Our local city council has finally decided to get into 21st-century practices as we have now been issued with new bins to deal with our rubbish.
Can you imagine what it would be like if rubbish didn’t exist? Sadly it is a fact of life, but many countries worldwide have been dealing with their garbage in far better ways than we have here where I live.
Recycling has been a way of life for me for a long time, taking trips to the local ‘transfer station’ for my plastics, cardboard, paper, cans and glass. I even got to know the chap who appeared to be running the show. He would come to the car and assist with deposing the items into the correct containers.
For the past several years, I have had a container with drawers in my shed in which I organised the different types of rubbish. This made it so much easier for me when the trip to the transfer station happened. Surprisingly, the paper and cardboard was the one that mounted up the quickest. I do question why, as most communication is electronic these days.
Finally, we now have bins, and I will no longer need to head off to the transfer station with the car packed up with all my rubbish. A blessing, you might think, but then again, I’d got to know that guy helping me, got to know about his grandkiddies. One time he told me about his little grandson who was very ill. Thankfully, by the next visit, the boy had recovered. So now I won’t be meeting people and smiling and saying hello to fellow recyclers.
Interestingly, the largest of the bins is dedicated to plastic, paper and cans, in other words, recyclable items. The actual rubbish bin is relatively small. I do believe they are sending a message!!!
The bonus is a compost bin. Yes!!! A compost bin! I have been doing my own composting, but there’s not much need with such a small garden. So the scraps had to be divided between composting buckets and garbage bags.
No more! This is a real bonus, and I hope many people take advantage of it.
So even though we now have this recycling system, I’ll rejoice more when either:
All plastic is recyclable (currently here only #1 and #5)
We live in a world without plastic.
And naturally, I prefer the second choice!
We do have to take responsibility for our environment. It doesn’t take much to look after our little patch.
By now you probably already know that random things I see make me intrigued, smile or downright laugh out loud. This was one of those occasions that was a LOL.
Each day I’m out and about, I always look for the random stuff that is in broad daylight for all to see.
Take, for example, the other day when I was driving back from the shops. I went past a work truck parked outside a house, and I caught a quick glimpse of something suspiciously like a skeleton on the top of a box. I went to the roundabout, and instead of turning off into my street, I continued round to go back.
I pulled up behind the truck and, sure enough, there was a skeleton on a box complete with a skeleton dog. Leaving the motor running, I jumped out of the car with my trusted phone and took a couple of photos, laughing out loud as I did so – voila below.
And, because it’s so downright brilliant, I’m giving the guy a plug if you’re in the Bay area!
When I got back into my car, I waited for a van to pass before making the U-turn to get back on track. The van driver (a woman) had seen me take the photo and also had seen me laughing. What made me laugh even more was that as she drove past, she gave me a look of “WTF are you doin’?”
It’s one of the joys I have now that I’m a little older. I don’t give a rat’s arse what people may think when I stop to enjoy a piece of quirkiness, pick up a bit of free stuff from the side of the road or go and talk to a stranger.
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The last time I was in the windy city (Wellington) was seven years ago. Not a lot has changed, only this time the weather was balmy and calm.
Flying in on a Friday and flying out the following Monday, I certainly jammed a load of stuff into the three days in the city.
Don’t worry; I’m not about to give you a travel log description of what I did, that would be as boring for you as the neighbour’s slide show from their campervan trip through the Australia outback.
But what I will say is that you can make it fun anywhere you go if you just keep your eyes open for the odd, the curious, the beautiful and the downright emotional.
However, I will give a plug to the WW1 exhibition.
“Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War” at Te Papa.
I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so moved by a museum display as I was with this one. In my mind, Peter Jackson nailed it. Informative and brutal, sad and a little humorous, it told the story of Gallipoli from the soldiers and nurses who were there. The models were massive at around 2.5 times human size, and each one depicted a frozen moment in time. The walk through a trench briefly captured the horror of war. If you are ever in Wellington, I highly recommend this.
