And so back to hospital.....

One day, when I let other people take the photographs, I may have a more successfully flattering image....ah well, here I am at the northern most point of the North Island, Cape Reinga.


I decided to take a road trip again for a week, initially to go to Paihai to meet up with Dom and Sarita and kids for a couple of days and then on to the Cape and then slowly down to New Plymouth to meet up with Mike, for the Pretenders concert. A busy schedule, well, not that busy.


So I set off full of hope and delight, the weather has turned at last and summer is here. First stop Rotorua, and back to that crazy hostel Cactus Jack's to see whether there were any likely fellow travellers who wanted to go up to the cape. There weren't, but I did meet a young keen and married couple from the UK, Hereford to be precised, and they were having a good travel round. Along with them was a gentle American called Ben from Minnesota. He thought he was rather witty, they were all quite young and rather boring company. The kind of company that still quotes from Monty Python....will it never end? So an early night was had, not quite the wild times that I had there previously, but that was OK. I found myself in quite a different headset, even quite blase about everything to do with the beauty of New Zealand! My how the complacency sets in only just after a year. Still, till this day, I had never been north of Auckland and certainly hadn't experienced the beauty that is the Bay of Islands. The journey was swift and uneventful on the way up to Paihai, and as it goes I arrive 24 hours early. It was a nice motel, and like many seaside resorts, small chalets based around a pool. Young couple running it who were very popular with everyone. So early morning swims and all day swims and evening swims etc.....the following day, rather unsuccessful journey to swim with dolphins. Dolphins we saw on a four hour cruise round the bay, and then a quick swim off a beautiful beach. An emptier sea I have never seen, as we gazed down with goggles, but I have always wanted to swim off a boat, so that was fun. In fact it was all fun, riding the waves with an excited aunty, must have pleased the girls!!!! :) As I was hanging out at the backside of the boat saying farewell to our compadres the dolphins, it was pointed out that there we were looking at a couple of fornicating dolphins. I have since learnt that dolphins are the only other animal to have sex for fun. They certainly looked as if they were having a blast!


We all left a couple of days later, and after having to call out the AA because my trust vehicle, Winnie was complaining, I left for Cape Reinga, another 300 or so kms to the north.






So do I look enough like a tourist? Well, Cape Reinga is a pretty special place where Maori beliefs let the spirits go on to the next world from this vantage point. I had a moment to reflect on some of the ghosts that I thought I might be able to bid farewell to at such a delightful spot. But being surrounded by various other tourists and the urgency of photo taking rather broke the mood for me, so I thought that I could probably find a better place for private contemplation. And so I did, about 4okms down the road, I followed a sign saying 'Spirits Bay', well that sounded promising. By the by, I had said to the AA that I would not go off-road, so it was with a deep breath that I plunged onto the gravel road for the next 15kms. (You might want to refer to earlier blogs to see what happened the last time I was on a gravel road - it wasn't pretty) When I arrived at the Bay, I knew this was where I was going to spend the night, it was just too good to be true, so I had a quick dip in the plunging surf and went back to the main road for some supplies, then back to the camping ground, such as it was . There were the amenities and the sound of whinnying horses and lowing of cattle, while the sun went down and the moon gradually rose. The mozzies were out in force! I had a special hurrican lamp that burnt citronella oil to ward off all bugs and flying things but it didn't really work, and they made a meal of me. Interestingly, I learnt off CSI New York, that it is only female mosquitos who bite....well, I always knew I attracted the ladies!!!! I must check that piece of crucial info. I seem to be learning alot of info and useful info at that , about various species. So let me show you this space.

Beautiful isn't it........That night the mozzies were so bad that I had to sleep with baby wipes in my ears to stop them being invaded. I don't think I was successful, these girls liked to nibble ears! I wasn't even bothered by the rowdy crowd who were partying well into the morning.

I set off fairly early, not sure how Winnie and I were going to travel the next part of the route. After all it was only 55 kms off-roading, and no harm seemed to be done. As were were traversing down the road, I thought that we ought to have at least a glimpse of 90mile beach. So we took a sharp right, and whoops, we were off-road again! What a beach! amazing. just straight surf and sand for 90 miles. An excuse for lots of crazy driving by 4x4 drivers which was the only crappy thing, but there is a coach that apparently drives through the waves with a load of tourists whooping in the back seats.....uhm.....I gingerly dipped my toes in the water and took a scoopful to wash my face.

So, off on the road again.

I dropped off at as many beaches that I could find, here's just one of them, where I had a little swim.

