A heart on the sleeve kind of a day

I had a little enneagram read today.  My intentions are to read about it often, to remind myself why I am how I am, but I never remember.  As usual, today it opened a tunnel of understanding which had me crying (not sobbing, just a few regretful tears) over breakfast as I tried to explain it to Jbird.  Huh.  Now, purely because I have nothing else to write about, I'm going to put it out there for you all to see.  Hopefully that won't feel too awkward.

I think I'm a number six, a loyalist.  I'm not yet willing to commit to this number because I haven't investigated the other numbers and a test I did was inconclusive.  But it does explain a lot.  Loyalists hold onto friendships and beliefs for all they're worth.  They are our safety, security, pillars of strength. Without these pillars, we crumble.  In the same breath, we are not very good at letting in new friends or beliefs, as we're extremely busy defending those old ones.

If I look at my life historically, I can remember a few snapshots of this.  The story goes that my mother picked me from school when I was five.  She said Say goodbye to your friends, Anna, it's time to go now.  <I feel as though I remember this incident, as though I can see the classroom and my first yellow schoolbag> My answer was They're not MY friends.  For Pete's sake, Annabel, they were your only friends - but they were new to me and not in my sphere yet.  At the beginning of the second year that I lived in Bangladesh, a whole bunch of newbies came in.  They were all excited about the adventure that is Dhaka.  I didn't do well making friends with many of those newbies.  I thought it was because I was tired, jaded from that crazy time, ready to go home.  I wasn't.  I was mourning the friends that had just left, writing to them every day.  Poor newbies, they didn't really stand a chance. And here I am in Bloomington, struggling to connect to people, in fact, resisting connection.  But really, I'm holding onto what has been, the communities that I have known.  Huh.  

That's not to say that I don't welcome new people into the folds of my communities.  I do, I'm extremely good at it because I believe in community.  I am a community builder.  Does that sound too contradictory?  I think this all might have something to do with why I deactivated my facebook account this week.  As a loyalist, I keep reaching out to those that I have known and loved but they're (understandably) entrenched in living their current lives.  It's time for me to live here.  Make the most of what is currently available to me.  Do I sound convincing?  I'm really trying!

Hello, happy sunshine.

As to my unwillingness to accept my number, number sixes can never make decisions without a host of people confirming their decisions for them.  So it's a pretty normal thing, really, for me not to be able to make up my mind.

Fish n Chips

We bought two little fishies last week.  They're our celebration fish as we managed to get the student allowance from studylink, NZ, for my degree.  My situation is unusual so the application process was a bit touch and go. 

We've called them Fish n Chips to remind us of home.  They're blue, orange, and silver, and were really little when we got them but have already grown considerably.  It's interesting to see how busy they are, all the time, swimming around in their little bowl.  Sometimes chasing each other and even nipping at each other, other times just following the other around, or swimming alone.  It's captivating to watch and our students have been drawn to them too.  

It's nice to have this little commitment, another reminder that we're here for at least two more years, though I don't hold high expectations on our ability to keep them alive that long. 

Disqus? for better or for worse

Quite a few people have told me this space is sometimes resistant to letting them comment.  They try signing in with a google username and are denied.  Then they try to comment anonymously and it still doesn't work.  So they give up.  

I tried to get to the bottom of this.  Searching on blogger help, I found out it's  a common problem with blogspot. Why hasn't someone fixed it!?  I was referred to something called Disqus for all my commenting needs.  I didn't know what this was - would I be moving away from blogger?  Would my blog be somehow...different?  Worst of all...would I be allowing a virus into the folds of my computer?  That's the ever present fear of any un-tech savvy gal such as myself.  I decided that the best case scenario was that the program...or software...whatever it is, might help people who are frightened to comment, <clears throat no naming of names>, find it easier and jump right in there.

Blindly, I hit the download and install now buttons requested and something happened, I wasn't exactly sure what.  Things looked great.  There was a new feature to like or dislike the different posts, I was excited for that.  Excited to see who might be the first to dislike me.  But somehow, nothing quite worked properly. Worst of all, the program recognised me as Jbird when I tried to reply to comments.  I don't have the patience to really get in there and fix it.

Now it's been uninstalled/removed, hopefully to never cross my path again.  Come on blogspot, fix your commenting problem, it's your job.

Please read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Diaries for an excellent philosophical outline conveying why we really shouldn't try just to give up like I did, why we should get to the bottom of such annoyances in life.  It's also an alluring story about a long motorcycle road trip, and one of those books which I always find reasons to recommend.

