A good dump of snow on the hiils around me now, and it feels like it. I'm not a happy chappy. Full thermals, now ... 9C where I am (the snow is a few hundred metres higher, but the wind sure ain't.
And preparation for the maelstrom that is Holy Week and Easter is beginning to raise its head. Oh sometimes I wish I was an atheistic ticket clerk in downtown Beijing.
A good dump of snow on the hiils around me now, and it feels like it. I'm not a happy chappy. Full thermals, now ... 9C where I am (the snow is a few hundred metres higher, but the wind sure ain't.
And preparation for the maelstrom that is Holy Week and Easter is beginning to raise its head. Oh sometimes I wish I was an atheistic ticket clerk in downtown Beijing.
@Zappa, I do sympathise on both counts, but if you were in downtown Beijing in March, you would be far colder and unhappier than you are in the Antipodes and would need a little faith as a warm blanket to ward off existential despair. I was last in Beijing in the spring of 2011 and it was freezing, with the Air Quality Index a shocker, city air pollution worsened by dense orange sandstorms blowing in from Mongolia.
Today I am going to splurge on a leg of lamb for Easter Sunday, probably more mutton than lamb so it will go into a slow oven with roast vegetables and hopefully feed six of us.
And even though it's cold @Zappa it is a beautiful part of the country. Of course in my totally unbiased opinion the whole South Island has more spectacular scenery than the North. I was born in the North Island, so I'm allowed to say that)'
I am feeling absolutely delighted. My neighbour has really powerful wifi and has given me the password so I can piggyback onto it. For some reason that I don't understand and wasn't expecting, it has made information from Internet Explorer that I thought was lost forever, easily accessible (mainly craft stuff and recipes) as well as showing more navigating option on-screen. I have never been entirely happy with this laptop, but maybe the wifi I was using limited it , rather than it being the computer itself.
Best of all I have been able to access the password protected meditations that were past of the Mindfulness Stress Reduction Course I did before the pandemic. I am blissed out.
...Today I am going to splurge on a leg of lamb for Easter Sunday, probably more mutton than lamb so it will go into a slow oven with roast vegetables and hopefully feed six of us.
Ooh ... may I come round to yours?
Zappa, dear, 9° is when I start thinking about discarding my socks ...
Socks - I discard them at about 40! I hate sandals and don't (can't) do bare feet. It was 2 when I went out this morning and I was regretting not wearing a second pair. The heater in my car takes about 40 kms to work, and I only drove 30.
I'll never understand human thermostats. I am really dreading these next six months - hell, nine months. It warms up here (slightly) after Christmas. for a very short time. But somehow I've got stay here and make this gig work.
And yeah, @MaryLouise, Beijing sure worldn't really be my choice on any basis. Somewhere in the Borneo jungles maybe.
But yeah, it's kind of spekky around here, @Huia ... some compensation. And a delightful parish, though I do get sick of parking between Maseratis and Aston Martons (not at the church ... the church people are a little more circumspect, though there's a few Range Rovers and they sure ain't old models).
"Long term interim" is a fascinating concept. I mean: aren't we all?
I had lunch at my favourite bakery down the road. They had some hot cross buns in the oven so I bought half a dozen. When I got home I realised that 6 buns was far to many, then a friend knocked on the door to deliver a jacket that I'd left at their place - 2 buns was just right
I don't know about where Zappa lives, but Milford Sound on the southwest coast of NZ has legendary sandflies. My youngest brother worked on the Milford Track* over a couple of summers and I visited him there. Despite wearing sandfly repellent I ended up with itchy lumps over my body.
*Milford Track is one of the great walks of NZ. I can proudly say I walked the first 100 metres.
Am loving these descriptions of NZ, definitely one for a visit in retirement.
Have my final (for this time) Ancient Aunt visit on Tuesday, she returns home on Wednesday. A couple of tricky things to mention to her, so will see how that goes. Not good, I imagine, but trying to keep positive.
