Fatbastard: Blog

Kia ora tatou (as us woke lefties say in Aotearoa/New Zealand)
Its a long while since I finished the Uncle Frank series, and I was happily exploring what I could do with pitfiring porcelain, fishing and diving, facilitating menz workshops, and wondering what to write next. Then I developed myalgia rheumatica - swollen painful joints, no grip strength, living from dose to dose of painkillers. Shit! Got rid of my big trailer boat and sold my diving gear. Grieved for a while, but eventually got the myalgia under control with steroids.
At this point, I was almost ready to start writing again, when my local Council's tight budget caught up with me. The council can't afford to maintain their culverts and the one under the road above our place had been reduced from 2ft diameter to 6 inches by roots growing through cracks in the pipe. We had some heavy rain, the culvert couldn't cope, and a torrent of water with silt and cattle feces flowed over the road, scoured out our driveway, dumped 25 cu ft of gravel on our patio, and flowed under our doors and through evey room in our house, ruining all out furniture, appliances, flooring, skirting and drywall. The house has now been gutted, and we are in temporary accommodation. They say we will be lucky to be back in our place until mid January. I'll try to get back into writing then.

Kia ora koutou
I found this story hard to finish, and perhaps in consequence, I have been busy with other things. I have been learning to pit fire textured porcelain, heavily involved with the menz movement, and lately burying friends. (Had to - they were dead!).

But the last chapter is now done, and will be posted in a day or rwo.

Kia ora koutou

Summer fades to autumn, 23C becomes 19, and the rain encourages the neighbour's giant bamboo on our NW boundary to sprout new growth. Spikes 100mm in diameter, and 10m high. A threat rather than an immediate problem, but if left untrimmed, they will go to 20m and sprout shitloads of foliage and shade my bedroom deck from precious winter sun. Thank god (and Bunnings Hardware) for battery chainsaws!

Ch 44 tomorrow.

Kia ora tatou
A wedding 'down country' held things up a bit, and this was followed by a four day 'mens gathering' a (very) little closer to home. Contrary to popular belief, we did not remove our clothes, anoint our bodies with pig fat, and dance naked around a fire. Some of the guys did go to a local beach for a naked swim in the predawn, and watched the sun come up. I stayed back at the camp and finished Ch43. I will post on Tues.

Kia ora koutou
New Zealand's founding document - The Treaty of Waitangi was signed on February 6th 1840 about a hundred miles north of here. It provided a legal framework for relations between the indigenous Maori people and the British Crown, and promised Maori undisturbed posession of lands, forests, fisheries and other treasures. These promises were broken almost before the ink was dry, but the signing has been celebrated as our National Day for most of my lifetime. My wife and many of my friends will be going north to celebrate at Waitangi. I'm going souh to a wedding. Ch 42 before I go.