All women should watch this 36 minute video (even those who are past the menopause already) — 7 Menopause Symptoms Nobody Warned You About!:
Itchy ears? Burning mouth? Sudden anxiety behind the wheel? Could it really be the menopause?
Cherry Healey and Dr Amir Khan look into the more obscure symptoms of perimenopause and menopause that nobody seems to talk about.
Cherry and Dr Amir cover everything from tinnitus and joint pain to hair loss, dry eyes and driving anxiety. Dr Amir explains what's happening inside our bodies, and most importantly, what we can do about it.
This was a quick read and the perpetrator proved fairly easy to identify. The circumstances around the crime were very interesting though. — Out with the Sunset (Parks Pat Mysteries Book 1) by P.D. Workman. 📚
Margie is Métis, tough, and determined to prove she’s more than just a “diversity hire.” To catch the killer, she’ll have to dig into secrets hiding beneath the surface of Calgary’s pristine pathways—and hope her first case doesn’t also become her last.
Heh, what are the odds? Yesterday I did a routine shop at the local supermarket and Deb went with a different list to a supermarket near her work which had on special items we wanted. Today's credit card statement shows something very unusual:
I was so distracted by other people at the gym today (tall guy, woman with baby, woman with great arm muscles doing assisted pull-ups, woman with very short and fitting shorts) that I totally lost track of my hip abductions and adductions. I did between 1 and 6 sets of either or both … 🤣
Heh, guy at the gym is so tall he just reaches out to put his hands on the grips for pull-ups. Then he has to bend his knees and cross his ankles to proceed😂
Though despondent, after our as-yet undecided election, at the prospect of the weakened National Party in coalition with the even stronger ultra-right wingers NZ First and ACT, and under the 'leadership' of wet noodle Christopher Luxon, I realised that 80% of NZers did not vote for ACT or NZ First.
So good to see this amazing young wahine cleaning up — 'An obligation to my people' - Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke to return to Parliament after landslide win | RNZ:
In preliminary results, Maipi-Clarke secured 68.6 percent of the electorate vote, more than double the 28.8 percent received by her closest challenger, Labour's Kiingi Kiriona.
See also Wow, watch the first 90 seconds of the Maiden Speech of NZ's youngest Member of Parliament… and Watch: Haka interrupts vote for the Treaty Principles Bill | RNZ.
I missed the "Thriller" part of this book's description and got a bit tired of it around half way through. I kept reading but won't buy more as I just found it rather annoying — Murder on the Spanish Seas by Wendy Church. 📚
Jesse watches a Russian woman slap a heavily scarred man in a near-empty bar. Then she sees him secretly hand a black backpack to a crew member.
Two days later a body is carried down the gangway under a sheet.
While eating breakfast I was contemplating biking to the shops for essential supplies (liquorice) once done. Meanwhile the sky was darkening.
On my last bite the heavy (now torrential) rain appeared.
Luckily Deb's off to Zumba and will pick up emergency supplies while out. 😀
While the whole of this 70 minute video is really interesting, I very specially enjoyed the 10 minutes or so, starting at this point — Joanne Freeman on the Revolutionary Era:
the question they started out with was do we stand or do we sit when [the president] comes in the room?
Because to them that had big implications. … If they sat it was suggesting that they were somehow more important than the president that they weren't honoring the president. If they stood maybe they were treating him like a king.
Deb and I biked up the road to the Bream Bay Combined Arts Group exhibition. This year I bought a Kingfisher for the garden. 🐦
Well, that's a disappointing NZ election result: the new Prime Minister will be called Chris (either Luxon (National) or Hipkins (Labour)), but we have to wait for special votes to be counted for any kind of definitive result.
The Greens did well (better than right-wing ACT), and fresh face Opportunity managed to get list seats.
The Electoral Commission aims to have the official results published on Friday 27 November. Detailed information … is expected to be available by Monday 14 December.
I'd just turned my camera towards the spoonbill standing on the mudflat when there was a great kerfuffle and two spoonbills were in flight. On examination the photos show a white-faced heron was also involved. 🐦
The best newsfeed on this election day in Aotearoa — Election 2026: Dogs at polling booths | The Spinoff.
We're considering an overseas trip next year, currently pondering Japan. As someone who loves language and languages I'm very happy with this free website from Japan's public broadcaster, NHK World-Japan — Easy Travel Japanese: 🎌
When traveling in Japan for the first time, what phrases do you need? Each 3-minute episode provides simple expressions you can put to use as soon as you land.
And now heavy rain and lightning. ⚡️
The forecast was for heavy rain and thunderstorms. Well the slight rain evaporated as soon as it hit the ground but now at least we have dark clouds and thunder.
Woolworths is building a new supermarket just behind the shopping centre.
4D. I thought long and hard about how to describe this amazing book, and 4-dimensional was what I decided on. This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel: 📚
a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it’s about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again
This book is funny, sad, complicated, and deeply textured. There are no easy answers, but in a family founded on love and what will be best for a child, somehow they muddle through.
The language was clever too. I saved half a dozen selections. Here's one:
Everyone’s someone else sometimes. Everyone transforms.
Two of these were today's find in a rare Op Shop visit. Claude tells me what it's called:
Tennis set or tennis plate is the name you’ll often see in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. The idea was that you could hold your plate and cup in one hand and chat at a tennis party.
It's perfect for the table beside my chair, to hold a small teapot and tea glass.