25th August 2020

Let's talk about Covid-19 - even if it does look like the wooly hat your Auntie Edith used to wear.

 

How did it all begin?

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome -Coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2  was the origin of the outbreak in 2019 and was thus named Covid-19, or C-19 for short.

SARS viridion

It is thought to have come from animals,  possibly bats because they are one of the main hosts of SARS-related viruses. This has been known for decades but the jump from animals to humans is comparatively recent.

 

What do we know about C-19?

The original virus mutated  to make itself more effective, it did this by improving the spike which allows it entry into human cells.

 C-19 does not have a mind of its own; it has no evil intent but like everything else on earth, its main concern is to replicate itself. To do this, it needed to be more efficient.

Imagine C-19 is a burglar - Charlie.  

He inherits some tools of the trade from his old Dad who was a housebreaker some 30 years ago.  He finds they are not quite up to the job because home security is better these days.  So he has to change (mutate) to make entry more effective. He acquires new tools.

The virus has spikes, the things which make it look like a crown (thus ‘corona’ a crown) but in the original virus, they often broke.   So it mutated into a form with better spikes.

Viruses mutate  or evolve,  to make themselves more  effective, just as Darwin discovered most things do.

Humans have an enzyme called ACE2, attached to the cell membranes in the lungs, arteries, heart, kidney, and intestines.  It also lowers blood pressure.

ACE2 is the entry point C-19 looks for, just as Charlie looks for the weak spot in home security.    Once C-19 and ACE2 meet up - the door swings open - in our case, for infection to enter.   

What’s being done to stop it?

We all know that to avoid infection, any infection,  it’s better not to come into contact with it.

 As this virus can be in the air and on surfaces, this isn’t easy.  We may inadvertently touch something with C-19 germs on it - as is suspected in this latest New Zealand outbreak.  

Or come round a corner or through a doorway, oblivious to the fact someone sneezed or coughed into the air just  before we did.

It’s little comfort to know that other illnesses kill more people each year, or that most patients recover from C-19.  We don’t want it thank you very much.

Scientists all over the world are working on remedies, sometimes vaccines, sometime giving transfusions of plasma and antibodies from people who have recovered.   

This latter seemed very promising until a 33 year old man in Hong Kong who had recovered,  went to Spain - and was re-infected.  His immunity had lasted just 3 months.  

However, virologist will be able to tell if the virus strain he had at home is different from the one he acquired in Spain. If it’s a mutation, they have more ammunition against it.

 

A New Zealand scientist, Professor Peter Tyler,  has created the compound which is now a front runner as a treatment option for Covid-19.  

Prof. Tyler won the 2017 MacDiarmid Award for his work discovering new drugs and this one, now called Galidesivir is being trialled in Brazil.

The race is on but when one reporter asked a scientist who would win - the USA, China, UK or NZ, he said. “There’s a huge amount of collaboration. It’s not a race between all the developers; it’s actually a race against the virus.”

Just as we’ve known all along - teamwork and doing our part, however onerous it may be to stay at home day after week after month, it’s already reduced the effectiveness of the viral infections and saved millions of lives.

Keep that home scurity system turned on - Charlie’s still out there.

 

 

 

24th August 2020

 

I’m not good at puzzles but as my brain gets older and more wobbly and now needs to walk with a stick, I feel it needs exercise occasionally.   

Numbers don’t add up for me, so I go to Rebus and other mind puzzles. 

My 11 year old grandson can beat me hollow at these but don’t tell anyone I said so.

The answers will be at the end.

 1.    What word comes to mind?

A donkey is walking behind another donkey.  I'm behind that second donkey but there is the population from a whole country behind me.

Add caption

 Clue - Archduke Ferdinand

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2.     2. A poor  man is sitting in a café wishing he could afford a coffee when a man comes to sit at the next table, pulls out a wad of notes and begins to count.
At this extravagant show of wealth, the poor man says,

 ‘Are you a betting man?’

‘Sure am,’ says the other,’ that’s how I won this.’

The poor man smiles, ‘Want a little wager with me?’

