Wargh.

So. Some of you will already know about this as it affects you personally. Some of you will already have heard others talk about it. Some of you will have no idea. I'll try to make this understandable to all!

So. We currently have a week (or just under) to make applications for Husbink's job next year back in the grand old UK. These applications can't be made to specific jobs but just to areas of the country in which there may be a number of jobs, some of which will appeal, some of which won't. The majority of jobs do not take into account that you may want a life outside work or indeed have a family who equally need lives. You are expected to move over really quite large areas every year or so, basically never allowing for you to buy a house, settle into a community...as most of these posts run for seven years, chances are we need to consider our children in this decision too. Husbink can only apply to four areas.

Today, I am sad because we have pretty much had to count Yorkshire out of being one of those areas. The actual jobs there just look so much like not what we are looking for that we don't think we can apply there. We may still because it is quite hard to say we won't.

The East of England jobs, i.e. near my parents, require a lot of moving about and so don't appeal.

The Northern jobs, near Husbink's parents, look like they could well be in with a chance. They *seem* to be fundamentally based in one centre with short forays to other hospitals for specific reasons. Should we even be as lucky as to get a job in the same city as Husbink's parents, I would have family to look after me when he went on these forays.

The South Yorkshire jobs are pretty good. All centred on one place (and that being a place that already has a good friend living there - we shall call her Anne (with an "e") and see if anyone can work out why :) ). South Yorkshire is the only definite so far.

The Severn jobs appeal. And there are other good friends in that region, we shall call them Mad Medea and Husband for fairly obvious reasons. But we start to be a long way from my parents.

And so it goes on. There is no "ideal" out there. There are also very few "goods" and rather a lot of "bads".

We at least have the confidence that God brought us to New Zealand for a reason and so He can take us somewhere else for a reason to. But we have to make the applications for Him to be able to act on them!

Apologies, this is perhaps the most boring post you've ever sat through but I needed to get it out of my system. So I shall leave you with a pretty picture from my garden to make up for it and a promise that tomorrow or the next day I shall write about the lovely weekend we have had with a wedding, frisbee on the beach and generally good times.

Sad

Today I had an email from a friend, let's call her Cherry, who I went to secondary and sixth form with to tell me that our head of year from secondary days, Ms Webster, died earlier this week.
I haven't seen Ms Webster for at least six years, probably seven and so in some ways it feels kind of wrong to be sad about her death. Ms Webster lived round the corner from my parents for a number of years and so I did know her slightly more than the average teacher - she used to drive my saxophone to school for me having seen just how alarming it looked in a bike basket! Cherry and I also had an evening drinking champagne with Ms Webster to celebrate our A Level results (two years after she had ceased to be our teacher and about six months after we had reached legal drinking age - never fear!). She was an incredibly encouraging woman, keen to ensure everyone did their best. I think probably the time I valued her most was during one of my spells of unofficial agony aunt/counsellor to a number of people...normally, these agony aunt times were teenage angst and love life, but in one particular instance I was ending up rather out of my depth with half-tales of abuse and so on. Ms Webster found out about it all and helped us through as much as was in her power, arranging proper counselling and so on.
I've just spent some time googling her to see what I could find out - she had become a deputy head of the school and was still teaching geography & humanities. (I also then had a bit of a browse through which teachers were still there in general - which provided me with a few smiles and a few sighs.)
My mum is going to go to the funeral on my behalf along with Cherry, her mum and another friend on Saturday.
As I understand it, she was not known to have been ill prior to collapsing on Tuesday so it must be a huge shock to those in her classes currently.
Another instance that reminds me how very blessed I have been - as yet, the only really close encounter with death I've had has been my dog. And that was pretty harrowing. People have died at this sort of removed state - someone who was my adopted grandmother while we were in the states died when we'd been back in England about five years; a guy I went to youth group with died when I'd not seen him for four years; and so on. Having a hope in heaven, I am not scared of death but I am scard of missing people. And of not having said all the things I should have said, appreciated people enough, scared of regret.
Sigh.

Ouch!

During January, the evening services at our church start with cricket and a BBQ (except that now building work has started on the cafe at church and that means no more BBQ. So just cricket then). Yesterday, I got there quite late and not much in the mood for cricket. But somehow, I was sucked in and very soon found myself chasing a ball with more "commitment" than usually display. Sadly this commitment was shown on rather slippy grass in pretty old, smooth soled trainers. I did a strange sort of splits and landed on my bottom. And twisted my knee. I wasn't immediately able to stand up but fortunately Husbink was there and did the doctor thing and all was well (apparently my cruciate ligaments felt a bit loose but nothing to worry about). By the end of the service I wasn't really aware that my knee hurt anymore. It twinged a little cycling home and I think I'll need to take care of it for a few days (which will be a bit tricky as it is a bank holiday here today and I'm going to the beach in a few hours for lots of sports...I think I'll stick to frisbee so I just knacker my shoulder instead!) but it will be fine.
On my way to bed last night I became aware of general stiffness over most of my body but specifically when I sat down. I put this down to the large number of hours spent sitting on the floor yesterday afternoon working on the embroidery of the pigs. When I woke up this morning and it had become continuous dull ache occasionally escalating to lots of pain all focussed on my right buttock, I realised otherwise. The initial concern was all for my left knee but really where the damage has been done is in the form of a large bruise on my behind. Fortunately, I don't think I have to sit down in public for a few days at least!

BOGOF!!!

Some of you may remember one of my early posts and my great distress at the lack of the BOGOF (or the buy one get one free) here in NZ. Well, today, I achieved it! I found a BOGOF and I made use of it AND it was on shoes. Oh yes! And they were very cheap shoes so I got two pairs of shoes for the princely sum of $10 (around about £3.50). It may turn out that they aren't the best quality in the world (ahem) but I really don't think that is the point now is it?!
You know how shoe shops give names to shoes that can appear rather peculiar (or make absolute sense depending on the day and the shoe)? Well, one of the pairs I bought today is called "Wapy Boo". Which I think is great. There was a whole series of "Boos"...Rappan Boo, Jivan Boo, Crumble Boo, Petit Boo, Gotit Boo...The list goes on and on. Although I did buy the shoes I wanted, I have to confess I was at least a little influenced by the name Wapy Boo!
I'm generally chipper today because I have been ACHIEVING. As well as the shoes, I've bought all the embroidery silks I need to finish off (when I say "finish" I really mean get beyond having only just started) the picture of the pigs (sigh, how I miss my beepling boopling guinea pigs), been to the library and acquired two new books (one that is the second in a series I read the first of a few years ago and have been very keen to read, t'other is the first in a series that has recently been recommended to me), bought a wedding present (for the wedding we are going to next weekend), bought apples (so I can make apple cake this afternoon), run the dishwasher (because it needed doing) and washed some clothes (ditto). So now I think it must be lunch time! Yum!

Summer is here at last! Quick, get inside!!

So yes, the sun is back out again today and I'm almost getting used to it being here. It hid yesterday and Sunday but we've had more days of sun than not in the last week. Which means now I'm studiously hiding indoors (as the forecast told me I should) until it gets to at least 4pm and it is safe to venture out again...
Today and yesterday have been a little peculiar. I don't feel quite at liberty to go to great lengths here as some of what I would need to say to fully explain perhaps shouldn't be in such a public realm (no, that doesn't mean it was really interesting and you'd really want to know...trust me. Dull as.). But the point is that it has left me feeling rather tiz-wozzy. All het up over nothing. This morning I got myself all in a tangle over some bagpipes (Rather a long story, best not to ask). Fortunately this particular incident was resolved for me. Phew. The distressing thing in this though is that I seem to have picked up my big bag of stress again. Which wasn't in the plan at all. The trouble is that there are rather a lot of things that aren't in the plan currently. Like where we will be living in 6 months time. What jobs we will be doing. How we will have made it from this point to that point (particularly around the 5 month point). Ugh. And thus the other things not in the plan like "picking up big bag of stress" and "fretting day and night over each possible option" seem to be squeezing themselves in through a back door.
Yesterday Husbink decided it was time to find me some challenges. An educational one, a sporty one, a crafty one, a spiritual one and a miscellaneous one. For the educational one, I am considering a night class in Maori culture and language. For the crafty one...hmm...I'm maybe going to borrow a sewing machine and attempt to make some covers for our sofas....MAYBE! The sporty one was languishing a bit as Husbink realised that actually he just had lots of sporty goals for himself and hadn't really thought of one for me...And we didn't get as far as the spiritual or miscellaneous goals. And then there is always the question of THE GOAL. What is my main aim? Snoo asked me this today too. And I kind of wonder if all these little goals (not these ones necessarily but similar sized goals) might be my big goal. For whatever reason, I don't seem to be able to beat the stress monster, at least not yet and so perhaps my goal needs to be always maintaining reasonable, achieveable goals. Not allowing the cultural need for careers and money-making and so on to over ride health needs.
I strongly suspect I'm not making any sense but it has been helpful to me to do the writing. Cheers!

Home again, home again, jiggidy jig...

