Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays, dear readers, and our best to you and yours. Current news - sung to the tune of "There's a hole in my bucket" - there's a stone in my bladder, my bladder, my bladder, there's a stone in my bladder that won't come out; and, there's a cyst in my left kidney, etc. that needs further study. Will have a CT scan this Wednesday for more in depth (har, har) analysis of the cyst, and will send an update when I have more info. We had a lovely time at Papamoa Beach this past week, and Carrie should have a picture or two to illustrate that visit. My nephew Ross and his wife Virginia and their son Andrew have been visiting since 15 December, and will share Christmas with us. We had planned to have Christmas dinner with a colleague of Carrie's but she had a horse riding accident where her horse fell and rolled over her, fracturing her pelvis, so she is out of action somewhat, though still getting up and around surprisingly well. We see on the web that it has been, and is being, a cold winter for many of you, so I will not dwell on our warm weather. Carrie, Joseph and Emily remain healthy and in good spirits; the kids are eagerly awaiting Christmas. If Santa lands on our metal roof it will cause a clatter, for sure, for sure. I had a good week of beach walking, shell gathering and book reading, and look forward to the new year, when I hope to become a volunteer somewhere in this town, and plan to go out of town more often to see the nearby sites, and hopefully improve my camera skills. We hope to come to the USA this next year. We wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy New year (I just made that up - pretty good, huh). Keep those e-mails coming - I very much enjoy and appreciate them. Manford

If it's yellow

Hello. Time just gets away and two weeks are gone in a flash. We were pretty busy cleaning/tidying up the house to get ready for a Thanksgiving dinner we held on the 30th of November here - invited a coworker of Carrie's, her husband and their child, our next door neighbors, a friend of Joseph's and his mother and we four. Had a lovely meal - really hard to find turkeys here - and then they are only about as big as a roasting hen in the USA so Carrie bought and cooked two - one in an oven bag, one with no bag, and stuffed with stuffing. I made an apple tart, Carrie a grasshoper pie and did most of the other cooking, and her coworker brought potatoes, white and orange, and we got two boxes of yummy chocolates, and a good time was had by all until the coworker's daughter somehow managed to bang her head pretty hard on a yard swinging chair - my what a yowl!!! But, fortunately she was not badly hurt, and did calm down somewhat. Next up is the annual tree trimming party, on December 14. My computer is getting a low battery warning, so more in a while. Well here I am a few days later, and perhaps you are wondering about the blog title. Well, one of the beach houses we rented in the past had a sign in the toilet room: If it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown,flush it down. I would add: if it's red, you have bled. Which is what I did one day. Apparently that is a common finding when people are taking the local equivalent of Cumadin, but the doctor I consulted about it (my doctor was full up and could not see me) took me off the Cumadin, and I was to see a urologist before going back on it. Well, this consult took place on 27 November and after waiting and trying various approaches to getting an appointment at the local hospital my doctor has referred me to a private pay urologist, whom I will see on this Thursday, two days from today. I am feeling fine, so hopefully he will give me clearance to get back to figuring out the best doseage. I hope so, soonk, for I am off with my nephew and his wife and son to the beach for a few days before Carrie and Joseph and Emily show up - or maybe Joseph or Joseph and a friend will come up with me. It rained heavily last night and this am, good thing, the plants were getting a little parched. Our bathroom make over is almost done. It looks flash as they say here - or sweet - whatever. Emily has a new friend with whom she is spending lots of time. Joseph has a school project presentation this Wednesday evening, while I take Emily to a farewell bar-b-cue Carrie will go with Joseph. He is going to be in the advanced class next year. Hope you are not freezing, and wishing you all a happy, prosperous, healthy holiday season and new year I remain yours truly, Manford

Now you see it . . .

now you don't. Four drops of a homeopathic brew based on some testing the homeopath did using a MORA machine that I cannot adequately explain but is supposed to identify toxic things in your body and the brew helps detoxify - clear drops, 4 taken 3 times a day - they disappear when placed in water, but that may be because the brew is clear???My racing heart has been calm since leaving the hospital - now I have to get sticks (with a needle) to draw blood, twice a week, to measure coagulation factor - used to determine dosage of the warfaran I am on - currently 3.5 mg. I feel pretty good - get tired a little more easily and have had to reduce weight lifting from 1,500 to 1,000 kilos ten times (just kidding). It may be that my eyes and mind are a little clearer, as I bribed someone to tell me - my face a little more flushed (could that be the booze?) - but in general I think I am a better motor functioning me than I was, say six months ago. I see by the old thermometer on the internet wall that at this moment, right around 2 am there, that the temperature in Topeka is 32 Farenheit. Yesterday I visited the local French goods grocery store - yummy sour dough bread and lovely frozen croissants that when thawed overenight grow to about double the original size and become even a little larger when baked. Some good, gooey, stinky cheese, too. And a spice mixture to coat steaks - we cook them on the barbie (barby??), bar-b (??) - a New Zealand tradition (the meat, with the spices, that is, not the spices alone). Some possibly interesting facts - our system of blood vessels - arteries, veins and capillaries - is over 60,000 miles long. The heart beats about 100,000 times a day, nearer 1,000,000 when mine was galloping. Well, probably not that many. In a 70 year lifetime the average human heart beats more than 2.5 million times - wonder what the outlier range is? Perhaps you know of other interesting heart facts. Our bathroom remodel proceeds - now have a tub and vanity in place, with no fixtures, a fine working shower, and a start on waterproofing which must preceed painting. I am having the joy of peeling wall paper in our separate toilet room - it has grown to ten times bigger than the original size and I should be finished by 2014, if I keep at it - slow and steady wins the race. Emily and Joseph have each been chosen by their respective schools to be one of their representatives in somewhat different activities - emily part of a problem solving event in nearby Cambridge, Joseph at his school where he and some of his mates will interact with like-aged youngsters from out of town, I think. Well, hope all of you good readers are in good health and that life is treating you well. More later. Manford

Manford learns about fibrillation

So, doc, I was in the cold,cold ocean water off Waihi Beach for about 30 minutes,in my new wet suit, and there was a breeze and I started shivering and couldn't stop, and then we walked back to the camp Emily and other kids and I and other parents were staying and it seemed to take much more effort than getting there, and I lay down and checked my pulse and boy was it going - (sung to the tune of up on the rooftop click, click, click - up goes the heart rate, tick, tick, tick, let's bring it down, but not to quick) - zooming in at around 140 - 150 beats/minute. So I caged a ride home (about two hours) and went to hospital, where I was warmly greeted by caring (really), nice ER staff, they did an EKG, had to wait a while for a cardiology resident (learned later that as the evening went on there was a 6 hour wait in the ER for less pressing cases), then transferred to an observation unit until next day, then saw a big kahuna cardiologist around 10 am, then transferred to the cardiology unit annex, where I roomed with five other guys until my discharge yesterday, Sunday, after getting medication by mouth and from shots in the belly (subcutaneous, so not too painful), the old racing heart slowed down, while the old blood pressure went down to 80's over 60's, but they thought I was well enough to come home and be looked after by my doc whose office is nearby. The ward experience was interesting - felt a little like a prisoner, but had entertainment through books and mags brought by Carrie, and from listening to the kiwi guys who were there ahead of me and whom I left behind - with more serious heart concerns - one was a farmer, another a car salesman, another from India whose home was in Fiji and is a heavy equipment operator, and some unknown job guys, all good story tellers and many pithy comments re the current NZ elections and USA ones with apparently universal approval of Obama. Food was plentiful and tasteful. Staff very nice. Beds moderately comfortable. From time a hospital house cat wandered in from outside. Had a shower Saturday (last Wed am ) which may have made others glad - made me feel and smell better. Strangely enough I never had any discomfort or any other symptom - too brain damaged already, I guess - just a fast, and somewhat intermittent, heart rate. Well, I am happily at home now, observing the bathroom remodel we are getting done that should be finished by 2010 or thereabouts. All new fixtures,shower, vanity, stool, walls and ceilings, will be much nicer than our old moldy one. Take care of yourselves and try not to fibrillate very often - the cost of my stay is covered by socialized medicine here, but could be a big expense in the USA, I suspect. Med costs pretty much covered too. Wish you were here. Manford

Manford learns about wetsuits (a little)

Emily and many of her classmates are going on a camping trip this week, and Manford is going along as one of several parents who are going to be supervising groups of five of these children. As part of this trip there will be beach time, and if the weather is good and the seas calm, children will be allowed to enter the water, and parents will form a curved line to keep the children from straying. Given that the water is still pretty cool, the school recommended that parents bring a wetsuit. So off I goes, looking for one. I settle on a short-sleeve, short leg model. Says I to the clerk, I guess I will need a Large - says he - no, a medium should be fine. So I try one on, and this, folks, is not an easy task. First you put your own legs, one at a time, in the correct whole for legs, after several futile attmepts with at least one foot tending to go into the arm holes. When finally you get the leg thing straightened out you then have to PULL, PULL, PULL the suit up the legs until it is well up the thighs, and make sure it is tight in the crotch, for if you do not pull it up really, really good you will not be able to get the suit over your shoulders. So I worked at it, uhhgh, uhhgh, uhhgh, and then the helpful store person asks how I am doing, and I stand there with it half on, and try and try to get it over my shoulders, with my arms sticking out, but I need help, for it is not going on so good, so he helps, and finally the arms and legs and shoulder portions are actually pretty good - I can't breathe and it is choking me but he says it needs to be tight to work, so I guess that is the way it will feel. Getting out of the suit is a hell of a lot easier than in - you just peel it down, kind of like a banana skin, pulling on a cord attached to the zipper to start things off, then undo the velcro tabs that hold the neck closed, keep peeling, and finally it is off. Ooops, what to wear under the wetsuit. Most web ites related to this question recommend some Speedo like thing - so tomorrow Manford goes out to buy a bikini bottom sort of thing - but I do not think I will pose for pictures in it, as I do not want to cause people of faint, pass out, run screaming away from me, etc. Carrie laughs about this - I do to. I am definitely thinner now - can wear a 36 inch waist pant (that is what the stores call them here - I guess two pant would make one pants?) and weight somewhere around 180. I was pleased today (this is a topic change) to be told by my doctor that I looked great, much better than a year ago - maybe there really is something to the notion of me having mercury poisioning and not having it now since all the amalgam in my mouth has been removed and I am on a detox with some homeopathic drops. Well, I will stop for now - I managed to disappear some stuff I had typed in, so will quit while I am ahead. Thanks for all your thoughts and time. Manford

