Senses working overtime #498

1 Big week this week as Samantha and Andrew settled on their wedding date - May 2, 2025.

Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash

2 Listening: Wozza's album collection

Been listening to Part 1 (there are four so far). 

3 Reading: How railroads inspired the creation of time zones

4 Listening: Greg Johnson's Liberty

In 1997, Johnson won the APRA Silver Scroll, New Zealand's most prestigious songwriting award, for Liberty from the album Chinese Whispers.

5 RIP Teri Garr  

RIP Phil Lesh from Grateful Dead

Overtime: 

"The easy, conversational tone of good writing comes only on the eighth rewrite."

Paul Graham

Senses working overtime #339

Nita Isobel Purdy (1930 to 2021)

This week's 5 + overtime entries on Jewels For The Thirsty are in honour of my dad's second wife - Nita, who passed away this past week, age 91.  

With jade and Samantha

With Keegan

Happy Christmas Keegan and Adam

The grand-daughters - Jade and Samantha

Rest in peace Nita, Graham and Dulcie. 

 

Senses working overtime #254

1 San Francisco's shelter from the storm

Our daughter is in SF with Jesse and hunkering down as the shelter-in-place order kicks in. I like that term - much better than self-isolation.

2 Covid-19 and the Flu

3 Those Winter Sundays

Sundays too my father got up early 
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, 
then with cracked hands that ached 
from labor in the weekday weather made 
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. 

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking. 
When the rooms were warm, he’d call, 
and slowly I would rise and dress, 
fearing the chronic angers of that house, 

Speaking indifferently to him, 
who had driven out the cold 
and polished my good shoes as well. 
What did I know, what did I know 
of love’s austere and lonely offices?

Robert Hayden (1966)

4 Birth of the cool

I've been enjoying this documentary on Miles Davis - something of a jerk but some great music!

5 Showdown At Yellow Butte

And I've been enjoying this Louis L'Amour western as a break from the serious stuff. 

Overtime: Sign off this week courtesy of Seth Godin

Curate your incoming.

Stay off Twitter.

Do the work instead. Whatever needs doing most is better than panic.

Being up-to-date on the news is a trap and a scam. Five minutes a day is all you need.

Senses working overtime #245

1 Art 101

A few years back, this was a house warming gift from friends Margo Buchanan-Oliver and Clay Bodvin. here it is, proudly on display at Maple Grove.

2 Art 102

Clay has used the vase before. with a mixed media approach to stunning effect. More of his work here.

3 Art 103

Another piece from Clay, starring Margo!

4 Lee Child

Writes a cracking yarn. Blue Moon maintains the hot streak.

5 Purdettes

Jade and William's wedding was a superb event last week. We all met up again afterwards for family time. I love these people!!

Left to right - Jesse, Ashleigh, Adam, Keegan, Jade, Samantha, me, Jacky, Asher, William

Overtime: 

Senses working overtime #212

1 It's all about purpose.

2 House warming

We have finally moved into our house over the weekend - hence why this week's edition is late. Sharp intake of breath!

My staff at school gave me this really cool house warming gift. It's beside me as I type - a Meyer Lemon tree and it smells divine!!

3 The mode of transport used this week was interesting.

We're talking a small truck. It was adequate for the moving house job but a real bone rattler. And the Bluetooth didn't work. So I had to rely on radio. Yeech. I fit bits of about 5 different radio station demographics.

Anyway. This came on and I turned it up LOUD and put up with the static as the truck bounced and heaved its way.




4 Failure
Loved this image from some clever person.  

5 Samantha and Asher

Big part of the weekend was calling in on Asher as we picked up gear from Jade and William. Lo and behold - Aunt Samantha is in town! And, yes, Asher is gazing adoringly at his grandad!

Overtime: Great text from Jade today
"Asher was a terror last night. Then this morning has the audacity to yawn. What. A. Jerk."

Senses working overtime #172

1 Flights to foreign lands produce a plethora of sensual experiences. Here's the latest clutch.

Blueberry pancakes with coffee butter and a side of bacon at EAT. Mmmmm.

