Sketching Again

 

On a cool morning, with wind blowing, I sat outside one of the local cafes and sketched the building on the other side of the street.

 

I was interested in the three-dimensional shapes of the roof, and the technicalities of getting those shapes on my paper.

 

Another cool day I walked around the block and sketched the view looking east over the High School rugby field and the artificial hockey ground in the distance.

 

 

 

 

Another technical area we have come back to recently is that of simple portraiture.

 

Here is a sketch based on a newspaper photo.

 

At the end of our street, the Transport Authority is widening State Highway 3 to four lanes between the CBD and the northern bank of the Waiwhakaiho River.

 

Here is the second bridge being built over the Te Henui River just below the Girls' High School.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At our Sketching Group meeting last week we tried an exercise in Still Life by drawing the ornaments on the coffee table where we were meeting.

 

One of these was a wooden toy train, and the sunshine coming through the windows highlighted the light and shade.

 

Here is my effort to sketch the train.

 

 

 

My Obesity Problem

No, not THAT problem. Good Heavens no! In fact my doctor thinks I need to put ON weight!

 

No, my problem is much more intellectual than the mere possibility I might be approaching XXXOS! In fact I’m trying to eat MORE cream, MORE sugar, MORE fat!

 

What I’m on about is the lurid headlines all the time in the media about how obese our society is becoming. It seems every time I open a newspaper, or turn on the TV, someone is drawing attention to the “obesity epidemic”. And as for the glossy magazines!

 

Did you know there are dozens of flash periodicals all featuring articles about how this celebrity has a BMI of 15 or a problem finding large enough underwear?

 

Even when I check my Facebook, there are dozens of “friends” sending me healthy recipes using quinoa or tofu, or pointing out that the Japanese are now getting cancer in droves because they have given up their traditional diet and spend all their time at McDonalds or Burger King.

 

In fact I am coming to the conclusion that this good advice is not the solution, it is part of the problem.

 

Let me explain.

 

My theory is that because there is so much media attention to healthy food, or the dangers of unhealthy food, we are all being sub-consciously persuaded to think about food all the time. Added to ad breaks full of ads for food, fast food, supermarkets and so on, and it is impossible to ignore the subject of food for more than a few seconds at a time.

 

So what is more natural than to reach for the fridge door every few minutes for a snack?

 

What to do about it is the real conundrum! So much attention to food is not necessary, but how do we find a sensible way of reducing the barrage of publicity focussing on it? We don’t have ads and programmes and articles all the time about sex (or do we?) and yet people have no trouble keeping their minds on it just the same? The birthrate is still fairly stable.

 

We can’t just BAN food talk in the media. For one thing we know prohibition doesn’t work, and for another how would they fill all those pages and hours without some of it? Everyone gets tired of wall-to-wall sport, or wall-to-wall murders, at some stage!

 

I suggest for a start that we take the following steps:

 

1.       Only ONE ad per break about food, or supermarkets.

2.       Food aisles in supermarkets no more than 25% of the space.

3.       One fast food outlet per 10,000 population.

4.       Only one mention of food in programming per hour, or one page per magazine or newspaper, including advertising.

 

Of course, in all fairness to the food producers and merchants, we would need to check progress after five years and if the “Obesity Epidemic” has not ended, we may have to reduce the limits still further. But that would be a good start.

 

I only have one reservation, and it is very personal, but I am prepared to waive it for the good of all you other jokers out there: my wife makes fantastic new recipes at least once a week from all these wonderful magazine and newspaper articles and so on, so I will have to go back to boiled cabbage or bangers and mash!

Two Events for Labour this week

Child Poverty

On Monday evening we went to a public meeting organised by the local Labour Party and addressed by a local community paediatrician, Nicky Nelson, on the subject of "Child Poverty in New Plymouth".

From a variety of research Nicky explained that something like a quarter of the children in New Zealand are living in conditions that mean they cannot have what they need to thrive. For Taranaki the statistics are slightly better.

