saving in style

hi there

some of you with an arguably more peculiar taste than most might well be wondering whatever happened to Stefan from verk. a number of you appeared to enjoy the frequent updates on his acquisition of various items of Twilight merchandise, and indeed his proclivity to damage himself by tripping over "invisible" massive plant pots.

in truth, and there is no easy way to say this, Stefan is guilty of treachery. he has transferred to a different area of verk, thus he is not around daily to inform me of what "Team Edward" is doing or to amuse and please me greatly by indulging in acts of self damage.

it was a bit of a pleasant surprise, then, to sort of bump into him yesterday as he returned from a spot of successful life saving. here, for your pleasure, he is.

i can only imagine that you Stefan enthusiasts are delighted to not only see him, but to see him looking as stylish as ever. i particularly like how he appears to have colour co-ordinated his tie with his first aid kit.

should on my travels i see him again i shall certainly try and get a picture to put here. likewise, if there are any tales of bravery involving pot plants hopefully i will be in a position to record them here too.

well done on your outstanding life saving gig yesterday, Stefan!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a Sunday stroll......

hi there

i thought i might, if i may, take a break from complaining about The Rolling Stones (Pty) Ltd and similar for a while, instead posting some things that are considerably more fun!

as we have some reasonably pleasant summer weather here at the moment (barring the massive storm this evening), we all went off for a lovely stroll around the excellent Lory Park for the afternoon.this was a very good idea, as it turned out.

we discovered that Lory Park has two magnificent new residents - a pair of wonderful, beautiful white lions! i did my best to get a picture of both, here it is!

i, ahem, imagine the intention is to "encourage" them to increase the white lion population a bit. well, Lory Park is rather good at that - many baby lions and tigers have sprung from the couples they have there. it must be something in the water!

the boys were very impressed with the white lions, it has to be said. they were even more impressed, though, when i gave them some money and sent them off in the general direction of the tuck shop!

James was very thrilled to be able to use the camera for a bit, too. and my word did he use it! it looks like we have some 300 pictures from being out for a couple of hours with him! i shall not be uploading all of them here, but if for some peculiar reason you want a recent picture of me, here you go!

yes, that is indeed me in the same shirt and hat that i went to see The Stone Roses in, fact fans. although anyone stalking me would presumably be quite aware of my wardrobe, and the limitations thereof.

back to pictures of things far more interesting than what your humble narrator looks like, and onwards indeed to a picture that i got into a little bit of trouble for.

William found a rather large metal door, and asked what was "in there". as far as i could work out it just led to the car park. however, that's not what i told him. it seemed like a good idea to mention to him that this was the place where they kept the T-Rex.

the result of that good idea was that William was very excited, and flat refused to leave the door until he had seen the T-Rex! whoops!

after a few minutes we explained to him that the T-Rex was probably sleeping, or perhaps even away on holiday. he looked a little disappointed but agreed to leave the door anyway. he was happy enough to see all the other animals, in particular when he was able to get rather close to them. this was certainly the case with the Siberian tigers!

both William and James think it is wonderful when the tigers "prowl". it is great to be able to get so close to them, but i have to keep an eye on the boys just in case they try and get a little too close!

speaking of close, well, who doesn't love and want to get near the Meerkats?

the boys were certainly very excited to see them, especially as for the most part they (the meerkats and the boys) were in a playful mood.

William has developed an interesting expectation that every living thing will bow to his every command. as a result of this, he has no problem telling anyone and everything what they should be doing. the meerkats were certainly no exception to this at all. when they were running around William shouted at them to get in the holes they were digging....

.....and not long after they did that he was busy shouting at them to come back out!