I'm feeling a little un-waffly at the moment which is unusual I know...so this may just be a bit of news for you and some pics as I've been remiss on them for a while...
We got back yesterday from a few nights away in Martinborough - just an hour away from here but over the hills so quite different landscape and weather. And a boutique wine growing region. We were in need of a bit of a break for a number of reasons and so grabbed the chance and it was very refreshing. Wednesday was lousy weather here but it got a bit better, or at least a bit warmer as we went over the hill (once we'd come down from being in the clouds again...) and we were quickly settled into our little cottage.
We had a pootle round town and spent some time in the tourist information place trying to work out what to do the next day. Then we ate cake. :) Before a snooze. Before more eating. It was a good day!
On Thursday, we were unable to believe how nice the day was and so set off for a long walk between various vineyards with too warm clothing on and not enough water. But the vineyards supplied us with bottles of water and we stayed in the shade as much as we could and mostly survived. We tasted I think 11 different wines. All very interesting, really quite a different texture and so on to northern hemisphere wines. But I'll keep my wine waffle to myself and just say it was yummy and we were happy. We had lunch at one vineyard which was very tasty and whiled away the afternoon at another, sitting under the shady rose-covered gazebo.
Generally a very good break. Until we were just about to fall asleep on the second night at which point I suddenly became allergic to something. No amount of antihistamines or nose blowing could relieve me and it wasn't until we'd been home again for about six hours that I returned to feeling normal. That wouldn't stop me going back though.
We stopped for a brief walk on the way home on Friday but with my lack of being able to breathe, I wasn't really in the zone. Pretty flowers though.



Once home, Husbink had to go to sleep cos he's on nights this weekend (starting last night) so I had to attempt to make our costumes for a fancy dress party in the evening. We had to go as something beginning with F. We went as flies. This was Husbink's idea. I was initially unimpressed but ultimately got into it...we had six legs, wings, goggles for eyes and antenna. We accept this may not have been entirely accurate but felt we needed something on our heads...sadly, there are currently no pictures of me. So one of Husbink will have to do (we gave up on having the goggles on our eyes very quickly!)





Hmm, you can't really see much of the costume can you? Hey ho...I've uploaded it now and that has sapped half my life away so I'm not going to delete it!

Catching the sun...

It is officially the worst summer in New Zealand since...well, there are various different statistics being thrown around like "coldest December since 1946", "worst summer since records began", "average December temperature 2006: 12.9C; average December temperature 2005 17.9C", "Boxing Day 2006: 14C; Boxing Day 2005: 25C". You get the idea.
Apparently it is all El Nino's fault. In an El Nino year, Australia gets extra specially dry. There are more forest fires (particularly in Victoria) that mean that we end up getting south-westerly winds straight off the antarctic rather than the balmy northerlies that should be coming off Brisbane and the like for us at this time of year. Hey ho. (Note: I can't entirely remember where I heard this. It may not be FACT. But it makes me feel better that at least there is a reason.)
So I've been in big jumpers, the heating has been on...grump! (For those in the northern hemisphere, you have to remember, this ought to be our July...)
Anyway, yesterday, the sun did come out. If had been threatening for a few days and not quite making it but yesterday turned out glorious. So glorious that, when combined with the lifted weight of a sermon out of the way following Sunday morning, I suggested to Husbink that we cycle down the river path to Petone and go to the Screaming Turtle cafe for lunch and then play on the beach.
As we were still in the grip of a southerly, the cycle there was reasonably like work but not too hard. Lunch was yummy. And then we tried to go to the beach. But it was so cold on the front that there ended up instead being some hasty re-texting of friends to arrange meeting back at our house for garden cricket instead of on the beach for sand castles and "running away".
The cycle home was fantabulous. Wind behind us we flew along the river track. Much fun. And just my kind of cycle - mostly flat but with little ups and downs so you have to work very occasionally and then get a "reward". Ah.
Unfortunately, I'm slightly paying the price today. My ankles and toes have been thoroughly eaten by some local wildlife and while I was very good and wore my hat and factor 30'd my arms, legs, neck...I forgot the little gap you get on your back between t-shirt and shorts when cycling or sitting on the front step chin wagging. So I have a little semi-circle across my back that just looks lovely...It isn't too painful as long as I continue to wear clothes that allow the area air. And the risk of getting re-burnt!
Fortunately, it isn't summer again today so I should be safe...

new year, new you?

I'm not really one for the resolutions thang. I can't normally come up with anything precise enough to make it a resolution. But I do like to take the opportunity to take stock and see what might be a good thing to change, much as I do during Lent and around summer holidays.
So.
This time last year, I was very glad to see the back of 2005. It had been a not very pleasant year with the onset of the IBS and the general sinking further into OCD/phobia-ridden life was at its deepest. My resolution for 2006, were I to have called it a resolution, was to have more fun. Not in a self obsessed, pleasure seeking way but in a stopping worrying, starting appreciating the good things in life (especially Husbink), generally getting my perspective right way. And see where that has taken me!
This year, I'm not so keen to scramble out of the previous year. I did manage to "have more fun" in 2006. I've made leaps and bounds with the IBS and the phobias/OCD (to prove this point, I stuffed and roasted a chicken on New Years Eve without anything close to a meltdown. That won't mean much to some of you but others will appreciate the milestone nature of this!) But there is still ground to be made. It is still a cause for celebration when I manage to do normal people things without washing my hands. I still worry and stress more than is healthy. And thus I still have times of IBS. I still don't appreciate Husbink for all he is worth (will I ever manage that? He's worth so much!).
So I think my non-resolution for the next bit of time, be it the year or just until Lent or coming home when something else replaces it, will be to keep on the same track.
I also had some new home resolutions and hopes which have been coming together. I hoped that leaving a lot of possessions in the UK would help me lose some of the materialistic nature I'd acquired of late. (Brought on in part by the IBS: if I can't feel nice, I want nice things.) I have achieved some of that change of mindset but I have no idea whether it is a permanent change or a situational change: once I'm back with all my stuff, will I just want more?
I hoped I would find something to be passionate about again. I've certainly found a job I care about and enjoy for the first time. I think it is slowly forming what I will be passionate about but I don't know the answer yet.
I hoped I would work out what was really important to me and my life. Again, some progress but nothing really concrete yet.
And one final thing that wasn't in that original thinking but is becoming so again (thanks in part to Mad Medea's recent post) (it was something I was working on pre-IBS monster) is to work on my ethical standards once more. Be it recycling, not getting frightened by the checkout assistants who think I'm mad for bringing back my own carrier bags, buying more fair trade, buying more locally sourced produce, driving less, growing vegetables, writing letters about things that matter...
I'll keep you informed. Most likely more informed than you want to be!

Ridiculous!

So this morning I was a healthy human being. At lunch time I was a healthy human being. Around 3pm I started to sneeze...by 4pm I couldn't breathe, move around the house without the constant companionship of tissues, swallow, taste anything, think without cotton wool impeding my braing...etc etc. Normally, I find that I get some warning at the start of a cold. A sense of fuzziness, a bit of bunged up-ness, a tickly throat. Breaking me in slowly over a 12-24 hour period. Not a thirty minutes heads up you're going to be incapacitated... I took antihistamines in case it was hayfever which would be more reasonable for the rapid onset but no. I can only hope that this means it will disappear as rapidly as it started.
I have however been enjoying making use of the old wives remedy of "feed a cold, starve a fever".
As I haven't any brain, I shall stop there and not yet tell you about the lovely Christmas we had but it was grand and everyone was great and I managed to actually not be homesick at all once Christmas day got underway. Hope you all had likewise lovely Christmas times.

Parcels, presents, product placement...

I've been attempting to write a post for a few days now but failing miserably. Not wholly because of lack of time, mostly because of lack of time when I've also been in posession of my brain!
So just a quick one then to say thank you to all of you who have sent us cards and so on. Has been lovely to have that flurry of both post that isn't bills/junk and of communication with home! And what is even better is that we know of at least three things that haven't made it in time for Christmas so the flurry will continue for a little while yet. :)
And to wish you all a lovely Christmas and hope you have a marvellous time with whoever you spend it with. We are looking forward to speaking to various family members during the course of the day (and friends during the course of the week...book your skype time now!) and spending the evening with some friends and their family here. We've been more than a little busy of late (in a work-related way) and Christmas day/Boxing day is probably the best chance at some down time we've got.
The best thing about a southern hemisphere Christmas is that all our traditions are gone; we have no sense of feeling Christmassy so we can actually focus on the reason Christmas exists a little more easily. :)
Lots and lots of love to you
xxx

Lyrics

At the moment, there are two songs that I listen to a reasonable amount to which I cannot force the correct words to stay in my head. If I really, really think about it I can make myself sing the right words but if I'm just merrily driving along with the CD playing, I cannot, cannot sing the right words!
The first song is Valerie by the Zutons. The problem comes with the line "Well since I've come on home, my bodies been a mess. And I miss your ginger hair and the way you like to dress". Left to my own devices, I would sing "Well since I've come on home, my bodies been a mess. And I miss your ginger hair and the way you like to kiss". Why?! It doesn't rhyme! It doesn't make more sense! The strange thing is, Husbink also, entirely separately had this problem when he first came across the song. Anyone else?
The second song is Say Hello to the Pope by James Dean Bradfield. The title is in fact the line I have the problem with. See, I bought the album only knowing one song on it and just listened to the album a number of times through without reading the back and getting to grips with song titles. So I was getting quite confused as to put this particular song was about as the only words I thought I could pick out were "Say, who ordered the punch?" I thought it must be a song about the dangers of date rape drugs or something. Ahem.
There have been and will continue to be a great number of songs that I have similar problems with I imagine. Somehow, it makes me feel rather old and uncool...

