Len Brown's peccadillo

 

The online Oxford dictionary defines a peccadillo as a 'relatively minor fault or sin" and gives this example 'the sexual peccadilloes of celebrities aren't necessarily news'. 

Well around the espresso machine that's what a lot of people thought at first and they talked emphatically about how Len Brown's private behaviour had nothing to do with his public position as Mayor of the Auckland supercity.  It was a matter for his wife and family, not for us.  His private behaviour was completely separate from his public behaviour.  There was a bit of chuckling and some really good jokes about the Ngati Whatua room profile being raised and a few winks and links to Clinton and Monica.  Yes, we are a first world city with a naughty public leader.  It's all a bit of manly fun and has nothing to do with his performance (ahem) as a mayor.

I dispute that.  Any man who is prepared to successfully and systematically deceive his wife for two years is highly likely to deceive his colleagues and all stakeholders in the Super City including of course, ratepayers.

After extensive media interest there has been an audit by Ernst and Young (EY) who trawled through 10,655 test messages and 3,142 phone calls to find that 1222 texts had been sent to the other party and that 153 calls had been made.  Not exactly a smoking gun given that Ms Chuang was a member of the ethnic Peoples Advisory Panel.  The findings of the expensive EY audit, costing a ball park figure of $100,000 have brought up a short list of hotel room upgrades and a few free hotel rooms.  Only nine nights out of 74 were freebies.  Read the full report here if you like.

Right now His Worship the Mayor is feeling beleaguered and very down in the mouth but according to the New Zealand Herald (NZH) of Monday December 16, 2013 'Mr Brown said he would pay his personal costs for legal advice from Phillip Skelton QC, but would not pay any costs of the review.' Mr Brown also comments in the NZH, "However, I accept that as Mayor I am subject to a higher standard of public accountability, and in this context I should not have accepted the free rooms offered to me, and should have disclosed when I was asked about it in October."  Yes - but you didn't.

The office of the Mayor is a big one and in many ways his team separates him from his council.  Apparently it was designed that way to enable the mayor to make more rapid changes and was seen as being a necessary part of the new strategic structure.  This positioning also makes him isolated and vulnerable.  He is vulnerable, as we have seen, to blackmail and snipes from his detractors.  But the isolation has left him in a bubble where he no longer feels responsible for his actions.  he is almost untouchable and that often makes people feel more powerful than they ought to.

Did he really think he could get away with it?  Was he naïve and easily seduced or is it another version of an old, old story?

The review has resolved nothing, his reputation is neither in tatters nor has it been restored.  But is this a man who you can believe, let alone believe in?  It is more than a peccadillo.

Recipe treasure: Biddy's Marvellous marmalade

Here is an inherited and brilliant recipe from Biddy in England. It is ridiculously simple to make with none of the usual cutting, shredding and so on.  Try it and see.

Biddy’s Marvellous Marmalade

2 litres water

4lbs grapefruit (approx 4 big ones)

8lb sugar/3.6kg

2 lemons

1. Scrub fruit
2. Put in a saucepan with the water and boil slowly with the lid on until the fruit is soft (about 2-3 hours)
3. Take out the fruit and cut up with the knife and fork – liquid will run everywhere so watch out!
4. Measure liquid in pan and make up to 1 and a half litres
5. Add sugar and fruit
6. Bring slowly to the boil and dissolve sugar
7. Then boil fast for 20 – 30 minutes, adding the juice of the 2 lemons about half way through
8. Pour into sterilised jars

Welfare opportunities.

 ‘Yeah well they’re living off the pig’s back aren’t they, about time they got a real job, just bringing up kids and don’t even know who their dads are or where they are?’  Single parents on the DPB are a soft target and the arrows have landed on them once again.

There is a much more expensive group of beneficiaries who are living off the taxpayer and these ones also get generous travel and housing allowances.  They get subsidised food at the staff canteen.  They get generous superannuation and there seems to be no requirement for them to rejoin the real world of work after 5 years to refresh their understanding of what it can be like looking for a job.  Some of them get these benefits even after they have left their jobs.  Their salaries always go up without them needing to negotiate or strike or beg.  Are you getting it yet?

The murmurs are getting louder, the gulf is widening between those who have and those who don’t, those who have a sense of entitlement and those who are entitled to nothing.  There are those who have a job and those who want one and can’t get one because, like the emperor’s new clothes, the jobs don’t exist. 

Welfare opportunities, the ones you never hear. (Please hum or whistle to the tune ‘Career Opportunities’ by the Clash).

While out and about mulling over the state of the nation I found these messages and like them a lot.  Sure they won’t change the world but let’s amp up the discontent until everyone starts to give a damn and dial down the apathy to what is happening around us.

