Episode 21 - SVW Tapes - 10th March, 1980

"...finds you well."

"It's 45 minutes on this tape, and I'm quite sure if I'm not going to fill it because I'm trying to do this without any notes or anything else."

Well, it was the first day of autumn yesterday, and the weather changed quite suddenly, strange. We've had a week of quite dull, overcast, grizzly weather, and it's been cool. We're hoping it'll perk up, of course, that we get a decent sort of an autumn drawl. But if this is what it's going to be like until the winter comes, well, it's not going to be a very good winter at all.

We've enjoyed your tapes, of course, and I don't think you quite... after you're hitting manual standard yet, right? But still, you're coming along, and at least we can pick out the tunes. Was that you, Michael, been playing the Mountbatten? If it was, you're playing it quite well, but I suspect that your mother was doing something towards that contribution as well.

Now, as I said, I hope to find you all well. I suppose you're all flat out as usual. And I suppose too that if we're in the first day of autumn, then you must be in the first day of spring, and that you'll be looking forward to a lot of good weather in the weeks to come. I suppose, however, that you'll be hoping it doesn't get quite as hot as it did last year. No. This is mainly to Maitland and Rachel. You didn't tell us in your letters or in your tapes what you'd bought for your mother and father for Christmas with the money that we sent you. And neither, for that matter, did you tell us, Sharon, what you bought with the money that we sent you either. So we don't really know what you got yourself with that money.

The other thing was that we got a note from you saying that you've got that magnificent tourist gimmick, but in that letter, I asked you about the currency situation, and you didn't mention that at all. You don't need to feel obliged to do anything about that then; we can quite well do without it. But if we can work with or ring the changes that way, well, it would certainly save us about 20%, 25% in fact on our... on our trip to Australia. With regard to going to that, we are leaving here on July 8, and we're having three days, that's like three full days in Sydney, and then we're going up the apartment in Surfers. Lindsey and Cynthia are coming up. They're going to Australia to see Gail, and they're going to come up to stay in the apartment with us for a fortnight or so. And during that time, we'll take the opportunity of getting away traveling, we perhaps going by car and going on railway tours. We'll go up to Noosa Heads and inland to the Bananaland and into plantations and sugarcane and the cattle country and swing back around from the hinterland back into Surfers and home again. And we arrive home, let's see, September sometime, the winter away. Had to let you know about that.

John, interested to know that we had a fairly successful cricketing season in Australia. We got to the final of the series, the cricket series there. And although Australia won finally, we did quite well considering. And since they've come back, they've beaten India in Auckland, and the next test starts here on Friday. And of course, needless to say, David will be sick and we'll be sleeping Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the cricket watching the second test match.

The house on the empty section next to here is nearly finished. It's... I say it's only two bedrooms, and it's not very large, but it's very high, very high gable roof, and it's very attractive, probably in my opinion. But one or two of the neighbours who were affected, of course, losing their sun, they don't see it that way. And of course, they think that it's too high, shouldn't... Anyway, our interest goes offset. Said to your mother, "Well, if it had been here when we bought, we've still bought, and we didn't buy the empty section. We didn't, therefore, own the view, and so there's nothing we can do about it if you're so well off you can afford to buy all the views, well then you don't have to put up with these inconveniences." And I can't see any point in complaining. Some of them around here, in fact, one... they just put their place on the market because it's taken all their sun, which might well be...

The country is in the throes of a strike. It has been for a week. But then, of course, if we only send you a tape, we're telling you that we've got strikes. So this time, it all started off firstly with Qantas, which didn't affect us, but that was followed by a strike by the Air New Zealand engineers. That quickly spread. In fact, the whole thing seems to have been orchestrated by the ASU, take out, and the communists. But unfortunately, the public opinion is not behind it. They aim there. Nevertheless, it has spread to all sections of the community. Everybody's coming out on strike in sympathy. As one comes out, so another comes out. Finally, Air New Zealand decided to use non-union labour to do something, and the pickets invaded that... Here yeah, where you go to travel overseas at security areas, are they called wings?I mean, a few of the engineers were arrested. This... because it was... one... most of them were secretaries from all sorts, hired by the unions mostly. They were mostly communist unions. So the police sent them up the road. And they could have got out immediately by signing the bail bond, but they chose not to because they wanted their day back and become martyrs. And so they stayed there, and then, of course, all the unions started picketing. Now even, in fact, it's pretty obvious that the whole thing was carefully orchestrated by communist-led unions with no miss... public opinion anyway. The upshot was that within a few days, there was no petrol and Auckland, and no milk. And the only place you could get milk was at the hospital if you had an urgent reason. And anyway, somebody went up there and said the cat... the cat is... which they didn't think was very funny if they got... got no milk. And the ferries have stopped. And generally, the country is just grinding to a standstill. But of course, among the worst affected were the thousands and thousands of New Zealanders and Australians are holidaying down on the wrong side of the Tasman so far.