‘Sure.’

‘I bet you I can sing a genuine popular song containing any girl’s name.’

The rich man roars with laughter.

‘You mean like ‘Delilah’ or ‘Eleanor Rigby’ ? That’s not so difficult.’

‘Ah,’ says the poor man, ‘but you can choose any name at all, in any language’.

Sure of a win now, the gambler says, ‘OK, my daughter’s name is Agapanthus Hecate Andromeda. Sing a song with that in it buddy -  if you can.’

 The rich man went home very much poorer and the poor man had enough money to feed himself well for a month. 

What song did he sing?

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3.    3. The man who invented it doesn't want it. The man who bought it doesn't need it. The man who needs it doesn't know it. What is it?

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4.     4. What do you call a fish without an eye? 

5.    _______________________________________________________       

  This next puzzle is, apparently over 1,000 years old (I know how it feels).

  A man with a chicken, some cabbages and a dog, comes to a river. The market is on the other side and the small boat moored at the bank will carry only him and one other thing.  If he takes the dog across first, the chicken will eat his cabbages. If he takes the cabbages, the dog will attack the chicken.  So how does he get everything across safely and in perfect condition to sell at the market?  

And now for something a little different. These are Rebus puzzles.

 Put on your thinking caps…..  Each picture represents a well-known phase or word.

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And here are your answers, should you need them

1.    1. ass as i nation;  2.  Happy Birthday to you; 3.   Coffin; 4.  Fsh.   

   The Rebus puzzles:

   Breakfast; First Aid; Summary; Th under storm; Top Secret and 'Can you see I love you?'  

   Please note: it does NOT say 'Can you heart I love you'. 

  The man on his way to market took the chicken across first.  Then, returned for the cabbages. Leaving the cabbage on the further bank, he returned with the chicken.  Left it there and took the dog, then went back for the chicken.

  

B 

 

 

23rd August 2020

 It’s commonly believed that 1,000 years ago, medicine in Europe consisted of hanging toads around the neck and muttering incantations.  'Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble...'

In fact,  Anglo-Saxon healers were recommending that women shouldn’t eat salty foods,  take vigorous exercise, or drink alcohol during pregnancy. Just as we do today.

And that a man, wounded in the stomach during battle should be sewn up with silk, as that dissolves in time, as do modern sutures.

 Bald’s Laege Book also known as Bald’s Leech Book was written in Anglo-Saxon, possibly in the time of King Alfred the Great.  In this case, ‘Leech’ is from the Danish ‘Laege’ or healer, physician.  

 

 From a facsimile of Bald's book.

In 2015,  academics at Nottingham University decided to duplicate some of Bald’s remedies and see if they were as effective as claimed. 

They chose one for a stye, a bacterial infection of the eyelid, making up the medicine as faithfully as possible, bearing in mind that today’s herbs and vegetable differ substantially from those grown in 890.

 

They gathered garlic, crop leek, bull’s gall and wine and followed the instructions, which included leaving the potion in a copper pot for 9 days.

When the medieval potion was completed, the academics did laboratory tests and discovered it was such a powerful anti-bacterial that it killed Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) every bit as effectively as the pharmaceutical sold for that purpose.

 There are notes In Bald’s Laege Book  which indicate plastic surgery was tried for a cleft-palate.

The word ‘plastic’ in this context is nothing to do with the ubiquitous polymer the world is currently demonising but from the Greek plastikos - to mould or form.

 They also tried knee and hip surgery back in the woefully mis-named Dark Ages, as archaeologist have been able to show.

 

Other remedies in Bald’s include  a daily goblet of wine into which a red hot iron spike has been plunged,  as a cure for an enlarged spleen.  As this ailment can be due to iron deficiency, adding iron to the wine was wise.

  As was using Buck’s liver, rich in Vitamin A, for,  ‘those who cannot see well beyond sunset and until the sun once more rises’ - we call it ‘night blindness’,  which can be cause by a lack of that vitamin.

 Even the incantations may not be as off the wall as they seem. In a world with no clocks, how else might you time how long a poultice had to be left on the skin?

