Back to the Real World

The boat - I needed to replace the through hull fittings in the forward head (toilet) which were made of bronze and designed not to be removed - ever!, unfortunately the valves had been 'lost' so they needed to be replaced.

This meant cutting them out bit by bit then repairing the holes ready for making new openings for the new plastic/glass units.
This job took about 4 hours of cutting and grinding in a space that I could just get my head, one arm  and the angle grinder, lots of dust and very sharp bits that fired off the grinder into my face.
Another tick off on the list, were almost there.

The TeaPot Tape or Dumb and Dumber

"The fallout from the secretly recorded conversation widened yesterday as New Zealand First leader Winston Peters attacked Mr Key, suggesting he had made comments offensive to NZ First's elderly supporters.
Mr Key refused to discuss details of last Friday's private conversation and has laid a complaint with police because it was recorded without consent from him or Mr Banks. (Source Ref NZ Herald - Derek Cheng)"


This is my take on the madness over the silly discussion by 2 NZ politician's
(section of discussion during the meeting of John Key 'PM' with John Banks 'JB' to endorse that National and Act Parties can 'work' together after the elections in the 9 days)

 PM   "Hi John found the place alright?"
JB  Couldn't miss it, those Fxzxy media were all over the place"
PM  How's is your boss"
JB    Don't talk to me about him, I have to talk to him every day." "What a control freak"
PM  "Lucky old you"
JB    "Not too much of the old please".
PM  " You mean to say you are being lobbied by the grey brigade
JB  " Yes, Don seems to have stirred up the grey brigade this time"
PM  "That man couldn't even get elected in East-coast Bays  when he was up against Social Credit's Gary Knap"." He really needs you to do the business this time"."Thanks for taking him off our plate".
JB  "Does that mean a ministerial spot for me?"
PM  "We'll see". "As long as he's gone by lunchtime".
JB  "Ha  Ha" "I think we should get back to you doing your smiling and waving thing for the media, we want them to write some nice things and take happy pics of us"
PM "Write! I don't think any of them can read"
JB  "John you are such a hoot"
JB "Hey John don't stand in front of me, I want my Photo taken too"
Exit stage left...

Rolling Stone's

When time stands still, and every move is in slow motion.


Yesterday, struggling with a very heavy roll of netting I was moving down to the fence being constructed to stop small children and balls falling down a steep bank/cliff at our daughters house in Wellington.(see Friday 25 March 2011 'What I've Been Doing')

I positioned the roll of wire ready to slide edge-ways, down one level, to the next flat area, carefully making sure it would not roll, when Mrs DIY said "let me help you", great, "just hold it don't let it go..."

The words of "don't let g...", hardly left my lips, tipped and started to move, slowly, then, faster and faster down the slope to the next level, building speed, finally colliding with a fence post, stopped.(whew) Then before anyone could reach it, tilted and tipped over the edge, down towards the next neighbours house 15m below.

Luckily it finally stopped, caught in the undergrowth at the bottom before it could do any damage.

The vision's that flashed thought my mind was a roll of wire rampaging through a family birthday party squashing everything in its path  (there was no one there), and the neighbour didn't even look up from his paper, even when I put a ladder down to retrieve the offending netting.

I had to have a 'sit down and a cup of tea' to settle my nerves

Silver Birch

 

The departed birch grove in winter as painted by author.

Oh Bother!

'Oh bother' and other words, we have neighbours, it was expected but the beautiful garden created by the previous owner has been 'strip mined' by the new owners, who have sliced and diced and sold off the bits.
The only beneficial thing is they are going to be very nice houses so the local valuations will rise, mmmm....
A pity the grove of Silver Birches have gone, as they made quite nice subjects to paint.
We have been planting trees to disguise and soften the outlook and have planted a Leland Cypress hedge and a few Blossom trees together with about 50 Hornbeam's.
Now all we have to do is wait, the good thing is as long as you can keep up watering, trees in this area grow very quickly, well relatively.

Progress

A reward, for a day of  gardening, was sitting on the deck at 7pm surveying the fruits of your labour.

Code Compliant

At last the house building has had it's final tick of approval, with the building inspector giving us the final pass on the barn and house.
For the last few days we have been finishing off all the little jobs that have been waiting for the "I'll get around to it".
Well it's now all done!

Oh, So Slow!!!!

The refitting of 'the boat' is moving really slowly but the head lining is now almost finished, only a couple of finishing trims to be fitted.
You can see it now looks a bit better than the original state that I received it in, the old porthole surrounds have been reversed and used to finish the inside lining.
I have to keep looking at the original pictures to remind me that it's getting finished, if a bit slowly...

Who Do You Think I Am?

Your a dog!
Yesterday Mr & Mrs DIY needed to take the van/truck to collect some gardening stuff from the plant shop, Oscar (dog) who normally is the first in line to go for a ride, was told to get in the back.
Normally he's allowed to ride up front, decided that the back was not the right place for him, sniffed, walked away and sat on the front step to wait our return.

What Happened To Global Warming?

We have had Summer, then Autumn which with a few exceptions was very mild, then an early spring, the blossom has started to come out, the daffodils were blooming, and we seemed to have missed winter altogether.
Then just as we were thinking about the arrival of an early summer, NZ, was hit by a polar blast, direct from the Antarctic for the past week.
Almost all of NZ was covered.
A big surprise, this is the first time our little village of Martinborough has had such a dump of snow, the last was over 70 years ago according to some locals.