Apart from iTunes. Obviously.

#86 A-Z reading challenge - authors & #87 A-Z reading challenge - titles*
Stevenson, Robert L. "Torchlight"
Think of yer classic early 90's action film with square jawed hero and feisty heroine. Now give him a friend who turns out to be the actual hero and give her a psychotic, dangerous adpotive father. Oh, and throw in some deep sea diving facts.
What did I think?
I think you can tell by the plot...and no linky love because the other famous writer (yes, they're related) comes up when I Google him.

Thomas, Dylan "Under Milkwood"
A radio play which is "...an orchestration of voices, sights and sounds that conjure up the dreams and waking hours of an imagined Welsh seaside village within the cycle of one day."
What did I think?
Fantastic. I'd love to hear it as an audio track. (I'm partial to things that roll and tumble and lollop and twist like fighting kittens. Dance, music, writing - it doesn't matter what it is I'm partial to it. Think of then like the equivilent of kowhaiwhai or celtic knots.)

*I thought I'd be clever and start combining the author/title reading list. It's working but unfortunately I'm reading faster than I can get the damn books. Off the list "Shamanka" by Jeanne Willis and "Living Hell" Catherine Jinks - 2 excellent teen aimed books.

#43 See a performance that doesn't include anyone I know
King Lear at the ASB theatre in the Aotea Centre. A mixed bag this. The sound was shit. LoM couldn't even understand what they were saying - I thought it was just me and that I didn't have my shakespeare ears on. Wasn't helped by the coughing (have a fuckin lozenge people) or the deep breathing of the bloke behind us OR the man in front with the squealing hearing aid (although I forgive him. Like I said the sound was shit.) In some places the actors were 'doing' shakepseare - intoning, swooping up and down the register, screeching etc. (Might be personal preference though. That's just not my style.) It was made worse by the flashes of brilliance thoughout the production. Some really nice interpretations of individual lines. If they slowed down they were great too. I guess it's easy to race through the words when you've been doing it for a while. Highlights - blue painted jazz man (I think it was Edgar); the rain/on the beach scene; the arrest scene. Ian McKellan turned in a performance fine at times.

Update 26/8/07: the nasty brother was pretty good too. He always seemed to be on his knees, bouncing up and down, preparing to sprint over and slash someone's throat. Great stuff.

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.

Incident of blackbirds

I made progress on the following things without even trying today...

#7 Visit all Auckland Regional parks
Boyfriend and I went out for a picnic lunch today. We drove out to a lookout then decided we'd pop over to Muriwai since the view from the lookout wasn't that spectacular. Turns out that Muriwai beach is an ARC park. We drove up and around for a bit before coming back down to the Takapu reserve. The weather wasn't that great though so we didn't do a lot of walking and had our picnic in the van.

#35 Cook through the Edmonds cookbook
Muffins for the picnic (which we ate at home before we left); afghan biscuits with chocolate icing; chocolate nut bar with melted chocolate icing (which I'm a bit worried about, I don't think it's going to set) ; roast chicken with mixed herb stuffing and gravy. Feels like heaps...would have baked more but have run out of butter!
While I love baking, I do think I need to start concentrating on the savoury dishes a bit more. Trouble is, I can't very well take a roast lamb into work for everyone now can I?

#95 Buy some bonus bonds
I hope to get this one marked off within the next couple months. My sister and I have agreed to suspend payments into our joint account. I'll use the money that I'd usually pay to buy some bonus bonds. (Originally I thought I'd use it to pay for shoes but that's not really appropriate is it?)

#43 See a performance that doesn't include anyone I know
Tickets are booked to King Lear on Wednesday 22 August 2007 at 7pm. Circle T30-32. Perhaps I should have read this review first? Probably would have gone anyway. Although I've heard of the lead I don't know him personally so it counts towards this. Now it's just a waiting game.

#54 Write a book for my niece
Have discovered I suck at this. I can't even get past 150 words! Boyfriend is all "haha you're terrible Muriel" because he is up to something like 30,000 words. It does not bode well for #6 Write a novel .

This is your last spoiler warning

Ive made things on the list that are still to be done bold, things in progress italic'ed and complete ones normal font. I think this will help me choose which ones to do next.

I'm going into work late tomorrow so I might have time to do this one #88 Watch the sunrise from the beach (bugger, actually it's more difficult to track down a particular task with the bolding.) I love starting early. I might start in the dark but at least there's an hour or two in the afternoon when it's light. That could of course be because the weather has been dry and not very windy for the last few months. I can't believe it's only about a fortnight until the shortest day of the year.

Walked home from work so there's another 5km off #97 'Run' from home to my home town. I know it's not technically totally running but I need new shoes before that happens. AND to remember to take my inhaler.

Been doing some research into #36 Spend a night on Tiritiri Matangi Island...have I blogged this before? It feels like it...

#54 Write a book for my niece
Here are the details
What are the names of the characters? Alane; Kery; Mia; Sera Princess; Puse (not entirely sure how this last one is supposed to be prounounced...)
Where are they going? Mall; Beach; Home
What are they doing? Playing; Sleeping; Shopping (at the mall?); Swimming; Relaxing; Reading; Looking; Eating
What animals do they encounter? Cat; Dog; Rabbit

#43 See a performance that doesn't include anyone I know
This is going to be King Lear at the ASB theatre with LoM and G. Should be fun.

I've offered to meet LoM for brekky (which is one of her 101/1001). Maybe she will join me on #51 Visit North Shore literary locations on the day. Not all of them of course but it MUST include Mr Sargeson's house. I'm not sure if it's open after the road works yet. It should be possible to get in a Devonport walk before hiving off to some of the North Shore ARC parks.

"That's a damned lie!" "Yes - what's your point?"

#87 Complete A-Z reading challenge - titles
Isn't it funny how sometimes you dread reading something because you think it is going to be dry and unappealing and make you think...then you start and realise that yes, it's making you think but this is actually a good thing and wow, it links in with that other book you read even though you are pretty sure that one was picked up randomly and the other came from a work-related blog you were reading? This happens to me fairly regularly and the E-title book falls into this category. But, I don't have it with me so you will just have to wait because I want to quote bits out of it.


#2 Make alphabet cubes. I want to experiment with some of the fabrics in a style similar to this. But then I wouldn't be able to show anyone...


#35 Cook through the Edmonds cookbook. I've made some more things out of this - scrambled eggs, ANZAC biscuits, bran muffins. I used a silicon tray for the muffins. First time I've used one and I have to say, it's a little weird. The muffins tasted quite okay. I really MUST get measuring spoons.


#43 See a performance that doesn't include anyone I know. Investigating shows at Silo Theatre. I like the look of them all! Dammit. On the plus side I only know one guy in one play (Lobby hero) for the rest of the year. Now I just have to figure out which one to go to. Leaning toward Three days of rain because the theatre did "Take me out" by the same playwright last year and I really enjoyed it.


Did a variation on #50 and wore only skirts to work last week. Interesting. I think it was probably a bit colder last week than it has been (and for winter it's positively summery) so wearing skirts wasn't the best option for staying warm. I ended up wearing a woolen coat in the morning just so I could feel my fingers.

#63 Buy food from the Farmers Market. Went back to the Farmers Market just so I could say that it wasn't a oncer. Bought 2 bags of mandarins, 1 bag of apples, 1 pain au chocolat. Mmmm. Delicious. Plus I feel good that the food we're eating comes from a place that I can cycle to.