Eighties Hair

Seriously, what the hell were we thinking back then? I am watching the Terminator, and laughing my ass off at the ridiculous styles.

A Poem

Something I wrote a while ago.

Hanano,
Means everything to me
A name you would not recognise
A word that is empty to you
Ha na no
Each syllable drips images
Experiences through which
You can know her

Hah, Hah, Hah
Breathing exercises are forgotten
She struggles with the life inside her
And my first glimpse is of a small face
Squashed and puffy eyed
From the battle of birth
And now the only one for me,
Has become two
Everything changed with a first breath

Naa, Naa
The baby demands,
Like a criminal, stealing our sleep
A ransom we gladly pay
To gain that delight which
Is each new milestone
Her first smile
The first time she rolled over
Those first tottering steps on
Christmas Day
(The best gift I received)
Until

No
I cry, tears tracking down my face
Despair and pain
Washing over me, engulfing me
When she says
You will not see her again
Final memories of Osaka airport
Little girl climbing, giggling
Playing peekaboo
So

No
I say again
I will not go quietly
I will fight so that a word
That means nothing to you
Will not be empty for me,
Hanano

An Old Passion Rediscovered

A few years back I used to be heavily involved with scouts. Have my Chief Scout Commendation, wood badge, the works. Anyway when I started with KFC I slipped out of scouting, then started up my own family and that was that. A few weeks back, I was walking through town and came across a scout hall. I stopped in to say hi, thinking it might be nice to get back into it. I came along to a couple of nights and was horrified by how disorganised it was, kids running riot, no real structure. A nightmare. I was going to say thanks and see ya, when the Group Leader popped by my work and asked if I would like to go camping with a four or five of them and a couple of leaders. I had nothing better to do and said sure. Showed up on the day, and sure enough, no plan in mind, it was all "We'll just wing it". That isn't how I do things, so I roughed out a quick program for the two days the scouts would be there and said how about it? They agreed, though they felt the scouts would run riot and ruin it. But funnily enough the five scouts that were there really enjoyed themselves, kept busy and there was very little friction. Upshot is that my plan to leave got cancelled and I was placed in charge. After three meetings doing it my way, with an organised plan, things have changed a lot. Tonight was the breakup for school holidays and several of the parents came up to me after the meeting to thank me for the changes and say how much they enjoy the new direction for the troop. And I have discovered something that somehow, somewhere, I forgot. I enjoy this a lot. I ove working with kids that age, teaching them skills and showing them that there is more to life than games consoles and television. I am looking forward to next term and the programme I have planned, which will introduce them to the traditions that scouting has and start preparing them for the jamboree at the end of the year.

Changes

So anyway. I haven't posted for a while, and things have changed. A lot.
The catalyst for this change was a woman. Actually more specifically two women.
The first was my neighbour. She moved into the little block of student housing I was living in, and at first, all was good. Then she started going out clubbing. On a Friday or Saturday, there would be much loud music, then she would breeze out and return at around three in the morning, and play some more loud music. Hip Hop music. I hate Hip Hop. Then she got a boyfriend. I know she got a boyfriend because the first night she bought him back to her room I got to hear, at three am, all about why he had to wear a condom before she would let him fuck her, because she had had an STD before and didn't want one again. (Did I mention that the drunker she is, the louder her voice gets?). Then he fucked her. About four times. She's a screamer. This set a bit of a pattern. Gradually, over the course of a couple of months, things got progressively worse. The loud music was played at all hours of the day and night, every day of the week, the sex was frequent and also noisy, and my previously peaceful life was shattered. Things finally reached a head one Friday night. She went through her pre clubbing routine, and after she left, I fell asleep, secure in the knowledge that I could sleep in the next morning as I didn't have work. About 2am I get woken up by Justin Timberlake ext door telling me he's bringing sexy back. For forty minutes I listen to him, and various other artists singing a variety of crap songs about how gangsta they are. Then I hear a knocking outside my door. I stagger out of bed, open the door, and there is really pissed neighbour chick knocking on her door. "I got locked out" she slurs at me. "What the hell" I reply. It's okay she drunkenly informs me. Her mate has a key, she'll go get it. Off she staggers. I head back to bed. And lie awake listening to the extremely loud music coming from her room. About an hour later two things dawn on me. She isn't coming back anytime soon, and that motherfucking hip hop compilation CD is on repeat. So I listen to Justin Bringing sexy back. For twelve fucking hours. That's right, it's two in the afternoon before this bitch finally returns and shuts off the music and I can, at long last, sleep. I slept for two hours. The the music started again. Pleas with her to turn it down fell on deaf ears.
That is where the second woman comes in. She is the assistant manager at my work. For the past few weeks, on a Tuesday night, a group of us would gather at her place out in Ngaruawahia, one of us would cook a dinner, and we would sit around drink wine and shoot the shit. After I described my issues with my existing living arrangements, Ange mentioned she was looking for a boarder for the sleep out on the back of the garage. An arrangement was reached, and now I live in there. My peace is still shattered by her four kids, but at least they all go to bed at a reasonable hour.