48-hour film challenge; 80th Birthday; Chopper time

Friday was Jeanette's wonderful Dad's 80th birthday. Quite a landmark! (The birthday, that is).

On Saturday, we (along with Ross & Annette & Carolyn) took Gordon (Jeanette's Dad) on a surprise 35min helicopter trip.

We went from the Heletranz base at Albany out across Hobsonville and Waitakere Village out to Bethells Beach and quite low over the surf and the cliffs down the rugged West Coast beaches.

Then it was up and over the Waitakeres and the Huia Dams past Arataki and over West Auckland back towards the city. We flew almost over our place in Mt Albert and the Eden Park, Mt Eden, Newmarket , the Museum, around the Sky Tower, Westhaven, Devonport and then over to Rangitoto and a look into the crater.

Then via Lake Pupuke and via the East Coast Bays back towards Albany Centre and the North Harbour Stadium etc and a wide sweep around before landing back again at Heletranz - all under the very able piloting skills (and friendly banter) of Tony Monk. I can thoroughly recommend it!

Last night while at Gordon's 80th Birthday, I recieved a call from Will (my neice Zoe's husband) wondering if I was 'on' to do some original music for their team's attempt to win this year's 48 hour film challenge. I said 'Yup' and spent a chunk of today writing and recording various bits and pieces. I last saw a rough cut of it an hour and a half before the deadline and thought it was looking (and even sounding!) pretty good. Will was down to the final tweaks and pokes and audio mixing stage and getting ready to get it onto video tape.

There's certainly a lot of skill and craft, teamwork, lots of funny stuff, some in-jokes (and even a guest appearance by a couple of politicians), clever writing and good acting that goes into the making of seven minutes of cinematic brilliance! I'm sure you'll hear from me if they WIN.

Rather than signing off with the customary light mirthy stuff, I thought the radiology report on my left foot made pretty funny reading for those of us not medically trained!

29th April: There is an undisplaced fracture involving the tip of the lateral malleolus. The talus is symmetrical within the ankle mortice. A minimally displaced fracture involving the lateral aspect of the anterior process of the calcaneum. There are several small bone fragments at the lateral margin of the calcaneum. A moderately comminuted intraarticular fracture of the base of the 5th metatarsal is present. An oblique fracture of the distal shaft of the 4th metatarsal with slight medial displacement of the distal shaft is present. No other fractures are detected. The alignment of the Lisfranc joint appears normal. Moderate vascular calcification is noted.

Wow! Too much information???

Cheers
Bruce
bbremner@ihug.co.nz