He’s young. He has amazing hair. *

Good LORD. It's only a few weeks until this 101 in 1001 thing is done. Honestly - it seemed like a good idea at the time but I reckon 1001 days is too long. Well, too long for me anyway. Advice for new players in the round up at the end. But NOW - what's the score?

COMPLETE/ONGOING = 51
In progress = 11
Not started = 38

What can I potentially get done in the next few weeks?
#7 Visit all Auckland Regional parks
#19 Read all of Jane A.
#20 Learn 10 poems by heart
#40 Share a meal with friends or family every two months
#70 Read the books I own but haven't read
#90 Get an emergency kit for the car
#91 Make copies of important documents

Prompted to check by this short story by Paula Morris published in the NZ Herald.

* Hollywood Swoons Over That Hair, That Baton

George R.R. Martin is not your bitch *

#29 Learn basic Spanish
*sniff* my spanish beyond the basics class has been cancelled for lack of students. I was really enjoying it. Unlike Maori there was no pressure to learn it. It was just fun and now it's not. I guess it's back to the CD.

#20 Learn 10 poems by heart
Trying to track down a copy of "Just" by Stephanie Johnston. Her husband reckoned that NZ women say "I'm just.." a lot (or "I was just..." etc) so she wrote him a poem that was all "I'm just..." ending with the poet running the country.

#28 Take a uni course
I'm quite reluctant to go back to tertiary education. Lots of money for a bit of paper. Lately though I've been feeling my lack of a university on-campus education so I'm rethinking my position. Maybe it's a midlife crisis?

*what Neil Gaiman said about complaints from readers about a perceived lack of progress by Mr G.R.R. Martin

Bees is a useless pet

#20 Learn 10 poems by heart

Another one learnt - Erebus voices by Bill Manhire. I can't quite crack the voice though. Should they be different? Should I rasp on the first half? still experimenting.

Updated 6/12/2012 : title from Preserve us from The Good Life

Alas poor Bill, I knew him not at all

#2 Make alphabet cubes
Letters stuck onto the fabric. Stitching around the edges with black thread to keep them on. I suspect they may fray. Never mind.

#20 Learn 10 poems by heart
Does Hairy MacLary count as a poem? It does now baby! "Out of the gate and off for a walk went Hairy MacLary and his mates."

#35 Cook through the Edmonds cookbook
I'm enjoying the baking side of this. Not so much the cooking. Mostly a matter of scale but also baking is easy - measure right, mix it well (ot not) shove it in the oven, pull it out, add icing (or not) slice and eat. Cooking = chop chop chop measure add add add add add add add sizzle watch baste watch stir watch eat.

Riding, riding

#20 Learn 10 poems by heart
Recited "The Highwayman" in the dark by the campfire. Not perfect but I think it counts.

...more impressive if he didn't have snow on his nose...

Back with a *jingle* and a *pop!*

#11 Buy a house
OMG all the paperwork is signed. House rolls over on Jan 7. First mortgage payment Feb 8.

#20 Learn 10 poems by heart
Almost got the Highwayman down pat. Still have a bit of trouble with the bits that don't rhyme (must be the accent) and gabbling. Trying to slooooowww doooowwn.

#23 Spend a weekend with the sisters
Ahh. Christmas. Brilliant.

#34 Attend a music at the zoo concert
There's a choice of 6 musicians/bands. I even have some mates to go with! (Not many, it's true, and technically they are family so I guess they don't really count...) Haven't confirmed either so must get onto that.

#35 Cook through the Edmonds cookbook
Another three last night - a cheesey chicken thing, kumara salad and tomato salad. Kumara was nice. Made and eaten as part of #40 Share a meal with friends or family every two months

#52 Put an amount of $$ in the pig for celebratory spend up at the end of this
Continuing erratically. Need to take the change out and get it into notes.

#60 Take part in an event for charity
Doing this if we can sort out a team. Yes. I know I'm mad.

My skill set

TDF...my heart is broken by your scandals.

#20 Learn 10 poems by heart
I have learnt my second poem. No chance to recite it yet but I'm sure the time will come. It's "For the Fallen" by Laurence Binyon.

Ice-cream is a food group

#66 Attend some festival events - arts, literature, movies etc

I went to my first festival event! Matariki Breakfast at the Stardome Observatory. Matariki is the celebration of Maori New Year - when the Matariki constellation rises above the horizon before dawn. This constellation is also known as the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters. Apparently every culture in the world has a story about the constellation. It is also visible in the evening during summer - so I might have more success in seeing it in summer then than I did in the morning.

