Become a Digital-Savvy Senior!

A coaching session in Masterton.

Each Thursday, at St Andrew’s Church Hall, our senior citizens are welcome to come for free coaching with their smart phones or other digital devices. The coaches are members of Digital Seniors, the coaching service set up across the Wairarapa to help our seniors with getting the best out of their phones, tablets or laptops. Seniors are welcome at the coaching sessions, at any time between 9:30 and 11:30 on Thursdays at the St Andrew’s Hall; no appointment is necessary.  

Our coaches are friendly and approachable; they too are of a similar generation – it’s not like asking a teenager who doesn’t know how to go slow or explain things patiently!!

So come along on any Thursday morning and get sound and practical advice about:

• Email and texting
• Internet security
• Using Skype and Facebook and the internet
• Organising digital photos

And simply gain confidence for fully using your smart phone or tablet. Come along to St Andrews at 41 Dublin Street and learn along with others to become a ‘digital savvy’ senior!  

Amici Ensemble 2019

The Amici Ensemble  returns to Greytown on Sunday 2 June in their largest form ever – 9 players will come together to perform the Grand Nonet, by Louis Spohr.

A virtuoso violinist, Spohr was as famous as Beethoven in his time, and the Nonet has all the Viennese wit and charm of the era. Spohr was commissioned to write it by Herr Johann von Tost, a businessman, who stipulated that the individual parts should belong to him, so he could lend them out, and ensure he was invited to every performance of the Nonet. He also hoped that he might pick up more customers from among the music lovers who would  attend the concerts!

The Nonet was written in such a way that each instrument appears in its true character, with characteristic solos for all instruments.

In keeping with that idea, the first half of the concert features all 9 performers in various ways. NZSO Principal Oboe Robert Orr performs Mozart’s Oboe Quartet,  which Robert says “Is the ultimate challenge for an oboist, both musically and technically. It includes the highest note ever written for the oboe up to that time!”    … Continue Reading

Greytown Music Group – A Piano in the Wind

Sunday 12 May, 4 pm

Wellington-based group “A Piano in the Wind” will be performing in Greytown for the Greytown Music Group’s next concert on Sunday 12 May. The players all perform regularly together in Orchestra Wellington and at other musical events in the region. They say they are very much enjoying the opportunity of working together on gorgeous repertoire for their instruments. 

A Piano in the Wind will be performing the two most prominent quintets for piano and winds: the Mozart and Beethoven Quintets in E flat major.  After its premiere in 1784, Mozart described the quintet to his father as the best thing he had written in his life. It is believed that Beethoven’s quintet may have been inspired by Mozart’s, being written in the same key and for the same instrumentation.  The quintets are often paired together in a programme. Both works include beautiful piano writing balanced against opportunities for the wind instruments to shine with wonderful melodies.  … Continue Reading

South Wairarapa Rebus Club

The South Wairarapa Rebus Club next meets on Friday 22 March to hear Denise and Dougal MacKenzie of Te Rakau Birding describe their environmental restoration project at Ocean Beach. The following Friday, 29 March, we have chartered a bus to take us to see the project, followed by lunch at the Lake Ferry pub.

At our February meeting Jim Field entertained a fascinated audience with stories from his extensive experience as a police dog handler. His start with dogs was laying trails for police dogs during training sessions, having met up with three handlers over a beer. Once he had passed his permanent appointment exam, taken after the end of an extensive probationary period, he “applied for a pup” and was accepted for training. Handlers got their dogs at three months of age and spent nine months socialising them. At one year of age they were taken to the police dog training centre in Trentham for a 13 week training period. After graduating as a team, Jim and his first dog, Voss, were posted initially to Palmerston North. He was later the first police dog handler to be based in Masterton. He had three dogs during his 13 years as a handler. With his third dog, Rhys, he still holds the record for the number of arrests in a year, 97, more than twice as many as the next highest total. Today Rhys stands mounted in the Police Museum, complete with tracking harness and in tracking pose.  … Continue Reading