Sleeping Beauty Woken

It only took a finger prick
her fate was sealed within a tick
from that day on her role was passive
the impact felt by women – massive
the princess with the name Briar Rose
is one that every young girl knows
according to the Brothers Grimm
she just lay still to wait for him
a hundred years she rested there
till he rode up without a care
and to her side the prince he went
and kissed her lips without consent
I like to think what she might do
slap his smug face and cry Me Too!

People from Papers Past

A prompt from a friend encouraged me to seek Cottage history by putting our address into Papers Past. I found just two mentions. The next morning I got a message from my friend advising me that I need to put speech marks around my search phrase. This got me more results.

The earliest mention was from the Star, noting the death at this address in April 1919 of Louisa Jane Howell, relict of the late Albert James Howell, late of Rakaia, in her 72nd year. In 1919 our cottage was owned by John Falloon of Waimate and George Arres of Waikari, so perhaps Louisa was renting it. George Arres was a Justice of the Peace, and in 1914 the President of the Hawarden A. & P. Association.

Cottage Title, first page

In August 1943 the cottage was to be sold by auction:  “This valuable city property now vacant, comprises four good-sized rooms, and kitchenette, bathroom.  Inside lavatory, electric hot water system, gas, and coal range, wash-house, large coal and wood sheds, and section has excellent growing soil.  Auctioneer’s note: For a small outlay for renovations this property could be transformed into a really nice and cosy home and would make an ideal letting proposition.”

In 1928 the cottage had been transferred to Edgar Allan Bradley, a painter, who died in September 1944, with the cottage transmitted in 1945 to two Bradley men, possibly his sons.

In March 1945 an Indian motorcycle and sidecar in perfect order were offered for urgent sale from this address. Maybe money was tight?

In 1946 ownership of the cottage transferred to Albert Victor Gatenby, Linesman, whose wife was Myrtle.

September 1948 Myrtle Gatenby’s mother died at the cottage

In June 1959 the Press recorded the engagement of Patricia McLean to William Watt Clark, foster son of Mr and Mrs Gatenby. We knew about the Gatenbys and have several photos of William in the garden in the early 1950s.

Photos of William Clark

In August 1971 the death of Alfred Styles (late of P & T Dept, Timaru), uncle of Myrtle and Vic Gatenby was noted.  Messages to our cottage.  We’d been told that our shed was built as a sleepout (officially a garage) for an uncle.  Was this Alfred Styles? Did he die in our shed?

In December 1971 there was the death of Myrtle Beatrice Gatenby at her (now our) residence

An advert in the Press in May 1975 said: “Spray painter requires industrial work on contract basis. Own booth and oven. Please call any time”. In 1975 the cottage was owned by James Henry Smyth, Orthopaedic Technician, and his wife. I doubt if either of them were seeking spray painting work, so again the cottage may have been tenanted. I wonder where the spray painting booth and oven would have been situated.

August 1975: Fully furnished 3 bedroom cottage available to 3-4 responsible people only.  Lease and bond required. Perhaps the spray painter was not considered responsible?

In June 1978 and again in July 1979 the cottage was advertised to let, with three bedrooms. Presumably one of those was the room that’s now our dining area.

In October 1980 there was a sale of the contents of the cottage, mainly heavy furniture and assorted smaller things. This would be before it was bought by Daphne, from whom we bought it in 1987.

In 1985 a green VW Baja Bug was advertised for $4,000 or near offer. 

In November 1988 a futon, which we’d brought from Auckland and no longer required, was advertised for sale, with our phone number.

I’m fascinated to know at least three women died in our cottage. Perhaps I will eventually be a fourth?

It’s great to have more cottage history
though some things do remain a mystery

More on Money

“Are new currencies a threat to old money” was the subject of a talk from Philip Vermeulen, Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Canterbury. Philip spent 20 years at the European Central Bank during the time when countries’ individual currencies were switching to the Euro.

He pointed put that banknotes are just a tiny fraction of money. In Aotearoa we mainly use EFTPOS or a mobile banking app on our phone. The numbers on the phone are also money, and represent what we have in the bank. These methods are easy to use, transparent, and almost immediate. All local banks have an account at the central (Reserve) bank, and transactions are done through this.

Money has three features. It is (a) a medium of exchange, (b) a store of wealth, and (c) a unit of account. In Aotearoa the wealth stored is guaranteed by the government. The unit of account refers to the fact that everything has a price. Money needs to be scarce, to be accepted by others as having purchasing power, and its price needs to be stable.

The price of something depends on how much money is needed to buy it. The value of something depends on its usefulness. Philip pointed out that water is not usually charged for, but is of immense value. An old joke says: “An economist is someone who knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing.”

