offer. Then there is the massive waste question, which no one seems to address – where does it all go? Then there is the fact that sometimes the rivers are too low for cruise ships; the sea can be rough; the tours don’t benefit the locals; and they’re a harbour for disease.  Granted you only unpack once, and many travellers from New Zealand take in a cruise for part of their trip to the Northern Hemisphere. I imagine that small cruises would be the most enjoyable for me, but when I go to Greece I want to see the cities, rather than the islands. Perhaps. 

In Wellington, there are serious water woes. The leak in our street was fixed in April (after being notified in January of this year), and a large pipe was replaced in Middleton Road. But I suspect a great amount of water is still being wasted. Recently the Johnsonville Shopping Centre was closed because of a water problem; this morning there’s a water outage in central Wellington; that’s not good – cafés and restrooms can’t operate, and I guess shops and offices have to close. The newspaper notice reads as follows:

Wellington office workers are being sent to work from home as water outages hit Wellington’s centre. Wellington Water said in a Facebook post that water was currently out in Central Wellington, between Waring Taylor St, Customhouse Quay, Grey St, and Featherston St. Buildings off Lady Elizabeth lane near Queens Wharf had also been affected by the outage. Evidently the cause is a burst water pipe in Customhouse Quay.

Serious water restrictions are suggested for the summer, including two minute showers, one load of washing a week, and no private watering of gardens. What?  That is alarming stuff. Perhaps it’s scaremongering?  There are only two of us here, but we do a load of washing a couple of times a week, and then there are the sheets and towels. As for two minute showers – how can this be policed, I wonder? Still, we’re fortunate to have temperate weather here: it’s beautifully warm, and we’re not plagued by fires or floods or strong winds, at present.

In the US, Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis has indicated she prefers to try all the indictees together. Although many legal eagles doubt the physical possibility of this, I say to them, what about the maxi-trials in Palermo of mafia criminals?  This can be done. The process was brave, open and honourable.

It’s now Friday September 15^th.

It started out really warm today, but then clouded over and cooled down. I opened some windows to air the place, but had to close them because it was so cold and draughty.  A lady from Access came to do some cleaning; before she came, I changed the towels and sheets. I wasn’t fussy about sheets, but I had put on the bed some good sheets we got from the Sheridan Outlet store that used to be in Johnsonville.  Then we got some lovely sheets from Farmers in the Riccarton Mall a year ago when we were in Christchurch, and they are so much lighter and better!  I wouldn’t have believed there would be such a difference.

In the US, several states have instituted what amounts to an abortion ban, and some of those (Texas, I think), wants to monitor any female person travelling to another state that allows abortion. In another state, authorities can access your medical records. The Democrats want to reinstate what they call Dobbs, i.e. the Supreme Court ruling that permits abortion and was revoked during 2022.  Some call this approach “pro choice”, and claim the decision whether to terminate or not should be between a woman and her doctor. Others are “pro life”, and some think that should be “pro baby”.  However, surely a man has something to do with this pregnancy, and its implications and its results are surely his responsibility as well?  On the other hand, despite republicans and some others being pro life or pro baby, the US remains a dreadful place for reproductive care! I’ve heard many harrowing stories of wanted pregnancies and the dire difficulties of getting good outcomes for mother and baby, and thus for the father too. Oh, the irony; you’d think that with such a premium being placed on carrying a child to term, there would be a huge effort to ensure good health care for mother and child at birth, never mind the incongruities of gun legislation, once you’re alive. Sadly, this is not so.

In the US, it seems that Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro will go to trial in October, having been severed from Trump and his other co-defendants. They will be tried together, however, although this is not what they wanted, to be tried together, that is.

It’s now Monday September 18^th.

Last night it was really windy in Wellington. We are quite sheltered where we live, but last night there were strong wind gusts. JD had put our rubbish out to be collected, as he usually does on a Sunday evening, but he brought it down the driveway again. Someone’s rubbish had blown over the road. This morning, however, it was calm and fine! Although more wind is forecast. Last night it was so windy that flights couldn’t land at Wellington Airport. Well, I’ve experienced that too.