Don't come and see our new ensuite, we don't have one.

I went through a phase of visiting open homes recently and was staggered by the large number of bathrooms  and ensuites which renovated and new houses have.  Where does this obsession with plumbing and cleanliness come from?  Is it the new modern to show friends your ensuite or kid’s bathrooms?

How about only having one bathroom in your house, or should that be in realestatespeak ‘your home’?  Instead consider a return to the one family bathroom and the luxury app of a separate toilet.  If you have hordes of kids then put in another toilet which is accessible from your backyard/garden/deck.

This isn’t nostalgia talking, there is likely to be an environmental cost for each additional bathroom or ensuite. At the very least these bathrooms require more plumbing, more drains, more whiteware, more cleaning, and more maintenance and add thousands to construction or renovation costs.  Why not use the space in a different way, to create a separate study ,music room, homework centre, small factory for child labour making crafts to be sold on the wayside in these straitened times or anything else you can think of?  Maybe it is all about the matching towel sets required to furnish these spaces?

As I write this I realise that any family will not shit or wash more if they have more than one bathroom but that  family members could do it all simultaneously.  Is that enough of a reason to add another bathroom?  You don’t need another bathroom – you just don’t!

Don't come and see our new ensuite, we don't have one.

Note:  Own snap of real bathroom

Goodbye Graham Viskovic

A few weeks ago a friend of mine died.  Happens all the time right?  Except I didn't know until yesterday when I thought I would post something on his wall as I hadn’t seen anything from him for a while. When I got there it was clear from the messages that he had died about a fortnight ago.   

I worked with him about 10 years ago. He was very bright, very funny, about 12 feet tall, a rascal who wrote the book on Commercial Law in New Zealand and had a varied and wonderful career in the law profession.  He was a wonderful storyteller and regaled me often with many stories of wild nights and even wilder parties.  He talked about law firms and how they worked and had been an important figure in the Law Society.

When our paths crossed he tutored individual students in Commercial Law in a tertiary institution.  I was his manager which really only meant that I organised his time so that the trip in from Huia was worth his while.  He had moved out to Huia and renamed himself the Huia Hermit around the time he developed diabetes which for a while made absolutely no difference to the way he lived. A bit further on he stopped drinking.   I used to keep bananas around on his days to keep up his blood sugar so that he didn’t turn into a complete shouting raver.  Even when he did he was fun and kind and lovely. 

So far, so good. 

I left that place of employment and ran into him once at Lynmall when he ventured in to town and I went down the road.  I moved to the North Shore, worked on the North Shore and he was my friend on Facebook.  He asked me out for a visit to see the Spring but I didn’t go, not because I didn’t want to, I just didn’t get around to it.

This started me wondering once again about the nature of virtual friendship, we think we are connected but we are not.  I take snaps and share them online but is it because I want to share the experience or is it because I want to have my experience, possibly my competence validated?  If I go to Cuba and don’t put up any snaps, does that mean it didn’t happen?  If I don’t post, does it mean I am not doing anything virtually worthwhile?

What's the take home message?

Love your friends  and hang out enough with them so that you know when they die.

See you round Graham.

Back to it, the impact of reality.

After the halcyon days of the hols with bonus sunshine and most excellent good times with a couple of family birthdays as well, it is time to ... get back into it.

I feel a bit wintery and diminished as a result but I look forward to adaptimg to the impact of reality - unitl the next break of course!.

Cracked but not broken - end of term.

Here is a favourite cup and saucer which was given to me by Shirley who lives in Port Waikato.  It was after a happy overnight stay with her.  I wrapped it in clothes and tenderly packed it.  Got home and in a woolly dog rush of enthusiam tipped out the contents of the bag.

Cracked but not broken.

A bit like all of us at one time or another but it is Good Friday with clear blue skies, hot cross buns and a day of pure idleness ahead.  Oh yeah,the beginning of the school holidays too full of promise with lists and reading to catch up on.  For Easter I am reading Roger Ebert's Life Itself and Martin Edmond's Dark Night Walking with McCahon.  The latter is a follow up to my visit to the McCahon cottage in French Bay which was a wonderful experience.

This is from outside and catches some of the second growth bush around.  What you need to imagine is the birdsong and the sound of fat wood pigeons gorging themselves on the puriri tree.

The deck was the party space, with lots of 'dally plonk' being drunk.  At least one person fell off it into the bush below. 

More treasures

The next two snaps relate to recycling wood from the old Farmers Trading Company building in Hobson Street, Auckland.  The building has since been turned  into apartments but it was once a glorious department store.  Its rooftop playgound was  a mecca for kids to hurtle around on while their mothers planned which sandwiches to have with their afternoon tea in the tearooms.

