The Smallest Bar in the World?

It's not often that Emeline and I get to feel like giants. We've been meaning to visit a bar called Mou Very for a while now and yesterday we finally did. It's a tiny tiny bar. It's a makes-us-feel-like-giants bar. In fact, it might be the smallest bar in the world. It measures 1.5-meters by 8-meters. It's long and thin, with roughly-painted brick walls. It's like drinking a beer in a subway car.

The French proprietor will talk to you about coffee, politics, or the state of the world in general until another person comes in and completely upsets the balance of things. He'll take forever to make a coffee and pour a beer and he'll tell you that people rush too much and work too hard. He studied political science at UCLA and now he owns the smallest bar I've ever been in.

It's like something from a David Lynch movie.

Public Service Announcement: Wash Your Hands Please!

Last Fall (in the northern hemisphere), I took a graduate class called "Global Health" as part of my quest to get a Masters in Political Science. In that class, I did a presentation on the current state of health in New Zealand. (We had the chance to pick the country that we wanted to research and I thought it would be helpful to know how healthy - or sick - Kiwis were before we actually stepped foot in the country.)

Not surprising, as a developed country, New Zealand is plagued with your typical "developed" country health problems: high incidence of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, as well as problems associated with smoking and alcohol. What is surprising, however, is that New Zealand also has its share of scary viruses ... which brings me to the point of this blog post:

Dunedin is currently being attacked by norovirus. AGAIN.

What is the norovirus?


According to the CDC, "noroviruses (genus Norovirus, family Caliciviridae) are a group of related, single-stranded RNA, nonenveloped viruses that cause acute gastroenteritis in humans." In other words, it's a yucky virus that anybody is susceptible to if some dirty person doesn't wash their hands and they happen to have the virus.

Gross gross gross gross gross.

The CDC also says that norovirus clinically presents in humans as "acute-onset vomiting, watery non-bloody diarrhea with abdominal cramps, and nausea" and it can last from 24-48 hours.

Double and triple and quadruple gross!!!

So, this is my desperate PSA to everyone out there (most of all to the people of Dunedin):

When you go to the bathroom, PLEASE WASH YOUR HANDS!!!! It doesn't take more than 1 minute. Maybe even 2 if you're thorough. (What's wrong with you!!!) If you aren't sure how to properly wash your hands, I've included a link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pkjv96MYss

Now you don't have any excuses because it's a youtube video - NOBODY is excluded from this PSA! Yes, everyone can wash their hands!!! YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN!

I know, you might think that I sound condescending or a little angry. I'll be honest. This is a major pet peeve of mine. If you ask any of my friends how I feel about this, they can tell you all about it ... I think that some of them might be more adamant about this issue than me! And friends, I won't even begin to tell you how many times I've been to the bathroom here and heard the person next to me leave the bathroom WITHOUT even turning on the water to feign handwashing. Dirty!!!!

So, I hope this a lesson to all of us. Wash your hands. If you do, you won't spread dirty, viral poo around and people won't get sick. End of story. Sorry, I had to do it. And not just norovirus, either ... many other scary, disgusting kind of viruses can be stopped from spreading just by washing your hands! Imagine that?!

If you're wondering why I said that Dunedin is being attacked again, read this story from the Otago Daily Times: http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/19838/new-wave-norovirus-hits-hospital. Just last week the Dunedin Hospital was closed because of an outbreak. It's closed again. And we work just across the street from it. And today I have to pick up some paperwork from my midwife at the front desk. Please pray for me. (ETK)

Music in Our Home

As you can probably guess, most musicians/bands don't make their way to New Zealand. If we're lucky, someone might make a stop in Auckland, but it's still an expensive 2-hour flight away. Chris and I love listening to our favorite musicians live, but alas, it's not something we do much of these days.

So, we make do. Since we've been here, we've been to the symphony a couple of times to see the Southern Sinfonia. It's a small, humble group of musicians that play quite beautiful music. At the University of Otago, there is a bi-monthly Lunchtime Concert - where students in the Music department perform their final performance for their degrees. That means that in the middle of my work day, I take a leisurely walk to the Uni campus and listen to some great Classical music while I eat lunch! In October, we plan to see David Helfgott ("Shine") play the piano on the opening night of the Otago Festival. We're quite excited to see him.