 

Comments by the Children's Commissioner and other experts have pointed out that allowing this to happen has resulted in costs to our society in the form of social support, health services, justice system, and so on, amounting to billions per year in financial terms, quite apart from the cost in misery and suffering in  the later lives of these individuals and families.

 

She explained the facts of human development, especially brain development, which indicated that intervention in the first three years of life is much more effective than trying to correct habits and ingrained brain pathways later.

 

The answers lay in mentoring programmes and support for young parents, both mothers and fathers, and ensuring adequate housing and incomes for all families. Nicky pointed out that elderly age-groups have the support of a universal National Superannuation to prevent them being in such levels of poverty, whereas provisions for children have not kept pace.

 

There was a lively discussion following Nicky's talk, and a description of the programmes in place at the local Marfell School, one of which is being assisted by Labour Party members.

 

The Future of Work

Again, on Wednesday morning our "Superlab" Group (of superannuitants) met for our monthly policy discussion. This month we were trying to answer the Commission's three questions.

 

Our discussion concentrated on Question 2: What should be the issues that the Future of Work Commission focuses on?

 

Here are some of our answers:

 

1. Jobs for everyone, eg by a massive house-building programme, and by stimulating regional development.

 

2. A revitalisation of the apprenticeship system.

 

3. Rebalancing the industrial relations legislation.

 

4. Strengthening collective bargaining.

 

5. Identifying the skills needed by school leavers.

 

6. Encouraging Regional Development

 

The Future of Work Commission is a task force set up by the Labour Party this year to develop policy in this area. It is made up of MPs, and people from a variety of sectors, including those with expertise who are not members of the Party, but who are keen to see policy developed. The commission is led by Grant Robertson.

 

 

Parallel Reading

I am at present reading five books. I don't suppose I am the only person doing this, nor is it the very first time I have tried it, but it is an interesting experiment.

 

Many years ago when I was teaching senior classes at High School English, I wondered how Victorian people got on when they had to read the best-sellers in this way. Dickens and his contemporaries all published their novels first in the form of serialised magazine instalments of three chapters a week.

 

So you might be reading a novel by Dickens, and a novel by Thackeray, and one by George Eliot at the same time. I tried the experiment then: a Dickens, a Thackeray, and The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, plus a Hardy and a modern New Zealand one: Strangers and Journeys by Maurice Shadbolt, three chapters each in rotation.

 

Crane

I discovered to my pleasure, and I think also with some surprise, that I had no difficulty keeping the storylines, the characters, and the settings separate in my mind.

 

This time the books are much more different. One of the old ones is Walter Crane's Line and Form from 1900. It shows its age, both in the opinions Crane expresses and in the appearance of the line drawings that illustrate his points. But there is also a lot of good basic material about the techniques of drawing, which as you already know is one of my interests at present.

 

Follett

Even older is Anthony Trollope's Castle Richmond. I do enjoy Trollope; every so often I find a new one and read it. His tone of voice is amusing and amused and the satire is gentle, and no less trenchant for that.

 

Trollope

Ken Follett's Edge of Eternity is set in the Cold War period, and has so far introduced us to Civil Rights marches in the US and Kruschev's regime in Russia, so you can see where it is going.

 

Arthur

Then there is the almost obligatory book, in this ANZAC centenary year, of a book about the First World War: The Road Home by Max Arthur. This is a compilation of extracts from war diaries by ordinary soldiers, nurses and civilians about their lives on Armistice Day and the months after it. The format is exactly the same in each chapter, and the chapters are arranged logically. All the extracts are interesting, but the repetition gets a bit tiresome. Parallel reading is a good idea in this case.

 

Kurtz

The final book this time is Practicing; a musician's return to music, by Glenn Kurtz. Kurtz is a guitarist, but his philosophising and memoirs in this book do not apply only to guitar playing nor even only to music. They are applicable also to all genres of music, even all forms of art, and in fact also to any activity one may be involved in. Really Practicing is about life. Bells ring everywhere as I read Kurtz's struggles with the process of learning, of unlearning earlier habits, of coping with the comments of his tutors, and so on, though I have never played the guitar.