Lovely coffee with an old friend on Friday am. First day of cool change and I almost regretted wearing short rather than long sleeves. Really good to catch up with her. We've been trying to get together since January.
Yesterday, we had first garden centre visit since pre-Christmas, time to revamp the pots for winter. Limited myself to 3 purchases as couldn't remember how many empty pots I had at home. Pleased to say, I can go back next week for another couple of punnets. Playing in the garden is my favourite.
@Huia, I had wanted to get hot cross buns whilst we were out, but got distracted and forgot. I'm sure my GP will be pleased about that. We are quite partial to the ones from the big warehouse shop and sometimes we have to freeze half to stop us from eating them all at once. I think this year we have cut our consumption by about 90% which from a health perspective is good, from a pleasure perspective, not so much!!
@Cheery Gardener I hope you do make it over here - with industrial grade sandfly repellent and wet weather gear if you're going to the South Island's West Coast, which is my favourite part of the country. I couldn't actually live there though because I don't drive and the libraries aren't big enough.
The Homer Tunnel, which you go through to reach Milford Sound and the beginning of the track has a unique safety structure. Waka Kotahi (NZ Land Transport) built a playground for kea (the endemic mountain parrots). The problem with keas - apart from being endangered is that they are possibly the most intelligent birds in the world and are very playful. Waka Kotahi store road safety cones in the tunnel because it is often snowed in over winter and the kea were hopping into the tunnel and dragging out the cones, causing havoc to motorists. So a kea playground was built outside the tunnel to provide a distraction.
I am back in NZ again! Landed in Auckland this morning so I am a bit spaced out, but it is a lovely day heading towards 20 degrees - perfect.
On the hot cross bun front, I noticed on arrival that Whittaker’s have a limited edition ‘hot cross choc’ and I have bought some for research purposes
(I always have to save luggage space to haul Whittaker’s back for friends from NZ now in the UK - I think I took a couple of kilos back last time )
No big plans yet this holiday - mostly catch up with friends and local stuff, but maybe I will get a good walk or two in (my avatar is actually me on the Tongariro crossing, many birthdays ago…)
If you want a new challenge you could always try Te Araroa trail, from Cape Reinga to Bluff. It's only about 3,000 km (1864 miles) long and includes the Tongariro Crossing, so that bit would be familiar.
I posted 4 blocks of Whittakers Chocolate to Chicago recently. Postage was around $50, so pack up all you can.
I might buy a couple of blocks if I can find it. One to post to the US, the other to share with whoever drifts into the Community Library when I'm on duty this coming Friday. Sharing will stop me pigging out or leaving heaps behind in the unlikely event I don't like it.
Today I bought a new backpack because the small one I use everyday for shopping and carrying library books isn't big enough to fit my laptop. The small one is deep purple, this one is mauve*. Both made by the same company, but they have changed some of my favourite features. When I rule the world such things won't be allowed to happen.
*My favourite colours. When he was tiny my nephew escorted me around his garden pointing out all the purple flowers. He didn't describe them as purple, but as "Aunty Huia's favourite colour."
Canterbury, the region for which Christchurch is the main city, is officially in a drought. This means the farmers in the wider region can get some much needed support from the government. For those of us in the city it's a reminder not to waste water.
Good evening, Earlier today I was waiting for a haircut and the guy sitting next to me made a comment about the local football team. He was shocked when I told him I don't follow them, 'but you live here and should follow them'. He then asked what team I followed and when I said I didn't follow any sport he just shook his head!!
Indeed. Fortunately, I've been going to the barber here from the days when it was his father's - and the 2 employed barbers have each been there for the best part of 15 years themselves. No-one gets asked about the weather, save in the event of something as calamitous as the great storm a dozen years ago. So we've had the barber's courtship, marriage, kids and their growing up, and so forth
@Huia, I never imagine that New Zealand ever experiences drought, based on all the lovely green scenes one sees in movies and on TV.