Taking a step back

I closed my facebook account the other day.  I'm not really sure why as I don't hold any malice against it, I was just feeling a bit...uninspired by it.  I don't create anything through it, I no longer play any of the games, have whittled down the friends whose posts appear on my feed to a pretty small handful, and it sometimes makes me feel less connected to people than I want it to.   

When I clicked on the 'deactivate' button, I was informed of a few people that would miss me while I was gone.  My niece was listed in the top five.  She's five.  She doesn't even know she has a facebook account.  Did you notice I was gone?  Because I've been away a few days now and I don't think you did.  I think, and this is just a theory mind, maybe quite an obvious one, that it's merely an addiction.  Click click click, I've observed, commented, and visited, and perhaps written something that I want to sound clever.  How many times an hour would I check it, to see if anything had changed?  It's mind numbing to think about.  I'm going old school, reading the paper.  And well-written blogs.  And talking to people. 

I may return. It depends how bored I get, whether I can keep myself occupied.

As a very brief tangent, but something I feel you ought to know, I just saw The Iron Lady so I'm typing this in a posh British accent.  Can you tell?

A floating garden

There was a tornado warning in Bloomington.  I spent an hour listening to the details on the radio, I was fascinated by it.  The first half hour everything was really still, annoyingly still, with dark clouds looming.  Because of this and despite the sirens blaring, Jbird biked off to a rehearsal - I couldn't convince him not to.  Then it poured and hailed for half an hour.  I eventually had to turn the radio off and force myself to do something else to distract me from the storm because my garden was flooding, the plants splattered with sizable chunks of ice and it was beginning to make me feel anxious.  

How do you gardeners do it?  Our weather has been perfect gardening weather for two weeks.  Summery warm, with little patches of rain. I planted a rose, a lavender, a mint plant, and any number of seeds this week, and all I could do during the storm was watch as the elements had their say.   The mulch I covered everything in might protect the seeds from frost and snow but excessive amounts of water?  They've surely all floated away.  I felt sad.

I heard on the radio that farmers here in Indiana are considering starting their corn crop early this year because of this strange early summer.  If the weather holds, they could make a lot of money on an early crop.  The problem is, they can't get insurance if they plant too early.  It's a conundrum I'm glad I don't have to face.  I guess these emotions are all part of the growing process. 

Zotero

My professor wanted me to pay for and download a particular bibliography/referencing software which was linked to the university's online resources and heavily discounted for students - Endnote.  I wanted to yell at somebody: please stop taking my money and decided I would create my own table system within Mword.  It looked really lame.  Endnote sounded like it'd take all the thinking out of creating an APA style bibliography as required for all classes in my program but lets be honest, my bibliographies have always been fine and they don't take all that much thinking.

A few days later, someone from the university suggested downloading the free program: Zotero.  I did.  It works!  I input the data and click on some buttons, finally pasting directly onto my Mword document and voila, a lovely bibliography appears.  All italics, punctuation, line spacing and positioning of data in its correct place.  Loverly.

Nashville - the highs, no lows

I don't want you to think we just sat around listening to music the whole time we were away.  We were busy sightseers by day.  

We enjoyed roaming around the Andrew Jackson's mansion and plantation on his 245th birthday.  Because of that happy coincidence, we got half price entry, birthday cake, and watched his great, great, great grandson saying a speech.  Mr. Jackson was the 7th president of the USA.  Unfortunately, I know he did some cool stuff for America, but my take-away was that he was a slave owner.  With a lot of slaves.  There's nothing good about that.

We visited the Grand Ole Opry hotel which has 9 acres of garden within its walls.  Can you imagine that?  I couldn't and when I got there, I said to Jbird: Oh, they must mean the hotel is on 9 acres of land, because the garden seemed a lot smaller than I imagined 9 acres to be.  Then I saw a map of where we were which was only a tiny portion of the gardens, there were 3 more large garden areas.  It was really huge and impressive, with waterfalls, running man-made rivers, and a lake.

In downtown Nashville there is a replica of Fort Nashborough.  When the pioneers first arrived, it was December and the river that Nashville is on was frozen over.  The pioneers walked across and set up camp on the other side of the river on the site that became Nashville.  I keep thinking that if they'd arrived at a different time of year, Nashville would be a different city.

We went to the Tennessee State Museum and learned a lot about the pioneers, their lives, more prosperous days a little bit later in history, Andrew Jackson, and some African American slave stories.  Then I hit my wall and couldn't take in any more information.  Oh, except there was a random Egyptian mummy which had nothing to do with anything.