 

So far the experiment is a success. I will try to keep you informed as it goes further.

 

 

 

 

MPs Visit New Plymouth

Poto Williams (left)

On Wednesday this week we attended a morning tea meeting with four visiting MPs. Between 40 and 50 members and supporters of the Labour Party in New Plymouth got together to chat with them and listen to their comments.

There were four MPs, all members of the Caucus Law and Order Committee: Poto Williams, Jacinda Ardern, Adrian Raruwhe and Phil Goff.

Poto Williams explained the circumstances of some of her Christchurch East constituents four years after the earthquakes devastated their part of the city. She made clear her motivation for entering politics: a driving desire to see New Zealand develop into a fairer and more equal society.

Jacinda Ardern (right)

Jacinda Ardern impressed, as she does in formal parliamentary situations, with her very clear, concise exposition of current issues. She also gave us some background about James Shaw, the new co-leader of the Greens, with whom she had had election fights in the past!

Adrian Raruwhe (right)

Adrian Raruwhe, MP for Te Tai Hauauru, explained that it was taking him a long time to get to grips with all of his huge electorate: even to meet the mayors of the several dozen local bodies in his area is taking well over a year.

Phil Goff had recently been to a conference on Nuclear disarmament in New York; he is the Labour spokesman on nuclear disarmament. He expressed pride in the fact that New Zealand was the first country to become officially nuclear free. And in answer to a question he recounted his involvement in the free-trade deals with China and South-east Asia. Probably most important was his reiteration of the facts about governments' management of the economy: for nine years Labour produced a surplus in the budget, paid off debt and saved money for the future, in seven years National has not produced one surplus and yet has borrowed more.

Phil Goff (right)

After an hour or so the MPs left to meet community leaders here, and the audience finished off the plentiful food that was left, while discussing and digesting what the MPs had said.

Jacinda made an important point: the most mentioned issue concerning people surveyed in the party's research at present is Child Poverty. On Monday next, Community Paediatrician, Nicky Nelson, will address a public meeting at the Labour Party rooms: 7.30 pm if you can get to join us. Her subject: Child Poverty in New Plymouth.

 

 

 

Sketching this week

 

Here is a selection of recent sketches, some fairly good and some not so!

 

But practice makes perfect, so the saying goes, and I know that's true, so no matter how far from perfect, practice is what I need.

 

This first is a tree I noticed one day on my walk. It was next to a very modern house, which I have outlined in the sketch.

 

What struck me were the colours, which I have tried to approach with the watercolours to the left.

 

I thought it was about time I tried again with felt pens after a long gap concentrating on  pencil and watercolour.

 

So here is my effort: based on a photo we took of Bath Abbey and the square in front of it and the Bath Building next door when we were there in 2008.

 

It is beginning to seem like a long time ago, but it still gives us a lot of pleasure to go over the memories with the photos, and to attempt to sketch the places we visited from the shots.

 

I put the photos up on the TV monitor by means of a pen-drive in the TV's USB slot (we bought a particular model because it had this facility when we came home from that trip).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One cool, clear, breezy morning I went for a walk to Devon Street, and sat in a sheltered spot to sketch this house, which is at present unused, but a few years ago was a land agent's offices.

 

As you can see, I could just make out the snow-covered mountain to the right of the house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was waiting for a friend in the Huatoki Plaza one fine morning and sketched this view towards the sea and the Wind Wand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Problems of Philanthropy

This week we attended a meeting to discuss the results of the Street Appeal for the Puppy Training for the Blind Foundation. It was a friendly group, and we had a good chat about what we had achieved.

 

Around 100 people worked for an hour or two each sitting with a bucket collecting money from shoppers outside supermarkets, or helping organise the equipment or the volunteer rosters. In two days at ten sites in the city we collected over $6000 for the training of the puppies.

