Beautiful women, falling from heaven
hope not to land in an aisle with a spill.
The blockish heels on their work-shoes
aren’t enough to stop an awkward slide,
and the metal-edged shelves offer no support.

Beautiful women, falling from heaven
get bruised knees when they land at low tide.
It’s fortunate that their high-riding skirts
don’t usually come too close to sea-level,
since beauty abhors a darkened hem.

Beautiful women, falling from heaven,
rattle their keys and their consciences at dusk.
They need hairspray, insoles, needle and thread;
they’re sewing themselves a safety net,
and need to get off the metro before the shops close.

• Blogs & poems are all very well, but a greater impact of @gtiso on my life can be seen in how often @knedd makes pizza from scratch. #
• When I see the way Millie sometimes interacts with her adult pups, I am glad to be spared that version of discipline by my own parents. #
• Have been tearing my hair out over getting ZenPhoto to rotate images without breaking the image. Defaulting to Flickr for the moment. #
• When you get down, remember your [wedding] crew: http://bit.ly/4×57eD #
• Dreading the neighbourhood fireworks which typically start tonight. Worst time of the year for dogs and cats. #
• Let’s celebrate Parihaka Day instead: http://bit.ly/3Y1WDo
  (This message supported by my Norwich Terriers). #
• Contains a curious duck: http://bit.ly/3mhHzR #
• Signed, sealed, delivered: http://bit.ly/1FmMQP #
• Anything involving “grow” used transitively is #definitelyoneofmymosthatedphrases #
• Unless “grow” is referring to some horticultural act; that’s fine. #
• People standin’ in the gardens with drinks in their hands: http://bit.ly/1zsT2B #
• Photographs of people and cheese: http://bit.ly/3QJpRf #
• RT @over_the_net: Today on OTN. The fountain of knowledge. http://tinyurl.com/ykc399u #
• Today I was given a laminated, wallet-sized picture of Hoffa by a former member of the Teamsters Union. Now it’s in my wallet. #hmm #
• Fireworks plan to crate all the dogs for quiet time failed: Arthur decided that it was time for us to play chase while the crew were crated. #
• Honeymoon Shots that are perhaps disappointingly safe for work but nonetheless quite scenic: http://bit.ly/3Acimf #
• I love this photo: @knedd looks like he designed the room! http://flic.kr/p/7d13mB #
• For one dreadful moment, I thought I’d written “hardcore” instead of “hardcopy” in an email sent out to a wide range of union members. #whew #
• Hayfever is cross-species in this house. Today it’s Eddie’s turn for a trip to the vet with a suspected pollen allergy. Coat chewed out. #
• The .mov we thought was lost — Millie and her litter brothers aged 9 weeks, playing with Arthur here — has turned up. Summer of 2003! #
• The spam folder on my blog includes links for Electric Nipple Torture. Me, I prefer nipple torture to be steam- or diesel-powered. #
• I will blog this Historical Puppy Video in due course, but if anyone would like a narrative-lite preview, it’s here: http://bit.ly/2cRA3z #
• Have been a bit mental and weepy today, but thanks to the steadfastery of @knedd I have resolved some decisions. Decision no. 1: groceries! #
• Subsequent decisions will be a bit more monumental, but one has to start somewhere & we are nearly out of washing powder & turlet paper. #
• I am [only] 54% addicted to Twitter http://su.pr/1b72Ly (from the @oatmeal). #

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Earlier this year when looking for a marriage celebrant, I recognised one name as the person to whom Millie’s black-and-tan litter brother went.  One phone call and it was an easy choice to make.  In the video the pup is called by his original name, Buckle, but this has since changed.  Curious the links that wind us all about, over time.

The video is also important to me in that it was around that time I decided to try my hand at keeping an online diary.  As I’ve written before, Millie quickly became a narrative feature, often under the moniker of My Darling Hellion.  In an early entry (now protected), I noted:

My Norwich terrier-owning friends have often commented that, concerning this breed, females are more biddable, more affectionate, more obedient and less intractable than males. One may add a NT bitch puppy to one’s household with fewer changes and disruption than a dog puppy.