How old am I?

Yesterday I was driving to the costume shop to organise the wise men, Mary, Joseph, the angel's wings and Herod's crown for the Christmas production at church. As I reached the end of the high street I became aware of the thud thud thud that accompanies boy racers with extra bass and giant speakers... It kept coming with me but I couldn't spy an appropriate car at all. It eventually was hurting my head so much that I shut the windows but it just got louder. By this point it was so loud that my car was shaking! As we've been having some car problems recently I was a little alarmed and thought perhaps it wasn't a barry-boy but instead was something very peculiarly wrong with my car. I was just approaching a big roundabout and feeling really quite scared cos the car was shaking and I didn't know what was going on and it was the kind of sound that was so inside your head that I was feeling disoriented and sick...when the culprit drove past me. (It was a really stupid looking car and not particularly racery at all but that is by the by). The car said on the back "If its to loud u r to old" (sic). I actually sat at the roundabout a few seconds longer than necessary letting it get away. And deciding that I quite liked my eardrums so was quite happy to be too old...
On the way home from said costume shop, I went to Pak 'n' Save to grab a few bits. And saw some outrageously cheap wine so thought I'd grab it while I was there. I reached the checkout and the girl was quite young so when she picked up the phone after putting the alcohol through I wasn't surprised. She then asked me to step to the side so that her supervisor could see me. I did. The supervisor looked skeptical. The checkout girl asked for ID. I gave her my UK photo driving licence. She said into the phone what ID I'd given her and the supervisor decided she had to come over. She looked at my licence and asked if I had my passport on me. Which I didn't. They looked back and forth between me, the ID and each other, clearly getting a little anxious. So I put them out of their misery and said I'd just take the chocolate and in-shower Veet (which is another story, very impressed, very smooth legs!) and not worry about the wine as it was a whim anyway.
And that was all fine. Until I was driving away and realised that they were attempting to claim that I looked 17. Or younger. Which just isn't believable really. Really.
The obvious conclusion to draw from this being that 17 is now too old...ahem.

Me. Apparently!

Quite handy this having been tagged thing (so actually I am grateful Welsherella!) as I was fancying a little burble but I'm way to shattered to actually think of anything. I gather it is meant to be one word answers. I'll try my best but no promises...

1. Yourself: loopy
2. Your girlfriend/boyfriend: Husbink
3. Your hair?: ridiculously soft these days
4. Your mother?: organised
5. Your Father?: funny
6. Your Favorite Item: new jeans
7. Your dream last night: no idea...
8. Your Favorite drink: gewurztraminer
9. Your Dream Car: I no longer know...but little and cute
10. The Room You Are In: bedroom
12. Your fear: vomit
13. What you want to be in 10 years: happy
14. Who you hung out with last night?: Husbink...and half of church
15. What You're Not?: relaxed
16. Muffins: mincemeat (so that needs explaining...after church yesterday they had made muffins with mincemeat stirred in to the mixture. SOOOOOO yummy!)
17: One of Your Wish List Items: a purpose
18: Time: 16:17
19. The Last Thing You Did: lost very badly at uno
20. What You Are Wearing: denim skirt, pink tshirt
21. Your Favorite Weather: proper weather (i.e. beautiful or a proper storm or snow or thunder & lightening or...)
22. Your Favorite Book: Too hard (LotR was there for so long but...it would have to be a comfort book - LotR, Angry Housewives Eating Bonbons, Cold Comfort Farm, Winter Holiday, The Lion, The With & The Wardrobe, HP 1-3 (the later ones aren't comforting!!!), the Thursday Next series or the Fourth Bear - The Big Over-easy less so... ok, too much!)
23. The Last Thing You Ate: Orange & Passionfruit cereal bar (pretty gross)
24. Your Life: improving
25. Your Mood: too tired to be sure
26. Your body: peculiar
27. Who are you thinking about right now? people
29. What are you doing at the moment?: this...and considering what form of laziness my afternoon will take
30. Your summer: just starting
31. Best part of your life: adventures!

So to tag...I pick Mad Medea and Jenny

Pamperage

Yesterday, I was gifted a half day all to myself that I wasn't really expecting. I was due to be at my temp job yesterday and today but when I got there yesterday morning it became apparent that I only had half a day's worth of work and that no more would appear until today when various people were back in the office. So I left at midday and came home.
I read my book. I spent some time with God. I did some Pilates. I watched some bad telly. I sorted more pics to email to everyone (let me know if you didn't get them and want them). I did some "gentle" tidying so I could feel noble without really having done anything at all. It was fantabulous. I almost felt relaxed for a while!
Things have been a little insane here the last few weeks and I have been slightly told off by a few people in the kind of "I thought this was meant to be a year out" sort of way... I think by having plunged into a few too many things in the last few weeks it has indicated to me that I still need some time out to take care of me. But I still coped with the last few weeks much better than I would have done previously. Which is exciting!
Today was another semi-gifted afternoon but I felt I should make a bit more use of this one so have been trying to write a sermon for Sunday. I had been all prepared to say "I do really short sermons, allow less time for me than the average person" but I'm not so sure that is going to be true this time! I'm quite nervous about it (no kidding...) because I've only ever spoken at St Matthias before now. I did a testimony on Sunday morning so along with having led two services I've at least got an idea what it is like to stand up in front of this church (though I'm speaking at the evening service and all previous experience has been of the morning services). Eek. Generally. Yes. :)
So anyway, cos I got to be all relaxed yesterday and looked at lots of photos, I thought I'd just put up a couple of pics that I like from the last four months or so. So that's what the decoration is. :) (Husbink does not understand why I found Trees of Mystery quite so funny...hey ho, I guess it is like the Cardigan Arms. Or "Britney Spears, says survery". Or I'm just odd.)

It's Over

Movember is over! Thank goodness!
"What is Movember?" I hear you cry!
Well, the Pom may have heard about it (I hope the Boy doesn't get involved in it...) as it started in Australia but I had never heard about it before this year...
Movember is a charity that raises awareness of men's health issues, mostly prostate cancer. And it works by a group of men (colleagues, friends, whatever) all agreeing to not shave their moustaches for the entire of November. They have to keep their chins shaved (so that it is definitely a moustache) but they can then do whatever they like...They can be sponsored but much of the point is just that they look awful so that people ask them what they think they're doing.
Husbink's work decided they would participate in Movember this year and much as I am supportive of the cause, I am so relieved it is over! I have asked his permission so here is a picture...

This was following a late shift on November 30th and the longest the Mo' managed to get. It was like Christmas come early to arrive home on Friday lunch time following my last supervision session to find the moustache gone! Ah, the relief...I am no longer considering divorce...

(The pictures are from a little cycle ride that we took last Tuesday and I haven't had the chance to show you yet. It was a grand day out.)
Well, it seems to have been a while... Things have been exceedingly manic. Doing three jobs virtually killed me last week but is going much better this week and by this time tomorrow I will have finished one of them. Halleluiah!
Also by this time tomorrow it will be December. Which is right weird. Not that the weather is good here, oh no, don't get me wrong! But it is light. Until almost 9pm. And that just isn't December. I think I shall be exceedingly confused when Christmas arrives. As it is part of my job to plan for Christmas services at church, I can't be taken wholly by surprise but I think that is about the only thing that will stop me from entirely not noticing.
The job that I lose tomorrow is supervising exams. This has been really quite a strange experience. For three hours you are in this room (be it a classroom where you are on your own with up to 25 boys or a gym where you have the support of 2-3 other supervisors but up to 130 boys) and you can't do anything except watch. And let people go to the toilet or leave the exam early. You just have to wait. Which has actually been really good for me just forcing me to have a bit or brain space for a while. Yes, I can think about things or pray but not that indepthly or lengthily. It has actually been incredibly calming. I can now also tell you many interesting facts. Since I've been counting, 7/47 boys have been left handed. Around about 1/5 of the boys is of a non-white background (mostly polynesian, some oriental, few asian, no african). About 1/6 of the boys has curly hair. And so it goes on. I've also played the "if I were fifteen, would you be my friend or would I despise you?" game. This is based purely on haircuts as they are all in uniform so there is no give away in terms of music related clothing etc as to what they might like...
Despite all this, I'm not sure I would recognise a single one of them if I passed them in the street. Or even in the school. One final thought on the oddness of supervising exams. All I want is for the three hours to be up, me to still be awake and vaguely sane. All they want is for the three hours to be up, the exam to be completed and to be vaguely sane. Despite the fact that two out of three wishes are the same, the experience of those three hours is massively different...

