Rendezvous with Muse News - My Blog

Saturday 23rd March 2019

Reading

I must admit to being a little lapse with reading of late. Still plodding through "The Kill Room" by Jeffery Deaver. Will update a bit later.

Speaking of books Wellington Central Library in the CBD has closed indefinitely until it can be Earthquake strengthened. Will have a big impact on wellington as it offers a place to read, borrow books, study, relax and have a coffee (It has an upstairs café). Reports say that it has an average of 3000 people including 500 children that use it each day. Will update when this gets sorted out.




General News


Christchurch Travel League

I went down to Christchurch on the 1st of March last month to participate in a ten-pin bowling tournament that involves various towns and cities around New Zealand. Though competitive it is far removed from professional and more to do with having a bit of fun. The tournament is referred to as “Travel League Bowling”. There are about ten teams; the one I am in is from Petone (Wellington) “Capital City Bowling” league, it varies in size depending on how many people wish to go. This time we had about eight.
The tournament was held over two days (2nd and 3rd March) but since I went to the trouble of flying there I stayed on an extra day either side returning on the Monday evening. We stayed at a holiday camp in Papanui called the Top Ten Holiday Park. It was quite a sizeable place with a variety of accommodations: Campervans, huts and cabins as well as apartments. Our league had chosen an apartment for a reasonable rate.

Having a day to kill before the competition we did a bit of sightseeing around Christchurch which included a trip to the Antarctic Centre (quite expensive but well worth a one off visit). You can watch Penguins and huskies being fed, experience a simulated snow blizzard, have a on a special Antarctic vehicle and experience a special 4D movie – the one we watched was a trip on a ship to the Antarctic, each time the ship moved the seats moved with it giving the impression you were actually there and they even sprayed the audience with water for extra effect.

All the teams got together on the Saturday night (about 80 people altogether) to a Chinese restaurant in the Christchurch CBD, not the best dining experience I’ve had, which is a pity because I usually like and even prefer Asian cuisine. It was still fun catching up with various people. We had a mystery bottle auction, where you could bid on various wrapped bottles and not know what they contained until your bid was successful. Some got wine or bottles of bourbon whilst others ended up with expensive bottles of orange juice or water; all part of the fun.

As I say I stayed on an extra night and caught up with a few people I knew down there. Had lunch the next day with some friends that used to live around my suburb. They had planned to move to Christchurch in 2010 but a couple of months before they were due to shift the 4th September 7.1 Earthquake struck. Already committed to the move they managed to secure temporary accommodation elsewhere. One Sunday after mass in a place called Rangiora, about 25 minutes north of Christchurch, they were coming out of the church and saw the house beside it was for sale and have been living in there ever since. A few months after they arrived, Christchurch received its second and more devastating earthquake, but their house seemed to stand up to it okay.

Jetstar


The return flight to Christchurch was on a Jetstar airline. They are a cheap alternative to paying the often outrages fees associated with other airlines (whose domestic fares often work out not much less than flying from Wellington to Sydney). However flying with extra baggage (ie the bowling balls) meant extra cost, but still worked out at a reasonable overall price. Jetstar, being a cheaper airline trying to compete with other airlines, tries to keep its prices to a minimum and endeavourers to ensure its passengers they will get to their destination in a timely manner. In order to do this as it has a strict schedule and asks passengers to be there on time. This has caused much outrage with tardy passengers that end up missing out on their flight. Their inflexible policy is well known by most of those who travel with them and reputation for this is hardly a closely held secret; yet people still insist on getting to the airport with a limited amount of time before the cut off. For me it seems only logical to arrive at the airport with plenty of time to spare and I have never had any issues with the airline so far. The return flights, though brief (only about 25-30 mins each way) and relaxing and gave me a little time to read more of my book which I am still struggling through.

Christchurch Terrorist Attack

These attacks were on mosques situated not far from where we had our Travel League Bowling tournament (just off Moorehouse Avenue, not far from Hagley Park). The incident has been referred to as a “White Supremacist attack”, but I tend to feel it was more a mass murder from an irrational individual with deep hatred in his heart. Perhaps he felt at the time he was doing the right thing for what he imagined to be the right reasons-otherwise he would never have gone through with such an act of senseless violence?

It takes a lot more than simple bigotry or dislike of something that may go against what you determine not to be in keeping with your religion. Sure you could say such prejudices are fuelled by the Islamic Phobia often inherent in the media after reports of various terrorist threats and acts of unspeakable violence which I am positive the mainstream Muslim society would deplore and want nothing to do with. You could also add the hysteria caused by so much extra security now added at airports with some authorities typesetting certain passengers because of ethnicities, but even all that makes you weary of Islamic groups in general, that still is not enough to motivate the sort of hate you need in order to open fire on innocent men women and children.

The abstract concept of this can is not too hard to imagine being implanted into someone’s mind, but once that person enters the doors of a mosque and sees those people doing nothing outside attending the usual prayers, I think the reality of the proposed atrocity must sink in, but with this person it didn’t he still felt the need to open fire. Maybe such a mind filters out the screaming, panic and bloodshed that accompanies his crime and he executes his vigilante execution without pity, devoid of empathy.

New Zealand is not the place, and never should, for terrorism. We have had our share of hostilities and violent crimes but nothing quite like this. One report described the country as being a safe haven, and I am quite confident that it will remain so because unlike the response to most terrorist attacks around the world the nation is not calling for vengeance; Ghandi once said “an eye for an eye and pretty soon the world is blind”, or words to that effect.



Writing Snippet

The following is an exclusive interveiw with Cupid (my entry into the February Dialogue only contest)

Rupert verses Cupid   (ASR) An exclusive Cupid interview with the Jungle Jim journel . 485 words. #2182811 by lezismore-moreislez