A Ghost Story?

Last night I stayed in the Vulcan Hotel, St Bathan's. The hotel is supposed to be haunted. Coops, Frank and Catherine were there with me.

The story concerns a female client-faced officer of a local sexual services outlet (I understand that this would have been rendered "a prostitute from a local brothel" in pre-PC english). She came to the hotel one night to meet a client. Well, the client received the service and then murdered the woman. The murderer was never caught.

So since that day the woman has haunted the hotel on occasions. Male guests awake to feel an icy touch on the leg, or even icy fingers around their throat, throttling them.

Anyway, I got home and me mate asked: "Did the ghost throttle you?" and I replied "No. I tied her hands behind her back and we were fine after that."

No. That didn't happen. No ghost story I'm afraid.

But the countryside is great and Mike Kavanagh, mine host, was entertaining and very knowledgeable about local affairs and people. And by local I mean he covered all of Otago and half of Canterbury as well.

A great night.

The Toilet Seat

Hey Guys, train yourself to put down the toilet lid.

This gives 3 advantages:

• Both you and her have to work the hinge;
• You can sling off at her when she puts the seat down but not the lid; 
• You replace the gender myth about men with a gender myth about women. 

Sorted.

The Toilet Roll

Toilet paper against the wall or toilet paper away from the wall?

There is no right or wrong answer to this. Everyone has their own way of doing it and some don't particularly care which way it is when they put a new roll on the holder.

But here is what I have observed.

In all the 4 and 5 star hotels I have stayed at in different countries, the paper is always away from the wall. Always.

When I call in at an outback truck stop cafe, I am never surprised to see it against the wall.

Which way you prefer says a lot about what type of environment you prefer to live in, the values for your home environment.

Youth Culture

I have lived and worked in different countries and this morning I shared one of my observations with some folk from different countries staying at the same farmstay place as myself.

As often happens with discussions among middle to older age people, the subject of current youth culture - language style, behaviour, values, etc - came up. We all know that while in that 'youth" age-group we were less than perfectly behaved. But we measured that against the culture in which we had grown up. This is different in different countries and we can share and compare those differences. To a certain extent we can also appreciate and understand the differences.

(I haven't defined "youth". It's too tricky to do rigourously. I will hope the descriptions here will "point to" the group I am talking about).

I mentioned over coffee that I had partly formed the conclusion that the "youth" of the different countries in which I had lived and worked had more in common with each other than they did with the culture of the country they lived in.

I have observed a commonness of values, behaviours, evaluations of situations, norms, reactions, language style across the board. It is as though the shared or community values of this group have been learned or developed from some source other than their parents, teachers, fellow community members,etc.

If that is the case, those people are NOT behaving countrary to "the culture". They are behaving consistently within it. In fact, those few who do not share it but are within the bounds of their country of origin, they will be the odd ones out, the pariahs. The common-culture group are not misbehaving and will perhaps be puzzled if you take them to task over their actions or language.

I wonder how it is that those responsible for the transmission of their culture have in so many countries dropped the ball, leaving their children to find other sources for learning community values. And I wonder why the result of that is a certain commonality across the board.

There may be many answers to these questions, but certainly one place to look for the common source of cultural values is the so-called "third parent" - the TV.

Well, it was the TV at one time but now that provider of cultural norms of behaviour includes DVD, You Tube, video games, on-line gaming and so on.

There is a commonality across many countries in the offerings and use of these media. The most successful are used world-wide.

Looking at the proportions by country of origin, you will find that the USA is a leader in this field.

Certainly in the english-speaking countries the use of the phrase "Oh my God" is pandemic. OK, just one example and I am not going to enumerate them. Travel and observe for yourself and the pattern may form for you.

But I am not at all concerned about this in and of itself. What does concern me is that this substitution of a different culture in a new generation growing up will lead to the end of the specific and unique country-based culture in which they live. If I am in Australia and ask "have you a zac in your kick" or say "that's a furfey", how many would now understand those iconic terms that had been in place for nearly 100 years? The values and lifestyles will be at odds and the existing culture will lose out, there is no doubt about that.

Am I saying this is a bad thing? Is there not a benefit from the whole world in a couple of generations having shared values and understandings about how one behaves in a given situation?

Of course there could be benefits. It could even lead to a shared global culture. Fewer misunderstandings in the United Nations? Perhaps.

But couldn't we have done this with a better choice of culture-of-origin? We could end up stuck with the culture of arguably the most conservative, hide-bound, competetive, aggressive country on earth.

IMHO

Whatever...

The River: A Love Story

Life can be like a river, if you relax and let it happen.

I am a leaf, swirling along, taken by the whim of life's current. Without volition. Without desire. Without regret.

Sometimes the flow is swift and things happen around me in a rapidly changing kaleidoscope. Sometimes the river widens and the flow slows. These are the languid days. Beer and mudcrabs on the island.

Sometimes there is an eddie that swirls me around and around the same part close to the bank. Routine with the taste of security.

Sometimes the river runs fast through the shallows or in white madness over rocks. Leaf-me flung through the air and precipitated into raging foam. Ordering a plain old Indian Take-away for lunch and having the whole restaurant building fall around you in an earthquake.

But ah - the beautiful times when another leaf finds itself for a while following the same liquid path. Edges touching, overlapping as we share the joy, the madness, the routine, the dangers, the losses.

Together, yet each still pursuing their own way, the destination unknown, the journeying the whole.

And so the time comes, as it always will if you allow life to be the driver, when our responses to the flows within the one river take us on our separate ways. A rightness. A beauty. A sorrow. But Love remains.

Ivonne left for Wellington today.

Man with Stick

Give a small boy a stick and he will play happily outside for ages.

Give a grown man a stick and he will play happily outside for ages:
Fishing rod;
Hunting rifle;
Golf club;
...
Add your own. It's true!

I guess even the remote counts....

The Difference

The man goes into the shower. He comes out. The woman goes into the shower. "You've used my towel!". "No, I have not. I used mine", say he.
"No," she replies, "yours is the red one".
"No," says he. "Mine is the one on the left".

And that, folks, is the difference.

Get over it and understand each other.