So this is a lovely little hippy township called OPo,,,,,something, and it's almost at Opo.....something else. Anyway, Opo is the 'friendly dolphin' - not too friendly I hope!!!! But these beautiful sand dunes are beyond compare and the gorgeousness of this little place made me almost want to just stop there, and stay there for quite a long time. It's rather like the place that I stopped at earlier in the journey. It was Mangatamaga( or somethinglike that) a small fishing bay, that appealed to hippies and rich tourists. I found the only hair cutter in town, and got a free haircut, because I wanted to so little and she was so nice....what a delightful find these places are....I do wonder what it would be like to live in one of them. Don't get me wrong there is quite a big Maori presence in these places as well, but one realises that there is really nothing foranybody to do here, so there is the feeling that those who live here, are not necessarily in the mix for job hunting etc....but then, sometimes it is all about the fishing. Certainly in this place with the sand dunes, there was more Maori presence and everybody looked as if they really lived there.

And so the journey went on and as we got into Auckland, which I wanted to do before the end of the day, things began to go a bit sketchy. I lost my way, and spent about three hours travelling around the outskirts of Auckland before gradually arriving at a place where I was only 100kms or so away from Hamilton. Time was ticking and I decided to get there before sleep. I arrived in Hamilton at 11-00pm (ish) and settled down for the night in the back of the car again, this time far from Spirits Bay, but in London Street, opposite the first Waikato gardens in Hamilton. A fine place and a long night sleep. Eight hours later, I was ready for the day. I hooked up with Mike and we had a lovely breakfast, and then on our way to New Plymouth. The journey was hot and relaxed so that when we arrived in town we were looking forward to a reasonably priced motel with a pool. We found it.

A couple of pictures of Mike modelling the pool - it was a very nice place, complete with other guest who had a Peugeot 405 and was delighted with his model.

So I don't think I left anything out, but I'm sure I did, and it'll come back to me. Gotta go now, because I have a terrible ear infection caught somehow somewhere on this trip and I"m in severe danger of it affecting my eyes as well. So off to see the ENT people at the hospital, hopefully they'll be able to do something. In the mean time, I'm slowly moving into my office, which is going to be mine not much longer as I think that I'm just squatting the HoD's until they get a new one. Ah well......looking forward to getting on with some work. Still yet to pin down, who's going to be my superdupervisor.

Xmas is coming and I'm losing weight.

Well - I'm in - well and truly. I start at the Uni on Jan 10 2007, and I still haven't got my visa sorted out. It seems that what's holding the whole thing up is my ol' dickie heart from birth. So what did I do? I joined a gym and have been going every day for the last three months, so that by the time I had to have a check up with the cardiologist, my blood pressure, heart rate etc...all had been treated well, after 20 years of abuse. The lengths one goes to ..... anyway, fingers crossed they'll sort it out and all will be well. At the moment I'm on three month visas and am not allowed to leave the Pacific Islands, so won't be making any more random trips to Georgia or the US or the UK for the moment.
So while all this time has been passing what else have I been doing? You may well ask. Well, as mentioned before, I've been writing for artbash, raising awareness for some of the art coming out of Wellington, and have built up some firm friends which is nice - mostly queer. Wellington is soooo much more accessible than San Fran - maybe I just have more time. Different thing, but it still needs to be said that I'm glad not to be around so self congratulatory types. For all the false starts, I have been accepted to deliver a paper at a conference in Oz in April (visa reliant) at www.somatechnics.org/ so I have a busy time ahead of me, as of course, I haven't written the paper yet......it seemed to impress the Uni which was good, so they're on board fully. So that's the work stuff sorted out, I have a lot to do, and not such a long time to do it, but boldly step forth and cross my fingers - that's my motto. Time for some piccies I think.
Back at the beginning of October, I went skiing with my brother and his family - my nieces were particularly taken with my get up - I think I can obviously put myself in the position of role model. Would you believe that there was someone else on the ski fields in exactly the same
outfit which was very alarming and rather confusing for everyone - but really rather funny. - yup, that's me again. After 32 years of not skiing, it came back to me - just like falling off a bike!
Anyway, that was all just before I started going to the gym after I realised that I couldn't snow board - even though a lady in her mid fifties was having no probs.....there's alot of moments like that. But let it never be said that I still don't put the hours in at the local watering holes. Don't be fooled by the glass of water...by that time it was deemed I needed a break. I don't know- what d'ya think?
But life is sweet, and much work to be done. Not going to be such a hot Xmas as last year, but I've still been for a dip or two in the local open air pool. The water averages about 14 degrees cold, but that's nothing to someone who threw themselves into the bay on a regular basis. Maybe I"m going to be soo hale and hearty that I'l lose all my capacity for critique and suspicion. It's completely true what they say about jocks....anyway - gotta sign off, as am off to Wilton Bush to walk with the girls who are on holiday at the moment. Family calls. Bye for now

Still not there yet

Mid November and still the bureaucracy goes on, but all the time I think we must be getting closer. In the mean time, I'm out and about talking to people, visiting galleries and writing for fun and frolics on www.artbash.co.nz under the name of mcc. I'm learning quite alot about New Zealand artists that I knew nothing of, and working up to trying to find work doing this writing work professionally to earn a crust. Gotta rush now, but I'll talk about my exercise regime next - that's more fun - it's all about having fun don't you know!

