last night...

Last night was the auction of artworks at NZ House in London, the NZ Society fundraiser to help save the New Zealand Plover. Check this out! There were not so many of us represented... it must have been some night out! The last auction raised over £7,000, this one over £10,000. Convert that into the poor little $NZ and that's a useful amount of money for the project. ($NZ1.00 buys .44 cents Euro... or 100 euro buys $NZ 226.00 ... ouch!)

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While the auction took place I sat up on the roof, in one of my favourite thinking places, wondering how it was going. Did my works sell? Did they sell well? All those doubts and insecurities. I was glad I wasn't there to watch.

I may have said recently that Les Miserables was my favourite musical. Fiddler on the Roof must equal it. As I sat up on the roof, (yes, literally) and watched the village lights go off one by one I hummed the music and I wondered yet again what it is that makes me want to be "up". Up a tree, up a mountain, up on a roof, or alternatively looking up while flying a kite... always up. I lived in a river valley as a child. I loved playing under trees, building fairy houses in mossy banks, swimming in the river. But the pull of the hills was strong. After our first house in town we bought on a little hilly rise. Then it was to a bigger hill. And now, a hillside with a wonderful view over the valley.

I still want to fly. One day I will learn, and then I will really be up.
A friend who loves to fly is passionate about flying solo after dark, hurtling into the unknown, a tiny capsule in a huge black space. I think I'll stick to daytime... for starters, anyway!
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