Last Saturday, August 23, The All Blacks played Australia for the Bledisloe Cup, at Eden Park, Auckland.

The previous week had been a muddled draw, and the All Blacks and many fans were dissatisfied, me amongst them.

This was Peony's first serious competition as a spectator, and she was a bit on edge, and as the game progressed, she got more & more excited and involved, eventually getting nose-to-nose with the action, and keeping pace with Julian Savea as he ran in his try!

At last, a cat I can talk over the All Black prospects.

Now all I need is one who enjoys basketball as much as I do, and will help me celebrate Tall Black & Breakers victories!

My generation

Looking through family photos recently, I came across one that surprised and intrigued me.
My mother was one of three children (Iris, Jean and Allan) all of whom had children: 4, 3, and 4 respectively, which makes 11 grandchildren in total.
Now, Allan's family lived in Dunedin, we lived in Wellington, and Jean's family lived in a number of places in the South Island, so, although we had contact we didn't ALL get together at one time and place.
Except once, as the photo below attests.

Those shown are (the numbers represent their position in the three families):
L to R: Ron (1.2), Bryan (1.4), Elisabeth(3.3), Robert (2.3), Craig (3.4), Tony (3.2), Kay (2.2), Graham (3.1), Barbara (1.3), Ian (2.1), Louise (1.1).
As far as I know that is the only such group photo in existence.

Tales from the Trunk # 9

A Surfer Dude

While chatting to my cousin Graeme recently, he showed me a photo (the one below) of my grandfather.
Now, Granddad, was born in 1880 and died in 1965. At his death he was living in Gisborne.
It seems he was many things:  a bible-ridden Christian, a narrow-minded, somewhat intolerant and proud man, fiercely independent, son of an Orange Lodge-supporting Ulsterman, musical (see his flute), a storeman/warehouseman, a public servant; as he aged, he was crippled by arthritis and diabetes.
What I hadn't counted on was that he was also a 'surfer dude'! See what I mean for yourself:

Uh, oh - major revision of family stories required!

Titokowaru's Dilemma

I was in Invercargill recently, and visited the Southland Museum.

I was very taken by one of their displays, called Titokowaru's Dilemma. It is an exhibition of prints by Marian Maguire, which actually comprises 3 print series: Titokowaru's Dilemma, A Taranaki Dialogue, and Colonial Encounters.

What is so striking about these images is their re-purposing of 'ancient' or classical forms and imagery. Thus she presents what is unmistakably a greek vase decorated with imagery derived from colonial Taranaki! Fascinating.

Have a look for yourself:

Our Southern Sojourn

You can see by looking at the list of previous entries that I had a lot of photos from our holiday in January to publish.

But I was also conscious that flicking between entries doesn't let you get a feel for what other photos might be worth a look.

So I thought I'd put them altogether in a single array, and include a couple of brief videos.

So I did, and you can see them at our family site.

Graduation

Our Jayne has finished her time at University - at least for the present! Who knows what the future might hold.

And so it was time this week to officially acknowledge the end of that era, and to reward her for the work, effort and success of the past 4 years.

So, we all attended Victoria University's Graduation ceremony for the Faculty of Humanities. Jayne was to receive her Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honours (first class). Needless to say we were all thrilled.

And to cap it off (yes, pun intended) also graduating were Himself, our Jack, and Best Friend Nicky. So we captured a few photos (of course) and I have some video footage of the ceremony which I'll publish here as soon as I can get it processed. Have a look at the pix.

Big Dowse Out

Our Gareth is a member of Newtown Rocksteady, and blows a fine trombone. They played at Lower Hutt's Big Dowse Out in mid-March this year. It was a lovely day, made better by great performances. See your yourself.