Pub Choir

 A group of people, getting together to sing. 

A group of people getting together who have never sung before, not even sure if everyone can sing, although I am guessing that if you have chosen to purchase a ticket and show up then you must, at least, have a marginal amount of interest in singing? Maybe, maybe not!

A group of people getting together, who have never sung together before, don't know the song that has been chosen and now are going to learn it, in 90 minutes, to be able to sing a somewhat shaky 3-part harmony.

Welcome to Pub Choir

Yes, 1000 people got together, with a choir leader and we got taught 3 different parts of a song and then we sang it as a group, 90 mins later. We all got taught our parts whilst in the theatre, we all laughed, we all cried and we all had a fun time.

It was interesting, it was fun and it was a great night out.

If you ever get the chance to go along to one of these events, then go.

So, what happens I hear you say......

You turn up and stand where you like in the theatre, although you sort of don't either. At the start you decide if you are high, medium or low and then a little shuffling takes place as people move within the theatre to be with more like-minded people, of singing range.

Then the leader, Astrid, teaches you all the parts, and you sing it back, and you sing it again, and possibly one more time, following the power point slides on the big screen. And then you finally start at the beginning (a very good place to start!) and you sing it all the way through. And just for good measure, you sing it all the way through again and then you go home. 2 hours later, elated that 1000 people all managed to sing the song, at the same time, with a 3-part harmony and it was recorded on a shaky phone camera.

It was totally crazy and totally fun

Crisp Morning Walk

 Today's Sunday walk was at a reserve near the zoo. A place that I had not been to walk before. I have been to the zoo but not the surrounding area. Like yesterday that started icy and extremely fresh, we had the same today and it made for a spectacular scenery.

I truly appreciate the nature of the world and even after 50+ years on this world, I am still in awe of the spectacular natural beauty that we have to appreciate.

Winter is well and truly here, although the blue sky and sunshine make for the day to be lovely, once the sun warms it up, but sadly, once it goes down about 5pm it is cold again. I know we only have about another month of this before suddenly it will be heading towards spring and winter will be passed.

I actually have an overseas trip coming up in 3 weeks' time to the sunshine paradise of Rarotonga, Cook Islands, only for a week, but enough that it will get me through the cold and boast my stores of sunshine to get me through the winter and spring ahead. Sunshine is definitely my enthusiasm boast and keeps my body running.

parkrun Road Trip

 As we have 75 parkrun locations in New Zealand currently, then travelling to do a different course is always a fun thing to do, especially when you do it with friends.

Yes, we currently have 75 locations, and it is still growing. I know of about 12 others that are in the 'potential' file, it is awesome to see something so simple and easy get developed and made available to so many.

I was just going to do a local one today but got talked into joining a group driving about 90 mins away. By the end of the day, I am so glad that I did, I had a great day out with friends, lots of laughing and a great time. Plus, the fun of standing in the freezing cold 2c early morning waiting for the sun to rise high enough to warm us up.

The course had a gentle undulating to it, which was a bugger as you were climbing a gentle incline for the whole of the last 1km which is hard when you have pushed yourself. It made for a great 5km time and I felt great afterwards.

Breakfast at the local cafe was interesting, from the deconstructed French Toast to the glasses used for the drinks.

My young friend thought my 'tiki' glass was cool and interesting, but then so did I too. And the sophistication of adding sugar to the rim of my Fruit Breeze, which was just fruit syrup and sparkling water was a cool touch (if a little sticky)

My deconstructed breakfast made eating it an adventure as the flavours were not blended, you added them together as you ate them.

The green is pistachio, not wasabi! Someone at the table did have a moment of horror when they thought I was putting hot stuff on my toast!

Another craze of parkrun, if you want to get into it, is to complete challenges. Yes, we are crazy people who will chase event numbers, letters of the alphabet and other aspects of completing a parkrun on a specific date, or at a location with the name starting with a letter that we need.

One such challenge is the 'match challenge' this involves attending an event whose event number matches your event number. So, if you are completing your 87 event and the parkrun is holding their 87th event, then you have a match. I have been looking into this challenge for a few weeks now and with the limited number of locations we have in NZ and the travel that would be involved I always presumed that this one would happen either by sheer coincidence or maybe in a year to two when I could get all the stars aligned.

As mentioned, I was not planning on this roadie and had planned to go somewhere else, so it was only as they were doing the event briefing at the start in the freezing cold and mentioned the event number that I quickly checked to confirm that I was indeed completing my event of the same number 😀

One Match Challenge ticked off 👌

Now to focus on working towards other challenges, although the event today did tick several aspects of several challenges but still got work to do to achieve others, plus the joy of travel to attend a location with the requirement I need. parkrun is free they say, until you start looking at challenges and then it becomes expensive to travel around the country/world chasing challenges 😎

Winter Walking with Fog

 The Sunday walk today was to a small lake just north of the city. We have so much countryside, that agriculture lakes are all over the place and also, several trusts or donated pieces of land have been developed into reserves for the public.

This one, known locally as Lake D (yes there are ones close by called Lake B and Lake C) is about 3.1km round and has a great gravel path to follow. It is easy to wander round or run if you are inclined to do so!

Today, a typical winter morning, blue skies, cloud and fog. Cold enough that you still need a jacket and layers but beautiful enough to be breath takingly spectacular.

My friend was determined to get out her camping chair and use it, even if it was just for the last 5 minutes before we left! (it was new)

She looked like the queen sat there, viewing the lake and the world going by.

Walk finished, all accounted for and off to breakfast at a local cafe.

Agriculture

 New Zealand is the land of land and boy do they use it. Agriculture is massive here and especially in the center of the island I live in, they grow crops or farm animals, and it is huge. Lots of export opportunities for our produce.

So obviously they have a 4 day event where you can come together and see all that is agriculture, all the new tractors, farming machinery and anything else you can think of. Companies offering their products for farmers to see what they need new. Like that million-dollar tractor that is a tall as a 2-story house and has all the latest gadgets and gizmos to make it run well, go fast and be more efficient.

It is open to the public, and it can be an enjoyable way to pass a full day, from 9am to 5pm, you wander and view and go wow at some odd machinery and fascinating equipment. The thing that caught my eye this year was the drones. Now we are not talking little ones with a phone attached to view the world below, oh no, we are talking massive things that fertilize the ground for you. I think my car was about the same size as this one drone I saw!

We don't go every year, not that much into agriculture, but once every 5 years is enough for you to see the changes taking place in the future of agriculture.

And sometimes, you dream of having a garden big enough and steep enough to have a robot lawn mower that goes up hills

Or the ability to need enough power tools to create your own transformer

Of course, everything on offer is in large size, so all advertising is done large.

We were lucky enough to get a beautiful blue-sky day to wander with, which makes all the difference, otherwise a day of mud is just not as much fun.

Sunset

 Even the sunsets can be spectacular, and I love and appreciate them every day

Working

 And just sometimes, you have to stay at work whilst it is dark.

In New Zealand, whilst we do have daylight savings, our wintertime is never a time that we get really early sun sets, usually 5.30pm will be the earliest and it will only be for a very short time. Unlike the UK that can have sunset as early as 3.55pm

So, if I am still working and it is dark outside, then something has gone a miss and, in this case, it was to get a student assessment completed for them.