If something had to be taken three times a day, listen for the church bells ringing for Lauds, early morning, then again for Prime as the sun rose and Vespers in the evening.  

What better way to remember when to take your medicine along with the appropriate prayers?  Prayers which were believed to help the remedy work through God’s grace.  

 We are still timing things today.  Apparently, if you play Simon and Garfunkle’s ‘Bridge Over Troubled Waters’ it is exactly long enough to boil an egg..... and how many of us have sung  Happy Birthday as we washed our hands?

That’s not much different from saying the Paternoster whilst holding a cold compress to the bruised eye of an Anglo-Saxon lad who’s been fighting with his friends.

 

 

 

 

22nd August 2020

 My eyesight is not too good.  

and....

Auckland Libraries has to watch its pennies (even moreso now the city admin is likely to cut the budget even further as a result of what Covid has cost them)

So more and more I'm finding the books I'd love to read are not, as was formerly the case, on audio CD but issued only as eBooks.

The cost of an audio book on CD is anything from $30 to $120 and e-books are a fraction of that, so no surprise that the Acquisitions Team prefer the latter option.

I once looked at an eReader and found my eyes were not up to coping with that sort of technology, so until today, I really did believe eBooks were out of my sight, so to speak.

Then a veritable angel of patience (aka a librarian) rang and assured me she could step by step me through the quite complicated process of joining OverDrive which would allow me to download and listen to books on my computer. 

This was not the easiest of tasks, even for someone with good sight and I seemed to be going in circles: being asked to put in my 14 digit library card number no less than 6 times!  

But finally and with a huge sense of relief and gratitude to the Angel, we made it and I now have many more options than just audio CDs.

Fifteen years ago, we didn't have this technology and astonishingly it came to popularity just as I began losing my sight. 

Maybe the Techno Gods realised I and others with failing eyes, needed their help?

My first download was Cabin Pressure, the award-winning comedy series by John Finnemore about a struggling airline and its unusual (to say the least) crew.

   So a good day, of achievement and laughter, thanks to the wonderful help from one of Auckland's magnificent librarians.

 

  Yes, that's Benedict Cumberbach along with John Finnemore, Stephanie Cole and the man with all the best lines: Roger Allam.

19th August, 2020 Back again

 Here we go again.

After 102 days of no Corona virus rearing its ugly head in Aotearoa New Zealand, we were all going about our business, relative free but cautious.

The borders were closed, no one was going overseas,  testing was ongoing and we began to feel pretty safe. 

Then suddenly, shockingly, it was in our midst again, starting with one unfortunate Auckland family, none of whom had been overseas or in contact with anyone who had. 

All previous cases had been of this nature so this was a grim puzzle - to say the least.  Where had it come from?

We still don't know for sure but Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who has surely assured herself a heroic place in world history,  once more ventured where lesser politicians fear to tread and locked Auckland  down.

Not just putting the city back to Level 3 and declaring isolation for the vulnerable but closing all roads in and out of the city: sealed and patrolled. 

This is not unprecedented. 

In the Derbyshire Dales, a tailor named Alexander Hadfield in the Anglo-Saxon village of Eyam,  took delivery of a bundle of clothing from London. 

Within a few days, people began dying and despite self-isolation of families, the death toll rose to 260.  It was then that Community leaders decided to quarantine the whole village.   No one in. No one out.

That was May 1666.

The deaths didn't stop immediately but the Great Plague was not spread by the many itinerant workers and salepeople whose livelihood depended on moving from village to village with goods.

The disease was as puzzling then as Corona is today. 

Elizabeth Hancock buried her 6 children and husband but did not herself catch the illness. 

The official grave digger Marshall Howe also survived despite burying many of Eyam's families.   

Only 83 person of the original 360 souls living in Eyam at the time, survived the Black Death.

At the bounary of the village and many others towns and hamlets, Plague Stones were sited. They had hollows gouged out which were filled with vinegar; the only form of santisation they knew.

  Farmers in outlying areas could come to place produce near the stone and retrieve the money from the vinega pool.   

