Snippets from NZ and beyond.

It's one of those grey days we get in Auckland, that suffices for winter. usually such facets of nature would be enough to keep me inside, reading, eating and watching TV and eating, plus lots of coffee and eating---oh and cooking stuff to eat. Things have changed for two reasons. Getting a Jack Russell and having the bariatric surgery; both combined to propel me to a new way of living. NO matter what the weather, it is off to the park or at least a walk down the main street of Onehunga under a semblance of shelter, just to 'exorcize' the energetic spirits of the said dog! Before we attempt a sojourn in the park, I better comment on a few 'items' that fluttered before my eyes--from the NZ Herald site. I could of course wax on about the terrible events I see repeated each day from Al Jazeera, but I am increasingly frustrated by the impossibility of ever finding a solution to the Palestinian/Israeli conundrum. That one side will never recognise the right of the other to exist and the latter totally unwilling to negotiate a meaningful solution---then the region is domed to permanent warfare with occasional outbreaks of peace. So you can assume that rockets are being launched from Gaza and the response from Israel is to rain drone-impelled bombs on innocent civilians, killing in a totally disproportionate manner. No one can win this! IN NZ we hear today that a young boy injured horribly in a school based attack from another student has finally woken from a coma. We have floods in Northalnd that surpass anything in living memoery, leaving many withiout power and wondering what 'Mother nature' will throw at them next. Climate change, maybe! It is Dunedin, the city in the south of New Zealand and once our biggest city is in the headlines as being a shining example of how we should preserve our wonderful old buildings; well old for us that is. This city was once NZ's biggest and it seems that it is undergoing a modern-day revival. This gracious old lady shows up Auckland as the ;tart of the north.' Oops--me thinks I will be ducking a few verbal bombs for that one! Now another sacrilegious observation. The same paper reports that many mums and dads are persuading their offspring, particularly of the male kind, to look askew at our 'national game---RUGBY. We have had yet another sad death of a young person, resulting from a head injury. Now, parents are pressuring the kids to look at soccer--OK---'Football,' as a safer option. Time will tell if that becomes a short term blip or a tidal wave of change. Finally, as I have been clumsily typing this blog, I have had the BBC news on and they are talking about the 'resurgence' of coffee as a beverage of choice in London and they are attempting to persuade me that Starbucks is the epitome of the coffee culture. Yuck, is all I can say. I have it on good authority that if one wishes to sample 'good' coffee in London, then they better find an establishment run by an Italian or better still expat Aussies and New Zealanders, the home of the best cup of real coffee! www.authorneilcoleman.com