Africa in Auckland

Last weekend I and the Significant Other visited some friends of hers and I was asked to attend an engagement party for a sister who wasn't present I was caught only a bit out by the manner of the invitation as it was more of an instruction than an invitation to my ear, I think it was assumed that as I was the boyfriend of Significant Other the question was answered and it was being made clear that I was very welcome.

One point of huge amusement happened on the day before when a text went out to the invitees that the engagement party was running on Kiwi time not African time ie don't be late. I pointed out the fallacy of this assumption and managed not to laugh as I delayed our transportation to the party for the third and final time to 5.30 we arrived at 6.00pm and as far as I could tell the last arrivals got in at about 10.45pm.

 Still fairly quite when we arrived, our hosts had put on a magnificent African banquet, I have to say I am developing a real taste for African cuisine.   

The woman of the night  me and Significant Other or as I am sure someone will point out the thorn prick between two roses.  Note the beautiful dress that Significant Other is wearing, the reason for our failure to arrive on time.

The 4 seated girls and I had been having a post dinner chat or rather they had been speaking the Congolese dialect of French with the non speaking participant providing me with salient points in English and to my surprise I actually sometimes had a vague understanding of the conversation something I only found out after Significant Other brought me up to date at the conclusion of what ever was being discussed. From my point of view the funniest thing about this photo is the unannounced but not unexpected arrival of R. R and Significant other escaped the Congo together and are virtually in reality sisters. R was later in the evening to appoint me guardian of her drink a commission I performed with notable success given her ability to put it down and go for a dance without any consideration of the foot traffic around us.

The dancing was amazing here the kids are really getting into it, what impressed me was troughout the evening adults yielded the dance floor to the kids.

 This guy was amazing, he could really dance and he put a huge effort in getting the kids dancing teaching them a move and then showing them time and time again how to do it.
 

The engaged couple, I actually met her for the fist time earlier in the week when she called around to Significant Others place for a dress that Significant Other had made for her. They were by far the most glamorous couple at the party as they should have been.

 R, I was actually trying to get a candid shot of her I would guess she had a slit second to compose herself for this shot but she did it. My camera gives you a small gap to check the shot you have taken is the shot you want before it takes the shot and she exploited it brilliantly.

This cutie was having a real go at dancing I can't remember if it was R or Significant Other who told me to take the photo probably R looking at the dress on the right of the photo.

Significant Other and my new desk top background. Another really lucky shot she spotted that I was about to take a photo and her hands flew up to cover her face by the time the delay feature on the camera allowed the photo to be taken this is what I got, probably the best photo I have ever taken, certainly my favorite photo.



I had no real idea what to expect, I knew R reasonably well and had met and knew by name four others including the lady of the night and her two sisters as well as R's kids. I didn't speak their language and thought only a few of them would be confident enough in their command of English to enter into a conversation with me. That actually turned out to be the case but everyone was prepared to engage with me. At one point I had got up to do something and a young boy had sat down in my seat his brother in the seat beside me and mum was sitting in the next seat down. On the other side was Significant Other who knew that as soon as I returned the child would be told to get out of my seat but there were no other seats, as he started to move away I picked him up and put him on my knee. I have know idea if it was the African thing to do but to me it seemed like the right thing to do. When the child left I have no idea if mum had told him to say goodbye to me or he did it spontaneously but he came and said goodbye, I suspect the former.

I could blog much more about last night but it wasn't my night it was theirs. Thanks for including me on your special day.

Smoked snapper and the Significant Other.

