This gallery contains 9 photos.
I wrote about the saga of the School Uniform blazers. These are just a few of the picture I took of MissPdubyah at the St Cuthbert‘s ANZAC Hockey Festival which is a secondary schools pre-season 3 day event, attracting visiting … Continue reading
For the win! Shepherd Neame 1698 – This had just arrived in the English Corner Shop when I went shopping, so I did the decent thing and put some in the shopping basket.
They’ve dialed back this fine beer to an ABV of 6.5%, but that’s still getting up the scale of strong.
And, yes I look like Ive been goosed by someone under the table, but for this beer in a word “Magnificent”
1698 is brewed with Pearl malted barley and crystal malt harvested in Kent, while Target and East Kent Goldings hops are added three times during the brewing process. Time well spent.
The beer has a pale bronze colour with an enormously complex aroma very malty and moreish.
The experts would have you have that the finish is dry but beautifully balanced between sweet grain, bitter hops, tart fruit and continuing notes of butterscotch and vanilla. Malt: high. Fruit: high. Hops: medium.
Bazinga! This one really rings the bell on the pdubyah-o-meter, with an unbeatable 10. Taste, Smell, Enjoyment it’s all in a handy pint sized bottle. Get in there!
My mother died just over a year ago March 2011, and despite her age suddenly, and without a will.
I’m from what would now be considered a large family of 8 children (5 boys, 3 girls) and I count myself as Number Six.
#3 child, the eldest sister and her daughter remained the closest, geographically, and spent a lot of time with mother through the years.
The rest of the family dispersed itself to parts afar and wide, myself in New Zealand, #1 Son in Australia, others to Derby, others to Norfolk, a bit all over the place really. There is even a missing person, the youngest of the family Stewart who one day just stopped talking to #3 sister( #5 child) and hasn’t been heard of since.
To say we’re not a close family is a bit of an understatement. And I bet this has never happened to anyone who lost a parent;
“When we all arrived at your mums on the day of her funeral <…> had already cleared the property and all that was left were photographs and bric-a-brac. Anything of any alleged monetary value was gone”
It’s difficult being so far away to be judgemental, but the anger and angst that that causes is palpable and drives a wedge in the family that doesn’t need to exist.
Trying to get even a guesstimate on the remaining monetary value of the estate (bank accounts, insurances etc) has proved impossible, everyone has a figure in mind, and they’re all different. If someone knows then they’re not saying, and trying to get a bank to disclose anything is a mission.
I know it’s only a year, and I know that resolution of someone who has dies intestate may take time to resolve. The will of the family however appears to be questionable. We’re not close (did I mention that) and by-and-large it seems that at least 5 out of the 8 children (can’t speak for the missing one) are financially not challenged enough to want to pursue this more vigorously.
My points of contention and – if you like – anger are around who’s doing what? and why are we all waiting for someone else in the family to do something?. And that someone else, why don’t they email the rest of us to tell us what’s going on? To which a couple of answers, one of which I already mentioned, financially it makes no difference.
Secondly there is a thing called “life” that gets in the way, the birthdays, the holidays, the parties. the getting on with life in general. A day becomes a week, becomes a month, becomes 3 months, it just happens. No one is to blame.
However, whilst a few hundred or a thousand pounds/dollars might not make a difference one way or another to me (or at least 4 others in the family) it might make a difference to the other 3. IT might make a difference to a charity organisation, a sheltered accommodation group, a women’s refuge. It’s just in the way you look at it as to how to decide if if makes a difference.
I fear that getting to a resolution is going to cause more rifts than it cures, and for an already estranged family it might yet get just that bit stranger.
I need to say that if my family are reading this – it’s not about you, it’s about the way I feel about it, remember offence is taken not given, and you can choose.
Breakfast (Photo credit: annalibera)
It’s unusual for us as a family not to all eat at the time, particularly for the evening meal. It’s a habit we’ve always endeavored to maintain.