Before humanity had money there were two ways to exchange goods: barter (an immediate trade) and gift exchange (reciprocity, where the benefit may come in the longer term). The first evidence we have of money being used is in Mesopotamia (Iran/Iraq). In 6,000 BC people there used barter as a means of exchange, and goods such as wheat and barley came to be used as money. This extended to other communities along the Nile (Egypt) and by 3,300 BC silver was being used as a standard of value. The Shekel is an ancient Mesopotamian coin, usually of silver. At first the Shekel was a unit of weight, then it became a currency.

In ancient Rome cattle (pecus) became a standard of value, and this is where we get the word pecuniary. All this shows that barley and cattle are early forms of money. Metal as a medium of exchange had the advantage of being durable, divisible, and portable (although heavy). People started to use bars of gold, silver, bronze, and copper. In the early 6th century BC (610-560 BC) the Lydian electrum coin began to be used (Electrum is a mixture of gold and silver, and Lydia is in present day Turkey). Coins were soon seen to be a useful way to store wealth, e.g. they could be buried. Whatever was stamped on a coin didn’t really matter. The important thing was the amount of underlying metal that made up the coin, which could always be melted down and re-stamped.

In Asia Chinese coins were widely used, and the Silk Road stimulated this use. The problem of coins was that they were heavy, and the solution to this was paper money. The first promissory note, where the issuer promises to pay, appeared in China in the 11th century and was called the Jiaozi. When Marco Polo travelled through Asia 1271-1295 he noted that Kublai Khan caused all payments on his account to be made with these notes, which could be universally passed across his kingdoms.

During the 14th and 15th centuries European banks developed Bills of Exchange, which were written by one bank to another. These required trust between the banks and were used by the Knights Templar and the Medici family. A famous painting in1514 shows the Moneychanger and his Wife weighing coins.

The first promissory notes were personally registered, but they soon became a written order to pay the amount to whoever had the note in their possession, i.e. a bank note. Early bank notes were issued in 1661 by Stockholms Banco, and in 1695 by the Bank of England. These notes were a promise to the bearer that they could be redeemed for the note’s value in coins (specie). At this stage paper currency in most countries was handled entirely by private banks. In the United States, between 1793 and 1861 there were approximately 1,600 private banks who were permitted to print and circulate their own paper currency. In 1861 Congress permitted the Treasury Department to print and circulate money, and specie payments were suspended. This meant that paper money could no longer be converted to coins or bullion and was the beginning of fiat money (guaranteed by government).

In 1844 the Bank of England gained a monopoly over the issue of notes, and from1873 to 1914 there was still an international classical gold standard, where central banks agreed to exchange notes for gold. After World War II countries fixed their exchange rate with US dollars, which could then be exchanged into gold at the official rate of $35 per ounce. In 1971 President Nixon ended the conversion of US dollars into gold.

Fiat money is a currency that lacks intrinsic value and is established as legal tender by government regulation. It works because money needs to be scarce, it needs to be accepted by others and by government, and there needs to be an important reason to use it. The government will only accept its own fiat money when people pay taxes, and we all need to pay taxes (e.g. income tax, GST). These can only be paid in NZ$, and if this was changed it would undermine the NZ$. How is money kept scarce? The Reserve Bank controls the supply and regulates inflation. Philip believes that in ten years time we will still be paying in NZ$.

Today there are over 10,000 crypto currencies in circulation, and while they are super easy to create they don’t have the features of old currency. China has ruled them out completely. Philip considers that Bitcoin is the biggest bubble in history, is very unstable, and doesn’t function well as a basis of exchange. Why would we want to shift to something that has no value? Use of NZ$ is getting easier every year, and the cost of using them is going down all the time. Government control of money is only a problem for people such as drug dealers.

So why are so many buying crypto currency? Some are true believers in non-government. Some have FOMO – fear of missing out – gambling on the hysteria of people. Some want to get rich quick. Some fear the debasement of fiat currency as happened in wartime Germany. When considering whether Bitcoin is money we need to consider whether it is a medium of exchange, a store of wealth, and a unit of account? This talk was an excellent antidote to last week’s discussion of Bitcoin.

New Zealand dollars here to stay
They are a stable way to pay

Yellow Yuk

I have always disliked the colour yellow.

Firstly because it’s not purple, or pink, or blue, the colours I’m drawn to. I don’t mind gold, but primrose and lemon are definitely not me. I had my colours done years ago, and I’m a soft summer palette, whereas yellow belongs to autumn.

The second reason I dislike yellow is because it reminds me of banana custard, a pudding I never appreciated as a child. I still don’t like bananas.

