Mana Marina (near Wellington)
Thursday 2 April 2020
My friend Murray asked me the other day … “Are you on WhatsApp? … or maybe we could Skype?”
“I’ve got WhatsApp on my phone, but I could Messenger you on the computer”, I said
“Is that the same as FaceTiming?”, I asked
“Not sure”, said Murray,
“I hear Zoom is the new thing”, I continued … “Do you have Viber?”
“Viber?! That’s so yesterday!”
So began our planning for a Thursday night “Dance Club” meeting. Not that dancing gets in the way of this particular weekly beer drinking and world-problem solving ritual … carried on well after Murray’s daughter, and his mate’s daughters as well, finally finished with lessons, probably around 25 years ago.
Of course, my attendance at this – now online gathering – is purely as an invited, “Associate Member”, not having had a child in attendance at these dance classes, all those years ago.
Naturally, I lack the shared sense of duty, joy and sacrifice that these men shared from that time, plus the deep bond they forged, waiting together in the foyer of the cold, local public hall, as the upright piano inside beat time to bouncing tutus and shaky pirouettes.
“I’ll call you on WhatsApp … 4:30pm Melbourne time,” confirmed Murray this morning.
This was the second Dance Club meeting I’d attended. The last one was a year ago, or maybe two, at the Mitcham Lawn Bowls Club, where I was hoping to find beer still at 1970s prices. But, having just got back from sailing up the West Coast of the South Island, I think you have to go to the Westport Returned Services Association – which John and I did – to get anywhere near cheap beer prices served over a bar.
The Dance Club meeting turned out to be a lot of fun. The agenda was pretty loose and free, with the COVID-19 virus and strategies for its global containment, right at the top of “General Business”. Not sure people are speaking about anything else these days, but for a novel interlude I was able to take the guys on a tour of the ship, (after I’d figured out how to reverse the camera lens on my phone) even going outside and giving them a view of the sun starting to go down and the general marina hereabouts. Climbing the companionway ladder, however, I realized this was the first time I was going outside today … and it was close to 7:00 in the evening. I even had my slippers on. “Don’t forget to do the dishes!” called Murray as the phone swept past the galley sink. “I’ve gotta save something for tomorrow” I called back
After signing off from Murray and the Dance Club, it was only 20 minutes later that I was into my second Skype Sundowners Session with Melbourne friends Mike and Robyn Clarke. The first Sundowner with Mike and Robyn, was last week when the lock-down had just begun in New Zealand and they had just returned to Australia from a holiday – in New Zealand – and were in their own private 14 day home lock-down. They are now just 2 days short of completing their time, and with good behaviour will be on day release from Sunday I think.
Not that “isolation freedom” means as much now as it did 14 days ago, because pretty much everyone else in Victoria, and Australia, are now also in lock-down… or should be. But at least they can now walk, or cycle around the block, or within their postcode.
It’s funny, our “session” started on Skype, but for whatever reason it kept freezing up, so I sent Robyn a “Hi” on Messenger and pretty soon we were video-conferencing flawlessly but on an alternative platform. And as an aside, Robyn wasn’t up to doing a “re-cap” on last week’s lesson on fractions, per medium of beer in glases…
My cousin Keith kindly gave me a good morning “Howdy” call this morning. “Didn’t wake you, did I?” he jokingly asked, the time being around 9:45.
“You might have, if you’d called yesterday,” I said “But today… I’m eating my breakfast and learning how to use a new Video Editing software program”
We chatted away for some time. Keith was sitting in a car, in a carpark, while Christine did the supermarket shopping inside. Apparently, yesterday there were big queues outside all the local stores, so Keith and Christine figured whatever they needed could wait. At least until this morning, with 8:00am being the preferred time to go, if you want to avoid the rush … or the wait.
“Now that was a north west wind that brought in the fog yesterday, not a north east wind that you wrote in your blog”, corrected Keith. “You see, I DO read it” he continued. While I had Keith on the line I took the opportunity of asking about the gnomes. After all, Keith used to have a boat berthed here in the marina … “what gnomes” was Keith’s response … so I’ll have to keep asking around.
As for the wind today, I really don’t know where it came from … south-ish I think … because I spent the whole day inside, in front of the computer, trying to synchronize video, music, text and audio into a coherent 7 minute video production that will hold an audience longer than 5 seconds. I can see what they mean by each 1 minute of video taking an hour to produce. I think they’re being conservative there. Because I’ve certainly spent more than 7 hours on this production. But then again, I am also learning the program for the first time as well, which must skew the numbers.
Local friends Gary and Theresa … that’s the Gary who very nearly came on a sailing adventure aboard Chimere, along with Annette and Martyn … also gave me a call. Just to see how I’m going. Which, again is really comforting and reassuring.
It looks like tomorrow I might be moving Chimere … not far … I’d estimate about 75 metres at the most. Across onto A Row, out on the end. So I can say good-bye to passing, chatty foot traffic, but given my stay is likely to extend for some time yet, it’s best that I not abuse the privilege of the “temporary” tie-up here at the Mana Cruising Club sea wall.
Hopefully the wind is light in the morning when I make the move. If it’s not, I’ll just defer moving until it is. It’s not as if another day will make that much difference.
It’s been great to be able to chat with Linda on Messenger from time to time. We have lots of old photo albums and so Linda has been scanning selected photos and emailing them to me. The current batch is from Dad’s 1947 walk of the Routeburn and Milford tracks which I mentioned a couple of days ago.
Looking more closely at the photos, there’s one of the Christchurch cathedral from 1947, along with the main street of Queenstown and Timaru, plus a fine selection that illustrates the text of dad’s story, which I recorded in 2008; and which is included at the end of the blog two days ago.
The flat screen DVD player is getting a bit of a work-out. So far, I’ve resisted the urge to watch the movie Castaway, but I have got through the 2-box set of the quirky “Flight of The ConChords” … if you’re not familiar with this NZ group you really have to see it to believe it, I’m not going to try and describe it. Suffice to say, it pushes the small-town-New-Zealand cultural cringe to new boundaries and beyond. Plus, it’s extremely funny while doing it.
Plus, I’m working my way through the delightful … “The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency”. A must for anyone with a love for Africa and the triumph of right over wrong … plus those who are “traditionally built”
Smooth seas, fair breeze and communications overload
Rob Latimer
NZ2020 