James does not really take to shouting commands as such these days. he prefers the somewhat more subtle approach of merely trying to catch things like meerkats!

he did not, happily or sadly, manage to catch one. a bit of a pity, really, for i would love to see what a meerkkat would do to our garden!

well, we had a fantastic time out as you can hopefully see, even though the tuck shop had sold out of chips. ho hum, perhaps next time. in the mean time, though, here's another picture of one of the magnificent white lions!

i hope that you all had a weekend as good as ours! if not, well, hope the imminent next weekend is ace!

yes, i know that some of you (hello, Dad!) will be expecting pictures of the grand opening of Old Grumpy's Gallery to appear here. they will very soon, i promise!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Andrew at The Enemy

hi there

Andrew, my MMA, has been off to see someone called The Enemy, one of these Modern Music type things that he frequently advises me on.

thanks to the miracle of that twatter things where people send twittytwats around the world, i have a picture of him at this gig. or perhaps outside the gig.

the people on that twatter service tend to use code names. i think his mate who uploaded this one is called "Gazomatic" or something like that. i believe he is the one that got kicked out of the gig for investing far too much in the alcohol they had on sale at the gig.

Interesting Edit : Andrew has just informed me that Gazomatic (or whatever his name is) isn't his mate that got kicked out of the gig for being too lashed up. Gazomatic is the lead singer out of  The Antics, who were the support band for The Enemy. nice one.

what do i think of this band The Enemy? nothing really, for if i have heard anything by them i can assure you it was incidental or accidental. i might try and have a listen at some point, i suppose, but i am somewhat wary of doing so. going on Andrew's account of last night and the subsequent state he was in this morning, it sounds like one has to consume an awful lot of alcohol to fully appreciate the band. how much alcohol? well, i won't be too surprised to learn that Tesco are selling yet another bedset at some stage of the day today.


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Rolling $tone$

hi there

well, who knew that the 50th anniversary celebration of The Rolling Stones would be so depressing? cynics and people who do not like the band are no doubt shouting "i knew". as someone who loves the band and the music, i certainly didn't know, and i am sad that it's turned out that the celebrations are purely money driven.

as you will no doubt be aware, the Stones have announced 2 gigs at the 02 arena in London. Mick Jagger has described it as a "bit of a f*** off laugh". Keith Richards has commented that he doesn't want to charge the fans too high prices, but admits to being unaware of current trends.

ticket prices for this "f*** off laugh" that they don't want to charge too much for range from £90 to £950, and you can add a 10% booking fee to that.

a sense of perspective on that price? certainly. the celebrated Led Zeppelin reunion at the same venue, actually a tribute concert featuring other acts (including one Bill Wyman) had a face value of £125 no matter where you sat or stood in the venue. Noel Gallagher, who has not shyed away from saying how it's all about the money these days, earlier this year (or possibly late 2011) charged £45 for the general standing area, i.e. the bit at the front of the stage.


want to see what your view of the stage is like for your entry level  £90 + booking fee ticket for The Rolling Stones? here you go.

it's jolly nice that Keith "doesn't want" to charge the fans too much, but not wanting to and not doing it exist as two separate things, it seems. The Stone Roses, for the record, charge £55 plus booking fee for Heaton Park.


if the ludicrous cost of this was not sad enough, this official image released by the Stones suggests you are unlikely to get value for money. some have interpreted the following as a proposed set list for the gigs.

i suspect not, unless they really are as senile as some suggest with the inclusion of the remarkably average She's So Cold twice.

missing from the above list, off the top of my head, are Jumping Jack Flash, Sympathy For The Devil, Satisfaction, Brown Sugar, Let's Spend The Night Together and, perhaps most baffling, the song considered their greatest work by many, Gimme Shelter. what is included, however, is a number of tracks from albums they have recently issued rather expensive "deluxe" versions of recently. like how U2 did an Achtung Baby heavy set at Glastonbury last year when it just so happened they were about to re-release that album.

i suppose that, if we're honest, for at least the last 20 years it's been less the Stones, more The Rolling Stones (Pty) Ltd. it's depressing that they are chosing to remember 50 years together from a purely financial aspect, though. you'd have thought they might just chose to recall the days of getting by, of just making enough cash to sort of eat and make it to the next gig. you know, the days when only the music mattered.

best of luck to those throwing money at the band to attend this. i hope, in the absence of a decent view or several of the classic songs, they at least get Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor to guest on a couple of numbers for you.