So finally, Malcolm Fraser got in touch with Muldoon, and they arranged an airlift with Hercules by running these Hercules at low altitudes and taking about five hours across the Tasman and keeping it going for a couple of days, managed to shift all the thousands of people who were stranded. That was that. And of course, these people were in a pretty bad way, like my travellers that just... a ticket, get home, broke. And here they were forced to find food for an extra week and accommodation for an extra week. And in fact, most of them were sleeping in the airports and getting by on packets of crisps and food that people were bringing in. And even Air New Zealand, who had postponed a lot of flights, used the food that would have been given on those flights, the whole three courses, but they were given to these people. And so it became pretty urgent hygienically and every other way, it became important that these people got shifted. So, of course, Fraser and Muldoon, they were only too happy to do a bit of strike-breaking on their own behalf, and that's exactly what they did. Muldoon is now threatening to... there's this recording on that that... anyway, we'll have a look just... yes, I think it is. Anyway, Muldoon is now threatening to start an airlift across Cook Strait to ship all our non-perishable goods and cars and people and what have you. And, of course, the Federation of Labour and the Cooks and Stewards unions are taking this as a further bit of strike-breaking. And they're going to use that as an excuse to prolong the strike. So things don't look good. Mind you, public opinion is very much behind the government on this one. I thought for the last few months that the government was finished, that Social Credit would get enough votes, it's running second in a lot of electorates now, you know, and I thought they'd get enough votes to split the thing wide open and Labour in, God help us with Rowling, and that... so it's just hard to believe how they could run the country. But in any case, when your mother says, "You won't know who that is," but I'm sure you do, it's David Lange of Auckland, the wine biscuit kid. And anyway, of course, everybody is expecting Muldoon to take advantage of the upsurge in public opinion and have a snap election now rather than in November. But he said he wouldn't do this. But of course, you don't believe anything that Muldoon says anyway. So I'm expecting the strike to go on at least... It states now that neither party is all that interested in what the public thinks or feels or how inconvenienced they are. It's a matter of one making a statement and the other one interpreting it down to the last word and letter. They usually interpret it to suit themselves. Then they contradict each other. And it's become a face-saving exercise. And if they can get out of it saying, "Well, the government gave in," and the government says, "The Federation of Labour gave in," and if they can kid themselves that that's exactly what happened, well then that's when the strike will finish. But until then, I'm afraid it's going to go on.

Now the other thing is Senator A will be posting your letter, and I'm going to send you a copy of an article done by a couple of university lecturers on the Thomas Commission and the commission of inquiry. Of course, we're supposed to put the things to rest for once and for all, but in fact, it simply added another bizarre chapter to the whole damn business. And this is a most condemning, most telling analysis of it. And I'm pretty pleased about it because it's nice to have people confirm opinions that you've worked out for yourself. And by and large, the points that I quarrelled with the commissioner about, and indeed wrote to the paper about on one or two occasions, has been more than confirmed by these two people who are disinterested. You know, I'm not really a disinterested party. Unbiased, and I admit it about this, but these two aren't. And they have very much taken this stand that I have. So I'll send it to you, and you can take this as being about the best analysis and the most objective view of the commission, and indeed the whole business, that you can get. I think they have probably said the last word on the matter. So you'll get that thing in due course.

Right now, I told you this was unedited vision, so if you get snippets that seem unrelated to anything else, it doesn't matter. We got the flower photo; it's absolutely beautiful. You know, she really looks great in that gear, and she looks great anyway. We have changed... not to put family photographs around the place. We sort of always felt it a little bit Coronation Street or butterflies on the front wall sort of business with... but I don't know... I don't know whether we're getting old or...? Anyway, we tend now to have a few photographs of the grandchildren on display, or cherry trees and children in clerical gear, which we can show to our friends when they come in. And speaking of friends coming in, physically David McKenzie, who used to work for me when you were young in Christchurch, is now an associate professor at Otago. And they were up awaiting here for a couple of hours, and they've popped in to see us, and it was nice to see them. They got a growing family now too.