On the basis of my li’l girl Millie, this is bullshit. She has energy and attitude to burn. She is composed almost entirely of feistiness. …  She likes to run around the house scragging Arthur by his ruff. She would rather fight over toys than share them. While housetraining her has not been too difficult … , providing incentives for her not to nip and bite my face, hands, arms and legs by way of play has been more of a challenge. No bities, Millie. No Bities!

A few months ago, the video file turned up amongst archives at the house of the harvestparents.  Now the world can see the fabled confrontation between Buckle and Arthur in the playpen, and watch as Millie explores in the second half of the video my then-gardens.  The flower that you see her tussling with didn’t last long and she later dug out the entire plant.  In those first weeks she also bisected, and thus destroyed, a small olive tree in a pot, starting the conversion of the section from mostly-trees to mostly-lawn.  (We are happier as a result, now we have the winter sun and less to maintain.)  The demon eventually became the matron, but here she is with her brothers, before we guessed anything about what came next, or what after that.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Lionised;
Ironised.

Hydra-man;
hydro-dam.

Golden hind;
Double-bind.

Pig hunt;
Waterfront.

Clean stables;
League tables.

Bronze wings;
Arrows, slings.

Cretan Bull,
Farmer’s fool.

Mares of Thrace,
Last Race.

Amazon Girdle,
Temperance Hurdle.

Geryon’s Cattle,
Taonga Battle.

Hesperides’ fruit,
Kōuka root.

Cerberus taken,
Plans mistaken.

They know something we don’t know,
the singing coffins beneath the streets,
the walls pulled down for paving stones,
the skull of unexpected smallness.

Vox populi or vox humana
get busted up like broken tiles
or start that way, as murmurs, rumours,
the truths so easily taken back.

A man, eaten by a worm
holds his credit card aloft
while hands that look well-meaning
pull him out, or in,
to the body of another worm.

To travel, you must be consumed,
the body’s clock that eats itself,
enamel cracked, politest teeth:
hot towel, sir? Your length of stay?
(the time that was, where once you were).

All signs point to a good time being had by most, and I managed not to ironise the event while it was taking place, a process much helped by having paid some invoices in the days prior to the ceremony and the joyful company of our friends and family.

Brides of course are supposed to float along on a combination of sparkling wine and euphoria, and while both phenomena certainly had their way with me, I kept thinking too about graver, more gravelly matters, as is my habit.  The tension, the shoulder-turn, that a wedding makes against future ill-fortune seems to me well-expressed in the Auden poem that I didn’t have as a reading at the ceremony, but to which I gave nonetheless consideration.

The sense of danger must not disappear:
The way is certainly both short and steep,
However gradual it looks from here;
Look if you like, but you will have to leap.

Tough-minded men get mushy in their sleep
And break the by-laws any fool can keep;
It is not the convention but the fear
That has a tendency to disappear.

The worried efforts of the busy heap,
The dirt, the imprecision, and the beer
Produce a few smart wisecracks every year;
Laugh if you can, but you will have to leap.

The clothes that are considered right to wear
Will not be either sensible or cheap,
So long as we consent to live like sheep
And never mention those who disappear.

Much can be said for social savoir-faire,
Bu to rejoice when no one else is there
Is even harder than it is to weep;
No one is watching, but you have to leap.

A solitude ten thousand fathoms deep
Sustains the bed on which we lie, my dear:
Although I love you, you will have to leap;
Our dream of safety has to disappear.

I am considering the possibility that in returning to normalcy I have in fact gone a bit mad.  While this is slightly ahead of season, it is not unheard of in these pages.  Fortunately my husband is in fine fettle and well-versed as to when to indulge and when to ignore my instabilities.  We are looking forward to a long summer together.

