getting away

attempt two ...

So I am off again tonight ... hopefully.

An update on smiling man for those of you who may remember. Yesterday on my way to work, my smiling buddy you know the one intellectually challenged but a charmer was hanging at the traffic lights with a brother? caregiver. He rushed up while I waited to cross and put his head on my shoulder and said ... "You're a naughty man" ... What does he know that I don't?

bound for

nowhere ....

So as you might imagine form my typing on this interweb thingy I am not in the village. I am at home, in my kitchen.

I got as far as Auckland, but my flight from the "grad was delayed and missed my connecting flight to Island-land.

Oh well, try again Sunday.

little boxes

In the (smells like teen) spirit of tidying my bedroom because of landlord sneakiness, I bought fifteen of these.
I have actually only constructed these five. The rest lie uselessly flat inside their packaging.
But won't I be tidy? Won't I be impressive? Won't I look organised ....

I should stop this

arse-ing about and get on with preparing for the foray into the islands. The concept of organising myself is paralysing. So instead, I sit here. I have presents to get, structures to prepare, house to clean, as I know my nosey landlord will sneak in while I am away. Speaking of houses I saw one that I want. I went to one of those online mortgage calculators and well let's just say homeownership and I will probably never be friends.





Anyways as Max often entitles her posts, but with probably not intentionally skitey pictures of her destination I'll be away ...

Not quite Paris, is it

your eye and its partner

So blogger ate my template ... not to worry ...
So what have I been up to? Wouldn't you like to know ... Escaped to the big city fun for some cat sitting, with a curiously uninteractive cat. She didn't miaow she didn't purr and she doesn't sit on you. Just near you. It was unbelievably cold down there too. The house seemed impossible to heat. It is the first time I can honestly say I was glad to get back to Palmengrad. Not that it is a lot warmer here, but my little brick fortress sure keeps the heat in. Work has continued to suck my will to live ... in fact working isn't what it was cracked up to be ... what can you do? an ex-languid youth has gotta eat ...

I did have fun down in the 'ville though. Met up with EmB and AB and we got a surprise special guest visit from, well Ab did we were merely collateral visitees. I'm off to the islands next week, despite the fact I have not procured a school bell for the new village church ... I will be in trouble with the elders. I guess they just don't make bells like they used to ... In other news I have been reading about them Persians. What with the hoohaa about 300 and my love of Ole Herodotus. So in Persian Fire, which proposes that whole shebang was the birthplace of east versus west carryings on, and that the Greeks were terrorists states, I did learn one thing that I am sure that movie left out. At the battle of Marathon there were 600 Thespians! War of the lovies I'd suggest.

In other reading news ... I don't get out much ... aparently in Igbo culture a very excited greeting for someone who you have not seen for a while is to say "your eye". The proper response is "your eye and its partner".

So, dear reader(s) Your eye!

Holy moly

On the way to the supermarket I passed an Islamic sausage sizzle.

Recently at some kind of interfaith seminar our beloved leader confirmed that we were not a theocracy. The links, she would have us believe, have long be severed. The only protest this raised was Bishop Brian Tamaki http://www.bishopbriantamaki.org.nz/ and his creepy destiny church. Performing a haka in protest, they claimed the PM had betrayed one hundred years of christianity in this country. So Brian what about all those other hundred years your tipuna were here?

Weirdly though, given the PM's assurance, the speaker of the house grimly says a prayer as the first order of business in parliament ...

The downside of the vanishing christian heritage of the nation is the selling off of some of Wellington's architecture gem. St Gerard's monastery is now a chiropractor's office, the Fortuna Chapel is trapped inside a retirement home and now Stella Maris and the Star of the Sea may be sold off.

go rhyme your runes in june,

I'm not your seventh son ...

So how's your June progressing? It's finally got cold here, particularly the nights I have slept on the couch. This is a sign for me that things aren't going so well ... the tv as night nurse ... Things have been crazy busy at work ... but I can't blog about that ... but can you say hostile takeover?

In other news, there is no other news. I have been moping and working only. Aren't you glad now for the June blog silence? I have been reading Wierzbicka's theories of semantic universals, particularly her views of the non-match up of emotions. When she compares the Russian words that are most commonly translated as sad, she notes this very big difference. (The preposed question mark suggests this is a marginally acceptable construction. Nothing before the sentence indicated this is a grammatical construction).

On cuvstvoval kakuju-to grust', on sam ne znal pocemu.
?On cuvstvoval kakuju-to pecal, on sam ne znal pocemu.
He felt some sadness, but he didn't know why.

The difference is the interpretation of vagueness, only grust' allows this reading, and this impacts on other aspects of the grammar of the language. Here they are as adverbs:

Pecal'no ja smotrju na eto pokolenie
sadly I look on this generation
"I look with sadness on this generation."

grustno ja smotru na eto pokolenie
sadly I look on this generation

The difference between the two is the interpretation of sadly. In the first it is a judgement about this generation; the second implies a facial expression, describing the manner in which the event of looking was carried out, i.e. "With a sad face, I look at this generation."

Okay enough semantics. I am cleaning my house, and cursing my toilet today. Over the past few months its refilling power has slowed to a trickle ... making it awkward with guests. Now it has stopped altogether.