My son took me to the ballet, Giselle, which we both enjoyed and to the art gallery for the weirdest exhibit called “Creature” by Berlin-based artist Marianna Simnett. Four short films, quite an unusual visual effect from four different screens. I must admit, though, that I couldn’t watch all of it; bit weirdly gruesome for me. To give you a clue – one was about mastitis… I really didn’t need to see the pus oozing from the teat! Made me grateful to be vegan!
From the games of chess, listening to Sam and James (from Black Spider Trio), playing gypsy jazz in the cutest Italian restaurant, exploring the city, walking the beaches and eating great food, all up, it was an excellent adventure.
Enjoy the Wellington Gallery! Click on an image to enlarge the gallery.
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On a recent trip to the capital I was again shown how the right attitude makes things a lot more pleasant.
An early morning alarm woke me to the cold snap that the North Island was experiencing. One of the blessed things about my life is that I no longer need to wake via an alarm, so as you can imagine, waking up when it was still dark to sudden loud sound was not the most pleasant thing.
However, it would be fun as I was about to fly off down the island to Wellington and stay with my son for a few days.
All packed and ready to go, my friend Kathy arrived in her puffer jacket and fingerless gloves, and at 6.30, we headed off to the airport. Now I am a bit of a techie geek and love using apps to make life so much easier. Air N.Z.’s app is a winner as I was able to check in the night before and get my boarding pass all sorted right there on my phone. And as I only had a cabin bag, there was no need to check in a bag. (I try to be as minimalist as possible – even in the cold!).
Kathy and I had time for coffee and a catch up before the call came across the intercom announcing boarding open.
Mask on, phone open to the boarding pass, I was on my way.
I found my seat, which I had specifically picked down the back. I don’t know why I prefer the back seats, maybe closer to the toilet???? Not that I get sick, but in case I need to pee, which is very likely after a coffee.
I parked my carry-on luggage into the overhead locker and settled into my seat.
This was when the right attitude kicked in. Looking down the aisle, I happened to see a young family heading towards me. You know the thoughts, ‘oh, I hope they stop soon.’ The mother was carrying a wee baby who was crying, well, more like screaming. Dad and junior were in the lead, and sure enough, they kept coming.
Nooooooo, worst nightmare.
The screaming wasn’t abating, and my thought was, ‘bloody hell, we’re not even up in the air yet when the cabin pressure can play havoc with bubba’s ears’.
Nothing for it as mumma headed towards the empty seat next to me. My maternal feelings came to the fore, and my heart went out to her. I pictured my daughter who had recently brought two babies of similar ages over from Sydney, and the flight home had been, (according to her):
“mildly punishing flight as Jack was awake for 90%”
Mumma tried to calm baby, but bubs was not having a bar of it. With a mask on, it was hard to convey the empathetic look I gave her, but thankfully the flight attendant came to all our rescue within just a few minutes. She offered me a seat at the front of the plane, not only helping me but giving mumma an extra bit of space.
I followed her down the aisle, and there was the empty seat with the bonus of being TWO empty seats. So not only did I have the quiet, but I had space also.
It was a stunning flight! I had a beautiful view from the window seat of the mountains and coastline as we flew down the North Island to Wellington.
And to fill in my time? Why I wrote this blog!
Enjoy some images from the flight.
Click the first image to launch the gallery.
And let me give Air N.Z. a quick plug. Wonderful flight, lovely crew and easy-as app – thanks
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We always talk about life being a journey, well I like to think that it’s more of a travel adventure. And to prove my point, life can send you on a merry dance, and you feel like you’re going round in circles. It’s entirely your choice how you decide to embrace it. Will you get annoyed? Or Will you make the most of it and enjoy the ride?
An example of this happened to me recently.
I was invited to stay with some friends who had hired a home in a picturesque part of the Coromandel. My friend had texted me a few days before with the address; 5 Scenic Place. They had arrived the previous day, and I received a text telling me that it was an incredibly steep driveway and I should be careful.