And the other thing, a few weeks ago, once I suppose, we got a letter from Jean and Yvonne Go here, and a couple that Esther sent on to us, and we stayed with in LA. They wrote and said this distant cousin was coming. It turned out, of course, they'd never even seen him, but they gave him their address. When he and his wife, Texans about our age, they were traveling on a new travel thing called People to People. And apparently, when they get here, apart from doing some of the usual tours... see which stuff, you know, Rotorua and Cook and that sort of thing. They also... they've booked into a hotel too, but they have a meal out with a host. And I don't know whether the host gets paid for the meal or even a token, but anyway, it gets travellers into New Zealanders' homes. I think it's a good idea. And they were committed to this meal, but anyway, he rang and... so we... well, at least we'll come in and see them. And they are a delightful couple, and we were quite surprised, of course, that they hadn't even seen their 42nd cousin; they didn't really know what Jean and Yvonne looked like, and there was some... Sophie or somebody in the distant background, but they've got a bit confused. So we shouldn't pursue that out of it. Anyway, they were delightful. But there again, you know, they didn't give us the impression that they were rich Americans like your employers. And we got the distinct impression that they were pretty worried that if they were strikebound, they were going to run out of money. So I said, "Damn well, you get Air New Zealand to commit themselves when you get back here." They were coming back to go to LA. "You get them to commit themselves to a flight. You can stay with us until the thing resolves itself." But we heard on the television on the night that they were due to go from Auckland that that plane did get away. It was late, but it did get away. And they were going to have a bloody awful trip. They were going to fly from Auckland to Hawaii, switch planes, no sightseeing, they weren't reaching... nothing... to LA, switch planes, and home to Texas. So... didn't envy them that trip too much. On top of that, they'd come from Milford that day to Christchurch to Auckland to... say, you can imagine! Eight hours to Hawaii, five hours to LA, and another four or five hours to somewhere in Texas... Oh my God! So to Houston, that's right, Houston, Texas. Anyway, they were quite delightful, and they were kisses all around when we left, and we'd only known each other 50 minutes, but they were quite a delightful couple.

Oh, other news... we hope that London and Egypt cooked with Patsy and that she got her fish and chips. Yeah. From what you say, we can't believe that the business keeps rolling on. It must be chaotic, but I think you'll be a lot... working every day, especially if you're still trying to do all these other things too, like run the sports at the school. We're quite surprised that they don't have houses, or do they in letter...? Laps either...? I don't know, but it's seen from your letter that you're going to institute the housing system as far as sports go, and it should be quite interesting. The other thing is David has applied for a job in Wellington with the Ministry of Transport as an Inspector's job up there. It's going to mean several thousand a year extra for him if he gets it. The job's placed a week ago, and he should... you should have a pretty fair go getting it. We're not that happy about that, of course, because quite obviously it means they're going to live in Wellington, and we're going to be here on our own. But still, we can't do much about that, and I don't expect him to gear his life around us. And it'll give them more money; he might as well have it. And in addition to which, it'll give him security. And of course, all the guys who fought in the Battle of Britain who are holding directorships out there at the moment, key jobs in the departments, they're retiring in the next five years. And so there's going to be some opportunities for some fairly good jobs. And if he's in now, in five years from now, they should come up, and he should be able to take his chances on getting them. We can fly up, of course; it's only half an hour trip, and we can get up there for the price of one fare because I get a travel warrant. But it's $107 now to Wellington from here, which means it'd be $214 for two if we paid full fare, which is very ridiculous when you consider that we could get to LA for $109, and then only $9 would take us from there to London. So we think it's a bit of a rough deal, but however, it is pretty handy. And then the girls can come down here for holidays from time to time, so it shouldn't be so bad. But however, we hope he gets it really because for financial reasons... I think you'll find housing a bit pricey up there, but he'll have a healthy deposit power with this when he... would he should sell this one at Rangiora at quite a profit because they've done a lot to it. And with a government job, he can afford to fork out a $30,000 mortgage in your future. And he doesn't like doing that sort of thing, but I'm afraid he's going to have to if he wants to live in something that's anyway decent.

