Number fun

Age number fun.

I've been thinking... which in itself is a dangerous pastime, but nevertheless, I have... been thinking...

This year, between 7 March and 15 June, I'll be exactly 2x my son Jacques' age! And, what is more, this will never again happen in our lives. So I wondered what other interesting milestones of that nature we may have passed already, and will see in future. So for what it's worth, I present:

an infinite number progression

Check out the graph. The blue line is my age and the red line is Jacques' age. The green line is the factor achieved by dividing Age L by Age J as the ages are in that window 07/03 to 15/06 each year.

To point out a few points, as it were:

I was 31 while Jacques was 1, so I was 31x his age
I was 35 while he was 5, so I was 7x his age
and so the factor goes down rapidly but soon starts slowing down:

When I'm  90 he'll be 60, so I'll be 1.5x his age.
When I'm 110 years old (not that I'm planning to get that ancient!) he will be 80; I'll be 1.37x his age. The factor keeps getting smaller and smaller approaching the whole number 1, but it will never, ever get there!

Isn't that neat?

An afternoon at the Met

Verdi's "Don Carlo".

We've just spent a most delightful afternoon at the Metropolitan Opera (in HD at the Rialto) with Verdi's Don Carlo. It was great. It was awesome. Four and a half hours of sheer wonder, until the heroes were all dead - or most of them anyway. For once I'd like to see such a full opera in all its melodramatic glory, but with a happy ending. Come on guys, take some poetic license here and re-write history somewhat... there's nothing better than boy meets girl and... they lived happily ever after! Sure it's not necessary for ALL Spanish Inquisition stories to end unhappily!?

The official blurb says:
Director Nicholas Hytner makes his Met debut with this new production of Verdi’s profound, beautiful, and most ambitious opera. Roberto Alagna leads the cast, and Ferruccio Furlanetto, Marina Poplavskaya, Anna Smirnova, and Simon Keenlyside also star. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, back after his triumphant debut leading Carmen, conducts. “I think Don Carlo is the quintessential Verdi opera,” Hytner says. “Right through this opera there is, on the one hand, an implacable expression of impending doom and, on the other hand, a succession of the most gloriously open-throated arias, the most fantastically determined music.”


Yes, quite a roller-coaster of emotions of love gained and lost, political intrigue... you name it, we got it! Then we finished off the outing with a scrumptious meal at Two Chefs Bistro as an early celebration of our 36th wedding anniversary. Yum. We're basking in a golden glow of contentment.

Summer blooms

Tea in Carey's Bay

Yesterday, Monday 3 January 2011, was a lovely sunny day in Dunedin. We were pottering around the home and suddenly decided we need to get out and do something special before the day is done. So at 3 pm we hopped in the car, intent on getting tea and scones at Carey's Bay Hotel. Well, we had the tea, but since it was a public holiday there was not a scone or cake of any description in sight, What a disappointment!

Carey's Bay Hotel.

All was tranquil in Carey's Bay with fishing boats moored.

Carey's Bay.

Then we decided to go to the Port Chalmers lookout point. We've been there once before, but many years ago. From the top of the hill one gets a lovely view of the port, where ships were taking on cargo.

Port Chalmers.

We were absolutely fascinated watching how the Sea Glory was being loaded with logs.
Step 1: The yellow tractors grab a load of logs from the yard.

Tractors pick up logs.

Step 2: Tractor deposits load in a cradle next to the ship, then two smaller tractors with flat pushing plates come along and make sure the logs are neatly aligned.

Logs being aligned by smaller green and yellow tractors.

Step 3: Two chaps come along with a scanner, probably to record details of the load, and fix the cables of the crane around the load.

Scanning the logs and fixing the cables.

Step 4: Hoisting the logs onto the ship. On board tractors tidy up the logs neatly on the deck.

Hoisting logs onto the ship.

From the lookout point one can access the Hotere Garden, where five of Ralph Hotere's sculptures are on permanent display. Here's the view towards Quarantine Island and the peninsula, with one of Ralph Hotere's sculptures in the foreground. Yes, that's a naked guy standing on his head - literally on his head because he does not have arms.

Ralph Hotere sculpture and view to Quarantine Island.