But when I've had my fill of Classical music, I can always rely on my favorite musician to sing almost anything for me. Who is that you say? Why, it's none other than Chris! One of his projects since we've arrived in New Zealand has been to learn how to play the ukulele. I'm surprised he hasn't blogged about it yet. He bought a middle-range ukulele off of ebay (not one of those souvenir ukuleles that you can buy at the local convenience store in Hawaii) where it went on a journey from California, to Arkansas, and finally to Dunedin, NZ.

Here in our home, I can hear ukulele renditions of "The Guns of Brixton" by The Clash, anything by Bob Dylan to a lovesong like "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing" by The Magnetic Fields and "Picture In a Frame" by Tom Waits (a favorite). I won't be surprised if Chris tries to play one of Julian Cope's newest songs on the ukulele. But what I like the most, as of late, is that our baby in utero is able to hear his dad sing and play the ukulele now. My favorite song that Chris likes to sing to our baby boy: "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)" by John Lennon.

This is music in our home. You can't beat it. (ETK)

Sunny Saturday

Yesterday was Dunedin's first sunny Saturday in living memory, or at least in a few months, so we took full advantage of it. At the farmer's market, the poppies were enjoying the sun too, all bobbing brightly on their stems. We bought some fruit and some hot dogs and made fun of the tourists. There are so many of them, and now we've been in Dunedin for nearly six months we've earned our stripes. You can spot them a mile off. Normally they're wearing a backpack larger than Emeline and, if the wind is just right, you can smell their dreadlocks. They're all living the movie of their lives. But they're all boring movies.

Then we headed south in our car, along the scenic southern highway that follows the winding coast. The sea is almost close enough to touch from the car window. Then to the beach at Brighton where we saw dead things; farther south to Kawa Point and Roaring Bay, where we went penguin spotting; and then to the lighthouse at Nugget Point, dome-roofed, white and pretty in the sun.

We now believe:

1. There are only two penguins in New Zealand.
2. We've seen them both before.
3. They were somewhere else today.

I Feel a Presence

For about a month, I've quite envied Emeline. As the baby squirms and wriggles around, she's been able to feel every movement and flutter, like a message from deep space. To me, this little guy (our unnamed baby) is still a fairly abstract notion. I know he's coming soon ... but I can't see him, hear him, or feel him. Even so, I already have so much planned for the little guy (President of the United States of America).

I talk to Emeline's stomach every night, and tell him who's the boss (me). But there was still something missing until yesterday. Those little movements -- the squirming, and fidgeting, and wriggling: today I can feel them.

I laid my hand on Emeline's belly and waited: a little bump (was that gas?), then nothing, then maybe Emeline's pulse, faint through her stomach, and then my baby punched me in the hand! Punch! It's a magical moment really. Beautiful. Something becomes real and tangible to the simple-minded like me when it can be felt, even through skin and muscle and tiny spaces and cells and amniotic fluid. It was like a twang in my reality. He's not abstract anymore. He punches me. He's punched and kicked me several times today.

I'm willing to excuse the aggression (at the moment).

Rainy Beach

Emeline, Pancake and I went to St. Clair beach after work today. It was sunny, cold and windy. And it didn't take too long to get blown back to our car. It had been raining before we arrived and you could see the marks the raindrops made in the sand. The waves were doing their best to erase the rain's work but, at low tide, there's only so much the sea can do.

Seen in Brisbane Airport

In a display cabinet of contraband in Brisbane airport, we saw this treasure. Alongside boxes of strange Chinese herbs and crocodile foot backscratchers was a dried cane toad proudly claiming ownership of a dented can of Castlemaine 4X beer. What a wonderful totem.

I nearly went to the information desk to ask for 5 of them, along with two of the backscratchers, and a bag of those bits of Chinese tiger. I didn't realize it was a display of bad things. I thought it was an Asian grocery store. It was early.

What's the problem? Is it because he's not wearing pants? You can see Emeline in the distance, patiently watching me admire it. I think I liked it more than she did.