About John's trip to Florida to see the manatees, we saw that program on television, and we saw all those bloody idiots tearing around in high-speed boats, chewing the flesh off the backs of them. It's damn ridiculous! I should put these speedboats and the drivers in them... if I had anything to do with it. It's just ridiculous that people continue to do that sort of thing when these harmless creatures are there anyway. The program didn't dwell on all of that; it showed their habits and the underwater scenes. And apparently, they live in some warm springs down there, and it was a pretty good program. And colour, of course, so we saw that. Surprising how many things like that we know, you know, we see TV programs, even fictional things like, you know, the Dukes of Hazzard and cops and robbers and high-speed chases. And you see the fruit market in the opposite... Jackson Square or New Orleans, or you see the church we went into in San Francisco, or you see something in Washington, or you see something in New York that we've seen, or something in San Diego. It's quite surprising how often that happens. And the same thing in stories that were... books that we read, you get descriptions of these places. For instance, I was reading a story the other day, and the guy was asking one of the people in the story too told him he'd booked him into the Palace Hotel at Calgary, which is where we stayed. So I know you get that sort of thing all the time.

I don't think we have gerbils here, but they sound quite lovable. At least they would be acceptable like Simon's cat was. But I'm afraid tarantulas are not our cup of tea, and I don't think we'd enjoy having them in the house, and so Maitland can look after those himself as far away as Atlanta. In Atlanta, we can strike them as much as he likes, but we're not very interested in things like that. They've almost got a bad reputation yet, I suppose it's like the Catipoa? It's got a reputation that doesn't deserve its largely... That Milan Brych that was arrested in Los Angeles was the Milan Brych of shrinking people off here in Auckland. And apparently, he was charging $60,000 for a course in LA, but I think they've got him cold. He was trying to sell the treatment to an FBI agent, and it looks to me pretty much as though he's going. And the guy who might have saved him, who was a registered medical practitioner, he's supposed to have cured him of cancer, that's why I was helping him... he was helping Brych and giving him the status. He's since died. So I think Brych is on his own, and I'm pretty sure that... wreck out...? He had a face... the charges went all... but it's going to be a while before he gets back.

The other thing is I'm just about finished painting the house. That there's only the windows and French doors and things like that, but they're all fiddly jobs cutting in all the time. There's no straight painting, and that's taken me about three weeks. Well, I'm on the last run now, except for one or two features that are above the ladder level, and David's going to have to do those because they're far too high for me. If I slipped, I couldn't... I couldn't grab anything to save myself.

Your mother reckons that when Maitland's on the tape, you'd better leave him alone because she thinks he does quite well on his own, and he doesn't need any assistance. He's a big boy now, and he can say what he wants to say without any help from you. Is that clear? I hope you've got that message.

Hostages, a concern... we feel pretty much the same as your letter writer was, you know, Lewis. I'm not too impressed with him, by the way, you can learn from my letter. No, it was Christianity when I wrecked him. I remember I told you I'd written to him. But I feel that the hostages were victims, and I can't see that they were heroes. And anyway, as I said to you in my letter, every TV host and hostess is going to want them and their wives and their kids and their 42nd cousins. They're all going to get on the shows. And as long as the TV can get... manage... as long as the ratings show that the American public are interested in the hostages, then that's just how long you're going to have to put up with it. But I'm pretty sure that there'll be at least... how many were there? 52? I would say there'll be at least 104 books out within a few months: "That's How I Survived" and "How I Survived Without My Husband, or Boyfriend, or Dad, or Uncle, or Granddad," or whatever the demand is. But I think the Americans might tire much of it. I do think, however, that that bloody fool from East Cape, East Cape Values... watches now the Wing Commander with...? Who says everything...? White? What's his name? He's the ambassador in Washington now anyway. Oh yes, Wing Commander Gill. Well, I'm quite sure that he would have been far better to have kept his big mouth shut because the Americans at that moment of their hysteria didn't want any words from him about having his wartime days 40-odd years ago and how his mates weren't treated as well when they came back from prison camp. And therefore telling them about Brigadier Thompson, who the Minister of Defence here... I don't suppose they even knew either who the hell Brigadier Thompson was. But anyway, the Americans... it was an emotional time for them. The hostages were home, and Reagan was their new boss man, and they're full of hope for the future, and all is going to be well, and the Yanks are going to be back at the top of the totem pole. So I suppose he chose to take the whole thing together.

