Oreti Village, Pukawa Bay, North Island, New Zeland
On the southern tip of Lake Taupo
Three days after we arrive. Cold. Red Sky.
A warning that the weather is going to change. Will it be rain or snow?
It is as cold and peaceful as the first, but the sun is not yet shining. All we have is this ethereal pinkish tinge to the sky
Before the first clouds appear. The surface of the lake is like a mirror, reflecting the sky, and clouds.
How soon will it be before the boats begin to appear?
Yep, another of those interesting little words that mean more than it appears.
Aside from the fact it is the air that we breathe, it can also be used to describe music.
It can be a breath of fresh air, though it’s hard to say where in this ever increasingly polluted atmosphere than we could literally draw one, except on a mountain top, where conversely it would be hard to breathe at all.
Have the air sucked out of us, well, that literally isn’t possible unless some madman comes up with a weird sort of vacuum cleaner, but that might be an episode for the X-Files.
He had an air about him, or her, as the case might be, which might refer to a sort of deference or manner. There again that air might be one of boredom, which is what a lot of students seem to have in class.
Sorry, been a teacher, and know well the expressions on their faces. Had one myself once, and finished up on the end of a chalkboard eraser. Yep, in the good old day’s teachers used to chuck stuff at us recalcitrant students to get our attention, and not undergo a storm of protest from irate parents.
These days those same parents would most likely air their grievance, opinion, or view to the headmaster.
I’m guessing that same headmaster would be wishing those same parents to vanish into thin air, though I’m not sure how that would be possible.
And lastly, television stations air shows.
Weird, eh, how such a simple word can be used in so many contexts.
Buying a new car is an experience most of us would regard as a chore at best and a waste of valuable time at worst.
It would be a lot easier if the salespeople actually treated you with the respect you deserved. The problem is, while most of them are polite and affable, underneath that seemingly ‘I’m your best friend’ countenance, is the under the breath uttered words ‘how much can I make from this deal’.
And that’s the truth of it.
It all comes down to money.
How much your willing to pay, and how much they can screw out of you.
Sorry, but after years and years of dealing with these people, I have built up considerable cynicism
But, once again, it’s time to go out into the shady underworld of car sales to get a new car, or as the case will be this time, a new SUV.
We don’t have a lot of money to spend this time, so the choices are going to be limited, and unlike years past when I could used the business to pay for a lease, and therefore watch the salesman load the price of the car to make it seem like we were getting more for our trade in that it was worth, this time it’s a straight cash transaction.
First thing we notice is that all the advertised prices are loaded for people buying with finance. So, we say there’s no trade in and we’re paying cash, and they say the price is the same.
Liars.
We haven’t event got out of the block, and they’re barefaced lying to us.
We have a short list of three. At all three showrpoms, when approached with no trade in pay by cash deal, all said it wouldn’t affect the price.
A good enough reason to just walk away, but that had the effect of getting, at the very least, their attention. Never seen a salesman yet who would let a customer just walk away. Perhaps they do a deal, they say.
OK, so now we know there is some movement on the price. Not much, but it’s a start.
First car is a Honda CRV. In reality there’s really only a few models, equating to basic, better, best, and top of the range. Prices run from 28000 to 50000 before the dealar starts loading the price with imaginary costs like the ubiquitous dealer delivery charge, otherwise known as guaranteed profit.
Whatever else the salesman can bluff out of the customer adds to his commission and the unwritten profit margin per car that’s been set by the manager.
You can always tell who the manager is, he’s the one all the sales people go to when pretending to to discuss any further allowances in the price ostensibly to the advantage of the customer.
It’s more likely a discussion about the footy picking competition, if it’s winter, or the next bbq if it’s summer. Salesman of the month is the host.
Sometimes they’ll find a few dollars or thrown in a freebie, but most times there’s no change.
That’s when you walk.
It’s where you discover that their so-called best price is nothing like what they can do if it means losing a sale. Or not.
You have to be prepared to walk away, even if there’s no prospect of a better deal, and even if that’s the car you want. There are other dealers.
There are also other cars. I’ve found it’s not a good idea to get hooked on one particular car. It’s why we have a shortlist of three. I could live with any one of them.
The Honda people are affable, the salesman shows us the car, gives an little talk about the features, and we go for a test drive.
It fits the criteria, and has a few bells and whistles, like the screen, and safety features. The cost to get those extra bells and whistles might be too much.
We then go to see the Rav4.
First thing we learn, that Toyota is the biggest car company in the world, and the largest seller of vehicles in the world.
Relevance?
Well I suppose that’s meant to make us feel better about the car, that Toyota wouldn’t be the biggest and best if they sold crummy cars.