Last night we watched the movie Living starring Bill Nighy on one of the streaming channels. The movie is set in 1953, and it was quite moving, although I thought it took a long time to build up steam. Everyone wears a hat, men included!  After that it was still quite early, so we watched another episode of Lewis. Sadly, watching Lewis is not conducive to sleeping well.

This morning a friend called around for a while, It was lovely to see her. After that, JD and I called briefly at the Johnsonville Shopping Centre.

Today the Covid 19 report was published. It reads as follows: There have been 3095 new cases of Covid-19 reported in New Zealand over the past week, and 20 further deaths attributed to the virus. Of the new cases, 1351 were reinfections.

At midnight Sunday 17 September there were 186 cases in hospital with two in intensive care. The seven-day rolling average of new cases was 426.

Last week Te Whatu Ora reported 3458 new cases and 15 further deaths.

On Wednesday we are due to travel north to Auckland, where JD has a meeting on Friday morning.  We are full of trepidation, but since we are driving, I can take summer clothes and warmer ones too. At the last minute, I grab some sturdy shoes. I will be really thankful for them in the rain that is to follow!

That’s it for now. Hopefully I will be well enough for this trip, which I was really looking forward to before I became unwell.  JD wants to go, so we’ll go!

Slava Ukraini! Ngā mihi nui.

The picture featured in the Raj Quartet featuring Queen Victoria as Empress of India

It’s now Thursday August 31st, 2023. Kia ora!

Things still aren’t great for me. I met my cousin for lunch on Monday (she picked me up); I didn’t go anywhere on Tuesday, although I had expected to. Yesterday (Wednesday) I had an appointment for a thyroid scan at Wellington Hospital.  I had an injection first, which was administered by a trainee; I hope it worked all right; there was some doubt about whether it got in correctly. The scan went fine, although it was very tiring. Afterwards, JD picked me up. Sadly, Wishbone is closed; awful as it was, you miss it when it’s not there.

Beforehand, we had avocado and tomato on toast for lunch. When well-seasoned, it’s delicious.

Afterwards we did some shopping in Churton Park and bought scones for afternoon tea.

Last night we watched a rendition of King Lear on television on Youtube, filmed in 1983. It starred Laurence Olivier as Lear, Diana Rigg as Regan, John Hurt as the Fool – a wonderful performance. What a treat!  Lord Olivier was a marvellous actor here, as in Brideshead Revisited.  The lines from this tragedy are so magnificent, so memorable….I first studied it at Wellington Girls’ College in my upper Sixth form year. We studied Shakespeare’s use of language, and the parallel themes of Lear’s story and Gloucester’s story; good versus evil; age versus youth; human comfort and luxury versus basic existence; and of course wisdom versus folly.  I feel as though I know this great play quite well. There has never been any suggestion of child abuse, or of bad parenting.

The reason I watched this performance of Lear was that I’m on an email list from Mother Jones, and one of the writers had read Lear, and been greatly affected by it, not having had much time for it at school when she was a student. She added the link to the performance, which we watched.

This afternoon we went up to the local café for lunch. Then I got a text from a friend whom I haven’t seen for ages, to meet her later on this afternoon.  Both outings were very enjoyable, but goodness, I don’t feel great just yet.

It’s now Friday September 1^st.

This afternoon someone from Access is due to come and do some cleaning. I’ve finally got this re-established!  Of course, I’m a bit nervous; this is someone I haven’t met before, and I need to show her where everything is. But she’s lovely, and I’m very grateful to have the bathrooms cleaned and the floors mopped.

It’s now Saturday September 2^nd.

It’s a beautiful fine day today. We went shopping to New World in Thorndon; it was very busy there, but we got most of what we wanted. 