@Dennis the Menace I love your answer and the response it created. My husband is not a football person at all. He played hockey for many years, now retired due to injury. My kids have learnt about football from watching the Bluey cartoon. It is just not my thing and I am always annoyed when the Minister refers to footy results on a Sunday morning, it sometimes feels as though there is no escape!!
Cheery Daughter had a haircut yesterday, on the way home from work. Son and I have not had a cut since covid. Fortunately his hair grows very slowly and I have learned to cut my own hair, with a bit of help from husband. He clips his own. We bought clippers when Cheery son had cancer and husband was shorn along with him. Now that husband has less hair, he manages to clip it himself. Once or twice he's taken a bit too much off, but it only takes a few days before it begins to repair itself!!
Yesterday and today, I've been fighting some windmill weed on the nature strip. Thanks to some rain the ground has been soft and so I'm plugging away. Hope to do some more at the weekend and to conscript Cherry husband's labour!!!
I've been lurking and reading rather than commenting much during these last few weeks. Persistent health issues and six funerals within our circle of friends over the last month have been difficult to deal with. This has also restricted my ability to support the parish and my other community organisations, all of which are under pressure. Being mostly confined to the house with my feet up is not as relaxing as it sounds. I'd rather be productive.
@Barnabas_Aus, I am so sorry to read about so many losses coming so close together, that is a lot. Being confined to home is good when it's a free choice, otherwise it's difficult, no matter how comfy home might be, to say nothing of thinking about all the things that need doing. I hope you are able to return to some normality, sooner rather than later. Having a normal routine is helpful in so many ways and when it's restricted it is definitely a challenge. Sending warm wishes and a prayer
@Huia, I've been happy to see early autumn rains in the last month, but yesterday I joined a solidarity-with-Gaza march around False Bay on the Cape peninsula. It was a pleasure to see the great glittering ocean again but I noticed how dry the fynbos (mountain vegetation) looks and wondered if we are in for low rainfall this winter, which means drought measures here. Hoping Canterbury isn't in for a dry winter.
And it just got harder, with a phone call not long after I posted. A former Federal MP, whom I have known since she was a teenager when her parents were among the first to welcome me to town, has died unexpectedly overnight. We were chatting to her only a little over a week ago and she was looking forward to so much. RIPARIG Mrs KH.
Have been outside enjoying a beautiful autumn day and playing in the garden this morning. Cheery Husband has returned from the big supermarket warehouse with hot cross buns, I have resisted starting on those!
It's beautiful and sunny here and I might take my lunch outside and enjoy the sun and the lovely breeze which is springing up. Even though I've been doing Lent Madness, Easter appears to have crept up quickly and I am looking forward to having a time with family next weekend. Daughter does shift work and her workplace only closes on Good Friday and Christmas Day, so she will be home and not sleeping during the day which will be nice. Cheery husband often works long hours, so I am glad he will be having a few days off and we can have some slow time together.
Lovely day here too, although after 3 pm it got a bit colder.
Daylight saving here ends next weekend so I'm trying to move Aroha's tea time, and the time she comes in for the night forward. Of course she doesn't mind being fed earlier, but she does object to being shut in for the night earlier. My own problem will be if she insists on being fed at what is now 5 am. (eek!). I am reluctant to use a feeder as she has had problems with her digestive system.
Palm Sunday and because there are palm trees growing freely here, we have a church festooned with green branches and fronds: date palms, fan palms, coconut palms. And baskets heaped with dried palm crosses. After Mass most families will rush off home to prepare pickled fish to be eaten on Good Friday.
Good luck with changing Aroha's meal times, @Huia.
The nearest we got to palm crosses in the church of my childhood was flax crosses. Even now if I smell dried flax I think of Palm Sunday and those loving people.
Both your descriptions sound lovely @Huia and @MaryLouise. I must check with my husband tonight. I am sure he has made Palm Sunday crosses in the past. I'm sure I remember him making teeny tiny ones when we were in youth group together. I have yet to find something he can't make or fix.
I helped make the crosses a couple of times. There were two different ways they could be folded. I confused the two and decided there were probably other ways I could contribute as I was not the most deft folder of crosses.