First I was up really early (4am) to drive into town. Of course without any other cars on the road (although I must say I was surprised at the number that were on the road that early on a Saturday morning) it took me half the time that I was expecting it to take so I was super early. Second, when I got to the Stardome I actually pulled into a different parking spot first, blinding two men with the car's high-beams because I thought that they were part of the group but it turns out that they were not, in fact, part of the group but two pissed off citizens of South Auckland doing a deal. (I don't know if that's true but that's what I decided they were as they squinted at me through the windscreen.) Third, the sky had been clear when I checked at 4am but the clouds and wind had got up during my drive in. So after the walk up to the top of One Tree Hill all we could see was cloud and haze along the horizon where Matariki was supposed to be. It was blowing a gale up there! Fourth, our guide did her best - pointing out other stars like the Chief (he stands alone) and Reigel (Puanga) and some other constellations but we didn't have any luck. The clouds covered where Matariki should have been and then when the clouds had gone...the sun was coming up so it was too light. (I was well wrapped up against the cold but I think some others were freezing by the end.)

We did get to go back down to a fantastic, delicious breakfast (not enough coffee for that hour of the morning) plus a zip through what the stars should have looked like in the Stardome theater. Well worth the experience. There's something really elementary about looking at the stars and wanting to know what they are. You can feel a real connection with the ancestors as those were the same stars they were looking at. they bought more coffee out after the shows - but took away the sugar and milk. :)

Most embarassing moment - (LoM would say it was realising that the person walking behind us down the hill could hear every word of our conversation but...) when I went into the stardome the second time and it was dark and I didn't wait to let me eyes adjust so a) I tried to walk up the side of the chairs where there wasn't actually any space and b) eventually walked very quickly into the side of a chair.

#7 Visit all Auckland Regional parks

Also on Saturday LoM and I visited Ambury regional park. It's a cute little farm in the lee of Mangere Mountain. ARC uses it as an educational camping park so there are fun signs on the paddocks with animal picture and names like 'Timmy' (the turkey) and 'Freida' (the pig). We wandered around the animal pens before coming back to see the cows being milked (Amber and Fresia) and pet the calves (not named yet).

It was pretty windy out on the exposed farmland but since I was wearing polypro (whoever invented that stuff deserves a medal, it's brilliant) and a rain jacket I was warm as just popped toast. We ambled round the perimeter track and then took a little side trip toward the bird hide in the Watercare land that is right next to the park. Didn't actually make it to the bird hide as there were some words like 'quiet' and 'move slowly'. There looked to be some really interesting walks out to the stone fields so that might be something for another day.

Funniest moment - watching a brown sheep stalk a pukeko. The pukeko would nibble some grass. The sheep would sneak up behind it without actually looking at it. It would stand there. It would lower its head but not eat any grass. The pukeko would walk away. It would nibble some grass. The sheep would sneak up behind it etc etc. Hai-lari-oos.

Drove over to check out Mangere Mountain but since we'd have to get out of the car to walk to the top (in the wind) flagged it, went home, got changed then went to a couple of cafes. This is something on LoM's list. We managed to get to 2 so that was pretty good.

I got to recite "The Jabberwocky" which of course is poem one for #20 Learn 10 poems by heart. I am onto learning poem number two which is going to be "For the Fallen" by Laurence Binyon. Stanza four is used in military rememberance ceremonies so it is quite an emotional poem because of that.

To top off the day we joined up with some friends and went to see Lobby Hero at Silo. it was excellent. The audience was fairly quiet but warmed up after the interval. It took a little while for the actors to settle into their accents. No problems once they had and we were drawn into the story. Highly recommended. (Great set design too plus good direction.) It doesn't count as #43 See a performance that doesn't include anyone I know since I do know someone in it.

#35 Cook through the Edmonds cookbook

No baking this weekend which I got stick for at work today.

Added another 15 km to my cycling total #13

Started #87 Complete A-Z reading challenge - titles with Alta by Mercedes Lackey and "Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community" by Robert D. Putnam.

Started #20 Learn 10 poems by heart. The first one to learn is the Jaberwocky by Lewis Carroll. Actually it's learn again becuase I used to know it but I keep getting one of the verses misxed up with another one. practice, practice, practice.

I think I'll work on #100 Send Power company the key to the house tomorrow. All I have to do is find the spare key...