Knitterati

I have been to our Knitterati knitting group today . After an hour or so we toddled off to look at a couple of galleries - Whitespace and Objectspace. The latter had a retrospective display of jewellery by Peter McKay who was making little decorated copper and silver fishes which were sold through Fingers Gallery where I bought one as a cheer-me up way back in 1992. Also bought a little silver kiwi which was his work too which I gave it to my Perth goddaughter to remind her of her heritage. He has gone on to bigger and different pieces, including symbolic and miraculous pieces with Gospel scenes which I liked too. Whitespace had some small paintings - by Nicky Foreman - 5 rows of 15 or so small paintings, sellings by the row (all sold) and a few larger paintings. She is from Taranaki and brings in the landscape to her paintings. We all liked them and may try to do some small mixed media pictures ourselves next week.
We went to Leys Institute to knit last week. It was very quiet but by the end of our stint there was a bit more life in the place. It was so silent with a lot of men looking balefully at us occupying their/our space.
Friday night was the end of year party - Dress for your favourite destination. I am still very foind of Berlin so wore Dieter's Berlin t shirt which he bought there last year. Lots of bubbly, cocktails and other drinks and finger food to go with it. We had the usual power point demo of our year's successes and all the increases in visits, hits on the website etc etc. We have been rewarded with the usual extra day's leave and a morning tea for each dept.
Saturday night went to Andrew Brown's engagement party to the young and beautiful Sara. It was a happy occasion and we were delighted to share in the celebrations with their extended families.
On Sunday it was a wet day so we forewent our usual jaunt to Orewa and went to the movies instead - Go for Zucker, all about 2 Jewish brothers with completely different lifestyles who have to reconcile before they can inherit from their mother’s estate - one of the conditions of her will. They get there in the end!
We booked our trip to Vietnam for the beginning of October and paid the deposit this morning so it is all go again.

Cruise

Fortunately or unfortunately our cruise has been cancelled as the boat was damaged on its previous trip - the cruise from Hell they called it. The Pacific Star left Auckland during the terrible storm which hit Auckland last Tuesday evening and got a battering. Passengers were sick and injured and ultimately had to be flown home from Vila while the boat makes its way to Brisbane for repair. See the New Zealand herald. We were rather dejected but I have unpacked my things now and are mulling over where we might like to go instead, in the near or medium -term future. Met my Knitterati cronies for our knitting and art chitchat at Art Station this morning. Back to work tomorrow for the time being.

Waiheke Weekend

Another weekend on the island, seeing as the weather was OK. Had a nice time - went straight from the ferry to a sale of old tables and vintage textiles and bought not a table which I would have liked nor a crocheted rug which I have made myself in years gone by but a nice new bag , made of furnishing fabric. It was the launch of Linda's venture, a friend of one of the women in the Knitterati Group which I belong to who had invited us to come along. Joanna and I were the only ones who could make it from the mainland. The other women had dressed 50s style with aprons, jewellery, outfits etc. and we had cups of tea in Crown Lynn cups etc, and they were all doing their knitting. It looked like a blast from the past. Fiddled around on the rest of Sat, and did our usual Mass, coffee, Artworks visit, where there was some tasteful matariki art on show and a Zinni Douglas retrospective exhibition including some gorgoeous lush pictures of arum lillies, one of which I wouldn't have minded buying if they hadn't already sold. Had a long walk home to the bach and met Linda and Joanna who were returning my scarf and bringing me the bag I had succombed to buying after all. They also came in to have a look at the bach, which she and friend really liked. I am very houseproud and pleased with the way it is looking too. Just the hearth to finish now - chose some terracotta tiles today over in Parnell, but they have to come down from Warkworth and then be couriered to the island. All designed to make one very patient.
Have parted from a couple of books, an enamel jug and a America's Cup biscuit tin this week on Trademe and will take a break for a couple of weeks as we go off on our Pacific Cruise on 18th July. Home on 28th.
Cheers and arohanui.

Dieter and East Prussia

Dieter spent the first 6 years of his life in Willenberg, a small town near the Polish border in those days. It was a border town in Masuria, a beautiful lake district, though Willenberg was on a river. We visited the town a few years ago we saw that idyllic river with dragonflies and even a beaver. The Russians were advancing on East Prussia in January 1941 and they bombed Willenberg on 19 January so everybody left in a great hurry. His mother, two sisters and Tante Friedel left together and went to Ortelsburg by train and then got a train west. His sister Baerbel was only 2 weeks old and had to be pushed through the snow in her pram . Dieter nearly got lost as he hung onto the wrong pram at one stage. When they got to the next big town called Elbing, the Russians were suddenly in front of them again. Their retreat to Germany was suddenly cut off and they took the next train to Koenigsberg, the capital of East Prussia where they hoped to get a ship. They stayed there for a few days during which time there were frequent bombs. They couldnt get a ship as there was not enough room for the size of their family group. This was the Wilhelm Gustlof, which was sunk with the loss of 6 thousand lives, mainly soldiers and women and children. It was sunk by a Russian torpedo . When they had a quiet spell they decided to leave Koenigsberg they decided to go up to the Samland peninsula and wait for the end of the war. It was a very nice Baltic Sea resort. They stayed in an old villa - the ground floor was uninhabitable but they lived upstairs. It was about 100 metres from the forest where they collected edible things in summer - blueberries, wild strawberries and sorrell, out of which a soup was made. Tante Friedel worked in the kitchen of the local collective farm and supplemented the family's meagre diet with potato peelings and anything else she could get, a bit of flour now and again. There was a weekly market where they could trade what they got in the forest. Dieter used to try his luck by hanging around the kitchen of the collective. One of the old cooks had a soft spot for him and gave him some food, but the Russian women upstairs did not like him and tipped buckets of water over him a couple of times.

Midwinter

We are coping a little better with winter now that we are managing to heat our sitting room each evening and having an open fire. Today it was sunny and we made a start on preparing our laundry for painting - had to take 20 years junk off the storage shelves so they could be painted. Went up the road for lunch with good friend M and then enjoyed coffee and cake ( a very yummy madeira and hazelnut walnut cake I made from a German cake book I had for many years and decided to sell, seeing I had made only one of the recipes in all that time). Had a game of scrabble at home. Had a pleasant weekend in spite of the wet weather. Went to Newmarket and browsed the shops in 277 after Mass at St Ben's on Sunday. Managed to buy a nice pair of trousers - red and navy herringbone tweedy look from the Laura Ashley shop. E came round for dinner which was nice.

Yesterday we went to see the movie Becoming Jane - about the life of Jane Austen. Feel inspired to read a bit more of her life and works again, remembering how much enjoyment we got out of her novels studying them with SMV at St Mary's all those years ago, or was it at Varsity as we called it then.