My watch is driving me crazy. It keeps randomly stopping for five minutes, or for longer. There's nothing wrong with the battery, it just doesn't always work.

For instance, today, it stopped for about 10 minutes sometime between 12.30 and 1pm.

I really hope that this doesn't mean the watch is giving up the on the world. Though I can't really complain, I've had it about 14 years, but I'd still like it to keep going. I like the watch and the watch-face. It's plain, simple, and has a clear face.

And I like it.

I hope it doesn't die.

The trucks are protesting in the CBD this morning.

So ...

I walked to work.

Before it started. I had a choice. I could have caught a bus. I could have caught a train. I could have done nothing different to a normal day.
But it wasn't really raining, so I decided to walk.

So, it's been rather dry for much of the day today. A nice change from the weeks of five minute heavy showers all the time.

I just walked in the door about five minutes ago. The weather was pleasant, no real sign of rain, etc.

Right now it's bucketing down and blowing a gale. I did well with timing!

Attn: magicadelglue and all those other theatre/musical buffs on my friends list...

You'll beggar me!!

See, I'm off to see Priscilla the musical on Tuesday with the work social club.

And Breakfast on TV has been on the set of Grease the musical this morning, which makes me VERY tempted to go and see that. And it's only showing this weekend.

And, of course, in October Phantom of the Opera is coming to Auckland, and I'm told I absolutely have to go and see it.

I foresee my bookshelf contents will be changing to be groaning with programmes instead of books! At least the tickets for Grease are a fraction of the price of the tickets for Phantom and Priscilla.

(This is, of course, in addition to going to see Chicago when I was in Christchurch. And Don Quixote this December with my cousin and aunt.)

The school my grandmother went to when she was a girl - a school her mother was the first teacher of 100 years ago - has just had a new principal appointed.

Every now and then I read the school newsletter. The latest one on their website amuses me:

Kindling During the cold season a stick of wood will be sent home on Fridays with each family to be chopped into kindling for the school fire. Your assistance will be greatly appreciated.

New Zealand Flag and Anthems Next week raising the New Zealand Flag and singing the national anthem in both official languages will become a part of every school day.

It seems like such an old thing, not something for this day and age. Even for a little tiny school in the country.

Today is a public holiday in NZ - Queen's Birthday. And because it's a day off and I already did the work that needed doing this weekend on Saturday, I decided to go for a walk. (Not that this is anything new because these days I go for a walk whenever it's not raining on the weekend)

Today's walk was down Mt Eden Rd to Three Kings, then up Big King and throughout Big King Reserve. And back to Mt Eden Village, where I bought a cupcake (which was divine) and some tea.

On the way to Three Kings I stopped off at a Bakery which had some LOVELY breads. And a miniature Gallete with berries on it. I ate said Gallete at the top of Big King. Not quite as good as the gallete I had first, but somehow I don't think anything could be. But good enough for halfway around the world.

After I have a bit of a rest, I'm going to go the other direction on Mt Eden Rd, to where there seemed to be a nice sale on this weekend. Then I'll probably come back along Dominion Rd and stop off at Valley Road shops to get food.

And if I'm home with time for a rest before sunset and it's not raining, I'll probably go up Mt Eden.
Because it's there.

Why else should one climb mountains?

Yesterday afternoon, after climbing Mt Eden (I like having it as a playground, a back yard), I walked along Mt Eden Road rather than through the Summit Road/Puhi Huia Rd link to my street. The idea was to explore the Louis Adolph Durrieu reserve a little.

I found the remnants of the tealight candles I'd seen on Friday morning.

I also found dozens of origami cranes. Some of them were stuck in the Rosemary and Lavendar around the garden. Others were stuck with wax to strings, and hanging from the branches of trees, and the gazebo.

I still wonder what prompted this outpouring of beauty, but I love it.


As well as walking around Mt Eden and along the road past the reserve I also walked to Newmarket via the Epsom Library (need you ask why?), and caught a bus back before walking to the Valley Rd shops and back again. It's not surprising that I reached over 17000 steps yesterday. Today, as the weather is good, I'm heading to Devonport with the aim of climbing Mt Victoria and North Head. And, because I could and wanted to know how long it took, I walked to the City Library this morning. It's getting easier and easier to get to the Symonds St shops without pushing myself.

Oh well, off to climb volcanoes...

One of my new workday habits is to walk past the closest bus stop on Mt Eden Rd. It started the day I missed the bus, barely, and felt that standing still in a bus stop for ten minutes was a waste of time on such a clear morning. Now, it's become a habit - and a good one.