Anyway, that's that. Soon other points... We had a TV program of the Edinburgh Tattoo here. As usual, it was very high class. They had two contributions from the Americans. One was a group of Harvard students or somewhere from the East Coast who did an intricate display with rifles. It was quite incredible, all silent, there wasn't a sound. They just did the whole lot with their rifles and their movements and beautiful precision thing. I think it went on a bit long, but they certainly looked immaculate. They looked like a top-class British regiment. You... But then, of course, we had an outfit from LA, and I think the most... the costumes were up in the Hollywood studios because there was more tinsel and bare titties and ruffles and bits of cotton wool and fluffing and that sort of stuff for miles. And these girls were in white boots, high kicking and spinning things around and generally behaving like they're at a gridiron game. And I don't know what their stage presence... they lacked? And then, of course, military uniforms that look like they're part of the army of some obscure European principality like Lithuania or somewhere like that, you know, some comic opera kind of... and all silk and reds and creams and yellows and chests and God knows what. And really, it didn't quite fit the Edinburgh Tattoo, which is really a very high class, very British sort of performance. And they came on, and their whole performance was gauche and brash and rowdy, and they received a very polite round of applause. I think, of course, they were very... mostly the audience were upper-class English anyway, you know, they're not Coronation Street, and they gave a polite round of applause and crossed their fingers and hoped that they'd get out the arena as fast as they came into it. So we thought it was pretty hysterical altogether. Anyway, it takes all types, and I suppose their intentions were good, and at least they're honest and generous, open-hearted people. And you're a bit sad to see that some of us looked at it like that, but it's rather like the guard they had outside the Queen Elizabeth, we thought that was hysterical. They were... I doubt if any of them were more than five foot eight, which is about at least four inches short of the required height. And the uniforms were rather... looked like straight out of the operetta 'The Chocolate Soldier' rather than outside Buckingham Palace. And their drill was certainly a lot to be desired. But that's the impression that gave us, you know, and although the intention's good. And strangely enough, again, we saw the Queen Mary, and that particular changing of the guard and that fruit... What's that singer that plays the piano with all the candelabra persona? Oh yeah, Liberace. He gave his party on what he called his yacht, which was the Queen Mary, for God's sake! And we saw that lot again. But that's how we felt about the guard outside there; we thought there was something a little odd about the whole whole business that didn't look quite right.

However. So... Bay, of course, is singing merrily. He's not supposed to be; he's moulting. Canaries are supposed to stop singing, but this one doesn't. He's still in full song. If anybody comes on the radio singing, well, he immediately bursts into song because I don't think he likes competition. He prefers silence so that we can all listen to him. And when I put any of my tapes on, he tries to out-sing them. So we found that the best thing to do when we're cutting tapes to send to you too is to do them with him outside, and you can sing to his heart's content out there, and he doesn't appear on the tape.

Well, I suppose we'll come back to this later, but the papers have arrived, and I want to read all about this strike, which is rather like Peyton Place. It's a continuing thing which goes on day by day. Everybody's moving around the chess board, taking up new positions daily, and the public are just left to wonder where it's all going to end up. So we'll come back to this later on.

Well, since we left this... we had Labour for you, and we had the attack for you. And it's the eighth today. And so one or two things we could answer about your tape. First of all, Whati... Hekea? Is some obscure little town on the West of South Island, and it got such prominence because it was exactly the right size for that spot that I had. I couldn't find anything else, so it's not very important, but it is rather nice sounding, isn't it? There for the tourist trade, it doesn't look too bad. Right now, the other things. We've taken notice of your comments about Vegemite and honey and passionfruit. I suppose they've got some special significance for us, have they? Why have they? Anyway, I gather, of course, you'll get some Fuji mushrooms, some money, and some passionfruit, either by surface mail or by airmail, or have a look at it. We've started our Vermont syrup, and we use that fairly sparingly, but like Marsha says, you tend to get it and keep it for special occasions, and then you don't use it. But anyway, ours is open now; we're starting to use that.

The other point you made about the currency, I didn't expect the difference would be so great. It's pretty great here. 100 New Zealand dollars cost 125.9 Australian, which makes it pretty expensive really because no matter how much you pay before you go for hotels and airfares and so on, you've still got to have some pocket money, and you're buying Australia money at a pretty hefty rate.

There's a point you made about the movie at the Bronx too. I'd mentioned that earlier on the tape. Strange, just sort of deja vu or thing you think, "I've been there before," and in fact, of course, you have. The other thing was we had a note in the paper that Reagan had let the palace know that he and Nancy would want to be at the wedding. Having it somewhere... St Paul's instead of Westminster? Really think he... I don't think it was quite as crude as that. I'm sure the president would have been invited anyway, and I don't think for one minute that he actually invited himself. Although Mum said it was the Archbishop of Canterbury who said that he said he'd like to be there, but frankly, I think it was a little more subtle than that.

