When I read the newspaper during breakfast this morning of course I could not miss the fact that NZ had won the Rugby World Cup. It was all over the paper, seemingly on every second page. But in browsing the paper I discovered a couple of other NZ sport success stories. Our cricket team in Zimbabwe chased down a reasonable Zimbabwe total in a 50over one day game. One of the batsmen scored a century, another scored 87. They have now secured the series. Our netball team, the Silver Ferns, beat the Australians by one goal in Perth. It is interesting, in a number of sports NZ does quite well. NZ triathletes do well at international races. Our rowing teams do well. Our yachting is a way up there with the best in the world. We are a small country of 4 million people. That is just a fraction of the number of people in many cities throughout the world. I think we can be proud of our sporting prowess, even if we are not the best in the world, we do well to be up there among the best. Just now the country has gone mad celebrating the Rugby World Cup victory. A street parade in Auckland, more coming in Wellington and Christchurch. After Pike River coal mine, earthquakes, recession news and now a shipping disaster, the Rugby World Cup feels like some good news at last. Still just a game though!
Getting Old
Yesterday I told you I took a service at Ross Home an elderly person's rest home. I confessed to not looking forward to doing these services. Here is my reason for this. I expose an in built weakness and perhaps fear. I have been going to Ross Home to take services about 3 times a year for well over 20 years. You go there and the congregation arrives in the chapel. Some come under their own steam, walk in and take a seat. Others come with "Zimmer Frames" assisting their walking. Still others come in wheel chairs, some with staff or family pushing, others with motorised ones. Others come in Lazy Boy/bed type things on wheels. Some are "with it", others seem to almost be "on the way out". The thing that gets me when I go there regularly is that you slowly see people dying. For example; There were two sisters in the rest home. Dignified well dressed ladies who would come regularly to church. They were good to converse with, positive and intelligent. After a while you visit and one looks a bit vacant, the other is in a wheel chair. Then another visit, and there is only one sister. Then one Sunday the remaining sister was in a Lazy boy / bed thingy and looking sad. The next time I visit she too may not be there. It is the reality of rest homes. People are, as the TV show title says, "Waiting for God". But I find it so hard watching these active lively people slowly getting more and more frail, then not being there. There was a couple I met four visits ago. They sat and told me their story. They were a joy to meet. The next time I visited she was alone. Now she is in a wheel chair looking sad. Perhaps I am not facing my own mortality? Perhaps I am not liking the prospect of getting older myself? But I sometimes find it sad watching these people in the tail end of life. I am impressed though, because so many of the people themselves are still positive and doing the best with what they have left. Anyway I confess to you my unease.
Monday.. the first day of my holiday week.
I am on holiday this whole week. I am mostly holidaying at home. Today, because of my busy weekend I slept in. ... nice. I got up and went out to the garage. The lights had not been working and I had checked the bulbs and the fuse. I got out my tester and discovered the switch was faulty. I dug in my old cardboard wine cask of hoarded second hand bits labelled "Electrical things". I found a switch that would fit, attached the wires, screwed it back in place and all is going.... satisfaction! Cup of coffee. Then I got out my weed eater and had a session on an area of long grass for a while. We had a little TV on a shelf in the kitchen, which looked very precarious. The shelf was too small for the TV, and the earthquakes in Christchurch made me realise I should secure it. I went out to the garage and found an old microwave shelf. I adapted this and installed it in a better place and in such a way that the TV is actually screwed to it. (The TV is there so that whoever is cooking - most often my wife - can watch the news while preparing food.) - again... satisfaction. I then replaced some old rusted brackets on the old shelf with new ones I inherited from somebody. Then, having tidied the workshop up, I went back to cutting long grass with the weed eater. A 6k jog finished my day. I love that the stuff I have "hoarded" means I can do things for nothing. ( My running friend even picked a bolt up off the road for me yesterday... she knew I probably would if I saw it... she usually just rolls her eyes when I stop to pick up handy things) I love problem solving and fixing things up. I enjoy the fact that I have gathered enough tools and machinery to easily do most jobs. And - I was pleased to be able to jog that distance. The first day of my week off was good.
My running friend is a very good photographer. ( http://daybydaybyjane.blogspot.com/ ) Upon reading my blog about "Death" as she walked through a nearby cemetery she took these photos and put them together.
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