March 20th 2020: Turbulant times.

I can remember mentioning the outbreak of a virus in China during our morning meeting in the practice in Otaki in December, not realising at that point what a disaster it was going to be. I guess it was underestimated by almost everyone, not in the least by scientists and politicians. The last group was, and still is, thinking more of the impact on the economy than on the well being of their citizens. So before I will elaborate on our recent adventures, here a video of the biggest idiot on earth:

Early March a new music centre opened in Kapiti. We were so lucky to get tickets for the Goldberg variations of Bach, played by the New Zealand symphony orchestra. I think we were the youngest attending, the rest were definitely of cruise ship age. I was sitting next to a nice old lady with Parkinson and her armband made more noise than a cow on the mountains of Switserland. The concert was great though, really enjoyed it.

Dick had heard rumours about the tuna running. Well, let's say the tuna did not find us. A lot of perch fish and undersized cod, but nothing substantial. In the end we had to settle for just the one kahawai.

Big enough though to make some nice Thai fish cakes.

Summer is over and two dark shadows were hanging over WOMAD 2020. Once was the Corona virus as people were already talking of canceling mass gatherings. The second was the weather forecast. Rain and rain.

Luckily they were wrong again (it's almost like politicians, whatever they promise, you won't get it). Nienke had chosen a nice remote camping with a view of Mount Taranaki. And it turned out the owners were Dutch. What's more, they had a restaurant and on the menu was Indonesian food if your party was big enough. Nienke mailed them that we were with the two of us but with an appetite of 4-6.

When we arrived Nienke asked for the complementary pancake that came with the camping booking, but she was denied on the basis that they had something better for us. We were seated with the view in the last picture. 'You wouldn't have a Grolsch?' I asked the nice lady who was serving our food. They did! The food was amazing, a traditional Dutch/Indonesian rijsttafel. Meanwhile we were listening to all the great hits from the 70's. Just perfect. After Nienke apologised for not being able to eat everything she said; 'good thing too, as there is a special desert'. 'No, you didn't? Really?' Yes, they had made a 'spek koek'. What a perfect evening, we only just fitted in our camper van for the night.

When we arrived on the camping several people had already parked their amazing accommodations.

One more authentic than the other.

I'll just name a few bands and if you want to hear their music, just click on the link. The first night was great. Highlights were New Zealands own Reb Fountain, the Scottish band Rura and the Greek band Marina Satti and Fones.
In the morning we learned a new way of baking your eggs. It's called 'Trevor's eggs in the hole' (indeed, he is not a great golf player). You take a sandwich and a glas of wine (empty, optional is emptying it first). Punch out a circle and put the sandwich in the frying pan. Break your egg in the hole, 'et voila', toasted bread with fried eggs.

So lucky again with the weather. None of the rain that was predicted. Also, not a face mask in sight.

Next day we were pleasantly surprised by the Finnish group Tuuletar. Other great bands of the day were English band The Ezra collective, the very surprising duo on harp and kora Catrin Finch and Seckou Keita, and L.A.B., a band from New Zealand:

Meanwhile me and my friends were trying to get everything right. With the words of DT, I think we did a tremendously goodly job, I've heard many people were saying they'd never seen something like that before, .....

Coffees and catching up on the news in the morning. We realised then that we're probably attending the last mass event in New Zealand in 2020. It should not have started a day later or it would have been cancelled. This weird situation reminded me of Nevil Shute's book On the beach which follows the lives of a few Australians after the third world war with the nuclear cloud descending on them.

Some weird people again, look at the ladies bag on the left. There is aso a guy in this picture with a rather odd hat.

The Trio da Kali from Mali were playing together with the Black (I know, not original) Quartet from New Zealand.

And now we are back in the safety of our little paradise. Nienke working from home as she has some sniffles. Me not working at the moment but giving (unsolicited) advise to the Ministry of Health and more welcome advise to friends. From home I'm helping to organise the flu vaccinations we soon have to start. Of course we do not want all those patients to come to the practice, so my military experience is of some use here. NZ currently has 39 cases, all imported, none community spread yet, but that's just a matter of time. It's starting to sink in, but people are more worried about toilet paper than the disease itself.

