Day Twenty-Four - LOTR, Mini car, Pumpkin Pie and the matter of travelling lightly ...
Here's another day in lockdown ... This one was a bit bitsy.
The morning passed by easily enough. Brett and I did the Saturday Herald Canvas quiz via phone (could have outrun the Chaser I think!)
The weather wasn't too bad. I did some washing and whatnot. Sorted a bit of stuff. As you do.
Looked forward to a wine come 5pm. Knew it wouldn't be enjoyed on the beach like this one in Portugal 2015. But it would be enjoyed all the same!
Everything is getting a little "directionless" these days, don't you think?
Once upon a time there was a "threat" that someone might pop in at any time. Keeping things spruced was kind of a part of an unfathomable everyday "keep things spruced" activity. But now there is no chance of someone calling in to see either your fabulous streamlined home, your beautiful self or your dilapidated chaos in all directions. So it's kinda okay right now for things to fall by the wayside just a little.
You know what, in reality, this was always okay. Certainly in my world.
And it should be okay into the future. In everyone's world.
It's not about letting standards slip or cavorting into an abyss of untamed disaster. But, as I've long professed ... a little bit of mess here, an untidy bench there, newspapers strewn across the table, wearing a dress you might not wear in public, no makeup, a hairdo that needs a haircut, a shambolic thing on show you'd rather others not see - it's all actually fine. It's you! And who the hell actually cares what you and the surroundings look like, as long as you're kind, caring, positive, welcoming, and can create laughter and good times!? Let's leave it right there.
I truly hope these days enable people to let go of showcasing of home and showmanship of self, and embrace the ability to show who they authentically are.
All the same, lipstick can be good for those potential "pop-in" and visible moments, like Zoom.
Wear lippy - looks like you're onto it!
Having said all this, the Omaha house is new and streamlined, so thankfully, it's not too hard to keep it that way. It's just a little harder to keep myself that way as I'm neither new nor streamlined!
Late morning, Michael settled in to watch Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers.
I settled in to do some work on the computer.
I've never watched any of the LOTR films, nor read the book. For some reason, it just doesn't appeal. Not then, not now, not ever.
Having the film on in the background, even though I hadn't seen it, didn't engender me to become intrigued enough to hook in or even pay any attention. Rather than being a distraction, it was the opposite.
The constant cacophony of noise and battle and darkness and mayhem went on incessantly, along with whining and wailing and squeaking and imploring, and stern forboding voices and dark, menacing music. It made me switch off completely.
If you love it, that's fantastic. But it's a NO from me. I'd rather work!
This rather standard English breakfast reminded me a little of meals at Little Chef, the roadside "greasy spoons" in the UK during the 1980s, while driving en route to somewhere exciting! Had a few of those in my time!
As an aside, when I first got to London I bought a little mustard-coloured Mini 1000. It caused me a bit of grief at times but was mostly reliable and enabled so much adventure and pleasure! I drove it everywhere - except to work of course ... the tube was a miles better option.
When Mum and Dad came to visit in 1984 we all three, and our luggage, somehow piled into that Mini and did a road trip down to Cornwall to visit relatives. What fun! (See Share-Note of the Day re luggage issues!)
We stopped in a village called Box (Wiltshire). Dad couldn't believe a place could have a name like that. We found the local pub and he was always tickled pink to say he'd had a beer in a village called Box! I'm still tickled pink about it too.
We stopped in a village called Street (Somerset), home of Clarks shoes. There was a factory shoe shop. Dad made a beeline for the local pub while Mum and I went shoe shopping. Mum was in her element and the Mini was laden down more than ever as we continued on our way to Cornwall. I can still remember her cramming shoe boxes into the very small boot that couldn't really take an iota more! But it did! Before Dad came along!
Back to Omaha ...
I made a quick visit to the local Superette, early afternoon, for a top up of supplies. Those guys are doing a grand job and have everything you need which means you don't need to go far. I have not set foot inside a major supermarket since before lockdown! They're masked and gloved, with tape denoting where you stand, and 3-at-a-time max. The produce department is first rate.
