Saturday, November 30, 2013

On her birthday

On 15 November 1952 my aunt took her first breath of life, and on 15 November 2013 she took her last. That weekend the family adhered to a lot of traditional buddhist customs. It was gruelling, yet very beautiful and melodic - a fitting way to farewell my aunt from this world.

























That Monday was the actual funeral.





























Kien and I had gone over to see her that Tuesday. We had a really lovely time together. I had left Kien with her while I went and picked up some food for her to have for dinner. When I came back they were laughing and joking, and she commented on how much fun they were having together. It really warms my heart to think that the very last time we all saw each other was a joyous and happy one.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Roughing it

Who loves camping? Us! We love camping. It's "roughing it", but not really.

When I was in the army my favourite exercises were those out in the field; setting up shelter, digging trenches, radio relay, heating rations on a hexi cooker, and even being on sentry duty. Back then the threat of being sent off to war wasn't real at all, especially for someone with my profile - i.e. female, territorial force signaller, asian, university educated. Believe it or not I actually wanted to be sent on tour when I was regular force for a bit, but, like I said, my profile put me at the bottom of the list. I was just a girl wanting to play soldiers, as far as my commanding officer was concerned, and I guess (to a degree) he was right. I've had many philosophical debates with myself regarding war, the army, and where I come from and what my family has been through. It's complex, multi layered, perhaps paradoxical, but anyway - ANYWAY, I'm not here to talk about the army!

Camping. We love camping! We went camping. A couple of Saturdays ago, after finishing up at work (don't ask) we headed out to Muriwai and set up a tent. It was very cosy.





The beach was right next to us, just over the rise. But first, dinner. No hexi cubes here. We got burgers and fries from the local.



We hid from the wind by eating in the car.



Then we ran over sand dunes.









We kicked sand around as the waves crashed violently before us.







All this happening under the setting sun.















It rained overnight, and early morning, but who cares. We were snug as a bug in a rug - a bug with an umbrella.





After lazily packing up our camp site we went to Maori Bay to see the gannets.









Man, it was one heck of a weekend, and just what I needed to take my mind off things. It was easy, and definitely fun.

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