Correction

The correct spelling is: kassler. thanks

What I have been reading

I have read, or am in the process of reading: Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami - a strange but generally fantastic story, including a man who talks with cats; Mutant Message From Forever, Marlo Morgan - very interesting portraits of some aboriginies in Australia; The Girl With The Drago Tattoo - writing that to me is so good I don't want to read it because then I will be finished and won't have more - kind of like eating a wonderful icecream, or thanks to Dr. Hsu's daughter Emmie, who recently visited one evening at the end of her tour of parts of Australia and New Zealand, Haigh's chocolates from Australia. Things we have eaten lately of note, from a shop that sells South African goods and local cuts of meat - baby back ribs and kasser, I think it is - a cured pork chop - will get back to you on the spelling; and from our own efforts, fresh spinach and a few strawberries from our garden; and from our own kitchen, waffles with a recently acquired waffle iron that makes heart shaped ones; and some good cheese from local cheese makers. When we can find one we plan to plant a Japanese maple in the front of the house bed. Many of the blooms I saw last week are gone, but new ones keep coming, including lots of roses in other yards and some in our front of the house bed. The lawn is not so good, weedy and patchy so I may call in some help. Emily is having a small party on Haloween. Joseph is visiting with friends and seeming to enjoy school and has a couple, well at least one, project(s) going. Mom is busy at work. I have finally had all the amalgam out of my mouth, and all my crowns are now procelain, with non-amalgam fillings under them. We are healthy, even if not wealthy and wise, and hope all of you who read this are all three. Sincerely, Manford

Here I sit . . .

Hello, good readers. Here I sit, in the dining room, listening to a sudden, pounding (but intermittent) rain as it splatters against our metal roof (this is the most common roofing material in New Zealand, as far as I can tell). Well, all of a sudden, quiet. The afternoon was characterized by immense, powerful, largely white clouds in the West and South, and by even more coverage of the East and North by big grey swatches, so I am not surprised to have the rain - and we can use it. No wonder NZ is so green in most places. The big news of the week is that I have had my last amalgam filling replaced, and no longer have a mouth full of metal crowns, all replaced by porcelain. I struggle to keep still in the dentist chair, and am rewarded by his telling his nurse that I am his best patient - true or not is flattering, and he may have been obliquely referring to the payments I have made which might help him send his kids to the Uni! So far so good. Next week a visit with the doctor in Tauranga who started the whole thing, so I can learn a detox regimen that theoretically will remove mercury remaining in my body. Even if it is not the whole case, I do feel better, more alert and less tinnitus and word finding problems, and better more confident driving, and just happier in general. I have a question: what do the following words have in common? Grand, Hyatt, Sheraton, Oscar, George, Fat Hippo (Fat Hippo???) and Frank. If you guessed they are the name of tents shown in a recent advertisement by a sporting goods store here in Hamilton you win a prize. Many of the ads we see on tv here are funny or clever, and we enjoy that. Emily is back in drama class once a week where she is honing her already prodigous talents, preparing at eight for teenager hood, I suppose, with big ups and downs. Joseph seems to be getting invested more in some of his school projects. I do the odd VNG, and wish I had more because I always feel a little rusty, and doing several in a pretty close row at least shakes some of the cobwebs out! Carrie is working really hard. I am hardly working. Har, har, har - see. Some trees are still blooming, but many are now leafed out as we head toward summer. We will go to the South Island in late December, early January for a Quaker gathering, then have about a week to tour around before coming back. I am sure we will have lots of pictures and we are trying to figure out a way to get more of them into the blog - anybody used the Google Picasa program for this? I am still not very good with it, but then they don't seem to be able to spell, or they are sort of creative with their name? I am trying to take pictures of flowers and tree blossoms, and sometimes, using the autofocus program of the camera get really clear pictures of leaves below the blossom. Oh, well, har, har, har. I am very happy that we get the New Yorker - always something interesting in each issue. Anyone know about the painter Elizabeth Peyton? I weigh in around 180 these days, and at least to me seem to be walking better due to instructions I have received from a lady who is versed in the Alexander Technique. I don't think I have yet completely found my place in this small nation of around 4,000,000 (human) inhabitants (lots more sheep) but am gradually working my way out into the public and maybe for the next year will be more of a tourist, if gasoline prices don't get much higher. I am very sorry about the rough financial times so many seem to be going through recently, and look with some dismay at the latest news from the companies we have invested in, but am hopeful that in the long run things will get better. Last note - Joseph and I watched Breaking Bad, a new tv show for NZ - interesting and will be interesting to see what happens next. Thank you for reading this, and our best wishes to all who do. Manford

A Quiet Week

It has been a quiet week for us - Joseph off to Quaker youth camp in a town pretty far away and Emily in a ymca camp 8:30 - 4:30 Mon - Thurs. Friday the three of us went to a home and garden exposition that had well over 100 booths and displays - I particularly enjoyed watching some of the artists working on stone and wood sculptures, and Emily found a fairy costume for Haloween. The weather has not been delightful, with frequent cloud overlay - big dark ones. Joseph came home yesterday evening. Earlier in the day Emily and I went to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua and enjoyed it. The theatre is in a mall, so she enjoyed a tub of chocolate gelato afterwards from one of the many options in the food court. A daughter of a friend of ours who was in Topeka and moved to California is visiting Australia and New Zealand and we hope to have a chance to meet her sometime this month. I have one more crown to go before all the amalgam is gone. Will bring a bottle of champagne to celebrate! Carrie has been grading papers all weekend. Our latest acquisitions - a waffle iron (somewhat hard to find) and a GPS - fun to listen to it recalculating as I take streets not in its original route! Pretty amazing technology, huh. The kids have one more week of schoobreak - Emily to continue camp, Joseph to continue downloading stuff - his favorite word - stuff. We can get 20 gigs of data a month without penalty - should be enough and more. Cleverest business name we have seen recently - Pasta la Vista - per their brochure - "Traditional Argentinian pasta made fresh . . . every day" and they now deliver in Auckland and are coming to Hamilton. Yesterday we went to a pond on Carrie's Uni campus and fed the ducks stale bread - at one point a mama and four babies came up on land very close to Emily's foot and I tried to get closer and away they went somewhat to the dismay of an oma who pulled out her (previously hidden) bread to feed them while I scared them back into the water not realizing until they were off land that she had bread - ooops. Oh, well. We are heading for warmer weather, with current temps in the 50's, while those in North America, where temperatures are in the 50's, are heading in the opposite direction. We had a time change last weekend so now North America west coast is six hours later, instead of seven. My head spins. Take care, and our best to all who read this.

A little miscellany . . .

The rest of us are happy that Carrie is feeling much better. I have been having some really feeling swell, too. Partly the lovely, clear blue sky's fault perhaps, or who knows? Just enjoy it without too much intellectualizing. Emily is getting pretty good at igpay atinlay and seems to enjoy it. I was listening to some of the music I loaded on my MP3 player shortly before we left Topeka, and for some reason it brought to mind how much I like smiles - the big goofy kind you get from little babies involving their whole face when you smile or make goo goo at/to them. The loving smiles of family members. The pleasant smile of strangers responding to yours. And I was very fortunate at work that both Kay and Shawn, Shawn and Kay, had great smiles and lucky for me they were very tolerant of my sillinesses that popped out from time to time. We are currently blessed with lovely flowers and tree blossoms of many colors and configurations. It was only in the 70's today, but in the afternoon I got hot with my long pants so switched to gym shorts and whew felt better. My nephew, his wife and son may be visiting later this year, possibly in December - it is hard to make the change to it being Summer down here in that month. I did a VNG today and was pleased to remember how to do it, it having been quite a number of months since I did the last one before. And also did basic balance platform measurements. I am feeling more confident, less afraid, when I drive - and am trying hard to not get overconfident - looking twice, etc, trying to stay alert and focused. I believe my father at times was able to drive in a way that caused his passengers some alarm, but he was protected I believe, since he never had a serious wreck - though he did drive the riding mower into the pool one time. Well, keep smiling, and have a good week. Manford

I'm back!

I'm sorry I've been so silent of late--my only excuse is supersitition, as it seemed like every time I told someone I was getting better, I got much worse, so I couldn't come here and write that I was getting better, and I didn't want to when I was getting worse...anyway, I am now officially much, much better, and our trip to Sydney was very therapeutic (we got to walk on, and near, the beach), and I had my check-up at the pnuemonia clinic just before we went, and the child doctor (he may have been a med student--or a resident, which they call "registrar" here) said "it's nice to do a physical on someone who is relatively healthy"--which made me feel very good. I guess they see a lot of very decrepit people. But I am feeling ecstatically healthy right now, able to climb whole staircases without a second thought.

And it is spring--we planted some tomatoes yesterday, and carrot seeds, and the strawberries we planted a few weeks ago are blooming very promisingly. Yesterday we went to Hamilton Gardens--very pretty park--and saw several batches of very cute ducklings, some swimming perilously close to some menacing-looking eels, but no tragedy transpired. Good thing, because Emily was very emotionally involved with those ducklings.

And now I had better get back to too many student papers...I was excited and inspired by the conference in Sydney (on perinatal mental health) and hope to get some more research started soon, and maybe go back next year to Melbourne, when the conference is jointly between perinatal mental health and infant mental health societies--not to mention Pittsburgh, in 2010. Could 2010 be nearly here?

Carrie

Things we did not . . .

