Chaos!

 

Two days to Moving Day and my little house is in

TURMOIL!

And of course the forecast is for rain.

Mystic spam

I've been getting a huge amount of spammy comments lately, which is why I've had to put on comment moderation. Some of the comments seem to originate from a galaxy far away...this comment for instance, though a little bizarre, is quite poetic, until the last sentence. No thanks, I'll pass. 


Keep adding their torpedo until unquestionably the sting 
is not necessarily quite too severe actually to slight.
This fact is where you work in acquiescence with the Universe.

Feel free to visit my blog post

Spock and Spock

I haven't seen Into Darkness yet but I surely will. Benedict Cumberbatch is in it! In the meantime, this made me laugh. I particularly enjoy Nimoy treating us to a verse of the Ballad of Bilbo Baggins.

The Internet is made of cats

I've posted before about Neko font, the font that's made of cats. Always looking for some displacement activity so that I can avoid preparing for my move, I have been revisiting it. I move next week. So much still to do!






 

Cheek!

I've just had a fellow from the moving firm assessing my stuff to give me a quote. When I told him I was moving to Waikanae he asked if I was moving to a retirement village. Say what???? I don't think I look that old! Humph. Young whippersnapper!!

Wonderful Welly

little wellington from Michael Jo on Vimeo.

As the saying says, you can't beat Wellington on a good day.

A sea of wine

What a waste. This hurts!

A winery has lost 6000 litres of merlot after vandals opened a tank valve and left it to drain.

Staff at Moana Park at Puketapu, near Napier, arrived on Saturday morning to find $165,000 of wine spilled onto the ground.

Owner and winemaker Dan Barker said the loss was "gutting" and had put a valuable Japanese contract at risk.

The wine was heading for a supermarket chain in Japan, and the buyer was at Moana Park the morning the vandalism was discovered.

"It's three-quarters of a container of wine not going to Japan now," he said.

"The long term cost on the business is greater because they'll have to find a replacement because we don't have any more wine, so we may lose the contract."

He said he was still taking in the full impact of the loss.

"This is the best vintage we've ever seen in Hawke's Bay in my time making wine here," he said.

"The impact on the business long term is so significant."

Mr Barker said the valve had a lock mechanism, which meant it could not have be opened accidently. He believed someone aiming to steal a few litres had misjudged the pressure in the tank.

"It's a two-inch valve, so it's going to knock you off your feet. It's not a garden hose."

The incident had been reported to police, who had been to the winery to look for fingerprints.

"The problem is we couldn't tell if there were vehicle tracks because the merlot had washed away anything that was left."

Mr Barker hoped someone would come forward with information on the culprits, who would have come home covered in red wine.

"Somebody is going to be covered head to toe in pretty dark merlot," he said.

- APNZ

Link: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10880662

Suck it up

Ah, the joys of country living. This morning the plumber and his boys are cleaning out the septic tank. (I want the new owner of the house to have a nice clean start!)

I was amused by the slogan on his tanker.

They don't mince words. Infectious substance indeed!

This slogan made me laugh.

Material Meltdown

As I get older, possessions come to matter less to me. I'm not the first person to reflect on how many of us spend the first 50 years of our lives acquiring material possessions, and then spend the rest of our lives trying to shed stuff. The trouble is, even when I assiduously divest myself on unneeded items, I always seem to be surrounded by stuff. Just...stuff! Stuff! The curse of too much stuff! Some people seem to be able to deal with it - not me.

Prior to moving into this house ten years ago, I had what I thought was a huge de-clutter, but somehow it's all built up again. How does this happen? My habit of drinking too much wine coupled with chronic insomnia and surfing online auction sites when I can't sleep may just possibly have something to do with it.

How to get rid of all this stuff? I don't want to take it to the new house. The obvious answer would be to put it all on Trade me (from whence much of it came) but I honestly can't be bothered. So the local thrift shops are in for a bonanza. When I get around to sorting it all out, that is...when I stop procrastinating.

A very cultured flashmob!

Inspired by Craig's flashmob post, I can't resist this offering which was sent to me this morning. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is about to re-open its doors after a 10-year closure for renovation work. To mark the occasion, a special flash mob was staged in a local shopping mall, with actors reenacting the museum's most famous work, Rembrandt's masterpiece "The Night Watch".

More here at the Huffington Post, along with a reproduction of the painting for you to compare.