 

Is this massive volunteer effort worthwhile? This is something I ask myself from time to time.

 

If you divide the number of helpers, and the hours they worked into the total collected, you come up with a figure that makes you wonder: is there a more effective way to raise funds for this purpose?

 

But if you add the publicity surrounding the appeal, including several weeks of TV ads, it all makes for a valuable awareness boost for the work of the Foundation for the Blind as a whole.

 

If we could take advantage of this extra awareness by recruiting a bunch of new sponsors for the puppy programme at the same time, this would boost the long-term fund-raising effectiveness of all our work. We have put this on our list for the next year.

 

It all raises some hard questions about charities and the way our society pays for essential services.

 

You would think that if a visually-handicapped person needed the help of a guide dog, that would be provided as part of the government's disability programme, just like handrails, walking-sticks, wheel-chairs, modifications to cars, and so on. To have to rely on charitable organisations and donations to cover what look like essential services is surely at odds with our basic community support culture?

 

This is only one of the grey areas around our welfare system that make the negotiation with public services difficult for families with basic care needs.

 

Another problem is in  the definition of what is a charitable organisation. The system has been tidied up in recent years by the establishment of the Charities Commission, but there are still grey areas. By definition, a charity is an organisation that helps other people, it doesn't just exist to help its own members. This is important if donors are to receive a tax refund for their donations.

 

But one of the things I learned when I was a community worker was that research makes it clear that the best job of helping people is done by groups run by the needy people themselves. The best and most lasting improvements in communities happen when those communities get empowered to make their own changes and improvements, with help from key specialists and funds lent from government or other objective sources.

 

Which tends to conflict with the definition of a charity!

 

Whatever may turn out to be the best tactics, we still need to keep taking the next step!

Time for some thinking?

Yesterday the newest retirement complex here, Summerset, held an open day at their new spread, so we went up for an hour to have a look around.

 

It helped that their Sales Manager was an old school-mate of Margaret's, due to retire in a few months. The Site Manager was a similar age and very friendly and welcoming. They poured us tea and brought round biscuits and made us welcome. Other tyre-kickers were arriving all the time.

 

We then joined a party touring the facility. There are already several people living there; the construction crews are still completing new sections of units, as well as the community areas.

 

Behind this member of staff are the style of units we saw.

These include swimming pool, spa, gym, bar, and a café open to the public. We saw 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom units, serviced apartments, and were shown a hospital area with plenty of beds. Most units had garages, some double. So there is the usual range from complete independence to total care.

 

All the units face the north, have large double-glazed windows, and are fitted with alarm systems to call for help, complete with battery pack to kick in in emergency power failures. They all have wi-fi and Sky decoders. The rooms have large cupboards, and larger units have two toilets.

 

We collected our copy of the extensive brochure material, and came home to read all the details.

 

So what do we think?

 

We already have some knowledge of older complexes; our number one reservation is the unattractive locations they are set in. Unfortunately the new one is no better. It is at the end of a longish cul-de-sac, some distance from shops and other amenities. Like several other such places, it is in a valley, with uphill walks or longish distances to cope with on foot or on a disability scooter.

 

The big practical advantage of living where we are is our proximity to supermarkets, cinema, bank, shopping, takeaways, cafes, library and so on. So there will have to be some major compensating features to make such a move worthwhile for us.

 

Many aspects of what we saw yesterday were attractive; obviously there has been careful thought and planning, and some experience of  customer feedback taken into account. But as well as the thought of leaving our beautiful little cottage, Margaret is not happy about the lack of a bath! They are happy about pets, but we are unsure that our two moggies would take well to a shift at their advanced age(s) of 18 and 20.

 

However, at my age one is never sure how much longer the gardening will be possible, or how long I will be as mobile as I am now, but for now we are happy to stay in our cottage, close to all amenities, and perhaps get gardening/lawns help if and when needed. But we keep this option open. New units are due for completion by Christmas, and others early next year.