now and then...

You could be forgiven for thinking the most notable event in 1882 was the birth of Igor Stravinsky. Those of us with grandfathers born six years prior to that are apt to have a longer view of history. There are other musicians born that year who are worthy of mention—Percy Grainger par example, a great pianist, a physical culture enthusiast, a pretty good composer and a remarkable example of what the world down under was capable of producing (he was born in Australia).

The hundred twenty-fifth birthdays of these estimable personages also marks 125 years since frozen lamb was shipped from Dunedin to the UK! National Lamb Day was celebrated on February 15th. On that date long ago, the country’s first shipment of frozen meat left nearby Port Chalmers and arrived 98 days later with the meat in perfect condition. New Zealand now earns $5 billion a year from this trade.

Our family big events of late were a 40th birthday party for Tessa, which was combined, from our point of view, with a house warming. Somehow, in Northampton, we never got around to having a proper party of that sort. [We succeeded in taking the bull by the horns of that dilemma (?)] Another big deal was the construction of the mother of all bookcases—necessary for finally releasing much music and some of our books from the 30 or 40 boxes that have been kicking around on the floor of the study/studio/guestroom for the last six months…

Our newspaper (the Otago Daily Times) has headlined other notable events since the last blog entry. This week a large pod of dusky dolphins was observed and photographed 50 meters off the nearby coast (alright, I’m flying by the seat of my pants here, it may have been 500 meters…). There is a confluence of several major currents in these waters and several pods convened into one numbering an estimated 1000. Individual dusky dolphin feats included many jumps in the 3-meter (9 feet plus) range and one string of thirteen flips/summersaults in a row. Also front page news two weeks ago was the birth of the 500th albatross chick--observed in the Dunedin Albatross sanctuary. This institution protects this species and which has its only colony in the world near(ish) human habitation here on the Otago Peninsula.

Apropos of nothing: one of the familiar cultural objects that can make you feel at home—or not—when you travel is the familiar marques/brands of automobiles. Being near to the source of Hyundai, Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, Suzuki etc., New Zealand has more of these cars than Golf’s, Audi’s and BMW’s, which are high end products here—which probably accounts for their lesser numbers. The US appetite for ‘utes’ is evident to some degree…Land Rover is a big status symbol. A little research would reveal whether Holdens are original to Australia or if that company is owned by some bigger fish—this might be worthy of research if one felt it was important enough to checkout. Car culture is in a 50’s mode here…people go ‘houning’ downtown on weekend nights, revving their low-riding skirted and fancy low-profiled wheels up and down George Street. The prices of used cars seem to be one of the bargains here (as opposed to beer which is consistently 50% higher in cost). Many used cars are advertised in the ODT as ‘New Zealand new’. (Do they come from Australia or Japan?) (another topic for investigation: does Toyota manufacture in Australia or merely assemble there…)

Mildly disconcerting is the fact that many Japanese cars parallel to their US counterparts are somewhat differently styled here--invariably better looking. Most amusing are the different model names in evidence. We have the Familia (a Mazda), Bluebird (Nissan), Carib (a Toyota Corolla station wagon—which reminds you of the Caribbean?), Skyline (Nissan?) and Emina (a people mover—what were they thinking?) The high-end Toyota next up from the Camry is the Altise (it took me months to remember that this used to be an ‘Avalon’).

enough about not very much…we have survived Tessa being off playing the violin in Christchurch from Tuesday until Sunday. This week I will play in the Southern Sinfonia for the first time. Both Tessa and I are slowly gaining students so things are starting to look good in terms of business…Summer is great!