The Frist Art Gallery doesn't have a permanent collection but had three neat exhibitions.  When Jbird and I go on holiday, we often visit lobbies of places and decide we can't afford to go in.  This gallery was well worth our $7 entry. 

I'm a geek and requested an inside view of the public library.  I'm glad we went, it's a gorgeous library with a spacious marble lobby and several exhibitions to look at.

We only made it to the lobby of both Ryman Auditorium and the Country Music Hall of Fame but we're hoping to take Jbird's parents one day - his dad is a big country music fan.  Yes, country music, ew. 

The Howling Brothers: providing your every bluegrass need

I have to be honest, I was a bit skeptical that we'd find anything much bluegrass in Nashville, that it would only be country music town and my expectations would be shot.  They weren't, we had a fantastically bluegrassy time.  

Our first evening there we spent at the band's house and they had some friends over for a jam.  It wasn't very old timey, it seemed like they just wanted to play the most beautiful bluegrass songs you ever did hear.  I, in turn, took my place on their couch and sat for hours, grinning like an idiot.  I could not get enough.  

The next night was 'circle night' at a local bar, folk sitting around in circles jamming.  There was a straight country circle (not popular with our group), an old-timey circle, a happy-bluegrass circle.  There were more musos than punters at the bar.  I found my happy.grin.like.an.idiot spot again, but this time we were all singing along.  Just. So. Fun. For a while, our happy-bluegrass circle had a wash tub playing bass.  Literally.  I was in heaven. This is kind of what it was like.  Unfortunately the bones are so loud in that clip, you can't hear the bass, but you can see it.  Also, we were laughing a lot more than that group.

Before we left on Thursday night, the band had a gig in a pub on honky tonk row in downtown Nashville.  I have to say, I loved the sitting around and jamming of the previous nights a lot more.  It's more natural, with some down time, and the solos were more exciting as the musicians could improvise  freely without the pressure of keeping their audience.  

'They' are the Howling Brothers, you can find their website here.  We've also recorded a few clips and Jbird has posted them up on my new youtube site here.  Thanks darlin'.

When I refer to old-time, I'm referring to the very early style of bluegrass, with a lot of layers of fast rhythm, especially banjo.  My favourite old-time album is 'Tis Sweet to Be Remembered by Flatt and Scruggs.  My favourite newer group is Nickel Creek - we danced our first dance at our wedding to this waltz.  Then there's Old Crow Medicine Show who are just fabulous all round.  We've found a festival not far from here where they'll be playing this summer.  Yeeeehaw!

Bluegrass...that's Country and Western music, right?

Jbird and I both have this crazy love of bluegrass.  After our wedding we walked down the aisle together to some real good old timey stuff, I think it was this song - please have a listen and let yourself smile.  People seem to wrinkle their nose or grimace when I mention that we like bluegrass - if they know what it is, in the first place.  It's had a bad rap in NZ and is often judged as hick country music.  It's not! I like nearly all genre of music but country has been all but black-listed from my ipod.  Feel free to sit down with me one day and we'll have a little comparison session.

Because it's not popular in NZ, I've only been to one bluegrass gig in my life.  Old Crow Medicine Show have visited Auckland a few times and we caught them at the Powerstation in 2008.  It was a wicked gig, I'm talking life changing, the venue was perfect.  Nice and small, not too crowded.  I was the Music Specialist at a school at the time.  Guess what the focus was in class that week!?

Jbird has this story he tells about his first night living in upstate New York.  He was fresh off the boat for what has become nearly 6 years in this fine country.  The story goes that he spent that night sitting around a camp fire, playing fiddle with a bluegrass band.  It sounded too good to be true and I've heard the story enough times that it's almost mythical.  

When we were given the loan of the car for this recent holiday, we then had to make a decision about what to do and where to go.  We were trying to decide between going north to cold and windy yet ever so famous-to-us Chicago, Illinois, or south to warm, Music City, Nashville, Tennessee.  Jbird emailed that same band he always talks about and they offered us a room to stay in.  The decision became obvious: Nashville, Tennessee it was.  

I'm beginning to realise that we've moved to the land of bluegrass, the great Midwest.  It's not all corn and beef after all.

The evenings may be longer...