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Old Grumpy's - opening soon!

hi there

i had asked my Dad very nicely not to use my blueberry email for either attachments or for emails that would come at a time when i was asleep. that would explain the email i got at around 4 this morning, featuring an attachment of the menu for Old Grumpy's. i presume this was his way of reminding me to mention here again that Old Grumpy's Gallery opens on Wednesday, 17 October. i am uncertain as to how many people from New Zealand read this blog, but this one is for you then!

first off, a clarification. in a recent post on Old Grumpy's i included a picture of a lad that i knew nothing of, except that Dad felt it quite important to send me a picture of him. well, Dad has provided a full biography.

this lad, ladies and gents, is Ethan. he is the relative of the gallery manager i had no idea Mum & Dad had appointed, and he is currently "benefitting" from being trained by my Dad. trained in what, exactly? buying and selling, it seems, as well as driving. in respect of the latter, whenever i drove my Dad somewhere i always got at least one thump to ensure i was "concentrating". not sure if Ethan gets the same method applied to him. best of luck, Ethan.

visitors of Old Grumpy's Gallery may well get the chance to see Ethan every now and then, assuming my Dad has not put him to work somewhere. in the mean time, though, here are a few other pictures from the premises, including the intriguing, somewhat secret upstairs area.

here's the view from the staircase, to go with the views of the staircase in the previous post.

Dad has given some details of the upstairs section. apparently it features a "secluded" 4 seater coffee table and his "studio".

basically, then, it's a bit like where Paulie out of GoodFellas would hold his most delicate of meetings, or perhaps a bit like that private part of the house where people went to "pay respects" to Vito Corleone. if they knew what was good for them.

i am sure that is just a guitar in the bag.

meanwhile, a question that all of those who know my Dad will be asking is "has he not been hiding in trees on an evening, taking pictures of people that stop and take an interest in the gallery?" the answer to that is yes, ladies and gentlemen, yes he has.

this is a very Alan Partridge thing of him to do, really. now that i think, i am surprised it has not dawned on me before, the immense similarities between my Dad's way of doing things and the Alan Partridge way of doing things. i suppose i could send him the Alan Partridge series to watch, but he would kind of assume that it's a documentary and it may well give him even more unusual ideas.

i am not sure where he hid to take these pictures, but i gather the intention is to show off the "night light" at the gallery.

i do not recall my Dad ever having that much interest or inclination for Indian food, really, but i suspect he will be having a bite or two at the place next door!

Grant enthusiasts will no doubt be wondering what Grant's feelings are on the impending opening of Old Grumpy's Gallery. well, i am assuming that he managed to get Dad's DVD and all that connected properly, for Grant has been allowed to go and start the queue for the grand opening.

nice one Grant. a few nights camping out in Mount Maunganui will be well worth it when you can claim the honour of being the first client of the place!

as for Old Grumpy himself, well he seems fit and ready to go, really. this next picture tells it all.

not only has he got some shiny new red shoes for the gallery, but he also has two grandchildren at the ready. Katie and Daniel are, to a degree, a 50% lesser workforce of upaid child labour than he had at his disposal here. you would assume, however, that they have not yet tired of the "novelty factor" of carrying bricks around or shovelling manure for no apparent reason, and so probably work just as hard as Lyla, James, William and Ruby-Lee did at South Fork.

well, all i can do now is say how much we all hope the grand opening of Old Grumpy's Gallery goes well, and we are sure it shall be a great success!

no doubt pictures of the opening shall follow soon!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Stone Roses - new songs confirmed

hi there

in typical style, the NME get one of the biggest stories of the year and bury it in an article about a cinema screening of a Led Zeppelin concert DVD!

after getting John Squire to sing the praises of Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, they finally got around to asking him about The Stone Roses.
 

NME asked Squire for details of the new Stone Roses album. "What album?" he said. "We are working on songs, but there's no album yet."

so there you have it! a number of people have been suggesting that The Stone Roses reunion is little more than a massive payday. well, yeah, they're earning the money they probably should have back in 89/90, but it's clearly more than that. this is a reunion that has seen Ian Brown "postpone" a successful solo career, Mani quit Primal Scream, John Squire come out of semi-retirement and Reni come out of full-blown hiding. great to get confirmation that it's all about continuing the band, not just celebrating it.