Last night we rewatched the first three episodes of The Jewel in the Crown, another old BBC television series filmed with great dedication. It’s hard to watch, though – you see British rule at its worst, in my view, and any brave souls who attempt to “cross the river” and have some meaningful interaction, are doomed to the scorn of the other British people.  This is hard to watch, but interesting, nonetheless.

In the US, there is a chaotic number of trials and hearings as some defendants seek early trials, with or without severance from other trials; all the time things are getting worse for Trump and his co-conspirators, and they are pretty chaotic in Georgia. In Georgia, everything is different: republicans, justice and court procedures are different, the Fulton County jail is truly awful, and people die there without having been condemned to death.   Mark Meadows chose to testify, and this has been deemed to be an unwise move.  The Trump trial will be televised and livestreamed; in New York, AG Letitia James has determined that Trump greatly overvalued his properties for tax purposes; and so on.  Conservative legal moves to say Trump is ineligible to run for President again are being taken more and more seriously.  Are republicans starting to turn against Trump? 

Meanwhile, both Tim Miller of the Bulwark and Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times, both respected journalists, said that Biden was the best president in their lifetime!  Now that is really something.

It’s now Thursday again, September 7^th.

I haven’t written for a few days. I’m still not going anywhere much, and continuing to cancel my regular activities.  I am trying, though. On Monday we went into town so JD could get a blood test, and afterwards we had lunch at Picnic Café at the Rose Garden and Begonia House.  I had creamy mushrooms on toast, and afterwards had a brief look at the Begonia House. I had last been there years ago when some American visitors visited there. But the Begonia House was not nearly as wonderful as I remembered it, and there were very few water lilies in the lily pond.  Afterwards, we went home and I had an asthma attack and then heartburn, which I haven’t had for years.

On Wednesday we went to The Borough in Tawa for lunch, where I had Croque Monsieur, and an oat milk latté. Then we came home. This morning the group I sing with is giving a concert at a rest home in Crofton Downs; I was offered a lift there by two of my friends, but declined; I didn’t have a great night, and although I knew the songs, I didn’t want to go somewhere I hadn’t been before. These concerts are always challenging! 

Overseas, there are crises: in Great Britain, the RAAC concrete crisis where schools were warned the day before they were due to resume after the long summer break, that this concrete formed a risk, and they should advise the Education Ministry if they were affected.  But it seems that NHS hospitals and courts may also be affected.  This is a major crisis, since the previous Labour government had a program of rebuilding schools, which was severely cut by the incoming Tory government, when Rishi Sunak was Treasurer.  Oh dear, the secretary for education Jillian Keegan, was holidaying – somewhere – and because of airplane difficulties (Air Traffic Control?) she couldn’t get back before the questionnaire went out.  She was later interviewed on television, and a hot mike caught her swearing, after the interview, and upset at not being told she was doing a good job.  Well, that didn’t go down well at all.  The Tories look absolutely tone deaf and uncaring on this issue; parents and teachers and principals of course are outraged, and complain of mice and leaks and lack of repairs on LBC radio.  In New Zealand, this type of concrete was not used, apparently.

In the US, Trump’s popularity remains undimmed, in the polls. The court cases are turning into a morass, with Sidney Powell and the lawyer Kenneth Chesebro asking for early trials. A Café insider podcast called it “Musical Trials”.  There is lots of evidence, which is interesting, of course; meanwhile, Trump is to pay damages to E. Jean Carroll for defaming her; the question, is how much? Meanwhile, another Mar-a-Lago employee has agreed to testify against Trump. Sidney Powell’s lawyer argues that she really had nothing to do with Trump’s attempt to hold on to power: remember all the strange people that were charged under Robert Mueller? The coffee boys? Wasn’t Sidney Powell going to be named as  Special Counsel?  Didn’t she appear at a press conference with Rudolf Giuliani? Didn’t she claim that Hugo Chavez, long dead, had influence the election against Trump?  Wasn’t she called crazy by a Trump ally?

