Chat It’s Fate — August 2017

Readers tell it how it is

Tales of the

paranor

it’s fateit’s fate

do’ feeling!

a ‘can-

There was

Safe

event:

Kidding

around

the Haka

loved

My boys

w

34 Chat it’s fate

I

scrunched up my nose,

wiggled, then rubbed it,

but still the smell lingered.

WhatÕs that stench?

It was summer 2015, and

I was walking my dog around

Market Rasen, Lincolnshire,

where I lived.

We walked the same stretch

most days. But, enjoying the

weather, I’d taken a longer

route home. Ended up at

a manor house.

That’s when the strong

scent wafted into my face.

Cigar smoke, I realised!

‘Pooh!’ I said, flapping my

hand in the air to shift the

unpleasant aroma.

As I did, I turned full circle,

but no one was there.

Where had the smoke

come from?

Without a clear explanation,

and thinking nothing more of

it, I forgot about it.

Until a few weeks

later,

my nose

twitched

as I could

smell

cigarette

smoke

while I was

stood in the

middle of

a deserted

road.

Spooky!

Then, later

that month,

H

ey look, Mummy,’

my 7-year old

son Isaac said.

‘There’s someone

swimming in the lake!’

Hip-hop act De La Soul

were on the main stage,

which was separated from the

audience by a natural lake

• and there was
  indeed someone
  swimming
  doggedly
  towards them!
  It summed
  up the
  spontaneous,
  can-do
  feeling of
  the whole
  festival.
  It was March
  2016 and I was
  at Womad,
  in New
  Plymouth.
  Known as
  ‘the world’s
  festival,’
  there’s a
  Womad in
  30 countries
  around
  the world,
  including
  the UK,
  Chile, Spain – and New
  Zealand, where
  I now live, having
  married a Kiwi!
  Held in the stunning
  Brooklands Park, there was
  a focus on world music – we

saw the amazing

Ladysmith Black

Mambazo perform, as

well as British folk band

Spiro and local acts Bic

Runga and Katchafire.

Te Kapa Haka o Te

Whanau a Apanui opened the

weekend. Kapa Haka is Maori

performance arts – essentially,

‘the Haka’ is part of Kapa Haka.

There was lots of music and

stories, and it was culturally

very relevant. The kids loved

the living library – where you

could loan ‘human books’ for

30 to 60 minutes to

tell you a story.

I enjoyed

several visits

to the Asia-

inspired

Kunming

Garden

retreat, with

healers,

naturopaths

and tarot

readers.

What I

liked best

was how

local it

all was

• half of
  Auckland
  turned out!
  It was
  so safe
  that the
  kids could
  go off by
  themselves, with a
  pre-arranged meeting
  time and place.
  For a world
  festival, it really
  made me appreciate the
  unique culture and spirituality
  of the country I live in.

Mary

Cook, 74,

from

Lincs

Ô

Whiffy warning

Jai

Breitnauer,

37, A u c k l a n d,

New Zealand

World class!