If I walk as far as Esplanade Rd, I have a shorter walk on the other side of the bus journey. I get a nice walk on the streets surrounding the lower reaches of Mt Eden. If I'm early enough, I walk as far as the train station. If I'm over-energetic, or if I over-estimate timing, it's not much further to the Symonds St stop, and a 50 cent bus fare into town. Which leaves an extra dollar or so ($1.10 on the cash fare, 90c on the multi-journey fare) to spend on library reserves.

And it's more steps on the pedometer for the kiwi workplace challenge I'm involved in until the first week in August. The team I'm in with three of my colleagues is in the Open Division, and we're supposed to complete around 8000 steps a day. My average is closer to 11000, and no day have I done less than 10000 steps (which is the level we're supposed to do to maintain a healthy lifestyle).

But all of that is just incidental to this journal entry. This morning's walk was something different.

About halfway along my self-imposed weekday journey is a little tiny reserve called Louis Adolphus Durrieu Reserve. (I want to know more about the history of the parks and reserves in Auckland City... the names hint at so much history that I've yet to learn.) It's a little tiny place that I plan on visiting in daylight hours sometime, but haven't yet.

This morning, as I walked past it, I saw a flare of light in the middle of the pathway a few steps into the dell. A mirror, I thought at first, reflecting a light that I saw as I walked past. But no, there it was again. A match, perhaps, giving it's final flare of light before being extinguished?

A tea light candle.

And, as I took a few steps further, I saw that it wasn't the only one. Deeper into the glade, there were dozens of them, little yellow candle flames outlining the edges of paths and gardens, and the top of the little gazebo/archway in the shadows caused by the light just before sunrise. If I'd had the time I'd have gone further in to explore, or gone back home for the camera ... but I'd have lost the light by then. But it was beautiful, magical.

It made my heart and soul lift on a friday morning. It made me think of peace and light and hope and beauty.

I can't help but wonder, who put them there? What was/were their reason?

Oh, for more time....

Kiwi Workplace Challenge starts today. I've already done half of my daily goal (That's what happens when you walk to Symonds St rather than stopping at Esplanade Road. Even if the bus you want isn't there or due yet.)

On my way up Victoria St, by the Albert St lights, a little purple strip of cardboard caught my eye. I stooped to pick it up. I haven't seen one of those for almost 16 months. 18 months ago I wouldn't have known what it was.

Someone, half a world away, travelled from Jouy-En-Josas to Paris-V/Versailles (via??) and paid EUR 3.50.
Then they came here and dropped their ticket on an Auckland City street.

I am amused by it. I love knowing what it is. And I also wonder what stories the ticket could tell...

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is coming out on DVD here!
And not just 'sometime'... later this week. (I think the flyer said May 14th).

I think I know some of where my money is going....

I went to bed at 8 o'clock last night. I had a headache, and I couldn't find the panadol (I might not have replenished last time I ran out) so I took a nurofen and went to bed.

I need to buy winter shoes.

I still can't find the phone filter I packed. I also can't find the comb I like the most.

My phone doesn't work. If I ring my number something rings somewhere, but not in my flat. And I'm not going to be back until Sunday. I think they might want access to fix it but I can't give them access (and they shouldn't need it).

*sigh*

Holiday starts this evening.

I moved yesterday.
I have boxes everywhere... but I haven't yet fallen over any of them.
It took me hours to get to sleep last night because my mind was STILL going at a thousand miles a minute. Or so it seemed. Plus my bed is against the opposite side of the room and facing the opposite direction to where it's been for the last six years.

I joined a new library today. I haven't told the other library that I no longer am entitled to its service ... and I still have one book from them.
This library is HUGE.

It took me about 10 boxes last night until I found the pieces that let me finish setting up my CD shelf. Eventually I found them in the box I decided would be the last (I knew they were in a logical place, but about 10 boxes were logical).

I can't find the phone filter to let my phone work on a broadband line. I suspect that I threw one of them in the bin because the cords were pulled out. The other is in a logical place, but I'm not sure which one. When my time runs out on the library computer I'm heading off to buy a new one or three.

This will be good. It'll take some getting used to, but it'll be good... And tomorrow I go away on holiday for a few days, so I'll still be falling over boxes in a couple of weeks, I suspect. At least I'm already packed for the holiday, because my ability to find things is sorely lacking.

I've been saying all week that this is the darkest it will be in the morning all year. Daylight Saving time finishes on Sunday morning.

Other people didn't believe me. So, this morning, I realised I could google it.

According to the Royal Astronomers Society of New Zealand's website, I think I was right.

On April 1st, Sunrise for Auckland was 7.34 am
On June 30th, Sunrise for Auckland is 7.35am

They only give times every ten days. I surmise that sunrise gets later between April 1 and April 5.

