This afternoon I played a few holes at the Martinborough Golf Club saw these red mushrooms on the 13th tee. They looked pretty and called for a photo, but my camera was at home. Oh well…let’s have a go with my Galaxy Nexus phone. It was difficult, because low sun was behind me and I couldn’t see a damn thing on the phone screen. I took a guess and it came out OK. For a phone.
The mushroom variety is Amanita muscaria, more commonly known as fly agaric.
(Click to enlarge)
I just went to the Amazon website to see if my first published book, Going Abroad, was listed among its second hand books. It was, and at mouth-watering prices: US$271 to US$375.
Not bad, considering it’s been listed on the Ngaio Press website for NZ$60. I sold another today at that price. As I now have only 10 copies left, scarcity value rules and I’ve increased the price to $75. Still a comparative bargain!
This is the highest I’ve ever seen it listed at Amazon America – where it’s often been US$150 or so. Amazon UK once had it for £275, at a time when the pound was actually worth something.
Does anyone actually pay this much for a book they could easily find for a fraction of the cost on the Ngaio Press website? Google finds the listing pretty easily if you search for terms like ‘Scottish Emigration’.
Beats me.
We recently went back to Sky Sport after several years without it and this morning I discovered Grassroots Rugby. The first two matches, both in the country, were great – such an antidote to slicked-up Super Rugby razzamatazz.
PioPio played Taupo Sports on a ground that was very basic. A few spectators – family and friends, including rugby wives with baby strollers and a sheepdog on a ute that watched intently while a conversion was being kicked.
Taupo Sports ambled into the arena through a phalanx of tall cocksfoot grass. No grand entrance through a castle keep with fireworks and rearing horses. No cheerleaders. Basic commentary, basic filming.
Commentator one: ”Who scored that?”
“Commentator two: “Think it was someone in a black and white jersey.”
The play was pretty agricultural, with defence particularly lacking. Tries were often scored after long runs with the try scorer weaving at will through the opposition ‘defence’.
Taupo Sports had the measure of the PioPio lads and sauntered home 45-17. Interviewed after the match, the winning captain said the obligatory:
“We knew they were going to be tough today.”
Second game up was in Southland: Woodlands vs Balfour, played on a multipurpose rugby ground. There were some rudimentary permanent buildings that presumably included clubrooms. The paddock looked newly cut – by a haymaking mower. The grass was moderately even, but it was long and looked springy. The ground no doubt reverted to its primary purpose when the sheep returned.
Some of the flavour of it all is in these fuzzy photos, which I took with my phone.
After these matches the programme moved to senior rugby games in Palmerston North and Auckland. Much slicker, but I preferred the country stuff. I’ll watch again next Sunday morning.
LinkedIn is a social media site with a business focus. But while it largely eschews Facebook-type trivia, it thrives on organisational bullshit.
Today I got a link request from someone I didn’t know, who clothed patent inadequacy in all the trendy organisational clichéd buzzwords she could think of.
She needn’t have thought hard – such garbage is everywhere.
I checked out her personal profile. The summary read:
I have a strong marketing, design and digital/social media background. I am client focused and take a proactive approach to all projects I am involved in. I love a challenge, my desire to deliver above expectations ensures your project will be delivered on time, on budget and with outstanding customer service. I have a bubbly and refreshing personality and often provide the office humor 
Her current offering reads:
Marketing/Communications
3months
October 2012 – Present (7 months)
Helping world class organisations triumph by challenging the status quo: Software projects can be creative, fun and deliver real business value quickly. 3months builds innovative, future-proof and attractive web and mobile applications. Using the latest open source technologies, the smartest developers and a proven Agile process.
It doesn’t say if she works on her own or for another organisation. Her earlier jobs included being a photographer, an account manager at a couple of digital print bureaus and managing a gym. All quite short-term positions.
How is this person qualified to do what she says she does, working with ‘world class organisations’? Indeed, with any organisation?
Any business that would fall for such generic, clichéd crap deserves her.
I declined the link invitation.
Deposited on our front deck today: one Maori poi. Plus a miniature poi that may actually be a cat toy. Is this the start of something big? Perhaps he’ll add intimate garments to his repertoire, or will he specialise in Maori cultural items?
I’ve just found a filter plug-in that does a very different job of simulating a watercolour effect than the watercolour filter that is baked into Photoshop. It doesn’t handle the darkest areas convincingly and these parts need from further work, but the rest of the picture looks rather nice. Who wouldn’t groove in that atmosphere? It’s Chino’s favourite spot after breakfast on sunny mornings. Which is just about every morning during this golden autumn. (Click to enlarge.)
(Forgive me while I use this blog to store some preparation instructions for future reference.)
We’ve had our usual good crop of New Zealand Spinach. In previous years much has been wasted. This year Liz decided we should freeze some of it so she can produce tasty spinach pies throughout the year. Then she didn’t get around to it and buggered off to Wellington to catch up with friends and do more decoration on our Ngaio house before it goes on the market.
Thinking I’d better do the job because the spinach was getting a tad venerable, I did some Google research and got stuck into it.
On the right is spinach straight from the garden. I kept most of the leaves and also the soft ends of each ‘branch’. The discards are in the small sink. The spinach in the left sink was then thoroughly rinsed, twice.
A batch of spinach being blanched – for two minutes. Then the spinach went into the sink for another two minutes in cold water. (The recipes said to use lots of ice, but I added three Slikka pads from the freezer. The water wasn’t exactly icy but hopefully the cooking process was stopped in good time.)
Removing surplus water in a lettuce spinner. It may not have removed as much water as drying it between sheets of absorbent paper, as suggested, but it was much more practical for dealing with a lot of spinach.
A bag of spinach ready for freezing. The air was sucked out using cunning technique I read about. Have the bag largely closed, then put a drinking straw in one side and suck hard. Keep closing the bag and the straw flattens, then slips out before the air can get back in. (No doubt most of the female population know about this, but these things don’t occur naturally to men.)
One of several batches: the prepared spinach on the left, which would fill an oversized basketball, condensed into five small bags for the freezer.
The proof will be in the eating.
Today in NZ history