The other thing, too, was that jump... during this strike here, we had a number of strikebound Americans in Auckland who formed a solid body and invaded the general manager's office and told him that they were kind of bloody well stay there until he did something about getting them out of the country, which didn't go down very well here. Rather the several thousand... there are about 6,000 people affected by air strikes... and they had to sit it out. And you know, the average New Zealander didn't take too kindly to these... these people who were invading his office and saying they're going to send telegrams to their senators, some senator in some state, that they'd make sure that we got bad publicity out of it. Well, it really confirmed a lot in New Zealand's attitudes that Yanks are just like that, when in fact, of course, they're not. It's just... it's just the small few, but they seemed like operating middle-class Yanks who, so used to getting their own way, they just couldn't believe they had got caught up in the strike. So they were behaving pretty rudely, and it didn't go down at all well on television.

Yeah. Right now, I think that's just about covers all those things. As we're going to send you some... this week, we'll be getting you some cutting... Maitland will be delighted when he gets his one. The Canterbury University students have a chocolate fish eating contest now. The winning student only managed five in a minute, and I'm pretty sure that Maitland could do better than that. But anyway, we've sent the photograph of these students guzzling chocolate fish. So when the time comes, I think Maitland better get into training and go to Canterbury University. They're sure to win that contest. Anyway, it is quite an interesting little pattern, and I'm sure Maitland will turn pink when he sees it.

Well, at least instead of me making muffled comments in the background, which is happy to serve a few words instead. Consistent group of Americans that were kicking up all the fuss at the airport. What was quite distasteful was one of them said, "We'll make sure that not one atom of meat gets into our country for the next 100 years," which we all thought was rather hysterical. It was just that day had an agreement to be signed with... I don't know how many thousand tons of lamb or something that was to go. So made them look a bit stupid. But however, people show up differently, don't they, when they get faced with this sort of thing? And I felt like writing and saying, "Well, you know, I'd like to see one of us try and carry on like this in one of their airports." Airport would be slightly a different matter.

However, to go on, you might not know much about the wedding, of course, the Royal Wedding, which was on July the 29th in Saint Paul's. Although you must now have realised that Charles is engaged and that to the Lady Diana. A lot of controversy, of course, going on. Apparently, even David thinks that Queen Diana eventually... I think he'll be long gone before he ever comes to the throne, but even David thinks that Lady Diana doesn't sound quite right. Already the palace has said that there's no way could she be called that, and yet they are considering, what was it? Her Royal Highness, Princess Charles? Which Arthur was quite ridiculous. But however, I think she'll probably best be Princess of Wales. But Diana is not being mentioned at all at the moment, or at least while he was away. Where was he? Was away somewhere last week or the week before. She was having etiquette lessons with the Queen Mother, I suppose, as lots of things one has to be taught when one hasn't been bred. Although she's been associated with the family, and they played together as children. But Charles was eventually attacking her or was bringing with her older sister. And I've got here only being 19. And when they interviewed the happy couple on the telly, it was rather funny, is the age difference...? Were worried? Do you think...? He laughed. Oh, she'll be quite exhausted, I feel sure. His mother pickles all around. However. That's that.

Goodness me, it surprises me that Pat T organised our tour. Talk to her. I think that was just... she won in cents? We didn't get current cancellation, but really she's a gem, isn't she?

Well, now Dad told you about the McFees that stopped. Really was the Americans that had the stop here. We popped into the Claridges Hotel and had some drinks with them. They really were delightful. Nobody quite knew who was related to who, but still didn't really matter. And... however, what else have I got to say? I'm sending off your couple... And New South Wales Women's Weeklies too by sea. Would be odd better about... we were going about to Cherry Raymond and might something about Pat? And she's still... still doing very, very well here, of course. And... oh... Oh, your cold sounding bad, and you always felt you didn't wear your clothes well enough. I can hear Dad saying, "Oh, go on, Mum." But... I always felt missing through my coat? Oh indeed. So really, you just must take care of yourselves because we don't you... an Auckland nor'wester like I always beat in on my life. But here... I think that's that.

Marcia said in the letter that we had grandmother at the cottage looks absolutely delightful, that you wouldn't know. And that looked it from the photos. Thank you so very, very much for our wonderful earring case. Everybody's most impressed with it, and of course, nobody's seen the likes. So... haven't even seen the likes of my rain hat, which if the weather goes on like it's going on at the moment, I should never be out of. But I really was absolutely delighted. I always took it so really, didn't they? The letter from Bev and her Christmas card mostly about the dog. We had to laugh, so I think it would seem that he is some very important member of the household. What a lot of presents were under that tree! I needn't have worried the poor darlings weren't going to get anything. It was just amazing the presents that they got. Yes, John Lennon was very, very sad, wasn't it? It was just so unnecessary.