Oh, and Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys, has been sentenced to 22 years in prison, the longest January 6 defendant sentence yet. Last week there were two lengthy prison sentences as well.

On television, we have been watching episodes of The Jewel in the Crown on television. This has inspired me to reread the Raj Quartet, which is very readable. It interests me how stratified societies are, both the English in India, and the Indians themselves, where the divisions between Hindu and Muslim are just the beginning. Even English people who are sympathetic to Indian people, like Miss Edwina Crane, Daphne Manners, or Sarah Layton, and would like to be friends, don’t know how to communicate without giving offence, with either English of Indian society.  Everyone presents in a certain way, but they also hide a great deal. We have situations where Lady Chatterjee, whose husband, now deceased, was honoured by the English King, was not allowed to go to certain areas, of the hospital run by the English, for example. Everything is stratified, and at mission schools children are taught “There’s a Friend for Little Children, Above the bright blue sky”, implying that God cares about them, despite seemingly overwhelming evidence to the contrary; and then taught about Queen Victoria, Empress of India;  it’s hard to see any problem resolution here, although it’s evident that some British people love India and its range of expressions of spirituality.  I don’t doubt that God is Good, and loves and cares about us all; there are many situations that I don’t have answers to, although some governments are much more egalitarian than others in handling the many problems caused by poverty.

In Ukraine, the war continues, rather badly, I think; although Ukrainian forces are having some success, Russia continues to attack cities in Ukraine, killing and maiming citizens reach time. The Russians have planted heaps of mines, sometimes three deep. On the other hand, Ukrainian drones, made from cardboard, have damaged several expensive Russian planes.  And so it goes on, brutal as ever. I think one has to agree that despite Ukrainian successes, it is very hard to get the Russians out where they have seized territory.

In the US, with reference to the various trials, things have got pretty confusing in Georgia. There was a hearing, which was televised, so we saw the backs of lawyers’ heads, and the judge. The judge seems to be doing a remarkably good job, although he’s new to being a judge, and he’s quite young. It seems that Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell both want early trials, but not together.  That’s understandable.  I’ll quote Benjamin Wittes, from an email newsletter:

“So, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell will be tried together on Oct. 23 in Fulton County court, assuming the racketeering case against them and Donald J. Trump and a bunch of others remains in Fulton County court and doesn’t get removed to federal court—which remains to be seen. They will be tried together, despite wanting to be tried separately, but they will be tried separately from the other 17 co-defendants—including Trump—unless, that is, District Attorney Fani Willis can convince the judge to keep them all together, which seems unlikely but isn’t yet certain.

Or something like that.”

If Ben Wittes is confused, I’ll bow to that.

It’s now Friday September 8^th.

It’s  beautiful fine, warm, sunny day today.  My new lady from Access came to do some housework, which was much appreciated.

Last night we watched “Staying On”, a film based on the novel Staying On by Paul Scott, a follow up to his Raj Quartet. I had watched it years ago, but I hadn’t remembered how sad it was.  It was written by and had different characters from the earlier, mega series, although some of the settings seemed the same.

Today I learnt that Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade adviser for a time, has been held in contempt of Congress on two counts.

As it’s Thursday in the US, the Bulwark podcast was another weekly episode of the Trump Trials series where Charlie Sykes gets to speak with Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare, and whoever Ben brings with him – perhaps Anna Bower, or Roger Parloff, who was on this morning.  It’s good to hear Wittes explain legal stuff to Charlie; I have a lot of time for Ben Wittes, although the American legal stuff can be amazingly frustrating.

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

Fulton County jail, in Georgia, USA

Today is Thursday August 24^th, 2023. Kia ora!

Well, there’s lots going on right now.  A number of people are surrendering to the authorities in Fulton County, Georgia; that would be the Fulton County jail, which, according to Ben Wittes, is not a nice place.  As Michael Moore wryly remarks, Trump will have to set foot in this jail as part of his surrender; i.e. he will see the inside of a jail. So that is noteworthy.