We had a weird time warp on our recent trip to Nashville, TN.  The two days before we left, I had been struggling to adjust my body clock after 'skipping ahead' an hour for daylight savings.  It's only a five hour drive to Nashville, basically directly south.  On our way there, while Jbird was getting petrol, I put the clock forward in the car - I'd been looking at the wrong time for two days and decided that I may as well change it to the new, day light savings time.  Later that day, we were in a museum, in Nashville.  I checked the time on my phone and it was an hour earlier than I had expected.  Feeling confused, I asked someone the time and they confirmed my phone was correct.  We got back in the car and sure enough, the car time was wrong - or different to our phones.  I simply decided I'd pressed the button too many times, putting the time two hours ahead instead of just one.  We didn't really think about it again but both seemed prone to feeling extremely tired at night and waking up too early.  I put this down to too much fun.  We travelled home to Bloomington, late at night.  The trip felt long as it was night time and we were struggling to stay awake, stopping in at rest stops to sleep for an hour and continuing on.  Our eyes were on the clock the whole time - when would we get home?  We finally arrived at 2:40 am, only to find that it was 3:40 am here in Bloomington.  Even though we drove east (and then south) to get to Nashville, they were on CMT (central time) while Bloomington is on EMT (eastern time).  With that and day lights savings, we've had to readjust three times in less than a week.  

It's only one hour difference but it seems to affect me so much.  This would never happen in New Zealand, where everybody lives on the same time zone, which may be why we didn't notice until we got back home.

Coffee and other less connected things

You'll be pleased to know that I have managed to keep to my reduced amount of caffeine intake.  There's been an obvious change in my sleeping habits too.  I sleep through the night, deeply.  When I wake up it's because it's time to get up.  It's been pretty nice.  I don't notice in the taste that it's mostly decaf either.  Maybe because I now have a grinder, improving the coffee flavour. 

I'm also trying to lower my sugar intake.  Unfortunately, I am addicted to white flour, but I'm trying to only have it every second day.  I can't imagine what croissants or cinnamon buns would taste like with whole wheat flour and they're a staple in my bread making habit.  I will try to remember to add whole wheat to my bagels next time I make them.  You may ask what that has to do with sugar?  Well, we digest white flour exactly the same way we digest sugar.  Or so I've heard.  Can anyone confirm or deny this?   I have a feeling that milk might be in a similar category.  Is anything actually good for us?  

While I'm meandering through things I don't really know anything about, I may as well share that I learned recently that we get ten times more carotene from cooked or mushed carrots than raw and apparently cooked tomatoes are better for us than uncooked.  Interesting stuff.  I was sure raw was always the way to go - which rarely reflects my own diet at this time of year. 

My Bike is my Mule

I have found that living as an expatriate can cause difficulties when it comes to grocery shopping.  Things that are available in the foreign land aren't necessarily what I'm accustomed to which obviously has both benefits and pitfalls.  Maybe I'll write about another time.  Something I find harder than that has been the mission of  transporting all the food back to my place of residence when I lack a car.  I would hate to do this in Auckland - the public transport is stupid over there (has it improved at all?) - and thankfully I've never had to try. 

Here in Bloomington, I ride my bike.  We've hitched a little crate on the back which I fill up, also filling up my backpack and sometimes an extra cloth bag or two that I hang from my handle bars.  It gets pretty wobbly so I have to go slowly, and I try to stick to the footpath as much as possible.  

The attachment that the crate sits on is slightly precarious.  We've used zipties to attach the crate to it and it to the seat post of the bike.  They often snap so I've learned to carry extras. I was a little bit vigorous in my uphill ride the other day.  I heard a plonk and the bike felt lighter...the zipties around the bike's post had snapped and let the crate slide back over the wheel - my groceries were all over the road.  Nothing was badly damaged - I only broke one egg - and I didn't have any extra zipties.  Oh, the joys!  I loaded up the cloth bags I always carry and balanced everything off the handle bars, walking most of the way home from there.  Even though I had been on the road at that point, I wasn't in the middle of a busy intersection.  Things could have been worse.  

I love the feeling when I get home with all that food.  It's the feeling of wealth and prosperity combined with strength at conquering an obstacle. 

Road Trip

Our friends lent us a car for spring break so we're off to Nashville, Tennessee.  Home of country music and the great wild west.  It's not far from here, about 5 hours by car.  I've made a bluegrass playlist for the ride but I guess we ought to tune into the country radio stations Nashville is so famous for.  We're staying with friends who play in a bluegrass band.  They have a couple of gigs while we're there, something to look forward to.  