I'm just reading here from my notes. So you're getting more funding out there. The non-stop David and Dorothy watched the highlights of the Falcons and the Cowboy whatever game, so they knew all about it. And so they, of course, loved Maitland's outfit with the... with the...? Of the Falcons, which is in by the Christmas tree in them. I'm fed up already with the Reagans, so we get nothing but Nancy here. And if she wears red again, which I read in one of my books that she's most fond of, well, I didn't need to be told because she's never in anything else. And I think it was Friday night we saw her being interviewed by one of the interviewers who was mentioning about what she'd spent on the... $1,600 or something on an Emma Hayter bag? And she said just no way would she spend that, that she spent very little on clothes. And that there's just no way that she'd spend that on an alligator bag. But she was in her usual red with the blue blouse, I think she had on, royal blue blouse under it. Yeah, I actually... she tones down a bit for the reading. I mentioned that sure, actually arrived here and all probably really I just say I seem to think they rot.

Yes, we thought that we were sick and tired of the hostages, having been through it all for a year. And we realized that the cutting that you sent us of Grizzard's was quite correct, that they were victims, not heroes. And... you know, when I think of it, there's been people writing in here to the papers about their husbands have been prisoners of war, I don't know how many years, but never even got thought of, and that was sure just part of the way of life. And I have to agree with this. But there you are.

Sometimes when you're doing your shops, you can see if you can see any cherry pie filling. Well, you might write and tell me. I probably don't... picked you... probably wouldn't need it. I'm dying to make a black forest cake, which has got the cherry pie filling in it. I may have mentioned this, I don't know. But here, you'll understand what I have about the repetition business. But you could practically tell me what cherry pie filling is exactly? I think I could probably just buy the ordinary tin cherries here. Do you think that would work? Seems six of one, half a dozen of the other would seem just the same to me.

Oh, by the way, I meant to tell you the engagement ring of Lady Diana. It's a sapphire, and it would be... well, it would be as wide across as a five cent piece. And it's an oval, and it's very long. It's a very, very large ring. It's... I would say probably it's the best part of half an inch or three-quarters of an inch long in an oval shape. When you get what I mean, as wide as probably a five cent piece, and it's surrounded by diamonds. Nice things. They made it something, but they worked... put the money, haven't they?

You mentioned Christmas decorations. I've got decorations galore still there that I've been... the... that I used on my little tree I had put that this year because we were going away, that normally may I have it out. Now, what else have I got? You mentioned gas. Our gas here now is $2.61 a gallon, so you still got a way to go yet before you reach that, or are you rapidly getting that way? But still, by the time you'd reached $2.61, we're probably going to get four or something. And mothering years... I had to laugh at with the you and Maitland. You're mothering him too much, my love. This is Nana talking. And it's like that she mothers that boy of hers, and I feel that you are doing the same. So there you are. Buster, he doesn't need looking after, that little man of mine. He knows... Harry? He knows what he wants to say, so let him get on with him. The... oh my God, John Lennon! What a wasted life! Oh, he's written some wonderful music. I don't much go for Yoko, but he loved her very much obviously. And from something I was reading recently, he really was a wee bit mental... or not mental, but he'd had a very hard life and went a bit way off at times. And she was able to cope with him somehow. She supplied, saying, you know, the love that he obviously needed and shared the feelings that he needed shared.

Yes, I suppose Liz told you all about her business, that Chi Chi goes in about May. I can understand the poor kid being worried after her mother. And they were pre-cancer cells there, so obviously they feel the womb will be better out, which I would go along with that too. You mentioned Carter. Well, I have been saying all along that he is a very sincere man. I felt... I always felt he was sincere. He wasn't a wonderful man by any stretch of the imagination, but I really felt he was sincere. And we saw this program here too of him nearly in tears, and it was very sad. And it really... his going out was probably one of the best goings out that there ever was. It was only... other one other president that I ever really thought anything of, and yet I didn't suppose this perhaps... and that was Johnson. I can remember queuing up to see him in... in that Teranaki Street. As you pass GH sets? I really... I liked him.