Eventually of course, the Plague ran its course but it killed an estimated 25 million people.

On the last day of August 2020, Eyam will celebrate its annual  Plague Day by giving thanks - but they will be tempered by the very real and very frightening situation that somewhere out there, is another evil called Covid-19.

Day Sixty Two

Day Sixty Two

 This will  be the last blog entry, unless someone comes up with a very convincing argument as to why it should continue (offers over $1,000 please 😃)

It was begun as a means of lightening my life and that of anyone who wanted to read it, during the dark first days of total isolation in mid-March 2020.

  It’s covered many subjects and seems to have reached all over the world, something I didn't anticipate.

Now, in New Zealand at least, Lockdown is more or less over.  My thanks to all  who read and, I hope, enjoyed the ramblings.  

Autumnal colour in Arrowtown, South Island.

Today's entry is a little longer than usual.  So gird up yer loins for the last leg and arm of the journey across the country, which in my opinion, is the best in the world.

Richard Pearse

 But before we leave Auckland, let’s meet Richard William Pearse 1877–1953, poor farmer and inventor from Temuka, South Island but whose aeroplane (or a copy thereof) flies in Auckland’s Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT).

The world believes the Wright Brothers were the first to achieve sustained flight, that’s not quite true.

Richard flew several times, with locals and family watching, before and on 31^st March 1902.     The trouble is, those witnesses weren’t “officials”, just local farmers whose word has since been unjustly questioned.

Pearse Memorial in Waitohi

  Pearse (who was humble and never claimed any right to fame) flew again in 1903,  had been working on powered flight since 1899 but where the Wright Brothers had access to funds and an engineering workshop, Pearse had neither. He worked his farm alone and in his spare time, spent whatever he could afford on his inventions.

Pearse's water-cooled engine

Richard’s plane included several pioneering concepts: a monoplane configuration, wing flaps and rear elevator, steerable nose wheel and a propeller with variable-pitch blades driven by a unique double-acting horizontally opposed petrol engine.

  A replica of Pearse’s aircraft hangs in the Timaru Museum as well as in MOTAT.

 He may not be world famous but Richard Pearse was a great man with a brilliant brain. He’s honoured in New Zealand and deserves the accolades.

Artists impression of Richard flying

As we travel north from Auckland, we might pop over to see the Gannet colony at Muriwai and the adjacent surfing beach at Maori Bay.   

The sand on the west coast includes iron oxide, which makes it black, a heritage of our volcanic past - and present. 

White Island

In December 2019, Whakari-White Island 48km off the east coast, near Tauranga and Whakatane, erupted, killing 21 people and injuring many more.

Look west to the Kaipara Harbour, a popular place for gathering seafood, especially oysters.

Kaipara Harbour

 I once told a friend I’d never tasted an oyster and the next day, he appeared with a bucket full of Kaipara oysters. Heaven.

 We pass through the seaside-retirement town of Orewa on the Hibiscus Coast, having briefly traversed the Whangaparaoa Penisula, a gorgeous place to have a bayside retreat. It's the site of many baches (holiday homes) and retirement villages.

Whangaparaoa Peninsula

Ocean east we might just see Great Barrier and Little Barrier Islands. Crystal clear water and a laid-back lifestyle, attracts many vacationers.

Great Barrier Island

Then on through Wellsford (Whakapirau) and past the Honey Centre where you can see working bees behind glass and taste the many kinds of honey produced.

 Warkworth (Mahurangi), is next. An attractive town with the River Mahurangi running through it and many attractions for tourists and locals alike.

Warkworth

 It’s the gateway to another splendid area the Tawharanui Peninsula and Regional Park.

 During WW2, Warkworth was host to 25 US Army military camps where soldiers trained prior to being  sent to Pacific theatres of war. They were well received by the townsfolk who respected their commitment as allies.

American Troops assemble in Auckland prior to leaving to serve in the Pacific

To get to our next place, we have to traverse the winding and sometimes dangerous road up the Brynderwyn Hills.

