imhilien

July is winter here in New Zealand and it's windy and cold right now. I have an old, hand-me-down black faux fur coat that comes down just past my waist that I wear indoors over clothes. The fact that it is lined keeps me warm.

What I've Seen

I went to 'Indiana Jones & the Dial of Destiny' the other day. I wasn't sure whether to go or not, but when I heard it featured a fantasy version of the Antikythera device (a 2,000 year old machine made by Archimedes for moon calculations, found in an early 20th century shipwreck), my history nerd side lifted its head and said 'let's go!'. The film was better than I thought it would be and featured Mads Mikkelson (sp?) as the baddie. I saw the trailer for the new Mission Impossible movie but it left me cold, unfortunately.

We recently had the French Film festival at some local theatres and I saw the docu drama 'Notre Dame on Fire'. It's from the POV of the fire department who had to deal with the fire there a few years ago. Carrying all their heavy fire fighting equipment up narrow, medieval staircases would have been a nightmare. Then there was the melting lead roof that was literally coming down the gutters and had to be avoided too.

What I've Read

At a recent book club meeting a lot of people were recommending fantasy book 'The Fourth Wing' by Rebecca Yarros. I heard it featured dragons (hmm) so I read it and it was a page turner for me. A disabled, bookish woman from a military family is forced to train as a dragon rider. If she survives that, she must try and bond with a dragon. Simone St James writes paranormal thrillers with just the rightest amount of spookiness and her latest one is 'Silence for the Dead'. Set post-WW1, a woman on the run fakes her CV so she can work as a nurse in the countryside. She ends up at a place for soldiers with shell-shock but there's something creepy about the place. Also, all of the patients seem to be having the same nightmare. The book also looks at how shell-shock was seen as something shameful by society at the time, who didn't know better.

Spare a thought for poor Tonga right now... yesterday an underwater volcano called Hunga-Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai in the Tongan kingdom erupted and caused a tsunami. There was a sonic boom that was apparently heard here in NZ too.

People here were warned to avoid beaches for a while, especially in the North Island. Wave surges did reach us, unfortunately and destroyed boats and part of a marina up north. A group of fishermen doing some midnight fishing had to run for their lives after water suddenly withdrew from the bay. Probably not surprisingly, a group of wild horses in the area had just before panicked and run away.

I thought things were exciting enough with the remnants of Cyclone Cody coming down to New Zealand. It was originally going to visit my neck of the woods but it has veered east and will probably hit the East Cape. They do need rain in that area but hopefully it won't be a deluge.

It's the middle of summer right now and it's around 30 deg C / 90 deg F - perfect beach weather - but we have to avoid beaches thanks to a tsunami and a cyclone. I'm ok with heat, I'm wearing a bamboo t-shirt right now that keeps you cool in summer because of the way it breathes.

Fishers run for lives as Tongan tsunami hits New Zealand, warnings continue | Stuff.co.nz

It's being quite wet and stormy at the moment, last night there was an intense hail storm that seemed to go on longer than it should have. I found out this morning that some cars had fallen into the harbour and someone thought there had been a tornado.

I've signed up to Netflix for a 30 day trial so I can see moar Lucifer. Ooh look, other shows too. I had this vague idea that signing up involved downloading lots of software, etc.

The trees that have the first spring blossom (bright pink) are out in the neighbourhood and the native birds have been very happily drinking the nectar (and sounding like they've drunk too much?).

Fossils have been found of a long-extinct native parrot in the South Island that was apparently one metre tall (gulp).

It's been getting a bit lighter in the evenings, so that's good.

You know it's winter when the freezing fog you wake up to doesn't disappear until around 10 am. Which was yesterday. *shivers*

Hot weather continues to be hot. Even with windows open, my room is currently 30 degrees C, which I'm ok with. A few days ago it was 100% humidity, which I did struggle a bit with.

There's currently a cyclone in the Pacific islands (which damaged Tonga) and is currently heading down south to us, said to be here by late Tuesday, ugh. Fingers crossed it calms down as it comes into our cooler waters.

Well, New Zealand has been graced this week by another cyclone this month, but yesterday it fortunately missed Auckland. I looked at the weather last night and thought, 'gosh, it missed us by a whisker'. *Auckland wipes brow*

Unfortunately the Bay of Plenty was targeted, which includes Edgecombe, which became a lake last week because of the previous cyclone. Ugh. I think though that wind rather than rain was the problem this time.

The cyclone is heading south now... hugs to those on my f-list who need them.