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Prometheus and the perils of deleted scenes

hi there

deleted scenes. it's a set of words that for some strange reason excites film fans such as myself. more often than not anything which didn't make it in to a final film for non-censorship reasons was left out with very good reason. that does not stop us film fans craving them. why? who knows, really.

there's some obvious value and interest in certain deleted footage. i wrote an article not so long ago on mostly unseen footage discarded / destroyed by Stanley Kubrick, the value of which should speak for itself. the "workprint" versions of Blade Runner and Apocalypse Now are sought by fans mostly for the extra footage, but also because of the different edits of the films. with those examples aside, however, for the most part deleted scenes are scenes that added nothing to the plot or the story. at least, that's what they used to be.

presently there is an increasing trend to try and defend films which received poor or less than flattering reviews by saying "wait until you see the deleted scenes on the (note format) blu ray, it will make more sense". now this is really very silly. that means that the film was with purpose edited not to make sense or be as good as it could, surely?

the latest film to leap to this sort of defence is Prometheus, a film i gave a less than flattering review to a month or so ago and many others gave even worse reviews at the time of release. apparently, according to no less than Ridley Scott in interviews, the deleted scenes would "enhance appreciation" of the film. now that they are, of sorts, available, let's have a look at some of them.

before we look at them, though, you should appreciate that **** BIG MASSIVE SPOILER WARNINGS **** are hereby given.

first up we have the opening of the film. as originally released, we were shown a lone "engineer" look up at a space craft, drink something, fall into the water and dissolve - thereby giving life to Earth.

this was a touch ambiguous, but after seeing the whole film it actually wasn't. clearly the engineer creating life on Earth was a huge mistake, hence the other engineers wishing to return and destroy all life later. if it's not that clear cut, then the film has something of a plot hole. which is what it becomes in the alternate (original?) opening.

oh, look, loads of engineers off to watch a ceremonial sacrifice!

that starting life on Earth was a deliberate action is the only conclusion one can draw from this alternate version. you get a clear "elder engineer", used presumably as a symbolic expression of wisdom, leadership or both, handing over that special liquid that melts the engineers.

this kind of leaves open a question for later in the film, then. if the engineers deliberately created life on Earth, why then is it that they were so keen to return and destroy it? i mean, they have had some experience in creating life, you must presume? or is it that we are/were supposed to think these engineers go around creating life so that they can destroy it at a later stage? little wonder this scene was dropped in favour of the ambiguities of what was released.

a large number of the deleted scenes from the middle of the film are of little or no interest. they're either extended sequences or different takes of what was in the released film. before i jump to the end of the film, where there's a few scenes of interest, there is one deleted sequence of note.

when one of the crew is infected with that special liquid, he returns and tries to go on a killing spree. here is how he, and his name escapes me, looked in the released version.

and here's how he looks in the discarded CGI version.

yes, you are seeing that right. they presumably spent an awful lot of money on a really rather rubbish looking CGI thing and very wisely discarded it. one wonders how much money exactly they wasted on creating this sequence, but one can be thankful that they got rid of it.

not that the inclusion of the above would have made the film laughable. far from it really, for there's something far more amusing that they dropped from the original release.

when the crew of Prometheus finally meet an engineer in the released film, it's a sequence that's over and done with rather quickly. the deleted scenes for that moment show it was intended to be longer, but was presumably cut on the grounds that it made test audiences laugh out loud.

other than getting to hear one of the engineers speak (a sort of echo like voice, of course), we get the farcical sequence of Peter Weyland lecturing the engineer.

in short, Weyland explains how he is also a god as he created David (the android), and thus is also a creator of life. he then asks if he can please be made immortal by the engineer as a reward for this.

the engineer seems to say no by means of decapitation. as a consequence of Weyland proclaiming that David is perfect and will not age the engineer responds by ripping David's head off. this makes a good deal more sense at least that the released version, where the engineer simply rips David's head off (silently) in response to whatever it is that David said to him.

no further clarification, except presumed anger at Weyland and the initial intention of the engineers to destroy all Earth life, is given to why the engineer decides to just start killing everyone. that's one thing that all audiences would have liked to be elaborated on, but nothing in the deleted sequences does. in fact, if anything, the deleted scenes just leave one more confused about what the engineers are doing.