This afternoon, I had an eye on the Aussie races. I'd picked out a few horses when doing study last night - and then, silly me, completely forgot to back them. They all won, of course, at good odds. The ones I did back, of course, did no good at all! Murphy's Law.
Whilst watching racing was an element of my day (it is Saturday after all!), my main focus was work, which is one of the reasons why I missed the winners I should have had. Eye off the ball and all that. I'm revamping the Owners website structure/content and spent a large chunk of the day working on that. And some other stuff.
When I'd done my dash fiddling about with website content and updates and other stuff, I decided to make a pumpkin pie. I'd spotted a recipe in the local Junction magazine.
I love pumpkin, but I'd never made a pumpkin pie before.
Pottering in the kitchen was just what I felt like after a fairly full-on day and I got busy with great anticipation. Kept thinking I should head out for a walk, as the early evening was actually very stunning up here. But even though I'm not much of a baker and following recipes is all a bit arduous, I felt more like turning on an oven and doing some baking with this recipe I'd found!
Sadly, I buggered things up big time in the pastry department (blind baking went all wrong!)
Seems that today I was destined to stuff up my betting and my baking! But we're talking $20 of betting and $6 of pastry, so it's not exactly a disaster!
I gave up on the horses, poured myself a wine and started again with the pastry and pie. The end result was delicious. I'll make that pie again! And next time I'll know what I'm doing.
Brunch: Full English breakfast
Dinner: Yellow Curry Sausage Casserole with rice (my own concoction). I'm not a huge sausage fan but they were nice gourmet type sausages and it was tasty. We gave it a tick.
There's a feast of entertainment this weekend:
I said to Michael a couple of days ago "There'll be a LiveAid concert coming very soon" and today comes the announcement of the One World concert. But it seems to me there are too many singers involved in this one to make it truly iconic like Live Aid was. I just hope it doesn't turn into a big long Grammy-type session, tokenised in some way, and thereby lose its gravitas.
For Live Aid, back in 1985, Bob had to work magic to get people on board to perform for nothing. Today, anyone will do anything for a piece of the action and visibility! Especially in a world where performing to big crowds in person is not an option.
Whatever, it will be worth tuning in for and I'll be lined up. And the NZ live timing is very acceptable.
SHARE-NOTE OF THE DAY:
Travel's a bit of a taboo subject right now - but let's address the matter of travelling lightly.
Or my lifelong inability to do so!
Travelling light, to be quite frank, is my disaster area when it comes to travel. I've simply never been able to do it, no matter how hard I try. For decades I've lugged heavy bags around the world and somehow managed not only to lug them around but to miraculously avoid nasty overweight surcharges, despite obscene amounts of baggage!
Back in 2004, when heading to Heathrow to fly home from London, my luggage weighed 64kg. Yes. You read that right! My friend was more stressed than I was, but hey, I'd been travelling with overweight luggage for 30 years by that time and got away with it all those years. Perhaps my luck was about to run out. But it didn't ...
I was very glad that utter chaos at my airline check-in at Heathrow (thanks to computer glitches) meant I was lucky enough (when they did get back up and running) to get directed to the Biz Check-in where a handsome young man awaited me. He checked in my 45kg suitcase without blinking an eyelid (because he could). Right through to Auckland (because he could). This was Eva Air and I had an overnight stopover in Taipei.
I'm still not sure if he had any idea I had a backpack over each shoulder and two carry-bags which together weighed 20kg+ (hidden out of sight with my exasperated friend and ready for her to take to the charity shop if I got stung!) Given no one in authority seemed to be perturbed about my immense amount of luggage (except my poor long-suffering friend who has dealt with my overweight baggage for decades!), I decided I would soldier on and try to get everything home. I was very lucky, start to finish. Others on that journey were not. I watched numerous people get stung at check-in and upon boarding.