As people are leaving the church on Palm Sunday, most palm crosses are collected and taken away to be stored in a dry place and then burned to provide ashes for next year's Ash Wednesday. Boxes of wrapped chocolate-marshmallow eggs are arriving for the children's Easter Sunday Egg Hunt, and Lebanese families are borrowing large pots for their traditional Good Friday church dish of green beans in a cinnamon-tomato sauce served up along with baked fish. Other parishioners will bring along pickled fish and platters of hot-cross buns. There will be piles of hard-boiled eggs dyed bright red, and communal invitations to Easter Sunday food kitchen lunches with roast lamb, minced lamb bobotie, Mshikaki (spiced skewers of mutton) and grilled piri-piri chicken. Followed by bowls of fruit salad and ice cream.
As people are leaving the church on Palm Sunday, most palm crosses are collected and taken away to be stored in a dry place and then burned to provide ashes for next year's Ash Wednesday.
Yes, that's our practice also. It has a rounding-out feel to it.
Thanks for posting that @MaryLouise, that info was in the back of my brain, but having you articulate it has moved it to the front. Yes, @Gee D it does have that completion feel about it.
Your description of the celebratory meal had my mouth watering, @MaryLouise!! Nothing quite as exciting here, I'm afraid. I'll check in with the family today to see what they want to do. It will be good that daughter will not have to work as they will be closed over Easter.
Today will be a bit routine, out in the car to do jobs. However I am popping in to a Baby Shower tomorrow. They are not really my thing, but it's a family commitment and I know offence will be taken if I don't put in an appearance. It might be better than I anticipate and it's a couple of years since I've seen my nephew, so it will be good to see him.
@Cheery Gardener it sounds like a great deal of food but remember our churches here will be very crowded with visitors, Catholics travelling long distances to be with family or to see new converts welcomed into the church so parishioners are putting up tents in gardens and camp beds, cooking and cleaning. We'll also have our Easter Catholics who pop up once a year and arrive for Midnight Mass.
And, in contrast, the old market area at the edge of town looks like a crazed bus depot right now because so many people are leaving for Mount Moria in Limpopo, an annual Easter pilgrimage by the vast Zion Christian Church (ZCC). Border management authorities go on high alert as worshippers stream in from as far as away as Benin and Nigeria. An estimated five-million pilgrims are expected to arrive in minibus taxis and buses. The State President will also attend (an election year). 'Holy chaos' is a popular description of this time of year.
Agree, we do need more Holy chaos! The way you describe it @MaryLouise makes me think of a family getting together for a huge celebration, just wonderful!
I'm thankful to be home after yesterday's outing. It was my first group social interaction since covid began. I know it's a long weekend, but so many cars on the road, and impatient people! However, I survived.
A lovely baby shower was held (I didn't stay for present opening), but everyone friendly, happy and enjoying one another's company. Big hugs exchanged with nephew, sister, former brother in law, his now wife and sister's close friend, we all sat together. It was good to meet nephew's partner and see my great niece. She has just started school this year and is a quietly confident kid. A really wonderful time of being together.
I was anxious as I don't eat or drink indoors with people I don't know, since covid. I didn't partake of the luscious looking spread, but was happy to see windows open and the mum to be sitting very close to the fresh air source. Only a couple of months to go till bub arrives and nephew told me they will be continuing the family name that nephew and Dad both share. I felt a bit teary for a minute thinking how happy my Dad would be about that.
Very much looking forward to a quiet weekend ahead.
I've become more aware it takes me longer to get used to new things. I bought a new backpack because my current one wasn't big enough to fit my laptop. It's the same make as the ones I've had for the previous 20 years or so, but bigger and unfortunately the various pockets which I used to file my wallet, gold card (for free bus travel), and other things I routinely carry with me are different or are placed so quick retrieval is more difficult.
Also my radio died and the replacement has controls that are less easy to see. It's taken me a while to decide that the easiest way to operate it is to use the switch at the wall rather than to find the right place on the fiddly small one at the side.
