Random musings

Today’s quote is from one of Tim’s travel diaries:

“The best part of holidays is anticipation and then recollection”

Another stunning day in paradise!  Thank you for all your posts and feedback, if you have missed reading them here is the link to Day 10.

A good and inspirational friend has departed

Today I received sad news that one of my old cycling buddies and valued friend Tim Reep had passed away.  Tim was 86 yrs old and has been an inspiration and a good friend to me over many years.  It has been an honour and a privilege to have had Tim in my life and to spend many happy hours with him cycling our roads and enjoying many cups of tea.  Tim you were a true gentleman, gentle in nature and in your actions, with a great sense of humour and quietly determined – you will be missed by many.

Peter, Les and I recently visited Tim and it was a day well spent enjoying lunch together and sharing memories.  Reflecting on the time we spent together highlighted the importance of having experiences which then create memories which last a life time.

I thought I’d share a few words from one of Tim’s first cycling adventures “A Bike Ride in Europe” July 1998, where he rode 4,067 kms.

“Age has certain benefits, one may have to look hard for them, but they are there.  The sudden release from day to day responsibilities coinciding with a few years receipt of the old age pension was a marvellous excuse to take off and test oneself with a reasonably strenuous bike ride.  Continental Europe is a mecca for cycle touring, so I dug out the map, considered where the prevailing wind was likely to come from, and decided that bottom to top seemed the obvious route.  Gibraltar to John O’Groats. The best part of holidays is recollection, then anticipation, so the middle part has to be memorable.” 

Tim was one of those riders who had incredible endurance and seemed to require very little food or water. We will miss you Tim, but we know you will be in good company up there with fellow cyclists: Brooke, Peter S, Peter E, Bevan, and Dave.  My thoughts are with you Kim, Wogga and rest of the family.  Look forward to celebrating your life Tim sometime soon.

A story of Peter and Tim riding a tandem

Peter has just sent me this memory, so I thought I’d share it with you. Hope you enjoy it.

My favourite memory is from the days when Tim and I rode tandem – enabling us go fast enough to make life difficult for younger/faster riders in the “Tuesday Group” who would normally leave us in their wake.

On one occasion, after our morning tea stop at Gordonton, Tim and I mounted our tandem – or so I thought – and set off for my home. Imagine my surprise when after a kilometre or so a car overtook us with Tim leaning out of the car window gesticulating madly.

There are two versions of what had led to this state of affairs. Tim put the blame on me for failing to check that he, as stoker, was in the rear seat of the bike before I set off. I didn’t deny this, but pointed out that I had ridden a considerable distance without noticing Tim’s absence, thus raising questions about the value of his contribution to our supposedly joint effort.

I’m happy to report that Tim and I have remained firm friends and his death saddens me enormously.

RIP Tim

Signs of autumn

Thank you “I-Solution Wanaka”  and Sue for the following photographs.

To-do list

Great news my garage door is all painted and looking like new, except the dents which have always been there seem more obvious.  The semi-gloss paint seems to highlight them, but guess like all things I’ll get used it them.

How has your day 11 been? What exciting events or happenings have been happening in your bubble?

Till Day 12, take care out there and stay in your bubble!  GoldCard Gal  🙂

Quote for the day sent in by Sue:

“When the house of the world is dark, love will find a way to create windows”. by Rimu

Another stunning day – we certainly can to be thankful for that.  End of daylight saving tonight, sure looking forward to the lighter mornings, are you?

When chatting to one of my readers yesterday, I realised I’d failed to include a link to the previous day’s comments so you can read what other people have been up to.  Here is the link to Day nine,  you do need to scroll down to comments section.  Also you can comment on a blog/post and ask “not to be published”.  

Today has been a great day

Today was full of surprises and at this stage all good.  While out cycling this morning I had an epiphany of some sort  relating to this blog.  I realised for my creative mind to work effectively I need open space, no distractions, just me on my bike cycling along enjoying the country side, and preferably with the wind on my back.  My mind is then free to go where it likes; no filtering of thoughts, new ideas popping into my consciousness, problem solving, dreaming, planning etc, the list goes on.  I got excited with some of the ideas that popped up. The problem I often have is I forget to write down the ideas when I get home – and those ideas seem to disappear into outer space!!  But not this morning.