My mission for the entire trip home was to make 25kg of hand luggage seem like a feather ... ladedadeda! Somehow I did it. Still counting my lucky travel stars right there!
I've had a few lucky breaks like that over the years when it comes to overweight luggage - but my luck was certainly not there today with horses and pumpkin pie pastry, haha!
On packing ...
I only brought a tiny amount of clothes up to Omaha. I was initially anticipating going between here and home, until no-go from Day 1. Brought enough for about a weekt!
Okay, so I've got a few permanent clothing items up here, but they are for extremes. Some are for those "throw on a fleece coz it's cold and who cares what colour it is or what it looks like" moments. A few summer things for those "help, at the beach, have to glam up a bit to go out, what can I wear" moments.
Neither of these apply at present. The weather is warm and I am not glamming up.
Consequently I'm recycling the few items of clothing, day by day. The washing machine gets into action every few days to freshen things up. As a notorious - and I mean OTT (as you can tell from above tale) overpacker - I now appreciate the merits of packing light and am going to practise it!
I now know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that a hundred choices are not required! Although sometimes choice is good. Just because.
I suspect that my packing regime will be forever changed for the better on account of Covid days!
This will be music to quite a few people's ears. And my own, to be honest. I'm sick of lugging heavy suitcases (although ... I do like that choice thing ...)
Overall, I think I just may have turned over a new packing leaf ...
I still can't guarantee anything until I can actually travel again!
And who the hell knows when that will be ...
As I didn't get down to Omaha Beach today - it's not good I know, but I really did have other things to do and this is not a holiday! - here are some photos of the beach in Essaouira, Morocco.
You'll encounter camels and kite-surfers, people selling stuff and people strolling.
Caramel sand, an intriguing backdrop, and a very happy vibe.
The morning passed by easily enough. Brett and I did the Saturday Herald Canvas quiz via phone (could have outrun the Chaser I think!)
The weather wasn't too bad. I did some washing and whatnot. Sorted a bit of stuff. As you do.
Looked forward to a wine come 5pm. Knew it wouldn't be enjoyed on the beach like this one in Portugal 2015. But it would be enjoyed all the same!
 |
| Wine on the beach at Matosinho, north of Porto, Portugal 2015 |
Everything is getting a little "directionless" these days, don't you think?
Once upon a time there was a "threat" that someone might pop in at any time. Keeping things spruced was kind of a part of an unfathomable everyday "keep things spruced" activity. But now there is no chance of someone calling in to see either your fabulous streamlined home, your beautiful self or your dilapidated chaos in all directions. So it's kinda okay right now for things to fall by the wayside just a little.
You know what, in reality, this was always okay. Certainly in my world.
And it should be okay into the future. In everyone's world.
It's not about letting standards slip or cavorting into an abyss of untamed disaster. But, as I've long professed ... a little bit of mess here, an untidy bench there, newspapers strewn across the table, wearing a dress you might not wear in public, no makeup, a hairdo that needs a haircut, a shambolic thing on show you'd rather others not see - it's all actually fine. It's you! And who the hell actually cares what you and the surroundings look like, as long as you're kind, caring, positive, welcoming, and can create laughter and good times!? Let's leave it right there.
All the same, lipstick can be good for those potential "pop-in" and visible moments, like Zoom.
Wear lippy - looks like you're onto it!
Having said all this, the Omaha house is new and streamlined, so thankfully, it's not too hard to keep it that way. It's just a little harder to keep myself that way as I'm neither new nor streamlined!
Late morning, Michael settled in to watch Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers.
I settled in to do some work on the computer.
I've never watched any of the LOTR films, nor read the book. For some reason, it just doesn't appeal. Not then, not now, not ever.
Having the film on in the background, even though I hadn't seen it, didn't engender me to become intrigued enough to hook in or even pay any attention. Rather than being a distraction, it was the opposite.
The constant cacophony of noise and battle and darkness and mayhem went on incessantly, along with whining and wailing and squeaking and imploring, and stern forboding voices and dark, menacing music. It made me switch off completely.