The month isn't over, but things are looking up....

Well, thankfully, the lump proved to be indeed a cyst, and therefore no cause for great alarm and next time to be treated with anti-biotics - I'm writing with my new writing tool . My finger has been encased in a sort of sled implement and has since been called a 'mallet finger'. This is apparently what it is denigraded to once the tendon over the knuckle has snapped and thus rendered it into a kind of a mallett..... So anyway, I've had my breasts scanned and ultrasounded, my hand and finger x-rayed - who could ask for more. To cheer myself up, I went to enjoy the good weather and off to the beach! Here are some lovely moments.



So I shall go and do something a bit more sensible today, as it is rather laboursom4 to k44p writing, I havren't got quit4 used to th size of my fing4r!

What a bl***y month!!!!!

August - freezing and wet, and that's just the beginning. All around houses are teetering on the edges of the hillsides and waiting for the ground to give way, as never before. It's amazing, I think that I'm alright where I am, but the house over the road is having difficulty getting sold but it is on rather perilous looking stilts..... The upshot is the ground is giving way, and it's being felt .
And here are some more of the highlights of my month:
4 Aug: Broke one of my molars right off by eating a chip, a week later had treatment that set me back about $800NZ
7 Aug: Was making my bed and somehow, lurched forward and broke my finger - haven't got it sorted out yet, as I had just gone to the doc's for something else at $55 NZ per visit, you can't be too casual about it. So my finger looks like this right now.. It is my middle finger on the left hand.
It wouldn't be so bad, but what you have to understand is that I can't actually straighten it in any way, but at least the immense shooting pain has gone and it does function in some way - I can type.
8th Aug: The exhaust pipe fell off Winnie so in she went to see the motor Doctor, haven't got the bill yet, but estimate $150NZ
11th Aug: After recommendation from the doc, went to Pacific Radiology to have breast screening after painful lump appeared just before last visit to San Fran. What a horrible experience, so much for those cheery images of venerable ladies happily placing their mammaries on plates that potentially just look like they might be chilly, but what you don't see, and nobody every tells you is that then a top shelf of varying sizes, comes down and squishes you tit into a pancake. Luckily I had left it till the painful lump was reduced to just a lump, but after that and during, it was agony!!!! Apparently due to the peculiar density of my breasts (i.e. chubbiness I guess) it hurt even more as they had to be pressed harder. Why not a cylinder? Must remember that for my thesis. So that took about an hour of pushing and shoving, while mamographer and radiologist decided what they wanted, by the end of it I thought I was going to faint with pain. But then was sent in for ultrasounds. No results yet, but I am having more fantasies about just getting rid.
So that little joy amounted to $250NZ. Maybe just the beginning - I might have to wave bye bye to my PHd......
Anyway, not trying to be too depressing about all of that. i keep thinking about the creativity and courage of Jo Spence.
All the time, I'm bunged up with influenza and find myself weeping all the time, either through being bunged up or in pain, or in shock. Deep joy!
Still, only have way through the month, and my stars aren't too well aligned this month, so let's wait to see what happens.
Well, I just thought I would share that all with you.
Can't think of anything jolly to say right now - am waiting on a job interview that I had recently had, in which I don't think I particularly shined, but it would be a nice job to get as writer and publicist for art gallery here. Seem to be very nice and progressive people working there and spookily have some connections with my past existence in San Fran. I have to recognise that however that I've never got a job through an interview process, all very strange. An example of where I fell short, is that I didn't mention that I have a blog site and therefore some experience of editing on line....silly me. I long to feel motivated again, but it's just not coming.
And that dear readers, is my August , so far......