Sometimes we may not be in the same room, but generally we’ll all be eating the same dish.And even then not in the same room still can mean within conversation distance of each other.
Today though we had family brunch, and we all came away smiling about the nonsense we manage to discuss, from the Ball Gown (no surprises) to the ages we were as a parents when we met each other, beds. and the creepy guy at the gym.
There is nothing that brings me as much pleasure as family eating times. They’re important and part of our family.
I’ve always held doubts about the Moon Landings, in particular the ones we saw on TV, the Armstrong, Aldrin ones, beamed live into your lounge.
Buzz Aldrin salutes the U.S. flag on Mare Tranquillitatis during Apollo 11 in 1969. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Call it what you like but it seemed odd that the most complex thing that man had assembled worked first time like a dream, without a hitch. Ok so you could say that the path to success littered with failure guaranteed a success.
I’ve also doubted that with 1960′s technology that it would be possible, and the fact that we’ve only managed low earth orbit with mixed success since stands out to me as something that should make you go mmmm.
Are there particular things that raise my radar. Well first up I think man did get to the moon, not the ones we think did, or when they say they did. I also think it’s not about any secret alien agenda, moon bases, visitations, strategic missile bases or other warmongering, masonry, new world order, illuminati or other such.
I read somewhere that a conspiracy needs to have a monumental amount of “proof” to prove a conspiracy and that conspiracies were therefore very convoluted and confused, with many strands that if you followed them all you would naturally end up laughing.
A Conspiracy does not have to be complicated or involves hundreds or thousands of people.
Tdhe two links below contain a miss-mash of things that make me frown and things that make me laugh as they appear a bit off beam. And before anyone comments that “Mythbusters have proved it” lets just say that Mythbusters is about as reliable or credible as the War on Terror is.
I’ve read the books that make claims about radiation, and not being a scientist I find them compelling and yet I don’t know. I’m sure I read somewhere that the moon suits were left on the moon, having been thrown out of the module somehow, I wish I could remember where I read that.
There is enough dubious content from NASA and other “official” sources that show difficult and contrary things, not in and of itself confirmation of a conspiracy, but carelessness and ill-though out rush to release.
So check out these links that I referred to.
http://apolloscam.bravehost.com/
http://mrbasheer.tripod.com/moonwalk.html
I was of the mind to be having a bit of a curry, and having ordered I stopped at the bottle shop and picked up a couple of bottle of the Belhaven Twisted Thistle IPA.
And I’m sort of in-between about it. As normal a pinty sized bottle and this one is 5.3% ABV, so I was prepared for something nice.
Made with Scottish grown malt and American and English hops. A zesty aroma leads to a medium bodied ale with loads of hop flavour and a satisfying finish
Let me tell you it has an individual taste, and I’m still not sure about it. It is tangy, it has a distinctive nose and not an unpleasant taste all-round. Best described has having a twang.
And it’s a pleasant beer color.
However in the big scheme of things, and since the competition is getting a bit tough on the pdubyah-o-meter this is a 7 out of 10. I’m not really a big fan, however I’d arm wrestle you if there was only one left and we both wanted it.
The Wine Barrel Mairangi Bay, thank you, and Chand Indian restaurant, for your consistent nommery.
The Last School Ball and the Cocktail dress.
It’s the last of year of regular school for the daughter.
This is the one where she’s given up competitive sport to concentrate on. The one that she feels will define her.Anyway, being the last year, it seems that there is going to be a school ball, as there is every year it seems. But this one is special. Not like the last one where a cocktail dress was sufficient this one is different.
And I don’t know why it’s special or what significance it has, since they didn’t have school balls when I were a lad.
So we’re über organised (daughter that is) she’s diligently been on line to the ASOS shop and picked out a little number that appears to her. It’s a tulle skirt and a sparkly bodice (says the man with the fashion sense to call Pink ‘Salmon’ when he wears it). It works out at about $500, depending on the exchange rate of the day. She’s brought from ASOS in the past and they seem to be all fine nad dandy. And I don’t have a problem if that’s what she wants and it brings peace and tranquility to the house.