The Significant Other and I  called on a Kiwi friend of hers Thursday night. It was a bloke from heaven the guy had a smoker at the back door and the place was full of fishing gear  rods, reels, and him busy working on them. He was a member of her church and a mechanic and she wanted advice about her car that has been having a couple of issues. I resolved one of those issues today in a totally unsatisfactory way but it cost $17 dollars not $300. Yes the car she bought for $1300 saved over many months, had a leaking radiator that had been fixed with stop leak, an option we took because quite frankly fixing the radiator properly  would cost more than the car is worth. Oh it was sold to her by a LMVD and a transmission / gear box problem has also developed. Will look at that tomorrow.
I have in my freezer a snapper and she was interested in the smoker at her friends back door and after our fishing chat and wanted to know more, well I said I would organise a smoked snapper for today and totally forgot to take the snapper out of the freezer after last night dramas with her car. I mentioned this to my boss  saying that I was  not bloody well paying supermarket prices for snapper and he told me about a business that  sold snapper at a good price  ( I prefer to catch my snapper and this is the first time I have bought one ).  I can't remember the name but it is  a Chinese business off  Pakaranga drive and I was impressed will blog further about this outfit. The  guy who sold me the fish didn't quite understand  what I wanted and the head was still attached so had to do a bit of work with the knife at  Significant Others place.

She loved it so I will be looking for some cheap salmon over the next couple of days. My one issue with smoking is that the hot smoker tends to  buckle when the heat comes on and that means some of the food has sawdust on it , well  the boss told me today that his daughter had solved this.  Put an extra lare of aluminum foil with holes cut with a knife every few centimeters on top of the sawdust  covered aluminium do not  push down and the problem is gone, worked a treat.

From my father

ALERTS TO THREATS IN 2012 EUROPE By JOHN CLEESE 
The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent events in Libya and
have therefore raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved."
Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even
"A Bit Cross."  The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in
1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out.  Terrorists have been re-categorized
from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody Nuisance."  The last time the British issued a
"Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish
Armada.   The Scots have raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the
Bastards."  They don't have any other levels.  This is the reason they
have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.
The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror
alert level from "Run" to "Hide".  The only two higher levels in France are
"Collaborate" and "Surrender."  The rise was precipitated by a recent fire
that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the
country's military capability.   Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to
"Elaborate Military Posturing."  Two more levels remain: "Ineffective
Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."   The Germans have increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to
"Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs."  They also have two higher
levels: "Invade a Neighbor" and "Lose."   Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat
they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.   The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy.
These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy
can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.   Australia, meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to
"She'll be alright, Mate."  Two more escalation levels remain: "Crikey!  I
think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!" and "The barbie is
cancelled."  So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final
escalation level.   John Cleese

My Waitangi Day

Just been  over at Keeping Stock and despite comming at politics from  diferent perspectives I aggree with him far more than I disaggree. Keeping Stock today reflected on race relations. This has always been a subject close to my heart.

I have a recent addition to my life, she is 36, she beautiful and she is from the Congo. She is not a fan of smoking and I have rolled ( hell no brainer ), she is not a fan of drinking  and I have agreed never to drink around her, she is a Christian I have maintained my atheism so I am guessing we are meeting each other half way.

Today was all about food and driving practice but I will detail food first.  She needed an ingedient to the food that we got from one of her friends I have know idea what it was but it came in a commercial packet and she took very little off it. OK I am a white guy with two woman and three kids from the Congo and it is considered to be totally normal as it should be. We left and got vegetables for the meal at  a Chinese owned business, Chinese, Maori, African and European's in the shop an nobody batted an eyelid.

Keeping Stock is correct to point out that the vast majority of Kiwis hate, what our day of unity has become. I am sick of our day of discontent.

Driving, well she is good. The problem is I am not capable of  teaching so we are practicing. I will let her on to the motorway  next weekend she can  handle it in my opionion but it is a huge speed jump. On that note we have been driving around with learner  plates and most people have been fantastic and understood that learning was happening, two total wankers emerged who undertook us and abused. I will be carrying a pen and paper and will report you should it happen again.

Alf does security.

Alf my insane but likable 3 legged monster cat is missing a mate, Murphy my dog I will blog about Murphy later but he died yesterday aged 12. Murphy was left in Queenstown after the summer holidays and did not return to Auckland. Alf really misses him ( I want to  get rid of his beanbag but Alf loves it ), no cat entered Alf's territory well they did but left fairly quickly when they realised  a large dog was  also present.

Today the Significant Other had organised some driving practise after church with another person in the congregation ( I don't do the God thing ) and I had the afternoon free I wasn't expecting to as we both assumed the alternate driving lesson would occur straight after church but it didn't happen until late afternoon so while she was out testing the patience of some saint I was home and the  local cats have clicked that Murphy is no longer here.