Whoever said Getting older isn't for sissies was right.
@Huia I dread replacing appliances or mobile phones because there is always a new learning curve and finding out how to cancel or ignore apps and games I don't want.
Much sadness today amidst the sadness of Good Friday because of the news of a bus crash en route to the Easter services at Moria, Limpopo: a driver lost control of his bus while travelling from Botswana and plunged into a ravine, 45 passengers dead.
I heard about that bus crash on the news @MaryLouise, and realising the the background, because of your previous posts, why those people were probably travelling somehow made it more immediate - like something that may have happened further south from here.
I thought that later in the year, in the right season, I will plant a tree in memory - as a reminder - like John Donne's line of [sending not to seek for whom the bell tolls.
My heart went out to the families of the bus crash victims, @MaryLouise, when I read of it on Friday night (NZ time). There are no words.
I've warned my congregations that we break into "holy idiocy" on Easter Day ... much needed after the deep, deep solemnity of the first services of the Triduum.
All has gone wondrous well so far, despite our internet and phone providers crashing our office internet these past few days - so far unresolved.
@Zappa, hope those tech problems are now under control. @MaryLouise news of the accident was shocking and tragic. Agree totally, @Zappa, no words are enough. I do hope in your own parish that Easter celebrations have been able to go ahead as planned.
Sombre Easter weekend but more enthusiasm this Easter morning in the sunshine, over-excited children with sticky fingers, over-caffeinated adults, bored teens. The usual muted battle to get male parishioners to help with washing and drying tea cups, new converts Having Doubts, ancient tea urn grumbling. Everyone keen to dash off home to prepare lunch, happy to see the church once again filled with flowers, lit candles, white and gold vestments replacing the purples.
@Huia that is a kind thought, to plant a tree in memory of those killed.
Comments
And preparation for the maelstrom that is Holy Week and Easter is beginning to raise its head. Oh sometimes I wish I was an atheistic ticket clerk in downtown Beijing.
@Zappa, I do sympathise on both counts, but if you were in downtown Beijing in March, you would be far colder and unhappier than you are in the Antipodes and would need a little faith as a warm blanket to ward off existential despair. I was last in Beijing in the spring of 2011 and it was freezing, with the Air Quality Index a shocker, city air pollution worsened by dense orange sandstorms blowing in from Mongolia.
Today I am going to splurge on a leg of lamb for Easter Sunday, probably more mutton than lamb so it will go into a slow oven with roast vegetables and hopefully feed six of us.
I am feeling absolutely delighted. My neighbour has really powerful wifi and has given me the password so I can piggyback onto it. For some reason that I don't understand and wasn't expecting, it has made information from Internet Explorer that I thought was lost forever, easily accessible (mainly craft stuff and recipes) as well as showing more navigating option on-screen. I have never been entirely happy with this laptop, but maybe the wifi I was using limited it , rather than it being the computer itself.
Best of all I have been able to access the password protected meditations that were past of the Mindfulness Stress Reduction Course I did before the pandemic. I am blissed out.
Roll on winter! ( such as it is in SE NSW
Ooh ... may I come round to yours?
Zappa, dear, 9° is when I start thinking about discarding my socks ...
Socks - I discard them at about 40! I hate sandals and don't (can't) do bare feet. It was 2 when I went out this morning and I was regretting not wearing a second pair. The heater in my car takes about 40 kms to work, and I only drove 30.
I'll never understand human thermostats. I am really dreading these next six months - hell, nine months. It warms up here (slightly) after Christmas. for a very short time. But somehow I've got stay here and make this gig work.
And yeah, @MaryLouise, Beijing sure worldn't really be my choice on any basis. Somewhere in the Borneo jungles maybe.
But yeah, it's kind of spekky around here, @Huia ... some compensation. And a delightful parish, though I do get sick of parking between Maseratis and Aston Martons (not at the church ... the church people are a little more circumspect, though there's a few Range Rovers and they sure ain't old models).
