Hard News: That Summer!
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I found a tracklisting on t'Internet:
That's the one. 15 essential tunes + Zones. :)
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Summer? there was a summer? actually I think we got 2 weeks in Feb - roll on global warming ....
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If anything, down here in the Capital it's been borderline thermal shutdown lately. At least right now as I type this.
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Wait! What? It's been summer? And now it's nearly over???
Dammit! Been working too hard again...
Come to think of it, yes it has been rather nice in Welli over the past few weeks (what I've seen of it during ciggy breaks in between being chained to my computer indoors). Pretty crap before that though.
So in the spirit of all good things punk, here's the Undertones on TOTP doing Here Comes the Summer (although considering I've pretty much missed it, perhaps that should be There Goes the Summer):
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Couldn't help but think of this:
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It's been a bit of a weird one. I feel cheated of my usual 'flinging myself into various bodies of water and eating lovely foods' summer. I've mostly been in my house, hiding from the heat. Waiting.
(Oh, and writing over 13,000 meaningless words for the benefit of my annoying librarian overlords. Thanks for nowt, MLIS programme.)
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It has been a glorious Summer in Auckland, just fantastic. I have hardly been out of the city, and at times thought "Damn I should be up north" but Auckland has been so much fun this summer, for me anyhow.
And I'm not carping Russell, (no, really, I'm not) but in your list of great events, you forget the Big Gay Out, whcih this year pulled in over 10,000, including a gaggle of politicians from the PM down, all out to try and grab the pink vote. It is always a fun and happy day, and we welcome the breeders who show up.
Noting like several thousand queers relaxing in the sun to give you a happy day out.
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This summer, we finally bit the bullet and replaced the mangy old deck out the back of our house. We introduced the builders to saligna , a locally produced eucalyptus hardwood. They loved it; it does not stain your hands like Kwilla does. We like it because it's sustainable, and not pine.
We put in roof (the non-consent 15sq metres is a reasonable size), and because the frame is pine, spent some considerable time painting it during some of the sunny Auckland days.
Functionally, we've added a new room onto the house, one that we can still enjoy when the autumnal rains arrive.
It really has been a great Auckland summer. Looking forward to Pasifika too, it's nice to live with walking distance of it.
@Russ, thanks for the link the other Friday about growing up in Morningside. It is a funky little suburb, although Kingsland can claim Don Croot Street if they want...
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I had fresh seafood at least once a day from 25/12 until 10/1. A personal record. 10 species. And then still had 3 weeks holiday left in the Auckland sunshine. Best ... summer ... ever.
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As far as I can tell, she's much happier now, after the week or so it took to get over the hardship of not being able to destroy furniture, drink from the toilet and vomit everywhere
You're lucky that's only your cat. Some people have teenagers like that.
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And I'm not carping Russell, (no, really, I'm not) but in your list of great events, you forget the Big Gay Out, whcih this year pulled in over 10,000, including a gaggle of politicians from the PM down, all out to try and grab the pink vote. It is always a fun and happy day, and we welcome the breeders who show up.
Ah yes. I did come down last year, but this year's BGO was the Sunday I got back from Foo Camp. I could hardly even speak by then ...
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Rickai, so you were the one catching all the fish!! My haul was pitiful. Just as well I like fishing more for it's own sake than the fish.
I was a little disappointed to miss the Orcas who apparently came into the bay my parents have their beach house in. Perhaps if I'd been fishing at the time I might have had the big-one-that-got-away story to crush all others.
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anyone got a good lead on Jonathan Richman's Jonathan Sings! ?
Too Short A Life.
I am in your debt sir. Playing it now and being reminded what a gorgeous record it is.
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I saw 6 orcas in Kawau Bay. Good times.
Long line. Wall of death for pan-sized snapper.
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Summer has been great. Even tho I worked through most of it, stopping on the way home at Onehunga Pools & swimming in the old outdoor pool has been a saving grace. It's fantastic & breaks up the long slow trip on the motorway.
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Some people have teenagers like that.
A stint as 'outdoor teenagers' might cure them. My deck, where the cat sleeps, can be hosed off easily enough, which might also be a good way of getting teenagers out of bed.
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Ooh, Mikaere, I envy you that room. Over here you'd instal bug-screens all round and call it a "screened-in porch," and sleep out on it every night it's warm enough.
[ETA the open-air children's bunk rooms at Colin McCahon's house in French Bay sound a lot like what you're talking about, BenW!]
And I envy you all that Auckland summer.
Over here, we're enjoying our first week of steady above-zero temperatures, a bit of a shock after the last two enormous snowstorms. The crocuses (croci?) are coming up, the witch-hazel is a-dazzle, the tulips and daffs are starting to poke through the ground, and the earth has finally thawed enough that we can plant the first round of peas -- and bury the first trophy-mouse of the season. He's a very thoughtful cat, waiting till the thaw.