If you love it, that's fantastic. But it's a NO from me. I'd rather work!
Over a full English breakfast of bacon, eggs, beans and hash browns, enjoyed on the deck, we agreed that LOTR is a thing you either love or loathe. He loves (although I'm not completely convinced he'd put that word on it!), I loathe.
It's also soooo bloody long. I'd done a million things and he wasn't even half way through the thing!
This rather standard English breakfast reminded me a little of meals at Little Chef, the roadside "greasy spoons" in the UK during the 1980s, while driving en route to somewhere exciting! Had a few of those in my time!
As an aside, when I first got to London I bought a little mustard-coloured Mini 1000. It caused me a bit of grief at times but was mostly reliable and enabled so much adventure and pleasure! I drove it everywhere - except to work of course ... the tube was a miles better option.
When Mum and Dad came to visit in 1984 we all three, and our luggage, somehow piled into that Mini and did a road trip down to Cornwall to visit relatives. What fun! (See Share-Note of the Day re luggage issues!)
We stopped in a village called Box (Wiltshire). Dad couldn't believe a place could have a name like that. We found the local pub and he was always tickled pink to say he'd had a beer in a village called Box! I'm still tickled pink about it too.
We stopped in a village called Street (Somerset), home of Clarks shoes. There was a factory shoe shop. Dad made a beeline for the local pub while Mum and I went shoe shopping. Mum was in her element and the Mini was laden down more than ever as we continued on our way to Cornwall. I can still remember her cramming shoe boxes into the very small boot that couldn't really take an iota more! But it did! Before Dad came along!
Back to Omaha ...
I made a quick visit to the local Superette, early afternoon, for a top up of supplies. Those guys are doing a grand job and have everything you need which means you don't need to go far. I have not set foot inside a major supermarket since before lockdown! They're masked and gloved, with tape denoting where you stand, and 3-at-a-time max. The produce department is first rate.
This afternoon, I had an eye on the Aussie races. I'd picked out a few horses when doing study last night - and then, silly me, completely forgot to back them. They all won, of course, at good odds. The ones I did back, of course, did no good at all! Murphy's Law.
Whilst watching racing was an element of my day (it is Saturday after all!), my main focus was work, which is one of the reasons why I missed the winners I should have had. Eye off the ball and all that. I'm revamping the Owners website structure/content and spent a large chunk of the day working on that. And some other stuff.
When I'd done my dash fiddling about with website content and updates and other stuff, I decided to make a pumpkin pie. I'd spotted a recipe in the local Junction magazine.
I love pumpkin, but I'd never made a pumpkin pie before.
Pottering in the kitchen was just what I felt like after a fairly full-on day and I got busy with great anticipation. Kept thinking I should head out for a walk, as the early evening was actually very stunning up here. But even though I'm not much of a baker and following recipes is all a bit arduous, I felt more like turning on an oven and doing some baking with this recipe I'd found!
Seems that today I was destined to stuff up my betting and my baking! But we're talking $20 of betting and $6 of pastry, so it's not exactly a disaster!
I gave up on the horses, poured myself a wine and started again with the pastry and pie. The end result was delicious. I'll make that pie again! And next time I'll know what I'm doing.
Brunch: Full English breakfast
Dinner: Yellow Curry Sausage Casserole with rice (my own concoction). I'm not a huge sausage fan but they were nice gourmet type sausages and it was tasty. We gave it a tick.
There's a feast of entertainment this weekend:
- The Phantom of the Opera being livestreamed for 48 hours from 6am Saturday morning NZ time. Link: https://www.andrewlloydwebber.com/
- The Royal NZ Ballet - Cinderella, livestreamed at 10.30am Sunday morning through this link: https://rnzb.org.nz/shows/cinderella/
- The One World: Together at Home live concert - on at noon Sunday NZ time https://www.youtube.com/embed/X9BUA5PpfLU
I said to Michael a couple of days ago "There'll be a LiveAid concert coming very soon" and today comes the announcement of the One World concert. But it seems to me there are too many singers involved in this one to make it truly iconic like Live Aid was. I just hope it doesn't turn into a big long Grammy-type session, tokenised in some way, and thereby lose its gravitas.