in a class sequence where Elizabeth (Noomi Rapace) has a smart axe fight with the engineer, we see the engineer clearly intrigued, going on his / its smile, by humanity. chandeliers, for a start, make him smile, as does footage of a young girl playing a violin.

ok, so why is it that the engineer wants to wipe out everyone but is at the same time interested in what it is these humans do? the interest the engineer has is certainly no barrier to trying to kill Elizabeth, as you can see in this shot of the deleted scene, where the stunt wires have been left in.

it is sort of possible that the engineer wishes to kill with good reason. now, do you remember how i said that the engineer spoke to David earlier on? once Elizabeth has trapped the engineer into getting eaten off that massive octopus thing she removed from her body, she goes off to find the bits of David as he reckons he can fly one of the engineers' spaceships.

she asks him what it is that the engineer said, and his response is pure comedy gold. he says that the engineer spoke of returning everyone to "paradise".

yep, that's right. this deleted scene shows how the film would have taken an allegorical tone, suggesting that the engineers were in fact angels leading all back to heaven.

if that idea is funny, it gets even funnier when Elizabeth insists that the (her words) "f****** robot" takes her to paradise. after she has roughly shoved his head in a bag.

as i said, deleted scenes are usually deleted with good reason. the film would have had a slightly more coherent plot and conclusion if these deleted / alternate scenes were in the finished product, but the reviews would all have been unquestionably bad.

oddly, though, tucked away on the extra features of one version of the Prometheus release is a sequence that really, really should have been in the film. Guy Pearce as an un-aged Weyland.

from my review you may recall i mentioned that casting Guy Pearce and applying make up was pretty pointless without some sort of "flashback" scene. well, here it is, and with a date and time that links it quite nicely to Blade Runner, as per the other post i made on this film.

whereas the crowd in this sequence is no doubt mostly CGI, it still looks like a very expensive thing to make and then not make widely available to see, either in the cinematic release or in certain versions of the disc.

further to that, it's also brilliant. Guy Pearce gives an excellent speech in it, and pretty much sets the tone for what he seeks from the project that leads to a conclusion of him getting battered with a robot's head. considering the short running time of the cinematic release, it is baffling that this five minutes of brilliance was not in the final cut.

whereas most of what i have shown here illustrates that deleted scenes don't make the final edit of the film with good reason, this Weyland sequence is very much a case of getting it wrong. if ever a "director's cut special edition" surfaces, i would be pretty sure that this sequence, if few of the rest, will be put into it.

right, with what you probably came to see out of the way, the rest is a rant about what the home entertainment industry is doing to shoot itself in the foot with the way the Prometheus releases work. carry on with your life and skip the rest if you are not interested.

a trump card that DVD played to persuade people to give up VHS was "extras". the DVD, as well as better sound and picture, offered things like deleted scenes, documentaries and different versions of the films. they are that desperate that all move to this blu ray format, despite there being nothing wrong with DVD, that they are trying the same trick again.

over the last year or so i cannot but help note that most DVD releases - The Lion King, Men In Back 3 and The Avengers as well as Prometheus off the top of my head - are missing any extras of consequence. the blu ray releases, however, are loaded with all sorts of tempting extras. hours of them. this is a clear play by the industry to say "please pay us more for the blu ray discs, look we shall give you shiny things".

there are two problems with this. firstly, and as shown above, the "extras" are wildly appealing, but are rarely something that you would watch, at best, 2 or 3 times. the personification of this would be the illustrious Star Wars nine disc box set, featuing further fiddled with versions of the films and an insane amount of extras that hold limited interest other than having Star Wars written on them. the second is that greed knows no boundaries, and they do not just wish you to buy one blu ray of the film to get the extras.

whereas when the technology behind DVD advanced, certain films were re-released with a "remastered" soundtrack and "enhanced" video, as well as usually having extras not on the original release. as this sequence usually happened 3 or more years after the original release, that seemed fair enough. however, with blu ray, greed is good. they have released at least two versions of Prometheus on this format. whereas one of them includes the (sigh) '3D' version, the extras on each different version of the blu ray are different. if you are a big fan of Prometheus then you need to shell out an awful lot of money to get "everything" and end up with at least 2 identical copies of the film.