Nice to hit single-digits again; I've acclimatised enough that it actually feels like T-shirt weather when it's 8 C or higher. The boys even campaigned to set up the sprinkler so they could run through it... mark my words, next week it'll be back to the regulation one more month of winter, and then we'll finally get the grudging proper spring. But I'm loving this brief burst of warmth.
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3410,
I am in your debt sir.
Nonsense!
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In my mind, this Summer has reminded me of the year I moved to Auckland from Wellington...that was 20 years ago...almost identical weather.
That first Summer in Auckland I almost died of the heat, the humidity and the realisation that my sense of style was about to change forever...more than a one season wardrobe was required...
But I digress..
Many Aucklander's seem to be overlooking the reason why this Summer is so good...no rain!
Or at least, hardly any of it...what annoys everyone about Auckland isn't the temperature - which is almost always in the high 20's in Summer - it's the rain...consistent persistent rain...
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Oi! Nothing wrong with a bit o' rain. My plants love it. Some people can dance in the rain. Of course others, just get wet;)
As far as new furniture goes for the summer, we have a new shelf in the lounge. I rather like that it appears to float against the wall. Of course the shelf does have a big fukoff sub woofer in said shelf and he has nearly hid all the bloody cables/ wires/ crap that fly from one of the toys to another. That was fun this week. Watched Pink Floyd, Pulse, t'other night. Excellent with the new speaker, I must say. :) -
Night rain has been a blessing in the Waikato. It patters gently on the dry magnolia leaves and the dawn feels fresh and renewed. The veges grow mightily--in fact, I pulled out the apple cucumbers at the weekend as I no one was eating them. Summer still lingers and I build up a mighty sweat biking to the uni.
The highlights of summer? Al Green at The Civic, La Dolce Vita under a full moon at the Hamilton Garden's Festival, the neighbours offering use of their swimming pool whilst they were away, late night curling at the Winter Olympics, reading through a stack of quality mags, getting all my writing commitments finished, seeing my family off to Japan for a trip, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo....
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This summer in Auckland has been a cracker. As much as I've loved the long hot days that we've had, I've enjoyed the lush, warm nights we've had just as much. It's such a joy to be able to sit outside on the deck of an evening without having to rug up in the winter woollies, listening to the riotous chorus of crickets, and smelling the summer-night fragrances. Magic.
One regret: I didn't get to the beach enough. But an absolute highlight was going out to Motuihe Is last month to participate in the volunteer reforesting project which is going on out there. Our gulf islands are so beautiful, and it was so great to go out there and enjoy a summer's day, while feeling like we were doing something worth while.
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I got all nostalgic this morning after reading Gio's answer to Remember the days of the old schoolyard? . Summers were all golden in the fading memory of my youth, but this year, it's felt like a revisit, because I'm doing it all with Marcus. Many a long year passed where I didn't once sit in the tide, digging for the sheer hell of it, feeling the warm breeze, not giving a damn about the future beyond how I was going to hold the tide back for one more minute. If it had been cold and wet, I don't think it would have been half as evocative. Even chores like mowing the lawn have been fun, with him trailing behind pushing his toy one, demanding to see and smell every catcher-full. The fascination with everything is infectious, usually I wouldn't pay attention anywhere near as much, but seeing it through the eyes of a child, everything about summer has been glorious, especially since sunburn is ancient history.
And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allows
In all his tuneful turning so few and such morning songs -
We started the summer with a lovely Christmas with my folks in Nelson. We swam at Rabbit Island and drank wine in the sun and lazed around contentedly in between bouts of baking delicious things.
Back home and the weather was vile for most of the time the kids were off school so we stayed indoors and played a lot of Wii Sports Resort and read The Hobbit to the kids.
The absolute highlight of the summer though was all down to Emma who organised a reunion with many embarrassing old photos and embarrassing old friends. It was awesome and I'm fairly sure I haven't thanked her nearly enough.
Most of 2009 was distinctly crappy for our family (it seems to have been a rough one for a lot of the people I know) so our goal for this year is to focus on the stuff that makes us happy. So far we're doing pretty well :-)
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I got all nostalgic this morning after reading Gio's answer to Remember the days of the old schoolyard? . Summers were all golden in the fading memory of my youth, but this year, it's felt like a revisit, because I'm doing it all with Marcus.
I'm not nostalgic about my school days, nor about summers in Milan which were awful, but the weeks I spent at my nonna's were something else: days spent on my bike, evenings spent playing soccer on the street, with other kids of all ages, while feasted upon by swarms of mosquitos... I think of it now as my Kiwi childhood. When I discovered Google Earth one of the first things I did in fact was to check out nonna's village and its surroundings and trace my habitual bike route. I was gone for MILES, often on my own. Truly another world, it's not something we'd ever think of letting our children do. And that's a shame.
This Summer was too much work and wet and pretty boring I'm afraid.
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