As a side note Significant Other has decided that we will do an early lesson and late lesson tomorrow and visit  some lions, elephants, zebras.... etc in between, suits me.

At about 3.00 pm there was a lot of hissing and screeching I went out to investigate and  Alf and an unknown but black cat were sizing each other up at a 15 cm  gap between  my fence and the neighbours property but on my part of the property. The other cat left  at my intervention.

He has been guarding the gap for the last four and a half hours. Has not come in for dinner, he will probably  guard it all night. He is a tough little cat, I have no doubt he will win any scrap 3 legs means he cant fight  with claws so he just launches and bites. He has carved out a territory far larger than my place and when I first got him people were complaining about vet bills from his predations.

Don't fuck with grey ship's

Warships are painted grey for a very good reason they fade away on the horizon and are difficult to spot, the light grey blends with the background. Now I will ask Gravedoger to comment on this but  it would seem to me that in the 1/2 light that is dawn it would be  bloody hard to tell if a ship was painted grey and the ship in question  looks to me like a supply vessel rather than a warship but as you can see it is painted grey.

You do not  screw around with ships painted in grey .... unless you are a group of  Somali Pirate's

" The fact that it occurred at first light must be the excuse for a skiff full of suspected pirates who opened fire and commenced boarding a target ship this week. What a surprise when the 'target' fired back and launched a helicopter. As the light increased they learned why. Rather than a commercial ship which they could have hijacked, it was the flagship of EU NAVFOR itself, the ESPS Patino. "

Whoops. I would  have loved to be on the bridge when the realisaton occureed that the pirate's were going to attempt to pirate actually  the Captain of the Ship behaved far better than I would have. I would have sunk the pricks  machine gunning first.


" No doubt a little shocked by their fatal mistake, they immediately threw their weapons, ladder and fuel barrel overboard, and surrendered." 

Yeah well I guess when you are  well armed and are taking on recreational sailors, but well armed is relative.




" Five of the six men who were in the skiff had received injuries, two of which required medical treatment onboard the SPS Patino. 

Investigations are ongoing to check whether the suspect pirates’ report - that a seventh man who had been in the skiff was lost overboard during the attack - are correct.

The ESPS Patino had just completed the escort of a World Food Programme ship carrying food-aid into Somalia and was operating close to the Somali port of Mogadishu. 

Operation ATALANTA's main tasks are to escort merchant vessels carrying humanitarian aid of the 'World Food Program' (WFP) and vessels of 'African Union Mission in Somalia' (AMISOM), and to protect vulnerable ships in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean and to deter and disrupt piracy. 

The would-be pirates might be better of in a Western jail than returning to their home village. The embarrassment could be worse than the incarceration. "


Yup I agree.  That sort off  screw up is  just hilarious , but while we laugh have we thought  about  the stealing of the  fishing grrounds. When you give a man a fish you solve todays hunger, when you teach him  how to fish  you solve tomorrows problem, but when you steal his fishing  area ?

This is more complex  than we think

Costa Concordia - Some thoughts.

MV Rena  is our disaster but let's be rational we got off  very light in many ways.  Don't get me wrong I want the blame and  costs  sent back to the owners but no one died  in human terms and while I regret the  bird and marine deaths they  were minimal.

Costa Concordia is yet another  fuck up and one that should concern us all. 40000 passengers it would seem were foolishly endangered so a waiter could wave to his family who couldn't have seen him anyway. The Master has been and should  have been arrested and charged.

I occasional  conn  ( Drive ) a commercial boat. I love it and yet dread it  at the same time because I am so scared of fucking  up. I will not  drink if I am driving a car  and I extend that to boats, with that in mind what the hell was the skipper thinking.

Yeah I know the ship was holed further out and he  went to shore but claims that the rocks weren't charted sound like shit to me in fact I suspect they have been charted well  before  Astrolabe reef in NZ.

The ship is fucked.  It will be cut up but  29 people are dead and that raises an issue about ship design and  cruise ship tourism.