Saturday, May 22, 2004

Sniff.
I have a cold. It's raining. I want to do my essay but i can't concentrate. or think. or breathe properly, come to that.
We did good in the first day of the test against england, but now they are standing on us. Can nothing go right?

I have a mad urge to watch The Little Mermaid, but sadly have neither a VCR nor a copy of the movie, so I will have to not.

Ah, the institutions of slavery in Ancient Athens. Could anything be more interesting?

.......


Thursday, May 20, 2004

God's Own Country.
i was walking home from the supermarket today, and as I went round the corner and looked out past the macrocarpa pine over the wide, blue Wellington harbour, I thought to myself:

"My God, I'm such a kiwi."

In the sense of New Zealander, not bird or fruit. But seriously. I was walking along with, in my shopping bag, reduced cream and powdered onion soup, which when I arrived home, I made into dip, which i am now eating with carrots, celery, cheese and chips.

My flatmate thinks it's a seriously strange way to make dip, but what does she know? She's English.

To continue: I was walking along thinking in my head [as you do] about kiwiness, and you know what?
  • I can say my mihi: "Ko Mary taku ingoa..."
  • I make dip with maggi soup and nestle reduced cream
  • I can sing the first two verses of the national anthem in English and Maori, and I can get up to "Men of every creed and race....God Defend New Zealand" in the english version
  • I know the names of various All Blacks, past and present. I can't name the squad, but to be fair there isn't one at the moment.
  • I can name all the Black Caps. And I can play beach cricket and bat down.
  • I know the date the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, and who wrote it.
  • I know some of the words to Pokarekare Ana.
  • I know who Opo and Pelorus Jack were.
  • I know what a sheep looks like.
  • I can swim. And get sunburnt.
  • I have a pair of jandals.
  • I can recognise [from it's call] a kiwi, a morepork, a bellbird and a tui.

    And so I am feeling all patriotic. New Zealand is a beautiful country, even if it does have an unnatural obsession with the Lord of the Rings, and Peter Jackson in general. But he is lovely, and short and round and funny, so we are allowed.
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