Hi, everybody. Here are some places I did not go, things I did not do, and things I did not buy: GO - Chinatown, Chinese Garden of Friendship, Sydney Fish Market, Star City Casino, harbour cruise, bush walk north of town, nude or partly nude beaches, Aboriginal Art venues (several of these), Justice and Peace Museum, Museum of Sydney, Ocean World (you can swim with sharks there), Sydney Aquarium. . .DO - attend any plays, operas, concerts, street fairs, kite days at Bondi beach, revisit King Street, hike on the beach at night, listen to the radio (we saw quite a bit of Australian Football on TV and watched part of the New Zealand All Blacks win a rugby game over their Australian counterparts), play any CDs (I bought one). . . BUY - clothes (I got one t-shirt with aboriginal art on it), (not very many) books, opals, diamonds, other jewelery, authentic Aboriginal art, shoes, boots, short pants, fancy backpack (got one for me for $30.00 Au), hiking or camping gear, a meal with kangaroo meat, fancy Swedish ice cream at $5.00 a pop (we did find a Baskins-Robins outlet and ate some of that, and I spotted a Krispy Cream franchise at the airport but alas, alack could not locate one in the departure area), silly or cute or funny postcards, table mats, table runners, exhibition catalogs (just one), hats (I got a new cap to replace my favorite, but somewhat bedraggled one), soap, toothpaste, (just a little chocolate to tide us over), etc... What kind of things have you not done, seen, bought in your travels. So far I have no regrets about what we did not. . . hope the same for you. Sincerely, Manford

It seemed so simple at the time

In which Carrie and Manford have further adventures - the last shall be first . . .We had gotten to airport parking just fine, making some right turns then three in a row left but when we got back from Sydney (more in a moment) failure to turn left led us to unknown territory going, it turned out, away from Hamilton rather than toward it but with some exciting interchanges between husband and wife managed after not too much time to get turned around and on the right road. Whew! Our flight to Sydney was fine - we even got a movie and some not too bad chow on Air New Zealand. Customs went rapidly, and we were solicited by a guy in a cowboy hat to let him take us to the ferry terminal for only ten bucks a head - cheapest airport transportation by far - and since he had corraled others we felt no fear - at least until he started driving - then I think his insanity took control, or perhaps memories of his experiences when taking the New York City school of cab driving course kicked in, and I closed my eyes from time to time and Carrie uttered expressions of wonderment that we did not crash, run over anybody or become mated to vehicles in front or behind us as he smoothly zipped in and out of traffic lanes and got so close to those in front of him that were he any closer he would be in their back pocket. But we survived, and probably got our heart rate up for the day with no exercise. We were actually booked for Carrie's conference in Manly, a Sydney suburb - about 30 minutes away via a ferry - a lovely ride with great views of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge (Harbour?). We settled in for the night and for the next three days Manford explored while Carrie conventioned - learning a lot - each of us did (per Yoda talk). In my time I had a tour of the Opera House - it had the most beautiful and best sounding concert hall I had ever been in! I then went to the Australian museum and enjoyed a wonderful collection of Aboriginal art - and had a lunch of something soft with potatoes in it, and some cheese, I think. At some point I bravely took a train to Newtown, a really cool shopping area on King street - reminded me of Berkley California. I had purchased a 3 day Sydney pass that allowed me to ride on city busses, trains, monorail, ferries, and two different Explorer bus lines you can get off and on at any time and they cover a large part of the city. Went to Bondi (pronounced Bondeye) beach, a big beach with quite a few people flying kites (there was, nearby, a nude beach, I believe but I didn't scope it our or participate for I had no wish to depress people as would have happened when they gazed upon my beautiful body) and the beach right across the road from our hotel in Manly was much cooler anyway but like some other things in life I felt I should see it once, and now I have. Just a funny karma there - I guess it, like much else, was taken from the Aborigonal tribes at some point. Sunday Carrie and I visited the really nice maratime museum - they had a fascinating exhibit of several hundreds of French, mostly, toy boats (can you say toy boat four times in a row real fast?) that ranged in size from a few inches (centimeters) to five or six feet (nearly a couple of meters?) - well displayed. And we saw a sailboat made of beer cans - apparently there is a race in some town anually for boats made like that. And some other interesting displays related to sailing. We went to an area called The Rocks, and they had a large outdoor market where we purchased this and that - including something special for Carrie's mom and some other gifts. We agreed that Aussies like their coffee for there were approximately a bazillion coffe shops - and ditto for ice cream (around five bucks a pop) and gelato joints, plus a plethora of good restaurants - all kinds of neat names, such as Thai me up and eat me Sushi - some serving kangaroo which we did not eat. I found a couple of neat used book stores and a great tea store on my King street adventure. The weather was good while Carrie was conferencing and rain came a little on Sunday but we did not get caught in any of the several downpoors. There was a gent all painted up like an Aboriginy (spell) playing a digaderoo (I am sure that is spelled wrong) the tube thing that makes interesting sounds and I bought a CD from him for only ten bucks. Sydney must have really strict noise laws - we never heard a horn honk, and for some reason (my excellent driving skills could not be the cause) I often hear horns close by in Hamilton. Overall, a great trip, except for the little bump related to finding our way home at the end. Perhaps a GPS would obviate that difficulty in the future? We were glad to be home - the children were happy to get away from their slave labor camps and Charlie seemed happy to escape his prison. Well, take care and thanks. Manford

How quickly . . .

How quickly time passes (at leas sometimes) perhaps due to relativity (an hour at work seems to be like a day, a day at the beach seems like an hour). I guess in part I haven't written is I haven't had any remarkable experiences recently. However I did get a call asking me to do a VNG test on a patient near the end of this month. change topic. We have a broadband plan for the internet that allows us broadband speed as long as downloads don't exceed 10 gigabytes - somehow we managed to hit that landmark around August 24 or so, and suffered from the company then switching us over to dial up speed - though they don't charge any more when we do exceed our limit. CHANGE TOPIC - The magnolias are on the cusp of their peaking, with many dropped petals and somewhat dessicated blossoms on the tress but are stll in their glory - with pinks, whites and possibly some other color my color blindness does not recognize. I do have a new porcelain crown on a back tooth, replacing the metal one that was covering up an amalgam filling, so had that out and replaced with white stuff. One to go. Beautiful weather this week (topic change) with clear skies at night. I wonder what the Kansas current governer will do when her term is up since she did not get picked for the Veep post? And am I right that Slattery is challenging Roberts? change - there were hundreds of kids and parents and officials camped in our local park - playing soccer in what has become an annual spring event, turning our two way street into a one lane alley with cars parked on either side, some on the grass between the street and sidewalk, some not. I had to take Emily to her Saturday science class so backed up part way down the drive then turned right and drove over the grass that is between my drive and the neighbor's and then right again so at least I was facing out before pulling out, rather than pulling my neck out of joing trying to see while backing up. Joseph wants to see Hellboy2 - has anybody seen it? I have been trying to photograph some of the flowers in our area and if the pictures come out pretty good I will try and post them on this blog. Take care, all of you, and let me hear your news. Thanks. Manford

Memories are made of this

Some things are just more memorable than others - for me, the end of WW II signaled by a siren going off in the employee housing settlement near Bloomington, Texas; Schortie, my first puppy (a daschund); my sister falling out of a tree and hurting her back when I was pretty small, in Mississippi; my first sighting of the Monterey Peninsula after a hard winter's basic training in Fort Leonard Wood, thinking maybe I had died and gone to heaven; and the list goes on. What are some of your favorites? Topic change - we have had three glorious days of sunshine and largely blue skies - I think I got a little sunburn working in the yard a couple of hours today - wearing short pants and a short sleeved shirt and being plenty warm. More shifts - perhaps only a sentence or two on a topic - met two swell fellows this week, one an audiologist who owns his own practice and gave me some good advice about a possible alternative portal to get back to doing some hearing testing by becoming a member of the New Zealand Audiometrist Society; and a second gent, goes by the moniker of the Lawnmower Doctor (he picks up and delivers) who wasted no time in telling me I had not destroyed the innards of the drated machine, just tilted it too much so some oil got in the air filter and cylinder and he fixed that, and also put the top portion of the handle right side up - I had installed it upside down - very sweet guy. (shift) Carrie is finally really on the upswing - breathing more easily, having less pain where the evil pleurisy resides on her left side - that and the weather have really cheered me up, too. Has anyone seen the movie Teeth - it was playing here but I missed the two days it was shown. Read the reviews - sounds wierd but interesting at least to some of us twisted mind folk. (shift) I really enjoyed watching the Olympics - coverage in New Zealand was mostly on different sports, not necessairily with New Zealand participants though they had a lot of that - devoted up to ten or twelve hours a day sometimes. Thanks as always for your support and interest. Last thing today - I am still on the trail of learning what a squirrel hammer massage is - I called and was told it is like acupressure, but when I asked about its name was told to come in and they would show me - maybe I will go - hope if I do I come back!

Every day . . .

Every day, walking Emily to school, with or without Charlie the wonder dog, or Charlie with or without Emily, I pass by beauty. No matter the season, there is always something in bloom. As we near Spring here there is more - pinks, yellow daffodils, white blossoms on some camelias, pinks and purples too, pansies just peeking out, an occasional limpid, delicate iris, pink blossoms on some trees, small ones, big ones, fallen ones whose delicate flowers Emily enjoys picking up and looking at with the mindful way she sometimes has. Well, I am sleeping better than I had in a long time, and have started what I hope I will continue to do, working out (albeit it lightly at this point) at the Rec center at Carrie's Uni - stationary bike for fifteen minutes (that is my goal - ten about did me in on day one, but did get pulse rate up to about the right place - I think 180), then pumping the old iron for another fifteen minutes, all this post a consult with a lady gym staff who came here from Canada and loves country music. Saw a crazy Japanese movie last night, one included in the New Zealand film festival - sort of a Yojimbo/fist full of dollars cross with two warring sides in a village fighting until all that were left were the mysterious neutral hero who came riding into town earlier, a little boy, and a wise mountain man - plenty of gore, and Japanese actors who spoke exxagerated English! Carrie and I will go to one about Pete Seeger later this week, and I hope to see a few more. I was hurting from my temporary crown but got it smoothed off and is ok now. Carrie is gradually getting better. It is raining buckets outside as I write this. Yesterday Carrie, Emily and I went to a garden center and bought strawberry plants, some seeds, some vegetable plants (lettuce, beets, chives, etc) and if it stops raining will try and initiate our lovely raised beds with them. Thanks for reading this, and all our best to you and yours.

lt ain't over 'til it's over

Darn, shoot, heck, son of a gun, aarrrgggghhh - I thought all the amalgam was gone, but yesterday the dentist found some more under a metal crown we are replacing with a procelain one. And there is one more to go, which will be looked at in about three weeks after I get my new crown. Ah, well. Good news is the sun is shining. The car people callled and will be here soon - was having coolant system trouble but they say they fixed it. Manford

Momma called the doctor...