Of course, the same is not true for Dunedin or Christchurch or even Wellington.

Along with numerous piles of other books, I'm reading "Blind Faith" by Ellen Wittlinger at present. And there's some interesting thoughts in there (though that doesn't surprise me, because I always seem to find interesting thoughts in Wittlinger's works).

"I played two Mozart sonatas because they made me feel like the world had some order to it and wasn't just spinning out of control. Sitting there, I remembered something Bunny had said to me once, which seemed odd at the time. She said that she felt closest to God when she was playing the piano. Then she laughed and said, 'Maybe music is my God!'
I asked her what she meant by that and she said we all had to find God inside ourselves, in the things we loved most. And she couldn't think of anything she loved more than playing the piano.
It didn't make much sense to me at the time, but now that I thought of it, it was no stranger than anybody else's ideas about God. Maybe the world would be a saner place if music were a religion. Or if art were a religion. Maybe Mom would be better off if she prayed to the clay in her studio or her finished pots and vases instead of expecting Reverend Samuel to make everything okay again."

Bunny is the narrator's grandmother, who died just before the beginning of the book.
Reverend Samuel is a minister at a Spirituality church, who believe they can talk with or pass messages from those who have passed on.

"'I don't know. I mean, I grew up thinking I did. I guess I want to believe. But sometimes when I listen to Dad, I think he's right, that the idea of God is something people use to define right and wrong, which would be okay, but then they use it against each other. Like all these wars where both groups thing God is on their side. The whole God-likes-me-better idea doesn't make any sense. '"

Tranzscenic have a "Thoroughfare" deal on their website. You can travel on the ferry from Wellington to Picton, and then the train from Picton to Christchurch. Or you can do it in reverse. The cost of this is $119.00. Not bad.

So, a couple of days ago I checked the Tranzscenic website. They say there are no seats remaining available on that service for the date I want. What?!? Surely the train isn't full, and since the ferry is a car ferry, there's a lot of passengers that can fit on it if they don't have cars. (Yeah, bad sentence, I know).

So I checked out the Interislander website for ferry costs, and the Tranzscenic for the train. Train: $52 Supersaver; Ferry: $52 Websaver. Okay, uh, that's the cheapest fare option, and there are still seats available ... so why does the full deal not exist anymore?

I booked today, checking to make sure that I could travel both parts of the journey. The Interislander now costs $45.

So, I've just booked myself two separate journeys for a total of $97, something that is meant to cost $119.

At least this means most of my bookings are complete for my upcoming holiday. If only I was this organised for the move...

I have just (finally) said yes to moving.
I'm not looking forward to the process of moving. But the actual relocation and packing process is the only thing I don't like about the option, which means that I'd be silly to turn it down altogether.

Now I get to figure out the actual packing and relocating stuff. I haven't done that for 5 and a half years, or so, and at that point I didn't have any furniture. This time I have to figure out relocating furniture as well as a huge number of books and dvds and cds and STUFF.

I'm scared.

But it'll be good for me.


Ulp.

I've been cleaning out my house, and discovering all sorts of books that I really don't want anymore.

I know I've asked before who I've sent some of these too... Please let me know if I've sent you any of the below, because I've lost track:
Canoe in the Mist
Tripswitch
Guardian of the Land
Davy's Ducks
Whistle from the Blunder

magicadelglue I seem to recall you wished you had the John Marsden book that was released with just barbed wire on the cover? If you want it, it's yours.

I watched Mansfield Park again on Saturday. The Frances O'Connor version this is, with Susie as the main sibling, and many echoes of Jane Austen's life scattered throughout it. I can't decide which version I like more - the Frances O'Connor one or the 6 part BBC one.

Yet again I am struck by the child Fanny - With her cute accent, and her odd ways, and those enormouse dark darting eyes. For some reason this waif makes me think of RachEL, but I can't figure out why.

And the older Maria reminds me somewhat of Emily from The Devil Wears Prada.

And, further more, I want the red velvet coat she wears on her return to Portsmouth. It's so GORGEOUS!!

I have been thinking more about clothes lately - it's about time.

Attn camlina and wenzel:

I got a package today! Two pretty postcards, a pretty pen and a candle holder that I'm going to have to try out sometime (like, sometime when I have a tealight candle handy). Thank you!! :)

*sigh*
I wanna go travelling somewhere. Somewhen.

Lady Gresham: "What is she doing?"
Mr Wesley: "Writing"
Lady Gresham: "Can anything be done about it?"

Oh, Jane, how misunderstood you were!
(From "Becoming Jane")