I want this blog to be more than just a place where I record daily activities and reflections. One of my ideas is to introduce my residential, and non-cycling readers to country scenes around the Waikato, especially so as we are lock-down. 

I’m so pleased I’m allowed to cycle and walk in our surrounding countryside, this ensures my mental health needs are being meet.  How is your mental health?  How do you keep yourself balanced and in sync?

Small rural business

While my mind was coming up with many ideas, this idea I thought was particularly good.  Telling you about the small rural businesses I pass on my rides and stopping off to take photographs.  Today’s small business is Alexander Organics, 133 Flume Road, Cambridge.  They sell raw milk and are a MPI Registered Raw Milk Provider.  What was really interesting was chatting to the woman in the photograph below.  (I apologise for the quality of the photograph, the sun was in the wrong position, but you get the gist.)

This woman travels over from Glen Massey (approx 50 kms away) about every three weeks to buy milk for her family, her mum and her grandmother.  She said “It’s the best.  It deep freezes well and we love it.  We always travel the back roads to here, just love the drive.  We used to buy our raw milk from a place near Gordonton, but that has closed down”. 

Alexander Organics also provide the reusable glass milk bottles, chilly bag and free range duck eggs.  Their farm is organic and their herd is made up of mainly Dairy Shorthorn and Ayrshire with some Friesian and Jersey X cows. 

While at The Shop these old  milk cans also caught my eye.  You have to born in a certain generation to remember them!  These cans were on the left of the building.

Signs of Autumn 

Another idea I had was to include a section titled “signs of autumn”.  Here I’d love you to send me your photographs (along with little story about the photograph) of any “signs of autumn” you see in your garden, while out walking or in your neighbourhood. Please send the photographs to my email hdwickham@gmail.com.  I’m looking forward to receiving them.

Below is my favourite ‘sign of autumn’ I saw today at Te Mire Mountain Bike Park.  Last Saturday there were quite a few vehicles parked up but thankfully today I only saw two young men who had cycled over from Cambridge.

 

To-do lists

Only one item on my to-do list has been partly completed today, painting first coat of paint on my garage door.  What have you crossed off your to-do list?

How has your day 10 gone?  Anything exciting happened? 

That’s it for another day, take care and stay in your bubble – GoldGold Gal 🙂

Quote for the day:

“Nothing good comes cheaply, so we shouldn’t be surprised when we meet the hard while going for the best. Hard times are not quit times’.  by Terry Mark

Another stunning day in paradise.  I can now cross two more jobs of my to-do list and that feels pretty good: hedge number 2 cut and looking good and the garage door soap-washed ready for painting.  How has your day nine been?

Thank you for your informative, entertaining and interesting posts. 🙂

Writing your life story follow-up

Following on from last night’s suggestion about writing your life story, my sister-in-law Alison posted these comments in a post this morning:

“You as the writer, are in control of your story yourself and can decide what is important to include and what to discard.
Having written the life stories of many rural Irish women and published them with their permission, I have received a number of letters from the sons of the newly bereaved family saying that they never really knew what Mum did and how grateful they were to have her story from the book to speak from at the funeral. Boys tend to talk to and do stuff with Dad, but not always that often with Mum.”

Thank you Alison.  Do those words inspire you to start writing your own life story?  Alison is a published writer and here is a link to her website and an overview of her books: Irish Women Speak – Alison Wickham.  I can highly recommend her books, they describe the life and times of older Irish women.  

Lapageria from Jan’s garden

Thank you Jan for sending me this beautiful photo.  Jan & Bill have a stunningly beautifully garden outside Cambridge.  Last year it was in NZ Home and Garden magazine, that how’s beautiful it is. Feel free to send through more photographs Jan.

Must admit I’m feeling pretty tired this evening.  The brain is in “go slow” mode!.  So that is it from me.  Trust you’ve had a great day nine, and look forward to hearing about it.  

Take care and stay in your bubble – GoldCard Gal 🙂

 

 

Quote for the day:

“The days you are most uncomfortable, are the days you learn the most about yourself.”  from learnlivebetter.com

A special thank you to ‘Unhurried in Hamilton’, I-Solution from Wanaka and Carly from Tamahere for your continual posting of happenings and events in your life and neighbourhood.  It makes for great reading, well done!