In 2017, the New Zealand Herald wrote about this road: 

"Every time a motorist enjoys the view from the top, they have survived one of Northland's worst twisting, challenging and dangerous roads."

It’s hard to impress, with just a photograph, what impact that view from the top had on me in those far off days.

I knew and loved the Yorkshire Dales, the Lake District and the glories of beautiful Cornwall but never had I driven up a long, dark and occasionally claustrophobic road to be confronted so unexpectedly with a landscape which seemed to open out the world and stretch for hundreds of miles. 

A small portion of the view from Brynderwyn

At that time, there was no safe place to stop and marvel but that’s exactly what I wanted to do. 

From Top of the World cafe

When people say something is ‘stunning’, they rarely mean it literally but this view, stretching from distant horizon East to West,  stunned my senses.

At the first opportunity I pulled the car in to the side and simply sat there, absorbing the amazing  panorama, only part of which you see in these photos.

The next time, I knew better.  The Top of the World Café offered not just the view to enjoy at leisure but fine breakfasts too.

Whangarei is a pleasant town with a famous Clock Museum, Quarry Gardens and Craft Centre, a Town Basin which is a lovely meeting place on a sunny day with its cafés, gallery and a walkway - Huarahi te Whai.  

Town Basin Whangarei

I’ve spent many a happy hour here but not today when we have miles to go before we sleep…

Although it’s 36km from SH1 to Matapouri Bay, it’s well worth the detour as it’s one of those peaceful and so-far, unspoiled beaches where the sea is gentle, the sand warm and the locals as friendly as can be.

Matapouri Bay

If I could live here, I would. 

But onward and upwards because we’ve got to get to a loo!  

The one I’ve chosen was designed by Friedrich Stowasser (1928-2000), an Austrian Kiwi who preferred to be called Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hunderwasser.   Eccentric? 

Maybe but a brilliant artist and designer. 

His public toilets in Kawakawa bring people from all over the world and they don’t just want to spend a penny.

Made  largely from recycled materials, it was the last project completed by the reclusie Hunderwasser before he died.

 His full name means: ‘Rainy-day, Dark- colourful, rich Friedrich Hundred waters’.   
An appropriate name for the designer of such a fantastic toilet.

 Until Hunderwasser’s loo was built, Kawakawa was mainly known for the train which shares space with cars along the main street; not the only place in New Zealand where car and train get along together.

We’ll hang a right and look at Russell (Kororareka),  New Zealand’s first capital.

Duke Marlborough Hotel, Russell

A pretty place, full of history and tourists but it was not always the lovely place it is today.

Before Europeans arrived, Maori lived there, mostly peacefully and appreciative of its climate, good soil and abundant fish stocks. 

Kororareka was a port, where British and American sailors and whalers landed with goods to trade and a view to womanising and grog.  
So appalling was their behaviour that it became known as The Hell Hole of the Pacific.

When Captain William Hobson who became New Zealand’s first Governor, needed to set up a capital in 1840,  Kororareka was deemed thoroughly unsuitable.

He purchased land 5 km away,  called it Russell and declared it the capital.  
However, in 1841, Ngati Whatua, an Auckland-area  Maori tribe, gifted land to Hobson and  Auckland became the capital.    It wasn’t until 1865 that Wellington assumed this role.

Captain William Hobson

In 1840, after short negotiations because it was rumoured French ships were on their way to claim the country, a Treaty between the British crown and  Maori chiefs was signed at Waitangi.

This gave Maori protection by British troops and guaranteed rights to their lands and off-shore areas.

Remnants of the original
Treaty

There has been controversy ever since over the motives and interpretations of the Treaty of Waitangi and in March 1845, Hone Heke a Nga Puhi, Maori chief was so sure the British (who did not have a great reputation for sticking to Treaty promises) were reneging on the deal that he chopped down the pole flying the Union Flag, in protest.

Kotahitanga being erected

Thirteen years later, in January 1858 a new flagpole was erected as a gift from Maihi Kawhiti. It was hauled by 500 warriors to the top of Maiki Hill and optimistically named, ‘Te Kotahitanga’ (togetherness).

