Turning Back Time

Picnic at Wenderholm Regional Park, March 2006
Last night was the end of Daylight Savings Time, and I’m using the extra hour to do some long-overdue catching up here. Four weeks ago Ali and I went camping at Stoney Bay, at the far northern tip of Coromandel Penninsula. It took about five hours to drive there, with the last 1-1/4 hours on an unsealed road. Worth every minute.

Then two weeks ago weeks ago my Aunt Dottie and Uncle Forrest returned to Auckland after touring NZ for almost a month. The night before they arrived I was up until 4 am finalizing the edits on my paper, but the payoff was meeting my editors’ deadline which led, last week, to my first publication.


My aunt and uncle returned to Auckland just in time for my birthday, which we celebrated - thanks to Armaz and Angelique - by attending a concert. The Cologne New Philharmonic’s program began, appropriately enough, with a selection by Vivaldi (also born on March 4th and one of my very favorite composers). It was thoroughly delightful, from the first note to the last.


The next day, before taking my aunt and uncle to the airport so they could return to Normal (really – it’s the name of the town where they live), we visited Wenderholm Regional Park for a picnic and a bit more scenery. By all accounts they loved NZ and had a great time here, and we’re hoping they’ll return again soon.

One of my guilty pleasures these days is Boston Legal, hands down the best TV show ever made about lawyers. It manages to be both deeply insightful and wickedly funny, week in and week out. James Spader performs a weekly tour de force, but William Shatner’s acting is nearly miraculous: I have loathed this man since his days as Capt. Kirk, but, as the obnoxious but possibly Alzheimer-stricken Denny Crane, he has stolen my heart - or at least earned my admiration.

The past two episodes featured Heather Locklear as a cold, calculating gold digger, accused of murdering her elderly and, of course, wealthy husband. Never one of my favorite actresses, I enjoyed seeing her portrayed as a sex bomb a lot more than I used to. Why? Heather and I are the same age. Yep: just lose a few pounds, do a couple sessions with a personal trainer, endure a bit of nip-and-tuck, and that could be me. (Yeah, right.)

It's getting late, so I've left out my new job as a Tuakana Mentor at UoA, my latest class on Ocean Law and Governance, a few bush walks and dinner parties, and this year's Pasifika Festival. But that pretty much brings things up to date. In today's news, thousands of anti-war protesters around the world took to the streets marking the third anniversary of the US’s misadventure in Iraq. An article in the latest Foreign Affairs estimates Iraq’s death toll may be up to 100,000, and, of course, US casualties are heading towards 2,500.

Unfortunately, sometimes it’s impossible to turn back the clock.

Cheers,
Sandie