What a great short read: Send in the Bugs. The Michelangelos Need Cleaning.
The team washed [Night’s] hair with Pseudomonas stutzeri CONC11, a bacterium isolated from the waste of a tannery near Naples …
The local Canada Geese seem to be stirred up by the full moon. They’re flying around honking mightily. Volume up.
I watched the documentary Lift Like A Girl
On a busy, noisy high-traffic street corner in Alexandria, Egypt, a seemingly vacant corner lot surrounded by chain link fencing is the training site of Egypt’s most elite champions – female weightlifters.
👍 🎬
I can understand why an online film festival like Doc Edge Festival 2021 needs to know my birthdate but why on earth was I required to select a gender? As a matter of principal and as an objection I selected Other.
I thought I’d give Arepa de Queso a try. I had a few glitches, like forgetting the oil till a later step, having the heat too high so it’s a bit burnt / raw, wrong kinds of cheese. Worth a try though. Plus, perhaps I should have flattened them more.
I suspect this is a slightly more distant neighbour’s cat. Such a beauty! A very hasty photo through the window as it turned back for a moment while running away.
Dammit. A Covid+ traveller spent time in Wellington last weekend, so now Wellington region has to move to Alert Level 2. Luckily we live outside the region, but Deb works in Wellington several days per week. Fingers crossed there has been no community transmission.
This 6 minute Tom Scott video is well worth a watch: History forgot these old fireworks. We recreated them.
Around the old mining areas of North Wales, you find rock cannon: old Welsh firework sites. Most of the world has never heard of them: so we recreated them
🧨
A Kiwi Covid shot part 1
Yesterday I was wiped out by the time I got home. I drove to Levin to drop my car off for new tires, a window fix and a few other minor repairs. Then I walked briskly to the vaccination centre.
After my Pfizer Covid–19 shot I walked briskly to Line Dancing where Deb joined me. We danced for 2 hours then drove home. The day had started with a bit of stress too, around a computer sale.
The Covid shot was booked for Monday after I filled in an online form last Thursday and was rung early on Friday to make a time. The vaccinations were taking place at Levin’s Events Centre. I walked in to an overheated room (apparently they hadn’t had time to turn the heaters off). There were probably 100+ people in two seating areas, 5 vaccination stations and 3 tables with at least half a dozen workers. There was a steady stream of new arrivals.
First I checked in with one worker who completed some details on a laptop and filled in my vaccination card. I was directed to sit in the nearby group of seats and wait.
From time to time someone would come and read out names, one by one, until someone replied. That person would then go through behind a screened vaccination station.
Sometimes a woman who had been sitting by me would be called over to assist. When I heard her later speaking a Pacific Island language with some folks behind me I realised she must be a translator.
I’d arrived quite early and was glad my name was called some 20 minutes before my appointed time.
The nurse asked me some questions and had me give verbal assent to the shot, also explaining possible side effects.
I must say, the shot hurt quite a bit, unlike the flu shot I had last month which I barely noticed. Deb had her shots last month and tells me hers didn’t hurt at all. Sure enough, I’ve had a sore arm since, but it’s not bad.
After my shot I was directed towards another staff member who confirmed a couple of things with me then directed me to another staffer to organise my second appointment.
Then I was directed to the other group of chairs where I was to wait to be sent away.
After 20 minutes a staffer called my name, asked how I was feeling, checked the vaccination site on my arm and told me I was free to leave.
By dinner time I was done for. I put myself to bed where I slept intermittently until about 5.30 am. My arm’s still a bit sore, but otherwise I feel fine.
The whole Covid thing is a bit unreal in Aotearoa New Zealand because our borders closed promptly and the country had a very effective shutdown back in April 2020. We have no Covid in the community and most of us go about our daily lives more or less the same as ‘before’. Tourism is slowly starting to open back up, and we’re strongly encouraged to ‘scan in’ when we visit a venue such as a cafe or business, though I’m not sure many people still do that.
Our vaccination programme has also felt quite slow, but it’s probably not easy to obtain supply and of course there were organisational challenges in delivery, such as having trained staff.
Those who needed the shots most — those working at the border or in the quarantine sites where most travellers are required to spend 14 days — were rightly prioritised. Things seem to be picking up now.
OK, COVID vaccine part one ✅ Part 2 on 12 July.
We have some splendid Kāhu Swamp harrier around us. They soar past our lounge window, wings spread and sometimes sit on fence posts. Today I glanced out and saw one on a nearby post. I grabbed a couple of photos through the window, but when I opened the door it flew away. 😒 🐦
Ambivalent about Pineapple Lies: (Pineapple Port Mysteries 1) by Amy Vansant. 📚 The mystery solving seems to involve mainly having some random notion and declaring someone ‘the killer’. There’s a lot of (hetero) romance too. I may try book 2. It was light, and amusing enough.
Deb and I have been really enjoying (re)watching Scott & Bailey, a British police procedural series. The three lead characters are compelling, and the dynamics complex and textured. Above all though there is hope and redemption, along with human fallibility. pic 1, pic 2
The best kind of little free community library: The Good Dog Library at the dog park in Levin. 🐶 Love it!
I’m enjoying this author’s books, including The Girl Who Was Forgotten: (The Shee McQueen Mystery Thriller Series Book 2) by Amy Vansant. 📚
No more in that series so I’ve moved on to a different series by the same author.
Hooray, just got confirmation after an online booking request: my first Pfizer Covid shot is scheduled for Monday 21 June. 😎 Deb had her second shot today. Meanwhile, apparently, anti-vaxers in Levin are graffitiing pharmacy windows. 😒
The excellent 2 hour Indian movie Skater Girl brought tears to my eyes several times. The lead character, teenaged Prerna, finds freedom on a skateboard but her social environment keeps trying to restrict and limit her. There is controversy about the movie though. 🎬
Ugh. We sold a laptop with a troubled history — described as accurately as we could. We believed it was working fine. 3 weeks after purchase the buyer is disputing, claiming the Touch Bar doesn’t work. Breaking my brain considering what is right and proper and how to resolve.
This 2-minute video is about the stars of Māori New Year, Matariki, which happens at this time of year. ✨
How to find the Matariki star cluster
Māhutonga : Southern Cross
Hinetakurua : Sirius
Tautoru : Orion’s Belt
Puanga : Rigel
Te Matakāheru : Taurus
Matariki : Pleiades
The new bike rack arrived and I put it on my car. I checked a few videos about how to do it as the manual helpfully only had pictures without words. Grrr. Got my bike on then tried to add Deb’s bike. I was interrupted before figuring out the best arrangement of pedals etc. 🚴🏼