Not buying it. Any car manufacturer can make a lemon, and happily sell it to an unsuspecting purchaser.
We get a run down of the car on a large interactive t.v. screen. It certainly had the features were looking for, has the same 4 types of models, and roughly the same pricing.
The test drive proved that it may serve our on road requirements. Similarly we are told that there’s not a lot of room to move on price, surprise surprise, but one more advantage, fixed price servicing that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
The third contender is a Nissan X Trail. The same model structure but with a slight difference, there’s a special on giving the second top model a little more incentive to buy. Still, at 40000 it’s more than we were expecting to pay.
But..
The first experience with sales is not only disappointing, it was unprofessional. Never had someone on the floor apparently know nothing about the products being sold.
I walk out.
My wife doesn’t, mainly because one of the real salesmen had noticed the problem, and wasn’t going to let a sale slip through his fingers.
He does know his stuff, and the sales experience is one of the best we’ve had.
But…
Still can’t get past the first impression.
So after spending about 4 hours on the quest, it’s time to made a decision.
Or not.
Perhaps it’s time to simply think about it.
My preference was for the Nissan X-trail but it’s remarkable how a bad experience in a car dealership can put you off. Now it’s back to one of the other two.
In order to make an informed decision I think we need to look at the basic model and it’s bottom line features.
In that regard, The Rav4 wins hands down.
So, we’re going with the Rav4, and back to the dealership for round two
I’m sure we’ve all been blinded by the light!
Oncoming headlights, a bright light flashed in our eyes or walking into a dark room and a halogen light suddenly snaps on.
You’re still seeing red flashes for hours afterwards.
Literally, blind means you’re not able to see anything, i.e. you are visually impaired. That’s the first meaning of the word people will think of.
But…
It’s another of those words with a few other meanings, such as,
A blind is a window covering; usually it goes up and down, and some you can see through slats. Very good for nosey parkers, and subplots in stories.
Being blind to the truth means that you refuse to accept it for specific reasons, generally brought on by a belief or a prejudice
It can be a hidden enclosure from which to observe or shoot animals
And for the more interesting uses
Blind drunk, I think a lot of people have been there
Flying blind, pilots do it at night, but some of us have figuratively done it a few times, but not in a plane
And lastly, a blind tasting, where you’re not sure what you’re going to get, but usually it’s for a wine tasting, to see if you can tell what’s good and what’s swill.
Sadly I can never tell the difference, which is why I usually stick to beer.
This is Chester. We have been discussing the possibility of being stuck in the house for anything from 14 days to 10 months.
Yes, the Coronavirus is finally arriving in Australia, and though it is slow to catch on, we are being warned that it could get a lot worse, very quickly.
Chester has suggested we barricade the doors and windows.
Alas, I tell him, this is not the same as the American cowboys fending off an Indian attack. No circling the wagons, and definitely no John Wayne to ride in and save the day.
Too many westerns on Fox. I keep forgetting Chester has mastered the art of turning the TV on and changing channels on the Foxtel remote.
I also tell him that the virus is not only airborne, spread by those who cough or sneeze, but also by touch, like shaking hands, and hugging.
At that, Chester takes a good three, four steps back away from me. So, he challenges me, what are the options.
Well, firstly cats may not get the virus. Only one dog, as far as I know, had got it. You, I tell him, do not need to worry.
As for the humans, well, we are in trouble if it comes.
We will be staying in, in some sort of forced quarantine, trying to avoid the rest of the world until it goes away,
So, he says, that means you have enough cat food and litter, the proper one?
I shake my head like he does when he’s annoyed.
Well, if it happens, I’m sure we’ll find out. Besides, I add, you need to lose a kilo or two.
There is a TV show on at the moment called ‘The Good Place’.
It’s really the bad place which makes you wonder if there really is a ‘good place’.
This started me thinking.
How many people do you know, when you ask them how they are, they say ‘good’.
Can we see behind the facade that is their expression how they really feel?
And how many of us reveal our true feelings?
It seems to me there is an acceptable level of understanding that we take people at their word and move on from there.
And how many times when we suspect there is something wrong, we tend to overlook it in what is regarded as respect for that person?
What if something awful happened?
What if we could have prevented it?
What if we could have tried to gently probe deeper?
The problem is we seem to be too polite and there is nothing wrong with that.
But maybe, just maybe, the next time …
It’s just a thought.
It was in the news, and seemed odd to me, that a word such as clip would have any significance beyond that of having a haircut, but apparently, it does.
Maybe they’re referring to the clip of ammunition for a gun?
But for us, a clip can be part of a haircut, letting the scissors loose.
And for those children who had a father who was a hard taskmaster, you would be familiar with a clip around the ears. It can just as easily be used, say when a car clips another car when the driver loses control.
