Sunday 5 - Monday 6 July

Somewhere, somehow a lot of hours disappeared – along with a lot of sleep!

Sunday started with a leisurely wakeup, breakfast and pack as we had booked a car for 12 noon to chauffeur us to Heathrow. Sure, it was £50 but it seemed a relaxing thing to do. We came down from our room three quarters of an hour early to settle up and sit in the lobby but found the car (a Mercedes) was there waiting for us! So we were at Heathrow very early.

All told we had nearly 6 hours at Heathrow. Tina reclaimed VAT on purchases and she got to see most of men’s tennis final – agonisingly having to leave for boarding when it was 9-9 in the 5th set. The winner was announced on the plane as we were waiting to take off.

As for me I had bought a tote bag crammed with newspapers (30? 40? more?) and I read them at the airport – finding gems.

Oddly, there was no gate advertised for our flight. They said there would be one an hour before the gate opened but nothing. Still no gate time on the board even though the gate was theoretically open. Finally, 30 minutes AFTER the officially opening time the gate number was put on the board and it was the furthest away gate!

The flight was the most turbulent we have experienced. At times it was scary. Apart from this the approximately 12½ hours went by quickly enough as I slept. Tina got a little sleep. I woke up at one stage and there was this giggling face going “I can’t sleep!”

On the flight I decided to firstly listen to the UK top 10 singles in the year Helen was born (1983) and then Kirsten’s year (1984)

Here’s Helen’s (1983):
1. Kama Chameleon – Culture Club
2. Uptown Girl – Billie Joel
3. Red Red Wine – UB40
4. Let’s Dance – David Bowie
5. Total Eclipse Of The Heart – Bonnie Tyler
6. True – Spandau Ballet
7. Down Under – Men At Work – an absolute classic; any song with the word “chunder” in it has to be a good one. I wanted this song for my iPod collection and a wonderful student got it for me from his parents music collection.
8. Billie Jean – Michael (I’m not alive anymore) Jackson
9. All Night Long – Lionel Richie
10. Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This – Euythmics
Two rubbish songs here (6 and 9) and a person I do not like (8).

Now for Kirsten’s (1984)
1. Do They Know It’s Christmas – Band Aid
2. I Just Called To Say I Love You - Stevie Wonder
3. Relax – Frankie Goes To Hollywood
4. Two Tribes – Frankie Goes To Hollywood
5. Careless Whisper (or, given where he was arrested should this be “Carless Whisper” – ha, ha) – George Michael
6. Everything She Wants – Wham!
7. Hello – Lionel Richie
8. Agadoo – Black Lace
9. Ghostbusters – Ray Parker Jnr
10. Freedom – Wham!
Four rubbish songs (5, 6, 7, 10) – I really don’t like Wham!/George Michael and Lionel Richie.

That was an hour taken care of; then I decided to listen to the top 10 for when they were 10 years old but I had not heard of most of them!

1993
1. I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That) – Meatloaf (12 minute classic by Mr Loaf whilst the plane was bumping around over Russia!)
2. I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You – UB40
3. All The She Wants – Ace Of Base
4. No Limit – 2 Unlimited
5. Dreams – Gabrielle
6. Mr Blobby – Mr Blobby – hilarious!
7. Oh Carolina – Shaggy
8. What I Love – Haddaway
9. Mr Vain – Culture Beat
10. I Will Always Love You – Whitney Houston
I didn’t know tracks 3-9 – is this when I started to stopped understanding Helen?

1994
1. Love Is All Around – Wet Wet Wet
2. Saturday Night – Whigfield
3. Stay Another Day – East 17
4. Baby Come Back – Pato Banton
5. I Swear – All-4-One
6. Without You – Mariah Carey
7. Always – Bon Jovi
8. Crazy For You – Let Loose
9. Things Can Only Get Better – D-Ream
10. Doop – Doop
This list was worse for me – I only knew number 1! Of course, this was the English top 10 so maybe some of them didn’t come to NZ … or maybe I was/am out of touch. I do know #4 but not by this musician.

Do you remember these songs girls? Well, that took care of 2 hours flight time! For others reading this, how many songs can you hum the tune or sing the first two lines or chorus?