I've been learning a bit about the history of Nashville.  I know it for its country music claim to fame.  It's just on the other side of the Appalachian Mountains so it was considered 'west' compared to the over-crowded Eastern settlements - NYC, Boston, Virginia, Maryland, etc.  There was a big uproar between the 'whites' and the Cherokees when the whites started to settle.  The 7th, 11th, and 17th presidents came from Nashville.  The 7th - Andrew Jackson - made his money because as a young public prosecutor, he was paid in land claims.  He played a big part in the Civil War.  AND he married a lady who hadn't yet divorced her first husband.  I'm sure to learn more during our visit.

Maybe we'll stop in at the Smokey Mountains for a day tramp on the way(ish) home.  All posts this week following this one have been pre-written as I'm not sure how much time I'll have at a computer.  Happy Spring!

tramp = hike

Spring Recital

Another recital?  'Tis the season!  Jbird and I have a tiny little studio of students which we have named The Bird Cage Studio, and we decided it was time to have them all over to show off their stuff to each other.  We now have a logo - a singing bird - which went on all the fliers, programs, and certificates I made for this event.  It's in this situation when I really appreciate marrying an accompanist.

If you've seen our little place, you might wonder what I was thinking, inviting 20 people over for a sit down concert.  Luckily, over half of them were little people.  Everyone was instructed to dress up - I wore my pearls, Jbird wore a tie - we made it a formal occasion.  They all treated it as such too, clapping heartily for each song and almost holding their breath while each child performed. 

It was also a chance to get out the musical cookie cutters for some iced sugar cookies, make chocolate musical symbols to plop into the frosting of scrummy white cupcakes, and serve everything on the platters mum bought for Jbird's recital reception last year.  We had musical score serviettes too.  We all felt far more musical for it, too.

It was after the musical afternoon tea that everything got a little bit chaotic (too much sugar!) so we migrated outside for frisbee and tiggy.  It felt a little bit like community.

tiggy = tag              serviette = napkin

Recital Number Two

Last semester, Jbird played a chamber group recital with Soph and another girl.  It was pretty neat, I wrote about it here.  This semester he put together a solo recital and he played it two nights ago.  Even though I had a few things to do and was out or teaching for a lot of the day, I felt as though the hours went by really slowly.  Jbird treated it like he normally does, he never lets my nervous tension get in the way.  A little bit of practice, a sleep in the afternoon, and a light meal to stave off hunger.  We were both pretty confident for him - the concerts last week had gone so well - so there was no "oh no, he's not quite prepared!" type tension.  

The concert itself was a success.  He played Beethoven Sonata Op. 90, Brahms ballades, Chabrier village dance, and a Faure Nocturne confidently and charasmatically.  Our Scottish buddy read the ballad Edward, Edward which Brahms had in mind when writing the first of the Ballades which Jbird played, and the audience was able to relate.  The pieces didn't have a particular theme but they seemed to sit well together.  Now the pressure is off, Jbird can enjoy spring break and concentrate on his teaching and classes for the rest of the semester.  

His professor took us to a pretty fancy restaurant to celebrate - Restaurant Tallent.  I had the beet salad, trout, and panna cotta - and a little too much white wine. Jbird had the rabbit and the oatmeal.  We were there well after closing and went to bed stuffed yet satisfied. 

Oat Pancakes - you'll never go back

I once told you about my new go-to fluffy pancake recipe.  They didn't become my go-to, I didn't even remember to make them again <sigh>.  It may be because I came across this delicious recipe for buttermilk-oat pancakes which makes a similarly, possibly more so, fabulous oh-so-soft-fluffy pancake, with the added benefits of a whole grain.  

I never have buttermilk, but it can be made by adding two teaspoons of vinegar to the milk and leaving it to sit for a bit. It's impossible to tell from the finished product that these pancakes have oats even though I only leave the oats to sit in the 'buttermilk' for 5 minutes before adding everything else.    Some recipes suggest sitting over night but I don't see the need.  Next time I'm going to substitute in 1/4 cup of wheat flour for 1/4 cup of white flour.  

New Zealanders, you will need a little more flour (probably only a 1/4 of a cup). This recipe is an Australian equivalent - and should have all the correct flour quantities - with the addition of yummy blueberries.  Chocolate chips would be quite a delicious substitution and after all that whole grain goodness, very allowable.  The Australian recipe doesn't suggest any baking soda but I do - just 1/2 teaspoon (don't forget to sieve). 

Our go-to topping today was greek yoghurt mixed with a fresh mixed berry coulis.