There’s a horse that runs at a fast clip, and can be anything for that matter that moves quickly.
It can be a spring-loaded device that holds all your papers together. Or just about anything else for that matter.
You can clip an item from a newspaper, aptly known as a news clipping.
it can be a portion of a larger film or television programme, but to me, sometimes, when a series has a clip show, an episode where someone reminisces and we see clips from previous episodes.
And last but not least, clip the wings of those so-called high flyers at the office.
West Lake is a freshwater lake in Hangzhou, China
The tour starts in the car park about a kilometer away, but the moment we left the car park we were getting a taste of the park walking along a tree-lined avenue.
When we cross the road, once again dicing with death with the silent assassins on motor scooters.
We are in the park proper, and it is magnificent, with flowers, mostly at the start hydrangeas and then any number of other trees and shrubs, some carved into other flower shapes like a lotus.
Then there was the lake and the backdrop of bridges and walkways.
.
And if you can tune out the background white noise the place would be great for serenity and relaxation.
That, in fact, was how the boat ride panned out, about half an hour or more gliding across the lake in an almost silent boat, by an open window, with the air and the majestic scenery.
No, not that boat, which would be gre3at to have lunch on while cruising, but the boat below:
Not quite in the same class, but all the same, very easy to tune out and soak it in.
It was peaceful, amazingly quiet, on a summery day
A pagoda in the hazy distance, an island we were about to circumnavigate.
We did get a story about a woman who was a snake, a monk, and a man who married the woman, but the details in between were a little hazy. Suffice to say it had relevance to the two pagodas on the far side of the lake.
There was a cafe or restaurant on the island, but that was not our lunch destination.
Nor were the buildings further along from where we disembarked.
All in all the whole cruise took about 45 minutes and was an interesting break from the hectic nature of the tour.
Oh yes, and the boat captain had postcards for sale. We didn’t buy any.
It was an easy choice from the start, yellow is a colour, in any number of shades from very pale to very dark.
We have yellow egg yolks, yet another y word, and depending on whether the eggs are farmed in cages or free range can dictate the shade of yellow. Free-range gives the brightest yellow, by the way.
We have yellow cabs, but oddly enough these cabs are orange, not yellow as in this country, though the same may not be the case overseas, particularly in New York. Good thing they are bright yellow so you can see them coming if you are crossing the road, perhaps illegally.
We have yellow bananas and lemons, probably the most common answers when asked, what is yellow? That, and perhaps the yellow rose of Texas.
Then there is a more sinister meaning of the word, and it is associated with cowardice, and cowards are said to have a yellow streak down their backs.
If you have yellow fever then you are in a whole world of pain.
You can sometimes have what appears to be yellow skin, a sign of jaundice.
There is a yellow sea, and then there are the yellow pages, sometimes a substitute name for a telephone directory of businesses.
And lastly, an expression that comes out of the past, and not used so much these days, but people from Asia were thought to have yellow skin.
As writers, we put ourselves in the shoes of many different people.
We have extraordinary lives, sometimes more than one, but never more than the regulatory nine.
We get shot at, manage to run into cars and miraculously bounce off with only a few scratches, fall of three-story balconies, and sometimes get in the way of stray, and perfectly aimed bullets.
Near-death, almost dead, mostly dead, but always, somehow, we come back to life.
But, in reality, this rarely happens. You get shot; you often die. You get hit by a car, or, worse, a bus, you quite often die.
You certainly do not get back up again, leap out of hospital beds, and chase after bad guys.
So, what does any or all of these things feel like in reality?
In my case, I have no idea, other than what I have read, and what I’ve been told by experts it might be like.
But what if…
You are facing what might be certain death?
It’s not a realistic statement, is it? You can’t possibly know when and how you’re going to die.
So, let’s factor in a possibility, and let’s call it Covid-19.
What do we know about it? It is a killer if you have respiratory problems, heart problems, in fact, any sort of problem with organs, and, if you have a weakened immune system.
And, it is fat more dangerous if you have any of these conditions and are over the age of 60.
I’m 67.
I have psoriatic arthritis and use methotrexate which is an immunosuppressive medicine
It means, in not so many words, I have a compromised immune system. That’s the doctor’s polite way of saying I’m in deep trouble if I get Covid-19.
So…
I now have to face what is most like man’s worst fear: death.
I fit into a category where I have a 40% chance of survival.
There is no cure, there is no vaccine, it is simply a matter of the body fighting off the virus itself, more or less, wait and see.
To say I’m scared of what might happen is an understatement.
So far, cases are few in this country, but everyone says that in a short time that will change … for the worse.
I hope not.
I do not want to have a first-hand experience of what it like to die.
Thrills, Spills, and just a dash of Romance 