Monday, June 16, 2014

Few Days in Auckland

As I flew from my hometown, Ohope Beach to Auckland, there was a huge storm a-brewing cutting power and everyone was a hither and a dither not being able to make a cup of tea. The driving rain forced Mum and her friends to play Wednesday Rummikub at home; they usually play at the golf club. Yes. It was that bad.

Ohope storm a-brewing but not cups of tea
Rummikub at home today girls


I stayed in Auckland for a couple of days with the sisters. Sun came out - here's my sister Pietra tending to her plants. She's like Mum when she does stuff (cooking, gardening) bang, shove, plop, slap.


Pietra gave me some Maleficent boots which her friend in New York had given her. Then we tried on Iris Apfel-type glasses at Karen Walker in Ponsonby Road.



We met up with my friend Helena who has just written a book. It’s about her father’s wartime deportation from Poland, and his exile through Siberia and central Asia to Iran. He was only 13 years old. Called "Give Us This Day" it's out in October - I can't wait. What's interesting is that she wrote about the whole process behind interviewing her father ...sometimes he had no answers to her questions. Here is an excerpt from the book -  Helena and her father traveled back to Iran.

And a passage from her journal: "But how did he really feel? I ask. ‘Terrible, " he says, ‘awful.’ He knows even as he replies how weak and inadequate these words are. He can’t pin it down — and he was there. I’m feeling overwhelmed, now, by how difficult the task ahead is going to be. If it’s too tough for a writer with Didion’s skill to articulate the meaning in loss, what makes me think I can do it?"

Friends Sue, Helena, me and sister Pietra outside Auckland Art Gallery
Beetroot salad at the art cafe, sister Pietra, Sue, sister Sharon and Helena

Interesting to hear Helena talk about the process of writing which she saw in about seven stages, starting from Great Idea, to It's A Pile Of Poo and finally, Yes, It Was A Good Idea.

I'm firmly in Pile of Poo stage with my novel and can't see any way out.

Helena had Turkish eggs and I had the best kedgeree ever at Queenies, a cafe down a side street in Freeman's Bay. If you're still wondering what Kiwiana is, this place is it - paint by numbers with Maori and royal memorabilia.
Helena at Queenies

Meringues and sugared fruits

Is your family wonderfully generous about identifying your sundry faults?  Pietra said I sniff incessantly: "It's so bad you don't even know you're doing it" she said "poor Kevin."

When I got home I asked poor Kevin if I sniffed incessantly. Deer in headlights. Does he negate my sister's opinion or support my non-sniffing stance.
"If you do, it's white noise" he answered "I block out a lot of things these days."
Not sure he needed to add that last bit. Sniff.

35 comments:

  1. You had me at hello with that title of a few days in Auckland! I would love a long weekend there with my sister - even with that dodgy weather

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  2. haha well you must have been hanging around the pup too much, caught the sniffing affliction

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  3. How fun to see your sister and you always know the coolest people. That book must have been tough for her to write. Good luck to her.. Writing is such a process... You are great at it Jody and I have no doubt yours will be brilliant too! xo

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  4. Hello Jody,

    What a fun time you look to have had with your friends and sister. We love the Iris Apfel glasses......she is a real role model for us. We shall aim to be exactly like her when we are of a certain age.

    You are right about family pointing out the most intimate details. Why do they just not love us as we are, warts and all, as our friends do? Thank goodness for friends, say we!

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  5. It is so interesting reading about writer's true experience of the act. It is an art form that is meant to come off as so effortless, but actually result in heaps of balled paper (these days metaphorical!) around the desk….

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  6. My family is just as generous, as is my DB. Aren't we lucky to be so blessed...?

    Do you like beetroot? I'm not a fan, but it's so good for you I feel I have to eat it anyway. I've found the best way is to hide it in a smoothie, or kill the taste with garlic. :)

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    1. Love it! kevin hates even a whiff of the smell so I eat it when I'm away from him

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  7. Since you are already in the pile of poo, wade through it and try not to sniff. Sounds like you are having a great time with the fam damnily.

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    1. Funnily enough my course is called shitty first draft so I am really getting my momey worth.

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  8. ha! Barry is a sniffer as well! I am sure I have many faults. I just can't think of any.... so glad you are having fun!

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  9. Get cracking with your novel. We will all buy it. I like your sister, she has style and beautiful hair, although that image of her on her patio looks like she is going to fly off in a gale force wind.
    Buy those glasses, girls. Nothing like being a secondary teacher for being told you 'do things' ...Miss, do you know you always say.... Or, you've already said that, and you say it all the time...haven't been accused of sniffing....but it could come up.
    Ohope is like paradise. Xx

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    1. Reminds me of these cloistered nuns in Tyburn Convent in London. once did an article on them for London Evening Standard, in the flesh they were very giggly and active and we took a photo of them playing soccer in their inner courtyard.