whereas this blu ray format has superior sound and picture, those who release the films are using it as a means to make a fast buck and rip off fans. they would be wise to return to the ways of releasing everything on one release at a decent price, lest fans just give up and simply obtain pirate copies instead.

this, with some good luck, shall be my last Prometheus post.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"we don't do mud"

hi there

the title of this post, ladies and gentlemen, is a quote from Mr Keith Richards.they are his words, and as far as i can tell the only words ever spoken by any member of The Rolling Stones, about Glastonbury. the Stones have pretty much, and you would think with good reason, stayed well away from any sort of festival since Altamont. they are not interested.

and yet, with the flimsiest of basis, i see the headlines "Rolling Stones To Headline Glastonbury 2013?" are all around, with the tell-tale question mark at the end pretty much telling you all that you need to know.

  

the story has come from - get this -a "source very close to [Glastonbury head honcho] Michael Eavis", who obviously as you do rushed off to tell The Sun "newspaper" all about it. apparently negotiations are both at a delicate stage and impossible due to the band not having a booking agent. this has not stopped them booking their own shows in London and New York next year, though.

this is almost as class a rumour as the time when it was suggested that Led Zeppelin, fresh off their reunion concert about 5 years ago, apparently "begged to be allowed to play Glastonbury", only to be informed by Michael Eavis that he was not interested as he already had Pink Floyd booked. yeah, right - there's no way any concert promoter would be foolish enough to book Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd for a 3 day festival. who would be interested in that? for the record, i believe the headliner that year was Jay-Z, who presumably was someone that Mr Eavis, if you believe the initial rumour, felt was better known that Floyd or Led Zep.

i have nothing at all against Glastonbury; far from it. it's an excellent three days and a mutual honour for both bands and the festival to be a headliner. The Stones probably would be one of the most awesome ever things there, but it really is not going to happen. you could i suppose see Keith hanging about jamming with musicians backstage, and indeed Mick flaunting about being worshipped as the elite of rock aristocracy. hell, Ronnie Wood probably goes every year to [text removed on legal advice], [text removed on legal advice] and no doubt [text removed on legal advice] too. but Charlie Watts? Mr Watts is a man who berates people for putting things in their pockets which "ruffles the line of a perfectly good suit". it's hard to imagine him holding the idea of playing Glastonbury in anything but dignified contempt.

the Glastonbury 2013 headline acts will be named soon-ish. but i wouldn't get too excited about the Stones featuring on the list.


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Old Grumpy's - Opening 17 October!

hi there

well, there can be no doubt that rejoicing shall be experienced in certain corners of New Zealand as they read this, for the day that they have wished to dawn as soon as possible will be upon them soon!

Old Grumpy's Gallery is just about all set and ready to go, and the doors will open on Wednesday, 17 October 2012!

i understand that some of you will be very eager to see inside the gallery and simply cannot wait for another 5 or so days from today. for those of you who are of an understandable but all the same impatient way, here you go, here's a look inside!

i know what you wish to ask about the above sneak peak inside Old Grumpy's. well, i do if you want to ask "who is that not old and certainly not grumpy lad sat there?". the truth is, i have no idea. i did ask my Mum & Dad to give me some idea as to who it is, but thus far they have declined to answer. i am almost certain he has a name, and as soon as my Dad reads this he may well consider letting me know what it is!

yes, i am biased, but i must say that Old Grumpy's Gallery is looking most impressive! i love the layout and implied feel of the place!

it's also very pleasant to see certain items from the South Fork era on display. even better is that the banjo is there, several thousands of miles away, and nowhere near me or my ears!

it certainly looks like Old Grumpy's Gallery is rather large and spacious. i know there are steps visible in these pictures, but no i sadly do not have any photographs of his gallery and studio as of yet. no doubt they will follow on soon.

in the mean time, here's a look at how the gallery looks from the staircase, at least!

and here's a view of the gallery from the other side, with the staircase slightly visibile. if you are for some reason quite enthusiastic about seeing staircases!