Today has been a couple of firsts for me.  Firstly, this is the longest number of days I’ve ever written something every day.  Often wanted too, but ……..  What a difference making a ‘commitment’ makes.  And I guess I quite enjoy the challenge of trying to come up with something new each day, not that I’d want to do that for a job!  I’m enjoying taking photographs of my garden, that is quite easy.  I’m a ‘quote freak’ so that is no issue.  It’s the content of these posts that are challenging.

My second first today was the online teaching with my Wintec students.  Can’t say it was a great success, far from it.  We had a few logging-in issues but once I’d worked out that, it was OK.  As I’m more task focused, I found it hard to “waffle” or ‘talk about nothing’ to fill in time. What I did enjoy was seeing how the students interacted with each other after the learning was done.  They were happy to stay on-line and catch-up with each other, quite different to when they are in class.

A big thank to Virginia for helping me with my technical blog issues that I’ve struggling with over the last few days.  Oh the relief to have those sorted. I owe you!

Are you getting bored?

If you are one of those people who doesn’t have to work from home and you’ve completed all the jobs on the to-do list, how about starting to write your life story.  If not for yourself for your children and grandchildren.  There is a well organised step-by-step book titled “Write your life story” by Michael Oke, published by How to Books Ltd, United Kingdom.  I’m just putting the idea out there.  What do you reckon?

Grocery run

Late this afternoon I made the grocery run (for the neighbours) to the supermarket. There was a small cue but not the usual 5.30 pm rush.  The check-out operators were saying it’s the quietest time of the day.  Shelves were mostly well stacked and vegetables fresh and so much cheaper than 5 days ago.

It’s so nice riding home along Matangi Road without the vehicles racing past you.  I felt as though I was off on another adventure!

I’ve had a day of sitting in my office, so I’m off out to the garage to do some sanding of my outdoor furniture, as it aren’t going to get done otherwise and I need to clear my head.

Trust you’ve had a great day eight?  Take care out there and remember to stay in your bubble.  Till day nine – GoldCard Gal 🙂

Quote for the day:

“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.” Anne Frank

Day seven started and ended with another stunning autumn day, sun shining, clear blue skies and no wind.  While out walking this morning I found my first feijoa.  Haven’t tasted it yet, still a little hard.  Who doesn’t love feijoa season?  Perhaps we can share favourite feijoa recipes, but only tried and tested ones please.

From your comments regarding current reading, trilogy books seem to be a theme.  I guess it helps having all this spare time.  

How is day seven going for you?  Settling into and making the most of ‘living in your bubble’ or getting a little tired of it?  For those of you feeling a little sorry for yourself being isolated at home, this is my suggested cure for you.

5TTBTF

When I was living and working in Vientiane (Laos PDF) back in 2007, I went through a low/tough period.  Was I depressed, don’t think so, perhaps more needing a break or change of environment.  Anyway what I found worked then and has every since is identifying ‘5 things to be thankful for’ each day.  At the end of each day I’d write down five things to be thankful for, simple things such as: I’m healthy; I have a good home to live in; I have money: I’m experiencing another culture – get the gist.  What surprised me was how quickly my mental attitude changed and I started seeing so many positives in my life.  Even now I often say to myself ‘what am I thankful for’.  I find acknowledging what I’m  thankful for brings a sense of peacefulness and contentment.

How do you cope with down-times?  Love to hear your strategies?

Current Project – help please

One of my goals during this lock-down is to clean-up my rusted outdoor table and chairs, getting rid of the rust and then repainting them. My current method is using a drill with wire brush attachment, or using a handheld wire brush for those more difficult to get to places.  

If you have done this type of restoration before, I’d welcome any suggestions.  

To-Do Lists

Cut my driveway hedge cut today – yippie its looking pretty good.  One big hedge to go, that will happen on Friday.

So, how is your To-do list going?  Making progress or not?  Love to hear your progress or not!

How is the grape harvest going in Blenheim?  

Till tomorrow, take care out there and stay in your bubble – GoldCard Gal 🙂