Most of all I dislike yellow because it’s a sickly colour, related to vomit. Yellow, for me, is far from mellow!

Do you have a colour you dislike?

Flight

My Mother, aged 17, was there when Kingsford Smith landed at Wigram in 1928, and she never forgot that memory.

My first aeroplane flight was in 1959 when she and I flew from Christchurch to Auckland. I remember when I left my class at school my teacher Mr Thompson said “Don’t fall out of the aeroplane”. I had no real understanding of what this journey meant. That I was saying goodbye to the only home I’d known, to all the friends I knew, and that she and I were embarking on a completely new life.

DC3 as used by NAC in 1959

For my mother it was a flight from cold Christchurch and the life she’d led there for the previous decade. A life of working 24/7 looking after a household of sick old men. She must have thought that she was flying free from all those responsibilities. She would be able to practise her profession of accountancy, to have a job that was just 9 to 5, and to have me as her only responsibility.

We’d been to the North Island before, but always by ferry and car. This plane flight was different. We took only what we could carry in our suitcases. I remember my Mother had an iron in her cabin bag because the weight of it would have been too much in a checked-in suitcase. All our furniture, my dolls and toys, were left behind with my brother and his wife. Maybe a few things were sent on later, but I don’t remember this. In my memory we flew unencumbered, free as birds. For mother there was a spiritual community waiting. For me there was a new school where the other children played games that were strange to me.

I didn’t realise this flight
would change my whole life overnight

“Checkerboard Hill” by Jade Kake

This is a book with deep meaning. It shows the effects of life events without actually spelling them out. The main character is a Māori woman, now living in Aotearoa, who was born and brought up in Australia. A family death means she returns to her childhood home where she is confronted by various memories, and these lead to a later re-connection to her whanau in Aotearoa.

The text is sprinkled with words and phrases in te reo, and at first I found myself consulting a Māori dictionary to ensure I had the right meaning. As the story progressed I was content to believe that my smattering of the language, plus the context, was sufficient. One new word I learned was tīrairaka, another name for the pīwakawaka – perhaps a different dialect?

I found the details of protocol around tangi especially interesting, and would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in tikanga. The story is beautifully written, with wonderful descriptions.

Although born in another land
the links provide a place to stand

Fine, Frosty, and Fifteen

That was the alliterative forecast for our city today. The frost was unnoticeable in our small garden, but the grass in the field opposite was sparkling white. These sunny autumn days are a seasonal gift, marking the turn of the year’s wheel.

Autumn trees

Some years we’ve had snowdrops flowering in early May, but this year only a few non-shrinking violets are peeking through.

Violets

The antirrhinums at the front door are flowering again:

Antirrhinums

The camellia planted eight years ago is finally flowering profusely:

Camellia

I love the way the seasons are marked in Ōtautahi. This week I’ve made feijoa loaves – a seasonal treat.

Feijoa loaves

Is there anything special you’re cooking or noticing at this time of year (while crunching through the autumn leaves)?

In autumn we see red and gold
and sunshine that will soon turn cold

Booking Bureaucracy

It was time for my annual blood tests, and armed with a referral from my G.P. I set about making an appointment for this. Booking online requires you to supply an email address, then click on an email sent to that address before you can choose which lab and appointment time. Because my tests were to be done after overnight fasting I was keen to have an early morning appointment, but all morning appointments were booked out for many days ahead. I settled for 9.40am in ten days time hoping I wouldn’t find it too difficult to wait for a later breakfast. I was given a barcode to print out which I presume some people would just store on their phone.

My booking email

The day was wet and we had several things we wanted to do after the blood test, so Stephen decided he’d drive and wait with me. We arrived ten minutes early and found the waiting room crowded with just one vacant chair. There wouldn’t have been that one, except that a couple with a baby had chosen to stand beside their pram in the corridor. Stephen promptly decided to go to the nearby café for coffee. I scanned my barcode and took the one vacant seat.

Unused to being in such close proximity to strangers I did wonder whether I should put on a mask, but no-one else was masked (not even the staff), and I hoped they’d all read the request to stay away if you had cold or flu-like symptoms. The man next to me told me he had booked and been waiting for three-quarters of an hour. He showed me his numbered card and I realised he simply meant he’d registered when he entered, not pre-booked.

I was called at my appointed time and felt slightly guilty going in ahead of the dozen people who’d been waiting longer than me, especially the couple with the baby. However the nurse assured me they would all get seen eventually, and that they knew if they hadn’t pre-booked they’d have to wait longer.