For Live Aid, back in 1985, Bob had to work magic to get people on board to perform for nothing. Today, anyone will do anything for a piece of the action and visibility! Especially in a world where performing to big crowds in person is not an option.
Whatever, it will be worth tuning in for and I'll be lined up. And the NZ live timing is very acceptable.
SHARE-NOTE OF THE DAY:
Travel's a bit of a taboo subject right now - but let's address the matter of travelling lightly.
Or my lifelong inability to do so!
Travelling light, to be quite frank, is my disaster area when it comes to travel. I've simply never been able to do it, no matter how hard I try. For decades I've lugged heavy bags around the world and somehow managed not only to lug them around but to miraculously avoid nasty overweight surcharges, despite obscene amounts of baggage!
Back in 2004, when heading to Heathrow to fly home from London, my luggage weighed 64kg. Yes. You read that right! My friend was more stressed than I was, but hey, I'd been travelling with overweight luggage for 30 years by that time and got away with it all those years. Perhaps my luck was about to run out. But it didn't ...
I was very glad that utter chaos at my airline check-in at Heathrow (thanks to computer glitches) meant I was lucky enough (when they did get back up and running) to get directed to the Biz Check-in where a handsome young man awaited me. He checked in my 45kg suitcase without blinking an eyelid (because he could). Right through to Auckland (because he could). This was Eva Air and I had an overnight stopover in Taipei.
I'm still not sure if he had any idea I had a backpack over each shoulder and two carry-bags which together weighed 20kg+ (hidden out of sight with my exasperated friend and ready for her to take to the charity shop if I got stung!) Given no one in authority seemed to be perturbed about my immense amount of luggage (except my poor long-suffering friend who has dealt with my overweight baggage for decades!), I decided I would soldier on and try to get everything home. I was very lucky, start to finish. Others on that journey were not. I watched numerous people get stung at check-in and upon boarding.
My mission for the entire trip home was to make 25kg of hand luggage seem like a feather ... ladedadeda! Somehow I did it. Still counting my lucky travel stars right there!
I've had a few lucky breaks like that over the years when it comes to overweight luggage - but my luck was certainly not there today with horses and pumpkin pie pastry, haha!
On packing ...
I only brought a tiny amount of clothes up to Omaha. I was initially anticipating going between here and home, until no-go from Day 1. Brought enough for about a weekt!
Okay, so I've got a few permanent clothing items up here, but they are for extremes. Some are for those "throw on a fleece coz it's cold and who cares what colour it is or what it looks like" moments. A few summer things for those "help, at the beach, have to glam up a bit to go out, what can I wear" moments.
Neither of these apply at present. The weather is warm and I am not glamming up.
Consequently I'm recycling the few items of clothing, day by day. The washing machine gets into action every few days to freshen things up. As a notorious - and I mean OTT (as you can tell from above tale) overpacker - I now appreciate the merits of packing light and am going to practise it!
I now know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that a hundred choices are not required! Although sometimes choice is good. Just because.
I suspect that my packing regime will be forever changed for the better on account of Covid days!
This will be music to quite a few people's ears. And my own, to be honest. I'm sick of lugging heavy suitcases (although ... I do like that choice thing ...)
Overall, I think I just may have turned over a new packing leaf ...
I still can't guarantee anything until I can actually travel again!
And who the hell knows when that will be ...
As I didn't get down to Omaha Beach today - it's not good I know, but I really did have other things to do and this is not a holiday! - here are some photos of the beach in Essaouira, Morocco.
You'll encounter camels and kite-surfers, people selling stuff and people strolling.
Caramel sand, an intriguing backdrop, and a very happy vibe.
 |
| Essaouira beach - Camels are everywhere |
 |
| Essaouira old city in the background |
 |
| By the port |
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