Next step

Hi again - it's been a while but things have moved on a pace. What can I say? Phew. The university has accepted my proposal - so here's what has to happen next on this complicated road to becoming a Dr. and having those illustrious letters PhD after my name and thus make me more employable in the world of academia.
The thing of course about being a foreigner in a new land, is that it is very difficult to make forays in the work place, especially, as I'm starting from scratch, and am funding this all privately. But here's where we are.
Firstly - Enrolling in the mechanisms of being an international student.
The thing that I was completely unprepared for is this little and very important thing called 'Detailed Academic Transcripts'. When I was asked for this - I nearly jacked it all in on the spot. Having just got back from SF, I had this awful sense of horror that I'd have to wait another eight months (how long it took to get my certificate for my Masters over here) and how was I going to go back 5 years to get my transcripts for my Bachelors Degree? But surprisingly, this was not difficult. Of course the US wanted more money to part with this information, but the UK was /is quite happy to send it off. It's not something that is given if not asked for, but once asked for, it is seen, and quite rightly so in my estimation, as your right as a student wishing to progress and continue with education. Needless to say, I went in on the defensive, and suggested that it was their duty in the US, not to encourage foreign students, unless they could realise that not every foreign student wants to stay in the US, and that they have an obligation to the customer! But anyway, there's really no problem on that score, so that's a relief, and then there is the other complication - have I got evidence of residency in this country? Well, here's the difficulty, in order to get a Student Visa/Permit, I need to have registered and paid up at the university, but in order to enroll at the university, I have to have proof of residency- now there's a conundrum. One would think that this might have been thought through further, but it came down to having a letter from the university, saying that they will not be able to accept my registration without residency proof, which I then take to immigration.....I've yet to work out what that all amounts to, but I'll let you know. It strikes me as a rather complicated bureaucracy, that doesn't seem to amount to much. Maybe thiswould make more sense to someone who is applying from out of the country, or is being sponsored or looking once again, to have permanent residency in the country on the strength of their education here. The upshot seems to be that someone like me who is travelling through privately funded education, is a suspect character. Is it a sign of the suspicious times we live in , or is something that really makes sense to people? Do I need to represent my country and stay local or nationalized. Ironically, of course, my desire is to involve citizens of the world into a project of great intimacy and to take it global, to see what are the real similarities, differences. All the reading I seem to get my hands on, is becoming very familiar with different slants, but my experience of people is that there is something very other going on. I'm viewed with suspicion, as I view others ; I'm viewed with interest, as I view others. It's not that easy to assimilate, and that's what is so fascinating. I don't want to view from a distance, but I can only respond to that which I am confronted with.
Secondly - Working and finding people to work with.
I have only one word to say to anybody about this - Volunteer! Only in the last two/three weeks, has this become the pivotal moment of changing my life here. After a year in my books, I can now say that I know about three times as many people and have found spaces to work with and people who want to engage. Admittedly, much of the work is organised by people who have similar backgrounds to me, but I'm confident that things are going to change subtly and magnificently. And so, I'm beginning to make my own work again, as well as continuing the writing and doing all this bureaucratic shannanigans. Since I'm somewhat convinced that nobody is reading this website at the moment, I thought I'd just add in a few images of some of the work I"m making at the moment. Just as a record for myself and see what it looks like in the form of documentation and cataloging. At the moment I'm focusing the complex problems of genital mutilation, and I feel like I need to become more familiar with legislations and statistics of all these different countries. I"m not sure if I have the tenacity for this , but I'd better give it a go. I think the first step for this is to start showing my work publicly and then to get the discussion going and hopefully, as they say, the cream will rise to the top.

So, I will fill you in on the following journey of this Phd quest, but in the mean time, have some pictures to enjoy.Hot and sexy peppers. Shounldn't be allowed! I'm just listening to a very interesting conversation about Xeno-oestrogens......just in case I forget.

Backing and advancing

'snapping to the clatter of the spin - out and in'
So eventually, it's done. I've handed in my proposal for my PhD disssertation/project and it took me nigh on a year. According to some, this is quite a short time, but I'd like to say, it was the phrasing of it,and the organizing of the strategy that took the time. I expect once it starts that things will change, and the reality is that I hope to start on the project before they decide whether they will give me the go ahead, but I'm not absolutely sure how it all starts. I'm aware of the fact that it is quite unusual to be applying to do a practical project for which I have no documentation that validates the fact that I can do it- but to be more specific, as well as writing a dissertation, I have proposed to do a rather complicated curating project. Well, as my buddy Anu says, things have been curated in many ways, and things that are not considered necessarily to be art.....well, we'll see.
My next ambition is to get much more familiar with the art world here in NZ, and get some support from there. I don't think I can do it just from my headspace.

Just to clear the decks I had to go back to the birthplace of my MA, and just close that book for the moment, and double check a few important things. Who'd travel so long and hard while trying to get going with an academic career. I did get my hands on the book that will make the difference, called "Art Practice as Research" by Graeme Sullivan- greatly recommend to anyone in the field.

What Graeme Sullivan has to say about curating the body:

In recent times, however, the fusion is more comprehensive, such that "the body" is often seen in both literal and metaphoric terms as an entity that is unable to be divided and separated into its parts without distorting basic patterns of operations.....This picks up on the idea that we exist within other connected structures. Furthermore theorizing the body in this way helps render notions such as essentialism and determinism as overly simplistic ideas that are inadequate in helping get a sense of the complex and connected world.

So the word of the day is "phenotype".