2 Farmers' Market on Melrose

I watched the guy in the foreground as I stood in the queue for a smoothie - he was busy on his phone - didn't touch the food he'd ordered, got up and left it behind! Whaaat?

3 Cruising for burgers

Riding around north Hollywood and west Los Angeles with a couple of hot chicks.

4 Capitol Records

Caught sight of the iconic Capitol Records building on the way to Beverly Boulevard to buy one of those hot chicks some shoes. Guess which one!

5 Condo living at Klump Ave., Noho, LA.

Overtime
We started with food and we end with food - Cookies and cream pie at The Republic Of Pie (Noho, LA) in great company!

Senses working overtime #151

1 Autumn is coming

Photo by Curtis MacNewton on Unsplash

2 Robert Creeley seldom disappoints

Oh No

If you wander far enough
you will come to it
and when you get there
they will give you a place to sit

for yourself only, in a nice chair,
and all your friends will be there
with smiles on their faces
and they will likewise all have places.

Robert Creeley (1960)

3 Arrrrrrrtichoooooooo!

Every morning I wake up in a southern hemisphere countryside (north of Auckland, New Zealand) and start sneezing. My nose runs and get heady. Why? 

As we head into autumn, maybe this is the reason - pollens seem to increasing and making it tough for the world's allergy sufferers. 

4 RIP Stephen Hawking

Yes, another week and another high profile exit. This look at five of his media cameos is a good way to celebrate his amazing life.

5 Stay fed up kids!
This image from Austin Kleon's blog is pretty remarkable. This pop out effect is most probs easy to do, but who knows - regardless, it's genius! And, I agree with him -  I hope these kids stay fed up and change the world.

Overtime: Sorry To Bother You
Samantha Purdy's first film as Assistant Director. Congrats Fanfa!!

Senses working overtime #90

Okay - I'm currently on holiday and these Jewels are coming to you from Anaheim - the happiest place on earth. So - I haven't actually read many of my feeds and figured out the best of the best to share. Instead I'm gonna cheat and give you five plus images from our holiday in SF, London and LA so far...

Disneyland parade - amazing - made me want to watch
Toy Story again...and buy loads of stuff!

Me and Fanfa watch the parade in our cool new hats!

London and Fopp - my happy place!

IHOP - blueberry pancakes - o.m.g.

Riding the 101 with Samantha and Jacky.

Walking the dog in SF's Chrissy Field.

Overtime: Love those Disney parades!

Senses working overtime #87

This week's jewels are coming to you from San Francisco's Ocean Park Motel.  

1 Rogue One

Only one place to start  - Rogue One is out REALLY SOON. Hoping I can see this in SF or after Christmas at The Screen on the Green in Upper Street. Ex-cit-ing!!

2 OMG Vol 1



3 OMG Vol 2

 

4 Bill Gates
reviews an interesting looking book about what makes a great leader.

5 John Glenn
God speed, John Glenn.

Overtime
Spiderman, spiderman...I'm a fan of the comic, less so of the movies. Maybe this time...?

Senses working overtime #17

1 Ghost In The Gun

One of my four talented children is producing this film in San Francisco. The poster is really cool! Designed by a friend of Samantha's. Can't wait to see it!

2 Sleep
This Guardian article on sleep caught my eye. I could do with some quality sack time at the moment after an epic week of outdoor adventure.

3 Emails versus Gogol
We are mad about quizzes where I work - staff have a daily quiz at lunchtime and my students love them too if Kahoots is anything to go by. I loved this quiz: are the lines from Nikolai Gogol, a 19th century Russian writer, or an email from the writer's boss in 2015?

4 and 5 Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
Some fun loving staff, my Year 12's and I went walk 20 kilometres in the Tongariro National Park. Awesome. Epic. Here are two shots that exemplify the experience:

Overtime: Don't Stop Believing!!

I found myself thinking this a few times this week (and on Friday afternoon I turned up the volume baby!)