I haven’t much to report for my faithful readers at the moment. Kiddies are back at school and some are really loving it and can’t wait for the next day. I can’t remember being that enthusiastic about school but then I did go to a Catholic one run by the Gestapo. I sometimes wonder if Sister Mary Aiden has moved on to where she belongs and now terrorising poor souls with her pitchfork.
We’re flat out around the garden at the moment getting those things done we said we’d do as soon as we retired. Retired means putting chores off until tomorrow and we’ve been doing that successfully. New paths, repairing several retaining walls, building a new veggie garden, painting and so forth all fills in the day successfully. We have a good work pattern going though, 30 minutes of yakka followed by a cuppa on the deck. I can tell you one thing, swinging picks and laying bricks is a lot tougher on the old creaking body these days.
When we get this done and the weather cools, we’ll head off with the van again and we’re thinking of a quick trip to New Zealand to burn up some Frequent Flyer points and catch up with friends. Beats work or at least the type I used to do sitting in an office listening to bullshit all day.
Back to that veggie garden. Now where’s my pitchfork?
PS. If you want my two cents worth, I preferred it when the chronological order of your comments went the other way …
There’s no two cents anymore so you’re out of luck. It’s more logical to have the most recent first, and anyway, I have a general comments tab at the top of the page and it would be difficult to follow the most recent at the bottom of many comments. The Ombudsmans number is 555-5555.
I’ll just have to get used to it I suppose, since the number you gave me doesn’t appear to be connected …
Can’t wait for more veggies!
We’ve dug up the whole backyard for veggies so you’d better get a truck!
Yes. You described NZ exactly right.
Go south for the tramping, and then north for the beer and the girls…
You being a skier of note, I would have thought the beer and girls at Coronet Peak would have been to your liking.
Well, be careful with your gardening, you young retirees. One can’t let work interfere with one’s cuppa, you know.
Randy – Yes, our new industrial laws are explicit in that regard. Constant cuppa’s and rest breaks are mandatory. In fact, whether you want to actually work is a requirement of the job.
How strange to hear you mention “Gestapo nuns,” I always imagined white kids having an easier time in school. I grew up in an area where segregation was the norm, and sometime in the early 1950s when the schools were desegregated (a few years before I started school). I recall being treated differently from my white schoolmates, but being a child you just don’t grasp the concept that the color of your skin makes you inferior, but lucky for me a couple of my elementary teachers were kind enough to point out my shortcomings. I hope my old teachers and Sister Mary Aiden occupy their own little slice of the underworld.
A picture of the new veggie garden area would be nice!
I would have used the words “makes you FEEL inferior”. Those nuns used to threaten us with “you’ll burn in the flames of hell” for whatever misdemeanour and you can imagine what an impression these bitches had on innocent kids. Most of the “Christian” brothers I came across were just vicious, perverted thugs while the priests just shafted young boys to their hearts content and their bosses went into denial and just moved them on to molest other kids. The nuns and brothers got their jollies belting kids until they were crimson in the face.
It makes me sad to hear how you were victimised too because of the colour of your skin, and yes, lets hope there is a hell.
Sorry for that vent. The veggie garden was only built today and some work to go. I’ll post photos when all the work is finished.
The strangest thing was that my parents held three occupations in very high regard, the three being doctors, teachers, and police. Priests and nuns were not in the “highly thought of” group, maybe that was because my father was raised in the Catholic church. As for my teachers they could do anything to me and I’d never say a word because they were to be honored no matter what they did.
We had a priest in the 50′s thumping the pulpit telling us to vote for a particular political party or else we would all go to hell. Truly amazing! I have all these memories and emotions whizzing through my head that I could go on forever but alas, I’d like to head back to more pleasant thoughts.
I liked all my teachers, maybe those black robes bring out the worst in nuns.
North or south which do like best and why?
“North or south”? I presume you mean New Zealand and not heaven and hell! We’ve been to NZ twice before and to both ends. We like both although the North is more subtle with hot spring and geysers and great caves and beautiful countryside. The south has the mountains of course with great hiking with awesome scenery.