Notice to Seniors

A meeting will be held on 1st September to discuss the formation of a Pentland Seniors Club, or Association. All Pentland and Area seniors (around 55 years) are invited to have an input in the formation of this proposed organisation.

The eeting will be held at 2pm. Monday, 1st September at the Pentland Soldiers' Memorial Hall.

Initial Contact: Evelyn Hartig, phone 47881019.

An Aussie's Perspective.

Following the piece I published last edition I thought an Australian's perspective was appropriate.



Not in my Backyard.

I’ll entertain some new ideas cause I don’t know it all
I’ll hear another’s point of view I’ll listen to their call
I’ll try to be compassionate to troubles of the past
I’ll disagree if someone says that each mans die is cast

All I ask is that you check your baggage at the door
‘Cause after all is this not what we use a clean slate for?
So if you treat Australia with contempt and disregard
You may be welcome somewhere else but not in my backyard
Kearnsy 8/08

Men's Restroom Mural -

Edge Designs is an all-woman run company that designs interior office space. They had a recent opportunity to do an office project in NYC.The client allowed the women of this company a free hand in all design aspects.The client was a company that was also run by all women execs... The result.........well.....we all know that men never talk, never look at each other.... and never laugh much in the restroom. The men's room is a serious and quiet place. But now...with the addition of one mural on the wall......lets just say the men's restroom is a place of laughter and smiles.
This could lead to an interesting Psychological study... )

Introducing Alice Folkart.

Hi everyone, I hope this is as interesting to you as it is to me. As Alice says, we met in a writing workshop a few years ago and I found her writing so interesting that I thought you might enjoy her experiences as she becomes familiar with her new home.
Alice had added pictures of her area but, unfortunately I am a klutz and can't work out how to copy them to this site. Instead I have included a website where you can browze the area yourself. http://au.images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=yfp-t-501&va=hawaii&sz=all
19th August.
Okay, so I'm a klutz but we got some pictures up after all. I'll leave the other address up so you can have a virtual tour of your next holiday venue.
Enjoy.
Frances.

Hello From Hawaii. by Alice Folkart.

Frances invited me to provide all of you with a window on Hawaii and things Hawaiian. I'm barely qualified to do this because I have lived here on Oahu for only a year, but perhaps fresh eyes see more. It all looks new to me.

I know Frances from an Internet writing workshop where Frances has submitted interesting stories of life in Australia. My stories were about my job as a secretary in a large corporation in Los Angeles, California; about living with a passionate trombone player; about retiring; about polishing up our little bungalow for sale; selling it; and moving to Hawaii--a place chosen by my husband because, being originally from Tokyo, he has a lot of family in Japan. He hopes that, the trip to Hawaii being shorter than the trip to Los Angeles, they'll visit us more frequently. I hope they won't. Oh, I like them all just fine, but I'm not very social and my idea of a good time is a whole, quiet afternoon in which to write.

We live in the small (about 50,000 souls) Oahu-windward town of Kailua, within a fifteen-minute walk of a very nice beach and a five-minute walk of Kailua downtown, but fortunately a half-an-hour's drive from the bright lights of Waikiki. We've got shops and restaurants and doctors and lawyers and car repair garages, and a Buddhist temple here, just about anything you'd want. But, if we need something fancy (like a mattress or a computer or shoes), we have to drive over the Pali (the spectacular pass over the Ko'olau mountains) up, up, and up--zig zagging up the face of a nearly perpendicular lava escarpment, and then down, down, down a lovely straight-away through a wooded valley, toward the high rises of big-city Honolulu with the sea in the background. This place is full of contrasts. 'Our' beach looks toward two gum-drop-shaped island just a few hundred meters off the point. People have weddings and parties on the little beach on one of the islands. There's quite a contrast between our beach and Waikiki.

I would not have moved to Hawaii without the Internet. I need community and contact. But, that said, and my high-speed DSL in place, I'm quite happy here. I can talk to Frances and my other writing friends anywhere in the world any time I like.

When we moved here, I though too that the Internet was also a great place to shop, that I could buy anything I couldn't find here. Not true. Yes, I can go to catalogs and store sites, BUT, many companies do not ship to Hawaii, even if you plead with them and promise to pay any extra shipping costs. They're just not interested. That was a shock that gave me my first little dose of 'island fever.' Suddenly, I felt isolated. Back in Los Angeles you could get anything, ANYTHING. I'm spoiled. But, I am learning about all the things I don't really need. I mean if the million or so people on this island don't need whatever it is that I wanted, do I really need it? Probably not.

We were looking forward to the clean air in Hawaii. Many of you may have heard about Los Angeles Smog. Yes, it's as bad as they say it is. Clean island air was a big draw for me here. Another surprise -- we have VOG instead of smog. The Big Island has a couple of big volcanoes, one of which, Kilauea, has been erupting now and again for the past 20 years. It's also been spewing out gas, sulfur dioxide, in regular spurts. It used to produce VOG only once in a while, but the episodes have been getting longer, stronger and closer together, and, when the trade winds die down, the VOG drifts to the other islands, causing people to experience asthma-like wheezing and burning, itching eyes. Sometimes the VOG is invisible, but sometimes, the islands are draped in a veil of stinging mist. Farmers on the Big Island are losing crops - the acidic sulfur dioxide withers the leaves and stunts the plants--flowers, fruit, vegetables. No one knows what to do.

When we moved here, I wanted to move to the Big Island--so pristine, clean, quiet, safe. . . . Boy, am I glad that my husband insisted on Oahu.

And as the sun sets on Oahu... until next time.