MrsPdubyah on the other hand is a bit more practical. “Can’t just buy off the peg. on line”, she says “have one made!” I frowned.
This is a great idea, as explained by MrsPdubyah to daughter “who knows what it looks like really, or how it’s made, or indeed if it needs to be adjusted and nipped and tucked” I nodded wisely.
Secretly though this is about the opportunity for a bit of Mother-Daughter time and a visit to the material shops to check out the spangle materials and tulle. Daughter is quite excited by the idea of this kind of shopping, and has already started to plan her “Girls Shopping Trip” even if it is only with her mother.
Me? I’m standing by with smiles and support and a pained look on standby when the bill comes in.
Update : Well I got that wrong, it’s New York Dresses and not ASOS. Well I tried to listen.
So is $500 acceptable? Am I being reasonable?
JMB
By and large you always think of New Zealand as being an outwardly friendly, people happy, tolerant, peaceful place. You would possibly describe it as such to foreigners, and not as a wild-west like country where crime is rampant. There are though some unsolved crimes that will forever be that, unsolved or unsolvable. This is one of those that still seems to be fresh and top of mind to many, and one that just won’t go away.
Cold case – Uncategorized – New Zealand Listener.
Why was Gordon Bray never charged with Jennifer Mary Beard’s murder in 1970?
The year 1970 was remarkable for investigations into three murders at a time when homicide was rare. The first victim was Jennifer Beard, an English schoolteacher, whose body was found in January under a bridge at Haast, deep in southern Westland.
The nation was first appalled by the young hitch-hiker’s death, then engrossed in the search for the Vauxhall car thought to have been driven by the murderer, then astonished by the lack of any result.
After all, the police had a suspect: Gordon Bray, a burly Timaru truck driver. Everyone knew that he was the prime suspect because Bray had announced it in the newspapers. He was a single man, he had been holidaying on the Coast, he was probably at the murder scene, he drove an old Vauxhall. Beyond one shadowy figure, never identified, no other suspect was ever turned up.
Beard, probably a virgin, was thought to have been relieving herself under the bridge on New Year’s Eve, 1969, when she was attacked. She had been seen with a man in a Vauxhall. She had probably been strangled, although her body was so decomposed that a cause of death could never be firmly established
Was Bray the man seen in the rest area at the bridge? Police had two eyewitnesses and a receipt belonging to Bray that was in a pocket of trousers found at the scene. Police thought the eyewitness evidence weak, especially as the most observant, a boy of 13, had described the Vauxhall he saw as “deep turquoise”.
One of the problems the police faced in their search for the Vauxhall – they checked almost all the 29,000 that were around 16 years old and still being driven in New Zealand in 1970 – was that witnesses described it in various shades of green with primer on its paintwork. Bray’s Vauxhall was dark blue, and the bodywork was in good condition. A jury, they concluded, would be doubtful.
Still, police were satisfied that they had enough evidence to place him at the murder scene. The lawyers remained dubious: “No more than suspicion, and very difficult to prove,” one said.
October 2005 – Two former West Coast men are calling for police to re-open the Jennifer Mary Beard murder case – 35 years after the Australian hitchhiker was found dead under the Haast River Bridge. She was last seen alive on December 31 in the company of a middle-aged man in a greeny-blue Vauxhall Velox. The identity of her killer has never been found.
But last month (September 2005) Christchurch businessman Wayne Williams – a former West Coaster who has followed the case for the past 18 years – went to police with information on another possible suspect. In documents supplied to police, Mr Williams describes a man known as Ron (surname unknown) as a possible suspect in the case.
Ron, who worked at the Hardy and Thompson sawmill in Westport at the time, had acted strangely after Beard’s death, Mr Williams said. Mr Watts said that when a police identikit picture appeared in the Westport News on January 30, 1970, Ron abruptly left his job and failed to collect two weeks’ wages.