In other big news, it’s said that Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of Russia’s Wagner Group, and would-be coup inciter back in June (I think), is one of several passengers in a plane crash, where all the people on board (ten passengers) were killed.  So, that raised a number of questions:  was he really killed? Was it is accident, or the result of poor maintenance? Was the plane shot down? If so, by whom? What really happened here? I suspect we’ll never know, since there are apparently no survivors. Who will lead the Wagner Group now? And what happens to their activities in Africa? Was this supposed death an Act of God, or an act of Vladimir Putin? And what will happen now?

Apparently the plane was an Embraer, owned by the Wagner Group; it was on its way from St Petersburg to Moscow.

Back here in Aotearoa/New Zealand, there are constant polls, mostly if not all bad for Labour.  But some strange things are happening. Part of Lambton Quay is to be severely disrupted by the start of LGWM activities (Let’s Get Wellington Moving), an initiative that’s been around for a long time, was narrowly approved by the Wellington City Council, but which National Party leader Chris Luxon vows that a National government won’t support. I thought it was mainly about a Basin reserve flyover, and a second Mount Victoria Tunnel; silly me, it involves huge disruption to Lambton Quay, no doubt affecting bus routes, and what limited parking remains there. This comes upon the closure of Wishbone outlets, the lack of people coming back into the CBD for work, as zoom is increasingly unreliable. And who can blame people for not wanting to get dressed up for work, when public transport is so unreliable. Then there are the bike lanes too; while I can understand attitudes of people who wish to ride a bike everywhere, it can be really hard to drive on narrow streets, avoiding other traffic and bikers, to say nothing of finding a parking place. And there are some places it’s very hard to get to on public transport – Te Papa is one, Commonsense Organics near the top of Tory Street is another. And if you’re walking, you have to dodge e-bikes on the footpath too.  To add to this, it’s planned to close the Melling Station in Lower Hutt for 18 months, and then I read in this morning’s paper that a newish building in Wellington is to be pulled down and replaced. Huh?  There are already many treasured buildings regarded as earthquake risks, with limited use by the public, though of course they haven’t fallen down yet. It’s very hard to see any kind of normal future arising out of all of this.

Back to overseas:  Prigozhin’s death is now being called an assassination, by Russian State television; Putin says he made some serious mistakes, whatever that means. That does not leave us much the wiser, though.

In the UK, there is a lot of publicity around Lucy Letby, the neo-natal nurse who was found guilty of murdering several infants (7), and the attempted murder of several more. As with the Met police, a much darker side of medical authority is emerging, where it was really difficult for whistle-blowers to speak up about any concerns they may have had. What a desperately sad story. There are situations when we or our loved ones are totally in the hands of the medical folk who care for us. We are fully dependant on them.

It’s now Friday August 25^th.

I have another doctor’s appointment at 4:30 pm this afternoon (in a cabin, what is my car registration).  I duly take a Covid 19 test, and again, it’s negative.  Actually I feel better today than yesterday, but yesterday wasn’t good. I do feel a bit better today, but I’ve had to cancel several upcoming events, and I promised that I would get seen again.

There’s news, of course: the republican presidential debate, minus Donals Trump; the expected entry of Trump into Fulton County jail (not a salubrious environment); and more about the death of Prigozhin. With regard to the latter, Putin has stated that this very good businessman made some mistakes; it seems undoubted that Prigozhin’s plane was shot down; there seemed to be no mechanical failure beforehand.  So the message is very clear: don’t annoy Putin in any way, or you’ll be a dead man walking.

With regard to the republican debate, it was predictably upsetting – only one hopeful (Asa Hutchinson) believed that humans have played and continue to play a part in climate change.  They’re divided about supporting Ukraine. Ron de Santis managed to avoid any direct questions.  Christie attacked Trump, to jeers. All but one will vote for Trump if he’s the republican nominee for president, even if he’s convicted. European nations are predictably upset at the prospect of Trump becoming president again, as are many of the rest of us.

