Wake Me Up When September Ends

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A bit disoriented this morning. I’ll blame Daylight Savings; I slept late. To be fair, it was probably the new mattress. After going to Rotorua the other week, we realised just how terrible ours was.

“Scalloped” is a term that will be familiar to guitarists. It describes how some guitars have sunken grooves between the frets rather than a flat fretboard. After more than a decade, our mattress was well and truly scalloped.

A scalloped guitar neck. Photo: https://www.butalacustomguitars.com/

A few days ago, a man turned up in the driveway with what looked like a box for a particularly slim fridge. When I appeared, he inquired, “Super King-sized mattress?” I muttered that it seemed unlikely, given that the dimensions of the box were approximately 45cm X 45cm X 200cm. Honestly, I was doubtful he could even get a slim fridge in there, let alone something upon which we would be sleeping.

If you ever receive a mattress packed like that, I would advise standing well back. That thing sprung open like a lethal trap. God knows how they got it in there; it must have been one hell of a machine, and I imagine standing well back is even more pertinent lest you be discovered some months and many thousands of miles later by a very surprised new mattress purchaser.

By the time I’d given the dogs their Dentastix, explained there was no milk for them, just enough for coffee, and settled down to read the headlines, I was shocked to see the time, best wake the others. I should point out that my dogs are not, in fact, kittens, they just happen to enjoy a saucer of milk. It wasn’t my idea, ok?

As someone commented clearly, I’d taken David Seymour’s demands for better attendance to heart. I got a less than enthusiastic response, although somehow, the boys found the energy to let me know how badly my team had gone during the night in the English football.

The Minister of Health would be interviewed on TVNZ’s Breakfast programme. I wasn’t really in the mood to write about another interview, having spent way too long watching Seymour the day before, but I figured I’d at least see how the government acknowledged the huge protest against the decision to cancel the hospital that Dunedin was promised.

The first headline I saw this morning was from Bernard Hickey: “One in four march against Govt in Dunedin.” I think many people will take heart from that protest. It wasn’t just urban lefties who were marching, but all sorts, from medical students to folks carrying placards that read “Farmers need Hospitals.” Calling the government out and saying they had their priorities wrong.

Ōtepoti, Dunedin, you rock!

Margot Lemm (right) and Helen Veitch. Photo / Ben Tomsett.

I hadn’t seen Jenny May's interview since she received her moko kauae. I don’t usually watch Breakfast, but she looked stunning. I tried to keep an open mind, having been less than enamoured by her interviewing of coalition members in the past.

But it wasn’t good.