Miraz Jordan

When I bought my Series 9 Apple Watch a while ago I never got around to selling the S7 it replaced. Instead I use the S7 when the S9 is charging.

Last night I left the S7 on the bedside table and when I picked it up this morning it told me I'd tried too often to enter the wrong password and to wait 8 hours to try again.

Turns out this has often happened to people and the solution is to do a full reset.

Resetting …

At yesterday's checkup with the optometrist I discovered this is relevant to me — Dry Eye Disease 👁️ :

Meibomian Gland Dysfunction (MGD) is a widespread eye condition and the number one cause of Dry Eye Disease. There are 30-40 glands in each eyelid that produce the oily surface layer of your tears. If the glands get blocked or produce inadequate oil, the eyes feel irritated, sore and tired, and can appear red.

Taking the opportunity before a routine eye test in Whangārei to visit Otuihau | Whangārei Falls.

New space observatory opens in South Wairarapa | RNZ News:

A new observatory in South Wairarapa lets visitors watch exploding stars far away - and take the photos home with them.

The Cretney Observatory, which opened Saturday 13 September, boasts a … 400mm Testar Officina Stellare RiFAST telescope … sourced from Italy. … It sits on an eight tonne slab of concrete to keep the images stable.…

"It's a reflecting telescope, it's a carbon fibre tube and two very high quality mirrors that reflect the light that's travelled all that way through the universe, through the galaxy, into our little telescope in Martinborough."

My iPhone 13 Pro Max is busy updating my Apple Watch so I reached for the tiny iPhone 5 I can't bear to dispose of because it's so cute. I wanted to grab the sunrise.

Pretty excited that today when I moved a couple of fabric bags that had been left outside I startled a small dark coloured skink. [No photo.] Hooray for wildlife!

Joined a new group today: The Waipū Cove Walking Group. No joining fees, no committee, just a bunch of people who meet at the same time same place each week to go for a 1 hour walk, then socialise (if they feel like it) in the cafe across the road.

So friendly and welcoming! Such a brilliant idea.

Note to self:

New Zealand one of just a handful of countries to see upcoming partial solar eclipse:

Monday, 22 September [2025], a rare partial solar eclipse should be visible (weather permitting) in the early hours across the country.

Among my papers is the (English) Eastern Evening News from 26 June 1940.

Right up there at the top are the blackout times for that day: 9.49 pm to 4.17 am. So precise!

I've kept the paper though for an item on the back page which refers to my father.

SOLDIERS USE RIFLE
AS "DETECTOR"

How Black-Out Offender Was Traced

£20 FINE AT YARMOUTH

The story of how a lighting offender was discovered by soldiers, who aimed a rifle at the window to find its direction, was told to Yarmouth magistrates to-day, when Thaddeus Walter Ryan, of White House, Arnott Avenue, Gorleston, was summoned for displaying a light on June 10th. He admitted the offence in a letter.

The chairman (Mr. J. Fisher) said that the magistrates considered the offence very serious. They were determined to stop lights being shown, more especially on the front, and in future cases defendants would be fined very severely.

Ryan was fined £20 and 5s. costs.

Private Leonard Douglas Jordan said that he and his companions laid aim on the window with a rifle and rifle rest, and as soon as it was daylight they found where the light was coming from. The light was on for at least an hour.

Police-sergeant H. Wright said the police had received complaints from the military. There was a covering over the window, but it was of light cloth, and the house was in a very exposed place.

Claude tells me the fine today, 85 years later, would have been about £1,500.

I was sorting through a folder of old papers, hoping to dump some. Now I know why I kept the City Voice from 04 July 1996.

In the 1990s and 2000s I did a lot of work introducing people to the Internet, teaching how to use it.

Soon after that I bought my own domain name.

We can see this tree topped hill from our dining room window. It's just across the river and slightly north of us.

Aerial views show it's the site of a water reservoir and pine plantation, and a cell tower.

Historical records (PDF) say it's a Pā site.

Survey office plan SO 40 (1854-1865) shows the 14807 acre Ruakākā Block and shows a number of features of interest including the location of pa site Q07/94 named Pitorehu

The 8 or so padlocks on the chain round the gate made it very clear you can't get in for a look.

At the gym in Levin I used weights in multiples of 5 kilos. At the gym in Ruakākā weights are in multiples of pounds so I'm updating my routines to weird amounts. [NZ adopted the metric system 50 years ago now.]

For example, my chest press set included reps at 6.8 Kg, 13.6 Kg and 20.5 Kg. Sigh.

Today I plugged "Marsden Point" into the car's GPS. 7 minutes later we pulled into a public carpark, surrounded on all sides by the industrial area around the commercial port for Whangārei.

Across the channel (looking more or less into the sun) is Mount Manaia.

We're completely prepared for today's power outage … which is apparently next week. 🤦🏽‍♀️

Hanging out in downtown Whangarei on a sunny day. It’s so beautiful here.

With this being nearly 3 weeks away, I bet the tsunami siren test on 28 September will still take us by surprise. The nearest siren is only about 650 metres away.

Hah!

109 years ago, the Van Buren sisters completed a 5,500-mile solo ride in motorcycles across the United States in a bid to prove that women could serve as military dispatchers. …

During the ride, they were arrested numerous times, not for speeding but for wearing men’s clothes.

Via: Good News in History, September 8.