The Police declined to follow up or entertain this information. The person in question is Ron Hunter, would be approx 72 years old today and could be living outside of NZ, possibly Australia. Who knows?
The man many think was responsible, Gordon Bray, died in Timaru in November 2003. He always maintained his innocence.
New Zealand 2007 (Photo credit: Szymon Stoma)
There are a couple of “things” that seems to be lighting up my twitter timeline, newspaper opinion pages, and left and right-wing bloggers.
Mostly its anti-government sentiment, anything that the current National government do seems to be not well received. Mostly by people who voted Labour in the election and had their politicians fail to gain enough votes to make it into government, such is life. So their angst is one of a poor loser, calling foul and crying wolf over pretty much everything, sometimes with justification, mostly it’s just whingeing about how their lot would do it better or not at all.
But there are a couple of things that are very raw and sore points, this is one;
It’s not a problem to sell farms to James Cameron on the proviso he comes here for 10 days every other year, of to allow Shanaia Twain to buy a chunk of land. Or various other sales to countries of other nationalities
But a few clicks on the interwebtubes brings forth this;
Or this
However, this current outrage and angst comes down to two reasons and It’s because
They’re Chinese,
and
The National party have indicated that they are going to partially sell some of the few remaining assets we have – such as power generation.
The furore in this is the almost laughable outrage that this has generated as if it’s a first time thing, and that no one has every done this ever. Fact is that NZ has sold off almost everything it has to private ownership and frankly there are only a few things left worth anything to anyone. Fait play to the ‘opposition’ on this who’ve stirred up wild fears and a catch-cry of “tenants in our own land” hysteria.
Cabaret (musical) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I was thinking, which in and of itself is dangerous, at least this time there was nothing mechanical between my thoughts and failure. But what if you won a bundle of cash on a lotto draw. A sizable amount.
Now $1,000,000 would change your life and keep you in crayfish and caviar for a bit, but we’re talking multiple millions of dollars. real life changing amounts. With a million you’d soon run out, or at least have spent a significant amount and then you’re pretty much living your same life, except without the cheap things you used to have, unless you spent it all on crayfish and caviar and then you’d likely as have gout too.
So then, in the unlikely event that I get to win a gazillion dollars there are some ways to spend it.
Have a beer at the Guinness Factory, and at the place they make Heineken, and Leffe, and a Bath Ales, the beer drinkers equivalent at playing at St.Andrews, Augusta, etc. Dates and venues TBA 
I’d enjoy the months traveling in France, California and around and about on the wine trail too.
Not a lot about going back to work and keeping my steady job.
The generous of spirit me I’d also like to be able to donate amounts of money to worthy causes. So I’d imagine a scenario where I would put aside say (As an arbitrary number) $500,000 and that would allow me 10 x 50K donations, or 20 x 25K donations or even 100 x 5K donations to something. I’d be happy for instance buying new uniforms and tracksuits for a sports team somewhere knowing that it’s instant pleasure.
This isn’t to say that with the multi-millions that you wouldn’t build a hall or venue for some worthy cause, so the pocket-money donations would be the fun part.
So what would I support as a major give-away? Well Own Glenn has it about right where he pledges a dollar-for-dollar thing, so his foundation would offer $1,000,000 for instance on the proviso that the recipient garners an equivalent amount of funding from other sources. This in some way validates the cause, and mitigate any reluctance or doubt you had that it’s just a hand out.
What I’d bnever buy into is a business that I had to run, like a pub, cafe, restaurant. I think I mentioned it before getting up at 5am and working till midnight seems a bit daft. And 7 days a week? I’m sure I can find budding chefs and entertainers who would love that chance with my money,
And you know what I’d open a Cabaret place, a good old-fashioned dinner and 5 acts, comedian, dancers, singing, magic and a band. How unfashionable is that!
