Gratitude #42

Well, yes, I missed posting a NaPoWriMo poem yesterday. I guess I've dropped out already. Talk about a major commitment fail. In my defense, I've had a headache since seeing Alice on Saturday night. To add to that, my eyes have been bothering me and a general laziness has overcome me as I've slipped further into holiday mode.

However this is a gratitude post, so here goes. I'm grateful for meeting Jo to watch the film Boy together yesterday. First off, I even drove there. Sure, it's just a couple of kilometres down the road to Brooklyn, but it's the first time I've felt confident enough to drive since I got out of hospital in December.

Boy was a wonderfully sweet film. If it's on near you I recommend seeing it, particularly if you were, as I was, an 80s child. It's worth it for the mash-up of Thriller at the end alone. It is a beautiful piece of New Zealand film making. The children are absolutely believable and totally captivating. It's definitely worth the hype.

I'm also grateful for the new Dr Who. I love him already. I know he was a controversial choice because of his age, but I think he was born to the role. I never thought I'd get over the loss of Chris Eccleston, then felt the same about David Tennant, so to be so impressed already is really saying something.

Today I'm also grateful for a beautiful late afternoon walk. The day had started off chilly and windy but by 3.30 the wind had died down almost completely and the sun was out. I wandered off at a gentle pace. Kingston was almost completely silent. It was as if there were no one left in the suburb and it was hard to believe we were minutes from the centre of the city. I walked to Tawatawa Reserve and my old friend the Stone Man. The sky was big and blue above me, with just enough cirrus and the odd cumulus cloud to keep things interesting. I had a little love affair with the clouds as I walked.

From Tawatawa Reserve I walked west past the statue. I was attempting to find a route down to Happy Valley. I think it's possible but the path, as I'd suspected, got ridiculously steep after a couple of hundred metres so I turned round and walked back to the ridge top again. I was surrounded by fragrant gorse. Everywhere there were little white nursery webs. Cabbage moths and Admiral butterflies competed with sparrows and pigeons for space in the sky. A hawk circled lazily above the reserve.

Heading back towards home I skirted the perimeter of the Montessori school, thinking there might be a path from the edge of the playing field. However I was out of luck so I returned back along the road. It was the time of day when cats come out to explore, though none wanted to play today.

My plans for this week include reactivating my gym membership and hopefully also making it to a session of Mao's Last Dancer. I'm hopeful my eyes will settle again and that this headache will recede. I refuse to expect otherwise.