We'll get through it if we all behave like sane people. I will most likely join the workforce next week when I get rid of my autumn cold and Nienke will likely work from home as more and more businesses here are closing down or reducing to their core business. Unlike Europe we have winter ahead of us, possibly making it worse here. GP practices will probably all close and consultations will be done over the phone. Weird times. In a while the blaming will start. DT has already pointed his fatty finger to China, but I think it is globalisation which is to blame. Some positive effects will be that we will start appreciating family and community life again, we'll be surprised how well the climate can be and hopefully return to a fairer world where becoming a billionaire is not seen as success, but being healthy and enjoying life is. 

March 2nd: Party Month is over

This party month started with the Queen concert in Wellington rugby stadium. A giant leap back into memory lane with here on this photo Brian May performing with Adam Lambert.

What an awesome light show, really phenomenal and so well mixed with the songs. The average age was 50 at least so lots of songs became a big sing along which was giving us goosebumps - to Love of my life and Bohemian Rhapsody. Cool atmosphere, great night. Tick in the box; saw Queen live!

A day later after we had a nice sleep in we checked out our local Waitangi Day celebrations in Paekakariki. Located beach front in the local park with a massive water slide for the kids and lots of families just having a good old lazy time. Few of my colleagues out and about organising the event,  including the 'waste minimisation brigade' of my team.

Always good to run these events as zero waste events, good way to educate on the spot and help people understand waste. Good local bands on stage including this folk band, we have good local artists floating around in Kapiti ;-)

Another Ferret family bites the dust....to speak in Queen terminology! Another swarm of these cuties that do kill our chickens and rabbits so once they are in the trap there is no mercy. Luckily the newest addition to our chicken family reside in the new coop that has a door that closes automatically at 9 pm. Otherwise I think that these ones may have eaten one or two.. They are good looking but nasty.

And then it was my/our birthday which I usually sort of skip,  as the other birthday girls lives half a world away and during the week, you know how that goes. But now it was on a Friday so it turned into to a last minute organised lovely night with some good friends in the garden.

Hans prepared a wonderful Mexican feast and it felt like summer had finally started!

Followed by a nice fire and some dancing it turned into a mini version of the big bash 3 years ago, good memories!

Dancing away.....

With the die hards.

Hans found this online, we both missed it on the news but isn't this awesome and so Kiwi; one of our news readers showing off her new baby. And look at the smile of this little guy, that just makes everyone's day.

After the birthday it was a day of test driving Toyota's smaller full hybrid cars as it's time to go a lot greener than driving a 23 year old van (even though I love driving it, smooth old lady). This was the first pick,very good looking HRV but after taking it home and having a spin the next day it was a no to the sportage seats, simply really uncomfortable....

I took it to the kite festival to show it off that but didn't change my mind, comfort really before looks at 53. So in the end I ordered the RAV4 hybrid, for which unfortunately we'll have to wait for about 4-5 months. Very popular car and with good reason. Something to look forward to in winter.

The kite festival was lucky with the weather this year, just a great local event that attracts kite flyers from across the world.

There even was a kite flyer from the Netherlands, showing of her self made arty kites with Frysan cows painted on them. She told me she visits her daughter every year for the last 20 years or so and hearing about the festival decided to be a showing off her kites there. Just a lovely active lady, cool story.

After a few very busy days at work if was off to another busy weekend, with on Saturday this gig from Jordan Luck. A very famous Kiwi band who were massively popular (and still are we now know) in the '80's among university circles in Dunedin.

We joined a couple of my lady-friend-colleagues with some of their hubbies and had a great time. Everyone was the same age and just got up, danced and sang along to every single song - just party and we don't care if we look cool or not :-)

We already did the prep on Saturday so after a bit of a sleep in on Sunday we got ready for the annual Dutch borrel club BBQ in our garden. Another fantastic day, but really hot for Kapiti standards, about 27 degrees. So good thing Hans found the energy to put up the extra tent to create some much needed shadow.

Starting with  Dutch bitterballen with mustard and Heineken lager, we were off to a good start. As always a beautiful spread of food but way too much again. We should really down size the portion size in accordance with the average age of the group, meaning go way smaller :-)

Our animals didn't mind feasting on sausages and steak for a few days and we got lots of nice eggs in return. Nice catch up and another good weekend.

In the meantime not much is being done on the property, in my veggie garden you have to wade through 1m high grass and weeds to find the lettuce and tomatoes....pff but when?! Luckily we have two new cow babies to keep up with the paddocks, not that it's that nice this very dry hay like grass but that's what's on offer in summer. Cute eh?

One of the long lasting left overs was a bottle of spray whip cream from Christmas that Hans now fed to the chickens, they loved it and look very funny with white frothy moustaches!

And another weekend arrived, with me starting my three day stone carving workshop on the Friday. After day one lovely friends waiting at home for a catch up, Landa arriving back home after 3 months in the US and Maartje almost on the plane to Holland for a couple of months. Kiwi whanau, our special crew x

All animal forces are now joined in the mornings and it's quite a hilarious spectacle. The pigs make so much noise that all the others are staring at them in amazement. At least we have apples now so that the cows can also get a treat, normally they just stand there and watch the chooks and the pigs get their treats.

This is mister mini-rooster starting to grow up. As Hans has written before I think, one of the 5 new bantam baby chooks turned out to be a rooster and I am not a fan at all of large roosters, I think they are scary really. For now this one is more scared of me so he is allowed to stay. He has also started crowing which is the funniest thing as he sounds like Woody Woodpecker with a very big cold. Our house sitters this weekend thought they heard a kid cry somewhere early in the morning and never realised it was our practicing rooster.

Another photo of apples being dished out and the troops gathering. The pigs chase the cows away by the way.

Here's me at day two of the carving workshop, working away on trying to carve a flax weaving into stone. I brought a 'kete' (Maori basket) I made from flax to see if I could do the same in stone.

On Friday I finished this piece that I started during the 2018 workshop but never finished as we went travelling. Really happy about it, had it on display on Saturday, lots of nice comments and of course always a few that ask 'what is it'? Whatever you want it to be, wink wink.

Anyway, on Sunday morning without too much thinking and being quite tired I decided to unpack it again and put it on display just like the day before but dropped it the last 10 cm to the ground. For no reason at all, other than not switching my brain on; very stupid indeed. The result; a lot of work now broken in half. Very sad and a waste of time but yes what can you do. It's stuff, that puts it in perspective. Will have to think about what to do with if, if anything at all.

Continued with the 'kete' and very happy with the almost finished result. Needs a few minor touch ups and finishing and who knows I might even be able to do that after party season is over in April! Because we are not done yet; a few evening things during the week, classical concert on Saturday and a work organised climate change summit on Sunday. Three days later we're off north to Womad.

When you work three days you have the time to go fishing, so Hans and Dick finally did. First time this summer (and the first time in almost 2 years) but what a day and what a catch!

Pulling up one snapper after another, totaling 13!

Mr Happy Chappy with snapper number....10?

After also enjoying dolphins next to the boat and a few more other species on the hook, it was worth the effort! Full fish bellies on Thursday and the rest in the freezer.

The party finish for February was our weekend in Blenheim, to go to the Dog Point winery picknick. I had been 4 years ago and Hans has been twice so far. Very decadent to fly over for the weekend for good wine and good food. So feeling blessed that we can.

Lovely little group of our FDC (Friday Drinkies Club) from Otaki, wine and food lovers.

Everyone makes an effort and you get spoiled while having an enjoyable afternoon with friends and meeting new friends.

No need to hide the evidence here, it's evident why we are here! Their chardonnay is just the best and for a group of chardonnay lovers this is the perfect match to everything.

Colourfull bunch - long lazy Italian style picknick under the trees. Even played a bit of jeux de boules!

xx

Hans, Jane and Cindy - all so gorgeous!

On Sunday after a decent sleep in and lots of cups of tea and coffee we were off to the air museum at Omaka, set up by Peter Jackson. A few planes from WWI and II have been restored and are still flying, pretty amazing sight. Sobering stories and memories in between all the vines. Quite a few local heros from Omaka fought in the RAF during WW2.

St Claire winery's tables are set in between the vines which is such a nice setting. We have been here before once with my sis Evelien in 2010 in the autumn. Wow, time has flown.

No words needed, Blenheim is a lovely place for a great weekend. We will be back!

Bye bye Blenheim from the air.

Flying back home over the Marlborough Sounds met Sounds air.