"Long term interim" is a fascinating concept. I mean: aren't we all?
🙂
Yeah. Sorry!
@Zappa oh yes, steamy jungly atmosphere, I like that too. Until I find I've been chewed up by mosquitos after 20 minutes!
*Milford Track is one of the great walks of NZ. I can proudly say I walked the first 100 metres.
Have my final (for this time) Ancient Aunt visit on Tuesday, she returns home on Wednesday. A couple of tricky things to mention to her, so will see how that goes. Not good, I imagine, but trying to keep positive.
Lovely coffee with an old friend on Friday am. First day of cool change and I almost regretted wearing short rather than long sleeves. Really good to catch up with her. We've been trying to get together since January.
Yesterday, we had first garden centre visit since pre-Christmas, time to revamp the pots for winter. Limited myself to 3 purchases as couldn't remember how many empty pots I had at home. Pleased to say, I can go back next week for another couple of punnets. Playing in the garden is my favourite.
@Huia, I had wanted to get hot cross buns whilst we were out, but got distracted and forgot. I'm sure my GP will be pleased about that. We are quite partial to the ones from the big warehouse shop and sometimes we have to freeze half to stop us from eating them all at once. I think this year we have cut our consumption by about 90% which from a health perspective is good, from a pleasure perspective, not so much!!
The Homer Tunnel, which you go through to reach Milford Sound and the beginning of the track has a unique safety structure. Waka Kotahi (NZ Land Transport) built a playground for kea (the endemic mountain parrots). The problem with keas - apart from being endangered
On the hot cross bun front, I noticed on arrival that Whittaker’s have a limited edition ‘hot cross choc’ and I have bought some for research purposes
(I always have to save luggage space to haul Whittaker’s back for friends from NZ now in the UK - I think I took a couple of kilos back last time
No big plans yet this holiday - mostly catch up with friends and local stuff, but maybe I will get a good walk or two in (my avatar is actually me on the Tongariro crossing, many birthdays ago…)
If you want a new challenge you could always try Te Araroa trail, from Cape Reinga to Bluff. It's only about 3,000 km (1864 miles) long and includes the Tongariro Crossing, so that bit would be familiar.
I posted 4 blocks of Whittakers Chocolate to Chicago recently. Postage was around $50, so pack up all you can.
I wonder how many chocolate blocks I would get through on that walk… and whether my boots or knees would wear out first
Maybe a long walk challenge (although not quite that long) might be a good thing when I retire next year (God willing)…
Meanwhile, in an important news update, I can confirm that the choc cross bun block is quite acceptable
Today I bought a new backpack because the small one I use everyday for shopping and carrying library books isn't big enough to fit my laptop. The small one is deep purple, this one is mauve*. Both made by the same company, but they have changed some of my favourite features. When I rule the world such things won't be allowed to happen.
*My favourite colours. When he was tiny my nephew escorted me around his garden pointing out all the purple flowers. He didn't describe them as purple, but as "Aunty Huia's favourite colour."
Me too.
@Dennis the Menace I love your answer and the response it created. My husband is not a football person at all. He played hockey for many years, now retired due to injury. My kids have learnt about football from watching the Bluey cartoon. It is just not my thing and I am always annoyed when the Minister refers to footy results on a Sunday morning, it sometimes feels as though there is no escape!!
Cheery Daughter had a haircut yesterday, on the way home from work. Son and I have not had a cut since covid. Fortunately his hair grows very slowly and I have learned to cut my own hair, with a bit of help from husband. He clips his own. We bought clippers when Cheery son had cancer and husband was shorn along with him. Now that husband has less hair, he manages to clip it himself. Once or twice he's taken a bit too much off, but it only takes a few days before it begins to repair itself!!
Yesterday and today, I've been fighting some windmill weed on the nature strip. Thanks to some rain the ground has been soft and so I'm plugging away. Hope to do some more at the weekend and to conscript Cherry husband's labour!!!
