Pip's Squeaks: A Weekend

It's been a busy weekend here in Mornington. I had big plans for Saturday, along the lines of going scooter shopping and putting the Mazda up on Trademe. However I got overtaken by a bout of post-run inertia. I wasn't really tired, just not in the mood for doing anything. I would have stayed on the sofa all day if it weren't for our neighbour.

Barry is a member of the Wellington band President Gas. He has invited us to at least a couple of his gigs in the past and we've never managed to get our act together to go. Once we simply forgot, and once I had terrible runner's knee and the idea of climbing up and down our 46 steps to go out was just too much to bear. So we thought we should probably make the effort this time around before he came to the conclusion that we were bad neighbours!

So just before 8 we reached the top of our steps at the same time as Barry and his son were loading instruments into the back of a taxi. We climbed into our Polo and everyone headed off to the Bluenote Bar. Hamish and I got there in time to grab a sofa in front of the stage and Hamish headed off to the bar for beer and cider.

Bluenote has always struck us as a bit of a bad pub rock kind of bar. We've walked past too many times when someone was singing bad karaoke to have any real desire to go there without good reason. However we were pleasantly surprised last night. Sure, the sound quality wasn't amazing, and the long-haired guy who staggered around for a while swigging from a bottle of whiskey before passing out on another couch and, er, wetting himself, kind of confirmed some of our suspicions. However for the main the crowd were an amicable bunch of enthusiastic fans, the bar was warm, the cider cold and the sofa comfortable.

And guess what? Our Barry can rock! Well, to be precise, the band of three fighting-back- middle-aging guys and Barry's young emo son rocked, enthusiastically, through what was apparently their whole album and several covers. Two ciders in I was dancing around on the sofa and singing as loudly as the guy standing behind me who knew every song and its entire history.

The moment Scott Wylie opened his mouth to sing I was reminded of Bowie. He backed that up for me nicely by doing a cover of We Can Be Heroes, not the only Bowie song of the evening. The guitarist shone on this track, and Barry funked it up in general on bass. Behind him Ben was doing a pretty good job on the drums, despite smashing through the skin of his snare half-way into the set. It was particularly nice to see the way the two communicated during the gig. The original songs were memorable, and it was great to be given a free copy of the album at the end of the evening. We would have bought one anyway.

I haven't had a good night out at a bar listening to good honest rock for too long, and I'm glad we pulled ourselves up off the sofa at home to go sit on another sofa! I don't even regret the slice of Vegan Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Mocha Cheesecake Hamish and I treated ourselves to at Midnight Expresso afterwards. Mmmm. Oh, and the Warriors won and the rowers won a pile of medals. So it was an excellent evening all around.

I had lots of plans for today, including getting up to go to the Farmers Market for vegetables. Instead my late night and big day of exercise caught up with me. I didn't wake up until 8.30, didn't get up until after 10, and even then I remained stuck in a fog, unable to think clearly. I couldn't even stomach the idea of any food, unheard of for me.

Eventually i woke up enough to pick up a few groceries. When my stomach finally woke up it began to crave fries in the worst possible way, so when I got home I cooked up a big bowl of wedges with cheese. By 1.00 I was finally starting to feel a little more alive, so Hamish and I headed off to wash and vacuum the Mazda. We had to queue for ages to get into the car wash, then we had to queue again to use the vacuum cleaner. I began to regret having used the car to transport green waste to the landfill for so long, as the poor vacuum struggled to cope. Finally however the job was done.

I've got mixed feelings about selling the Mazda. It's silly to keep a car that gets used maybe once a week if it's lucky, and I'll get more use out of a scooter. However my little Mazda is so fun to drive, and she corners like a dream. I spun her hard into each camber on the way down to Newtown and dreaded the day I will no longer be able to get behind that sporty little steering wheel.

Back home Hamish did some household maintenance, getting his hacksaw stuck into fixing the hinges on the veranda gate. I decided to ease myself into the gardening by scooping up leaves from the courtyard and doing a bit of weeding. Gaffer decided to help out by climbing into the bag I was using to collect the rubbish. Tissy sat and watched, not quite sure what was going on.

At 4.00 The Americana Show, which I was listening to on the Tivoli, finished on Active, and the temperature was starting to drop. Inside Hamish was baking scones, and the whole batch got eaten as soon as they were out of the oven. Yes, I can honestly say that Hamish is a master scone maker, just as claimed. His scones were light and fluffy and delicious. I hope the same can be said about the ginger crunch I made as soon as he cleared the kitchen. I shouldn't have tried to bake immediately after drinking a Scrumpy cider.

I followed up the ginger crunch by cooking a roast pork dinner with herby roast potatoes, salad and a home-made dressing. I think that's enough domestic goddessness for now! Having said that though, we have a mad genius Italian-Kiwi coming to stay tomorrow, so my days in the kitchen are not yet over...

In other minor revelations, the anniversary of the death of Princess Diana was remarkable for me in the sense that it means Hamish and I have been living together for over ten years. Ten years ago I was lying on the bed in our little bedsit flat in Newmarket when my sister called to tell me she was dead. We can't have been living there for long, perhaps only a couple of months. Labour Weekend will be the 11th anniversary of our getting together as a couple. Now that makes me feel old - we've been together nearly a third of my life!

And finally, not from this weekend but worthy of sharing:

Nic and Emo-Cat (modeling a Two-Dollar Shop floral lei). Emo was trying to drink the coffee dregs from the mugs on the bench: