Letters from Wetville

I never seem to read anything in sequence for book group anymore.  Wrong book for the wrong meeting, or I have to go home because I was falling asleep because I spent three hundred hours of my life filling in forms for the government to satisfy itself that I am doing my job (generally ensuring that I don't have time to do my job) or some other thing. So here is my record.  Not even all about books.  After the wonderful America is not the Heart by Elaine Castillo, I read Nora Ephron's Heartburn , (originally published c.1983 and recently reissued by Virago Classics, for the first time. After reading almost everything I could find about Elaine Castillo after finishing her novel, this is what stuck in my mind: What is striking about “America Is Not the Heart” is how it’s unapologetically Filipino, peppered with expressions in Ilocano, Pangasinan, and Tagalog and nuances like wearing tsinelas, calling everyone Ate, faith healing -- with no italics, no footnotes, n...

Earlier this evening we all went to the latest Cirque de Soleil film .  It was pretty spectacular.  Then we had fish and chips on the beach beside the Point Elizabeth walkway.  I didn't take the camera, but that was pretty spectacular as well.  Most of the rest of the day was about autumn planning, with wood stacking, clearing tree pruning debris, and of course one thousand and eight loads of washing. No sewing this weekend, but I did receive my Pavlova skirt and top pattern on Friday.  I have some alterations to make to my stripey Tiramisu dress this week, and then I can start the new sewalong.  I hope I like the circle skirt, because I have no less than four lots of fabric which I could make it in.  The fabric above is lovely and drapey (and prone to fraying).  I need to do some thinking about where I place the pattern pieces.  I guess it is designed more for clothing which falls straight down.  It would make a sumptuous summer dre...

How Far is Heaven is a beautiful film, set in Jerusalem on the Whanganui river, where the Sisters of Compassion, there for over 100 years, still have a base.  We took the children, mostly so we could spend some more time with them rather than getting a babysitter, and they enjoyed and got something out of it as well.  The comments by the nuns about the meaning of compassion (to suffer with) and their concept of being alongside someone/people, gave me much pause for thought.  Please go and see the film if it sounds interesting, as I know I haven't captured what I felt well in this very brief review.  The cinematography is beautiful. I've finished one sleeve of my pink Miette cardy and started the next.  I'm really keen to have it finished by early November and my floral curtain Colette crepe dress adjusted to wear with it.  I have a theory that if I take the dress up at the shoulders, it will stop falling off my shoulders and thus fit better.  This f...

I'm back from a fabulous rellies roadtrip. Fionn, Brighid and I met my sister at Springs Junction and then we drove to a little suburb just out of Blenheim where we stayed with our very dear ex-pat coaster friends and had a blast. The next day the kids stayed with their friends and my sister and I visited aunties and cousins and got cow poo all over our city shoes when we tried to get up the driveway to one lot of rellies. It's quite hard to kick poo out of the way of the gate without gumboots. I left my sister with our grandparents (who are 86 and 88 and still living in their own home) and went back to Blenheim for another night drinking local wine. Next morning we said our goodbyes (the kids looked so very sad, they had had the most perfect time playing and staying with their friends) and drove to Grandma and Grandad's to pick up my sister. Where to next? To Nelson. Not just to Nelson. To the Nelson fabric shops. Spotlight was pretty good and I bought my...

We headed south for some culture this afternoon. This is the Crooked Mile cinema from the outside and inside looking at the seats and where my children quickly made themselves comfortable and looking towards the screen. Poor quality photo, so hard to see the old style piano underneath the screen. I love red velvet curtains. We went to see Queen of the Sun . Indeed you can watch the trailer here . It was a fantastic documentary and Favourite Handyman is thinking about beekeeping now, though I suspect time poverty will prevent action on that front. The beekeeper we buy our local organic honey from is in the movie. I burst with pride seeing his honey on his wee stall in Barrytown in an international movie . I've been planting/sowing flowers to attract bees and other beneficial insects into our garden for a while now, but since the movie Fionn is keen to help me choose and sow some more seeds to make a bigger effort. Back home, this was dinner: finely chop 3 large leaves of kal...

Day two of my supposed month of not drinking. I committed myself and I doubt my health will fall over immediately if I break it, but it seemed a useful experiment at 4am recently. As in 4am wide awake having drunk wine the previous evening. The King's Speech. Mary K and I went to see it this evening and I loved it. I loved the Queen in it and when I got home I used her lovely crisp and calm voice for at least ten minutes on my children. Tomatoes. We are growing some, green ones so far. I watered them and delateralled them and weeded around them and then I had a look at my bed of compost with a layer of peastraw on top and harvested big fat slugs and black and tan caterpillars for the chooks. I put fertiliser on the lemon tree. In contrast to other years when we have killed the lemon tree(s), this year we have tiny lemons on the tree. The seeds of phacelia which I sowed recently have germinated already. Beetroot. My best crop ever. I do not want to make beetroot pickle or...

Made in Dagenham is the most fabulous movie I have seen in ages. I think it might be the only movie I have seen in months but that is beside the point; it is fantastic. I loved the storyline and it was so uplifting to be involved in an exciting quest for justice which was successful. Voyeuristically of course, but it is quite a contrast to the impotency we have felt in our town as our men lay buried down the mine. Back to Made in Dagenham , the story of women machinists fighting for equal pay, a fight which went all the way to Westminster and prompted equal pay legislation. The movie sexed up the story no end, with the workers mostly young and super sexy and with fabulous wardrobes. The footage of the estate looked just like where I worked in 2002, most likely because I was working in Dagenham. Some of the class and bullying stuff in the film didn't seem to have changed nearly enough 20 years later. There is a part of my heart which will always be in England and I loved tha...