Bleugh

I was intending to post a comedy story today about my supreme geek-ness and how I invigilated a GCSE-level maths exam yesterday and got my knickers in a twist not being able to remember the Quadratic Formula (I was doing the exam over their shoulders...)...
But it has been such a naff few hours that I'm no longer in a position to do that. Naff is definitely the word. Nothing drastic has happened but a whole range of stupid little things that are leading to a lot of swearing in my inner monologue (and occasionally external monologue too). Ok, so the car appears to be buggered, I've lost $100 somewhere (that I got out the other day and is now not in my wallet, only the gloating little receipt with my signature there saying yes I did take it), I couldn't find anything decent for the twins birthday (what do you buy 9 year olds?) so have bought them tat and Husbink will tell me off, Husbink is at work, the bag with the tat then split and with the wind the way it is today I had to chase round the garden to retrieve said tat, the peg pot blew off the washing line as I was taking the washing down so I then had to chase round the garden for the pegs...
So like I said, nothing drastic. Nothing at all really. But it has made me miserable. I have to go out again in two hours and I'm not 100% sure I will have pulled myself together again by then.
If only I could blame it on the hormones. But I've been doing that for about six weeks now and someone might notice soon...
Hey ho

Yay Snoo!

In hommage to Snoo's achievement of 50000 words in quite a bit less than a month! She'll be a famous novelist before we know it. Yay Snoo, yay!
So here's a list of Yay things for the Yay Snoo post (though not related to Snoo...)
1) The weather is good today and has been for all of three days
2) We went on a fantastico bike ride today (there was basically no up and down) and played on the beach
3) I've finished reading my first kiwi novel. It was ok. I have also been to the library to pick my second (they handily put little stickers of kiwis on the spine so you know which authors are home grown)
4) I led the church service on Sunday and it was fine
5) We've paddled in the sea for the first time this year (this should have been with point 2...)
6) We had a comedy day yesterday visiting local sites used in Lord of the Rings.
7) We have seen our first pukekos (but didn't have the camera so no more bird pictures for you at present)
8) I laughed a lot last night. It was good.
9) I'm quite healthy at the moment
I think I'll stop there cos otherwise it'll become a mission to achieve 50 yay things to go with the 50000 words...

Children in Need

Because we still have the BBC website as our homepage (and because my parents are quite comical about things like this) it has been impossible for us not to notice that it is Children in Need this weekend. Which brings on a strange feeling - not really of homesickness but more of nostalgia - nostalgia for being somewhere we'd actually recognise the people on a programme like that! Where we'd know all the names of the news readers doing their Bond tribute (sounds a little less terrifying than some of the previous offerings!). And where we'd get to see Terry and Kaplinkyplonky and understand. A few weeks ago we had an event at church of the week-long-guest-speaker variety. We had never heard of the guy but apparently he's quite famous in a Trevor McDonald sort of way. He was great and really easy to listen to and had amazing stories about people's lives and so on. So we were glad to be there but I think it was a totally different thing for us than for other people. We couldn't even pick him out of the audience before he stood up to speak. When there is so much shared "culture" (like American junk TV and soaps (with regard to Pomgirl's latest post, we don't get Eastenders here either - which surprised me considering we do get Corrie (though they refer to it as Corro...) and Emerdale. Odd)) it feels really noticeable how much isn't shared and how that is actually the more important stuff when it comes to feeling at home. What this has been developing in me is a strange attachment to the adverts on telly here. On the whole, I hate them. Loathe them. Despise the regularity of them (we watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban last night...it lasted three hours. It had 11 advert breaks.). But some of them, some of them, are hysterical. Blooming genius advertising! I won't try to explain any here, it just wouldn't work. The point is though, these more genius moments seem to have become my link (in my mind) to local culture. To being able to understand. Which is just a little strange, don't you think?

Earthquake!

Success! There was an earthquake and we felt it and survived!
Well. Sort of. (Sort of felt it, not sort of survived...)
We were in the cinema watching The Departed (at 10am. Kinda weird.) It was a slightly random film and rather longer than it needed to be but probably a good film. So anyway, it was in quite an actiony section so I didn't quite register that the cinema was shaking cos it fitted so well with that bit of the film. But Husbink looked at me in an inquisitive "did you feel that" way and I realised I had indeed just stopped shaking. However, following our "was that an earthquake?" "no, it was just gale force wind..." moment a few weeks ago, I was loathe to believe it. Until at work (this being the original work through the agency that I'm back at now for a few hours a week until Christmas) someone said "oh, there was an earthquake this morning" and the time was about right and I've since googled recent earthquakes and yes! It was there! And we were there! And we weren't asleep...
Well, it is one New Zealand experience we can tick off now any way...

Two for the price of one!

A second wee post for you today...this is because the Taupo post should have happened yesterday but blogger was mean and wouldn't put the pics on.
Anyway, more importantly is the reason for the second post. A Very Exciting Reason. The Reason being that Scouse Dangermouse and her husband Have Booked Flights! We shall have visitors! Very lovely visitors! And I'm very excited and Husbink is at work so I can't tell him so I've told you instead! Yay!

Taupo and around

Well, we are back from our latest adventure. It was indeed rather more adventuresome than the Napier trip as it involved doing several things we hadn't done before. It all started a bit randomly with me being unsure if I'd got over the mystery illness properly (seems I have done...we have theories but that's all) and Husbink being post-nights (in that he finished at 7am on Friday). But considering that, the journey was good. We are still hugely enjoying driving round this country and are amazed by what is round every corner. The journey from here to Taupo includes a section called The Desert Road which was just fantastic - on Friday we drove it in low cold and rain and great atmosphoeric conditions. Today we drove it under clear blue skies and could see all the hills and mountains surrounding us as well as more fully appreciate the bleakness of the scrub land around us.
This was our first stop on the shores of Lake Taupo (note the bird!! Hmm. Maybe you can't see it actually. Ahem.):

On Saturday we did the first of two things that we've not done before and hired a sailing boat for an hour. We got a lesson from the guy running the place for about ten minutes and then we were away. It was good fun and Husbink has visions of cocktails on our yacht in the future but I'm not so sure now...I'm still in complete agony and haven't been able to walk normally since we did it! So very sore in my legs... But here is our little boat:

Saturday afternoon included a walk to the Huka Falls. Kinda more like rapids than falls but very cool and a very enjoyable walk. Near the beginning it crosses a natural hot stream that feeds the Waikato River and there were a number of people sitting in the mouth of the stream - it seemed to only take a matter of inches to move from roasty-toasty thermal spring to bloomin' freezin' Waikato River...a precarious balancing act necessary! The river itself was phenomenally clear, very beautiful. So here's a shot of the falls. It's not necessarily the most exciting picture but I think gives the best idea of what it is actually like:

We walked back via a different route which was rather harder and longer but a good walk (would have been a better cycle!) and it afforded us the only new bird spot of the weekend, a fantail. It posed for us extremely well but hidden behind a few branches so this is the best shot we have:

Sunday morning was the Craters of the Moon. Having been somewhere called Craters of the Moon previously, I was a little surprised at the un-bleakness of this place. But it was much fun anyway wandering through all the steaming craters.

Fortunately, the thermal activity around Taupo is not blessed with an abundance of sulpher so this steam was relatively fresh smelling! From one of the lookout stations, we spied Mount Doom. It wasn't actually the place used for filming Lord of the Rings but...

Mount Doom and much of Mordor was filmed in the area (yes, we have a book from last time we were here...) of the Desert Road.

Sunday afternoon was time for second not-previously-done activity and this one was much more relaxing! We went to Taupo Hot Springs and used hot pools of various temperatures and generally eased our aching legs! Very relaxing. Sadly we had seen the bank balance and didn't splash out on a massage to complete the experience. We then decided to prove to ourselves that we really can't draw by going to a scenic lookout and attempting to sketch...hmm. Can't do everything... And that was our weekend. Lovely.

Funny sort of day...

Today I have been mostly lying on the sofa watching DVDs (with a startling lack of eye candy following all the discussions here of late!). This wasn't my intended way to spend the day but a ridiculous amount of belly pain dictated otherwise. (As did Husbink and for once I listened to his doctorly advice.) We have now ruled out appendicitis (I was nearly dragged to hospital this morning) but not a lot else. It could be the usual monster of IBS but if it is it has changed shape. It could be something to do with having parted companies with the pill (no, this is not a subtle way of hinting about babies - the parting company was due to the IBS and there are no babies planned!). It could just be one of those things. We don't know. I just know it is a weird pain and I don't like it! And I know I want to go away for the weekend tomorrow as we have a four day weekend all sorted. And Husbink has decided that as it isn't appendicitis, it won't kill me so we might as well go away. Hey ho. Well, I guess it is time to go back to the sofa as it is starting to stab again. After Shrek, three episodes of Randall & Hopkirk, two episodes of Home & Away, one episode of Neighbours and starting to make my acquitance with my first Kiwi author courtesy of the library during the day, I'm not sure what I'm going to find to fill my evening!

Interesting?

