Senna.
I visited Brasil in 1995 and fell in love with the place. So last night I dashed out to see my only film of the year - the documentary film "Senna". Wow. I'm so glad I did. As soon as I got home I searched online to buy a DVD but it doesn't look like it's been released yet. This is a beautiful film not to be missed. I loved it, and I'm not a petrol head. Senna and Prost are names you can't ignore if you follow sport.
His friend "Sid" in the documentary film said he had humility. Indeed. You can see it in his eyes. He had a gentleness about him, a kindness.
The loss of Ayrton Senna, three-time Formula One World Champion is such a tragedy. I wish he was still around. I would loved to have seen him race.
See this film while you can. And I will will definitely be buying a DVD as soon as it's available!

Authenticity.
A nice word. A need to be true, genuine, real. A need to be special, different. People crave authenticity in their lives.
Some might drag the sewing machine out of the cupboard or travel to Spotlight, or forage through the op shops. Perhaps you just need some paper and glue. Messy play in the kitchen perhaps. Something to make you feel real, connected for just a moment to this hard rock we exist on.
In fact the world is filled with authenticity on a daily basis. Babies, infants, toddlers and young children see the world through their authentic eyes, their sense of smell, their sense of being which hasn't been yet tainted by the realities of the harsh world on which they will embark and spend their lives in. To nurture such a human requires an inventive skill set, someone who can think on their feet, ready to comfort at any moment. Being authentic is singing Old MacDonald Had a Farm with a farm that has cats ducks, elephants, whales, and buses. Try it. It's fun.

$17 an hour
Surely someone out there can see the sense in getting paid $17 an hour? This is an Alliance Party policy and is worth voting for.
Unfortunately it seems that to actually win an election in this country you just have to fool the young and old with fancy words and fancy websites to win. Actual policy is hard to get in front of people.
Meanwhile young people in this country are getting screwed. Youth don't even know about the minimum wage (currently a miserable $12.75), how to get expenses out of bosses and think it costs money to join Kiwisaver or open a bank account.
While it is true you have to pay fees with most banks, most banks also offer accounts with no fees especially if you do online banking. As for Kiwisaver you don't have to actually pay anything each week to run the account, and it doesn't cost to join up. The annual fees are currently paid by the government.
The fact is we need to get rid of the existing government as we are getting screwed over and each week they remain in power things only get worse. Surely but slowly our rights and entitlements in our health and education systems are being given over to the corporation capitalists who are supporting our National and Act government while laughing all the way to the bank thinking about the future profits the will make at the underclass and working class expense.
God I want things to change so badly.