I used to work just up the road at the Regional Engineer's Office and walk down at lunchtime to fossick in the bargain basement.  I also witnessed Nixon resign on a small television set in the store. 

This first snap is of one of two bedside tables recycled from kauri saved from the old Farmers building. 

On top of the cabinet is a rimu turned container made by Geoff Addison of Putaruru in about 1991/2.  At the time I lived in Putaruru and taught at the local high school with Geoff.  Underneath is room for all seasons footwear, a pair of boots, barely there summer sandals and sturdy wollen slippers.  The small blue and white pottery ornament is from Edge City in Westmere.

The second snap is of a section of the mirror frame which is also made of recycled matai from the old Farmers Trading Company building.  You can still see the nail holes. 

The full length mirror was a gift from Leo Hunter who also made the side tables in 1998.  Leo dropped the mirror off just as I was putting on my wedding dress so I could  see what I looked like on my big day. 



In those days Leo worked his magic with recycled wood at Unitec in Mt Albert in what used to be the Carrington Hospital boiler house. He also made wooden skateboards out of kauri. His company was called 'Rustic Rumours' and does not seem to be trading any more.

People like Leo and Geoff are artists who make beautiful things which are purposeful and elegant.

Treasures, the mini series

This blog is really on the way out.  As part of a gradual process of closing I will occasionally post a picture or two of a treasure or two. The occasion today is that the weather is fine, I have a cold and time to look properly around me. 

Sometimes objects which have been part of a domestic landscape for a long time get passed over for the latest little thing from foreign parts.  They are little too as I am the queen of cabin luggage - paper objects generally; a city in a matchbox, a postcard, a little catalogue, a card from a cafe or funky store. 

Back to today's topic.

This is my teddy bear who has lived with me longer than anyone else.  He must be about 60 by now and well loved to the point of serious fur loss.  His eyes are brown and beady and he used to make a noise most like a groan and unlikely to be anything at all like the sound of a real bear.  I don't remember ever giving him a name, he was always 'my teddy'.

He used to wear a pair of shorts sewed by my mum out of some grey serge trousers of my dad's with a red stripe.  Now he lives on top of the bookcase and thinks about the good old days.

The second item is a little younger and was originally bought by me as a birthday present for my mother from Cato's, a hardware store in Te Kuiti.  I thought it was beautiful then and had no idea about Crown Lynn or collecting.  I just wanted something nice and a bit glamorous for my mum who didn't even wear earrings, lived by a river which flooded and ruined our house and who taught many kids in Te Kuiti at both of the primary schools there.

I still think it looks like a strapless dress, I still think it is beautiful.

Happy New Year 2012

Open to offers

It may or may not be over your head
It may get tricky
It may surprise you

Hey hey holidays

I have just spent a week in Wellington with family and friends and had a wonderful time. This goes some way to describing just what I did on my holiday.

The Swim Meet

This was an entirely new experience for me - the whiff of chlorine, mandatory goggles and caps, no divas and wooden clapping blocks to start each race.

Diving in

Going like the clappers

After the race

Kindergarten Christmas Concert

This was such a misty eyed event that there are no snaps and you will have to imagine the assembled mini Santas and superheroes along with some very fine party dresses and saris.  This person was all ready to sing her heart out.

 ... and eat some of the MASSIVE feed afterwards.

Transport

I spent a lot of time on suburban trains some days four trips to take the two girls to school and bring them back home.  All went well apart from the now legendary time when Ms 8 and I were so captivated by the charming French family opposite that we both missed our stop and went all the way to Wellington.  I also walked a surprising amount both in the city, around local footpaths and in the Otari-Wilton bush.

There was also one magic night galloping alongside a tall person using crutches to try and make the train to Johnsonville.  Didn't make it.  We were able to fossick around in the Tardis of the New World Metro at the station.  Great liquorice allsorts, ate the lot because we needed the energy after the manic walking.

Eating

No surprises that this happened and included delights from the Nada bakery in J'ville, breakfast at Floyds in Island Bay, the best pizzas crafted in Crofton Downs, kebabs in town and a glass of fizz at the hairdressers.  Coffee at Mojos, coffee at Mojos.

People

They were the whole point.

Proud parents  awwwwwwwww

An uncle and an aunty.  One has a stylish haircut and the other has crutches for a sprained ankle, you guess.



Mery Xmas to you and yours and best wishes for good times, good health and good fortune.



Winter encore

St Clair beach looking out at strangers. 

St Clair beach looking out at waves.