This particular place was several hours drive, so I planned to leave in plenty of time to call in to see my brother en route. Now I must add here that it has been quite some time since I had driven north of Tauranga and so I was utterly shocked at the number of roadworks that were taking place.
It always has been a rotten stretch of road between Tauranga and Katikati, but the signs saying Omokora to Waihi upgrade did not bode well. As I approached the notorious Apata part of number two state highway, I could see this was going to be a very L..O…N….G trip.
A journey that used to take half an hour stretched into an hour, but it didn’t stop there as more roadworks cropped up along the way. Finally, the road was clear. Over the hills I travelled to get to Whangamata, enjoying the glorious sunshine and free driving. Didn’t last! The journey was suddenly stymied by the ignorant, inconsiderate campervan driver who has no idea how to be courteous to the banked up vehicles behind.
Finally!!! I arrived at my brother’s home and had just enough time to say hello, have a hug, a bit of a chat before I was off on the road again, navigating through the endless lines of vintage vehicles which were pouring into Whangamata for the yearly Beach Hop gathering.
But at last. The freedom of the highway.
Putting the address into Google maps, I was a little perplexed to see that Scenic Place became Scenic Drive and wasn’t strictly at the particular wee beach I thought, but the one next to it. Oh well, perhaps there was a bit of confusion – I know I get a bit disorientated as there are several beaches very close to each other, and I can never remember which is which.
So, putting trust in the GPS, I sailed off in the direction the nice Google lady told me to go. However, arriving at number 5, I discovered two things.
The drive was perfectly okay and
The people in the house were not my friends.
After speaking to them, it was evident that I was at the wrong beach.
Hmmm, oh well, it was a beautiful day and not dinner time yet, so I called my friend and left a message and decided that I would head to the beach she has given me and ask someone there where Scenic Place was. Perhaps it was in a new subdivision, and Google hadn’t caught up????
Once there, I spied the cutest restaurant in an old church and decided that, surely, someone in there would know. As there were no patrons, the owner and the chef were out on the deck enjoying a beer. I was in luck. They had all the time needed to try and figure out where the elusive street would be.
These two fine gentlemen had never heard of this particular street. So, I explained the steep driveway adding that my friends were in a four-bedroom AirB&B. This led the restaurant owner to make a couple of phone calls, and finally, everyone agreed that, in all likelihood, the street was Sally Place as it fitted the description.
Please know, Reader, that I was continuing to try and reach my friend.
I logged the new address into Google, and off I went telling these nice restauranteurs that if I had no luck, I’d come back for a beer and wait till my friend got in touch with me.
The driveways sure were steep on Sally Place. Finding number 5 was rather a mission though, as it was like a rabbit warren of houses dotted on the hill, and most of them were very obviously empty.
Try and I might I could not find 5. It was there somewhere but well hidden. So time to ask again. Another very obliging chap came to the door, and when he found out what I was looking for, he went back inside and returned with an aerial map in hand of his home and surrounding houses.
We found number 5 on the map, the one with the white roof. So, back halfway down the hill, I turned off onto another driveway that weaved back up the hill heading for 5.
Again, I was thwarted as the couple I could see on the balcony were definitely not my friends.
Again, a keen stranger was eager to help solve this mystery. But alas, we were stumped.
No problem. I figured I’d head back to the church restaurant and wait it out. But there was no need as just as I was back on the flat ground my phone rang and it was my friend.
She was genuinely so sorry; she had forgotten to add the actual street name. You see, the house was named Scenic Place, and the street was Francis Drive.
It was well worth the time and effort to get there. Yes, it was a steep driveway, but the view from the balcony was spectacular and the company of my friends magical. And as a plus, I’d met some lovely people along the way. Such is life being a travel adventure!
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Thanks for dropping by. My name is Fee O’Shea. I’m a mother and grandma, an author, and a Comedy Improver.
This blog is for my thoughts, my rants, raves, reviews and things that have grabbed my attention. From politics to social media to beauty, health and the environment. Fee’s World Over Coffee is written to bring you a smile or get you thinking. Enjoy.
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