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  10. Haha! At least he was honest. My sisters are always more than honest with me...sometimes I appreciate i, but not always! That sounds like a nice time!

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  11. I SO wanna see New Zealand someday!!! How often do you get to go back??

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    1. Mostly at Christmas holidays so not usually by myself. it's easy going there, 12 hours overnight, but tricky coming back because you feel so rubbish in the morning

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  12. I sniff... but I also do the bang, shove, plop, slap thing too!
    Glad you had a lovely holiday!
    SX

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  13. Jody I can't wait for your novel!!! PS I love seeing snippets of NZ

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  14. Oh for goodness sakes don't give the sniffing s moment's worry and stop sniveling about the novel. Whether it's writing a novel or meeting future in-laws always just be yourself. You'll never be better at anything else as nothing will ring truer and that is the only real measuring stick you should use. Let Helena use her voice for her story and don't compare yours to hers. Stay as far away from the writing workshops as you can as they'll only dilute your voice into a grouphug of mediocrity.

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    1. Good advice and kick up bum. I think the thing I hate about some of chapters is that it is forced workshop stuff. There is a great thing on YOutube about not going to workshops as giving each other critiques is blind leading nearly sighted.

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  15. I did not notice your sniffing and I was in a tiny car with you for hours!!!!!!
    Those sisters!Yours is GORGEOUS!That HAIR...........I bet she gets tired of hearing that!But it is GORGEOUS!

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  16. It looks like you had a blast with your sisters. I do hope you bought those eyeglasses:). Fabulous looking on you daring!! Sniffle, snuffle...we all do something. Get on with that book woman...we all want to read it:). xoxo

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    1. I bought so many sweaters in Ohope Beach, I had to stop spending so the glasses stayed in the store but I know they will go to a good home

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  17. My mom used to stay with the nuns at Tyburn...and wrote regularly to one lovely chirpy sister until very recently! small world eh? ....Kevin is a wise man....and would miss your sniffs if ever you wandered away!!

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    1. How funny! I stayed there for the weekend with all the parents who were visiting (i'm not sure what access they had to their daughters though) it was right opposite Hyde park but most of them had never ever been to the grocery store. I thought it would be elevating and I would answer all my questions...in fact I was just bored which goes to show how superficial I am

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  18. Sounds like a wonderful visit, love those glasses, so cool :) xx

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  19. Helena's book sounds really interesting.
    I think my husband considers everything I say white noise, in fact I caught him this morning with his fingers in his ears!! (obviously he can hear me then.....)

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  20. Your posts amuse me no end! Love the sniffing story. I think most marriages only survive because you block out your partners irritating personal habits. Did you get any of the Karen Walker sunnies? They're all the go with the fashion bloggers. I think they'd subliminally make you start posting photos on the blog of you fake walking down the street, or standing pigeon toed in front of graffiti covered walls with a bunch of peonies sticking out of your oversized tote bag. Best avoid.
    Fascinating story of your friends Dad. I think sometimes family histories are the hardest thing to write - you need to do it justice, it's an enormous responsibility. xx

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    1. Karen Walker sunnies stayed where they were in Auckland. Can't imagine what groovy place I would wear them to so the responsibility of the pics of ,"fake walking down the street, or standing pigeon toed in front of graffiti covered walls with a bunch of peonies sticking out of your oversized tote bags" (hilarious synopsis of a fashion blogger! you need to write more on this theme, and not to forget the straddling the stationary bike pose with peonies in the basket) will just have to remain in the well manicured of others.
      Heidi, I can't imagine anything my family might have done to fill a book! or that they would talk to me afterwards, so tricky!!

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  21. Looks like you had a great time! Let us know when friend's book is released. :)

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  22. I shall have to look out for your friend's book in October (and yours when it is eventually published!) Looks like a fun time catching up with your sister and friends but I would have turned down the beetroot salad and moved straight on to those meringues - my sweet tooth again!

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  23. Those storm photos are stunning - the blue colour is fabulous.
    No wonder you are keen to read the book: it sounds fascinating. I find it hard writing up my dad's memoirs because he isn't here for me to double-check things or just chat about his experiences. I wish I had tackled it while he was alive.

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    1. Hi Trish, Helena said sometimes her dad Stefan could not remember so she had to imagine. He was only young at the time - he started the journey from Poland with seven siblings and his mother at age 11 and finally reached NZ by boat at age 14. Sadly his mother died in Iran.

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  24. loved reading your recap of your trip back home. I've only been once, and that was 5 years ago. you'e a sniffer? my whole family is. we even do it somehow in unison. i'm a throat clearer this time of year (allergies).

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