And you were talking about the baby Jesus, Father Bob's baby. And it brought back shades of old... I don't know if you ever remember this, where Dad got the children to do the play, and I think David was even one of the three wise men in it. And I had a doll's head that I'd had for years, ever since I was about two, and it had long since lost its body, and I only ever had the head. And do you remember, Ann, were you...? Just the head all cuddled up in the cradle. It looked like the real baby. And David, good old David gets up, one of the wise men, knocks the cradle over, and the head rolled across the floor. And Dad and I laugh because we'd remember one of the big old Maoris popping up saying, "Here! Beaten you to it! He's beaten you to it!" And we... oh, I never got quite over that. So... but there you are, Maitland, you and Rachel, you had a real baby. We only... your mother and Uncle David died... anyway. The baby's hand? They did very well to have that.

We had friends here the other night who were... he used to be at college with Dad, not at the college with Dad, Eric Freeman? They moved into Hataitai's house after them. And they have got a house in Oriental Parade, and they were saying how nice our place was. They should have perhaps looked for something like this. So the following day... and they were telling us that they were doing this place up because they had a house at Somes, and they would move through eventually, eventually, and that they would... had bought a house in Conference Street. And I started... that's at Oriental Street where I used to live when I was at college. And so anyway, the following day, Dad said, "Let's go and look at this cottage that they've done up in Conference Street." And they've let it to a young couple. So down we go. And really, it's rather nice. You know, it's one of these little old cottages. It's barely more than a room wide, and but it's done up very, very nice. And the couple have got a nice garden in there. So while we were down there, I said... said, "Oh, let's go and have a look at Durham Street where I used to live." And was just so sad because it was a really nice home. Mama always had the ability of making a home a home from nothing. You know, I think you've got it too, you Phil. When I think of that... I mean, the cottage was obviously... had the basis there, but you've done that up so well. And some people have got that aptitude of making a home, and Mum had it, and yeah... Durham Street just looks so terrible, and I'm awful going on about this. So then we go down to Chester Street where we were living. We moved from Durham to Chester, and it was there that we were living, Dad was living in the boardinghouse, I was at when I met him. And looking at the place that we had lived in, 48 Chester Street, I said there's... "Oh, that's not it!" He said... A firm of architects actually got it down here. And Mama had had its beautiful, you know, with sun blinds outside and all... it really was lovely. And here it is with all concrete for clients' car parks and what have you, and I was just so sad. And then Dad said, "Oh, that couldn't be the place, couldn't be the place." I said, "Well, it was right opposite the boarding house." Well, we look well because the boarding house is gone completely. Well, of course, that upset him, he got into hysterics. And then... but the place I was looking at was it because I went round the back and had a look, and I... it was definitely just been taken over by architects and... anyway, David was about this, and he says, "Good God," he said, "after all, over 40 years ago! I don't know what you're getting all upset about."As saying girls, you know, you don't expect things to change, and of course, things must.

We've also had a friend of a cousin of Dad's pop in, her husband the other night came for the evening. One of the Valentine girls living in Auckland now. They were all in Auckland, most of those girls, except Mary, you remember she was a sister that lived at Lower Hutt. It was married to Dr. Christopher and... anyway, they all were very upset because Norma had gone off, not letting any of them know. And I saw, well, when you know Norma as long as I have... well, he said... see they've known her a long time, but... I said Norma's just so scared that, you know, she'll just pop up suddenly again and not to worry. But here that I... were here for the evening, it was nice to see them.

And Rachel mentioning the film Popeye... I used to go and see that, Rach, when I was just little. I used to get those pictures on a Saturday. I used to get sixpence... was sixpence again? I used to get a penny to spend. And is Olive Oyl still with him, the girlfriend? Although Olive Oyl was always the girl in his...? And I was interested to know if she was still in.

I've just finished reading a terrific book. It's called 'Ashes in the Wind'. Kathleen Woodiwiss, W-O-O-D-I-W-I-S-S. And she also wrote 'Shanna' that you had. It was one of Ruthie's books, I think. I actually had it here. You had given it to me to read when I was there, but I actually had it here unread. I have read it since I came home. And so else we'd liked it so much. And I managed to get this one, 'Ashes in the Wind'. Well, it's all around New Orleans, and that, of course, it's all about the time of the Civil War. And so if you get a chance to get it, read it. It's very, very good. As they would say, one of Mum's old 'love and sort' things, but there... there's such a lot in them. There's such odd... in her books that you almost feel as though you're there, and it really is a good read.

Well, now Tony's house is getting bigger every day. And... I think it's about 1,250 square feet upstairs. That down, of course, would be as much, probably a little bit more, or it's as much anyway.