Singapore airport went smoothly and we got a very cheap taxi to the nice hotel – Swissotel (sic) The Stamford, our 41st (and last???) bed over the 3 months. We are in room 4462 – it doesn’t bother Tina but being on the 44th scares the c**p out of me and there is no way I will go on the balcony! Worse, breakfast is on the 70th floor!!!! And this for a person who doesn’t like going up the 2 steps into his classroom! The room is HUGE.

Pouring with heavy rain but hot and humid.

Tina showered and went off to the conference centre (she has an international principal’s conference for the next 3 days) to register. I had a stroll in the air conditioned mall that is attached to the hotel. Saw the most wonderful art at Ode To Art. Sadly, the prices seemed to start at $S5,000! There were two things that caught my eye: a series of 3 paintings of terraced fields that were in 3d if you stood back (the artist uses a syringe to get this effect) and bright red sculptures eg of Mao, young children.

Dinner was quick but nice at The Asian Kitchen. We were the only westerners there but the place was packed with locals so we thought it must be doing something right. Tina cooks better fried rice. On the way back to the hotel we bought a new suitcase for me as my handles are literally falling off. So, I started the trip with a big suitcase and a carry on case and neither will come back to NZ (the small carry on case was dumped at Auckland Airport when I bought a much better case).

Tina does washing of socks and underwear for the last time (she talks so affectionately about her washing machine!). Both exhausted and off to sleep very early.
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In England there is this debate over the value of Shakespeare – I remember the same debate in NZ. Here is a poem from The Independent.

The Phoenix And The Turtle
As TIME ever onward doth hurtle
Through meadows of clover and myrtle
We now wave goodbye
To SHAKESPEARE. But fie!
I forgot “THE PHOENIX AND THE TURTLE”!

There once was a TURTLE and PHOENIX
Which sounds to me quite an obscene mix
But the turtle’s a dove!
It must be about LOVE.
Best then to get out the kleenix …

Its meaning’s obscure: do these fowl
As they die with a fiery howl
Denote LOVE, TRUTH, or BRAVERY
Or RUNNING AN AVIARY
Or laying it on with a trowel?

Who cares? To be frank I’m too busy.
Call time on Old Will. Don’t be quizzical
For poetry, you’ll find,
Pales beside bump ‘n’ grind
So baby, let’s get METAPHYSICAL!
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From the same paper was an “essay” titled “For Women, Is the Age Of Irony Less Than 50?” Some excerpts.

First go the knees, then goes irony. Sometime around age 50, women start to let go of certain ideas about themselves and fashion. Up till then you can wear lots of silly or brash things, and if you are reasonably fit and attractive or consistently daring, it doesn’t matter. You’re still with the tide. You are allowed to wear your esoteric Pradas, your porkpie hats and coy Lolita socks, and no little voice is going “Heh-heh-heh, you’re too old for that. … Saying goodbye to short skirts and flimsy tops is actually liberating.

Irony is harder to part with – for the simple reason that many of us who are now in our 50s grew up with that kind of cerebral fashion and were happy to have clothes that made reference to ideas, worlds, that only those in our orbit would understand.

Nothing conveys that struggle better than Madonna’s attire in May at the … In addition to wearing a taffeta hair bow that poked up like rabbit ears, she had on a bright blue minidress with a romper hem and a pair of boots that left a crack of skin showing at the top of her thighs.

… many people took the excessiveness seriously and thought that Madonna, who is 50, looked crazy.

Tama Janowitz … wrote … “90 percent of the time designers create a look that is basically unflattering to the female physique unless you are a 20-year-old, six-foot-tall model, in which case it does not make any difference what you have on. Madonna looked stupid in her rabbit ears. Is this because of the times or her age?”

Irony has been an essential ingredient in fashion for at least the last 40 years – in the kinky clothes of Jean Paul Gaultier, in the recontextualizing of drag and vintage styles by Yves Saint Laurent and John Galliano …

Some older women still prefer a look with an edge rather than a polish. And with the economy forcing many to shop in their closets, they’re finding wonderful things. …