Momma called the doctor and the doctor said - "Come on in" and so she did and he then said "Go to the hospital" which she did with me driving and after about a three and a half hour wait in the ER at a stuffed, full, no available bed hospital, we saw a doctor who said probably pleurisy, take this iv antibiotic after I do a little needle biopsy to see what we can see, the next day a different doctor says go home, you will get better, and take these pills and they will help too. So it goes. Carrie is not very comfortable and it hurts when she moves a certain way or breathes too hard, but we are optomistic that things will be better day by day. At least there was no charge for anything that went on after we entered the hospital, since it is part of the public health program. I am still reeling a little from an e-mail from the New Zealand auditory society that said I do not qualify for their membership because I have no Master's degree in Audiology - but at least I got an official opinion from their president - so I will do other stuff. I have signed up for a six month trial at the University Rec Center - strong like bull, smell like ox? The weather - will the rain never cease? Then, hark, what is that bright light in the sky - that intermittently peeks out? Have discovered a great cheese factory from a nearby town, whose products are sold in our local grocery store. Had some moisture behind the lens covering the right headlight on our bmw - apparently a common occurrence recently what with so much rain. We are looking forward to spring - already some trees are showing lovely pink buds and some flowers are poking their heads up to see what they can see. Emily is getting better with the violin. Joseph seems pretty content with school. We are grateful for friends and relatives who read this, and wish you well.

Out damned amalgam

The deed is done. The dentist in Cambridge (NZ, not England) removed all the old amalgam fillings this past Friday - the theory being that they were possibly causing me to have mercury poisoning which has caused some of my symptoms - I know this is controversial but I feel I have little to lose and possibly some to gain by doing this. The weather has been - no rain, so we get frost, which killed the plant Emily had grown from seed that we transplanted to the raised bed about two weeks ago - she took it very well. She is getting better on the violin. Joseph was in a chess tournament and got two byes and a forefit and two draws so got some prize money for his games total. Carrie and I are off to Sydney next month. Had to get the coolant changed in the BMW - cost about 96 dollars. I thought the opening ceremony of the Olympics was incredible - how do you put that in perspective of the repressive government of China? We are getting a lot of tv coverage of the Olympics here and NZ is proud of its excellent rowers. The USA is doing pretty well, too. The tax man has begun to take bites out of our income - for our house and for the local government - they charge for rubbish pickup but not yet for water useage. We pay the electric bill separately. We hope all is well with all our readers, and appreciate past comments.

I was doing fine, until...

Well the plate that holds the keyholel of the front door was loose so I decided to fix it. That involved removing the inside portion of the lock and tightening some screws that held the plate in place. I did that. Then I attmepted to reassembee the lock, with the outcome that I dropped the lock, a spring spronged out and pieces were all ajumble, so that the locksmith I called when he came could not reassemble the lock and so we now have a different lock with different keys and are financially poorer for it. So life goes. Saw a car today with the model name "carisma." When I take Charlie out on her leash it goes something like: walk, stop, pee, walk, stop, sniff, yank the collar a little, walk, walk, walk, stop, sniff, yank, walk, walk, walkm stop and sniff with a funny bear like gait, poop, walk, walk, walk, stop, sniff, yank, sniff while walking, stop, sniff all the way around the tree, yank, walk, walk, walk...Carrie is getting better every day. Joseph brought plenty of muddy clothes back from his recent school trip - went swimming in a really cold river, went on a night course without a torch where he had to follow a string, and other equally exciting activities. An reading a book by a not very nice, I suspect, Brit who came to New Zealnd, called "Going as far as I can." I have tried to find an under counter tray for a keyboard, we need to hook one up to one of our laptops, since the N key no longer works and the V key has lost its cover, but can't find one in New Zealand for less than about $ 300.00. That is right, I did not misplace a decimal. Any ideas on how I can get a cheaper one? Where? We have had sun the past few days - somehow when I say I could not figure out what that bright light in the sky was Kiwis find that to be funny. Laughter, the best medicine (sometimes). Tomorrow start the process of replacing amalgam fillings, which may contain mercury, with nonmetallic ones, and before that get my hearing tested and hearing aids (possibly) reprogrammed. Hearing aids are expensive here - the locksmith said he was quoted a price of $ 10,000.00 for a pair - shoot, I could go the states and buy two here are pay my plane tickets and stay awhile for less than that. I will explore further why they are so expensive. Take care. Thanks for reading this. Manford

Miscellany

Here is my experience today at the opthalmologist who gave me a laser treatment for a small retinal tear: Dr. - you will experience bright flashes and possibly some pain; Me - ok,ok,ok,ok,ow,ow,ow,ow,ow,ok,ok,ok,ok,ow,ow,ow,ok,ok,ow,ow - he stops - I think "whew, that wasn't so bad" he says "half way through"; Me - ok,ok,ok,ow,ow,ow,ow,ok,ok...So it went - some flashes brighter, hurtier than others - but he praised me for not jerking or otherwise moving so we got through pretty quickly. He did see the tear, which the referring optometrist hypothesized was there - good on her. To change the topic, the most annoying (to me) overused recent expression begins "At the end of the day..." Maybe you have other candidates? At least for a while, finally, today, the rain has stopped and even a little blue sky was showing! Yahoo! Carrie is feeling a little better, too - well enough to go back to work for a full afternoon, including teaching one class. Emily had a bad day yesterday, much better today. Joseph won both chess games he played against a competing high school, yesterday. He is scheduled for an outdoor outing later in the year and wow what a list of necessaries, mostly clothes, he has to get -hello Salvation Army store! If you buy from the retail sport shops clothes are way high, with many items at or above $250.00. So long for now. Manford

Barbers saw the doctors and the doctors said

Well as the Chinese reportedly said, may you live in interesting times. We have had an interesting two weeks. It has rained and rained and rained - the ground is pretty much saturated now. Enough is enough, we hope for a break in the weather soon. It rains day and night sometimes, with occasional gusts from the East mostly. Carrie has been seeking help with her discomfort which may be a pulled or strained muscle or something else - the doctor said take these new pain pills and finally we have something that works, even if it does make her a little zonky. I may have a slight retinal tear in my right eye and am getting some laser treatment for that. Otherwise I have pretty much recuperated from sore elbow, shoulder and back. The Alexander Technique is helping some - makes me sit up straighter and walk and sit nicely if I remember to do it. It also involves laying down with my knees in the air, feet on the ground, and relaxing for about twenty minutes - very restful. A little meditation time, actually as well as a physical relaxing. I had to cancel an appointment a while back with a local audiology group and since that was the second time I had done that they refused to reschedule me - their loss, my gain. What are some of your favorite sayings: one I like is "For every loss some gain; for every gain some loss." Favourite singers or music groups: Harry Belafonte, Edit Piaf, Kingston Trio, Smothers Brothers, Dave Brubeck Quartet, Modern Jazz Quartet, Johnny Cash, Gary McKnight (in Valley Falls, folks), others later. Favorite news of the weird in NZ - a family thought they were farewelling their deceased mother in a closed coffin with cremation - turns out the hospital or funeral home had mistakenly placed a man's body in the coffin - he was a stranger to the family! Things will get better. We hope all who read this are well and happy and healthy. Manford

Finally

I'm sorry I've been incommunicado. Carrie here. Yes, I've been kind of floored by flu and pnuemonia the last two weeks, but I am recovering now, and basically can do little but sit in the recliner, so I have no excuse but to blog a bit. Except that this laptop, which is the one I use for pictures (I put some new ones! lots!) is about to run out of juice. So this one may be short, but I will write more later, I promise.

Today is Manford's REAL birthday, we could argue, since he was born in the US, where it is still the 22nd. But we're both in rest and recuperation mode, maybe just nibbling a bit of cake and happy the kids are both at school. It keeps alternating promising sunshine and downpours--there must be some rainbows out there--there often are, here. Charlie is looking out the window, waiting for pedestrians to growl at. She's doing better, shifting from barking wildly to just growling to herself, while wagging, of course...

My semester started last week, pretty much without me. Actually, I was there on Monday, thinking I was fine and just a little cough, recovering from the bug, but then Tuesday I got really sick, and Wednesday I could hardly breathe so went off to the doctor's. Thankful for antibiotics--here, amoxicillin is still the drug of choice that seems to work for most things (Joseph is also now on it for a sinus infection)--apparently they haven't gotten the resistenced here to plain vanilla antibiotics. It cost $3. And I am better now, and will start my class, a week late, tomorrow. I did do a bit of lecturing (to the graduate students) yesterday and the day before, and it went ok, but that was sit-down discussion-leading, really. I'm resting up today for the bigger performance (a two-hour lecture in which I try to catch up from missing the first class session) tomorrow.

I'm going to check on that last picture--Manford and his birthday cake--more later.

Carrie

Happy Birthday, Manford, and some other stuff

Hi. Greetings from down under, smaller country version. I have had a lovely birthday so far. We buy frozen croissants from a store here that sells French food; you set them out overnight to thaw and get bigger, cook them 18 minutes at 180 degrees C, and eat this wonderful concoction of flaky pastry and butter - yum! Emily made a little doll for me, Joseph gave me a DVD of the first year of The Office, British version, and Carrie got me a wonderful rain jacket - courtesy of Land's End and brought with them when the family from Kansas visited - many thanks to them, and a neat book about a New Zealander who spent three years in Japan as an English teacher, and the gang gave me a new Kaleidoscope (sp?) to add to the collection my dad started years ago. It has abalone shells in it - a real kiwi product. I found a chocolate cake with caramel icing - my favorite since childhood -at a local Cheesecake Factory. That fit in with my thinking earlier today of what some of my favourite things are, so here is a little list: favourite painters, Rembrandt, VanGogh, most other impressionists, Georgia O'keeffe, Vermeer, Winslow Homer, Renoir. Favourite museums, no ranking, The Louvre, what used to be called the Orangarie but now has another name with a large collection of Impressionist paintings, in Paris, The Kemper in Kansas City, The Prado, the entire Smithsonian collection, the Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City, The Phillips Collection in DC, the Met and MOMA in New York, the big and small museums in Wellington, NZ, the Art Institute in Chicago, the main one in Berlin (it has Rembrandt's Man with a Golden Helmet and a lovely bust of Nefertiti), the maratime museum in Barcelona (many wonderful ship models, with some in cross section). So, enough for now - would be interested in others' favourites or favorites. Ta, ta for now. Manford

small addition

There are places I have visited that I don't think I mentioned when talking about them - Moscow, and Monterrey Mexico. I think I have touched some ground in all the continental US states, and did visit Hawaii but not Alaska or Canada. Forgive me if I double up and repeat France, Spain, a tiny bit of Sweden, Milan, Venice, Florence, Dubrovnik, Munich, Frankfort, Berlin West (the wall was there when I was there). I would love to hear about others' travels. I finally gave in and got an alternative e-mail since hotmail does seem to sometimes kick back messages addressed to me there - manfordb@gmail.com. Try that if you will. Lots of rain yesterday and though the sun was shining this am on the children's first day of the third term of the school year, it still managed to rain and dumb me with no umbrella got pretty well soaked. I drove to Tauranga today, about 105 kilometers from here and did well so and yesterday drove back from Auckland, about the same distance but with fewer curves in the highway, on Sunday after delivering our visitors to a motel near the airport (we left Saturday afternoon and the lady of the group drove, because I thought I could not handle driving in heavier traffic and also because I do not see as well at night as I used to, so I, too, spent the night in the same motel as the family group did - they are stopping in Tahiti for three days before returning to the States - hope they had a great time!! Sincerely, Manford.