• Briefly emerging from the white mist to thank you all once again for your nuptial wishes. We are off to the West Coast for a few days. <3 #
• Rock of Love Box (wedding gift for @knedd and me from @johubris) http://flic.kr/p/7a5Yzv #
• Since @johubris put some photos up, I've created a Wedding Gallery on Flickr: http://bit.ly/BpB72 #
• Wending our way through multiple tourist photo shoots at Arthur's Pass. We are NZ's next top honeymooners! #
• Contrary to popular culture, it is warm, sunny and spring-like here at the mouth of the Grey. #
• Vegetarians dining in Greymouth should be prepared to ask for alterations to the meaty, fishy round, or have a vege curry at Priya's. #
• However, with $15 entry and generous tastings, one may be able to get a significant amount of calories from the Monteiths brewery tour. #
• Off to Karamea where there's no 3G, no GPRS and possibly no internet. Said @knedd: who will crack first? #
• Also, some friends have posted wedding pics: go see http://bit.ly/119NN5
  for a looksee if you're able. #
• In Westport, where an ad in a shop window advertises a support group for people new to the coast. #
• Back in Greymouth after an amazing 24 hours in North Westland. Enjoying 2006 Spinyback Pinot Noir upstairs at Frank's Cafe. #
• Reading with sadness of recent deaths. Life in its happiness and brevity is bitter-sweet. #
• Together @knedd and I have purchased 2 copies of Unseen Academicals and are now reading one each in Dixon Park in the shade. #
• Back home with our creature comforts and our creatures. Our lawn looks like it should be hosting a car body on blocks. #
• I hope the dogs will put the trick-or-treaters off braving our gate, 'cos all I've got is bananas & apples & they're not getting the apples. #
• Feeling a lot lighter today having had all my wedding hair cut off to a sensible, wifely, tilted bob. Back in the land of wash and go! #

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• Beleza has played Weezer Blue and now OK Computer in their entirety. It’s like they knew @knedd and I were stopping by. #
• My father saw Jools Topp in town today and gave her a hug. With permission – not an ambush or owt. #
• Doggies, I know you thought I was joking, but when I say the dead bird cannot be brought inside, I am 4Real. #
• Dead-bird-related fights broke out on the porch. I gave it a two-bag rubbish bin burial and sang Confutatis from Mozart’s Requiem. #
• Off to final (?) bridal fitting. Whee! #
• All things being equal, it is to this sentimental ditty that I shall walk down the aisle. ♫ http://blip.fm/~f2z9w #
• O circumstances beyond my control, why won’t you come into my control? #bridalmoment #
• Mr. Goat doesn’t care for your attitude http://flic.kr/p/78WnEC #
• My former student Lagi linked to this and now I have it as an earworm. When you’re a bride, sentimental love s… ♫ http://blip.fm/~f3xej #
• Most of this afternoon I spent doing wedding errands with harvestbro, which was great fun. We had coffee at C1 and then with @sparrownz. #
• Tomorrow @knedd is out on the stag with friends and cousins. No house strippers and no cow tipping is all I ask. #
• Today I wrote a cheque for the bridal party’s regalia, then had two panic attacks. Nothing frightens me like a financial commitment. #
• Under instruction not to wash my hair until t’weekend, thanks to @prettyx3 I am sorted for dry shampoo! http://bit.ly/1LQQKm #
• Today has been surprisingly challenging tho eased by a wine or two w harvestbro. Dropped off my brideswomen’s outfits. Patted their dogs. #
• In life, as @knedd said of me, I’ve been married to many things: my dogs, job, writing, the sea, but none of these are recognisable in law. #
• There are many things to do in the next forty-eight hours, but tomorrow is also the 4th anniversary of Evie’s whelping: http://bit.ly/hi9fb #
• harvestbro recently saw Zeitgeist and liked it. I said that for the sake of balance, he should follow @HORansome. #
• There are a few things to do today and then the things to do will be done. I won’t lie: I have been fair frazzled these last few days. #
• Some brides pray, others take drugs, still others clean the shower. #
• My laptop and my dress are at @hotelso and I am here on @knedd’s computer. Most things, I think are done for now. #
• Our sincere thanks for all your kind @ s and DMs. #
• Much enjoying this: http://bit.ly/pWBQR #
• http://twitpic.com/mmo5u – It’s a nice day for a white wedding. #
• A little bridal music to start the day. ♫ http://blip.fm/~fajgo #
• Thank you everyone for your loveliest of wishes. #
• We are so married! #

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I like this video because you can hear my mother laughing.

Click here to view the embedded video.