And then Trump surrendered to the Fulton County jail.  He did this in prime time, and it was duly covered by all the networks.  We were treated to ongoing coverage of his motorcade winding through Atlanta freeways, which had no doubt been cleared. There was an alarming parade (80?) of secret service agents on motorbikes, with flashing lights. There seemed to be few protesters. Although we did not see Trump enter the jail (there was a covered walkway for him to get out of his car)), his mugshot was taken, and released. He does not look best pleased with that. He said a few words afterwards, predictably feeling sorry for himself. Actually he looks like an angry old man, in contrast to smiling, honourable, Joe Biden. What a contrast. Goodness knows Biden has plenty to be angry about, but his empathy and general decency is astonishing.

I watched much of the coverage: John Dickerson on CBS, the local Atlanta channel, and MSNBC, of course, where Rachel Maddow spoke to a black man who had been a district attorney.  Trump has apparently changed lawyers.  He also promised Rudy Giuliani, who gave himself up to the jail yesterday, $800,000 for helping him to overturn the 2020 election. Giuliani has not received this money, and his New York apartment is on the market.

But the thing I find truly ironic is that it’s this Georgia indictment, where Atlanta, the capital of the South, that has the greatest potential to harm Trump and his co-defendants. Here, in the south of the US, where Republican state governments have been so unkind to black people, it’s black people who are now in charge: as Trump and his 18 co-defendants hand themselves in to the Fulton County jail, it’s not they who are in charge.  They are being told what they may and may not do; they’re having mugshots taken, a time-honoured American legal tradition, and they are having to ask D.A. Fani Willis about court trial dates and accommodations.  The whole situation, of rich folk in their gated communities, with their private jets and private schools, has been turned on its head, in that black people are now telling them what they can and cannot do. That is a delicious moment, and while it’s extremely significant to see a former president of the US indicted (four time), photographed, and released on bail conditions (which are becoming ever more strict), it’s coloured D.A.s and judges who are telling Trump and his gang of co-defendants just what they may or may not do. They are holding the cards, for once. What a moment!

And by the way, his bail conditions are ever more stringent, i.e. he mustn’t threaten anyone.

It’s now Saturday August 26^th.

I did see a doctor yesterday afternoon, and he’s prescribed antibiotics.  So far, I’ve had two doses, and I seem to be coping all right.

Last night we watched another two episodes of Brideshead Revisited. What an amazing series this is! We had Charles Ryder and Julia Mottram’s affair on board the ship crossing the Atlantic.  Charles is married, somewhat unaccountably;  he has two children, whom he doesn’t seem to care about at all, but then the rather wonderful Sir John Gielgud played his distant father (his mother had died), so not much in the way of parental role models there then.

JD is appalled by Charles’s neglect of his children; if he was away travelling so much, how did he father his son?  Perhaps he wasn’t the father. His wife, Celia, reminds me of one of JD’s aunts, she’s so much in control, as was Lady Marchmain. JD rather likes Celia and Rex Mottram; I rather liked Sebastian, when he was beautiful, and his sister Julia.  But really, as young people, did any of us make wise decisions? would we make the same decisions again?  I hope we’ve been better parents than anyone depicted in this series!

Reactions are still occurring to the death of Prigozhin (The Kremlin now disavows responsibility; I thought yesterday Putin was virtually admitting, yes I ordered it.  Is Prigozhin dead, then?  The plane went down, certainly.  But we’re still confused. Meanwhile, Russians are terrified.

In the US, the shock of the Republican debate is outshone by the mugshot of Donald Trump. While people are savouring that moment, Charlie Sykes and Tim Miller wondered on the Bulwark podcast this morning what Saturday Night Live would make of it.  Trump’s interview with Tucker Carlson is not garnering much attention, thankfully.