What a laggard

What a laggard I have been with (not) posting news from Lake Hamilton (sort of like Lake Wobegone). Well, here is some. Carrie has been battling with pneumonia (located mostly in her left lung) for a week now. It really put her on the fritz, making her sore, weak, tired, listless for a few days, but encouragningly is now on the upswing, except for a persisting cough and that is even a little better. I had a back twinge and a sore knee but they are clearing up, too. Tomorrow here will be July 22, my 67th birthday on this planet. The kids start school for the third term this week, in fact today. Joseph and Emily really enjoyed visiting with their friends from Kansas - as did Carrie and me. The stay for a few days at the beach was fun, and Charlie came back from the kennel dirty but happy - either to see us and/or because she got to socialize with some other dogs while we were gone. I regret that I have yet to find a way to take here out for a run, for at this point I don't feel comfortable letting her off leash, but a trainer whose advertising name is the dog guru will come and teach us how to teach her, I hope, on the 31st of the month. I am so grateful for the kindnesses of friends over the years, and think often about many of you. I will try and post more often, like doing a weekly column, beginning this month, or in August at the latest. There are interesting things going on or being said here and I would like to share at least some of them. Carrie and I are planning a short trip to Sydney in September, and there are lots of other things to write about. Gasoline is now up to 2.19 a litre for premium, and prices for food and clothes are inching up while property values are inching down, a worldwide problem, I gather. We installed a heat pump for the bedroom side of the house a few days before our guests arrived and it was nice to have that section toasty in the morning, instead of shivering so much as we had been. That will probably bump up the electric bill but will be worth it and should only be needed a few more weeks. We are looking forward to a warmer, possibly less wet Spring (boy it has really been raining a lot lately - the drought is really broken), with some highway flooding. Feast or famine, I guess. It was great to have our guests, and we miss them. We miss all of you, and hope you are having a good year. More later. Manford

Suddenly the entry hall was full of people

The pizza man came from Hell('s Pizza, actually) and in response to the cry "pizza is here" there suddenly appeared, besides me, two other adults, three teen-age boys, an 8 year old girl, and two 20 year females and a dog. We currently are housing all but one of these (a school chum of Joseph's), and are bursting at the seams, mom and dad in their bed, Emily in hers, Joseph downstairs with a friend who came with his family to visit, from Kansas, and also with one of his friend's sister, and the other mom and sister in what is usually Joseph's bed. The shower walls are papered with towels, the hot water heater and heat pumps working overtime (below 32 this am), but we are having a grand visit, and the "foreigners" from Kansas seem to have adapted well to New Zealand time. We are off for a few days at the beach later this week. They brought food gifts (e.g. doritos and marshmallows) that we cannot get here and some clothes Carrie had ordered and had sent to them, some books, too, and a wealth of smiles and good nature - we are happy to have there here and will be sad when they go in about a week and a half. (They get a couple or three nights in Tahiti on the way home!). This morning the two moms are going grocery shopping. Yesterday, Carrie suffering the effects of a bad head cold, Manford took the foreign mom out to see some sights and the best was a quick tour (it was cold and the sun was going down) of some really wonderful gardens at Hamilton Gardens - Indian and Chinese and Japanese and a few others - but the strange one was called contemporary American - with Adirondac chairs by a pool with a sculpture in it and a montage of Marilyn Monroe on one wall and a small deck with chairs and a mostly glass enclosure with tables and plants we could not readily identify. All in all, or as they say here"at the end of the day" it was an interesting time. Well I need to go to eat some toast. More later, from Carrie, I hope, telling about the games the Kansans brought. Manford

my bad

Ooops, sorry - the milk we buy comes in TWO liter (litre?) bottles, hope I haven't indicated previously it came in one liter/litre bottles. Town centre is how you spell town center here. More on Kiwi expressions and/or spelling is coming to you from me at some point. We had more heavy rain today - and strong wind and since I prudently did not wear a raincoat my pants were soaked but fortunately I had a dry pair at home I could change into. The sun came out, looked around, then pulled its mantle of clouds back over its face. Last night, though, was brilliantly clear at least around 9 pm when I was leaving the home of a nice lady who hosts a group of meditators every second and fourth thursday. I had not done a group meditation in a long time and it was encouraging to learn I could sit still and (pretty much) stay awake for a forty-five minute meditation session. I did sit in a chair, because it is not comfortable for me to sit on the floor in even half-lotus position for very long (some stiffness from the Parkinson's, but moreso my poor bunged up right knee). Carrie had a relatively smooth flight to Palmerston North, which is in the south of the north island, two days ago, and it was pretty good coming back until they got close to Hamilton, where it turned a little bumpy - she could see through the cockpit window as the small planes don't have a door to the pilot's area - and the copilot was also the steward. Well I have to go pick up Emily from school so will blog you later. Thanks. Manford

Oh, my!

Wow, what a storm last night, starting about 11 pm - heavy rain, thunder, lightning, wind - and we have discovered that Charlie does not cope well with that type of weather, first digging at the closed door that stood between her and her bed (the bed is in the downstairs living area), so I let her go to that, and she stayed a while, until about two forty-five then was up and around seemingly needing to pee but also absolutely refusing to go outside - so little sleep for me last night. This morning she was much more her old self. (Had to take a short break to make Emily some hot chocolate.) The big event of the week (besides the weather) - instillation of two large raised beds, about 4 1/2 by 12 1/2 feet, filled with pea straw then rich compost. It will be interesting to see what we plant and how our gardening grows - just a few winter veggies to start - we will list them after we get them. Just a pause here to consider our blessings - we are well and financially secure and are thankful for that and for all the friends we have around the globe. Well, grocery prices are higher this month, and there has been a rising trend for a number of months - maybe you can translate from metric to USA measures remembering a liter is about a quart and a kilogram is about 2.2 pounds so - regular gasoline two dollars a liter, premium two-fifteen. A litre of milk - varies from a high of 4.25 to a low of 3.10. A 250 ml bottle of maple syrup - 7.99. A bag of mandarins - maybe 15 -4.79. Two long life small light bulbs - 10.99. 120 grams of yeast - 3.62. 6 pack of eggs, 2.99. 500g of flour gluten - 6.29. 500g of cheddar cheese - 7.49. 535g chicken soup - 2.69. Also remember that one Kiwi dollar is worth about 75 cents American. Have fun with your translations. I gave up on the cooking class - was not fun and felt I could have learned as much from a cookbook or two. We are using the bread machine more now, and enjoy home-made bread at least when it rises appropriately, which the last try did not - oh, my. I remember someone telling us they once had a failure making bread and it was so bad even the dog would not eat it - Charlie did eat some of ours, grabbing it off the counter, so must not have been too terrible, huh? Right now, at 4:30pm it is starting to get dark - the temperature outside not bad at 57, but inside only 66, so we dress warmly, and the kids have a heatpump in their rec room that keeps them warm and cozy. We are excited about the forthcoming visit of friends from Topeka, who will arrive here on the 7th of July - will be a contrast for them to Kansas weather. Well, as always, thanks for taking the time to read this - and I am sorry Google makes it so difficult for you readers to respond. My nephew, who will be living in Doha, Qatar for a while uses another blog service that allows comments - but I think he pays a little to use it. We are trying out Skype and will see how that goes - it is easy to get calling cards that only cost two cents a minute, so that is what we use now, since Skype only works if both parties have it. Sincerely, Manford

20 June, 2008 here, June 19, 2008 there

Well. We have been here a year now. I still have trouble getting my head wrapped around that fact, but here we are. I guess moving is in my blood: I was born in Alice Texas because they had a hospital and the town we lived in, Freer, did not have one. We lived in Bloomington, Texas and Refugio, Texas and almost Harlingen, Texas (dad was transferred there and we were building a new house when he got transfered back, to Refugio, I think). Somewhere in there we lived in Mississippi. I went to college in Austin and Kingsville, Texas. I went into the Army in San Antonio, had basic training in Fort Leonard Wood, Missourik, then on to Army Language School in Monterey, California, further training in Virginia, then shipped to Berlin for two and a half years. During my tour of duty I visited Ireland, Corsica, Italy, Spain, Denmark and Sweden. After discharge I went to Rome, Dubrovnik, Istanbul, north Africa, Marseilles France and on to Paris where I entirely by chance (divine guidance?) ran into some of the guys still in the army in Berlin, and somehow got to England and caught a plane to New York City and from the central bus terminal (freaky deaky place went to a friend's house in Lynn, Massachusetts, then back home for a few months, then to Philadelphia, Santa Ana, California, Dallas, Texas, Gainesville, Florida, Bostonk, Massachusetts, Baltimore, Maryland and finally (I thought) Topeka, Kansas (I may have forgotten a few other places where I stayed briefly) - whew. Then we up and move to New Zealand after 30 years in Topeka. Who knows where next. We plan to explore this small island nation more in the coming months and years, prompted in part by the desires of whomever might visit us regarding what they want to see and do. I don't think I can get in great shape to do serious multi-day tramps of the beautiful areas in the South Island but hope to do some tours or ecotours, and plan to learn my immediate surroungings and the goings on within two hours or so of Hamilton - which includes mountains, lakes, nature walks, hot springs, lots and lots of beach, and maybe even a farm stay or two. Physically the Parkinson's is pretty stable so far. I have lost some weight and was very good about walking a lot until about three weeks ago when I strained my Right knee and for a while it hurt too bad to walk, now just aches some time. I have decided that our dog Charlie is a watch dog, for she loves to sit by the glass door or big window in the living room and watch what goes by, with some unfathomable decision tree going on in her head regarding at whom she either growls, barks or whines or remains silent. We are in the process of getting a couple of raised beds for our garden in the back yard in an area that gets the most sun. That is a sort of birthday/wedding day/getting here anniversary present from us to us and as you might imagine the children currently seem to be underwhelmed so far but once they get the taste of fresh vegetables . . . We are still running into words we don't understand, and Emily knows how to sing the national anthem - I believe it may be unique (though maybe not) in that it is bilingual, first sung in Maori, then New Zelander English. As a last bit of info, the mornings are cold (40 degrees or less in the am) and the days are short (dark by about 5:30 our time) but winter solstice is coming up, and when it is clear the sky is lovely. All is/will be well my friends. Thanks for reading this, and we send all the best from the Barbers to you and hope this has been a good year for you and will continue to be one. Manford