These snaps were taken on my recent trip to Dunedin and hark back to winter which has struck again today.  They have that long Sunday afternoon feeling of waiting for something to happen and are a complete contrast to the happy family time I spent getting to know grandies and their parents.

Constellation prize

When I was a kid

Selwyn Toogood used to travel
New Zealand bringing his show
'It's in the Bag'
to small towns like the one I grew up in.


There was a big prize
usually a trip to Honolulu
which sounded so foreign,
exotic and glamorous.


Even now I am thrilled
to imagine Honolulu
from the perspective of
my landlocked childhood self.


The constellation prizes
were a consolation
for missing out on
The Big One


glamorous whiteware
labour saving devices
of every description
in those giddy post postwar times.

This constellation prize I bought myself
a reward for enduring
the coldest tiny movie theatre
watching a French film

Romain Duris did not keep me warm
but these antique glass earrings
warmed my spirit.

Oh so lovely!

Although I was captivated by these crazy-ass height adjusters online, I went for these more conventional laced up beauties from the local shoe shop which were ON SALE too.

Going to New York

Yes well here we are in July already already which means that I am one year older and that it is winter and the school holidays. This added up to the need to GO OUT in Nature and take in some art as well.

Here is some manicured nature outside the window of the Pah Homestead.
To get inside, number three son and I bravely walked around the building from the car park. He was back from warmer climes and looked resolute but frozen by the time we battled our way through the brisk breeze.

I wore wollen dress, cashmere coat and scarf so found it more thrilling than chilling. There is only one entrance and it is not at the top of the steps in my snap. Go figure!

Thanks Toss, love your work.

Going arting at this grand restored house was a little fraught as I was so alarmed at their hectic website that I did not look for the opening hours. After all - who closes at 3pm on a week day in the holidays?? Yep, you got it.
There is a silver lining to this cloudy tale as we lucked into a screening of 'Bill Cunningham's New York' in a gorgeous setting in Dominion Road.

..and this is the story of how I went to New York for my birthday.

The Flood Plain

'Do you know it floods?'

'Well I do now.'

This is not the 100 year event that one neighbour said that it was, it happens every time we have relatively sudden rain. The little stream merrily tumbling past at the bottom of my garden turns into a raging torrent which detours surely across the 'lawn' then runs back to rejoin the stream.

These snaps were taken the morning after Stormy Weather so there you go, yet another post about the weather.

Stormy Weather

Friday night at Castor Bay with wet weekend in view.

Milford in the distance

Rangitoto overseeing evrything and impossible to hide from around here. I know it's another slightly off centre snap but that is what my camera loves to do.

Almost west coast wild.

Grey skies
drove home

grabbed the camera

scurried to the beach

sand got in my eyes

took some snaps

Stormy Weather is also a jazz standard and this rockabilly queen would do it proud.

The Guest Room is OPEN

Your verdant view.

A view of another kind.

Inviting huh? The kimono dog is pretty excited.

Holiday trifecta

Anzac Day coincides with Easter Monday this year. This is the memorial in Takapuna which will be covered in wreaths tomorrow.

I don't have any war stories from my parents so I rely on Gaylene Preston's Home By Christmas and her other work to get a sense of what it may have been like. If you haven't seen that film, I recommend it. There will also be more of her work projected LARGE at the Auckland Museum.


In the meantime I will eat another Easter egg off the installation in the living room. The ones above are very pretty, solid china and plucked from a White Elephant stall.

But Easter is not all about chocolate and marshmallow is it? No - hot cross buns are also important. Ate some pappy supermarket special chocolate ones and they didn't really taste of anything and dissolved instantly. But Wild Wheat made some wonderful ones although I feel sure that the Number One Son probably made some beauties of his own to feed the rellies.

Got out and walked around the Centennial Track in Milford to shift some of the damage.

Try not to

about the past .

Mellow fruitfulness and all that

Down on the flood plain of 'The Water Runs Through it' formerly known as the bach, there are loads of leaves from the two poplars which may once have been a fence line. There are a few leaf haters out there I realise but I love them. Deciduous trees drop their leaves and reveal as much light as possible and perhaps more of the neighbours across the ditch in the winter. I just wish I could rake them into little mounds and set fire to them and then go indoors and eat chestnuts or knit something complicated by a fireside. Autumn brings out the cosy or gezellig in me. I have not gone down the preserves road although there has been baking. The days are still warm and there is enough political intrigue and good cricket to keep everyone amused.

It has been a long time since the last post and in typical Kiwi fashion I make my re-entry talking about the weather. I attribute this to my dad who wrote diary entries which were about nothing but the weather. He also had a few pinups which were not trees or leaves.

Soon it will be the school holidays and time to write a few more entries which may progress beyond the weather and move on to people and places.