After a skype chat with Snoo and The Hub this morning, one of The Hub's questions (What's on the front page of the newspaper there?) prompted me to think this might be an interesting post...it might not be...mostly, it will only be if you all join in!
So today, on the front page of the Dominion Post, Wellington's newspaper is: A banner across the top telling you to go to Sports Extra for "Is this the Kiwi cup hope? They're calling Efficient a champion" with a pic of a horse - I somehow feel Efficient is rather an insulting name for a horse. A kind of "gets the job done, nothing special" sort of name. Then there is another banner to go to World News for "Saddam Death by hanging" - I'm guessing this will be front page news most places...
We then get to the articles..."Fireworks madness: Attacks, robbery, drunken revelry" - main gist of article is all the trouble caused over the weekend by fireworks and people apparently going loopy because of the fireworks. Thus should the sale of fireworks to the public be banned before Guy Fawkes next year (yes, they have Guy Fawkes night here. Which maybe isn't soooo bizarre...) Generally it seems that fireworks get majorly out of control here and cause generally insane behaviour.
"NZ cops branded mercenaries in Fiji" around the whole Fiji threatened coup and why NZ has sent four extra policemen to support the NZ high commission in Suva.
There are then ads for various other parts of the paper with headlines such as "100 days of hell"; "Brethren's blackmail"; "The Royalist and the UFO"; "Fun with Pumpkins". Oh and there is a weather summary. For eight different cities regions it goes: rain; cloudy; rain; showers; rain; rain; rain; showers. Oh goody!
So that's my front page today. You? (Internet versions are allowed if they are what you read)

Hurrah!

There are many things I could write about today...work is good; I feel healthy today after thinking I was coming down with a lurgy yesterday; after much deliberation, I think I have finally come up with my "3" (see Pom's post here) and discovered Husbink's at the same time; the sun is shining and it feels like spring here; fluff is everywhere...but all these possible topics for your entertainment pale into insignificance compared to one: slippers. Oh yes, marvellous, wonderful, multi-coloured (though they don't have to be), comfy, cosy slippers.
Today when I got home from work, the long awaited posted-by-sea parcel from my mum was on the doorstep. This means that I have two more pairs of trousers, an extra skirt, an extra top, a book and...slippers!
These are the slippers that I bought in Thailand following a number of sleepless nights... We (myself and Kathleen) had been in Thailand for four nights I believe at this point. We'd arrived from Sydney and my last few nights there had involved very bad sleep for one reason or another (the snoring person in the hostel room, the accidental leaving of wallet at brother's house the night before we were due to fly...). So following a long flight that made it some ridiculous time in the morning and arriving to a proper hotel in Bangkok with air conditioning and no one in the room other than us to disturb our sleep I thought great! Sleep ahoy! But no. And this trend continued for the next few nights in the next hotel (on a wee island, was lovely!) with me getting more and more tired and less and less coherent... We moved on and arrived in Pattaya, a strange place of tourist nature and weirdness (but we had a lot of fun there). We were staying in a lovely hotel and across from it was a mall. A big shiny air conditioned mall (with the lack of sleep, the heat was also not going so well for me). And in that mall they sold, amongst many other things, lovely, lovely slippers. As soon as I saw them I knew they were what I needed to give me a good night full of sleep. And indeed that night, with the slippers on the floor next to my bed, I did indeed have a marvellous sleep for the first time in days! And today, I have been reunited with said slippers and feel almost the same sense of joy. I know many of you will be distressed to hear that it is not my giant pink slippers that I have arrived but I want to reassure you that it is ok! These slippers will do just fine for now!
Time to go and try one of Mad Medea's ginger nuts that I've just made for the first time (thank you thank you)

We Have a Date. Which is Weird.

Just realised when responding to Mad Medea's last comment that I haven't actually mentioned that we have sorted our flights out and actually have a return date to the UK now. I don't 100% promise quite that it will turn out as it is now but just for your info, our current plan involves arriving back at Heathrow at 5.30am on July 15th. We expect to see you all there! ;) Does feel kind of weird to have an "end" date now. Which is why I don't promise it will remain such!

Success & Failure

Success first: I have started working at church! I am very excited about this, even if it is technically only for 10 hours a week. I will be coordinating the 10.30am service from now until April 30th by which point the aim is that I will have given it direction and the job will no longer be needed. Kinda crazy cos it is the first time since uni (for definite, possibly longer) where I've actually been doing something that I care about, want to do and think is important! There were points in PCT-land when I thought what I was doing needed to be done but that didn't necessarily mean I wanted to do it! There were other points when I cared about it (usually individual patients) but didn't necessarily think it important! So. There we are. I'm not sure I could really explain what the job involves yet as it seems to differ with every person I speak to as to what they feel it involves. However, I have put out a request for EVERYONE to come and talk to me and tell me what they think of the service so after that it should become apparent what needs doing.
Failure then: For the first time ever yesterday I felt moved enough to send a comment to the BBC website after reading an article. There were already many, many comments and I read them all and still felt I had something to write. So write I did. But to no avail! My comment has not appeared and the story has gone from the front pages. *Sigh* There have been many times in the past, on many different subjects, that I have almost written to the BBC website but never before have I been tipped over the edge and compelled to write. So what was the topic? War? Religion? Education? Health? Oh no, far more important than any of those things...Dirty Dancing! The article was about the West End stage show of Dirty Dancing that opens next week and what is so wonderful about the story anyway? The article cited lines such as "Nobody puts Baby in the corner" and "I carried a watermelon" as reasons for the greatness of the film. Lots of people had written comments from both sides of the argument. But no one, it seems, had my experience of Dirty Dancing as a child. You see, it came out when I was 7 and was first on telly around a year later. And we were *desperate* to see it! We couldn't possibly wait any longer or be any older before we saw it! So the mums in the neighbourhood got together and agreed a censored version of the film for us all. So there they sat the night it was first on TV with all of us banished to our bedrooms for the evening and cut out every bit of abortion story line and most hints of sex leaving us with a film that was basically pretty songs and dances. And we loved it! I watched it sooooo much (though not quite as much as The Sound of Music). I knew it had been censored (not all my friends did) and there were bits that didn't make sense but it really didn't matter. And then we left America and returned to the UK and my video didn't work anymore. I was bereft for five years until it next came on TV when I was 14. This time I was allowed to record it uncensored. I was shocked! I had had NO IDEA what the rest of the film was about! It made a whole lot more sense now but was no longer the purely happy go lucky song and dance fest I'd watched for two years. It didn't take long to get over it and I remember clearly in the weeks that followed walking round and round Parkside at lunch time (as we did) reciting various scenes with people I no longer know..."I scared of who I am, of what I saw, of what I did...but most of all, I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I'm with you!"

Work, Walks, Waffle

I thought as well as the hair update, you might care for a little more news. I finished the boring job on Wednesday but with the possibility of going back for a few days at various points in the future. Despite the not-so-exciting nature of the job I'm quite keen on this idea as it will be reasonably easy to go back again and they would, seemingly, be quite happy for me to be there a bit more on my terms (i.e. less hours a week) and so I think I could hack the boredom to assist in the funding of exciting trips round the country. I have also this week had an interview for a far more interesting, ten hours a week job at church. Very excited about this but things are not 100% definite yet so I will write in more detail when they are.
So, with the finishing of the job (in a slightly random fashion - I worked Monday, knew there was about 4 hours more work to do but that they needed time to reach the point where I could work, said I'd go in again on Wednesday afternoon (when Husbink was at work). So I suddenly had Tuesday, Thursday and Friday to do as I wish. Which was great. :) But a little disorientating at first! So the week included furniture shopping (so we now use more than two rooms in our house!), a walk on the beach with lovely people, lots of time on the sofa with a hot water bottle (oh yes, twas the time of the agonies...) and book, and a grand walk on Friday afternoon that was rather more adventurous than we'd been expecting and a lot of fun. And gave way to some more pics for you!
The walk went rather like this:
It involved LOTS of expeditions back and forth across a stream (I was going to say a wee stream but there were points when it wasn't so wee!). Many of the crossings were straightforward (though not as straightforward as the stepping stones at Dovedale in Derbyshire for those that know it!!) but a few involved careful planning and leaping! We've decided the best way to do this walk is probably in summer with flip flops and shorts and just walk up the stream rather than all this pretence at crossing it again and again! It was mightily good fun though. Unfortunately, Hubink took one leap a bit too cavalierly and has dinked his knee quite badly. He sat and did the doctory thing of giving himself a full knee exam there and then and established there were no real problems, it was just owy. At the top of the walk was the little waterfall that you can see at the top of this picture. And indeed we did get closer to it than this by climbing all the rocks in the way. Great stuff! Of course, no outing would be complete for me without the compulsory bird pics so here you go:
The mum was rather distressed by any human presence so it was a few quick snaps and then out of the way - before we were deafened by her honking (she wanted to be a goose!). They were extremely cute - especially when travelling down stream on one of the mini water falls along the stream - looked so much fun slipping down the rocks into the next pool! Hurrah!
So, to summarise for you...things are pretty good at the moment! As well as getting a few more bits of furniture, we have printed out various pictures and so have decorated our walls a bit, some big pictures and then a notice board covered in pictures people, places, silliness. While it has made the house a bit more homely, that last bit, the photo board, did cause a bit of homesickness...when we printed out pictures of the pigs...!

Tis Done

Well, I have been and had the overly-fretted chop. I did not, as Welshy rightly commanded, say "do whatever you think" but neither did I have the lengthy discussion that might have been useful. However, I think I'm happy with the outcome though not 100% sure about the styling currently - she was slightly more in Louise-who-wants-it-to-be-the-80s-still's camp (my last Leeds hairdresser) than the Naomi-who-can-make-my-hair-beautiful-and-sleek camp (the lovely Harrogate hairdresser who did my hair for Mad Medea's hen night & wedding). Thus I exited the salon a teeny weeny bit more puffy than I might have liked but it is settling down happily. However, I don't think I'll be returning to that salon as it HURT. Really. Not as much as getting my hair put up for my brother's wedding (for those that don't know that story, I actually couldn't speak she was pulling my hair so hard!) but still more pain than I want from a meant-to-be-relaxing hair cut. Hey ho. So. Here it is.