June 12, or 11, 2008

Yesterday, or today, or in some other world, a year ago, we left. Leaving what? What is Kansas? A different sort of grassland, and a different sort of city, but some kind of looking glass effect: they mirror each other. We all speak English, and worry about violence, and global warming, and the price of milk. The Simpsons is on at dinnertime, and the day is gone before you know it.

So we live in the same world. But we left Sue and John (and other Friends), and Potwin (big trees, old houses, neighbors), and it being easy to just go and buy whatever we need: Target, Walgreen’s. More of it than we need, and more kinds to choose from. Triscuits, Benadryl, marshmallows, books.

And knowing that you would know what I was talking about: What kind of kids eat Armour hot dogs? A really sincere pumpkin patch. The lunch lady. High school graduation.

And not knowing what They are talking about: raiding the Marmite jar. Getting ready for Tea. Bring a plate. Bums on seats. Kai. Whanau. 2/6/08.

What did we leave behind? Most things are not things but who’s—but we would miss them whether we were in New Zealand or Maine.

We are learning the language, adjusting to “colour” and “organise”, and putting the comma on the outside of the quotes. Two dollar coins are really quite convenient, and no one really needs pennies any more. Even if we liked them, even if they were what we flipped to decide which way to turn on the penny walk at day camp in fourth grade. There is no fourth grade. Even the people here don’t understand what year the children are in, because they just changed all that, a few years ago.

Things change here: somehow, with four million people, they can make decisions to change things like the money, the way you vote, what the years in school are called, and how you measure stuff. Things it is hard to imagine changing in America, where the way things are is god-given or at least federally regulated, constitutionally determined and bound by 50 different colours of tradition. Is this good or bad, the capacity to change?

There is the capacity to make a difference, which is just more obvious here sometimes. I could become an advocate and expert on maternal stress and infant care, and maybe I could change the way the hospital system works. It wouldn’t be easy, but it would be possible. It’s possible there, too, but not so obvious, so you might not get to try.

But a year gone, and we are still Kansans; maybe more so. What shall I bring to the shared lunch tomorrow, in our bicultural practice seminar? What would be Kansan? Sunny wheat bread? Sweet potato pie? What is my culture? The moosewood cookbook? Macaroni and cheese. Tuna Noodle casserole and brownies.

I did write a poem, last month:


My poems are lost.
Not forever—
just now; lost
like the finest roots
of a plant repotted,
wounded, strange, stretching
to drink and live
in new soil.

It’s little things. The pot
is fine—room to grow,
a new location,
more sun, air.

But no matter how much baggage we brought,
so much was left behind.
A thousand tiny broken bits undone
groping slowly
taking root in the dark
rich, moist
autumnal
earth.

Love,
Carrie

In which Emily takes a tumble

Emily and Charlie and I walked to school this morning. We have discovered that Charlie likes it when Emily runs while holding his leash. It goes like this: Emily runs, Charlie runs, Emily stops, Charlie stops. Well today it went Emily runs, Charlie runs, Emily runs, Charlie runs, Emily runs, Charlie runs, Emily runs, Charlie stops, and wham, down goes Emily having tripped over the stopped Charlie. But by golly she still held on to the leash. And fortunately wasn't hurt too bad - did not even show scratches on her knees, as far as I could tell (we were on a sidewalk). Charlie has nipped a couple of people, only in our back yard - we feel she is not getting enough exercise. Since there are no fenced dog exercise places in town our current plan is to rig up a long rope and see how she runs. To change the subject, ESPN here on the pay network Sky has been broadcasting the NBA finals and I have enjoyed watching the games. Who will win. And it will be very interesting to see who wins the presidential election in November. Prices here are going up as elsewhere, but they vary from store to store, and even within the same store - our local supermarket sells two brands of milk, one about fifty cents cheaper than the other and you can sometimes get it for even less at some of the smaller stores. Well, Charlie is barking, barking, so will heed her call, or reward her for silence, and see what happens. Thank you. Manford

50.013698631

or, maybe I'm really only 50.0109589041, given that I was born in Connecticut, where it's still yesterday. In either case, I have survived, and enjoyed, my 50's so far, and, as Manford said, we did have a really nice trip to Wellington between anniversary and birthday, and a good gathering of friends at the pub on the day itself. We are approaching a year being here, and find it both hard to believe, and hard to believe we haven't lived here for a long time. I asked Joseph if he wanted to put anything on the blog, and he said, "no, just normal." So I guess we're getting normal. Not that we don't miss people, and some things about America. We do hear just about the right amount about American politics--probably much much less than you do. I'm starting a seminar on bicultural practice next week, in which one of the tasks is to think and write about your own culture. I'm looking forward to it--it's not something you think about when you're immersed in your familiar world.

I have found a writing group, of sorts--I've only been once; it meets every 6 weeks, at the university's continuing education department. There is a theme or assignment for each session...next time is on the Fourth of July (as we scheduled this, one of the participants said "isn't that American Thanksgiving?"), so the theme is independence, and we can also bring a favourite (or favorite) American poem. I did write a poem last month. but it's not on this computer. I will post it someday.

And Manford may be moving toward working a bit more...he had been doing occasional dizziness evaluations for a local ENT, but that is very unpredictable. Then he has been helping a friend of mine, who was getting a hearing aid from the DHB (the goverment health agency)--he went with her to her appointment last week, and got recruited, but he lost the person's card...perhaps a bit of ambivalence, but we'll see. I think he would enjoy a bit of work with patients--

Emily is taking a science class on Saturdays--she's there now--where they are studying light and vision this term. She seems to be enjoying it. Some of the information seems to us to be a bit dubious (e.g., they were told that babies see the world upside down at birth), but maybe that's her spin on it...and she enjoys it. She also has drama after school one day (as if she needs help with drama...) and violin, which is going through a somewhat painful stage...Manford says they all sound like that. He has the pleasure of attending the lessons. Luckily, he can turn off his hearing aid.

As it warms there, it is definitely cooling here--frost on the windshield some mornings, but that is really as cold as it gets. Many afternoons are sunny, so it's just getting out of bed in the cold that can be a bit challenging.

Emily's home, and we will hear what amusing factoids she has collected today--

Carrie

Our trip to Wellington

On Friday, May 30 Carrie and I drove to Auckland and there got on a plane and flew to Wellington. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand. It is a swell place. In contrast to Hamilton, which I conceive of as being a modestly large town, Wellington, with a population of around 400,000 people in the immediate area, is a city. It has a number of buildings that only Superman can leap in a single bound, whereas Hamilton has only a few of these, and is much hillier and scenic with lots of interesting architecture. We had a wonderful dinner - fish chowder and Tuna cooked with a Miso sauce, and a yummy creme brule (sp?). Our hotel was in the downtown area, and there were two very nice small museums near by - one with a show focusing on a tribute to New Zealanders who were Viet Nam veterans - the government had only just recently made a formal apology to these vets - as they were apparently reviled upon returning from tours of duty in Nam. The other had a number of interesting displays, including one we could not quite figure out how it was done but there was a small stage with various furniture on it and then there appeared a woman and a man who looked very real though very small - some type of hologram - for they would disappear behind things some times and come closer at times. We also went to another museum, Te Papa, which is like a natural history museum combined with art galleries but our stay there was cut short by a false fire alarm as we had to evacuate the building which is better than evacuating in your pants which might have happened had there been a real fire. On Sunday we took a tour, with four other people, in a small van piloted by a knowledgeable chap who gave us some of the town's history and took us to see various sights, including the largest wooden building in New Zealand, a lovely wooden church, and some incredible views of the city from nearby high points of land. I am not capturing the charm or attractiveness of this city very well, but we really liked it and look forward to going back some day. We had placed the children with friends and they had a pretty good time (Joseph got to see the new Indiana Jones movie)and the dog at a nearby kennel where she got pretty dirty but enjoyed the company of many, many barky dogs. This was a trip to celebrate Carrie's 50th and our anniversary. She continued her birthday celebration with a small party at one of our favorite pub/restaurants, The Cook. We provided some beer, wine and snacks including kumara chips (fried sweet potatoes) and visitors (some anyway) provided company and gifts. A happy occasion. We are looking forward to a visit from a Topeka family, coming in July. The weather has turned cold but sunny. Thank you for reading this. Our best to all of you. Manford

Carrie and Manford's 17th Anniversary

How quickly the years have gone by! And here we are in New Zealand of all places. We continue to stay in touch with Stateside family and friends through e-mail and the occasional telephone call (thank goodness for calling cards) and are very grateful for all who respond. We had a small anniversary celebration at Canvas, an aptly named restaurant affiliated with the local museum - artfully presented - Carrie had a tender, tasty filet of beef and Manford had tea smoked salmon - a shared glass of pinot gris and a shared creme brulee with mango at the bottom. Lovely. Manford had an interesting experience - Wednesday of last week - after overdoing it on a walk to school with Charlie dragging Emily along pretty fast so he had to move quickly (he thought - boy I am stepping out well with big steps and rapid pace)that night he experienced right knee pain that was really severe the next day and the next so went to the doctor and the doctor said no more monkeys (ooops, wrong direction there, Manford)he said hmmm, some arthritis in that knee and probably inflamed tendons or at least some stuff in that knee is irritated and inflamed go get some physio so I did and at home have been icing and heat padding and am slowly getting better - thank goodness since Carrie and I leave Friday for a two plus day trip to Wellington - a hilly place. I ain't fixed, folks, for the pain rears its ugly head at night - but am slowly getting better. Yeah, Kiwi driver at Indianapolis - the winner! Sometimes we watch netball on the telly - a game played by women, with lots of passing and no dribbling and no drives to the basket - but if the recipient of a pass is close enough to the basket she can turn and shoot. Ah,shoot I can't describe it very well but bet Wikipedia can if you are interested in learniing more about it. Rugby, of course, and football (that is Kiwi for soccer) and cricket are big over here. We get ESPN on the digital pay Sky service so have been enjoying watching some of the NBA playoffs. They also broadcast the Indy 500 live, starting at 4:30 am but I did not get up for that. Well thanks for your time and attention and tolerance for my ramblings. We wish you well. Manford

Only in New Zealand?