 

Treaty House at Waitangi

And so to Paihia, where before the government ban, I swam with the dolphins, an amazing experience. Pahia is one of the many jewels in the crown of The Bay of Islands.

Paihia is the major tourist town of Northland and, of course, there are many things to do on sea and land.   
Cruises around the islands are popular, expecially the historic Cream Trip. 

This began in 1927, when Albert Fuller, started a collection and delivery route around the many inhabited islands. 
I took this trip some years ago and where there's nowhere  for the boat to moor, the residents have breeches buoys and other contraptions to haul their mail and produce to and from the vessel.  

Take  Tall Ship cruise or watch the dolphins.

 

We’ll pick up a few juicy oranges from one of the many orchards in Kerikeri and acknowledge New Zealand’s first market gardener and commercial dairy farmer: Rawiri Taiwhanga.

Rawiri Taiwhanga

In 1826, after learning agricultural and horticultural skills, his garden was abundant with potatoes, corn, cucumbers, pumpkins, melons, onions, shallots peas and parsnips, peaches and vines as well as an acre of wheat. 

When his raupo hut burned down in 1829, he and his wife Mata, built a substantial house, here seen sadly derelict.

From 1835, Rawiri, who had become a Christian lay preacher and believed strongly in education,  ran a school near Kaikohe but also a dairy farm, selling butter and milk in substantial quantities, thus establishing himself as New Zealand first commercial dairy farmer too.

 He was the pioneer who led Northland towards the flourishing international reputation as growers and exporters of fine fruits it is today. 

Here we are at Matauri Bay.

On 10^th July, 1985, une action totalement ignoble took place in Auckland Harbour, in the heart of the Central Business District.

The Rainbow Warrior, owned by Greenpeace was bombed in the accurately named Operation Satanique.  

Photographer Fernando Pereira, on board at the time, was killed.  

Fernando Pereira

The French Intelligence Service, who initially denied involvement wanted the Warrior sunk before it could sail in peaceful protest against France’s continued nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll.

There followed a huge scandal and many more betrayals. The perpetrators escaped justice as a result of France threatening (blackmailing) to boycott New Zealand goods to the European Economic Community.

Rainbow Warrior, 1985

Although the Rainbow Warrior could not sail to Mururoa, hundreds of private crafts owned by New  Zealanders, did so. 

Rainbow Warrior Memorial 

On 13^th December 1987, the wreck of the valiant Rainbow Warrior was laid to rest at Matauri Bay to become a dive site and marine sanctuary.

NASA shot of Aupouri Peninsula

We move east now and make our way to the base of the Aupouri Peninsula.  Here, the North Island narrows from 60km wide to a mere 10km and we arrive at 90 Mile Beach, which isn’t actually 90 miles long at all - but who cares?

It’s a fun place to be and you can body-board, run (or in my case, tumble) down the dunes. 

Seafoam around rocks at 90 Mile Beach

A bus will take you for a trip on the beach and quite often, cars zip along  there too but be wary, they can also get stuck and your insurance company may not understand!

State Highway One will take us to the very tip of the North Island, although not the northernmost point, which is the Surville Cliffs, 30km east.

Kapowairua or Piwhane,  (Spirits Bay), is a most sacred place, where Maori souls gather, round the old Pohutukawa Tree before leaping onwards to Hawaiki the spiritual homeland.

Kapowairua from the air

Today's visitors can walk to the lighthouse at Cape Reinga where, if their eyesight is good enough, they can see the next major landfall - Evgenkinot, Russia. 

The Pohutukawa tree at Kapowairua

Cape Reinga

And we are at the end of our journey too.  In reality, there is much, much more to see of New Zealand than appears in this blog.  I hope you'll come and explore for yourself one day.  It's well worth it and by and large, we're friendly😁.

I dedicate this blog entry to my dear friend Micki, who came to the end of her 90+ year journey as I was writing this.

Go with God, dear friend. Haere, haere, haere, hoki atu koe ki te Atua.

Rainbow Falls Kerikeri