Signs of a change

We awoke to snow covered ground on Monday but I could swear it was light until 7 pm yesterday AND we get to change our clocks this coming Sunday morning.  Besides that, the temperature has hit the 60s and 70s Fahrenheit more than twice.  If 32 is freezing, then those temperatures give me great confidence, I feel very optimistic about the imminent end of this long, dreary winter.

I've been stockpiling gardening items - tools, soil, seeds.  Today I plan to turn my compost and see if any of it's useable yet.  Regardless of that, I'll work a layer of store-bought manure/dirt into the prepared areas and dig up a little spot our neighbour pointed out: she wants to sow some flowering seeds.  Going by a calendar for zone 6, I will start some seeds indoors and wait a little while longer before planting any outdoors.  

This all makes me very happy, it's about all I can think about.

Teachers that stretch

I read this quote by Piaget (1980) today: 

Education, for most people, means trying to lead the child to resemble the typical adult of his [sic] society (but)...for me education means making creators, even if there aren't many of them, even if one's creations are limited by comparison with those of others.

It was the opening quote within a chapter of my textbook discussing aesthetic education through the arts.  The chapter had a bunch of really intense ideas which I'll need to read over to consolidate them to my brain but it has made me think a few things.  My favourite thought is: True creativity (and indeed, aesthetics) is hard to teach.  It requires teachers to have high self-efficacy, to be risk takers, to have a willingness to explore borderlines of the status quo etc. etc. 

Thanks, Piaget, I feel ready for bigger and better things. 

We're having a Soiree

One of our major fundraising events at home are a series of house concerts at my parent's house.  Mum and I have gotten quite good at organising these, we try to have fun while we do it.  I make fliers which we use to shamelessly invite everyone we know AND drop around the immediate neighbourhood.  We have a regular menu which we like to play around with each time, adding new items, taking others away.  I normally bake some bread and mum makes some dukkah to dip it in.  I'm in charge of tart bases with lemon curd filling and/or something savory.  She has a great recipe for miniature cheese balls.  She makes fairy cakes, and one of us fills them with full cream.  Together we put together sweet platters and savory platters, organise tea, coffee, and juice.  Rearrange furniture and clean clean clean.  Low and behold, three house concerts are on the cards.

It was nice to have Mum's help at his last recital too.  At Peabody it was common practice to offer a small reception afterwards.  Then Dad took us all out for dinner and we all had mussels and ribs, it was a memorable meal. The mussels were miniscule, the ribs ginormous. 

 

Jbird's IU solo recital is coming up on the ninth of this month and as part of his last moment preparation, we put on a house concert here.  It was a small affair, but very manageable for my catering skills. It's not as much fun though, without my co-caterer, and our Auckland friends. 

He sounded great, I was really impressed by his level of comfort for the repertoire he will perform.  He is definitely ready for the big one!  Are you as excited as I?  I wish you could be there.

The Piano Man

The day I learned that The Piano Man was written by Billy Joel, I went out and bought his The Ultimate Collection.  There's nothing like a great compilation album to provide all the great hits I need to give me an essential education on an artist.  I'm sorry that I've never branched away from this album, either.  In my late 20s I decided that collecting music was an expensive hobby I could no longer afford.  Also, every time I listen to this one album, I am immediately satisfied by this vast collection of songs: 36 in total.  I have even grown to like the 80s twang that is riddled throughout it.  I find it humorous that this album sat at number two in the charts in New Zealand for thirty weeks between 2001 and 2003: higher, and for longer, than anywhere else. This is according to the Wiki-article I linked there for you.

Ah Billy, you have so many truths to tell us about life, love, and daily living.

Day off day off day off

Don't forget, no posts on Friday and Saturday.

A Modern Convenience

I was gifted a late birthday present last week.  It's an electric kettle.  What a lovely thing to own!  We've had a stove top kettle since we moved here because they are so much cheaper to buy.  The first one we owned developed a leak.  Lovely Ms. Strong gave us a hand me down one to replace it.  This one was more sturdy and whistled when it boiled.  Jbird hated the high pitched whistle, and I grew to dislike it too.  He would stop it as fast as he could, even stopping mid sentence to turn it off.  I adopted the habit by osmosis.  I still preferred a whistle to no whistle as I would often boil the old non-whistler dry.  This may be why it started to leak. 

The new one is gorgeous.  It's black, it has an 'on' light, it's lighter, it turns itself off when it has boiled, it seems to hold more water, it shows us how much water it is holding, and it has lovely rubber grips where it is picked up. How I love to pick it up.  

How bizarre to take an electric kettle for granted all my life.