The front page of the Auckland newspaper carried a story - Top Jockey in Intensive Care After Hunting Plunge - which started as follows: Top jockey Michael Walker was in intensive care last nightafter falling more than 10 meters into a gorge while pig hunting. Walker had to spend the night in the bush as one of two friends made the long trek out to raise the alarm. The 24-year-old was winched from a steep gorge at Okau, Taranaki, yesterday morning. He had slipped down a steep slope before falling a further eight metres into a narrow gorge. He suffered serious head injuries and, it is understood, a ruptured spleen and damaged shoulder. Taranaki Rescue Helicopter pilot David Manduell said Walker was saved from worse injuries by the dead pig he was carrying, which cushioned his fall into the gorge...(It is an interesting paper). Well my goals for the next seven days are to finish mowing the lawn, see a movie, and find a power cable and USB cable for my mP3 player, a SanDisk: if anybody has some ideas about how I could best do the latter task with the player, let me know at manfordb@gmail.com or manford_barber@hotmail.com, and thanks. We had clear skies and a "whole" moon, as a kid I was with called it one time, this morning. It is usually in the lower 40s in the morning, warming up as the day goes on and even if the ambient temperature is fairly low the intense sunlight warms you up. Emily gets to play badminton at school today, and sometimes soon Joseph will visit the local University library with the group of smart kids he is a member of, to get a library card. Take care. Manford

Manford's epiphany

Driving around town on the way to the barber shop I realized that while true that slow and steady wins the race sometimes you have to ramp it up - for examplek, when driving one has to ascertain if one can go or should wait and yield right of way to those coming from the right at traffic circles or turning right when one wants to turn left - and another example cooking class, where we have two hours to: listen to the instructor, prepare food, cook food, eat food, clean up. While I struggled mightily to cut up a hard squash (they are called pumpkins here) my partner pretty much cut up about four different other vegetables, some chicken, and dipped them in flour then in beaten eggs then in bread crumbs. Cook them in a litre of one hundred eighty degree oil, take them out when done, and later clean up your mess and the dishes you used - we are having the course at a local boys high-school. You serve the cooked things with finely cut cabbage and some tomato slices and in an ideal world with miso soup and rice. So went the first cooking class. You have to ramp it up because there is not time to lolligag. Emily sometimes goofs around in violin lesson, but seems to be learning a little in spite of herself. She is taking a course each Saturday that is supposed to encourage critical thinking - using visual stimuli as a base for this round - and Tuesdays goes to an hour long dram class that supposedly helps her increase her confidence and have sweeter breath, I believe though I am not sure of the latter. I am going to have to buy some new pants as the ones I currently have keep falling down even when buttoned and belted - all the walking and less eating has gotten my weight down to below 190 lbs. The weather this afternoon is beautiful, but as the year goes on it gets dark earlier and earlier - around six now. Well our best to all our readers. Thanks for taking the time to read thisk, and we wish you well. Manford

Some firsts and some other stuff

Greetings. It is Thursday morning here, Emily is home, she did not go to school because she felt unwell; Charlie is on the bed again; it is cloudy (yesterday was very fine - clear, blue sky all day). We had our first frost yesterday - had to scrape the windows of the cars we typically leave parked in the driveway rather than in the garage - so may change our parking spot to inside soon. The North Island had its first snow - a light dusting - in a few places - enough to get a picture of it in the newspaper. We have been following the political race between Obama and Clinton with some interest - will vote (truly far away) absentee this year. I start a cooking class in Japanese cuisine next week - first night is fried pork with cabbage, onions and beans, according to the ingredient list they sent to me. Joseph left yesterday for a two and a half day retreat with his JEEP cohorts - JEEP does not mean a car but is an acronym for Junior Enrichment and Extension Programme - I believe it collects the brighter kids into a group and offers them some special activities - Joseph hasn't said much about it. I ran across a fairly powerfully written book - "The Master Butchers SInging Club" by Louise Erdrich - if you find it I think you will at least find it interesting. I had my consult with my neurologist on Tuesday - he said I seemed a little better than at the previous visit and wants me to try one additional med that seems to cause people to be cheerier and move a little better. Then I recused myself from physical therapy because I felt I had received maximum benefit for my right arm - it still is somewhat sore in certain positions but time will take care of that, I think. This past Saturday I had a session with a practioner of the Alexander method - invented by an Australian doctor it felt like energy healing in some ways - the therapist works on reducing tightnesses in various locations with light touch - I will learn more about it as time goes by - I sure felt better after the session. Emily has been reading with her mom each evening - they are doing the Chronicles of Narnia now. The local busiinesses sure are heavily advertising Mother's Day - they are hurting for business, I read, and the economy has been hurt somewhat by rising prices for staples like milk (over four dollars for a two liter bottle at our neighborhood food store), and gasoline (near two dollars a liter). I am thinking about interviewing myself at some point in the future and posting it here - we will see if I can do it well enough to want to share - will ask about my impressions of, and experiences with, New Zealanders and about overall impressions of our lives and activities - if you have any questions you think I should be asking myself feel free to send them to me at manford_barber@hotmail.com. I hope all who read this are having a good year. Thank You, Manford

It's May. Sorry.

I'm sorry I've been so remiss...I think New Zealand is mostly feeling like just life now, and it feels like not so much to write about, though we have been busy. My mother and Vince visited for 10 days in April, and we all went to a bach (house) on the beach, including Charlie, and had a nice time. It is Autumn here, but the weather in April was still unseasonably lovely, little rain while they were here. It was cold at night (New Zealand Baches, in particular, have little heat. New Zealand houses barely have heat. The bach had a fireplace, and Manford made fires), but when the sun came out, it warmed us up. Charlie and Emily had no trouble immersing themselves in the surf, which was just out our back door, but the rest of us were a bit more tentative. Charlie chased seagulls and rolled in the sand, and generally got really really messy, so when we returned she went to the groomers and got a really embarrassing haircut, kind of a doggie buzz. I have finally posted pictures from this, after some technical difficulties...

and we also went to visit a Kiwi grower, learned many sound bites about kiwis, which, according to the guide, are the world's most nutritious fruit (he cited a Rutgers Univ study, so maybe that's true...), and are BEST grown here in New Zealand, on volcanic soil...and got to ride in the Kiwi Cart, a kiwi-shaped train...then, a few days later, we visited the other sort of kiwi, the original, bird kind, in a facility where they hatch kiwi eggs that have been stolen from the poor kiwi dads, who sit on them in the bush but are not very successful at helping the little ones to survive the first six months of introduced predators and other stuff--so they hatch them and raise them for six months, and then set them loose (complete with microchips and all)--it was a really interesting place, and we got to see several kiwis, which is very difficult to do in the wild, since they are nocturnal, shy, and rare. In the photograph, they were administering ear drops to one of the birds who lives there full time since a stoat ate its foot off...

Then Grandma and Grandpa left (still recovering in Sacramento, though they said the flight really wasn't so bad), and Emily had her 8th birthday. Small party, by Topeka Collegiate standards--there is no school directory, and it was over school holidays, and we managed to get some invitations out before the end of school, but I am feeling somewhat at sea without her friends' names and phone numbers...anyway, we had a good time at the New Zealand Magic horse show, at a thoroughbred breeding and sales place about a half hour from here--they did a very nice show, with several kinds of horses, from miniature to Appaloosa to Thoroughbred, and the kids got to pet most of them, and ride one at the end, and the fellow who did the show was the horse trainer (and Gandalf double) for Lord of the Rings (they say half the people in New Zealand were extras in Lord of the Rings, and I'm beginning to believe it. the psychologist who spoke to our students yesterday was a hobbit). and one of the horses we saw was a unicorn in Narnia.

Joseph is off tomorrow to a three day camp with his school Enrichment programme...they are to hobnob with each other, contemplate the meaning of their giftedness to society, and experience "flow." All that is not very New Zealand, really; they call people who stand out "tall poppies," and often try to cut them down. I am afraid Joseph is ducking a bit, but he does seem to be happy, has nice friends, and is maybe a bit excited about the prospect of the project they're to start at this camp, called the "in-depth study." Study of what? not clear. Undecided. Maybe he will decide. He says it's like History Day, but there is no paper involved, and no project, and no competition. The camp is New Zealand enough that they are to bring swim suits ("togs") and swim in hot springs. And they actually did have a meeting at the school (the first we've been invited to since we've been here) to answer questions from the parents, and I got to speak with one of his teachers...

And Manford and I are planning a getaway to Wellington (the capitol, an hour's flight south), to spend a weekend doing grown up things and eating grown up food. The national museum there, Te Papa, is supposed to be very good, though the main thing they have been in the news for lately is defrosting (the hard part) and dissecting (interesting to some) the biggest giant squid ever caught. Which I suppose means that Emily would never set foot in the place, but we CAN, if we want to. we could even look at the squid. Or not.

Take care, and enjoy the sun, or spring rain, or whatever comes--
Carrie

I did it!