Apologies for the quality...Husbink is at work so it involved setting the camera to timer...waving my knee about where I thought I'd be sitting to give it something to focus on...and speedily scooching across the floor, hoping to be in the right spot...The things I do for you!

I am highly contented this evening despite the storm outside. (I don't think Husbink will be contented if it is still like this when he has to cycle home at midnight...) I've almost finished my temp job; on the way home from work I met up with a chap from church about the possible job there (all very exciting and no doubt blog-worthy in its own right soon); I get tomorrow and Wednesday morning off due to almost having finished job (so get to see Husbink despite unpleasant 2pm-midnight shifts); best of all, I found a present in the kitchen when I got home...a brand new mug...a brand new New Zealand mug...a brand new New Zealand mug with sheep on! And my teapot sitting next to it all ready to help in the christening ceremony. So I'm sitting here happily with a lovely mug of darjeeling (as the "champagne of teas" it seemed the most appropriate) ready to attempt a picture-ful post as requested. (I also had lengthy problems with which biscuits to celebrate new mug with...ultimately the caramel tim tams won...)
So pictures.
This weekend, we went to Napier. It was lovely. Very windy on Friday night and Saturday morning but actually warm! And Sunday we would have become very sunburnt very quickly if we had not maintained some semblance of sanity!!

This was our first evening in Napier (you can almost tell it is me in the pink t-shirt can't you?!!) and we'd just had a cheeky pint in an Irish pub (the closest thing to a proper pub we've found here) so all was well with the world.

On Saturday morning (in slightly less delightful weather) we made our way to an estuary/wildlife reserve and watched many a birdy (birds are just so cool here, maybe it is just because they are different but they seem so much more interesting!) Many of you have been subjected to my wildlife pictures in the past (like the infamous "seal colony" picture...) but here's perhaps a slightly better one for you. We have bought a bird book and think we know what this is...but the bird book is in the car and Husbink has the garage keys at work...

Well, at least you can tell it is a bird! Telephoto lens here we come!

Saturday afternoon was spent in a very friendly winery where we tasted about eight wines on the house and purchased five of them. Fortunately there are no pictures of how very much my cheeks matched the pink t-shirt...

Sunday was glorious weather and we spent a while on the beach taking pics, skimming stones and "running away" (very flat good stones for skimming and really quite a flat sea but I'm USELESS at the whole thang... excellent beach for running away though...the seagulls were even joining in) So a couple more pics...one mine, one Husbink's. I'm SURE you can guess whose is whose...

And then it was time to head on home. A beautiful drive with just one picture to give you a tiny idea (really couldn't believe it when we were driving up on Friday. Amazing)

So there we have it. A picture-tastic blog for you that I hope has kept the need for pictures at bay for a little while!

Ten Things I Miss About Britain

1. Ginger Nuts
2. Squash. Apple & Blackcurrant particularly.
3. Surly People (especially behind supermarket check outs)
4. Having a "local"
5. People thinking the way I do things is "normal" (like what I want to buy from supermarkets)
6. Understanding the weather...
7. Our Friends (clearly this should really be number one)
8. Radio 2
9. Music (though the counter to that is that there are some AMAZING 90s classics stations...we've been enjoying Ace of Base...)
10. Reasonably priced books (no really, in comparison to here...)

Outdoorsy Types

On Wednesday, we bought a car. It is green and has a CD player. It is also almost as old as the 16 year old Bluebird which Welshy is currently taking care of for us. It means that now we can go places and do exciting things without them taking four hours longer than they should due to public transport.
So yesterday we went to Karori Wildlife Sanctuary. Was great! So many birds (guess who forgot binoculars AND camera...) and so much loveliness. Trees and reservoirs and geckos and tuatara (they're dinosaurs. No, really!) Oh and for those of you, Snoo, who don't believe, please look at Tuis on the website! ;) (Don't worry, we are getting evidence together for you...) So yes, was grand.
We then drove on to Porirua just to find out what it was and went shopping. After much wailing in one shop about how I clearly wasn't Kiwi shaped, I finally found a pair of jeans that fit perfectly (but were way too boring to buy) and a lovely pair of brown trousers with a blue pin-stripy-ness going on that *almost* fit. Close enough anyway! So I'm happy. :) Husbink is a little unconvinced that they go with the *new shoes*...but he will see!
Today has been the first proper nice weather in about ten days, maybe longer so we had to continue our oudoorsy thang and get on them there mountain bikes. Which was all well and good in theory but we really are lunatics when it comes to these things. Somehow, we seem to have this belief that we are not, in fact, beginners. Yes, I have spent most of my life commuting to school or work on a bike but that was in Cambridge. And the defining feature of Cambridge? That's right, ONE hill... (No, the cycle bridge and Hills Road/Mill Road bridges DO NOT count!) And Husbink apparently spent his life cycling up and down wee hills as a child but he hasn't done any since I've known him. And that's seven years. We did, three years ago, when last in the southern hemisphere, have three little adventures on mountain bikes. But really, nothing to fully take us out of the beginner category. So today when faced with a range of options, why did we decide "Medium" was the way to go? I at least had the sanity to not allow Husbink to be aware of the medium/hard tracks...but really. We need "Easy". Little climbs where you then have the satisfaction of a long gentle down. NOT six kilometres of basically uphill with a couple of terrifying downs to give you a break followed by three kilometres of DOWN. (ok, so actually, that last bit of down was mostly fun, my kind of mountain biking until the scree at the end when I panicked and nearly died...ahem). Besides the stupidity of doing far too hard a track for our first outing, we also nearly lost our marriage over it too. You see, my chain fell off. After I'd followed Husbink's advice on how to deal with ups and downs and the best way to change gears. Now I'm tempted to go into all the details but perhaps having both forgiven each other it would be unfair of me to rake over the details here, however comical they might be. Suffice to say, there was much male bravado on one side and much untrusting, whingey wiffle on the other. (Ultimately Husbink did fix chain and I did swoon at his wonderfullness)
So I'm hoping it rains for a couple of days now...Any more of this outdoorsy stuff may well kill either me or my marriage!

Hair Issues

Help!
I don't know what to do...I had a plan to grow my hair again but it is at the yucjy stage now and I'm not so sure (Welshy I'm sure can empathise! ;) ). So I have for your enjoyment some pictures...
Long Hair... (about two and a half years ago)











Short Hair... (last December, the red fluff is Mad Medea's feather boa...it was her hen night...)












And Now hair (well, it was May but it is pretty similar...)
So...not the best pics in the world ever but the best I can find to demonstrate the hair options...silly me not to take more "hair shots" on a more frequent basis...
So help!
Please!
I have about ten days til Husbink next works the weekend and my intention to so have whatever form of chop I'm having then...your challenge is set!

Mwah, mwah!

Shoes...

Well, I've had a lousy day trying on clothes here in the Hutt. It appears I'm either a size 9 or a size 11 here...which means nothing fits! EXCEPT in one shop where they actually do mid sizes...but I didn't like any of their stuff. I have also come to the conclusion that actually jeans don't suit me... Will have to drag poor Husbink back with me next week and see if we can get somewhere!
So because of that and because the lovely Pomgirl demanded, here is a picture of the *new shoes*.
I hope you like... :) and please don't tell me if you don't! I'm not up to rejection today! ;)
Ciao
xxx

Some good, some bad...

What ho me hearties! (Having accidentally missed mentioning International Talk Like a Pirate day at the right time...)
It's the weekend, hurrah, huzzah!
It has been a mightily manic week with a few nights in Queenstown seeing my bro, sister-in-law, her best friend and the best friend's boyfriend. Was a great time with even a day of skiing thrown in! (I still can...and didn't fall at all, was mightiliy chuffed at that! Husbink did fall but none too bad and one extremely hysterical! It happened to be on a rather steep, rather icy section which meant although the fall was quite small, he was about 100m further down the slope before he was able to stand up! My brother was watching from the bottom and said it looked rather elegant and that he appeared to be swimming through the snow...Husbink did say he was thinking of Bananaman at the time!) However, getting to Queenstown was not such a bundle of laughs. The last section, from Christchurch to Queenstown, was on a propeller plane. On a day when several of the ski fields were closed due to high winds. To land in Queenstown, you have to come in over a ring of mountains (some of which were used for the Dimrill Dale in LotR, The Two Towers) and then get down pretty fast to be able to land. It was the most turbulence I've ever experienced (admittedly, I've been lucky) and the angle the plane was pointing was rather alarming! I know I'm sounding a bit of a wimp here - Husbink enjoyed it - but my main problem was the afore-mentioned issues with vomit...the number of people turning green and starting to hack was not so good for me! Fortunately we all made it down intact and the efficiency of the ground crew made up for everything - we were at our hotel in less than half an hour from landing!
The return journey was less eventful but sadly the flight from Christchurch to Wellington was delayed by an hour and a half. Not much in the grand scheme of things I know but when the flight is only 30 minutes... So we got home at 9.30 after a shuttle bus, two planes and two buses to find that the power company had made a bit of a gaff. Somehow, when I rang them and registered for gas AND electricity, they decided to only do the electricity bit so while we were off sunning ourselves in Queenstown, our gas was disconnected. As the power company shuts at 9pm, there was nothing I could do about it until the next morning. I was not happy. (A brief aside: Things are really not 24hr here, even most restaurants shut around 9.30. On the whole, I approve of not 24hr-ness, not being able to internet shop, generally having to be more chilled out and have more contact with real people etc etc etc...but now that I can't have these things, I'm finding it a little frustrating...help! Say soothing things!!!)
So at 7am the next morning I was straight on the phone to said power co, all ready to read the riot act...and they sorted it and gave us a credit of $25 and generally made things good. And we have heat and hot water again and everything is well. Without me having to shout. Though I was a little sarcastic...
And now the working week is over again and I can sit back, relax and enjoy the beautiful country.
My love of NZ has taken a little knock this week, mostly through the gas issue, but I'm sure it will be back again soon.
Got to go, time for Home and Away (has totally stolen my affection away from any other soap!)