@Huia, I've been happy to see early autumn rains in the last month, but yesterday I joined a solidarity-with-Gaza march around False Bay on the Cape peninsula. It was a pleasure to see the great glittering ocean again but I noticed how dry the fynbos (mountain vegetation) looks and wondered if we are in for low rainfall this winter, which means drought measures here. Hoping Canterbury isn't in for a dry winter.
It's beautiful and sunny here and I might take my lunch outside and enjoy the sun and the lovely breeze which is springing up. Even though I've been doing Lent Madness, Easter appears to have crept up quickly and I am looking forward to having a time with family next weekend. Daughter does shift work and her workplace only closes on Good Friday and Christmas Day, so she will be home and not sleeping during the day which will be nice. Cheery husband often works long hours, so I am glad he will be having a few days off and we can have some slow time together.
Daylight saving here ends next weekend so I'm trying to move Aroha's tea time, and the time she comes in for the night forward. Of course she doesn't mind being fed earlier, but she does object to being shut in for the night earlier. My own problem will be if she insists on being fed at what is now 5 am. (eek!). I am reluctant to use a feeder as she has had problems with her digestive system.
Good luck with changing Aroha's meal times, @Huia.
Anyone would think we had been fasting for years.
Yes, that's our practice also. It has a rounding-out feel to it.
Your description of the celebratory meal had my mouth watering, @MaryLouise!! Nothing quite as exciting here, I'm afraid. I'll check in with the family today to see what they want to do. It will be good that daughter will not have to work as they will be closed over Easter.
Today will be a bit routine, out in the car to do jobs. However I am popping in to a Baby Shower tomorrow. They are not really my thing, but it's a family commitment and I know offence will be taken if I don't put in an appearance. It might be better than I anticipate and it's a couple of years since I've seen my nephew, so it will be good to see him.
And, in contrast, the old market area at the edge of town looks like a crazed bus depot right now because so many people are leaving for Mount Moria in Limpopo, an annual Easter pilgrimage by the vast Zion Christian Church (ZCC). Border management authorities go on high alert as worshippers stream in from as far as away as Benin and Nigeria. An estimated five-million pilgrims are expected to arrive in minibus taxis and buses. The State President will also attend (an election year). 'Holy chaos' is a popular description of this time of year.
I'm thankful to be home after yesterday's outing. It was my first group social interaction since covid began. I know it's a long weekend, but so many cars on the road, and impatient people! However, I survived.
A lovely baby shower was held (I didn't stay for present opening), but everyone friendly, happy and enjoying one another's company. Big hugs exchanged with nephew, sister, former brother in law, his now wife and sister's close friend, we all sat together. It was good to meet nephew's partner and see my great niece. She has just started school this year and is a quietly confident kid. A really wonderful time of being together.
I was anxious as I don't eat or drink indoors with people I don't know, since covid. I didn't partake of the luscious looking spread, but was happy to see windows open and the mum to be sitting very close to the fresh air source. Only a couple of months to go till bub arrives and nephew told me they will be continuing the family name that nephew and Dad both share. I felt a bit teary for a minute thinking how happy my Dad would be about that.
Very much looking forward to a quiet weekend ahead.
Also my radio died and the replacement has controls that are less easy to see. It's taken me a while to decide that the easiest way to operate it is to use the switch at the wall rather than to find the right place on the fiddly small one at the side.
Whoever said Getting older isn't for sissies was right.
Much sadness today amidst the sadness of Good Friday because of the news of a bus crash en route to the Easter services at Moria, Limpopo: a driver lost control of his bus while travelling from Botswana and plunged into a ravine, 45 passengers dead.
I thought that later in the year, in the right season, I will plant a tree in memory - as a reminder - like John Donne's line of [sending not to seek for whom the bell tolls.
I've warned my congregations that we break into "holy idiocy" on Easter Day ... much needed after the deep, deep solemnity of the first services of the Triduum.
All has gone wondrous well so far, despite our internet and phone providers crashing our office internet these past few days - so far unresolved.
@Huia that is a kind thought, to plant a tree in memory of those killed.