Mum & Dad have put a great deal of hard work, effort and heart into this place, and i can only imagine it will be a great success. no doubt Dad has something special in mind for the opening day, with some luck he or someone else shall have a camera at the ready to send me some pictures!

with some good fortune, of course, we shall all be able to go and visit the gallery one day, instead of just seeing the pictures!

if you are in the Mount Maunganui area next Wednesday, or any day after that really i suppose, please consider taking the time to go in, have a look and support this very honestly named new venture!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

some Sunday fun

hi there

well, i've been doing my best to upload some pictures from last Sunday all week! it's been just really busy, and when i have had a chance to do an update it seems to have been of an "urgent music" nature. sorry for that.

last weekend Richard, Erika, Lyla and Ruby-Lee invited us off to a rather fancy place to celebrate, a bit early, Ruby-Lee's birthday. i of course took the boys along, which is just as well, as they had a sensational time!

one of the things they were most impressed about was the presence of horses.

both of them thought it was one of the most excellent things ever to watch as the horse stood and ate some hay. they did, in fact, ponder and consider how they could combine the horse eating hay with a plan to lure the horse to them.

the masterplan they unleashed was to stand and shout at the horse. what did they shout? "hey horse, come here and eat this hay".

it did not work quite as well as they had hoped, but Erika and Ruby-Lee both enjoyed standing and watch the boys try this approach!

with the horse failing to entertain the boys' wishes, it was time to head off and explore some other things of interest to do. which they did.

a note to expectant parents or parents of young children planning on taking them out and about soon. take a pocket full of coins with you wherever you go, but in particular where there is a sign that says "children welcome". child-friendly places shall always, without fail, have coin operated rides like this one that the kids will wish to go on again and again. and, indeed again.

the above was the best picture of the two that i could get. the ride was in motion, and neither of them had any interest in sitting still! my apologies, but i do not have my Dad's skill at explaining to them, in short and rather abrupt words, why it is a good idea not to move when it is so much fun to move about!

after the supply of coins was exhausted, it was off to find something else to do, and what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than doing a spot of painting?

James was a bit reluctant to select something to paint at first. i simply mentioned "oh, look, there's a box you could decorate and then keep money in". there was not much stopping him after that!

William settled on painting a dinosaur pretty much straight away, and was quite chuffed with his artistic handiwork. and why should he not be, as he did a sterling job!

i do like his art critic expression in that picture above!

speaking of William and him doing a sterling job, he apparently set himself the task of getting as much dirt on his face as possible. i am probably biased here, so forgive me, but i think he did a really, really good job!

the above took him some work, i can tell you. if i recall the ingredients correctly, William's face is covered in chocolate M & M's, coke, creme soda, a chocolate ice cream, pizza, mud and i shudder to think what else.

if yoy are wondering, yes i did try and clean his face, but he just ran away. the cheeky thing, though, as soon as we got home complained to his Mummy about how dirty his face was!

for some peculiar reason every now and then a few of you like to see a recent picture of me. well, here i am drinking a most splendid, rather avant garde, drink.

well, if lemonade with a bit of lime and a lot of ice shoved in it is your definition of avante garde then it is that. a rather pleasant drink on a very hot afternoon, many thanks to Megan for turning me on to the wonders of it!

right, that's quite enough of me i believe.here's a great picture of the boys that would be totally fantastic if William had a clean face in it!

never mind, the same kind of posing let me get some great pictures of James on his own!

and indeed i was able to get a couple of James with Lyla, with William very much wanting to be in on the picture!

i do love William's "look Lyla, i have an ice cream just like you" look!

Richard enthusiasts will no doubt be disappointed not to have seen Richard in this update so far, but here you go. here's a picture of him forever blowing bubbles. as Andy Carroll is now a Hammer, i suppose Newcastle fans are obliged to adopt some of their more peculiar habits.

all children really, really like bubbles. i have no idea why, but they do. they can sense, in some sort of Jedi like way, when bubbles are being blown anywhere near them, and they always go running off in the direction of them.

William and Lyla are no exception to this!

well, i think all i have missed out is the most excellent pizza, great company and just how tired running around with the boys left me!

many thanks to all for an outstanding Sunday outing!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!