Righty ho, first things first. Some photographic evidence of me kayaking recently. These photos are courtesy of a bloke I met through Warren, called Paul. Paul is over here in NZ doing outdoorsy type stuff, and in between Murchison and him and Warren turning up on my doorstep, he bought a waterproof digital camera. Hooray for him, as he took some nice snaps of us on the Opihi river.
Right, picture are courtesy of Paul, so massive thanks to him for actually having a camera and then posting the pictures on Facebook, from where I copied and pasted them. In’t technology brilliant eh?
Hum. So, oh, yes I was going to tell about the move over the hill. Well, the original plan was for me to drive the loaded car and bikes over Arthur’s Pass, stop the night near Timaru, pick up the hire van then drive back. That was the plan. Didn’t go quite according to plan though did it? Essentially, the radiator in the car blew magnificently all over the windscreen at the top of the Otira Gorge. Which although a scenic place to breakdown, has the disadvantage of not having much in the way of mobile phone reception. I hitched a ride to Arthur’s Pass village and rang from there. Interestingly, the two people who picked me up were American soldiers on r’nr from Iraq. Go on, you think of appropriate subjects of conversation. One of the liked Obama, one of them didn’t. Both of them thought New Zealand was ‘neat’ and then we got to the village. I rang for a breakdown truck and spent two and a bit hours watching tourists watching keas. The bloke picked me up on a low loader, we fetched the car and he did something clever with some solder to get me back on the road. About five hours late. So, I stayed the night in Ashburton, yay! And then carried on as per the next morning. Nervously hoping that the solder would hold. It did. Real yay!
So, goodbye Wets Coast and hello Timaru. Timaru is nice and friendly and drier than Hokitika. There is also a place called Centennial Park which has miles and miles of blooming nice mtb tracks. It is also known as the Scenic Reserve and is quite nice for riding. I’ve sort of worked out a loop and will post another riding blog picture thingy at some point.
The other nice thing about Timaru is that the hospital is next to the Botanic Gardens, which meant Linda had somewhere picturesque to walk whilst stuck in the maternity wing for a few days. You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t blog about the actual process and stuff, but it was dull, followed by more dull, a bit of ho-hum things seem to be working, culminating in a holy shit, this is quite nerve-wracking followed by a baby crying and it was ‘Hello’ to the next generation. Consequently, there hasn’t been much new music this month (Ahem, three months..) but we have been listening to a lot of Tom Waits it seems. It is quite slow and lullaby like and I can sing along in a gruff voice and not mangle the lyrics too badly. (Although, the similarity between this performer and Tom Waits, may go explain why I like TW. Could just be he is good mind..Oh and te-he-he, here is the best song they never wrote. Although to be fair, Springsteen also does a version and we all know that when he grows up JBJ wants to be the Boss.. Ahem) Oh, and the original point of all this was we play Tom Waits to Stuart and he seems to like it. Well, not actively dislike like it in a ‘bawls his head off’ way.
On a reading front, I am trying to re-read all the Sharpe books in chronological, not published mind you, order. Five down and quite a few still to go. Have I raved about a bloke called Richard Morgan yet? Do you like sci-fi? Do you like sex, drugs, rock n’ roll, violence and sociopathic behaviours? New anti-hero on the block folks, his name is Takeshi Kovacs and he will be re-sleeving in a book shop near you soon. (Note: not especially suitable for anyone under sixteen). Beg, steal¹ or borrow ² anything by Richard Morgan as soon as possible. Highly recommended by me.
[Rant font on/] I got quite cross on Sunday morning. (That’s not like you I hear you say..) I was busy doing domesticated Dad type stuff, as it is still something of a novelty, when there was a knock at the door. When I opened it, there were two girls, one about ten-ish and one about twelve-ish, standing there, with someone who looked either like their elder sister, or possibly a young mother. Long hair, fairly wholesome looking, first appearances I though I was going to get a lost puppy leaflet. Nope, they were handing out religious pamphlets. Either Church of the Latter Days Saints, or Jehovah’s Witnesses. Now, I have absolutely no objection with people pursuing the religion of their choice, I have no objection to people taking their children to church (That isn’t meant to sound patronising, so if it does, sorry..),. I have a slight objection to people disturbing my peace and quiet on a Sunday morning (Yes, I know it is the sabbath and all that…), I have a moderate objection to cults sending round people to try to convince me that their brand of belief is better than my brand of belief, and is the only brand of belief worth believing in. (As someone I’m fond of is fond of quoting; ’I may believe in nothing, but at least it is my nothing’. Orwell via the Manics. I think. He’ll tell me if I am wrong.) I don’t have massive objection to evangelical, proselytising religions³ , but I do strenuously object to churches, cults, religions and political parties using children to do the advertising for them. (I wouldn’t go so far as to agree necessarily with Richard Dawkin’s polemic statement, that a ‘religious upbringing is akin to child abuse’ but using children as missionaries, does in my opinion come close) The Mormon youth are bad enough, big smiles, name badges, zero life experience and no idea on how to debate, but children? Have they made an informed and free choice about what they do and what they believe in? Grr it makes me cross. [/end rant] This isn’t an anti-religion rant by the way. It’s a please don’t send children round to my house with pamphlets rant. Grr.
Right that’s it for now.
More Rowlf ’cos I can
1 Stealing is bad n’kay?
2 From your local library, where else? Joined yet?
3 Objections yes, massive objections no. At least not when they aren’t disturbing me. Or anyone else.
Footnote. Look religion is contentious, you either do or you don’t. I believe in keeping an open mind and in free will. That is my ‘nothing’. Evolution is demonstrably true by the way. Not open for debate on this blog. Not a matter for belief. You are free to disagree.