A distinct lack of earthquakes

Last Friday night, there was an earthquake here. A pretty decent one. Not proper big, not scary, but could definitely feel it, know what it was etc. And what did we do? We slept through it! I was so utterly wiped out from the end of the first week of work and Husbink was recovering from a wee gastro bug he'd acquired at work and we were dead to the world. And I'm not sure we are going to live it down! A number of people on feeling the earthquake thought "Ooooh! It's their first one! I wonder what they thought?" And have asked us. And we've had to disappoint them all by telling them the truth. Hey ho...I'm sure we'll get another chance to experience one while we are here, just as long as it's not "The Big One" (apparently, it's overdue...)

3 Things?

Well, as I'm feeling like typing but have had a rather uninteresting day for repeating (but actually work was quite good), I shall do this that Welshy tagged me to do a few days ago...
(But I'm returning to the Three Things rule...!)

1. Three things that scare me:
Places/spaces when I am not in control
Mice (especially near my head when I'm in bed...)
Husbink navigating

2. Three people that make me laugh:
Husbink
Eddie Izzard
Philip...not many of you know him...Ruthie G does..."My wife went to Dorset..."

3. Three things I hate the most:
Vomit
Wet toilet seats
People who try to take advantage of you (like the removal men...anyone who hasn't heard that story, do let me know, I'm dying to rant all over again!)

4. Three things I don't understand:
Mathematical Biology (not that this matters greatly in my life anymore, I just remember the complete confusion before dropping out of that course!)
Why I can't find the perfect thing to do with my life
Why Husbink puts up with me

5. Three things I'm doing right now:
Drinking peppermint tea (with aid of shiny new teapot :) )
Trying to stretch my back after a day of bad posture at work
Thinking I should really be getting ready to go to bible study at church

6. Three things I want to do before I die:
Find out what it is I want to do with my life and do it for a while!!!
Write something readable
Be a grandmother

7. Three things I can do
Acquire marriage proposals for my chocolate cake
Reformat forms in Word til the cows come home (current job)
Make Husbink laugh

8. Three ways to describe my personality:
Silly
Loopy (in a number of ways)
Dependable
(Husbink's three were: Hearty, Comely and Wenchly. I'm not sure he was describing my personality!) (He's reading a book in medieval history...)

9. Three things I can't do:
Cope with ill people (that's why he's the doctor)
Shop for hours on end (the drop comes way too early for me these days)
Play the piano as well as I'd like (or used to)

10. Three things I think you should listen to:
Carmen (but maybe that's actually see)
Terry Wogan (as much as I tried to give different answers to Welshy, this one had to stay!)
Me! ;)

11. Three things you should never listen to:
Jingles
That country song that radio 2 loved for a while...the "hell yeah and ya haaa" song
metal spoons on saucepans

12. Three things I'd like to learn:
to knit
to bake well enough that I could make up cake recipes
more bible

13. Three favourite foods:
Hummous and pitta
Risotto
Fish

14. Three beverages I drink regularly:
Water
Tea
Wine

15. Three shows I watched as a kid:
Cities of Gold
Dogtanian
Why don't you

16. Three people I'm tagging (to do this):
Having such a wee blog community and knowing that two of you have already done it...it has to be Snoo and Mad Medea. And Ruthie G. Who I don't think has a blog...

It all comes down to shoes...

I have a deep and growing suspicion that, at some time, every female blogger finds the need to write about either handbags or shoes or both. And so it has come to my turn! Because I have *new shoes*. They are mostly brown in a chocolatey way but they have pink toes and pink straps and a little bit of pink on the heel. I like them. They make me happy! Husbink suggested I put a picture of them on here to gain opinions but I just couldn't do it...what if you all hated them and felt candid enough to say so?! That would be no fun... But mostly what I wanted to say about my *new shoes* is that they come from a stretch of the High Street here in Lower Hutt that I think would make Welshy faint. We have Bay Shoes, Shoe Clinic, Number 1 Shoe Warehouse, High Street Shoes...and at least one other shoe shop...plus a couple of clothes sops which I think have shoes too...now that may not sound much compared to some stretches of say, Oxford Street, but for little Lower Hutt it is pretty intensive shoe joy!
Today was indeed all about retail therapy... We both had the day off and after a slow start we ventured into the Hutt and shopped. I am still in mourning actually because the lovely trousers I saw a week ago in a shop window are now nearly all gone with only a size 8 (I could get them on but they did unpleasant stretchy things around the crotch) or a size 16 (if I wanted to look like a clown, I'd buy a red nose...) so no trousers (and they would have been so good with the *new shoes* But instead I got a teapot. Just plain white with a satisfying structure and some "healthy harmony" loose tea - may take the place of "tranquility", we shall see! And Husbink got a plunger (of the coffee making variety, not the unblocking drains sort) and some "java" and we came home and made afternoon beverages (I can't really call it tea when he's drinking coffee can I?) And it was good. But maybe not as good as tea with a girly...sigh!
We also invested in Edmonds, THE New Zealand cook book. So Saturday will now be a day of baking while Husbink sleeps between nights...(and maybe a day for hunting further for some almost-as-good trousers...)
Work tomorrow...we shall see how the body responds!

What to do?

Am I meant to not work? I don't mean am I meant to be a lazy arse but really, why does a bog standard job have such a bad impact on me?
To give a bit of background to this sudden "wargh". Ever since we left the UK, the good doctor has been commenting on how much I'm back to how I was before ... well, before the IBS, the phobias and the OCD. How I'm more relaxed. More fun. Have more sense of humour. And indeed how very much healthier I am. I have been amazed by the behaviour of my bowel and the almost complete lack of IBS despite house moving stresses and a new country and all the rest of it. And I was winning huge ground on the OCD in particular. And then I went back to work. And I feel dreadful. My stomach is tight and ughy, my digestive system doesn't know whether it is coming or going (one of my major problems with IBS for me is that I feel dreadful, dreadful, dreadful, starving with no warning to get in there before I'm ridiculously overhungry) and I'm not doing sooooo well on the OCD. (Apologies that I am not explaining either the OCD or the phobia if you don't already know about them - I'm just not really in the zone for lengthy explanations at the moment, maybe later.) So anyway, back to the point in hand. I feel naff! More than naff really... I'm completely exhausted at the end of a days work. And the work isn't that hard. And I'm not getting wound up by it. And I am leaving it behind when I leave. But still, I am shattered with no proper appetite and a sudden lack of enjoyment of life that comes with the return of the IBS. Am I being too hard on myself? Is it just that actually I've not gone to work for about seven weeks and suddenly I expect myself to be able to do full days of work no problem? Or what? Hum. No fun!
I'm not helped by the fact that I keep getting contradictory advise from someone close to me (not the doctor). One minute it is "don't you think you need some full time work?" followed moments later by "at the first sign of IBS, quit!" So I do not know what to do. Which is fine really cos I never do but thought I would get it out of my system here. :) Thank you!