By now, all of Trump’s co-conspirators have surrendered to the Fulton County jail. One of them (a black man, who couldn’t raise bail), has actually been jailed. Evidently Sidney Powell has also asked for an early trial.  It’s interesting that machinations are continuing in the Georgia indictment, as the co-defendants are apparently falling over each other in their attempts to avoid further incrimination and a prison sentence.  Some of them are potentially incriminating Donald Trump. everyone was “just following orders”, of course. Where was your moral compass, then? And this is just in Georgia!  Where a black D.A. is calling the shots.  Evidently Trump, prisoner No. P01135809, lied about his weight and height, and said that his hair colour was “strawberry blond”.  He also hired someone to pay his bond, although he claims to be “really rich”, and changed his lawyer.  Michael Steele, a former chairman of the RNC, is rather enjoying this moment and had the number off pat. He’d memorised it.

So what’s more shocking then? Trump’s mugshot, or the All Blacks’ loss to the Springboks at Twickenham?  My brother-in-law, a New Zealander living in Australia who usually follows these matches on the family Messenger chat, did not do so this time. His cheery “Go the All Blacks!” was missing.  A conspiracy theorist would say it’s all his fault. The fact that the All Blacks were playing one man down probably affected the final outcome, but the Springboks, traditional rivals, must have played rather well.

It’s now Sunday August 27^th.

Last night we looked after one of my son’s children, while their parents went out for the evening. They are so grown up now, and quite capable of taking themselves to bed. What a joy to see them again. We watched Round the World in 80 Days, a film made in 2004 based on the book by Jules Verne, and I have to say it was quite fun to watch.  After the children had gone to bed, we watched the last two episodes of Brideshead Revisited, where Lord Marchmain goes back to Brideshead to die. As he can’t climb stairs, he sets up court in a truly ornate bed in a Chinese drawing room on the ground floor, which Charles Ryder had never seen used.  The family members who are there dine with him here. Gone are the elaborate ceremonies around dinner, for the most part. Everyone still dresses, of course, as do the servants. As predicted, religion played a huge part here in the illness and death of Lord Marchmain, played very well by the great Laurence Olivier. There were several surprises:  Bridey’s engagement to a widow with three children (a fervent Catholic, but not in De Brett’s); Lord Marchmain’s making Brideshead over to Lady Julia Flyte (don’t get me started on the naming conventions in the English aristocracy!), and the breakup of Julia and Charles Ryder’s relationship.  But a catholic priest did visit Lord Marchmain, and on his second visit he was able to administer the last rites.  JD and I had interesting discussions about all this, of course, and I wondered, should I be alive at the time of his death, would he like a priest to visit, and, if so, who? And how much should I pay them?   I warned him he might have to put up with a non-Catholic minister; in any case, the reformed churches stress one’s personal relationship with God, rather than requiring intercession through a priest. Heavy stuff, indeed. Sin, and the catholic church’s rules about annulment, divorce and remarriage, played a huge part in everyone’s behaviour and their relationships, but what a story. Charles is kind of converted at the end – or is he? I found his prayer a bit hard to take, but then I’m just an onlooker, and I personally decided long ago not to become a Catholic.

I zoomed into the church service this morning. Zoom was still having some issues, particularly with the sound, but when I turned it up on my PC is was much better. There seemed to be very few physical church goers.  The texts were from Exodus, when Pharoah’s daughter saves the baby Moses, and his mother gets to look after him, and from Matthew 16 where Jesus asks his disciples Who do they say that He is?  Simon Peter has that wonderful response, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

In Russia, Wagner mercenaries are asked by Putin to pledge their allegiance to Russia after the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin.

In the US, there’s been another mass shooting – in a store in Florida, not in a school. I just watched a very moving press conference, where a black official, the sheriff, spoke well about this tragedy. Evidently the shooter took his own life. He carried a Glock pistol and an AR15 type weapon. He was on a mission to kill “niggers”. Officials are devastated, of course, but this happens far too often. The shooter was male, of course.

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