Who Killed J.R?
Trying desperately to convince my parents I should be allowed to stay up to 10pm to find out who killed J.R was quite a task.
I mean, come on, this was the biggest question in any household in the 1980's. Dallas was prime time viewing and gripping! But television stopped at midnight in the 1970's and 80's and even getting to see the Good Night Kiwi was a real big treat.
However by the time I turned a teenager, my priviledges improved slightly and on the odd occasion I could skulk into the lounge and watch the American drama show unfold.
Now you can just google youtube and find out anything, but back then if you missed a show, that was it, no reruns, no internet, no video to tape it (at least not yet.).
I was never really a big Dallas fan though as I loved the much more intense "Dynasty". Perhaps it was the fashion, the gorgeous Linda Evans or ruthless Joan Collins but I did whatever I could to coax my parents into letting me stay up and watch.
Telly in those days was just plain better. Sweetness and light graced the screen from the 2pm Saturday Matinee with Shirley Temple, Doris Day, to Dean Martin and Cary Grant. I remember watching these on our old black and white tv, and I would sit there glued to the films every Saturday afternoon. I loved them.
I do of course remember the day our colour television arrived, and the many times leading up to this new arrival of banging the old black and white tube to try and stop the fuzzy lines from appearing.
With colour camespacemen, jeannies, witches, magic, romance, everything a youngster would enjoy.
I Dream of Jeannie, to Bewitched to Get Smart were cheery shows where you drifted away to a world where everything was happy and free of troubles. Good clean televison.
The tunes and melodies of these shows stuck with you unlike much of what is like on the box these days.
Then at 7.30pm the dramas and action started.
Shows I loved and watched week in, week out as a kid included The Love Boat, CHiPs (Califonia Highway Patrol!), Mork and Mindy (nanu nanu!) Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica, Wonder Woman, Fantasy Island (the plane, the plane) , to BJ and The Bear and Little House on the Prairie.
I loved Little House on the Prairie but it was rather sad and used to make me cry!
The most crazy show was probably The Six Million Dollar Man. For the girls, The Bionic Woman came a little after.
Late night viewing started at 8.30pm which was a bit of contentious issue if you bedtime was 9pm!
Thomas Magnum investigating the latest murder as Magnum P.I., Boss Hogg ruling the Dukes of Hazzard (just the good old boys theme song by Waylon Jennings), to The A. Team, Starsky and Hutch, MIami Vice, Falcon Crest and Hart to Hart.
Then there were the British comedies - George and Mildred, Upstairs Downstairs, Man about the House to Are You Being Served?
Technology in those days was in its infancy. Video recorders didn't come until the late 1980's and they were very expensive. Sony Walkmans and Apple were about to change the world. Michael Jackson started moonwalking.
Radio cassette players lead to massive ghetto blasters!
The days were simpler, easier in many respects, nothing bombarding you with a milliion messages you had to answer in five minutes, no telephone calls beaming into your palm, just pad and paper and tv that stopped at midnight. No silly reality tv shows. No parents working two jobs. Houses were cheap and so were utilities. $6 an hour was alot.
But now kids are tooled up with ipods, cellphones, so many gadgets you wouldn't know if you were arthur or martha. Kids are tuning out, escaping a reality they didn't ask for or do they even need.
I want a more simpler life for kids, green grass to play, a slide to slide down, a path to travel. Bunsten burners to blow up in class. A teacher who wants to be there. Clouds to count. Stories and vim.
Things need to change.

Sacred cows
The revelation by a friend that Bridget Jones was indeed a mere make-over of Jane Austen crushed me. But what came next was a discovery well worth my while. Having never touched a book by Jane Austen in my life, never even knowing who she was indeed led to new authors and books devoured. Now the bookshelves are filled with Austen, the Bronte sisters, Dickens, to War and Peace. All in a similar vein - tales of love, broken hearts and happy endings.
However I was most put out reading the briefing by Treasury to the Finance Minister at the end of 2008 where the real intentions of the government are laid bare.
Recent policy announced by the government can be pinpointed back to this document - skills, and public sector in particular.
Is nothing sacred? I read the tax base will be broadened ie to the corporate tax rate and that we really want to privatise infrastructure but there are other ways to get around this (really?), and the number of students getting degrees is not high enough. Students are graduating with diplomas.
Ahh. But this really caught my eye. 17 year olds who stay at school an extra year provide more productivity. Ah yes. Productivity. The new code for labour, or working in a job earning money for the tax base. Have I hit the nail on the head?
But if you are a parent, here is the cream puff and tea.
Early childhood education allowances for parents with pre-schoolers to help parents get back into work.
No mention of getting women back into work. Only Helen Clark was foolish enough to go down that road and call us productivity units.
Being a woman is sacred. And so is being a parent.

A Dust storm
Today dust arrived in Sydney, and later Brisbane. The worst ever seen according to reports on The Sydney Morning Herald.
Coming from the west, the dust appears to have arrived after high winds at places such as Broken Hill settling above Sydney. However it is covering all of NSW and was in Canberra yesterday. Face masks are flying off the shelves and anyone who has travelled west of Sydney by train knows that all that remains between Broken Hill and the rest of Western Australia is dust, and more dust.
A Sydneysider friend has dust through her house after leaving a window open 2cm wide.
One newspaper report even suggests the effects may be felt in New Zealand.
Great. Thanks very much to all the capitalists. Climate change, don't you just love it.

7.8 for New Zealand
I noticed the lampshade moving in my peripherial vision tonight, and went online to discover the Pacific tsunami warning centre issued a tsunami warning for New Zealand's 7.8 earthquake.
This is the first time I have ever heard of one being issued. Thankfully I didn't feel the quake, only just a very slight push on the couch.
Geonet is overloaded and CNN had the item as breaking news. Invercargill is near the centre.
Hopefully the tsunami doesn't hit.