Monthly Archives: September 2003

Overflowing Undertaking

So I take the day off of work to prepare to go to Uncle Grahams funeral. I have a few loads of washing that need doing, so I set about doing them. One load, washed, dried — this load is most of what I’m taking with me clothes-wise to the Wairarapa.

Second load while the first load is drying in the dryer — it overflows. Now when washers in NZ are finished with the water they use to wash, it usually goes into the drain. When things go wrong, they don’t overflow into the drain, they overflow onto the floor. So after the load is finished, I go upstairs to the laundry.

The whole bathroom/laundry is flooded to a level that covers my big toe. And it’s started to seep out to the carpet in the hallway.

“We need towels, lots of towels”.

So being the only one home, I grab the most absorbent towels I can find, and some towels that suck at holding water, pull a towel or two out of the dryer and get cracking. Put the towels on the ground, the most absorbant ones on the threshold to the bathroom. wait till they soak up as much water as they can, wring towels out in the shower compartment. Repeat.

Half hour later the water level is down to a dampening on the linoleum floor. Phew. Disaster averted. Which really wasn’t that bad after all.

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He’s dead, Jim.

Uncle Graham died this morning at 4am.

Rest In Peace

I’d put his full name and year of birth and stuff up, if I knew it.

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Cancer sucks

Looks like I’m going to be taking some bereavement leave soon. My Uncle Graham (Mum’s brother) is dying of liver and pancreas cancer. I never really knew him. My Mum is pretty cut up. He doesn’t have long to live. Mum got a call a couple of days ago giving him 12 hours to live, but he’s still alive. He’s holding on — stubborn I guess.

It’s going to be interesting. Graham wants his funeral on the local marae (Māori tribal complex) as his wife is Māori. Apparently Stuart my brother isn’t too keen about it. But we have to be there for Mum, it’s gonna be tough for her.

My heart goes out to you Graham. Wish I had gotten to know you better.

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Why I bought your albums: A public letter to Mr Scruff

Dear Mr Scruff,

You are one skilled artist. I live in New Zealand, and although I’m writing to your radio show email address, I have never listened your show. However I have listened to all your CDs

I am writing to tell you how MP3s of your CDs introduced me to your fantastic tunes and

I have a friend in England who I met online. He is a big fan of your music, and he told me I should see if I could score some Mr Scruff MP3s online. I did. And I was impressed, nay, flabbergasted! Your music was beyond words! It was indescribable to those who had not yet become instant fans after hearing one track! I wanted more. I downloaded more. I listened in pleasure, wanting just one more track. Your music is an addiction. I went to all the music stores in Wellington looking for any of your CDs. After several months of listening I found your Get a Move On / Ug single and PURCHASED IT. Even though I had heard both of these tracks before, I said I must own that and give the Scruff his due – a small amount of money. Now notice that this CD was an import; most full album CDs in NZ cost about NZD$30. I paid $41 for your SINGLE CD. I then heard Trouser Jazz was on the way, and I pre-ordered it from a CD Store that said they were getting them in. It cost me the same $41. Another store also got Trouser Jazz in, and got some Keep It Unreals in too, so I bought one of those too! Heck, I almost bought your vinyl, even though I have no decks, but I thought I’d leave it for someone who would get much more happiness from it that I could. I even bought a Zentertainment CD just because it had a track by you on it.

Then you came to Wellington and played a 6 hour set at StudioNine! Wow! I scored me some tickets and attended your DJ session and had the time of my life!

So there you have it – I am a Mr Scruff Fan for life, and you can thank a friend of mine challenging me to download MP3s.

This letter has been posted here for all to see at: http://glutnix.webfroot.co.nz/index.php?p=110%A0more=1%A0c=1

Thank you once again for your amazing musical prowess!
Brett Taylor

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Fathers Day in Otaki

This weekend I went up to Otaki to hang out with my dad, Sunday being Father’s Day here in New Zealand. Saturday night Dad was in a Quiz Competition at the Levin Cosmopolitan Club. His team of four won a free handle each of DB Draught as a spot prize for the inflatable bleating sheep they had on their team’s table. His team came 23th out of 31 teams, but another team from his watering hole came 3rd and won $250. Was a good fun night out 🙂

Sunday I got up, gave Dad a box of chocolates for Fathers Day. We got dressed and went to find some geocaches. I had loaded the latest set of co-ordinates on my eTrex Friday morning, and printed out the cache sheets at work on Friday before I left, but I had left the sheets at work, so we tried to wing it. We tried to find GC39AF first; Dad thought it might be at Forest Lakes but when we got there, it was still 3km away; turns out it was on the beach. So we drove up to Levin to find a cybercafe – no luck 🙁 So we drove back to home in Otaki and got my bags. Then we decided to hide a microcache out near Otaki Forks. Have fun finding that one, we had fun placing it.

After that we decided to drive me back to Paraparaumu so I could catch the train back home that afternoon. But on the way, I saw that we were about a kilometer away from a cache or two in Waikanae, and did we want to try and wing it without the cache sheet…? We decided to give GCC747 a shot. After driving around in suburbia down some cul-de-sacs we realised it was on the other side of these houses. Sarah spotted an alleyway and Dad and I got out to find it. At the end of the alleyway we discovered that the Waikanae River was there, and my fears were that the cache was 500 metres down the river, on the other side! Well, we walked 500 metres down the river and got within 40 metres of the cache and lo, the arrow pointed across the river. We turn back and head for the car. Next we tried GCC056, got to the spot the GPS thought it was, and it pointed to the middle of a Toetoe plant, aka Cutty Grass – ie, it cuts you if you walk through it. After searching for 5 minutes, we couldn’t find it – I don’t think we had the right location.

So we go get some fish and chips, eat it at Lindale, and decided to head to Paraparaumu and drive around the water front. We drove through Raumati Beach shops and lo, there was a book exchange with hi-speed internet access. We went in, printed out the cache sheet for GC38E at Queen Elizabeth Park. Drove to within 100 metres of it, got out, and walked down the tramway like the sheet said, and the GPS told us to stop and go into the bushes. We climbed a small knoll and my Dad spotted it! We found it! YAY! Dad was pretty chuffed, as after all these non-successes, he had proof that Geocaching is a real sport!

I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend… how was yours? 😉

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