Well, work has worked out why they want me a little more and I'm starting to be able to get things done. I'm hoping to be able to do the project in less time than they desire. As several people will (and have) pointed out, this would be diddling myself out of extra money but there is such a thing as diddling yourself out of extra sanity too and I rather prefer to keep the latter in line rather than gain more of the former! Call me a loon...
On Saturday we ventured into Wellington...but if I started the story there, I would deprive you all of some good pointing and laughing opportunities so I shall rewind a little...
Saturday morning I woke up far earlier than I wanted to and a combination of hunger and too many thoughts whizzing round my mind prevented me from getting back to sleep and it seemed it was time to get up and do something about the hunger and the brain rush. Several hours later I ventured back into the bedroom to see if the husband was anywhere near surfacing. I was met with a slightly pitiful "Is there something wrong with my eye?" I turned the light on and good grief there was something wrong! You know normally people ask you that question (or variations thereon) and the answer is usually something along the lines of "in your mind" so I was a little surprised to see a distinctly red and starting to be swollen eye. In his best doctorly fashion he had a good prod around the eye in front of the mirror and eventually decided that we needed to go to hospital and get a second opinion. So along we trotted and had the blessed bonus of being able to just wander into the back of A&E and ask a colleague to take a look...no eight hour queues for us! (Well, there has to be a bonus somewhere for working in a public health service?!) And yes, they concluded that it was a trauma injury. A scratch on his eye and a very puffy eyelid...looking rather like someone had punched him. But the question we will never be able to answer is who? Was it me? Was I so irritated in the middle of the night by one of his hip/back/bum kneeings (there were at least four last night...my poor bottom!) that I rolled over and socked him one? Was he so deeply asleep that he neither noticed his flailing arm or the impact it made with his eye? We will never know. We favour the "him" option as being both more likely (I'm way too light a sleeper to manage to whack someone that hard in the night and know nothing about it!) and better for marital harmony...so that's the end of that! Let's just hope my posterior gets a break from the kickings tonight...
So back to our day out. We mooched in Wellington (trying to find me a teapot, the treat I had decided I was allowed but as yet have failed to purchase) and then met some family friends for coffee which was just lovely though sad to hear some of the things that have happened with them since I last saw them a number of years ago. But there was cake! Let's focus on the positive for now...
We then met a couple from church for dinner and a film (could it be we might make friends here?) which was lovely. And the film fantabulous - "Lady in the Water". Not to be confused with some form of gore fest as we first did when we heard the title it is instead a fantasy/comedy/jumpy-tense film of greatness. Those of you out there who enjoy Jasper Fforde I think would like it. It had some of the same comedy on the subject of plot devices and character types in particular. The cinematography was also very good. I'm not usually one for getting excited by camera angles and fuzzy edges and the like but this was really very well done and added so much to the film. Hurrah!
There was more and it was good but I'm aware I'm reaching the state of tiredness that allows no further conversation just lists to tumble out of your mouth..which isn't so much fun for reading! So very speedily - good church on Sunday, good rugby game on Sunday, tolerable work today, possibility of VERY exciting work to come (but I'm trying to not be giddy until I know more so shall not elaborate just yet), generally good stuff!
More when...it happens! ciao xxx

Online, Online, Rah, Rah, Rah!

How good does it feel to have broadband at home and available for my every whim again? Ah, hurrah!
And indeed, how good does it feel to have a home!?
We have been here since last Friday and while we rattle rather a bit due to lack of furniture, totally unable to fill the place, it is still starting to feel like home.
Moving in was a catalogue of traumas (not getting keys until 2pm, Andy starting work at 4pm, the rentals company trying to give us a smaller truck than we'd booked that wouldn't fit the bed, the new fridge freezer falling over in the back of said truck almost killing our mountain bikes...) but when it came down to it, everything actually worked out fine. Which seems to be the way things are going for us here. Every once in a while (like every couple of hours...) something has come along that makes us panic and think "this is it! The point at which everything goes wrong/we lose everything/get deported/end up penniless for the rest of our days stuck in an airport lounge, endlessly being transfered from one country to another..." or something like that... And then it all works out! Normally a long way before the deported fears kick in! And so it was with the house moving day. I did spend a little while in tears in a big warehouse type shop (cunningly called The Warehouse) but actually, everything was fine.
Today I started work. Which was a bit of a surprise. I'm not going to say too much about it today as I'd like to leave it another day to see if they can work out why they employed me!
So other than moving house, we have been continuing this whole settling in thing. And one big part of that has been our mountain bikes. Ahem. Yeah, right! We are making use of them but so far, have only achieved one vaguely proper bike ride. We have not become sudden amazing, invincible people with overly-toned legs, no indeed! But on our one proper bike ride, we did come across something bizarre that I wanted to share with y'all. As we were cycling up the Hutt River, we saw a car coming towards us really slowly, coming to a standstill every once in a while. As we got closer, we realised a dog was running along side the car. The reason for the car's pauses was whenever the dog found something interesting to sniffle. It wasn't a little old lady who wouldn't be able to exercise her dog any other way but a young healthy looking woman. Random we thought but ok. Until we saw four more people doing this! They would lean over, slowing to a crawl, open the passenger door and out would jump a dog. Or two! And the owner would slam the door and crawl along behind them...does anyone else think this a little strange?! I mean, it wasn't raining! The wind wasn't even too bad for the Hutt! The sun was shining and the river was looking beautiful! Why would you not get out and walk?!
I'm clearly not a kiwi yet...
xxx

Continued Hair Care, the All New Thermometer and the Best in New Zealand Cuisine

As mentioned in the last post, hair care is an interesting concept here. And my hair has definitely developed a mind of its own since arriving here, not solely due to the wind. The front has returned almost to the teenage years of waviness BUT without any real signs of frizz! Something in the water is gooooood! My hair is exceedingly soft and fluffy and generally lovely. Now, I have seen pomgirl's post on her blog about a belief that her hair got too soft...I am of the camp that say "this cannot possibly be so!" My only problem is it does tend to lead to an excessive amount of fiddling and playing with my hair due to the unbelief that this can really be true! I shall have to do some hideous form of peroxiding to make it harsh and brittle and take away this confusing state of wavy non-frizz! Perplexing...
Perhaps not as distressing though as my new thermometer...Since the ridiculous weight loss that came about last year, I have been in fairly constant danger of losing my wedding and engagement rings, so much so that they had been spending a lot of time on a necklace rather than on my finger (Why did I not get the adjusted? Well, because clearly one day I'm going to put all that weight back on, much to many people's relief!). So the weight gain did pretty well in the good old USA and I was no longer in constant danger of losing the lovelies. Until the temperature drops. Last night as I was going to bed, I knew it was getting colder and colder as my rings became overly loose. This morning when I got up, I knew it to be colder than it had been for over a week as my rings continued to threaten to evade me. So I have a lovely little way of telling just how cold I'm going to be, but what use can this be to humanity as a whole? Can I market my loose-ringedness? It seems unlikely, and this seems like a rather long winded way of telling you all that after the last week, spring seems to have decided to take a break for a while!
And finally, the best of New Zealand cuisine (I suspect this will be a recurring post title!). Thus far, my favourite addition to any cafe menu, is the BLAT. That's bacon, lettuce, AVOCADO and tomato. So good. Such a simple addition and yet one that works miracles, turning the humble BLT into a gourmet dish, fit for, well, the masses! I'm generally very happy with this whole cafe culture thing they've got going on. Such good cafes. Such good food. Still so cheap! Today, I had poached eggs, bacon and portobella mushrooms on toast in a lovely little cafe at the end of the road. It was so incredibly tasty (the bacon is significantly better too) and it cost me all of three pounds and fifty pence! Yum! We are also being spoilt every evening by the lovely food in the conference centre. It has been absolutely amazing. While I can't wait to move into our own place on Friday (have I mentioned that yet?!), I will miss being waited on by the wonderful Dennis who cooks us amazing meals and then has the time to answer all our bizarre questions on New Zealand culture, from the intricacies of Maori culture to the growing season and uses for the fejoia. It has been delicious and educational!

Observations

Perhaps because I have been a little bit poorly, perhaps because the good doctor has gone out to work and left me alone again, perhaps because we have been in NZ long enough for it to start to be normal...but whatever the reason I have been having a thoughtful afternoon, much of which has been while semi-dozing so whether it will translate into anything readable I do not know!
The first train of thinking has been about Snoo's first comment to the last post (the bit about thoughts on her blog). It is so very true. Perhaps it is true for me in a different way to how Snoo meant but this is what it made me think about: Today, I have been a little bit less good. A little more loopy than I like to be, generally a little stressed. And I thought "wouldn't it be good to write this all down? I shall go to my blog and purge my system" but then I thought not. I wondered for a while about setting up a new blog in an obscure name and getting it all out my system there. So why not here? I'm not sure that it is anything to do with not wanting to tell people the stresses and strains of the last few hours or days but it is that, knowing the diversity of the audience, I would not know how to tell it. Were I telling innermost thunklings to a group of strangers I could just away and do it but once you know people you have modes of communication and not all would work for all. In my mind! I suspect this ramble is likewise not making sense!
Observation two...how many people do you know that you really respect? I've just started reading a novel that I've picked up in the conference centre about a jewish community in north London. It starts with the death of a very respected teacher. He's sufficiently respected that he has earned the title Rav rather than just Rabbi (a term I did not know before, if you want a definition I can find a description from the book). It's been known that he was dying and each Saturday, the synagogue has been more full than the last as people are desperate to be sure they are there for his final service. I thought that was quite amazing. Someone who had that kind of influence over their community. As yet there is no indication that there was any abuse of that privilege or anything like that, the impression is just of a good, well respected man. Can that kind of community closeness be real in our society?
And finally, as I appear to be in a spate of posting in threes...Observation three. It's really incredibly windy here!!! I couldn't keep up the serious observations any longer! According to the BBC website (I have not yet found my NZ version, oh source of all knowledge, oh beloved BBC!) the wind in the city today is 32knots. It drops tomorrow to a mere 19 before getting back up to 27... This is no good for hair. If any of you should happen to visit me or indeed Wellington any time in the future, especially from September to December, do not expect hair styles to work. Choose in advance to go for windswept, do not bring straighteners, do not bring holding products (they won't), do not pass go... As I was being persuaded by the hair dresser a few days before leaving England that a fuller, curlier look would work for me, I shall be investing in a range of products to pretend the outcome of the wind was intentional...wish me luck!
xxx