Well, I finally did it - I drove fairly long distances from Hamilton. First to Rotorua (about one and a half hours) then to Pukehina Beach (about an hour). I drove our BMW with Joseph and Emily on board. Carrie drove the Honda minivan, with her mom and step-dad and Charlie. We rented a house that sat right on the beach - which was very lightly peopled this time of year (autumn here). Charlie had a great time running on the beach and into the water, chasing sea gulls and the occasional cat, but always returning to us (oh, well, guess I will have to figure out some other wayna to get rid of her). Emily had her usual great time standing or sitting in the water. Fortunately the house had a wood burning stove for it got down in the 50's at night (Farenheit) and grandma and grandpa with their thinner California blood got pretty chilled. I was pleased to find that I can drive on New Zealand highways with only a little fear - roads are definitely narrower and curvier than in Kansas, at least, sometimes very curvy though not on the route we took. Charlie's fur was well matted and dirty so we took her to a pet groomer who pretty much shaved her and she now looks much smaller - Carrie will be posting pictures. Emily laughed and laughed when she saw the new, littler Charlie, and poor dog now shivers in the morning chill. We have had a visit with the in-laws - yesterday went and saw some Kiwi birds at a center that incubates and hatches Kiwi eggs found in the wild and keeps them for six months before releasing them back to their home range - maybe Carrie will blog more about that. I hope everyone is well and having a good year. Take care. Manford

hot-diggity-dawg!

Hooray! We are getting rain as I write this around noon Monday (Sunday in the US). If it keeps up the drought will be broken. And the other positive news of note is that I passed my test and am the proud owner of a (temporary until the permanent one comes in the mail) New Zealand driver's license. I had to jump through some hoops to do this - earlier being evaluated by an occupational therapist and a driving instructor who had to pass me if I was to get the license - and they did and sent a report to my physician who did a physical and filled out a form - this I took to AA (the New Zealand equivalent of USA AAA) - and there took a written exam of 35 questions - you are allowed to get three wrong but I got them all right. You get instant feedback for each question because each of the three or four possible answers has a scratch off box before it - you choose the answer you like and scratch off that box and if it is the right answer you see a check mark and if the wrong one, a big old X. Oh, yes I had to have proof of having had a driver's license more than two years but could not use my current one because I got it last year so had to get documentation from Kansas regarding the initial date of licensure in that state. We got a reply from Kansas quite quickly - thanks to John for calling and getting the mailing address and other related information that allowed us to do that. On the downside my right arm is sore - but on the upside it is gradually getting better - healing does not go as fast once you hit the roaring sixties, I guess. Next adventure will hopefully be a cooking class - I can choose Japanese, Thai, Korean or Chinese, maybe a two day session learning about the Alexander technique and possibly a using your digital camera workshop. In-laws are coming later this week and we hope for fair weather this coming weekend so we can enjoy the beach at the beachhouse we are renting for three days. We attempted to go to a hot air ballon event Saturday but were late getting to the site and the crowd was much larger than we expected so we walked round the field and ambled back to our car generally going the opposite direction from most people and went and got takeout at the nearby KFC. Emily is making progress with her violin lessons. Joseph is going to a three day camp with his schoolmates who are in a particular class called JEEP (I don't know what that stands for but the class is for bright kids) in early May. Carrie stays busy at work. I stay busy at home. Well, thanks for your attention and I hope that all who read this are well and having a good year. Manford

Laryngitis, McCafe, the Running of the Sheep, and other stuff

It is Sunday midday, and I am muted by laryngitis, which I exacerbated by lecturing and running a long meeting on Friday, so I am voiceless this weekend, and trying to rest. It seems my respiratory tract is about the same, whatever country we're in...it has been pretty good; this is the first bad cold in a year. They say that this area is particularly bad for asthma and allergies, but they've said that everywhere I've ever lived. They do have different (and fewer) drugs here, though...pharmacies are small affairs, without the bewildering rows of options that Walgreens has, but also without the options I used to thing helped...oh well. When I asked for Zinc lozenges, they mused, and gazed at their (small) shelf of remedies, and said vaguely that they used to have those, but hadn't seen them in a while...Bendryl has been banned for some reason. Sudafed has been adapted, as it is in the US, because of the meth potential. There is tea and honey. and codeine is readily available, over the counter, oddly enough. it stops the cough so I can sleep.

Our doctor here just had twins, and is working part time, so Joseph saw someone else to evaluate his wrist...story below--but we like the doctor, who is a 40-ish guy who wears jeans and running shoes, and has Simpsons stuff in his office. There are nurses around, but the doctor comes and gets you, and does not make you sit in a cold examining room and wait for him. His office is his examining room, and he does it all, and then you're done. There is a big doctor shortage here, as well as a nurse shortage, but at least the primary care docs don't seem overworked and overwhelmed. They see people of all ages--pediatricians are specialists for really sick kids--and some deliver babies. Most people (at least in Hamilton, which has more and better birth centres than most places) have a midwife as their primary provider for childbirth, and the midwife makes home visits before and after the baby is born. If you use a midwife or GP, or if you have complications that require an OB (they are generally reserved for complications), all your maternity care is paid for by the government. I visited the hospital's maternity wards this week, and they are awfully hospitalish, but are being remodelled to be more user-friendly--but the birthing centres are "posh," as they say here, and very pleasant. NO, I'm not thinking of having another baby--don't worry--just trying to understand the childbirth and parental support systems here. I may do some research on the women in the antenatal ward, who are at high risk of perinatal anxiety and depression.

McCafe: I had successfully avoided going to McDonald's (or Burger King) for the many months we've been here, but one day last month found myself late and hungry (it was 2:00) and near a McDonald's with this "McCafe" thing--someone had said it wasn't bad. So I went in, not expecting much, and was pleasantly shocked. I sat in a big leather chair, drank my organic lemonaide, and had a chicken and plum sauce panini (deciding against the risotto). It was not the best panini I ever had, but it was the best McDonald's I ever had. As I sat in my comfy chair and sipped, I could see through an opening to the regular McDonald's, complete with Playspace, just like every other McDonald's in the world--well, not fancy like the Rock 'n' Roll McDonald's on Wanamaker, or the Jungle McDonald's on Gage, just ordinary McD. And I was grateful. I haven't been back--I prefer the multicultural sushi I can grab on the run--but I'd consider it.

Joseph's wrist: He fell out of a tree at the Wanganui Quaker Settlement--or, he might arge, the tree dropped him, when the branch broke under the weight of this boy, who is taller and taller every time I look, and was playing "Spotlight," a tradition and highlight of these Easter Family gatherings, a version of hide and seek, played after dark with "torches" (flashlights). Emily got spooked the first night, so she and I were in our room reading peacefully when Joseph crashed to the ground, scratching up one arm, and landing on his wrist. One of the people there was an osteopath, and he said he might have broken some little bone in the wrist, but it doesn't show up on an x-ray for at least a week, so he nursed it (except when he was playing cricket in PE, even after we wrote a note excusing him...) and it seems to be better.

We all had a good time in Wanganui, a nice small city about five hours south of here, where the Whanganui river meets the ocean. The Quaker Settlement has 16 houses, and a conference center, and "bush" and gardens and chickens. Some very nice people, from all over the world (e.g., Northern Ireland, South Africa, England, Massachusetts. And New Zealand). We drove back up a slightly different way, seeing a bit more of the coast, and spending the night in New Plymouth, in the shadow of Mount Taranaki, a Fuji-like mountain/volcano that Manford read has a 50% chance of erupting in the next some-number of years...don't tell Emily. On the way down we saw Mount Ruapehu, with snow on the ragged peak--last winter, it did erupt, in a relatively minor way, injuring one skier who was spending the night in a cottage on the mountainside. That's our local ski-run.

And then, last weekend, Manford and Emily and I went to the Running of the Sheep (Joseph declined). It was a moderately amusing small-town event, where the main street was blocked off, and there were various booths and rides, and then at the appointed time, 1900 sheep came running through town, and then we went home. No one ran in front of the sheep. Well, there were people on four-wheelers. kind of unfair, really. We got to sit on the cart, pulled by Clydesdales, to watch, because we were the last group before the big event.

And this weekend, I am resting, and Manford spent the day yesterday at a photography workshop in Tauranga (an hour and a half East, on the coast).

Carrie

Howdy

It rained just a little in the night - not enough to break the drought but more is expected starting Sunday. Sure hope so. It is really dry here and plants are starting to show the effects. We had a good trip to a Quaker family camp over Easter. It was in Wanganui - about 4 hours south of here. Mornings were workshop and meeting for worship time - afternoons play with one day at a lake where the kids could kayak - Emily dropped her paddle into the water numerous times and finally tipped over and fell in (thank goodness she was wearing her life vest) when reaching for it. I don't seem to be quite coordinated enough to steer a kayak but will try again when the next opportunity arises. Our economy seems to be struggling with many of the same issues as the US - rising gas prices, falling value of the dollar relative to the New Zealand dollar - house values going down, etc. but we soldier along. I thought you might be interested in some of the place names of towns we went through or near on our way to Wanganui and back since we returned a different way: Taupiri, Hopuhopu, Te Kowhai, Ngaruawahia, Horotiu, Te Rapa, Rotokauri, Mystery Creek, Ohaupo, Te Rahu, Ngaroto, Te Awamutu, Kihikihi, Tokanui, Te Kawa, Kiokio, Otorohanga, Te Kumi, Te Kuiti (where they annually have the running of the sheep, like a mini running of the bulls in Pamplona), Tangitu, Tapuiwahine, Mangatupoto, Piriaka, National Park (Near a fantastic volcano mountain, Mount Ruapehu), Oreore, Kakatahi, Kai Iwi, Maxwell, Waverly, Patea, Normandy, Te Rati, New Plymouth (where we stayed the night on the way home), and so on. In Wanganui when we went to the nearby beach it was most covered in dead tree trunks and limbs - reportedly these are washed down rivers to the ocean which then casts them out onto the beach - I have never seen the like before - seemed to go on for milels. Emily did some body surfacing in the gently sloping bottom when waves came in and seemed to have a great time - Joseph stayed back at the Quaker Settlement where we were staying and dad waded in the water up to his knees and mom looked on and stayed dry. On the way back we passed near Mount Taranaki, a dormant volcano that apparently has a 52% chance of erupting within the next 50 years. It was featured in Tom Cruise's movie The Last Samuri. Thanks for reading this and I hope all is well for each of you. Manford