On my own…..

Once upon a time…. I was going to start The Church of Bob…. in this old chapel I wanted to buy in Granity. Granity is on the West coast of New Zealand’s South Island, its a whacky place with a coal mine, a crazy old village above it and some rare old characters. Granity’s claim to fame is that anyone who stays there long enough loses their sanity. Anyway…… had I started the Church of Bob, and were it that Steve Jobs was deceased….. then I would most definitely have beatified him… However…. as (very thankfully) he missed an early death the other year, and as I am neither a Catholic or the head of a church, I shall merely give him the title of Saint. he could actually be the first Saint Steve… St Stephen being spelt differently and not counting.

Not only was he the man,  (ok one of two men….) behind my favourite most loved piece of machinery on Earth, he also cheated death, went to the top, was knocked to the bottom again and once more through a strong sense of self belief and unwavering determination, or just plain *not giving up*, he is there back at the top again.

I used to have mixed feelings about technology, at one time I didn’t even own an electric kettle, iron or toaster… but even then I wanted a Mac…. even though I wasn’t sure exactly what they did,  because they had something..from the word go… not just the little square smiley face, but they had soul almost. I battled and conquered Windows for 4 years before I got my first Mac… a beautiful G5…..and I could never go back. A Powerbook an iPod (brick version) and 3 iMacs later I now am the very happy owner of an iPhone…. so once again my love of Steve and all he stands for has risen right up there to its rightful place in the light….

If you love a good story, love the world of business, love art, lack self belief, have lost faith in the human race at all, or if you own a Mac an iPhone or an iPod… this book is a must read…. find out where that amazing gadget that changed the world came from.  Learn how to survive in the face of adversity and cry at the end :)

Another must see are two youtube video’s…. An old Mac advert from the 80′s which still stands strong today…. and a speech from Steve full of his enthusiasm, inspiration and belief.

I know most of the things a Mac can do can be done by a PC, a Mac in my opinion, just does it more beautifully, more intuitively….they shine right to the last piece of packaging. Sure they get thngs wrong at times, but thats how they became so great, learning from mistakes.

I almost believe my Mac has a soul…. it bring s a lot of love and joy to my life…..

These photo’s were taken on Wednesday November 19th 2003 …. My first day as a Mac Owner and Mac user….

Thank you Steve, Thank you Apple, and lets raise a toast…

To the Crazy Ones…. long may they walk this Earth….

Ah well one week until the *DAY* I am over it already! I used to love Christmas but its just not the same in New Zealand, no build up, nothing to get me in the spirit of the season, because its the wrong season!!! In May when I smell the first fires burning, and see the smoke fluffing out of chimneys, when the leaves are crunching and the barometer shows the first Zero temperature, and you can smell and taste Winter.. that’s when I get excited, thats when Christmas thoughts rage through my bloodstream…. One day I will have a real Christmas again… it’s hard trying to get into it for kids and friends, when you just don’t feel it at all.

I went to town yesterday, with my newly fixed brakes…. (*thanks Colm, me darling….*) and man it was horrid. Not only do we have all the tourists and all the hired camper vans with their wild and wonderful designs, but we have the mad Christmas shoppers too… traffic is at a standstill, no parks to be had in supermarkets…. blah… I need to emigrate at this time of year :) I have definitely downsized the season since being in NZ…. this is my 7th Christmas here…seems unbelieveable…

Still no regrets tho… still love NZ…. one great thing about being at the other end of the planet… there is always someone to talk to when you wake in the early hours. I couldn’t sleep last night and have been up since 3.00am…. but am so happy about it because I have been having the funnest convo woth my best mate in the UK. I LOVE my Mac…….cos it connects me to the wonderful people in my life and I love Dilly xoxo

Yesterday I got myself a present…. I deserve one…. so, with my Christmas money and Tax rebate and electricity rebate, and very little guilt for once…. I indulged.. well I tried to, I haven’t quite got it yet… Watch this space :)

I was going to  England this week….in fact now I would have been halfway thee…somewhere around San Francisco…. I had to settle for some wonderful snowy pics of Norfolk instead.. this guy is GOOD!

My life for the past year or two feels like being on a very fast moving train, so fast that you hardly notice the scenery or stations as they flash past.  And you are sitting on this train unable to do very much at all. All you can do in fact is hang on for dear life and just hope it doesn’t crash….

Candles burn for hope
flames flickering in the breath
of a nations prayers

Yesterday was a very tough day for New Zealand…. 29 men were lost, 29 men are mourned by families friends loved ones and a whole nation….

Don’t let these lost lives be in vain….. can we learn something from this? Life is precious, all life is precious, tough as it may be at times, it is a gift and it comes with no warranty.

Don’t be afraid to be who you are, to tell someone how much they mean to you…. and do it today…. Now is all we have.

Love, peace and strength to the families of the 29 miners.

Found these little Paradise Duck babies strolling around by the pond with the proud and loud parent ducks!!

meeting at the beach
gulls scream mournfully overhead
keeners at the wake

walking on wet stones
riding the crest of a wave
is our happiness

lost souls together
on the edge of the planet
hanging on for life

walking side by side
tracking footprints in the sand
of four toed creatures

forest of tree roots
torn from their earthy moorings
little peoples caves

crashing ocean waves
hurling their debris to land
mass of broken hearts

Breakfast is usually my favourite meal of the day… whatever time I eat it…. eaten in the middle of the night can be wonderful…. and oh man, that first cup of tea… *NOTHING* is better than the first mouthful of tea in the mornings!

So this is a recent breakfast.. homemade bread, given a wonderful golden colour by the addition of Bee pollen… and  English Breakfast Marmalade… I miss real marmalade, made with seville oranges like my Father In Law used to make….. have sent out begging emails :) You don’t seem to be able to buy Seville oranges in New Zealand, I look for them every January….

I have been wanting to make Chili Jam for ages….. anyway, today I tried… and failed miserably! It would have been ok had I not burnt it…. but I always seem to do this with jam.. although I did make a good plum one a couple of months ago actually. Maybe it’s that I don’t really have a sweet tooth and the sugar senses that and rebels…. ;)

I really love Chilli jelly but I didn’t fancy all that dripping around…. anyway, this is what the jam looked like before the burning….. I used apples as a base…

I made a decent curry later to restore my battered chefs ego.. and found the best organic basmati I have ever tasted!

The nights and early mornings are getting much cooler…. the Milky way has been lit up in all it’s glory this week… you see way more of it in the Southern hemisphere, but I kind of miss the Northern sky sometimes, and those old familiar stars.

There hasn’t been much rain, but it suddenly became really cloudy and broody last night and we had lashings of the stuff… it was completely deafening on the roof… I love that sound! All the vegetables are getting ready for harvesting, but….. I need a few more weeks without frost, I am determined to get a couple of Spaghetti squash at least….. they have to be one of favourite vegetables in the world and I haven’t tasted one for over 5 years!

Winter is coming…. hurray!!  I love winter, that first smell of it in the air… firelight and dark nights,  wood smoke and the crackling of bonfires, candles and red wine, soupmaking season…. frost in the mornings, crunchy footsteps, the hunting and gathering of autumn and winter… in England when the summers were way too hot and humid, I used to get *SAD* in the spring!! I guess I was always upside down….

Added some photo’s to Flickr…. first in a while…..

Paul brought me some veg from his garden…. including Crystal Apple Cucumbers.. :)

I need to get the gutters cleaned and fit a downpipe…

Chatting to Debbo on Facebook

My Sphagetti Squash are growing well… the Wish Jar that Phoebe made me is working!!

Been trying to make books….!

Prozac Day 3 ……