I’m sure the system is fair, although you do need some technological ability to book online and I wonder how you’d fare if your need was urgent. It’s possible to book by phone, but I doubt that would be easier. How have you managed to negotiate such systems?

It was good to have the tests done quickly and be able to head for a local café for an overdue breakfast.

It seems it’s often hard today
to get a time that suits straightway

Crypto Currency

Our current U3A course is about the Future of Money, and yesterday we were given an introduction to Bitcoin and Crypto Currency (CC) by Harry Satoshi who is President of the University of Canterbury’s Crypto Society. Harry has been an enthusiast for CC since he was in Year 13, seven years ago and has been working in the CC industry for six years. He is currently a fourth year student studying for a B Com in Entrepreneurship, Strategy, Human Resources, and Innovation.

Harry pointed out that CC is a complex subject which he would try to simplify for us. In 2022 7.5% of adults in Aotearoa already owned CC and another 38.2% planned to own or invest in it. Harry runs Cryptocurrency NZ (a social enterprise), and Crypto Consulting NZ. Two years ago he managed to avoid using NZ dollars for a whole year, and he pointed out that we are on the cusp of a massive change in our medium of exchange. The only things that can be difficult to pay by Bitcoin, the most popular type of CC, are rent, and the occasional fish and chip shop.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is an open source, decentralized, peer to peer, digital currency and payment system. It is a global universal currency, native to the internet, and is revolutionary because there is no central control. Bitcoin was introduced in 2008, and is based on technology which can be traced back over 40 years. It is an intangible asset which is completely digital, fast, cheap to send, and online 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in a network that cannot be shut down. There is a maximum supply of 21 million Bitcoins, each of which can be broken down into tiny particles. It’s important to remember that Bitcoin transactions are immutable and cannot be reversed (Harry’s advice was to send a test transaction first).

Blockchain is an extremely transparent record keeping system, a living, breathing document which keeps a log of who owns what in the CC world. The price of Bitcoin is determined by the free market. It’s an investment and may eventually become the global reserve currency. Currently there are 19 Million Bitcoins in circulation, held in 46 million “wallets”, and every day there are 500,000 transactions. The most secure way to hold your Bitcoin is to have a hardware wallet which costs $250.

CC is a protest to Fiat currencies (i.e. those regulated by a government, such as NZ$ or US$), which can be printed from thin air. Bitcoin is a currency and a payment system – “Mass collaboration powered by collective self-interest”.

Bitcoin transactions are processed by Bitcoin Miners, who add them to the blockchain and get paid in Bitcoin for doing this. These miners form the world’s biggest network, and use 1% of the world’s energy. All transactions and wallets are publicly viewable, and the network has no central weak point. Bitcoin is inclusive and politically neutral.

If you want to buy Bitcoin it’s best to go through a service called Easycrypto. Anything else may be a scam. At the moment one Bitcoin is equal to $NZ104,000.00, and Harry believes that will go up to $NZ1 million in 25 years, and $NZ10 million in his lifetime

Harry pointed out that money is a container to store your economic time and energy so you can deploy it at a later date. Bitcoin is a universal neutral currency which is a protest against financial establishments, and can take over if Fiat systems fail. In Aotearoa there are already 500 shops which accept CC directly, as well as many websites.

As with any investment it’s important not to risk more than you can afford, and I suspect there will be many in yesterday’s audience who will be tempted to dip their toes into the Crypto Currency waters.

There may be those who wish to tiptoe
and try the tempting land of crypto

Hail Halloween!

Today is Halloween in the southern hemisphere, the time when the veil between the worlds is thin, and we are encouraged to remember and honour our beloved dead. During 2023 eight people I knew died, although I went to the funeral for only one of them. I’m relieved that so far this year no-one close to me has died.

Our ritual group no longer meets to celebrate these festivals. Some of us are now on the other side of the veil, and others have decreasing energy.

My Mother, who died nearly 30 years ago, has been in my mind this past week. Her clock, which has hung on my kitchen wall since she died, gave a final tick and then stopped.

Mother’s clock

When this happened 20 years ago Stephen took it to a clock-maker and had it fixed. He offered to do the same again, but I decided there was no point. The clock is old and worn (like some of us), and for a long time has lost five minutes each day. We already have three digital clocks in the kitchen, as well as battery-operated one in the lounge which tells us the time if there’s a power cut. It’s time for the old clock to go. I couldn’t quite bear to send it to landfill. Perhaps someone could use the parts to make steampunk jewellery? I’m putting it in my bag of items for the op shop, hoping someone may find a future use for it. I’m quite sure Mother would understand.

Now that it’s ceased to tick and tock
I’ll say goodbye to Mother’s clock